A Psycho-Spiritual Three-Second Rule?

© 2011 Peter Free

 

25 February 2011

 

 

An interesting tidbit from Science magazine with implications worth considering

 

Writer Rebecca Kessler asked:

 

Ever wondered how long a hug lasts?

 

The quick answer is about 3 seconds, according to a new study of the post-competition embraces of Olympic athletes.

 

But the long answer is more profound. A hug lasts about as much time as many other human actions and neurological processes, which supports a hypothesis that we go through life perceiving the present in a series of 3-second windows.

 

Crosscultural studies dating back to 1911 have shown that people tend to operate in 3-second bursts. Goodbye waves, musical phrases, and infants' bouts of babbling and gesturing all last about 3 seconds. Many basic physiological events, such as relaxed breathing and certain nervous system functions do, too.

 

"What we have is very broad research showing that we experience the world in about these 3-second time frames," says developmental psychologist Emese Nagy of the University of Dundee in the United Kingdom.

 

The results reinforce an idea current among some psychologists that intervals of about 3 seconds are basic temporal units of life that define our perception of the present moment.

 

Put another way, what one psychologist called the "feeling of nowness" tends to last 3 seconds.

 

 © 2011 Rebecca Kessler, Hugs Follow a 3-Second Rule, Science 331(6017): 518-519 (4 February 2011) (paragraphs split)

 

 

So what? — Implications for meditation and spiritual perspective

 

Our physiology and our psyches are set up to move on to something else after 3 seconds.

 

In a sense, we are wired into our “monkey minds” and monkeyshines.

 

Perhaps that explains why sitting meditation — in which one focuses on one object or observes the comings and goings of thoughts in a non-involved manner for long periods — is both (a) so difficult and (b) why we learn so much about ourselves from it.

 

Disrupting the automatic, unconsidered connections between 3-second actions frees us into new perspectives.  Seeing our automaticities tends to make us kinder and wiser.  We become more than we were.

 

A spiritual Self watching a physiological self?  Maybe.