“It explores so many ideas about whether there’s a continuous self, how we remember things from the past and think about the future – there’s lots of richness there about what we know about cognition and cognitive science,” ~ Alison Gopnik, University of California, Berkeley.
We can all learn something about ourselves from the story of Alice in Wonderland if we al look at it in a certain way...
In the Drink Me potion that Alice drinks it shrinks her so that she is 10 inches tall however the cake she eats does the exact opposite and makes her so tall she touches the ceiling. These parts in the book and the movie are the most memorable because of this is why it caught the attention of scientists. In 1955 a psychiatrist called John Todd found that some patients had reported the same feeling of 'opening out like a telescope'. These symptoms were diagnosed as Alice in Wonderland Syndrome which seems to be most common in children. A neurologist Grant Liu said 'I have heard patients saying that things appear upside down, or even though mommy is on other side of the room, she appeared next to her.' who has studied the phenomenon. Lewis Carroll's diaries indicate that he suffered with migraines which can trigger the syndrome which made some people suspect that he was suffering with the same effects and used them as inspiration for the book.
How can I relate to this?
I don't think I can personally relate to this but I know that when people get migraines they say that the room spins which I guess is similar to what Carroll and the syndrome suggests.
The Wonderland is full of unusual characters. For example the Duchess and her crying baby who Alice holds and then all of a sudden turns into a pig. Elsewhere Alice plays croquet using flamingos as the clubs, she then meets the Cheshire Cat who's smiles stays even when his body disappears. 'Dreams often contain objects turning into new identities and this characteristic is one of the cleverest ways that Alice's adventures evoke the sleeping mind - along with her strange sense that time is playing tricks own her'. Neuroscientists believe that the experience appears from the way when the brain is resting it concentrates memories. The brain draws links between different events to build a bigger story of our lives. When dreaming about a baby and a pig they both become merged into one images to create a surreal effect.
How can I relate to this?
I think every person could relate to this in one way or another. I can relate to it from the dream side of it. I have weird dreams every now and then which I sometimes think could be in the story of Alice in Wonderland.
During the story it uses some playful invasion into the nature of speech. It starts in the first chapter of the book where Alice reads a poem called 'the Jabberwocky'. 'Twas brilig, and the slithy toves/ Did gyre and gimble in the wabe…' the poem begins. When Alice finishes reading the poem she says 'It seems very pretty...' 'but it's RATHER hard to understand!' It definitely is hard to understand and somehow makes us think about what the words mean even though they're not actually words.
How can I relate to this?
The only way I think I can relate to this is that I struggle to understand words that aren't necessarily used in everyday language but part from that I don't think I can relate to this part of the story anymore.
During the story Alice meets the White Queen where she has a long conversation with her. She was one of Carroll's most odd characters because of her strange talent of having the insight into the future. “Since the mid-2000s neuroscientists started to realise that memory is not really about the past, it’s about helping you act appropriately in the future,” One way that we could do this would be to imagine our future and then piece all the pieces together in a kind of montage that could then represent a new scenario.
How can I relate to this?
I definitely cannot read into the future but I can definitely imagine what I want to be doing in the future and it's only me that can make that happen. If I also know something in the future is happening I can imagine in my head how that will turn out but I can never be certain.
What have I learnt from reading this article?
I have learnt a lot about myself by thinking a lot more into things that i maybe wouldn't have done before. I can see the magician side of Carroll coming out in the book a lot more because of how weird and unusual the story actually is. He wrote a lot of things that are definitely impossible.
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150225-secrets-of-alice-in-wonderland
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