may not be the truth. Our filters and past experiences make us
think and believe that our perception is the truth. Have you ever
seen a movie of a crime investigation? The detective talks to numer-
ous people who saw the same incident, yet they all have different
stories. The detective puts together the various perceptions to gain
the truth of the incident. There are never two stories exactly alike.
Because we all perceive things differently, each of us has differ-
ent experiences even if we are experiencing the same event. We fil-
ter information selectively and differently from each other. That’s
what makes us all different and why we experience things differ-
ently. We each uniquely code the experiences that pass into our
brains. These codings are the internal sensory representations
mentioned earlier.
Why are perceptions or internal sensory representations impor-
tant to us? Our perceptions determine our state. We can be in a
state of depression or a state of excellence. How we filter informa-
tion determines how we represent each experience and therefore
our state. Our state determines how we feel about the experience.
Think back on how you were affected through the physiology
method. How did that affect your state?
To illustrate this point, refer to Figure 4.8. It shows that 2 mil-
lion bits or pieces of information (2 million bits per second) are
coming into our minds every second. This information comes in
from our five senses. Each experience we have uses all five senses.
After the information comes into our minds, it gets filtered. The
The Power of Our Perceptions 57FIGURE 4.8 Your Mind in Action