[Guy Incognito]

"A lot of the world is make-believe"
Brain creates its own version of reality
"We're only aware of a fraction of what's going on"

THE human brain creates its own version of reality, and the world we see around us is mostly make-believe, according to a top British scientist.

Professor Bruce Hood will explore the limits of the human mind in a series of prestigious lectures for the Royal Institution of Great Britain, the oldest independent research body in the world, it was announced yesterday.

The psychologist plans to induce false memories in audience members and use pickpockets to demonstrate how easily people are distracted, in a bid to prove how we have less control over our own decisions and perceptions than we like to imagine.

"A lot of the world is make-believe. We're only aware of a fraction of what's going on," Prof Hood told The (London) Times. "We have this impression of an expansive panorama in front of our eyes, but all we are ever seeing is an area the size of our thumbs at an arm's distance. The rest is filled in, as the brain creates a stable environment."

He added, "Though you might think you're an individual and captain of your ship, a lot of processes are being controlled by those around you and your environment."

Prof Hood will head the talks for the Royal Institution's Christmas Lectures, which were started in 1825 by Michael Faraday and have been held every year since then, except for a break during World War II.

"One thing I guarantee is that I will leave the audience wondering if they can ever trust their brain again," he said.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/wo...-1226104861865

[jbar74]

Interesting. I will definitely look out for that lecture.

[M.C]

Hmm, interesting.

It'll be interesting to see how his studies translate into an actual experiment. With that said, he better have a lot of proof and evidence that the people who he is working with are legit, and not paid off.

Even then, the human mind is extremely susceptible to delusion, which... well, I guess that's what he's trying to prove? If so, we already know this. I'm not 100% sure what he is trying to prove the more I think about it.

It'll be interesting to see what happens.

[MMAnWEED]

Well its logical. I'm a big supporter of the theory that there are a tremendous amount of "things" going on around us that we cannot perceive because we don't have the senses required to know that these "things" actually exist. There are some animals without eyesight so they have no idea that vision is possible so its very likely there are extraordinary senses out there to really get a better grasp on reality.

[box]

This has already been proven, by money. It makes even the nicest people evil.

This "study" doesn't make much sense to me. We see a thumb size print at a short distance because our eyes focus like a camera, not because we're fabricating the rest of the world in our peripherals. If you want to study someone, study bats, who can fly in the dark, or dolphins who use sonar, not humans, who are smart enough to destroy themselves and the world around them.

[limba]

Schrödinger's cat

Interesting read.

I just started reading a book called: "is there life after death?!", by Anthony Peake. And it raises a lot of good/interesting questions.

And one of the most important things tha author focuses on is this: "the world is SEE-belive"...

[Hammerlock2.0]

That study sounds like a big "DUH!".

I guess what he's going to show is that our brain automatically creates images of things that we're not actually seeing (actively perceiving) with out eyes. He's probably going to make people look at the center of pictures and make them tell what they see in their peripheral vision. They're gonna be wrong and he's gonna be all troll face.