Sensation and Perception
Together we as people are able to understand each others realities but it may all be seen different by each individual. This can be for obvious reasons like someone having a loss of senses (blindness or being deaf) to not so noticeable differences like Synesthesia, a blending of our senses, which in many cases the person who has this doesn't even know they have it. The adaption of the human brain through the uses of past experiences is the building block on how we perceive just about everything in the present.
Kelly Flynn lost her hearing at an early age due to an infection in the ear causing hair cells in the inner ear that are responsible for translating sound vibrations into nerve impulses by tiny hair cells lining the Cochlea. Through this she wasn't able to hear her words causing her to be able to not be understood when she spoke and had to learn sign language. Kelly had the opportunity to get a Cochlear Transplant, which is an insertion of electric nodes in the Cochlea that acts as hair cells to translate the sound vibrations heard. At 2 weeks Kelly was able to hear sounds easily and after 3 years her speech was comprehendible. Although this hearing sounds like people with normal hearing would think of as robotic noises, to her the fact that she can hear at all is a gift that most people take for granted. This is also seen in a man named Terry who has been blind for 11 years before undergoing an experiment that would let him be able to see the world around him in a primitive style. Doctors hardwired 16 by 16 pixel electrodes directly to his cerebral cortex, the nerves that gives the brain the sense of light due to irreversible damage done to his retinal cells. Compared to a normal man, Terry has a very primitive way to see the world with most of it being a white or black blur, but to him it adds another aspect to help through his hearing. Since he was deaf for so long Terry's sense of hearing sounds had improved and unlike most, is his main sense to rely on in the world. As Lore Thalor puts this in Using Sound to Get Around "Initially, echolocation research focused mainly on the detection of obstacles. Yet subsequent studies progressed from using obstacle-detection tasks to measuring people’s ability to echolocate distance, direction, shape, material, motion, or size. Most studies made use of “categorical tasks,” which measured participants’ ability to identify something from a limited number of alternatives." Terry has used a process regarded as Obstacle Sense to get around for 11 years but now he is able to heighten his senses with the 32 pixel electrodes used as sight.
Perception can also fool you. Once I was sitting with a friend in a room. At the time I was sitting on my phone and we were talking to each other without really looking at each other because my eyes were glued to my phone. Little did I know his girlfriend was in the room, and when she spoke from the same area as him softly with a higher pitched voice, I thought he was just making high pitches noises until I looked up at him to see what he was doing. Due to the lack of insight, I couldn't even make out the words that were being said because to me the only other person in the room than me was a guy with a very deep voice. Failure of insight has historically fooled people and caused them to believe one thing when it was in fact another. For instance, the Aztecs regarded Cortez as the god Quetzalcoatl due to a prophecy that had told them "Physically, Quetzalcoatl was described in two forms; one a flying feathered serpent and the other a white -skinned man with a beard. Cortez fit into two of the four descriptions; he sailed from the east and was white-skinned with a beard."(Salerno) So the people perceived him as this god which ultimately led to the downfall of their civilization.
David Eagleman says in his video about synesthesia "We all accept the reality presented in front of us". Meaning we all percieve the world differently through physical traits as well as the experiences that contextualize what we see today. This can be seen in things like Kelly and Terry who literally see the world different than the common man and in an almost illusion form due to ignorance of the actual situation like my personal experience as well as the Aztec's perception of Cortez.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTr1VnXKr4A
http://rptimes.com/rosarie-salerno/2011/12/did-montezuma-think-cortez-was-the-god-quetzalcoatl/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8rPD6xLB4A
http://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/using-sound-to-get-around
Kelly Flynn lost her hearing at an early age due to an infection in the ear causing hair cells in the inner ear that are responsible for translating sound vibrations into nerve impulses by tiny hair cells lining the Cochlea. Through this she wasn't able to hear her words causing her to be able to not be understood when she spoke and had to learn sign language. Kelly had the opportunity to get a Cochlear Transplant, which is an insertion of electric nodes in the Cochlea that acts as hair cells to translate the sound vibrations heard. At 2 weeks Kelly was able to hear sounds easily and after 3 years her speech was comprehendible. Although this hearing sounds like people with normal hearing would think of as robotic noises, to her the fact that she can hear at all is a gift that most people take for granted. This is also seen in a man named Terry who has been blind for 11 years before undergoing an experiment that would let him be able to see the world around him in a primitive style. Doctors hardwired 16 by 16 pixel electrodes directly to his cerebral cortex, the nerves that gives the brain the sense of light due to irreversible damage done to his retinal cells. Compared to a normal man, Terry has a very primitive way to see the world with most of it being a white or black blur, but to him it adds another aspect to help through his hearing. Since he was deaf for so long Terry's sense of hearing sounds had improved and unlike most, is his main sense to rely on in the world. As Lore Thalor puts this in Using Sound to Get Around "Initially, echolocation research focused mainly on the detection of obstacles. Yet subsequent studies progressed from using obstacle-detection tasks to measuring people’s ability to echolocate distance, direction, shape, material, motion, or size. Most studies made use of “categorical tasks,” which measured participants’ ability to identify something from a limited number of alternatives." Terry has used a process regarded as Obstacle Sense to get around for 11 years but now he is able to heighten his senses with the 32 pixel electrodes used as sight. 
David Eagleman says in his video about synesthesia "We all accept the reality presented in front of us". Meaning we all percieve the world differently through physical traits as well as the experiences that contextualize what we see today. This can be seen in things like Kelly and Terry who literally see the world different than the common man and in an almost illusion form due to ignorance of the actual situation like my personal experience as well as the Aztec's perception of Cortez.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTr1VnXKr4A
http://rptimes.com/rosarie-salerno/2011/12/did-montezuma-think-cortez-was-the-god-quetzalcoatl/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8rPD6xLB4A
http://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/using-sound-to-get-around
Very interesting about the people that can now hear and see somewhat. I can't imagine what that would be like since I, like most people, have been able to see and hear my whole life. Our senses really are things we take for granted. To me, only being able to see white or black blurs would be pretty underwhelming compared to what I know I could see. But for someone who has never seen before, it is a miracle to even be able to see the slightest bit of picture.
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