Brain layers

To direct and to be directed are two central brain functions. One decides and the other obeys. Confusion between the two functions cause many problems. In a computer one stream of input is processed in a way decided by another stream of information. The deciding stream is called program. The brain works in a similar way. The stream of new information is related to the stream of old information. Old information is the program that decides how new information shall be treated and evaluated. The brain works with many layers, and one layer can be sometimes directing and sometimes directed. It depends on circumstances. In life and thus in brain we have different central goals. Popular goals are wellbeing, rational use of resources, ideology and social order. In nations like Egypt and Syria we can see the practical effects of the direct/directed mechanism. In Syria the idea of power over territory is directing, and the effect is that wellbeing for the population is directed. In practice it means war against the population and almost no wellbeing. In Egypt the situation is not so simple. The power over territory is important, but the wellbeing of the population is also somewhat respected. There is no war, but the economy suffers because of political uncertainty and traditional neglect. No layer in the brain is absolute. Every layer is the relative effect of other layers. This means that those in Syria who take their directing layer so seriously that they sacrifice the wellbeing of the population are operating on lose ground. When the present conflicts in Syria started to surface say five years ago, the organizations which are active in the conflict assessed the situation. They decided to start the civil war. Now when the conflict has gone on for a long time, it is appropriate to make a new evaluation, based on the experiences won during the war. Which are the prospects of the available alternatives? If we know that the layers in the brain are relative, it is natural to make new evaluations. If we believe that the evaluations once made are absolute we stick to them even when we see that the effects are noting but disastrous.

Eternal life

All Saints Day is for some a time to remember the dead and think about the own death. Or is life impossible to stop? We know that life has worked out a most sophisticated method to preserve itself over time. For many species it is enough if just one cell from a female meets just one cell from a male. Then a new living individual can start its life. This happens when the parent generation is comparatively young and thus able to look after the new life the first, difficult time. But some also ask if this is the only method for supporting life. Is there no way for the individual to transcend death? This is a question difficult to answer. When we look for tangible proofs we do not find any. We can only analyze the preconditions. Life as such does not exist. The most elemental form of life is a code and its environment. An one-cell organism has a code and a “body” which can perform some processes. The processes are governed by the code. The code is in the form of DNA. DNA can not survive death. So if life is eternal it must be in the form of a subtle code – code. That is a code that can create DNA-code if material opportunities appear. Such a code-code could not exist on its own, but it could be in the form of a formula or a structured field. Such a field could survive the death of a body. But we can not prove that objectively. There are many subjective stories about relatives and others being visited by dead individuals, however.

Mindminding.com down temporarily

The site mindminding.com is hacked and down temporarily. Visitors are redirected to this blog, Awareness awareness November 2, 2013

Beyond

One popular way to describe the difference between brain and mind is to compare with television. The brain is like the television set and mind is like the television program. The set and the program are of different categories. A person who can make a television set is not necessarily good at making television programs. It is impossible to draw any conclusions about the programs from knowledge about the construction of the set. If we want to know the time for the children program and for the news we have to look in the paper. It is no use to take the back of the set and look at the motherboard. This is the problem for the modern brain research. Knowledge of brain does not necessarily say anything about the content in the mind reactions. But on the other hand, what we see on the television screen is a direct effect of the signals sent to the set. The set can display any signals. And it is in a similar way in the brain-mind complex. The normal brain products – observations, thoughts, feelings and memories – are made aware by mind. The brain prepares the neurons in one way if we see a football and in another way if we hear “Twist and shout”. The mind tries to read the neurons as exact as it can. So far this analyze is in line with common sense. But what do we find when we take the next step, the step beyond the comparison with television? Mind has the unique ability to create awareness. Usually this ability is used for making the content prepared by the brain aware. The television does not have the ability to be aware. A television can display impulses on a screen, but the television is not aware of the meaning. The television can even show “Casablanca” without starting to cry. We humans have the ability to create awareness. If we use this ability not to read the ready-made neuron structures in our brain but to focus on something without thoughts and feelings, what do we find? The first we find is that awareness exists independent of our brain constructs. The brain has no power over awareness. The brain is advisor rather than dictator. The awareness is free in relation to any content proposed by the brain. If we put the hand in a fire we should notice it and take away the hand, but we can withdraw awareness from the brain impulses if we absolutely want to. For example if we are accused of being a witch and thus being burned to death. The second thing we might notice if we look into a mind free from thoughts and feelings is another level of reality. It is a subtle reality which normally is hidden by the brain processes. The brain is supposed to make important issues obvious, but in doing so it blinds out large parts of reality.