Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)
People mention perceptions when discussing how we interpret things outside of our bodies as stimulus triggering external receptors of our body that take signals and transmit them to our mind. Our minds then process those signals as sight, hearing, touch, taste, feeling, etc.
Note: think of this process as a time consuming one, i.e., milliseconds, if you will, that involve our timing of things with emphasis here on actions taken in response to observations, our orientation to those sensory signals as they trigger our bodies sensory system and then how we decide and act in response. Makes time and timing a whole new ball game don't you think. Something we must understand and consider when making our training fit the OODA and how fast we can process that system to achieve our objectives.
It is better when perception is understood as to its processes even tho those very processes are not a conscious one but "instinctive-like" processes. If that is true people go on to ask, "Then why try to understand it, it is there and it works - mostly, right?" Understanding the process the body goes through is a way to understand it so as to modify and ensure that training and practices address those challenges to make the conditioned responses, both mental and physical as necessary, faster than your adversaries.
If you know the process of perceptions then you can condition yourself to recognize what you see, hear, feel, etc., so upon that recognition you can train yourself to trigger a conditioned appropriate response while the adversary is still moving toward their objective, committed and beginning the movement triggering conditioned responses that are faster, etc.
So, read the entire paper presented at the end in the bibliography while considering my thoughts on how it all works, it is an enlightening journey.
First, here is what Dr. Boeree says about perception"
"Perception -- seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, tasting, feeling the positions of joints and the tension of muscles, balance, temperature, pain... -- begins with the stimulation of sensory neurons. Each sense involves highly evolved cells which are sensitive to a particular stimulus: Pain receptors respond to certain chemicals produced when tissues are damaged. Touch receptors involve cells with hairs which, when bent, cause signals to travel down the cell's axon. Balance, movement, and even hearing involve similar hair cells. Temperature sensitive neurons response to heat and cold. Taste and smell receptors respond to environmental molecules in the same way that other neurons respond to neurotransmitters. And the neurons of the retina respond to the presence of light or the specific frequency ranges of light we perceive as color." - Dr. C. George Boeree, Shippensburg University
Some considerations:
- Perception is an active process:
- Perception is a multi-sensory, full bodied process:
- Perception is about movement:
Being an active process means it takes time, adding to the OODA processing system. It is also a multi-sensory process meaning in karate that perceptions involve not just one thing, or one technique or set of same, but a whole holistic multi-connected process that builds, creates, a complete picture vs. just a snapshot of partial like the three blind men touching the elephant perceiving three different things rather than the whole that is the elephant.
The movement involved in perception is not just the movement of those things outside our bodies but also the very movement of our bodies and minds in conjunction with the movement of our world, our universe, that is in constant motion in both inner and outer meaning. For instance, if sound stops moving then there is no sound; touch is about the processing of stimulus of you, your bodies muscles, joints, tendons, etc., as it is about what object it is you touch. Like our movement of our body and mind in relation to that of our adversaries body and mind. Here too, we perceive and deal with movement.
So, it is very interesting to read the good Doctor’s article and it is recommended people, especially to understand perception and karate methodologies, etc., read the article to come to an understanding that when we say it is about our perceptions that we translate into awareness, time, and timing, etc., then we can better create, teach, practice and apply that understanding to achieve our goals and objectives in karate self-protection.
Bibliography (Click the link)
No comments:
Post a Comment