The Brain

[DoctorStrange]

Originally Posted by metal68

Is it all we really are? And upon its cessation so must we end as well.

Im open to consciousness outside the body but new research on the news today was on about new ways of tackling mental disorder that seemed very firmly in the camp of the brain producing consciousness

Id love to believe in an eternal us but the brain seems to be the elephant in the room. Its so central to our existence that how could we possibly exist without one??

The brain is a computer. It's constantly fed information, and we make deductions and conclusions as a result. And actions lead from the information.

[7luminaries]

Originally Posted by metal68

Is it all we really are? And upon its cessation so must we end as well.

Im open to consciousness outside the body but new research on the news today was on about new ways of tackling mental disorder that seemed very firmly in the camp of the brain producing consciousness

Id love to believe in an eternal us but the brain seems to be the elephant in the room. Its so central to our existence that how could we possibly exist without one??

The brain is the receiver and translator of sensory input and stimuli, and also of the unconscious, the soul, and of consciousness...via messages from our heart's energy field and the heart's tether and connection to what amounts to our individuated consciousness. Without this tether, there would be no soul or divine spark to connect and bind our consciousness to the physical body. And, likewise, this is what animates the clay vessel whilst we exist from birth to death.

The brain is a part of the physical body, which in sum is the temple of the soul, housing the consciousness for our individuated, temporal, material experience from birth to death. We cannot do without either the brain or the body more broadly if we are to "be here now" in the physical. So of course, on the one hand, it goes without saying that we need the body (and its topmost part, the brain) and we need to care for it.

But it's not the origination of consciousness. It simply houses and tethers our consciousness to this physical body at this place and time. It is not the source of consciousness thought -- let's not overreach ourselves here when speaking of the brain. It's how we interpret the world around us, and, when properly awakened, it is in focused service to the awakened heart, aligned with and under clear direction of spirit, or the higher self.

The tricky thing about mental illness is that it often represents the interaction of consciousness (which I will refer to as heart [both physical and metaphysical] and spirit) with the material world. Or, we can say it represents the expression of heart and spirit within the imperfect material world. There are interactions of personality traits, environment, family upbringing, and physical and biochemical tendencies or limitations that all may align to produce what we call mental illness. Some mental illnesses are heavily genetic and some are heavily environmental (abuse, trauma), whilst some are some combination.

Even allowing for the material reality and constraints of physical existence, however, the sheer fact of our being alive indicates the presence of consciousness -- regardless of whether mental illness is also present. This would in itself tend to support a holistic approach that acknowledges the divinity and the uniqueness of each one of us -- the unique presence, soul, mind, and consciousness...as well as the uniqueness of our body, genetic code, and so forth.

It seems the genetic and biochemical components of some mental illness are strong enough that trying to focus on some aspects of the illness that present in the physical brain may be helpful in hard-core cases which require serious and ongoing medical treatment. However, I think the purely physical focus on the brain and biochemistry is severely limited and offers more a maintenance approach for severe cases through medical intervention. It has much less to offer for the full spectrum of what we call mental illness as a whole. Although -- and clearly help should be available to all and serious challenges are certainly present for some -- don't get me started on mental illness and what qualifies.

I think to live in modern society is so profoundly alienating and crassly exploitative that many if not most of us may qualify as having some sort of mental/emotional/spiritual challenges IMO. All of which we currently do or could label as mental illnesses or challenges. For example, I think addiction to sex on tap and hard-core porn is approaching extreme levels amongst men in the West and in many wired parts of the globe, generally. I think addiction itself of whatever kind is primarily an illness and does not reflect a personal moral failing any more than psychosis.

Like any addiction and like many untreated mental illnesses, sex and porn addiction may have very concrete outcomes. For addicts, a sex and porn addiction may actively cause violence, anger & rape, severe emotional trauma, STDs, and financial ruin for self and others, and porn addiction in particularly may also result in non-physical ED for men, to top it all off. Yet the moralising (you're doing something bad and you could just stop if you wanted) often prevents frank discussion of how our culture reinforces and supports this and other destructive addictions (our culture being one of exploitation, mysogyny, and sexual violence). The moralising also ignores or minimises the real addiction issues to sex on tap and to hard-core, violent porn that many men increasingly face but may feel powerless to control. For too long, what we call mental illness was stigmatised as a personal failing or the fruition of sin or evil, and even now, there is a reluctance to treat mental illness with compassion as we do with physical illnesses.

