In addition to articles on imagery-related topics form
various interesting research angles, there are ideas concerning mental imagery
and its practice using the internet or just the computer for personal growth
and development. . .The computer and the internet offer so many fascinating possibilities
for imagery research and applications that now, at the threshold of the twenty-first
century, we are beginning to envision this adventure into the future. With each
click – and through the special courtesy of the Image – we can peer more deeply
into details that tell us everything we may need to know about the world and
ourselves. The current volume offers a vision of potentials and an initiative
in this direction.
Following is the article by Dr. Akhter Ahsen which
appears in "Imagery
and the Internet."
THE VIRTUAL MIND – STOKING THE FIRES OF HEAVEN:
COMPUTER, FAX,
TELEPHONE AND INTERNET IN SERVICE OF THE IMAGE
written by Akhter Ahsen
"I wish to know my mind so that when I am in the presence of anyone who
is unable to hear what I say and unable to know what I know to be true, that
I will continue to be connected to my own mind's illumination and not cover my
eyes in shame."
Herida
The internet has brought a new term to the psychological scene: "Psychotherapy
Online." The initiative proposes to ultimately replace face-to-face contact
with a long distance connection through the new modality of internet communication
where coaching, support and counseling are provided using online real time service
in a manner similar to tele-medicine, which treats patients from a distance.
Telephone conversations, faxes, and e-mails can be added to chat room exchanges
that contain instructions about what to do with these direct, verbal exchanges.
In light of the visual culture that is developing on the internet and influencing
human society as a whole, we find that the visual image plays a special role.
In the context of a visual culture theory and its application in general, we
find that a theory of the virtual mind would be pivotal, taking the operations
further into possibilities that are barely being sensed at this point. The potentials
of the genetic mind need to be absorbed in the virtual mind as an overall umbrella
concept which will lift human imagination from the traditional context into a
more freeing context.
Regarding our own experience concerning this new development, we found that when
mental images, in particular, were used in the computer medium, the results were
more reliable and helpful than mere exchange of words and conversations to secure
therapeutic benefits. The image kept clients far more on track than the words
and made even concentration and conversations more useful. We developed an imagery
approach comprised of various communication modalities involving the computer
screen on which light patterns flash their verbal message. Faxes, telephone and
internet connections, using also the individual's own faculties such as imagination,
are organized as well in the service of what we finally called the virtual mind.
The goal we achieved was self-centrality, self-sufficiency, self-administration,
self-transformation, and self-change, or in other words, self-therapy in a virtual
time-space.
The Virtual Mind Theory
The virtual mind is not just a watered down version of the currently well-known
notion of virtual reality, as one might suspect on first glance. The virtual
mind is a double-layered notion. First, it proposes to establish a 50- called
outside virtual operation, as in a virtual reality model; then, in a subtle maneuver,
it outflanks and replaces this virtual reality with the virtual mind, which is
a multidimensional and very dynamic operation. What we get in the end is a mind
operation that combines the virtual and the real in what is called here the virtual
mind. When the virtual and the real become truly one and the same as in the virtual
mind, we then have a true mind and a true reality that transcends the overly
fixed limits of memory and history. Being in possession of this ultimate true
power, ordinary reality becomes mind's province, not vice versa.
The virtual mind theory proposes that in modern civilization, as in all previous
civilizations, the true mind has been replaced byan artificialized mind and an
artificialized reality. This philosophical 1055 is corrected by creation of the
virtual mind, an operation that retrieves and restores the original functions
through a virtual modality that retrieves and brings the original mind forward
in real time. The historical mind, with its memories and its learned materials,
is not questioned; rather, the virtual mind is drawn out from a mere flicker
of light coming from the information field and treated through a medium of instructions
that transform the potentials. In this sense, the virtual mind is, in fact, a
cloned mind and like the cloned person from a cell, it does not have the personal
history of the cloned.
Virtual reality in theory transports an operation from the abilities context
where it functions in reality, such as actual piloting of an airplane, to an
experiential lab setting which brings various skills of the person together in
the new context. What is learned from virtual reality is automatically transferred
to the actual operation where it is finally used but the gain is limited. What
is learned in virtual reality is not transferred to the true reality in a fuller
way although applied directly to ordinary reality. When we deal with virtual
reality through the virtual mind notion, however, a genuine transformation process
occurs based on the transmutation of ordinary light into a new reality in the
new context. In this connection with the virtual mind, virtual reality carries
a deeper metapsychological connection, not only just the practical one. We will
try to explain it further.
Lighted Message on the Computer
Light on the computer has an intensity which is different from light operating
in the ordinary reality. The arrival of that light at the moment of message delivery
is sudden, not made of ordinary reality, a graduated light which sculptures the
objects. The relationship of the sculptured world to the eyes is quieter and
gradual during delivery. The light on the computer is sudden and forces itself
upon the mind, bringing forward surprise. However, the computer screen combines
many levels of illuminations such as of words with the illuminations of content
that start with imagination within the mind itself. But there is more to this
lighted message; there is a hidden magic in this sudden light. It is alight that
excites consciousness first while the message is being delivered. That is the
secret magic.
We have heard of couples who, when unable to talk to each other in person, send
messages through e-mail to resolve their problems. Similarly, when teenagers
find themselves alone or lonely amid the pressures of the modern world, they
go to their computers and talk for hours on end over the internet, feeding and
nurturing each other's mind without getting tired. It is not the welcoming sound "You
have a message!" or the content of the message that attracts, but first
and foremost the message itself lit on the screen, the light that flickers back
and forth as the talking goes on between two people. The light itself, bearing
a message on the screen, is hypnotic, sending a pleasant wave in each person.
The activated light appears almost magically from nowhere, it seems. The message
seems to come from outer space, not very different from the way in which an idea
suddenly appears in one's head from nowhere. Its appearance breaks all the rules
concerning how objects usually appear in real space and time in the outside world.
The objects that appear in physical space invariably appear in a context: In
the outside world the pen and pad appear on a table, the door is connected to
another room to which it leads, and the bed has a pillow perched on it for resting.
Nothing is unconnected, and everything is perfectly predictable in the usual
time and space of day-to-day reality. But the message on the computer screen
has arrived from a place which is totally imaginary, at least in the head of
the person, perhaps transmitted from thousands of miles away, and yet it is directly
addressing you in the here-and-now cyberspace. You cannot rotate or turn it around
as you would a real object, yet it has a straight- forward, inexorable presence.
The next time, it will come again the same way. Like a vision, it also has a
different intensity of light than the modulated mellow lights that make up a
physical object in physical space. This intense light hits in the center of your
forehead, like a dream during sleep. Bang! Thoughts pop into the mind. There!
Such thoughts, unlike ordinary perceptions that are like the usual and mundane
context-based events, have an unexpected quality to them. They are sudden presences.
This is the virtual mind, the true mind. The light that comes to us from the
computer screen holds the information at a new plane of reality.
What appears on the screen is suddenly there and it jump-starts the mind at a
whole different level. You are dealing with a person who is perhaps thousands
of miles away through cosmic illumination which inked writing, or the telephone,
does not have. In olden times artists used to illuminate important documents
to give them the quality we're talking about here: light that has a beaming energy
to it and lifts the message to a different level of a mind on the opposite side.
