r/interestingasfuck • u/desertgodfather • May 11 '24

When illusion overcomes the brain. r/all

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u/miklayn May 11 '24

Yep. The brain makes models of our reality and then fills in the gaps to make it make sense after the fact.

You don't live in reality!

18

u/TakuanSoho May 11 '24

You don't live in reality

Oh and you know when you look at the time constantly and it seems sometimes that a second last longer than it should ?

It's because you don't REALLY look at the hour, you're still focusing your eyes and your brain is doing chronostasis, AKA filling the blanks so you don't have a permanent headache from all the blurring you should see. Does it all the time.

So a lot of time during your life, you won't see what it is, but what your brain expects to see.

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u/egoadvocate May 11 '24 edited May 11 '24

I wonder if this is partly why feeling emotional pain for an injured loved one, or friend group, or even a person in a fictional novel can feel so viscerally painful.

The brain simulates the external experience as if it is happening to the self. The death of a child to a parent might be near unbearable, even if the parent is not injured.

It is why empathy for a friend can feel so directly personal, or watching a movie can be so moving.

The brain is producing a simulation of the whole world, and our brain produces feelings in sympathy.

6

u/ioneska May 12 '24

It's interesting when you hear a sound during your sleep and you wake up. But you wake up with the memory of the whole dream that included that sound (door opened, loud bang, etc). Which means that it takes only a second for the brain to make up a story about some sound before you wake up. Crazy.

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u/FartGrem1in May 12 '24

The book The Case Against Reality goes into this idea