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1. •  
     CommentAuthorDanieru
   • CommentTimeOct 7th 2006 edited

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   The brain: that gathered walnut of grey matter, lodged inconspicuously in the skull cavity of each and every one of us. Peer deep enough into these zones of thought; feeling; memory; dreams and each tiny pulse of inherent beauty appears as nothing more than the electrical impulses of furry little neuronal nodes, each playing chaotic games of cause and effect with a handful of neighbours in a never ending stream of activity.
   
   Sidetracking for a moment the philosophical implications of this mass of electrical chaos one is faced with the insane realisation that thought equals electricity, a fact not lost at the cutting edge of neuroscience:

   Recent research has undermined two basic assumptions about how the brain processes information. One is the view of neurons as drones single-mindedly carrying out specific tasks. Cells can be retrained for different jobs, switching from facial expressions to finger flexing or from seeing red to hearing squeaks...
   
   ...Neuroscientists are also questioning whether the firing rate serves as a brain cell's sole means of expression. Rate codes are extremely inefficient.... What counts as a genuine signal is a surge in the firing rate of a cell from, say, 2 to 50 times a second; variations in the intervals between successive spikes in a surge are considered irrelevant. But just as some geneticists suspect that the junk DNA riddling our genomes actually serves hidden functions, so some neuroscientists believe that information may lurk within the fluctuating gaps between spikes. Schemes of this sort, which are known as temporal codes, imply that significant information may be conveyed by just a spike or two... - link
   

   An analogy which springs to mind (excuse the pun) is that of music, and more specifically, the discursive patterns inherent in much of what we call music. From Wikipedia:

   Discursive repetition is "at the level of the phrase or section, which generally functions as part of a larger-scale 'argument'."

   Yet it is not merely the notes and the combination of these notes which we are interested in here. It would appear, as in the creation of patterns in the brain, that the silence, the gaps between discursive phrases make as much impact on the overall 'argument' of music as the notes themselves. Here we find the character of the piece, in the very aspects of music the composer spent their time avoiding. Creativity in this sense, and consciousness in that of the brain, are as much formed from the lack of activity as they are from its summation.
   
   There are further implications on the nature of consciousness which result from patterned activity in the brain. Epilepsy has long been known to arise from the synchronisation of groups of neurons in the brain which do not normally interact. As the firing of these neurons increases in chaotic complexity so the epilepsy sufferer will edge closer towards a seizure [ref]. During such attacks consciousness can seem gripped by waves of synchronicity shooting through regions of the sufferer's brain, waves which oftentimes lead to violent loss of control relating to most functions of thought. Here though is where my interest is sparked, for in the seemingly random chaos inherent in these seizures many sufferers have reported discovering portals into alternate realms of consciousness. It seems no coincidence that epilepsy and religious / spiritual visions appear to be linked. From V.S. Ramachandran's 'Phantoms in the Brain':

   "I had my first seizure when I was eight years old," [Paul] began. "I remember seeing a bright light before I fell on the ground, wondering where it came from." A few years later, he had several additional seizures that transformed his whole life.
   
   "Suddenly, it was all crystal clear to me, doctor," he continued. "There was no longer any doubt anymore." He experienced a rapture beside which everything else paled. In the rapture was a clarity, an apprehension of the divine - no categories, no boundaries, just a Oneness with the Creator. All of this he recounted in elaborate detail and with great persistence, apparently determined to leave nothing out...."

   Could synchronicity hold the key to understanding how our minds work? It appears so, and as current research continues so the realms of this 'science of chaos' grow ever wider...
   
   Full post can be found on The Huge Entity blog...
2. •  
     CommentAuthorDr. Orphusi
   • CommentTimeOct 8th 2006

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   Excellent post Dan, glad to see you posting up on the main site again.
   
   There's no doubt in my mind (excuse the second pun) that there are filters and constrictions placed on our capacity for conscious awareness... these filters can be sidestepped, as you said, through seizure, and in the intensely sensory worlds opened up by drugs such as LSD, marijuana and the like.
   
   

   “Creativity in this sense, and consciousness in that of the brain, are as much formed from the lack of activity as they are from its summation.”

   
   
   Indeed, as Huxley’s Doors of Perception will tell us:
   
   

   The suggestion is that the function of the brain and nervous system and sense organs is in the main eliminative and not productive. Each person is at each moment capable of remembering all that has ever happened to him and of perceiving everything that is happening everywhere in the universe. The function of the brain and nervous system is to protect us from being overwhelmed and confused by this mass of largely useless and irrelevant knowledge, by shutting out most of what we should otherwise perceive or remember at any moment, and leaving only that very small and special selection which is likely to be practically useful.

   
   
   And as Leary will tell us, we gotta drop out of this filtered world, turn onto the hidden world, and then tune back into reality with rejuvenated perception.
3. •  
     CommentAuthorDanieru
   • CommentTimeOct 8th 2006 edited

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   Great to be back! Here's hoping this place gets fired up again. I have high hopes...
   
   Doors of Perception, and Huxley in general, had a huge impact on the way I view the world. He's definitely one of my most cherished Psycho-Alchemists.
   
   I have often pondered on the way consciousness is to ebb away at death, and how the brain, in shutting down, might be at its most unrestricted. If consciousness is an aspect of various areas of the brain working in conjunction with each other, then what happens when the borders of chaos between those areas begin to break down?
   
   Heaven for me would be an infinitesimal moment, right as my last breath is being exhaled, where all aspects of my self, my memory, my reality, my universe become clear. An entire lifetime, perhaps all of existence, crammed into the time it takes for your heart to pulse its last. Perhaps at death we really do meet God because for a mere pinch of time we are Godlike in our perceptions.
   
   Beats any religion I can think of.
4. • CommentAuthorwhat?
   • CommentTimeOct 8th 2006

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   Precisely