|
 register your domain and get noticed on the net instantly & announce your presence on the cyber space.
The contents of this website are protected by the copy rights law as registered and catalogued in the US Copyrights office on March 15, 2006. Registration number = TXu-327-600.
“The BioNeurobiology of the SELF.”
Like always My eyes see, my ears listen, my nose smells, my fingers touch and I
can not help cognizing and ask questions of my everyday experiences and
experiences of others that reach me through one of my senses, some of them or
all. So like then now it is my eye that caught some written material and threw
my selfish self in to examining them in an effort to may be understand more
than any thing my selfish self. As I read through the material I thought if I
could only understand my selfish self and be able to see it from outside of it
and from a neutral vantage point what else would there be that I won’t master
at all. Nonetheless wherever I went and whatever I did and am able to do got me
always wrapped up in my selfish self and it more and more proved to me that it
is all there is in whatever ways and how it was said and done. ““The most
obvious thing about yourself is your self.” “You look down at your body and
know it is yours”.” Todd Heatherton. I thought of the statement and wanted to
be certain of my knowledge of my self and wished if the self within me was only
the physical self and wanted so bad to fully comprehend it and master it if I
may and be certain of my knowledge, but hard reality hit me so hard that it was
not meant to be. It turned out that the self was much more than the macroscopic
physical. It also has what is called the spiritual psychological and more
aspects to it. The certainty of the self by the self simply dissipates in to
the thin air as I try to examine it even further and the self assurance about
the knowledge of the self appealed to me as some what far fetched. The day to
day discoveries and the new lights that are being shed about the inner and
outer workings of our self tells a story of even more unknowns and what we know
of our self is barely a scratch on the surface of a very large stack yet to be known
and ever. “When you wakeup in the morning, you don’t have to interrogate
yourself for a long time about who you are.” Todd Heatherton. The statement
makes it as though we have never had a question or a doubt about who we are and
why we are , but the fact remains that the overwhelming part of out every day
activities are related and are about finding our self, making our self,
changing our self sustaining our self and maintaining our self, all in all
whether we say it in a single sentence or thousand paragraphs, whether we ask
it directly or not the selfish self often and always takes precedence and
primacy. In our daily all encompassing and comprehensive activities, actions,
reactions, Cognitions and recognitions we do define and redefine our selves and
I am afraid if we are so sure of why we do so with certainty. If there is any
thing certain that we have asked enough times who we are and why we are, where
we came from and where we want to go and are going, these are questions that
are in every ones head with out being framed may be in an elitist word framing.
And what every one does revolves around the same issues with varying
probability of knowing the answers, but with certain truth of never certainty.
Even the questions we ask of others come around often as question about our
self and we can’t escape the fact that it is all about the selfish self. It
often is about acquisition of a knowledge, material, position, notoriety or
some thing of value here or in the here after. The complete knowledge of the
self is the ultimate and as such remains always less than certain. As we go
through life everyday we wakeup, I feel like, what we do is interrogate our
selves of who we are, how our poison has changed and how to best react to it
contrary to the statement quoted, in all and many things we do, think and
imagine. Indeed we have the greatest interest in our selves and interest is
dependent on the degree of exposure to the subject of interest, and the self
more than anything else is exposed to the self itself .May be the root of
selfishness lies in the exposure of the self to the self more than the not self
and there is no way of exposing the not self to the self more the self itself
to the self, thus instilling the selfishness permanently in the self and may be
a falls sense of complete self awareness as well. ”” Heatherton himself shied
away from direct study of it for years, even though---------------- “My
interests were around the self but not around the philosophical issues of what
is the self.” Things have changed today, Today Heatherton, along with a growing
number of scientists, is tackling the question head on, seeking to figure out
how the self emerges from the brain. In the past few years, they have begun to
identify certain brain activities that may be essential for producing different
aspects of self awareness. They are now trying to determine how these
activities give rise to the unified feeling we each have of being a single
entity. This research is yielding clues to how the self evolved in our hominid
ancestors. It may even help scientists treat Alzheimer’s disease and other
disorders that erode the knowledge of the self and in some cases destroy it
altogether.” It is rather the philosophical self that interested me the most
than the mechanical descript self, not that I understood it but I am intrigued
by it. It raises questions more than I could speculate and ask of the readers
of this article and knowledgeable people if I may and pose them directly. Is
the self a collection of memories? Cognitive and reactive process?, Will the
self cease to exist when the mind (brain )ceases?, When the subjective self
