The Test of a Real Scientist
Good Science means Good Observation.
BY JOHN BICKART | July 26, 2024
Observation uses a kind of 'Heart Thought'
This book started in chapter one by highlighting observation as a key to both good science and spiritual growth. This time, I would like to highlight observation in a different way. We are going to integrate what I call scientific, head thought with heart-based observation - what I call heart-thought. Do you remember the "O/A" (Observation / Analysis) from chapter one? The O/A is a technique I have been using in classrooms for over 50 years to allow a person to be consciously aware of when you are using your heart and when you are accessing your head.
The Five Steps of Making an O/A
Here is an exercise in becoming conscious of using heart thought to observe and head thought to analyze . You can do this with any simple event - pouring water, reading a poem, eating ice cream. This one is a science demonstration we called, ‘Sparkling Candle’. It is accomplished by sprinkling some fine iron filings onto a lit candle and watching.
I like to conduct this demonstration interactively, with students calling out their observations. As each comment is called out, the class and I first decide if the proposed comment is purely an observation – without analytical thought. We are careful to be accurate. For example, we note details like: the golden color of the sparks, that the sparks occur above the flame, that the flame has parts and occurs above the wick. Once a class is adept at knowing the difference between observations and analyses, we often do the demonstration in silence, trying to achieve kanatsu (‘one-body-ness’ with the object of gaze) . Now, replay the demonstration in your mind. Try to be accurate - adding nothing of your own thoughts. This may be even more important than watching the demonstration the first time. Then we create the paper part of the O/A. If the class is not familiar with O/As, we draw the picture together. We try to draw the picture with simple artwork. It should take up as much of the upper half of the paper as possible, so as to enlarge the main parts that the observer wishes to show. We try to limit ourselves to four colors so that – like taking notes – we stay focused on the big picture. We color code and label our parts. Then we use the bottom half of the paper to write three Observations (The 3 'O's). The 'O's are strictly that which your senses took in. With younger children, I call these, ‘what you saw, smelled, heard, tasted, or felt’. Finally, we write the three Analyses (The 3 'A's). These are ideas that you thought about: why it happened, how it works, uses of it.
So, this 'O/A' technique helps concentration, builds character, and it also increases critical scientific thinking. The whole secret lies in the ability to stay in right brain or heart observation, before moving to left brain or head analysis. A scientist must think clearly and critically - must have the power of reasoning - and must have a working knowledge of the subject under investigation. But history is abounding with the early stages of scientific discoveries that failed to reach consummation because the scientist had all these skills and yet they were rendered useless because of missed observations . The real scientist is first and foremost a quintessential observer.
*Important: this process accents observations. We observed four times (doing it, replaying it in our minds, drawing it, then writing the 3 ‘O’s). We only analyzed once at the very end when we wrote our 3 ‘A’s. This builds great character, while sharpening your critical thinking skills because it teaches you to suspend judgement until you have heard the facts.
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Highlighting
With the O/A technique, we have described a way to OBSERVE four times before going to analysis and reflection! So, to take it a little deeper, consider this. What if - as you replay an observation inside your mind - you are so attentive to the replay, that you become aware of new physical occurrences that may have escaped your conscious mind. These new insights are sensations that were already in the original event but went unnoticed. Maybe you noticed them and downplayed them in the original observation - but in the replay, they somehow feel more important. Under this kind of self-hypnosis of replaying the observation however, you are free to notice them. When you first made your observation, you may have been thinking of other things like what you would do later today or something your friend said earlier. We almost always have many ideas floating around in our minds - the general state of humanity is to be preoccupied. One major advantage to the replay in the O/A technique is to attempt to re-focus and perhaps free yourself from preoccupations. There is a famous example of people missing an observation because their mind's attention is elsewhere. In psychology this is called inattentional blindness . Studies have been done on a famous video of people passing basketballs back and forth where a person in a full suit gorilla costume walks across the scene. When viewers are asked to count the number of passes of the basketball by people in white shirts, a preoccupation is set up and many miss the gorilla. On replay, without the preoccupation, one can see the gorilla, larger than life. The Invisible 800-pound Gorilla: Expertise Can Increase Inattentional Blindness
But the Highlighting Can Get Even Better
Now, if we go deeper still, imagine the possibility that you do your observation, then enter the replay in your mind with 'your hands wide open'. In other words, what if you do the replay like a meditation, where you wait on an intuitive highlighting as if a guide were showing you where to put your attention. Instead of being preoccupied with all of your emotional baggage of the day, what if you clear out and watch and wait. Keep in mind, you are simply replaying the observation - but make no mistake - you could have missed an 800-pound gorilla.
