All language subtitles for The UnXplained s08e05 Mind Over Matter

A fire walker. Free of pain by
controlling his mental state.

A blind man able to create maps in his
mind by using the power of sound.

And a plane crashed deep in the jungle
where a single survivor was guided by an

inner voice.

The human mind.

It is the home of all our thoughts,
hopes, dreams, and memories.

The organ we call the brain not only
keeps us alive, it allows us to

and experience the incredible world we
live in.

But are there people who are wired
differently than most of us?

Can unique circumstances permit some to
tap into extrasensory abilities that

defy nature?

Or do we all have extraordinary mental
skills that can come to our rescue with

power that we never knew we possessed?

Well, that is what we'll try and find
out.

San Pedro Manrique, Spain, June 23,
2018.

Here, as they have for centuries,
villagers gather for an evening festival

celebrate the summer solstice.

They engage in singing, dancing, wearing
elaborate costumes.

But for a select group of villagers, the
festivities aren't so

conventional.

Because their evening also includes
something out of the ordinary.

A dangerous walk over fire.

Now, I've seen many fire -working
rituals in many different contexts in a

variety of countries.

But I've never seen a fire as fierce as
the one in San Pedro.

This is by far the most important event
in the life of this community.

They have this amphitheater around
the...

the place where the actual fire is, then
these men walk on the embers. It's

five or six steps from one side to the
other, and they do it carefully, and

usually carrying someone on their
shoulder.

People often wonder, is the firewalk
really hot?

And the answer is yes, once the wood is
first laid out.

the overall temperature is between 1
,000 and 1 ,200 degrees.

That's really hot, more than enough to
burn flesh, certainly.

So imagine a carpet that is 20 feet
across and several inches deep,

and it's burning at a temperature that
is hot enough to melt aluminum.

If you look at the temperatures
involved...

You're typically talking temperatures
over 1 ,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and skin

burns at 100, 160 degrees Fahrenheit.

Walking on fire is very, very dangerous.

I mean, you're barefoot, there's one
wrong move, and you can be severely

People ask me all the time whether fire
walkers have any kind of special trick,

whether they're some kind of special
drug that prevents them from feeling

or getting burned.

The answer to all of these is no.

There's no special trick.

Walking on fire and at temperatures hot
enough to turn metal into liquid.

No one in their right mind would do this
and expect to emerge unharmed, right?

And yet, the people of San Pedro and
Enrique managed to do just that and on a

yearly basis.

But how?

Walking across hot embers is one of my
favorite physics problems.

The trick is making sure the embers are
hot enough that you actually get a very

thin but very real layer of water vapor
between your skin and the hot coals.

Some of these same fire walkers, one day
they walk across unscathed, another

time they try it, they do burn their
feet.

Their mindset.

So at my firewalks, once we've taken the
group out to the fire and we're getting

ready to walk, first I like to remind
them again about their intention.

And this helps motivate them and get
them across.

And then we raise people's energy before
a firewalk.

Firewalkers around the world, regardless
of tradition, religion, they raise the

group's energy.

before they walk. This can be done with
meditation, chanting, singing,

dancing. Whatever the case, you want to
get your group into an excited, pumped

-up state before the fire walk. There is
absolutely something about being in an

excited, uplifted state that helps you
get across safely.

So what actually happens there
psychologically is there is this

buildup. There is this highly intense
arousal that's happening. And so you

cortisol and other sort of endocrine
hormones flooding the system, which will

help to block some of the pain
receptors.

Water vapor.

Mind control.

But can firewalking without pain or
injury really be just a simple matter of

willpower?

Or does it require something even more?

We know we have the capability to
redirect pain or even to numb pain just

putting ourselves in the right mindset.

But many of these firewalkers don't even
have blisters or burns on their feet.

So when you look at physics, that's
impossible.

If you touch something that's hot,
you're going to get burned.

