Frame of Reference

I was reading a novel in which one of the principle characters was sitting on a train waiting for it to leave the station.  Abruptly the train appeared to move,  but then the character realized it was the train opposite his window that was moving not the train he was on.  Such changes in perspective are not uncommon, but always seem to evoke a little surprise.  The Necker Cube, the skeletonized cube is used in introductory psychology courses to demonstrate that perception is an active process and the mind/brain makes a significant contribution to what we think we "see" so clearly, also illustrates this point.

 If you continue to stare at this complex figure the background suddenly becomes the foreground and vice versa.  

These are pretty simple demonstrations of the rearrangement of ideas, concepts and patterns that we think of as underlying creative and change.  Its the emergence of a new frame of reference.  Some problem we are confronted with is suddenly solved by a sudden shift in our attention, a sudden awareness of the answer as if there were processes at work beneath the surface of consciousness.

Recovery from addiction is like this.  At first we couldn't imagine losing our best friends, alcohol and other drugs, we thought without them we would be nothing.  It was only the use of alcohol and other drugs that were keeping us sane.  And then for some fortunate individuals they see the whole thing in a different way.  They see that it was alcohol and other drugs that was destroying them and perhaps everyone around them.  Its such a dramatic shift. When this new perception can be maintained, usually through the group support of other people who have had the same experience, the whole of one's life changes.