INTRODUCTION

What kind of world do you live in?
A world of solid ground with people and trees, oceans with clouds above it and, higher still, the enormous emptiness of space?
Are you one of the billions of people in that world?
If you answer "yes" to those questions, then you are mistaken!
If you were able to answer "yes" to them, then that means that throughout the course of your life you have probably ignored a most important truth.
The fact is, you do not live in the kind of world described above at all. In your world, there is no distance of even a few meters, let alone of billions of kilometers or galaxies light years away. Actually you live in a very small enclosed space-in a tiny, locked room at the top of a giant tower. You have never left that room. You have never stepped outside it or been anywhere else. All you have seen are different shapes, people and spaces reflected on the walls of that room. You have heard only the sounds emitted from loudspeakers concealed in there. In fact, in that little room at the top of the tower, there is nobody else but you. You are entirely alone!
The "tower" we are speaking of is your body, and the little room atop it (in other words, your world) is your brain.
Your brain is a locked room which you can never step out of, because everything you imagine to be the "outside world" in reality consists of perceptions you experience in the visual or hearing centers of your brain. You can never get past those perceptions and experience directly what we refer to as "real matter"-if such a thing even exists. You can watch the electrical signals arriving at the brain's visual center, but you can never see those signals' true source. You literally watch the cinema screen on the walls of your "room," but can never directly experience the originals of those images.
We shall be setting out that truth in this website. What we explain here will, in all likelihood, contradict a great many ideas and concepts that you've become familiar with so far. Yet it is a concrete fact based on scientific proof. Therefore, it's impossible to reject this truth when one thinks about it in a reasoned and logical manner, instead of sticking to familiar preconceptions.
Never forget that ignoring the truth or refusing to think about it gains a person nothing. If anyone says, "No, I live on a planet in an enormous universe, not in a closed room," then he needs to prove the fact. If he cannot do so, then blind belief in any such idea will only lead to his remaining deceived.

THE TINY WORLD INSIDE THE SKULL

People can be deceived by very convincing images, to the point that they may assume that these images are "real."
The first motion picture show in history is an interesting illustration of this. In Paris in 1895, two French inventors, Auguste and Louis Lumière, beamed onto a screen the image of a train approaching a station. Even though the train was only two-dimensional, and appeared in flickering black and white, yet most of the audience in the hall fled in panic, because they believed the train was about to crush them!

At the first motion picture, shown in 1895, the audience fled in panic thinking that the train on the screen was real.

As this example shows, one's perception of any image as "real" is closely related to that image's technical quality. Today, however, even more realistic cinematic effects can be achieved thanks to special glasses that form holograms (images perceived as three-dimensional). People wearing such glasses suppose that the virtual world appearing before their eyes is real, and react accordingly. Yet all the while, they stillrealize that this image is entirely a virtual one.

Special glasses produce three-dimensional images that can make the perceiver think they are real

Yet what about the status of the images that we call "the real world"? Might these, too, be similar to holograms that deceive us with their technical quality?
In order to find the answer to these questions, first and foremost we need to reconsider what we know about "sight" and the visual process in general.

There is No Light Outside

In the light of the latest findings, scientists have arrived at a most interesting conclusion: In fact, our world is pitch black. Light is now known to be an entirely subjective concept; in other words, it is simply a perception formed in people's brains. In fact, there is no light in the outside world. Neither lamps, nor car headlights, nor even the Sun, which we regard as our greatest and most powerful source of light, emit any light at all.
All that the Sun and other "sources of light" do is emit photons, different kinds of electromagnetic particles of various wavelengths. These particles spread throughout the universe in the manner that their structures allow. Some of these reach our Earth, where again they produce the kinds of effects determined by their structures; and which change, depending on the particle's volume, weight, speed and frequency.
For instance, many radioactive particles enter our bodies and pass through them. These can be stopped only by lead shields. Some of these particles are so heavy and energy-charged that usually they shatter any molecule they may encounter and continue on their way, with little deviation. This phenomenon underlies the way in which radiation gives rise to cancer. X-ray machines make use of X-rays-a weaker form of radiation-and turn the effect of electromagnetic radio waves into "visible light," that is, into a form visible to our eyes.

Among those rays invisible to the naked eye are the X-rays used in medical diagnosis

Since radio waves contain no particles, they do people no harm at the moment of impact. These waves cannot be perceived by any of our senses, though the radios in our homes translate these into sound waves that our ears can perceive. The crackling noise heard in the absence of any broadcast on our household radios is actually the sound of the cosmic background radiation-energy left over from the "Big Bang," the explosion by which the universe was created. The word "sound" here refers to the perception that forms in our brains after our radios have transformed these waves into vibrations in the air that our ears can hear.

Radio waves cannot be perceived by any of our senses. Yet the radio sets in our homes convert them into sound waves at a volume that our ears can hear easily.

Photons, the source of the perception we refer to as "light," are much lighter particles that usually bounce back from the first molecule they encounter. In doing so, they do almost no damage to the place they strike. Due to their frequencies-the speed at which they vibrate-ultra-violet rays are charged with greater energy and can penetrate more deeply into our skin, sometimes damaging the cells' genetic codes. This is why excessive exposure to the Sun's rays can lead to skin cancer.

