While informing a friend at the University of Cape Town Medical School about my manuscript his faculty at the time was in some consternation about an article a colleague had brought to their attention the day before.
It was titled Electrophysiological Evidence of Intuition (McCraty et al, 2004) based on a study done at the HeartMath Research Centre in Boulder Creek California. This journal article providing what appears to be conclusive evidence that we have access to intuitive processes, and fascinatingly, that the heart appears to play the primary role in processing this extrasensory information.
Ironically the primary problem for the esteemed scientists was not the validity of the science as the methodology was beyond refuting, but rather the particular finding. The problem was that it was confirming dynamics that scientist until now had not been very comfortable with while additionally proving that a metaphysical reality now cannot be avoided.
Briefly, the methodology of the experiment was based on exposing a group of 26 males and females to emotionally arousing stimuli (such as explicit pictures of accidents and sex) or emotionally calming stimuli (neutral backgrounds). In this experiment it was 30 calming and 15 arousing pictures. Participants were then strapped to a number of sensors that included an Electro-encephalogram (EEG) to measure brain activity and Electrocardiogram (ECG) to measure heart response. The participants were then showed the images in a controlled environment.
However the key was to detect whether any pre-stimulus was discernable.
A pre-stimulus is some physiologically measurable response that indicates that the body had in advance perceived what the stimulus would be.
And the results were conclusive in that:
Both the heart and the brain correctly intuited the stimulus in all individuals based on measuring the associated response before the respective stimulus was actually shown.
Specifically, the heart pre-stimulus was received on average 4.5 seconds before the images were actually shown, while the brain only responded 3.5 seconds before. What is also amazing is that the same sensors detected the exact same response when the respective image was eventually shown. Thus the pre-stimulus perceived by intuitive pathways was the same as that perceived by the eyes.
Besides the fact that future events were correctly perceived before it actually happened, the most amazing conclusion is that the heart seems to have been the primary entity responsible for processing this type of information.
The researchers also made assertions that were based on recent research, that: “the heart’s intrinsic nervous system not only makes adjustments to the heart’s rhythmic activity on a beat-to-beat basis, but can even override inputs from the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems”.
It further concludes that: “intuitive perception involves the body’s connection to a field of information beyond normal conscious awareness”.
One of the primary scepticism with regard to the heart’s possible greater involvement in the higher dynamics of our physiology has always been its physical structure and its apparent specificity of purpose—that it is a pump without the cellular and neurological content for such complicated a task as interpreting the future.
Be that as it may, the experimental results do suggest that much of our being (if not all) resides in a dimension beyond our physical body.
The researchers responsible for the study are in the process of preparing a paper on how this dynamic can be explained. In the research document they have indicated that: “the interaction between the body and the ambient field of energy surrounding it operates as a holographic-like information processing system that informs the body about ‘future’ events.”
While these scientists are looking at this matter technically, the aim of this work however is to use these amazing revelations to interpret its philosophic significance and how it relates to our daily interactions.
And one of the most important of these questions from this discovery being, whether we now should rather let our heart lead our head?
© Newton Fortuin 2005
Taken from Understanding Existence.
[1] Note that life is depicted as an aspect of the logical universe as the henomena referred to as life merely is an aspect perecieved in the physical world animating the physical form perceptable in the physical universe. Thus that the lifeless dead body left behind then is merely the aspect of the logical universe perceived as a intelligent moveableform in the physical universe. Thus the aspect referred to as life is an animating force derived from the deeper forming aspect of the logical universe--the deeper aspect known as spirit which is nebulous, as jello is, seeking form within the physical universe. The body then is the forming tray if one is to follow on with the jello example.
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anlayzed & interpreted, but also somehow FELT. "if my heart could do my thinking, and my head begin to feel...i'd look upo n the world & know what's truly real."
My own heart jumps in anxiety at just about anything unless my brain is altered by psychotropic medicine. My brain, then, if I follow my own logic here, is not in tune with my heart.
The Ancients would have scoffed at this. Heart was what, Eros, a fantastically powerful OUTSIDE force, sort of yes, in a field..
yet it was of course intimately related to their interiors. They had the right idea: to view their own bodily energies, the forces that
are at work THROUGH them, somehow
as forces of Nature.
