Perception
Perception
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The word perception comes from per - through and ceptari - take.
It means to take take through. One of the Three Sisters of Mind, perception weaves the strands of awareness into the focus of a being.
Each perception is a communication, an interchange of information, between the creature and its internal and external environment.
Perceptions are regulated by:
The sensitivity of cellular organs (light sensing organs in retinal cells, olfactory sensing organs, pressure sensitive organs, and so on).
The organization of sensory systems designed to monitor changes in the environment (like eyes, ears, noses, fingers, tentacles).
The interval of awareness (the interval required to reset the organs of sensitivity and make new perceptions)
A creature's ability to successfully compare these perceptions with memory and create a model to understand the meaning of the information.
Filters to eliminate noise in the information system.
Each creature has a horizon of perception determined by its perceptual and mental ability. Events that happen too fast, too slow, are too distant or too small or otherwise beyond the sensory capacity of the creature are beyond the horizon of perception.
Perception supposes there is an objective outside world and an observer to do the perceiving.
There are many more senses than most people realize. Counting the sensory abilities of animals, Guy Murchie lists 32 senses of perception grouped into five categories of Radiation Senses, Feeling Senses, Chemical Senses, Mental Senses and a Spiritual Sense. I include his list here as a tribute to Guy's perception and an introduction to his delightful and valuable books.
We also have a sense of time, as do most creatures, allowing us to judge intervals with fine detail. Some of us know exactly what time of day or night it is without looking at a watch. I do, and so do our two cats who know, to the minute, when it's time for their dinner.
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