i wanted to put my paper up here so people could see it and comment on it/ give suggestions... it took FOREVER and i did alot of hard work and research on the brain and stuff.... SOOOO... check it out! i think its preaty interesting!
here it is. comment
Empty yourself of everything
Let the mind rest at peace.
The ten thousand things rise and fall while the Self watches
Their return
They grow and flourish and then return to the source.
Returning to the source is stillness, which is the way of nature.
- Laotzu 600 BCE
A man’s life is lead as a man; throughout his time on earth he is self-aware. This is the one attribute with which mankind is most intimately linked; The human animal is inseparable from himself. Without his identity, his consciousness, the world would not exist. This feature is rarely cherished or even considered. Nature is not so vain, it holds no high ideal of itself, it has no concept of ego. It is happy to exist. The cruel joke then is that the entire of a man’s life is spent trying to reach such an existence as nature, to reclaim Eden lost. Despite his mighty ego the only way man can experience an authentic relationship with nature, a true comunitas, is through loss of self; without this his subconscious conception changes the landscape through intent. The nature of consciousness, though more complex then explanation is capable, has been predicated on mans ability to conceive abstract ideas which in turn is predicated on communication, the divine spark and great gift. Only by losing ego, whether by choice or design, is man thrust back to his natural state lacking any intention towards the outside world. During these moments the universe can be experienced without understanding or deliberation.
In this essay nature is to mean that which is not self. All things are of nature and therefore natural. It is the ego of man that tries to define it. The dirt and the smoke are the same; the oil and the water too. The conscious self fools man into believing he can identify nature, a ploy of communication which incorrectly sets us above the natural world. The ego in this context, not meant as the ego of Freud (although usually interchangeable), is taken from the Latin for self and includes all parts of its meaning. Understanding the mechanism of our consciousness may ultimately free us from our egos and allow us to experience that which is not. Here the essay will first address self, what it is and how it exists. Then it will discuss examples of existence without self, in mans practical existence. The last section will deal with the loss of self and pure existence.
The Nature of Self and Tie to Communication:
Communication, meant as conceptualization much broader then language, is the simplest tool with which the psyche may construct self awareness and conception. In the wild, awareness is inherent, but only as outside stimulation. Here action is determined by instinct. This is the genetic knowledge granted man by billions of years of biomass evolution and given during insemination. This has been granted all things. The human holds its breath in the womb; the elk outruns the lion; the grass feeds from the sun; the cell divides; the genes molecules cohere; the electron revolves; even the energy spools and vibrates; because it had to. Because if it had not, the universe would not exist. The chain continues I suspect until it comes full circle to the elk again. These properties are true not because they grew to be or learned to be, but because in order to exist there was no other choice. The universe shares in this knowledge constantly evolving, adding to its own basic intelligence. Like the biomass of a wetland, this cosmic mass is the purest form of intelligence; Information without the burden of ego, knowledge as existence, more vast than the entire of human experience could hope to learn.
In Nature, the birth of communication created a unique phenomenon: conventional knowledge (which is much less intrinsic than the cosmological). The meme, as geneticist Richard Dawkins refers to it in The Selfish Gene, is a property of the ego aided by memory. Outside of the self the most a creature can hope for is primal memory, which allows for comparison of experience leading to unconscious differentiation; even this may be impossible without simple communication to allow representation and comparison. Men have made the assumption that they are the only conscious animal in existence, an assumption no doubt aided by religion and the ego’s lust for consumption. This predication allows him to separate himself from other animals, even those with which he is explicitly linked, in turn justifying lordship over the earth and its creatures. Before this essay proceeds, it is important to realize the similarities between all living creatures suggests a less divided hierarchy in the world; an ideology practiced my many peoples including the Franciscan order of monks as well as many not touched by western thought.