As we Moderns ponder the very workings of that Nature in our objective way, we find it all comes down to four incomprehensible fields...
We are divorced imaginatively from these fields, yet the idea of "field" is firmly planted, and just need watering and sunshine
to bloom. Once we know about fields in human terms we'll be all on the right track....
but what to do? Even if it's scientifically ultimately definitively proven ,
what you say...
then what? we need to live/feel/intuit it. Intuition, giving in to field energies is the way to go, but that would take a major paradigm shift,
which of course would have to be put in academic, professional language...we have to THINK our way out of just thinking about things, and learn to feel again.
Not emotions: we're too hung up on them, I believe, these shifting affective fields. They are invaluable to report the status of the organism/field, but they cannot be so deified as we all do, especially love. It is not a personal thing! Our emotions are not really OURS,
they belong to the whole field, and if we could learn to ....divorce our self-concept from them, we could flow down the river nicely
Jim
If such a "heart-mind" exists, does that not portend the very dilemma posed in science-fiction horror films? That is to say, wouldn't a heart-transplant recipient develop behavior patterns of the donor? Would a mild-mannered accountant suddenly become a serial killer? I think not.
From my ignorant perspective, intuition in humans may in some ways serve the same function as instinct in other organisms. But both remain ill-defined, and though both can be measured in some ways , the explanation for such behavior remains sketchy at best.
While "intuition" -- whatever it is -- does play a role in decision making, I'm quite certain that decision -- for good or ill -- is made in the head. Obviously, emotions play a part, emotions affected not only by the physiology of the heart, but by enzymes, hormones, pheromones, diet, a sunny or cloudy day, etc, etc, etc.
Were this not so, no one would "fall" in love.
We now know there exists in the gut a "second brain" --but we learned of it long after the phrase "I feel it in my gut" became part of our language.
If such a "heart-mind" exists, does that not portend the very dilemma posed in science-fiction horror films? That is to say, wouldn't a heart-transplant recipient develop behavior patterns of the donor? Would a mild-mannered accountant suddenly become a serial killer? I think not.
From my ignorant perspective, intuition in humans may in some ways serve the same function as instinct in other organisms. But both remain ill-defined, and though both can be measured in some ways , the explanation for such behavior remains sketchy at best.
While "intuition" -- whatever it is -- does play a role in decision making, I'm quite certain that decision -- for good or ill -- is made in the head. Obviously, emotions play a part, emotions affected not only by the physiology of the heart, but by enzymes, hormones, pheromones, diet, a sunny or cloudy day, etc, etc, etc.
Were this not so, no one would "fall" in love.
Our life is not a long series of actions performed ad nauseum - we are simply remembering in reverse...maybe. I’ll raise my arms as I run down this rollercoaster – LOL Wheeeeee!
Peece,
dj
I have used this Emwave tool and it is legitimate. The research that supports the overall concept is fascinating as well.
Thanks for the post.
For any readers interested, this article gives a good synopsis.
http://www.bizcharts.com/stoa_del_sol/plenum/plenum_3.html
The theory of the Implicate Order contains an ultraholistic cosmic view; it connects everything with everything else. In principle, any individual element could reveal "detailed information about every other element in the universe." The central underlying theme of Bohm's theory is the "unbroken wholeness of the totality of existence as an undivided flowing movement without borders."
In my book I referred to it as the logical universe, in which space, time, the laws of the universe, are merely logical constructs which define the greater physical universe. So in a sense it exists at ever physical and nonphysical entity, even empty space. The holograph reference is a good one. The holograph contains itself fully at every point. However the aspect aspect that truly contains the image is the image in the information template, ie the computer that contains the entire image. Hence the holograph is merely the projection of information template. Instead of thinking of the implicate order as "the filed" or "a field", it truly is one single logical aspect at each and every point in the universe that coordinates each and every physical point in what we refer to as physical reality.
Our mind/spirit then is a deeper aspect of this template that is not as rigidly defined, in fact is self forming. I will insert an depiction of it in this post.
I will go over your other links as well. Thanks.
