The first two minutes may make you ask serious questions, and shake your most fundamental beliefs to the core. This series of four programmes is an extremely interesting intriguing insight into how our brains create our perception of the world around us, is it really all an illusion ?
As musicians we learn, co-ordinate, listen, appreciate, and create, communicate and manipulate an emotional pallet. An understanding of our brains and the processes underpinning every second of our lives can only help in reaching for our own personal fulfilment IMO. So with no further ado...
On BBC iPlayer
(for 7 days from the original date of this post, and hopefully repeated again at some indeterminate point with the same web address)
1. What Is Reality?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06y8hyr/the-brain-with-david-eagleman-1-what-is-reality"Series in which Dr David Eagleman takes viewers on an extraordinary journey that explores how the brain, locked in silence and darkness without direct access to the world, conjures up the rich and beautiful world we all take for granted.
This episode begins with the astonishing fact that this technicolour multi-sensory experience we are having is a convincing illusion conjured up for us by our brains.
In the outside world there is no colour, no sound, no smell. These are all constructions of the brain. Instead, there is electromagnetic radiation, air compression waves and aromatic molecules, all of which are interpreted by the brain as colour, sound and smell.
We meet a man who is blind despite the fact that he has eyes that can see. His story reveals that it's the brain that sees, not the eyes. A woman with schizophrenia, whose psychotic episodes were her reality, emphasises the fact that whatever our brains tell us is out there, we believe it.
Visual illusions are reminders that what's important to the brain is not being faithful to 'reality', but enabling us to perceive just enough so that we can navigate successfully through it. The brain leaves a lot out of its beautiful rendition of the physical world, a fact that Dr Eagleman reveals using experiments and street demonstrations.
Each one of our brains is different, and so is the reality it produces. What is reality? It's whatever your brain tells you it is."
Duration 56:44
https: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MSw2irv0-A
Comments
All our perceptions are individual to us, and we build an individual model of the world in our heads, supported by our own belief systems developed through the interaction of our perceptions versus our model. Our daily experiences that reinforce our model are found to be generally more acceptable than experiences that challenge our model, and even our 'real' raw perceptions find it hard to challenge the fundamental aspects of our individual model.
Sorry you didn't gel with the program @underdog . I actually found his presentation style quite engaging, so maybe give episode two a go ?
Good summary @Chalky
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06yrqzh/the-brain-with-david-eagleman-2-what-makes-me
Duration 56:48
https: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5fA--4gjv8
I'd had a few whiskeys, that could account for the sleeping, I'm going to watch the rest as the subject matter is really interesting
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06zdnkm/the-brain-with-david-eagleman-3-who-is-in-control
Duration 56:54
https: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUV_OleoGr8
OP updated with the YT version now...
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
It is very true for us as musicians, and why we have to "eat, sleep, rave, repeat", all those movements, so very many times, to fine tune and co-ordinate our brains to perform and associate minutely controlled muscle activity, along with pitch, rhythm, and expression, etc, and open a conduit for emotional creativity.
I do hope you all gain some extra understanding of the remarkable processes we all go through in striving to master out guitars, and that this understanding in some small way helps guide you on your individual journeys, whatever your goals are...
3. Who is in Control ? (posted above)
12:33 to 23:20 on the BBC iPlayer and YT versions of this programme
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b07030n9/the-brain-with-david-eagleman-4-how-do-i-decide
Duration 56:49
https: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2ETQ74gt_Q
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b070ss9x/the-brain-with-david-eagleman-5-why-do-i-need-you
Duration 56:42
https: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa6S2uOEDWA
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b071gx2k/the-brain-with-david-eagleman-6-who-will-we-be
Duration 55:30
https: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha7NOXA1O1Q
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0990vnr/the-human-body-secrets-of-your-life-revealed-series-1-3-learn
Link to thread of the full series: The Human Body ~ Secrets of Your Life Revealed
http://thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/115929/the-human-body-secrets-of-your-life-revealed#latest