Tuesday, April 23, 2013

A Creepy Adventure, Even Deeper Into Clarity!



I have momentarily run out of creative ways to lead off these posts with greetings!

This is the first time in a while that I'm actually making a post not more than a day after my previous one. This one will almost be finished on the very same day, to be more precise (In my country).


The reason I'm doing this entry is mostly to clear up some confusions caused mostly by my horrible explaining last time. I will try to do better this time, but that remains to be seen.


There is no music for todays post. This is not because I didn't compose anything today, but rather what I made turned out to be too good for me to post it here, in my opinion (first world problems...). The basic idea (chords, rythm and melody) behind the music piece I created was quite different from what I usually do, so I'll keep it to myself for now (for further development).


Instead, I'll share with you the (intentionally) creepy "art" that I made today.




Now what is that?


Basically, that was todays training of expressions and shading (also know as: me being bored during music class and deciding to draw something unsettling).


What's interesting about this drawing is that I actually used a reference picture.

I found this (probably around two years old) picture in my penal (pencil case). It's dirty and not very clear, but I noticed that, childish as I am, I had drawn moustaches and such on the people in the picture.

What I also noticed is that the people in the picture had what I'd call priceless expressions on their faces.



I know you can't see the picture that well, partly because of the lighting, but mostly due to the picture having been in a place between several dirty pens and who knows what for an eternity of time...

Here is an early stage pic of the drawing:



Creepy right? You might notice that I switched the gender roles (The one to the right is [as I decided] a russian masculine-looking female):





Afterwards I just added more of what I thought looked like creepy details.



Yup. That's what I do in school. Here are two more wierd pictures drawn today (I obviously didn't even try on the first one).





What do you mean with that there is something seriously wrong with me? The last one was also mostly boredom, concocted together with a little bit of weirdness and shading practise (I suck at shading, and I usually never practice, school not included).







Anyway. Now that that is out of the way, let's clear up some confusions shall we not?



A big mistake with my previous entry, touching upon the subject of hypnosis, was that I just bunched an amount of loose examples and terms together without even beginning to describe what hypnosis really is in it's core existence.


Let's begin by using a quite extensive definition that I found on the interwebs.

Hypnosis: An artificially induced altered state of consciousness, characterized by heightened suggestibility and receptivity to direction.


That is to say, hypnosis is a tool used to put people in a more suggestible state of mind, with a whole other experience (feel) than your usual mindset. Depending on how the word is used, it's a synonym to trance, but it can also not be, depending on whether you're speaking of the state of consciousness or of the phenomenon  in general (like the act of hypnotizing, or hypnotizing as a tool [you can't really say trancing, can you? Since the word doesn't work that way.]).




Hypnosis is also used to reach "deeper" (as in parts you don't normally enter) parts of your brain; while you are in trance, you have access to different parts of your brain and your memory.

It is actually possible to elicit  forgotten memories, and flashbacks. These can be as strong as hallucinations, except when you only use your memory you usually know that the flashbacks are flashbacks (you know you're not actually going through that particular event in real time).


An interesting thing is that the details of these flashback memories can be as accurate as if you were there right now. It's not actually only in movies that the police make use of this. I don't know how common it is, but it happens that hypnosis is used to recall specific deatails about something that has happened.

Many people believe that hypnosis is something comparable to the paranormal (which I don't believe in), but that is about as wrong as one can be. Hypnosis is not magic, it's a psychological tool. It's basics could be said to be rooted in biology.




What can hypnosis be used for?


For good: Improving different aspects of your life, for example. It's actually VERY common that smokers who try to quit but can't, succeed after trying hypnosis for quitting (Naturally it isn't like a magic hypnotist snaps his fingers and you suddenly never want to smoke, but more like a therapy session).

Since the mind is in a more suggestible state, you can simply strenghten the will to quit smoking. In trance it's possible to enhance different aspects of you. Sometimes only for a while, like concentrating ones brain on different tasks, othertimes for a longer duration of time. It's easier to motivate someone to do things through hypnosis, and you can actually imporove performances a lot.

I've heard of top league athletes having personal hypnotists before trying to do something demanding, but I have no idea how common that is.


