Perception.

Perception is a fascinating concept and deserves a closer look. Take my first view of the world as a small child in a pram. Adoring well wishers loomed over me with good intentions while expressing unintelligible words to me, their mouths moved open in an exaggerated smile exposing all their sharp teeth. In a restricted position laying on my back I was unable to withdraw as the face with teeth seemingly lunged towards me. At the time a simple kind hearted intention on someone's part, from my perception of it looked like a threat against my life! Of course I reacted naturally to it and burst into uncontrollable tears and shook with fear until the face withdrew. It is clear my perception of the intention was not the same as the adoring well wisher's notion of it. It is somewhat interesting that an action may not be perceived as it is intended. On that occasion the individual may not even have been aware of the cause of my discomfort but from my perceived experience I had a very real cause for concern.

Understanding cultural signals is vitally important if one does not want to offend people, one small accepted custom in one country could have a completely different significance in another continent. Not respecting the custom to remove your shoes on entering someone's home would be perceived as being grossly rude to some but could be a far more serious offence to others.

I can not underestimate how important my actions are in achieving any given goal. There is a saying that clothes make the man but there is no doubt that people's perception does significantly how they perceive someone according to appearance. Take stop and search by the police, it has been claimed to intensify based on a stereotype of a person regardless of it being subsequently a justified action or not.

In a famous example that really took place students were offered money to take part in a psychological experiment. Although at the beginning they were equal, after being dressed they were designated as either a prisoner or guard. A drastic alteration took place in their respective perception of who they were, with the guards using excessive brutality and prisoners surrendering any form of resistance. The participants needed psychological counselling after the experiment had been stopped before it was scheduled to end.

Many wars have been won and lost because of the perception that their leader had portrayed about their position, stance and overall ability to win. In a film, a king although dead was tied to his horse and led his men to victory all because the mere perception people had in what they took to be a sighting of him gave confidence. The opposite occurred in 1066 when King Harold was struck down, the will to win was lost.

I think there is a point in that truth and reality are not the same, perception has more than one side and can be greatly influenced by confirmation of a person's peers. If for example I am going to to work but my wife notices I am looking tired and asks if I am well, I may automatically at that time reply that I am fine, thank you. Later at work if one of my colleagues also remarks that I do not look too good then I may actually start to to feel unwell. Although nothing has altered except for my own perception of how well I am.

One of my greatest pass times is looking at optical illusions, the most recent one for me was when a piece of a curved toy train track after being placed exactly on top of a second section of track both looked the exact same length. Yet when the top section was placed flat within the bottom section it is perceived that the closer one is far smaller than the other one. Another really spooky one is a hollow face that appears to have eyes that follow you wherever you are in the room. A really mind blowing one is a picture of a brick wall that appears conventional but when it is pointed out in a second picture there is a lighted cigar highlighted with a red circle embedded in the wall. I looked back at the first picture and to my amazement I could see the cigar end embedded in the brick wall, at a right angle to the wall a cigar was visible and it was then impossible to see the wall as I had seen it initially.

I think it is clear that the outlook in the mind is an important part of perception and things are not always what they seem to appear. A mind boggling thought is how I see the world is influenced by having two flat front facing eyes with the ability to distinguish colour and distance. Creatures that have multi faceted vision such as a fly, or those with eyes on opposite sides of their heads like birds must perceive the world in a different way, one that is unique to them.

There have been outstanding examples of stretching the limits of mass perception and a film was made depicting the exploits of Frank William Abagnale Jr. He is notorious for his successful multi character impersonations of an airline pilot, doctor, prison warden and many more. You may know him as the subject of the film Catch Me If You Can. The important part is how could he deceive so many people? They all perceived him to be what they expected to see.

A positive point for me is if I want to be successful at any task I must act with complete confidence even if I am shaking with fear and doubt. It is a true fact that in many instances people will accept and judge based on what they think they see over what may be the actual truth.