<p>According to <code>Anil Seth</code>, in this talk, consciousness is an active construction process. In that view, for the subject to have an experience about world, physical signals from mind independent objects are processed by brain and a highly probabilistic mental content of the physical is experienced. Even though I mentioned objects, it could be material things and features.</p>
<p>But our sensory abilities are not inherently cable of perceiving everything. The range of vision is <code>360-400 to 760-830nm</code>. Similarly, for audition its <code>20Hz to 20,000Hz</code>. There are other phenomena like aftereffects and adaptations, which too work along with perception. The information thus processed by sensory faculty is further compared with prior data that is stored in the brain and brain tries to come up with a decent construction of mind-independent objects. This experience can be called a controlled hallucination as there are other possibilities for such construction.</p>
<p>The general organization and working pattern of typically developing humans brains are very similar, especially in the early processing of sensory signals. Similarly, the physical signals that it processes of mind-independent objects are also very similar. Given these two, it is highly likely that two people have similar experience, even though we cannot confirm it and can only say that we share a human like experience.</p>
<p>Reference:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/perception-problem/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/perception-problem/</a></p>
</li>
<li><p><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructive_perception" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructive_perception</a></p>
</li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2888317/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2888317/</a></p>
</li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4763133/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4763133/</a></p>
</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-10-16T13:51:39.627Z
Also active construction of reality doesn't mean there are basic objective  reality. usually our mind uses similar mechanisms to understand this basic reality.
Erdem
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-10-16T14:08:02.927Z
Welcome to Psychology.SE.  I do not see your claims of 20Hz - 20,000Hz etc. in the references you provided.  Can you provide some references to back your claims?  I would also like to point out that I have seen plenty of documentation to state that the hearing ranges lower with age, and not everyone has the same hearing range for various reasons.
Chris Rogers
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-10-16T14:42:27.220Z
@Erdem, an objective reality can never be proven. Question was in regards to subjective reality and why two such realities have similar characteristics.
Johny T Koshy
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-10-16T14:46:29.083Z
@ChrisRogers, intention of those numbers were not to say that it was exact for every human being, but to mention that those are the general numbers and most importantly our perspective mechanisms have bounded capabilities. I will provide references.
Johny T Koshy
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-10-16T17:59:23.677Z
the brain tries to come up with a decent construction of mind-independent objects, This statement assumes that there are physical objects and we perceive it differently conditioned on our own experience, but in the video where they have shown that every object is merged with a physical dog, when the dog is not even there, clearly implies (in my opinion) that most of the times, We perceive physical objects in reality when they are not even there, these physical objects which we have created in out own mind wouldn't be visible to any body else.
GraphicalDot
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-10-16T18:37:26.880Z
@GraphicalDot, it's a visual illusion. It just shows our visual system alone is not that perfect. Our senses have evolved to such an extend and in such a way that, with it we get a decent representation of mind-independent objects, so that we can survive.
Johny T Koshy
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-10-16T18:42:44.193Z
I totally agree with you that our vision and senses create a decent representation of mind-independent obejects aka objective reality, my question is, How this objective reality is common for several people, I mean why everybody in the world has the same representation of physical object like statue of liberty?
GraphicalDot
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-10-16T20:02:37.507Z
Johny, I agree, stars are far away and we see them after the light travel from them to us, but here, it will reach to all of us at the same time (lets neglect the radius of earth here, negligible to the distance to nearest star  Proxima Centauri), but still my question is does  Proxima Centauri even exists, if everything we see is just out own hallucinations, On the other hand, if everything is not just hallucination and there is objective reality, then is there a boundary?
GraphicalDot
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-10-16T20:36:14.980Z
@GraphicalDot, Objective reality exists, but we are bounded by our system.
Johny T Koshy
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-10-16T21:17:40.500Z
Could you elaborate on "our system", is there any book or article which would help me to understand the boundations imposed by "our system"?
GraphicalDot
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-10-17T00:41:24.790Z
@GraphicalDot, our body itself is a system which gives one sense of self. This system itself has various sub systems, sensory, respiratory, digestive etc. Sensory system has further divisions. Auditory, visual, etc. In the second paragraph of my answer I had given two examples of boundaries of those system. Final two links in reference has details. But that doesn't mean the divisions of systems end there. You can further divide these systems until we get to specifics where cells, molecules or atoms interact to form systems.
Johny T Koshy
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-10-17T00:53:16.717Z
@GraphicalDot one further point, none of these means we already have full understanding of all these. Science is still stuck with a lot. But the hope is nature of reality will be further clarified as time passes, unless we are in a system like the movie matrix.
Johny T Koshy
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-10-16T11:35:07.487Z
2020-07-28T13:37:18.877Z
2020-07-28T13:37:18.877Z
Johny T Koshy
<p>Additionally, active construction of reality doesn't mean there are basic objective  reality. Usually our mind uses similar mechanisms to understand this basic reality.  our byological makeup, psychological processes and broad social context provides us basic assumptions, and other tools to understand what is going on in the world. usually what we perceive is outcome of our interpertation of that basic reality by byological psychological, social tools. We might see world differently Because of our byological, psychological social differences. However, those differences are not so big that we can not understand each other.<br>
Referenses:
 Burr, V. (2006). An introduction to social constructionism. Routledge.
Raskin, J. D. (2002). Constructivism in psychology: Personal construct psychology, radical constructivism, and social constructionism. American communication journal, 5(3), 1-25.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-10-16T17:54:08.833Z
objective reality, is there any boundary between what we actually perceive and the true reality, I mean, Is there a definite objective reality? Is there possibility that some people understand more objective reality than others?
GraphicalDot
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-10-16T14:11:39.207Z
2018-10-16T14:11:39.207Z
Erdem
<p>I wanted to ask this question for a long time but couldnt find any thing to support my argument. Today i found this <a href="https://www.ted.com/talk/anil_seth_how_your_brain_hallucinates_your_conscious_reality#t-694887" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.ted.com/talk/anil_seth_how_your_brain_hallucinates_your_conscious_reality#t-694887</a>, where the speaker Anil seth  theoretize that our reality is just a hallucination. Exchange of information happens both ways inside and outside, i.e, we not only perceive the world around us but also actively generates it. </p>

