Notes - A medium for thought? Medium for mind?

        You were up before seven but drifted back to a semi-sleep for another hour. During this time you focused on an image of a thought in three dimensional form and the closest you could come to it is a dot of small, circular pencil lead dot of light that expands to a quarter of an inch square of light framed in black so it is less than a quarter of an inch square, and within this lesser square of light is a dark image that uses the surrounding light to form a recognizable image or picture. It may be a person’s face, an unblinking human-like eye, a house, or this morning it was one-fourth of a Lincoln penny – the northeast quadrant in this particular case. This was not a dream-like image. It stood true as a direct copy of one-fourth of a penny on the tail side up. As it was seen at a slight angle even the northeast side of the penny was visible.

         You sometimes have lucid dreams which do show depth but usually they are like watching a color film with a slight sense of depth like one might see in a true high definition photo.

         I am glad you explained that as I did not know how to put it in words. After breakfast I read the next two chapters [through page 71] of Fritsch’s work. Newton asks the question on page 64, “. . . if light is at least a partially a wave phenomenon, I am wondering what medium it moves in.”

         My thought was not the same, of course, but if a thought travels it must move in some sort of media. I am assuming it travels within an electromagnetic wave one way or another. The consciousness that generates this thought sets in the medium of our bio-chemical selves and more directly within the brain matter. In the books however, consciousness does not need such a ‘living’ medium, so what is the medium in which the consciousness of a single or a mass of Dead sets or rests? This is hypothetical, but while “ether” is used by Aristotle and by Fritsch, it isn’t particular enough if I were wanting to describe it. In my books, I forget which one, the marsupial-humanoids think of the speed of light as constant just as Einstein did and we do except the speed of light (in marsupial reference) is zero. 


        I remember when writing this I thought, ‘well, this is a bit mischievous on the part of Amorella, but then realized I had thought this much earlier and used it in my logic lecture to ‘blow their minds’ on something they had probably not thought before. I would say, “Okay, suppose the speed of light was zero, then what? What difference would that make in how we view the world.” I used to like to throw fun little points in like that just to stir up an otherwise docile early morning mind. Part of the devious joy of teaching. The stirring. That was enough. What they did or didn’t do with it was okay with me. Fun in the classroom. I do miss that sort of thing.

         Before you meander into one of your many classroom memories, let’s give this a post. – Amorella.

         (Reading over this I thought -- "a penny for your thoughts" works above only it was a quarter penny instead. It is funny to me, a 'little truly inside' joke.)

         1826 hours. I finished the next two chapters and am up to page 100. The focus is on the constancy of the speed of light of which one second of light travels from the earth to the moon. That is an interesting fact I did not know, it takes light approximately one second to travel from the earth to the moon. I was thinking about this on how long my ‘thought’ to peak from a dot to ¼ of a penny. As I have observed this before, and as I am the media, it took between three to four seconds.

         I agree the dot has to grow and form into an image. – Amorella.

         As Amorella appears consistent or has so for some twenty-two years from my perspective I will go with the three to four seconds for argument. Obviously to go from a unrecognizable dot to a quarter of a penny as an image shows the unknown concept moves through my head at much, much slower than the speed of light. Yet, if I were a consciousness without a body.

        

         You did some quick research online and found this from the New Scientist:

“. . . Between the 10 volunteers, the researchers received information from a total of 176 electrodes, which covered almost the whole brain. During the first 300 milliseconds of the experiment, brain activity during both the non-conscious and conscious tasks was very similar, indicating that the process of consciousness had not kicked in. But after that, there were several types of brain activity that only occurred in the individuals who were aware of the words.

Lost seat

First, there was an increase in the voltage levels of the signals in their brains. Second, the frequency and phase of neurons firing in different parts of the brain seemed to synchronise. Then some of these synchronised signals appeared to be triggering others. [For example, activity in the occipital lobe seemed to cause activity in the frontal lobe.]

Because this activity only occurred in volunteers when they were aware of the words, Gaillard's team argue that it constitutes a consciousness signature. As much of this activity was spread across the brain, they say that consciousness has no single "seat". "Consciousness is more a question of dynamics, than of a local activity," says Gaillard. . . .”

From: www.newscientist.com/article/dn16775-consciousness-signature-discovered-spanning-the-brain.html

***

         I read through several articles but the one above struck the most interest for two reasons, one, it focuses on scientific experiment:

“ . . . .neuroscientist Raphaël Gaillard of INSERM in Gif sur Yvette, France, and colleagues have taken advantage of a unique opportunity. They have probed consciousness in 10 people who had intercranial electrodes implanted for treating drug-resistant epilepsy.

While monitoring signals from these electrodes, Gaillard's team flashed words in front of the volunteers for just 29 milliseconds. The words were either threatening (kill, anger) or emotionally neutral (cousin, see).

The words were preceded and followed by visual "masks", which block the words from being consciously processed, or the masks following the words weren't used, meaning the words could be consciously processed. The volunteers had to press a button to indicate the nature of the word, allowing the researchers to confirm whether the volunteer was conscious of it or not . . . .”

        

Also from the same science newsletter above. [In the article this second quote appears first and the first quote used second.]

***        

         The second reason this is of interest is more personal. In 2009 you had a brain scan and this is what  Dr. TP said as she went through your MRI brain scans and blood work.

            “You have a small benign tumor between the two halves of the brain. Not to worry as it should not grow further as you are older. Your cerebellum looks very healthy. The rest of your brain looks good except for a bit of hardening of the arteries at the top left of the lateral ventricle (the central cavity). This has been caused by high blood pressure even though the blood pressure has been treated on and off since 1960 (mostly on since 1972). You have no autoimmune diseases and no inflammations in the brain. You do not have multiple sclerosis though this was suggested as a problem. You do have: 12.6: occipital neuralgia.”

***

            Until now you did not realize the occipital lobe may cause activity in the frontal lobe. “For example, activity in the occipital lobe seemed to cause activity in the frontal lobe.”  [from above]

         As the whole of these two decades has been experimental writing using the unconsciousness to dictate the writing. I feel I should include this in my notes. This makes me ever more conscious that the ‘Amorella’ phenomenon could be caused a small physical brain abnormality. Personally, I don’t accept this, there may be no connection whatsoever, but one never knows such things. The medium of consciousness may well be in the brain, but does this filter into the mind? What is the medium of the mind? In the books it is separate from the brain as some people feel. If it is, what does it exist in, what frames the mind if separate from the body?

         Good to put this on the table, old man. You are science oriented as well as creative. You have to be what you are in these notes, boy. No offence taken. Post. – Amorella.