So the question is, are we dealing with
the magical force that we have yet to

fully understand?

So in one study with the San Pedro
Hispanic Firewalking Ritual, a team of

anthropologists were curious, what
happens to a person's heart rate for the

individual who's actually walking and
for any individual who is close to them,

like a relative or a family member?

For this study, my colleagues and I went
to San Pedro and used some devices that

collected heart rate data.

And we placed those devices not only on
the fireworkers themselves, but also

members of the audience.

And what we found is that the ritual
itself created an astonishing level of

synchrony in the heart rates of the
participants.

The surprising part is that you will
still have a state of physiology that's

similar to the individual, as if you are
walking with the cold, when in fact, of

course, you're not.

It is so much more than just an
individual ritual. It is a community

Yes, it is technically possible to cross
a coal bed unharmed all by yourself,

but it is much easier.

to experience a firewalk surrounded by
people who are there to support you,

family, your community.

Crossing barefoot over thousand -degree
coals doesn't make any practical sense.

And even though I've personally crossed
hundreds and hundreds of coal beds, I

still don't perfectly understand how and
why it works like it does.

The ability to walk barefoot over open
flames and end up unharmed might be a

perfect example of mind over matter.

While it's clear that the human brain is
capable of shielding us from pain while

under stress, can the same be said if we
lose one of our senses?

Perhaps clues can be found in the story
of a young boy who was born blind and

developed the ability to see.

using the power of sound.

Hacienda Heights, California, 1968.

Two -year -old Daniel Kish, just one
year after having both eyes removed due

cancer, sneaks out of his crib to
explore his family's backyard.

Far from being fearful or afraid, Daniel
is as confident as he is curious.

Because... At just two years old, he has
developed an ability called

echolocation, which allows him to see by
using his ears.

For those of us that study sensory
systems, Daniel Kish is a rock star.

He is clearly the most studied human
that actively echolocates.

So he will emit sounds himself.

These sounds will go and bounce off
objects and come back to his own ears.

And these noises provide him information
on distance to a target, what that

target might actually be, how dense it
is, how light it might be, its shape.

I've been able to echolocate for as long
as I can remember. And for me, it was

as natural as breathing.

It was just my way of seeing.

I didn't really know it was echolocation
per se.

I just knew that I was aware of my
surroundings and that I could function

that awareness.

It was just sort of part of the process
of learning to see, which is very much

what sighted kids actually do as they
begin to calibrate their vision.

After that, it was just sort of normal.
It was just a matter of course to click

and scan and find things and not really
be afraid of what was out there.

For most of us, if you've ever had any
experience with echolocation, it's

probably when you've been told about how
bats work, right?

Bats emit a sound. The sound bounces off
objects and then comes back to them. So

they can actually determine how far away
an object is, what its size and shape

may be, and so forth.

And what Daniel's done is he's taken
this idea and basically turned it into

something that humans can actually use.

Without ultrasonic hearing, without all
of the advantages that bats have

evolved, humans are somehow able to do
this, and relatively easily.

So, how?

Why?

I believe that we can do this because we
always have.

We've been doing it since man was prey
and not predator, since we had to hide

the dark. So we don't have to develop
these systems from scratch. All we have

do is turn them on.

By making clicking sounds and then
listening to how those sounds

what's around him, Daniel is able to
create a virtual picture of his

surroundings with astonishing accuracy.

Neurobiologically, I think this speaks
to something that we call sensory

substitution, that his visual cortex has
been appropriated, if you like,

because it's not receiving visual
information.

Daniel's rare ability has made him the
world's foremost echolocator. But there

are some in the scientific community who
question the extraordinary nature of

Daniel's ability.

They argue that it's more likely that
Daniel is simply making lucky guesses

he claims to sense his environment.

But for Daniel, there's no question.

He sees a map in his mind.

And what's more?

He can prove it.

