Great post! I know for a fact that sometimes what a person "see's" is not always what it is. The retina of the eye, captures images in a continuous and constant manner,,,,however, the regulation as to when and what the eye sees, is governed by complex mechanisms in the brain. These mechanism's may not always be 100% reliable as the brain tries to make sense of and interpret the impulses received through the optic nerve, kind of like connecting the dots, and comparing to other imagery stored in memory.
To illustrate, I was sitting one evening with my bow, overlooking a large gully. I heard something approaching, rustling in the leaves, and it was coming towards me from a direction I was expecting a deer might come. Soon, I detected a triangular patch of white, and my mind immediately tricked me into seeing a deer, angling towards me on the opposite side of the gully. I remained motionless, waiting for it to come within bow range.
Soon, my brother stepped out from behind a tree, and I knew instantly, my brain had tricked me into "seeing" what I had expected to see. My brother was wearing a dark colored shirt and a white t-shirt, the triangle of white which I had first seen, looked like the white patch on a deers throat. It scared the crap out of me to realize I had been so decieved by something I thought I saw,( I think I gave my brother a lecture, I had no idea he was in the area) it was a good lesson for me. I would never have believed it possible to be so completely fooled. My father had always drilled it into us to always be absolutely sure of any target before even aiming, so like Jim and others have said, my gun is never raised until I am absolutely positve of target identification,(he had lost a cousin to a hunting accident.)