This ‘highlighter’ that directs your attention might show you the more essential things that happened and allow the inessential details to fall away. Wouldn’t that be something? Think about it. When you are taking notes while someone is speaking, you try to highlight the important parts, right? Well, did you ever notice that your life has highlights. At any phase of your life, you are more interested in certain things, than others. You are highlighting. Well, perhaps the wisdom of the ideas that come into your sub-conscious are always highlighting whatever is important for you at the current phase of your life. Perhaps this is happening right now! Some studies seem to show that the sub-conscious mind is considerably more powerful than the conscious mind. Perhaps this is where your intuition can bring in better ideas than your ordinary consciousness was aware of. So, if you replay an observation inside your mind, you have a chance for an increased intelligence to show you important takeaways from an experience.
Observation Mini-Exercise: "Look Twice"
This one-minute exercise is simply starting the day by using your senses to observe whatever is in front of you. I do this every morning. I usually go outside on my porch and look, listen, smell, feel, (& sometimes taste) the air and trees or mist or rocks or even my car or garage. I allow myself to stay still and just observe for about a half minute. I open my hands. Then, I close my eyes and replay for another half-minute what my senses brought to me - adding nothing and thinking about nothing.
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This simple exercise is made to practice observing. It helps warm up the not so common human state of NOT THINKING TOO MUCH. Observation is the way to begin every scientific investigation and also the way to begin the spiritual act of focusing on another person or thing without bringing your emotional baggage. The 'O/A' technique helps you take control of your focus by becoming aware of it.
The 'O/A' helps you become aware of when you are staying in pure, non-judgmental observation versus when your attention is being influenced by previous thoughts or future considerations that frame your focus. Pure observation can virtually eliminate unnecessary conjectural thinking. Lain McGilchrist, in his book, The Master and His Emissary
"Out of the history of Greece and Rome come confirmatory and converging lines of evidence that it was through the workings of the emissary, the left hemisphere, that the ‘empire’ of the mind expanded in the first place; and that, as long as it worked in concert with the Master, the right hemisphere, faithfully bringing back the knowledge and understanding gained by it, and offering them to the right hemisphere so as to bring a (now more complex) world into being, an ability which belongs to the right hemisphere alone, the empire thrived." (McGilchrist, 2009, Chapter 8, The Ancient World)
To become adept at knowing when you are using your left vs right brain (or head vs heart) is to know when you are purely in observation mode: listening, watching, tasting, smelling, or feeling versus when you are in analysis mode: deducing, concluding, judging, reasoning, or assuming.
Awareness
Lisa Miller, in her book, The Awakened Brain has a chapter called "THE TWO MODES OF AWARENESS". She claims that you are in the first mode when you are only paying attention to what you have to get done or achieve. She calls this an achieving awareness . The other mode of awareness involves waking up to what is happening all around you. She calls this an awakened awareness .
" As a result of this awakened awareness, our eyes move to meaningful events. In achieving awareness, the stranger who starts talking to us on the bus might be annoying or intrusive, or just invisible. In awakened awareness, we might hear what he says—and even see how it’s relevant to our own lives" (Miller, 2021, p. 165).
I believe that Miller's achieving awareness is largely about logistics in the left brain that you used in the O/A exercise when you did the analysis . Miller's awakened awareness seems to be akin to what I have been calling a good observer.
