The Architecture of the Mind
These are my "lab notes" on my modest attempts to understand mind,
consciousness and spirit. The notes are usually not modified after
being recorded. They are captured as quickly and truthfully as
possible...there is an unfinished quality.
There is no copyright and I encourage all to comment on and distribute
these as widely as possible. I feel that these observations have shed
some light on the workings of my own awareness and its interface with
other minds, society.
James R. Tyson, October 1994, San Francisco
1. Major states of consciousness
a. wakefulness
1. normal awareness
2. drug altered states
b. hypnogogic state
c. sleep
1. non-dreaming
2. dreaming
d. higher states reported in spiritual literature
e. mental states resulting from disease or injury
2. Observations on mental telepathy (MT)
a. existence of mental telepathy is uncertain
b. widely reported and believed but mostly denied by science
c. some say it occurs all the time but only comes clearly into
consciousness in certain drug states
d. anecdotal evidence is abundant but possibility of coincidences
cannot be excluded
e. mental telepathic communications are non-verbal
f. short-range MT: within 100 feet
long-range MT: thousands of miles
g. short-range MT could be due to subliminal perception of
unconscious transmissions, such as, body movements, micro-
facial expressions, fluctuations in breathing, micro-
variations
in voice tone, etc. --- I strongly suspect that humans
communicate on the conscious level (speech, obvious gestures),
on subconscious level (micro-body language, micro-speech,
etc.)
and on a spectrum of intermediate levels
h. possible explanations of long-range MT
1. as yet undetected physical transmissions
i. electromagnetic
ii. unknown physical fields
2. all humans (living things?) are linked together at some
spiritual/supernatural level
i. SRMT often seems associated with detection by another person
of
my emotional state, sexual thoughts, taboo thoughts
(scatalogical) --- its like the more taboo the thought, the
louder the transmission -- could be the more taboo the
thought,
the more sensitive I am to interpreting others' random
responses as MT -- a form of paranoia
j. We may feel that another person has read our thoughts because
he is responding to activation of the same mental constructs
that we possess. That is two people subjected to similar
stimuli may happen to activate similar stored mental patterns.
Similar physical patterns recur in diverse areas of natural
form, such as the spiral in a fern and in sunflowers, due to
mathematical laws. This commonality of structure represents
an
"inherent communication" between the two separate entities.
This is very close to Jung's concept of "synchronicity.'
3. Meditation
a. a fundamental tool for spiritual growth
b. said to be the gateway to higher states of spiritual
consciousness
c. a gradual winding down of the chatter of everyday thoughts in
order to quietly observe the world, mind, self
c2. as the chatter diminishes but the awareness of self remains,
one would tend to identify less and less with the chatter
d. universally practiced by spiritual seekers, wise men, monks
e. purgation is a prerequesite or corequesite, ie. work to undo
previous sins, crimes, debts
f. also must cleanse body with healthy food, exercise, sleep
g. must maintain healthy attitude: compassionate, peaceful, non-
anger, non-hate, tolerance
4. Taboo thoughts
a. Merriam-Webster Dictionary on 'taboo'
1. set apart as charged with a dangerous supernatural power
2. banned especially as immoral or dangerous
3. a prohibition against touching, saying or doing something
for fear of immediate harm from a mysterious superhuman
force
4. a prohibition imposed by social usage or as a protection
b. examples of taboo thoughts
1. sex, especially homosexuality
2. bodily waste functions and products
3. disrespect toward the Deity
4. disrespect toward religious authority, rituals,
buildings,
objects
c. taboos vary among different cultures
d. within a culture taboos vary with persons and circumstances,
eg. medical doctors conducting examinations
e. A taboo is like a fence placed around certain types of
behavior or ideas, to keep most people away from them.
