Hearing in the bush

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Carcajou Garou

On a new journey
Jun 7, 2004
551
5
Canada
Along with the thread on vision how does hearing affect you in the bush?
I have hearing loss, results from industrial noises, so I had to retrain my brain to hear in a different way, do listen and interpret better with what hearing ability I have. I can honestly say that I can understand what I hear better than most with full hearing.
 

Carcajou Garou

On a new journey
Jun 7, 2004
551
5
Canada
It is to retrain the ear/brain to recognise where, how, why the source of a noise comes from without all the formers ability to hear. I think it is to listen and interpret better and formulate an answer, at first you make mistakes but as with any learning process you get better at it.
Think of making better deductions with less information, of increasing your cognative abilities to make up the difference.
Like the saying "there are none so blind as those who will not see"
Now that I have confused many...
 

Jedadiah

Native
Jan 29, 2007
1,349
1
Northern Doghouse
I think i know what you mean CG. If i can try an analogy, it is like when you are a child and you learn about your senses. Taste for instance. If you bit a segment of lemon, you don't think as a baby 'That tastes bitter', you store the information as a like or dislike in your brain. Then , the more tastes you experience, the bigger your 'book of references'. i Think the brain training thing is trying to 'unlearn' things that you learnt with full hearing, and start a 'book of references' more in line with your current capabilities. The more you practice, the more information you have to put in your book and adapt your brain into approaching that book for information and not the previous 'edition'.

Is that what you mean CG? Apologies if it is wide of the mark, but that is how understand it.
 

Ogri the trog

Mod
Mod
Apr 29, 2005
7,182
71
60
Mid Wales UK
I think I understand where you're coming from CG,
I spent a few years working in close proximity to running aircraft engines so my high pitch hearing is impaired. Its mainly manifested in crowds or busy places where the background noise blocks out the voice of someone closeby. Though when out on my own, I can hear (and interpret, I suppose) the slightest squeal that many others (townfolk I might add) ignore.
Thinking on it, "Ignorance", might be the crux of it, we hear - but they don't see the importance of the sound that was just made. So your "Retraining" regime, is just taking notice of things that you would otherwise not heed.

ATB

Ogri the trog
 

Pablo

Settler
Oct 10, 2005
647
5
65
Essex, UK
www.woodlife.co.uk
I think I understand where you're coming from CG,
I spent a few years working in close proximity to running aircraft engines so my high pitch hearing is impaired. Its mainly manifested in crowds or busy places where the background noise blocks out the voice of someone closeby. Though when out on my own, I can hear (and interpret, I suppose) the slightest squeal that many others (townfolk I might add) ignore.

ATB

Ogri the trog

I have the same problem with my right ear quite badly impaired (probably the guns when I was in the mob). I too find it difficult to understand someone talking close-by when there's background noise. Trying to have a conversation in a noisy place like a pub is particularly annoying. I also suffer from tinitus, which manifests itself more when I'm in a very quiet environment (like the woods) so either way I can't win! :(

I like the idea of re-training the senses and in fact I'm trying to do this to when I'm out bushcrafting with both sight and hearing. No great breakthroughs at the moment, but I think there is progress.

Pablo.
 

jojo

Need to contact Admin...
Aug 16, 2006
2,630
4
England's most easterly point
Slightly off the mark, perhaps, guys, but could there be a more simple explanation to explain some at least, of your hearing loss? I used to be a nurse and the number of people whose hearing was poor, even long standing loss, was caused by the simple ear wax! I am quite serious here, a lot of people's hearing could be improved if they took this seriously.

Having said this I also have some problems with hearing, I find background noise really distracting, like the hubbub in a shopping place for example. I love walking in places where you don't get all the man made racket that continuously attack your senses,where you can hear all the voices of nature. I know you can get quiet inside a house, but its not the same as the dynamic quieteness of nature, is it?
 

Carcajou Garou

On a new journey
Jun 7, 2004
551
5
Canada
Yes the re-training is learning to interprept more with less, wether sound or even sight, I suppose. It is to use the fringe signals that other hear but don't bother with but that are discernable by you and used to cement anunderstanding of what you heard.
 

