To Discern
The Indefinable Definition
From Dictionary.com:
dis•cern (d-sûrn, -zûrn)
v. dis•cerned, dis•cern•ing, dis•cerns
v. tr.
1. To perceive with the eyes or
intellect; detect.
2. To recognize or comprehend mentally.
3. To perceive or recognize as being different or distinct;
distinguish.
v. intr.
To perceive differences.
+++
To discern …. It is well documented that some
people have perfect pitch. Where most listen to notes
relative to the previous notes to determine a relative
pitch, a few apparently gifted individuals are able
to discern the absolute pitch or frequency of a single
note. It is accepted that these people are exquisitely
accurate at discerning a note and its pitch or frequency.
In sound engineering a PA sound tech
uses a device called a graphic equalizer [EQ] to reduce
frequencies that cause feedback in a venue. The EQ will
reduce the frequencies in a portion of a single octave
relative to the whole audio spectrum. In effect the
notching or lower of a slider in a band creates a hole
in the music where a range of notes or frequencies are
reduced or may not be heard at all.
Graphic equalizers are usually approximately
30 bands wide with a slider on each band to reduce the
respective frequencies in what looks like an upside
down bell curve centered relative to each slider with
the frequency at the bottom of the curve for that slider
having the greatest reduction. Blind tests show that
the majority of an audience do not notice these sonic
holes on a 15 band EQ [2/3 octave size of negative bell
curve/hole] but a significant few do notice this frequency
omission.
Blind tests show that a 30 band [1/3
octave omission] will not be discerned by the vast majority
of an audience yet most professional audio engineers
with a a observant “ear” have little difficulty
discerning the omission. Tests with a 60 band EQ [1/6
octave] show that even most pro sound engineers can
not discern the omission yet some still can. That explains
why most professional audio gear has a 30 band EQ as
the audience cannot pick subtle frequency shifts while
the engineer can discern the nuances extant allowing
he or she to manipulate the music to best effect.
Sound engineering is a game of playing
with an audience’s senses at a level they are
unable to detect. The professional recording studio
engineer does this too at an even higher level.
Rupert Neve is undoubtedly one of the
best ears in the recording industry who creates some
of the most exquisite sublime sounding recording gear
available with prices reaching the stratosphere with
many hundreds of thousands of dollars being charged
for 48 channel mixing consoles. One such new console
was causing difficulties upon installation in a studio
where the resident recording engineer kept saying that
two channels were “bum” with noticeably
poor sound. Nobody else could hear it including the
installing technicians. Yet in blind tests the recording
engineer could accurately identify the two channels.
It is commonly accepted that the average
human cannot hear much over 20,000Hz on the audio frequency
spectrum. Fit eighteen year old females can hear about
24,000HZ. Hearing over 25-30,000Hz is unheard of <pun
intended>.
When Rupert Neve personally tested the
two offending channels firstly by his ear and then on
an oscilloscope up to 30,000Hz he found no sonic perturbations.
On a hunch he went higher on the scope. He found an
imperfection at 53,000Hz and only on those two channels.
The recording engineer was discerning frequencies well
beyond the conceived limits of science. When the 53K
perturbations were corrected the engineer was satisfied
and could not pick the two channels in further blind
tests.
So in audio engineering discerning is
definitely in the ear of the beholder and is often only
limited by a lack of sonic consciousness. The awareness
is there, we are capable of that awareness, yet we are
just not able to discern and observe in many cases.
By definition that is what spirituality
is about – the raising of consciousness to become
aware on many planes and not with just those of the
5 physical senses. There really is no such thing as
“more” awareness as awareness is absolute
– that we are all absolutely aware is a given.
It is unconsciousness that impedes our awareness –
a curtain across our awareness.
Consciousness is an effort of the mind
bounded and limited by thought. We are rendered unconscious
by habit, memory and belief. Awareness resides in that
that observes the mind. To be aware one must be conscious
of that that observes the mind. Hence we talk of raising
consciousness.
We remain unconscious until we can observe
our beliefs and stored memories [both emotional and
mental] that make us unconscious. We can then discern
between what we know [a very limited illusion or dream]
and the ‘knowing” [or the expanded awareness]
that comes from beyond the mind [the "I"]
– from beyond the boundaries of our pre-conceived
perception or unconsciousness. We become conscious.
To discern is a skill, a persistence.
One observes, observes and observes yet again both the
outside and in. One gets to the place where all experience
from both out and especially the within are observed
consciously from a place where the observer is apparently
separate from the observed. The observer observes the
observed. The Self, as opposed to the small self or
"I", can be then discerned as being the observer
separate from the observed. For me that is a good working
definition for consciousness with the unconscious being
unable to discern between the Self observer and the
observed.
To be in this world and not of it.
+++
A new definition of the indefinable as the words fail
me:
To discern
1. To observe from the observer sense
of Self
2. From a place of knowing
3. To perceive from a state of awareness
+++
He who does not go within
goes from without
...CWG1
- Neale Donald Walsch
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