Illusions
Making sense of the world is done in our heads...
How many legs does this elephant have ?
You might find your brain flitting between two different answers trying to make sense of the picture. We know the picture is real (it's right there in front of you on the screen isn't it ?) but your brain is having a hard time making sense of it. It shows there is no absolute reality, only our interpretation of it - whatever you decide, you are right !
Here is another classic version of the same concept, can you see both the old lady and young lady?
Consider the following picture
What do you see first ?
Generally, those with a preference for big picture information will see the letter "n" first and those with a preference for the detail that makes up the bigger picture will see the letter "s" before noticing the letter "n". Which are you ? When you have to give large amounts of information to someone do you make sure you know their preference for big picture/detail before you start ?
Short Circuit Your Brain
Look at the chart and say the COLOUR of the word, not the word itself.
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Yellow Blue Green Black Orange Purple Red Yellow Black Green Purple Yellow Green Blue Red Orange Green Purple Red Green Orange Yellow Black Green Purple Yellow Green Blue Black Orange |
Why is it so difficult? Because the right half of your brain is trying to say the colour, while the left side of your brain is trying to say the word.
Believe it or not, you can't not read this...
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I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdgnieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? |
Finally, are these blocks stationary or moving ?
You probably already know they are stationary (go on print it out if you want to check) and your brain is making it's own reality. [For more like this go to Akiyoshi Kitaokas website at ... http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/~akitaoka/index-e.html]
We are always modifying our experience in order to shape our reality by deleting, distorting and generalising. This forms the base of the NLP presupposition "the map is not the territory" - we are all constantly drawing and redrawing our own map of the world based on what happens to us. If we want to know ourselves and each other better we could do much worse than understanding each others map of the world as a first step.
More Illusions that are fun to consider...
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