November 7, 2024 -  Mohsen Janatpour, Mental Imagery in the Arts and Sciences

For the philosopher Descartes, the outer universe was independent of the state of mind. That’s why science was only dealing with what they call the primary properties, nothing to do with feelings or emotions. If you measure something, that’s independent of what you feel about it. The outer universe is independent of how the mind works. But his theory is that it is not possible to have a view of the outside world without interference from the inside. That’s the bottom line from his observations and research. Your inner universe and outer universe are in constant attraction, and mental imagery is something that makes that attraction possible. That’s the crux of the whole idea.

 

He observed that when you look at the full moon on the horizon, it looks pretty big, but when you see it up above you at night in the sky, it’s smaller. That’s undeniable, but you know that’s not true, but you can’t help but observe it. There were many explanations, from the time of Aristotle to the 10^th century. Mohsen had one of his technicians, who lives in Half Moon Bay, take a picture of the full moon at the horizon, and changed the angle and took the same picture a few times, a few hours later, more than once. You measure, and the diameter is always the same. Why then, when you look outside, the one on the horizon looks a lot bigger? Because your head is telling you that. Your inner universe interferes with what you’re observing. How do we know that? The reason we know anything about distance is with the objects. If you take the objects away, the notion of distance goes away. When the moon is at the horizon, it looks like the moon is far away, but the size that you see has to compensate for distance. When it gets above you, you have no way to know how far away it is. You think it is closer.So even though you see the same size, since it is closer, it must be smaller. That’s what you perceive. That’s how we explain it. That’s one of the best examples of how you can justify your inner universe and outer universe.

 

So, what is mental imagery? Mental imagery starts with the idea that mental imagery is not an image. That’s number one. When the image is in your head, it is not stored in one place. Different images go to different places … There is no library in your brain for the images. So what is it? It is a process where you make images. Mental imagery is the way in which the brain makes images. And it has to get interference from your inner universe to make the images. That’s why you see the moon at a different size at the horizon than above the horizon.

 

Now, two things that we do - we constantly want to explore and explain; but also we want to express our feelings. These are innate in us. Why? Some people say it is because it has evolutionary advantages, some people say it was a mistake of nature, we don’t have to express ourselves at all; who knows? 

 

And what is the difference? Explaining is basically the idea of, you see something, you want to clarify it. Expressing is an entirely different process: you have a feeling and you want to bring it up. In fact, that’s what the word “express” means - to bring it up. 

 

He said he was shifting a little bit toward art and science. That’s what they do. We use art as a result of one aspect of our life, we use science to do the other. Science is explaining for us; art is expressing. Traditionally, the two don’t go together. If you want to be a great artist, you cannot be a good scientist. And if you want to be a good scientist, don’t think about art. “At one point, I had an art teacher, a Chilean artist; he always said: If you want to paint, don’t think.” 

 

That is the base of conjunctive theory -  you cannot separate the two. The only time you are doing art and science is when the two are together. How is that possible? Einstein, (and others), could only think in images. Einstein was sitting in a train, traveling, and looking at a clock, and said, “What happens if I were moving in that direction at the speed of light?  This clock would be stopped because the light from the clock would not reach him.” And that led him to the theory of relativity. Great artists are great scientists. Michelangelo, DaVinci, Magritte, “you name it …” Conversely, many great scientists are great artists.

 

Moshen than covered more about the conjunctive theory where he distinguishes between brain states and mental states, and that the fundamentals of conjunctive theory is that there are two types of states.  One of them you don’t have too much control over; the other one, some come innate and some is learned. The important part of this is, anything that you do, any quality that you perceive, has two components. After some additional examples he mentioned that all he had presented and more is covered in his book (including diagrams), Mental Imagery in the Arts and Sciences. 

 

To wrap it all up basically we need both art and science to develop ourselves.

 

He was pleased when Irwin told him of the children who had been inoculated against polio in his name.