No self awareness, no memories

[voidisyinyang]

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/how-does-your-memory-work/

 

You might think that your memory is there to help you remember facts, such as birthdays or shopping lists. If so, you would be very wrong.

 

The ability to travel back in time in your mind is, perhaps, your most remarkable ability, and develops over your lifespan.

 

In this documentary, Horizon takes viewers on an extraordinary journey into the human memory.

 

From the woman who is having her most traumatic memories wiped by a pill, to the man with no memory, this film reveals how these remarkable human stories are transforming our understanding of this unique human ability.

 

The findings reveal the startling truth that everyone is little more than their own memory.

Edited August 3, 2010 by drewhempel

[Vajrahridaya]

Which is why remembering past lives is so very important in development. It cures so many fears and lack of insight into the transcendent nature of awareness, as well as life in general as most people are trapped behind 5 senses.

[immortal_sister]

there are so many great documentaries on that website! i have yet to watch this one, i will today. thanks for posting!

[Marblehead]

Which is why remembering past lives is so very important in development. It cures so many fears and lack of insight into the transcendent nature of awareness, as well as life in general as most people are trapped behind 5 senses.

 

I guess I'm just going to have to start remembering my past lives. Sheeesh!!!

 

Let's see now. Who was I most recently? Ah! I've got it!! I was Friedrich Nietzsche. And even the moustache is almost identical. Plus I guess that is why it was so easy for me to learn the German language when I was stationed in Germany.

 

WoW!!! Thanks for the nudging VJ!!! I am so happy now. Well, wait. Who was I before I was Fred? Oh No!!! A never ending cycle! And what happens when I run out humans 4 million years from now?

 

. . .

 

I know! I've got it. I was fish prior to becoming man. Wow! What a fantastic jump in evolution!!!! But I just had to have been one of those multi-colored beautiful fish. Come to think of it, I have never been anything but a beautiful. Even when I was building a stramatolite way, way back my stramatolite was the prettiest.

 

What a wonderful experience knowing all these things. I am so knowledgeable now my knowledge and wisdom amazes even myself.

 

WoW! Somemore!!! I wonder what I will become in my next life. Yes, I want a next life. With 47 virgins anxiously awaiting to do anything they possibly can in order to cause me great pleasure. The heck with enlightenment. I want naked women!!!!!

 

Excuse me now while I go prepare for my awaiting maidens.

 

Happy reincarnations Y'all!!!

 

Peace & Love!

Edited August 3, 2010 by Marblehead

[Marblehead]

Hi Drew,

 

Yeah, I saw a documentary on memory not too long ago. I think it was on Scientific America. Fantastic stuff the way memory works.

 

Peace & Love!

[Machin Shin]

It's accepted logic that most people tend to stay the same. So a merchant in the past will be a merchant in the future. A soldier of the past will be a soldier in the future. A monk in the past will be a monk in the future.

That's why it is so important to do a retreat and to devote ones life in service to overcome samsaric conditioning. Offerings to guru's and the society that we currently live set up the powerful karma that is needed to change our future existence. It starts with those mother and father tantra's, and they are best contemplated about while in a three year retreat.

[Marblehead]

It's accepted logic that most people tend to stay the same. So a merchant in the past will be a merchant in the future. A soldier of the past will be a soldier in the future. A monk in the past will be a monk in the future.

That's why it is so important to do a retreat and to devote ones life in service to overcome samsaric conditioning. Offerings to guru's and the society that we currently live set up the powerful karma that is needed to change our future existence. It starts with those mother and father tantra's, and they are best contemplated about while in a three year retreat.

 

Well, I have been a pretty good womanizer in this life so I don't see any problem with me getting 47 virgin in my next life.

 

Yes, I am on retreat. Actually retired but we'll call it retreat. And I am offering service to my cats and fish. That does count, doesn't it?

 

Peace & Love!

[Brian]

...

[Ninpo-me-this-ninjutsu-me-that]

 

I have never been anything but a beautiful.

 

 

Looks like you took a wrong turn in this lifetime then!!!

