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Athlete Phone Sex Style Points
Athlete Phone Sex Transcripts: Ron ArtestMay 14, 2009, 9:00 am
Filed under: Contributors, Karlifornia | Tags: Alexxxa, Athlete Phone Sex Transcripts, Cornelius Bagley the Third, Gorgeous Birds, Karlifornia, Ron Artest, Simplex XDeadspin commenter Karlifornia has agreed to become a contributor for this fine site. Here’s his first foray into Style Points literature.
Cheerio, everyone. My name is Cornelius Bagley the Third. Let me indulge all of you with the fanciful tale of “CB-3″. I had a privileged childhood, culminating with a legacy entrance into Oxford University. I earned my degree in 4 months, the result of superior secondary schooling. I immigrated to America 22 years ago to work as a stockbroker. Possessing a vast knowledge of the inner workings of international finance, I quickly ascended the Wall Street ladder. I unfortunately could not overcome my addiction to what the proletariat refers to as “the common street whore”. I contracted a rare strain of herpes known only as “Simplex X”. It left me with ghastly sores all over my body and face. I was subsequently blackballed from Wall Street, and forced to find a lesser occupation.
That occupation I found was managing a phone sex company. I will now share with you the transcript of a call from a professional athlete by the name of Ron Artest. The thespian is a gorgeous bird that goes by the nom de phone sex of “Alexxxa”.
Alexxxa: Hey big daddy
Ron Artest: Sup.
Alexxxa: How you doin tonight, stud. You gonna tear me apart or what?
Ron Artest: What did you say? I got bad reception.
Alexxxa: I just wanted to know if you felt “UP” for a good time.
Ron Artest: Yeah, I guess I feel up for a good time. I know someone else who was always up for a good time. His name was Shawn. I played ball with him back in Queens. He got in a fight with some guy in the stands during one game. Motherfucker came out of the stands and shot Shawn in the face, right on the court. I got to the shoot the free throws for him, though, and we won state that night. I’ll never forget that shit.
Alexxxa: Ohhhh…Wow..Ok? Well you know what? I’m just lying in my bed right now, wearing a black lace teddy…..mmmmm..with a little black g-string. Where are you, baby?
Ron Artest: I can’t hear you too well. Like I said, we got no reception in here. I’m in the locker room. I got ejected in the second quarter. Punk ass towel boy stepped up to me during a timeout, saying some shit like “Hey, Ron, you need a towel, you look like you’re sweating a lot.”
I said to that lil’ bitch ass towel boy, “Sweatin’? Why the fuck would I be sweatin? You sayin I’m scared? Scared of what? Of you?” Then I picked his ass up and threw him over the bench, and that old bald ass Joey Crawford told me I was ejected. And for what? Some BULL-SHIT, that’s what.
Alexxxa: Oh……yeah? Well I’m sorry, baby. I just wanna make you feel better. How can Alexxxa make you feel better? Maybe I could take my hand, and slide it underneath those boxers
Ron Artest: Did you say boxers? I remember one time we were playin a pick up game against these amateur boxers in Rucker Park, and my boy Tony threw it down on this one brother’s head to win the game and smiled at him. Boxer dude ain’t like it. He punched Tony in the head so hard, both his eyeballs fell out. They was just ROLLIN AROUND on the concrete. I held him in my arms, and looked him right in his eye-sockets. I told him he was gonna be ok. Tony died like a minute later. Coroner said some shit about blunt force trauma killin him. Ain’t that about a bitch?
Alexxxa: Oh my god. I don’t even know what to say. Instead, I’m not gonna say anything. I’m just gonna take off my soaking wet panties…
Ron Artest: Oh yeah? Yeah, do that
Alexxxa: Yeah, then I’m gonna wrap my legs around your head, and-
Ron Artest: Funny you should say that, because one time my AAU team toured Japan and played all the best Chinese squads. They were some short motherfuckers, but they was quick. My boy Rayshon was D’ing up this little Chinese dude pretty hard, and one play he even stuffed him, and Rayshon was “ohhhhhh SHIT I just SAMURAI’D ya dumbass!”. Japanese dude just stood there and said some shit like “You have besmirched every member of the noble Yakitori family” or some shit, and then started flying around the gym and karate kicking everyone! The fans, the coaches! Then he got to Rayshon, did some crazy ass flips and shit, and the Chinese dude wrapped his Japanese legs around Lil Ray Ray’s head, and snapped his fuckin neck. It’s just part of the game, thoOOOOHHHHH SHIT! SHIT! RON RON CUMMIN! Oh daaaaaaaaaaamn.
