Some statements sound reasonable only when their assumptions are not examined closely. Take the following that is typically used to assert a position in connection with existential matters: “Only what I can see exists!”
In the first place, we must be clear the eyes do not see, nor do the ears hear! How? The eyes only absorb and transmit light to and from the brain. The different frequencies are then reorganized in the brain into a picture the person then “sees”. Just think of how a camera works in transmitting and absorbing light. Same with the ear. The ears do not hear, they only absorb and transmit vibrations to the brain that is then reorganized and “heard”. Just think of how a telephone works.
Therefore, this statement is already erroneous and reveals a lack of understanding. So, what the person actually means is “only what is within the perceptive capacity of my brain exists”. But anyone who asserts this cannot be taken seriously. Here are a few examples:
– The range of human hearing is 20 to 20,000 hertz. So, the human ear is unable to detect sounds outside this range. Dogs can hear sounds as high as 50,000 Hz, while bats can detect frequencies as high as 100,000 Hz. So, a human being can say “it is so quiet”; but the quietness is only an illusion because all they are experiencing is the limit of their hearing range! In truth, a dog and bat could be in the same room and consider it loud because they can hear finer sounds. Ergo, finer sounds exist, it just operates outside our limitation.
-Sit in a circle, have each person close their eyes and then flash the image of a fruit in their mind. Next, open your eyes. Now reflect: did you see the thought (image) that flashed in your neighbor’s mind? Probably not. So, are you now going to assert that thought does not exist simply because it was outside the range of your eyes? Just think about it. What if your neighbor erroneously asserted the same of your own thoughts since he cannot see it! So, we cannot even see something that exists in someone’s mind sitting next to us!
-Repeat the same experiment, but with words in the mind. Someone next to you is generating sound in their mind in a metaphysical plane, but you cannot hear it. Yet it exists! It is simply outside the perceptive range of your own brain. On account of this, who will dare to assert it does not exist simply because they are unable to hear it?
Therefore, it can be asserted with conviction that man cannot even perceive most things that exists within and around him—physically and metaphysically, yet he interacts with them every minute. Consequently, he cannot say “only what I see exists”, for he is using his own self-imposed limitations to define reality. He should not play with words but openly express his real volition: “I am only willing to believe and live within the limits of my earthly brain”. That would be more honest.
If some of the limits of the brain are evidenced here even in physical and metaphysical matters, then what about spiritual matters that transcends and operates outside the metaphysical range of the mind? You can well image how utterly incapable the brain is of grasping these matters, and thus how “narrow-minded” in the truest sense anyone is who bind themselves to its limits. To grasp matters of the “soul” requires man to awaken his own soul and use its faculties to perceive things that exist within its expanded range.
As no one can see for us, so can no one “prove” anything to us. We must inwardly awaken and seek outside the range of the earthly brain in order to spiritually find.
~Ikenna Q. Ezealah
Foundation for Ascent 