The Blind Spot of Reality: What the Mantis Shrimp Can Teach Us About Perception

Right now, in the room we are sitting in, there exists [music] an entire dimension of reality that we do not see. Not because it is hidden, but because our eye is simply not built to perceive it. And there is one small creature [music] in the coral reef that does see it. The mantis shrimp has up to 16 types of light receptors. We have only three. And it is precisely here that science [music] surprised us. A major study discovered that despite this, it is worse than us at distinguishing between similar shades. More devices do not mean better vision. But there is one thing it does see that no other animal in the world sees. Circularly polarized light, a type of light that twists like a coil. >> [music] >> It is here around us all the time. It is completely real, and we are completely blind to it. Not because of darkness, but because we don't have the receptor. Friends, how many of us quietly make this leap? I don't see it, therefore [music] it doesn't exist. I didn't feel it, so it didn't happen. I didn't understand, so it makes no sense. We measure all of reality by the size of our senses and declare that what is beyond them simply does not exist. And it is precisely about this that we are told in the Gemara [music] in the name of Abba Benjamin. If permission had not been given to the eye to see, no creature could stand. And pay attention to the precise wording. It is not said that there is nothing there. It is said that permission was not given. The barrier is in the eye, not in reality, and that is very profound. The reality around us does not change when we do not see it. It is there in its entirety at every single moment. What is limited is the tool in our hands, not the world before us. We see the result and not the force that constitutes it anew at [music] every moment. This is exactly the secret of the mantis shrimp. Our blindness is not proof of absence. It is only evidence of the limitations of the receptor. And more than that, even someone who has many more receptors than we do does not necessarily see better. We have no basis to determine that what we do not perceive does not exist. Faith is not seeing what is impossible to see. Faith is the humility to know that our senses are a narrow slit and not an open window, and that beyond this slit an entire reality continues, real and full, right now, even when we perceive nothing of it. So, the next time we are tempted to say, "I don't see it, so it doesn't exist." let's pause. Let's not confuse the limit of the eye with the limit of reality. Let's remember that there is light winding around us right now that we will never see.