In between hundreds or thousands of correct perceptions, we might miss-see something completely. I'm driving down the road at dusk on a windy autumn day, and a small mouse scurries across the road under my tires. I slam on the brakes with a screech.

Then I realize that the “mouse” was only the false appearance of a mouse: it was really only a dry leaf blown across the road. And then there's this momentary sense of emptiness—the mouse is gone, it was never there—followed by a slightly foolish feeling as I continue down the road.

Now it's absolutely essential to realize that, on one level, even our correct perceptions are all incorrect. That is, the socks in my hand are socks—that's correct. But deep in my heart is this belief that they are socks that are in my hand because I own them, because I found them at the store, and because I bought them.

All of these ideas about my socks are completely incorrect. There are no socks like that—no more than the man in the movie. It's all the Great Mistake, a mistaken perception that causes all the pain in the world.