Vision, Eye Sight and Peak Human Performance – Part III
Image via Wikipedia
This is a continuation of a series on peripheral vision and human performance. Here you can locate Part I and Part II.
I know I mentioned at the end of Part II that I was going to go into night vision, but I wanted to finish up with some interesting occurrences as I tested my peripheral vision.
Well…for the next few months, I walked once a week, adding new elements to each adventure. For some of the walks I used a variety of music to see how this would affect the experience my Jedi Walking. I used didgeridoo music, Native American, shamanic journey work drumming and even some classical.
The terrain I picked was similar to the first, though a bit steeper and more strenuous. I put in my ear-buds, started the music, and headed up the trail. Almost immediately I fell into the already familiar state, my shoulders hunched a little and my chin jutting slightly in a posture that most would associate with ‘early man’ and Musashi.
The didgeridoo music established a wave that seemed to carry my breath and feet. In an effort to evaluate the sounds, I attempted to detach from the flood of pure sensory experience and succeeded just long enough to become aware that a rising and falling buzzing sound I was hearing was not in the recording but instead an insect, a cicada, perhaps, buzzing in our ‘peripheral’ hearing. I turned up the volume and the buzzing intensity increased rapidly – up to a point where the didgeridoo was so loud it drowned out all peripheral sound…I think my ears are still ringing!
The next music was Steve Reich‘s Music for Large Orchestra – great contemporary `trance music’ built on a repetitive structure. Dominated by the bright, light sounds produced by instruments such as vibraphones, the music enhanced the brightness of the day and the ‘lightness’ of my steps.
Such concordance between the music and me were generally true throughout the walk, but I did find that that the lyrics got in the way.
The vocal’s (actual words) forced my attention inward and tended to make me more aware of the specific and less aware of the general. Nevertheless, I found no correlation between type and/or volume of sound and the ability of my unconscious to process data from peripheral vision, all though I would recommend instrumental music only. What it did affect was the scope or range of our consciousness.
Some Key Points from the Experiences
- Music should be faint so one can focus on environmental sound and hear music peripherally.
- It seems that when the conscious mind is given specific tasks to focus on–walking, looking at the end of the rod and listening to environmental sounds–the unconscious is freed to participate in a much fuller way.
- General awareness seems to be basic to the peripheral state, while specific awareness tends to bring things into consciousness.
- Without specific awareness, consciousness doesn’t exist. Therefore, it would seem that specific awareness would be useful only when necessary.
- This brings up a paradox: One can’t be immediately aware of deep, general awareness and surface, specific awareness at the same time. Therefore to operate while only conscious of general awareness, a certain faith seems to be required
I would say that the central metaphor for accessing the peripheral state–an act of faith. To reach the state, one has to let go of reliance on central vision, on “knowing” where you’re going, and come to trust that unknowable brain and eye functions will guide and protect. Without such faith a person will stumble.
The more difficult the terrain yielded another important insight: Control of fatigue and pain can be accomplished easily through an application of mental strength, focusing attention on the tired body part, for instance, and moving the discomfort off to the edges of awareness–virtually the same process as moving your attention about in the great field of peripheral vision without moving your eyes.
A few weeks into the walking experiments I confirmed what I read in other reports…this was something important and even maybe profound. I’d found that simply walking outdoors with eyes focused on the tip of a little metal rod, seeing where we were going by moving our attention rather than our eyes, resulted in an altered state of consciousness.
Again…no drugs, no mantras or rigorous meditative practices. Simply clip on a rod and take a walk. Eventually I discovered that I didn’t even need the rods. At first I would place my hand at the desired distance and focus on it. Then I removed my hand and kept my focus to where it was. Then I began to ‘anchor’ the experience by using a phrase, “wide vision,” and everything would open up –mood, perspective, and vision in every sense of the word.
Change the way you see and you change the way you feel.
After twenty or thirty minutes of walking, you’ll click into an ecstatic state of “no thought.” The mind got absolutely quiet and the body filled with the uncensored, unconsidered sights, sounds and smells of your surroundings. Distinctions between “you” and “it” will evaporate as you reentered the state, which will feel natural and oddly familiar…if you’ve been doing this for awhile.
I must admit that at times I felt like Carlos Castaneda during his adventures with Don Juan Matus.
OK…for next time I promise…I’ll get into night vision, but for now…please share your thoughts in the comments below.
Related articles
- Tactical Breathing for Inner Strength (warriormindcoach.com)
- Vision, Eye Sight and Peak Human Performance (warriormindcoach.com)
- Vision, Eye Sight and Peak Human Performance – Jedi Walking (warriormindcoach.com)
- Vision, Eye Sight and Peak Human Performance – Part III (warriormindcoach.com)
- Into the Dark – Jedi Night Walking for Peripheral Vision Training (warriormindcoach.com)
