Illuminating our Hidden Reality

“To perceive the world through other senses is to find splendor in the familiarity, and the sacred in the mundane.”

-Ed Young

Imagine yourself standing in an open field. An elephant stomps in, with a mouse scuttling along, a bird flying overhead, a bat hanging on the nearby tree, a snake slithering along the ground, a bee landing on a nearby flower, and a mosquito unfortunately finding its way to your arm. To understand the environment you scan the surrounding area with your eyes, the elephant raises its trunk and stomps, the bat clicks and listens for echoes, the snake flicks its tongue, and the mosquito smells the carbon dioxide you are emitting. You hear the bird’s song, but the roar of the elephant that scares the snake or the squeak of the mouse that the bat tracks are inaudible to our human ears. To you the scene is filled with vibrant colors while the bee and bird see the ultraviolet of the flower and the snake detects the heat signature of its next meal. Once the night comes you become blind, feeling your way around, while the bat masterfully navigates by echolocation to hunt the mouse scuttling away.

Even though we share the same environment, each creature perceives it in starkly different ways. Some rely on sight, while others are tuned to sound or follow scents (others emphasize senses outside our abilities entirely). Some…