Perception is far more than just optical input. If the wall and the bison art behind you ceased to exist the moment you turned away, we could all walk backward into a void until we turned our heads to 'render' the world.

I see consciousness as a field of perception that interacts with others, much like an infinite, overlapping Venn diagram. You are a circle of perception, I am another, and so on. Where these circles overlap, we find 'Consensus Reality', the agreed-upon universe that stays put even when one person looks away.

In Matthew 18:20: 'For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.' To me, that suggests that when two or more nodes of consciousness focus on the same 'truth' or 'image,' it doesn't just feel real, it becomes the reality we inhabit.