Mental Modes of Operation

Pianos, my aphantasia, and nonrational logics in action

Storytime.

First, let me tell you about an interesting experience I had as an aphantasic:

YEARS AGO, I was tasked to build a portable ramp for an orchestral harpist, so that her giant instrument could be wheeled in and out of the house more easily, up and down two outside steps and over the doorsill.

I visited, took measurements, and headed to the store to acquire my materials.

While at the store, I realized that I had forgotten to take a picture of the house color! How then could I buy the right color paint?

(Remember, aphantasia is the lack of a mind's eye. My aphantasia means I cannot pull up a picture in my head, by any means, for any reason. So I must use other avenues.)

Here's the thing:

Based on prior experience, I "blind guessed," going with what felt right, by picking the one color out of hundreds (at least) in the store that had the best emotional resonance (for lack of a better term) with the image I couldn't see in my head.

And you know what? I was dead on accurate, right down to the shade.

My visual memory is blank,
but it is not non-existent.

I have write access,
just not read access.

But, BUT, if I can find the courage to let my intuition resonate, then 8 times out of 10 (maybe more), the result is insanely accurate.

Call it a sort of "blindsight."

Sound crazy? Okay, but people have watched me cut 14-foot baseboards the same way that were accurate to within a millimeter...

Something is going on here.

---

How about a second story?

EVEN MORE YEARS AGO, waaaay back when I was an annoying 7th grader, I used to accompany my school choir on piano.

On occasion (remember, annoying), I would deliberately start the piano accompaniment in the wrong key, for fun. Not kidding.

Now here's the thing:

The smallish-town, farm-country choir of untrained kid voices would come in AT THE CORRECT PITCH, and then instantly try to correct down to where I had put the music. Glares and trainwrecks ensued! Hilarious. I was very popular.

But here's the thing:

If you had ASKED these kids to sing the song in the right pitch, all by themselves, no piano, they would have been all over the map. When I fooled them (annoyingly) into operating by habit WITHOUT thinking about it, they were spot on.

Whatever was happening must have been something like a blindsight equivalent of perfect pitch, probably operating through muscle memory in the throat muscles.

And they ALL did it, every one of them...

Something is going on here.

---

NOW, the intersection:

I strongly suspect, my intuition shouts, that this latent capability is a common, if largely untapped, source of human potential.

Navigating by "feel" is much less uncertain than it may sound, because the mind/body machinery has many layers of communication that aren't necessarily open to direct introspection.

The trick to navigating by feel is in developing the necessary confidence to do so, together with the wisdom to know when NOT to, and then letting the mingled machinery of decision-making run its course.

Intuition AND reason, working in concert.

And this combination can be trained.

(Musical mind/body training is one such avenue. Martial arts is probably another, among many.)

Watch small children explore through free play, and you will see the intuitive machinery in motion.

Watch high-level performers in any field (mathematics, brick-laying, opera singing, garbage collection, ANY field), and you will see its effortless mastery in action.

"Read access" is just one of many available pathways for retrieving stored information.

Ignoring the other pathways, downplaying their existence, is one of the ways we allow ourselves to be trapped into pointless, unwinnable battles over whose interpretation is correct.

You know, the ones tearing society apart.

---

It isn't too late to fix things.

We already have the tools we need.
The pathways already exist.

Feel it?

Keep buying me time.
I'm translating as fast as I can.

(rough draft, minimal edits, hit send)