When Someone Says That You Are The Brain Show Them This

[TJ Reeves]

In my research for a little book I'm writing, I came upon a fucking insane article.

In france, a man has lived a totally normal life despite missing 90% of his brain. 

Here's his brain scan:

From the Article:

Doctors think the majority of the man's brain was slowly destroyed over the course of 30 years by the build-up of fluid in the brain, a condition known as hydrocephalus. He'd been diagnosed with it as an infant and treated with a stent, but it was removed when he was 14 years old, and since then, the majority of his brain seems to have been eroded.

But despite his minimal remaining brain tissue, the man wasn't mentally disabled - he had a low IQ between 75 to 84, but was working as a civil servant. He was also married with two children, and was relatively healthy. 

"Any theory of consciousness has to be able to explain why a person like that, who's missing 90 percent of his neurons, still exhibits normal behaviour," Axel Cleeremans, a cognitive psychologist from the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium, told Quartz.

There are a few books on Leo's Book List that talk about consciousness and the brain, if you are interested. 

For now though, recognize that YOU ARE NOT YOUR BRAIN. 

This is important to grasp, because the belief that "you are your brain" is detrimental to personal development work and especially enlightenment work.

As long as you equate your true nature with your brain, you will play the Game of Life in Safe Mode. 

That's all. Enjoy!

Edited July 13, 2017 by TJ Reeves

[d0ornokey]

what the fuck. my mind keeps getting blown

[Leo Gura]

Yeah, those kinda cases have been reported over the years.

Lots of odd stuff like that can be found in the medical case studies. They are dismissed as strange anomalies.

If that guy in the picture above drilled a little hole in the top of his head, he could fill his brain hole with Coke, stick a swirly straw in there, and walk around slipping it all day. A handy evolutionary advantage!

[Samuel Garcia]

@TJ Reeves But doesn't the brain allow us to exist?

[TJ Reeves]

6 hours ago, Outer said:

The brain was impacted, not missing, aka pressed against the skull etc. 

The impaction caused neuronal death. You would have understood this if you googled what's going on.

Neurons aren't that squishy. There's a reason Trepanation has existed as a form of brain surgery for 2,000 years: brain cells very quickly die when they get pressed into the skull. Even just a little bit of squishing tends to be a major problem.

6 hours ago, Outer said:

Sad how this man with an IQ of 75-84 and a majority of his brain "missing", is the mean in some undeveloped countries, genetically.

the issue is not genetics, its more that a: the IQ test sucks and b: peoples from around the world have different focuses and so develop different capacities for action. You develop strength in what you practice, but we demand people practice what we do.

1- There is more genetic similarity between peoples of the world between cultures than there is within cultures. No one culture is genetically superior to another culture in a statistically significant way. Any genetic differences in IQ are on the order of maybe 1-5%, and even that is debatable, as it is due to cultural effects present in the test itself.

2 - And even if there hypothetically were some difference on the order of 10%, which would be huge, there is so much variation amongst people it's useless to make a generalization such as "he is from X country therefore he is genetically inferior due to IQ."

3 - People from other countries would make you look like a fucking idiot because they know how to do things you have absolutely no clue how to do. Westerners are WEIRD.

6 hours ago, Outer said:

We need embryo selection for intelligence

Do we? Says who? Some keyboard junkie? With what evidence?

I hope you know that most of the world's problems are from people making blind conjectures about what the world needs to do. 

On top of that, please tell me what fucking criteria  you mean for intelligence? There's at least 8 different areas:

Verbal-linguistic intelligence refers to an individual's ability to analyze information and produce work that involves oral and written language, such as speeches, books, and emails.

Logical-mathematical intelligence describes the ability to develop equations and proofs, make calculations, and solve abstract problems.

Visual-spatial intelligence allows people to comprehend maps and other types of graphical information.

Musical intelligence enables individuals to produce and make meaning of different types of sound.

Naturalistic intelligence refers to the ability to identify and distinguish among different types of plants, animals, and weather formations found in the natural world.

Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence entails using one's own body to create products or solve problems.

Interpersonal intelligence reflects an ability to recognize and understand other people's moods, desires, motivations, and intentions.

Intrapersonal intelligence refers to people's ability to recognize and assess those same characteristics within themselves.

Which ones are you going to measure people by?

Oh and despite what you might think, science is not even close to measuring what genes contribute to what intelligence. Almost as far off as they are about the brain and consciousness, they are as far off with genetics.

