(Free WAV Download available here under '••• More'; and eventually, as part of a future solo album)

Good afternoon my SC friends. This year, I thought it might be fun to share some of the brain rebooting information I’ve discovered over the years that helped me navigate life a little easier. So if you like the idea of following along with these liner notes, you’ll want to watch this video first (about 1 minute... Selective Attention Test video: https://youtu.be/vJG698U2Mvo), before you continue reading down. It’s quite challenging to get the count right, but the results are utterly fascinating. :)

*waits patiently*

Welcome back. So, if you haven’t already seen it before, you just watched a video that brilliantly demonstrates our limited capacity as observers. I admit, I was so busy counting the passing ball… I totally missed the gorilla. Most of my family missed it as well. And according to the creators of the video, at least 50% of the audience will. That’s mind blowing.

So what does that say about our perceptions? It seems to suggest we’re not as aware as we think we are. And that is a lovely thought, because it means we don’t have to be so hard on ourselves when we misperceive things. We are literally incapable of taking it all in, and therefore we don’t always have the full picture (or even the same picture as our fellow traveller).

And that just demonstrates the limits of our mental awareness. Now consider our senses for a moment… how our hearing range is limited to a range of 20Hz to 20kHz. Think about how our vision doesn’t go below the ultraviolet or above the infrared. And I know I can’t smell things to the excellent degree my family’s pets can. 

The one that really blows my mind is that we aren’t ever physically touching anything. There is always an atomic amount of space between all objects. So when I sit down in a chair, what’s really happening is the molecular particles that collectively agreed to make up my butt are interacting with the molecular particles that collectively agreed to make up that chair; and the signals are all just electrical stimuli to my brain. I believe I can feel the smoothness of the polished woodgrain… but it isn’t a full or accurate story.

So now we have an idea of the limitations of our five senses. Add to that how we are limited to those five senses in the first place (unless some of you have physically developed sonar like a bat or have the ability to create an external multi-member neural network like fungi do underground), and you start to have a better idea just how much of the picture we are missing. 

So in a nutshell, we simply don’t have the full picture; and that can be a very liberating realization. That idea gave me the wisdom I needed to release my stranglehold on being a perfectionist… just a little bit. If I’m constantly missing things I don’t even know I’m missing, perfection isn’t even an option. I can also take these ideas out into the world with me, and realize we really don’t perceive things as similarly as we think we do. We are constantly being influenced by everything from our senses and mental awareness to cognitive dissonance and the bias of preference. We are each having different experiences, and that underlying realization is a great place to start, if change be the thing we desire. :)

So if you found this write-up interesting, you might enjoy ‘The Invisible Gorilla, And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us’ by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons. It’s a thought provoking read. 

I’ll share other inspirational books and TV shows in future song notes. In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed my latest sonic adventure, ‘Develop Mental’ (especially all the little details I added in the 21kHz+ range, as well as the ‘scratch and sniff for dogs’ elements). :)

WTF! The Musical

Develop Mental

(Jan 9th, 2025) Just a quick message to let you know I'm not going to be active here for a while. If you need to reach me, you can always message me at GrevusAnjl@mac.com. 
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Welcome to my sonic playground. I don't consider myself a skilled musician. I just sculpt sounds to quiet my mind... often with surprising and humorous results. Thank you for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed your visit. :)

New tracks tagged #MinMaxingTheMind