An ignited gas fire emits infrared radiation, as well as light

Those photons known as infra-red because of their frequencies leave some of their energy behind, increasing the speed of vibration of the atoms there-in other words, the heat on the surface they strike. For this reason, infra-red rays are also called as heat rays. A burning coal stove or an electric heater give off large amounts of infra-red radiation, which is "seen" or rather, perceived, by our bodies as heat.
Some photons' frequencies lie between those of ultra-violet and infra-red rays. When these fall on the retinal layer at the back of our eyes, thecells there turn them into electrical signals. We then perceive these photons, which are actually physical particles, as "light." If the cells in our eyes perceived photons as "heat," then what we refer to as light, color and darkness would not exist. When we looked at object, we would perceive it as merely "hot" or "cold."

It Is Not the Eye That Sees

We provide this technical information about various forms of radiation simply to explain that they don't give rise to the effect known as "light." These radioactive particles strike, bounce, and give rise to physical and chemical effects that sometimes cause damage. Yet the effects they cause can never be referred to as light.
The only reason we describe some of these particles as "light rays" is that they're perceived by our eyes. Photons falling on our eyes' retinal layer are turned into electrical impulses by the receptor cells there. The optical nerves carry this electrical current to the visual center at the rear of the brain. This center interprets the current and gives rise to images.
When we investigate this system, we arrive at a most interesting conclusion: In fact, our eyes have no ability to "see" at all. The eye is merely an intermediate organ that converts photons into electrical signals. It has no ability to understand and interpret. It is not the eye which regards at the bright world all around us. No sensations of light or color are formed in the eye.
In order to better understand this concept, let's consider the technical definition of sight in slightly more detail.

In fact, our eyes have no property of "sight." The eye is merely an intermediary unit whose retina transforms the photons reaching it into electrical signals

We give the name of a color to photons at various frequencies of vibration. Depending on those photons' intensity of vibration, we refer to the visible effects they produce as red, blue or yellow. When all frequencies are combined together, the result is white. Snow appears white, because it reflects all the frequencies in sunlight, the combination of which produces white. Leaves are green, because they only reflect only those photons at a frequency that gives the sensation of green, while absorbing all the others. Glass is transparent, just like the air, because photons pass through them both and reach us encountering hardly any obstacles-such as clouds or flyspecks. A piece of black cloth reflects no color because it absorbs practically all the photons that strike it. In other words, no photons reach our eyes from it, and we perceive it as only a dark or black shape. A mirror copies an image because its smooth reflective surface absorbs almost none of the photons striking it, but bounces them back. They follow a parallel course to one another, undergoing almost no deformation.
In short, the concepts of "light," "white," "green" or "transparent" refer to perceptions in the brain, and are purely relative descriptions. The truth is that in the outside world there is no light or color. There are only forms of radiation which we perceive in that form. The interpretation belongs solely to us. Even if the arriving photons are turned into electrical signals and the visual center in the eye possesses the same properties, an error or structural difference which might occur in the eye will lead to the same object being perceived in very different ways. That is why color-blind people perceive and interpret certain colors differently from normal people.
In short, the photon movements which we interpret as light or color are nothing more than physical phenomena that transpire in the pitch blackness of the brain. Our bodies-including our eyes, and the whole material world that we perceive as a bright, three-dimensional vision that some people claim represents an absolute reality-all exist within that same darkness.

The Three-Stage Wall between You and the Outside World

Close inspection of these scientific facts reveals a most important fact: Never can we establish actual, direct contact with the outside world.
For example, when we sit watch television, we can never actually see the screen. All that reaches us is the photons emerging from the picture tube. These are not light, but only wave particles. Similarly, we "see" objects in the room by the photons they reflect, much like a tennis ball bounces off a wall and back toward us. In other words, even at this stage, we are already divorced from the television's image itself.
When its photons reach our eyes and strike their retina, they are turned into electrical energy by the enzymes there. This constitutes yet another phase between the television and ourselves.
When nerves carry this electrical energy to the visual center in our brain, it changes form once again, taking the form we refer to as "images." This is the third stage. Just one single step is enough to break the connection between the television's screen and ourselves, yet we are actually dealing with three.
To give an analogy, this is like playing the game of Telephone, also known as Chinese Whispers, with three different people in three interconnected rooms. Did the first person really say the sentence that is whispered into your ear, or did the second or third person change it around somehow? Did the third person make it up all by himself? You can't ever be sure. You cannot even be sure whether the first and second players really exist at all.

Any image reaches our brains in three stages, similar to the children’s game of Chinese Whispers or Telephone. The last person can never be sure whether the words whispered into his ear are the same as those spoken by the first

To make this point even clearer, we can cite yet another example. Imagine that for the past year, you have been locked away in a closed chamber underground. Your only link to the outside world is a closed-circuit television screen. When you turn the set on, you read the following message:
The images you are about to see on this screen are being screened live from cameras on the African continent. Images from these cameras are transmitted live to satellites, and from there, to receivers above this room, from where they are forwarded to this room.
Is that message true or not? You can never be sure, because every stage of the transmission can possibly have originated as from an artificial source. Actually, the cameras-which are claimed to be broadcasting live from Africa-could be showing a video cassette shot years ago. This pre-recorded image could be what's reaching you by satellite. Furthermore, there may be no cameras or satellites at all, and you may be being shown a video cassette from the room next door. You cannot be sure what you have perceived, without personally traveling to Africa. Yet since you are unable to leave the room, it is impossible for you to go see the "original" African scenery for yourself.
Despite these doubts, however, whatever you experienced of the outside world before entering this room-plus your knowledge that you'll eventually be leaving it-may let you to form an opinion that what you see on the screen is true, a reality that exists somewhere "out there." Yet what if you had lived in that room since the day you were born? What if you can never leave? What if, for your entire life, you see the "outside world" only on that screen? If so, you'd have no proof that there was any "original" at all of what you view on your TV screen. Indeed, the belief that there actually were originals of the things you see would become a rather weak thinking. Because all that was truly there was images on your screen.

