Recently, I had an exciting sensory experience. I discovered that I was able to hear songs from memory. It does not sound like much but it was exciting for me. I was in an airplane, bored and unable to sleep, and I tried passing time by remembering and silently humming my favorite songs. Due to the presence of strangers, I wasn't audibly making any sound and I concentrated my full attention to my ears while keeping my eyes closed. In a short while the songs I was humming in my brain started gaining audible qualities in my ears. At first it was as if whatever song I was thinking of and internally singing the words to, began to play in my ears but in my own voice without any music. But quite suddenly I began to hear the actual recording of the song, it happened to be an old Bollywood song, in the original voice of Lata Mangeskar accompanied by all the music in my ears. It felt no different than listening to the song from a headphone. I stopped consciously controlling the words of the song but it kept on playing in its own rhythm and its own original version that I am so much familiar with. Once that song was over, I consciously chose another familiar strong and in a few moments without much effort that one also began playing as if from a radio or a headphone. I was able to spend a good hour in the state of auditory bliss hearing songs that I loved and enjoyed.
There was one major, maybe understandable, limitation – I could only hear those songs that I was quite familiar with, that I knew or had known the lyrics to, and that I had listened to in the past repeatedly. New or unfamiliar songs did not bring on the affect. Yet, I was quite astonished to realize that many songs that I hadn't listened to in a number of years, for which I had little conscious memory of lyrics, I got them to play quite nicely. So songs for which I wouldn't know the lyrics, if I consciously tried to sing out loud, I was able hear from unconscious memory.
Reading Lawrence Rosenblum's book on the extraordinary powers of our senses, See What I’m Saying, I immediately thought of that personal experience. The book presents empirical examples and recent research on the extent and quality of human perception and sensory powers. Relating stories of many special people who have been able to use the non-dominant senses to compensate for their loss of their primary senses, Rosenblum presents evidence of our exceptional sensory capabilities and our brains ability to use various senses to help us in our awareness, perception and function.
Stories of blind who have been able to enhance their hearing abilities are numerous. Rosenblum tells a story of a league of blind baseball players who use their sense of hearing to successfully play the sport, which is known for its requirement of immense hand eye coordination; another example include blind toward guides will lead others on mountain biking adventures. Deaf people who are adept in lip-reading; blind people who lead mountain biking tours; animators who use their knowledge of sensory capacity to create believable movies; and many other stories and interviews makes this an enjoyable read. A whole host of experimental and academic research from psychology, physiology, brain imaging sciences and other scientific disciplines complements these real-life examples. What all these empiric examples and experimental research shows is that the capacity of the human brain to use and magnify the ability of our senses is beyond what most of us employ for daily use.
Most of us do not usually think about the vast capacities of our senses. By the time we enter adulthood we know what we know and our routines of how we use our senses have been set. The habits of our sights, smell, touch, hearing and taste make us unaware of the extent of their powers and the limitations that we put in them. One practical lesson that Rosenbaum book is that even though we may be fortunate to have all our senses functioning normally, we could still learn to enhance their use and delight in their capacity and varied uses. For most people who are not deaf, lip-reading may not be a necessary skill. However, if we want to become more attuned to the messages that we receive in daily conversations and if we want to become better listeners it may be helpful that we learn to recognize that conversations are more than mere exchanges of audible notes from one person to another. Rosenblum shows research findings that we listen to more than sounds: we imitate other person’s facial features and expressions to enhance our understanding of their message and rapport with them.
As people who are blessed with good vision and hearing, we may not habitually use our less dominant senses of smell and touch to the levels that could be possible. Rosenblum highlights experiments where people's brains very quickly learn to use tactile and other sensory information to enhance their visual inputs. So if we want to taste food better, we must engage our sense of smell consciously. If we want to enjoy a piece of good music, we need to allow our ears to be totally attuned, maybe by not watching the attendant video or just simply focusing our attention to the ears.
While psychological and academic jargon such as cross sensory plasticity or many such terms are abundant in the book, Rosenblum explains them well and the primary fun is derived by learning about the breath and depth of knowledge that scientists as well as ordinary people have achieves about our own senses. That our sensory capacities are almost in finite should be a solace as well as a challenge for us to engage them more fully. If nothing else this book will show examples, anecdotes, and research to motivate us in making sure that we are using our senses fully and in unity.
Philosophers disagree about the material versus ideatlist basis of reality; that is, the sensory whole of our experience versus the insight gleaned from our deep, innate consciousness. If the totality of our experience is the product entirely of our sensory perception, it behooves us that we expand, enhance, and better understand the nature and quality of our perceptual abilities. Even if we subscribe to the other point of view, that our innate nature and consciousness is the ultimate guide to the true reality, the quality of sensory input would be equally vital to activate the correct insights. Either way we could profitably heed Rosenblum’s insights on the variety, subtlety and the immense power of our senses.
Although I didn't find an example of similar auditory memory that I recently experienced, having read Rosenblum's book I now realize that my sensory memory of hearing songs does not end at the time I stop listening to them. Just like I can visually remember important times in my life or particularly captivating scenes from a movie that I saw long while ago, just like I can remember specific memories of peoples and places from the smell of the typical food, I can consciously use my brain to "play" a song from memory. Only, if I practice this skill continuously.