Alexxxa: Yeah, that’s it, Ron-Ron. Let it all out for me.
Ron Artest: Got DAMN, that was good.
Alexxxa: Oh did you like that?
Ron Artest: Yeah, you know what, I haven’t—Oh shit, the game ended. Coach Adelman’s coming. He said if he caught me doing this in the locker room again, I’d have to do to extra suicides at practice next week. Damn, reminds me of this one cat that committed suicide during halftime back in Jamaica Plains….
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Twisted Examples of "Crazy Wisdom" From Adi Da's Fantasy World by Mike Fifty-Nine (AKA Adi Da Samraj II + III)
The Scandals of Adi Da Samraj
To: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.consciousness.mysticism,alt.zen,alt.meditation,alt.meditation.shabda From: thistruth999@yahoo.com (ThisTruth) Subject: The Scandals of Adi Da Samraj Date: 22 Dec 2001 15:29:09 -0800 Twisted Examples of "Crazy Wisdom" From Adi Da's Fantasy World originally posted by “Connie” on the Daism ForumMany of the published accounts and other documents referenced below can be found online at http://lightmind.com/library/daismfiles/ The following list of events represents a very small sampling of the questionable "crazy wisdom" activities of guru Adi Da, aka Franklin Jones, Bubba Free John, Da Free John, Da Love-Ananda, Da Kalki, Da Avabhasa, Ruchira Avatar Adi Da Samraj, etc. These are just the "tip of the iceberg" when it comes to describing the insanity he has created. On the other hand, these questionable events and examples of abusive behavior do not represent the full range of Adi Da's personality. Like anyone else, his intentions and actions are all over the board, good and bad, up and down, by whatever measure one wants to use. He is not a diabolical and systematic tyrant who is only out to hurt people. Rather, what fundamentally drives and characterizes Adi Da is (1) the agressive pursuit of the fulfillment of his every personal impulse and desire, regardless of the cost to others, and (2) the obsessive ongoing creation and embellishment of the myth of the Adi Da icon, so that he (as a created idol) will be worshipped and adored by everyone (including himself) as the greatest being in the world, and so that he will also have the power to control and to save everyone and everything in the world. The fulfilment of these fundamental drives obviously involves and requires other people to accomplish them. Unfortunately, those other people end up getting used and abused in the process. The events here were made known during the "dissident" period of the mid-1980's by a group of disaffected former members, whose names appear below each event, along with the newspaper or TV show, if any, where the statement was made. Obviously, these accounts are very brief, and no doubt are imperfect descriptions of what happened. Much here could be amplified or corrected, and hopefully will be over time. However, an undeniable pattern emerges here from the many different sources quoted. Adi Da takes advantage of those around him who grant him their consent to be exploited because they believe that every act of his is done for their spiritual benefit and enlightenment. Any consent given by those who participated in all of this was tainted by the fact that they thought they were dealing with God Incarnate, and that any refusal of his requests and demands was by definition a failure to engage the spiritual process. Let's take a look at some of the details: One woman, D.G., had been sexually abused as a child, and the experience left her with deep emotional wounds. Allegedly in order to cure her of her anxieties, Adi Da commanded her to perform oral sex on a line of three men, one after the other, and then he himself had sex with her and sent her off. D.G. felt hysterical and full of duress during the acts and after it was all over. She ended up wandering alone out into a parking lot where she found an open car to go into and cried herself to sleep. This traumatic event upset her for many years. (Mill Valley Record 4/10/85, S.F.Chronicle 4/9/85, Lake Co. Record Bee 4/11/85, and conversations with D.G. in 1985). It was common knowledge in Adi Da's community that Adi Da had on a number of occasions beaten his wife N. At one raucous party, Adi Da pulled a chunk of hair from her head and bruised her face, giving her a black eye. He also threw her down a flight of stairs during a fight, causing bruising and injury. (seen by Jackie Catalfo and others, reported in Mill Valley Record 4/3/85, SF Chronicle 4/4/85). Adi Da has had sex with possibly 100 or many more women (who knows exactly?) since he assumed the role of guru. Some of these were teenaged girls, and many others were very young adults. These girls had come seeking spiritual truth and guidance, and many gave themselves to him in the context that he was God and his commands should be followed absolutely even if they involved sex with him. There are real issues here about the basis for any "consent" that may have been given by those involved. Many of the women were married or in committed relationships to other devotees when Adi Da took them sexually. If their husbands felt bad about this, they were told that jealousy