We have five senses.
Count them.
Sight
Hearing
Touch
Taste
Smell
Five. That’s it.
I am perfectly aware
that many people are firm believers in a sixth sense that I regard as a
non-sense.
Undoubtedly the
argument will be that, millions of years ago, we developed this instinct to
detect the presence of otherwise unseen and unsuspected animals or enemies;
that this sense has fallen into disuse but that some people still have it.
The current argument
may well be that there are times when you feel you are being watched; you look
around and, lo! someone is watching you. Proof. Of course, the number of times
that you feel you are being watched and nobody is watching you will be
discounted.
Statistics. It comes
down to statistics.
We have five senses.
That’s it. For practical, usable, purposes those are the only ones we have.
Nerves take the
signals from the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin to the brain where they are
assembled and some sense is made of them. Usually.
Sometimes sense is
not made of them and thereby hangs the skill of the magician and illusionist.
Once put together
those signals form an overall picture in our head of the World around us.
This World that is
in our head is the only one we have. This is our reality. Nothing else.
That World now goes
two ways; it goes into our memory for later retrieval and it also goes into a
decision making process.
Memory is fallible.
Everybody lies. This isn’t
something that ‘Dr. House’ made up. It is a fact. We never intend to lie but we
do sub-consciously because we do not remember things as they really were –
rather we remember things as we choose to recall them.
Decision-making is
something else.
To make decisions we
use the facts as we perceive them and we add in a generous portion of
experience from our memories. Memories that are distorted.
We make decisions
all the time. If we do nothing it is because we have decided to do nothing. If
a referee does not blow his whistle it is because he has decided that there was
no foul or that the foul was so small that it was not worth interrupting the
game.
We decide if we
shall be happy, sad or angry.
Nobody makes us
angry. Nobody. We choose to be angry.
Conversation:
Person, “Oh, it’s
you, the big-nosed, fat man.”
Me. “Yes. It is.”
Person (upset
because they achieved no reaction), “Your breath smells!”
Me, “True. It smells
of virgin pine forest and brings clear, sparkling streams to mind. Yours, on
the other hand, is rank with the foetid odour of rotting meat.”
Person, “You are
stupid.”
Me, “True. I shall not
argue with you since you are not intellectually armed to respond.”
Any response you
give that does not indicate anger means that you win. Someone who goads you
into this sort of situation is looking to bring you down. If you do not get
angry then they cannot win.
This is a conscious
decision.
You are in command
of your emotions and reactions. Nobody else is responsible.
I am often bemused
by people who have strong beliefs who hate, or mock, others who do not share
those beliefs.
Right now there are
Muslims being killed en masse by
persons unknown in Burma (Myanmar). This is of little concern to anyone else
because Muslims are, it seems, a disposable resource.
The odd thing about
this situation is that they are, apparently, being killed by Buddhist extremists.
What?
There are
photographs extant of Buddhist monks walking amongst piles of dead bodies whom
they have, it says, just killed.
Buddhists?
My entire experience
with Buddhists has always been that they are the gentlest people in the World.
They would move the Earth two inches to the right rather than kill anything.
Why would they
suddenly start to kill people? You don’t think that somebody is playing with
our perceptions, do you?
This happens all the
time. No doubt somebody will say
that they hate Buddhism now – but Buddhists are OK. Even though these two are
inseparable they will make such statements.
It is another
perception. Our perceptions are altered to suit our own needs.
Once we have formed a mental model of a
situation, we often seek information which will confirm this model and, not
consciously, reject information which suggests that this model is incorrect.
This is a quote from
the Civil Aviation Authority of the United Kingdom’s Civil Air Publication No.
715 (Human Factors in Aviation).
We do this all the
time. ALL the time.
We will mock those
who do not follow our line of thought, we will mouth vitriolic hatred against
people who have a different line of thought to us. We will use all manner of
discredited arguments, believing them to be, not only true, but rational to
depose others.
Humanity and charitable
thought lie in ruins at our feet; the concept of consideration and acceptance
of the beliefs of others is in ashes in the crucible of hatred fostered by
those with a vested interest in ‘The Truth’, whatever that is.
All this is
perception. All this comes from
our view of the World and how we translate it in our heads.
What does it have to
do with writing?
This.
When you go to a
film or watch a TV series you are entertained. Sometimes that film or TV series will remain in your memory
for a long time. It is a collection of, often random, visual images and some
sound bites. That’s it. Rarely does it impinge on any other sense.
When you write a
story it goes from the word to the reader’s brain. It is a direct connection that
avoids sound and image to make a string of symbols in the reader’s mind.
The written word can
convey more than just sights and sounds, it can convey smells, tastes –
sometimes the experience of touch. The imagination is alerted by memory through
the words chosen to describe a situation.
The written word is
a direct connection to the reader’s perceptions, it is far more powerful than a
film or TV image.
The author has a
responsibility to use this wisely and judiciously.
Go back and read the
‘conversation’. Do not tell me you didn’t smell pine forest, that you didn’t
hear a gurgling stream and smell rotting meat.
You ‘saw’ images of
piles of dead bodies with monks in saffron robes; if you thought about it a
while longer you might have smelt the bodies.
You did, didn’t you?
I rest my case.