Watching a television screen, we cannot know whether the image we think we’re viewing live, from a far-off location, is really a pre-recorded tape broadcast to us from the room next door.

Facts such as these in the realm of sight, apply also to the senses of hearing, touch, taste and smell. All of these impressions we perceive in closed chambers in our brains (the centers of hearing, touch, taste and smell). Never can we make direct contact with their originals in the outside world. The sounds we listen to on the radio originate inside the hearing center in our brains. There is actually no sound outside, merely physical movements in the air that we refer to as "sound waves." After going through various processes in the inner ear, these physical movements come to as us electrical signals. Do the electrical signals we perceive as sound correspond to anything outside, or not? We can never know. Returning again to the example of the closed chamber, the audio aired to us of lions roaring in the African jungles could really be sounds created artificially in a studio right next to our chamber.

Our Body and Our Dreams

So far, in order to achieve a sounder grasp of this concept, we have always referred to other objects. We can never perceive the "original" of a television broadcast, nor listen to the "original" of a radio talk show. All images, sounds, smells and tastes form in the relevant centers in our brains. We live not in the world outside, but in a world inside ourselves.
One factor that makes this concept difficult to grasp is that people are deceived on the subject of their own bodies. The arms and legs they see when they look down and the perceptions of touch from all over the skin lead them to perceive the world in a wholly mistaken way. Due to the sense impressions they receive, they make the assumption that they are actually living in an "outside world."
However, the fact is that your body, like other objects, is a deception. All the information regarding your body's existence-in other words, the visual images of it and all the other perceptions which reach your brain, are perceptions in the relevant centers inside your skull.
We can understand this better by considering dreams. When dreaming, you see yourself in entirely imaginary worlds. Objects and people you see around you have no reality. The earth you walk on, the sky overhead, the houses, trees, cars and everything else are all totally imaginary. They have no material originals. They are all located within your brain or, rather, within your mind, and nowhere else.
On further reflection, the same thing applies to our bodies. When you look down in a dream, just as you do now, you perceive a body with hands and arms, one that walks, breathes and experiences sensations of touch. This body you see in your dream could be very different to the one you actually possess. You might dream of yourself as a three-armed, four-legged monster. You may feel sensations of touch from all three arms. In another dream, you might see yourself as a winged, flying creature, and you might feel these wings flapping in a most convincing manner. All of these bodies which can be experienced while dreaming are merely virtual-illusions in your mind. But you perceive them as if they lay outside your brain.
This example demonstrates that even if you perceive your bodies in a most realistic manner, it doesn't follow that you actually possess any such body in the physical sense. In the absence of any such physical body, still we experience physical and bodily perceptions that exist entirely in our minds.
What, then, is the difference between dreaming and real life? True, dreams are less continuous, less logically consistent and ordered, than the perceptions we refer to as real life. Technically speaking, however, there is no difference between dreaming and "real life," because both arise by means of the stimulation of the sense centers within the brain.

If we dream that we’re flying, that does not imply that we can actually fly. Yet while the dream lasts, we remain convinced that we enjoy this ability

In the foregoing pages, we examined what occurs in such regions as the visual and the hearing centers of the brain to produce what we refer to as "real life." An encyclopedia describes how dreaming is actually experienced in exactly the same way:
Dreaming, like all mental processes, is a product of the brain and its activity. Whether a person is awake or asleep, the brain continuously gives off electrical waves. Scientists measure these waves with an instrument called an electroencephalograph. At most times during sleep, the brain waves are large and slow. But at certain times, they become smaller and faster. During periods of fast brain waves, the eyes move rapidly as though the sleeper were watching a series of events. This stage of sleep, called REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, is when most dreams occur. If awakened during REM sleep, the person is likely to recall details of the dream…

When we dream of ourselves as a winged creature, we believe it’s utterly so

During REM sleep, the pathways that carry nerve impulses from the brain to the muscles are blocked. Therefore, the body cannot move during dreams. Also, the cerebral cortex-the part of the brain involved in higher mental functions-is much more active during REM sleep than during non-dreaming sleep. The cortex is stimulated by neurons (nerve cells) that carry impulses from the part of the brain called the brain stem.1
In other words, a dream is nothing more than the totality of all perceptions arising from the interpretation of the impulses reaching the relevant parts of the brain.
Notice that what we refer to as "real life" occurs in exactly the same way. Electrical impulses reach the relevant sections of our brain. There they are interpreted, whereupon we perceive the totality of these perceptions as "the real world."
This leads us to a crucial question: What is the source of all these perceptions? Habit leads us to believe that they all come from objects in the "outside world." But the fact is, this assumption is unfounded.
The better to understand this concept, let us continue thinking about dreaming. Ask a dreamer this: "What is the source of all the perceptions you are experiencing?" In all probability, that half-awake person will reply, "Objects in the outside world. My eyes and ears perceive them." Yet in this example, there is no outside world, nor any physical body to perceive it. Everything that dreaming people experience consists merely of signals perceived by the relevant centers in their brains.
Everything we see, hear, touch, taste and smell consists of signals perceived by the relevant centers in the brain. Then how can we be sure that these actually originate from the outside world?
Upon awakening, do we suppose that places and events we have dreamed of actually correspond to material objects or events in some other place or dimension? If we dream of walking around on Mars, for example, do we claim that our feet were really walking around on the planet?
But if we can't make any such claim, then neither can we affirm that the world we are perceiving at the moment, which we refer to as "real life," corresponds to any physical reality. We can't be certain that any of the images, sounds, touch, smells and tastes we experience have any correspondence to reality outside our brains.
Anyone who maintains the opposite is simultaneously maintaining that he is "the little man at the top of the tower."
Why is this so? We shall see why in the next chapter.

