Asomatognosia is a neurological disorder where the patient does not recognize a part of his or her body as their own. For instance, it could be an arm. They see the arm, but don't believe it is theirs. When pointed out that it is attached to their body they would say something like, "You can't always believe what you see." Asomatognosia usually happens when there is damage to a part of the brain.
I am interested in this phenomenon because it involves perception and a particular inability to see what really is. I am hoping to develop a more holistic perspective in myself, but what if I have some kind of asomatognosia and I don't know it. What if there is something in my brain that does not let me see what is really there? And how would I know about it?
People who have this rare condition are convinced that these parts of their bodies are not there and if they are there they do not belong to them. We again have a case where reason is over-ridden by another factor. This time, instead of emotion, it is a brain lesion.
What if there is some kind of brain lesion, and it doesn't have to be a lesion, it could just be the way our brains are constructed, that does not let me see....God, for instance. Or miracles when they happen. Or that what we call coincidences that are really not coincidences at all. What if the whole world is not anything at all like we think it is. We could be living lives just like the mistaken patient!
I bring this up only so that we will consider that maybe the world is not the way we have always perceived it to be. Maybe it is something quite different. For a number of years now I have looked up at the moon and wondered: what a coincidence it is that it is exactly the same size in the sky as the sun, even though it is much smaller. Of course, the reason is that it is much closer to the earth. But still, an interesting coincidence. And I also wonder how it happens that the moon takes the same amount of time to circle the earth as it does to rotate around itself. In other words, its day is exactly equal to its year. That is why the same side faces us all the time. Another interesting coincidence. My question is: is my thought that it is a coincidence just my way of rationalizing (like those patients who have asomatognosia) or is there something weird going on in the sky and I just don't want to admit it?
Do we all suffer from existential asomatognosia?
I am interested in this phenomenon because it involves perception and a particular inability to see what really is. I am hoping to develop a more holistic perspective in myself, but what if I have some kind of asomatognosia and I don't know it. What if there is something in my brain that does not let me see what is really there? And how would I know about it?
People who have this rare condition are convinced that these parts of their bodies are not there and if they are there they do not belong to them. We again have a case where reason is over-ridden by another factor. This time, instead of emotion, it is a brain lesion.
What if there is some kind of brain lesion, and it doesn't have to be a lesion, it could just be the way our brains are constructed, that does not let me see....God, for instance. Or miracles when they happen. Or that what we call coincidences that are really not coincidences at all. What if the whole world is not anything at all like we think it is. We could be living lives just like the mistaken patient!
I bring this up only so that we will consider that maybe the world is not the way we have always perceived it to be. Maybe it is something quite different. For a number of years now I have looked up at the moon and wondered: what a coincidence it is that it is exactly the same size in the sky as the sun, even though it is much smaller. Of course, the reason is that it is much closer to the earth. But still, an interesting coincidence. And I also wonder how it happens that the moon takes the same amount of time to circle the earth as it does to rotate around itself. In other words, its day is exactly equal to its year. That is why the same side faces us all the time. Another interesting coincidence. My question is: is my thought that it is a coincidence just my way of rationalizing (like those patients who have asomatognosia) or is there something weird going on in the sky and I just don't want to admit it?
Do we all suffer from existential asomatognosia?
2 comments:
It’s not just a coincidence that the same side of the moon always faces the earth. So you’re right about that. However, you might not be very impressed with what the cause of that actually is; it’s tidal forces. Just like the moon having tidal forces that affect our oceans, the earth has tidal forces that affect the moon too. The earth’s gravity has pulled at the moon until eventually it just stopped rotating. Likewise, the moon is also slowing down the earth’s rotation. Days used to be shorter but they are getting longer. Eventually the earth will be like the moon, where one side always faces it.
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