Mental mapping is a survival mechanism built into clusters of neurons. That this mechanism is “built in” can be demonstrated by the simplest organisms that can find food, shelter, and, to put it in human terms, love. Today, your big cluster of neurons will map places, events, and feelings and associate them with values and judgments.
We don’t often think about the mapping process of our brains. We just map what appears to be important, and we store the maps in a faulty memory that mixes perceptions, misperceptions, knowledge, biases, feelings, ignorance, belief, and imagination. Our memory maps are even modified by false memories and forgetfulness. The result of the mixing we take as a “truth” about the world.
Today, stop just for a moment after any event in any place, and ask yourself how you mapped that event. What were your feelings going into the event? What was your physical state? On what scale, large (up close) or small (far away) did you experience the event? How did the physical surroundings affect your perception of the event? Did the event reinforce or contradict one or more of your accepted values? Did you pass judgment? How has the event shaped your attitude toward the place of its occurrence? Gosh! You do much in a moment, don’t you?
There you are, going around the planet from place to place, mentally mapping moment by moment, storing some information as accurately as a camera and other information as inaccurately as a sketch artist will little skill at drawing. There you are, lumping together the accurate stuff with the inaccurate stuff, the somewhat objective observations with the very subjective ones.
Just stop to examine one of those numerous maps you will make today. You might find the exercise enlightening.
We don’t often think about the mapping process of our brains. We just map what appears to be important, and we store the maps in a faulty memory that mixes perceptions, misperceptions, knowledge, biases, feelings, ignorance, belief, and imagination. Our memory maps are even modified by false memories and forgetfulness. The result of the mixing we take as a “truth” about the world.
Today, stop just for a moment after any event in any place, and ask yourself how you mapped that event. What were your feelings going into the event? What was your physical state? On what scale, large (up close) or small (far away) did you experience the event? How did the physical surroundings affect your perception of the event? Did the event reinforce or contradict one or more of your accepted values? Did you pass judgment? How has the event shaped your attitude toward the place of its occurrence? Gosh! You do much in a moment, don’t you?
There you are, going around the planet from place to place, mentally mapping moment by moment, storing some information as accurately as a camera and other information as inaccurately as a sketch artist will little skill at drawing. There you are, lumping together the accurate stuff with the inaccurate stuff, the somewhat objective observations with the very subjective ones.
Just stop to examine one of those numerous maps you will make today. You might find the exercise enlightening.
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