 

 

WoW! Somemore!!! I wonder what I will become in my next life. Yes, I want a next life. With 47 virgins anxiously awaiting to do anything they possibly can in order to cause me great pleasure. The heck with enlightenment. I want naked women!!!!!

 

 

You could always go the quick route and take out a few infidels with your own life, apparently Allah has a special offer this week of 20 virgins to the first one hundred takers!..... and you can always come back again(thanks to reincarnation).

[Marblehead]

Looks like you took a wrong turn in this lifetime then!!!

 

Well, hey, I might not be all that pretty but I did learn very early in life how to get a woman in bed, back seat of a car, on a picnic table, whatever worked.

 

You could always go the quick route and take out a few infidels with your own life, apparently Allah has a special offer this week of 20 virgins to the first one hundred takers!..... and you can always come back again(thanks to reincarnation).

 

Hey! Sounds like a great deal. I think I will check it out. Thanks for the tip.

 

Peace & Love!

[Brian]

...

[Ninpo-me-this-ninjutsu-me-that]

 

Well, hey, I might not be all that pretty but I did learn very early in life how to get a woman in bed, back seat of a car, on a picnic table, whatever worked.

 

 

Ahhh...direct proof of past life talents coming to the fore! Mozart got music....you got picnic tables! I think you got the best deal by the way. 'If music be the food of love play on!(on the picnic table)'.

 

You never know, you may have been a picnic table in your past life, experiencing the evolution of wood(as in this lifetime, if you get my drift)!

[Vajrahridaya]

LOL! Glad to see people had fun with this one!

[voidisyinyang]

O.K. that memory doc gives the MRI studies on how Alzheimer's is from destruction of the white brain matter -- the glial cells.

 

There's now new research stating that a byproduct of tryptophan turning into serotonin in the brain's nerve cells (gray matter) is the increase of kynurenic acid in the white matter, the glial cells.

 

http://www.physorg.com/news199944356.html

 

So if they can decrease kynurenic acid then there's a cure for Alzheimer's and possibly schizophrenia.

 

Yet the documentary states the big problem with aging and brain cell death is lack of blood circulation into the brain.

 

So qigong is focused on increasing brain circulation of blood -- to be sure -- everyday I feel and hear my brain cracking and popping as the blood opens up blockages. haha.

 

And definitely "memories from the future" are a feature of deep meditation -- precognitive visions. Of course the chi and shen have to be built up quite a bit for this to happen.

 

The key question in the documentary is how do memories actually form. It's known that when memories are recalled they become "malleable."

 

So that's the secret of exorcism in qigong -- the emotional blockages are stored in the body as the subconscious memory -- and then as the memory is recalled by activating the body's energy, there is also an EXORCISM of that memory, back into the "emptiness."

 

Science only has the concept of "emptiness" as quantum uncertainty -- which is the new fundamental foundation for physics. Quantum uncertainty is how position and energy are inversely proportional -- and so how does this relate to memory?

 

The deeper our memories of position the stronger the energy used -- yet the energy is impersonal since it's created from the emptiness.

 

Chunyi Lin says he does read our past lives but he rarely tells someone their past lives unless it's necessary for their healing. Also Chunyi Lin says that the energy keeps transforming and so reincarnation will keep continuing for ever.

 

This is emptiness itself -- I personally don't believe in the concept of an individual soul being able to transcend the transformation of energy -- so that individual personality remains as an eternal entity, outside of the universe. To me, such a belief is the typical misuse of religion since the concept of emptiness is always the foundation for philosophy -- it's the ultimate lesson in humility and it's beyond power, etc.

 

Still during the qigong practice the increased blood and hormones (jing) and then the creation of chi and shen in the brain does enable amazing recall of past memories. The documentary states that such recall is key to also imagining your future -- but "imagining" is not the same as left-brain planning based on facts. This is also pointed out in the documentary. Usually people plan their future as a left-brain intention -- in contrast consider Islam stating "Enshallah" all the time - if "god wills."