Integration
In another one of Lisa's chapters called "INTEGRATION IS KEY", she describes integrating both your awareness to achieve and to be awake. She calls this orientation, the Quest Orientation, like you are on a gallant quest to find something. She writes:
"Quest orientation is characterized by a tendency to journey in life: to search for answers to meaningful personal decisions and big existential questions; to perceive doubt as positive; and to be open to change, or more accurately, open to perceiving with fresh eyes, and then using new experience to fuel change. In quest, we open ourselves to the messages from life, take seriously this discovery, and then actively use learning to shape our decisions and actions—our personal operating manual" (Miller, 2021, p. 169).
In an interview with Kevin Bickart on the neurological implications of "The Science of Spirituality and Impact on Mental Health" The Awakened Brain . Below is Lisa's full Three Doors exercise.
"Even obstacles often appear at just the right time to teach us something important. I created this exercise called Three Doors to help show that when we’re using the lens of achieving awareness alone, we see boulders blocking our path, but when we engage our awakened attention, the boulders are actually stepping-stones that show us the path forward. To build awakened attention, I have developed this practice, which I’ve shared with bankers and lawyers, U.S. Army generals, Columbia students, homeless youth in New York City, and patients working through suffering and building well-being. The exercise is equally relevant and effective for everyone, because it calls our attention to the road of life.
On a sheet of paper or in your journal, draw the road of your life. Identify a place on the road where you faced a hurdle: a loss, a disappointment, a death; a time when the thing you wanted—a job, a relationship, an award or accomplishment, an acceptance letter from a particular school—seemed lined up, in reach; and then somehow, unexpectedly, the door slammed, and you didn’t get what you wanted or what you thought you were going to get. Draw the slammed door on the road. Now consider what happened as a result of that loss or disappointment that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. Because the door closed, and because you didn’t claw ahead trying to force it back open, because you stopped and looked around, you saw a new door you hadn’t noticed before. What new insight or connection or path emerged, what new doorway opened, when the first door closed? Add the open door, leading to the new landscape along the road. Next, can you locate a messenger or helper who showed up and, with or without knowing they played a role, somehow supported or guided you? Perhaps it was someone you’d never met before or someone you knew well; someone who showed up in person or called you or sent you a letter, or someone you thought of at a crucial moment. Who were the messengers or helpers who pointed you to the open door? Draw the messenger(s) on the road. Repeat steps 2 through 4 twice more, so that your road of life shows three doors that closed and three that opened, and who showed up along the way to point you on your path.
The exercise helps us identify three concrete examples of times when our ventral attention network afforded us new vision. And when we observe how doors have closed and opened in our lives, and notice who showed up on our path, we are better able to see that loss and disappointment are often experiences that deepen, not threaten, our lives." (Miller, 2021, pp. 180-181)
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"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a physical experience"
- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
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The Test of a Real Scientist
Now, we will put you to the test. Your test is to see if you can perform with both head and heart - left and right brain - achieving and awakened awareness. Your job is to integrate yourself - become whole. Your test will be to observe, then analyze some physics demonstrations of color. In specific, you will see how the subtractive and additive primary colors interact. But first, we must access your best ability to observe - when you were at the top of your game - when you were a child.
Do you remember when every color was good?
Do you remember looking at a garden or a coloring book and being amazed at color itself? I mean when you were very young - before you ever separated colors into categories or had favorites. Can you remember the time before naming the colors? It was before the adults asked you which one you liked best. It was before you knew how to respond to their prompts or the electronic toy voices said, "This is yellow, this is blue, and this is red." Can you conjure the state you used to be in - when you used to love just about everything you observed and you would be in wonder and awe at the simplest state of each experience?
The Child Teacher
Can you remember childhood?
Because you were not comparing,
you did not need an exceptional gem,
a rock was incomparable.
Because you were new,
you did not need miracles,
the world was miraculous.
Because you were present,
no one had to imbue a story with awe and wonder,
the telling was awesome and wonderful.
Because you had not begun to conceive,
ordinary phenomena
were incredible, inconceivable, ideal.
Because you were in love,
every one and each thing was a friend.
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Recovered childhood may be the ideal state of a
real scientist.
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Good science means good observation.
