"The poetry project, in a way, is to raise the language to a level that can convey the exact nature of the personal experience ... When people are real to you, you cannot send a plane to the building where they work, you cannot raze the refugee camp where they live, and you cannot Bomb their homes or streets with cluster bombs. "
(Poet Mark Dottie)
Music enchants us, and our hearts are captivated by an exciting human experience, a feeling that has remained inaccessible to accurate description until recent years, when neuroscientists came to accurately visualize the brain to know the secret of that euphoria that we feel, as our brain releases the dopamine - the hormone of happiness - when listening to music , And scientists have been able to tell the difference between the effect of a severed Beethoven and a tchaikovsky on our brain. (1) With the same precision, and in search of more brain secrets, scientists have researched how we interact with poetry, and how the brain distinguishes between rhymes and rhythms that poets use, between prose or ordinary speech, what happens inside our minds when reading poetry, and how neuroscience explains it to us ? (2)
By using MRI and other advanced tools, the researchers were able to explain what happens when we think of the poetic images and the multiple meanings in the poems, as they stimulate certain areas of the brain, transport us to space and other worlds, stimulate our emotions, give us a sense of wisdom and understanding, and drive us to change sometimes. (3) Bill McCaiben, author of the first book on climate change entitled "The End of Nature" published in 1989 in an article published by the Guardian newspaper, wrote about this effect: "I spent 30 years thinking about climate change and talking With scientists, economists, and politicians about emissions, carbon taxes, and treaties. But the most difficult idea that could be expressed is the simplest idea: We live on a planet, and this planet is collapsing. And it turns out that poets can deliver this message .. Science is not controversial. But science alone cannot To make the change. " (4)
A path towards knowledge
American writer Audrey Lord said in an article entitled "Poetry is not a luxury" that poetry is our most true way to knowledge, and the way that helps us give a name to what cannot be named, and so we know our hopes and fears, and when it becomes acceptable our feelings find a haven that can lead us to more Ideas are bold and daring. (5)
Reading poetry is sometimes complicated, you have to know how to read between the lines, and decipher the words, you must read the hidden message, which is a second reading, Borges says about it is wrong to think that prose is closer to reality than poetry. (6) Poems sometimes have several meanings Poems can be read back in different meanings, and you can understand the poems differently according to your mood, and you will be able to see the beauty of words and sound and understand feelings. In general, poetry reading is useful to us as follows: (7)
- It reveals other ways to identify emotions, enabling you to identify feelings that you could not describe before, as well as enabling you to discover new angles in the emotional map of your brain.
- It helps you discover yourself. Your passions, fears, and doubts may be expressed by a contemporary poet or poet who lived several centuries ago. Human nature has always been the same in concerns and concerns.
- Hair stimulates our brain more than pictures do, because it causes the brain to encounter concepts that it is not used to, so poetry reading activates the front part of the brain and the hippocampus region to process meaning. (8)
- It helps us feel empathy for others by exploring our feelings and feelings too. It is a way of meditating and looking at the world, and a meeting point between rational and intuitive, between metaphysics, uncertainty and mystery.
- Develop creativity, the ability to find innovative solutions to problems, and connect ideas. (9)
What is happening in our brain
The Journal of Cognitive and Emotional Social Sciences published a study by Eugene Vasilioysky, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Experimental Aesthetics, and a team of scientists at other German and Norwegian universities in which they asked groups of German-speaking women in their mid-twenties to hear poetry aloud, some of the participants Poetry readers, some of whom can be described as beginners. The researchers chose a group of poems by well-known German poets Friedrich Holderlin, Friedrich Schiller, Theodore Fontan and Otto Ernst, and the participants were allowed to choose some of the poems, and while listening volunteers, the researchers recorded the heart rate and facial expressions, and so-called "goosecam" which means movement of the skin and arms of the arms, and they pressed a button I have a feeling of inner chills.
The results showed the participants feeling chills while listening to poetry, although the responses and the timing of their occurrence differed between the participants, and also showed a visible skin shrinkage in about 40% of them, which is the ratio of the approximation of the reactions of most people when listening to music or watching emotional scenes in the movies. However, their nervous responses seemed to be unique to poetry, as surveys conducted during the study showed that listening to poems stimulated parts of the brain in participants that were not activated when listening to music or watching movies.
The authors found evidence supporting the idea of achieving poetry reading to delight as a slow experience or so-called “pre-chills.” While listening to the poems they found lively, listeners expected unconsciously the upcoming emotional excitement, in a manner similar to what happens in the brain when anticipating the reward, or what happens For us when removing the chocolate bar, for example. Before the participants recorded their feelings of chills with the press of a button, the data that researchers follow revealed that their emotions had already moved about 5 seconds before, even when they heard a poem they had not heard before. (10)
Hair affects certain areas of the brain, depending on the degree of emotion and the complexity of language and ideas. In a study published in 2013 in the Journal of Consciousness Studies, researchers at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom conducted an MRI scan of the participants ’brains while reading the various texts on the screen, and the texts ranged from rigid prose - such as a section of the heating equipment installation guide - and sections of narrations and some poems, To assess the texts and measure the feelings that you raised. The researchers found that the higher the degree of emotion in the text, the more activity that scans showed on the right side of the brain, which are the same areas that are active while listening to music, as well as activity on the left side of the brain that participates in organizing movement and processing difficult sentences. (11)
Hair treatment
Hair therapy is considered one of the creative arts treatments adopted by the National Association of Therapeutic Associations of Creative Arts. Hair treatment is used with children and adolescents, and it is effective with the elderly as well, as they find a way to review life, the poet Elie Greaver had started in the twenties of the last century with a group of "treatment With poetry "as a volunteer at Creedmore Governmental Hospital. In 1959, he facilitated the Hair Treatment Group at Cumberland Hospital with two psychiatrists, after which Dr. Jacques Lady and Dr. Sam Spector established a Hair Therapy Association.
Alma Rolfs, a social worker, conducts psychotherapy sessions for psychiatric patients, addicts, and women after childbirth, describing hair therapy as a "very cool treatment method", combining the strengths of all treatments with other creative arts, and confirming that the patients response is Deep level when they don't have to express themselves. "For many people, words are a very embarrassing part of treatment," she says. But poetry allows the use of literature and creative writing, allowing customers to express in a language they do not believe they can express. (12)
In executive business
Readers read more strategies for "self-monitoring" that enhance the effectiveness of their thinking, and these creative capabilities help executives maintain entrepreneurship in their organizations, and a series of new research shows that reading poetic and folk stories develops the ability to empathize with others. Some studies have shown that reading fairy tales is necessary to develop the ability to empathize among young children, and that the inclusion of poetry in the school curriculum is a way to enhance sympathy for doctors, which is an essential skill for those who hold executive jobs and need to understand the feelings and motivations of colleagues and others. (13)
Professor Philip Davis, principal of the School of Psychology, Health and Society Institute, says that advocating for literary awareness may have a major impact in challenging our minds, and he sees that if more people read poetry and are accustomed to thinking about meaning, this will make a difference in their ability to think more Vigilance (14)