Increasingly we are made aware that humans are composed of more parts than we can see or measure.
We have Stephen Hawking whose body suffers from a degenerative disorder yet is able to maintain a lucid (and brilliant) Mind. Of course we are aware that it is other parts of his body and not the brain, which are degenerating rapidly. The same with other degenerative conditions such as MS, where the 'person' is losing 'control' of the body, but retains an otherwise alert mind - unless of course they are struck by epilepsy or some other electrical imapct or damage to the neural system in the brain.
On the other hand we are becoming increasingly aware that in a 'modern' society like the US with over 5 million Alzheimer's sufferers, people with otherwise healthy or quasi-healthy bodies, and no discernible physical deterioration of the brain, are losing access to memory and memories.
Maybe there is information loss in black-holes. Of course it all depends what kind of information we are referring to, and which type of blackhole.
Though we may be able to look at the distant past and reconstruct a cosmological or geological picture of what might have been - we have absolutely no knowledge of peoples' thoughts (dreams, emotions, beliefs and memories) other than those carefully preserved in ancient scrolls, papirii or texts, and nowdays on 'record' (vynil) or tape (magnetic tape) or video tape, or more modern CDs, DVDs and the latest memory sticks.
Of course these are only but a fraction of any thoughts, or memories, or theories, which people have chosen to record or debate publicly whether thru course work or the internet.
We may even have some recorded mobile phone messages from 9/11 or those passengers on a flight before a crash, but in general most mobile phone conversations, like face to face conversations are discarded (or evaporate) into thin air as soon as they leave the speakers mouth.
But there is something more - we are increasingly becoming aware that man (or woman) is more than just their DNA. How the brain formed from that DNA, and is then educated or interacts with its environment - is what is commonly termed nurture (versus nature).
It has always been possible for a brilliant mind to be born into a severely disabled body, and equally it has always been accepted that a healthy body does not necessarily come accompanied by a smart brain, nor a healthy & lucid mind.
Furthermore it is increasingly becoming clear that is is not DNA or memory defines who we are. We cannot be selective with our DNA (yet) - we are born into it. But we are clearly selective with our memory, we can choose to keep (or romanticise) one memory whilst discarding another, and sometimes we cannot shake off a memory (pleasant or unpleasant) no matter how much we try. Though by enlarge few of us try to discard pleasant memories, since it seems we are seeking to create (or store) a selection & collection of pleasant memories and experiences. Bar in the few exceptions - which are not uncommon - where people strive for unpleasant, or painful and maccabre memories and experiences.
People often choose to remember or believe what they will.
Experimentalists probe the structure of the proton by scattering electrons (white line) off quarks which interact by exchanging a quantum of light (wavy line) known as a photon.Visual QCD
So where am I leading with all this. It is to address the duality whereby some would like to believe that the DNA could carry not only our genes (always mutated) but some of our memory and the so called inherent abilities or skills (always truncated) - whilst others can more clearly see that one is independent of another. A king can be born the son of a carpenter, a musician can be born the son of a nuclear physicist, a painter can be born the son of a cleaner, and a Caesar can be born the son of a slave. All human hierarchies are purely artificial, imposed by the surrounding environment or society - and have nothing to do with Natural Law.
One still cannot give any verifiable testimony to the quantum leap 'life' makes from one lifeform (or lifetime) to the next. But this is only a mathematical equation. After all even the body you are in has already changed dramatically several times from the one you were in yesterday or yesteryear or ten and four score years ago.
The only thing that is clear upon death, is that there is something visible missing from the lifeless bofy or form. The lifeforce which gave it life.
And whilst all other information like memory, thoughts, feelings. emotions, may or not disappear down a blackhole (and reach a point of no return) it is clear that the lifeforce stripped of these continues thru Space and spacetime - to take up another form.
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Memory Restored In Mice Through Enriched Environment
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Mice whose brains had lost a large number of neurons due to neurodegeneration regained long-term memories and the ability to learn after their surroundings were enriched with toys and other sensory stimuli, according to new studies by Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers. The scientists were able to achieve the same results when they treated the mice with a specific type of drug that encourages neuronal growth.
The results of the experiments suggest that the term "memory loss" may be an inaccurate description of the kinds of mental deficits associated with neurodegenerative diseases. "The memories are still there, but they are rendered inaccessible by neural degeneration," said the senior author Li-Huei Tsai, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"I believe that these findings could have particular significance for treatment of people who already have advanced neurodegenerative disease," said Tsai. "Most current treatments seem to be aimed at affecting the early stages of the disease. But our mouse model shows that even when there has been a significant loss of neurons, it is still possible to improve learning and memory."