Can you take yourself back to the state where you could look at a flower in the garden and be enthralled with its color? Perhaps we need to get back to that garden. Now we have favorites. Favorites of colors implies non-favorites. When you first made comparisons of flowers, you had to do two things: separate what was a whole garden into parts, and then rank the parts. You had to demote some flowers to a status of not so good. Prior to the comparison all flowers had been good. It was one whole garden. It was perfect and wonderful. Ralph Alan Dale, in his translation with commentary of the Tao Te Ching, Verse 2, denotes that we now use our left brain to separate that which remains whole in the right brain.
"We know beauty because there is ugly.
We know good because there is evil.
Being and not being,
having and not having,
create each other." (Lao et al., 2002)
Dale asserts that Lao Tzu was referring to early humankind, hearkening us, as did Christ to "become again as little children." (Matthew 18:3)
To be successful in the test is to have fun ... joy
For the test, you are going to do a color experiment. If you do the test right, you will be operating with a full heart, mind and body - what I call heart thought. Another way to say this is that you will be operating with a full, integrated brain. You should be in a state of connection or oneness with the experiment. Even though there are many concepts that will most probably occur to you, your job will be to not lose the childlike wonder and awe at the colors themselves. Successful completion of the test should enable you to be aware of your ability to integrate yourself at will - to walk around in the state of mind where you are creative - in re-creation - at play. This is when things look beautiful, because beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. If successful, you can decide by will, to see how beautiful the world is.
Where is the Scientist in all of this?
If you are practically one with whatever you are observing, then you will make accurate, scientific observations. Your mind will be unencumbered by emotions, irrational conclusions, and stray thoughts. Anything less is not as good. If you move to critical thinking only after this level of observation, then you are on the right track!
�So, let’s take the Real Scientist Test . It will come in three parts:
Test 1 of 3) Mixing the Subtractive Primaries
Test 2 of 3) Mixing the Additive Primaries
The Ultimate Test 3 of 3) The Red Rose
This is an abbreviated lesson on the PRIMARY colors. The real physics of color can be a three-week unit, so I will just demonstrate the fascinating way that you can mix each set of primary colors to create the other set of primaries. I will name them, separate them into categories, and demonstrate their interactions. The test however is not to see if you can follow the concepts, only … the test is to see if you can both follow the concepts and simultaneously remain in a state of connection with COLOR itself. You will know how you are doing by the amount of appreciation you have for the colors. If they continue to look as beautiful, then you are doing well.
Test 1 of 3) Mixing the Subtractive Primaries
What is a set primary colors? It is the group of three colors that can make all of the other colors by mixing.
SUBTRACTIVE PRIMARIES add material (and subtract light) until they make black.
There are two sets of primary colors. You see, it matters if you are mixing colored materials or colored lights. If you mix materials like paints, inks, pencils, or crayons, you can use the subtractive primaries: cyan, magenta, and yellow. These are the three colors you see in computer printer inks. They are called subtractive because you are always adding material to material as you mix them and therefore you are always subtracting the light, getting darker and darker. With these three primaries one can make every other color. Eventually, if you mix all three subtractive primaries equally, you will get black.
Mixing the subtractive primaries creates the additive primaries.
A fun way to demonstrate this is to mix food coloring. Please note that it is hard to get magenta and cyan food coloring. In my image you will note that the magenta is a bit too orange and the cyan is a bit too blue. It worked pretty well, however, demonstrating that the three subtractive primaries when mixed equally in pairs, created the other set of primaries: the additive primaries.
How are doing on the test?
If you are either doing this test live or you are using my images to see the colors after I mixed them, then now is the time to pause to check your inner state. Are you appreciating the colors themselves? Despite the conceptual ideas that require critical, analytical thinking to understand the scientific principles behind the interactions of primary colors, there is COLOR ITSELF. Does color look good? Does it look as good as when you first saw color? Are you rating, comparing, analyzing, naming, categorizing, deducing, reasoning? If so, it's ok - you are like the rest of us. But if you touched on the experience of COLOR - for even a moment here or there - congratulations - you passed the test!
