May 2019 – Harmonia Philosophica

Hallucinations… Living… Senses as deprivation of your nature…

One hundred billion or so neurons are also incredibly fragile.

If the tiniest thing goes wrong with a particular connection – maybe something misfires, or a certain neural pathway is blocked – things can fall apart very quickly. And, oddly enough, even without any injuries or structural malfunctions, the human brain can get weird all by itself – turns out, it’s surprisingly easy to trick it into seeing and hearing things that aren’t actually there.

And no, it does not involve a bunch of drugs to make yourself hallucinate. The brain can do all that on its own, you just have to know how to manipulate it right. As the guys in a Scam School video from 2016 demonstrate, if you create a situation of intense sensory deprivation using some common household objects, you can induce some really strong hallucinations that mess with both your sense of sight and sound. After 20 minutes, the Scam School guys reported seeing “blooms of colour”, like when you rub your eyelids, that would soon form shapes like dinosaur silhouettes, jellyfish, and the Eye of Sauron. One heard screams, and the other heard laughter.

What they’re doing actually follows the principles of an actual scientific phenomenon known as the Ganzfeld effect. The Ganzfeld effect describes how when you are exposed to “an unstructured, uniform stimulation field” – such as seeing blackness and hearing constant television static – your brain responds by amplifying neural noise in an effort to find missing visual signals. (1)

You see nothing. You touch nothing.

And yet you want to feel something.

But in a dark cosmos full of existence, there is no need to sense anything. In a world of One, there is no need to feel or touch; you are already part of the totality of being. And yet all humans do touch. And yet, all humans hear, see and smell. Because they do not just want to live. They do not just want to be. They want to die. Afraid of their own existence. Discarding their own nature.

In this world of nothingness,

there is a need to sense everything.

Dead people in an alive cosmos.

Wanting to get out…

New states of matter. Fake reality. Real silence.

Researchers have recently produced a “human scale” demonstration of a new phase of matter called quadrupole topological insulators (QTI) that was recently predicted using theoretical physics. These were the first experimental findings to validate this theory. The researchers reported their findings in the journal Nature.

The team’s work with QTIs was born out of the decade-old understanding of the properties of a class of materials called topological insulators (TI). “TIs are electrical insulators on the inside and conductors along their boundaries, and may hold great potential for helping build low-power, robust computers and devices, all defined at the atomic scale”, said mechanical science and engineering professor and senior investigator Gaurav Bahl.

The uncommon properties of TIs make them a special form of electronic matter. “Collections of electrons can form their own phases within materials. These can be familiar solid, liquid and gas phases like water, but they can also sometimes form more unusual phases like a TI”, said co-author and physics professor Taylor Hughes .

However, there are still many theoretical predictions that need to be confirmed regarding TIs. One such prediction was the existence of a new type of TI having an electrical property known as a quadrupole moment. “Electrons are single particles that carry charge in a material”, said physics graduate student Wladimir Benalcazar. “We found that electrons in crystals can collectively arrange to give rise not only to charge dipole units – that is, pairings of positive and negative charges – but also high-order multipoles in which four or eight charges are brought together into a unit. The simplest member of these higher-order classes are quadrupoles in which two positive and two negative charges are coupled”. (1)

We keep on discovering new types of particles.

We keep on discovering new dimensions.

We keep on discovering new states of matter.

We keep on breaking the mirror of reality into pieces.

And the more we discover, the more we come to a great revelation.

What is dead, cannot die. What is alive, will be alive forever.

You cannot discover new dimensions of nothing.

You can never discover new states of matter.

You cannot discover many types of anything.

You cannot dissolve existence into zero.

You cannot break anything into smaller parts.

Unless there was nothing there in the first place…

Fallen souls we are… Meddling with ghosts… Handling shadows… Stop seeing, if you want to start sensing you. There is nothing more to discover about yourself. There is no way of dissecting your experience. You cannot analyze it more. You already know everything or anything about you. You are real. You are the light of the cosmos. An inner light. Shedding its powerful beams to the depths of your existence.

Until you decide to shed the light outside.

And the shadows begin to appear…

Against politics.

So many people talking.

So many people shouting.

But the world was not created in noise.

Logos did not first appear with sound.

True philosophy can never be in favor of politics.

In a world where all speak their self, no one knows himself.

In a world full of thought, no one can understand the limitations of thought.

