Perceptual Intelligence

Real Experiences

What is the nature of reality? Is there a single objective reality? Is the world a shared illusion or a cluster of competing illusions? Some of these questions are philosophical, but others occupy the more ambiguous ground where biology meets philosophy and experience.

Animals have different senses: hawks and salamanders perceive fundamentally different worlds. Humans perceive continuing movement once something moves at 50 images a second, but flies don’t see motion until it tallies 300 images a second. People don’t perceive electrical impulses directly, although sharks do. But humans have one advantage: They can reason. This lets them test their perceptions and distinguish between reality and illusion. “Perceptual intelligence” (PI) refers to the way people interpret their experiences in order to distinguish between fantasy and reality. Individuals have different levels of PI, a skill you can develop through conscious practice. You can change how you view the world.   

Integrating Internal and External Information

Different people react differently to the same situation. How people see the ...