Back to Home Page or Contents Page or Magic or Index

Perceptual Gestalts

Perceptual Gestalts may be described as one's whole or actual sense experiences; it is the combination of each sense modality produced by each situation. For example, he might be drinking a glass of juice, while being aware of its taste the person can also be conscious of the chair against his body, hearing the noise of a car passing in the street, and being aware of the room temperature. Although the imaginative faculty is usually thought as evoking visual images, it also produces tastes, pressure and temperature sensations, kinesthetic actions such as the orientation in space, smells, sounds, and tastes. In a perceptual gestalt, for example, one might imagine himself or herself paddling in water; such a gestalt might combine visual, sensual, and auditory sensations: there might be the feeling of one's feet in the water, the pressure of the cool water against the legs, the flagrant smells in the air, the warm sun on one's back, and sounds on nearby birds. The assemblage of perceptual gestalts constitutes patchworking. A.G.H.

Source:

Hine, Phil, Condensed Chaos: Introduction to Chaos Magic, Temple, AZ, New Falcon Publications, 1995, pp. 65-66