The Concept of Self

I am currently working on a thorough and complete argument against religious claims to humans moral dependency on God. It is an important piece of writing for me, because as I've said before, Religion can only attempt to claim jurisdiction in a few areas of understanding, morality and creation. My up coming post is my best effort to put the nail in the coffin on the subject of morality. In the mean time please enjoy an interesting perspective on the human soul that i came across a few years back while visiting The Agnostic Mom. Great debate has been made in the past about possibility of the souls existence. However, science has made such enormous progress in mapping the human mind and is close to a full understanding of how our mind works, the debate is over as far as I'm concerned. We have matured intellectually, and allowed science to eliminate all supernatural hypothesis to describe our world. The concept of the soul has washed away with the rain of science and understanding, but for some reason, a circular debate amongst believers will continue. On the atheist side of the coin, here is a fantastic analogy from Dale McGowan, taken from an interview on http://www.agnosticmom.com/ on the subject of what happens to our "self" when we die....

"Whatever sense of self and personal identity we have springs entirely from the constantly recomposed electrochemical symphony playing in our heads. Some find that horrifying; I find it utterly amazing. And asking where our “self” goes when that electrochemical symphony stops playing is just like asking where the music goes when an orchestra stops playing."
- Dale McGowan

Re-wire your brain

Have you ever wondered why the suicide rate in Ethiopia is almost zero? How bizarre. I recently stumbled on to this statistic and it just blew my mind. (No pun intended.) I can't help but wonder why it is that here, in America, the land of opportunity; people are killing themselves by the tens-of-thousands. Meanwhile on the other side of the world in a hopelessly desolate, hunger-stricken, 3rd world nation, manic-depressives do not exist.

Maybe it's not so surprising though. According to The National Institute of Mental Health's official website, an estimated 1 out of every 5 people in America have some type of diagnosable mental illness, ranging from manic-depressives to binge-eating to social anxiety disorder. An astonishing 2 million children in the U.S. are prescribed Ritalin for A.D.D or A.D.H.D. perhaps you know a few of these kids, I know several in my small town alone. So one must ask: Why are we so screwed up? Is it necessary for us to drug ourselves to solve this problem?

I believe that we are not born with mental illnesses like bulimia, depression, anorexia, binge-eating, or social anxiety. These illnesses develop over time as a result of specific behavior and thought patterns. These patterns may or may not be the direct result of environmental stimuli. Current research is implying that we have the power to heal our own mental afflictions. With a bit of self-control one could alter their behavior and thought patterns. We know this is within everyone's capabilities. The real surprise is what results from this could be a complete change in the chemical balance of neurons in the brain.

Here is a quick lesson in what we know about the human mind. More specifically, a brief explanation of how our thought patterns are formed and personality traits solidified.
After birth, the human brain is a fury of neural connections and brain cells migrating and repositioning. This occurs when our early minds respond to environmental stimuli or input. Neural pathways then become established throughout the brain. These neural pathways are the communication lines that our brains depend on for signaling responses to stimuli. Here is an example of that process: Our brains shift in response to environmental input, then further shift in response to the results from our own response. Each time we respond a specific neural pathway is used for that response. Each time we respond in the same manor, or the more frequently we use that neural pathway, the more engrained it becomes and the more easily that response can be triggered. Sometimes neural pathways can become so engrained that they can almost block higher level, more logical thought processes. The opposite effect occurs when neural pathways go unused for extended periods of time: a Darwinian process of elimination takes place where those unused connections are subsequently destroyed. This engraining and neural pruning is most active between the ages of two and ten. The result is a human brain whose wiring is for better or worse, completely unique.

Current research supports the idea that our neural pathways are not fixed or locked in. They can be altered even into adulthood. So why not try and rewire our own hardware? For example: Suppose you suffer from depression. Try to smile more often. This may sound like a stupid solution but those neural pathways that signal your facial muscles to smile are wired-in with the same neural pathways that signal feelings of happiness. A more effective solution is to force yourself into thinking positive thoughts in every situation, even if it's insincere. This positive thinking if consistently applied, will create a thought pattern that is more easily triggered. Eventually your pessimistic and negative thought patterns will subside.

