“Stream of consciousness: a person’s thoughts and conscious reactions to events, perceived as a continuous flow.” That’s the kind of writing I try to do in those Morning Pages I’m always blathering on about–writing down whatever floats through my mind, without judgment or structure, without an attempt at organizing my thoughts. That’s the goal, anyway, though not always met.
But what I do notice in my brain is truly a stream of images floating through whenever I’m somewhat at rest or not even, e.g. during piano lessons (I really am listening!), while writing or driving, with or without others, or even reading.
Is this the norm, I wonder?
It’s an ongoing background slide show of familiar places and sights from my past, most often back to childhood. The A&P where we bought groceries appears often, as well as Forest Park and all the places we girls wandered on our own there, the Art Museum, one or the other of the houses where we grew up, the tiny bedroom my three sisters and I shared on Flora Street, the front porch of our house on Washington. But the many places I’ve been in New York with my boys stop by and land, too, plus various spots in the Bay Area from my many visits to siblings there. Taiwan, too, but Italy, not so much. Why?
They are not triggered by anything like Proust’s madeleine or music or the fragrance of a cedar tree or a marigold, as people suggest, but are just always there in the background of my mind, with nothing in particular happening in them.
Some people have synesthesia–a phenomenon of “tasting” colors or “feeling” sounds, a sort of cross-over of senses. In Oliver Sacks‘ book, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, you’ll find tales of people with all sorts of neurological oddities, some of them short-lived, e.g., a man whose sense of smell suddenly became so heightened that he could do nothing else but smell things, rather like a dog. It went away after a few weeks.
That book and my own inner image stream make me think, isn’t the brain fascinating? Just think of the potential! And isn’t being human just so interesting, complex and mysterious? Oh, it’s hard, too, at times, but wow, very very interesting. Just think of all the times someone you know very well takes you completely by surprise with a word or something they do. Or you, yourself, come up with a little stunner that surprises even you. We really are mysterious creatures and worthy of study. What about you? Any idiosyncrasies you’d like to share?
“Every act of perception, is to some degree an act of creation, and every act of memory is to some degree an act of imagination.” ― Oliver Sacks, Musicophilia
“Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.” ― Oliver Sacks, Gratitude
“…when the brain is released from the constraints of reality, it can generate any sound, image, or smell in its repertoire, sometimes in complex and “impossible” combinations.” ― Oliver Sacks
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Thanks for listening,
Kay
P.S. MerryThoughts is the name of my first book, out of print at the moment. The word is a British one, referring both to a wishbone and to the ritual of breaking the wishbone with the intention of either having a wish granted or being the one who marries first, thus the “merry thoughts.”
