When can we trust our senses to give us the truth?

Question

If everything we see, hear, smell, touch or taste is in our minds, are our senses any good at giving us accurate or true information about the world?

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

When we compare data-based perceptions with others, which confirm or correlate with our defined perceptions.

This extends to e.g. two simultaneous out-of-body experiencers, who are assigned to a similar target, double-blind, and who report statistically significant correlated data (in real time). This has been done at various institutes (Monroe Institute, for one).

Similarly, the resurrection of Jesus or the host of Light at Garabandal (also filmed) would be in this category of reliable sense data.

The recording of such events on video or with other measures also gives high credibility, in a second degree.

A third area of verification is replicability, the control at least of matter by protocols. http://www.tiller.org has interesting information about human intention and their psi fields' ability to influence quantum states. This provides a direct causation regarding psi.

Asker's Rating:

Asker's Comment:

deals with one aspect but substantiates it sufficiently without being vague. thx to the rest also!

Answer 2

That question can only be fully answered when we step outside of this reality.

Answer 3

The whole point of seeing, hearing, smelling, touching and tasting in our minds is to give us some kind of description of the outside world.
It might not be a very accurate description, but it's all we bags of skin and water need to get by.

Answer 4

If you can remove emotion from the way you sense these things, you can take a step in that direction.

Answer 5

It's not really true that "everything we see, hear, smell, touch or taste is [only] in our minds".

Our perceptions are the result of an enormously complex interaction that takes place within the field of being that we are, the mind-body-world field. The experiences of touch, taste, smell, sight and sound per se take place at the mind-body end of the field, but they are a result of the mind-body's interaction with the world.

Whether or not our senses give us accurate information about the world depends on the condition of our mind and body. They are certainly built to give accurate information. They can, however, become degraded. And the extremely unnatural lifestyle that most of us are brought up to lead causes an extreme amount of degradation of our senses.

Answer 6

of course they are, you have to be uncorrupted though, and have self confidence, someone with those traits is invincible, all knowing, and therefore does not exist. our senses are made so that they could give us accurate information, problem is, not enough of us trust them. i know i don't

Answer 7

depends on your beliefs... if you believe that they will then yes... if not then... well no... let us say you believe in god... you can not see, feel, taste, hear, nor smell god... but you believe in him... so scientificallty he would not exist but you do believe he does... this poses a lot of questions... if you rely on those senses then i do not believe you will learn true or accurate information about the world... plus i think people should make their own aspects of the world and the things in it.

~haloguitarist

Answer 8

we can never trust our senses to give us or show us the truth. our senses are merely here to give us the fact. you smell roses: fact. you see a red rose: fact. there is a thorn in the rose: fact. but what exactly is the rose for? is the rose a sign of affection for your loved ones, or is it a tribute to some unknown hero? fact is something that can be shared by everyone. example your are seeing a rose, another guy is seeing the rose. there is a rose and that is a fact. but do you like the rose? does the other guy like the rose? the answers to that are truths. much like beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

not always we can trust our senses. thats why some people are color blind. thats why some people have keen sense of hearing. if you have a cold can you still trust your sense of smell?
above all our 5 senses there is another sense that will help us decide the truth, from the fact, from the lie. it's the common sense. which is not at all that common.

Answer 9

Gotta slip into psychology for a good answer. You're asking about Truth, the end result of observation. This is kinda philosophical. But the beginning of this path to Truth starts for us as infants. We are born with a few reflexes, but we soon learn to assimilate information through our senses. Hearing leads to language, which in itself is a huge "What's Real?" topic.

I'd say that many things we deem true got there through our senses. Other things acquire their label as "true" through our internal manipulation of previous truths. And I won't even get close to things like the existence of God, which many people accept as "true" based on experience which they've acquired through their senses.

And thanks for asking, now I have to add that some things like sleight-of-hand appear to be "true" to our eyes, but our mind keeps us from labeling that event as "true," again based on cumulative past experience.

Once again, the simplest questions become the most complicated.

Answer 10

first ask yourself, what is truth? i always felt it was a feeling deep down in yourself, hopefully more good than bad

Answer 11

truth is so broad