I won't pretend to be smart enough to explain or explain away the experimental results you cited in this study. I will acknowledge that some people are far more attuned to signals that others are completely oblivious to. But whether those signals are mystical or physical (but unrecognized) is a determination I prefer to leave to science rather than pop-culture frauds like The Secret.
I'm reminded of my mother, a true empath if there are such persons. "I knew thus and so was going to happen", she's fond of saying when an event occurs, forgetting all the other times she "knew" something was going to happen but didn't.
Let me give you a recent example of "precognition" I was thinking about calling my best friend from high school, and the very next day, voila, he called me. Remarkable, eh? Not really; it was my birthday.
Seems Kant would want to weigh in on this conversation. As he said, “Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind.”
And while we’re on the subject of Kant, I hope you will forgive me for injecting a note of humor into this otherwise fascinating conversation. I just can’t think of Kant withouth thinking of this video anymore.
Enjoy!
—Melissa
Jd, this is a very interesting thought “Our life is not a long series of actions performed ad nauseum - we are simply remembering in reverse...maybe”. The experiment does seem to suggest that this may in fact be so to some extent.
CV, glad it made sense. Jello (I don’t think it means the same in American English though, flavored gelatin) is in fact a very good metaphor for spirit or consciousness. The In the beginning it’s nebulous. The container or shaper is the physical body, and when the jello is set, it very much is still the initial jello, but now with a definite shape or form.
Tom, yes we can get carried away with these things, and your example illustrates the point. The thing is that we recognize intuitions for what they are, and that they can be useful tools for our survival.
Melissa, watched the video, and I agree, the romantics argued for a real wishy washy world, but they were a product of their time and place. But thanks for the light interlude.
I think the primary differences are that I’m interpreting it philosophically and not technically, while I also developed a framework (mostly for myself) by which this view can be interpreted. For all those who read the manuscripts, it helped them make sense of what can be very complicated indeed.
I’m very interested in your assumptions. I don’t know whether you want to continue the discussion on this forum, or post me some of your ideas?
THE GROUND OF ALL EXISTENCE
At the very depths of the ground of all existence Bohm believes that there exists a special energy. For Bohm it is the plenum; it is an "immense background of energy." The energy of this ground is likened to one whole and unbroken movement by Bohm. He calls this the "holomovement." It is the holomovement that carries the Implicate Order.
Beyond the quantum universe there is a logical universe. In it there is no energy, only its definition. A useful analogy is the Internet. It appears to exist at every single location it is perceived and used, at every single physical device, anywhere in the world. But ultimately the internet is simply a product of its logical own universe--it's protocols, the languages that control it, and the knowledge built into the interfaces and delivery systems. And these are constantly evolving.
Beyond that we find the users of the internet, they can be equated to spirit or consciousness, who has absolute free will to use it in anyway they wish, but limited by what functionality the internet offers, it's bandwidth, and our expertise to use it. Energy therefore would be the primary fuel that runs the entire system, that results in the movement of information. Within all of this, the internet is a nebulous evolving entity of no definite shape or form, and the energy, merely the fuel that brings it to life.
Using this understanding I think spirit is seeking meaningful form, and therefore assumes each and every shape or form it conceivably can take it's world though has no time and no space, it merely are aspects of the respective universes it forms through trial and error. And so, by initially ambling along, it finds better and better ways to find such form. So it manifests itself into infinite universes, many of which are unsuitable and unsustainable for its future development.
Though, at some stage, its evolution becomes less and less random as it becomes increasingly conscious of itself. The Amoeba, its earliest known manifestation in this universe, is conscious but not self aware, and so its evolution largely is still unconscious (still ambling along) and thus random. However as species become increasingly specialized, mechanism (such as DNA and archetypes) evolve to enhance the storage of species specific information, till eventually we have human beings who are fully aware driving it’s own evolution forward. But yet, is not fully aware of itself as a collective spirit entity. OS being representatives of how we use the internet to reach out towards such a collective communion.
The point though, energy and all else is representative of the physical world, an entity that dies disappears completely from this world (has died) leaves no trace of energy as its essence has been formed beyond the logical universe. This universe (the jello tray—I don’t know what you call flavored gelatin) therefore is the forming aspect of the liquid spirit energy that uses it as a vessel to transform itself in.
