Firstly, yoga is on this week as usual: Wednesday 7-8 Crathes Village Hall and Thursday 8-9 Westdyke Leisure Centre.
Now, before reading any further, inspect this photograph. Can you see the flaw in my eye? I won’t tell you what it is exactly, but see if you can find it…
Now you have scanned through the image for a while, read on…
Years ago, during my degree, I was introduced to a particular psychological study investigating the power of eye contact. Two groups of people were set up on blind dates. The first group was the control – nothing was said to them other than go and have a good time. The other group was primed. The respective partners in this collection of folk were told that the person with whom they’d be going on a date had something wrong with an eye. This was bogus information, but the investigators had a theory. Although warned NOT to look for the flaw in their date’s eye, it was assumed the subjects would do the complete opposite. It was guessed that the people in this group would spend their entire date scrutinising the other person’s eyes, surreptitiously trying to locate the defect. This is exactly what happened, creating the by-product of prolonged eye contact between the two unwitting subjects. And guess what? The “eye-defect group” had a far higher ‘success’ rate at the end of their blind dates with much improved reports of a good time!
Forgive me for omitting the hard data and how success rate was measured – I don’t have my notes to hand – but I think the point of this test is obvious. Humans are far more likely to connect meaningfully with deep and prolonged eye contact.
What has this got to do with my post? Nothing. There is nothing wrong with my eyes. I just want you to know that yoga is on this week and you should totally come.