Listening With Your Ears, Not Your Eyes

Two things came up in synchronicity over a 12-hour period the other day.

First was an article in The Week magazine that was from an article at Live Science. In short the research suggests that

the brain regards creepy music as even more frightening when eyes are closed rather than open, scientists now reveal. ...

These findings were not seen when volunteers were placed in complete darkness with their eyes open. This suggests these effects are not related to vision alone.

"It seems when you close your eyes, your brain has this reflexive response to go into a different state of mind that results in the amplification of certain information," Hendler said.

As I read that my thought was:

Listen with your ears, not your eyes.

It also explained to me why I will often sing a hymn in church or even listen to a reading with my eyes closed. There is something about it.

Then on Sunday morning I was listening to American Routes on Minnesota Public Radio and an interview with trumpeter extraordinaire Clark Terry. Terry had been in the military during WW II where he played in a Navy band. The military was, of course, segregated at that time and host Nick Spitzer asked Terry if he thought that such musical groups helped in desegregating the military in the long run. Terry responded that he thought so.

People learned to listen with their ears more than their eyes.