Here of an example of an experience I've had with altering my own "wiring". A few years back, I struggled with a short attention span and a bad memory. It affected me mostly when I was reading. I would read a few pages and upon reflection, find that I had retained almost no information about what I had read. In order to correct this problem I decided to try this: I would only read a few sentences, maybe a small paragraph. I then would summarize to myself what I had just read. I would repeat this process for a few weeks gradually increasing the amount of material that I would read in-between my summaries. By the time that I finished my book, there was no need to summarize. The material I was reading, I was remembering. This is what happened: By pausing to reflect on my reading every few seconds, I forced those neural pathways associated with short-term memory to become more engrained and consequently, short-term memory was more easily triggered.

But why not just call the ol'doctor and pick up a prescription. I could have been easily diagnosed with A.D.D. But would Ritalin really fix the problem? Let me give you a little allegory:

One morning you wake up to find that your battery in your car is dead. You try to jump-start it several times unsuccessfully. Finally you conclude that the battery is no good and must be replaced. Problem solved right? The following week you awake to the same problem, dead battery, won't hold a charge. Once again you replace it with a new one. The following week the same problem occurs, so you decide to investigate. You discover that a ground wire under the hood has come loose. This is causing the batteries to short out. What would you do? Keep buying batteries every week? Or fix the root of the problem: the loose ground wire.

To you and I this seems like a no-brainer. You should fix the ground. However in the real world a similar situation is going on with anti-depressants, social anxiety medication, Ritalin and other prescription drugs. If I am depressed and prescribed some happy pill, then I'm only going to treat the symptoms of the real issue. Or in other words I'll just keep on buying a new battery every week.

Unlike my car scenario, the repercussions of taking medication are more severe. Dependency is likely. A sense of helplessness without medication is almost certain. Today's society would love to have you believing that you can't cure these problems or that depression is some disease and it's out of your hands. Bullshit! This type of psychiatric propaganda is what is wrong with our society! This is why 30,000 Americans kill themselves each year. Our society and culture puts way too much emphasis on happiness. The seemingly harmless idea that every individual has the right to pursue happiness has been twisted into a cultural obsession. Every day the prescription drug industry pushes insecurity on the general population. You've seen the ads on T.V. They want you to question your stability. They want you to question yourselves until you feel like something's wrong. Don't let your children grow up thinking they're helpless victims of there own emotions.

The truth is, we all feel sad, insecure, bad, negative, angry, but how you manage your emotions is your responsibility and not some pills. PARENTS! Teach you children how to control their emotions and feelings. When I see some 10-year-old kid on Ritalin looking like a zombie, I can't help but feel like this is just the by-product of parental laziness. How can we ever expect a young child to learn to cope with his emotional roller coaster, or his learning differences, if his issues are avoided? What a message to send your kid, 'hey son take this pill because something is wrong with your mind', and we then expect this kid to grow up feeling like he's normal. Granted there are some individual who do need medication for mental illness, but I believe the overwhelming majority of people need to stop treating symptoms with pills, and go after the cause of their problems.

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then is not an act, but a habit."-Aristotle

Mind over matter

Discovery Magazine just published its 100 greatest discoveries of the year, and as far as I'm concerned number #11 should have taken the cake.

A neuroscientist named John Donoghue of Brown University has managed to implant a tiny 100-electrode array into a paralyzed man's primary motor cortex. This is the part of the brain that controls voluntary movement. What this little implant does is interpret the brains electrical impulses, then convert and send them into a series of high-tech signal processors and computers. The computers then translate the mans thoughts into movement of external devices.

According to the article, after the first day of fiddling with this implant, the paralyzed man was able to master this technique. He could "...move a computer cursor, play a video game, open e-mails, draw a crude circle, operate a television remote control, and even move a prosthetic hand and arm....using nothing other than his will."

The potential for this technology is endless, perhaps someday a man with no legs could operate prosthetics just like they were his own. Then there is the way this tech could apply to operating equipment, robotics, with no external movement, driving, flying you name it. The time is coming, and I'm sure I'll see it in my lifetime.


The scary thing is neural pathways can be thought of like a two-way street, and if a computer can receive and translate your electrode impulses into motion, it could potentially send information in. If a computer can translate thoughts that means it can speak the language of the brain. Maybe the time will come (cue dramatic music) when implants prevent us from doing certain behaviors, filtering out impulse patterns that represent bad behavior, (rape murder). Or on a worse case scenario, controlling an individuals like a puppets. If this is part of the package that comes with this technology, I doubt you and I will ever read about it in any public print.

