If you’ve tried patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time and failed that challenge, you’re not alone. Try this one, offered in the Boomer Yearbook: While sitting in a chair, lift your right foot off the floor and start it circling clockwise. Got it? OK, now draw the number 6 in the air with your right hand. Having a hard time? Everybody does, because the human brain has trouble coordinating movements that are in different directions, also known as isodirectional movements.
Our brains play a huge role in optical illusions, which is why here at the Mind Tripping show, we’re so fascinated with people and the way our minds and bodies work.
Audience members, we find, often arrive expecting something quite different from the delightful experiences they report after having participated in a show. The fun, everyone seems to agree, came about not because some performer’s hand was quicker than the eye, but because Christian and Katalina demonstrated just a few of the many psychological twists that are part of our everyday lives.
Think of the mind tripping process as the most fun science mini-lesson you can imagine. (Even if you didn’t particularly like dissecting frogs in lab class at school, when the focus is on you, suddenly science becomes the most fascinating subject on earth!) That’s why, for us at the Mind Tripping team, our invitation consists of “Bored with your reality? Step into ours.”
Minds, like muscles, are meant to be exercised. Our brains are constantly trying to interpret what we’re experiencing by relating those sensations to familiar categories. Illusions are popular because they make our brains believe one thing when something completely different is going on.
How smart is YOUR right foot? Come to the next Mind Tripping show – you’d be surprised!
By O.P. of the Mindtripping blog team