Science and Mystery: Awakening the Ancient Brain

Last night I had a remarkable dream: the body lays flat, dry, devoid of moisture in the dream a presence is felt as the radient fog of the sun... It draws unnervingly near, this nocular cloud rain energy and in ten disembodied voices it announces: ‘Hello, remember me?’ The contexts of the dream (the details of which I will occlude) grows silent...

An image retained on my retina makes it clear to me as I wake up in the dead of the night that the ten voices belongs to a single mythological/symbolic/metaphysical creature "identified in ancient texts" as The Ancient Brain...

DREAM RETOLD: Concerning Mamu the goddess of dreams, he said

The experience of being back at college, pursuing "Psychology" none-the-less, is having a strong impact on my flesh being, indeed. This dream manifested the brain in all its glory. The brain is significant in several regards. Not boring you all with the details of my life, I must say that it has been an unexpected adventure so far. I have been passionately engaged in readings in philosophy and psychology for the past decade plus, decidedly outside of academic circles. Granted it’s been sporadic, wild and anarchic, spirals pursuing whims and desires ad hoc, following faint threads of poetic luster rather than concentric chains of methodological research. What about 'science'? Today I am engaged in a structured academic setting - lo and behold - I very much look forward to learning scientific methodology and perhaps even gaining a scientific context pursuant towards facts, evidence and testable theories a'la carte. The poignant dream about the ancient brain being, I feel, was prompted by reading the first chapter of the course textbook, where the ‘three levels of analysis’ is explained and elucidated etc. The triad carries valuable insights as a foundational framework to begin scientific work within: the Brain; the Person; the Group, all meshed together in the - fourth element - the Physical World [Lebenswelt]. Malleable matter molded into this and that individual. As an Individual I am contemplating this as I lay down to sleep after the first lecture. The Brain materialized as this “ancient presence”, that made me reflect as I was walking about the next day on how the mystery of being alive and being endowed with this “ancient brain”, then "constituting a person", who's existing in “a society” (e.g. a group/country/culture etc.) - is like the blind spot of the eye!

Throughout the daily routine it is normally not reflected upon, it is taken for granted, but all this is quite the mystery!

Dr Sophia P. stated in passing in that first class last Monday that she was not “looking for mysteries”, but contrasting instead with "Psychology is a Science" – of mental processes and behavior et al. – in search of clear ideas verified by facts supported by objective evidence!

Yes, yes, of course it must be such! How else?

However, as the ten voices in my dream last night made me recall, we - all of us - are also ancient, truly old – born long ago into a mysterious universe, a universe escaping our logic when we least expect it (like while reading chapter 1 of Fundamentals of Psychology in Context!) . My ruminations takes me here: our brains have evolved over millions of years, so has our logic and our scientific understanding (well, maybe a bit less than that – what/when is the beginning of Science anyhow?); our ideological constructs regarding what it means to be a person, a particular individual, in this particular culture/society/point-in-history are all evolving too with each passing generation, with each newborn human being – each one a miracle if there ever was one! To think that we will be able to capture all this bustling “atomic/ molecular” activity of birth and death into some neat and eternal Theory seems to me like perfected hyperbole, or at least navel-gazing hubris. That said, I wish to reiterate that the pursuit of knowledge itself - theory – for us here manifested as “Psychology as the Science of Mental Processes and Behavior” - and its delicate moments of enlightenment, lasting or not, and the illuminating awareness for the individual doing the hard work - is well worth the effort!

Gaining knowledge is a process - - - and I do believe true and false knowledge is possible!

It’s just that here at the outset I find it crucial to state that what we are engaged in is not “dipping into the pot of knowledge” to soak up the gravy of what has been determined for ever and all times to be “true”, but rather to construct and fortify synaptic connections that will lend themselves to critical thinking and self-awareness. The Brain is, as is the Person and Society (the Group), a work in progress.

'Science and Mystery: Awakening the Ancient Brain’ I decided to call this bb posting, because I have found that within the clearest facts of science is profound mystery, and within the most occult mystery lies a light of scientific knowledge.

As far as the anatomy of the “Ancient Brain” is concerned, well, it was just a dream.