Chapter 2 Listening To Learn
Session 2: Listening to Learn
Report On Assignment
Objective: By the end of this session each participant will see that they have perceptual blind spots and recognize that these blind spots have created distortions in their perceptions of the world. They will also be aware of situations that these blind spots occur to begin being aware of them.
Scotoma – a perceptual blind spot, a spot in the visual field in which vision is absent or deficient. Blind spots formed because we think,
based on past experience, that we “already know that information” creating distorted conclusions.
In our brain stem we have a net like structure of cells called a Reticular Activating System (RAS)
There are approximately 2 billion pieces of data coming in through your five senses every second. To maintain your sanity, this deluge is filtered though a network of cells in your brain so that only a very minute proportion on the information get through to the rest of the brain. This net work is called the Reticular Activating System or RAS. The RAS works like an antenna, noticing stimuli and alerting your brain to pay attention. The RAS lets in only data that meets at least one of the following criteria:
- It is important to your survival. For example when you are in a deep sleep but you wake up because you hear a strange noise or you smell smoke or you are jay walking in a daydream and you are alerted to the traffic bearing down on you.
- It has novelty value. You just purchased a new car of which you are very proud. All of a sudden you notice many other people driving the same make and model which gives a sense of affirmation of your own good judgment.
- It has high emotional content. Your three year old son in lost in the shopping center. You are searching high and low, promising to do all kinds of horrible things to him for getting lost. The crowd in the shopping center fades into obscurity as you catch a glimpse of your child in the distance and you zero in on the with nothing but relief. If no emotional connection with a misplaced person existed, he would just be another unnoticed body in the crowd. Because he is important to you he stands out like a beacon.
The reticular activating system (RAS) is the automatic mechanism inside your brain that brings relevant information to your attention. It has been speculated that autistic children may have a malfunction of the RAS. This would make the world like listening to 32 radio stations all at the same time. Without the RAS, a bee buzzing in the room would command as much attention as a conversation with a friend or an attempt to read a book or listen to your favorite music. To be aware of other possible inputs to your consciousness take a minute and focus on the sounds around you. Notice the ticking of a clock, voices in another room, the hum of an air conditioner or furnace fan. Without the proper functioning of the RAS all these other stimuli would be so distracting that you couldn’t focus anywhere.
The story is told of a young couple who moves into a duplex alongside the freeway. The only thing separating them from the noise of the traffic is a thin wooden fence. For the first two weeks in the apartment the sound of the trucks, busses and cars speeding up and down the freeway interferes with the couple’s sleep. At about the end of two weeks the traffic sounds disappear because they are screened out by the RAS. They become insignificant and therefore get screened out. About a year and a half later the couple brings home their first child. During the night amidst the roar of traffic noise the baby gives a whimper. Because that sound is of upmost importance to that mother she is awake in an instant while her husband snores peacefully next to her. She has accepted responsibility for that baby and the sound of the child will get through the RAS while screening the noise of the traffic. We see and hear anything we have accepted responsibility for. That which we do not believe nor see as relevant remains hidden from our view.
- Your reticular activating system acts like a filter between your conscious and subconscious mind. It takes instruction from your conscious mind and passes it on to your subconscious. For example, the instruction might be, “listen for anyone saying my name” or “listen for my flight number”.
- The RAS screens out anything that we do not perceive as important; which can be helpful in one way but harmful in others.
- This system is what allows us to have this conversation without the other things in the room becoming too distracting.
- This system creates scotomas in our awareness. Much of what is really going on in the world is not within our awareness. It is as if we are in a box of self-deception.
- What are some situations you can see that the RAS would be beneficial? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- What are some situations you have experienced that the RAS has not been beneficial to you? _________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Filter – Our previous experiences through which we experience everything we think, feel, and observe.
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FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPEREINCE OF MANY YEARS. |
How many times do you see the letter “F” in this sentence? Write the number here_______.
What do you see?
