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Man can change his pupil size on command

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Re: Man can change his pupil size on command

#131

Post by pjerem »

scld wrote: post #16
RealityVoid wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any actual differece to a muscle if you think about it and it happens?

I'd consider "controlling" something to be more direct, but that's semantics I guess. If I heard "control heartbeat", I'd think more like breathing, where one could "hold their heart" like they "hold their breath". If meditation lowers heartbeat and temperature, I imagine that it's "control" in the strictest sense, but I'd use "influence" or some other term if I was personally describing it.

Have you already felt being conscious of your breathing and feeling like being unable to let it go back to automatic control ? Well …

> one could "hold their heart"

… now that sounds creepy.

Re: Man can change his pupil size on command

#132

Post by borroka »

tsimionescu wrote: post #20

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…

A similar idea was in the ending of the book "The Last Cato", by Matilde Asensi.

Hypnosis is a tool that is tremendously useful for the control of vegetative functions (I am an hypnotist myself), but unfortunately it has suffered from an abundance of charlatans, like electro-medicine.

My dream is to make hypnosis available to the general public.

Re: Man can change his pupil size on command

#133

Post by dec0dedab0de »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #117
dec0dedab0de wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Wow this is the most bizarre thing... 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 sepa…

This was my first time trying to explain it in text without just resorting to making a video. SamBam's reply, and yours pointed out how much different it is in the different orientations. No clue why though.

I normally just ask a group of kids "hey can you do this?" then after I explain that it's different directions, watch them laugh as they try to do it.

Re: Man can change his pupil size on command

#134

Post by dec0dedab0de »

pjerem wrote: post #128
dec0dedab0de wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Thank you my wife asked if I had a problem :D Ok … 2 days, 23 hours and 57 min of training yet.

haha, nice.

spoiler alert:

The secret for me is to realize the fingers are on the same spot at the same time twice each rotation.

Re: Man can change his pupil size on command

#135

Post by Kaibeezy »

jaybrendansmith wrote: post #114
Maxburn wrote: post #21

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-...

Or Larry Niven's "A Gift From Earth" where the protagonist can make their pupils to contract and thereby cause others to lose interest in them (psi invisibility) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Gift_from_Earth

Or Data while playing poker, although synth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9851-SsDBc

Re: Man can change his pupil size on command

#137

Post by SilasX »

justinclift wrote: post #46
hn8788 wrote: post #4

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?

I hadn’t heard of this being an impossible feat before and I likewise don’t see why it would be. I remember from Kahneman’s work on human biases and fast/slow thinking that they used pupil dilation as a great proxy for how much conscious concentration someone is using. So I don’t see why controlling it would be such an impossible thing.

Re: Man can change his pupil size on command

#138

Post by DaiPlusPlus »

snovv_crash wrote: post #119
tsimionescu wrote: post #20

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…

Another book that explores this is A Deepness In The Sky, where people can be infected with a virus that can produce neurotoxins and be directed by MRI. It is used to provide "Focus", a sort of autistic savant state where people can be turned into hyper-specialized computers, although at a higher level of abstract than normal.

> sort of autistic savant state where people can be turned into hyper-specialized computers, although at a higher level of abstract than normal.

That’s me after my Vyvanse dose kicks-in…

Re: Man can change his pupil size on command

#140

Post by TulliusCicero »

justinclift wrote: post #46
hn8788 wrote: post #4

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?

Similarly, I can stop hiccups mentally. It's just a little trick of concentration while focusing on the right thing.
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