by Neil Lazarus
Goals
To enable participants to analyze how their own perceptions are formed. To help participants understand the complexity of Israel as a country.
Time Required : 45 minutes Materials : Photocopies of Exercises; enlarged photocopies of the linked illustration. (see under procedure below)
Procedure
- Each participant should receive a copy of one of the character situations and a copy of the questionnaire, below.
- The facilitator should declare that there are reports that a space ship has just landed. Members of the group were there and saw it, each in a different role. They should discuss with each other what they just saw to try and establish what actually occurred.
- Participants answer the questions on the questionnaire.
- Review:
- How many first-hand sightings of ships and beings were there?
- Do they tally with each other, or are these separate incidents?
- Could you now construct a coherent account of all of these together?
- Distribute and discuss the standard Hering illusion, 1861
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/HeringIllusion.html and http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/ang_hering/index.html
a. Character Situations
You were getting dressed when you saw a blue light in the sky behind the neighboring house. |
You were taking the dog for a walk, when suddenly he became very frightened and started whimpering. You heard a loud noise and suddenly the sky was filled with a red light. |
You were driving your car down the road when a saucer-shaped object flew past you. |
It was ten o'clock in the morning. You know because you were listening to the radio. You heard a humming noise and the whole house shook. |
You were working on the computer in the lounge when you heard noise and the air was full of a red light. You looked out of the window and saw that a large, saucer-shaped spaceship had landed near your house. Aliens were getting out. |
You saw everything from an upstairs window. You were sending a text message to a friend, when you heard a loud humming noise and a saucer-shaped object came whizzing past the window. It landed in the next-door garden. Three beings emerged. They had six arms and three heads and were dressed in uniform. Your neighbor came running out of his house and one of these beings aimed a weapon at him and "shot" him. |
You were playing on the Internet when you saw aliens landing next to your window from a space ship. They photographed you and left. |
You are a police officer. You were driving along your usual route in your police car when a call over the radio told you to go to Finchley High Road/Main Street, where an alien landing had been reported. |
Based on an activity by Jill Hadfield in "Intermediate Communication Games."
b. Analysis Questionnaire
Try to find out the following:
When did it take place?
Where did the ship land?
How many arms and heads did the aliens have?
What were they wearing?
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