Are you kidding? It would completely shut down your brain. Trying to identify, recognize, and notice every single thing happening, all at once, all the time, would completely incapacitate you. And let's not forget that, due to physiology, it's still impossible to perceive a great deal of the Universe, anyway. And because it's totally impractical to try and simultaneously perceive what little bits of the Universe our senses can pick up, in order for us to function in our lives, we are forced to shut out certain things. But who, or what, is choosing the things we do perceive at any given moment? That, my friends, is the question.

      Was it your parents? Was it the years you spent in school? Was it the TV? Was it a band? Was it a book you read? Was it a preacher you heard? Was it the kid who pushed you down when you were five? All of the above. The way you see the world, my friend, is a patchwork quilt of individual experiences, shaping the way your mind works. 'Round these parts, we call these things the "bars and walls of your Black Iron Prison".

      Now, before you go on with the idea that all this is somehow Negative and Depressing, let's break down the phrase. We're not saying it's an Iron Prison that is Black (Bleak) that you're in because you're being punished for some sort of Karmic wrongdoing.
      Rather, what's being said is that in order to function in your day-to-day life, there are necessary limitations your body and mind impose on your perceptions. That's the Prison. The phrase "Black Iron" refers to cold wrought iron, which is strong, usually shaped by hand, and often beautiful.*
      But back to the main question, then, and the issue of who chooses your perceptions. Of course, the Large Answer is, "your entire life up to this point," the patchwork quilt referred to above, stitched panels of the things you have learned, whether they were imprinted, conditioned, or learned, either consciously or subconsciously. But that's a bit too large. What it comes down to, is that you are the one in charge of your Prison. It's you that has shaped the Black Iron bars that let you see the small parts of the Universe that you base your decisions upon. Sure, you can say that it's not your fault that your parents raised you as a racist redneck (for example). But it is your fault if you take that as a given, as if that bar in your cell is a permanent thing, something that's been there since before you were born.

      But wait. There's more. The guy sitting next to you, they're focusing on completely different things than you are. Their entire upbringing has pretty much determined what they're going to pay attention to, just as your entire life up to this point has shaped what you're looking at right now. You know what this means, right? This means that everyone is living in a different Idea of the Universe than everyone else. It's a miracle that we can agree on anything. Just imagine, billions of people, all looking out at a different Universe from between the bars of their own personal Prison. "Okay, big guy," you say, "So what's really out there, if you're so smart?" I have to tell you

      I don't know. I have the same blinders that you do. I live in the same kind of box.
But I will say one thing. My saying "I don't know" doesn't mean, "I don't know, and I don't care, because there's no way to escape the biology of my sense." I say, "I don't know, but I want to find out." I want to try and see and feel as much as I can, I don't want to take somebody's word for it, I want to keep exploring, and figuring shit out. I want to walk out of my Prison Cell, even if I just end up in another one. I'm not content only seeing a fraction of what's out there.
      Because hey, who knows what kind of fun I'm missing?