Oerrida's literary theory has been praised for redefining the act of writing
as inspirational and creative. Oerrida suggested that people who feel inspired
express and write toward that goal. However, a person once confided to me about
writing, "I would rather throw up than write." The virtual mind is
a gift from Beyond and the word occurs as a burst of illumination, not as inked
writing. That is where the mind actually begins, in a burst of light. To know
is, first and foremost, to be illumined.
There is a time-within-time as history evolves from primordiality, and the ego
builds itself a separate organization during this interaction. Nations, too,
build themselves along this time-within-time process. But then there comes a
time-such as our time today in civilization-when history begins to undo primordiality
itself, destroying everything worth- while on which history is itself based.
There is a bit of lesson on truth here. How can you separate history from primordiality?
It is difficult. Therefore, we take the challenge as it comes, and we call it
the virtual mind.
This artificialized existence which illusion has created and is permeat- ing
history is firmly embedded in reality through a strange distortion called mishearing
and reporting falsely. Psychological experiments on rumors report how rumors
are, in fact, created and maintained through mishearing and then believing without
checking the original source. Rumors are an instrument of propaganda as well.
Another quality that contributes to the making of an illusion which is mentioned
in the sacred lore of humanity as well as the scientific study of rumor is the
element of hurry. We know that a rumor spreads like the proverbial wildfire feeding
on dry wood. Lore mentions illusion as a mighty opponent of truth in the form
of such figures as Lucifer or the Lord of Illusion in Buddhism, who has bloody
fangs. It is the same story or theory everywhere, that illusion is the Lord of
ill-doings who is the killer of green woodlands and does battle with truth. This
mind is the battleground for recovery of our inner holy sanctuary, which is the
same as the wondrous Nature in the real world.
Misinformation carries contamination; it is like a mass of germs and we do not
know how many unwanted entities live in it. The moment any information is presented,
the mind, having lived through many civilizations, begins to react and formulate
analysis under the guidance of one germ or another which contaminates it. The
process will be defeated by the slipperiness of the information and how it is
being handled in the face of uncanny seductions from various sources. The person
will complicate the issue also in a personal way since he or she learned to function
in civilization and personal survival is brought into focus. To the germs for
sheer survival add the germs of twisted memory, demons of inferiority, shame,
isolation, imitation, prediction, everything.
And so it goes, on and on, as one person said: "My feeling about this is
that it gets frustrating, because I think, when does this all end, and when does
the time come when the twisted information stops playing these tricks? It can't
always be this way. It gets me angry. I feel like every time I have to do something,
there is a fear attached to it, and it is aggravating to me."
In the virtual mind the ego's ability to organize is put back on the primordial
base by restarting it in the virtual base. The mind is taken from its slavish
bond to the past and placed in anew space which supersedes all other space-physical,
symbolic, etc. This new space gives mind a whole range of new possibilities.
Here, it operates in a pure way, undisturbed. Its only companion is truth as
imagination, not an outside shadow that flees or deserts at the inkling of slightest
danger. This companion is a genuine insider whose fate is intimately bound with
mind's own destiny. There is no enemy in this pure space. None. This space is
pure. The purity of pri- mordial life has returned in it. The message is beaming
on the screen. Imagination inside this space remains pure all the time since
there are no obstructions. There is lot of work to be done, but it is liberating
work. If you need anew way of perceiving, you've got it here!
In its technical capacity for beaming messages across space, the computer is
both ultra-modern and ultra-primitive and primordial. As the light comes on,
real-world reality vanishes in a split second and the genie from the Beyond appears
with a message on the computer screen. There are no laboriously written black-inked
pages to be read, but a mere seeing of a message beaming like a lighthouse. It
is not just an electrical flash like the short-lived lights from some weather
storm. Rather, that little flash of light, when stoked, releases flares into
the cosmic fires of heaven.
The Fires of Heaven
How do you stoke the fires of heaven? You shift attention from an image on the
computer screen to an image in the mind back and forth, which brings out the
smoldering heat that bursts into a flame. The switching back and forth between
the computer and the mind is a priestly service to the fire. The mind is not
just a screen or a white-hot electrical oven; it's an altar of the primordial
fires.
To stoke the fires of heaven we set up three simultaneously viewed but separate
blocks of illuminated messages on the computer screen. These are next to, yet
distinct from each other, and the person can switch back and forth with the click
of a button. As the person switches back and forth between these visual blocks
of illumined information, the mind goes through a creative shock of disengagement
from the usual content of history to anew feeling with a different horizon. The
primary attachments that have been engulfing the mind since one was a child are
broken. The technique of the virtual uses three images from memory or imagination
and switches them back and forth without mixing them, as used to happen before
due to pressures. This is dissolution of attachments in the service of truth,
a projection from the primary base of Being.
Three Ships Near Greenland
The organization of material in three separate blocks of text on the computer
screen is a very useful technique. The material is living and grows from the
base of primordiality, endlessly expanding the ego boundaries. From these three
harbors, speaking metaphorically, the mind's ever adventurous nature can go in
various directions, exploring the potentials of the universe. These ships from
the harbors can
go anywhere, and the cargo in their belly is limitless, carrying
all kinds of goods, including personal history, the magical and
the mythological.
It was the adventurous Vikings who imagined such a virtual mind trav- el in their
mythology. In their sagas they talked about a ship that travels to distant shores
and magically returns to the port of origin on command. On return, it can be
folded and put into the pocket. Herida, a woman working on the Three-Image Projection
(TIP) method with us chose a mythic theme instead of a theme from personal history.
She elaborated on this saga of virtual mind travel, inventing three ships that
floated somewhere on the eastern side of North America near Greenland.
Herida: A Case Study
Each of Herida's ships carried a different title, according to its description.
Ship 1. Viking Ship, of Norse origin, out on sea for an adventure.
Ship 2. HMS, that is, Her Majesty's Ship, also called the Mother Ship, looking
after territorial possessions.
Ship 3. Yogic Ship, a heavenly ship of unknown origin from the Beyond.
These ships placed in three separate blocks on the computer screen began to help
Herida separate herself from a long overattachment to the mother, who had completely
taken over her mind's natural functions, resulting in loss of her true identity
and widespread confusion in her mind. The need for separation from the mother
and inability to achieve it was the problem that began to be resolved through
the invention of scenarios involving these three ships.
Herida wrote down the visualization scenarios, and then used the dis- cipline
of following a single-image episode in the case of each ship to its continuous
imaginative unfolding. A fascinating interaction developed in the adventures
between the ships, leading to Herida's mind expanding and weaning from dependence
on the mother, but without losing the mother in the process. When handled with
care the procedure can lead to a fascinating experience of the mind and its freedoms.
Herida gave the following report on her use of the
TIP method.
"I would keep images in separate files so that my mother's behavior would
not get into the image and take over my mind. Before this, I could not keep the
images in separate concrete blocks, or separate cabinets, or folders. My mother
would always break through the barriers. I would mix ideas because sheets of
paper could not be kept separate. The computer separated them effectively and
organized them for me. This helped me overcome my mother.