That is the final, most important, lesson of Rosenblum's book, one that comes up again and again and again: the fundamental importance of practice. How we develop and cultivate our senses depends on how we practice the use of one particular sense or another. Wine tasters, lip-readers, fly-fishers, among many others, learn to use their senses for optimum use by constant practice over many years. I hope to nurture my newly discovered ability to hear songs from memory by practice. Also there are a lot other sensual and perceptual activities, as introduced by Rosenblum, that I would love to practice for my personal and social benefit.
There was one major, maybe understandable, limitation – I could only hear those songs that I was quite familiar with, that I knew or had known the lyrics to, and that I had listened to in the past repeatedly. New or unfamiliar songs did not bring on the affect. Yet, I was quite astonished to realize that many songs that I hadn't listened to in a number of years, for which I had little conscious memory of lyrics, I got them to play quite nicely. So songs for which I wouldn't know the lyrics, if I consciously tried to sing out loud, I was able hear from unconscious memory.
Reading Lawrence Rosenblum's book on the extraordinary powers of our senses, See What I’m Saying, I immediately thought of that personal experience. The book presents empirical examples and recent research on the extent and quality of human perception and sensory powers. Relating stories of many special people who have been able to use the non-dominant senses to compensate for their loss of their primary senses, Rosenblum presents evidence of our exceptional sensory capabilities and our brains ability to use various senses to help us in our awareness, perception and function.
Stories of blind who have been able to enhance their hearing abilities are numerous. Rosenblum tells a story of a league of blind baseball players who use their sense of hearing to successfully play the sport, which is known for its requirement of immense hand eye coordination; another example include blind toward guides will lead others on mountain biking adventures. Deaf people who are adept in lip-reading; blind people who lead mountain biking tours; animators who use their knowledge of sensory capacity to create believable movies; and many other stories and interviews makes this an enjoyable read. A whole host of experimental and academic research from psychology, physiology, brain imaging sciences and other scientific disciplines complements these real-life examples. What all these empiric examples and experimental research shows is that the capacity of the human brain to use and magnify the ability of our senses is beyond what most of us employ for daily use.
Most of us do not usually think about the vast capacities of our senses. By the time we enter adulthood we know what we know and our routines of how we use our senses have been set. The habits of our sights, smell, touch, hearing and taste make us unaware of the extent of their powers and the limitations that we put in them. One practical lesson that Rosenbaum book is that even though we may be fortunate to have all our senses functioning normally, we could still learn to enhance their use and delight in their capacity and varied uses. For most people who are not deaf, lip-reading may not be a necessary skill. However, if we want to become more attuned to the messages that we receive in daily conversations and if we want to become better listeners it may be helpful that we learn to recognize that conversations are more than mere exchanges of audible notes from one person to another. Rosenblum shows research findings that we listen to more than sounds: we imitate other person’s facial features and expressions to enhance our understanding of their message and rapport with them.
As people who are blessed with good vision and hearing, we may not habitually use our less dominant senses of smell and touch to the levels that could be possible. Rosenblum highlights experiments where people's brains very quickly learn to use tactile and other sensory information to enhance their visual inputs. So if we want to taste food better, we must engage our sense of smell consciously. If we want to enjoy a piece of good music, we need to allow our ears to be totally attuned, maybe by not watching the attendant video or just simply focusing our attention to the ears.
While psychological and academic jargon such as cross sensory plasticity or many such terms are abundant in the book, Rosenblum explains them well and the primary fun is derived by learning about the breath and depth of knowledge that scientists as well as ordinary people have achieves about our own senses. That our sensory capacities are almost in finite should be a solace as well as a challenge for us to engage them more fully. If nothing else this book will show examples, anecdotes, and research to motivate us in making sure that we are using our senses fully and in unity.
Philosophers disagree about the material versus ideatlist basis of reality; that is, the sensory whole of our experience versus the insight gleaned from our deep, innate consciousness. If the totality of our experience is the product entirely of our sensory perception, it behooves us that we expand, enhance, and better understand the nature and quality of our perceptual abilities. Even if we subscribe to the other point of view, that our innate nature and consciousness is the ultimate guide to the true reality, the quality of sensory input would be equally vital to activate the correct insights. Either way we could profitably heed Rosenblum’s insights on the variety, subtlety and the immense power of our senses.
Although I didn't find an example of similar auditory memory that I recently experienced, having read Rosenblum's book I now realize that my sensory memory of hearing songs does not end at the time I stop listening to them. Just like I can visually remember important times in my life or particularly captivating scenes from a movie that I saw long while ago, just like I can remember specific memories of peoples and places from the smell of the typical food, I can consciously use my brain to "play" a song from memory. Only, if I practice this skill continuously.
That is the final, most important, lesson of Rosenblum's book, one that comes up again and again and again: the fundamental importance of practice. How we develop and cultivate our senses depends on how we practice the use of one particular sense or another. Wine tasters, lip-readers, fly-fishers, among many others, learn to use their senses for optimum use by constant practice over many years. I hope to nurture my newly discovered ability to hear songs from memory by practice. Also there are a lot other sensual and perceptual activities, as introduced by Rosenblum, that I would love to practice for my personal and social benefit.