Memory Restored In Mice Through Enriched Environment
So doctor Tsai, can the mouse recognise its grandaughter?
Can the mouse memorise or remember how to play chess?
Can the mouse remember which bank it has an account with?
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Reversing Cancer Cells To Normal Cells
Multiple Sclerosis Is Increasingly Becoming A Woman's Disease
Brain Processes Sense Of Smell Better Than Previously Thought
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13 comments:
I like this.... I like both blogs ... (just peeked for the first time - shhhhh - tip-toe, tip-toe)
SO much info - so little time - such fleeting moments.
Dear Q, I began comprehending better as I read...
Hmmmmmm, absolutely true: looks does not necessrily guarantee smasts - actually, I would go as far as saying they are wasted on the ...... OK, moving on to topic of sellective memory, What?
Love ya
Zillions of dusties flowing ovet to you - have a wonderfu weekend
(What about the "new" planet we found this week?)
I was pleased to see the smile on his face :)
Hi Angel Dust,
There's a link to the planet in one of the posts on the other blog.
Dusties & smiles flowing back at yah!
Hi Sojourner,
not sure how much he was enjoying it - the 'nurses' were so excite they were throwing him abot like if they were kids playing with a baloon - and his head was lolling about all over the place.
They should have realised he has no neck control, and tossed him in the air a little more gently, you know like playing with a dolphin in an aquarium.
But hey - the whole thing would have happened so fast, just like a roller coaster ride - one hardly has a chance to have an opinion of the memory, when one is lost in the experience and the thrill of it all
It is awful to think what could have been! gives me the shudders.
Hi Sojourner,
I'm sure it was unintentional.
You know with the 'rush' as the plane went into freefall for a short burst.
Great to see him floating
But it was peculiar to see his head lull & roll, as the astronauts bobbed his body around.
Q,
"And whilst all other information like memory, thoughts, feelings. emotions, may or not disappear down a blackhole (and reach a point of no return) it is clear that the lifeforce stripped of these continues thru Space and spacetime - to take up another form."
It seems sort of a shame in some way to think of a lifetime though of experiences and memories and lessons learned to be lost with this life when it expires...does the lifeforce that is stripped away contain all of this information and is it then put to some sort of use later in this new form? Or is it all just discarded with this life?
And then what is memory exactly? Do we remember anything accurately, or is memory no more than imagination or fantasy that we create in our mind, not even remotely close to actual events...or perhaps a combination of "reality" and "fantasy".
Anyway, great blog here, Q. Great subject matter, and thoughtful observations.
And then what is memory exactly? Do we remember anything accurately, or is memory no more than imagination or fantasy that we create in our mind, not even remotely close to actual events...or perhaps a combination of "reality" and "fantasy".
Hi Serenity, both - some memory is factual and some 'imagination' -though a memory of a nightmare will be just as real, as the memory of an external experience.
Really having your legs blown off in reality or having your legs blown off in a nightmare - both create memories. Of course the nightmare you hope to wake up with with both legs. Whereas if one has both legs blown off in the physical reality one may wish it were only a dream or nightmare.
It seems sort of a shame in some way to think of a lifetime though of experiences and memories and lessons learned to be lost with this life when it expires...does the lifeforce that is stripped away contain all of this information and is it then put to some sort of use later in this new form? Or is it all just discarded with this life?
Serenity, I thought you'd been to visit your local Brahma Kumaris centre. If like Shakespeare says "all the world is a stage, and we are actors in a play"
Does the actor who plays spiderman think the emotions thoughts or feelings spiderman displays on film are his.
Do actors in cowboy films or wsar films who play dead - have memories of death. No they were acting.
Every human emotion is an ACT, depending entirely on Culture and Tradition (upbringing & nurture), the society they live in ...
Why cry and be sad at funerals?
Why not party and be merry?
The Ancient Chinese use to celebrate death as the passing to a better place - a cause for JOY!
I believe that we often choose which memories to store.. or not.. There are cases when memories completely disappear through trauma.. illness... I vote for personal choice as well on many of mine. Although I would say is that the ability to block is a handy gift. This is not true of all memories..
I believe that some memories never fade but they gain a certain lack of depth - like the image of Gary dying is there if I think of him, but I can push it away and replace it with a better one. Because that memory would be as sharp as the day he was killed if I allowed myself to focus on that moment. However, there's no sense in reliving the drama of the past either.
I believe that in the end we revert back to energy... which vibrates on...