JonnyP

Full Member
Oct 17, 2005
3,833
29
Cornwall...
Very interesting.....I have very good hearing, but I do find it is very easy to switch off my hearing.....I can walk through the woods and then suddenly realise I am not hearing all the birds singing, they just seem to be background noise. I have to almost physicly (sp?) switch on my hearing to hear what is around me....Maybe this all comes from being a dad...???
 

Nagual

Native
Jun 5, 2007
1,963
0
Argyll
I think many people will benefit from the great outdoors even if they suffer from hearing problems. Of course profoundly deaf or completely may not get the same from it. As a few of you have said it is often the background noises that make you switch off in your day to day lives, there is just so much noise and most of it useless!

It's not until you get outdoors into the countryside, when you actually hear silence for the first time, I still love it every single moment I'm out there. Once you're over the shock and wonder of not hearing peoples dull voices droning on, the lack of cars and sirens, you begin to hear the noises of nature.

Give me the wind in the trees, the babbling brook, the call of the deer and the eagle, the rain landing on the ground, the bees buzzing and the grasshoppers churrping. Now that's noise I can listen to.
 

JonnyP

Full Member
Oct 17, 2005
3,833
29
Cornwall...
I think many people will benefit from the great outdoors even if they suffer from hearing problems. Of course profoundly deaf or completely may not get the same from it. As a few of you have said it is often the background noises that make you switch off in your day to day lives, there is just so much noise and most of it useless!

It's not until you get outdoors into the countryside, when you actually hear silence for the first time, I still love it every single moment I'm out there. Once you're over the shock and wonder of not hearing peoples dull voices droning on, the lack of cars and sirens, you begin to hear the noises of nature.

Give me the wind in the trees, the babbling brook, the call of the deer and the eagle, the rain landing on the ground, the bees buzzing and the grasshoppers churrping. Now that's noise I can listen to.

Fully agree, but silence is not often experenced outdoors. In my 40 years I have only once (I can recall) experenced complete silence....I was night fishing and I awoke in the middle of the night and could not hear a thing....It was quite scarey at the time, thought I had gone deaf, until I made a noise myself.....It was spookey...I would love to experence it again.....
 

-Switch-

Settler
Jan 16, 2006
845
4
43
Still stuck in Nothingtown...
When I was younger a gun went off right next to my ear and I now have limited hearing in my left ear. This causes me problems with background noise and I quite often find it difficult to have a conversation when there are other noises around. Especially in the woods where there are trees rustling, animals calling, traffic in the distance ( :rolleyes: ) a fire crackling away and other people talking or maybe chopping firewood etc.
I have tried to remedy this by 'recognising' sounds rather than 'hearing' them.

For example: A large bird flies into the woods and lands in the tree behind me. I don't hear a sound of flapping wings touching branches and leaves scattering, instead I recognise that a large bird has landed in a tree.
I try to take all the unclear sounds I experiance over a short period of time and put them together to give a result that makes sense, rather than hearing each individual sound and trying to work out what it is.
Sometimes it goes very wrong, especially where it comes to talking to someone with an accent. :eek: I don't hear the words, just the sounds, which I then try to make sense of. And because of the accent, the sounds are not familiar to me so it all becomes a blur.
 

Robby

Nomad
Jul 22, 2005
328
0
Glasgow, Southside
Would anyone mind if I add another angle to this. Is there anyone else that finds they can hear better if they close their eyes, or am I just being weird?? I sometime feel my brain prefers to use my eyes so cuts back on the audio.
 

Ogri the trog

Mod
Mod
Apr 29, 2005
7,182
71
60
Mid Wales UK
Wow there are some good tangents being thrown off this thread, many of which I can closely relate to.
Form....
Jon Pickett's..... Maybe this all comes from being a dad...???
to...
Switch's comment about accents - After a few years in the mob, I find I can understand and emulate most UK accents virtually at will, but more embarrasingly - after a few beers in good company:1244:

Jon Pickett, Our place, being out in the sticks is often very quiet - verging on silence. But there are sounds of animals, coughing and moving about; and distant traffic - sometimes as far as 6 - 8 miles. There are times when the quietness overwhelms and even your breathing seems to be disturbing something.

ATB

Ogri the trog
 

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