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Pareidolia
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Link of the day
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Today's link, complete with image of Virgin Mary on Toast and Jesus in Clouds, is Pareidolia. Which, for those of you too lazy or disinterested to follow the link, is the process by which people see images of the Beloved Virgin Mary in pieces of toast, Jesus in clouds, and the faces of devils in smoke. Or, less simply, Anthropomorphic Patterns. A noteworthy psychological quirk that we've evolved to read into abstractions and randomness patterns that may not be really there - often these things are considered newsworthy if they involve a prominent religious icon such as Jesus, Mary or Allah (verses from the Koran are forever being found in the seed patterns of eggplant, for example) - their purpose on the news is a sort of "feel-good" quirky, as inpiration to the faithful, and a nudge-nudge-wink-wink between a more skeptical anchor and audience.
It's postulated that there is some survival value in this, we are better off to see snakes in and jaguars in tree branches than not to see them, if wrong we lose nothing, if we are right we survive another day. Hence we are in some sense "hardwired" to see these images and project patterns onto randomness.
Nonetheless it does have some application - the images we see being somehow part of us, our larger "world view". Seeing snakes and faces have arisen from evolution, but think of the Rorschach Inkblot Test, whereby diagnosis is rendered based upon subjective descriptions of random patterns in ink. Here we see patterns that are determined by our personalities and life experience, as in the religious images hidden in everyday objects.
Pareidolia is a subset of an idea - Apophenia - the process by which our minds create meaning for otherwise random events - Seeing images in toast is one such process, but there are others - think coincidences, and the subsequent attributions of meaning, or the voices of departed spirits emerging from the hiss of blank audio cassettes. From here we can look at these things can be manipulated - intentionally or otherwise - to shape and control our thoughts. Think subliminal - wherin images and ideas are deliberately hidden within media to not be consciously seen, but to unconciously direct and manipulate our thoughts. But that is another post. . .
3 Girlfriends
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Dreams
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Not that exciting, really, not nearly as exciting as the title might suggest. It's evening, and I'm standing at the backdoor of an old house with 3 girlfriends. One of them is faceless, anonymous, unknown, the second is jealous, the third is trying the door. I'm in love with the third and want her to go into the darkened house to find a present I have left hidden for her. She is young, beautiful, lithe with dark hair. . .we're excited, and in a world all to ourselves. But #2 is very jealous and is going to make a scene, #1 is silent. And I wake up.
Questions and Intelligence
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Link of the day
- Hits: 2771
Today an apocryphal quote, which I'll attribute to my father (who in turn attributes it to Piaget)
The circumstances, always relevant, are thus: Piaget, one of the founders & pioneers of the modern IQ test, on his deathbed said:
"I have gotten it wrong. It is not the answers man has that determines his intelligence, but rather the questions that he asks."
Perhaps it's true, perhaps it's not. I like it, and that's enough. The attribution to Piaget simply lends it authority.
On that note, a few links related to intelligence today (note the juxtaposition of opposite ideas: Politics:Intelligence)
First: www.queendom.com, which offers a variety of brain teasers & IQ tests. As well try: www.mindhacks.com/ for an interesting blog on various aspects of mind. Then, if you're feeling bad following your test(s), let this article console you: http://discovermagazine.com/2008/oct/01-20-things-you-didnt-know-about-genius. And if you want to work on developing your mind, you may find this curious: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/123484.php- the article links savant behaviours to an inhibition center in the left brain, I think. . .I forget. I wouldn't have if I were a savant. . .time to reread the article. . .
A new boxspring
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Dreams
- Hits: 2486
I've been having more dreams as of late, just nothing worth noting. Dissatisfied dreams, one dream of a familar place (the intersection of 14st and 17ave SW) - autumn, walking across the street to find they've redone it entirely, paved it with cobblestones, no cars allowed, colored leaves scattered over the stones, crossing from south to north to find myself completely lost in a new/old neighborhood. File this one under 'lost in familiar places'.
But, good news, I've a new boxspring. Recalling that for the past 2 months I've been sleeping in my kids beds this is an improvement, at first it wouldn't fit, but bouncing upon it made it fall finally into place. Which is good, as I was worried about falling through. And so I've begun to clean the house, which for 2 months has been stalled, the lack of box-spring my final excuse against cleaning, now to move the heaps of linen from the living room floor into the bedroom, remove the quilt from the floor, pick up the pillows, maybe even sweep the floor and vacuum. . .arrange my neckties, hang my clothes. . .
I'm running out of excuses.
I've set up a pen and paper beside my bed, to jot down those dreams of relevance, as I've noted I've begun to remember them more. Credit the boxspring.
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