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Hearing the Connection
Aug. 23rd, 2009 10:41 amThis morning I had a very interesting dream. I dreamed that I was being given the sound of a computer modem instead of the modem itself. This struck me as something unworkable. What good would the sound do me? Then a dream voice-over told me about how there are people who find pleasure in a fraction of the entire experience, in this case the sound of a modem instead of the fully working modem. I woke up soon afterward and things clicked into place.
There are many many times in our lives that a "partial" experience is enough. Some examples are:
Let us say that blueberry incense is very special to somebody. Putting a basket of blue berries in front of them does not solicit the same reaction. Instead the emotional connection may be a childhood memory of smelling blueberry pies cooking at the family home. If one were able to transport them back to that kitchen, the scene would still seem flat compared to the representative awareness of the incense burning.
Why? That kitchen scene is tied into their childhood as a whole, and this is a multi layered, multi event, multi timed panorama that the smelling of the incense somehow captures. There is not way to be transported back to the one time that the incense represents because the incense is the messenger for a multi dimensional emotional and intellectual remembrance. To me, the ability for the human mind to present the tabula of the past through a single present sensory point is a thing of magic itself.
This understanding of partial/repeated experience triggers puts a portion of the human experience into perspective for me. Rituals make more sense. A person’s desire to have pictures around them, or listen to particular types of music, speaks to the person connecting with a larger internal world. Ah! There is the magic. The outwardly partial experience connects to the individual’s internal world. The breadth of these worlds is beyond simple comprehension by others. If I were writing a book about this it would be called “Outward Cues, Inward Worlds”. And believe me, a more comprehensive presentation of this would take a book. Oh wait, I think it is also called psychology. LOL… I think I will relax and listen to some Pink Floyd now.
There are many many times in our lives that a "partial" experience is enough. Some examples are:
Incense, Records, Photography, Scented Candles, Television and Movies, Ritual, Paintings, SculptureThese share the trait of being a representation of a whole thing. Ahhh... but what of the whole thing? The dream voice-over narrative was trying to tell me that the modem sound is what they wanted to hear, and beyond that it was just a sound. The same could be said the previous list. In theory one could go to the original "real" instance of each representation. Or could you, and is that what is really looked for?
Let us say that blueberry incense is very special to somebody. Putting a basket of blue berries in front of them does not solicit the same reaction. Instead the emotional connection may be a childhood memory of smelling blueberry pies cooking at the family home. If one were able to transport them back to that kitchen, the scene would still seem flat compared to the representative awareness of the incense burning.
Why? That kitchen scene is tied into their childhood as a whole, and this is a multi layered, multi event, multi timed panorama that the smelling of the incense somehow captures. There is not way to be transported back to the one time that the incense represents because the incense is the messenger for a multi dimensional emotional and intellectual remembrance. To me, the ability for the human mind to present the tabula of the past through a single present sensory point is a thing of magic itself.
This understanding of partial/repeated experience triggers puts a portion of the human experience into perspective for me. Rituals make more sense. A person’s desire to have pictures around them, or listen to particular types of music, speaks to the person connecting with a larger internal world. Ah! There is the magic. The outwardly partial experience connects to the individual’s internal world. The breadth of these worlds is beyond simple comprehension by others. If I were writing a book about this it would be called “Outward Cues, Inward Worlds”. And believe me, a more comprehensive presentation of this would take a book. Oh wait, I think it is also called psychology. LOL… I think I will relax and listen to some Pink Floyd now.
