Our mind/brain - Analogue and Digital

In the last note I shared what we perceive and why we do so. This article talks about an alternate form of perception, which if present would have been (or is) an interesting change from the monotony of the current way of perception.

How do we perceive the things we generally see? We usually take all the information we say at once and our brain processes all the information we get through our senses at once.

Eyes being one of the most powerful senses are the first to react. If we keep looking for an extended period of time, we start looking at various minute components of what we see, one by one. These minute components have various characteristics. These characteristics are perceived by the brain at once. However if we spend more time on one of the characteristics, we begin to compare it with a similar characteristic of another component. Then the brain may form one or more analogies and may indulge in comparisons or even judgement.

Consider a person walking into a garden. The moment he enters his brain processes what he sees and the brain classifies this setting as a "garden". Then he spends some time observing, through his various senses and may look at a flower bed. Then he starts looking at individual flowers. Then he may start observing the colour, fragrance, shape etc. (characteristic) of the flowers. After this information is processed, maybe in a fraction of a second, the brain may start comparing one or more characteristic.Lets say in this case, fragrance is being compared. This characteristic may then be compared to the fragrance of another flower. After this the brain forms connections. "X flower had a similar fragrance to the one I am currently smelling now".

Alternate Reality - How would you like it if you could look at something and your brain processed all the information at once separately and you could look at what information is being processed.Something similar to multi tasking in computers - opening a new tab for each existing component. Alongside, you are also aware of all the tabs that are being opened to perceive the individual components.

The brain became so fast that we could actually observe the thoughts gliding from one to another.

Extending the previous example in this scenario. the man walks into the garden. 6 tabs open for flower beds of 6 colours, each tab then subdivides into singular flowers in the bed and then further subdivides into characteristics of the flowers ... tabs are also opened for the various analogies, comparisons etc. But the best part, we are also aware of all the tabs that are being opened and all the processing that is going on inside them.

In my view, the first way of perception mentioned here is in total continuity and the second way presents the information in discrete blocks. A good analogy will be that the first information is analog and the second one is digital.

In both the cases, the perception is complete. A person sees the garden However the quality of information is different. This, in turn may lead to differences in the knowledge generated from the information that is perceived.

Perhaps this is what the scriptures meant when they talked about having control of our thoughts and minds. According to me, the richness of information in the second way of perception is greater - but that is another discussion

Of FEAR and PERCEPTION

There are many questions in our mind, most of the times.

And whether we want it or not our brain usually wants an answer for all of them.

The we I am referring to here is the concept of self. It is not what others have told us about us. It is not what we have been conditioned to believe we are. It is raw instinct. It is the summation of ideas we have about ourselves.

Each and every question is answered by the brain to the brain. Usually the questions get classified as soon as we hear them.Some of the answers are logical and some of them are just constructs made by the mind and thought of as a basic truth. These constructs are often formed just to answer a question and to make life easier for us (our brain).

There are some questions which are indeed very very important and to be answered. Some of these questions are based upon our numerous so called "truths". These questions need to be answered before we can truly answer other questions. However, the answers to these questions are often very difficult to determine. To address this issue, the brain creates an imaginary construct. This enables us to make good sense of whatever is happening around us and whatever questions that arise in our mind due to it.

Taking the words the genius, Albert Einstein, further,Everything is something in relation to and in comparison with something else.

When the brain "finds" an answer, the thirst or desire to find the answer to that particular question is satiated. The brain then moves along to newer questions and the previous questions. If the brain has answered a question with a construct of its own, it is usually taken as a truth and the question is not re-questioned unless the brain gets data which adds to the information pertaining to the subject.

However the brain also has a fear after a question has been answered. What if the answer formed is wrong and the construct is invalid? The magnitude of this fear decreases over time as we successfully "answer" a lot questions using the same construct we had formed earlier. this logic is usually able to subdue the fear we were previously talking about and the question remains "answered"

One such important construct in our brain is of perception. Our brain has created this construct, so that we make good sense of what we perceive. What we see, what we hear, what we smell, what we taste and what we feel by touching - all have been associated to specific words and have been labelled the five senses.

This construct is rarely challenged - basically because it is easy to understand and because it is able to answer all of our questions about perception logically.

But sometimes, due to some reason, "fear" in the brain takes over the driver seat and is sufficient in magnitude to overcome the "logic".

Have you imagined how you would feel in such a condition where the basic general principle of perception stands on shaky ground?

What you experience then is nothingness. You don't have a "logical" answer to any of your questions. This is because this single construct answered all your questions. And when the minuscule fear took over the construct and toppled it, subsequent fears arose. These "fears" spread like a plague and overcame the logic in each single question in the mind.

The only thing you might possess in such a situation is a knowledge of self. And that too, only if you have done quite a bit of self reflection in the past.

This if present, I believe, is an achievement in itself.

So... as they say it... I am what I am

Isn't extraordinary actually ordinary in some way

And isn't ordinary extraordinary?

Do I always need to be something?

Am not I something now?

I think sometimes of these things

The one thing I m sure is my being

Lock and load. Fire. Spam.

I am what I am.