Reticulating Splines vs Spoon Theory

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Ok first off, I've been so interested in this stuff you guys have been telling me that I'm trying to research it. I'm surprised I've never heard of it before. But even you JSB said you had never described it to anyone, so that really surprised me because I would have thought the doc who diagnosed you - it would have come up at some point in those conversations. Or is not Autism related?

Then, in another thread someone was saying how when they speak words, they actually see the words. So that's a whole other thing. I'm really thinking I want to do some serious research in this field of how we visualize things. My degree is in psychology, but it's forensic psychology, leaning way more to the forensic than the psychology part.

Beautifully put - everything is everything!

Thanks. :). I've been heavily focused on finishing my book on mind control the last few weeks, so I don't always make it over here to reply.

What you describe is alot like the spatio-time and other spatial forms of synesthesia. (I'm not sure if "spatio" is the right term.) It's a fairly common form. For instance, a synesthete may view the days of the month on a wheel that encircles him, with significant dates and scheduled appointments popping out of it. Some people project this out, so they actually see it. Of course what you describe isn't purely spatial. But our minds are capable of imagining things that don't really exist.

I'll have to think if there is any physics-defying ideation I do. Certainly when I'm linking concepts together, there is this sense of bringing things together, those boxes of splines. I say "boxes" but I don't picture boxes... Just the ideas coming together and connecting with all their attached words and sensations. It's not like Grandin describes, where the pictures flip through my head in sequence... There's an instantaneousness to it (tho I guess she describes it happening very rapidly).. And I guess sometimes it takes time. It's just not in any particular order.

Mostly these are issues of qualia, right? We all point to the strawberry and say, "That's red!" So no one stops to question, "What does red really look like? And does red look the same to everyone?"

I think, therefore I am, but if I am not you, do I think differently? The answer is clearly yes, but up until recently, questions of qualia have been left up to philosophers, not scientists. I think it's only been recently that scientists are really delving into these questions, particularly with both synesthesia and autism. Maybe with other things, too?

It's cool you're a forensics psychologist. If you're interested in doing research, I'd start with the Synesthesia Mailing List run by Dr. Sean Day. There are many personal descriptive accounts that come through there, as well as surveys from researchers, and papers. There was recently a discussion about links with autism, which I'm sure will come up again.

Also there are two sites that have synesthesia tests which bank the data and offer it to researchers who want to do further studies with the same participants. I think one is at synesthete.org. I forget where the other is.. I can search for it later if there is demand. :)

Not to mislead you, I'm not a psychologist - it's a B.A. Almost have it (2 tests away) - which for some reason I keep putting off. I wonder if people with BAs are allowed to do research.

Thanks for the sources, they sound like what I'm looking for.

No, he meant, "I'm sure you're not an expert."

Forensic psychology: Forensic psychology is the intersection between psychology and the justice system. It involves understanding criminal law in the relevant jurisdictions in order to be able to interact appropriately with judges, attorneys and other legal professionals.

I've put this up just to help understanding within the thread.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rods_(eyes)
We most curtainly don't all see the same thing. My friend is colour blind to red. While he can recognise what is red, he obviously dosesn't see red like the rest of us.

Also, each individual will have different percentage of each rod colour. They will not be uniform for each and every individual.

I want to comment further, but smoko is over. back to work.

Yeah that's it. I took on a healthy contempt for most things psychology, but the law part was really fun. I did have some great psychology profs who I admired (like the ones working in the prisons), but for the most part, it's a lot of opinion and it can be really damaging (imo). Maybe as we move toward the brain scans and stuff it will be way less opiniony.

Yep, I figured that's what you were talking about. Like the guy on the serial killer movie who profiles the killer. They always call those guys, "forensic psychologists" even though they aren't therapists. :)

Speaking of social sciences and cognitive psychology and BRAINS, I just completed the first draft of my book on mind control today! I know it's only marginally on topic, but hey, I've got to celebrate. It's called Recovering Agency: Lifting the Veil of Mormon Mind Control, and based on lots of studies and research. When it comes to compliance studies, they're actually rather clever in how they do things to people to see how they react.

Anyway, it's clear to me from my own work how much the lines between felids like neurology, psychology, behavioral science, and cognitive science (along with philosophy, psychiatry, and other fields) hugely overlap. Even though they take wildly different approaches, they eventually meet in the middle. (There's me picturing all the shapes of the concepts again!)

You can't go off topic - it's your thread! The topic is whatever you say it is!

That is so cool about your book. Now is that a "special interest" of yours that you put to work, or did you have to be disciplined and force yourself to do it?

My dad was born into a Mormon family and they baptized me in the church without telling me. A lot of good that did them!

:)

Yes, mind control was a special interest of mine in 2005 and this year I decided to put it to use. I was raised LDS, so in a way, that was a special of interest until I left 12 years ago. Then I added the mind control aspect. Topics related to psychology have interested me since I was a teen, so it's a great fit.

I really like it when I've finally learned enough about various topics I can start to pull them together. Who knows what will come of my new interest in Aspergers? I'm excited to find out.

My reticulating splines start stimming wildly if they sense any mind control approaching. Kept me from drinking the Kool Aid on many an occasion.

Ah, good. You have what I call "cultdar". It kept me safe a time or two as well. :)

I written another blog post, this one on Autism and Shame. I've loved all the input you guys gave on this topic, so I'm curious if you have any thoughts on the new one. The WP thread is here, linking to the post: http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt244413.html

I'd be very interested to see a phenomenologist like Louis Sass get on this case!

I recently came across a very interesting article.

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/210673-did-these-researchers-just-create-an-autistic-computer-program

Google has been simulating visual cortexes with computer neural networks and has made some very interesting observations about neural network behavior.

Apparently, in autistics, the regulation mechanism that keeps individual neurons is not functioning like most people.
It seems the electrical activity kind of "transmits" to neighboring brain cells, and there is a way neurons can control how much RF bleed gets to other nerves.

This leads one to consider the electromagnetic aspect to brain activity, and what possible physics we don't understand yet could be going on.

I started observing my emotional reactions and those around me. Things I though we're something I was doing turned out to be reactions to different emotional environments. I found that I'm like emotional tofu. I take on the mood of the group I'm in, I have to exercise extreme effort not to let things effect me.

On top of that, the regular sensory stuff aggravates all of that, or helps.
Water has a HUGE effect on me. I think it's because of the subtle electromagnetic properties of water, it is conductive.

I'm starting to learn how to navigate based on my autism. I kinda "feel" my way around.
I'm also fortunate enough to be in a situation in life where I can take the time to work on dealing with my autism for once, rather than being traumatized by the "work" world.

I also take a more "jedi" approach to thing.
I don't make sudden changes in things or activities.
I think about Obi-Wan explaining the "force". It seems to work really well for me.

Just think about how natural fluid systems work.
Sit and watch water flow, apply the inertia and spline approach.

It seems folks like us get messed up with sudden changes, but we can slowly work our way into new things.

Sad thing is, modern society is to hectic and rushed to live easily like that.

Personally, I have really good geometric skills and I have developed a way in my head to visualize things in a non-linear time-space in my head. It took years of playing with 4D & 5D geometry in my head. That became my autistic "stim". As I got older I couldn't do visible stims, had to sit in class. So in my head I'd work out geometries. I got pretty good at it. I'm not bragging, just suggesting a mental exercise to help one's processing of time related things. It's tough at first, but play with, dots, lines, squares, cubes, hyper-cubes in your head. See how one dimension projects into the next.