Inside… Shadows of Belief

What does this image say to you? Something? Nothing? Does it stir up thoughts, memories, ideas, conjure up other images in your mind?

What do you believe it is? Is it an optical illusion? Or exactly what it appears to be? So what does it appear to be?

Send your answers to me on an insubstantial postcard, to a fictitious address, best one gets an invisible prize!

I know what this image is as I took the photograph. I know why I took it and what inspired me to do so at the time. I have a photographic memory, which is about as good as my photographs… I’ll leave that to you to figure out what that means.

I am also aware of what prompted me to remember that I had taken it – the Weekly Photo Challenge: Inside – as it’s been a while since I took it.

So why did the concept of – Inside – remind me of this image?

Was it the part of the blurb which went with the challenge which suggested taking a photo of the eyes of a loved one, as the eyes are the window to the soul and to the inside of a person? Are they really?

But this isn’t an image of eyes… so… why would eyes remind me of this photograph?

The mind is a rather intricate labyrinth of associations and connections. I am quite adept at figuring out… sometimes after a lot of struggling with what seems like nonsense… and due to a relentless determination to cut to the chase… what is going on in my mind and my mind is going on about. Figuring it out is the only way to stop my mind from driving me more crazy than I already am.

So… working backwards… this image could be of a church steeple. Church = Religion = Belief = Perception = Eyes.

The world inside creates how we see the world outside. Do you agree? Disagree? Agree to disagree? Or… disagree to agree!?!

Do we believe what we see or see what we believe? Do our beliefs affect how we perceive? Are we actually seeing what our eyes are capturing? Or does the data which our eyes observe get altered as it passes through the visual cortex and is relayed to other parts of the brain?

In other words, are we changing the reality our eyes see using personalised filters, thus we see only what we have decided that we are allowed to see?

Or something like that… variations on a theme.

So, this image, are you seeing what is there or seeing what you believe is there or should be there?

And so on… into the world inside, then out into the world outside… or the world inside which is perceived to be outside but is actually all still inside the mind’s eye.