THE LITTLE MAN AT THE TOP OF THE TOWER

Let's summarize briefly what we discussed in the previous chapter: Everything we see, hear, touch and refer to as "matter" actually consists of perceptions that we experience in our brains. We can never step outside our brains to have direct knowledge of them and so, cannot confirm whether they actually exist in any real world. There is no technical difference between dreaming and real life; we perceive both inside our brains. The wide world that we imagine to be so very enormous is actually a totality of perceptions transmitted into our brains. Gigantic galaxies, which we imagine to be billions of miles away, are actually simply perceptions in our brains' visual center. They are not "out in space" at all, but right inside us.
Many, if not almost all, people are unaware of this momentous truth. Yet even if others are unaware of it, that's no excuse for us to be-because the "others" in question are also images in our brains. We experience these images, and are responsible for understanding what we see. Even if everyone we hear around us tells us, "This world is real, not a perception," that still changes nothing. In a dream, you may hear thousands of people shouting with one voice, "This world is real, not a perception". Yet that dream will soon come to an end. All those people will suddenly disappear. Beyond being perceptions, none of them ever existed in the first place.
Real life, too, will also come to an end one day-with death. Everything we see (including those who have told us "this world is real") will vanish, to be replaced by an entirely new reality-that is, the world of the Hereafter. God reveals this fact in the Qur'an, as He describes the predicament of those who make the shadowy entities and goals in this world their whole purpose in living-or else look for assistance from these things, thus turning them into idols:

… [W]hen Our messengers come to them to take them in death, saying, "Where are those you called upon besides God?" they will say, "They have forsaken us," testifying against themselves that they were disbelievers. (Qur'an, 7:37)

Kicking of a stone does not prove that the stone really exists. That stone is merely a perception in the brain. We can experience the same perception when dreaming, even though the "dream stone" does not exist

Those who object to the facts set out here are materialists, ones who maintain that matter is the fundamental reality and that the human mind is only another form of matter. Generally speaking, materialists are unwilling to think about and discuss the obvious truth explained here, that we can never make direct contact with matter. Often they become quite frustrated with the idea. Back in the eighteenth century, materialists were incensed when the British philosopher and clergyman George Berkeley systematically explained that what we call matter is actually a set of perceptions in our minds.

The materialist thinker Samuel Johnson, who lived at the same time, kicked a stone and shouted out that by doing so, he had "refuted" Berkeley. However, Johnson's primitive reaction and the similar assertions made by other, later materialists-merely show how far they are from grasping the truth of the matter. Neither kicking stones nor punching walls constitutes any proof of that stones and walls-let alone matter-exist. Everything we do and feel at that moment is a set of perceptions inside our brains. Indeed, you can kick a stone just as realistically in a dream, but you will certainly agree that no such stone actually exists.

Materialists' resistance on this issue is generally based on their failure to understand it. They've forced themselves into a dogmatic belief in matter's existence and strongly avoid ever questioning it. Here, we are pondering and revealing a truth they are unwilling to consider: that if they accept the existence of matter, then they also must regard themselves as "the little man at the top of the tower."

The Tower and the Closed Chamber at Its Summit

The image of the tower, which constitutes the title of this website, is just a metaphor we've used to help clarify the subject.
Its meaning is this: Anyone who maintains that actual matter exists at this moment-outside of and apart from the image of the world and your body in your brain-, then you must accept the existence of a giant body that carries all these images inside his skull. In that case, inasmuch as you perceive everything in your brain, you are a tiny person locked into a tiny room, atop a giant tower.
How do we arrive at this conclusion? Let us consider, stage by stage:
1) Look around you at this moment, and you'll see a large number of objects: furniture, walls, houses, people, cars, sky-and in addition to all these, your own body. All of these objects, including your own body, reside in the same place.
2) Where is that? Recall the explanations in the preceding pages, and you'll realize that this "place" is nowhere but in the visual center within your brain. In other words, the entire world you deal with, including your own body, is in an area of just a few cubic centimeters behind your brain, in your skull. At this very moment, you're looking at this website in that area in your brain. The hands that you see, and feel, as you turn these pages are also inside the visual and touch centers in your brain. All the organs in your body are located in the same place. The chair you sit in as you read and the room which houses that chair, are all there too.
3) Therefore, do you believe that outside this perception inside your skull, you also have a material body? If you do believe in such a body, then you should realize that you have never perceived it. Neither do you possess any information about what it might be like. All you can do is assume such a body's existence.
4) Believe in the existence of such a body, and you must then accept the existence of a giant outside the body you see at this moment. Since you and everything you see-your room and all the objects outside-are in the visual center in that giant's skull. Therefore, its physical body must also be enormous. Below the area where you are at the moment, there must lie shoulders, arms, a trunk, legs and feet (if the giant is, in fact, a two-armed, two-legged person like yourself).

Everything we believe exists outside ourselves is actually a perception formed in our brains

5) That being the case, you must be a miniature human being living in a giant's skull. To put this another way, imagine that you are imprisoned in a locked chamber at the top of a giant tower, never able to leave that room and merely watching a screen placed in front of you. In this analogy, the tower is your material body, whose existence you maintain while the body that you perceive is only the little man imprisoned at the top of that tower.

