The Explosion of Consciousness: TSC Conference Tucson Arizona 2012
Journal of Consciousness Exploration & Research - May, 2012by John K. Grandy
"The star of the show in this plenary session was Daniel Kish … Daniel was born blind and developed the ability to utilize echolocation. He opened up with his own response to the question “what is it like to be a bat” that was asked evidently by a non-blind person, to which “what is it like to be a hawk” was his retort. Daniel stated that echolocation can be used to obtain an image of an individual’s surroundings. He demonstrated this by generating click sounds with his tongue and the top of his mouth. Then he showed how the basic principles of echolocation worked by holding a laptop in front of his face, while making a “shhhhh” sound. During this demonstration he would move the laptop farther away from his face and then closer, which caused an audible change in frequency and pitch. … Daniel discussed how using this technique enables him to “visualize” an acoustic flow field and edge detection (also called edge geometry of an object) in order to determine objects in his surroundings. He also discussed how this technique can help detect the depth or density of a structure. All of this takes training and practice. … He played a video demonstration of one of his former students Juan Ruiz using this technique of echolocation. Juan, who was born blind, set the Guinness Book of World Records by riding a bicycle while using echolocation on an obstacle course and navigating around columns without touching them or knocking them over. Mind you, Juan was not allowed the opportunity to familiarize himself with the obstacle course prior to performing this amazing feat. Here is a link to this demonstration. This was a really fascinating presentation. The fact that Daniel can generate sound to make a map of his environment and navigate in it without vision is truly outstanding! I actually had the opportunity to watch Daniel do this off stage in the hotel lobby. I can not express here how impressed I am that he as taken a disability like being blind and in turn evolved a new modality of sensory perception and consciousness. In addition, he is able to teach other blind people how to do this."
Sound Vision: The Consciousness of Seeing with Sound
Plenary SessionDaniel Kish, Lore Thaler, Cynthia Moss
Present research and perspective on human echolocation from brain science and behavioral studies. Includes a panel discussion.