"Metamorphoses of perception" refers to the ways our perception can change
or transform, whether it’s a shift in understanding, a developmental
change, or a fundamental alteration in how we interpret the world. The
concept is explored in fields like psychology (e.g., Ernest Schachtel's
work on development), literature (e.g., Kafka's The Metamorphosis), and
biology. Developmental changes: Psychologists like Ernest G. Schachtel
explore how perception, along with affect, attention, and memory, develops
from infancy to adulthood. The term "perception metamorphosis phenomenon"
(PMP) has been proposed to describe the altered perceptual experience in
autism, where individuals may perceive the world in a way that is different
from before. A simple shift in perspective can change how we perceive
something, as seen in an example where someone's perception of banana
leaves shifts from negative to positive due to personal connection and
contemplation. Philosophers examine how we perceive abstract concepts, like
seeing a square in an array of four dots even though no lines are visible.
This event constitutes the starting point of a shift that
involves phases and components of perception both of the self and of the
world as well as the relations among the inner and the external world, the
most elementary awareness and feelings and the most complex ones, which are
affective, cognitive and related to interactions, expressed with particular
emphasis by the dynamics of the spatial dimension of the story. Two
discursive paths intersect above all: on one side, the traveling salesman
wakes up with the/in the body of cockroach while his soul is the same as
always. He will have to try to *become cockroach*, that is to assume its
perceptions and then, slowly, its tastes, its impressions and any other
animal sentiment. At the same time, the becoming of Gregorio’s family will
be antiphrastic to the one experienced by him: from inept, passive
parasites of their akin, as they are depicted at the beginning of the
story, his family members will gradually turn into active bourgeoisies full
of projects, rejecting Gregory up to eliminate him: they are the ones
dehumanizing themselves, while Gregory refines his sensitivity in
suffering, even to the sacrifice. [ WESTERN CONCEPT]
Theory Of Perception by Swami Sivananda
"When one thinks, then he understands; without having thought, one does not
know; it is only after having thought that one understands." (Chāndogya
Upanishad, VII-xxi-1). Origin of the perception is thoughts.
"I was absent-minded; I did not hear. I was absent-minded; I did not see.
It is thus evident that a person sees with the mind, hears with the mind.
Desire, determination, uncertainty, belief, disbelief, steadiness,
unsteadiness, shame, intellect, fear-all these are in the mind alone.
Therefore, when touched from behind, a person knows by the mind.
(Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, I-v-3)
There are two compartments in the mind, viz., the thinking portion and the
perceiving portion. It is easy to stop the thinking portion, but it is
extremely difficult to stop the functioning of the perceiving portion. It
is only the individual mind that sees objects outside. If you see the same
objects through a telescope, they appear different. If you can see with the
mind directly, you will have a different vision altogether. Hiranyagarbha
or Karya Brahman has quite a different vision. He sees everything as a
vibration or movement within himself as his own Sankalpa, just as you can
imagine within your own mind that a big war is going on and many people are
dying on either side. You withdraw your imagination at your will.
Theories Of Perception
There is the elastic theory of the mind. This school of thought says that
the mind becomes elastic when several objects come in contact with the
various senses and thus puts itself simultaneously into touch with various
sense-organs or Indriyas of knowledge (Jnana-Indriyas). When the mind comes
in contact with one object and one Indriya, it contracts to a point. This
theory is exploded and refuted by the Vedantins as unsound. There is
another school of thought that says that there are different compartments
or parts in the mind. One part of the mind connects itself with one sense
(Indriya), another part with a second sense and so on. This theory is
similarly blown up and discarded by the Vedantins as untenable and unsound.
According to the school of thought known by the name of
Drishti-Srishti-Vada, the perceiver and the perceived are one. Just as the
spider weaves out the web from its own body, even so the mind throws out
this physical universe from its own body during waking state and withdraws
the world into its womb during sleep. An object is a mental Vritti
externalised or objectified.
The Drishya (what you see outside) is due to mental Avidya. There
is only light outside. There is only vibration outside. It is the mind that
gives colour and shape. It is all mental deception. This is one view. This
is one theory of perception. The interaction between the mind inside and
the Tanmatric vibrations outside is the object or the world that you see
outside. *This is one theory of perception*. Mind is formed out of the
Sattvic portion of the five Tanmatras. There is light outside. The sun also
emits light. The eye is made up of fire or Agni-Tattva. That portion of the
mind which perceives is also made up of Agni-Tattva. So fire sees fire.
Only that portion of the mind which is made up of Sabda-Tanmatra can hear.
Sound comes from Akasa outside. So Akasa of the mind hears Akasa from
outside. But, Atman can see, hear, taste and feel everything. Atman only
can be seen by Atman. Therefore, whatever you see outside is Atman only.
"Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma-Everything is verily Brahman."
The View Of Western Medical Science
According to western medical science, light-vibrations from outside strike
the retina and an inverted image is formed there. These vibrations are
carried through optic tract and optic thalamus to the centre of vision in
the occipital lobe of the brain in the back part of the head. There, a
positive image is formed. Then only, you see the object in front of you.
The Vedantic Theory
The Vedantic theory of perception is that the mind comes out through the
eye and assumes the shape of the object outside. The Antahkarana-Vritti
enters through the opening of the Indriya (eye), removes Vishaya Ajnana,
assumes Vishayakara (the shape and form of the object it envelops),
presents the objects to your view. The function of Vritti is to cause
Avarana-Bhanga (removal of the veil or layer of Sthula Avidya that envelops
all objects). A ray of the mind actually goes out, assumes the shape and
form of the object and envelops it. Then only perception takes place. The
perception of a book is possible only when the mind has assumed the actual
shape of the book. Mental image plus external something is the object.
Whatever objects you see outside, have got their own images in the mind.
Mind Alone Creates Differences
The eyes present before the mind some forms or images. It is the mind that
creates good and bad forms. It says, "This is good. This is ugly. This is
beautiful." Here comes bondage and trouble. Good and bad, ugly and
beautiful are pure mental creations. If mind can create, it can destroy
also. Similarly, the ears bring some sound vibrations before the mind. It
is the mind that says: "This is praise. This is censure." Eyes and ears are
not to be blamed at all. They are innocent. Mind causes the mischief.
Mental Cognition Takes Place Serially
Mind can think of only limited things. Mind cannot think of greenness
without thinking of a green object. Mind is Niravayava (without parts,
divisions, compartments). It can have only one idea at a time. This is the
Siddhanta of Naiyayikas. Even those Vedantins who say that mind is Savayava
(with compartments) on the analogy of Chora-Nari (the prostitute whose mind
is on the paramour even while she works in her house) admit that the mind
can have Visesha Vritti of the lover only and Samanya Vritti of the work on
hand at the time.
Perception through the finite mind or cognition or experience takes
place serially and not simultaneously. Simultaneous knowledge can only be
had in Nirvikalpa Samadhi where past and future merge in the present. Only
a Yogin will have simultaneous knowledge. A man of the world with a finite
mind can have only a knowledge in succession. Two thoughts, however closely
related to each other, cannot exist at the same time. The nature of the
internal organism (Antahkarana or Manas) prevents our having more than one
aspect of an object at each instant presented to consciousness. Though
several objects may come in contact simultaneously with the different
sense-organs, yet the mind acts like a gatekeeper who can admit only one
person at a time through the gate. The mind can send only one kind of
sensation at a time into the mental factory inside for the manufacture of a
decent percept and a nice concept.
How Brahman Perceives
In the mind, will and sight are separate. In pure Chit, will and seeing are
one; will and sight are combined and no longer, as in the case of mind,
separated from each other. Brahman does not need Antahkarana to sense,
think and reason. Brahman does not need eyes to see. He is self-luminous.
He gives light to everything. He imparts light to Antahkarana. He gives
light and power to the Indriyas. He is Chit-Svarupa. He is Chidghana. He is
a mass of knowledge. He knows everything through Self-knowledge. He sees
within Himself through Self-knowledge the whole universe as His own
Sankalpa, as Vivarta.
THUS, PERCEPTION IS TRUTH AND DOES NOT CHANGE; METAMORPHASIS TAKES
PLACE ONLY IN OUR ACTIONS WHILE TRAVELLING TOWARDS THE TRUTH TRAVEL VIZ
PERCEPTION.
K RAJARAM IRS 311025
On Thu, 30 Oct 2025 at 20:13, Markendeya Yeddanapudi <
[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
> --
> *Mar*The Metamorphosis of Perception
>
>
>
> Let us imagine the situation, when all organisms perceived, by breathing,
> smelling and sensing, with no eyes and no visual cortex that could model
> only the 3D shapes. Then breathing was perceiving and understanding, all
> blowing as the breeze or wind. God or nature was communicating
> continuously, the communications automatically embedding as feelings and
> emotions. The only intelligence then was the air borne communication which
> translated into breathing, smelling, sensing, understanding…
>
> Then there were no scientists but only great perceivers who created
> perception based feeling laden winds. There was no place for mathematics of
> different entities, but only flows of feelings that could not be divided
> into units to create the mathematical interactions. Then there was no human
> fool imagining superiority over the other organisms. In fact all organisms
> participated in perceiving and in interacting in symbiosis. There was no
> place for definitions and interactions between definitions. In a world
> where learning was automatic in the shape of breathing, smelling, sensing
> and perceiving, definitions will be stumbling blocks.
