A Matter of Minds

I have been noticing a variety of articles today. I thought this was interesting for summing up current attitudes...

From: "The Ancient Greek Cosmological Principle"

"In present times this other tendency reappears as an attempt at reducing all spiritual phenomena to intellectual ones, all intellectual to mental, all mental to biological, all biological to chemical, all chemical to physical, and all physical to the unified theory of all interactions. The entire content of the Universe thus is comprised in one set of mathematical equations - what a lofty goal!"

and

"Healing Children with Attentional, Emotional and Learning Challenges"

An interesting discussion of sensory issues that some children develop and her recommnedations. Esp. movement (she doesn't mention yoga - but it would certainly fit) and the use of senses and hands-on activities. I don't think that it can be assumed that people with sensory issues were esp. sedentary - but that being sedentary would not be helpful - is the main thing.

"I also support an educational environment that teaches our children about the world using all of their senses including vision, hearing, and especially hands-on learning experiences. Our culture and even some educational institutions, with their reliance on television, computers, and videogames for teaching, are not developing our children’s minds and senses. Competitive sports in the very young child overstimulate and activate the “stress” nervous system. Sugar filled foods, a lack of essential Omega 3 fatty acids (found in cod liver oil, fish, walnuts, flax seed oil, algae, dark green leafy vegetables and breast milk), inadequate sleep, a sedentary lifestyle (where children ride in cars instead of walking) are all making it hard for children’s neurological pathways to be myelinated and formed. In addition, toxins in our environment, including mercury in some of our vaccinations, also may have affected these sensitive pathways."
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Neurological pathways and perceptions. Reducing the world to brain pathways and mathematical formulas. The idea of reality as it is being experienced. Not hiding from the senses - from experiences. While Mathematics can be a wonderful thing - and it's interesting that people can figure out exactly what part of the brain is doing what - that concept is pretty far removed from experiencing life. Life, as it is experienced is not 1s and 0s.

Like with the sensory issues. It can become pretty easy to experience the world vicariously through the television, computers and games. They may be good for some things - but they may prevent people from experiencing real life. And the less one experiences real life - the more difficult it can become. Esp. if you have a tendency to develop odd sensory reactions and other similar such things.

As the second article mentions - some of the problems (including sensory issues) could be due to environmental toxins. There was also an article today in the New York Times about various man-produced products - some as benign as shampoos, or things with lavendar and tea tree oil - as well as things like testosterone creams that inadvertantly have been causing puberty in preschoolers. At least with those things - when the cause was identified - the problems were resolved for the most part.

It's one thing to try to understand reality / be able to interact with it. There is the sense that people are so intent on compartmentalizing reality and reshaping reality to suit their purposes that our grasp on reality is getting lost. That which brains have normally been able to do without our conscious effort - like sensing things - are beyond our ability to control. Knowing where the 1s and 0s go is not the same as being able to control or affect those things in the brain. The best we may be able to do to control our minds is to eat the right things, be active, avoid poisons. The things that people have been doing forever.

Maybe some people figure they will get inside of people minds and fix them - as if they are mathematical equations - when they don't work right. I find that difficult to believe - but then I didn't think I would be sitting here with a computer on my lap - 25 years ago.