All those with the burden of consciousness have communication to thank. In the human world this is hard to conceptualize (an ability which we usually base on past experience) because most of mankind has never experienced a true loss of self. Even if they have, it had been described and compared to non existence. It is with this that the conscious mind may allow a glimpse. By using what Owen Barfield termed “beta-thinking” in his book Saving the Appearances (which is a term for abstract thought not based on sensory stimulation which he terms alpha thinking; dependent on the sensory information itself which he terms figuration); we can construct a model of ego to understand the link between communication and perception a process that most likely evolved with the brains ability.
The ability to communicate begins with awareness of representations and objects, by allowing the user, who we will call Jeff to attach a name, or symbol, or abstract concept to an item or characteristic. Once this association is made Jeff can use the symbol to identify something in the present or the past using memory. If Jeff can represent the color “red” he can attach it to the red bike. This is Barfield’s figuration. The next step is to use these representations to describe other objects. For example, the bike is red and shiny and cold. Once Jeff has the ability to adequately describe objects he can begin to differentiate between them - comparison. That bike is red, that bike is blue. These are examples of Barfield’s Alpha-thinking. Not only can Jeff differentiate between different objects but also he can differentiate between himself and his environment or himself and others. This is the first flicker of Jeff’s self awareness. He can also begin to compare the present to the past. The air was cold the air is hot. The final and most important component of Jeff’s consciousness is abstraction, which allows him to create models in his mind. The bike is red the bike could be green like the tree. This ability along with comparison allows him to compare the past and create a probable scenario about the future. It was cold in the dark it is hot in the light in the future it will be cold in the dark again. This abstract awareness allows Jeff to use all higher brain functions. This is Barfield’s beta-thinking which grants consciousness and abstract awareness relative to other objects and times.
Memory plays a vital role in the self, but instead of consciousness being based on memory, it is actually an effect of communications gift of conception. If man had never been able to represent a bike he would have no way to store in his memory. A bike is a bike. If he were unable to represent characteristics of that bike he would not be able to describe it. Man would have nothing to store in memory. Perhaps he could store the image but then what would that be without the ability to say it was red or it was four feet tall. The image would be lost immediately; the moment after you experienced it you would experience something else. Life would just be a flash of sensations. Man’s actions would be governed by the instincts he was born with instead of a conscious mind. Stove hot - move hand. Taste bad – spit out. Feel hungry – eat food. These instincts are so strong they still largely govern mans lives today but only as hushed shouts from the universal mind muffled by the self-important ego.
An effect of ego, man must constantly wrestle with intent. Whether conscious or subconscious it is the burden of self. When a man wakes up he is lulled into self awareness. The first decision: what to do? Or to do nothing at all? – Man’s intention. A question so constantly raised it has become automatic. An alpha level intention. Every moment of existence man must decide his intent. Assume for a moment you appeared in a beautiful jungle. What do you do? Do you swim in the waterfall? Do you search for rescue? What if you were an environmentalist? So you stand still as not to spoil your surroundings? Perhaps you are an environmentalist and you see the last is more environmentally friendly. Your intention is to stay put. Nature would not. Nature is without intent, without ego. It would exist as it always has. And you? You are standing still alone in a beautiful jungle paradise. Man’s ego is what separates us from nature but its ego’s intent that changes the landscape.
Examples of pure instinct and pure existence are almost impossible to find in the realm of human experience. To be completely alienated from communication has been extremely rare since its birth countless ages ago. In Helen Keller, man can find an uncommon instance of pure instinct. As a blind deaf child Keller was unable to experience communication until young adulthood. In her autobiography, The Story of My Life she recalls her early life of pure experience:
I became impatient at her repeated attempts and, seizing the new doll, I dashed it upon the floor. I was keenly delighted when I felt the fragments of the broken doll at my feet. Neither sorrow nor regret followed my passionate outburst. I had not loved the doll. In the still, dark world in which I lived there was no strong sentiment or tenderness. I felt my teacher sweep the fragments to one side of the hearth and I had a sense of satisfaction that the cause of my discomfort was removed. She brought me my hat, and I knew I was going out into the warm sunshine. This thought, if a wordless sensation may be called a thought, made me hop and skip with pleasure.