and anger were egoic reactions that must be surrendered to the guru. Adi Da's sexual escapades were common knowledge in the early days, but even after he purportedly gave up this type of "teaching" after the mid-70's, his sexual promiscuity continued for many years and was hidden from everyone but his inner circle. Much of the sex, at least as described by a number of the women, was anything but tantric, nor could it be considered particularly loving in the ordinary human sense. Certainly, many times it was a drugged and drunken "wham, bam, thank you, mam" performance, after which the women were dumped off like the day's dirty laundry. (These facts were confirmed by many in various articles and TV shows, conversations with Jackie Catalfo, Miller, Lucania, and others. Eventually in 1985 Adi Da's group admitted his continued sexual promiscuity). Adi Da gave herpes to a significant number of women, so many that it cannot be claimed to be merely an innocent accident or mistake. One must admit he was reckless and negligent at a minimum, because he knew he had active lesions and was contagious, yet infected women anyway. Beyond mere negligence however, he was surely sick and deranged as well because he has claimed he gave others the disease for their spiritual benefit. He told one teenaged girl in the mid-70's, J.K, (and perhaps others) that he gave her herpes as "prasad (a divine gift) from the Guru to help her work out her bad cunt karma." (On the Today Show "Mary" says Adi Da gave her herpes. M. Miller on Ch. 7, and in conversations in 1985 re: his and Adi Da's mutual ex-"wife" J.K.). Adi Da many times would "divorce" or "marry" different couples at his discretion and according to his whims, frequently against the interests of the parties involved. On one single occasion he married 30 or more couples, and then had his lieutenants go around to make sure the "marriages" were consummated as per his commands. He also broke up many couples, sometimes en masse so that the women could be "tried out" by him and his close buddies in order to audition them and see who was fit to become Adi Da's wives. (numerous articles include: Lake Co. Record Bee 4/11/85 and Andrew Parker legal declaration, as well as in Adi Da’s book “Garbage and the Goddess” (written under the name “Bubba Free John”), and per conversations with Jackie Catalfo and Sal Lucania, 1985). Adi Da "married" 14 women on New Years Eve, 1976, and over time has had varying numbers of "wives," including September 1976 Playboy Centerfold Julie Anderson. Most of his "wives" have been cycled through and cast off over time. Many or most of the "wives" Adi Da acquired for himself were married or in serious committed relationships with other men, and had come to Adi Da's community to be disciples "as a couple". Adi Da would tell the women to leave their husbands or boyfriends and become his sexual partners as a form of spiritual service to him, while telling the men it was their spiritual duty to surrender their mates to him. (Lake Co. Record Bee 4/11/85, M. Miller lawsuit and numerous TV shows, conversations with S. Lucania and numerous others in 1985). Throughout the years, Adi Da was fond of orchestrating group sexual events that he could either participate in, or which he could watch while masturbating or perhaps receiving oral sex. The events were a form of entertainment for Adi Da that at times involved humiliating or demeaning those involved, allegedly as a form of spiritual instruction for them. At his Fiji "hermitage", Adi Da has often required that devotees perform various odd sex acts at his request, including the requirement to urinate or defecate on their sexual partners or perform anal sex. He has required heterosexuals to participate in homosexual orgies for his viewing pleasure and self-gratification in Fiji and Hawaii. He has commanded a devotee to defecate on a glass table and made another person get under the table to watch. Adi Da has also been observed to have his wives urinate on him in front of other people. Adi Da's continuing obsession with these kinds of activities, which were often things that the people who were required to do them had absolutely no interest in doing, or which they were disgusted by, hardly seem to be a form of "spiritual teaching." They seem to be nothing other than a reflection of Adi Da's own fetishes. It is interesting to note that Adi Da teaches that fetishism, obsessive eroticism, and masturbation are the reflection of ego-based, unenlightened, self-possessed sexuality. In the sexual arena, as in many other areas of life, Adi Da's life in the antithesis of his teachings. (Beverly O'Mahony, Today Show and 1985 conversations about her Fiji observations. Sal Lucania, Heather and Neil Lupa, and Jackie Catalfo also confirmed this in 1985 conversations). On one occasion of Adi Da's then-nightly sex entertainment theater in the early 80's, he had a number of couples hanging around and partying with him. He sent away all the men to go watch a movie at another location. Then Jones decided that he wanted the women to perform certain acts for him so he could get off. He gave blow by blow directions for a woman, H., to have a