An Essay On Illusion
The word illusion has several connotations and can be viewed from a broad range of perspectives. What exactly does the word mean? It can be a synonym for several things ranging from a layman’s understanding of simple deception to a scientist’s theory of the dual nature of matter. It has meaning in religion, philosophy, and physical form in the sandy deserts of the world as mirages.
Let us consider one of the rarest meanings of the word. I will first look at something known in scientific parlance as the dual nature of matter. When we look at a solid object we see matter. Similarly, liquids and gases are also made of matter. The earliest theories proposed that matter was composed of tiny atoms which are particles that cannot be divided further. But today we know for certain that atoms have electrons moving around the nucleus which is further composed of neutrons and protons. Various other sub-atomic particles have been discovered as of date. The smallest particles of matter are now known as quarks.
These smallest denominations of matter are believed to have a dual nature, or in other words a particle nature and a wave nature. Can you believe that the various solid objects you hold in your hand throughout the day have a wave nature in addition to being particles? Naturally, most people would shake their heads and reply emphatically ‘no’. However, the dual nature of matter is one of the most established postulates as far as scientists are concerned.
How does this relate to the word ‘Illusion’?
Let us connect the dots. The theory of the dual nature of matter destabilises our beliefs about what we see around us in everyday life. When we hold a rock in our hands, we may be holding something composed of extremely tiny subatomic particles that are both a wave and a particle. It is not solid rock composed of particles alone, which is what our senses tell us. In other words, what we see, and feel is an illusion. Uncanny, isn’t it?
I will now move over to theories that are easier to digest. Let us discuss what it means from a philosophical point of view. The French scientist and philosopher Rene Descartes had trouble believing that he existed. What if everything he saw around himself was an illusion? He wanted objective proof to establish the reality of the things he could perceive with his senses including himself. After a lot of thinking, he coined the term ‘Cogito, ergo sum’ which according to him convinced him he indeed existed. Translated to English the term means: I think therefore I am. He argued that even if everything around him was an illusion, thoughts occurred to him. So he must exist because these thoughts could not come out of a void. Hence everything around us is real and not an illusion. But there is a caveat to this argument. Thought processes by themselves may not be evidence of existence. Thoughts and consciousness are products of physical processes produced by brain cells called neurons and the interactions between them. So even our thoughts could be illusions.
The theory of the dual nature of matter suggests that what we see and observe is an illusion whereas as per Rene Descartes we all exist and everything around us is real, and he gives the thinking process as evidence. But as pointed out a caveat in this argument leads us to believe that even our thoughts could be an illusion. In Hindu philosophy and several other forms of religious thought, we come across the term maya which again means illusion. It is believed that the process of birth and death and the span of life we go through is illusory.
Let us consider some more evidence for common illusions. The most common evidence for illusions can be found in nature. During the monsoon, when a watery sun shines at us after a heavy bout of rain, we often come across a band of colours in an open umbrella-like structure on the horizon. This is commonly known as the rainbow. Just try walking towards it to the point where you think it exists. You will never be able to reach it. So where does this rainbow come from? It is created by the refraction of light by drops of water. It is an illusion. After some time it disappears.
There was a time when cavemen believed that the earth was flat. These men thought that if a person kept walking in any particular direction, they would finally reach the earth’s edge and simply fall into the great beyond. Now we all know that the earth is not flat and is more of a sphere though not a perfect one. So this idea is rather ridiculous.
Similarly, it was believed that the Earth was at the centre of the solar system and the other planets revolved around the Earth. Now we know for a fact that the sun is at the centre of the solar system and all planets including the Earth move around the sun in their orbits. For thousands of years, man has been believing something at one point in time only to be proved wrong at a later era. Thus there is no constant. We can see that human beings have always been prey to appearances and illusions.
There is another argument I would like to provide for the idea that everything around us is an illusion. We have all heard of the phrase ‘blind as a bat’ used for human beings who are slow-witted or simply blind. This phrase is also literally true, and bats are completely blind. They cannot see the world like us human beings. But this is compensated for by their super-sensitive hearing. Unlike human beings, they can hear sounds across a very vast frequency span. So when they want to catch prey for food, they emit sounds at a very high frequency that cannot be heard by other animals. Then they detect where their prey is by the reflection of the sound waves and scoop in on them. They judge obstacles on their paths while flying by the same method. Hence the bat forms a very different picture of the world compared to human beings.
This is not limited to bats. Most other animals perceive a different version of the world around us. We human beings perceive the world with our five senses. Thus, to most living things the world appears different. In other words, each organism visualises the world differently. So the million-dollar question is what is the real world like? Is it what the bat perceives it as? Is it what we human beings perceive it as? Or for that matter is it what the beautiful butterfly perceives it as? If one looks at it from that standpoint, we can almost convince ourselves that everything around us is an illusion.
I have dealt with illusion in its various facets in this article. I wanted to show that many things around us are illusions. I started with the dual nature of matter, touched upon the philosophy propounded by Descartes, and talked about the word in a religious context. I also showed how the world would appear differently to different living things.
I would like to conclude this article by mentioning that illusion itself is a delusive term. When we start writing about illusion, we will find there is no end to what we can include. That brings me to the end of this article. I hope you found it informative and illuminating.
