Living In A Reversed World (1958)

it is not at all easy to explain why you should perceive the motion picture  screen to be in front of you images nothing but images are given to us by  the eye no one can tell from an image where the thing is if I look at you through it to this  way and then again this way the picture in my eye is the same nevertheless this way I see you in  front of me and this way on my right how is this possible because I feel at once the different  positions of my head and eyes in relation to the rest of my body what we take to be seeing  really depends on another sense the body sense or touch in early childhood it was hard to learn  to coordinate seeing and touching they cooperate with one another if one is not lightheaded but  a few drinks are all that is needed to break up the proper coordination of feeling and seeing  the simplest way to break up the cooperation of seeing and touching is a mirror looking into a  mirror one sees in front what is really behind and therefore one reaches in the wrong direction but  the sensation of touch produces a kind of reversal of seeing here is a wet sponge slapped on his  back now he feels as if he had eyes in the back of his head it is similar when you feel things  in this way in this case the fingers the sense organs are in front of you but nevertheless the  touched object is immediately perceived as behind now for the second experiment the eyes perceive  right and left with the help of the body sense a mirror prism like this makes a world in which  right and left are reversed moreover everything tilts when you turn your head but with other  things one notices the reversal from side to side at once for example with printing are you  prepared to wear these right left reversing spectacles for several weeks without interruption  from now on never go without this device it looks so without the spectacles but with respect that  goes the cactus appears to be on the other side ouch hmm have a glass of water ah now he tries  another technique he controls the movement of his hand with his eyes this is probably the  solution aha he knows how to drink for this the spectacles do not give him any trouble but he  must see the table of a wrong side no matter next this problem draw a line to number two and  then to number three above and below is easy as you would expect but when it comes to right  and left everything is badly mixed up in a parallel experiment a hen can be made to wear  the spectacles she cannot touch the pictures of things they evade her every time she moves her  head here is the subject in his everyday activity but he does not give up from the very  beginning he tries to practice one has to learn to see the hand where one feels  it and also the whole body as represented by a shadow image now he begins to get it  for the ball exercises like these are the road to success after 14 days he can manage  street traffic what has the hen learned in the same interval without practicing nothing  she still chases the elusive images the man however has mastered the world the landscape is  now stable when he moves his head but is still reversed however this can be remedied if a steep  slope has to be climbed he must pay attention to the hands and feet the way it looks and the  way it feels then ceased to be contradictory but letters and words still remain  unfamiliar after two months however the end is accomplished observed that he now  can see things perfectly correctly now let us discover how things look to this man when  the spectacles are removed which of the two figures corresponds to the arm movement the  triangle with a naked eye he now sees things reversed but this apparent reversal does not  last long now we come to the third possibility of reversing the world up and down here it  is fundamentally different these three men despite the positions of their heads all  see things right-side up right-side up is determined by the gravity of the earth not  the position of the body but this changes if a mirror device is worn which reverses the  direction of up and down now the sitting man sees everything upside down and the man who was  hanging head down sees everything right-side up what will a man do what he  has to fence in this situation the results of all these tests are recorded after five days of practice he reacts  correctly almost 100% of the time but even so he still perceives his fencing  partner as upside down can this also be remedied certainly throughout the whole  body the pull of gravity operates all that is necessary is to emphasize it so  yes you held your hands upward what does this playing card look like oh I see both  of the heads right-side up the old way of seeing and the new way are still in conflict  practice in which one feels not only touch but also the force of gravity are especially  helpful in bringing about upright perception now we make a test to find out whether he  sees correct please read ah number one is an M and two is a W o tink of gravity oh oh  no one's of W and twos enamel after another week when correct perceiving has been achieved  he is ready for the end of the experiment the mirror is secretly removed from the device  the eyes are free and now for the big test well now things are upside-down this is a  room which is really upside down including the furnishings he had learned to see it right-side  up he has learned to live in a topsy-turvy world only the force of gravity has shown him how  to do so but it took time now the experiment is over except for a few bruises there are no  serious after-effects do you agree now that it is not at all self-evident that you should see  the motion picture screen to be in front of you