Hi Katie,
you raise an interesting point.
My widowed grandmother kept the memory of my grandfather alive for thirty years. She still loved him like on the first day - though who knows if their love for each other would have been so strong if they had lived.
He died in a traumatic accident, an air compressor that went wrong, so he was blown to smitherings.
But this is 'selective' memory.
My grandmother chose to hold on to and cherish the memory of him, or the ones she chose to remember (after all she had also survived the hardship of a civil war) and she was old enough and her life was full enough not to need to replace him with another companion on Earth.
But as you know there are also those conditions with the onset of age, like alzheimer's where memory is lost - and memories cannot be held onto. And all those other conditions whether thru genetic anomalies or trauma, which do not allow the brain to retain memories, or amnesia where whole chunks of memory fade disappear.
The point I was trying to make, is that as when people moved to a 'new' land - say the America or Australia, memories of life back home were replaced with new memories.
Just like 99.9% of your childhood memories are replaced with teenage memories, and 90% of your teenage memories are replaced with adult memories, and so on.
We often choose to dwell on living in the memory of this and that whilst at the same time we create new memories.
But this whole life is a phase transition, and we move on ...
Theologically I believe some souls meet again, but many people would not want to meet past lovers or spouses, - and even on earth when we meet people from the past, we do not have the same feelings we had for them at the time - no matter how strong or overbearing they may have seemed at the past.
And of course if we are in another relatonship - we are somehow bound to try to suppress any improper feelings the meeting might raise, so as not to 'betray' the partner we are with.
Though I'm sure a lot of men and even women believe in 'open' relationships, they do not forebode well, for whether we like it or not we are all possessive, just in varying emotional degrees.
The real point I was making is that just as in this life, one may choose a career path, and fill their life with information and knowledge - then suddenly change paths and choose another career, the intensity of the previous career gone - Such is life.
Ask an actor on actress about a movie, and he will start talking about the one he is doing or has just done - not the one before or the one before that (past lifes)
Except of course even hollywood actors or actresses can get caught in the time warp - of their greatest movie or moment of fame.
I agree with you we are all transformed back to energy - and the energy vibrates on.
What I didn't quite finish saying in answer to Serenity is that as in particle physics some particles are positively charged and some are negative, depending on our lives we are thus transformed.
After all, if all heroes and warriors go to Valhalla, then will their enemies not go there too?
They'll either have to learn to live in Peace or the battle rages on.
I was thinking to that memories are affected as well by how one remembers.. I'm a visual person. What triggers people's memories? Sight, scent, feel, touch, taste... association....
The last images I have of Gary are of him dying..it was heartbreaking. I try not to "feel" the event every time, nor "see" the images. Yes, I have good memories, fun ones.. but my mind categorizes ... and so I have to hit the back button to get beyond. I can't just skip easily over the traumatic experience and go to my favorites. I can however, briefly acknowledge his death and then go beyond to the previous time.
Well, according to different books I've read roles are often interchangeable in past/future lives, but we often keep a couple of the same key players. Not always though.
Hi Katie,
the reality of life
is we will all have loved ones
who will pass away
For younger women, it is tradition from ancient times to move on
Older women, who perhaps do not quite see the parting as 'final' often hold onto the memory in their daily lives - as if the person were just a phone call away.
After all it is not the same to hold onto a memory for ten, twenty or thirty years, when your children are grown up and you have grandchildren,
as when you are a young woman (with or without young children) and still have all your life ahead.
But those are the memories here on earth in this state - which of the memories do you think would could or should be carried thru.
Can you remember your first birthday present or every birthday present since. Can you remember every student in every class in every school you went to.
No matter how good our memory, we are still selective of which memories we hold onto or recall.
As we move from childhood to adolescence to adulthood, and to the next stage - we rescind memories from the past and fill our memory with more recent events or experiences
30-40 years time span is small when we consider present life to extend to four score or more ...
and of course some memories of the past and tradition are handed down from generation to generation.
Hope your current relationship is fine. Gary is now more like a long lost 'brother' rather than lover.
After all brotherly love is where it is really meant to be at, though of course we all seek deeper thrills & spills too in the roller coaster life of 'flesh & blood' existence.
Wishing you a fine day!
I posted on relationships.. shrugging...
Memories are often coloured through time. I remember a few highlights of my youth... that is plenty... most of what I experienced is totally irrelevant once one looks beyond to the changes . Which is where the real value lies in my eyes.. not the fact that I endured this, or lived through that, but the fact that I chose to move forward, to move beyond... in this evolution of being me.
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