Gestalt

is quite the coolest thing ever. Problem is, am having problems holding grasp onto it (or perhaps it is that book mentioned below is an extension of theory?). Have deep sense of great truth loitering just beyond stretch of my brain; and we're reaching...

Have moments of glimmeration (a word that fits the feeling. and yet signifies nothing.). Must keep going... this is so fascinating.

Reason am reading this is am (trying to think of dissertation topic) attempting to relate cognition and patterning with spelling and possibly use of formulaic language (Katharine, please tell me if this is total.... rubbish? Dust; dust? Anyone, dust?)

Some quotes from The World in Your Head (Lehar, S., 2003):
"Kant argued that there are in fact two worlds of reality, which he called the nouminal and the phenomenal worlds. The nouminal world is the objective, external world, which is the source of the light that stimulates the retina. This is the world studied by science... The phenomenal world is the internal perceptual world of conscious experience, which is a copy of the external world of objective reality, constructed in our brain on the basis of the image received from the retina. The only way we can perceive the nouminal world is by its effect on the phenomenal world. Therefore the 'world' we experience as external to our bodies is not actually the world itself, but only an internal virtual reality replica of that world generated by perceptual processes within our head...
**(okay, got it.)**
According to this view, consciousness is indeed directly observable... for the objects we experience as being in the world around us are the products or 'output' of consciousness rather than the 'input' to it, and the experience of a three-dimensional object occupying some portion of perceived space is also a direct observation of consciousness; only in a secondary fashion is that percept also representative of an objective external reality. ...
**(okay, sort of close to getting it)**
There is a curious paradox in this view of the world you perceive around you as a double entity, which is identified simultaneously with both ends of the causal chain of vision. I propose an alternative mental image to disambiguate the two spatial contexts that are so easily confused: Out beyond the farthest things you can perceive in all directions, that is, above the dome of the sky, and below the solid earth under your feet, or beyond the walls, floor and ceiling of the room you see around you, is located the inner surface of your true physical skull. And beyond that skull is an unimaginably immense external world of which the world you see around you is merely a miniature internal replica. This can only mean that the head you have come to know as your own is not your true physical head, but merely a miniature perceptual copy of your head in a perceptual copy of the world, all of which is contained within your real head in the external objective world."
**(must think. Think, think, think...)**

Reasons for typing this out were: a) to help it stick in my head; b) to share as find this immensely intriguing; and c) to see if anyone is equally as intrigued.

Successfully was able to perceive staircase in coffee shop as two dimensions (as suggested in book -- because you just look at it and think of it as if it were a painting, and WOW!). But once it came to the whole room, failed utterly. Katharine is going to explain it all to me tomorrow. In the coffee shop. Her boy, John, got it straight away... (at the coffee shop, tonight) Or actually, I think he already knew it. If anyone has any helpful hints for wrapping one's (read: my) brain around this, please share. Why didn't I pay more attention in Senior Seminar in English?

Also, have already consulted Wikipedia and it was helpful.

Now have 7 friends on MySpace. And Virginia has left a particularly amusing trifle on the comment section.