I want to try to explain in more detail, how I was able to develop binocular vision with stereopsis.
First of all, I have to give proper credit to Peter Grunwald, the author of the Eyebody method, whose retreat I attended a month ago, and to the other participants of the Eyebody retreat. I even remember a moment during the retreat when I was moving my eyes from the trees far away towards me and saw the road with what I now recognized as focused vision, although at that time I just noticed that it was brighter and crisper than usual. I also absolutely have to give credit to the Alexander Technique and its creator, Frederick Matthias Alexander, as well as to the Bates method and its creator, William Horatio Bates.
I would also like to give credit to those whose thinking influenced my understanding of the problem and allow me to even conceive of not having stereopsis, of what it may be like to have it, and of how to get there. I have to give credit to the philosophers Paul Feyerabend, Willard Van Orman Quine, to some extent Ludwig Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell, and , of course, Gottlob Frege's "On Sense and Reference".
I start from the premise that stereopsis, the way of interpreting the things we see in three dimensions, is a purely habitual reaction that has to do solely with our brain's learning. I am not even sure that it is necessary to have two eyes to originally acquire stereopsis. Surely, having two eyes naturally creates certain habits essential to the establishment of stereopsis, but it does not mean that those habits cannot be created by other means. The most critical is, I would say, the fact that two eyes are constantly measuring distances to all objects, thus calibrating the sense of space, at least until it is firmly established. Yet, nothing prevents us from creating a device or an implant that would measure distances and convert them into different pitches of sound, thus allowing a person who has always had only one functioning eye to still calibrate the stereopsis, even if only after several years of hard work. Stereopsis within arm's length should be available to everyone, even with one eye, as should be the ability to focus the eyes on an object - this is clearly just a matter of habit.
I am using the word habit because it is traditionally used in Alexander Technique, as well as, for example, in Feldenkrais method. Of course, everything is a habit, and habits are not discrete, so this word may be misleading. As I see it, every time we are learning, we are making minimal sufficient changes in our worldview in order to integrate new information. Children don't have that much old information that would contradict new information, so they take in everything. It is also well-known with teaching any discipline that if you establish the foundations well, the rest of the learning process will be fast and smooth, and vice versa.
However, as we get older, it becomes increasingly difficult to learn fundamentally new things, since so much of our previous knowledge has to be reorganized. This is why it is difficult to acquire stereopsis as an adult, but same goes, for example, for languages. Do you know many adults who started learning a second language at a fairly late age and became as fluent in this second language as in their original language? Do you know many dancers who started dancing at a late age and became famous? Probably not, and let me tell you, the reason is not body flexibility, the reason is the flexibility of the mind. Do you know many people who became world famous musicians but did not start at an early age? Not so many. Surely, there are practical considerations, but again, I believe that the primary reason is the flexibility or the inflexibility of the mind - or I can use the word "neuroplasticity", if you prefer.
As part of this effect of reduced neuroplasticity, people tend to solidify their opinions as they get older. People don't see things afresh, so to say, but see the things like they have seen them before, be it politics or poetry. Of course, I have used the metaphor of seeing intentionally. So as the first step to discovering stereopsis, and any learning, any positive changes that you would like to bring, I suggest the following:
Understand that your perception may be wrong.
Perhaps, you have always thought that scientologists are dishonest people who are just trying to make money, and this may well be true; but how did you come to this conclusion? Can you support it? Perhaps, you had a physics course and have always thought that the entropy in the universe is increasing. Why? Perhaps, you have always thought that you couldn't sign or dance, or that you had had a happy or an unhappy childhood, or that you have to go out every weekend. Perhaps you have an opinion about democracy and think that those who disagree with you are wrong.
However, you have to understand: your perception is not the reality. Your perception is not even your sensory input. The sensory input may be a road with cars, but your perception will depend on whether you are used to driving on the left, or on the right, or both.
It is through some different state of mind that we can change our habits and our ways of thinking. You can call this state of mind being present. You can think of notice things around you, a sense of exploration; you can think about rewiring of the brain. Whatever it is, it is essential to learn to perceive things closer to how they really are or, more precisely, to perceive the sensory input rather than our expectations of the sensory input. If we are ignoring the sensory input, this is, in Peter Grunwald's terms, "underfocusing". The opposite is "overfocusing", which we do not want either. We want a sense of exploration that will allow us to notice and change our perception; you can call it habits. You can certainly learn this skill from the Alexander Technique, or from yoga, or from many other disciplines, or perhaps on your own. You can, but really, you may or may not. Some people study yoga or Alexander Technique, yet they do not learn how to change their perception, their habits, precisely because they already have some other perception or habits, somehow stopping the very possibility of a conscious change. I guess, this is what people mean what they say that you have to believe that a change is possible.