"Reliability of the computer was better for me than reliability of mother
or my own reliance on her unreliable personality. When you switch on the computer
and click where you need to go, the information comes to help you, and you go
there in a very reliable way.
The computer screen tells me what I have to do.
It is like the computer is presenting what has to be done and is not trying to
confuse me.
"I feel the old rebellion with the computer, like the way I used to feel
with my mother. The computer is saying, 'You have to do this.'
I wait, and then
I submit. I do not argue with the computer. I do not. Its command is final, not
changing like my mother's commands used to be, which was very destructive to
me. The computer is consistent, not inconsistent like my mother used to be. 'Okay,
you can
do it this way. You can get away with it. Just this time. Never, again.'
I feel the victory. The next time, hell breaks lose. That destroyed my mind.
"In the case of the computer, I do not act like the bad child. I do it.
As I said before, I feel the rebelliousness. But I know that the computer will
stick to its position. As a result of its reliability, I can experience how my
mind works and I can handle it. I do not end up as the bad person.
"The computer, by its routine, offers no surprises to me. It works with
me, like a very wise teacher. With the mother it gets so bizarre, and I am to
blame and she walks away. She dumps the whole thing on me.
"Before my mind was short-circuiting all the time. I feel safe now with
the three separate formats on the computer. The three formats remain separate
fom each other and help me separate myself from my mother. I am amazed at the
process. I feel whole.
"Before all this, my mother was in total control of every emotion that I
had; she would mix things up in my head. My mind had no independence. My mind
always went to my mother first, whether I liked it or notl and that is all I
had known since my early childhood. Whatever I would be doing, good or bad, my
mind had to go to my mother attachment first. I had to have permission from the
mother, from my past training, the conditioning, memory whatever you may call
it. I had no independence whatever. The work with the three ships and their separate
journeys over the oceans freed me. Each description evolved separately, yet each
one came out of my own mind.
"All that I am dealing with now is biology of the image because of the feeling
of freedom. My mother suppressed the biology of my mind and superimposed on it
the pseudo-reason invented by her, corrupted byother attachments, benefits, and
considerations. Because the biology of my own mind was not respected, history
continued to create anxiety in me. This has been restored in my mind by the light
coming at me from the computer screen. It is a powerful, predictable screen with
three separate messages which progress and follow through like a good teacher.
"There is a feeling of more space during each attempt and the space is pleasurable.
Before there was this awful panic to reach out, to grab onto something which
was, of course, my mother. The mind space itself would be changed into a bottomless
pit because of her unreliability. This was the hell of history, the memory. There
was no space for my own true mind. Since the panic reduced through this exercise,
the absence of pressure brought forth further pleasure necessary to my mind's
own existence in the natural state.
"Through these images the feeling of more space is actually felt by me.
Lots of space, tremendous space. It is infinite, and there is no fear of this
infinite space in me because I cannot get lost in it. It keeps expanding and
expanding to infinity. And I feel happier and happier.
"Before this my mind was always searching for more space but instead found
more futility and more of the baggage of history. The baggage grew and grew,
and the real space, in fact, had contracted because the contact with it pristineness
had been lost."
Circularity and Exit
The ego has an element of circularity in its functions in which the symptom of
dependence on the earlier problematic material is repeated endlessly in the attempt
to grapple with it but there is no progression at all, only circularity. Language,
unfortunately, has inbred circularity to it as well and the problem, as a result,
becomes more complicated because the circularity spirals into a storm. This causes
more anxiety, and a feeling of increase in the symptoms with no end in sight.
Herida asked the following question concerning the method: "Are you cloning
me? Tell me the truth."
Of course, the true mind was being brought forward from a mere speck of light
on the computer, and in that sense it was a form of cloning indeed, of being
made again but without the burden of memory.
"I never liked computers," she said, "but this exercise on the
computer I like. I feel the truth in my guts. I am like Dolly, the scientifically
made new being. I have been finally cloned out of my older self. The illuminated
computer screen is the single cell of my being containing the complete me. I
saw myself being born again."
Humans interpret but computers do not. The computer screen does not keep or hold
anxiety like the individual does. "The computer is a truly illumined Being," she
said laughingly. She added further, "The computer is my virtual mother.
My umbilical cord is connected to it. The trust has been re-established with
motherhood after I lost trust in my real mother.
"The movie in my head is running all the time, although I am not looking
for it. What I see is so clear that I feel apart of my brain is opening up and
I could take it any way I want it, take a close-up or have a panoramic view.
I feel very free.
"These image progressions go on and on. I go like a squirrel leaping from
branch to branch tilll reach the branch where I cannot travel further into the
beyond. But I am always at the beginning, starting anew branch." Herida
found something like the mythical cosmic tree in the Three-Images Projection
method, which we will describe next.
Three-Images Projection (TIP) Method
How should one choose the three images to create the magical results that we
are speaking of here in order to experience the virtual mind that we spoke about
in the beginning? Each image is chosen individually to represent three distinct
states or memories. There are no rigid rules, except the person's own inclination
or intuition to follow a line of possibilities. The only clarity comes from why
the image was chosen or why a particular line of imagery was selected later on
to generate a progression. There does not have to be a big reason either; one
just needs a preliminary reason to start the whole process. It is that simple.
The person should make a list of about a half-dozen images to choose from, and
finally select three that are entered in three separate formats on the computer
screen. At the click of a button one of the three images appears on the screen.
The person concentrates on the image and the image progresses as a result. Progression
is added in the appropriate space in each of the formats. Following the first
image, the next image is brought on the screen, and the same procedure is followed.
Finally comes the third image and its progression. All the progressions make
the story grow and the process helps the mental network evolve its own features.
Here is a more formalized version of the procedure.
Three-Images Projection (TIP) Method
Just relax and clear the daily clutter from your mind.
Now pay attention to your past, especially your childhood, and think of people
or situations which especially stand out in your mind- problematic, pleasing
or active.
Choose three people or three situations out of this. Write them down. Type out
on the computer screen
the three images in a brief form as the starting points for progression of experience,
as follows:
IMAGE (A): title and brief description
Details of the image
Progression upon concentration; 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, etc.
IMAGE (B): Title and brief description of the image
Details of the image
Progression upon concentration; 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, etc.
IMAGE (C): Title and
brief description of the image
Details of the image
Progression upon concentration; 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, etc.
The three images may be chosen for any reason: to resolve a problem, enhance
pleasure, close a gap in consciousness, search for new information in an area,
or develop new experience. The scope is practically limitless and includes personal
memories, mythology, fiction and art. The progression of images is developed
by repeating the last image in mind, concentrating on it and allowing it to progress
to the next image, allowing any image which tends to come up, and entering it
under the new number. The progression thus grows from 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 to 7 and
so forth.
Each block grows as a progression of images moving in a certain direction. It
represents where the mind naturally tends to go, the issues that are revealed
in the process and the solutions that emerge during the progression. The case
study below illustrates the method.
Woden: A Case Study
Woden, a male in his mid-forties, used the TIP method of experiencing his potentials
along the lines of the virtual mind. This is his report.
