The next two Sundays after the experience that I described in the post “Pop Goes the Weasel! Sensory Overload!” capped off a three week run of sensory anomalies and sensory overloads. I woke up the morning immediately following the Five Piano Guys concert experience with very fuzzy vision. Even at 11:00 AM sitting in the Sunday morning worship service, my eyes felt like they were blinking or twitching very rapidly. However, they were hardly moving at all.
During the service, a ladies trio sang the special music. They began the piece with several very high notes that physically hurt my eyes. My eyes felt as if someone was sticking needles in them. For the remainder of the service, I didn’t hear the piano, which was not unusual. However, I didn’t “see” the piano music either. I felt my eye-balls vibrating in their sockets to the tune the pianist was playing. In addition to my eyes vibrating, I felt the organ music vibrating across my forehead. The two instruments were playing the same tune in different registers. The organ notes were lower than the piano notes. I knew that but I really don’t know how I knew that. Were the vibrations that significantly different? Was I remembering how the music should have sounded? Was I really hearing a difference, but my brain was keeping that information to itself and not sending it out to my sensory receptors?
The following Sunday was Fathers’ Day. The special music for the day was the Handbell Choir playing “How Firm a Foundation.” I could hear the bells ringing distinctly. I could easily identify the hymn they were playing, even without the title in the bulletin. As they reached the crescendo in the final chorus, the sound of the bells began echoing in my head. I head the bells ringing for several minutes after they had stopped playing. It took a great deal of concentration to shut out the bells to hear the pastor when he started to read scripture and deliver the Fathers’ Day sermon.
For the remainder of the service, I did not “see” the piano music. Instead of seeing waves or lights, I felt my eyes vibrating in their sockets or blinking in tune to the music. I asked my wife if my eyes were moving. She said that neither my pupils nor eye lids were moving in any unusual pattern.
Throughout the remainder of the day, there were times when the bells came back. By concentrating on what was happening around me, I could stop the ringing!
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