I have had the experience of passing out the “F” sentence to large and small groups of people. The majority always is willing to bet money that there are only 3 “F’s” in the sentence. This exercise very effectively demonstrates the workings of the RAS. The sentence conditions us to count the “F’s” by sound. The sentence teachers or condition us to count the “F” sound as it occurs in finished and files. When the “F” doesn’t’ make the “F” sound as in the “V” sound in the three “OF,s”s it get screened out by the RAS. How many did you count? Did you miss the “OF’s”?
Most people looking at the object above identify it as a duck or a bird of some kind. The reason is that we have been conditioned to look at an object on a sheet of paper from left to right like we read. If we were to look at it from right to left and made the back of the head a nose and what looked like a beak became ears we would see a rabbit.
“If you want to dramatically improve your life, stop believing what you think. All our major problems in life are a result of unexamined thought.”
Byron Katie
- Byron
It may be a blind spot if:
By definition, a scotoma or blind spot is something we can not see. So, how do we spot it if we can not see it? Here are a few tips:
- If you see yourself as a victim, persecutor or rescuer, inferior to, superior to, or more or less than anyone) you may be in a blind spot. Hint: seeing yourself and others as “Nothing” is the position of power because it removes all faulty judgments.
- If you feel Doubt, Fear or Anxiety, you may be in a blind spot.
- If you here yourself say, “I all ready know that…” you may be in a blind spot.
- If you think it’s your job to council God or try to take on reality, you may be in a blind spot.
- If you think you need something you do not have, you may be in a blind spot.
- What are some other ways you may know you are in a blind spot?
So what do I do?
When you pay attention and listen with purpose the ever present chatter of the sounds in your head cannot distract you. Naturally assume that you may not see an accurate picture of reality. Maybe the people you love have a few quirks that you are screening out. May the people you dislike are not as evil as you think they are and most of all give yourself a break. Maybe the label you accepted from your 3rd grade teacher was not so accurate after all.
It is more accurate to assume you know nothing so your mind can be open to new possibilities. I am asking you to suspend your judgment because your judgment is distorting your perception of everything. Suspend the filters. Assume you know nothing and keep asking questions. Stay in the present moment by asking questions.
To experience the power of your memory when combined with your imagination try the following exercise. Your imagination can work like a camera giving you a photographic memory when you don’t judge it to be inept. Imagine for a moment that sitting on the ground in front of you is a large green tinted liter bottle filled with purple Delaware punch. What color would you see if you have a green tinted bottle filled with purple punch? In my imagination I can see something that looks almost dark brown.
Next, image that stirring the purple Delaware punch is a large silver pen. Standing on top of the pen is a little Jersey calf. Because you are using your own imagination you can make the calf any color you want. As a matter of fact this exercise works better if you use Action, Color and Exaggeration. (ACE) You can imagine the calf to be green and blue if you so choose.
Sitting on top of the calf is a large man dressed in royal colored robes. We know he is royalty because he has a sign on his from that reads, “I am King George.” King George has a cut on his forehead that is clumsily held together with 3 band aids. The cut is oozing blood and causing pain. To deal with the pain King George has a mass, not a block but a mass, of ice on his head.
On top of the ice, melted in up to her knees, is a statue of Marilyn Monroe. In her arms Marilyn is holding an ocean liner headed south. In the smoke stack of that south bound ocean liner is a new ham being smoked. That new ham is wrapped in a piece of sheet music entitle, “Carry me back to Old Virginny.”
Sticking throught the sheet music and right into the ham is the coroner of the empire state building, the spire of which is coming up out of the smoke sack and punctures the hull of another ocean liner headed North. On the deck of this North bound Ocean liner are hundreds and hundreds of Road Island Red chickens.
Now take a look at the sketch below and run thought the exercise again, this time with an application in mind. We just learned the 13 original colonies and the order in which they came into the union. and learn the 13 original colonies and the order in which they came into the union. This is really useless information but it proves the point. that once you can see the picture in your mind you will be able to mentally photograph the drawing you will never forget the 13 colonies.
