photo by Danist Soh
Invisibilia is the latin word for all invisible things. It is also a new National Public Radio show about the invisible forces that control human behavior. Created by Alix Spiegel and Lulu Miller, in its first two months of broadcasting, it has touched on:
- A woman that is physically unable to feel fear
- A man who was trapped inside his own mind for 13 years, with only his own thoughts for a companion
- A woman with Mirror Touch Synesthesia, who can physically feel what she sees others feeling
- A person stuck between genders who shows what life is like when you don’t have a category
The show does describe some phenomenal people but beyond that, it teaches its listeners about things that affect us everyday—that we would not ordinarily recognize on our own. Then it shows the science behind those ideas, lending weight to some concepts that could otherwise seem lofty and out of touch.
As an example, take Daniel Kish, a blind man who can see. Sounds crazy right?
From a young age Daniel’s mother allowed him to do anything other kids could do—not just what blind children ought to do. She let him climb fences, she let him ride bikes. People told her it was wrong and that he would get hurt, and he did sometimes—get hurt. However, by moving around like everyone else, he taught himself to see. He does so by clicking his tongue and using human echolocation. The clicks create a sound that echoes off of his surroundings, which his brain can interpret to create a mental picture of what is around him. When this is done properly, a mental picture is created and the visual cortex of the brain lights up, just as it does in a sighted person.
Apparently, when someone looses their sight, it is a natural impulse to start making clicks. Daniel was one of these people. He started clicking and in doing so created a vastly different life for himself then many vision impaired people tend to experience. Unfortunately, when this natural impulse does take over, many children are discouraged so that they don’t appear any more out of the ordinary then they already are. As Daniel describes, one of the biggest obstacles he faces when teaching other vision impaired people to click, is their own family. Out of love and care, those closest to them worry for their safety and have a hard time letting go of the role they play in their life. In a way, it is almost as if they are enabling the disability. The episode attempts to answer this question: Can other people’s expectations of you alter what you can do physically? The answer appears to be that yes, yes it can.
Each episode of Invisibilia seems to go from a ridiculous sounding idea to a concrete, scientifically-based one that gets you thinking in an hour or less. The real magic behind it, is that it gives you that bit of wonder that seems to get lost with age and challenges the way you interact with the world. It is not an easy feat, but one I believe we’d all be better off for experiencing once a week.