(mind or brain, or consciousness and memory) ceases will the objective self
turn in to an automaton and mechanical being?, Are other animals, plants and
inanimate that go through motion purposeful, intentional, disciplined, ordered
and unique motion self aware?, If not why not?, When the self that is self
aware ceases will the self that is not self aware remain? Is the objective self
a reality of the subjective self or is it the subjective self the reality of
the objective self? Or does the objective self exist independently of the
subjective self and the vise versa? Is the subjective self the extension of the
objective self or is it the objective self the extension of the subjective
self? As a matter of everyday practice it seems the subjective self to act as
its sole purpose and intent to protect, preserve, sustain and propagate the
objective self. If subjective reasoning alone were enough to answer it all, I
would have had mine, but reason fails short and reality often times defy reason
and it is often reality that has to be reasoned than reason define reality,
there fore a dose of objective reality may be is in order and in time for a
comprehensive understanding of the issues raised and points reiterated. “
Further clues have emerged from injuries that affect some of the brain rejoins
involved in the self ……………..Gage, a 19th century railroad construction foreman
who was standing in the wrong place at the wrong time when a dynamite blast
sent a tamping iron through the air. It passed through Gage’s head, and yet,
astonishingly, Gage survived. Gages friends though noticed something had
changed. Before the accident he had been considered an efficient worker and
shrewd businessman. Afterward he became profane, showed little respect for
others and had a hard time settling plans for the future. His friends he was
“no longer Gage.” Cases like Gage’s showed that the self is not the same as
consciousness. People can have an impaired sense of themselves with out being
unconscious.” As is indicated by the awareness of the amnesiac of all things
about him self it rather seems as though the self is a physiological and
psychological construct of information that precedes it. As such as long as the
physical construct of this precedent information is intact the self will retain
its self awareness which is ingrained in its genes. This self awareness which
is to serve in the fulfillment of the selfish needs of the self necessitates
the awareness of the environment in which the self finds itself in. it is there
fore this secondary awareness that is to be called consciousness. It is an
awareness the helps the self act and react in ways and times that its interest
are best served by. As every existence is a relativistic phenomenon, it would
rather make the complication easier to understand if we have to conclusively
argue whether the self is absolute relative to the not self or the self is yet
a relative reality to the not self. If we claim the self is an absolute reality
then the self exists independently of consciousness and if we claim the other
way around then the self ceases upon cessation of consciousness. As indicated
in the article , the retention of the information about the self while all
memory is wiped out by amnesia seems to attest to the fact that the self does
not exist because X or Y existed, but because of the information upon which it
was constructed that determined its intent, shape, color, purpose and destiny and
consciousness helped best accomplish these predeterminations in an
environmental constraints. “At the university college
of London, researchers
have been using brain scans to decipher how we become aware of our own bodies.”
This is the very basic law-level first point of the self “UCLA’s Sara Jayne
Blakemore says. When our brains issue a command to move a part of our bodies,
two signals are sent. One goes to the brain region that control the particular
parts of the body that need to move, and the other goes to the region that
monitor the movement. Our brains then use this copy to predict what kind of
sensation the action will produce. If the actual sensation we receive does not
closely match our prediction, our brains become aware of the difference. -------
But if the sensation does not match our prediction at all, our brains interpret
them as being caused by something other than ourselves. Blakemore and her
colleagues documented this shift by scanning the brains of subjects they had
hypnotized. When the researchers told the subjects their arms were being lifted
by a rope and pulley, the subjects lifted their arms. But their brains
responded as if someone else were lifting their arms, not them selves.” As
untenable as it seems it rather is a fact that the objective self is existent
independently of the subjective self (the mind) but too mechanically. The
subjective self does not only interpret coordinate and give meaning to the
environment the objective self is in but also gives the essence of the self
itself in relation to everything and any thing within its environmental
constraints and how it reacts to and interacts with the elements of its
environment. The brain that generates the subjective self seems rather an
information in, information processing and information out center that where
when and how it gets its imputes determine how it will react and what it puts
out when it puts out what it does as its purpose and duty. “Heatherton and his
colleagues at Dartmouth
have been using the technology to probe the mystery of why people remember
information about themselves better than details about other people. They
imaged the brains of volunteers who viewed a series of adjectives. In some
cases, the researchers asked the subjects whether a word applied to the subjects
themselves. In others, they asked if a word applied to George W.Bush. In still
other cases, they asked simply whether the word was shown in uppercase letters.
