Lesson 18 Developing Perception

As I said in the preceding lesson, the world of the individual consists solely of what he has created from the raw material of what he has perceived. The ignorant man of a low degree of perception, has a very small world indeed; while he who has observed and perceived well that which has been presented to his senses, has built himself a comparatively large world. A man experiences only that which he perceives, and he perceives only that which is chosen by his mind from the impressions of his environment.

Perception is a matter of education, practice, and repeated effort. The eye of the child sees just as much as that of his father, but the father perceives much more than does the child; and, likewise, the friend of the father may perceive far more than the latter, from the same environment. The child has developed in perception from its earliest days. Its eye, from the first, pictured the impression of the outer scene, but the mind of the child needed practice and effort before it was able to gauge distance, size, etc., from the picture.

To the eye of the young child there is no sense of degree in distance—all objects seem equally near, and the infant reaches out its hand to grasp the moon, just as readily as to reach its rattle. Its ear must learn to distinguish between near sounds, and those from afar—to distinguish the different tones indicating the voices of different individuals. Its sense of touch is very clumsy, at first, and it finds difficulty in interpreting its reports. And, most important of all, it must learn to identify certain sensations with certain outside things—to recognize the connection and relation between them.

This is true not only of the infant, but also of adult persons who have had a lost sense restored to them—as in the many recorded cases of persons born blind, who had their sense of sight opened by a surgical operation. These persons had to learn size, distance, etc., step by step, as does the infant—which goes to prove that perception is altogether a matter of mind, and may be developed, trained, and educated. In fact, the greater part of man's education comes to him in just this way.

Harry Houdini

Harry Houdini (1874-1926)

We hear and read much about the importance of training and developing the several senses. All this is true enough, but we must not forget that we do not develop the mechanism of the senses in such training, for the matter is one higher in the scale of organism. What we really do is (a) to develop the perceptive powers of the mind, by training, exercise, and the use of the will, so that they will perceive many more things in the impression of the senses than was formerly possible—the impression registers precisely the same in both cases, the difference being solely that of degree of perceptive power of the mind; (b) to develop increased sensitiveness in the nervous matter of the sense organs, so that they will more delicately "sense" the physical impression made upon them through the channels of the sense organism, and thus more clearly report them to the mind—this development results from the exercise of the mind in the power of perception, and is a direct result of the stimulating and strengthening power of attention, for it is a rule that attention directed to any part of the body tends to develop sensitiveness in that part.

SIGHT-PERCEPTION. There is the greatest possible range of degree of sight-perception between different individuals. Let us illustrate this, to show the result of training, experience, and culture. Let us begin with the case of an adult, born blind, whose sight has just been opened to him by a surgical operation. The actual surgical reports of such cases show that as soon as the eye is strong enough to bear the strain of a strong light (this takes time, by-the-way) the patient is permitted to gaze at a landscape, for instance. He will report that he perceives merely blotches of color, of different hues, forms, and size—all is a sort of blur to him. There is no sense of perspective, or distance—the far-off thing seems as near as the near-by one. No details are perceived—even the colors do not appear clearly, but as a smudge. There is no identification of sight-images with persons or things. The patient does not recognize his friends or relatives, nor does he know that the queer blur before him is his favorite chair or table. It is only when he places his hands upon a thing, that "he now also sees, that he is able to reconcile the new sight with the old feeling, and thus really perceive and know the sight-image as the symbol of the familiar thing he has so long known by the sense of touch. Or, when he hears the familiar voice of his loved one, or feels the touch of her hand, that he is able to perceive and recognize the identity of the seen thing.

From this point he learns by experience, by testing things by touch, and by comparing his experiences—aided of course materially by his memory—and gradually learns to perceive distances, size, form, etc., as well as to distinguish between shades and hues of color. He does not know that a strange creature seen is a dog, until he has felt it, or heard it bark. But, he soon learns to compare the image of new dogs with the familiar one, and thus knows a dog when he sees him, as distinguished from a cat. In short, he travels over the same road as does the young child—developing the latent powers of his mind. It is a far cry, is it not, for such a person to the case of the mosaic workers at the Vatican, whom Herschel stated were able to distinguish correctly between thirty thousand different shades, tints, and hues of color!

