THE MCGURK EFFECT

In a world full of uncertainty, you would think you could at least trust your five senses unequivocally, wouldn't you?

Have you ever heard of the McGurk Effect?

The McGurk Effect describes the way your sense of sight will overrule your hearing if the two are ever in conflict. There's a great little video (just two minutes long) that illustrates this phenomenon:

McGurk Effect Video on YouTube

In the video, a man's face is shown in close-up as he repeats the sound "Bah!" The film then retains the sound but now superimposes the same man clearly moving his lips to form "Fah!" Now your vision is clearly in conflict with your hearing. And your sight wins. 

Your brain actually processes the sound as "Fah" now. And so you "hear" "Fah". Unless you close your eyes or look away, at which point your brain allows you to hear "Bah" again. 

Bizarre.

I suppose one could draw some spiritual lesson from the McGurk Effect, but I don't have one off the top of my head.

What I do have is a practical concern: With our brains relying so heavily on the sense of sight to determine what is "real", what happens when virtual reality and the "Metaverse" proliferates as it becomes more and more sophisticated in the coming years? 

I heard a man recently describe an experience with some high-end virtual reality goggles. He said his brain could not convince his foot to step off a virtual cliff even though he knew logically that he was standing in his own living room. 

I think I am going to go live in a cabin in the woods...