They found that questions about the self activated some regions of the brain
that questions about someone else did not their results bolstered the “self is
special” hypothesis over “the self is familiar” view.” The special self and the
familiar self are separate and in essence and are intertwined in purpose. While
the special self is the information upon which the physical self and the
psychological self is constructed on, the familiar self to me is the conscious
self that determines the position of the special self in relation to its
environment and helps act in the best interest of the special self. There is no
time or space separation between the self and the information about the self.
The information about anything else is separated from the self by distance and
time. The self is constantly accumulating and accessing information about itself.
The self and about the self are intertwined and inseparable unlike the self and
about the not self. Information may be filled separately and in categories, yet
the fire about the self may be the most important and may be the most
significant of them all. “When we are in new circumstances, our sense of our
self depends on thinking explicitly about our experiences.
-----------------Soccer players know whether they are athletic, strong or swift
without having to consult their memories.” It is rather indicative of the fact
that the special self is very much dependent on its consciousness of the
environment it find itself in to react in ways and manners its interests are
best met. When the self knows and knows well and is familiar with the
environment it finds it self in, thinking becomes un necessary, logical
construction becomes redundant and the facts become self evident. “The primate
ancestors of humans probably had the basic bodily self awareness that is
studied by Blakemore and her associates.” I wondered if at all there is any
living thing that is not self aware. How is this awareness expressed other than
being active in the self preservation and primacy of the self? All living
things are self reproductive, self preservative and self protective and knows its
relative position in its environment and acts and reacts in ways and manners it
is able to survive and thrive; what possibly be the so called self awareness if
not all these and more? “The self requires time to develop fully. Psychologists
have long recognized that it takes a while for children to acquire a stable
sense of who they are. “They have conflicts in their self-concepts that don’t
bother them at all.”Lieberman comments. ”little kids don’t try to tell
themselves, ‘I’ am still the same person.’ They just don’t seem to connect up
the little pieces of the self-concept.”” If I am spared of the possible label
of some one playing in semantics and engaged in hair splitting I would like to
not that there is nothing at all that had happened happens and will happen in
no time and in no stages. Even instantaneity is a relative short period. I can
not agree any less that self awareness takes time while the self is a physical
construct of the information that preceded it, it does not only predate self
awareness, but is there from the initial date of its complete construction when
ever that may be. It seems the self goes through stages of cognition of its
environment, compilation of the facts of its environment, understanding of its
environment, determining the self’s position in the environment and acting in
the best interest of the self with in the environmental constraints. While the
last two of the process described are attributable to self awareness the former
four stages are only precursors to self awareness. May be children’s conflict
of self concept that don’t bother them are indicative of the developmental
stage to self awareness than it is physiological (biological) (self)
developmental stage. The self awareness of the self goes way passed the
developmental stages of the brain to the very origin of life itself as a
product of self awareness .As it is attested to and proved over and again
programs of self propulsion, development, reproduction and ability to choose
are ingrained in the fundamental elements of life precedent cellular
construction. It posses a dynamism where change in quantity and quality in time
and space are among the prevalent character threats. As stated by Robert
Shapiro’s “ A simpler Origin for Life” Scientific American June , 2007 “
Muller’s Remarks would be in accord with what has been called the NASA
definition : Life is a self sustained chemical system capable of undergoing
Darwinian evolution” I as a lay person wouldn’t have agreed less except
for the two things I need to elaborate or needed be elaborated by some who are
more able than I. It is the convergence of among the chemical,
mechanical, electrical and even gravitational self sustenance as we prove in to
the very fundamentals existence and succumb to simply in to being a product of
change in space in time following or governed by a precedent information. As it
is guided and goes through self sustaining change in time in space gathers
information that helps it undergo Darwinian evolution in effect Darwinian
evolution is cumulative information gathered to help self sustenance in time
and space.
