Mind changing--not changing your mind...
Posted: Sat Nov 02, 2013 11:00 pm
A preface, since it might not seem as odd/fascinating as it feels otherwise...[[and maybe it really is neither]]
I've said in posts before...I'm NOT a visual person, I'm a word person.
I CAN do visual, but it is work/effort I have to intentionally DO. [and often seems not worth the effort since the words work just fine].
Also, folk may have noticed...though I don't think I've put it down...I spend
a lot of time observing my own brain/thoughts...watching how/what "I" think from a second/third person perspective. I'm fairly sure everyone does that to some extent...some more aware of doing it than others, some care about the implications of it more or less than others...but I do it, like, non-stop...I don't know if that's odd or just not talked about often.
Either way, I only mention it, and the non-visual thing cuz it impacts how strongly and strangely the following affected...may continue to affect...me. [and to frame the question at the end]:
I'm old-ish. I've been to lots of places, especially built places with massive buildings, but also places with mammoth natural features...like trees, mountains, canyons. I've lived in a number of them.
So...I had very long lay-over in Milwaukee earlier this week. I went out to stroll about. Then, for no real reason except waiting to cross a street, I glanced up at the building opposite. Not that impressive...only 7 or 8 stories high, but fairly long...most of a block. Just another building...big like every city's buildings are big. Whoop-de-doo.
BUT...in some way, my brain suddenly...shifted.
It FELT similar to the tracking/process that happens when watching [usually in SF, sometimes in CSI/Crime shows lately] scenes where a map/diagram/field, usually on a screen/monitor, starts adding layers/directions/dimensions.
It didn't "look" like that in my head...I wasn't "visualizing" such a thing...but what my brain was doing seemed to occupy the same paths/rooms/state that those effects do when I'm seeing them.
AND...the building instantly became HUGE...amazing to build, look at...the scale just kept growing in my head. NOT the actual size/space...there was no illusion/hallucination...but my apprehension/comprehension of those spaces and sizes. At first, a few seconds, it was just "WOW, that's BIG." But then my head decided that wasn't good enough, and started "counting" it in terms of my house.
As in
" FUCK! Those two windows are my living room plus kitchen wide and high as those plus the upstairs bedrooms!...NO...more than half as tall as my Tulip Tree!"
And so on...
That was a little unusual for me...but not completely unprecedented. I often judge distances based on my definitive memory of the length of the field behind my high-school, which was precisely 150 yards.
It turned weird when it STOPPED being related to my house, or remembered/known scales and I started just apprehending the space/size.
Big whoop, right? [especially for the folk I suspect exist that just always think/see like that...la-de-freaking-da].
But to me it was...and may be more than just was....
Cuz since then [though it's only been a few days], when my brain is idle [or idyll]....and sometimes when it ISN'T...my head keeps noticing things in terms of size, angles, distance, relative positions.
For me, this is more than just a different "viewpoint." [which is just an angle on the same]...it's a different environment/enframing.
I'm not sure how much [or if] it is important...if it alters anything in meaningful, permanent [or semi-permanent], insight/possibility-revealing ways....
but it is extremely curious, different, and unexpected...
So...the question is...anyone else had a thing like this happen? Not just changing your mind/opinions, but the feeling [or fact...] that something in the foundation/mechanics of how "you" WORK/function/THINK has changed?
I've said in posts before...I'm NOT a visual person, I'm a word person.
I CAN do visual, but it is work/effort I have to intentionally DO. [and often seems not worth the effort since the words work just fine].
Also, folk may have noticed...though I don't think I've put it down...I spend
a lot of time observing my own brain/thoughts...watching how/what "I" think from a second/third person perspective. I'm fairly sure everyone does that to some extent...some more aware of doing it than others, some care about the implications of it more or less than others...but I do it, like, non-stop...I don't know if that's odd or just not talked about often.
Either way, I only mention it, and the non-visual thing cuz it impacts how strongly and strangely the following affected...may continue to affect...me. [and to frame the question at the end]:
I'm old-ish. I've been to lots of places, especially built places with massive buildings, but also places with mammoth natural features...like trees, mountains, canyons. I've lived in a number of them.
So...I had very long lay-over in Milwaukee earlier this week. I went out to stroll about. Then, for no real reason except waiting to cross a street, I glanced up at the building opposite. Not that impressive...only 7 or 8 stories high, but fairly long...most of a block. Just another building...big like every city's buildings are big. Whoop-de-doo.
BUT...in some way, my brain suddenly...shifted.
It FELT similar to the tracking/process that happens when watching [usually in SF, sometimes in CSI/Crime shows lately] scenes where a map/diagram/field, usually on a screen/monitor, starts adding layers/directions/dimensions.
It didn't "look" like that in my head...I wasn't "visualizing" such a thing...but what my brain was doing seemed to occupy the same paths/rooms/state that those effects do when I'm seeing them.
AND...the building instantly became HUGE...amazing to build, look at...the scale just kept growing in my head. NOT the actual size/space...there was no illusion/hallucination...but my apprehension/comprehension of those spaces and sizes. At first, a few seconds, it was just "WOW, that's BIG." But then my head decided that wasn't good enough, and started "counting" it in terms of my house.
As in
" FUCK! Those two windows are my living room plus kitchen wide and high as those plus the upstairs bedrooms!...NO...more than half as tall as my Tulip Tree!"
And so on...
That was a little unusual for me...but not completely unprecedented. I often judge distances based on my definitive memory of the length of the field behind my high-school, which was precisely 150 yards.
It turned weird when it STOPPED being related to my house, or remembered/known scales and I started just apprehending the space/size.
Big whoop, right? [especially for the folk I suspect exist that just always think/see like that...la-de-freaking-da].
But to me it was...and may be more than just was....
Cuz since then [though it's only been a few days], when my brain is idle [or idyll]....and sometimes when it ISN'T...my head keeps noticing things in terms of size, angles, distance, relative positions.
For me, this is more than just a different "viewpoint." [which is just an angle on the same]...it's a different environment/enframing.
I'm not sure how much [or if] it is important...if it alters anything in meaningful, permanent [or semi-permanent], insight/possibility-revealing ways....
but it is extremely curious, different, and unexpected...
So...the question is...anyone else had a thing like this happen? Not just changing your mind/opinions, but the feeling [or fact...] that something in the foundation/mechanics of how "you" WORK/function/THINK has changed?
