Cognitive Chaos. ThesisBrain Activiy can be modelled as a fractal topology interfacing both random and determined forces. Consciousness can be presented as a set of strange attractors (patterns of chaos) around which specific neuronal activity organizes itself. These n-dimensional attractors are produced with theorems derived from a synthesis of work by Mandelbrot and Cantor. By attaining a thorough intuitive and technical grasp of the actual shapes of the attractors (although they are ultimately indeterminate) one can ride the chaos like a lucid dreamer learns to contain and direct the process of REM sleep.
From Ong's Hat, Gateway to the Dimensionsd e o x y r i b o n u c l e i c h y p e r d i m e n s i o n. A Neuroscientist's Radical Theory of How Networks Become Conscious - Wired Science. It’s a question that’s perplexed philosophers for centuries and scientists for decades: Where does consciousness come from? We know it exists, at least in ourselves. But how it arises from chemistry and electricity in our brains is an unsolved mystery. Neuroscientist Christof Koch, chief scientific officer at the Allen Institute for Brain Science, thinks he might know the answer.
According to Koch, consciousness arises within any sufficiently complex, information-processing system. All animals, from humans on down to earthworms, are conscious; even the internet could be. That’s just the way the universe works. “The electric charge of an electron doesn’t arise out of more elemental properties. What Koch proposes is a scientifically refined version of an ancient philosophical doctrine called panpsychism — and, coming from someone else, it might sound more like spirituality than science.
WIRED: How did you come to believe in panpsychism? 'What is the simplest explanation? Koch: That’s true. Research on Near Death Experiences. I just returned from an exciting conference held at the biotech company, Promega. The meeting was entitled Final Passages: Research on Near Death & the Experience of Dying. This eleventh in a series of bioethics forums was held in Madison, WI, April 26–27, 2012, and focused on scientific research into social and ethical issues around dying and near-death experiences. A stellar lineup of global experts addressed a wide range of topics as well as the implications of current research for understanding consciousness.
The conference was introduced and chaired by Bill Linton, the founder and CEO of Promega. In his opening remarks, Linton described various ways in which our understanding of consciousness can be broadened in our attempts to understand the nature of human experience. The first lecture was by Pim van Lommel, MD, a cardiologist from Holland. The next speaker was Raymond Moody, MD, PhD, who described what he calls “shared death experiences.” The Roots of Consciousness: Theory, Consciousness and the New Physics.
Consciousness and the New Physics Space-Time According to Einstein The special theory of relativity, formulated by Albert Einstein in 1905, is based on the experimentally confirmed idea that the velocity of light is the same universal constant, c= 3x1010 cm. /sec., for all observers who move uniformly in straight lines relative to each other. Consequently, Einstein's genius deduced that events which are simultaneous to one observer are not simultaneous to a second observer. Nobel laureates Albert Einstein, scientist, and Rabindranath Tagore, mystical poet Furthermore, moving clocks run slow. Like all scientific facts, these results presuppose that the observers are in a common state of consciousness whose legitimacy is determined by their agreement or social contract.
Physicists use a simple geometric picture of the flat spacetime of special relativity called a "Minkowski diagram. " Space-like processes, if they exist, could be in two or more widely separated places at the same time. What Happens to the Brain During Spiritual Experiences? - Lynne Blumberg. The field of neurotheology uses science to try to understand religion, and vice versa. A devotee in a state of trance is calmed by volunteers at a Buddhist temple in Nakhon Pathom Province, Thailand. (Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters) “Everyone philosophizes,” writes neuroscientist Dr.
Andrew Newberg in his latest book, The Metaphysical Mind: Probing the Biology of Philosophical Thought. We all speculate about the meaning of all kinds of things, from everyday concerns about dealing with a co-worker to our ultimate beliefs about the purpose of existence. Since everyday and spiritual concerns are variations of the same thinking processes, Newberg thinks it’s essential to examine how people experience spirituality in order to fully understand how their brains work. Newberg is a pioneer in the field of neurotheology, the neurological study of religious and spiritual experiences.
As to what’s going on in their brains, Newberg says, “It depends to some degree on what the practice is.” DNA ALERT! Cognitive Chaos. The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. In this book, Jaynes theorizes that ancient consciousness was radically different from modern consciousness. He suggests that ancient human beings had no sense of an interior, directing self. Rather, they accepted commands from what appeared to them to be an externalized agency, which they obeyed blindly, without question. This externalized self was a consequence of the split between the two halves of the brain. Jaynes suggests that the left and right brains were not integrated—"unicameral"—they way they are today.
Rather, the ancient brain was "bicameral," with the two brains working essentially independently of each other. My god has forsaken me and disappeared, My goddess has failed me and keeps at a distance. Jaynes interprets this as evidence of a new subjectivity in Mesopotamia. The Eight Circuits of Consciousness. The four evolving future 'brains' are:V. THE NEUROSOMATIC CIRCUIT When this fifth "body-brain" is activated, flat Euclidean figure-ground configurations explode multi-dimensionally. Gestalts shift, in McLuhan's terms, from linear VISUAL SPACE to all-encompassing SENSORY SPACE. A hedonic turn-on occurs, a rapturous amusement, a detachment from the previously compulsive mechanism of the first four circuits. I turned this circuit on with pot and Tantra. This fifth brain began to appear about 4,000 years ago in the first leisure-class civilizations and has been increasing statistically in recent centuries (even before the Drug Revolution), a fact demonstrated by the hedonic art of India, China, Rome and other affluent societies.
