To return to previous pages use the BACK or GO of your browser The Millenennium Community Study & Activity
The influence of the new brain stories on old brain sensitivities
Section One: "I sense, therefore I am." Would you place your name here............................. as a person who believes the statement in quotes above? Please note this factual truth: 2 + 2 = 4 .. ( X.) True (.. ).False .. Mathematics is considered to be the purist of sciences and fact. However, the fact that we each sense and feel is as true, if not more true than mathematics. We are not born knowing mathematics, we must learn it. However, we are born with the inherited ability to sense, feel and learn. Do you trust your inborn senses and feelings as much as you trust mathematics or definitions? For example:
We largely build our lives around the truth of mathematics and science. We are often taught to do so without abiding by the truths of what we naturally sense and feel. For example, with respect to living in balance with Earth, each other and ourselves, most people sense that we have gone too far, we are destructively out of control. Although we strongly sense it, we are presently unable to stop.
Section Two: Very little, if anything, is out of balance in healthy ecosystems. Do you have the ability to trust the sensory truths ecosystems convey to you? For example, if you go to a natural area and love a sunset there, do you believe that your love for that sunset is as true or more true than 2 + 2 = 4 ? If you do believe this, you have great potential to help yourself and others learn to think in globally balanced ways, to live in greater peace and responsibly with yourself, society and nature.
The influence of stories on sensitivities * The influence of a story on natural sensitivities can be seen in the night sky star picture that surrounds this page. Go to the full screen of the sky at the end of this page and follow the instructions there *..... * *..... * *..... * * Look at the the colored insignia at the top of this page. If you apply a story that the colors are more important than the black and white portion, or the colors are in the foreground, doesn't the picture take on a three dimensional quality that it did not have before? *..... * *..... * *..... * * CREATE A MOMENT THAT LETS EARTH TEACH: As you do each of the sections on this page, go to a natural area - potted plant, aquarium, backyard or backcountry, the more natural the better- and let an attraction there grab you and enter your awareness so that you recognize it: a flower, sound, breeze, warmth, motion, color, shape, texture, smell etc. Trust this attraction as a sensory truth that is as real and true as any other fact. What happens, what does it offer, add or say with respect to the point being made in each section on this page?
Section Four: Below is an color design of purple and yellow colors and shapes. If you apply a label to it and call it faces, you will see faces, if you label it a vase you will see a vase.*
A critical observation: If we say the color yellow is important or closer to you, you see a vase and the faces disappear. This also happens with the color maroon and the faces. In other words, the authorities that give you instructions that you heed can determine how and what you perceive. They can engage you in making parts of the world disappear. For example, during the war, when Vietnamese people were labeled "gooks" it became easier to kill them.
A crucial question: Does identifying Earth as a "dead natural resource" or a "wisely balanced living organism" make a difference?
Section Five Is this following design an Old Woman? or a Young Woman's Cheek?
An unusual observation: As in the vase-faces image, if the picture above is labeled "Old Woman," people will see an old woman. Similarly, if it is labeled "Young Woman's Cheek," a young woman's cheek is perceived. Labels determine perceptions: If instructions for the above image label the center feature below the hair as an eye, you perceive an old woman. If instructions label the center feature as an ear, you see the young woman's cheek. Again, the authority that gives you instructions you heed can determine how you know the world. Implications: Do we learn to relate to nature from our direct sensory experiences with it or from our culture's nature conquering stories and labels about it?
Section Seven: Effects of Economic Rewards ......................................................................
In an experiment, people played a card game in which they randomly selected cards. They were payed a dollar whenever they received a card with the Figure 1 image-card above. They forfeited a dollar whenever they received the Figure 2 image-card above. After an extended period, the players were shown Figure 3 below. Most of them easily recognized Figure 1, the money winning figure but Figure 2 was often very difficult for them to perceive. Figure 3: ...............Fig1......Fig 2
What implications does this demonstration have with respect to our relationship with Nature and our economy? Can you see a relationship between it and Upton Sinclair's observation: "It is difficult to get people to understand something when their salary depends upon them not understanding it." Section Eight:
Section Ten We are, today, in real life, in far worse shape than were the subjects of the astonishing Milgram studies of 1961
(and Stanford Prison Experiment in 1971). In them a supervisor
committed the subjects to administer increasingly painful electrical
shocks to people who answered meaningless questions incorrectly. The
subjects could listen to the recipients in another room but could not
see them. They could hear them cry out in increasing pain and anguish
as the experiment progressed and the shock voltage increased, sometimes
until the recipient died.
Your Thoughts: Do you think the following descriptions apply to how we learn to know nature within and around us in our nature estranged society?
Do we relate to nature from our direct sensory old brain experiences with it or from our culture's conquer nature stories about it?
Can our new brain stories mislead us?
2. Which country makes Panama hats? 3. From which animal do we get catgut? 4. In which month do Russians celebrate the October Revolution? 5. What is a camel-hair paintbrush made of? 6. The Canary Islands in the Pacific are named after what animal? 7. What was King George VI's first name? 8. What color is a purple finch? 9. Where are Chinese gooseberries from? 10. Did Columbus discover America?
ANSWERS:
1. 116 years, from 1337 to 1453 2. Ecuador 3. from sheep and horses 4. November...the Russian calendar was 13 days behind ours. 5. squirrel fir 6. The Latin name was Insularia Canaria - Island of the Dogs.
8. distinctively crimson 9. New Zealand 10. America existed and was inhabited long before Columbus arrived.
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**Material borrowed from http://www.sit.wisc.edu/~amhadjin/idiot.html *For these and other similar studies see Vernon, M.P. The Psychology of Perception, Gretna Louisiana: Pelican, 1971 |
The old brain and new brain together recognize that this night sky picture is flat on a screen.
Now change the new brain story. Imagine that the brighter a star is, the closer it is to you and the dimmer stars are further away. In this framework, stare at the picture for awhile. Does the picture take on a three dimensional quality that it did not have before?