Tag: Brain

The Call to Memory

“Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory;” 1 Corinthians 2:6-7

Remembering

Before you were born, you were inspired, breathed, and known by God.  Every bit of information that is your intricate genetic makeup is known and stored within you by God.  You are of a reverberating lineage; one that is vibrant and resounding in space and time. Who still remembers? 

As human beings we think, we develop, and grow.  We acquire knowledge, we reflect on things, we seek answers to questions, we form ideas.  Our knowledge about the world is robust, but the things not yet known are wide and varied; curiosities about the nature of reality that will take you to the very limits of your intellectual ability.

Understanding

Perceiving beyond our knowledge of the natural world with finite sensory experiences is not rational by any means of material standards. It is going beyond all reasonable doubt to its certainty; to confront all of that which is unreasonable doubt.  It is maneuvering paradoxes and coming to that which is the belief in God as the first cause.

Innatism suggests that the mind is born with knowledge, ideas, and beliefs. Memory that transcends our experiences.  Could there be memories encoded before birth?  An intangible faculty of memory stored prior to all mind body experience.

Although the mind is not a blank slate at birth, we need our senses and experiences as keys to unlocking what is stored knowledge and intellect, and even remembrance.  Things that are innate to you are things that you naturally identify with through sensation, reflection, and memory.

Grasping

As human beings, we grow in wisdom and knowledge that springs from an inquiring mind. There springs an eagerness to know how the world works. And God sustains this developmental process all the way through.  There are however many traps, in this world of duality– in a world that increasingly contradicts what is good and true as fallacy, to further us from our intuition and knowledge of our intrinsic value.  

It is as though the world is trying to remember what is true as we grasp at illusions.  The good is absolute, but the world debates the moral good and argues for moral relativism.  How then can we remember eternal truth? 

By sensing it as it connects to memory. 

Knowing

Memory is your brain’s capacity and function to encode, store, retain, and recall information from sensory experiences.  The collection of our experiences since birth and our innate sensibilities.  Every experience and memory shapes us in purposeful ways.  And although specific memories may be forgotten, those memories that truly shape us are never completely gone. 

Sensing

We sense what is true from hearing what is good and true.  From sensory to genetic memory. Firstly, with unaided intellect, then being appropriately receptive to make sense of what’s out there. “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness” Romans 10:10. 

There is a call to remember. But who remembers, and who does not?

“For what had not been told them they will see, And what they had not heard they will understand.” Isaiah 52:15

What Do The Eyes See

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” II Corinthians 4:16-18 

Visual Perception

Imagine for a moment, that what your eyes see, which is based on knowledge of visual perception and optics; knowledge which has been formulated through centuries of study, empirical data, and true to form scientific evidence; imagine for a moment that the science on which our interpretation of the visual world is based, has a determined gap or opening for persistent illusion; and that this gap for illusion, can forcefully mislead your senses and your reality in a duplicitous way.

Your eyesight is how you visually see the world. Your eyes collect visual information from light in the environment, and your brain processes and interprets this light. This is your visual perception. Your visual perception, along with all other information from sensory inputs from the environment, make up your perception of the world. 

Visual System

Looking at the world through your eyes is an instantaneous process.  Visible light in your environment reflects off the objects in your field of view and enters your eye.  The reflected light rays enter the eye through the cornea. The cornea refracts (bends) the light rays, the light rays then passes through to the lens which focuses the light into an image onto the retina.  The retina converts the light photons of the image into electrical signals which are carried by the optic nerve to the visual cortex of the brain where it is processed. All in an instant.

What we see is essentially light reflection and refraction.  It’s all about light.  Light informs what our eyes see in the visual world.  It is the basis for our reality of the visual world.

Illusion

Now, visual perception can be tricky. The scientific study of optics shows us that important details of how light behaves and how light properties interact with matter is still a mystery.  Sensory stimuli from light in the environment has a premise of being openly available for tricking the brain.  We see this with illusions.  Illusion can easily interplay with reality.  An illusion is a confusion of the senses and a distortion of how our brains normally interpret sensory stimuli.  Illusions distort our general perception of what we know to be reality or true.

So, if perception is how we understand the world through sensory information; is perception everything in understanding our reality? Can you trust your senses? Can you trust what your eyes see to be true?

What is True

In philosophy there are several schools of thought regarding knowledge of truth.  There is empiricism, which states that knowledge comes only from sensory experience such as observation. Rationalism states that reason and applying logic is the primary source and test of knowledge. And there is innatism, which suggests that not all knowledge is gained from sensory experience but rather that the mind is born with knowledge not learned. 

So, we have two ideas: 1) No knowledge enters the mind except through the senses, 2) There are eternal unchanging truths which are known by the mind not by the senses.

Science is wholly committed to one; the other says the senses can mislead you. 

So, do we wholly accept our interpretation of sensory information presented by the environment? Or are our brains primed to be misled?  Is it prudent to rely solely on our senses to inform our reality, knowing we can be misled by illusion and optics?…

Or is there a divine or innate knowing which we can believe, embrace, and rely on, despite what we see?