For bad: Hypnosis often uses confusion as a tool, and it's possible to trick people more easily using covert forms of hypnosis.

Did you know that in many (I'd guess, probably most) countries it's actually illegal to use hypnosis in commercials? (Again, It's not like hypno-toad from futurama, or someone holding a waving pendulum. It's a convincing way of speaking or showing things). Understandably, It's not good to listen to hypnotic speech when driving or doing something that demands your attention, since your focus is likely to be mislead.






I haven't begun explaining HOW to use hypnosis yet, nor will I do in this entry, since it's meant to better explain what hypnosis is.

I'll say that a key word is confidence though. If a hypnotist lacks that, it will easily, unconsciously or not, be read from his body language, and the hypnosis is at least five times less likely to work.

Otherwise, IF DONE RIGHT, it's highly unlikely that the hypnosis will completely fail.

The probability of success is dramatically increased if the person you're hypnotizing is willing, or even excited to get hypnotized, but it's very possible even otherwise. Even sceptics (not of religion, but of what we're speaking about) tend to get hypnotized, possibly not quite as easily as if they believe in it's existence.

This is because hypnosis isn't really something that has to be believed in, in order to exist; it's there whether you want it to be or not (unlike other, for the moment not to be mentioned, things).





There is one final thing from the previous post that I wish to clarify.

I mentioned different hypnotic phenomena. I mentioned things such as amnesia and catalepsy.


What I want to stress is what I meant with them being hypnotic phenomena.

Obviously, amnesia (memory loss) doesn't necessarily have to do anything with hypnosis, but it can have.


Do not take my word for it (no real research made concerning this particular part), but I would say that hypnotic phenomena like anaesthesia are only hypnotic phenomena if induced through hypnosis.


That is to say, you can of course experience these phenomena for different reasons than by using hypnosis, in everyday life. They can however, be (if you will) summoned and the sensations strengthened through hypnosis.

For example: If done correctly, when experiensing catalepsy while in trance due to hypnosis, the sensation of not being able to move that certain bodypart targeted is actually so strong that you can't manage to move it an inch even if you try; you actually feel like there is a force holding your hand still (mostly not in an unpleasant or creepy way). Sidenote: during sleep paralysis you won't actually be able to move for a while either, so the sensation of catalepsy can be strong even without the use of hypnosis.




Beware however, there are risks if you're doing things wrong. Just because you see to it that someone doesn't feel pain, it doesn't mean you should set them on fire to prove it. That would prove it (the effect would however probably disappear due to the terror of realizing you're burning; you snap out of it, so to say), but the harm could not be undone, and it would hurt afterwards...


There is also a small risk with people who have traumatic pasts. If they experience a flashback, it can become too strong, if connected too much to an emotional memory, and the results can be bad. BAD I TELLS YOU!


that last "sentence" is my cue to stop writing, I believe.








The reason I made this post is upon request, indirectly; not really a request to make this post, but something more similar to criticism, FINALLY!


Both negative and positive criticism is most welcomed, and taken into account.


I really managed to stir up some confusion with my previous, very lacking entry, so I decided to try to make up for that.

Tell me, did I succeed?


Ask me upon further confusion.


This post was dedicated to the one confused by the previous one (for good reasons), a.k.a. the most critical mastermind who goes under the name OneSketchist.



I once again must apologize for accidentally creating a wall of text. I know it might be a bit too much heavy reading for some.

Around 1600 words again...

And this time, much more of it was actually factual and kinda straight to the point. I'm sorry for making you read this (if you did), but at least to me, hypnosis and psychology in general are intriguing subjects.




As I said, comment and criticise as best as you can (in the comment section, or in "real life".).




I will notice you reading me later! (My words of postroduction!) (yes, I invented a new word).

Monday, April 22, 2013

An Adventure Into the Mind


Since I'm very rude and controversial, I am going to write this entry without even greeting you (obviously not a single trace of any kind of irony in that sentence). In advance, I'll apologize for any grammatical mistakes of any shape and form; I'm feeling a bit drowsy.


For once, I'm going to start this off with two pictures.



