When was the last time you sat in silence and reflected upon your life? I mean real silence and real reflection, not soft music in your headphones-silence and thinking about what to have for dinner-reflection. And even more than that: when was the last time you felt like you were in a space and time appropriate for silence and self-reflection? In a society where it is increasingly heard not to be overwhelmed with noise as soon as we step outside our house (and sometimes, even before that), it almost feels as if our right to silence, which should be indubitable, has been stripped away from us. Traffic, advertising, cellphones ringing, texting, tweeting, people working, always talking, always moving, always making noise. It seems nearly impossible
…show more content…
In an essay by Jonah Lehrer called “The Eureka Hunt”, the author introduces the reader to a study about insight and how the brain works through the thought process that leads to an idea. According to the essay, psychologist Jonathan Schooler was able to demonstrate that it is possible to interfere with a thought process just by asking people to explain it out loud – a phenomena called “verbal overshadowing” (517). Moreover, throughout an extensive research, researchers Mark Jung-Beeman and John Kounios found that “the insight process is an act of cognitive deliberation – the brain must be focused on the task at hand” (517). In other words, the scientists found that the brain is more likely to produce new insights when it is in silence; and it is when we focus on the task at hand that the “unplanned” and “unprogrammed” insights happen – much like Ursula Franklin states in her own essay. The two authors look at silence and contemplation through different lenses: while Franklin’s essay focuses on the importance of silence in today’s technological world, Lehrer wishes to understand how silence makes our brain come up with new ideas. However, they would both agree on one thing: for those insights and “Eureka!” moments to come, we must stay in silence and let our troubled minds wander, allowing unprogrammable events to bring insight to
In an essay by Jonah Lehrer called “The Eureka Hunt”, the author introduces the reader to a study about insight and how the brain works through the thought process that leads to an idea. According to the essay, psychologist Jonathan Schooler was able to demonstrate that it is possible to interfere with a thought process just by asking people to explain it out loud – a phenomena called “verbal overshadowing” (517). Moreover, throughout an extensive research, researchers Mark Jung-Beeman and John Kounios found that “the insight process is an act of cognitive deliberation – the brain must be focused on the task at hand” (517). In other words, the scientists found that the brain is more likely to produce new insights when it is in silence; and it is when we focus on the task at hand that the “unplanned” and “unprogrammed” insights happen – much like Ursula Franklin states in her own essay. The two authors look at silence and contemplation through different lenses: while Franklin’s essay focuses on the importance of silence in today’s technological world, Lehrer wishes to understand how silence makes our brain come up with new ideas. However, they would both agree on one thing: for those insights and “Eureka!” moments to come, we must stay in silence and let our troubled minds wander, allowing unprogrammable events to bring insight to