Images can't talk, don't be silly.
It does, however, contain the word SEX in hidden playfully in-between the petals of it's flowers. [1] More importantly, it's a more creative version. of the classic Rubin Vase.
The eternal question: Is it a face, or a vase? Maybe both?
Here's an actual Rubin Vase:
Even though it's clearly not as ambiguous as the first one -- since it's an object it defaults to foreground -- it's still possible to make out [2] the two faces in the negative space.
So, what is perception?
Perception is a preconscious process by which a person's subconscious takes a lot of raw, unconnected information, assembles it by guesswork, and then tells you it's more or less (sometimes well) educated guess as if that guess was an absolute objective truth.
But wait, there's more!
Depending on our experiences and education, we all percieve different 'guesses' no less real than the 'actuality' of the vase itself -- but that we never talk about. Fer instance:
If someone is untrained in skepticism they'll likely percieve (automatically believe perception's guess) that the vase is a real vase.
A skeptic will likely percieve first of all that it's a picture of a vase. (Because a picture isn't really evidence of anything -- they can easily be faked.)
A nihilist will percieve his own perception first, and know that whatever it is, it's really something he's seeing because his brain tells him it's there. Then he'll conquer the world and eat tacos or something.
But wait, there's more!
The perceptual processes are downstream from wires connected to sensory nerves which send impulses down the line whenever whatever it detects hits them (a photon of light).
The impulses they transmit across those wires are merely impulses.
In theory, it's possible to spoof those impulses and some people have been able to do this to a limited degree.
People using the virtual reality glasses which are about to become the next video game controller (no shit) say that they percieve they're actually in the game world and that the game objects are right there in space with them, as if they actually existed.
This is spoofing by sending the the right pattern of light into someone's eyes the right way so that our brain tells them that whatever the perceptual processes guess the light pattern is, is "real" and located in "real" space.
This is possible because if you look at your hand you're not seeing your hand at all -- you're seeing the LIGHT bouncing off of you're hand. This fact is what allows black lights make things look all weird -- it's a specific band (color) of light in the absense of others.
So the reality of the color of your hand depends on what combinations of wavelengths of light are sent at it in the first place. It has no " real" objective color, we're just used to the full spectrum white light bouncing off of it.
The other way to spoof is to bypass the sensory organ and spoof the pattern of impulses directly by directly stimulating the nerve. This is what cochlear implants do, and the person hears sound as if (but not with the same quality) they were hearing with they're own healthy ears.
So here's a difficult question: if sounds, and objects in space can be spoofed, what about space itself? Or time? If so, are they "real"?
They can't be spoofed, but are no less "real" than what appears within them. If objects and sounds which appear in time and space were the objects on a TV screen, time and space would be the screen itself and would exist "behind" reality even if not directly experienced themselves.
So, time and space are nothing more than a "channel/dimension", something like a box, for our brains to present information. They are info-puppets just like our body. Everything is either an info-puppet or information which the info-puppet is used to present.
Phantom limbs result from the info-puppet being present where there's no information in it. (I don't mean the pain, just the sense the limb is there.) They're like empty space. Not a vaccum, that has qualities like negative pressure, I mean empty space with no qualities other than space.
Well, that's a hell of a ramble, I forgot where I was going with this.
Oh, now I remember. The useful part -- the upshot of knowing this is that reality vs illusion becomes moot. Reality is an illusion and the illusion we see is reality. More accurate but it doesn't get us anywhere.
More useful is the first statement of the Kybalion:
Knowing this, we can begin to examine the experience of our existence, ourselves, life, the universe, and everything, for what it is -- a product of our brain. With that view, we can begin to unravel the layers of the processes, catch "god" himself (or herself) in the act of creation, and learn to as VS says "hack the basecode of reality" (though I'm sure he only meant the the belief/internal map layer).
One last thing. Are you real? Answer: Self and World are just like the Rubin Vases, except they are info-puppets. Identification what happens when the boundary between the self and world moves in such a way that part of the world is included in the self.
Time for coffee.
[1] It just occurred to me how suggestive that is. Heh
Kudos to the artist.
[2] Heh
I'm not priming you, I think I primed myself and this was a Fruedian priming slip.
EDIT: I forgot to add the images. Heh