Just a big mushroom?




Simply a table lamp?





Now, what is so special about those two pictures? We'll return to that later. (I didn't spend much time with that table, I promise. That is why the angles and proportions are so wierd).





I'll also, for once, already, post todays composition by me (I actually made it more than a month ago). I'm not sure what to think of this one. If it sounds empty somehow, it's because it wasn't finished. I was supposed to add more instruments, but I forgot long ago and just now found it.

It has the most creative name also:


Orchestration (yourlisten.com)


I don't even know how to play it anymore... (Still, that would only take 5 minutes for me to figure out using the MIDI-file, but oh well). So I don't think I'm going to finish it...

The reason I already posted it is because it doesn't suit the theme of this entry at all in my opinion, but I'll return to that shortly as well.


We'll soon go to the very interesting (if you ask me) theme of this entry, but first I'm going to share with you a recommendation to a movie, namely Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

I won't spoil anything much, but it has great actors and script. It also involves one of the most clusterfuckish (yes, I did indeed make that word up) series of events I've seen in a long time, and on the top of that it's very well put togehter.


Another Movie I watched was the 1979:s Dracula.

The shots of the environment in that movie were astounding, and count Dracula's castle was perfect.


Oh, and by the way. You might have noticed that I changed my blog layout slightly, upon request. I don't really know if I fixed the problems the layout originally had, but at least I think it looks a bit more pleasing.


Anyhow, I was supposed to get a lot done this weekend, but yet again I failed. One of the reasons to that was that I began watching the modern Sherlock series. Goddamit! Things like that always have to happen...


Anyhow x2, Let's stop wasting time, and venture into todays subject.


So the reason I already posted my composition earlier was simply because it wasn't mysterious enough for the subject of this evening (also the reason why I filled up some space with movie tips [since I know that at least some of you probably listen to them in the background while you keep reading]).

If you want to listen to something more fitting, I recommend you listen to what I am listening to right now while I am writing, that is to say:

Night Mist




There, now that the mood is set right, let us begin.


Todays subject is yet another deep drop into the human mind, in this case, Hypnosis.


Hypnosis? some of you might ask. A surprising amount of people actually believe that hypnosis isn't a real phenomenon, and that it's all movie bullshit.

Well, they are partly right, but for the entirely wrong reasons.


Hypnosis is very much a real thing, it's just that the way movies portray it sometimes isn't that accurate compared to it's use in reality. Hypnosis is a very large term nowadays, and it covers for lots of eveyday occurrences.

There are many different states of the mind, being in "trance" being one, dreaming another and being conscious the most usual.


The basic function of hypnosis has to do with ones creative mind. It's a state in which you view the world differently from usual. But you are still usually very much aware of what is happening around you, often even more so than normally, that is to say, not under the influence of anything else than just your conscious self.


There are many myths concerning hypnosis, and I think I'll begin by de-bunking a few of those. Obviously I'm not going to cover that large a part of hypnosis with just this entry, but I'll probably continue later on.

A not so well known fact about me is that I can quite easily do basic hypnotic inductions. It's acually not difficult at all, so most people would be able to do it, many on their first try. I've had a few practise rounds, with very interesting results.

I could try writing a particularly hypnotic text right now, but that would require too much effort from my part right now. When, reading, you're already in a different state of mind than usually anyway. Same thing goes for when you're listening to music. So in a way, writers and musicians automatically use a kind of hypnosis without even consciously trying. The trick is however, to write or compose in a way that really grabs the readers or listeners attention, and almost immobilizes them, momentarily unable to focus on much else than what they're reading or listening to.


There are of course also more covert forms of hypnosis, disguised as for instance telling a story. This could be about whatever, like what you did today. This kind of hypnosis is of course much more effective when you actually use your voice and not text, since there are a lot more elements to the story then. You can for example reach so called "report" with one person or a group of people. But I think I'll return to that in later entries (you can naturally investigate more on your own, if you want to).


So many people have what I'd like to call stupid beliefs of hypnosis. They can think that it is really dangerous and can have many negative side effects. I'll start by saying that it's almost never dangerous even in the slightest.