If you claim that you have a body whose exterior you perceive from the outside, then you must accept that you live imprisoned at the top of a giant tower; that you can never leave that room, but only watch the screen in front of you.

You can never see this giant tower (the physical body which you imagine exists), because you are locked into a tiny room at its very top. You can never leave that room all through your life. You can watch only the images reflected on the walls of that room. Some objects in those images (stars, for instance) may seem to be millions of miles away. Yet the fact is, you still remain in that tiny room.
In order to better understand this subject, take the example of the animated fantasy cartoons often shown on television. In some of these cartoon films, a giant robot is controlled by someone sitting at the command center in the machine's head. For example, in the well-known film Voltran, giant robots are directed by a man sitting at the command center in the head section. The robot acts in accordance with that person's commands. The commander is a tiny man sitting inside a mechanical man the size of a skyscraper.
If you believe that the body you see and feel at this moment corresponds to any material reality, then you have to accept this system. To put it another way, you must accept that you are a little man sitting in a room at the top of a tower, or atop a giant robot.
Consider that the body that you see and experience at this moment is approximately 5 feet, nine inches-or 1.80 meters-tall. Then, in comparative terms, you have to accept that the body you believe exists "outside" is giant-sized. If the body is a tower and the "I" perceiving it is a person in a cell at the top of that tower, then that tower must be hundreds of feet tall. If you have a 5' 9" image of the body you refer to as "me," then the physical body outside, the existence of which you maintain, must be hundreds of feet high.
Yet another example can make this clearer. Someone who claims that there is a car outside, and that he is seeing that car, needs to think as follows:
The image of the car forms in a person's brain. The visual center is no more than a few cubic centimeters in size. If the image of a car several feet in length fits into that area, then that visual center must be the size of a car, at least.

In the celebrated animation cartoon Voltran, a giant robot is directed by a pilot sitting in a compartment in the head.

And if that center is a few meters in size, then the human brain must be of proportionally huge dimensions.
If the human brain occupies such an immense space, then in proportion to his brain, a person's body must be several miles in size.
Here we are referring only to someone who glimpses a car. Consider a person seeing a valley several miles long. If he claims that he sees the original valley, then his visual center must, in the same way, occupy an area of at least several square miles. If so, then the person' brain, internal organs, arms and legs must all be proportionate-and of colossal dimensions.
Since such possibilities are out of the question, isn't it quite illogical to claim that a car several meters long, or a valley of several square kilometers, actually exist outside and that the percipient is actually dealing with them in their original forms?

ERRONEOUS BELIEF IN THE TOWER

The "little man in the tower" is no invention of ours, but the logical outcome of the train of thought maintained by materialism. Any materialist who insists on the physical existence of matter, maintaining that we enjoy direct knowledge of material entities, is in that exact position. He is claiming that outside the body he sees and feels, there is yet another body carrying around that first body and its surrounding area.
Detailed consideration reveals how nonsensical is the picture drawn by this materialist claim.
In fact, materialists are describing a monstrosity that would frighten even themselves. Let us describe this frightening picture more closely: The materialist is describing a giant carrying the whole universe in a tiny region in his head, looking at it from close up. Since the Sun, Moon, stars and all other sources of light are in his head, our giant must inevitably be in darkness. In comparison with our own scale, this giant's arms and legs are hundreds of feet long. In other words, the materialist arrives at the conclusion that there must be a giant human being, who carries the entire universe in his head, and goes nobody knows where, all in pitch darkness.
On closer inspection however, belief in the "giant human being" theory is only a requirement of materialist philosophy. That's because there is no other need to believe in the existence of a physical body-of which we can never have direct knowledge-outside the body which we see and touch. Why should we believe in such a body? Why accept the existence of such a giant in the absence of any evidence, when nobody has ever found any trace of such a thing?

Considering materialist claims, one is forced to make the clearly nonsensical claim that there is a giant person who carries the entire universe in his brain and who has no idea where he is going

Apart from a blind acceptance of materialist philosophy, there's no reason to believe in the existence of such an imaginary material person.

Why Accept the Existence of a World We Can Never See?

Believing in the existence of "material" things is like thinking that the virtual characters in an animated cartoon or computer game are actually alive in some physical world.

There is no evidence for believing in the theoretical existence of the "material world," much less of the imaginary human being we've just been describing. We have direct contact only with the perceptions in our minds. We have never seen, heard, tasted, smelled, or touched the existence of anything, apart from these perceptions. The world we live in is a world of perceptions. Beyond these perceptions, why should we believe in the existence, of any material thing that would constitute a physical counterpart of these perceptions?
Believing in the existence of "matter" is the same as believing that the virtual characters in an animated cartoon or computer game live in an actual physical world. In other words, the idea is nonsensical. When we watch a Pink Panther cartoon, we do not think that there is a real, material pink panther. In the same way, there's no need to think that the electrical signals in our brains' visual centers actually correspond to any material counterparts.
Similarly, we have no reason to believe that the people and objects seen in our dreams have material counterparts. It is irrational to claim that they do.
Everything that we see, hear, feel, smell or taste is a perception, and nothing exists except at that level.

