Clarity, 2nd Edition

3How Perception Is Created

“Thought creates the world then says ‘I didn't do it.’“

David Bohm

“In a dream your mind continuously creates and perceives a world simultaneously … so well, that you don’t feel your brain doing the creating…”

These words are spoken by Leonardo DiCaprio, playing Cobb, in the film Inception (2010, Warner Bros. Pictures). He's explaining how dreams work, but our waking experience is generated in exactly the same way (albeit with access to a “live data feed”). To paraphrase Cobb:

In your waking experience of reality, your mind continuously creates and perceives a world simultaneously … so well that you don't feel your mind doing the creating.

Figure 3.1 Simultaneously Creating and Perceiving

The implications ...