o present stimuli; and the accomplishment of this
conversion is the miracle of consciousness. To be conscious is to
have a future possible result of present behavior embodied as a present
existence functioning as a stimulus to further behavior. Thus the
qualities of a perceptual experience may be interpreted, without
exception, as anticipations of the results of activities which are
as yet in an embryonic stage. The results of the activity that is
as yet partly suppressed are already expressed or anticipated in the
perception. The present experience may, as James says, "shoot its
perspective far before it, irradiating in advance the regions in
which lie the thoughts as yet unborn."[38] A baseball player, for
example, who is all "set" to field a ball as a preliminary to a further
play, sees the ball, not simply as an approaching object, but as
ball-to-be-caught-and-then-thrown-to-first-base. Moreover, the ball,
while still on the way, is a ball-that-may-bound-to-the-right-or-
to-the-left. The corresponding movements of the player to the right or
left, and the act of throwing, although present only as inhibited or
incipient acts, are nevertheless embodied in the visual experience.
Similarly my couch looks soft and inviting, because the optical
stimulation suggests or prompts, not only the act of lying down, but
also the kind of relaxation that is made possible by a comfortable bed.
So likewise the tiger's jaws and claws look cruel and horrible, because
in that perception are reflected the incipient movements of defense and
recoil which are going on in the body of the observer. Perception, like
our air-castles, or like dreams in the Freudian theory, presents what is
at best but a suggestion or program in the guise of accomplished fact.

This projection, however, of our submerged activities into our
perceptions requires a more precise statement. According to the
foregoing contention, the appearance, for example, of a razor's edge as
sharp is the sensory correlate of an incipient response which, if it
were to attain full-blown perfection, would be the reaction to a cut.
By hypothesis, however, the response is inhibited, and it is this
inhibition which calls forth the perception of the object. If the
response encountered no obstruction, adaptation would be complete and
perception would not occur. Since there is a blocking of the response,
nature resorts to a special device in order to overcome the difficulty,
and this device