Even though he's never seen, he's
clearly using his echolocation skills to

construct some sort of map of the visual
world, although he doesn't have any

experience with the visual world the way
someone that's sighted does.

When I visit a new place, I basically
just look around.

And for me, that involves, of course,
using my sense of echolocation to scope

out the environment.

I start out with...

What's most distinctive? What stands
out?

What's most unique?

What seems to define the space?

Essentially, it resolves into what I
call three -dimensional fuzzy geometry.

all of these features sort of coalesce
into an actual image.

Mapping it is part of the process.

Drawing is a way of sharing.

what my relationship with the
environment is.

It's a way of giving people a peek into
my head.

So you've got a house here, that's the
most relevant feature.

There's a parked vehicle of some kind
there, and then trees.

And then just as I got to about here, I
was able immediately to tell, okay,

this has got to be some sort of a patio
area or maybe a grotto.

And then as I rounded the area, this
tree line became very obvious that

one edge of the garden.

Daniel often says that, you know, he can
see these things in his mind. And

skeptics would say, oh, that's
impossible.

He must be hearing sounds or just making
calculations and guesses that just

happen to be true. But he's actually
able to prove it.

He's actually able to draw what he sees
in his mind.

And it's accurate.

I am a person who is naturally curious.

I've been an explorer since I got out of
my crib and started wandering around.

It didn't really occur to me that, oh,
but wait, I no longer have eyes.

My interest is in understanding the
world, knowing about the world and

sharing whatever it is I think I've
learned about the world.

with others to the extent that others
may benefit from that.

It's not about seeing or not seeing.

It's about knowing.

It's about understanding, and it's about
sharing.

Daniel's incredible ability to make his
way through the world is truly a sight

to behold.

But how did he unlock such an unusual
and powerful sensory ability?

Perhaps clues can be found in the
stories of ordinary people.

who experienced traumatic events and
saved lives by tapping into a superhuman

strength.

Melbourne, Australia, August 1st, 2013.

High above the city, 22 -year -old Brad
Guy is excited to make his first

skydiving jump.

The self -professed adrenaline junkie
wants to push the limits.

But he'll soon find that this is going
to be...

The fall of his life.

I was given the opportunity to choose
which height I wanted to jump from, and

decided to go as high as possible, which
was 15 ,000 feet. Very high.

So my tandem instructor ran me through
how it would feel to jump and what I

to do to ensure maximum safety.

Then he asked me if I had any final
questions.

I think because I was so nervous, I made
the joke saying, I hope my parachute

opens.

I remember when that rickety door of the
aircraft opened and my instructor just

edging me closer and closer, I was so
terrified.

And eventually my instructor said,
three, two, one, jump, and he pushed us

I was moving so fast that I couldn't
even comprehend.

Just that four, five, seven seconds of
free fall, it's totally euphoric.

It's indescribable.

It's kind of like magic.

When a skydiver jumps out of a plane,
they're accelerated by gravity at a rate

of 32 feet per second per second. His
speed would have been upwards over 100

miles per hour.

Brad skydives an even greater thrill
than he expected.

But as he and his instructor plunge
toward the ground, something goes

awry.

There just was this point when, as we're
falling, I was expecting a thrust of a

parachute to come as per the safety
instructions, and it never came.

I felt a bit of a thrust from a
parachute, but it wasn't enough to slow

And that's when I noticed that the first
parachute, it's been deployed, but it

hasn't opened.

And the emergency parachute got stuck in
the original parachute.

And because they're tangled together,
we're not slowing down.

We were tumbling towards the ground from
15 ,000 feet.

I start freaking out. I'm really
panicking. All I could really see was

getting closer and closer.

And I knew I was going to hit the ground
and die.

The impact just smashed through my body.

It really didn't feel like a fall. It
almost felt like the earth just came and

hit me.

And when I hit the ground, I'm still
strapped to my instructor.

He's unconscious.

Eventually, he did come to.

We were just strapped to each other,
screaming.