The big reason: Chaotic interplay between genetics, environment, and mind. You cannot even come close to modeling any one intelligence from pure genetics. 

6 hours ago, Outer said:

and lower rates of infectious diseases/parasites(equals more freedom less authoritarianism).

Genetic diversity is what prevents mass wipeout due to sickness.  

Yet, you argue for genetic uniformity. Thats how you create a bottleneck effect. 

If you want to make sure humans don't get wiped out, you would specifically allow for as much random breeding as possible. 

In conclusion, the only reason you argue for any form of genetic culling is because you secretly think that you would be allowed to breed.

But who says that would ever be the case?

For you've demonstrated:

- an inability to google articles like the one above,

- a largely racist, misinformed misunderstanding of intelligence,

- and a lack of knowledge of middle school biology despite having access to proper education 

and yet you believe yourself intelligent enough to call the shots and not get genetically castrated by your own wish. What a joke. 

Edited July 13, 2017 by TJ Reeves

[Echoes]

@TJ Reeves Why do you think the brain exists at all? One could say it is necessary for navigation in the "physical" world, but then there are NDE's and OOBE's and brain scans like the one you posted. So if the brain is just a phenomenon of colour and shape without any function, not even existent in pure experience, what is it? What is its role? Just to make the game more believable and keep everybody in the human character?

[TJ Reeves]

5 hours ago, Echoes said:

@TJ Reeves Why do you think the brain exists at all?

I don't, at least not in the Absolute, Capital "T" Truth sense. 

It's not like I've seen my head even, let alone my brain. For all I know, I'm headless.

The most accurate description of my head is "        ".

When I point to objects in the world I can describe them, but when I point to where my head is supposed to be, all I get is "          "

My perception is like this:

My world is like this:

I have never actually seen where I am, only everywhere that I am not - even the parts that seem like "I am all" are actually parts that I am Not.

In experience, when I move, it's seems like the world, which exists as the form of I AM ALL-except-NOT-actually, moves through where I am and turns into the more conventional form of I AM-NOT... The world gets created and destroyed wherever I look. 

On top of that, I am open to the possibility of feeling like "where I AM" moves to other places outside of what's been told to me is my skull. I haven't personally experienced it, but I'm at least open to it.

However, when I factor in that time only exists Now, I can't factor in experience -- For all experiences take at least some time to process. As such, no experience is actually true. 

Yet, still there I am. 

-------------

That said: 

If you're going to go around completely denying any and all ties between your brain and consciousness in this world of common experience, you're throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

I have personally experienced traumatic brain injuries from football that affected my mood, memories, and behaviors despite trying to deny the injuries. That is, if the placebo effect were to take place and the brain had absolutely, positively nothing to do with the contents of consciousness in this realm, then I should not have been affected whatsoever. But the contents of consciousness were indeed affected. 

So, I have considerable, first-hand evidence in the relative, shared, "normal" impermanent world of my awareness that I have a brain that has at least some ties to consciousness in this world. 

Sure this is all mental content, but the mental content does interact with itself. 

For common, everyday purposes of talking to people, referring to my head and my brain tends to make a lot of sense. I'm not going to go through a whole philosophical derivation of the no-self when I go buy a hat at the hat store. 

"Excuse me, sir, can I buy a hat for my not-head?"

5 hours ago, Echoes said:

One could say it is necessary for navigation in the "physical" world, but then there are NDE's and OOBE's and brain scans like the one you posted. 

I don't disagree.

5 hours ago, Echoes said:

So if the brain is just a phenomenon of colour and shape without any function, not even existent in pure experience, what is it?

Mu. 

5 hours ago, Echoes said:

What [the brain's] role?

It seems to anchor us within just one version of the Game of Life, despite just being more of the Game itself. The funny thing is that there is no gaming console for the overall Game itself. Consciousness simply Is. 

5 hours ago, Echoes said:

Just to make the game more believable and keep everybody in the human character?

Basically. 

We could imagine an overall mind-at-large that has the picture of Absolutely Everything NOW sending out probes/tentacles to examine consciousness (itself, the universe) through a filtered perspective. Such probes get anchored and constrained by the brain, with the brain simply being what-it-looks-like from an outside perspective. But the brain might only apply in certain realities and not others. This would allow mind-at-large to focus on and appreciate what's going on one thing at a time. 

Or not, I mean, who knows? I don't actually know much about anything. And it's not like anything I write here will be the Absolute Truth. 

Edited July 13, 2017 by TJ Reeves