Calling All Geniuses! Calling All Geniuses!
While sitting at your desk, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles.Your foot will change direction. You can try 50 times to see if you can outsmart your foot, but you can't.
Now, while doing this, draw the number "6" in the air with your right hand.
So why is this impossible? Or is it?
posted by jm at 12:55 AM
33 Comments:
It'd be especially hard for people with two left feet.
It'd be especially hard for people with two left feet.
Ha, Ha, Ha!! The keyboard almost got "coffeed" . . . good one!
Actually I don't think it's any harder. Did you try it? Impossible is impossible no matter what direction it turns...:-).
'Member this one:
"Flat floot floogie with the floy floy."
Very popular tune.
So I put the call out for geniuses and you were the ones who showed up...:-)
It's not impossible, just difficult and abnormal. ;-) I suspect that group tai chi practice might help a little.
Have y'all tried the patting one's head and rubbing one's stomach at the same time? Some people add waltzing to that, I've heard.
Another fun one is with palms facing the body about waist level, with hands tracing circles in the air but moving in opposite directions (as one hand approaches the body, the other hand moves away).
I've done the stomach pat. Just tried the other.
And I KNOW you can't do the foot one!
Does the hand lead the foot then?
This goes back to my current study of fingertips and energy.
It's not that bad. Just concentrate. Look at the foot and make it go in circles. Then add the hand motion to trace the figure 6. Keep your eye on the foot motion, and don't look directly at the hand.
Almost!
You are right concentration. Pure will. I still wonder why. If it's just habit.
I DID IT!!!!!!
That was tough. Maybe if I practice it will spill over to other impossibilities!
Thanks for the lesson, kadimiros. You're a champ!
Hey, there are big discussions about this, and different ways people try to get it.
One person wrote: "I think the pattern seems to be that people who have hobbies or jobs where their feet and their hands are doing different things have no trouble with this.
"My foot doesn't even have a tendancy to change directions when I start my hand. Then again, I have done 8 years of marching band, which is very much a seperation of hands (playing music) and feet (marching). Also, I've done dance with flag, so that too my hands were doing flag work, while my feet were moving me around or doing cool dance steps."
Another person wrote: "This is pissing me off. I cant do it no matter how hard I try, so I decided to challange my 17 year old son. He can do it without any concentration or problem. It's not fair!!!!" LOL
There seem to be a lot of comments claiming that left-handed or ambidextrous people find the trick easier than right-handed people do.
"I DID IT!!!!!!
That was tough. Maybe if I practice it will spill over to other impossibilities!"
Congrats! That's exactly the idea.
Did my suggestion help? :-)
I find doing the trick with the left hand and left foot is much more difficult for me. Writing backwards takes up more concentration, I guess!
Very very interesting. Music and syncopation is a lot of it. The marching band makes complete sense.
So it all points to habit. The natural impulse is to coordinate it seems, but the spit in our brain must be an evolutionary factor to allow us to break patterning.
The ambidextrous makes sense.
I wonder if there is an inherent flexibility factor too.
Psychic tip: Deliberately doing little things differently once in a while is excellent to free up the mind and make it more flexible -- such as walking down a different street than usual, or changing which shoe one puts on first. Making small changes in routines and perceptions is also a way to change one's luck, and get out of ruts.
Your suggestion was tops! That did the trick. Couldn't have done it otherwise.
I don't think I'm ready for the other foot yet!
I once had a handwriting analyst give me exercises to change programmed patterning. Very interesting. Drawing circles and such.
It could be easier than I thought judging from your foot leesson.
And a pianist wrote, "I play piano & have no problem doing it. I think I overcame this limitation when I learned to play 2-against-3." Hmm. I used to joke when faced with an upcoming deadline in art school that I wish I could paint with two brushes, one in each hand, simultaneously!
changing which shoe one puts on first.
Fantastic idea!!!
Making small changes in routines and perceptions is also a way to change one's luck, and get out of ruts.
I bet this is the only real way. Really good ideas. It's all focus and mindfulness. Paying attention to the progression of events which we habitually gloss over.
"I don't think I'm ready for the other foot yet!"
LOL! Tomorrow! Maybe sleep on it first. Going to sleep shortly after practicing a new skill lets the brain consolidate new data. Then it's easier in the morning. Some people say that it's better to study in the evening for morning exams, for that reason. Then the memory has better retention.
This has turned out to be enlightening. I knew I had to post it. No surprise about your input.
Yes. Piano players are taught from the beginning to separate the hands and do entirely different tasks. It comes with repetition. I don't do much of that, however. My task is to coordinate the voice with the hands.
This changes the brain circuitry.
It can translate to collective thought patterns. Once they separate from the main stem.
So interesting about sleep. I wonder if this is where the will really takes over. Where our true desires function best.
There is a certain lopsided logic to separating coordinated events, reprogramming them, and then putting them back together. There is great food for thought and action here. Very exciting.
Well, that was fun. And like all things that get at fundamentals, it has deeper implications. We should try more stuff like that. It'd be interesting to try a luck-changing exercise. I heard a story about one woman who never goes out for a walk without either finding money on the ground or something interesting and worth keeping.
"There is a certain lopsided logic to separating coordinated events, reprogramming them, and then putting them back together."
Yes...breaking things down into smaller parts for study and practice, and then a new synthesis that's better than before.
YES!!! Let's do!!!!
Luck changing exercises. And also application of will.
Bring us an exercise O Wise One.
We've talked so much about this synthesis. It is one big answer and all it takes is doing it.
The NN in Pisces (synthesis), SN in Virgo (breakdown) is begging us to participate now. And we are!!
Good students of the cosmos.
It's the ripple effect too. If just a handful of us reprogram this rut of collective thought, it will help.
Life is suffering.
The world is being destroyed.
Capricorn is brutal.
More dark times ahead until we come into the light.
All these thoughts need adjustment and it has to start somewhere.
Good heavens. Whom are you quoting? Isn't one of the most basic lessons in the esoteric that thoughts shape reality and beliefs generate emotions?
Good heavens is right!
I'm anxiously awaiting an exercise to program such patterns into my beloved collective reality.
And guess what???????????
I reversed the shoe sequence tonight. I'm liberated and already notice the change in my life...:-)
Wait a minute!!
you mean Capricorn ISN"T brutal?
"I reversed the shoe sequence tonight. I'm liberated and already notice the change in my life...:-)"
Excellent, haha!
"you mean Capricorn ISN"T brutal?"
That's why those elegant velvet gloves were invented. ;-)
After work, I'll start doing a little reading into the luck factor. Maybe something will come up.
Excellent. Now is a good time.
<< Home