HEAR WITH YOUR EYES, SPEAK WITH YOUR EARS

Neuroscientist David Ostry designed a mouth-stretching robot. When it pulled subjects’ lips up, they interpreted a computerized voice as saying “head.” When the robot pulled their lips down, the subjects interpreted the identical sound as “had.” Why? These robo-genic lip positions mimic the shapes we use to speak these words, and the shape of our mouth influences what we hear.

Zen Mind

A monk asked Joshu, “I’ve heard that you personally met Nansen. Is it true or not?” Joshu replied, “The province of Chin produces giant radishes.”

And your ears? It turns out they speak too. And not only when spoken to. The ear actually emits sounds, sometimes loud enough to be heard without special instruments.

Try it: find a quiet room and a willing partner and sit ear-to-ear. See what happens.

But What Do the Voices Say?

Psychologists encourage us to listen to and interpret our dreams—why not do the same for the voices of schizophrenia? British psychologist Rufus May leads Hearing Voices Network groups, in which he encourages schizophrenics to explore and learn from what their voices are saying. This, May hopes, will help schizophrenics apply the same real/unreal judgments we make with dreams.