Pretty much the only exception to that is that you can accidentally trigger memories of traumatic events, in some people. That, however, is very rare. People with tragic pasts might be better off only hypnotized by proffessionals, like psychologists.


A number of people also believe that if you're hypnotized, the hypnotist can make you do anything.

As cool as that would be, that is entirely false. It's more the other way around. The hypnotist can make you do anything YOU want.

What do I mean by that? Well, it's true that your conscious mind mightn't be in as active a state as usually, but your subconscious mind has pretty much the same values as you.

If a hypnotist tried to make you murder someone, you would instantly snap into your usual mindset and have your normal response to when someone asks you to murder someone (I wonder how this would work if you actually genuinely wanted to murder that someone?).

Jk. That wouldn't work either, probably not even in extreme cases.


Anyway, different hypnosis phenomena are completely safe, and quite common.

I'll give you a short introductionary example (it's a real word, however introductory is much more common).


Quite common phenomena are for instance: Amnesia, Anaesthesia, Catalepsy, and Hallucinations (there are many more).


Through hypnosis, you can manually make these occur, but they happen every day quite naturally.


I'll explain a few situations when the above examples take place in everyday life.


Amnesia (memory loss) can happen when for example you're trying to remember where you just placed your phone, but minutes after you have completely forgotten where it is. This is mostly because of your "autopilot". You just do something without taking specific notice of it. Speaking of autopilot, have you ever driven a car or ridden on your bike, or just walked, and suddenly realized that you've reached your destination without even noticing the sudden progress of your transportation? This has to do both with amsesia and simple time dissortion. Sometimes when you do something you do often, your autopilot (even know as the subconscious mind) jumps in and takes over for you. This often happens for me when I play the piano (also, for me much is in my so called muscle memory).

Amnesia can just like most hypnotic phenomena purposely be induced using simple suggestion techniques (extreme memory and such might require experienced hypnotists though).


Have you ever got minor injuries during sports (not the big ones). Notice how it might not hurt even though it would normally? That's because your concentration lies entirely elsewhere (this is anaesthesia, lack of pain).
This is not to be used wrongly. Even if pain can't be felt, damage may be caused to your body.


Catalepsy (not being able to move) is a common hypnotic trick. A real life example would be when you're just lying comfortably in your bed, newly awakened. You know you could really get up, but you just don't get to doing so. Instead, you just lay still in your bed, like I'm doing right now =)


Hallucinations are interesting. There are positive and negative hallucinations (not good and bad). Positive is when you see something that's not really there, negative, when you don't see something that is there.

In a way, all hallucinations are both positive and negative; in order to not see something you must see what is behind it and vice versa.


Now when do hallucinations commonly occur? They might do during sleep paralyzis, but they can also appear on a much more regular basis.

Have you ever been in a hurry, looking for your phone or your keys? Sometimes you look just at where you know they should be, but you just can't see them! Well, turns out, they have actually been there all the time, you have just been momentarily unable to spot them.



Those were some examples of hypnotic phenomena. I'll go into more detail and try to uncover what hypnosis really is, but I can't write much more on the subject right now (I should sleep soon, school tomorrow).

A final example is the so called covert hypnosis.

Usually you can't hypnotize people who do not want to be hypnotized, but there are some people who can use simple conversation as a hypnotic tool. Here's an example of Darren Brown robbing salesmen while paying with blank paper sheets.






So that was my random and NOT well thought out introduction to hypnosis and such cool stuff.
Ask me if I have confused you concerning something (which I'm very sure I have, trying to rush through too much information at once, without giving proper explanations)...



Back to the pictures I posted earlier. What do you think was special about them?

Well, they both kind of portray false realities.

I urge you to look at them again before proceeding lower in this entry.

(I'll leave some space before the explanations).























































Remember that kinda big fungus? Some people, especially artist might notice this due to the pencil strokes, but that mushroom wasn't big at all. I'll show you!






Isn't different perspectives kinda cool? I think so.




Now, the mystery of the table lamp.

(keep scrolling for a dramatic reveal)






















































That's right. It's actually my reading lamp, on my wall. I woke up this morning, and dazed as i was, I saw the illusion of that lamp being a table lamp... Wierdest awakening in a while....






