Limited perception

Dear reader,

we're looking at our watch daily. Whether it's a wrist watch or the mobile phone (cell phone for american readers). Do you have a wrist watch? If so, cover it up with your other hand to not look at it and answer a couple of questions:

- Can you tell me, if your watch is an analog one with the numbers 1 to 12 in a circle or is it digital?
- If it's analog: does it have roman numbers or arabic ones (like this number: 2) or lines where the numbers should be? Does it have a way of showing you the seconds in some way? If so how? Does your watch also have a section for the date?
- If your watch is digital: does it have arabic numbers like on a clock face that just jump to the next number? Or is it a typical digital way with lines forming the numbers? Does it show the date?

For those among you, who already don't have a wrist watch: does your mobile/cell have numbers to show the time or the lines that form the numbers? Does your phone show you the seconds? If so how?

Now take your hand off your wrist watch or take your phone and check, if your answers were correct.

Please cover your watch or phone for one last time, so you can't see the display.

You just had a look at your watch or phone. So clearly you can tell me what time it is for you right now? If it's any comfort to you: most people will not be able to answer that question. Because our perception is always limited. When you looked at the watch the first time, it was to see if you answered the questions correctly. The time display was irrelevant for you. So you didn't pay attention to it.

It's similar to the following, probably already familiar, video. The instruction is to count how many times the players with the white t-shirts passed the ball:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGQmdoK_ZfY 

Until next blog,


sarah

M&M: How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Dear Reader,

my mother didn't like the actor Jim Carrey much. He was grimassing too much for her liking. But one day our half american friends once borrowed us their only english dvd of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”. Jim Carrey is hidden behind a hairy green mask in that one. My mother understood english well, but it wasn't quite good enough for the details of the film. She borrowed the german dvd from the library a couple of days later. The story was compelling enough for her and Jim Carrey hidden enough, that she found it well worth watching a second time.

But what's the story about anyway? The film from the year 2000 tells the christmassy story, based on a story by Dr. Seuss. In english speaking areas Dr. Seuss is well known for writing stories for children in rhymes. As already in Nightmare Before Christmas, this story too is about an unhappy outsider. Though with the Grinch we've got someone who hates christmas as much as one can hate a celebration. He lives up north from Whoville, a small town, in which all inhabitants just love christmas like no other celebration. Cindy Lou Who (Taylor Momsn) is the young daughter of the post officer Lou Lou Who (Bill Irwin). She is a bright, curious girl and when she finds out that the Grinch never sends, nor gets post, she goes to find out why. It's because of her insistence, too, that during the party before christmas, the Grinch should be the cheermeister of the party. Because the book says, “The cheermeister is the one who deserves a back slap or a toast. And it goes to the soul at Christmas who needs it most.” Not that the Grinch would agree, that he needed christmas the most... But Cindy Lou goes to him up on the mountain and invites him. The Grinch thinks hard back and forth and eventually goes. Gritting his teeth, he makes it through all the festivities.


And then... then comes the night. The Grinch is up on his mountain and sees how Santa Claus with his sleigh and reindeers is bringing the presents to everyone. So he sets out and makes himself a christmas costume and his loyal dog Max is converted to a reindeer for the sleigh. Then the Grinch sneaks down to the town and steals all the presents to destroy them in the dump. When he gets to Cindy Lou's house, she's just awake, too. He hides behind the christmas tree, which he was just about to steal. When she asks him what christmas is really about, he simply tells her, “Vengeance!” only to correct himself quickly with, “I mean... presents... I suppose.”

In the early hours the first couple of people realise that the presents are gone. But the inhabitants of Whoville are flexible and find that christmas isn't really about presents anyway, but being with your beloved family. So they sing and are happy after all. The Grinch hears that and realises for the first time, that he, too, can change. What that change looks like and what the Grinch does with that, you'll have to find out for yourself. I also won't tell you, why the Grinch is living so alone on the mountain in the first place. That's a story you'll have to find out together with Cindy Lou.

By the way Jim Carrey's mask was really good According to a trivia entry on imdb.com to that movie, the latex skin was so confining and uncomfortable for him, that he needed counselling from Navy SEAL who taught him torture-resistance techniques.

It's interesting how in certain kind of movies, the bad guys come across as very sympathetic somehow. The Grinch is one of those. With his deep seated hate, he is certainly entertaining and is different from the often only cheesy christmas stories.

