From: Chris Phoenix (cphoenix@CRNano.org)
Date: Mon Aug 23 2004 - 20:15:05 BST
I assume that by "work in parallel" you mean work simultaneously, not
necessarily that they independently follow the same track. An extreme
of dissociation is multiple personalities! So it seems weird that this
is called coherence. I'd think decoherence would be more fitting.
In dissociation as I see it, two parts of the brain have irreconcilable
differences and stop talking.
Meditation, as I see it, is a species of boredom. In boredom, the brain
doesn't have anything new to process, so (partially) shuts down
connections to prevent overlearning from excessive meaningless
crosstalk. This allows brain modules to follow disconnected trains of
"thought" which creates low-level discomfort (mental tension). In
meditation, all the modules are focused on the same thing, so the
discomfort doesn't arise. I suppose hypnosis fits this description too.
In a meditative state, the brain would be less self-constrained than
usual, allowing insights to arise. I suppose in hypnosis, suggestions
from outside could more easily take root.
So meditation and dissociation are similar in that the brain's parts are
not talking to each other, but different in that dissociation is
(usually) a result of intolerable mental tension and meditation involves
lack of tension.
Chris
Ilya Korobkov wrote:
> Hi Chris,
>
>
> CP> One way to deal with mental tension is dissociation: just make the
> CP> disagreeing parts of your brain stop talking to each other.
> CP> Dissociation is usually not healthy, though it can be adaptive.
>
> I think what you call dissociation here is a SOM interpretation of
> what Mark and I call coherence. Coherence is the state when different
> patterns that compose individual "work in parallel", are not aware of
> each other. Two well-known examples of coherent states are meditation
> and hypnosis. Remember that under hypnosis a patiens is not
> responsive to physical pain? I would argue that meditation and
> hypnosis are THE SAME phemomena and that the perception of factors
> causing pain of a man under hypnosis is analogous to perceptions
> of a man in meditation.
>
>
>
>
> CP> Hope this is interesting, and maybe even useful...
>
> It is interesting to me. In fact, the need for conceptual framework
> explaining things you are talking about brought me to MOQ philosophy.
>
>
> Best reegards,
> Ilya
>
>
>
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-- Chris Phoenix cphoenix@CRNano.org Director of Research Center for Responsible Nanotechnology http://CRNano.org MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org Mail Archives: Aug '98 - Oct '02 - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/ Nov '02 Onward - http://www.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/summary.html MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at: http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
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