Mechanics of Symbolism

“evil persons and impostors will keep on going from bad to worse, deceiving others and being deceived themselves. But as for you, continue in the truths that you were taught and firmly believe. You know who your teachers were, and you remember that ever since you were a child, you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” 2 Timothy 3:13-15 

Symbolism Usage

It’s remarkable how images and symbols impress our minds. The implanting of an idea that elicits connection or relationship, with emotion, and the extent to which it subliminally echoes is astounding. 

Symbolism is the use of symbols or images to represent and convey ideas and meanings.  Symbolism is found everywhere and is used in a variety of ways.  The most prevalent and pervasive use of symbolism is through the media, in entertainment: TV, Radio, Books, Newspapers, Magazines, Internet, etc.  Symbolism can speak to our conscious mind or subversively speak to our subconscious mind.  As such, symbolism can be used in both good and bad ways.

Symbolism Transmission

The transmission of an idea can be crude or well crafted; it can be obvious or inconspicuous, overt or hidden.  But when an idea is well placed, it replicates, multiplies, spreads, “goes viral”. It starts in the mind with symbolisms that represent ideas.  Like language, which is a system of symbols and signs, information is communicated, and our brains process the information that is transmitted.  Transmitted symbols transform into thoughts and beliefs, which eventually drive our actions. What then, when symbolism is nefariously deployed through systems?

Symbolism Affect

The gears turn in our minds; our difference engines. We hope to intelligently determine wise steps to take in life and move forward in our free will; learning from mistakes, lamenting our perceived missteps, reassessing, making our corrections, moving forward, and always checking in with our hearts.  What then, when our thoughts are not our own, but rather unnaturally elicited thoughts and responses that determine our form and function?  What then, when we are maneuvered by the mechanics of abstract symbolisms used in violation of our willful minds?  What then shall we say when we are where we are in spite of ourselves?

The Electrically Excitable Brain & Body

“So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world.” 1 Peter 1:13 

Electrical Currents

Electricity, current, frequency; flows through us and is all around us.  Our brains and bodies busy with electrical activity, electrical signals running messages throughout.  We are all very charged, and full of energy, and it’s all very stimulating inside and out. 

The caution here is to be aware of interactions that agitate our internal states from normal; creating too much disturbance or excitement. 

Modulate

Think of the body’s excitatory potential and also of its inhibitory effects, and the body’s stabilizing functions. Our bodies are incredibly stabilizing. 

Now think of the things that are conflicting and abnormal; things adversely impacting mood, inducing stress, or causing ineffectual activity, misfiring cells etc.- The things that are stimulating in a dreadful way.  Think of the things in the environment that communicate with our internal environments with the potential to overwhelm our senses; the things causing out of control overactivity, and causing an overworked brain and body.

Our make-up functions properly without deficiencies and without disorder, with proper cellular communication. Deficiencies and disorders are divergent to our make-up.  Therefore, eliminate deficiency and prevent disorder. 

Back to Normal

The direction here is to outmaneuver the amplified frequencies increasing in nature for a more peaceful, quieter, brain and body- one that is active, but growing and developing in a healthy way.  Circumvent the overexcitement of the day- day by day.

Intensely Captivating Cinema and Mind Subversion

“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” Matthew‬ ‭6:22-23‬

The Joker Movie (2019)

The movie “Joker”, characterized as a psychological thriller, is intensely captivating cinema and a lesson in subversion. Cinematically beautiful, raw, riveting, and it has all the ingredients of a blockbuster film. The evocative storyline brings you in and feeds you an entrapping narrative. Something stimulating and “sexy”.

The movie teeters on the precipice of what is and what is to be. It mirrors the suppressed attitudes and behaviors of society… a burgeoning anthem set to the music of chaos. This reality is a slowly moving crescendo. Slowly burning, slowly unraveling, and the movie is here to tell you so. And it is here to show you blurred lines of good and evil. And it is here to entitle you, to make you complicit.

This movie, like others, is a breaking down and a building up of social norms in its capture, depiction, and ascension of glorified mental illness. Bringing us into its wheelhouses, acclimating us to depravity.

Our Belief System

Neuroscience of belief
“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.” Romans 8:5”

Broken Belief

Our belief system is irrational and broken. We were born that way. We are continuously trying to sustain ourselves to keep ourselves from dying of emotional pain and fear. Irrational. This is separate from our basic survival instinct. We have learned memories of cravings and pleasure that are misinformed. We are continuously looking for external sensory stimuli and connect to the wrong things. Our reward motivated behavior can be in a maddening cycle.

Correcting Belief

There may be a conflict in the brain’s chemical processes that relate to craving, pleasure, reward. Our brain pathways are recycling memories of cravings and pleasure that don’t satisfy the craving. It’s irrational and broken. The correct belief system has to be active in our minds for us to be free.  Our connection to God can alter, correct, rewire, our brain structure, turning on different pathways, and changing the brains chemical response to one that offers peaceful physiological and psychological responses.