Curious mind wants to know.

[mandrin]

birdie_man,

You touch upon another marvellous feature of the brain, i.e., generating images purely from memory, either with eyes closed or open – imaging and visualizing.

When you say,

Visualizing is when you create with your mind something that is not there and "superimpose" that on your current environment.

it shows clearly the difficulty inherent in grasping the sense of my questioning. It is indeed not obvious.

You take for granted that there is an environment onto which you feel that you are superimposing an image.

However this environment is also generated somehow by the same gray matter used to superimpose an image, visualizing.

 

[mandrin]

This thread is interesting. I guess I have some reading to do. The only thing I wonder is how much a true understanding would help. Knowing that water is H2O does not help me when I am thirsty. Not criticizing the thread at all so don't misunderstand. I would really like to hear the ways you guys think it might help a golfer/learner.

Eyeoffish,

History of mankind is characterized by a steady and everlasting effort in all domains to develop a better understanding. It is inherent in our genetic makeup to be curious. If everything, through history, had been judged on its criterion of its immediate usefulness, and either accepted or rejected, we would probably still be happily hunting mammoths with wooden spears and not know anything about golf.

 

[drewyallop]

I had a quick look on Amazon and read some pages in the introduction of David Chalmers' "The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory" and looked at the reviews and it appears that he is exploring avenues much closer to my basic question.

I am sure you will like the book Mandrin. Chalmers will give your curious mind a thorough workout - something I suspect that you relish.

Drew

Drew

 

[drewyallop]

Knowing that water is H2O does not help me when I am thirsty.

Precisely the difference between the "easy" and "hard" problems of conciousness. The H20/water illustration is often used in conciousness discourse.

Drew

 

[mandrin]

I am sure you will like the book Mandrin. Chalmers will give your curious mind a thorough workout - something I suspect that you relish.

Drew

Drew,

I am glad that you mentioned "The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory" by David Chalmers. I ordered it immediately from Amazon.

I found it somewhat intriguing that my naive question actually relates directly to a very fundamental problem ignored by most not knowing how to deal with the matter.

 

[ZAP]

Eyeoffish,

History of mankind is characterized by a steady and everlasting effort in all domains to develop a better understanding. It is inherent in our genetic makeup to be curious. If everything, through history, had been judged on its criterion of its immediate usefulness, and either accepted or rejected, we would probably still be happily hunting mammoths with wooden spears and not know anything about golf.

I was not being critical at all if you thought I was. Maybe I should have asked if you thought such an understanding would have any immediate impact on golf performance. I figured since you asked the question you probably had some ideas about it being useful. My next stop is my library website to try to find those other books.and mammoths are extinct. jk.

 

[mandrin]

I was not being critical at all if you thought I was. Maybe I should have asked if you thought such an understanding would have any immediate impact on golf performance. I figured since you asked the question you probably had some ideas about it being useful. My next stop is my library website to try to find those other books.and mammoths are extinct. jk.

Eyeoffish,

Smileys are used when one is not really serious. One interesting author you might want to check is Timothy Gallwey, with his interesting ideas on self 1 and self 2, and which he has applied to a variety of domains including golf. I have his books dealing with tennis (74) and with golf (79). They are geared towards practical applications of enhanced mind body awareness.

 

[ZAP]

I have read the above book you recommend. Have to agree that some of the ideas are really good. Lately I have been reading a bunch or different books on a wide variety of things. My latest readings have been.
Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior
Beyond Golf
Way of the Peaceful Warrior
The Future of the Body
Right now I am reading Smile at Fear
Sun Tzu The Art of War

Not really all that scientific a list but possibly along the same lines. Metacognition has been an interest of mine for a while. Learning how different cultures view and treat thoughts and perceptions is really interesting.

 

[birly-shirly]

Is it just me that thinks Timothy Galwey was years ahead of the curve? His tennis book was pretty simplistic, albeit quite revolutionary. By the time he wrote his golf book, he had evolved some pretty advanced routines and practicing/teaching techniques. Seems like only now that other people are beginning to catch up or even build on what he started.