shaper of dreams.by ~Sea-of-Ice http://sea-of-ice.deviantart.com/gallery/ In response to one of my recent posts, my good friend and fellow blogger from The Heartbreak of Invention, (http://patricemj.wordpress.com/) posed several important questions regarding some of the issues surrounding the nature of human consciousness. While these issues are the subject of intense study over a number of neuroscientific disciplines, … Continue reading The Nature of Consciousness
The Beginning Life, for me, began rather precariously and very nearly ended as soon as it began. As I entered the world, all of the normal techniques for encouraging a baby to breathe were not succeeding. I was, in the terminology of the day, a “blue baby.” According to my parents, in a last desperate … Continue reading Life: Mysterious or Mystical?
"We can only love what we know, and we can never know completely what we do not love. Love is a mode of knowledge..." Aldous Huxley The Secret Bench of Knowledge - A sculpture by Czech-born Canadian sculptor Lea Vivot - image from Vlastula's photo-stream on Flickr The image above caught my eye and my … Continue reading “Love is a Mode of Knowledge”
Praetorian guard with sword and lance, wearing a cucullus (hooded cape) - Berlin, Pergamon Museum. Credits: Ann Raia, 2005 Since the first suggestion of the existence of ancient cultures in grammar school history classes, I have cultivated a fascination with what it might have been like to live as a member of ancient societies. As … Continue reading From Ancient History to Modern Consciousness
Max Planck Florida Institute Study Shows: Persistent Sensory Experience Is Good For The Aging Brain Jupiter, FL May 24, 2012 "Despite a long-held scientific belief that much of the wiring of the brain is fixed by the time of adolescence, a new study shows that changes in sensory experience can cause massive rewiring of the … Continue reading Learning, Sensory Experience, and Consciousness
Life recently has brought me to contemplate the aspects of life in its moments of what we often describe as "darkness," which we all experience in one way or another if we attend faithfully to the opening of the world within us. All my life, I have been periodically experiencing this darkness, this opposing aspect … Continue reading Darkness and Light
Steven Pinker is one of my favorite authorities on the origins, mechanisms, and behaviors of language, in spite of the fact that I often find myself in disagreement with some of his conclusions about how language explains many aspects of our human nature. It's beneficial to study the writing of people whose ideas are different … Continue reading When the brain doesn’t work right…When the brain doesn’t work–write!
Rising early this morning, feeling a twinge of sadness for some reason, I decided to attempt to penetrate the haze in my mind and attend to something productive anyway. I shuffled off to the kitchen, barely able to see, and started the morning routine of filling the coffee pot. It struck me as I did … Continue reading Coffee and Conventional Wisdom
Layered Perceptions: Mixed Media Digital Manipulation output on vellum and watercolor papers, pastel embellished, layered onto copper and wood. copyright 2008-2012. Adele Kurtz. All rights reserved http://adele-k.com/Home_Page.php Reviewing my personal journals recently, I once again encountered the writings of Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist and author, whose arrival in my literary life sparked a renewal … Continue reading Perception and Transcendence
In the introduction to Jonah Lehrer's "Proust Was a Neuroscientist," he sums up the problem with only considering brain physiology as the means to come to terms with consciousness: "Scientists describe our brain in terms of its physical details; they say we are nothing but a loom of electrical cells and synaptic spaces. What science … Continue reading Neuroscience and the Arts
John's Consciousness 