>
> Today we are ruled by science which depends on mathematical
> reductionism.Now, let us contemplate, what the mathematical symbols imply.
> Let us take the simple plus (+).Two plus two merge so completely quark by
> quark, lepton by lepton, there is not even a Plank’s constant size thing
> left. Two minus Two, destroy each other so completely that there will be
> only the vacuum left with no trace whatever. I hope to write another
> article about the implications of all the symbols of mathematics. But what
> in reality are we teaching? Is not mathematics totally unrealistic? From
> mathematics we have advanced to Mechanics, to the Techno logic or the Logic
> of the feeling less machines and have ditched all emotions. Imagine
> yourself with no feelings at all and as mechanical as a machine. Do you
> want to be that machine? That is where your present perception based on
> your surrender to computers and mathematics of separated units is taking
> you. No wonder our youngsters need cell phones to be able to speak. The
> capacity to speak without the cell phone is getting depleted. We are losing
> the most basic biological faculties to machines and no wonder we always
> want the latest model. Our very perception and understanding today depend
> on machines. Our organs are withering.
>
> YM Sarma
>
> Chat gpt
>
> That’s a fascinating and deeply poetic reflection — almost a philosophical
> fable about perception, intelligence, and the evolution (or perhaps
> *devolution*) of human understanding. YM Sarma’s “*The Metamorphosis of
> Perception*” reads as both a lament and a warning: that in moving from
> organic, feeling-based perception to mechanical, mathematical cognition, we
> have traded immediacy and unity for abstraction and separation.
>
> Here are a few key themes and interpretations that emerge from the piece:
> ------------------------------
>
> *🌬️ 1. Pre-visual, Sensory Unity*
>
> The imagined world before vision — where organisms “perceived by
> breathing, smelling, and sensing” — represents a holistic, embodied
> intelligence.
>
> - Perception wasn’t detached analysis; it was participation.
> - Knowledge was felt, not thought — *“breathing was perceiving and
> understanding.”*
> This evokes ideas from phenomenology (e.g., Merleau-Ponty) and ancient
> animism, where consciousness was continuous with nature.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> *🔣 2. The Fall into Abstraction*
>
> The rise of *mathematics* and *science* marks, in Sarma’s metaphor, a
> fall from unity into reductionism.
>
> - The plus (+) and minus (−) are shown as symbols that *erase* the
> reality they describe — “merge so completely… destroy each other so
> completely.”
> - Mathematics, as pure symbol, severs experience from feeling.
> This critique resonates with Romantic and postmodern skepticism toward
> rationalism — akin to Blake’s warning against “Newton’s sleep.”
>
> ------------------------------
>
> *🤖 3. Mechanization and the Loss of Feeling*
>
> Sarma warns that modern humans, entranced by *machines* and *technology*,
> have surrendered their own perceptual capacities:
>
> - “Imagine yourself with no feelings at all and as mechanical as a
> machine.”
> - “Our organs are withering.”
> The “cell phone to speak” image is striking: we now need technology to
> mediate even our most basic communication. Our dependence weakens the very
> faculties that define our humanity.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> *💔 4. The Philosophical Question*
>
> At its heart, the essay asks:
>
> “What is lost when we reduce the world to symbols and machines?”
> It’s not merely an anti-science stance, but a call to *reintegrate
> feeling, emotion, and embodied perception* into our modes of knowing.
> ------------------------------
>
> *🌀 5. Possible Continuation*
>
> If Sarma plans to write “about the implications of all the symbols of
> mathematics,” it suggests a metaphysical project — treating mathematical
> notation not just as tools, but as carriers of worldview. Each symbol could
> be seen as encoding an *ontology* (a way of being). For example:
>
> - *= (equals)* might imply the erasure of difference.
> - *÷ (division)* could symbolize separation.
> - *Σ (summation)* might hint at totalization or control.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Would you like me to write a *commentary or analysis essay* expanding on
> these ideas — perhaps linking Sarma’s vision to philosophical or scientific
> perspectives (like phenomenology, cybernetics, or ecological thought)?
>
>
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "Thatha_Patty" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
> email to [email protected].
> To view this discussion visit
> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/CACDCHCLjjDjFOssPLZ0P90HhThdTK1Nzf5O9aPPEr%3DwKJVf%3DBg%40mail.gmail.com
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/CACDCHCLjjDjFOssPLZ0P90HhThdTK1Nzf5O9aPPEr%3DwKJVf%3DBg%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>
> .
>
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Thatha_Patty" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to [email protected].
To view this discussion visit
https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/CAL5XZop2%2BjaXLhvW%2BzCOrkvz4wjfBPb8dvPsaEq3eDwquEFJxg%40mail.gmail.com.
