Neurological paths

[Corrie van Wijk]

Steve: "'The Path of Least Resistance'" is a concept used throughout Physics, coming from the work of Lagrange who invented the maths of solving minima/maxima with regard to solving things like gravity; the apple falls through the path of least resistance, the roads in Boston follow the cow trails - a rare American City with non-straight roads! English footpaths and side roads wiggle from the same principle. Nature appears empirically to be efficient and to use least effort, and so can humans take the hard way and the easy way. Water flows downhill."

In the very early clean language thread 'quantummechanics' Victor Lamme wrote me that a metaphor for the neurological processing of information and the subsequent reactions of the organism would be:
"A path that can be smoothened or a path that can be constructed (genetically, or by experience) or a path that was just created because somebody trampled down the grass. But also a path with many possible forks, and the water that runs down it coincidentally chooses its direction because of a pebble lying on one path and not on the other. And, because of that choice, the water erodes the choice once made. And of course a path, one fork of which leads to a restaurant with delicious food and the other into a dry desert..." (my translation from Dutch).

Now, dear Prince of Chaos, standing on the lift bridge to the Clean Castle facing the maiden of neuroscience, I'll ask you the same question I asked David:

"What is the similarity between the functioning of a chaotic system and the human brain?"

[Steve Saunders]

Corrie: "What is the similarity between the functioning of a chaotic system and the human brain?"

Did you know I've been called that name a few times over the last 20 years! Recently someone gave me a book of that title/name! Ho ho ho!

I offer an emergent flow of answers:

0 What do I know to start with?

Not a lot - in other words indeed both the same form, but ... there is the physicality and structure of the brain, part pre-programmed, part experientially-created.

I, however, do not believe that mind is an emergent property of the brain; and so I don't really want to answer about the brain because to me its a lump of flesh that acts as the primary interface between mind and the physical side of the universe.

If I may take the liberty of answering "what is the similarity .... and the human mind?" then I can answer more readily. Being asked about the brain is for me like being asked to only address one half of a problem.

1 SWDIKN?
Similarity and difference? The brain runs both in parallel; as do Fuzzy Logic Engines. There's an article on this on my website under "meta programs". So also perhaps I will address differences.

A chaotic system responds to external inputs according to a complex relationship between the series of events that impinge upon the system; the chaotic system normally has a fixed structure hidden by obscure layers that give the appearance of neither regular nor random behaviour.

The brain develops connections and structures generically and in response to the environment. Reinforced connections grow; others atrophy.

Chaos Theory in its principles rules the universe: small variations in the starting conditions give rise to radically different evolutions. Consider the human races now traced back to a single tribe in Kenya where all the racial archetypes are seen in one group of people.

2SWEDIK?
Theories are really just the latest best explanation, normally with a mathematical model that predicts fairly well. To replace one theory the next needs to be more accurate across more scenarios. A theory differs from a hypothesis through the feedback of predictable results being measured.

3SWE...?
"Functioning of" ok so this is asking to describe the similarity of "how it works". Well, maybe the similarity is 1

4...?
Chaotic attractors in the human system are the precise centres of locations of information density in the space both around and inside a person - they come in pairs. When people with sufficiently matching chaotic attractors meet then they enter an engagement that creates experiences that serve to inform each of the people as to their underlying structure of attractors. In momentum there would be moving patterns of similarity between people that create engagement - like people who can dance together and people who cannot.

I'm watching a program right now called "beyond the big bang": religions and physicists still do not get it: creation and destruction myths balance out from the NOW. The answer to the big band is that it was not: a particle and antiparticle were created: one went forward in time, one backwards, and thereafter chaos ruled as more was created in time - both directions. This explains the experience of more particles in our universe - the time-trap illusion. time like space is another dimension - a few in fact. Hoyle understood!

5So...?
When a person sleeps their body is limp and completely flexible, indicating a mind free of any holding patterns. When awake/conscious, the person is stiff. The difference is not physical, its mental. So its a mental field that places its attractors in space and momentum - NOW, the in the moment, re-created from a template recording a person's "isness".

The chaotic attractors of the system define the response; with two complex chaotic systems interacting the results are even more unpredictable. So, humans and chaotic systems - good analogy really from a purely theoretical and physical point of view. The pronouns form the attractors, any sensory mode can cue the interaction.

6So..?
So why are you asking?

[Corrie van Wijk]

Yes, I did know you were called Prince of Chaos, you told me yourself.

Why am I asking all this?

If we use methods that are 'derived' from physics, it's nice to know why they would apply in the first place.

I think it would be good to distinguish between the human brain as an organ, and the way people think (the mind). We know how learning takes place and how things are memorized (brain). If there is a similarity with complex systems, similar methods of dealing with it might work.

The way people think is usually logical, at least from their point of view. But people very often make decisions based on their emotional experiences, so if you know more about how that happens, it might be easier to work with.

Other than that (emotional) experiences may cause problems; just being able to change the physical structure helps resolve them, and you wouldn't need to get emotional about that.

Psychological problems are not just problems about daily life; there is something wrong with the physical structure, changing your thoughts may not only change your mind, but also your brain.

[Steve Saunders]

Ok. We had one client with a major brain injury due to an accident. After loading and spinning the brain rewired - lots of heating through the part of the head damaged. And the functions lost were recovered. Somewhat miraulous, is it not? Frankly I was amazed and had not expected such a result from just loading and a few spins.

Recently, Barry did the same with a 90 year-old in a wheel chair - paralysed for many years, and after 7 spins he got up and walked - the carer was dumbfounded!

So, I can give a plausible explanation about psycho-active space (real and imaginary) and Riemann Surfaces (spiral staircases that appear flat in the real-only world) that show why spinning works - but its only a plausible explanation - with a nice bit of maths and physics that is defensible in logic and maths.

Old pathways can be re-connected; new pathways can be made, and redundant pathways can be deconstructed or re-used for another purpose.

could say more but its late and wer'e into the retreat now - and I'm self-client and getting why I've had to learn a lot of this ...

cheerio, Steven

[Corrie van Wijk]

(removed by Phil from the Metaphor section)

Also, if I may speculate on this a bit, language is a function of the neocortex, whereas human experience involves other brain areas as well, like the lymbic system, especailly the amygdala, which plays an important role in stressing specific situations in memory.

Space addresses these situations more directly: it is initially an unconcious process.

EK questioning tends to diminish the language processing (you already know the question), so there is more room for the mind to come up with anything that bothers it.