Perception vs Reality

Sheikh Sharaf
Dec 29, 2021
2 min read

Perception is the interpretation of how we see the world around us. We perceive the world through our own experience, knowledge, beliefs, notions and values. So the big question that arises is: is perception a reality?

Power of perception

The idea of perception is profoundly interesting. How you view yourself naturally leads to how other people see you. If you don't believe you are an attractive person, other people are going to see you the same way. If you don't believe that you deserve to be respected, other people are not going to respect you. That's because we attract the energy we give off, and it all comes down to whether you want to attract negative or positive things into your life.

Perception is your power, yet sometimes we give this power to others. We let other people's opinions influence us. We allow them to make us feel unhappy, furious, ugly, unattractive, or simply just bad about ourselves. We, in particular, permit them to do so. Furthermore, we grew up wanting recognition, or validation for everything. We love confirmation that we're appreciated for our sweat by others. At first, recognition makes us feel good about ourselves, and it may feel good and important, but at the end of the day, self-validation is more valued.

How does perception work?

For instance, if a person sits next to another person on a flight, he or she will most likely judge the other person based on their knowledge, likes, dislikes, and experiences, perceiving them as whatever they believe the reality of that person is, but this may not be the case.

There's a movie quote that reads, "you don't know me, you know your life experience based on an interpretive perception of me," and that right there speaks volumes. Our perception may or may not reflect reality. It's merely the way we see and interpret things around us based on our prior experiences.

Is reality different from perception?

Many people believe there isn't any difference between perception and reality that they have the same meaning. However, that's not the truth.

Some of the differences are listed below :

Reality is fact, truth, and it cannot be altered. Perception, on the other hand, can be changed.
As pointed out earlier, perception is a lens. It's a lens that is wrapped in our emotions, understanding, circumstances, and many such objects. These objects differ from person to person whereas reality remains the same for everyone irrespective of anybody's knowledge or circumstances.
Perception can be controlled whereas a person has no control over reality.

Conclusion

There are many great sayings about perception, including one by Peter Ralston: "Your perception of the world is not necessarily the same as what is occurring." and that's an amazing way to put it. In addition to that, the reality is not known but it still exists. We create our own perception of reality thus it's safe to say each person has their own reality. So to answer the question that was asked in the beginning, no perception is not the reality in my opinion. It's just a perception.