When I was young, I had the privilege to see David Copperfield LIVE! It blew my mind to see someone get sawed in half right in front of my eyes, or get locked into a box and appear on the other side of the stage. The greatest trick was when he called upon several members of the audience (at least 10 or 15), had them come up front and climb into a suspended platform which was then covered up by a large curtain. After some charades, and spinning of the platform, the curtain was dropped and all 10 or 15 audience members had disappeared! Incredible. Of course we all knew it wasn't real, so nobody was worried that they were actually gone from existence, but we were all quite amazed, nonetheless. A few minutes later (it seemed) after the charades ceased, someone gestured to the audience up-stage (I was sitting clear in the back row), everyone seemed to be pointing at me. I turned around as though there was someone behind me they were pointing at, and to my dismay, there WAS someone behind me... a whole 10 or 15 someones! All standing there with candles lit... It couldn't have been more than 10 or 15 seconds since the curtain was dropped, I thought. Not even 30 since they were placed up on the platform....how in the......??
Well, however in the %$#! it happened, it most certainly happened.
Obviously there was a secret trap door of some kind that the 10 or 15 people went through, then through a tunnel to some stairs where they ended up right behind the entire audience - they were all given candles in the process.... all planned and synchronized. Astounding performance!
But how is it that the entire audience failed to see the 10 - 15 people go through the trap door? How did nobody hear or see them walk up in single file right behind them at the back of the auditorium, with lit candles!?- like literally right behind them. I could have reached behind and grabbed one of them - they were so close.
The answer is simple, selective attention.
Here is a video that demonstrates selective attention.
If you have never seen it before, you might be in for a surprise!
My point is, you are getting information from your senses, and that information is processed by your brain. Only some of it....
If you were able to process everything that came into your 5 senses, you would literally go crazy... you would spend all of your time processing random, meaningless information about your surroundings such as fine lines in the carpet, or differences in shades on the wall caused by cracks or bubbles. Dust particles, bugs.... extraneous lines, spots, or colors on a blanket, a shirt, pants, your pets hair and dander.... there is just too much data coming in for you to process all of it.
So how do you make sense of your world and the things around you with sooooo much input?
Check this out for a more detailed, but simple explanation:
https://www.simplypsychology.org/information-processing.htmlBasically, your brain creates structures of information called schemas. They are like templates for information, so when your brain is triggered by a certain sense or stimuli, the brain immediately calls for a schema that fits the information coming in. This schema allows you to quickly process the data in a meaningful way and causes your consciousness to ignore the extraneous information that doesn't fit the schema. This is how a magician can fool you. They cause your brain to focus on a particular detail for which you have a schema, so your brain immediately hones in on that trigger and creates a picture of what's happening - extremely vivid. Unfortunately, as this amazing function happens, you conveniently ignore the reality that 10 or 15 people have just traversed a trap door right in front of your eyes. The brain failed to process it.
Most of the time these schemas work for our benefit. Allowing us to make sense of the world and our surrounding. Occasionally, they lead us astray.
This poses an enormous problem for empiricists - believing only in what you can collect from your senses, and taking that as not only your reality, but also that of others. Making these things into truths. Imagine if the entire audience was unable to make sense out of their failed sense experience... how many people would be calling 911 claiming that aliens have abducted an entire group of volunteers at a magic show because they "just disappeared".
Theoretically speaking, our senses provide us with all the information we would ever need, practically speaking, we do a fine job of ignoring most of it, and sometimes we get the rest just completely wrong. Including observations such as landscapes and earth curvatures or non-curvatures. Distances between mountains or valleys, how much of a peak we can or cannot see. Whether or not the ship goes out of our vision or how a massive a piece of land looks from afar. Planets, moons, stars.... everything we take for granted. What is real and what isn't? What does Helen Keller make of her world? Never able to see or hear? Only a world of touch, taste, and smell? Are these things real?
How much do you trust your senses?