 

For example there's a book on the meaning of dreams (Johnathan Winson) http://sami5001.buzznet.com/user/journal/18683/ stating that the Echidna -- a mammal in Australia - actually has a LARGER prefrontal cortex than humans -- but the problem is that it doesn't dream. So the dreaming state is actually the primary reality -- through logic of association -- rather then the logic of linear time planning. Review of the book: http://www.scaruffi.com/mind/winson.html

 

As a rat explores, for example, brain stem neurons activate theta rhythm. Olfactory input (which in the rat is synchronized with theta rhythm, as is the twitching of whiskers) and other sensory information converge on the entorhinal cortex and the hippocampus. There they are partitioned into 200-millisecond "bites" by theta rhythm. The NMDA receptors, acting in conjunction with theta rhythm, allow for long-term storage of this information.

 

A similar process occurs during REM sleep. Although there is no incoming information or movement during REM sleep, the neocortical-hippocampal network is once again paced by theta rhythm. Theta rhythm might produce long-lasting changes in memory. ....

 

The echidna has a large convoluted prefrontal cortex, larger in relation to the rest of the brain than that of any other mammal, even humans. I believe it needed this huge prefrontal cortex to perform a dual function: to react to incoming information in an appropriate manner based on past experience and to evaluate and store new information to aid in future survival. Without theta rhythm during REM sleep, the echidna would not be able to process information while it slept. (The echidna does, however, show theta rhythm when foraging for food.) For higher capabilities to develop, the prefrontal cortex would have to become increasingly large—beyond the capacity of the skull—unless another brain mechanism evolved.

 

REM sleep could have provided this new mechanism, allowing memory processing to occur "off-line." Coincident with the apparent development of REM sleep in marsupial and placental mammals was a remarkable neuroanatomical change: the prefrontal cortex was dramatically reduced in size. Far less prefrontal cortex was required to process information. That area of the brain could develop to provide advanced perceptual abilities in higher species. ....

 

Whatever the purpose in infants may be, I suggest that at about the age of two, when the hippocampus, which continues to develop after birth, becomes functional, REM sleep takes on its interpretive memory function. The waking information to be integrated at this point in development constitutes the basic cognitive substrate for memory—the concept of the real world against which later experiences must be compared and interpreted. The organization in memory of this extensive infrastructure requires the additional REM sleep time.

 

For reasons he could not possibly have known, Freud set forth a profound truth in his work. There is an unconscious, and dreams are indeed the "royal road" to its understanding. The characteristics of the unconscious and associated processes of brain functioning, however, are very different from what Freud thought. Rather than being a cauldron of untamed passions and destructive wishes, I propose that the unconscious is a cohesive, continually active mental structure that takes note of life's experiences and reacts according to its own scheme of interpretation. Dreams are not disguised as a consequence of repression. Their unusual character is a result of the complex associations that are culled from memory.

 

So if we get visions from the future which does happen -- I had one that was very specific and I wrote it down stating I thought it predicted the future -- and THREE YEARS LATER it came true in great detail. I had forgotten I had wrote down my dream but then my subconscious activated this sense of uncanny reality and so I reread my journal. Again the details were very specific -- I had a dream of my activist friends standing on the roof of a house with Native American activists holding a banner to protect a forest. Obviously when I saw, in the newspaper, the exact photo of that dream -- three years later -- there's no way it could be a coincidence of so much detail. Especially when I had the dream I recorded that I thought it was predicting the future -- because the dream was "more real" than being awake.

 

The point is if our future can be predicted in great detail -- 3 years before it happens -- what does that mean about free will? Do we even have a "self" of individual memories if our future is already predestined? Chunyi Lin says that 70% of our future is predestined based on the planets and stars, etc. while we can change 30% through qigong.

 

In nondualism, as per Ramana Maharshi, it's stated that the evolution of the universe is an illusion -- that there is only reincarnation if the individual spirit believes in it, that, in fact, there is only the eternal, impersonal process of consciousness which then creates light and creates spacetime from out of pure awareness without any specific memories or thoughts, experiences, etc.

Edited August 3, 2010 by drewhempel

[三江源]

It's accepted logic that most people tend to stay the same. So a merchant in the past will be a merchant in the future. A soldier of the past will be a soldier in the future. A monk in the past will be a monk in the future.