We walked down the path to the well-house, attracted by the fragrance of honeysuckle with which it was covered. Someone was drawing water and my teacher placed my hand under the spout. As the cool stream gushed over one hand, she spelled into the other the word water, first slowly then rapidly. I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motion of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten--a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that "w-a-t-e-r" meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free! There were barriers still, it is true, but barriers that could in time be swept away.
I left the well-house eager to learn. Everything had a name, and each name gave birth to a new thought. As we returned to the house every object which I touched seemed to quiver with life. That was because I saw everything with the strange, new sight that had come to me. On entering the door I remembered the doll I had broken. I felt my way to the hearth and picked up the pieces. I tried vainly to put them together. Then my eyes filled with tears; for I realized what I had done, and for the first time I felt repentance and sorrow.
This excerpt may be the strongest evidence of the link between communication and consciousness. Even this though is not a completely true example, for by experiencing communication Keller radically changed her existence and her memory. She could now describe her experiences abstractly, based on what she learned and similar experiences she had since her awakening losing pure existence and gaining self.
The Functional Dissociation of Self:
Although moments of comunitas outside of self are rare they are not contingent on a lack of communication as was the case with Helen Keller. There are many reports of people transcending self during meditation or under other specialized circumstances. Functionally there are situations that can cause temporary aphasia, or inability to produce or comprehend language, by neurological disassociation between parts of the brain which would be physically similar to a pure existence experience. During these times the areas of the brain most associated with language and communication, the Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas, do not function or communicate properly with the rest of the brain. Current models of human language processing (based on research of aphasia victims) suggest the Wernicke’s area is where language is associated with meaning allowing for alpha and beta thinking (Stufflebeam). There are many causes for the type of dissociation leading to non communicative experience.
Current research suggests that during sleep the parts of the brain separate which would create such a communication-experience schism. During sleep, different areas disassociate to prevent neural cascade failures due to excessive neural imprinting. Different phases of sleep have different levels of interconnectivity between the parts of the brain. Even though all the parts of the brain are electrically active during sleep the REM phase is one of the most interconnected which could explain why some can remember their dreams (Bar-Yam). Disassociative sleep is also supported by research conducted at the University of Wisconsin in which passive electromagnetic pulses are introduced into the brain during deep sleep and wakefulness. During sleep, the pulse was localized and did not travel across the neural network while in wakefulness the pulse easily traveled across the network (Brown). Because memory, specifically long term, is not localized in one area of the brain (like other functions), it is possible to dream about people and places from your past. During REM sleep the communication centers of the brain are not active, this explains why most dream states are instinct driven and “‘sense-of-self’ [is] absent from dreams” (Bar-Yam 3). Other higher functions like reading and forethought are also regularly described as not present (Bar-Yam). Below are brain scans comparing REM sleep and random silent word generation They show clearly different parts of the brain being used for each; supporting REM sleep as a non communicative activity and suggesting existence without consciousness of self.
There is also evidence to support psychoactives can interrupt neuron transition allowing for experience and memory without communication. Salvia, which is a natural hallucinogen historically used in religious experiences, is known for producing states in which the user experiences loss of self and communion with nature. Below is a salvia experience as described by an individual who had a selfless experience.
The stinging sensation in my mouth woke me up from my slumber. I hardly recall the transition into the experience. I remember feeling it beginning to come on, and the next thing I recall is transitioning back into 'myself' after having been lifted up and 'merging with the night'. The night was this massive, incredibly ancient and benign entity that I was allowed to open myself up into and become part of. It was like an unfolding. Part of me became the ocean waves crashing on the beach that I live nearby, under a magnificent moonlit sky. Words fail to describe the peaceful and serene feeling I experienced. I had an understanding that the essence of life and consciousness can be likened to the bubbles of water moving through the crashing waves and the sea foam. Water is the physical aspect of life, which encases itself around the spirit (likened to the air bubbles), breathing life into being. The two are in a constant dance, which we call life. The night entity could be likened to the water and waves, and my consciousness likened to a bubble in undulating night entity.
