Many people believe that the thoughts and ideas that come to them are somehow authentic and relevant. Thoughts and ideas kind of pop-up into their minds and are accepted as though they were chosen experiences. Most of the ideas that a person has is relevant to what they are actually experiencing, especially seeing, Yet, there are often tag-along ideas and emotions revived and sent by the brain that are not relevant at that instant. They may even be harmful.

On a moment to moment basis we are flooded (and that is an understatement!) with memories as the brain uses to decode the impressions it receives through the senses of smell, touch, taste, and sight. By far and away, the most important and consequential sense for the average person is the sense of sight.

Sixty percent of the normal person’s brain is dedicated to the perception of sight. This leaves the reaming forty percent (40%) of the brain to the other four senses, running the body and other tasks. Clearly indicates that sight is a normal person’s most important method of perception.

Scientists, including medical doctors have discovered that ninety percent (90%) of the perception of sight happens in the brain as it decodes the impressions of light that is received from the eyes. The brain does this by comparing the impressions of light to memories of previous impressions of light.

A baby’s eyes do perceive after birth, however it takes a couple of weeks of the baby gaining visual memories before the brain begins to have enough memories to decode the impressions . After about two weeks the baby can recognize the basic caregiver visually to a degree.

As the child grows more visual memories are gained. Learning to read means being able to distinguish shapes, so the letters can be discerned. It takes many visual memories of seeing something new before enough memories accumulate that it can always be decoded.

If you can read this text yourself you have many, many visual memories stored that help you to accomplish the task. When you see something new, a new gadget, person, place, etc., you have so many memories of things, people and places that you easily decode much of the image. Yet new images, mean gaining more visual memory.

Gaining visual memory, seeing new things is something that most people enjoy. This is why we watch the special commercials during the super bowl, like to change fashions, want new gadgets – especially those with screens, etc. New visual experiences are usually at least interesting.

When the brain receives impressions of light from the eyes it almost instantaneously calls up previous memories that contain similar data to decode the impressions. However memories that contain visual data can contain more than visual data. Memories can be like holograms of a moment that include perceptions of vision, sound, taste, touch, smell, thoughts and emotions. So as we move through the day, from moment to moment we are constantly reminded of all kinds of memories. Mainly, we are not conscious of this.

However, if you have ever seen a thing, person or place and though or remarked, That reminds me of… you consciously experienced the process.

Usually this occurs as the brain is not too sure if what is being experienced at the moment is the thing, person or place, so it includes a kind of wake up call or question. This kind of “wake up call” is also used when the brain perceives something that could mean danger, such as when the vehicle directly in front of one slams on its brakes.

Tag-along thoughts and emotions can be misunderstood by a person to be relevant or to somehow belong to them at the moment. This is a mistake that can have many repercussions, especially if the thoughts or emotions have negative content.

For example:

On a warm spring day Jane goes for a walk. On the way she passes various stores and shops. One shop has especially interesting objects that draw Jane to its window. In the corner of the display she sees an antique cup that is much like the one often used at the home of a much disliked great aunt who was verbally abusive, telling Jane that she is incompetent, too sensitive and not as pretty as her own granddaughter. This great aunt even cane when no one was looking.

However at the moment that Jane sees the antique cup she is distracted by the loud honk of a car and squealing brakes of a car as it swerves out of the way. Jane turns to look.

As Jane continues to walk down the street she blames her less happy mood on being startled by the honking and squealing brakes. Jane thinks to herself that she is too sensitive. She feels that old sense of worthlessness again, which she knows is untrue, but somehow she feel it. Jane accepts these thoughts as relevant to the moment, rather than recognizing that these thoughts are just memories that were re-stimulated as the brain decoded the vision of the antique cup in the window.

The above example of how thoughts and emotions may just seem to occur is one most everyone can relate to. We have all been reminded of emotions and thoughts that we then experienced and even continued to experience because we assumed they were relevant. Some people continue to experience thoughts and emotions that are unwanted because they do not know how to let go of them.

The primary source of memories, including emotions, is the perception of vision.

To gain more control of visual memory, discover how you can consciously create visual memory. Learn more at: The Art of Seeing The Divine.com

Tags: brain, brain functioning, control, emotions, eyesight, feelings, health, memories, memory, mental, perception, restimulate, sanity, sight, thought, thoughts, vision, visual memory