Another quote from another great man. Let's talk about it.
You don't just play your game with such simple elements as on and off, black and white, or life and death. To seem as real as real can be, this world that You are playing must be so complicated that you can't figure it out ... especially if you are using figures to figure it. So between black and white, there is a whole range of colors, between thunder and silence, the whole scale of tones, and between something and nothing, between a smashing fist on the face, and trying to touch air, there are all the textures of feeling; burning, throbbing, pushing, hugging, fondling, tickling, kissing, brushing, and light wind on the skin. Your world is all these elements of light and sound; of tastes, smell and touch, woven together in many dimensions on the fabulous loom of your brain. Your brain ... the most complicated thing in the world, which you ... Yourself ... grew ... without even thinking about it.
~Alan Watts
Discuss...
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The brain is very complicated.
But on a similar scale, what about the bionome in your gut. Bacteria, fungi and viruses that have much more control over the human condition than traditional medical science has until recently been willing to admit.
True, but the "self" does not reside in the gut. It just performs one of the many tasks necessary to maintain the "self".
In a certain sense it does. You are your gut.
I love this meme.
Very nice.
I can relate to that one... The brain is a very mysterious organ to us, and not a lot is known about why it does certain things... I know this because I have Epilepsy and happen to be one of the cases where they can't figure anything out. I have no reason to have seizures but I do. And for all the tests run and procedures done, I have absolutely no answers. In fact it stirred up more questions than anything. I've told my kids that I want to donate my brain when I die so that they can experiment or something that might help others. Great post!
I think it's interesting how the brain takes in stimuli and then tries to rationalize the electrical impulses it receives.
For example, did you know that pink is a made up color (1)? There is no wavelength corresponding to the color we interpret as pink. The brain makes up the color pink to explain the combination of wavelengths it sees.
I wonder what other features of consciousness we hallucinate into existence to explain the electrical signals in our brains.
This doesn't surprise me. It's the brain simply trying to make sense of the world around it. Especially in a confusing world where we see "green" on the grass, but in reality the grass is every color BUT green. It reflects it away, and that's what our eyes capture.
I think the surprising part of pink is that it's not physical. Green can be mapped to a single wavelength of a photon. Pink cannot be mapped to any wavelength and is only the combination.
More precisely, wavelength is 2-dimensional but most people see color as 3-dimensional. Our brain invented that extra dimension out of utility. Some people can even see color in 4-dimensions (1).
This happens with physical sensations as well. A few examples (may cause some discomfort):
I think you might be mis-extrapolating what that article talks about in terms of dimensions. She's not seeing in 4 dimensions. They used the term "dimensions" to mean something more like "more characteristics of color" than others can detect. They're not referring to dimensions like I think you are trying to infer.
I'm sorry if I was unclear. I do not mean physical dimensions. I mean dimensions of color.
Since most people have three color receptors (rgb), we see color as a three dimensional object. Think of the color cube.
Since she has an additional color receptor, the object to describe how she sees color is 4-dimensional. In other words, most people can see all combinations of 3 colors. She can see all combinations of 4 colors.
This is fascinating to me, actually, because not only am I a photographer, but I'm also colorblind to a degree. I'm referred to as red/green colorblind, but that's not what I experience. My trouble is between green and brown. For example, I can't tell what's brown or green in camo. I can tell both are there, but that's my mind convincing me both are there because I know they should be. To me they just look like different shades of the same brown.
Or green. Dammit I don't know which one it is.
Well you might like this: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/mantis_shrimp
You might also checkout http://enchroma.com/shop/ I'm not sure if they work for every type of color blindness and they are pretty expensive but it'd be cool if they worked for you.
fantastic & encouraging!
The brain is great! But the Heart is the center! The HeartMaths Institute found that the electromagnetic force field of the Heart is by far stronger than that of the brain.
And as a matter of fact, the energy of our every thought depends and alters with our Heart connection!
So from this perspective, our brain is merely the movie screen while the Heart is the projector!
Thanks for sharing this quote by Alan Watts! :)
I have to disagree. If this were true, artificial hearts would not exist.
Huups, then this worldwide renowned Scientific Institute made a mistake!
Sorry! :)
Nonetheless, I love the diversity of different perspectives! :)
Not saying I'm right or they're wrong. It just doesn't make sense to me.