<p>Perception is an active constructive process. To summarise, </p>

<p>Hallucination is uncontrolled perception, then 
Perception is controlled hallucination.  </p>

<p>My question is, If thats the case then how two people would agree on the same state of world?</p>

<cognitive-neuroscience><consciousness>
If reality is just hallucination, how come different people see same objects
GraphicalDot
# If reality is just hallucination, how come different people see same objects

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-10-13)

I wanted to ask this question for a long time but couldnt find any thing to support my argument. Today i found this <https://www.ted.com/talk/anil_seth_how_your_brain_hallucinates_your_conscious_reality#t-694887>, where the speaker Anil seth theoretize that our reality is just a hallucination. Exchange of information happens both ways inside and outside, i.e, we not only perceive the world around us but also actively generates it.

Perception is an active constructive process. To summarise,

Hallucination is uncontrolled perception, then
Perception is controlled hallucination.

My question is, If thats the case then how two people would agree on the same state of world?

**Tags:** cognitive-neuroscience, consciousness


---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2018-10-16. Score: 4

According to `Anil Seth`, in this talk, consciousness is an active construction process. In that view, for the subject to have an experience about world, physical signals from mind independent objects are processed by brain and a highly probabilistic mental content of the physical is experienced. Even though I mentioned objects, it could be material things and features.

But our sensory abilities are not inherently cable of perceiving everything. The range of vision is `360-400 to 760-830nm`. Similarly, for audition its `20Hz to 20,000Hz`. There are other phenomena like aftereffects and adaptations, which too work along with perception. The information thus processed by sensory faculty is further compared with prior data that is stored in the brain and brain tries to come up with a decent construction of mind-independent objects. This experience can be called a controlled hallucination as there are other possibilities for such construction.