"The different feelings I get from the three images that I chose is very
pronounced as I shift back and forth between the three boxes. Lot of information
came out with good and bad feelings. That was surprising to me and felt very
good.
"IMAGE (A). Grandmother image. It is of conflict, visiting her with my mother,
not being able to do anything in her house, of being completely frustrated and
not being able to feel any sense of relaxation or freedom.
"Details. I can see myself sitting there, with absolutely nothing to do,
and I fidget in the chair and eventually get up and start walking around the
apartment.
"Progression. (1) I go into one of the rooms where my aunt's typewriter
is and I look at the typewriter, but I can't touch it because the keys would
make too much noise if I push on them.
"(2) I have to find something that will not make noise so they won't know
what I am doing. I go to the sewing machine that is in the room. It had a large
pedal which you pushed with your feet to make the machine work. I would sit on
the pedal and rock myself back and forth and see how fast I could go. However,
in a very short time my mother would come to see where I was and what I was doing.
I think she used to get nervous with my grandmother.
"(3) I remember as soon as we got there, my grandmother would tell my mother
not to let me touch anything.
"(4) The only one there who didn't give me trouble was Uncle Jimmy (Jim-Jim).
He was always playful, and when he was there I would listen to the radio with
him. However, that didn't happen often.
"(5) Uncle Jimmy was almost always out somewhere. He had a lot of friends.
"(6) I think this was part of the first conflicts I had with my mother.
It was probably over not wanting to go with her to my grandmother's, and the
fact that sometimes she wasn't home when I went home from school for lunch or
when I got home from school at the end of the day. I can remember my father getting
angry at her for that as well. Sometimes he would get home from work and supper
wouldn't be ready because she got home late from grandmother's. So all around
it was a negative thing. It wasn't good for my mother either.
"IMAGE (B). The baseball glove image. It gives me a good feeling because
my father gave it to me.
"Details. The first important thing that I felt in the image is that my
father gave me something, and it was a surprise. I never asked for the glove
straight out by saying 'I want this glove.' I only hinted that I needed a new
glove and I mentioned that there was this one particular type that I wanted.
I didn't think he would even remember. Father usually would give us sornethingl
but he would be sensible about it and also thrifty about it. I thought perhaps
I would get a glove but not one that cost so much money. However, I guess by
then he figured I was serious about playing, and it kept me busy as well, and
out of trouble. I had al ready had my original baseball glove for 9 years, and
had worn a hole in the pocket of it, from using it so much.
"Progression. (1) Whenever I got a new baseball glove, for the first few
nights I would sleep with it near me in my bed. I liked the smell of it, and
also I would lean on it in order to form it to how I liked it to be shaped.
"(2) I enjoyed being a member of a team when playing ball. It was a way
of making new friends. When I first started playing ball at age 8, I was very
quiet and shy. I didn't talk to anyone unless they talked to me first, and even
then, I would barely answer them. As time went by I became a little more outgoingl
as I became more relaxed with other kids.
"(3) As I look at this image I feel sort of surprised, thinking that when
I was young I was always told I was 'backward,' meaning sort of quiet and withdrawn.
Yet I pursued this whole thing.
"(4) I had to go to the club where they signed you up for a team and I had
to go to tryouts where they tested you in the field, and also to see if you could
hit the ball.
"(5) I always went. I never missed a practice or a tryout once I made a
team. So there had to be something in me at that time that made me able to do
this.
"(6) No one took me there, I had to go by myself. I had to go to the games
myself also.
"(7) Father came very seldom. It seemed he tended to stay away for reason.
I think in a way it was good because I think if he was there I might have pulled
back more and not felt the same sense of freedom I had in being on my own. I
see that more and more as I do these images, that maybe my father knew that if
he was there it would hamper me in a way. When he was around I tended to be more
quiet and subdued. When he was there I would not feel as outward and would not
be able to express myself the way I did when I was there with just the other
kids. I would feel as if he was watching and might be critical or me, so for
that reason I wouldn't be as free.
"IMAGE C. The music image. This image is a step up from the baseball image
because I made money doing music, plus I was teaching other people. I was helping
them to learn what I had learned.
"Details. Father was very interested in my teaching music. He didn't think
too much of the playing in the band and being out late all of the time. But he
rarely said anything about that. With the music he pretty much left me on my
own as well. He never came to any of the places we played in. The only time he
heard our band play was when we played in the back yard on Sunday where we lived.
"Progression. (1) Father seemed very surprised, and pleased. It was always
his idea for us to learn music. He seemed to want us to pursue music for some
reason. He had mentioned to me once about someone in the family in Italy being
a conductor of an orchestra or something. I also think he mentioned once that
he had tried to play the trumpet.
"(2) Father did enjoy music. I remember he used to tell me that he used
to always sing to his older sister, who I always visit when we go to Florida.
She told me that he did that too.
"(3) When I first started to play I had to use a guitar that my father rented
from someone. When he knew I was serious about learning then he bought me a very
inexpensive guitar, but it was my own.
"(4) At a later time, my father bought me my first electric guitar and amplifier.
The guitar was a used one, which I was not happy about, but it was a good one.
I cherish that one guitar very much and still have it. I have learned to appreciate
it more over the years. I think my feeling was that my father always bought my
older brother new and expensive instruments and I got the used ones.
"(5) I enjoyed all the aspects playing in the band. There was practicing
to learn new songs, and then there was the job of going out and finding new jobs.
The drummer and I would go out together to places and pass out our cards and
talk to the owners of the clubs and we would ask for auditions to see if they
liked what we played and if they did they would give us a job.
"(6) Sometimes in those days to get a job they would ask you to play one
time for free and if the people liked you then they would hire you on a steady
basis. That is how the business worked. That is how it was done by everyone.
In those days every musician went through things like this when they were first
starting out.
"(7) The idea was to build a name and reputation for yourself, and then
in time things became easier. Then they would seek you out, because if they knew
that you had a following and people liked your music, they would come to where
you played and that would mean money for the owner of the club.
"(8) There were a lot of things that needed to be done with a band. Jobs
had to be booked, you had to make sure everyone knew where to be and when, practice
time had to be arranged, and we had to rent space in the back room of music stores
for rehearsing. Instruments had to be transported to where we were playing, things
had to be set in advance, and the fee had to be negotiated, along with the hours
we would play.
"(9) Generally, we worked from 10pm to 2am. That was pretty standard for
us. Certain times were special. If you worked New Year's Eve you always made
more money. One New Year we work as a band in one place from 10pm to 3am, and
then the other guitar player and I went and played at another place from 4am
to 9am. I made a lot of money that night. I slept all the next day because I
was so tired.
"(10) I remember back then having a lot of energy, and always being out
and busy. 'Running around' is what my father would call it.
"(11) I don't even remember how I got into teaching. But at one time I had
as many as 9 students a week. All beginners. Then after a while my friend got
me a job in the music studio where he worked and I had 40 students in a week.
