Science Club Day 4: PERCEPTION

'In the province of the mind, what one perceives to be true, either is true, or soon becomes so.' -John Lilly

Today I jumped into a rather difficult task- asking my 8th and 9th graders to enter into a psychological and philosophical debate about perception and reality. The one and only Danny Najera did a lab like this once. He showed my human anatomy dissection class a series of images and asked us to start contemplating perception. Since that time I've tried to include it (successfully and unsuccessfully) into MY lessons. It's hard though. Why? Because perception is insane.

Today I started the lab with some simple stations. One station- students eat a candy with their eyes closed and nose plugged- ok, not difficult. Demonstrates that your sense of smell deeply influences what you taste. Another station- students test their sense of touch by poking each other with scissors in various places on their body (appropriately...) and measuring the distance in between the scissors when students only feel one point. This is where the discussion of perception begins. If you feel one point when two are touching you- what is reality to you? Does it match with the ACTUAL reality of the world? And what IS actual reality? Does it exist at all???

I think that I love this conversation about reality so much because I have had some experiences in the last few years that has made me question reality and belief in the impossible. Maybe I don't always have a firm grip on reality. For a few years now, I've been living in the belief that whatever I want to happen will in fact happen. And because of that, I've gotten to be a part of some really cool things, go some really cool places (which the govt. paid- the only way I had a chance of affording these things), and see some really beautiful stories of redemption play out. For example, one person in my life spent a good deal of time addicted to meth. He was in and out of jail, and in his craziest moments threatened to kill someone. He is now doing alright and a part of that, according to him, is knowing that people actually believed he could be ok. Having someone see this crazy goal (him healing from his addiction to meth) as a reality was some sort of medicine that gave him the strength to go on. I guess I also think that you can be that medicine for yourself, if you believe that your own crazy dreams can come true.

Maybe I read too many of the 'Choose your own ending books' when I was little or read too many of the inspirational quotes that Jessica Heath may have had on stationary somewhere ('Shoot for the moon... even if you miss you'll land among the stars') but I have this belief that reality will be whatever I want it to be (which I hope and believe is also a part of something larger). And part of that is because I'm a natural optimist, but another part of that is because I believe in SO MANY crazy things happening that some of them are bound to... and when they do, it just fuels the fire for more.

I'm not positive that this is the way to go- sometimes I am crestfallen when reality materializes and I find out that I, in fact, totally missed the mark. But I think that there is something to be said for belief in the unlikely, or even impossible.

Love you all. If you need me, I'll be watching and re-watching 'I believe I can fly'.