Familiar as we may be with the more common cases of development of sight-perception, the majority of us fail to realize to what wonderful extent the sight-perception may be developed in ordinary individuals who specialize along lines requiring such development—the sciences, arts, and trades furnish us with a wealth of cases illustrating this principle. Let us examine a few of the more common ones.

Artists distinguish fine shades, tints and hues of colors that are imperceptible to the ordinary person—simply the result of interest, attention and practice. A person familiar with engraving will detect the most minute points of difference in prints, engravings, etc. Persons familiar with engraved bank notes, are able to detect counterfeits at a glance, even in cases where the ordinary eye fails to detect the slightest difference from the original. Experts in handwriting are able not only to recognize the handwriting of any individual, and to distinguish from its counterfeit, but also to detect its characteristics even when the writer strives to disguise it; and even to recognize the mental and physical condition of the individual, at the time of the writing, solely from an examination of specimens from his pen. These points of difference are not perceivea or recognized by the ordinary person.

Houdin, the great French [Hungarian-born, emigrated to America at age 4] conjurer, deliberately developed his memory and powers of visual perception by methods which I shall mention later on, to such a degree that he was able to pass rapidly by a shop window, taking but one sharp glance at its contents, and then, out of sight of the window, he could give a list, practically complete, of the various articles displayed in the window, even to the most trifling objects. More than this he taught his assistant to do the same thing. This would seem almost incredible were it not verified by the best authority.

It is related of several well-known artists, that they had developed their visual perception to such a high degree that they would grasp all the little points of a person's appearance at one glance, and afterward be able to reproduce the same on canvas. Several celebrated bets based on this power, are recorded in the history and lives of eminent artists.

A familiar instance of this class of perception is found among many women of fashion, as everyone knows. They are able to give a quick glance at the wearing apparel of other women, and thus take in the perception of the costume to the most minute detail, afterward reciting the same perfectly. I have known many women in Paris, and elsewhere, who had developed this faculty to an almost incredible degree of perfection.

Akin to this is the visual perception, and accompanying memory, of certain well-paid observers of Parisian milliners and costumers. Gaining access to the rooms of rivals in trade, they will sweep the contents of the show-cases at a single glance, and in that glance will perceive not only the general style, but also the details of trimming, ornamentation, decoration, etc., so perfectly that they will be able to reproduce the same at their leisure in the workshops of their employers.

Large shops in Paris employ trained observers of this class, who promenade through the aisles of the shops of their competitors, taking detailed note of any new styles, improvements, etc., their identity being carefally concealed as a matter of policy, of course. I understand that this form of trained observation is equally common in London, and particularly so in the large American cities—in fact, the American observers are said to excel in this faculty of photographic visual pcrecption, and memory, and frequently receive very high salaries for this skilled work.

It is well known that professional thieves in the large cities of the world, employ apprentices as observers, disguised as beggars, messengers, errand boys, etc., who visit places designed to be the scenes of future robberies. These observers take a hasty glance at the premises, noting the location of doors, locks, windows, etc., which they note on paper after their return. Thus furnished with a map, the thieves have a great advantage of efficient entry, quick work, and escape, when the crime is committed.

Spies, and detectives in the employ of the secret service of the various nations, usually have this faculty well developed—sometimes to a wonderful degree. I personally have been informed by a high official of a certain government, that he has in his employ a female spy who is able to perceive an entire page of a letter at a single glance, and afterward to reproduce its contents from memory. This would seem incredible, were it not supported with records of many other cases in history, of the same kind. In fact, such faculty may be developed by any person of ordinary perception, if he will devote enough time, work and interest to the task.