But I had to split the money with the man who owned the studio because we were
using his space, which was okay because in those days we charged $4.00 a half-hour,
and we would split the money, so I would get $80.00 for the week from that, plus
the $36.00 from my own 9 students, because I kept all that money. If we worked
3 or 4 nights a week we would earn $20.00 or $25.00 per night each. So I made
more playing music and teaching than if I worked a regular job back then.
"(12) A lot of the money got spent having good times, and buying new equipment
and renting space for rehearsing. But we were having fun. I was actually in it
for the fun and not the money. This is also how I met my wife. I played in the
band with her brother, and she used to come around to where we would play and
where we would rehearse.
"(13) It is the same with baseball. When I see what they get paid now, I
think to myself, I would play baseball for meal money if they would let me.
"(14) I enjoyed music so much. I would play even for nothing, just for the
experience of playing in front of people. For me a lot of it was in experiencing
things. That was the thrill for me. To be a part of it and involved in it, and
enjoying it.
"(15) There was the issue of having to live, so money had to come into the
equation sooner or later. It is like a necessary evil. I think that was the part
I didn't enjoy so much. The part of having to worry about who thought I didn't
get them enough money for the job, or if there wasn't enough work to keep us
busy.
"(16) I had one thing happen at one point where we were so busy working
that if we had a weekend off for some reason I felt like I didn't know what to
do with myself. So playing the music was like socializing for me. I was with
people, and people would always want to talk to the musicians and ask questions
and things like that. So for me it became a big part of my life. So much so that,
as I said, when we didn't have a job, sometimes I would actually feel sick.
"(17) I always tell the story about when I came out of the service and I
wanted to play in the band again but someone else had taken my place and there
was no room for me. I can remember after a short period of time, I started to
actually feel sick. I remember one particular Sunday sitting home with my mother
and father, which I never did on a Sunday, and my father asked me why I wasn't
going out, and I told him I didn't feel well. I was feeling as if I was getting
the flu or something. I was moping around and sulking and feeling really bad.
I went to lay on my bed to die. After awhile the bell rang and it was one of
the members of the band and he came into my house and told me that one of the
members of the band quit because of a disagreement they had and he asked me if
I wanted to join them. I jumped off the bed and got my guitar and amplifier and
went out the door. Suddenly, I wasn't feeling sick anymore. I remember this like
it was yesterday. When I think of that moment, it still gives me the same happy
feeling."
Touching and Overcoming Aggravation
"When I spend time on the three-image projection method, I find that each
image attracts my attention in a certain way. With the Grandmother image, I find
that it is annoying to me because of what she did to me, and it gets me aggravated
sometimes when doing it, but I spend time on it because I am interested in working
through it and eliminating some of the symptoms I have which I suspect are attached
to this image. For that reason I don't have a problem doing the image. I don't
have any feeling about trying to avoid doing the image, even though it doesn't
give me much of a good feeling doing it. It is interesting. There are a lot of
negative issues connected to it. Should I touch, approach, whatever? However,
I think what makes me do it is that I want to sort through all the negative issues
of approaching and touching connected to the image. Because of that, in the end
I feel better. So a lot of time when doing the image, it is unpleasant for me,
but I do it because by now I know that soon I will be on the other side of it.
There will be a time when I will take the initiative, touch and feel better and
I will benefit from having struggled through the image and having worked with
all aspects of the image."
Re-experiencing Enjoyable Moments
In the music image, I enjoy doing it because
it simply gives me a good feeling. It brings back a lot of good memories and
moments. It is so enjoyable that much of the time I am not even aware of any
of the bad times we had during those days. By that I mean that there were times
when all of us, the band members, would not get along and we would argue with
each other without breaking up the group. There were times when we needed equipment
and didn't have money to buy it and various other things, but we found ways of
handling things in the end. I can't really remember a lot of them, and I think
it is because the image has a very strong positive effect on me and I am remembering
mostly positive things and success."
Connecting with Father
"The baseball glove image is also a very positive image for me, especially
the fact that this glove came from my father. He bought me that baseball glove,
and it cost a lot of money at that time. However, the only part of the image
I see is when my sister woke me up and told me she was to take me to the sports
store and buy the glove. I don't remember much, if I had to keep asking my father
for it, or what. I don't remember much else connected to this image except getting
the glove. It is like the music image. It is on the same plane but perhaps it
has slightly different impact."
Sequence and Time Spent on Images
"I would do the music image first, the baseball glove image second and the
grandmother image third. It is easier that way. I am able to handle the grandmother
image better if I do the other two images first.
"However, what is interesting to me is if I put them in the order of time
I would spend, I would say that I would spend more time on the grandmother image,
only because of all the things that are there and the unpleasant things I want
to unravel and understand and resolve. There is more material there to work on,
with the touching problem, the courage to approach and independence. There is
a lot of emotion involved in the grandmother image. There is sadness, there is
anger, there are hateful feelings at times. I need to know that I have those
left-over feelings in me. There are feelings of resistance because I didn't want
to go to my grandmother's house, and there were fights with my mother because
I didn't want to go.
"The music and baseball glove images can be quickly projected and the good
feeling from them is immediate, so it is not necessary for me to spend a lot
of time on them unless I want to relate to someone the history of how I spent
my time and how it makes me feel and how it made me feel back then. So it seems
that the negative image requires the most time and the most work. But I also
feel that I need the positive feelings to develop my stamina to deal with the
negative feelings. There is a point here in favor of the positive, which I need
to keep in my mind."
Mood and Opportunity
"When I sit in front of the computer and I have more than one image to do,
how I decide what image to do depends on what the images are developing into
as the progression goes on.
"For instance, if I know an image is going to be unpleasant or perhaps I
will have to look at things I don't want to deal with, then the tendency will
be to do that image last. I have to watch that. If there is an image that is
unpleasant but for some reason I have a feeling that there is something in there
that I am looking for or that there is something in the image that I may be looking
at to find a solution or to make a connection with something at that time, there
is an interest in it and I might tend to do that image first.
"If there are images which give me a good feeling when I project them and
look at them, I see them as predictable and know beforehand what is contained
in them; then I might consider them secondary images and do them second or even
third, in order."
Today I Choose a Different Sequence
"I may tend to do the images in the order they are given. Today, I have
chosen to do the grandmother image first for a different reason. Because the
content of the baseball glove image and the music image is very predictable,
I use them as positive images and look at them when I want to feel something
positive and see images that make me feel good. However, I also look at them
from time to time to see if there is anything new that comes from them. There
was a time in my life where I didn't even remember the baseball glove image,
and it suddenly came to me one day, out of the blue. The music image was always
there, mostly as a memory image. It is a time I look back on to remember good
times, and some of the people I had relationships with."
Pursuing the Unknown
"Today in the grandmother image, I have negative feelings mostly, her not
wanting me to do things and touch things, but I also find it interesting to look
at the image because I am searching for things in the image. To date, nothing
new has come from it, but I keep looking at it, because I am anticipating that
perhaps at some point something new will come from this image. That is its most
advantageous side. When I do the image I sometimes get a feeling that there is
something there, but I haven't come into contact with it yet. We had to travel
from one side of town to the other, and take two buses, so in that travel time
I am sure there were interactions between me and my mother that are not clear
to me at this time and are not in my consciousness, but I am looking and working
with this image, hoping that there is more information in it that will at some
time become apparent to me and help me to sort out some of the issues connected
to this image. This is like pursuing the unknown. There is an advantage here
that spurs me on. Grandmother's forbidding image does me a favor here."