Were you fooled by those two images?







Wow... more than 1800 words again...

Probably my third longest entry or something like that.



Well, you can finally stop reading (some of you probably didn't read 'til the end but, meh...).

Goodnight!

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Remembering the Illusion of the Hand Holding the Candy?




There once was a time, when a sentence greeting it's readers existed, in fact, this is the very same sentence that you are reading right now.


So it is time to write again, huh? There is a slight problem. I have tought of many a quite good subject to share my thoughts on with you people, but these thoughts have occurred spanning from weeks to months ago. This is to say: I have no idea what I should write about, since I've forgotten some of my thoughts and some are relevant no more.

Don't you just hate it when you forget something? And even more enervating, when you forget what you have forgotten! This can happen in many different ways, but I don't think I ought to go into much detail about that, since thinking about it really isn't that productive, nor is it that interesting. Besides, I'm sure you've encountered many situations of memory loss yourselves...



Instead of talking about forgetting, let's discuss remembering! (they are closely linked though).


Have you ever noticed that sometimes when you try hard to remember something, it can be pretty easy to forget, but when you try to forget something, it's often all too easy to remember?

That's kind of a weird effect, if you ask me. I won't go too much into detail, since I'm (ironically) only paraphrasing from my memory, and I'm way too lazy to actually research further, but feel freee to do it yourself if you want!

Now, human memory is both perfect for fulfilling it's purposes, and at the same time, it just isn't... I'm sure you've heard of these things yourself, but anyway... For the most part, the human brain isn't all too good at remembering details (depending on how you view it of course); it ignores what doesn't seem necessary at the time being. It also has a tendency to add in details of its own, details that aren't even real. This can cause a huge mess at police questionings...

For example, most peoples color memory sucks, unless they consciously try to remember what color something is on beforehand. A quick question, do you remember what color the room next to the one you are in now is? I'm guessing about 50% of the time, you could answer that question correctly, but for the wrong reasons. Houses and such often have a basic color theme, causing you to easily being able to remember it. You will most probably remember things that you have specifically taken notice of. You'll remember things such as the color of your car, the color of your house seen from outside or your bike. But let's look at another example. Do you remember the colors of the letters in the google logo, and in the right order? As I tought, probably not (unless you've payed attention to it before, I know some people have).

If you're too lazy to check, I'll tell you the colors in order: Blue, red, yellow, blue, green and red. Isn't this kind of interesting? Try without looking, to form the google logo in your mind, with the right colors, without looking at it of course. Tell me, how did it go? I know this is easy for some people, but not so much for others.

Now, aside from trying to get the picture printed in your head, how should you proceed in order to memorize the colors? There are many methods you could use, and a very effective one, that I'm sure you already know about, is the association techinque. Humans tend to have separated working memory (processing memory) and long term memory. In order to be able to reminice somtehing for a longer time, It's best to try creating a link between the two mentioned types of memories.

For instance, one could try memorizing the google logo's colors (although this will take farfetched methods). Now, the first three colors are blue red and yellow. Do you remember what's special about these? Well, they are part of the RYB color model (one set of primary colors). As for the order, just think of the name Bryan (not Brian). Why? BRYan; Blue Red Yellow-an.

As for the other three colors, they are also part of another set of primary colors (RGB), I believe they are the very same colors that our eyes use to make colors (if I recall correctly, the same is true for most computers).

As for the total order of colors, try to think of something striking or obscene that will easily stick to your memory, kinda like:

BRYan's Boy Got Raped!

Blue Red Yellow Blue Green Red!

(In case you're tired and don't understand, Each uppercase letter stands for a color, B = blue, R = red etc.)


Easy, no?


So from now on, just think about that when you want to remember the google logo's colors. Farfetched and horrifying in a good combination =)


Quickly! Try not to think of a trash can for ten seconds!

Most people would render that task most difficult. Unless you misread and thought about a harsh man or something...


That is indeed a classic example of your brains memory skills.

I don't really know... This entry sure got messed up. I was distracted by nothing else than my random thoughts and got off track, and I've probably ended up confusing the hell out of you, but oh well.