5. Higher states of consciousness
a. most interesting subject imaginable
b. only one highest state but perhaps infinite levels between
that
and everyday human awareness
c. highest state is oneness with God, Higher Power, Creator of
Universe
d. a human may prepare himself for this but advance to higher
states is a gift given from above, Grace of God
e. hallucinogenic drugs may give a glimpse, perhaps severly
distorted, into higher states
f. higher states may come for minutes or hours, or in spiritually
advanced humans may come permanently
g. description of higher states (as seen from LSD state)
1. terrifying due to total exposure
2. loss of self-control in usual sense, loss of 'I'/ego
3. need to accept what comes, not resist, not fight
4. awareness of human life being utterly in control of great
supernatural powers, down to the last detail -- powers that
are normally hidden but always present
6. Unconscious mind
a. unconscious body functions
1. normally unconscious but controllable
a. breathing
b. eye blinking
c. yawning
2. unconscious and not controllable, yogis may be exception
a. heartbeat
b. operation of internal organs, ie. liver, stomach
7. Conscious mind
a. may be the consistent/coherent model constructed by the brain
in order to permit effective decision making when selecting
actions -- unconscious may contain all sensory data including
inconsistent data
8. Boundary between conscious and unconscious mind
a. hypnogogic state -- a strange mental state between wakefulness
and dreaming
b. the boundary does not seem fixed but changes with time --
Freud's notion of preconscious
c. perhaps much of the unconscious material is always present in
our awareness but we can only refer to, form deliberate
thoughts and speak about selected parts -- those parts we call
the conscious mind
d. the conscious part seems closely linked to the 'ego' or sense
of I -- this element is greatly attenuated or absent in dreams
-- it seems to be some kind of powerful censor or filter
e. perhaps, the 'I'/ego arises in order to permit selection of
definite responses when there are many possibilities
f. the ego does its best to build a consistent model of the world
in the face of extremely complex and often contradictory
sensory inputs -- one tool it uses is suppression of
inconsistent & irrelevant information
g. only with a coherent picture of reality can the full energies
of the mind and body be focused/united in to supporting a
hopefully appropriate course of action
h. Hypotheses to explain the difference between conscious mind
and
unconscious mind.
1. Conscious mind contains only data that can be assimilated
into a 'consistent' model/world view.
2. Conscious mind is an organizational layer on top of
unconscious mind.
3. Conscious mind is identical with the ego or sense of I.
4. Conscious mind is a special function of the mind having
to
do with our relations to other humans. Suppression of
taboo or socially unacceptable material from
consciousness
suggests that consciousness may be shaped by social
pressures.
5. If interhuman communications proceeded at as large a
bandwidth as intrahuman communications, there would be no
sense of self. (The identity of nations is largely the
result of much easier communications of people sharing
the
same language than people who use different languages.)
*** 6. Conscious mind is the interface structure between
internal
mental processes and external social processes. One
large
factor it must deal with is the huge discrepancy between
the communication bandwidths of internal and external
processes. This fits well with the idea that conscious
mind is that part which may be reported on by the person,
since language is the tool of human interface. Ordinary
human language could not describe in real-time, mental
events of sub-second duration.
7. One difference between conscious and unconscious
processes
is a factor of speed, unconscious being much faster. The
flashing of high-speed messages to the unconscious
(subliminal perception) supports this idea. Could the
shape of the conscious human mind entirely correspond to
the shape of the structures evolved to interface two
information systems of vastly differing speeds.
8. The unconscious mental processes are always accessible
but
we have no way of describing them.
9. By introspection we know that conscious events emerge,
change and dissipate at about the same rate as human
interactions rather than at the millisecond speed of
neural events.
10. Could the entire contents of consciousness be regulated
by the social control structures? Does the social
system,
micro-manage the division between conscious and
unconscious mind? We are aware of some obvious examples
of social taboos forcing mental data to be suppressed
into
the UCS. Could the process be much more pervasive than
generally thought?
i. What are some of the issues to be considered when two high
speed processors need to communicate through a very low bandwidth
channel? Picture two Cray supercomputers communicating via a 300
baud line. One attribute of the channel could be regulated by
either processor, the bandwidth (concentration increases the
bandwidth, ignoring decreases it). This regulation is itself an
important communication. Bandwidth could be effectively expanded
by more complex encoding/decoding of messages -- language, symbol
systems. Memory systems for queuing messages may also be needed.