That's why it is so important to do a retreat and to devote ones life in service to overcome samsaric conditioning. Offerings to guru's and the society that we currently live set up the powerful karma that is needed to change our future existence. It starts with those mother and father tantra's, and they are best contemplated about while in a three year retreat.

 

Shifting the pattern, I feel strongly about it. One of the things I first heard about daoist practices was "You can change your destiny" and "You can overcome your astrology."

 

so that was excellent, so exciting, liberating.

 

What you think of the differential between

 

a) service and devotion from inner urge and nature

 

service and devotion from a desire to overcome conditioning

 

is all same same, in effect?!

[三江源]

the little face in shades is supposed to signify a 'b' option...

[Marblehead]

I think you are restricting yourself unnecessarily here -- in an infinite number of infinitely old universes, the available lives to recall are also infinite, both in number and in variety (of species, societies, technologies, religions, philsophies, languages, foods, planetary systems, galaxies, etc.) Why would you be limited to carbon-based lifeforms on a single planet?

 

Oh, I'm not suggesting that other possibilities are not possible. All I am saying is that there is no proof of any of it existing. Yes, we can imagine. But our imaginations, if taken seriously become illusions and delusions.

 

But then, I'm not even say that this is either good or bad, all I am saying is that most of us have enough to do living this physical life we currently have. Time spend imagining possibilities of whatever is time we have not used to life this life.

 

On life at a time.

 

I think that if we do a good job with this one whatever comes afterward willbe exactly the way it is supposed to be.

 

Peace & Love!

[Marblehead]

You never know, you may have been a picnic table in your past life, experiencing the evolution of wood(as in this lifetime, if you get my drift)!

 

 

Yeah, you never know, huh?

 

Yeah, I got your drift, wood.

 

Peace & Love!

[Vajrahridaya]

 

 

This is emptiness itself -- I personally don't believe in the concept of an individual soul being able to transcend the transformation of energy -- so that individual personality remains as an eternal entity, outside of the universe. To me, such a belief is the typical misuse of religion since the concept of emptiness is always the foundation for philosophy -- it's the ultimate lesson in humility and it's beyond power, etc.

 

 

I believe in the ability to be always aware of the transformations happening to the relative self or mind-stream, soul, what have you. So that one never again falls into forgetfulness. Also having the ability due to awareness of the elements of change, make the conscious decision as to where to go next from lifetime to lifetime, making the idea of lifetimes obsolete really, as one never really dies if awareness is constant. There is merely a change of form.

[Taomeow]

So that's the secret of exorcism in qigong -- the emotional blockages are stored in the body as the subconscious memory -- and then as the memory is recalled by activating the body's energy, there is also an EXORCISM of that memory, back into the "emptiness."

The route bifurcates once the memory is systemically retrieved. Either the (formerly unconscious) memory connects to the overall consciousness and becomes an integral "part of me," still there but not oversized anymore by its former "rule of secrecy." Or -- it fails to connect to the overall systemic consciousness, is therefore rejected as "non-me," and undergoes unconscious externalization. That's when people start seeing "entities" roaming around. That's when meaningless "kriyas" start manifesting, when the body remembers but the head doesn't... i.e. consciousness has not been restored... you still don't re-member, it's still dis-membered.

 

Chunyi Lin says that the energy keeps transforming and so reincarnation will keep continuing for ever.

He's absolutely right!

 

I personally don't believe in the concept of an individual soul being able to transcend the transformation of energy --

me neither. It's a belief brought about by fragmentation of individual consciousness (or, in lay person's terms, by poor memory.) A unified individual consciousness does not seek to extinguish itself. The real quest is to unify one's consciousness (which is synonymous with memory), not to pretend it never happened.

 

Chunyi Lin says that 70% of our future is predestined based on the planets and stars, etc. while we can change 30% through qigong.

