In2-MeC

Skopje, Macedonia
27 July 2004

Scientific Certainty
A Seminar by Dr. Don Key
Part Two

Dr. Don Key, professor of Religious Science at the University of Vineland.

What is true for the visual experience is true for the other sensory experiences. What we hear, is heard inside the brain which is as soundless as a tomb. What we touch, is felt inside the brain which is numb to tactile stimulation. What we taste, is tasted inside the brain which has no gustatory sense. What we smell, is smelt within the brain which has no olfactory sense.

We are conditioned to believe that our experience of sound is an experience of something outside us that is audible. In the same way we think that skin sensations are experiences of external physical things, like the prick of a needle. A slice of pizza we take to be a factual material object that smells and tastes so good. But scientific research proves that these experiences occur within that incredibly complex nerve center we call the brain, which is ever locked away inside the skull, out of reach of the objects we suppose produce sound, touch, smell and taste. So now, to address the issue in all clarity, just what do we experience? At this point in my seminar I will say that we can scientifically assume we experience internal electrical copies of external phenomena. These copies are generated and retained by the organism of the brain. What data system the brain uses to produce, store and retrieve these copies is unknown to science. It is obviously a data system many times more powerful than the most powerful computer data system. It is a system powerful enough to mislead us into believing that our experiences of the copies of phenomena inside the brain are real instances of matter in the world outside.

How then, do we get a sure grasp upon the "stuff" of the external world, matter? Start with the atom. A person educated at university will no doubt feel pride at an opportunity to scientifically explain an atom to someone not so educated as he. But where is that atom that he so loftily instructs is the building block of solid matter? Where is the solid material planet Earth upon which he stands? Where are the starry heavens that extend above him for millions of light years into outer space?

What we can say with scientific certainty is: they exist in the gray matter of the brain.

If the gray matter that produces, stores and retrieves what we know to be atoms, the earth, and the starry heavens above was to be physically destroyed, then for all we know, atoms, the earth, and the starry heavens above would cease to exist! The "reality" from which we get access to these phenomena is only this: the brain's interpretation of electrical signals. That fact can't be argued. "But," you may retort, "the universe is obviously so expansive, covering inconceivable stretches of distance!" That may be. But what we are sure of is this: spatial distance is but the brain's interpretation of "telegraphy" coming down two optic nerves that run to the brain from each eye. Objects that seem far, far away from us are actually clusters of electrochemical energy projected through a network of nerve channels into the tiny visual center at the back of the brain.

A person who uses a telescope--an instrument that he is convinced "proves" that outer space is indeed vast--is simply perceiving a tiny projection of energy inside his brain's visual center.

You sit comfortably in your room and watch television. Maybe. What is certain is that the room and the television are inside of you. Even your body is inside of you. You think the whole world is outside your window, but that too is for certain just a projection inside your head, as much as what you see on television is.

This brings us to a major philosophical question: does the world outside exist at all?

Part Three of Dr. Don Key's seminar will follow soon!

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