We just visited my brother today. They are back in their house, thankfully and everyone is well. It's funny how suddenly you turn around and the little guys seem so huge! As I fed Erik (or was it Paul, I forget which one I had) I was amazed just how much he has grown since he was born. I am amazed that they have changed so much in the first 3 and a half months of life.
We sat around a talked catching up up life and eating burgers cooked on the grill. Dessert was whatever chocolate chip cookies didn't end up on the floor. The babies got baths, and we talked about pregnant wives and plans for life. Matt and I lit some stuff on fire. It was good.
We need to do this more often. Much more often.
And yes, for those of you who know us well enough to ask that question, the fire was in a fire pit that met city ordinance.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Reflections: Brain Scanners
OK this one is a bit different, but it was sparked by a news article I heard on the way home from work. No I wasn't listening to Mystery Science Theater or a Star Wars audio book. It was a very respectable news agency, and the topic they were reporting on was on how a technology that has been around since the 1950's is being combined with modern software for some amazing results. It's is called electrocorticography, or ECoG, and it uses electrodes placed on the surface of the brain to detect electrical signals coming from the brain itself. It's been used for decades to help determine what parts of the brain cause seizures in individuals with epilepsy.
When combined with this new software, individuals are able to open and close virtual hands with just their brain signals. Amazing as this is, the really interesting part for me was when I learned about what the brain does when we speak. You see when we go to talk, the brain sends out a set of signals that tells our mouth to move, as well as our lungs, and vocal chords etcetera. But the brain also sends out a second set of signals to a surprising place: It sends them to the ears. Essentially, you're telling yourself how the words should sound, and your brain interprets it as listening to your own voice. Now: when we simply think a word or phrase, the only brain signals sent are the auditory ones, and again you hear your own voice in your head.
Here is where my thoughts take off. How often do we think something that we don't say? I do it all the time. There are people I know that, I admit, I mentally tell off just about every time I think of them, but I never actually say those things to them, because that would be rude! Then I thought, if I am always thinking these thoughts about these people, that must be affecting how I see them. Haven't advertisers have known for decades that if something gets repeated enough times, people will start to believe it even if it isn't true? The power of suggestion is incredibly strong. For example most people believe that a cold soda will quench their thirst and won't even question the truth of the thought. But in reality a can of pop does exactly the opposite. It is scientifically proven to be a dehydrating agent. It dries you out. Yet we believe it satisfies thirst because we have heard it and seen it so many times in so many different forms that is's like being brainwashed in a small way.
So, if I'm listening to my own voice in my head, telling me over and over these, lets just say "creative and colorful descriptions" about people, it would make sense that I'm actually using the power of suggestion on myself. (It kinda trips me out that I have been doing this but haven't realized I was doing it.) When I do this over and over and over, I am brainwashing myself. I am altering my own perceptions about certain individuals when I grumble under my breath about them. This can't be honoring to God. I mean really, am I thinking of someone as God thinks of them when I mentally tell them off?
It stops me in my tracks to think how for so long I thought so much of myself because I just didn't say what I was thinking. As if I was in the right because I just kept it from coming out, but really it isn't any different. Really, I am still judging people when I do this, and in doing so I still believe that my judgement of people is right, whether there is any truth in it or not.
God, will you help me see when I am doing this, and help me to break this habit?
Romans 12:2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
When combined with this new software, individuals are able to open and close virtual hands with just their brain signals. Amazing as this is, the really interesting part for me was when I learned about what the brain does when we speak. You see when we go to talk, the brain sends out a set of signals that tells our mouth to move, as well as our lungs, and vocal chords etcetera. But the brain also sends out a second set of signals to a surprising place: It sends them to the ears. Essentially, you're telling yourself how the words should sound, and your brain interprets it as listening to your own voice. Now: when we simply think a word or phrase, the only brain signals sent are the auditory ones, and again you hear your own voice in your head.
Here is where my thoughts take off. How often do we think something that we don't say? I do it all the time. There are people I know that, I admit, I mentally tell off just about every time I think of them, but I never actually say those things to them, because that would be rude! Then I thought, if I am always thinking these thoughts about these people, that must be affecting how I see them. Haven't advertisers have known for decades that if something gets repeated enough times, people will start to believe it even if it isn't true? The power of suggestion is incredibly strong. For example most people believe that a cold soda will quench their thirst and won't even question the truth of the thought. But in reality a can of pop does exactly the opposite. It is scientifically proven to be a dehydrating agent. It dries you out. Yet we believe it satisfies thirst because we have heard it and seen it so many times in so many different forms that is's like being brainwashed in a small way.
So, if I'm listening to my own voice in my head, telling me over and over these, lets just say "creative and colorful descriptions" about people, it would make sense that I'm actually using the power of suggestion on myself. (It kinda trips me out that I have been doing this but haven't realized I was doing it.) When I do this over and over and over, I am brainwashing myself. I am altering my own perceptions about certain individuals when I grumble under my breath about them. This can't be honoring to God. I mean really, am I thinking of someone as God thinks of them when I mentally tell them off?
It stops me in my tracks to think how for so long I thought so much of myself because I just didn't say what I was thinking. As if I was in the right because I just kept it from coming out, but really it isn't any different. Really, I am still judging people when I do this, and in doing so I still believe that my judgement of people is right, whether there is any truth in it or not.
God, will you help me see when I am doing this, and help me to break this habit?
Romans 12:2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)