on duality

today, finally, i will touch the case of our ultimate dilemma-that of our dual existence. as we exist in the corporeal, we simultaneously live the life of our minds. at least all ontological inquisitors wish to understand the relation between these plains of existence. who am i?? and what the heck do i have to do with all this?? can we count the times we have wondered...pulling out our eye sockets...eating our hair...staring at the stars...(how come we feel so much closer to anything un-human than with one another?!)

baruch spinoza thought of the mind and body as identical.....but for me one of his more valuable contributions is his explication of why mind. he thought, that since we perceive everything through the analysis of the relation between thing and self, it predisposes that we must first have a perception of self. in order to perceive of the self, something internally external must be able to create this idea. therefore, the mind is the idea of self.

i do believe that mind and body are inextricable, however, the concept that they are one and the same is unsatisfactory. it reminds me too much of george berkeley. he believed that there was nothing outside of perception. much like richard rorty seems to think that there is nothing outside the corporeal. i must incline to believe that the internal dilemma itself clearly gives away the direction of the answer.

as a believer of the inextricability of body and mind, i feed from both philosophy and neuroscience. only through both will we find answers to the haunting questions of our existence. not to say that there certainly are answers. i actually don,t think that there are....yet, i cannot cease to entertain the fantasy.

recently i finished reading "phantoms in the brain" by dr. ramachandran & sandra blakeslee. i will write some quotes and personal comments. (no mla)

"the most obvious fact about existence is your sense of being a single, unified self "in charge" of your destiny; so obvious, in fact, that you rarely pause to think about it. and yet [certain] experiment[s] and observations...suggest that there is in fact another being inside you that goes about his or her business without knowledge or awareness." "your concept of a single "i" or "self" inhabiting your brain may be simply an illusion -albeit one that allows you to organize your life more efficiently, gives you a sense of purpose and helps you interact with others."
ummm...i gotta go. comments later.

okay. its later now. early july 10, so. for a long time ive been debasing this idea that we are "in charge". even this concept of having a "free will" is nothing but poo. sure, i can make decisions based on (or not) my analysis of a situation. but i can assure you that i do not choose what it is that my will wills. to a great extent, this is beyond my control. and it works both ways. for example. i do not want to be in love with the person that i am in love with.....but i am. in contrast. i want to die.....but 'something' keeps me.

"if the brain does not receive confirming visual stimuli, it is free simply to make up its own reality."

i don't much feel like getting into the different cases and experiments to which this is a conclusion of; but, now that i just read the quote...i'm forgetting everything else that i thought about it, except that the eyes are the gate to the soul.... just attempting to consider the correlation and ramifications. forget about What the soul is...its just about the idea. you Know what it is.

"this raises profound philosophical questions about how sure we can be that our own grasp on reality is all that secure."

in the next sentence he brings up the topic of different dimensions, and what it could be like for a creature of another dimension to observe us in ours. which brings me back to the last comment. our vision and physical nature may be of a certain dimension.....but i dare say that there is some inkling of me that has the capacity to perceive of another. call it whatever you may, it matters not at all. my interest is in crossing the boundaries of our dimmensions. space/time. they are only relevant to its subjects, and there is not only one measurement.

 "this idea teaches us an important principle about brain function, namely, that all our perceptions-indeed, maybe all aspects of our minds-are governed by comparisons and not by absolute values."

oh...where is nietzsche right now? he would be so happy. i should send this quote to my professor at ucla, he would be happy too. no absolutes. in your face kant. so do we unleash anarchy right away? or wait for nature to fulfill its wrath to us mongrols that think that we know something? i know i'm being extreme, but who has the right to judge right from wrong ?

"no wonder temporal lobe epilepsy patients experience a sense of omnipotence and grandeur, as if to say, "i am the chosen one. it is my duty and privilege to transmit gods work to you lesser beings."

so....prophets. temporal lobe epilepsy patients??
just putting it out there.

"most organisms evolve to become more and more specialized as they take up new environmental niches, be it a longer neck for the giraffe or sonar for the bat. humans, on the other hand, have evolved one organ, a brain, that gives us the capacity to evade specialization. we can colonize the arctic without evolving a fur coat over millions of years like the polar bear because we can go kill one, take its coat and drape it on ourselves. and then we can give it to our children and grandchildren."

this reminds me of my old friends faith on humanity. total humanist, like nietzsche. also, of sci-fi stories about brain vesseled computers running the game....

"one boy can tell you the time and day, to the exact second, without referring to any timepiece." "she would say, "that rock is exactly two feet, eleven and three-quarter inches wide." and she'd be right."

savants rule! again, a proof of the possibilities of our brains faculties. there is now the hypothesis that before birth there is brain damage to the majority of the brain, and thus the self transposes/remaps its use to the part that is functioning properly. usually savants  are relatively incapable of taking care of themselves, and only some possess these amazing talents. as in the movie "cube", or "rainman". (much like phantom limbs. if your arm is cut off. instead of loosing that part in your brain (motor sensor section) that is related to the arm...it 'moves' over, such that you can feel your arm when your face or shoulder are touched.)

there is talk about laughter in the penultimate chapter. i immediately related to "man of two worlds", where the dreen finally realizes that laughing isn't about funny things at all. we laugh when we are uncomfortable, or to mask our fear. dead on true.

"in other words, exposure to a real rose and pollen sets up a "learned" association in the brain between the mere visual appearance of a rose and bronchial constriction."

it was exciting to read this, because for the last couple of months i've tried the reverse. instead of actually using my inhaler when i''m starting to have an asthma attack, i do what i would do if i had taken a puff from my inhaler....and its actually worked 9:10. i don't do it too often cause i want it to work....so im doing it slowly. but its fascinating. my bronchial tubes dilate and the wheezing stops....and all i did was inflate my chest and count to ten!!!!

"everything i have learned from the intensive study of both normal people and patients who have sustained damage to various parts of their brains point to an unsettling notion: that you create your own "reality" from mere fragments of information, that what you "see" is a reliable-but not always accurate-representation of what exists in the world, that you are completely unaware of the vast majority of events going on in your brain. indeed, most of your actions are carried out by a host of unconscious zombies who exist in peaceful harmony along with you (the "person") inside your body! i hope that the stories you have heard so far have helped convince you that the problem of self-far from being a metaphysical riddle-is now ripe for scientific inquiry."

and so, i temporarily lie to rest this cumbersome dilemma of our dual existence.