The Dancer

In a recent advertising class, we analysed the idea of right brain/left brain thinkers. I think that everyone has an idea of what this is, and I thought myself no exception. I knew that it had to do with how your mind works, and how your creativity is fuelled.

I found out much more; this stuff is really cool.

Ok, so here's a breakdown: right-brain thinkers are more creative; the see things visually rather than in words, and exercise more creativity. Left-brain thinkers are more logical; they see things in terms of words. So when a right-brain person is trying to be creative, it helps them to skecth their ideas pictorally rather than write them out. They should also try turning the page, and getting rid of anything that has writing on it around them.

To find out which is more dominant, we did the spinning dancer test.

http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,22492511-5005375,00.html

What you do is watch an image of a dancer spinning; you see it either spin clockwise or counter-clockwise. Which way you see it spin determines which side is more dominant. Now here'e the crazy-mind-blowing-WHAT??? thing about it: you can make the dancer turn either way. At first, I saw it spinning clockwise, and could not even fathom how anyone could see it the other way. My instructor was positive that it could go both. While she was talking, I was secretly thinking, "You're nuts...." and I glanced away. To my astonishment, when I looked back, the dancer had miraculously changed direction! After some practice, I could make it change in front of my eyes at will. Incredible. I finally have the power of telepathy! The world is mine!!!

Of course, I was not the only one with these mind powers. Us ad majors must have some sort of special gene....like a superiour race.

This whole spinning dancer thing mesmerises me. The mind is a funny thing. One of my classmates could not make it turn the other way unless she engaged her thoughts in some logical activity; she started saying her multiplication table, and suddenly, only then could she make the dancer turn.

Mind-boggling.