GOD AS CONSCIOUSNESS-WITHOUT-AN-OBJECT. Within the last two years I have come to know a man and his work who run counter to my own simulations and by whom I am influenced beyond previous influences. In 1936, Franklin Merrell-Wolff wrote a journal that was later published as Pathways Through to Space. In 1970 he wrote another book called The Philosophy 0f Consciousness-Without-an-Object.1 In studying his works, and the chronicle of his personal experience I arrived at some places new for me. Wolff had been through the Vedanta training, through the philosophy of Shankara; he knew the philosophy of Kant and others of the Western world; and he spent twenty-five years working to achieve a state of Nirvana, Enlightenment, Samadhi, and so forth. In 1936 he succeeded in this transformation and with varying success maintained it over the subsequent years. He is an amazingly peaceful man now in his eighties.
Meeting him, I felt the influence of his transformation, of his recognitions, of some sort of current flowing through me. Dr. INCUNABULA. MORPHOGENESIS. 300+ Mind Expanding Documentaries. I watch a lot of documentaries. I think they are incredible tools for learning and increasing our awareness of important issues. The power of an interesting documentary is that it can open our minds to new possibilities and deepen our understanding of the world.
On this list of mind expanding documentaries you will find different viewpoints, controversial opinions and even contradictory ideas. Critical thinking is recommended. I’m not a big fan of conspiracy documentaries but I do like films that challenge consensus reality and provoke us to question the everyday ideas, opinions and practices we usually take for granted. Watching documentaries is one of my favorite methods of self education. Explore the wonder and interconnectedness of the biosphere through the magic of technology. HomeHow Many People Can Live on Planet EarthThe Magical ForestAnts: Nature’s Secret PowerMt. Learn about all the amazing things that people create with their imaginations. THRIVE: What On Earth Will It Take?
The Noosphere (Part I): Teilhard de Chardin’s Vision | Teilhard de Chardin. A depiction of the Noosphere One of the key concepts of Teilhard de Chardin’s philosophy is the noosphere, which Teilhard believes is the next phase of human evolution. Today is the first of a three part series discussing the noosphere: Part I: Teilhard de Chardin’s Vision Part II: Christian Concepts of the Noosphere Part III: Future Evolution of the Noosphere The term noosphere derives from the Greek νοῦς (nous “mind”) and σφαῖρα (sphaira “sphere”), and is related to the terms geosphere (inanimate matter) and biosphere (biological life).
Under Teilhard’s vision, God created the Big Bang, which created an evolutionary process starting with the energy of the Big Bang leading to increasing “complexification” to matter, to initial life forms, to human consciousness, to a collective human consciousness (the noophere). The noosphere emerges through and is constituted by the interaction of human minds. Ever since the Big Bang, our universe has gradually grown in complexity. Like this: 166 Documentaries To Expand Your Consciousness. By: Higher Perspective Here is a list of over 100 documentaries you can watch for free online.
They are about Science, Consciousness, ETs, you name it. It’s a smorgasbord of fascinating subjects to learn about. If you find a dead link please let us know and we will find another to replace it. Enjoy! 1. God is in The Neurons. Near-Death Experiences and the Afterlife. Why Physicists Are Saying Consciousness Is A State Of Matter, Like a Solid, A Liquid Or A Gas — The Physics arXiv Blog. There’s a quiet revolution underway in theoretical physics. For as long as the discipline has existed, physicists have been reluctant to discuss consciousness, considering it a topic for quacks and charlatans. Indeed, the mere mention of the ‘c’ word could ruin careers. That’s finally beginning to change thanks to a fundamentally new way of thinking about consciousness that is spreading like wildfire through the theoretical physics community. And while the problem of consciousness is far from being solved, it is finally being formulated mathematically as a set of problems that researchers can understand, explore and discuss.
Today, Max Tegmark, a theoretical physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, sets out the fundamental problems that this new way of thinking raises. Tegmark’s approach is to think of consciousness as a state of matter, like a solid, a liquid or a gas. Tegmark does not have an answer. Is This Your Brain On God? What Is Consciousness? THE AWARENESS PRINCIPLE. What is consciousness? What Is Consciousness? Neuroscientist May Have Answer to the Big Question. Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com/Lightspring The following is an excerpt from the new bookConsciousness and the Social Brain by Michael S. A. Graziano (Oxford University Press, 2015): Shop ▾ I was in the audience watching a magic show. A man sitting next to me whispered to his son, “Jimmy, how do you think they do that?” The boy must have been about six or seven. “Really?” “The magician makes it happen that way,” the boy said.
The magician makes it happen. What is consciousness? The human brain contains about one hundred billion interacting neurons. The first known scientific account relating consciousness to the brain dates back to Hippocrates in the fifth century b.c. "Men ought to know that from the brain, and from the brain only, arise our pleasures, joys, laughter and jests, as well as our sorrows, pains, griefs and tears.
The importance of Hippocrates’s insight that the brain is the source of the mind cannot be overstated. This theory has some plausibility. The Global Consciousness Project. Neural correlates of consciousness. Figure 1: The Neuronal Correlates of Consciousness (NCC) are the minimal set of neural events and structures – here synchronized action potentials in neocortical pyramidal neurons – sufficient for a specific conscious percept or a conscious (explicit) memory. From Koch (2004). The Neural Correlates of Consciousness (NCC) can be defined as the minimal neuronal mechanisms jointly sufficient for any one specific conscious percept (Crick & Koch 1990).
The Neurobiological Approach to Consciousness Consciousness is a puzzling, state-dependent property of certain types of complex, biological, adaptive, and highly interconnected systems. A science of consciousness must strive to explain the exact relationship between phenomenal, mental states and brain states. This is the heart of the classical mind-body problem: What is the nature of the relationship between the immaterial, conscious mind and its physical basis in the electrochemical interactions in the body?
Global Disorders of Consciousness. Fischer cartography.