Sounds True

Did you know that if you change the sounds associated with your body, you can change your perception of what your body feels like? There have been some interesting studies about this. In one they asked participants to tap two points on the table with their finger. The participants wore headphones so that instead of hearing the sound of their finger tapping on the table, they heard a slightly longer delay between the two sounds. Afterwards the participants were touched on their arm in two places. Those with the sound delay greatly overestimated the distance between the two places on their arm. To them their arm felt longer. 

In another study they had participants put on "special" shoes. They were actually just normal shoes with headphones attached. Instead of hearing the sound of their feet against the floor, they heard the sounds with the pitch elevated. The participants reported feeling lighter, leaner and even stronger and more elegant.

This makes me think about how our senses are all working together to form a coherent sense of reality. It seems like maybe when we encounter something out of the ordinary our other senses quickly attempt to bring this information into the whole picture, even effecting other senses where there is no new information present. Coherence must be really important to our brain. I wonder how it works. I wonder if any and all of your senses can affect and be affected by this process.

I wonder about our thoughts in relation to this process. Sometimes I think our thoughts are a lot like any of our other senses, telling us information about the world around us. I wonder if they can affect our other senses in this way, all on their own, by changing. I wonder if they are being affected by changes in any of our other senses without our awareness of it.