Attention!

On the flight from Singapore to Johannesburg I watched a couple of interesting documentaries. One was about Aung Sung Suu Kyi, the rightful leader of Burma who has been under house arrest for two decades. The other was about the brain and how attention works.

I found the documentary about the brain fascinating. They are discovering more and more information about how we tick, and it seems that understanding attention is important if we truly want to appreciate how limited our understanding of the world is.

Basically the science is in and for at least 98% of the population, we can only give our attention to one thing at a time. Multitasking is a myth.

When we think we are multitasking, what we are actually doing is shifting our attention back and forth between things, not actually keeping our attention on them both at the same time.

Scientists talk about two kinds of attention. One is top down. You made a choice to read this blog. Choosing where your attention goes is top down.

If your phone were to ring now, your attention would be drawn away from the blog even if you chose not to answer it. This involuntary movement of attention is called bottom up.

David Copperfield, the magician, explained how Magicians use these two understandings to do almost all magic. The fact we can only process one set of data at a time cognitively means there can be large things right in front of us that we cannot see. By choosing how to misdirect our attention magicians seemingly do the impossible.

Have you ever seen the ad where a group of people pass around a basketball and you are asked to count how many times they pass it? Through the middle of the game a dancing bear comes and Fenians unnoticed by the people watching the advertisement until it is pointed out. Look up dancing bear on Utube and you will see what I mean.

The documentary points out that the brain then fills in the outline of the limited data it has been able to process and so you think you are seeing the full reality but so much is missing.

There are very real limitations to the pre-frontal cortex and it’s ability to process the thousands of pieces of data that bombard it every second.

The truth is that the world you think you are living in is not the world at all, but just that small percentage of the world that you have paid attention to.

I mentioned yesterday that I am fascinate that Jesus told us that we need to accept the kingdom like little children.

Mark 10:15 (NIV)
I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

Have you noticed that children think differently than adults. They look around them and see more than we do. It’s an interesting thing to be with a three year old who is always asking “why”? in fascination.

The brain actually has other ways of processing data than just though our cognitive attention.

The documentary pointed out that there is an area at the back of the brain that is continually sorting the data and moves it to the front when it deems the information relevant.. This is what they were talking about when they spoke of bottom up attention.

I wonder whether part of what Jesus was encouraging us to do was to live in the world differently.. To explore with the wonder of a child and work to see the whole picture rather than just the piece that most affects us now?

My dad is writing a book called “Elihu’s Key” about the role the human spirit plays in understanding. There is a central verse in the book of Job that talks about this kind of knowledge:

Job 32:8 (NIV)
But it is the spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding.

The whole book of Ecclesiastes is about one man who devoted his attention to understanding, and what he came to realize is that understanding is not possible. A key verse is:

Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NIV)
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

I love the complexity of this verse. Basically, in the context of the preceding verses it is saying our job is to know what time it is, that will happen as we listen to our hearts and not our heads.

It seems there is another kind of understanding than simply that which comes from the pre frontal cortex. Somewhere in there is our spirit or our heart which sees things very differently to our heads.

I think in this post and my last one I am wrestling with how I’m wanting to live my life differently to the way I currently am. I love the part of me that trusts and just wants to be on the adventure with God.. It’s just that that part is not as free as I want it to be, and sometimes I try to fix things by thinking harder. Increasingly I am seeing that this kind of life comes from listening rather than over thinking..