Until next blog,

sarah

Drug of choice

Dear reader,

a treat for you for new year's eve, although most of you probably won't read it in time and/or won't have time to prepare yourself accordingly before the party. Anyway... 

Drug of choice is something Richard Bandler came up with. The idea is that our body remembers sensations and reactions. Mind you, it's not the drugs that cause you to feel a certain way and experience the world in a certain way. It's your body's response to the drugs that does that. So for example it's not the LSD that makes you feel the way you feel, it's your body's response to the LSD.

Of course with the technique's name "drug of choice" we tend to think of drugs: LSD, or alcohol most commonly, I guess. But it can also be used to help you sleep without your sleeping pills. According to Richard Bandler, you have to take this pill or whatever once and remember it and if you do the remembering well enough, taking the thing once is enough and you can recreate the sensations again as much and as often as you like and need to. I remember Bandler talking about having several teeth removed and he needed to take some kind of meds. He supposedly took them only once and did it with "drug of choice" the next times. The good thing about "drug of choice" is that with alcohol for example, you don't get the negative side- or after-effects like hangover, headache and such. Essentially "drug of choice" means: free drugs as much as you want!

So how do you do this? Let's say you want to get drunk. You remember a past time when you were drunk or drinking anyway. Where's the first location you felt it in your body? I assume it was your mouth. What kind of feeling was it? Maybe a cooling sensation in your mouth. Where did you feel something next? And what kind of sensation? Just as suggestions: your throat? Stomach? What about your hands? Your legs? How about your head? Just go through your body, remember all the parts of your body in the order you feel the effects when you are drinking alcohol. Got them all? Go through them again. As always, do it in the order they happen for you. Do this a couple of times and you'd most likely be drunk quite soon. You may want to make sure you're sitting down somewhere the first time or times you do this. And watch out when you stand up again!

You could also create an anchor for being drunk. That way you may get there faster the next time and you don't always have to sit down going through all the parts of your body time and again.

There's a nice video of the magician Derren Brown doing this with a guy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zryGzTbU49I

Derren is quite sneaky with his anchor on the poor chap sending him a short message at an unexpected time. Watch out for the guy with the turban, who's sitting in front of the guy. That's Derren. He's in his costume/disguise from another trick he did prior to this in that show. So it's not like Derren just sends him messages and leaves him alone drunk. Very responsible man, he is.

And also another video working with anchors to enhance the intensity here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsqZYezp_38

The basic idea of this is that you had the sensations before and remember them in a certain order. But others suggested that you don't need to have been drunk in order to make yourself drunk that way. We all have seen drunk people either in real life or on movies. So we have a reference, if not our own. Some say that this is enough already. I haven't tested that yet.

You may also want to take it further than just getting rid of your sleeping pills. They only gave me one once or twice on a night before surgery. But I don't usually take them and wouldn't do it again ever given my experiences and knowledge about hypnosis now. Certainly they gave me some stuff to calm me down before surgeries. You may want to recreate those sensations, too, if you aren't used to sleeping pills. I'm sure you'll go to sleep very soon that way. Even if you don't take sleeping pills. I know I could drift off quite easily that way if I wanted to. However for sleeping problems I usually do something less "dramatic", but equally effective, as I wrote in other posts before.

You could substitute sleeping pills, if you take them on a regular basis and don't want that anymore. Ideally you shouldn't need sleeping pills on a regular basis anyway. Certainly you can get hypnotically drunk with this method, too. How about replacing pills that help you with sexual dysfunctions of some kind with this method? How about if you have a weight problem and make up your own drug with “drug of choice” to help you with that? Or a confidence booster for shy people? Or... post your ideas to use this method in the comments. (Also see my Long live placebo post for that, if you haven't already read it.)

You could also combine effects or effects of different substances and make your own new free drug! It's  free, no negative side-effects, no after-effects. And you can have it as often and as long as you want. I have this naïve idea that people teach this method to addicts and the drug-related crimes and deaths go down and drug taking goes down. But maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part. I haven't worked with addicts, I don't really know about addictions. Would be cool if it worked though.

Please be careful, if you want to use this method to replace actual medication you really need. Like a diabetic who needs regular insulin shots for example. At least consult your doctor about this before. There are some pharmaceuticals you should actually take and not replace them like that. Not without consulting a doctor first anyway.

Until next blog,
sarah

Heavenly music

Dear reader,

I rarely hear "pure" classical music. I do listen to a lot of soundtracks. Soundtracks speak to more, because good soundtracks tell a story of their own even without the pictures.