I am not at all comfortable with non-holistic approaches that leave out heart/spirit/consciousness. We know that for things like non-physical ED or anything emotionally sourced such as stress, strictly medical approaches will be of very limited success if excluding heart/emotion/spirit and of our perspectives, thoughts and behaviours.

But perhaps in trying to approach mental illnesses (including addictions) as "strictly physical", it is a tepid attempt to get around the moralising and the stigmatising. This may get someone in the door to seek help, and if so it can be a part of the solution -- but only if more successful methods to work through the messy and complex overlap of genes and environment (culture, experience) and the uniqueness of both every person's consciousness and of their personality (individuated consciousness expressed in this incarnation via thoughts, emotions, and behaviours) can be acknowledged. The last two are important, I completely agree...and I daresay no mental challenge/illness can ever be managed or overcome without acknowledging the uniqueness of the person and their experiences.

Peace & blessings
7L

[r6r6]

1}There exist 31 bilateral( left and right ) spinal nerves
...1a}there exist 31 primary great circles as derived from the 5-fold icosahedron.....

To clarify, there exists 31 left and right-skew great circles derived from the 5-fold icosa{20}hedron.

And as ad addendum, the 24 chords of the VE/cubv-octahedron( see link }, transform not only to 5 or more exotic shapes of space, but also the basic body plan for quadra-pedic mammals( includes cetacceans ), and for fish.

Some jelly fish may be the oldest species of animal on the planet and some have 24 eyes,

...."The box jellyfish's nervous system{see link } is more developed than that of many other jellyfish. Notably, they possess a nerve ring around the base of the bell that coordinates their pulsing movements, a feature found elsewhere only in the crown jellyfish.

....Whereas some other jellyfish have simple pigment-cup ocelli, box jellyfish are unique in the possession of true eyes, complete with retinas, corneas and lenses."

Some relatively recent evidence suggest that more complex jellyfish predate less complex sponges on the evolutionary tree, or at least at same time on differrent branch.

r6

Originally Posted by r6r6r

2}There exist 12 or 24 cranial nerves that stem from the mid-brain area.
......2a} there exist 12 vertexes/nodes the compose both the 5-fold icosahedron and the 4-fold cubo-octahedron aka the vector equlibrium{ VE }
.2c} there exists 24 chords and 24 radii that compose the VE/cubo-octahedron
...2d} there exist 24 ribs that also stem from spinal chord{?} and enclose bilateral lungs and quadra-chambered heart.
..2e} there exist 4 primary centrally common axi in following primary set of only three regular/symmetcial and triangually stable and set of polyhedra;
...3-fold tetra{4}hedron,
.....4-fold octa{8}hedron{ also cubo{6}-octa{8}hedron },
.......5-fold 5 sets of 4 axi common to those above found in 5-fold icosa{20}hedron.

r6

[Govind]

A human brain is the command center for the human nervous system. It receives input from the sensory organs and sends output to the muscles.

[r6r6]

The brain sends only one type of signal to the muscle and that signal causes muscle to contract/constrict inward i.e pull-inward.

When that signal stops the muscle relaxes. All pushing in or out phenomena of Universe are a resultant of pulling-in phenomena. imho

Gravity is mass-attraction ergo contraction inward, not being pushed from outside.

Ex if we live in a finite Universe, then what coheres it as integral whole is gravity pulling-inward, not something outside of Universe pushing in.

To even have something outside of Universe, is and error of statement becase all is included in the concept of a finite, whole Universe, except for the macro-infinite non-occupied space.

If we included metaphyiscal-2, macro-infinite non-occupied space then we have "U"niverse.

If we included metaphysical-1, mind/intellect/concepts then we have "U"niverse. imho

Brain like Universe is finite.

r6

Originally Posted by r6r6r

To clarify, there exists 31 left and right-skew great circles derived from the 5-fold icosa{20}hedron.
And as ad addendum, the 24 chords of the VE/cubv-octahedron( see link }, transform not only to 5 or more exotic shapes of space, but also the basic body plan for quadra-pedic mammals( includes cetacceans ), and for fish.
Some jelly fish may be the oldest species of animal on the planet and some have 24 eyes,
...."The box jellyfish's nervous system{see link } is more developed than that of many other jellyfish. Notably, they possess a nerve ring around the base of the bell that coordinates their pulsing movements, a feature found elsewhere only in the crown jellyfish.
....Whereas some other jellyfish have simple pigment-cup ocelli, box jellyfish are unique in the possession of true eyes, complete with retinas, corneas and lenses."