I remember I was just hysterically
crying, so confused, having no idea what

happened, partially still thinking that
I was actually dead.

Against all odds, the two men survive a
fall of nearly three miles.

Brad and his instructor are rushed to
the hospital.

where they both begin a long and
miraculous recovery.

My physical injuries, I broke my upper
spine, fractured my lower spine, tore

ligaments in my neck, cracked and
bruised ribs, mild head concussion.

I had suspected that I was a
quadriplegic. I was numb from the neck

took me a long time to feel my body
again.

You would think that after all these
years and all the time I've had to

on it, that I would be able to look at
the situation and seriously ask myself,

was this luck or is it just all the odds
been in my favor on a particular day?

I don't know.

I don't know.

I would love to know.

Sometimes when humans face extreme
danger, the normal parts of our

brain kind of get pushed aside and the
sympathetic nervous system kicks in and

can institute an adrenaline rush into
the body, which can do some amazing

things. It forces blood into the muscles
and pumps them up and becomes hard to

strengthen and protect your skeletal
system and connective tissue.

Was a surge of adrenaline responsible
for protecting Brad's body from the

extreme impact?

Or was there something even more
incredible going on?

Perhaps an explanation can be found by
examining another case of survival. One

that involves an extraordinary feat
performed by an ordinary man.

Tucson, Arizona, July 26, 2006.

Tom Boyle, a supervisor at a local
aerospace company, is driving home with

wife. The couple are about to exit a
parking lot when another car pulls

alongside them.

What happens next actually changes Tom
in ways that seem to defy the very laws

of nature.

The driver, he had taken it upon himself
to peel out out of the parking lot.

And as he did that, he sucked in a
bicyclist underneath the vehicle.

I jump out of the car. I go running
after the Camaro. And as I approach the

Camaro, there was a boy underneath on a
bicycle yelling for help and asking

people to please get the car off him.

I just reacted.

As the boy's cries ring out, Tom has no
time to think.

A powerful force comes alive inside him,
a force that allows Tom, To

do the impossible.

It just got me so, I guess, nervous and
compelled to help

that I just lifted the side of the car.

As I started lifting the car, I could
hear the bicyclist telling me, higher,

higher, mister, please go higher.

So I did.

I just held it as long as I possibly
could, and I just thought, don't let go.

And fortunately, we got him out.

I'm 6 '3".

At that time, I was 275 pounds.

And the most I've ever lifted, I think,
was 800 pounds.

As I lifted the car, I'd never thought
about how much it weighed. I just

about saving this kid.

Now, Tom's a big guy, solid guy.

But we're talking about a car, okay?
This is a car that weighs about 3 ,000

pounds, and yet he just jacks it up.

bare hands, lifts this thing up. Human
beings can't normally just lift cars.

These situations where people manage to
do superhuman feats of strength, like

lift a car off someone, as often happens
in science, these are rare events. We

don't have detailed measurements.

And so really understanding the true
biophysics and physiology of all the

details that go in remain a bit of a
mystery and an interesting area for us

explore going forward.

We don't use most of our muscles
capability throughout the day. It's

much more, but for some reason only
under these extreme circumstances.

If we can learn how to control our mind
and use it at will, that would be like

being a superhuman, a superhero.

That will, that power is being driven
both not only by the adrenaline, but

importantly, it's that energy.

It's that type of thing in China that's
called Fajing, animal explosive energy.

It's a burst of absolute decision.

It's that unknown, that unexplained
energetic place that we all know about.

talk about it. We have feelings and
vibes about these things.

So this was a once -in -a -lifetime
moment for me. I've never done anything

like this again.

I think you could tap into some amazing
power.

I truly do. It's there.

You just have to have a reason to use
it.

So where does this sudden search of
incredible strength come from?

Is it something special and rare?

