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that perception is distorted, or fails altogether. The mere physical effect in itself alone is nugatory.
It is said that those whose eyes are distorted, use either one or the other as they choose, directing the attention to the right or the left as convenience requires, the impression in the neglected organ going for nothing; and we all of us evidently take up and lay down at pleasure the physical effects on the retina, using them as means of vision only when the mind is at leisure to do so. These facts show without doubt, that perception is deeper than the organ of sense, is by no means identical with the appropriate action therein, nor is sure to follow it. It is, then, no impeachment of the veracity of our faculties to inquire into the exact mode of their action, nor any the more so because the inquiry discloses unexpected results.
Lesson 24 - 6. Direct perception and consciousness - p.99
6. The only perfectly direct and absolutely simple form of knowing is the knowledge which the mind has of its own states and actions, because they are its own. When the state is itself simple and ultimate, we term it a sensation, a feeling; when the act is pure and simple, embracing all its terms within itself, we call it intuitive; and the mind therein is an ultimate authority to itself. The intuitive action and the consciousness of the intuitive action are one and the same thing. Thus that two and two make four is a statement that may receive illustration but is capable of no proof. The mind within itself sees and comprehends the relation expressed. It has a direct knowledge of it. When the act under consideration is one of inference, it remains known as an act directly, but is itself the ground of further indirect knowledge. Thus we see the kaleidoscope directly, but we also see in it something which depends for its form on the structure of the instrument.
All phenomena immediately known to the mind are its own phenomena, since consciousness is the distinctive characteristic
