Accepting the Visual Confusion

Brian set an especially deceptive set of targets at American Shooting Center one time, and I did a clinic on how to read targets. He had a pair coming from the left and the traps were real close together. But somehow, he figured out a way to make a target come off the trap and turn upside down and the other one was flat.

I had a group there and they crossed and I said “See if you can keep your eye on one of those targets. Pick out which one is the upside down or the flat one.” They were having trouble with it, and that’s because they were trying to see the targets before they crossed.

I told them to accept the fact that there’s going to be confusion and after the confusion I want you to see the cup, not the saucer. I gave those targets a picture meaning, and instantly everybody in the group saw only the upside-down target.

And then I said, “Okay, so just to prove that I’m not crazy (most people say I am, and they also say I can’t shoot) this time instead of the cup, I want you to see the saucer after the confusion.” And instantly, they didn’t see the cup, and the cup was almost twice as big as the saucer. But they saw the flat one because the brain had associated what we wanted to see with a picture.

When there’s confusion, I always try to have something that the brain can refer to as a picture. Like Vicki says: “orange, black,” “right, left,” “high, low,” that kind of thing. But you have to accept the confusion or it will get bigger.