Matter Created in the Sphere of Perceptions and Imagination

We're now led to a most important truth: Since the only world we can deal with is one of perceptions, all these perceptions must be created and displayed to us by a Creator possessed of infinite knowledge, wisdom and power. That Creator is Almighty God-the Lord of all the Worlds, in the words of the Qur'an.
A clearer expression of this important truth is this: God has created from nothing all that exists. Yet as Islamic scholars have written, all entities are created in the sphere of "perceptions and imagination." Since God has breathed into man His Spirit, man perceives part of these perceptions and gives them such names as "the world," "the universe," "matter" and "objects." In any case, it is God Who taught man these names. All of these perceptions, created by God, submit to Him unconditionally and act in accordance with His will. No entity is created independent of God. Only God is real. Everything else is an illusion at the level of perceptions.
Imam Rabbani, regarded as one of the greatest scholars in the history of Islam, explains this in his Letters:
Only God existed, and there was none but Him.
When He willed that His hidden perfection should appear, He made each of His names a sign so that His perfection would be manifested in that appearance.
Nothing but non-being is suitable to be the place of appearance for being and its subjects. Because the sign and mirror of everything is its opposite and contrary. And the opposite and contrary of being is non-being alone.
Accordingly, the Glorious God with His perfect might determined in the realm of non-being a sign for each of His names. And He created that sign in the sphere of perceptions and imagination at the time He willed and in the way He willed … The permanence of the world is not at the exterior level, but at the level of perception and imagination … Even at the exterior level, nothing has absolute existence apart from the being and attributes of Almighty God...2
In another letter, Imam Rabbani again emphasizes that the entire material world was created only in the sphere of perceptions and imagination:
Above, I used the sentence, "God's creation is in the sphere of perceptions and imagination." This means that God's creation is in a sphere where objects have no permanence or existence apart from perceptions and imagination.3
On close inspection, Imam Rabbani is stressing that the world we see, and all beings "in the sphere of imagination," were created at the level of perceptions. Outside that, all there is, is the Being of God. In fact, this concept of "outside" is only a hypothetical one, because imagination has no body and occupies no space. Imam Rabbani explains that things, all matter, have no external existence:
On the outside, nothing exists but God. All of Almighty God's creation finds permanence in the sphere of perception… In the same way that matter has no existence in the out side world, it also has a colorless appearance … If it does have a fixed appearance, that is again only on the perceptual level. 4
As we have seen, the technical facts we've arrived at by means of modern physics and physiology were noted hundreds of years ago by Islamic scholars. They confirm one truth: that matter is an illusion. What truly exists is God, Who created matter from nothing.

Materialism: A Hypothetical View That Regards the Life of This World as Real

Once it is understood, the truth explained here will entirely change people's views of the world.
The great majority lives unaware of this great secret. They imagine that everything they see with their eyes, hold in their hands and refer to as "matter" has an absolute, objective existence. People falling into this error hold one of two viewpoints:
1) Materialism: Some who hold that matter exists absolutely maintain that apart from matter, nothing exists. The name of this philosophical belief is materialism. Its adherents deny the existence of God, as well as the existence of the soul and life after death.
2) Semi-materialism: Others who believe in the absolute existence of matter believe in a dimension of existence beyond matter, although they still think that matter has an "absolute" existence and that the other dimension of being is only relative. This error lies beneath such widespread concepts as "metaphysics" and "the supernatural." People who maintain such beliefs think that matter exists absolutely and that God is somewhat like radio waves (though God is surely beyond what they ascribe to Him). Superstitious beliefs such as God being "in the sky" or somewhere else in the universe are outgrowths of the identical error.
Both these utterly mistaken viewpoints stem from a failure to comprehend the true nature of the world. As God reveals in the Qur'an:

… He [God] grants victory to whoever He wills. He is the Almighty, the Most Merciful. That is God's promise. God does not break His promise. But most people do not know it. They know an outward aspect of the life of this world, but are heedless of the Hereafter. (Qur'an, 30:5-7)

In these verses, the word "outward" is a translation of the Arabic zahir. The concept of zahir refers to external appearance. In contrast, there is also the concept of batin, meaning the essence of things which is not externally visible, or their internal aspect.
Unbelievers know only the external appearance of the world, which is why they cannot grasp the existence of God and His dominion over all that exists. Some who deny God are materialists, others-semi-materialists-believe in His existence, but are unable to comprehend His might. The Qur'an refers in detail to those who believe in God's existence, but cannot comprehend His infinite might and dominion over all, for which reason they ascribe various partners to Him.
On the other hand, anyone who understands that matter is a perception is saved from all these errors and understands the batin aspect of the life of this world.
One important aspect of this is the disappearance of the concept of place.

Eliminating the Concept of Location

Everything we think of as material-our own bodies, the objects around us, the ground we walk on, the Sun, stars, and planets-is actually a perception, just like our dreams. Therefore, they have no volume and occupy no space. Since no body occupies any space, there can be no such concept as "space."
Anyone who comprehends this truth is saved from the mistakes that most people fall into. Heading the list of these errors is the question, "Where is God?" which stems from a belief in the concept of space. Since most people assume that each of the objects they perceive occupies a specific location, they imagine that God is in outer space, up in the sky, or resides in some other part of the universe (God is surely beyond that).
This ignorant belief is described in the Qur'an, in the story of Pharaoh, who claimed that he himself was the Lord of Egypt, and maintained that God was in the sky. As the verses reveal,

Pharaoh said, "Haman, build me a tower so that perhaps I may gain means of access, access to the heavens, so that I can look on Moses' God…" (Qur'an, 40:36-37)

However, since there is no other entity than God, He is everywhere and encompasses all places. This truth is also explained in the Qur'an:

