F ³: Come to your Senses!

 

I just learned that people can ACTUALLY HEAR SONGS IN THEIR HEAD. I burst into song randomly so that I can hear the song I am thinking of. You folks can actually HEAR music in your head? I thought that was just a figure of speech! What is worse… I am a musician and I had no idea this was real. #MindBlown - - Amy Collins on TwitterX

Can you? Hear music in your head?

I remember learning that some people can’t see people and things “in their mind’s eye” and I was shocked. I thought everyone could. When I read the tweet above it got me thinking all over again. What about hearing “in your mind’s ear?” For the record, I can. It’s not something I learned how to do consciously, I just can. I suspect it’s a kind of sensory memory. You can only draw on it if you have actually experienced it.

Hmm…sensory memory. What about taste? Think of your favorite food. Can you taste it in your mind’s…tongue? Mouth? The flavor, the texture, whether it is warm or cold, sweet or salty or spicy….I can, but I have learned that not everyone can. This can be inconvenient, believe it or not. I remember my mother teaching me the tongue-twister, “chewed, stewed chicken skin”, and it evoked a sensory memory that stuck with me for some hours. I’m not a huge fan of chicken skin.

Well, we might as well do all the senses. What about your sense of smell? Can you experience fragrances in your “mind’s nose”? That sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? And yet I can easily recall the scent of our linen closet when I was growing up, where my mother had stored Yardley’s lavender soap in amongst the sheets and towels. Cookies baking, damp earth in the springtime, skunk, school cafeteria, the sweet smell of the top of a baby’s head, the scent of freshly printed mimeographed worksheets - - they’re all stored somewhere in my brain. 

Lastly: touch. Without actually touching something, can you feel various surfaces in your mind’s…fingers? Velvet, tree bark, a school desk top, play dough, yarn, water, a slice of bread, bubbles in the bath. Can you experience them via sensory memory? Or do you think about them without having that kind of recall?

I don’t know why some people can do that and some cannot. And I don’t know if it is of any use to be able  to do it. Maybe it just takes up unnecessary brain space. But I do find it fascinating. I remember seeing a documentary that looked at various kinds of brain injuries and one experiment showed how some people lose the ability to recognize something by touch alone. 

For example, if you had a blindfold on and someone handed you a key, there’s a place in your brain that enables you to feel it and assess what it is. If that area is damaged that knowledge or ability is no longer accessible.

I find this mindboggling.

I’d love to know what your experiences are with this. Is it a useful skill? An unnecessary party trick? 

One thing I know without any doubt is that multi-sensory learning experiences are more likely to “stick” and be remembered than non-sensory ones. This is why I still remember making butter and nut bread in first grade but remember nothing of all those lists of dates and battles in history class. 

There’s an expression: to come to one’s senses. It is largely accepted as being synonymous with using one’s better judgment. But what if coming to your senses is just that: connecting with them instead of suppressing them?

I wonder.

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