Year ago, I became again interested in magic and found Derren Brown. In his stage show "Something Wicked This Way Comes", the second act starts with him getting a woman from the audience on stage, sitting her across from him at a table, signing a brick of wood for her and then hammering a nail in his nose, well the nose hole. To finish, he hammers the nail in the brick (perfectly timed with the playing music) and hands the brick to her as a present. All of that is with almost no words, he only whispers when she should hold the nail and when he asks for her name to sign the brick for her. This is accompanied by Beethoven's fifth piano concerto, in english areas also known as "The Emperor". It is a strange thing to see someone hammering a nail in the nose, although I'm well aware that this act is not a trick, but really possible. Those of you, who can't see that sort of thing, should just click on the video to start it and look away or close your eyes. Everyone else can, of course, also close your eyes and just enjoy the music. The piece itself is the second of three and about 9 minutes long. Those of you who want to listen to the whole piano concerto and haven't yet, be warned: the transition from the second to the third part is very instant and very loud.

The second part is, not least because of Derren Brown, my favourite part. Although it doesn't hurt trained people to hammer a nail in the nose, it still has become the essence of relaxation and especially analgesia for me.

You have been warned, Derren Brown hammers a nail in his nose in this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNbnuZR2wd4

I heard the second, in my opinion divine, piece, in the movie "Master & Commander". A crew is sailing around on a ship. The captain enjoys playing the violin and the doctor plays the cello. Preferably, and much to the dislike of the rest of the crew, they play classical pieces. This is why there are at least some excerpts f those classical pieces on the CD of the soundtrack, too. An ingenious movie with the combination classical pieces with the captain and the doctor, by the way. Normally the two of them play always together. So all pieces are for violin and cello. The only exception is when they stop at the galapagos islands, to treat the injured doctor and give him a rest. On the island, on land and among many interesting new animals, he is in his element. That's the only moment, when you can hear a piece for solo cello, namely Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007.

My favourite piece however can be heard when they sadly have to abandon a sailor, a cut version (of about 16 minutes cut down to about 5 minutes) of "Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis" by Ralph Vaughun Williams. It's a bit complicated, I know. Thomas Tallis lived about 1500 until 1580-ish and has composed a hymn. Vaughun Williams was born about 1890-ish and died in 1960-ish. He was very interested in english folk songs and was inspired by Tallis' hymn. Vaughun Williams composed his wonderful piece in 1910, in which it was also performed for the first time in the Gloucester Cathedral. The special thing about it is, that the musicians are not all sitting together. some of them are sitting in a smaller ensemble somewhat apart. Vaughun Williams did that for the sound effect. In the link, which I'll give you in a bit, which by the way is also Gloucester Cathedral, the group is sitting, like they were in the premiere, so the spacial arrangement can be seen. I find it unbelievably exciting to hear the high strings at the beginning playing their melody and the low strings replying with the strings being plucked. The strings need quite some time, until they find to each other and really play together.

I'm not a music theorist. Others could tell much more about that piece. If you're interested, you'll certainly read up about it. I was lucky and found a very insightful audio sort of documentarydiscussion on the internet. It is about 45 minutes long. Let me know, if you want to listen to it. This should be it with explanations today.

Here it is now, the heavenly "Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis" by Ralph Vaughun Williams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihx5LCF1yJY

With this I wish you all a heavenly christmas!

If you like, you can post your own favourite classical music in the comments,

Until next blog,
sarah

Finding interactive: your turn

Dear reader,

I already wrote about what I did once to find my glasses.

After the 11th Doctor had to say good-bye to Amy and Rory and seeing and losing Clara twice, he's sitting depressed on a swing when a little girl comes to sit next to him. Of course she notices that he's sad. She tells him what she's doing when she lost something:

"When I lost something I go to a quiet place and I close my eyes and then I can remember where I put it."

The Doctor agrees that this is a good plan.

A girl cannot seriously help a Time Lord to find something he lost, you might think. But this girl is qualified all right, because "I am always losing things. I lost my best pencil, my school bag, my gran and my mojo."

Here's the whole clip, about 2 1/2 minutes with the Doctor on the swing, english subtitles available, too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRsCh4dYURA

And you? What do you do when you lost something (or someone?)?