The organization of the interface depends greatly on whether the
communication is seen occuring as sequential discrete events
rather than like a real-time control process.
9. Dreams
10. Habits
a. some of my "bad" habits, ie. habits I would like to be rid of
*** censored ***
2. excess eating
*** censored ***
4. depressive thoughts
b. What exactly are habits? How do they work? What are their
properties? "Habit" is defined as "a behavior pattern
acquired
by frequent repetition.'
c. How do behavior patterns become established or entrenched?
Why
are some habits so difficult to modify or eliminate. They
must
involve mental functions outside of conscious control. With
bad habits, there is a conflict between different parts of the
mind -- one part engages in behavior that another part, the
conscious part, disapproves.
d. I might assume that a person must get positive reward from
practicing the behavior associated with habits. It is also
true that the mind may approve a behavior at some times and
later disapprove the same behavior, ie. excess eating or
drinking.
e. Repetitive behavior. The mind/body uses repetitive behavior
patterns in many contexts, at different levels of granularity.
Probably this is a key component of the architecture of the
mind. Repetitive behavior is analogous to the concept of
macros or subroutines in programming.
f. How many examples of repetitive behavior can I identify?
1. bodily functions: breathing, heartbeat, digestion,
temperature regulation
2. thought habits: perceiving lawyers as bad, suicide
thoughts when depressed
3. speech habits: use of certain phrases, words
4. twirling my toy, the red nutdriver
5. playing computer games
6. going to bars to find beautiful gay boys
7. riding a bicycle, walking, running (cerebellum)
g. Repetitive behavior is a fundamental mental process which
occasionally results in undesired side effects -- bad habits.
h. Describe the development and extinction of repetitive behavior
patterns.
11. Hidden Mental Powers.
a. Are there important mental capabilities that we are unaware
of?
Some mystical teachings, especially in the oriental traditions
such as Yoga, claim that there are.
b. It is even claimed that a human can utterly transcend the
human
state and ascend to a godlike awareness with vast magical
powers.
c. Some reported hidden mental powers:
1. mental telepathy
2. direct mental control over the physical world --
telekinesis
3. direct knowledge of past and future, including past lives
4. ability to see hidden objects ("to see at 30 versts")
d. Some other conceivable mental powers:
1. ability to think much faster than the normal rate
2. perfect memory
3. ability to replay at will, past experiences
4. ability to consciously regulate all bodily processes
5. perfect dream recall
6. understanding the significance of dreams
7. hidden talents, such as musical ability
8. communication with animals
12. What are my reasons for wishing to explore the conscious and
unconscious mind and their interface?
a. A breakthrough in understanding would bring me fame and
recognition.
b. Mystics say that God is to be found in your heart, in you
innermost self.
c. I might find a cornucopia of unknown mental powers.
d. This is the most difficult problem in thought. Just working
on
it enhances my self esteem and my status when I describe this
work to others.
e. Understanding the operation of the human mind, if possible,
would bring great advances including aiding mental illness,
improving learning, possibly aiding computer design.
13. Existing disciplines for the study of mind.
a. psychology
b. branches of medicine including neurology, psychiatry
c. Jung's psychological analysis
d. psychoanalysis
e. mysticisms including yoga, meditation, prayer, contemplation
14. I am inclined to believe that true insight to the operation of
mental processes would expose an extremely strange realm of great
powers. There is even a sense of guilt in attempting to grasp the
mind, a sense of violating a sacred taboo, for which a heavy penalty
may be enforced.
