What Color Is That Pillar

Growing up I must have been watching something on television about near death experiences and these stories of the supposed heavenly experiences some people have had. That’s at least where I remember them talking about seeing colors they’ve never seen before while on the other side. I thought it was so cool that I apparently never forgot it. Years later that got me thinking about what colors I see on a day to day basis and I wondered – what’s to say we all see the same colors? Now, I’m not saying that there are more colors emitted than we currently detect (although that could be a possibility). What I am questioning is if what is processed by our minds is consistent between us.

For example, when I see a red rose, it is red. When you see a red rose, it is red. That of course is an association that was programmed into you. The red you see is associated with the red of a red rose. My question then, is what if your red and my red are two completely different colors? What if I see blue when you see red? What if my three primary colors are completely different than your three primary colors? There’s no way to tell if what I see is what you see or vice versa. We are all working of the same inputs, but our mind may be visualizing them differently… Even if we transplant eyes from one person to the next, or clone someone, who’s to say that there brains have not become wired differently as they have grown?

Fascinating I say. Life of course has an interesting way of bring ideas back into your mind… Funny enough it was an xkcd comic titled Pillar that sparked my memory of this idea again.

https://web.archive.org/web/20081201161436/http://xkcd.com/32/