In a way, you are on the right track, but the conclusion is different. What we live is far from gray, rather it's unfathomably more "colorful" and chaotic. We d

In a way, you are on the right track, but the conclusion is different. What we live is far from gray, rather it's unfathomably more "colorful" and chaotic. We do see just a bit of it and apply a lot of filters to it, that is true. But it's mostly to dampen the environment, not to enrich it. (Not that we don't enrich it as well.) What I think the most important part is of your comment is how profound is to look at reality with a different lens. Be that a false color image like a laser scan, heatmap, space images, xray, microscope... it can be a really intense experience, just as you describe. Learning about the different filters (biases) that the brain puts on the stimuli is quite mind-boggling as well.