dildo thrust into her repeatedly with such force as to cause her internal damage, as three women held her down. As a result she had to seek medical treatment, as well as continuing therapy for some time afterward. (This woman, H. was interviewed and reported this on AM San Francisco TV Show, Mill Valley Record 4/3/85, SF Chronicle 4/4/85). Adi Da has forced members to participate in pornographic movies to suit his every voyeuristic interest, or on other occasions would actually participate himself, depending on the occasion. Often those forced to participate were unwilling and uninterested in doing so. Some were threatened and/or coerced into performing, and many women came out of the experience deeply upset, crying, and humiliated. (Mill Valley Record, April 3, 1985, plus a number of articles quote several people saying this, as well as devotee interviewed on The Today Show). Sal Lucania pulled Adi Da off the top of a prostrate 16-year-old he was humping. Adi Da claimed he didn't penetrate her, but Sal says this is ridiculous and refutes this. (Lake Co. Record Bee, 4/11/85 and conversations with Sal Lucania 1985). In Fiji, Adi Da noticed that a woman had bruises on her face, and he asked her husband, "do you enjoy beating your wife?" The husband responded, "well �� as a matter of fact I do." Adi Da said, "well, whatever turns you on!" Adi Da was often known to claim that women needed to be beaten from time to time, and that while men learned from philosophical discourse and conversation, women learned from "theater" or "incidents" (e.g. from actual events). Men throughout Adi Da's group repeated this with pride. Apparently, beatings were one type of "theater" women could learn from. This Fiji incident is consistent with many other occasions over a period of years where Adi Da would espouse the need for women to be hit or kept in line. Many men in his community used this teaching of Adi Da's as a justification to beat their wives and girlfriends. (Beverly O'Mahony who observed Fiji event, and M. Miller, S. Lucania in 1985 described many occasions where Adi Da condoned hitting women). Adi Da has required that his followers observe a strict vegetarian diet and that they abstain from alcohol, drugs, sugar, and cigarettes. He asserts in his writings that this dietary discipline reflects a natural impulse towards balance that is reflective of the enlightened disposition, such as his own, allegedly. He has also said that as people mature in spiritual practice they transition to a very minimal diet, consisting of mostly raw fruits and vegetables. He has even said that in some rare cases spiritually mature people can live on breath alone. During a few historical periods, and on a few occasions per year, Adi Da's strict dietary rules were lifted for students, but mostly they were expected to keep a strict discipline. However, for at least the first 15 years of his teaching work (the editor is unfamiliar with more recent times), Adi Da himself indulged in profoundly excessive drug usage and alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, caviar, meat, and exotic and junk food eating on a fairly consistent basis for most of the period in question. Periodically, he would alternate with periods of exaggerated austerity, fasting or eating mainly raw fruits and vegetables. After a short time he always "fell off the wagon" and starting breaking the dietary disciplines, and was partying again before too long. His pattern of indulgence and bingeing, followed by strict dieting and abstinence is so very common in substance abusers. Adi Da's continuing inability to live the disciplines he required of others was hidden from his followers by Adi Da and his inner circle. For example, Heather Lupa would secretly bring him entire chocolate cakes to his room to binge on during a time when he claimed to be living on only raw fruits and vegetables. This was hidden from even most of those in the inner circle. Adi Da claims his bulging belly, displayed in so many photographs, extends grotesquely due to the huge amount of "life force" being conducted through his "vital center" in the stomach. (Mill Valley Record April 3, 1985, attested to in numerous articles and attested to by Miller, Kahn, Masters, Bev O'Mahony, the Lupa's and others). In Adi Da's books he criticizes and denounces drug usage, and forbids the use of drugs by devotees. However, in actual practice he consistently used drugs himself over the years. He used and abused drugs such as marijuana, hashish, peyote, psilocybin, nitrous oxide, exotic hallucinogens such as ketamine, and especially, amyl nitrate ("Rush"). He often used these drugs to great excess. This didn't just occur during the "teaching lessons" of the mid-70's as Adi Da and his group have often claimed. This drug abuse continued at least into the mid-1980's. Beyond that time the author has no information. Adi Da's obsessive use of Rush during sex is particularly interesting in light of the fact that he claims to have mastered tantric yoga and the conservation of orgasm, and teaches that practice. Why should someone who teaches that sex should not be engaged as a way to "throw off the life force" through