Or is it simply adrenaline and an
untapped ability that exists within all

Perhaps the answers lie in the chaos
surrounding another life -and -death

scenario and the surprising
circumstances of an extraordinary

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, November
1992.

Banker Annette Herfkins, her fiancé, and
29 other passengers board a small

plane. and head to the coastal town of
Natron for a vacation.

But what is supposed to be a short,
routine flight is about to turn into a

nightmare.

When I saw the plane, I didn't want to
enter it because it was awfully small.

I am very claustrophobic, and I said,
there's no way I'm entering that plane.

I'm not going to go in there. It looks
old, but mostly small.

And my fiancé said, well, don't worry,
don't you have to, it's only 55 minutes,

and do it for us, because I have this
beautiful vacation planned, and I knew

were going to speak up about it, but
please, please do it.

And then we entered from the back of the
plane.

So we sat down, and we were told to
buckle our seatbelts, and they were

across. And then I was restrained enough
as it is, and I did not buckle my

seatbelt.

And the flight took off.

For the next 30 minutes, I just kept
counting the minutes. And the 50th

there was a gigantic drop.

And people were screaming.

And my fiancé looked at me and said,
well, this I don't like.

And then another drop.

More people screaming.

And he reached for my hand, and I
reached for his.

And then everything went black.

I woke up to this eerie sound of the
jungle.

The plane broke in three pieces.

The wings, the fuselage, and the
cockpit.

Then I looked at my left, and there I
saw my fiancé still trapped in his seat.

It was that.

In shock, grief -stricken, and with the
legs and hips broken, Annette painfully

pulls herself out of the wreckage.

Only to find that every passenger on
board has perished.

Except her.

It all seems impossible.

In this plane crash, Annette was the
only survivor of 31 people. She's the

one that survived.

Did it have to do with just the
randomness of her being in the right

hit the ground in just the right place,
that had just the right structural

integrity based on how they crashed, or
could it be something else?

Miles from civilization, injured and
alone.

Annette finds herself in an unbearable
predicament.

But somehow, from somewhere deep inside
her, she finds a way to survive.

I would just be quiet.

And listen to my instinct.

I just listened to that voice and I
acted on it.

And it said, make a plan, divide it in
achievable steps.

And when you achieve one of those steps,
congratulate yourself. That's exactly

what I did.

I realized that I was going to need some
water.

So I looked at the wing of the plane,
the insulation material was some kind of

foam. So I figured that could work as a
sponge.

And then I made seven little bowls, and
I lined them up for it to rain.

And then it rained, and it poured.

And then I was very happy to see this
little bowl filling up with water.

Tasted like a batch of pain, as you can
imagine.

She was able to survive the plane crash,
but maybe what was even more remarkable

is that she was able to survive eight
days in the jungle with no prior

jungle training or experience and no
conditioning to be in the jungle.

On the afternoon on the eighth day, out
of nowhere, men came up the mountain.

And they showed me a passenger list.

And I had to point out my name.

And I just realized how amazing it was
that they actually found me.

It may have been random chance that
allowed Annette to live through the

crash.

But what was the so -called voice that
gave her the guidance she needed to

survive?

Is it some kind of deep -seated electro
-biochemical force

that's innate in the brain that suddenly
gets activated?

Or is it something that comes from
outside?

Is it faith from an outside power that
brings that energy to the person who's

desperate need?

Whether or not you view yourself as
strong and capable, you have the

to tap into these things and get in tune
with these strengths, with these

capabilities, whether you know it or
not.

We all have that voice inside of us that
we can listen to.

In extreme situations, it's always there
to help you.

Just listen to that voice. Be silent.
It's there. It's there.

Kelso, Washington, February 2nd, 2020.

38 -year -old Stephen Peete attends to
his Sunday chores like yard work and

cooking and tinkering with several
projects in his basement.

All the same things that any person
might do on a weekend.

But for Stephen, he has to do all this
far more carefully than the average

person because for him, doing household
chores is more than just a series of

tasks.