Stoking the Fires of Heaven
"Here I focus on a kind of statement in my mind: 'Goddamn it, He made this
mind that causes this trouble.' Another statement pops up in my head: 'God made
the mind, but the trouble it is causing is our own fault.' When we are born,
we are born with uncluttered, pure minds. It is just like how we worked on the
images, where we learn that we are not born with sin, as religion tries to say
that we are, or that we are unpure or blemished. We are born without sin and
are pure and clean. So the essence of mind is also uncluttered and trouble-free.
What causes trouble to the mind is all the things humans do that create trouble.
We have to sort through many things in our lives to figure out what is good and
what is bad, and what is true and what is untrue. It is hard work. Many times
the mind can become confused and people may be thinking they are doing the right
thing or are on the right side, and they could be way wrong. We are also misguided
by those who are in control. And from all sides they are all trying to say they
are right. It is very difficult to sort through everything we hear, see and read.
This is quite burdensome. Somehow a person has to try to sift through everything
and try to see things clearly. Of course, it is very difficult, but many can
do it with discipline. This is what I think can help people overcome frustration,
and anger.
"Everyone is trying to put the blame on someone, to say the other side
is bad. It is in our politics, it is in how we relate to each other as humans,
it is in our lives every day. No one is telling the truth about anything, it
seems. All this we can find in the images. But the images tell us the way it
is. It cannot be that only one group is good and everyone else is bad. Similarly,
not just one image is right; all the images are right. There is no one way here
to appeal to the human spirit. The human spirit is online. It triumphs everyday.
We are told blacks are bad, whites are bad, Muslims are bad, Christians are bad,
Russians are bad, Chinese are bad. I assume they are told that we are all bad
as well. So who is right? Only the images. It is all created by control groups,
those who want to be in command and control everyone. It is a dangerous game,
and all of it is in memory. People's minds are being shaped by lies and more
lies, in-group against out-group. If what is being said is true, then we are
all bad. There is no good in this world. That is not true. All of it is based
in negative conditioning so that we all learn to be suspicious of one another,
become fearful of each other, become wary of each other, and then come to dislike
each other. It is just like parts of my own mind that I am avoiding in the images.
Now it has come to the point that even if someone is telling the truth, no one
knows it. No one can understand it. I myself did not know my own mind.
"This is what I have learned from images so far. Humans have caused trouble
to their own minds. It is not the Creator's fault. We were given something good,
and we made something bad out of it; it is our own fault and no one else's. That
is where we are now at this time in history. And this is what imagery in the
mind is all about.
"The mind receives no attention to expand it, build it, make it into what
it should be, or heal it when it needs to be healed. People run for whatever
type of instant cure is fashionable at the time. People don't want to look at
their own soul. I think that is why many people run from images and keep doing
what they are doing, instead of cleaning up the mess."
The Mouse, My Heart: Computer Symbolism and Simulation
When a person uses the Three-Images Projection method, the imagination in each
projection flows so enormously that each image becomes a world in itself. The
flow depends on how much time the person wants to spend on each image. A certain
balance is required, and the person decides what he or she wants and which cues
to elaborate more by dwelling on them. The question as to why, how and exactly
where the elaborations are needed is answered in various ways by the person.
Switching between the images tells us which one has a stronger grip, which one
is being avoided and which one needs more attention. There are periods of indecision,
but if all the alternatives are given a chance, the best one always wins in the
end. This is a mind battle in which the old mind and the new mind are on either
side and there is ample opportunity for confrontations and nightly raids from
shadowy possibilities, metaphors, and allegories. There is a lot of poetry in
it too, struggle and journeying in the dark. Even the heart takes many forms
and becomes a virtual entity. Fiction joins with inventiveness, and imagination
has no limit. At the level of the virtual mind I was looking for my heart, and
my mind of course as well, but my heart had camouflaged itself in the form of
a mouse. I did not have the slightest idea that the computer symbolism and mythology
had gotten together to lift up my spirit.
Heart and mind. I ask myself about these two entities, "Where are they?
Where are these two entities located?" As my anxiety lives alongside my
hope, I search consciousness and I look for my heart. I hear the word "mouse!" A
strange event, I wonder at this call.
Where is it, my heart? As I was searching for it, my agitated mind was a companion
in this search. I saw my heart outside of my body, and it was in the form of
a mouse scurrying around, perhaps looking for something. The mouse was near my
body on the right side when I saw it.
Mouse and Instruction: Confusion in Experimental Psychology
Before going any further, we need to refer to experimental psychology so that
the reader exactly understands what I was involved with and how tricky the whole
terrain is where the theory of simulation of an image through a verbal instruction
had been developed. The whole body of imagery research had been, as a result
of difficulties, a confusing campaign in the tracking of a very shadowy entity.
The whole problem emerged when problems of speech perception arose during World
War II in connection with hearing messages in bomber planes over the noise. This
led to George A. Miller's contribution in redefining psychology starting from
(1) a more narrow stance, along behavioristic lines following the spirit of the
times (Miller, Language and Communication, 1951 ), and (2) softening of this
stance in a paper 14 years later (Miller, 1965). (3) In the meanwhile, he made
a commitment to psycholinguistics, (4) and joined on a common forum with Chomsky,
who was trying to remake linguistics so that it could cover the cognitive (Miller & Chomsky,
1963). (5) The result was an emphasis on language rather than on learning, as
Miller (1965) describes it:
If we accept a realistic statement of the problem, I bel ieve we will also be
forced to accept a more cognitive approach to it: to talk about hypothesis testing
instead of discrimination learning, about the evaluation of hypotheses instead
of the reinforcement of responses, about rules instead of habits, about productivity
instead of generalization, about innate and universal human capacities instead
of special methods of teaching vocal responses, about sentences instead of words
or vocal noises, about linguistic structure instead of chains of responses-in
short, about language instead of learning theory. (p. 20)
Miller's contributions in developing some of the central notions in the psychology
of his time were important. We find also artificial intelligence getting into
the battle to redefine cognition processes in psychology, using the notion of
simulation. However, the problems that artificial intelligence faces in formally
simulating cognitive content have never been resolved fully, and advanced psychological
theorizing about thought and problem-solving has continued to remain problematic
to the present time. Logical theorists show their misguided heads in imagery
theory under the banner of cognitive science in such statements as "under
conditions of perfect instructional control, script and image are the same" (Lang,
1979). In this respect Alan Richardson's (1994) critique of instructional control
is quite fair and deserves some attention. The extent and complexity of the problem
should become more explicit to the reader as we return to the image of the mouse
as my own heart and the attempt to verbalize this elusive image in a clear way.
I decided to convert the image of my heart as a mouse into an instruction so
that someone else could experience it. How to net this mouse-heart in the form
of a verbal instruction? Making a visual painting of it in colors would be impossible.
