Responding to auditory stimuli and perception

¶ … Hear

As the file "Forty Minute is Forty Years" points out, it is not what we do not hear in the night that frightens us, but is what we do hear that punctures the night. This is why the file calls it the "silent dark." We are creatures of the light, not of the dark. Therefore, nocturnal sounds that we can not identify in terms of source frighten us. We are creatures that use our vision to identify location and help us control our position in our environment spatially. This is why we grope around with our hands in the dark to find our way around, even when we have a little bit of light to guide us over to the light switch that we are trying to get to, just as Jerrod is in the sound piece.

Light has great significance in the Bible in symbolizing good. We are programed to think of the dark therefore as evil. This predisposition is put into our consciousness from the time when we are young and impressionable and are simply a blank slate that can take a lot of influence easily.

Also, we respond to human faces and their cues. We may not do this consciously. However, we need these visual cues from people (as much as verbal) to guide us as to how to respond to people properly. Without these cues and facial contact, we are lost. The darkness is a palpable manifestation of this. So, we do not want to cooperate with anything we perceive as dark due to its association with evil. This may be the source of racial prejudice. We associate good with light and bad with darkness. Therefore, we are predisposed to think this way, no matter what the color of our skin is. If we are light skinned, we may feel good. If we are dark, we have been trained to be ashamed of who we are and to run. The reaction is not rational. It is psychological and programmed in.

The semi-dark world of twilight is even more confusing. As the lights dim, or the sun is going down, we can not make out the contours exactly. The boundaries of good and evil therefore are not clear and we have an inexact perception of reality. We as human beings do not like shades of gray. We like rather to have things exactly as good or bad. This perception (or lack of an ability to perceive) these shades of gray makes us who we are and influences our value system.

The various ways the world is viewed by people causes many problems amongst its inhabitants. Whether the issues are racism, wealth, etc., conflicts and war are still bound. Why is this? The answer to this is not yet rational, but programmed into us from when we are small children. It is not clear to us logically because of the complexity and endless variables or reality. Rather, perception is the seed from which the view of reality that we have can grow.

We must push our perceptions of gray and the relative so we can better respond to the reality around us. If we do not, our existence will be reactionary and unfulfillable. We want to think of ourselves as progressive and able to be in control of the world. Only when we are not so afraid of the dark can we do this. Dark has a place as well as light. It is not evil or good in and of itself. Rather, it has the value we place upon it. When realize that is relative, we will have a better grip on the world and the reality that we live in at the present moment of our existence.