HI John, Yes, brain structure is interesting to me. I was very interested in it and went to graduate school in a medical school to study it, many years ago. I had a philosophical bent, so I approached it in that way. It is a complex thing, and obviously its function provides us with many things.
Now, is the brain aware of itself, or is there something that is aware of the brain thinking? I have come to "think" the latter. This provides an end to the endless cycle of the brain thinking of the brain thinking. It is an organ like the heart or stomach, and I treat it that way. The interesting thing is that through that kind of "philosophizing" I am able to arrive at Quality. There are, of course, many other ways I can get there, and I believe the paths are endless. Walking these paths makes me happy, and why else would I do it? Along these lines, if it were possible to get a brain transplant, would the same "me" be aware of the new brain? I do not think I could not remember the old brain (although Buddhists say this is possible). Such a thing would be considered being reincarnated without dying. What a concept. I have been aware of many mental states, but it is always "me" who is having them. I suppose a "real schizophrenic" still has the same "I" behind each personality. Now, if I read the Dali Lama, there is a notion that something persists after the brain is dead which then comes back with some memory (karma). There is plenty of evidence for such memory in the literature, so I suppose it is possible. I have a hard time grasping where that memory resides. However, given that I do not know anything, I do not dismiss it out of hand. Many discuss such a thing as genetic memory. Now that epigenetic theories abound, it is indeed possible conceive of the transfer of something learned in this life to an off-spring. Seeing how most of the cells in our bodies are bacterial (at least 10 times as many bacterial cells, just in the gut, as we have human cells), it is possible to suggest a genetic exchange which occurs beyond just simple human to human exchange. That would be human memory going through bacteria. Aren't these ideas fun? You bring up another point, that being of one of interaction. Such interaction points to Quality as well. Using a metaphysics such as Quality, it is possible to conceive of such memory residing in the co-dependence of things. It is not the objects themselves (as I say to Ham), but their interaction which is real. The objects are secondary, it is their interface (or Quality) which is important to consider. Thanks for the input into my brain. Mark On Sat, Mar 12, 2011 at 1:34 PM, John Carl <[email protected]> wrote: > Mark, > > Part of my fascination lies in your direction - brain structure. The > bifurcated, two-way brain IS how we think. My hypothesis is that this > dichotomy is necessary so that self-knowledge is possible - without "another > way of looking at things", we wouldn't be able to be aware that there is > another way of looking at things. > > How fun would that be? Not very. > > John > > [Mark] >> I will have to think about the relationship between good and the >> romantic/classic analogy. For me it may lie in my approach to things. >> >> I find that the dichotomy disappears if both are approached in a Zen >> way (for lack of a better term). That is, we do not create an >> objective sense of what we are doing, but become part of what our >> efforts are directed twoards. This is easier to do with music than >> motorcycle maintenance, the question is why? There are those who say >> that thinking somehow separates us from the "real" world. I would >> have to say, that thinking is part of the real world, and that the >> proposed separation is what causes the confusion. Somehow man-made is >> no longer natural. >> >> Things are certainly easier to understand and deal with when we create >> two. One just leaves us with, well...., one. How fun is that? >> >> > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org/md/archives.html > Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org/md/archives.html
