Optical Illusions

The organizational mechanisms of vision are best demonstrated by illusions. Illusions illustrate that perception in a creative construction that the brain makes in interpreting visual data ....Learning does not prevent us from being taken in by these illusions.

                                                    —  Eric Kandel

We do not see the world as it really is. What we perceive is a creative construction of the mind. Each of us generates subjective reality. Emotional states have a profound influence on the reality we create. For example, the wisdom of a first lapse is appraised differently before it happens than afterwards. Learning does not spare us from repeating the painful mistake of relapse, because the Psyche is continually taken in by an illusion: The Soul Illusion.

The images below - while limited to the visual modality - illustrate that perception is an active construction of the mind rather than a valid representation of objective reality.

Can you find nine figures embedded in the image?

Embedded Dali

Young girl ⁄ Old woman Illusion