(erowid.com: Erowid experience vaults)
Many drugs have similar properties which has led many, throughout history, to consider them to be a path to enlightenment. Drugs like these were especially valued during religious ceremonies and rituals. Newer drugs based on a complex understanding of neuro-chemistry are also being used. DMT, one of the world’s most powerful hallucinogens, short for dimethyltryptamine, is a neurotransmitter found in the human brain. It is released during death and deep sleep. DMT, or the “spirit molecule” as coined by Rick Strassman MD who published a book on the drug, is reported to be a mystical and religious experience.
During times of great physical or physiological stress mans primal instincts have the ability to silence the ego for short periods of time. This reaction is usually during an extreme fight–or-flight response which changes the brain chemistry to separate higher brain function in order to complete a genetically programmed response. During these times it is also common for the memory to be fragmented or cloudy. The chemical changes in the brain also inhibit complex speech and an individual’s ability to abstract. Mild dissociation of the brain allow for instinct to kick in. In relation to the genome this is a logical defense mechanism, as genes will always “strive” to reproduce. If they can override conscious thought to increase probability of survival it makes sense that genes with this trait would become dominant in the genome. (Dawkins)
The Loss of Self and Higher Experience:
All the previous examples show instances in everyday life where existence separated from self is possible. This is very different from pure existence as Helen Keller experienced it with no ability with which to compare or describe her experiences. The most powerful ego-less experience is one driven by transcendental enlightenment. Although functionally similar to communicative dissociation, the ability to consciously release self and experience the whole of existence in a direct authentic connection is the highest form of selfless experience.
By this essay’s definition of nature, pure experience can happen anywhere at any time. Although this is true; the traditionally natural landscape holds the highest likelihood of such an experience for the majority of man. The alienation of self necessary to enter a wild landscape encourages mans own alienation of his ego necessary for true comunitas. Mans biological ties to the land allow him to experience the natural world as a component of it, in contrast to the cityscape which, superficially, the ego clams as master. By pushing himself into the harsh unfamiliar landscape, man is more likely to have an experience free of ego.
Literature and religion are filled with accounts of non-communicative experiences, which inspire such pilgrimages into the wild. The Buddha spent 6 years of meditation in search of comunitas with existence while St Augustine searched for God in nature hoping to experience Him and His creations. Writer Annie Dillard’s experiences in the Appalachian Mountains inspired meditative prose like, “Experiencing the present purely is being empty and hollow; you can catch grace as a man fills his cup under a waterfall”; a beautiful yet vain attempt to communicate the impossible. During a 300-mile hike through the Scottish landscape in the summer of 2006 I experienced an intense but fleeting connection with nature. While walking the trail, surrounded by tall green grass I sat on a rock. In that moment, seconds or minutes, I slowly exhaled and my self seemed to leave my body like a puff of breath. I was there experiencing the grass in the wind the cool breeze and the color of the sky, all of it. Connected like a breath in the breeze. Without intention. Without self. Just there. The moment was gone as unexpectedly as it came as my professor’s son shouted a question from just a few feet away. It was an experience I will not forget but will never really remember. And as my self grows with new experiences and ideas to describe the experience I cannot really know what it was like; not since the moment I breathed in. These experiences are rare and brief with no way to describe or remember but their existence alone is proof of the ability of man to truly and willingly loose self and experience that which is not.
This authentic relationship with nature, a true comunitas with all outside of self is a powerful and amazing experience. By truly experiencing self, not just trying to understand it; man can find the link between himself and the whole of existence. Not as a thing to be understood but a moment to be experienced. As man delves into the conscious explanation of all things he needs to be equally as vigilant to escape the ego and experience the existence of all things. By using both approaches, man will be closer to experiencing pure being; for just as the aforementioned vibrating strings of energy come back to the feeding blades of grass, so too may the conception of self circle back to the ego-less experience of nature.
No comments:
Post a Comment