The Brain

The human mind is an amazing organ, by far the most complex organ in the known universe, yet so user friendly, any idiot can utilize it. The mind can be programed to preform the most complicated external task, while still maintaining, the complete organization of your entire bodily function. This post will dive into some of the human brains wonderful features as well as some of the unusual.

I am quite sure that there are many people who just drift through life and never question anything, going through the daily motions. Maybe that's fine for some, but I am not content to be a passenger on this voyage called life. I cannot just placidly look out the window as my chauffeur takes me on my way. I must ask, how is it that this car moves, how does the engine work, how does my driver manipulate the controls to get the desired results, how can I manipulate the controls. How can i drive this vessel. Good news for me, because it is within every one's ability to grasp the wheel and steer. Yet before we start out on the road, lets take a quick drivers training course and familiarize ourselves with some of the controls.


Reason and Automation
The automation portion of the brain handles basic functions that your not even aware of, signaling the heart to beat, breathing, digesting, and the like. Fortunately for us, automation handles these bodily duties without every consulting higher reason. Since the automation portion of the brain controls all the bodily function, this leaving you free to focus on whatever you want. I'm sure that if the opposite was true, most of us would forget to do breathe several times a day.

Automation contains many learned things as well, language, memory, motor skills. Maybe you've taken for granted the complex symphony of muscle movement that is necessary to walk. This is due to the fact that few of us can remember far back enough to reflect on what is was like to learn this daily task. Learning to play a musical instrument is a perfect example of how higher reason delegates its responsibility to automation in regard learned behaviors. Initially the muscle movements are slow, and one struggles, every motion must be calculated. Then with time after the correct movements are repeated enough, the automation portion of the brain is programed and takes over, and thus one can preform a complex task without any conscious effort.

The automation portion can also be reprogrammed. Sometimes automation is programmed poorly with bad habits. Memory is a good example of this, as well as speech impediments. (that are not the result of physical issues) Go take a look at any memory builder book, (you can find them at almost any book store.) Thought patterns that are typically handled by automation can be reprogrammed as well. Depression, Obsessive compulsive disorder, eating disorders. Generally these are thoughts patterns that have been programed in a manner that is not beneficial. For more information on this type of "Re-wiring", check out my post on the subject look up cognitive behavior therapy

The mind has a safety mechanism in regard to automation. For example one cannot make your heart stop beating with thought alone. Perhaps this is not only practical, but due to the fact that it is automation that was never learned. To summarize, if it was learned, it can be relearned.

Consciousness
Who are you? What part of the Brain is the "YOU"?
The concept of self is one of the most fascinating features of the brain. I like to define the concept of self as: An organism's with an awareness that has evolved to the point of being aware of itself.

Yet there is a more precise definition. I suspect that you are like me, in the sense that most likely you feel that there is an "I" that is control of your decision making; pushing buttons evaluating incoming information from your senses. This is not true, as science learns more, they are discovering that this notion of an "I" is an illusion. The concept of self is really a storm of neurons strung about the brain all competing for immediate attention. When one neuron shouts louder that the others, the sensory data is evaluated the brain concocts the single self impression. (-time magazine, Jan 27, 2007).

Maybe its hard to grasp this concept, yet if we think about it in simpler terms that we can relate to, this concept becomes a bit more clear. If i asked you: What is it that you drive to work?, you would say "A car". You would not say "I drive a gasoline fueled automobile that uses combustion to convert kinetic energy into torque." If i asked you; "What is that creates the illusion of control? You would not say " I am the result of a billion neurons constantly competing priority to be recognized." If the concept of self was compared to a car, the car itself would be our body, the neurons would drive the car, yet a different neuron or group of neurons would be in control every second. The concept of self is how the passenger of the car relates to the driver, no matter which neuron is driving, you feel as if it is your driver. (maybe that doesn't simplify anything, lol! but what the hell, its worth a try.)

Sometimes the brain is to complex for it's own good, so next time i will discuss some of the anomalies that arise from such fancy engineering. Addiction, egomania, mass hysteria, schizophrenia and many, more stay tuned!