Anyway, these are my musings on how it all fits together and what may be beyond. The key is not to get bogged down on the technical explanation about the physical nature of the universe, in other words the physics.
All I know is that I have had precognitive abilities and precognitive dreams that empirically support a time/space reality that defies current empirical means of validation. But my experiences are real, just the same, and they confirm a "mysterious" (implicate") order - this I know. As Joseph Campbell once said to Bill Moyers when asked if he was a man of faith: "Who needs faith? I have experience!"
I may have to duck for cover here if Eros throws her old ballerina shoes at me, but i have to go with that other baldy, ken wilber, on bohm. Too mono-logical. Meaning he split Creation into implicate & explicate. The unity of the holographic reality---spirit, whatever we are calling it today---and the material "stuff" including the separate selves...What about everything else? The in-between? matter has hierarchiacal levels, up to plant, up to animal, zzzzoooommmmmm UP to human ...um, being...spirit...consciousness. Alot of levels there. Each containing the others holon-ically, to use Koestler's term. The upper contains...tr nscends...the lower, yet includes it...
Physics & Spirit...what about the other sciences? I've read al this back & forth over the possiblility that everything contains everything...i say we take that as our main thesis...it should be obvious to the transpersonalist....Indra's net...etc...all the beautiful poetic images from real phenomenologically valid mystical experience..but...
What about the process, the flow? We need direction for this implicate/explicate, multi-tiered holonic Universe we have constructed. To appreciate phsics, one must go to...well...a mystical math genius who came up with his own theory of relativity & was alive in the einsteinian paradigm shift..AN Whitehead...it's all there....his idea of actual entities, composed metaphysically of everything in their current world, self-actualizing into new entities...every moment of every day.....
this selfactualizing is for the purpose of aesthetic enjoyment, said whitehead. the creation of beauty by fulfilling the being of the entity in a "final satisfaction" that "perishes" but births forth a new entity in a William-Jamesian "new drop of experience"...
for this is indeed the key, as you well point out...the pointof Creation is simple to self-experience itself more & more perfectly...the ultimate ground of being is none other than God, in his primordial nature....he is a ...ha..bipolar god, in that he also has a
consequent nature that rides along, so to speak, as an ultimate copilot in the flight/flow of process...to ...."take up", or "take in" or appreciate every moment of self-experience that happens..for there is but One Self, and that self in perfecting
itSelf in its creation....a loving companion, is the consequent nature....fully containing, in each drop of SUBJECTIVITY it squeezes out, the entire universe of self-feeling of every other entity...
Jim
for this is indeed the key, as you well point out...the point of Creation is simple to self-experience itself more & more perfectly...the ultimate ground of being is none other than God, in his primordial nature....he is a ...ha..bipolar god, in that he also has a consequent nature that rides along, so to speak, as an ultimate copilot in the flight/flow of process...to ...."take up", or "take in" or appreciate every moment of self-experience that happens..for there is but One Self, and that self in perfecting itSelf in its creation.
Why I say physics complicates things, is that physics should be viewed separately from our search for meaning. Physics, if it possible can add value, should provide the logical basis for the argument, but attempting to explain the implicit nature from a technical perspective can be cumbersome. Sometimes elaborate ideas gets lost in their terminology, which is why I have difficulty with Wilbur, albeit his work is brilliant, and he no doubt is brilliant.
This is why I stick to poetry. "Mah po' l'il ol' head jes can't seem ta grasp these high-falutin' concepts") [even though I have my own, published model that attempts to capture the very things we have been discussing, here] - "Now, gentlemen, which one of ya'all is willin' to run along and fetch me a mint julip...Ah am jest paaaarched!!!"
Wilber may be brilliant but you are beautiful. Big difference.
He gets lost in the abstractions you so wisely sidestep. That is not laziness, that is good sense.
Sure, we have alot to learn from physics. But when the claim is made that we no longer have anything to learn from Metaphysics, the Mother of the Sciences, then
we are lost.
Your beauty is from sources far beyond these pastures
of words where you toil so tirelessly.
Your reward is in the excitement of
finding like- minds, nourishing them,
and setting them free to find their
own answers. And
welcoming them home again
when they return
again and again
and again...
Jim, again.
