(no subject)

[sophiaserpentia]

I made this comment in challenging_god yesterday and wanted to record it here for posterity, and perhaps discussion.

It regards what I am calling "the Neoplatonist Fallacy."

The Neoplatonists believed that the things in the cosmos are like thoughts in the Mind of God. In their view, Mind is the most real substance; manifest form follows from Ideal (or Mental) form.

This is a fallacy, though, because of the way the human brain processes sensory input. Of course things when examined begin to take on the properties of mind, because that is the way the perceptual faculties in the brain break down sensory input.

For example, we have neural pathways that represent the cardinal numbers; a neuron for "one," an neuron for "two," a neuron for "three," and so on. We have neurons for recognizing circles, squares, triangles, etc. These things therefore seem "eternal" because they precede thought; they are central to our experience of the universe.

So naturally when we examine the universe, things appear to be patterned in intelligent ways. We have NO OTHER WAY of perceiving the universe.

Edit. What makes this so difficult to realize is the fact that sensory data is edited so that things seen or heard which do not fit easily into our pre-developed conceptualization pathways is discarded or ignored. Our mind overlooks a great deal of raw input from the outside world in order to quickly develop a real-time sense of the immediate surrounding. It can take a great deal of effort and conscious concentration to learn how to see outside of the neural censor.

Comments

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

Hmm, re-reading that I see that I never answered alobar's question:
Just what ever brought you to that conclusion [that humans are the first animals ever to contemplate the "big picture"]?

I'll concede that other animals have have contemplated this before humans, perhaps well before humans. It is not something which evolution has prepared us to contemplate, however. When it comes to contemplating the big picture, our brains are not, speaking from the perspective of evolution, particularly suited for this task.

[alobar.livejournal.com]

Again I feel a need to question you about that statement. What makes you believe evolution has not prepared us to contemplate the big picture? We have chemical receptors in out brain for various plant based entheogens which allow us access to states of awareness which are not useful on a day to day basis (they would interfere with hunting & avoiding being hunted) but which specifically trigger circuits for opening up to the big picture.

When I was a grower, I noted that racoons, possums, and deer all went out of their way to forage in my magick mushroom patch. And when the dear tripped they would hang out. And in that state, one could walk right up to the deer & touch noses with them. The tools to facilitate such triggering of internal circuits are evolutionarily built in to many different animals.

Like many advanced states of consciousness, the breain requires the proper nutrtition. Starve the brain of Omega 3 oils & IQ goes down. Starve the brain of psilocybe & there are other consequences. Starve the brain for many generations & we, as a race, forget what was once obvious to our better nourished ancestors.

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

What I really mean is, our perceptive and conceptual abilities evolved so that most ability is focused on rapid conclusions and deductions about the immediate environment. We are naturally in the middle of the food chain and have to be able to perceive as both predator and prey.

This evolutionary paradigm gives I think the best explanation for why the majority of people seem to naturally fall into some kind of religious fundamentalism. Really, I am taking the word far afield of its historical meaning as a theological movement. But the way I use the word, I mean people who hold a few conclusions about the way the cosmos is arranged and are then unable to question those conclusions. Their brain selectively -- perhaps even pre-consciously -- edits information that challenges those conclusions.

Surely you can't deny that most people operate this way! I do not think people choose to be closed-minded. They are just operating as their brains have evolved.

People like you and I, and others on my friends list and out there in the world at large -- philosophers and theologians and magickians -- are on the evolutionary forefront. We are helping the human race to hone, via evolutionary and memetic mechanisms, the ability to scrutinize the big picture.

[alobar.livejournal.com]

Surely you can't deny that most people operate this way! I do not think people choose to be closed-minded. They are just operating as their brains have evolved.

I see things differently. Our brains have receptor sites for many different sorts of chemicals. If a brain is denied any or a range of those chemicals thru malnutrition, the brain functions in very limited ways. In severe cases, death results. In other cases, the human has limited ability to perceive or integrate what s/he perceives.

When a whole culture has a depleted diet, everyone in that culture exhibits that abnormality -- so much so that anyone who functions normally is labeled as sick or deranged. Look at how many creative people today are being labeled as having a problem simply because they are smart, creative, can multi-task, and are bored/frustrated with school/work because it is stupid & boring. Rather than explore why so many are unable to function at a high level, society prefers to stomp down on the ones who are actually healthy.

Religious fundamentalism is a disease which has caused many plant nutrients to become taboo because those who ingest those plants are not prone to believing the part line. The fundamentalists persecute those who break the taboos. Those cultures which embraced the religious fundamentalism meme diverted a whole lot of cultural energy into warfare & conquest -- thus making those cultures better able to take over much of the world.

The ability to tap into expanded consciousness is, I strongly believe, inherent within our brain chemistry & has been evolutionarily built in since before we had language skills. But the societal fundamentalism which has become so all-pervasive over the past 2 or so millenia is the root cause of most humans' inability to tap into the big picture.

What amazes me is that even with starvation over many generations we still carry the ability to utilize these chemicals when they are introduced into our brains.

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

Well, either of us could be right here. I'll grant though that I have not been investigating this issue nearly as long as you have.

To be honest my experiences with chemicals have been mixed. I'm convinced that LSD improved my mathematical ability greatly; it could simply be though that immersing myself in that environment in school helped unused pathways develop more greatly. It's well known that mental abilities have to be flexed frequently or they are lost.

I know you are right about the affects of proper or improper nutrition on brain function; I'd question the extent to which that is a factor, but again I haven't been investigating the matter as deeply as you have.