orgasm be a Rush abuser. Rush is a vasodilator that is used to increase erection strength and intensify orgasm. Also, if Adi Da has mastered kundalini yoga and has fully awakened the internal nadis and psychic and subtle body mechanisms, why does he continue to need all these drugs to stimulate himself? If he believes there is something positive about drug use, why does he teach against it and then hide his usage from people? As usual, we see a lot of contradictions here. (outlined in many 1985 newspaper articles, in conversations, and on the Today Show, by Pico Panico, Sal Lucania, Miller, Catalfo, Lupa, others). Adi Da spends tax-exempt money on travel, properties, and extravagances to suit his every whim. He lives like a king and enjoys total freedom from any kind of financial obligations, since technically he owns nothing. All the money he controls is in a "religious" corporation and in a number of other trusts that have been set up for him. His followers provide him with everything he asks for. December 1984 saw $20,000 in jewelry for his wives go to Fiji. He has well over $1 million in exotic and Disney art in his possession. Poverty�stricken devotees with nominal incomes are consistently badgered into donating their last penny to Adi Da and his organization. Many go into debt to donate money to support Adi Da and his entourage. (per conversationsith devotees in 1985, legal declaration of Padi Masters, in charge of personal shipments to Adi Da from the mainland; and see also Mill Valley Record 8/7/85 and SF Examiner 8/4/85). Adi Da's extravagant spending habits kept his community in a difficult financial condition for many years. At one time, in order to help mitigate the financial problems, he required all followers to be corralled like cattle into a San Francisco skid row blood plasma donation center to donate twice a week. The money went directly from the center into the organization's operating budget, i.e. into Adi Da's pocket by way of paying for his and his wives' living expenses, travel, gifts and extravagances, etc. Many of the people should not have been donating plasma twice per week for so long, and had trouble passing the tests given by the blood center because they were getting depleted and sick, or experiencing dizziness, etc. However, they were given large doses of iron and other vitamins so they could continue to pass the physical and chemical tests so that they could continue to donate plasma and keep the money coming in. (see Mill Valley Record 4/3/85). Adi Da often required that devotees work a number days and nights at a time without sleep in order to complete the endless barrage of projects, books and other monuments of self-glorification that he planned. Periods of overwork often lasted months on end, as people were stretched beyond the point of fatigue, putting in phenomenal numbers of hours in addition to working a regular job during the day. Some were required to commute the 2 1/2 hours each way from San Francisco to Clearlake after work and then go back before the next morning almost daily for periods of time to fulfill Adi Da's unreasonable demands. There was great risk involved with driving the winding mountain roads to Clearlake, especially when fatigued. It was only a matter of time before a devotee would be killed "commuting for Adi Da" (which finally happened when a little boy, Derek, was killed in an accident). The excessive, never-ending work schedule definitely helped to keep people so fatigued and occupied that most close devotees had little time or energy left over to pursue activities or experience influences outside the sphere of the group. (conversations with numerous devotees, 1985). In the early years devotees used to give their entire paycheck directly to JDC to receive just a few dollars per month spending money for their own, while Adi Da lived a life of extravagance and partied. When asked if he ever felt bad about this, Adi Da laughed hysterically and said he couldn't believe the questioner would care about this. This story was often proudly repeated by devotees as an illustration of how Adi Da was free of conventional morality. Clearly he was. He also said, "why waste your money on the poor, they'll only spend it on food and shelter." (Sal Lucania reports this conversation with Adi Da, Miller and many others confirm this story was often repeated). The pressures and difficulties of maintaining the illusion of godhood appear to have been too much for Adi Da to handle at times. In 1986, after a year or two of damaging media attention and the onslaught of several lawsuits against him, he seems to have experienced some type of breakdown. He said he could no longer endure the stresses of teaching, which he blamed on the "abuses" of his devotees as usual. He said he came to the point of wanting to die. After that, he experienced numbness in his limbs, body, and spine, had convulsions, lost consciousness, and says he actually died (not just a "near death experience") and then came back life. As usual he described this event, like others, in extremely grandiose and self-serving mythological ways which purported its great cosmological significance for all of