Mind in Brain

In reading over a lot of the discussions here about 'other worldly' matters, I often notice a lack of talk about the self and the brain.

This is odd and weirdly out-of-touch with contemporary science and theory. Cognitive science, for example, has consistently shown that the mind has biases; unconsciously, our personal brain is being 'activated' - as a process, lets not forget this fundamental fact by getting lost in the abstraction of 'representation' - by an external stimulus. Its hard to quite say "what" the brain is 'picking up'. When I look this way or that way, for example, my attention and my focus, in something as subtle as a particular angle of focus - best for light; my brain accounts for this.

If I were to get a sledgehammer, walk behind you and whack you behind your head, right where the occipital lobe lies, I could make you blind. If, of course, the blunt force of the hit didn't lead to inexorable hemorrhaging.

That's sort of the story. Our back of the brain gives us vision (which is why someone born blind will never be able to see: the part of the brain 'fitted' for vision has been taken over by other sense modalities, such as touch and hearing) the sides give us hearing; the top spatial awareness; the front, executive and regulatory functions - this is where our sense of "i" resides.

Thats pretty freaking crazy ^^^, eh? It never ceases to amaze me how our minds - my subjective experience - is being mediated, moment by moment, by a flesh brain, with some sort of electricity passing through it. And there's tiny little chemical pockets which mean something - happiness and exuberance are dopamine; anxiety is cortisol; depression is dynorphin; focus is a bit of adrenaline, a bit of cortisol, dopamine, serotonin and.....a # load other chemicals in subtle and mysterious combinations. Even what we do know - simple correlations - is but a drop of the actual neurolochemical complexity.

Dreaming

When we dream, where are we? It's incredibly bizarre if you really think about it. Were alive, walking in bodies during the day. We have thoughts and feelings; social connections that are important to us. There's a sky above and land below. I know i am on the planet earth, orbiting the sun. Which orbits a galactic center. Which moves aimlessly through the wide vastness of an infinite space.

But when I dream, I am IN something; my self - my very personal reality. The things which happen "out there" - my little thoughts and feelings, become analogized, symbolized, when I close my eyes and pass into unconsciousness. This is mostly indisputable. If I have to piss while I sleep and dream, it'll manifest as some water image; or some action that implies the need to "release".

Yet in this image could be other symbolic images; the dream could be symbolic at one point, materializing in situations and contexts redolent of your awake life; situations that are unresolved or need resolving. There is an "emotional" packet; some event which cognition in the upper part of the cortex keep "feeding into" in the subcotical areas of our brain. Some basic primary "feeling" - what we call emotion - speaking upwards to the top of our brain. This could actually be a way to characterize "dreaming" - if youre a radical behaviorist.

Still, it is amazing that specific locations in our brain correspond to specific elements of consciousness. We know that we can kill a person by destroying neurons in the periaquductal gray - a deep region at the upper part of the brain stem. If you were to surgically destroy (not possible in humans without killing the person by other means) neurons here, you'd lose the part of the brain that creates the chemicals which initiate "consciousness or awakeness". Children born with anencephaly have no cortex - under an MRI you see a hallow skull with only a brain stem. These children are awake, but essentially blind to what their seeing. They only feel. What? We know they respond to basic cues; laughter when nice sounds or tactile sensation occurs (showing that the brain stem plays a part in basic sensory experiences); fear when there are loud noises or aggressive movement. These kids have an intact PAG.

Yet in addition to the brain - to the personally "coded" experiences somehow physically present as protein clusters, that being the popular working assumption - there's also the belief that the mind, whatever it is, isn't actually limited to the brain. But can extend beyond it.

