Here are some sentences trying to put together one motivation for doing this website and this mindblog....and for working up a new web essay titled "The Merging of Minds" .. about how our behavior is unconsciously regulated by our social brains and their mirroring systems. If you are reading this (I don't know whether the counter on this web page is monitoring real people or web-bots) I would appreciate any expression of interest or disinterest. (Feedback on this site is very close to zero).
Some sentences of rationale:
Understanding the biological processes that generate our sense of self, our feelings, and our connections to each other reveals engines of our behavior previously hidden from our awareness. Using our awareness to get partial glimpses of those engines in action can loosen their iron grip and let our behaviors be more spontaneous and competent.
I want to cast this material in the form of the lived body understanding it as it plays out in our self observed moment-to-moment behavior, in addition to the more conventional expository writing. This was the point of the self exercises in my "Biology of Mind" book.
Deric, I have been captive to the same urge, and like you have written about it. Given that my only qualification is that of practising grandfather I am generally shunned by academe.
ReplyDeleteI am of the view, much like that of Patanjali, that mind and memory are non-local.
I am preparing to put this out as an e book, and if you would like to review it I have it on PDF.
Sincerely,
Alan Oliver
Port Elliot
South Australia
Oliver, thanks for your note. One fundamental reason that mind and memory are non-local is that none of our distinctively human "I" processes can even begin without extensive input and touching from other humans and the physical environment. I would certainly enjoy having a look at your book PDF. Best to email it as attachment to mdbownds@wisc.edu
ReplyDeleteDeric--I've enjoyed reading your mindblog, and am now working my way back through your archives, and considering what poems do as they enter the world and the mind as you describe its functioning...
ReplyDeletecheers Robin
Deric,
ReplyDeleteI find your commentaries extremely interesting, I'm also very interested in the processes of the mind, specially in how meditation affects us our well being, our happiness point, attention, the influence it has on our psique, on the way we accept us as we are, in the way how through meditation we learn to accept reality as it is and not how we would like it to be.
I'm going to follow all your references to this topics, I'm now in the process of gathering information on different investigations on the internet, reading books on these areas.
At the beginning I thought there wasn't to much research on this but I've found that on the contrary there are a lot of studies done on the effects of meditation, I'm more concern on the psychological effects that in the physical ones.
I have a masters degree in philosophy but don't feel to continue to the PHD, I prefer to work by myself without the pressure and the rigurosity of the academe, although I have my doubts if I will be able to attain something outside the academia.
Just a few thoughts as you see, just wanted to let you know I'm enjoying your commentaries and that I'm planning to go back to your earlier archives.
Thanks,
M