In a cosmos full of everything, no one can even consider that we all came from nothing.

The greatest Kings were always afraid of the crazy eremites of the desert…

Stand aside.

Seek silence.

And you will find wisdom…

Brain waves. A calm lake…

Our brains hum with electrical activity. Brain waves created by the coordinated firing of huge collections of nerve cells pinball around the brain. The waves can ricochet from the front of the brain to the back, or from deep structures all the way to the scalp and then back again.

Called neuronal oscillations, these signals are known to accompany certain mental states. Quiet alpha waves ripple soothingly across the brains of meditating monks. Beta waves rise and fall during intense conversational turns. Fast gamma waves accompany sharp insights. Sluggish delta rhythms lull deep sleepers, while dreamers shift into slightly quicker theta rhythms.

Researchers have long argued over whether these waves have purpose. MIT’s Earl Miller is among the neuroscientists amassing evidence that waves are an essential part of how the brain operates. Brain oscillations deftly route information in a way that allows the brain to choose which signals in the world to pay attention to and which to ignore, his recent studies suggest. Other research supports this view, too. Studies on people with electrodes implanted in their brains suggest brain waves, and their interactions, help enable emotion, language, vision and more. When these waves are abnormal, brainpower suffers, studies find. (1)

Surely the waves in the brain seem important. But these waves are not the only waves in the ocean of existence. There are waves everywhere. And they are all interconnected. How could they not be anyway?

We are all part of the same rough ocean…

An ocean roaring with rage in the dark night.

Throw a water drop in it. And you will see it disappear under the waves. But sometimes, just sometimes, something magical happens. And on a calm night, you can hear yourself whispering. It is then, only then, that you can feel ocean’s best hidden secret.

Sitting by the sea. No waves.

Silencing your brain. Feeling the rain.

Listening to the smallest drop falling into the water…

It is an important drop. Creating an ocean…

And out of a sudden, you are no longer afraid of the abyss…

Brain. One with the body. Falling in love.

At a small eatery in Seville, Spain, Alan Jasanoff had his first experience with brains — wrapped in eggs and served with potatoes. At the time, he was more interested in finding a good, affordable meal than contemplating the sheer awesomeness of the organ he was eating. Years later, Jasanoff began studying the brain as part of his training as a neuroscientist, and he went on, like so many others, to revere it. It is said, after all, to be the root of our soul and consciousness. But today, Jasanoff has yet another view: He has come to see our awe of the organ as a seriously flawed way of thinking, and even a danger to society.

In The Biological Mind, Jasanoff, neuroscientist at MIT, refers to the romanticized view of the brain — its separateness and superiority to the body and its depiction as almost supernatural — as the “cerebral mystique”. Such an attitude has been fueled, in part, by images that depict the brain without any connection to the body or by analogies that compare the brain to a computer. Admittedly, the brain does have tremendous computing power. But Jasanoff’s goal is to show that the brain doesn’t work as a distinct, mystical entity, but as a ball of flesh awash with fluids and innately in tune with the rest of the body and the environment. “Self” doesn’t just come from the brain, he explains, but also from the interactions of chemicals from our bodies with everything else around us.

To make his case, Jasanoff offers an extensive yet entertaining review of the schools of thought and representations of the brain in the media that led to the rise of the cerebral mystique, especially during the last few decades. He then tears down those ideas using contrary examples from recent research, along with engaging anecdotes. For instance, his clear, lively writing reveals how our emotions, such as the fight-or-flight response and the suite of thoughts and actions associated with stress, provide strong evidence for a brain-body connection. Exercise’s effect on the brain also supports this notion. Even creativity isn’t sacred, often stemming from repeated interactions with those around us. (1)

An interesting viewpoint. But a very limited one.

It is not just the brain connected to your body.

It is your body connected with others.

It is your mind connected with everything else.

Would you be afraid without your stomach?

Could you speak without your food?

Would you dream without your heart?

Could you cry without your daughter?

Your soul is connected with the cosmos.

Yes, you are your body. And your mind. And your brain. And your heart. And your mother. And your children. And everything around you. You are these things and these things are you. Look at the stars in the vast cold space. They are there. And you are here. And yet, you wouldn’t be able to fall in love without them. Look at the stars in the sky. You are here. And they are there. And yet, they couldn’t even shine without you…