“Lies My Brain Told Me: Colour, Sound, Smell… and Everything In Between”

It was a quiet Sunday afternoon — the kind where the fan’s low whirr sounds philosophical and even the sunlight seems to hum a tune of its own.

I was sipping my standard black coffee (no sugar, because I’m training both my mind and my pancreas) and flipping through an old neuroscience journal, when a delicious, almost rebellious thought crashed into me:

"Wait... What if the world I experience isn't really out there at all?"

And that, my friend, opened a portal of wonder I still haven't fully closed. Let’s step inside it together, shall we?

🎨 First: Colour — The Greatest Paint Job Ever Done by Your Brain

Look around you. That royal blue mug on your table. That bright yellow Post-It you keep forgetting to read. The crimson red T-shirt you bought thinking you’d run a marathon someday (and still haven't).

Guess what?

None of those colors exist out there. Zero. Nada. Zilch.

In reality, the universe is just a chaotic ocean of electromagnetic waves — different wavelengths bouncing off surfaces.

• Red is not "red." It’s just a light wave around 700 nanometers long.

• Blue? Around 450 nanometers.

• Green? Somewhere in between, just like my fasting commitment — neither here nor there.

Your eyes have specialized cells (cones) that capture these waves. But here’s the twist: Your brain then decodes them and paints your world.

Without your brain? There would be no colors. Just energy dancing meaninglessly across space.

As neuroscientist David Eagleman said:

"Your brain is trapped in a dark box... and yet it builds for you a world full of color."

🌈 Colour, my friend, is your brain's best artistic lie.

👃 Then: Smell — The Invisible Orchestra Playing in Your Head

Now let’s talk about smell. The scent of fresh jasmine. The sharp whiff of your gym socks. The irresistible call of murukku frying in hot oil (my personal Achilles’ heel).

Again, surprise — there is no such thing as "smell" floating around. There are only odor molecules — tiny chemical structures floating in the air, bumping into your nose.

Your nose is an extraordinary chemical detective:

• It captures these molecules.

• Sends coded electrical signals to your brain.

• And voilà! Your brain creates the experience of "aroma" or "stink."

• 
  

Without your brain interpreting them, those jasmine molecules are no different from kerosene fumes or garlic breath. Just dumb molecules minding their own business.

💬 A running joke in my house is:

"What’s cooking? Something smells heavenly!"

"Nope, that's just the neighbor's bike exhaust."

Turns out... neither my neighbor nor I have any idea what’s "real." We just sniff and hallucinate based on molecular codes.

Smell, therefore, is not something you discover. It’s something your brain composes — like a fragrance symphony conductor without a score.

🔊 Finally: Sound — Your Brain’s Private Music Festival

Ah, sound. The soothing rhythm of ocean waves. The beat drop in your favorite AR Rahman song. Or... that neighbor's kid practicing drums like he’s summoning ancient gods.

Here’s the backstage pass: There’s no actual "sound" traveling through the air. Only vibrations — mechanical pressure waves moving through air molecules.

When these invisible airwaves crash into your eardrum,

• Tiny bones inside your ear start dancing.

• The cochlea translates these movements into electrical signals.

• Your brain, again, invents what you "hear."

• 
  

Without your brain decoding these pressure changes, the universe would be utterly silent.

Even if you were standing right next to Niagara Falls, without a brain to interpret it, it would feel like standing next to... well, nothing.

🔔 As a mind trainer (and someone who once tried — and spectacularly failed — to learn tabla), I can assure you: Sound is your brain’s DJing skills at work.

🎭 So, What’s Really Out There?

Just raw, flavorless, colorless, soundless data.

Reality is neutral. Your mind is the magician.

Let’s simplify it:

Sense	Raw Reality	Brain’s Magic
Colour	Light wavelengths	Colour experiences
Smell	Molecules	Aromas, stenches
Sound	Pressure vibrations	Music, noise, voices

🤔 Mind-Bending Realization:

You don’t live in the world. You live in your brain's story about the world.

That red rose you love? That sunset you admire? That biryani you dream about at 2 AM?

They exist inside you, not outside.

🌍 Different Brains, Different Worlds

Imagine for a second:

• Bats see with sound (echolocation).

• Snakes see heat (infrared vision).

• Bees see ultraviolet patterns invisible to humans.

• Electric fish feel electric fields, not light.

  
  

If you swapped brains with any of these creatures —you would experience a completely different reality.

🦇 A bat flying through your kitchen would not notice your beautiful painting. But it would "see" the blender as a mountain of echoes!

The "real" world is not what it seems. It’s a customized experience, tailor-made by your mind —like personalized Netflix recommendations, but way cooler.

🧠 A Quick Trick to See This Yourself

Here’s a little mind experiment you can do right now:

Hold up your hand. Gaze at it without naming it mentally — just "see" it.

For a few moments, you’ll notice: You’re not seeing a "hand. "You’re seeing a patch of light and form.

