Becoming able to pass on the theory of "Seen and Not Seen" (Talking Heads)

[Hypatia]

"Seen and Not Seen" by Talking Heads, a spoken-word piece accompanied by music, came out on the 1980 album Remain in Light. It describes a method for modifying one's face by the force of will and visualization. I was thinking, if this really works, it could be very useful for us in learning to pass. Has anyone tried this? Maybe we're already doing it instinctively.

He would see faces in movies, on TV, in magazines, and in books.... He thought that some of these faces might be right for him... and through the years, by keeping an ideal facial structure fixed in his mind... or somewhere in the back of his mind... that he might, by force of will, cause his face to approach those of his ideal... the change would be very subtle... it might take ten years or so.... Gradually his face would change its shape... a more hooked nose... wider, thinner lips... beady eyes... a larger forehead.

He imagined that this was an ability he shared with most other people... they had also molded their faces according to some ideal... maybe they imagined that their new face would better suit their personality... or maybe they imagined that their personality would be forced to change to fit the new appearance. This is why first impressions are often correct.

[NicholeW.]

Now there's a thought I've not really had.

I think expression and the way one uses her face might well do exactly that. We give lots of cues that come through the body. And the more things one keeps suppressed the more they come out through the body.

We do lots of work like that with trauma-victims because the expression is so often bodily-'spoken' rather than 'thought or emotionally 'spoken.' People often 'flood' when they try to express through their mind/emotions and the 'memories' and expressions will often begin to come only through body-work.

Probably one of the reasons that EMDR is so very effective for trauma-victims.

Wow! Good on ya, David Byrne!! And to you, Hypatia, for this thought-provoking post!

Nichole

[tekla]

Last summer when we were doing the super-big, and 100% rotten Police reunion tour we were sitting around wishing it was Talking Heads.  They had a pretty visionary run there for a while.  But you omit the big ending to that bit.  Because its not about doing it, its about doing it wrong.

Although some people might have made mistakes....They may have
arrived at an appearance that bears no relationship to them....
They may have picked an ideal appearance based on some childish
whim, or momentary impulse....Some may have gotten half-way
there, and then changed their minds.

He wonders if he too might have made a similar mistake.


Some of this might be a little bit like Jedi mind powers, in projecting thoughts that you want the others to think - "These are not the droids you are looking for" kind of stuff.  But mostly I think its the inside coming out - you can tell happy people and sad people often times from across the room, because you see it in their face.

Other than that, I'm pretty sure that anyone who released a record with the song Listening Wind - an unabashed defense of terrorism - as its final bit would find themselves in Gitmo pretty fast these days.

[Sheila]

I do believe it can work, if you smile and concentrate on giving a happy face it will be automatic and your features will change a little. I believe the frown lines can go away. It is something that you have to do all the time. If you do smile a lot, it will also change your personality too. Laughing is also very very good. It doesn't happen over night though. It takes a long time and at first a lot of concentration in being happy if by nature you have always been unhappy.
Sheila

[Hypatia]

But you omit the big ending to that bit.  Because its not about doing it, its about doing it wrong.

Which is why I omitted it, because in our context it would open up the entirely different subject of trans regret, people wanting to detransition because they'd gone into it for misguided motivations. I didn't want to focus on that, but went on the assumption that we're doing it for the right reasons, as I think is the premise of the majority of posts in Susan's forums.

As an ironic twist it does work pretty well for an art music piece. But for our purposes, I was just wondering if the initial premise of the piece would be any help to us.

Also ironically, I think "Listening Wind" is one of the most beautiful, haunting pieces of music ever composed. If you just ignore the lyrics about bombing Americans...