It's actually dangerous.

I was born with a rare genetic condition
called congenital analgesia. At the

time, that was the name given to it. Now
it's called congenital insensitive

pain.

So I can't feel any pain at all.

A life free of pain?

Sounds like something many of us would
pay dearly for.

But for people like Stephen, death or
severe injury?

lurks around every corner.

My parents first noticed something was
different when I was teething and I

chewed off half my tongue.

That definitely alarmed them to
something serious going on, so they took

my pediatrician who did a couple of
tests and determined that more than

didn't feel pain.

They ran needles up and down my spine,
poked my feet a couple of places. I

didn't. elicit a native response, a
painful response.

Stephen's gruesome injury provides a
stark reminder that while most people

probably don't think of pain as a sense,
it may actually be the most important

sense of all.

Congenital analgesia is an inherited
form of insensitivity to pain.

Congenital means it runs in the family,
and analgesia means that you don't feel

pain. You have no feeling of pain
whatsoever.

There's some form of mutation in a gene
that's essential for pain perception.

When people first hear that I don't feel
pain, they think it is the greatest

thing in the whole world. They're like,
well, I've got super power.

But my childhood was spending good
chunks of time in the hospital.

I stayed in between like four months to
maybe a year and a half, which isn't

normal.

It's an extremely problematic condition.

Pain protects us from self -harm.

and it's often the first time of
disease.

So people who are pain -free often die
very young.

It's actually rather amazing that he's
made it through life as far as he has. I

mean, the classic example we always hear
about is learning not to touch things

that are hot.

Pain alerts us when we're doing
something in the external world that

make sense and we should stop.

The one thing that I really have to keep
an eye on...

It's probably whenever I'm engaged in a
physical activity that's a little bit

strenuous, like doing yard work.

It's stuff like that where I can injure
myself and not immediately realize it

that can cause serious repercussions
down the road.

When we think about senses, we always
think about the classic five senses.

Sight, touch, smell, taste, and hearing.

One thing that's really interesting,
though, is...

we basically have another sense, which
is our pain, our sense of pain.

We often just reject that as, well,
that's just touch.

But that negates or doesn't think about
the internal pains we often feel,

whether it's headaches or stomach aches
or sore muscles, which really isn't

quite touch.

Pain is another sense.

It's a sense, we call it, not
perception.

It's conveyed by specific kinds of
nerves.

We get activated when, for instance, we
might touch a hot stove or cut

ourselves.

What's interesting is the brain can
regulate pain dramatically, but the

drive that causes pain is from the
peripheral nerve. The nerves that send

information into the brain don't work in
congenital analgesia patients.

This loss of pain is caused by
malfunctions in a very small number of

are extremely rare.

One of them is involved in signaling in
the peripheral nerves. It's called NAV1

.7. It's a protein that's called a
sodium channel.

It's like an electrical switch.

And if that protein doesn't function
properly, then you can become pain

Since Stephen doesn't feel pain, it begs
the question, what does he feel

instead? It's difficult for me to try to
explain.

But even though I don't feel physical
pain, what I can feel is heat, cold,

touch, just like every other person.
What I do feel is...

Probably a byproduct of pain is like
these impulses, almost like a nerve

Since 2012, I've had the opportunity of
being able to participate in a couple of

studies with different universities.

I spent a good portion of my childhood
in the hospital. And during those days,

it was usually with people who felt pain
and seeing people, especially that

young who are going through such painful
experiences.

That's really what prompted me to sign
up for a lot of these studies when I was

approached.

And the overall goal in a lot of these
studies is to try to create a non

-narcotic painkiller because the opioid
crisis that our country is facing is one

that other nations are facing as well.

So I've been asked quite a lot with all
these studies I've been participating in

if I had the chance to feel pain, if
they could figure out what activates or

deactivates that switch.

Would I myself want to feel pain?

And my answer is no.