God bless you, my boon companion...
as you have done mine;
woulda been per-feckt if not for that extra "as you have done mine;"
(and of course the patting myself on the back for having a heart)
Speechless? Ye? Hardly believe THAT whopper, bud...
I been over en-courage-ing Jimenace in his poetic
Endeavours......the Sun is finally out here in New England, the birthplace of Liberty & the
Insurance Industry & lotsa big malls &
two really big casinos....(run by...ha....Native AMericans).....
I seem to remember skimming a fine book by Fritjof Capra where he suggests that
there is alot more ...um, conjunction,....of the bodily systems than modern science realizes...
a psychosomatic network is how he phrases it..."Web of Life".........the immune system, the nervous system, the endocrine system are the Big Three.....studied int three separate sciences....neuroscience, endocrinology, immunology.....merley historical artifacts of abstractionism.....
Peptide Research shows: these conceptual separations are bogus...the three systems actually form
ONE SINGLE PSYCHOSOMATIC NETWORK1
THE PEPTIDES ARE GIVEN DIFFERENT NAMES...HORMONES, NEUROTRANSMITTERS, ENDORPHINS, GROWTH, ETC....THEY ARE A SINGLE FAMILY OF MOLECULAR MESSENGERS....SHORT CHAINS OF AMINO ACIDS ATTACHING TO SPECIFIC RECEPTORS, WHICH EXIST IN ABUNDANCE ON THE SURFACES OF ALL CELLS OF THE BODY....
by interlinking immune cells, glands! brain cells!
these peptides, a family, really, with ...um....family reunions?...ha....
form this Network....extending through
the entire organism...hm.....
Jesus...he says peptides are the "biochemical manifestaion of emotions"......like: emotions being linked to
the limbic system, which is highly enriched by peptides....so are the intestines....
intestines...aint that where the serotonin is made?
"scientists have observed that nodal pts of the central nervous system,
connecting the sensory organs with the brain,
are enriched by peptide receptors that
FILTER 7 PRIORITIZE
sensory percenptions....so
all our thoughts & perceptions are colored by emotions"
]
huh...no kidding, Sherlock...that is basically what Whitehead says, from a metaphysical perspective....that all subjective experience, which is atomistic,
processing & then "perishing"
into the eternal field
is "feeling" or "prehension".....
he goes on to explain our two different types of Perception....
1. causal efficacy....which is receiving data of sense from the external world in the form of faint pulse s of emotion....
"the actual occasions of the animal body, in its various organs....acting as SELECTIVE AMPLIFIERS gather these pulses together
and get from them sizeable feelings"
like the eye "enjoying" a reddish color...a reddish feeling...
these are intensified
and transmuted
by the "complex actualities ("occasions") of the brain"
into definite colors, smells, & other instances of
"qualitative eternal objects"
eternal objects being Whitehead's term for what is, y'know,
um...well, universal...like "red", "grief", "lust", "anger", "blue", "sweet", "sour", etc......
& these are definitely arranged in a space
defined by
"prolongation of the spatial relations"
experienced inside the Brain...
So the point is that the pulse of feeling...the input...is submerged in
conceptual:
conceptual feelings are just feelings of these "eternal objects", these universal, kinda ripped metaphysically outta
the sense feelings & perceptions, see?
Now "the throbbing causal world
of the IMMEDIATE PAST
now appears as a passive display of qualities
"Presented" to our senses....
this is
2.Perception in the mode of presentational immediacy...
etc...more later...
remember: in Whitehead's universe,
which albeit explains the physical universe in metaphysical terms,
is not to be seen as a Physical Universe, but as an Abstractive Conceptual Interpretation of
the Metaphysical Realities of the Cosmos
anyway...in his universe, every damn thing is a slurping up of feelings from the immediately past universe...
every single actuality
takes in the past universe at that point in timespace
takes it in, slurps it up...feels it..."ya feel me?'...ha...
transmutes it to its immediate purpose...
then sends it, complete, on to
the very next instance,
wich slurps it up...etc...
an endless seamless timespace flow of atomistic little bits of subjective slurping up of the universe as it stands..
whoo..good morning of writing...
Sun still balzing...
Whats the name of this cult ? I'd like to somehow incorporate the concept of synchronicity...
be welll,,chumbo...