Note that I am not saying the color or colors because, I am referring to the way in which you used to perceive the world. I am just calling it COLOR, the way many indigenous refer to all wolves as WOLF or BROTHER WOLF. I believe, humankind before language, childhood before language, people under hypnosis or drugs that can access supersensible experiences, and anorism patients losing their left brain functions see COLOR as one whole entity.
ADDITIVE PRIMARIES add lights together until they make white.
Test 2 of 3) Mixing the Additive Primaries
The additive primaries are red, green, and blue. If you mix projected lights, such as the display on a computer screen, phone, television, or movie theatre, you can make all of the others with these three colors. They are called additive because mixing them involves the addition of projected beams of light. You will see that mixing here does not get darker as with subtractive primaries; it always gets lighter. The equal mixture of red, green, and blue makes white. As with the subtractive primaries, however, by mixing the additive primaries in equal proportions, you get back to magenta, cyan, and yellow - the subtractive primaries.
RGB sliders in a computer graphics tool.
A simple way to demonstrate this is to use a computer tool that allows for color settings with RGB sliders. By moving one slider at a time, you can get pure red, green, and blue. Then by sliding to total red and green you will get yellow. Total blue and red will produce magenta. And total green and blue will make cyan. At first these can seem surprising because we are probably more accustomed to mixing physical material, which is subtractive mixing. One place in nature that uses additive color mixing is the eye. It is sensitive to red, green, and blue light wavelengths.
Checkpoint
Can you access the awareness of your attention as it shifts from analytical thinking to a more pure form of observation? If you can, you are observing yourself . If you can observe yourself, then you are not just passing this test, you are very much succeeding. In fact, according to Deepak Chopra, in his book, Metahuman
“This book is an invitation to find out who you really are, beginning with two simple questions. ‘In moments when you feel very happy, do you also watch yourself being happy? When you happen to get angry, is some part of you totally free of anger?’ If you answer yes to both questions, you can stop listening. You have arrived. You have gone beyond everyday awareness and this going beyond is what it takes to know who you really are.” (Chopra, 2021, opening to the book)
The Ultimate Test 3 of 3) The Red Rose
RGB: red rose, green leaves, blue water.
Are you ready? In this part of the test of a real scientist, I deliberately try to distract you from the act of kanatsu (‘one-body-ness’ with the object of gaze). This will be like asking you to meditate while I display very juicy, interesting ideas before your mind.
Basically, I will take a red rose with green leaves in blue water (RGB) and turn each of the three colors black. I will do this by projecting colored light onto the rose with a flashlight and color transparencies. The physics of this demonstration involves a discussion of wavelengths being absorbed and reflected, but I will skip to the end with what looks more like magic than science. I love this demonstration in a physics class because it begs explanation. And that is precisely why I call it your ultimate test . Your mission - if you accept it - is to resist roaming through your neurons for something you have heard or seen to associate to such a phenomenon. In other words, just watch. A good scientist must ask why - eventually. A great scientist just watches the experience - becomes one with the experience - and then ... finally ... asks why.
Here are the two sets of three primaries plus six more colors that fall exactly in between.
If you want to do this actual demonstration yourself, you need to shine colors on the rose that are on the opposite side of the color wheel. Our red rose is a little toward the blue side of the true red primary so, an opposite color to shine on the rose would be a little toward the green side of cyan. The green leaves need magenta light and the blue water needs yellow light.
Your test is very simple to do. Just look at the original image displayed here, then marvel at the way we made the R, G, and B go toward black by looking at the three images on the next page. Your job today is to practice holding the wonder and awe of a child. When you feel you are finished with your observation you may begin the other kind of wonder - the wondering that an analytical adult does in order to investigate why they turned black. That wonder is to reason out why and how things work. This is never to be confused with the first kind of wonder, the sacred ability to simply marvel with awe, appreciation and gratitude.