And that's only because I've damaged my
body so much throughout my entire life

that if I were to feel pain right now,
I'd just be in a constant state of pain

all the time.

I have a bad knee, but my back is a
little bit messed up. So my quality of

would just be low.

And there's no way I could live like
that.

The ability to feel pain is essential to
our very survival.

But are there other senses in addition
to familiar ones, like touch or sight,

that go beyond our common understanding
of what humans are capable of?

Do we all possess an extrasensory
perception?

As we continue to study the human mind,
will we one day be able to reveal

certain extrasensory abilities?

For millennia, there have been people
who could sense an invisible presence,

whether it be a deceased loved one, a
spiritual energy, or even something more

sinister. While it may sound a bit oka
-boka, a study published by scientists

from Caltech in 2019 suggests that
humans can not only detect energy

they can also sense the magnetic field
of the Earth.

The human brain has a lot of phenomena
going on inside it that uses

electromagnetic charges and electric
fields. And if you change the magnetic

field around your brain, it will impact
what's going on inside your brain.

So small magnetic fields are most
certainly detectable. We just may not

we're detecting them.

They wouldn't surprise me in any way if
there aren't aspects of brain function.

that we are completely unaware of at the
moment, that we'll become aware of

later when we understand more about how
the brain actually works.

Since it's already been proven that
humans have more than five senses, could

there really be something to the notion
that we have the potential to sense the

world around us in what some would
consider bizarre or even mystical ways?

According to some researchers, the
answer is yes.

And as evidence, they point to an
incredible phenomenon known as paroptic

vision.

Paroptic vision was first proposed by a
surrealist writer called René Dommel,

who was a teenager, practiced seeing
color through his fingertips.

So he'd put different colored
handkerchiefs inside a box, and then

see if he could tell what color the
handkerchief was. That sounds quite

but I've done some experiments.

It's a rare ability, but I did find one
person who was able to detect the colors

through the fingertips. I can't explain
it, but she could detect color with 80 %

reliability through her fingertips.

It's been discovered that the skin has
opsins embedded in them, and opsins help

the body calibrate to circadian rhythms,
to 24 -hour rhythms.

So it's not too much of a stretch to
think how opsins could not just detect

light, but they could also detect color.

Many people believe that there are
mysterious ways of sensing things that

involve the traditional senses.

And I believe that there's perfectly
reasonable expectation that may perhaps

true. We don't really understand how the
brain works at all.

As incredible as it is to discover new
senses, it's also a little unsettling.

Because if our brain is just using our
senses to constantly try and guess what

reality is,

Then how are we to know when it gets us
wrong instead of right?

I like to think of perception as a kind
of controlled hallucination because

there's no light in the skull, there's
no sound in the skull. All you've got to

go on out of the brain are these noisy
and ambiguous sensory signals.

Signals don't come with labels.

I'm from a coffee cup or I'm from a cat.

And this is why, for instance, if you
look up at the sky and there's some

clouds, sometimes you might see faces.

Reality is not quite as real as people
think.

We are often told that something looks
red because it reflects more red

wavelengths. But there's no such thing
as red wavelengths.

Color is not a property of objects. It's
a property of brains.

It's simply the wonder that our brain is
creating all of this and that we can

agree on so much.

Perception is about representing the
world and the body and the self in the

that's most useful for the organism.

So if you see a color, that's not right
or wrong. Color is where the brain meets

the universe in a way that's useful for
us.

I think we can all agree reality exists.
We think, therefore, something exists.

But what it is and how we will know what
it is is fun to explore.

It's thrilling to think that we may one
day witness the next step in human

evolution by unlocking our so -called
extrasensory abilities.

Could things like pain management,
physical strength, and even the

heal ourselves be functions that already
exist within us?

As we learn more about the power of mind
over matter, perhaps the answers will

become second nature.

But for now...

the extraordinary capabilities of the
human brain remain

unexplained.