The general organization and working pattern of typically developing humans brains are very similar, especially in the early processing of sensory signals. Similarly, the physical signals that it processes of mind-independent objects are also very similar. Given these two, it is highly likely that two people have similar experience, even though we cannot confirm it and can only say that we share a human like experience.

Reference:

* <https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/perception-problem/>
* <https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructive_perception>
* <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2888317/>
* <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4763133/>

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: Also active construction of reality doesn't mean there are basic objective  reality. usually our mind uses similar mechanisms to understand this basic reality.  
> **username_3**: Welcome to Psychology.SE.  I do not see your claims of 20Hz - 20,000Hz etc. in the references you provided.  Can you provide some references to back your claims?  I would also like to point out that I have seen plenty of documentation to state that the hearing ranges lower with age, and not everyone has the same hearing range for various reasons.  
> **username_1**: @username_2, an objective reality can never be proven. Question was in regards to subjective reality and why two such realities have similar characteristics.  
> **username_1**: @ChrisRogers, intention of those numbers were not to say that it was exact for every human being, but to mention that those are the general numbers and most importantly our perspective mechanisms have bounded capabilities. I will provide references.  
> **username_0**: the brain tries to come up with a decent construction of mind-independent objects, This statement assumes that there are physical objects and we perceive it differently conditioned on our own experience, but in the video where they have shown that every object is merged with a physical dog, when the dog is not even there, clearly implies (in my opinion) that most of the times, We perceive physical objects in reality when they are not even there, these physical objects which we have created in out own mind wouldn't be visible to any body else.  
> **username_1**: @username_0, it's a visual illusion. It just shows our visual system alone is not that perfect. Our senses have evolved to such an extend and in such a way that, with it we get a decent representation of mind-independent objects, so that we can survive.  
> **username_0**: I totally agree with you that our vision and senses create a decent representation of mind-independent obejects aka objective reality, my question is, How this objective reality is common for several people, I mean why everybody in the world has the same representation of physical object like statue of liberty?  
> **username_0**: Johny, I agree, stars are far away and we see them after the light travel from them to us, but here, it will reach to all of us at the same time (lets neglect the radius of earth here, negligible to the distance to nearest star  Proxima Centauri), but still my question is does  Proxima Centauri even exists, if everything we see is just out own hallucinations, On the other hand, if everything is not just hallucination and there is objective reality, then is there a boundary?  
> **username_1**: @username_0, Objective reality exists, but we are bounded by our system.  
> **username_0**: Could you elaborate on "our system", is there any book or article which would help me to understand the boundations imposed by "our system"?  
> **username_1**: @username_0, our body itself is a system which gives one sense of self. This system itself has various sub systems, sensory, respiratory, digestive etc. Sensory system has further divisions. Auditory, visual, etc. In the second paragraph of my answer I had given two examples of boundaries of those system. Final two links in reference has details. But that doesn't mean the divisions of systems end there. You can further divide these systems until we get to specifics where cells, molecules or atoms interact to form systems.  
> **username_1**: @username_0 one further point, none of these means we already have full understanding of all these. Science is still stuck with a lot. But the hope is nature of reality will be further clarified as time passes, unless we are in a system like the movie matrix.  

---

### Answer by username_2 on 2018-10-16. Score: 2

Additionally, active construction of reality doesn't mean there are basic objective reality. Usually our mind uses similar mechanisms to understand this basic reality. our byological makeup, psychological processes and broad social context provides us basic assumptions, and other tools to understand what is going on in the world. usually what we perceive is outcome of our interpertation of that basic reality by byological psychological, social tools. We might see world differently Because of our byological, psychological social differences. However, those differences are not so big that we can not understand each other.  
Referenses:
Burr, V. (2006). An introduction to social constructionism. Routledge.
Raskin, J. D. (2002). Constructivism in psychology: Personal construct psychology, radical constructivism, and social constructionism. American communication journal, 5(3), 1-25.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: objective reality, is there any boundary between what we actually perceive and the true reality, I mean, Is there a definite objective reality? Is there possibility that some people understand more objective reality than others?  

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