Last update 06/17/2007
By Ayele Teklemariam
Traumatic experiences
03/10/06
Note
Everything in a transition from point A to point B, from place A to
place and from time one to time two jumps an asymptotic line where the
demarcation line simply fades in to an unreachable minuteness as our need for
precision continues. These lines and points of demarcation may be beyond the
reach of our cognitive perceptive abilities beyond what is needed for practical
purposes, As there are infinite number of points with varying value
significance and weight so are there too distances and time intervals between
what is signifies by two consecutive whole, rational and counting number values
of anything and everything, yet not devoid of events and happenings. We do have
as well the limitations of perception and recognition on the number of
happenings over a period of given time, the speed of change and the size of the
events. It seems when they are below these limit they are either ignored or are
gathered in a cumulative manner in the subconscious till they form enough of a
recognizable chunk and brought to the foreground. On the contrary when they are
past the upper limits the normal sequence of perceptive, cognitive and
re-cognitive process goes out of synchrony and the normal channels simply over
ridden and bypassed. In the normal perceptive re-cognitive process the mind
seems to go through stages of perception compilation, rationalization and
reaction while in the super compressed information reception and action
scenarios it is rather that the two processes namely compilation and
rationalization seemed to have been bypassed for action was forced on them
independently of their will and rational. The action and the initial
perception remain known and with a seeming sequential ordered inter relating
and giving meaning and significance under the given time and condition missed
out, it is no wonder then that fear of the unknown sets in the form of anxiety
and PTSD. It is in the compilation process it seems that what is
perceived is compared and associated with what has been established by first
hand experiences and second hand experiences to date and given meaning while
rationalization adds what it means then, now and in the future and determine
the coarse of action that need be taken. Traumatic experiences are often in a
modern jingoistic terminology highly compressed dose of information and
reaction with little time to comprehend and make the necessary adjustments to
them in manners favorable to the subject stressed as it is what every living
thing does in its everyday environment. Have the time and all others needed to
make adjustments to the changing environment. It is no wonder that every other
living thing experiences trauma that distresses and sickens it as it does the
human being. Time and quantity seems of the major factors here, how much in how
long a time. Meditation is often referred to as one of the majored remedial
practices to PTSD may be for no other reason than it seems to change the mind
parallel processing format in to serial processing format or mode . It lets the
mind process one information at depth and length while it lets the rest of the
information coming in and out quid in the back burner for later time
processing. Meditation as well seems to ease the energy and perceptive
reactive demands of the other body parts by relaxing and minimizing the minds
awareness of them enhancing the effective serial (one at a time ) information
processing capabilities of the otherwise hyperactive under-active
mind.
(To be
continued )
The Placebo effect.
It was a long time ago that we believed that there was one reality and
it existed not in the minds of every one but independently and out side of it
for every one to see and agree with every one else. Since the man called
Einstein came about his theory of relativity, every thing seems to lend its
credence to every other thing. In the absence one absolute other thing to which
every one or most every one references his truth and reality, reality would
have become an illusion created and entertained by a loners mind. It was
published and I read a study by a well-credited medical group that patients who
have received falls knee operation could walk and patients who were given
placebo pills got some relief of their illness. These lead wrongly or rightly
to an understanding that either the illness is an illusive creation of their
mind or they can some how eluded their minds in to believing that the pain that
was have gone. This scenario does not limit itself to the mere appearance and
disappearance of bodily pains, but to the changing of reality by what we
perceive it to be. If reality is creation of our individual minds then what is
elusion? Is it because we are able to convince our mind or the none existence of an existing
reality of pain that the pain disappeared or was it because we convinced of an
existence of a none existing pain that we were able to feel it. I looked at it
in both cases and arrived at two faces of the same coin and it seems to suggest
that there is no reality, but creation of the mind. If t we agree then that
this premise to be right reality will become a creation common to every mind or
most minds {a common elusion} or is this function a truth over a closed set
self? Is it possible that the reality of the self to be different the reality
of the not self? If the reality of the self is fully dependent on the creation
of the self-mind, then how is it that the reality of the not self-independent
of the creation of the self-mind? It could wrong, but the self-mind does not
create the self but serves the self and the self and not self exist
independently of the self-mind this existence is also confirmed by every one
else. The self-mind there fore when directed will command the self to put to
action to remedy the situation with the minimum, over abundant,
misappropriated, underutilized, or over utilized resource adjustment. The real
pills on the other hand by reducing or adding the material chemical to remedy
the illness. In conclusion, it would be safe to assert that the seeming elusion
was not a mere elusion rather had material basis to it and then reality remains
an elusion common to all.