humanity. The obvious explanation, that he had simply experienced some type of breakdown or medical problem, was completely overlooked. (event described in “The Divine Emergence of the World Teacher” and elsewhere) Adi Da and his inner circle withdrew from the U.S. mainland and daily interaction with the community of followers at large in the late 70's and early 80's, allegedly to allow Adi Da to live in hermitage. He said he was now free to abandon the teaching style that had required him to adopt the degenerative habits and lifestyle of his immature followers as a teaching demonstration to show them the error in their ways. He could now "stand free as himself" rather than reflect the limitations of others. The general members of the community were led to believe that he was henceforth living as a renunciate in hermitage. In fact, Adi Da continued to party hard, indulging to excess in promiscuous sex, drugs, and junk food, but took great care to hide this from those back on the mainland who were paying for his extravagant lifestyle. When Adi Da's indulgent hidden life was exposed in the media in 1985, he and his hierarchy at first said it was all a lie, but then admitted the allegations were true and that Adi Da's behavior had been hidden from general members because they were "not spiritually mature enough to hear the truth" (in newspaper interviews in April,1985). The excuse as to why members had been deceived is evidence of the contempt in which the rank and file members are held by Adi Da and his inner circle. Additionally, the fact that the deception was systematically carried out for years is evidence that Adi Da felt he had something to hide. He knew that his continued inability to live the disciplined life he required of others would be taken as a sign by many that he had not transcended his ego as advertised. His habits would be even harder to explain after he proclaimed he had abandoned his former teaching method that required him to reflect others' shortcomings to them. No doubt he worried that financial supporters and peripheral members who were not sufficiently immersed in his myth might be scared off, or worse yet, might expose him as a fraud. Children, including many who were under 10 years old, were provided with alcohol and encouraged to drink in large quantities during parties with Adi Da's inner circle and elsewhere in his community. This occurred on many occasions, and over a period of many years. (Joe Kahn, Beverly O'Mahoney, NBC Today Show, 1985) The first time 10 year old Jessica Constantine met Adi Da, he commanded her to strip naked in front of a large group of adults, also naked, who were partying. She refused and ran away. Adi Da told some of his devotees to chase her down, and they brought her back and forced her to strip, against her will. (Jessica Constantine, NBC Today Show, 1985) Like the man says, it is CRAZY wisdom. All of the philosophy in the world, and the endless excuses of Adi Da and his devotees cannot explain away the pattern that emerges from these events. Adi Da is not who he says he is.
Morph or Psychologist
Image Morphing and Psychology Research – A Case Study
As an example of the ways in which technology and psychology have developed together recently, I thought it would be fun to do a little case-study of a particular area of research which has benefitted from advances in computer software over recent years. Rather than talk about the very technical disciplines like brain imaging (which have of course advanced enormously recently) I thought it would be more fun to concentrate on an area of relatively ‘pure’ psychology, and one of the most important and fundamental cognitive processes which is present pretty much from birth; face perception.
In November 1991 Michael Jackson released the single ‘Black or White’; the first to be released from his eighth album ‘Dangerous’. The single is of some significance as it marked the beginning of Jackson’s descent from the firmament of music stardom into the spiral of musical mediocrity and personal weirdness which only ended with his death in 2009, but for the purposes of the present discussion it was interesting because of part of its accompanying video. Towards the end of the video a series of people of both sexes and of various ethnic groups are shown singing along with the song and the images of their faces morph into each other in series:
These days, this kind of special effect is absolutely ubiquitous in movies, TV shows and commercials and barely warrants a second glance, but in 1991, it was amazing. I can remember thinking to myself as a teenager “how did they possibly do that?”. The answer of course was computers – very big ones, and lots of them. Probably some of the old Sun SPARC workstations people were also using at the time to do the post-production on Jurassic Park (where each frame of the effects shots of dinosaurs would take a full 24 hours to render!). Anyway, I’m certain it took a great deal of effort in programming, and a huge number of person-hours to create. Nowadays, with the right software you could probably knock-up something half-decent in a similar vein with a £300 laptop and a wet Sunday afternoon.
