Not signed in (Sign In)
Categories
Welcome, Guest
Want to take part in these discussions? Sign in if you have an account, or apply for one belowVanilla 1.1.4 is a product of Lussumo. More Information: Documentation, Community Support.
-
The boundaries of the human mind seem to lie on a superbly variable scale. Oftentimes minds on the extremes of this scale are labelled as abnormal, disturbed or even insane. Yet, in the minds of the schizophrenic and the autistic perhaps we catch glimpses of the breadth of our capacities.
PEOPLE with autism seem not to daydream in the way that other people do.
When the minds of non-autistic people are "idle", a network within the brain involved in social and emotional thought is, in fact, active. People often drift into daydreams at these times, but when we have to concentrate on a task, we suppress daydreaming.
A team from the University of California at San Diego used functional MRI to show that while this network is more active in non-autistic people when their brains are resting than carrying out a cognitive test, there is no difference between the active and resting brains of people with autism.
"The absence of this activity in autism might mean that they have a different sort of internal thought," says co-author Daniel Kennedy.
- from New Scientist
Do you think studies such as the one cited can give us new insight into the nature of consciousness? or, like the many multitudes who have come before you, do you believe that these people's 'abnormalities' should be studied, diagnosed, cured and discarded?
p.s. Has anyone come across the bizarre, new-age movement of The Indigo Children? Apparently autistics represent the next stage in human evolution. X-Men eat your heart out... -
-
CommentAuthorfelipevenancio
- CommentTimeMay 11th 2006
Our brains are incredibly powerfull. We can get glimpses of those amazing powers on Autistic Savants, individuals with an extraordinary single mental skill but an otherwise unexceptional intellect.
Unfortunetly, in most societies, what is different from the "standard" is automatically feared, misunterstood and segregated.
The same happen with psychedelic drugs, so knowed and used in the past by many indian rites and nowadays by people who are forced to live their psychedelic experiences illegaly.
In my opinion, we should embrace and try to learn with those who are nothing but different, serching for an deeper undertanding of the nature and of ourselves . -
-
(More on the story from Nature)
Here's a conundrum for you:
Let's say the neurological basis for conditions such as autism and schizophrenia was uncovered, in fact it was understood so well that it could be controlled before & after birth. These unique mental capacities were then made available for the general populous, by taking a pill or wearing a non-permanent implant the average person on the street could experience the enhanced creative perceptions of a savant or delve against causality into the depths of their thoughts like the schizophrenic. The user then had the ability to switch on and off these powers at will.
If this were to happen, would you deem it better that these conditions were completely obliterated from the tapestry of genetic distinction in the population? Afterall, the benefits of these mental states would be freely available, with none of the negative, social consequences.
If we took away the savant, the schizophrenia - hell even the manically depressed or socially paranoid - would humanity have lost something fundamental to its uniqueness? or, Are positive outcomes always to outweigh their negative counterparts? -
If you took us away there would be nothing left, well, maybe Muzac, commercial current affairs shows and other pornography (I dont consider erotica to be pornographic). sketch out a quick history of the culture of homo sapiens sapiens, it all runs on sex, drugs and madness...what matters is to be nice....Douglas Adams again, '...nailed to a tree for suggesting that people be nice to each other...' Where are the boundaries to Mind? what is the velocity? what is its volume? How do you stop the apparently infinite cascade of selves observing themselves, .... I had a schizophrenic friend who suggested self emasculation, but he was nuts.
-
I like the idea that at base reality is just Muzac. It reminds me of the weirdest time I ever had with fungus.
In one of my more intense psychadelic experiences I spent several hours curled up into a tight ball awaiting the time when my consciousness became my own again and my stomach was able to untie itself from the syrupy, mushroom typhoon in which it was enveloped.
There was me, my mind and a swimming mass of chemicals all out to mould me out of this universe. At times I felt elated. I attempted to perceive every person who was important in my life and find within them a new angle from which I could better love them. There were minutes/hours/infinities where I was no more, my consciousness being folded out of existence by mere thought alone, and the images of an all encompassing mind which was the universe ruptured me into many pieces, each of which was pulled greater by an unseen gravity outside of me rather than the usual one within.
It was during this particularly head fucking, self aware / self destructive trip that I perceived the only religious experience in my entire life, for I became convinced that the universe I was trying to piece back together could not have come about by chance simply because it was so damn funny! That the creatures which evolved within it would grow capable of laughing out loud at the enormous ridiculous nature of their reality threw me into bouts of hilarious laughter myself as I lay curled up in the darkness. I was convinced there was a God - the biggest joker one could conceive of - and he was laughing with me at a great awakening through which the true nature of reality would envelope me - I would cease to exist and a more enlightened being would emerge from the side splitting laughter.
Of course as time wore on my trip slowly decreased in intensity to the point where I began to remember where I was (a dark, cold shed as it happens). I also remembered that a friend of mine shared the darkness with me, he too in incomprehensible depths of infinity (we made the mushy brew FAR too strong that night). We found each other in the darkness, rolled a couple of 'funny' cigarettes and went outside to vomit as the moon began to sink on the horizon, infinite space sprawled above us. As we threw up at the side of the road and gazed at the stars together we both erupted into fits of incredible laughter.
It was utterly beautiful.
I never saw God again after that night. My boundaries didn't encompass the idea of him any more.
I too have a schizophrenic friend who once told me that he thought I was 'inherently evil'. He often says more inciteful things than I have ever heard another human say... -
First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is. It is utterly beautiful and I too found that it really only works once. It sort of works again, the less you do it, the more effective...but nothing can compare to the real trip. Oh and I think you got the strength just right, you cant half transcend this spacetime. The spirits speak, but sometimes they lie. The notion of 'inherent evil' is a tendency of our psyche well expressed by the gnostics who were obsessed with the idea that all matter, the whole world was evil, unclean, profane etc. Stuff 'em....
-
So if all physicality; all baryonic substance is of an evil nature, does that make dark matter the building material of the Gods?
1 to 7 of 7