Seeing the Signs

Last week I described the relationship between top-down processing and perception. Specifically, perception isn't a passive activity. Rather, we impose expectations, assumptions, prior knowledge, and beliefs onto the world, and this makes perception possible. As I put it last week, it's "seeing is believing" (bottom-up processing) and "believing is seeing" (top-down processing).

In short, prior beliefs and assumptions create the world we perceive, both disclosing and hiding the world.

Here's a Biblical story that illustrates this dynamic.

In John 6 Jesus feeds the five thousand. Overnight, Jesus and his disciples cross the lake to Capernaum. The next day the crowd looks for Jesus and cannot find him. They cross the lake in search of him. Finding Jesus on the other side, this exchange occurs:

When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled."

The phrase "not because you saw the signs" can also be translated "not because you perceived the signs."

Basically, an event takes place, the feeding of the multitude. Some only see food. Others perceive (or should have perceived) a sign. Perceptions are bifurcated. Some perceive a free meal, others perceive significances. That is what a sign is, the perception of significances. 

Let me return to the point I made last week about top-down and bottom-up processing. Seeing signs, perceiving significances, is top-down processing. Guided by significances vision becomes beholding.