Irreducible Mind
Extended Mind
Video: Biologist Rupert Sheldrake makes a presentation on 'Extended Mind' to a group of Microsoft employees. [~1 hour]
Video Abstract: We have been brought up to believe that the mind is located inside the head. But there are good reasons for thinking that this view is much too limited. Recent experimental results show that people can influence others at a distance just by looking at them, even if they look from behind and if all sensory clues are eliminated. And people's intentions can be detected by animals from miles away. But perhaps the commonest kind of non-local interaction mental influence occurs in connection with telephone calls, where most people have had the experience of thinking of someone shortly before they ring, or knowing who is calling when the phone starts ringing. Recent experiments on telephone telepathy have given highly significant positive results. So have experiments on email telepathy. Rupert Sheldrake will show how his hypothesis of morphic fields and morphic resonance could provide a new way of understanding the extended mind, and of going beyond the usual mind/brain problem.
Audio: Sheldrake presents a fascinating lecture at an IONS conference on the question, 'Can Memory Survive the Death of Our Brains?'
Sheldrake's IONS Lecture - Part I [24:30]
Sheldrake's IONS Lecture - Part II [19:01]
Abstract: Sheldrake argues that there is underwhelming evidence that memory is stored in the brain. We believe that because it is merely a tacit assumption widely held by orthodox science. He goes on to explain the theory of morphogenesis which hypothesizes form-determining fields, analogous to magnetic fields, in which memory may be stored. And like magnetic fields, which lie outside the magnet, the morphogenic fields lie outside the cells, tissues, brain and body. Such a theory might provide an explanatory basis for such phenomena as remote viewing, telepathy, and past life memories. Some of Sheldrake's and others' research are already finding corroborating evidence for possibilities.
Visit Sheldrake's website to find out more about his ideas and work.
Visit the IONS website to learn more about Sheldrake and other presentations of his.
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Find out more about mind and brain at Tom's website.
What is the role of the cerebellum and the cortex in attention (focus), intention and action?
Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another. [Video 18:45]
Mind & Neuroplasticity
MRI studies of London cabbies' brains confirm that brain structures grow with use.
A groundbreaking work of science confirms, for the first time, the independent existence of the mind–and demonstrates the possibilities for human control over the workings of the brain.
New research shows that belief leads to change in brain chemistry.
Here's
the recent report on the study on the effects of meditation on the
brain:
Regulation of the Neural Circuitry of Emotion by Compassion Meditation.
The Brain Fitness Program
PBS recently aired The
Brain Fitness Program about neuroplasticity and techniques for improving
brain fitness as one ages. Click the image to see the 4-minute trailer. [buy
the DVD]
Life Without Memory: The Case of Clive Wearing
Neurologist Oliver Sacks writes about Clive Wearing in the recent New Yorker article, The Abyss: Music and Amnesia.
A film on Clive Wearing reveals the extend of his episodic memory loss and the remarkable retention of knowledge and skills, semantic and procedural memory. - Part 1 Part 2
No Brainers
In the May 15, 2007 issue of his daily electronic newsletter, The SchwartzReport, Stephan Schwartz, introducing an article on some remarkable research, recollects:
“When I was about 12 or 13, my father, an anesthesiologist and professor of medicine, and I were having lunch at the 'Doctors’ Table' near the hospital where he worked. One of his best friends, a surgeon with whom he frequently operated, got deep into a conversation concerning a young woman who had been brought to the hospital after a terrible car accident. When they opened the skull to relieve pressure they were stunned to discover that in place of her 'brain' she had a sac of fluid. Only the brain stem was present. Yet, she was a cheerleader, an honors student, and about to go to Smith.
“Over the years, I would occasionally read about something similar and track it as far as I could get. By the 1970s, when I quit, I had fourteen cases. Like Savantism, these reports suggested to me that the mind being the brain alone simply doesn’t work, either theoretically or in practice. This physicalist view lacks that aspect of the self that exists outside time [and] space: nonlocal consciousness.”
Is the Brain Really Necessary? provides additional information on clinical
studies in which a large part of the brain was missing and there was, still,
normal or above intelligence.