Many great readers of books really visualize entire lines of the book, instead of single words, and cases are not lacking in which whole sentences are so grasped by a single effort of attention. Other cases, more rare of course, are those in which entire paragraphs, and even a page of the book are so grasped in perception at a glance. Natural faculty! you may say. Yes! to an extent—but you, yourself, may develop it if you are willing to pay the price of interest, patience, perseverance, work,and time!

Sound-perception is likewise capable of being trained and developed to the same remarkable degree. In fact, it is so developed in many cases, as we may see by observing those whose occupations require such keen perception of sound. The cases of skilled musicians occur to you at once, in this connection. The average musician detects shades of tone, which do not exist for you. The leaders of large orchestras are able to distinguish the slightest error in note or tone of any one of the instruments being played before them—to pick out the softest note in the flute, from the tremendous volume of sound emitted from hundreds of instruments, large and small, is no slight task, yet it is of daily occurrence in large orchestras, as any musician will inform you.

There are many persons who are said never to forget a voice they have ever heard; and to be able to distinguish one particular voice from any of the thousands of others they remember. I have known persons to be able to distinguish between the footsteps of many persons, coming and going, in the halls of a large institution, simply by sound, the passing persons being out of sight. Telegraphers can tell who is at the other end of the wire, by slight differences in the sound of the receiving instrument. Machinists can tell in a moment that there is trouble with their machine, simply by an almost imperceptible change in the "whir."

Likewise, the old engineer will detect engine trouble at once in the same way, from the sound reaching his ears. It is said that an old locomotive driver, or engineer, will hear the little scratching sound of a small part of his engine, reaching him over and above the roar of the running train. Trainmen will tap the wheels of the carriages, and will know at once if there is a crack or break, or other trouble. Pilots, and officers of boats, are able to recognize the whistle of any other boat with which they are familiar, and many railroad men are able to recognize the note of different locomotives in the same way.

TOUCH. TASTE, AND SMELL-PERCEPTION. It is well known that many persons have developed the sense of touch to a remarkable degree. We will pass over the wonderful instances of this class of perception on the part of blind persons, although even these come under the same rule. Persons who handle certain kinds of merchandise are able to recognize fine points of difference in their wares, simply by touch-perception. Wool sorters, and graders of different kinds of material have this form of perception highly developed. There are but very few lines of trade that do not furnish instances of persons becoming very expert in distinguishing the quality of goods simply by the "feel." Some of these men are paid very high salaries by reason of this faculty.

In the same way, the perception of taste and smell may be highly developed and trained, as is evidenced by the case of perfumers, who are able to distinguish between the most delicate shades of odors. The blind have this form of perception highly developed, and in many cases are able to distinguish between the odor of gloves, etc., belonging to different persons. I have known young children to possess this faculty to a high degree. I need not refer to the power of smell-perception in the case of animals, particularly in dogs.

As to taste-perception, I have but to call your attention to the epicures who are able to distinguish many points of difference and distinction in food and drinks, which are imperceptible to the ordinary individual. Many persons are employed in the trades, because of this faculty. The tea-tasters, and wine-testers, are well-known examples of this class. A skilled tea-taster will be able to tell not only from where a certain sample of tea came, but also its market value, etc., simply by letting the decoction pass over his tongue. The wine-tester is able to perform the same office in the case of wines. In the case of taste-perception, however, the smell-perception is usually involved, as it is very difficult, comparatively, to rely on the taste if the sense of smell be shut off, as many know from experience, and as may be tested by experiment.

But in all cases, it is Mind that perceives—remember that always! And the training must be that of the mind, first, last, and always. The mind, in turn, has the power, and the inclination, to increase the sensitiveness of its instruments, when this is needed to keep up with its own increased power of perception. And this increased sensitiveness, in turn, reacts upon the perceptive faculties and increases their power by lessening friction. But the mind must be approached first, in the work of the development of sense-perception of all kinds. This is axiomatic!

 

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