Many diagrams have been published showing how the eye works in a mechanical sense. But little effort has been made to illustrate the remarkable sequence that begins when photons stream through our pupils and ends — a fraction of a second later — when the mind recognizes a familiar object. This nearly instantaneous process is fantastically complex, and parts of it are still poorly understood. This design gives readers a new appreciation for the mind’s subtle sophistication by graphically describing the pathways information takes as it is transmuted by the nervous system into perception.