Consciousness

[jeffl]

Tapping a conscious dynamic: Consider how an idea might be represented in the brain. As i've describe, it's possible that an 'idea' is represented in the brain by a migrating vortex of neurotransmitter concentration. But before we evolved to the point of being able to carry an idea in our head individually, there's no reason to think that a tightly knit kinship group might not be able to carry an idea in community. For me, this is the ground of ritual; but ritual included the whole ecosystem, not just the human partisipants; and ritual was a 'conscious dynamic.' These ritual would become very fecund if they were 'true.' I think it's possible that 'old magic' might have been tapping the richness of these hypothetical dynamics, ofcourse never (or usually not) understanding what it was doing.

Because there was no individual human consciousness early in our history, the early spiritual expressions were without malice. With individuality comes delusional self interest; which, interestingly enough, is easier to understand. So the easter bunny, christmas, etc. are constructs to be examined, to understand who was up to what.

[jeffl]

This is the place....

[jeffl]

Central to the issue; yet, silence?

[jeffl]

The evolution of consciousness, for me, might be mirrored in the evolution of icon. I was thinking about the evolution of language, and so necessarily an evolution in community; but it occurs to me that the evolution of icon could also be a note to self, and as such maybe a note to self drives individual consiousness like a message to others might drive collective consciousness.

It's late, i'm a tangent, good night.

[jeffl]

There have been some interesting articles recently about consciousness. In Scientific American Mind, Vol. 16, No. 1; there's an article called 'Zen Gamma,' where the writer discusses a notion called 'longrange gamma synchrony,' where '...the waves from disparate brain regions were in near lockstep, like numerous jump ropes turning precisely together.' I would suggest that this sort of gamma synchrony is what is required for the uninhibited transmission of what i've called a migrating neuroelectric complex (mnc) that would indicate a persistent state of conscious surrender. Conscious perception is what happens when the smooth transmission of the mnc is inhibited by some particular inconsistency. The 'inconsistnecy' appears physically as the failure of a neuron or group of neurons to fullfill their required harmonic duty (rhd). A possible example of a failure to fullfill a rhd might be some violation of the neurons refractory period.

Another article, espousing a perhaps contradictory perspective, claims to have identified a 'thinking' neuron. On page 64 of the june 2005 edition of Discover magazine, there's an article by John Horgan that discusses measurements indicating a single neuron that (in myown words) is iconic of Sylvester Stallone's character, Rocky. This beggs the question of how icon relates to idea; i guess; if you're a philosopher, of sorts, or post to a philosophy forum.