Some relatively recent evidence suggest that more complex jellyfish predate less complex sponges on the evolutionary tree, or at least at same time on differrent branch.

r6

[Ground]

Originally Posted by metal68

Is it all we really are?

How could it? The brain is not the human individual like an engine is not a car.

Originally Posted by metal68

And upon its cessation so must we end as well.

According to science, yes.

Originally Posted by metal68

Im open to consciousness outside the body but new research on the news today was on about new ways of tackling mental disorder that seemed very firmly in the camp of the brain producing consciousness

Id love to believe in an eternal us but the brain seems to be the elephant in the room. Its so central to our existence that how could we possibly exist without one??

Keep it simple. Consciousness exists, however consciousness exists depending on the brain and its functions in a living body.
If that does not satisfy you then you may look how the religions deal with the subject.

[organic born]

Originally Posted by Ground

Keep it simple. Consciousness exists, however consciousness exists depending on the brain and its functions in a living body.
If that does not satisfy you then you may look how the religions deal with the subject.

The religions deal with the subject by projecting sociological traits onto a make-believe creator. The statement "as above so below" is an attempt to project our cultural predispositions onto a make-believe world that just so happens to support the assumptions of that culture.

Religions are the blind rather forcefully leading the blind through imaginative manipulation.

Our brains are an extension of our physical environment. It's the feedback consolidator as to what our senses are telling it is physically present. We've come to mistake our brain for the way in which we think about things. Such thoughts are the least of it's function.

[Silver]

Originally Posted by organic born

The religions deal with the subject by projecting sociological traits onto a make-believe creator. The statement "as above so below" is an attempt to project our cultural predispositions onto a make-believe world that just so happens to support the assumptions of that culture.

Religions are the blind rather forcefully leading the blind through imaginative manipulation.

Our brains are an extension of our physical environment. It's the feedback consolidator as to what our senses are telling it is physically present. We've come to mistake our brain for the way in which we think about things. Such thoughts are the least of it's function.

I don't give religion any special place one way or another, except it IS part of our whole being's/brain's evolution - only in that it became sort of an anchor for our brains to evolve in a particular direction. This is part of what I came to understand after reading J. Jaynes' book in the 80's. Fascinating. We can't truly extract this path of religion from our being - just evolve towards our ability to 'think' our way out of it, and even then...

[organic born]

Originally Posted by Silver

I don't give religion any special place one way or another, except it IS part of our whole being's/brain's evolution - only in that it became sort of an anchor for our brains to evolve in a particular direction. This is part of what I came to understand after reading J. Jaynes' book in the 80's. Fascinating. We can't truly extract this path of religion from our being - just evolve towards our ability to 'think' our way out of it, and even then...

I do understand what you're saying! And yet it helps us to realize just how flaky religion actually is. The whole jesus story is just 2000 years old, a drop in the bucket as to evolutionary time. For millions of years such stories were different, if indeed such stories were entertained at all. It is estimated that there are roughly 4200 different religions being entertained in the world right now. Each one is engendering a differing paradigm. It's clearly obvious as to how creative we can get?

We may not be able to eliminate the influence of religions, as a whole, but it is helpful to realize that they're essentially make-believe. And they potently comadear our structural imagination, in such a way, as to seriously distract us from what's right in front of us. How can we effectively connect with our children or each other if we've primarily viewing them, and ourselves, as some kind of religiously inspired outcropping?

[Silver]

Originally Posted by organic born

I do understand what you're saying! And yet it helps us to realize just how flaky religion actually is. The whole jesus story is just 2000 years old, a drop in the bucket as to evolutionary time. For millions of years such stories were different, if indeed such stories were entertained at all. It is estimated that there are roughly 4200 different religions being entertained in the world right now. Each one is engendering a differing paradigm. It's clearly obvious as to how creative we can get?

We may not be able to eliminate the influence of religions, as a whole, but it is helpful to realize that they're essentially make-believe. And they potently comadear our structural imagination, in such a way, as to seriously distract us from what's right in front of us. How can we effectively connect with our children or each other if we've primarily viewing them, and ourselves, as some kind of religiously inspired outcropping?

The flaky part is hard to shake off, but we can only say we're sort of headed in that direction - some of us anyway. It's funny how the compassionate part of our religions get ignored a lot, and the dogmatic carp (XD) is held with a mighty grip by so many. We're right to be unsure - that's why it's held onto so tightly. Why is keeping it simple so hard to do sometimes.