“If the doors of perception were cleansed, every thing would appear as it is.”?

“If the doors of perception were cleansed, every thing would appear as it is.” William Blake (1757-1827) What do YOU think this quote means and how does it relate to this chapter?“If the doors of perception were cleansed, every thing would appear as it is.”?
His statement would be deemed completely fallacious today.





I would guess that he perceived that our individual perceptions are clouded by our innate psychological tendencies and by our unique interaction with the environment in which we exist.





However, it is now accepted that perception is our one true window to the world outside of ourselves. Without perception, we could not exist.“If the doors of perception were cleansed, every thing would appear as it is.”?
Actually it's if the doors of perception were cleansed , everything would appear as it is, infinite. So it's not a fallacy because you missed the most imporant word. Repost the question if you want a solid anwser. Report Abuse

It just means that if people could see things clearer (not only physically, but spiritually and emotionally and mentally), then things would be as they really are.
It means we cloud the way we see the present and existence with all the layers of the past.We only really see a little of what actually is by the blankets of past experiences. Hope this helps.
Dr. Alfred Adler (Individual Psychology, collaborator with Freud on creating psycho-analysis) introduced to psychology the concept of subjectivity of perception and that we each see things through our own filters, that is, our personal need to see the way we want to see. He called this our ';perceptual schema'; or, more simply, our personal framework.





The great Japanese director, Akira Kurosawa, in 1950 came out with the classic film ';Rashomon.'; In it, a bandit is accused of rape and murder and is being tried at the ';Rashomon Gate'; by a judge. Problem is, the two victims, a witness, and the bandit himself all offer competing yet equally plausible explanations of how the events unfolded. Each has seen what happened through his/her own eyes, experiences, and concerns. It is from this that we get the ';Rashomon Principle,'; which is that people see not what is but what they want to see...they may see some things objectively, but others they see subjectively, personally, and therefore incompletely or inaccurately.





And then there is Soren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher/theologian, who proposed that ';subjectivity is truth'; meaning that what we believe to be true becomes the truth for us, and we act as if it is true (whether it is or not).





The movie, Adler's concept of subjective perception, and Kierkegaard's existentialism all suggest that there is a problem with Blake's ';IF.'; (Many people, including many on this site, start with some ';if'; statement, then procede ';as if'; it is true...when clearly, it is not. For example, ';If pigs could fly...'; is a famous saying that starts right out being wrong! -- Dr. Bob