Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Evoked Potential

The other week I had the misfortune to spend most of a day in the hospital for some tests (I’m fine). I brought a big book, a thermos of tea and prepared to trudge wearily from one department to another. Up and down corridors, in and out of the elevator, passing strange machines and distracted people.

I turned a corner and found myself in front of a door that was marked “Evoked Potential.”

In medicine, an evoked potential is the electrical response of the brain to a sensory stimulus. In school, potential is generally what many of us are told we’re not realizing fully. In dreaming about life, potential brims and flows - creating new ideas and pathways.

There was something very weird and wonderful standing before a closed door marked Evoked Potential. Was it a storage of such? The unused portions? The successes or misses? Would even opening the door cause magical transformation?

While I now know it's a valid medical term (who knew?), it gave me hours of thought around our journeys and all the people near and far who participate with us.

I really want to go back and try that door handle.

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