Both East and West belong to God, so wherever you turn, the Face of God is there. God is All-Encompassing, All-Knowing. (Qur'an, 2:115)

Since God is everywhere, He is closer to us than anything else. This fact eliminates the perception of "distance," by which most people are again deceived. Generally, people refer to entities they see close to themselves as being "nearby." Asked, "What's the nearest object you see?" they reply, "My clothes," "My watch," "My glasses," or else, "My own body." The fact is, God is closer than any of these things. This is revealed thus in one verse of the Qur'an:

We created man and We know what his own self whispers to him. We are nearer to him than his jugular vein. (Qur'an, 50:16)

… The life of this world is just the enjoyment of delusion. (Qur’an, 3:185)

Anyone who comprehends this truth understands that God is his only friend, protector, and helper. In this way, the secret of the prayer in Surat al-Fatiha, the first Surah, is revealed "You alone we worship. You alone we ask for help." In the same way, the believer understands that everything in the world happens by the will of God, functioning according to the destiny He has set out for it, and can never step outside His will. This is the understanding of the secret revealed in the verse below:

Everyone in the heavens and earth belongs to Him. All are submissive to Him. (Qur'an, 30:26)

Realizing that space is only a perception removes all misunderstandings and doubts as to how life in the Hereafter will be lived. Most who do not believe in the Hereafter or who doubt its existence cannot understand how the universe, which they imagine to be fixed and unalterable, will come to an end, to be replaced by a brand new world containing Heaven and Hell. The fact is, the very universe that they imagine to be fixed and unalterable consists of the totality of perceptions revealed by God to their souls. For God, it is a simple matter to remove one of a person's perceptions and give another in its stead. In the same way that you can have a dream, but find yourself in an entirely different world on awakening (the world you imagine to be "real"), so in the same way you will make the transition from the life of this world to the Hereafter. The universe you imagine to be fixed and unalterable, but which really exists only through God's creation at every moment, will disappear in a great tumult, following which Heaven and Hell will be created.
Everyone who understands that matter is an illusion, that there is no such thing as space, and that he lives in a world created by God in the sphere of imagination and perceptions, will be vouchsafed many more secrets. Unlike most other people, he will be saved from the confusion of struggling to understand "causes" (the events and entities created by God). He will resort only to active prayer, which is the only true cause. He will know that in truth, both good and evil come from God, and will pray to-and seek help from-Him in all matters. He will not be consumed by desire for goods and property. Since he knows that the material possessions that people so magnify in their own eyes-for instance, grand houses, luxury cars, expensive clothes and social and political prestige-are all illusions. He will attach no value to them, knowing that God has created these splendid-looking adornments as tests. He gives them and takes them away, from whomsoever He wishes.
Anyone who understands that matter and space are illusions is freed from fearing any entity other than God. Everything he sees is a perception created by God, and no one can do anything to him without God's willing it. God is the only being worthy of fear. Anyone who understands that will have attained the superior moral values of the prophets, as described in the following verse:

[God praises] those who convey God's Message and fear Him, fearing no one except God… (Qur'an, 33:39)

Relations of Cause and Effect Determined by God

One who understands that matter and space are illusions grasps yet another important secret unknown to most people: The cause-and-effect relationships that apply in this world are not the result of the physical properties of matter or interactions between people. Since matter is only a perception, it can have no physical effects. Every physical effect is created separately as a perception. A stone, for instance, does not break a window; the images of the throwing of the stone and the breaking of the window are created separately. The lifting force of water that keeps a ship afloat or the aerodynamic lift that keeps a plane aloft are created as illusions. All such "forces" actually belong to God. The Qur'an draws our attention to this truth in the following terms:

Have they not looked at the birds above them, with wings outspread and folded back? Nothing holds them up but the All-Merciful. He sees all things. (Qur'an, 67:19)

Do you not see that God has made everything on the earth subservient to you and the ships running upon the sea by His command? He holds back the heaven, preventing it from falling to the earth-except by His permission. God is All-Compassionate to mankind, Most Merciful. (Qur'an, 22:65)

Also, a believer who grasps this secret will develop meaningful relationships with others unlike the superficial cause-and-effect type of relationships that most people accept. Because God has created all people and their destinies, the various cause-and-effect relationships among people take the form determined by Him. In one verse, for instance, God reveals this secret:

You who believe! You are only responsible for yourselves. The misguided cannot harm you as long as you are guided. All of you will return to God, and He will inform you about what you were doing. (Qur'an, 5:105)

If Muslims attain the true path, then those who deviate from it can never harm them. This is God's law, although it applies only to believers who comprehend His might and believe in Him, as is due. In another verse, God reveals another law:

Anyone who acts rightly, male or female, being a believer, We will give them a good life and We will recompense them according to the best of what they did. (Qur'an, 16:97)

For believers, many secrets like this make the world a very different place. For unbelievers, life in this world is a place of suffering, full of troubles, fears, doubts and tension. But for believers, it becomes a foretaste of Paradise.

