PHI 108
Martina Ya-Hsiu Tsai
Person No. 2780-6060
Sensory, perception and belief
The movie Stigmata, released several years ago, is about the story of a young
lady’s experiences with stigmata1. In the movie, Frankie is in her mid twenties, and not
very religious as rest of her friends. The story starts from the necklace, which is a gift
from her mother. Upon her procession of the necklace, she started to experience
Stigmata. She could neither understand nor explain the terrible things happening to her.
Finally, she met a priest, and he helped her understand what has been happening to her.
In the movie, it seems to me that Frankie is not quite a religious person. She might
believe in God, yet not complete believe that everything happening to her is related to
God. When she first learned about Stigmata, she did not accept the explanation.
However, towards the end of the story, she started to believe that the explanation people
gave her at the very beginning, which is this is a message from God and she is the
messenger.
From this story, it seems to me that sensory plays an important part of our belief. I
start to wonder, if sensory input is a necessary step for us to believe in something.
Personally, I would agree and say “Yes, but not exactly.”
To start with, the majority input source of our experiences and believes come
from our sensory. Depending on different situations, we will use different organs to
“Stigmata consists of five classic points where wounds appear: the side, both hands and both feet.
Traditionally these are known as the Five Wounds or the Sacred Wounds of our Lord, because they are the
marks that occurred at the time of the Crucifixion. Some people are said to suffer the Passion of Christ
which includes: the agony at Gethsemane (including the tears or sweating of blood); scourging; the
crowning of thorns; beatings; the shoulder sound from carrying the Cross; and the Five Wounds inflicted
during the Crucifixion itself. ”
(Stigmata http://www.mgm.com/stigmata/home.html)
1
process the information we receive from the outside world, such as using eyes to see
different size and shapes of the objects in the outside world; using hand to touch the
texture of the object. After the sensors collect the data, the information is transmitted to
our brain for processing. Later in the stage, we have the perception of X, an inner image
of X and establish the belief of X. According to the basic sensor – data collection, I think
our perception does come from the input of our sensory system. However, here one might
argue that under the situation if sensory input is not available, such for people who are
deaf or blind. Yes. In this case, different sensor will take over and be responsible for the
data collection. For example, for a blind child to reach his/her new toy, they will mainly
rely on hearing and touching since sight is not available for them. In stead of seeing the
shape, size and location of the toy, they will listen to the description of the toy, such as
what it is made of and what it looks like and use body parts, like hands to feel where it is
located. Here, association with other objects is involved. The child will associate what
they hear and feel about the shape and size to something they know to figure out what the
new toy is. From linking the position of the new toy to other object will lead them to the
location of the toy, such as on top of their chair. As the matter of fact, sensory is still the
major connection between us and outside world.
In addition, for people whose major sensor is not available, such as eyes for sight,
their minor sensor, like hearing and touching, will be more dominant than those whose
major sensor is available. Let’s compare a blind person A with a vision-perfect person B.
Given the same task as A, if we eye-blinded B, B will not be able to complete the task at
the same level as A completes his/hers. Like in reality, at home, if we ask B to go to the
kitchen from the living room and get something from the refrigerator simply by following
the verbal instruction give by the third person. B might have a great difficulty getting to
another room and grabbing the item from their refrigerator. While for A, he/she can
easily go to the kitchen and get the item as requested. At different mechanism, one still
use the sensor to collect information about the outside world. In other word, the sensory
is still they key to our perception.
We as human can experience the outside world through a variety of ways,
depending on individual’s conditions. Afterwards, how we process the input – the
perception will also vary by individuals, then, we decide if we will accept the input. If
yes, we believe in X, if not then we do not believe in X, but Y instead. What’s more,
believe can also vary in degrees, depending our experiences/perceptions. From my
personally point of view, at the beginning of the movie, that Frankie did not believe in
what has been happening to her is related to God is because she only had very limited
knowledge and perception about the whole event. Once her perception became more
concrete and clear, at her mental stage, she was able to process that and decide whether or
not she should believe the event. Again, the sensory, perception is the ground for believe.
To me, I agree that to believe X, one must have collect enough information from
perception. In other world, when one’s perception to X reaches a certain degree, one will
believe in X. To collect data from outside world, it has to come through our sensory
system. Here, it could be any type of sensory system, as long as the outside word data is
transferred to us though out body. Then based on what we collect, the mind makes up the
decision to accept – believe, or reject – not believe. To believe, it must be able to be
perceived and believing or not, just the degree/ quality of the perception.