Consciousness and Color Perception – Current Scientific Understanding

Modern science has confirmed that the world lacks any truly mind-pleasing sensory attractions, including color perception. In other words, there is no light of any color in the world. In the same way, all five physical senses provide misleading perceptions of qualities that are not in the real world. However, science cannot explain the origin of consciousness and perception.

September 25, 2026

Introduction

1. In the previous post, “Noble Truths on Suffering – World Operates on a Falsehood,” we discussed how the Buddha pointed out the fact that living beings are trapped in the suffering-filled rebirth process entirely due to their cravings for illusory and mind-made ‘worldly pleasures’. In recent decades, modern science has also come to realize that the world offers no ‘mind-pleasing sensory attractions’. 

• That seems absurd to most people who enjoy sensual pleasures.
• They don’t realize the following two consequences of indulging in sensory pleasures: (i) It leads to rebirths in the ‘lower/bad realms’. (ii) Any ‘pleasure’ experienced is magnified by the mind itself, i.e., the ‘pleasure’ is mostly an illusion. Those were the conclusions in the above post, per the Buddha’s teachings.
• But let us look at the scientific evidence that has accumulated over the past few decades. We will focus on the hardest-to-believe fact about vision.
• Modern science agrees that vision is 100% a mind-made phenomenon! However, materialistic scientists say the brain creates color perception. We will discuss that unprovable assumption as well.

The World Is a Dark Place!

2. That is correct. There is no light anywhere in the universe. The Sun certainly emits an immense amount of electromagnetic radiation. But it is colorless; no part of it has ‘color’.

• In school, we all learned that sunlight is white and consists of a tiny portion of electromagnetic radiation in a very narrow range. The Sun emits wavelengths in a much wider range, but our eyes detect only a tiny fraction of that.
• We also learned that when sunlight passes through a prism, it separates into a color spectrum, from violet to red. We also know that mixing yellow and blue gives green.
• Even though we are quite used to those observations and don’t think twice about them, they violate the laws of physics. You can’t mix two or more wavelengths (colors) and get a single new wavelength (color). This is evident from the physics of non-coherent electromagnetic waves, as the following video explains.
• In addition, objects in the world do not have colors either. An apple tree exists out there, but it does not have green leaves or red apples. 

3. The following is an AI-generated video that explains that much of our sensory experience is ‘brain-made.’ But the video mostly focuses on ‘color perception’, our experience of ‘white’ sunlight and objects of various colors. Of course, scientists do not know about Buddha’s teachings, so the only logical explanation for them is that all those ‘false perceptions’ must have ‘evolved’ over time according to Darwin’s theory of evolution.

• Around 17 minutes in, he says the ‘brain is a liar’. 
• At 42:50 mins, he says science does not understand how that happens, i.e., how the brain generates that illusion. 
• Of course! A brain is made of inert atoms and molecules. It cannot generate any perception, let alone the perception of light/color. More on that below. 

Scientific Facts About How We See Things

4. The following are true and have been verified by science regarding ‘color perception’: (i) Sunlight falls on an apple, (ii) the apple absorbs part of that light and reflects what it did not absorb, (iii) the reflected light lands on our eyes, (iv) there are millions of tiny sensors (of three types) in the back of the eyes that record what wavelengths were reflected by the apple (these sensors detect the strength of light in three overlapping ranges within the ‘visible spectrum’), (v) that information is sent to the brain as electrical and chemical signals propagating through nerves.   

• The brain receives only electrical or chemical signals; no ‘light’ reaches the brain. So, how do those steps lead to ‘seeing white sunlight’ and ‘seeing various objects of a variety of colors’?
• By the way, the technical term for ‘seeing various objects of a variety of colors’ is ‘color perception’. 

Two Key Questions to be Answered

5. There are two key issues associated with the interpretation of how the ‘perception of color’ happens.

• The assignment of ‘colors’ is based on signals generated by the tiny sensors in the back of the eyes (on the retina).
• First question: “What is the origin of those sensors?” OR “How did they appear in the back of the eyes?”
• Second question: “The brain receives the relative strengths of signals from the three types of sensors. Those are electrical and chemical signals. How did electrical and chemical signals cause the ‘sensation/perception of various colors’?

8. In the above, we focused only on sight or ‘color perception’. Let us consider one more: taste. That apple isn’t inherently sweet—it’s made of molecules like sugars and acids that interact with receptors on your tongue. These receptors send chemical/electrical signals to the brain; scientists say the brain ‘creates’ the perception of taste. However, the Buddha taught that the mind itself creates the sensation of sweetness. Either way, there are no apples (or honey or sugar) in the world that have intrinsic ‘sweetness’.

