Saturday, November 18, 2006

20. Second Nature
Learning Something New

To our infant human mind, anything in the tangible world truly seems possible; but gradually the daily routines of life and lifestyle, language and common emotion define our view of the world. Eventually, reality is solidified as a relatively narrow range of islands in an endless ocean of potentiality. The newborn's brain is packed with nerve cells and fully equipped to handle trillions of possible connections; but after two years or so, the brain gives itself its first haircut, leaving the branches that have been connected and used repeatedly, and dissolving those that have not. [See: Neurons and Synapses]

Much human potential, such as sight, must be developed very quickly if it is to become a part of reality. Light must reach an infant’s eyes by the first few months of age, at the latest. If by that time, no particles of light have passed through a child's retinas to stimulate the visual neurons in the brain and to connect to perception, those connections will never be made and that child will never see.

If a person is to acquire fluent language, he must hear it spoken before the age of eight years or thereabouts. To become articulate in a second language, the same early-exposure rule applies: the earlier, the easier. Anyone who has ever learned a second language after childhood knows how difficult it is, certainly a whole lot harder than learning the first. And even when a second language is mastered by an adult, it requires a lot more brain space than the first.

  • At birth, the cells in our brain have thousands more connectors (dendrites) than we seem able to use. The moment we are born, we are prepared to assess the world from virtually any perspective. However, once the terms of our existence are familiar, at approximately six years of age, the brain releases a chemical, which again prunes all unused connections.

  • We share 98% of our DNA with our primate cousins: the great apes, orang-utans, chimpanzees, et al. Reality diverges within that 2% into a world of differences.
  • It is said that a child loses 90% of his creativity in the first five years of life. It seems likely then, that there are many other natural human abilities, which must be practiced almost immediately, if they are to be developed and used at all.

How much viable human potential exists in the mind of an infant, beyond what we presently view as the limits of human ability? Until it is expressed, we do not know. We cannot know. And we may not hear or notice when it is expressed, if we have accepted too rigid a boundary around our own notions of reality.

When Second Nature overrides First Nature

If the emotional knowledge of a child's first nature suggests to him that worrying is a useless and wasteful mental past time, he may try to allow this into reality. If the adults around him acknowledge his reminder as innate wisdom, they not only benefit themselves but they help that child to strengthen his inner knowledge. On the other hand, if he is ridiculed or told he is wrong, he will learn to doubt his first nature and will probably learn to worry, for this is a highly practiced way of thinking in most modern cultures. Rather than developing the kind of attitude and beliefs that preclude worry, worry itself becomes second nature.


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