JME
You've given me some homework to do when I have some time, but I will have to add whitehead to my must read list. In the meantime here's a quote in line with what you commented on by Alvin Toffler in the forward of the book Order out of Chaos – authored by the 1977 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry Ilya Prigogine and Isabelle Stengers:
"One of the most highly developed skills in contemporary Western Civilisation is dissection: the split-up of problems into their smallest possible components. We are good at it. So good, we often forget to put the pieces back together again. This skill is perhaps most finely honed in science.
"There we not only routinely break problems down into bite-sized chunks and mini-chunks, we then very often isolate each one from its environment by means of a useful trick. We say ceteris paribus – all other things being equal. In this way we can ignore the complex interactions between our problem and the rest of the universe."
And here's another even better one by George Orwell:
"We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men".
In fact it's from another manuscript I'm working on titled The Dilemma of our Time: A Critique of ‘Rational Science’, so thanks a lot!
Be that as it may, trust that I 'scanned' something uber importante' right here right now.
Fist bumps to the author and participants of this post. I'm somewhat immediately curious, though if anyone else experiences the wonderful seasonal rush; William Burroughs would counsel that if you look around, kindly note that others are doing the same thing. Here stateside, allow me to describe daringly that there's been a serious post-Obama election pall/stasis, rather a corn-syruped reflection by a bunch of would-be mystic icons synthesizing with inanimate objects. Just the sound of a man typing, afterall. Like we're willing to die for Haebus Corpus unless it gets too personal. Please allow me to ask if any known music fittingly describes what I'm reading here. If so, tell me, please.
Thanks + good day ladies and gentlemen.
It's true but incomplete. It leaves out flesh and blood and human struggle. The evolution of language. The symbolism of Man. The evolving beauty of every damn instance of creation...
like, for one example,
THIS VERY MOMENT....yes!
As you, whoever you are, reading this , now...see?
your total life situation, implicate-explicate, has led you to Now, as you, dear reader, whoever ye is, read this....you one or two lost/found (to do a simonetta) souls
or...you, newton, old man, whom i love yet may not meet, ever....
for the next moment could start a cascade of karma leading me to my death tomorrow....
or you to yours...
or sweet eros to hers...
or whoever..or...you could go to yr bohm & read it & absorb the absurd shit it seems to imply...ah! what safe abstractions....what freaky stuff...lovely to nestle with, in yr isolation, whomever you are, now, here, reading this...
i am the writer of this..yet a woman whom i once loved is doing the dishes & wants to go on the computer & play video games, or check her email, and i as a gentleman must let her, for it is her money that pays the cable (barely)...i have no money & never did...but that doesnt make me
less of a man, does it? does it? does it?
no, of course not. silly question...
(watch out...eros, logos, for the fury of mythos, simpley an act anct ing out my pain...NOW!)
i never had no fuckin $$ cuz i am a lazy ass european nigger motherfucker like me dad george & his dad george ...we aint no english georges ( who also were deutsch, remember yr fuckin history you incomprehensibly stupid mother fuckers who dont know nothin but the name of the american idol winner or the latest on jackson's death...anyone know andrew jackson? ah? no...
well fuck you...you are fucking up this globe, not me....oh! i got no money, honey...
but you got no brains & never will...i WILL have $$$ cuz i got a damn plan for it to rain $$$ from heaven and i aint givin it to no one....no way...not even starving aids infected african brats...ha..cant tell the bipolar nut job to shut up
cuz hes free & clear of the shit finally...
watching th e world burn burn burn & actually chheeering on the destruction..."oh well" as george used to say,
and drag on his pipe & stink up the haus...)
ha...anyway...
see, the point is this: implicately we are a mirror of everything. sure...bu t this means:
all the world's events are inside you, like whitehead said. What the jolly ruddy math ematician/philosopher did not say was: and it is all symbol-laden, every bit of it. who symbolizes? not you. the universe
in you does. the little focal light you call yr awareness just rolls along linearly, point by point,
but the real Flow rolls nestled in holon after embracing (transcending/ including)
holon...check yr arthur koestler..."janus" especially, where he sums up his lifework.
i am just getting started.
jme