• Have you noticed how food tastes bland when you have a cold? That’s because much of what we call taste is actually smell—up to 80%. Block your nose, and an apple tastes like a potato. The chemicals are the same, but the perception changes.
• Or consider supertasters, people with more taste buds who experience flavors more intensely, for example, wine tasters. The food hasn’t changed; their brains amplify the signals. The taste shifts entirely in the mind.
• Different species enjoy very different foods: cows eat grass, and pigs like to eat rotten food; humans don’t like either. This shows taste isn’t in the food—it is dependent on the species. 
• In the same way, all of our sensory experiences are mind-made, as confirmed by science; see “Distorted Perception – The World We Experience Doesn’t Exist” and “Without ‘Mind-Made’ Perception, World Is Colorless, Soundless, Tasteless, Odorless, and Touchless.”

‘Hard Problem of Consciousness’ in Science and Philosophy

9. Therefore, modern science confirms that the perception of color, taste, smell, etc. are not in the sensory inputs. However, as we discussed in #6 and #7, science cannot explain the most critical question: How did living beings with consciousness and perception evolve from inert matter?

• This is the ‘hard problem of consciousness’ that scientists and philosophers alike are stuck on. It is a good idea to learn about it. Many AI tools make it easier these days. 
• In summary, modern science cannot explain how sentient beings with consciousness and any type of ‘made-up perception’ (including’color perception’) arose from the early stage of a barren Earth without any life (as they claim).
• The following video by Annaka Harris explains that. She is the author of a book entitled “Conscious: A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind”.

10. Let me point out a few key points discussed in the video.

• Around 5 minutes in, she explains that bats ‘see’ objects in their environment not with light, but with sonar. They emit sound waves and monitor their reflections from different objects. How they determine an object’s identity that way is hard for us to even imagine. The point is that ‘seeing’ does not necessarily involve light.
• Furthermore, in Out-of-Body Experiences or Near-Death Experiences, people can see while the eyes and the brain are inactive; see “Near-Death Experiences (NDE): Brain Is Not the Mind.”
• Before discussing Buddha’s explanation of how ‘color perception’ happens, let us address another related issue.

Light and Color Are Mind-Made, but We Cannot Live Without That Illusion!

11. Even though the perception of light is entirely mind-made– and thus is an illusion– we cannot live our lives without it.

• If the mind lost its ability to generate ‘color perception’, we would all become blind instantly. 
• Even though that apple tree exists, we could not see it if the ‘mirage of color perception’ were not there.
• Thus, we cannot even live without color perception; see “Human Life is Unlivable in a ‘Colorless’ World.”
• Therefore, we must be mindful of that critical aspect, too. The idea is not to get rid of sight, but to ‘see with wisdom’ that attachment to ‘mind-pleasing things’ gets us into trouble.

12. This is why Buddha’s path is called the ‘middle way’. We must use our sensory faculties with insight/wisdom, but not go to the extreme of trying to acquire ‘sensory pleasures’, especially via immoral means.

• To cultivate wisdom, we must use our eyes to read about Buddha’s teachings; we must listen to discourses. We must keep our body and mind healthy by exercising regularly and eating nutritious food.
• That wisdom leads to breaking the sansāric bonds (saṁyojana) that sustain the rebirth process, thereby stopping future rebirths filled with suffering.
• With that in mind, let us return to the Buddha’s explanation of how we ‘see colorful objects’. 

Why Scientists/Philosophers Are Not Able to See the Anatta Nature

13. To ‘clearly see with wisdom’ the ‘anatta nature’ (that our sensory experiences are not real), one must also understand the origin of color perception. To see that, one must fully understand the complete ‘kamma generation process’ (including the ‘purāna kamma‘ stage) in Idappacayatā Paṭicca Samuppāda.

• That is why understanding that color perception is illusory is not enough to ‘see the anatta nature’ as long as they believe that illusion arises in the brain. 
• Thus, scientists and philosophers will never understand the ‘anatta nature’. They are trying to figure out how perception and consciousness can arise in inert matter, i.e., in the brain. They are on the wrong track.
• A brain made of atoms and molecules cannot generate consciousness or any type of perception, let alone the perception of light. Also see “Near-Death Experiences (NDE): Brain Is Not the Mind.”