Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by onecae on June 19, 2012 at 6:44pm

Where do illusions originate?  I wonder if they are discovered or created. Certainly, some illusions require the existence of something other than ones own mind.

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Permalink Reply by Unseen on June 19, 2012 at 9:29pm

Rainbows, mirages, magic tricks. In fact, EVERY illusion I can think of other than a pure hallucination, would seem to have some origin outside the brain. (Mind is just another way of saying "consciousness," isn't it? To be mindful of something is to be conscious of it.)

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Permalink Reply by Dogly on June 20, 2012 at 6:56am

Rainbows, it seems to me, are no more an illusion than any other apparently solid object.  Water droplets refracting light allow our eyes to see an object.  With other objects the separate, far spaced atoms are not seen as moving separate particles, but our eyes perceive them as a solid object.  Water and light are real are they not?

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Permalink Reply by Unseen on June 20, 2012 at 8:59am

Water and light are real in on sense as physical objects. Rainbows are not. They are an illusion just like a mirage on a hot road. They aren't physical objects with real boudaries and edges. Their boundaries and edges aren't really there. You can touch a water droplet, not a rainbow. A rainbow is an epiphenomenon.

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Permalink Reply by Karen Lollis on June 20, 2012 at 10:07am

In that case, would you say sunlight is also an epiphenomenon? An illusion?

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Permalink Reply by Unseen on June 20, 2012 at 6:16pm

No, the fact that I can get sunburn makes it a phenomenon, not an epiphenomenon. When you can get a rainbowburn, let me know.

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Permalink Reply by Pope OoO (Out of Order) on June 21, 2012 at 3:51am

Speaking of electromagnetic spectrums, I believe rainbowburn would only appear on the back of an observer.

I mean, speaking of late night, photo-physics trivia.

Permalink Reply by Karen Lollis on June 23, 2012 at 1:19am

OK - but you described epiphenomenon has something without edges, something you can't touch. You didn't define it in terms of effects. And in fact, if you were to stare at a rainbow, then look at a white blank page (cue Mumford & Sons), you might see a sort of after-image of the rainbow. I'd say that qualifies as a rainbowburn. There is a physical interaction between the light and your eye. When we perceive light and color, it's not some trickery - it's real photons hitting receptors in our eyes.

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Permalink Reply by Unseen on June 23, 2012 at 8:32am

As I said, the rainbow is not out there where it appears to be because it's an epiphenomenon.

Permalink Reply by John Major on June 20, 2012 at 1:20pm

Aren't rainbows just different colours, made up of light. Light is real. Why not a rainbow?

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Permalink Reply by John Major on June 20, 2012 at 1:56pm

Lol you're kidding right? Maybe I joined the rainbow debate a little late. Photons are real. Rainbows are what we call a particular arrangement of photons. So rainbows are real. The illusion is the pot of gold which is an epiphenomenon of the rainbow? I thought everyone knew this.

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Permalink Reply by Arcus on June 20, 2012 at 3:18pm

@Blaine: I've been following the discussion myself. Can't wait to take a picture of a rainbow, post it on Facebook with the caption "Rainbows don't exist, they are an illusion", and see how many end up responding, hopefully about how they haven't thought about it that way before.

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