Three Dimensional Appearance Illusion

In closing out this week's series, it is interesting to consider illusions. Seeing things that are not really there. Like this medievil flooring, clearly laid in two-dimensions but with colors and contrasts that give it a three-dimensional appearance.

Well, now that we know the trick, it is clear, right? And we would never make the mistake again, right? Ha. We are more easily fooled than that, and every day.

For example, we have a full moon tonight. If you have clear skies, get outside tonight and watch the moon rise over the horizon. It's an enormous orb as it clears the tree line. Come back in a few hours and look up to see how much smaller it has become. Why? Just another optical illusion dealing with relative size comparisons. You can thank your mind.

And while you are looking up at the night sky, notice both the large number of stars, and the vastness of space that separates each star. Now consider your own body, or that rock on the ground. Solid and dense, right? Actually, we also are mostly "empty space" if we consider the fundamental building blocks that constitute our physical nature.

But then, that also depends upon the lens with which we examine life. Are we looking at particles or waves? Energy or matter? As you probably know from introductory physics, they are just different manifestations of the same thing. So in a large degree, what we see "out there" really is just an illusion -- made to look real to our senses.

Just like the clever use of color and contrast in the mosaic on the floors surrounding the Taj Mahal to create an illusion to our eyes. So it is that much that we see as "real" in this world, is really just an illusion to our senses.

You may find it useful to question that which you experience as "real", "absolute", "fixed", or "truth". Or you may be happier just accepting what your senses tell you about the world. Personally, I enjoy them both -- the beauty my senses take in, and the beautiful enigma which lies behind it all.