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The Red Rose
1-R goes black, G&B have color �2-G goes black, R&B have color�3-B goes black, R&G have color
�
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- a rose by any other name
would look as good and smell as sweet -
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A Test for Life
You can use this test for the rest of your life. If you see a flower or a face or a piece of art or nature that looked beautiful to you at another time and it looks beautiful to you now, then you are observing well - passing the test. You are in connection - in relationship - awake to the presence of the other. This the mark of a good scientist and also the mark of a spiritually strong individual. Observing - giving your whole self, your attention, your presence to the phenomenon in front of you is the first step of every scientific investigation. It is also one of the most important spiritual acts of a successful relationship with a friend, a mate, a co-worker, or a natural phenomenon. One could legitimately ask, "Is there any experience in which a lesser level of observation could be better?"
Observation Final Test:
"How am I doing?"
Here is the final test I gave to the group of incarcerated individuals when I taught courses that blended life lessons with mathematics and science. I gave them a large patch of red to look at and said, "Just look at this patch of red and try not to think about anything." Some of them looked around the room as if to say, "Are you kidding?" Nevertheless, they settled down and did what I asked. They trusted me because we had just spent six hours a day for five days a week for three months together and believe me - my methods often sounded a little weird - until they all passed the state mandated tests with flying colors (no pun intended). So, as they gazed at the red, I told them that they would pass the test, according to how much beauty they could see. The more beauty, the better the grade. I explained that, "Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder", and therefore the amount of beauty they saw was up to them. I further explained that they could take this test away as a gift. I implored them to use it for the rest of their lives. I said, "Is there anywhere you are going next where this will not help? Where are you going from here - to loved ones - to a job - to school? Bring your presence with you. Test yourself to see how awake - how present you are. Use this test before an event that is important to you. Bring it to an intimate meeting, a job interview, a reunion. Check yourself against this test - and be honest - you have only to answer to yourself and reap the consequences."
Today I give you, reader, the test.
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My Dad used to say “I can’t wait for tomorrow,” then he would wait for you to ask, “Why?” He would answer, “Because I get better looking every day.” The funny thing is that he would often say this in the morning. I think he was mirroring Shakespeare and telling my brother and sisters and I that he already intended to see beauty everywhere tomorrow, before it had even begun.
So, I implore you - scientists, teachers, counselors, parents, students - remember a time when you were aware of the beauty in some simple thing, then measure your own presence and observational skills by the amount of beauty you see today. Personally, I use this test surprisingly often when I see my wife, Wendy. We have been married for 51 years. I look into her face to see if it looks beautiful. If it does, I know that I am here.
Well, that's it. I am going to end this book the way I started it in the acknowledgements, thanking Wendy, my best friend and artist. And just between you and me, this last fable is about her.
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#149 Recreation
The Creator of all things sent another beloved one down to Earth. “Your instructions are these,” the Creator said, “know that I AM with you always. To reach me in your innermost being, go through your heart. Or reach me in every other place by re-creating something. When you have fun, I AM there, also.”
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO CREATE TODAY?
This fable was copied with permission from Bickart’s Just-in-Time Fables, Volume 3
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About the Author
John Bickart
John Bickart, Ph.D., likes to work in the background and let good ideas speak for themselves. He believes that children, and sometimes adults, know what they want and that they empower themselves when they listen to their hearts.
This essay was copied with permission from bickart.org .
References
Bickart, J. (2020). Bickart’s Just-in-Time Fables (Vol. 3). Asheville, NC: Red Shirt Interactive Group.
Chopra, D. (2021). METAHUMAN : unleashing your infinite potential . [S.l.]: HARMONY CROWN.
Lao, T., by Ralph Alan, D., photographs by John, C., Laozi, Dale, R. A., & Cleare, J. (2002). Tao te ching : a new translation & commentary = 道德經 . New York: Barnes & Noble Books.
McGilchrist, I. (2009). The master and his emissary: the divided brain and the making of the Western world . New Haven: Yale University Press.
Miller, L. W. E. S. (2021). The awakened brain : the new science of spirituality and our quest for an inspired life .
Robson, S. G., & Tangen, J. M. (2023). The invisible 800-pound gorilla: expertise can increase inattentional blindness. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 8 (1), 33. doi:10.1186/s41235-023-00486-x