the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

everything wrote:that is funny, then, how much time we spend in training to try to not use consciousness when performing some kind of skilled, rapid task.

Mind games
Our brains are too complex for their own good...

we can't understand our brains, so are we really smart, or not that smart?

everything wrote:we can't understand our brains, so are we really smart, or not that smart?

Ah, does a chimp/bonobo know it has a brain? Yep, how can a brain understand it's a brain and how it works (or doesn't)?

Of course, there's those shrooms.

Steve James wrote:

Of course, there's those shrooms.

not sure if they are good for memory ... can't remember

Maybe if you mix them with the silk protein? Best of both worlds... It could be like the Tai Chi Chicken soup for the sou mind -- understand everything and remember everything! Right, Everything?

In "The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind," Jaynes argued that human consciousness developed about 3000 yrs ago, with the Greeks. Before then, he proposes that the Egyptians and Babylonians couldn't tell the difference between reality and hallucinations. Dreams, for ex., were real to them, and they believed gods were actually talking to them in the heads.

I don't recall his argument for how it happened for the Greeks (though I totally disagree). But, the interesting part is about the function of the bicameral brain. One of the things lsd does is to chemically separate the left and right lobes. So, an argument could be made that hallucinogens allow a mind to look at itself, a temporary reflection. After the trip, however, we remember what we're not, and distinguish between reality and imagination.

One problem is that primates and other animals have dined on shrooms since they've co-existed. Otoh, there are still those who believe that dreamtime is a reality, and that gods speak to them/people. We don't know that horses have religion; but, if they did, god would have hooves, a tail, and whinny.

Steve James wrote:Interesting Jimmy, check out this abstract.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29371042/

Um, the question of whether consciousness can influence chemistry (synapses, in this case).

Exerpted from above article, to wit, "The model endorsed causal influence of human consciousness upon the functioning of synapses in the brain through quantum tunneling of unidentified quasiparticles that trigger the exocytosis of synaptic vesicles, thereby initiating the transmission of information from the presynaptic towards the postsynaptic neuron". Even though there is one though here, I see many streams of events occurring at the same time meaning the influence is casual per the article but state of nutrition, mental integrity (sanity, purpose experiences of self worth, etc) meaning anything less that that does influence degree and "intensity" of what is called memory with the individual state of being.

Change your consciousness and chemistry can change over time due to x factors which remain elusive to research. Compassion, gratitude and grace has been shown to influence chemistry since a small element of meditation does the same thing. The problem is how much and under what conditions per the individual psyche. 'I do not buy the 3000 yr origin of the Greeks and consciousness since pre Talmudic elements and Daoist sources shows elements of it