111–120 of 155 posts
"...various indirect mechanisms possibly mediating this phenomenon were tested: accommodation, brightness, increases in arousal by increased mental effort. None of these behavioral tests could support an indirect strategy as the mode of action"
A quick search online brings up multiple articles dating back a few years with examples of the same thing. It's not "an impossible feat". https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20160229-the-sea-nomad-ch...
Yeah. I've been able to do this for years. Not immediately, but with some concentration and focus when standing in front of a mirror. Works probably 75-80% of the time. So, "impossible feat"... how would they even think that?
> Direct control of the pupillary musculature is deemed impossible (Loewenfeld, 1993).
Also, from the abstract, they tested to rule out "increases in arousal by increased mental effort". This is a different phenomenon than what you are discussing.
This brings us one step closer to Bene Gesserit prana-bindu nerve and muscle control https://dunescholar.com/2020/08/28/the-bene-gesserits-nerve-...
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I'm surprised that that group apparently also includes me. I had an awful experience during my LASIK procedure. What should've taken a few minutes ended up taking like 40+. It was almost an hour of the doctor and nurses constantly repeating "please keep still", yet from the very start to the very end I was literally making myself as still as possible and from my perspective wasn't moving any part of my body in the sl…
I've only recently started taking control of my breath (despite my parents suggesting I learn it in childhood). It is hard to imagine the impact when you're not doing it. When you start consider that you're going to try for a minute, then three, then five. It is truly insane the amount of change you'll experience.
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If it takes time and is not wholly reliable, it sounds like you might be using one of the "indirect methods" they mentioned in the article.
I can change the focal point of my eyes on command to a far away point or a close one, and I have noticed that this reliably makes my pupil get slightly larger or smaller.
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> I spin my fingers in opposite directions Trying to work out why this would be difficult, since it doesn't seem to be, so my first assumption ought to be that I'm doing this wrong. If I point in front of me I can twirl my pointers in a circle such that they go in opposite directions. This seems to be the most intuitive and trivial, because both are actually doing the same movement (inward and outward at the same tim…
Imagine there is a wheel in-front of your chest, in the same orientation the front wheel of a bike would be if you were riding it, but smaller and up higher. Then point your index fingers toward each other so that they are both tracing the same wheel. They can each go forward or backward. Most people struggle with making them go opposite directions. To the point that they'll do it once or a half of a time, and then s…
If I imagine the wheel over my head (as if the wheel axle was vertical), or in front of me but the axle going forwards (wheel is moving left/right), I can do the opposite circles just fine.
But if I imagine the axle going left/right as you describe, it takes extra cognitive effort. If I imagine drawing circles, I can't do it. Instead, I have to think of each axis of movement separately. In my mind, I'm not thinking "Draw circles in the air", but rather, "Move fingers forward and back, while moving arms up and down".
The end result is the same, but what's happening in my mind to get there is totally different.
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That's just a trick to find the aliens hiding in the population.
Wouldn't blinking with your third eyelids give it away though?
On topic, though, I tried it, and changing what I'm focused on doesn't change my pupil size. But maybe I wasn't going far enough? I just looked in a mirror, focused on a spec of dust on the mirror, then changed focus to the image of something behind me, and my pupils didn't change at all.
This reminds me of the Bene Gesserit and other schools that sprung up in Frank Herbert's Dune. Once computing technology was forbidden, these schools started research in 'human technologies', learning to control and use their own (or another's) body as a kind of machine. I do wonder if there is any possibility of actually doing things like extending conscious control over more bodily functions, if we were to try at i…
When dental assisting, it has been challenging to discover how many people have no voluntary control over their own tongues.
When asked to move my tongue to the right or left, I have a roughly 60% success rate. Probably because you don't need to teach your tongue right and left to eat/talk successfully.