CONCLUSION

This website has examined the essence of "matter" from a rather different perspective than that in our other books. (For more details, see Harun Yahya, Matter: The Other Name for Illusion (Istanbul:Arastirma Publishing, 2001))
The analogy of the little man in the tower yields yet another fascinating truth:
If you believe that matter exists as a physical reality, then your true body cannot be the same one that you are seeing right now.
You must have another body "outside"-in other words, outside your mind-which you have never seen or felt.
And that body is a "giant," many times larger than the body you are now seeing.
And you are a prisoner, locked into a tiny room at the top of a tower.
To put it another way, most probably you have been living under the assumption that your body is living in this world, and you are looking out through your eyes. But this is an illusion.
A more rational conclusion is that in fact, this "tower" does not exist at all. There is no evidence that it does! The only thing that makes us share in this belief is the preconception that matter exists.
Once we are freed from this preconception, we can understand that the world is, in reality, a very different place: Everything we see and feel is a perception revealed to our soul by God. The only absolute being is the Almighty God, Lord of all the Worlds and Creator of all.

APPENDIX COMMENTS ABOUT THE MAN IN THE TOWER

From Present-day Scientists and Thinkers s this website was being prepared, we asked a number of scientists and thinkers about the facts it sets forth. Over the Internet, we explained to respected members of select universities how they can never have direct knowledge of matter, and then asked for their views. Most of them stated that this was a most important question to which materialist thought could never provide an answer, and that they themselves could offer no explanation on the subject. A few excerpts from their replies: We never have direct contact with our environment. Our sensory system makes abstractions of this information. To make things worse, our sensory systems don't even keep that information in the same format-all sensory information (touch, temperature, taste, vision, sound, smells) are changed into electrical and chemical signals in the brain. It's the pattern of these electrical and chemical signals that we refer to as "objects" in our environments . . . Debra Spear, Ph.D. Psychology Department South Dakota State University … I myself think that we humans are souls, immaterial thinking things causally connected to our bodies in such a way that what we experience/feel/think/etc. depends on the physical states of our brain and central nervous systems. This is a controversial point of view though. Many think that we humans are material things, big hunks of meat. To your question "Who is the one who sees the image of this message on the brain?" they would answer, "Why, you do, of course!" You, this big hunk of meat, have visual experiences when certain electrical patterns are set up in your brain. Some would say that the visual experiences just are the electrical patterns. In this view, to have the visual sensation of green is just to have a certain electrical pattern set up in your brain-nothing more. Others think that the visual experiences are caused by or perhaps emerge from the electrical patterns, though they are distinct from them. I myself don't think that our brains do the experiencing, believing, hoping, feeling, etc. I think that "I" do those things and that I am not my brain. I'm closely related to my brain; so closely related that damage to my brain prevents from doing all of these things. But I'm distinct from my brain. What am I? As I see things, I'm a soul. Dr. Tom Crisp Department of Philosophy The Florida State University People do not like to be disturbed in their daily routine. People want order, they want to be in control, they want things to be as they like them to be. They cannot cope with insecurity and they are afraid of having no answers. They cling to their material possessions and their social positions. They would lose all this if there were no external reality. And people are afraid of being alone, of having to deal with these questions all on their own. They do not trust their own powers of thinking and they are not free. And they don't know who they really are, they define themselves by things outside of them. That's why [they avoid discussing this matter]. Birte Schelling Department of Philosophy University of Hamburg I myself cannot believe that there is any knockdown proof to the conclusion that the external world matches our experiences of it, or even a proof that that there "is" an external world. Any such proof is bound to be circular. (It would require our appealing to our senses in the course of proving them reliable.) Prof. John Heil Chairman of the Department of Philosophy Davidson College We think of ourselves as comprised of a body, mind and emotions. However, our fundamental true nature is spirit. The inner light and the answer to most or your questions come from that awareness… [T]he ultimate awareness and intelligence… receives and emits information from within us and around us. Our soul is like an organ of perception for spirit/God to experience the manifest aspects of spirit. Robert W. Olson, PhD Author of Stepping Out Within This is a problem philosophers have worked on for 3000 years… such as when a great tree falls in the forest but there's no one there to hear it… is there a sound? We certainly are prisoners of our sensory receptive apparatus and our brains. They are the intervening systems which separate us from the physical reality of the world outside ourselves... whatever it may really be. Furthermore, most people don't realize that the sensory tracts systems that carry the external inputs centrally to our brain have interruptions (synapses) at several places along the way. At these synaptic stops, other inputs from various parts of the brain are added… thereby enriching-or contaminating-the input from outside. That's why the same stimulus may at different times "seem" differently to us… the world looks different depending on how we feel. So anyone who thinks he/she experiences the world exactly as it is… is wrong. Arnold B. Scheibel, MD Departments of Anatomy and Psychiatry UCLA ... [T]he image in our brain and our physical surround is something different. Reality... exists only in our brain. We have no way to experience reality except with our brain. A flower is red, because it absorbs a wavelength complementary to red. There is no way of seeing the real wavelength of red, which is 671 nm. The flower appears red because we were told that it is red. And we connect this impression with warmth (fire) or excitement (signal red)... So all the perceptions our brain can make are a mixture of physical and chemical signals which impress us as real, but in reality they are not real. Prof. Dr. Norbert Hilschmann (Emeritus) Director of the Max-Planck-Institute for Experimental Medicine The image does not depend on light, of course. A blow to the head makes you see stars that are a complete illusion … What you are describing is true for all sensations. All we ever know of reality is a representation of reality "mapped" onto arrays of brain cells. We sometimes get it wrong, as in the illusion of a "phantom" limb after amputation… It is theoretically possible that there is nothing out there. That all life is an total illusion. Or that, as in the movie "Matrix", we are real bodies plugged into a computer program which feeds illusory signals of a virtual reality into our brains. There is no way of knowing for certain, if the illusion is a good one. Andrew Paul Bendrups, MSc PhD Department of Human Physiology and Anatomy La Trobe University, Australia