读者文摘:顿悟时刻(5)（在线收听）

WLLIAM MILLER, PHD, emeritus professor of psychology and psychiatry at an the University of New Mexico,

新墨西哥大学心理学和精神病学名誉教授威廉·米勒，

interviewed people who had experienced sudden realizations that led to life transformations.

采访了那些因为突然的意识而导致生活转变的人。

Most of the triggers were not so dramatic, he reported in his coauthored book Quantum Change.

他在合著的《量子变化》一书中写道，大多数诱因都不那么戏剧性。

People experienced moments of sudden realizations and life transformations while walking to a nightclub, cleaning a toilet, watching TV, lying in bed, and preparing to shower.

人们在去夜总会、打扫厕所、看电视、躺在床上、准备淋浴的过程中经历了突然实现和生活转变的时刻。

They reported a striking similarity, however, in how the moments felt:

然而，他们声称在这些瞬间的感受上有着惊人的相似：

more like a message revealed to them from outside than something their own minds had ginned up.

这些信息更像是外界透露给他们，而非他们脑海中灵光乍现。

It felt foreign, mystical even. Which may explain why so many historical accounts of revelations have been interpreted as communications from the divine.

它给人的感觉是陌生甚至是神秘的。这也许可以解释，为什么这么多关于启示的历史记载被解释为来自于神。

In more recent years, studies of the neuroscience of insight have begun to give us clues to what they really are.

近年来，对神经科学的研究已经开始给我们提供线索，让我们了解它们究竟是什么。

In 2003, Mark Beeman, PhD, a cognitive neuroscientist, presented people with a series of brainteasers in his lab at Northwestern University.

2003年，认知神经学家马克·比曼博士在西北大学的实验室里向人们展示了一系列的脑筋急转弯。

The test he used, called the "remote associates test," is designed to produce leaps of thought.

他使用的测试被称为“联想测试”，旨在产生思维跳跃。

It asks subjects to provide the missing link among three seemingly unrelated words—say, pine, sauce, and tree.

它要求受试者提供三个看似不相关的单词，例如，松树、酱油和树之间缺失的链接。

(People sometimes exclaim "Aha!" when the word apple pops to mind.)

人们想到“苹果”这个词时有时会惊呼“啊哈！”