“ Man the thinking materialist and man the anxiously aspiring
creature who bows his head and prays, ---who looks outside himself to another,
to God------.“ It would be hard for me to imagine man looking for God outside himself,
rather wouldn’t it be true to assert to the fact that mans quest to find God
always has been and is an incursion deep in to the human mind than it is an
exploration in to the outer, the farther and other? In none of the religions
and beliefs do we come across man setting out to find God out there but in side
one self. The God man has been searching for has never been found anywhere but
within himself within his ability to visualize, conceptualize and cognize. The
very fact that the author mentions prayer tells an inward journey not a journey
in to the one’s own soul and mind. All that is done in the name of
prayer, meditation, atonement, psychoanalysis etc is done nothing other than to
understand and find, acknowledge and celebrate the absolute good, which is
often the embodiment of God. It is rather mans fascination with him and self
love that is the cause for the love of God
“Others glom on
to hybrid meditation programs that combine Christian or Jewish with eastern
mythologies.” It is known and that Judaism, Christianity and Islam are
variations of the same basic fundamental teachings of the Old Testament all
originating at the same or very close geographic and cultural proximity. It
seems rather clear that the divergences that come about by time, place and
condition. As to the negligible distinction between the author did not
find it necessary to describe, but finds it important enough to mention the
eastern beliefs and mythologies variance from the rest, which have
originated and grew somewhat differently at a different place from the rest.
The important thing though is that the search for God in both mythologies and
beliefs did not lead out but inwards to oneself. They say man becomes God by
his deeds and by his belief and others, say God created man in his own image
and yet others proclaim that God is a creation of human mind. The result in all
cases is that God is in man and man is in God
“And in the
ultra-rational world of science, a bastion of atheism and agnosticism, an
increasing number of renowned physicists, astronomers and psychiatrists have
publicly confessed a belief in some life force beyond human knowledge.”
Why?
It is
understandable the science of physics and materialism which deals with fixed
quantity in fixed space and in known conditions can only understand and
describe sufficiently enough scenarios far less complex than the human self.
When and if man can and does fully understand himself man will have found God
and would be Man.
It is this impossibility of knowing oneself by one self and being the creator
of one self, that is in a very weird way keep man constantly looking for God.
Every forward stride taking him farther, deeper and closer to his creator. The
failed search for God in the finite and descript world of materialism has
forced them and most of us looking into the infinite and continuous world of
spiritualism.
“Mind will
increasingly become matter .a more from met physiological inquiry to medical
applications and interventions tied to materialistic comprehension of how the
brain works.” This statement seems more than any thing else a statement made on
an assertion that the mind is a gray matter in the skull in a static
state. While the truth is that it is a function of the gray matter in
time, condition and space that are in an ever changing and unparalleled state
of dynamism. A dynamism so full of unpredictable and infinite variables that
makes spiritualism a force to and a state affairs to last till such time that
man has found himself and God. After all man is not going to become god, but
close to it. Man will never know himself can only search. The moment he found
himself his need for God will cease to exist and that is not a likely scenario.
“Compassion.
Indeed, he suggests, there may no such thing as soul. And prayer itself a
defining feature of faith becomes the “last gasp of sacred,” though one is
“unsure in secular sense to whom or what such prayer is directed.””
Prayers have
always been directed to the higher self within the self the self that is the
God within each and every one, the self upon which God resides, and the Self
that resides upon God. It is an appeal to and invocation of the absolute good
that resides within us, a communion with our absolute self ,the self that we
aspire to be and reach.
UNDER MY SKIN
Ayele Teklemariam
There are only few that are endowed with some of the best,
And there are none that are with all,
You are among the few I have seen to date,
Who possessed in your arms the crystal ball.
Intelligence, beauty, confidence and the skill,
Adorned with a devastatingly killer smile.
With a heart and gut willing to serve,
With delicate beautiful hands to indicate and write,
What you intend to say and give,
What you feel and believe is just and right.
I have seen and witnessed a room full of your smile,
That radiates from your beautiful face,
Identifiable from a mile,
That illuminates volumes of dark spaces.
You have indeed made this world a little better place
For the likes of me and many others,
Who yearn and long for the voices of love and sincerity,
For reason and rational for the words of truth,
From people in public service from individuals in authority.
You’re never changing smile and confident voice,
You’re attitude towards your fellow citizens was so exemplary
Under the crowded and hectic circumstances,
That it remains permanently imprinted in my memory.
If I may tell the truth and do no lie,
You might have been able to get under my skin,
If I have to swear by the truth I live and die,
I surrender, I can’t wine,
For it is true you have gotten under my skin.
I wish I did not have to be affected
With your infectious smile with your melodic voice,
With your apparently vivid and radiating confidence
By your commanding stamina, feel able willingness,
I am a prisoner, I don’t lie, I am arrested,
I demand to be free, I will bargain to be released.
I surrender I can’t win,
For you have been able to get under my skin.
Cybernat@cybernatian.biz
Ayele Teklemariam
|