First of all, I have to give proper credit to Peter Grunwald, the author of the Eyebody method, whose retreat I attended a month ago, and to the other participants of the Eyebody retreat. I even remember a moment during the retreat when I was moving my eyes from the trees far away towards me and saw the road with what I now recognized as focused vision, although at that time I just noticed that it was brighter and crisper than usual. I also absolutely have to give credit to the Alexander Technique and its creator, Frederick Matthias Alexander, as well as to the Bates method and its creator, William Horatio Bates.
I would also like to give credit to those whose thinking influenced my understanding of the problem and allow me to even conceive of not having stereopsis, of what it may be like to have it, and of how to get there. I have to give credit to the philosophers Paul Feyerabend, Willard Van Orman Quine, to some extent Ludwig Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell, and , of course, Gottlob Frege's "On Sense and Reference".
I start from the premise that stereopsis, the way of interpreting the things we see in three dimensions, is a purely habitual reaction that has to do solely with our brain's learning. I am not even sure that it is necessary to have two eyes to originally acquire stereopsis. Surely, having two eyes naturally creates certain habits essential to the establishment of stereopsis, but it does not mean that those habits cannot be created by other means. The most critical is, I would say, the fact that two eyes are constantly measuring distances to all objects, thus calibrating the sense of space, at least until it is firmly established. Yet, nothing prevents us from creating a device or an implant that would measure distances and convert them into different pitches of sound, thus allowing a person who has always had only one functioning eye to still calibrate the stereopsis, even if only after several years of hard work. Stereopsis within arm's length should be available to everyone, even with one eye, as should be the ability to focus the eyes on an object - this is clearly just a matter of habit.
I am using the word habit because it is traditionally used in Alexander Technique, as well as, for example, in Feldenkrais method. Of course, everything is a habit, and habits are not discrete, so this word may be misleading. As I see it, every time we are learning, we are making minimal sufficient changes in our worldview in order to integrate new information. Children don't have that much old information that would contradict new information, so they take in everything. It is also well-known with teaching any discipline that if you establish the foundations well, the rest of the learning process will be fast and smooth, and vice versa.
However, as we get older, it becomes increasingly difficult to learn fundamentally new things, since so much of our previous knowledge has to be reorganized. This is why it is difficult to acquire stereopsis as an adult, but same goes, for example, for languages. Do you know many adults who started learning a second language at a fairly late age and became as fluent in this second language as in their original language? Do you know many dancers who started dancing at a late age and became famous? Probably not, and let me tell you, the reason is not body flexibility, the reason is the flexibility of the mind. Do you know many people who became world famous musicians but did not start at an early age? Not so many. Surely, there are practical considerations, but again, I believe that the primary reason is the flexibility or the inflexibility of the mind - or I can use the word "neuroplasticity", if you prefer.
As part of this effect of reduced neuroplasticity, people tend to solidify their opinions as they get older. People don't see things afresh, so to say, but see the things like they have seen them before, be it politics or poetry. Of course, I have used the metaphor of seeing intentionally. So as the first step to discovering stereopsis, and any learning, any positive changes that you would like to bring, I suggest the following:
Understand that your perception may be wrong.
Perhaps, you have always thought that scientologists are dishonest people who are just trying to make money, and this may well be true; but how did you come to this conclusion? Can you support it? Perhaps, you had a physics course and have always thought that the entropy in the universe is increasing. Why? Perhaps, you have always thought that you couldn't sign or dance, or that you had had a happy or an unhappy childhood, or that you have to go out every weekend. Perhaps you have an opinion about democracy and think that those who disagree with you are wrong.
However, you have to understand: your perception is not the reality. Your perception is not even your sensory input. The sensory input may be a road with cars, but your perception will depend on whether you are used to driving on the left, or on the right, or both.
It is through some different state of mind that we can change our habits and our ways of thinking. You can call this state of mind being present. You can think of notice things around you, a sense of exploration; you can think about rewiring of the brain. Whatever it is, it is essential to learn to perceive things closer to how they really are or, more precisely, to perceive the sensory input rather than our expectations of the sensory input. If we are ignoring the sensory input, this is, in Peter Grunwald's terms, "underfocusing". The opposite is "overfocusing", which we do not want either. We want a sense of exploration that will allow us to notice and change our perception; you can call it habits. You can certainly learn this skill from the Alexander Technique, or from yoga, or from many other disciplines, or perhaps on your own. You can, but really, you may or may not. Some people study yoga or Alexander Technique, yet they do not learn how to change their perception, their habits, precisely because they already have some other perception or habits, somehow stopping the very possibility of a conscious change. I guess, this is what people mean what they say that you have to believe that a change is possible.
Every habit can be changed if we can only remain present, even if it is just for one breath.
No comments:
Post a Comment