This marks the first of several posts on blindness that I want to share. These are not my ideas, all I am doing is taking what others have done and highlighting a spiritual dimension to them.
Where we look matters in our lives. If we are looking in one direction we will miss something else. This is why slight of hand works so well. We are distracted by one thing and we miss the "trick". Where we look matters, however it is assumed that when we look we all "see" the same thing. That is when I look at an apple I assume that everyone else sees an apple. Or if I look at the color red, then I assume that others also see red. However, it is coming to light that not only where we look matters, but HOW we look matters.
These next posts are examples of how we look and most of these examples come from the book Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Eagleman. (All quotes in this post are from this book.)
"Imagine you're watching a short film with a single actor in it. He is cooking an omelet. The camera cuts to a different angle as the actor continues his cooking. Surely you would notice if the actor changed into a different person, right? Two-thirds of observers don't."
You are kidding me right? This study shows that 2/3 of people are unable to see the actor replaced by another actor in a short film! That seems crazy. Until I saw this little video which might have been posted before.
Where we are looking matters but it also matters how we are looking, and it turns out our brains are great at allowing us to see only that which the brain thinks is important. Needless to say (and the video above articulates it well), we miss a lot of things in this world because our brain is deciding for us what is worthy of noticing.
In the next post there is an example of how questions drive what we are looking at.
Where we look matters in our lives. If we are looking in one direction we will miss something else. This is why slight of hand works so well. We are distracted by one thing and we miss the "trick". Where we look matters, however it is assumed that when we look we all "see" the same thing. That is when I look at an apple I assume that everyone else sees an apple. Or if I look at the color red, then I assume that others also see red. However, it is coming to light that not only where we look matters, but HOW we look matters.
These next posts are examples of how we look and most of these examples come from the book Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Eagleman. (All quotes in this post are from this book.)
"Imagine you're watching a short film with a single actor in it. He is cooking an omelet. The camera cuts to a different angle as the actor continues his cooking. Surely you would notice if the actor changed into a different person, right? Two-thirds of observers don't."
You are kidding me right? This study shows that 2/3 of people are unable to see the actor replaced by another actor in a short film! That seems crazy. Until I saw this little video which might have been posted before.
Where we are looking matters but it also matters how we are looking, and it turns out our brains are great at allowing us to see only that which the brain thinks is important. Needless to say (and the video above articulates it well), we miss a lot of things in this world because our brain is deciding for us what is worthy of noticing.
In the next post there is an example of how questions drive what we are looking at.