I have felt such a broad range of emotions of late, and have switched between experiences of different key elements so frequently, that I have been unable to focus very clearly on any one matter for very long. The crux of the matter seems to be that the disparate elements vying for my attention all … Continue reading Consciousness in the World: Finding Our Way
Recently, I posted about the development of consciousness in our distant human ancestors, and the parallels between that development and how our modern children develop. I wasn't expecting to be considering how there might be a parallel to be drawn from the gradual loss of access to consciousness as a consequence of the debilitating effects … Continue reading Consciousness in the World: Between Life and Death
As an attentive consumer of various scientific publications available in the world today, particularly those concerning the science of mind and brain, while the information is often intriguing and illuminating in regards to how the physiology of the brain results in the extraordinary variety of symptoms, characteristics, and behavior of modern humans, what is often … Continue reading A World of Consciousness and Consciousness in the World
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!