 

Roughly the figures I was taught, except my teachers give 80/20 for predestined vs. free will, and the part we can change is tackled through many practices, not just qigong (e.g., Chinese astrology can be used to change the part that's under our control, on top of revealing how much of it all isn't. Also magic can be used, its limitations not exceeding 80% of our overall destiny... it does "work," but only within its realistic 20% odds. Also any quest for consciousness, any deep systemic "know thyself" endeavors -- these can expand the area of our free will dramatically... but again, within the overall odds. If you "know thyself" to be a cat trapped in a woman's body, you still can't change it -- but at least you know enough about thyself not to attempt vegetarianism.)

[Marblehead]

the little face in shades is supposed to signify a 'b' option...

 

Yeah, I picked up on that. To the question:

 

What you think of the differential between

 

a) service and devotion from inner urge and nature

 

service and devotion from a desire to overcome conditioning

 

I would go with a). Actions inspired by intuition and nature are always purer than actions based on desires.

 

Peace & Love!

[voidisyinyang]

 

Bradley Voytek is completing his Ph.D. in Neuroscience at

the University of California, Berkeley. He studies the role of brain rhythms and electrophysiology in attention and memory by working with patients with electrodes implanted in their brains, patients who have had portions of their skull surgically removed, and patients with brain lesions. By working with these rare groups of people and using

sophisticated analysis methods he aims to learn how the brain communicates to improve patient outcomes.

 

http://blog.ketyov.com/2010/08/eeg-hans-berger-and-psychic-phenomena.html

 

He initially studied blood flow and used it as an index to measure "P-energy" (psychic energy) associated with mentation and feelings. Of course, this being prior to the advent of neuroimaging, there was no way to actually measure cerebral blood flow from a person. So Berger made a leap. The brain receives so much blood from the heart (about 20% of the cardiac output), that the brain pulses with each heartbeat (you can check out a video of the human brain pulsing here). Parents with newborns might even be able to notice this phenomenon if they lightly touch the soft spot at the top of their baby's head....

 

So the only reason Berger saw the EEG signal in the first place was because he was working with the same patients he was trying to record brain pulsations from. And the only reason he was interested in these brain pulsations was to try and tie cerebral activity (blood flow) to mental states to show that thoughts have a physical basis. And the main reason he cared about that was to provide a theoretical framework through which psychic phenomena could operate!

 

Watch your brain pulsing from your heart pumping!!

 

http://blog.ketyov.com/search?updated-min=2010-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&updated-max=2011-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=18

 

Using even more math, my friend and colleague Ryan Canolty (among others) showed that when slow oscillations are at their lowest points, you’re more likely to see an increase in neuronal activity. I’ve got a paper coming out soon (that I’ll surely write about here) showing that this effect depends on the frequency and location in the brain of the slow oscillation, as well as what the person is doing.

 

Anyway, it’s often interpreted that the slow oscillation represents the extracellular membrane potential. That is, the space in between neurons has a charge, and if this charge is a little lower (the trough of the slow oscillation) then neurons are more likely to fire (more activity). If the charge is larger (the peak) then neurons are less likely to fire (less activity).

 

So what’s really been twisting my noodle is that maybe this interpretation is wrong. Maybe across millions of years of divergent evolution, the axon of a giant squid has evolved to perform computations necessary for the survival of giant squids, and maybe mammalian neurons have evolved somewhat differently. Maybe individual action potentials are important in humans, but maybe they’re not the only things doing “computing” in the brain. Maybe these oscillations are also< playing an important computational role. Maybe they’re not just epiphenomena of action potentials. But maybe there’s a complex feedback system between action potentials and oscillations.

 

Anyway, that’s just what Flavio Fröhlich and David McCormick have shown. And that’s why this paper is awesome. I’m pretty sure that the more research that’s done on this topic, the more it will be shown that oscillations are pretty key players in this while consciousness and cognition thing.

Edited August 3, 2010 by drewhempel

[Marblehead]

 

Watch your brain pulsing from your heart pumping!!

 

Hehehe. I actually did that the last time I went in for a colonoscopy. I would take a deep breath through my nose with the oxygen and then a couple short brethes with my mouth and no oxygen. The meters did some really funny things. Then I passed out. Hehehe.

 

Peace & Love!