In Buddhism, there's an interesting distinction between whats called "consciousness" and "fundamental consciousness". The former is everything that comes with having a human brain and body. The latter is whats left when you take that brain and body away. What could that be, this remainder? I imagine it is a base reality, 'consciousness", which precedes and ultimately subsumes everything that is made material by a physical body. It is nothingness. But yet still, paradoxically, a "something", a "deep sleep" quality of awareness. Of course, no activity occurs in this state; you veritably do no exist. Yet, there is still movement. This is what is implied by Eastern theories of reincarnation. Bodies and the universe is activity: a 'world of motion'. This is a pretty deep ontological vantage point on things; the human mind measures the source of existence - we contain all levels of it in our experience and even in our daily rhythms - wake, dream, deep sleep.

Yet there are arguments made against this view. Although memory has never been found - and may never be found - in the human brain, there are attempts nevertheless to explain it as such; a particular experience for example can be 'physically' monitored; the neuronal movements can be mapped, which will imply a technology that can see INTO neurons and all the protein movements occurring therein. Since this will involve millions of processes within a single neuron, we'll need an impressive supercomputer to do all this. But lets say we do all, and discover that "this" cluster of neurons corresponds to this memory; and show it that everytime this memory is activated, these proteins are assembled just like that. It seems almost absurd in the complexity; and even logically, we know that correlation isn't causation, and that is the real kicker about science and mind. You can't ever prove or unprove it. It just is: it stays as it is and we live as we live, and in the end, we die, and we dissolve into the earth. And us, who we were and are, as living breathing beings, with minds mapping our environments, mapping our own "internal" environments if were particularly attuned to ourselves, and were faced with this horrific, yet etheral fact: our bodies will die. Our brains will not get the oxygen it needs to function. The cells which literally make us up will still keep going, but ME, I, an emergent property - apparently - of this cellular universe, will disappear, back into the cosmic stream of vapors; of subtle, spiritual motions that live, perhaps, at a higher dimensionality?

Its so odd, yet endlessly interesting and beautiful. We can't ever know how life is or came to be. We can't know our ending; we can only wonder at the fact of time, of motion, of life. The fact of "it is", and "I am", at every moment, at any time you want bring it to mind; you can change your thought, re-engineer the qualities and aspects of your mind. Be many because you know at root the idea of being one is also a fiction.

Reviews

[sherni]

There's a good combination of science and art (via thought) in this piece, and I think that that's what makes this beautiful. The two are usually widely separated but here, you found a way to bring them together to explain the interesting aspects of our brains. There was really good visualization in this as well. Good job!

[AprilRN1210]

this piece is full with "food for thought".. I love the way you break down many of the scientific and biologic functions to this complex "idea".. it stimulates and excites the science nerd in me and yet has deeper, spiritual elements sprinkled in there.. you always blow me away with the depth and skill in which you write.. you engross me into your thoughts and ideas.. psychology is still evolving in its development and I love the way you incorporate some of the ideas of this study within this piece.. dreams are some of the most simple, yet complex ways to learn about the way we process, store, and recall certain behaviors, thoughts, memories, and interactions.. the way science tries to break down each specific "area" of the brain and its correlating functions and how it makes up the "whole" to make us WHO we are and HOW we are.. you have made this "interesting and beautiful".. amazing writing as usual my friend.. all I can say is wow.. saving this so I can come back and enjoy.. :)

[Mike Defreitas]

I am amazed by the interest you put into replying! I am so lazy and apathetic in comparison! lol read moreI am amazed by the interest you put into replying! I am so lazy and apathetic in comparison! lol

Still, thankyou again for the kind words. I don't know you from a hole in the ground, yet you extend kindness and for whatever that means - that fact and what it tells our mind - I can't - and we can't - fundamentally know or trust what other people think or feel. It's a f*****g frustrating reality. And so, for me, when I think about you and the kindness you feel in writing as you do, I am just happy to trust that other human being for being - as I feel and suspect - like me. Wanting to be good because it feels right; liberating. And part of that means accepting and living with the vulnerability and that same that comes with the deal.

Being kind is really an act of courage.

[AprilRN1210]

the site ate your words.. I hate when it does that!.. grrrr