Image generated in collaboration with AI
Everything we experience, every smell, touch, taste, sound and image we see, is filtered through the tiny brain inside our heads. A group of people can live through the same experience and each person will have their own perspective. Everyone will ‘view’ it differently and will remember different details. Why does this happen?
Because we are, quite literally, the center of our own Universe.
The human brain is a three-pound piece of meat that lives in the darkness of our skulls. It does not truly experience anything. Locked in this deprived environment, it relies on neural connections and electrical signals, which is remarkable in itself, to generate the sensory illusions we call perception. In this way, our entire Universe is created. Each brain produces a version of existence unique to its host, making each person the center of everything.
If you stand in the middle of an open field and turn your body 360 degrees, you will create a circle of existence with you as the center. In fact, you can do this now in your living room, but you will only experience what’s within those four walls, with sound being an exception. In both instances, all you perceive originates in your brain, not from the ‘outside’.
Realizing that you are the center of your own Universe is a paradigm shifting revelation. Many questions arise as I try to comprehend what this means for human existence.
Is all sensory information merely data downloaded into our brains from a simulation program?
How do I know I’m not just a hunk of meat sitting in a lab somewhere being fed experiences without a physical body?
Is anything real?
Keeping these mind-blowing questions in mind, I try to view experiences from the perspective of others, especially those that affect me negatively. It is extremely difficult. We humans are a selfish species; an innate part of our programming that helps maintain an effective existence. The self is the most important thing in our Universe. It must be. If not, we could not survive. We could not care for ourselves and others.
You truly are your own Universe.
Jay Owens 