The word "hand"? The feeling "mine"? The color, the meaning, the emotion? All stitched together by your brain.

🌟 As Ancient Indian Wisdom Said:

"Yatha Drishti, Tatha Srishti."(As is your vision, so is your creation.)

Thousands of years before brain imaging machines, our ancestors already knew:

You don’t just see the world. You create the world you see.

🧠 You’re Not Seeing Reality — You’re Predicting It

By now, you and I have agreed (over virtual black tea and murukku crumbs) that colour, sound, and smell are beautiful lies — stories your brain writes.

But what if I told you:

Even the ordinary, normal, everyday world you experience is largely a prediction? Not direct reality.

Not even close.

🏃‍♂️ Your Brain: A Full-Time Guessing Machine

Here’s the truth you were never told in school:

Your brain doesn’t sit quietly waiting for sensory data like a polite receptionist. No, no. It’s more like a hyperactive chef who starts cooking before you even finish ordering.

Your brain is constantly:

• Guessing what’s around you

• Filling in missing details

• Correcting itself when it’s wrong

  
  

All this happens before you're even consciously aware.

It’s called Predictive Processing —and it’s one of the most beautiful, humbling discoveries in modern neuroscience.

As neuroscientist Andy Clark puts it:

"The brain is less a passive perceiver and more an active predictor."

🧠 How Prediction Shapes Every Moment

Here’s how the drama unfolds inside your skull:

1. Before your senses send full data,

   your brain predicts what’s probably out there.

2. When data arrives,

   your brain checks if it matches the prediction.

3. If it matches,

   you continue experiencing the illusion of "smooth" reality.

4. If it doesn’t match,

   your brain either updates the prediction

   
   

   (or blames the Wi-Fi — because it's obviously not you.)

   
   

📚 A Few Hilarious Real-Life Examples

🔍 1. Peripheral Vision Fiasco

Right now, look straight ahead. Notice how "sharp" everything feels — even at the edges of your vision? Feels like you see the whole room clearly, right?

Wrong. Your peripheral vision is horribly blurry —your brain just guesses based on memory and logic.

You’re living inside a beautifully Photoshopped image. Reality by Jugaad (Indian style).

📖 2. Reading Like a Psychic

Ever seen this viral text?

"Yuo cna raed tihs eevn if teh ltteers are jmubeld."

You still read it smoothly because your brain isn’t reading letters —it’s predicting familiar patterns based on the first and last letters.

Your "reading ability" is actually "pattern completion."

The brain is like that friend who finishes your sentences —sometimes wrongly, but very confidently.

🎧 3. Mishearing Conversations

In a crowded room, someone says:

"Let's meet at the _ibrary."

You don’t hear the "L."Your brain automatically fills it: "Library."And you nod like an intellectual.

In truth, you didn’t hear the full word. You predicted it based on context.

And if you predicted wrongly? Well, you show up at the bakery instead of the library and call it destiny.

🎯 Big Realization:

You are living inside a prediction —corrected just enough by senses to keep you functional.

You’re like a Bollywood director making a fast film —and only when an actor trips badly does the editor yell "cut" and fix it.

The rest? Fully imagined.

🔥 A Quick Self-Experiment to Prove It

Next time you're walking somewhere familiar —like from your bedroom to the kitchen —pay close attention.

Notice: You’re not actually "seeing" every step. You’re predicting the path based on memory. You fill in gaps — walls, tables, doors — almost automatically.

If something changed (say, someone moved the chair slightly)?Only then your brain freaks out:

"WHAT IS THIS BETRAYAL?"

💬 One of My Favourite Quotes on This

From neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett:

"Your brain doesn't react to the world. It predicts the world."

Every moment, every breath, every glance —you are not a receiver of reality. You are a dreamer wide awake, steering through probabilities and best guesses.

🎈 Humor Time: Why This is Both Beautiful and Terrifying

• You’re not seeing reality.

  You’re predicting it.

• You’re not hearing facts.

  You’re completing assumptions.

• You’re not even eating exactly what’s there.

  You’re filling in the gaps with flavor memories.

• 
  

It’s like your mind is running its own Netflix Originals. Reality: Inspired by true events.(Some scenes fictionalized for dramatic effect.)

🌟 Personal Reflection

As a mind trainer, the more I studied this...the more I understood why even I — someone teaching awareness every day —sometimes ended up eating murukku during fasting or arguing about silly things.

My brain wasn’t evil. It was just too quick to predict, too lazy to verify.

And you know what? That’s okay. That’s human. That’s brain.

Awareness isn't about having a perfect mind. It’s about knowing the mind’s games — and playing smarter.

🧠 Next Monday:

They didn’t hypnotize you. They just knew your brain better than you did.

From “Only 3 seats left!” to “90% people chose this option” —Modern marketers aren’t selling products. They’re hacking minds.

Get ready to uncover the psychology behind why you chose what you did...even when you thought it was your idea.