You see, memory and such is a very interesting phenomenon, and would require eternity to write serioulsy about, even thought I have much more to say about the subject, but hey! I might venture deeper into the realm of the human brain during other posts, since psychology is really interesting to me.

On a sidenote, I recommend you don't go quoting me on what I've written today, since some of the information may be wrong, due to the lacking reserch which only took place inside my own brain's very lacking memory.






Anyway. Here's a picture (kinda illusional) that I drew after seeing a similar one on the interwebs.








Naturally I drew it during school time, and even more naturally, OneSketchist had already long ago made a much better, yet similar one, except he drew a face, by using shading. This resulted in a nice popping-out 3D effect!








Meh, I should really stop writing before I fully bore you (I might already have accomplished that).

But first: A random music piece that I made.


Candid Candy (yourlisten.com) (Don't ask me about the name, since I haven't the slightest idea).


I know that at least a few people have liked it (the song, not the name).

Do you?







Anyway. Get lost!

Shoo.


Away with you.





Speaking of memory, don't forget to comment. No? Okay... =(

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Chords, Harmonies and Melodies (Short)




Why hi!


You haven't been able to see me (well, read me) for a while, once again (...).

I have been too busy for my own mental health. Actually most of what I've been doing hasn't been so bad, but some of it has. During Easter I went slalom skiing with my family and friends. That was quite fun. We stayed in a cabin (not really in the woods though, which is a surprisingly good movie). We spent the days skiing down a hill, and the evenings relaxing and watching semi-good horror movies. Have you noticed how horror movies and comedies are never as broadly appreciated as action or drama movies? I guess this simply has to do with too differing tastes. some people seem to have no humor at all...

Apart from that, we are having a test week at our school. To be honest, I seldom practise much at all at my tests, and I still manage pretty well. However, I just randomly seem to have such subjects this period (no, not that kind of a period, you naughty moron) that actually require me reading on beforehand. This has stolen too many hours of my time...


I'm not intending to share everything I've been through during my absence, so don't worry.


I should go to bed soon since I have a professional performance (playing the piano) early tomorrow morning.

Speaking of pianos, I have regretfully not made any worthwhile compositions these past two weeks. What I did do, however, is remake a very old song (not my own). A couple of days ago I felt bored, so I thought, why not completely change an old song and make it sound like an opposite, dark version.

Naturally, I kept the old melody, but I made large changes to the harmony and to the general atmosphere of the composition. The song originally used major chords, which I of course switched with other, minor chords (+ some diminished triads and major 7s). This makes the song entrírely different (which I'll show you if you hang on for a moment).



At first I only changed the chords, but today I added more instruments and did some tweaks. Since I didn't have much time at my disposal I only made a sloppy, fast and short version (the drums are played especially bad) of this changed song ('tis a shame but that's the case).


What I'd like you to do is guess which song this is a cover of. First you get to listen to the song, preferably using headphones for full effect. Don't think of the song in general, but try to capture the still, somewhat recognizable melody.

Now, I realize that the timpani drums overrule some other aspects of the song, but that cannot be helped. Sadly, my synth doesn't have many instruments with a bass-like (not the fish) feeling.

Pro tip: try listening to the choir track, since it's in charge of the melody. Ignore the background music, and imagine the same melody in a different light. Do you recollect it? Maybe something nostalgic from you childhood?


Anyway, here it is:


Black Holes Never Twinkle (yourlisten.com)

(Naturally, I've re-named it).



As you can notice, the drums could have been played better, and the instruments could be more balanced. As I said, I didn't have much time, so I poorly put this one together. I think I'll make a longer version sometime, when I have time.



I would be pleased if you guessed which song my version derives from, and posted your answer in the comments. You can also ask me if you just can't figure it out.


This is one of the fun things you can do with all existing songs. Just change some chords, without touching the melody, and it sounds completely different. Many times people can't even notice that the song isn't yours, even if they would recognize the original at any time.



Btw, before I go, did you notice the heartbeats spanning through the entire song? If not, try listening to it again carefully (with headphones!).



Goodnight!