Until next blog,
sarah

M&M: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Dear reader,

I hesitated for a long time, to watch this movie. When I finally did it a couple of days ago, I knew by the end of it, which would be my next M&M movie: “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” from 1920. This film is a silent film and for the colour and spoken words spoiled viewers, this is certainly not a film for everyone to enjoy. With a running time of just a bit over an hour though, it's not taking up too much time and certainly shouldn't stop you from watching it! Also it's a german film, though english subtitles for the text cards do exist. So English-speaking readers of my blog can relax and go watch it, too, if you're interested!

Francis (Friedrich Feher) tells a friend of the very strange and scary experiences, he and his friend Jane (Lil Dagover) went through at the holstenwall fair. It was there when Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauss) exhibited the somnambulist Cesare (very brilliantly played by Conrad Veidt). Somnambulist is the more technical term for sleep walking, to sleep very deep and yet move around and do things as if in a waking state. Dr. Caligari says that Cesare is 23 years old and has been asleep for 23 years! Cesare isn't a wonder for just sleeping for 23 years though. He can also see into the future. When Alan (Hans Heinrich von Twardowski) asks him, for how long he, Alan, would live, Cesare tells him “Until dawn.” In fact Alan is dead the next morning. Francis suspects Cesare to be the murderer right away and starts spying after him. The next victim should be Jane. But when Cesare sees how beautiful she is, he can't stab her, but kidnaps her instead. Jane's father wakes up from the noise so that Cesare eventually puts Jane carefully on the ground, before he can flee. Dr. Caligari is able to run away from an inspection of his caravan. He finds refuge in a madhouse. Is that the right place for Francis, to find the truth behind Dr. Caligari's secrets? See for yourself!

The style of the film is much like that of a Tim Burton film. Many angles are just odd, also for example shapes doors. The character of Cesare bares close resemblance to Johnny Depp as Edward Scissorhands. Certainly Tim Burton found inspiration in this film for Edward. The film is quite similar to a theatre play in terms of the set design and, among other things, the fact that it is separated into 6 acts. A theatre stage, especially with odd angles, can create feelings of claustrophobia and restriction. In that respect this horror film is created in a very interesting way, especially since it was made when the history of film was still rather young. If you like Tim Burton movies and enjoy a bit of a fright, “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” might be one for you. Don't be afraid of silent movies, be brave. I didn't regret it! If you should be afraid of Dr. Caligari is another question...

Thanks to Mark Gatiss (yes, “him” again...), who with his three part series "A History of Horror with Mark Gatiss" brought my attention to this movie.

Until next blog,
sarah

Holey logic

Dear reader,

I'm living in the ruhr area, which means it's an area shaped by mining. What wasn't much thought of at the time of coal mining back then, is the fact that by drilling shafts underground, the ground level will be changed and moving, too. There is especially a danger of old shafts collapsing and leaving deep holes in the ground. You can see that in my parents' home, when you look around for example in the living-room. There and in the other rooms, you'll see smaller or longer cracks in the walls. You shouldn't think about it too much. Otherwise your mind might create images of suddenly tumbling walls or the ground would open up and swallow it up! There's also an interesting crack in the parquet floor between the living-room and dining-room. Now in winter the crack is almost invisible and closed. In the summer it's clearly visible and has the thickness of a finger. Once I heard my mother say that we'll have to leave the house in any case in about 10 years or so, when the house will be collapsing or breaking apart from the mining. A scary though, that the house will suddenly just collapse or break apart like that and be impossible to live in.

As a fan of Mark Gatiss, I know he was born in county durham. So when in the end of august this year, one of my mails from the guardian had the article headline of “30 metre wide sinkhole appears in Durham”, I was all ears, of course. Sam Hillyard had been for a walk with her dog when she noticed the hole, which has even grown wider now. The bottom can't be seen. It's assumed that if someone falls in there, it would be impossible to get the person out again. Which is why there are warnings now to keep your distance. It's assumed that it comes from mining in that area.


I was practically speechless when I read the following article headline though: “Kiruna: the town being moved 3km east so it doesn't fall into a mine”. The swedish town lives from iron-ore mining. Now the mining resulted in so much damage in the city, that the citizens have to move. Typical for the civilised people to often start thinking about their actions and results of that, when their own life is at risk because of it. Maybe futuristic films like Twelve Monkeys aren't that unrealistic after all and the surface of the earth is contaminated with something or otherwise condemned as uninhabitable. Or everything is sunken in from the many drillings and mining of things inside the earth, that there simply isn't a surface anymore as we know it now.

Until next blog,

sarah