It would take a great artist to do it and it would take months to execute such
a painting with so many messages in it. So I proceeded to make an instruction
using only words. I will describe the process of designing it as it happened.
The record speaks for itself.
I am quickly alerted to many hazards in making this decision as I take my first
step. When I say "instruction," what exactly do I mean? What is an
instruction? Is it a verbal parnting or carefully written verbal steps to see
along the lines of what I saw in a more spontaneous way? To create a detailed,
perfect list of verbal steps would really be a formidable task. I decide to do
a verbal painting instead. What does a verbal painting really mean? In a humble
way I try to do a mixture; an instruction which is like a visual painting.
But how will I mix a verbal instruction and the verbal painting, and write an
instruction which is like a visual painting? This, too, seems like an herculean
task. What will be the rules for performing this complex feat? For a foretaste
of how complex it is, I will refer to the stages that I just now went through
whfle writing this paragraph using the words "can," "should" and "will" in
order to translate my sense of direction.
a. How can I mix verbal instruction and verbal painting?
b. How should I mix verbal instruction and verbal painting?
c. How willl mix verbal instruction and verbal painting?
As you will notice from the paragraph that I wrote, I finally chose "will" and
dropped "can" and "should," in that order, because these
alternatives carried a meaning that I did not want to convey. At this moment
it has happened again because I first wrote the words "to avoid" and
then changed that to "not want to convey." Obviously, the two carry
altogether different meanings. Avoid means an emotion, not just a decision on
my part. As a result of these lessons, I finally settle down to accept the process
of struggle as the only way, which may not necessarily reflect the perfect outcome
but what is most reasonable under the circumstances. I do not mean rational but
reasonable, because rational means logical, which will not do the job properly
either and will mess it up badly. But reasonable will get it done in a sensible,
middle-of-the-road manner.
If that is what I should do, how do I write the instruction in a sensible, reasonable
fashion? This is how I should proceed: by looking into the history of the experience
itself that I am trying to prepare as instructions. Some intricacies creep in
there also, because as I look into the material, it tends to grow on its own
in the direction that cannot be predetermined by any rule. Writing the history
of the instruction in the end turns out to be as complex as writing the instruction
itself. The only way it can be accom- plished is by retracing the steps of the
experience using ordinary memory, but soon the memory also becomes laced with
the shades of new experience. This perplexes me altogether. Finally, I decide
to proceed just by describing the history of the image itself in a reasonable
way as an introduction and end it there. This is what I do next, and it unfolds
in 30 steps.
1. I was looking for my heart in my bewildered mind and I saw a mouse in my mind
and it was outside of my body on the right side. That was my heart. This is how
the mouse felt to me.
2. Even as I am communicating this image for someone else to follow it, I find
that the image has a very personal feeling to it. Should this be included in
the instruction? I decide not to further confuse the issue, and go on to the
next step.
3. The mouse came from my bewildered mind, and was a part of my mind and it belonged
to no one else. I start thinking: Should this be also a part of the instruction?
I am confused about it again.
4. I conclude that the attempt to communicate this image has a definite limitation
to it from the very beginning. The pronouncement of the limitation cannot be
a part of the instruction, because it will injure the positive intent of the
instruction.
5. If I pronounce the limitation as a necessary part of the instruction, it kills
the instruction by giving it a definite negative context. The mouse is gone.
The heart is gone, too.
6. The outside place where the mouse appeared is now deserted, almost a charred
place, as if there were some kind of fire there before and now there is only
a trace of ash left.
7. The quantity of ash outside is so small that no one will notice it except
me. The tragedy that my heart suffered will be no longer known. What happened
to my poor heart becomes just a personal story.
8. Where is the mouse now? It is inside my mind and my mind is inside my body,
somewhere. Outside there is only ash.
9. I can see the image outside, but it originally came from inside. Between the
outside and the inside there is now a shock of illumination of the distinctions,
the shock of differences, and this shock now travels in my mind, awakening other
things, many ideas.
10. I have no idea what those things are but they are being awakened somewhere,
a place that I do not know. All things are in a mysterious place. Outside or
inside, I do not know. The illumination spreads.
11. I find a brief rustle of wind over the autumn leaves in my mind. I see the
autumn leaves, the wind too, and the wind turning a few leaves over, and that
makes a noise like the mouse is in there.
12. As I write this and also make connections on the way, I now find that the
image is definitely outside of my mind, located in an imaginary space on the
right side of my mind, which is really inside.
13. When I say that it is located on the right side of my mind, I implied that
my body is real and the image is imaginary. But on second look I find my body
to be imaginary and the mouse is real. On second look, nothing seems real, everything
is imaginary.
14. I get tired of the distinction between the imaginary and the real, and I
no longer want to call what I am seeing as imaginary or even real but only psychical.
Outside and inside have now both become psychical. There is a feeling of continuity
and fluidity in the word "psychical," not in the word "imaginary." I
like that.
15. As my mind shifts between outside and inside, between imaginary and psychical,
because these distinctions continue to haunt me, my mind experiences little shock
waves of illumination in the shift, at all those levels of interpretation.
16. I now shift my mind to the outside, which I call now again by the word "real" because
I do have a reference to that sort of thing in my head, which I call illumination.
I want to find out whether I can experience those little shock waves of illumination
also when I shift my mind between various objects in the visual field. Yes, these
are shock waves of illumination in the outside real world.
17. But, where are the shock waves of illumination located? Are they strictly
outside or inside? They are inside my mind. Outside the light surely remains
quiet, sculptured and totally predictable, waiting patiently. It does not invade
my consciousness.
18. I shift my attention between the visual objects outside to see if I experience
the shock waves of illumination inside my mind. They are the shock waves of attention.
19. The shock waves of illumination are in the attention. They are in the mind,
because attention is in the mind. At least so I conclude using reason.
20. These shock waves of illumination found in the attention do not unsettle
the mind like an earthquake in the outside physical world would. Attention itself
is made of the shock waves of illumination, perhaps more powerful than an earthquake.
It goes to the objects like a bolt of lightning.
21. The attention is like a bolt of lightning that travels from object to object
in the consciousness field. There is powerful activation going on all the time.
22. This mind is like a storm cloud, with strikes of lightning at various levels
and in various regions of its mysterious being. Indeed, this is mind. Where the
mouse appeared is its playground.
23. Any fragment of light that embodies these bolts of lightning in the mind,
alight that shifts and returns, strikes and moves away with the promise of return,
is also the mind.
24. So, when the bolts of lightning from my mind created the awareness of the
objects outside, it was the mind itself, its territories spread out, both outside
and inside.
25. Now it does not matter if I say that the objects are outside my mind or inside
my mind, because they are both outside and inside.
26. The attention is, therefore, both outside and inside and it wakes up and
sleeps fitfully in cycles, and when it sleeps it is awake.
27. The light coming from the computer screen is mind also, since it shocks the
mind as the information on the computer shifts. Similarly, the shifts in the
verbal instructions are shifts in attention.
28. This is the virtual mind, driven by the mouse residing in my bewildered heart,
not strictly beside the computer nor in my body, but in a shared visual field
which knows no boundaries.