By the mid-90s it was possible to use a decent desktop computer to produce some quite nice effects by morphing together two still pictures, using software like Morpheus, or plugins for Adobe photoshop. The way that most morphing software works is actually pretty simple. You take two images and define a set of corresponding points on each – a point is placed on the first face, say on the left eye, and then a corresponding point is placed on the left eye in the second picture. Once a sufficient number of points is defined on both pictures the algorithm distorts the first picture to match the second, while at the same time cross-fading between the two. A series of intermediate images can then be produced which represent any point on the transformation between the two pictures, like the 50% point in the image below:
Bush - Arnie Morph. Scary stuff.
In 1996, a bunch of clever chaps from Cambridge, St Andrews and Harvard published one of the first psychology papers to use stimuli produced using morphed faces. The paper (pdf here) demonstrated that the perception of morphed emotional faces operates in a categorical manner. In other words, when presented with stimuli like this…
Morph series using one of the Ekman face-series, morphing from fear to anger expressions.
…and asked to identify the emotion in the pictures then people have little problem with identifying the emotion in the pictures at the end of the spectrum. However the pictures around the middle tend to get identified as either one emotion, or the other, despite being a mathematically precise blend of the two. This kind of categorical perception is found with all kinds of other stimuli and is extremely interesting for all kinds of reasons – in essence it may be one of the most fundamental foundations of many of our cognitive processes. One of the clearest examples is speech sounds – the English sounds ‘b’ and ‘p’ are similar but quite distinct to English speakers, however, the Thai language contains a third phoneme which is intermediate between the English ‘b’ and ‘p’. English speakers cannot distinguish this intermediate sound – it tends to be heard (with roughly chance accuracy, i.e. 50%) as either b or p. Thai speakers can of course distinguish the three sounds perfectly. The same is true for the English ‘l’ and ‘r’ sounds for Japanese speakers – they simply cannot distinguish the two. These examples demonstrate that what we are able to perceive is shaped by our early experience with language, and probably in many other domains as well.
Returning to psychology and faces, since the mid-90s this kind of computer-graphical manipulation of faces has become a highly developed and very useful technique for investigating face perception, generating a huge number of publications (Google Scholar currently lists 13,700). Scotland seems to be a particular focus of this kind of research for some reason, with major labs at the University of St. Andrews (run by Dave Perrett, who wins the award for Professor-with-the-craziest-hair at conferences every time) and also in Aberdeen. Image processing of faces has been expanded into a highly sophisticated set of software tools which can do all kinds of funky things to faces, like create averages across a large set, and precisely manipulate particular characteristics of faces like masculinity/femininity, health, perceived age, dominance, or particular emotional expressions. The understanding of how we perceive faces has come a long way in the last 10-15 years, and it’s been driven to a very significant extent by advances in computer software techniques like this.
For those who are interested, there’s a great deal of information on the web about this. The Aberdeen lab runs another website at www.faceresearch.org, which has lots of great information about the technology they use, as well as links to online experiments which you can actually participate in like this one. More examples here from the St. Andrews lab. For a bit of fun, you can upload a picture of yourself (or someone else) and transform it in various ways here, including into the style of famous artists, and there’s also even an associated iPhone app which does the same thing - get that here. There’s also another (non-academic) website called MorphThing which lets you upload pics and do all kinds of funky stuff – honestly, is there nothing you can’t do in a browser window anymore? For the academic reader, a good place to start would be a nice (and brief) review on face perception which has just been published in the Royal Society’s B Journal here.
So that, dear readers, is how software changed, and to a large extent, enabled the modern scientific approach to the study of face perception. The software went from being a highly niche product concentrated in only a couple of special-effects production houses to a ubiquitous system, freely available on the web in only about 15 years, and along the way some psychologists got hold of it and a) started doing some very serious science, and b) made themselves some very nice careers out of it too. Who knows what the next iteration of this software will reveal about human perception, or what new techniques are currently being developed? Virtual reality is still pretty clunky and frankly, unlike actual reality, but techniques are improving all the time, and are already being used in psychology - definitely one to watch.
TTFN.