15. Diagram of mental architecture of Waking State
+------------------------+ +-------------------------+
| P/CS | C/CS | P/CS |
| +----------------+ | SOCIETY | +----------------+ |
| | P/UCS | | | | P/UCS | |
| | +--------+ | | | | +--------+ | |
| | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | C/UCS | | | | | | C/UCS | | |
| | | | | | | | +--------+ | |
| | +--------+ | | | | | |
| +----------------+ | | +----------------+ |
| | | |
+------------------------+ +-------------------------+
c/ucs = collective unconscious p/ucs = personal unconscious
c/cs = collective conscious p/cs = personal conscious
16. The above diagram suggests explanations for several things. In
sleep the p/cs layer becomes, in a sense, thinner or disappears
altogether leaving an awareness of p/ucs -- dreams, languages of
symbols. It is as if awareness goes on, but its content and structure
change dramatically. But I do not necessarily equate p/ucs with
dreams.
Also in meditation, when the everyday mind (p/cs) gradually becomes
silent, awareness of other/higher realities comes. If the p/cs is the
social interface then in order to attenuate the p/cs, (monastic)
withdrawal from society would be very helpful. Forty days in the
wilderness brings awareness of God?
Entry into higher consciousness, nearer to God, is said to demand a
complete removal of the self-will (=ego =p/cs?). God is said to be
found in the very core of our beings. As the outer layers in the
diagram are attenuated, God reveals himself.
17. The diagram also may provide insight into human communication.
Obviously there is communication in the form of language and simple
gestures between one person's p/cs and others'. I think there is
probably also regular communications between peoples' p/ucs' and
perhaps between some person's p/cs and others p/ucs.
The phenomena of subliminal perception, hypnosis, subliminal
advertising provide insight into p/ucs communication. Subliminal
communication bypasses the p/cs by various methods: high speed
flashing
of visual messages, embedding audio messages in music, playing audio
messages in reverse, sexual inuendos hidden in graphic images. The
surprising fact (?) that these methods work reveal a receiver, the
p/ucs, with decoding powers much greater than the p/cs. Another
attribute of this channel is that suggestions are accepted relatively
uncritically -- the guardian ego is bypassed.
Could there be a constant "conversation" among the p/ucs' of a group
of
people. I imagine a constant stream of subtle messages being
transmitted and received. What forms could "subtle messages" take?
So-called body language may go deeper than now known. Could every
muscle twitch be encoded with p/ucs information? (Lie detectors based
on voice stress analysis of "microtremors" suggest that the underlying
mental state is broadcast in this manner.)
Freudian slips could be one coarse form of subtle communication.
Speech is a low bandwidth channel but human brains are ultra complex,
high bandwidth devices. Picture two Cray supercomputers trying to
communicate across a 300 baud line. If we assume that higher
communication bandwidth is desireable, how might evolution have
designed a system to overcome the inherent bandwidth limitation of
audio/speech communication?
-- encoding in rich symbol systems
-- multiplexing multiple messages onto one channel (Freudian
slips
may be more than random eruptions of unconscious forces, they may
be p/ucs transmissions to the other's p/ucs, encoded in the
nuance
of language.)
-- awareness of the other's current state improves communication
I can imagine humans richly transmitting and receiving high-speed
subtle messages constantly. Picture many people together
communicating. You can almost see people surrounded by a shell or
aura consists of subconscious information -- could this be the "astral
body" referred to in yoga.
There might be multiple unconscious mental centers in each person that
compete to share the speech channel. Perhaps these centers in one
person communicate with the corresponding centers in other people.
18. The p/cs or ego appears to be a fairly brittle function since it
breaks down so easily. It is removed by sleep(?), many drugs,
physical
damage.
19. Hypnogogic states. The transitions from waking to sleep and from
sleep to waking may provide great insight into the relation between
the
p/cs and the p/ucs and their natures.
From waking to sleep.
-- dreamy states gradually appear merged with waking thoughts
From sleep to waking.
-- dreams are often erased by some mechanism, they rapidly fade
from memory
.G.
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