29. Someone who is far away is really right here in front of me in some manner.
The electrical message appears like an illumination engulfing my mind from a
cosmic swirl.
30. The psychical mouse is not far away. It is right here but where exactly in
the traditional time-space? It covers thousands, even billions of miles in a
split second. Obviously, I cannot do anything without you, my dear Mouse, my
mysterious Heart, scurrying in a mysterious cosmos. The two constantly change
form to indulge me or perhaps just to amuse me. And I wait, being in the center
of a cosmic swirl.
Simulation, Vividness and Performance
I see a brightly lit object outside which is under the tenser light on the table.
It forces me to attend it, but I rebel and ignore the object. The brighter object
in the real world may not be able to keep my attention. The principle of vividness
pertaining to the real perceptual world does not apply to the mind, because attention
is stoked by the fires of desire, a different fire. My mind does not follow the
differences in reality; the reality follows my mind. The physical world is really
the mind and not the other way around.
Vividness is, therefore, not just a condition of visual intensity but a product
of a special type of illumination that it is psychically meaningful. This type
of vividness in the images can be comparatively weak in the imagery field, but
it has the shock of illumination in it, with a special advantage. We may have
a vague image at a certain point, but it has a function which is superior to
the ordinary vivid image. I presented experimental evidence of this phenomenon
for the first time in an article titled "Unvividness Paradox" (Ahsen,
1985), which was followed by "Unvividness Paradox: A Discussion" by
Hilgard, Marks and Sheehan (1987). We encounter this paradox over and over during
the search for effective images. On the computer screen the bright and beaming
message has the quality of shock, which creates illumination in the mind, but
if we look closer we find the mental images that were born from this beam and
were weaker in comparison. These weaker images soon become the winners of attention,
which illuminates them further. This is how vividness and vagueness seem to function
together without opposing and contradicting each other. In 1997 I presented the
importance of this phenomenon in the performance area (Ahsen, 1997).
The difference between simulation and virtual reality is quite blurred in the
literature on imagery practice. The verbal instructions are expected to simulate
the actual imagery experience in the mind. The instructions use vividness to
achieve simulation, but, unfortunately, they do not fully accomplish this goal
because mental dynamics are more complex than simulation of mere vividness of
visual experience can account for. The simulation ends up falling short of the
goal, being very rudimentary. The discipline of science expects more from simulation
in order to satisfactorily describe the dynamics of mental imagery toward the
goal of performance. Simulation is just a preliminary, perhaps a necessary step
on the road to final discovery of how imagery really functions at the mental
level. Since we are now aware that there are more dynamics involved in the actual
performance of a mental activity in real life, we can begin to study what is
involved during simulation.
Also, what is the difference between brief simulation and the warm-up exercises
that athletes traditionally perform before the actual game? Considering this
possibility, there may be even more problems than have been reported in the literature
in the model of brief simulation coupled with an estimate of performance. The
finding that mental simulation increases estimates of performance but not actual
performance tells us that people do respond also with hope at the mental level
by increasing estimates of performance. One finally asks the important question:
Does the estimate of performance itself involve more images which exist alongside
the image directly involved in the simulation images so that we have more images
in storage when the actual performance takes place? The pertinent values meaningfully
change as we pursue one simple image along the lines of the instruction.
To bring this out we did an experiment involving images of putting a golf ball,
not the actual physical practice of putting. We used simulation steps that would
involve the actual practice of putting. First we had difficulty deciding which
were essential and which were nonessential steps. After overcoming this initial
hurdle, we designed seven imagery steps to simulate putting. This part of the
experiment was repeated five times and was then followed by six more steps that
required the subject to decide if he, as a result, expected to do better in actual
physical putting, and then to see a spontaneous image of putting and repeat it.
Strangely, the image was different than the one the subject had practiced. After
this, the subject was asked if the simulation steps also appeared in the mind
and if not, why the spontaneous image of putting was different. This was explored
and discussed. We found evidence that the simulation sequences are rarely remembered
or even appear as part of the final reported image which seems to have been formed
in the end. (See "Putting a Golf Ball: Simulation Experiment.")
Putting a Golf Ball: Simulation Experiment
The subject is asked to stand and is told:
"Imagine that you are putting a golf ball from a distance of 5 feet."
1. Now see the image as follows, in seven steps.
(a) You are properly postured and your muscles are aligned.
(b) Your breathing is smooth.
(c) You are aware of the break.
(d) Imagine the predicted course of the ball.
(e) Adjust the alignment of your muscles again.
(f) Now hit the ball using the final posture.
(g) Imagine the ball going into the hole.
(The above simulation imagery is repeated 5 times.)
2. Now think of actual putting. Do you expect to do better
since you have mentally practiced these images?
3. Now see again in your mind the image of putting and describe the image that
you actually see in your mind's eye right now.
EXAMPLE: "All I see is my shoes, the ball and putter and grass behind the
ball. I hit the ball, and it is rolled into the hole. I see my right elbow jerking
as I hit the ball."
4. Now let us examine the image that you saw.
5. Did you see all the seven steps in the same sequence you practiced when you
did the putting image?
6. As the subject makes comments, the experimenter and subject discuss the images
that were actually seen during the experiment.
7. A list of mental images that are different from the prescribed images is compiled
for further discussion and possible ideas for
improving practice.
Note:
The discussion provides a list of ideas on what to expect and what to do in future
practice. Whether these are important images that emerge on their own and could
possibly aid performance more than mechanical practice is discussed. There could
be a variety of aspects involved such as morale, negative or positive ideas of
expectation, past hurdles and future hopes, etc. In the above example, the subject
reported at step 3: "All I see is my shoes, the ball and putter and grass
behind the ball. I hit the ball, and it is rolled into the hole. I see my right
elbow jerking as I hit the ball." Here we find that the original simulation
sequence concerning posture, breath, awareness, muscles, etc. neither appeared
nor was remembered. In fact, the images contained in the report seemed to have
been formed separately from the prescribed sequence. Why did the images emerge
of "grass behind the ball" or "my right elbow jerking"? Clearly,
these images were more in the focus of attention than the simulation sequence.
Discussion
The implications of the golf experiment are many, but for the purposes of this
discussion, what is most important is that additional images do exist alongside
the prescribed images and perhaps playa role in peformance of the skill.
Every image in the end is an image in its own right and it has no refer- ence
to any other representation outside of it when it is in the function mode. In
a word, the image is not a representation or a copy. The behavioristic undertones
have to be completely eliminated from this notion of imagery as it is being defined
here.
We need to define the term "imagery practice" not as practice of a
controlled image, but as projection of imagery in its natural state as it flows
alongside the prescribed image or the suggested image contained in an instruction.
The notion of imagery practice that we favor here is more open-ended than has
been used in the field so far. Clearly, rigid simulation instructions on how
to visualize an image is not the whole story and cannot be the essence of imagery
practice.
In computerized simulation, the same thing happens as in verbal simulation. We
do not get exact repetition through forced simulation. The image emerges as a
truly living and breathing field of lawful activity that uses rules other than
those that have been hurriedly framed. Those rules need to be deciphered and
recognized, as is their due. We need here an interlock between logic and imagination.
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