“Deconcentration of attention is opposite to concentration and can be interpreted as a process of dismantling of the figures in the field of perception and transformation of the perceptual field into a uniform (in the sense that no individual elements could be construed as a perceptual figure) background.”
Seems slightly pseudosciencey, but perhaps valuable.
This is a game I like to play with myself actually. I sit and observe my surroundings, consciously removing labels from the objects in my visual field until it’s clear that everything is one big continuity of atoms. It’s fun and brings back for me that childlike feeling of seeing thing for the first time again. I have to be in the right frame of mind to do it and it’s much harder when in a man-made environment (where everything is an object) than in nature.
But I’ve never had a word for it before, so thanks.
Actually, I’d be interested to hear what other mental games LWers play to amuse themselves.
Some more games I play:
‘Fly arounds,’ where I visualize my perspective moving around the room, zooming out of the walls of the building I’m in, and exploring/getting new views on places I know. It’s fun to ‘tag’ an imaginary person and see what their perspective moving through an average day would be.
‘People watching,’ where I pick a person walking by and try to read their actions and relationships with the people they’re with. They then get a full backstory and life.
‘Contingency.’ What would happen if a car drove through the door right now/that guy pulled a gun/I suddenly realized that I am actually Jason Bourne? This xkcd puts it best.
An interesting concept I haven’t seen mentioned on LW before: deconcentration of attention.
Seems slightly pseudosciencey, but perhaps valuable.
This is a game I like to play with myself actually. I sit and observe my surroundings, consciously removing labels from the objects in my visual field until it’s clear that everything is one big continuity of atoms. It’s fun and brings back for me that childlike feeling of seeing thing for the first time again. I have to be in the right frame of mind to do it and it’s much harder when in a man-made environment (where everything is an object) than in nature.
But I’ve never had a word for it before, so thanks.
Actually, I’d be interested to hear what other mental games LWers play to amuse themselves.
Some more games I play:
‘Fly arounds,’ where I visualize my perspective moving around the room, zooming out of the walls of the building I’m in, and exploring/getting new views on places I know. It’s fun to ‘tag’ an imaginary person and see what their perspective moving through an average day would be.
‘People watching,’ where I pick a person walking by and try to read their actions and relationships with the people they’re with. They then get a full backstory and life.
‘Contingency.’ What would happen if a car drove through the door right now/that guy pulled a gun/I suddenly realized that I am actually Jason Bourne? This xkcd puts it best.
I feel that these last two are pretty common.