Interesting article (dogma, Articles, disease)

[Isis]

I found this article intersting and thought I would share it.
Proof that seemingly contradictory thougths and practices can be brought together?
Dalai Lama visit provides a subject for scientists

[anders]

Many thanks, Isis! Immensely interesting and promising. This may even in its course provide an answer to my question: Is thinking a consciuos process?

[Isis]

I actually read an interesting article on www.ektopos.com called 'Mind Trancending Matter'. Tests on patients suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder registered a single part of the brian functioning (firing synapses showing highlighted activity in specific areas of the brain). Apparently, throughout the lifespan of the brain it is capable of being rewired (ie. stroke patients 'relearning' to walk, talk, read, or write), and it proved that the rewiring could be caused directly from the focused action/attention of the mind. These patients would effectivly rewire their brains to resist the urges the disease created.
The brain is a three pound organ designed to regulate the circulation of hormones and interpret the nervous system and since everything people do results solely from their brains, and everything the brain does results solely from material causes, this implies people are no different than any other complicated machine and the brain no different in principle than any very complex computer. But, through the minds power to focus attention and systematically 'rewire' itself the brain shows that belief can effectivly transfer into biology. This power of focusing attention is often called using the 'minds eye', it's the ability to step 'out' of one's self and view in compleate 'wholeness' ( and grasping the compleate picture of the river of life) their thoughts as well as their resultant actions. The patients were educated to recognise the symptoms of their disease and through stepping out of the mind were able to resist, knowing the disease causes these unnatural urges. This ability to use the 'minds eye' to rewire our thought processes proves that human brains are far more than complicated computers becasue of the ability to constantly sentiently exist.

"misery loves company" - When one tortures themself they feels that it gives him/her the right to torture others; this inclines one to accept any dogma by which this right is forcified. Stepping out of one's self and using the 'minds eye' allows the individual to recognise the feelings of dispare, acknowledge them and eventually move on. Mind transcending matter...

it's also a known 'cure' (if htat's what you can call it) for some forms of depression.

[anders]

I tried to use your link, but found nothing on Mind vs. Matter. A pity, because I had a stroke a few years ago, and in spite of a brain infarction, clearly visible on MR scans, I am rather like before. Physically tiring quicker, but otherwise no complaints. I keep wondering, though, if there are any changes to my psyche. I do not feel that I have lost any functions or feelings, certainly not any loss of memories. The "rewiring" is an interesting theory - and/or do we have a back-up function, and/or could information be stored like in a hologram? I have no theory of my own.

[Isis]

Here try this link
I'm sure there are limits to what functions we can relearn, nad in relearning they can never be the same (equal to) the qualities we had before. But if a stroke victem (I take my grandmother for an example) can learn to read and write again I believe anythign if possible with belief and perciverance.

[anders]

Thank you. It worked.

But please note that the article is a fairly tale about what might be the case in the year 2025!

[Isis]

Well, if we can control our minds in 2025 why can't we do it now?
I still believe belief becomes biology, but realistically, not in the sence that we'll be able to think ourselves free of cancer, but a lot of illnesses are psychosematic.
I beleive if truly understood and believesd man can accomplish anything. I guess I could use the matrix as (a really bad) example of what I mean, believe there is no spoon and there won't be.

[anders]

We cannot do it now, and we probably will not be able to do it in 2025. It is still a fairy tale (excuse the typo in my previous post), not a prophesy guaranteed to come true.

I can agree that many illnesses are psychosomatic, but to a not insignificant extent, they can be cured today with the help of psychologists and psychiatrists. That might of course need a bit of re-thinking, but not necessarily re-wiring, on the side of the patient.

Perhaps because I am not a native speaker of English, I must confess that I did not understand your last sentence. A matrix of what? and what has the spoon to do with it all?

[Engyo]

Anders -

That would be a reference to the first Matrix movie - which some people have found Buddhist overtones in (and others abhor).

[Isis]

I appologise, I assumed that since the Matrix movies were such a big spectical where i live most people have heard of it. (I highly recomend all three movies, rather groundbreaking in its format) Basically, in the first movie (in the trilogy) which I was refering, it follows the premis that humans are 'plugged' into a 'matrix' created by sentient machines to harvest our chemical energy, meaning, our world is only a figment of our imagination (a program created by the machines to keep us stable enough to harvest energy)while, in reality, we are sitting in a goo tub giving energy for our captors to survive (all in all not impossible but pretty unbelievable). In my referance to the spoon, I ment that if we believe that these rules can be bent then they will be (in essence mind over matter). The reason I said this was a bad example is because it is based on so much fiction not many would consider the true meaning behind the story. Nontheless, taking that example into context, the point I'm trying to make is that with the right amount of will power anything is possible.

Anders, you say that psychoanalysis and therapy can help one to 're-think' their situation, this is re-wiring (again using our mind over matter). Thinking different thought processes (taking a different perspective) on thoughts and action which we commonly take for granted in their reptition can essentially train yourself to think in a different way. You can rewire the thought path to essentialy view the glass as half full instead of half empty, or two sizes to big... Like I say, it is all a function of preception.