The Philosopher's Stone

[munty13]

I guess this is the culmination of the essays I developed on the rate of perception. I apologise if it feels like I'm swamping these threads with my essays, but I'd be intrigued to know what you think. Have we found the philosopher's stone - the stone which is not a stone?

Imagine that my rate of perception (the speed at which the brain processes the world) was twice that of yours. There would be twice the amount of thoughts racing through my mind in comparison to the number of thoughts which would occupy yours. I would not experience reality in slow motion though, my thoughts would act as a metronome which would dictate the experience as 'normal', but if you were to observe me, my behaviours would appear manic to you. It would look like I was whizzing around the room, racing to complete any tasks I had been given, and if I was unfocused, I might easily get distracted and try to do all the jobs at once. Any conversation on my part would appear fast, and quite possibly frenzied. When I think of this scenario , I can't help but make a comparison to behaviours which can be a part of anxiety/stress disorders, such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and also schizophrenia. Is it possible that in the cases of some of these disorders, that the rate of perception has been sped-up, and if so - how?

Young children are thought to have a faster rate of perception due to a higher metabolic rate. This is perhaps due to a ravenous brain which needs lots of energy to develop in a procees known as competitive plasticity. In researching these stress disorders, one might expect to find a high metabolic rate was also associated with them, but this however, is not quite the case. What has turned up has been far more intriguing. A theme that runs throughout all these disorders, is a problem with the inner ear, also known as the vestibular system. Vestibular disorders are already officially recognised as being associated with stress disorders, and below I have included a few examples from various sites:

"Vestibular (inner ear) disorders can cause imbalance, hearing changes, nausea, fatigue, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and other symptoms, with potentially devastating effects on a person's day-to-day functioning, ability to work, relationships with family and friends, and quality of life."
http://www.vestibular.org/

"Vestibular deficits and increased neuro-hypersensitivities (sensory overload disorder) follow a variety of neuro-pathological changes in the brain, including, migraine, autism, ADHD, post TBI, hydrocephalus, PTSD, and others."
http://www.diaceph.com/NeuroCompensStudy.htm

"A total of 82 schizophrenic patients participated in this study from Takeda Hospital in Sapporo And Jimmiekai Hospital in Nishinomiya. As the results of this study, 72 out of 82 patients show the abnormal degree of vestibular reactivity, which indicates highly possible involvement of vestibular system in schizophrenia. "
http://www.lib.kobe-u.ac.jp/repository/80070363.pdf

The vestibular system's association with stress disorders perhaps signifies it is part of a survival mechanism designed to get an animal out of sudden danger. A neat trick of nature is to speed up the rate of perception, so that reality 'slows down', and in so doing, it gives an animal time to think about its escape plan. War veterans often speak of a similar experience at times when their lives are in jeopardy. Is the emergence of a stress disorder where the vestibular system fails to de-activate, or slow down, once a danger has passed?

Kids with ADHD use a trick to stimulate the vestibular system ( and speeding up the rate of perception), by becoming more active. I'll quote from an article by The Spectrum Center in Bethesda MD, a treatment centre for children with ADHD: "...Problems arise with ADHD where the vestibular system of the inner ear.....is unable to provide the brain with the sensory stimulation it needs in order to function optimally. In response, the body finds other ways of stimulating the vestible and brain, such as constant body movement. This response would be diagnosed as hyperactivity." Quite bizarrely, there's an example in nature where this behaviour is also mirrored - the territorial displays of the anole lizard.

Terry J.Ord et al, of University of California Davis , produced research on how lizards speed up visual displays in noisy motion habitats. "We found that two species of Puerto Rican lizard, Anolis cristatellus and A. gundlachi, increase the speed of body movements used in territorial signalling to apparently improve communication in visually ‘noisy’ environments of rapidly moving vegetation. This is the first evidence that animals change how they produce dynamic visual signals when communicating in noisy motion habitats." Anole lizards communicate using vertical movements of the head, known as head-bobs. If they really want to get their point across a commotion of rustling leaves, the lizards have to start bobbing the head faster. Is it possible this behaviour is being used to stimulate the vestibular system, in order to speed up the rate of perception, so that its brain can digest, and interpret, the enviroment more readily?
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/art...?artid=2124473

The vestibular system is important in maintaining balance or equilibrium. There are two otolithic organs of the vestible - the utricle and the saccule. They translate head movements into neural impulses which the brain can interpret. The utricle largely registers accelerations on the horizontal plane, while the saccule is sensitive to linear translations of the head, specifically movements up and down (think about our head-banging lizard). When the head moves vertically, the sensory cells of the saccule are disturbed and the neurons connected to them begin transmitting impulses to the brain. Does the rate of these impulses have anything to do the brain's regulation of the rate of perception? Do we now have a pin-point specific area to which the rate of perception can be tweeked, and in the case of stress disorders, can it be there's a way to slow it back down to normal.

For those us that are interested in the mystical, the word for otolith is derived from the Greek oto - meaning 'ear', and lithos - meaning 'stone', or 'earstone'. If we are able to manipulate the rate of perception and bend the rules of time, we have a very realistic opportunity to create the elixir of life. Is the otolith the well sought after Philosopher's Stone?

[Mikal]

Hi Munty...quite an interesting essay you have here. I find it intriguing because back in the early 80s when I experienced a quite remarkable vision, it was followed by a soft, constant vibrational sound much like the humming of thousands of bees', deep in the labyrinth of my ear. Also when I later experienced what is called the bi-location of consciousness I again had this soft, constant vibrational sound deep in my ear.
It is interesting because in the long history of astrological psychology there is a quote..."we come into the world through (Cancer) the womb, we can leave the world through (Capricorn) the ear"
It seems to me from my experiences that changes in the inner ear go right alongside with changes and alterations in consiousness and perception. Presently I am studying Ancient Atlantis and found this interesting quote, I thought you might find interesting..

"The ancients had knowledge about the science of sound, harnessing sound, the basis of which involved a knowledge of the absurdly discredited "ether" now renamed the quantum fluid. This knowledge, involved using rhythm and amplitude in combination with simple geometry to produce what to us the effect of moving physical objects.
The great inventor Nikolai Tesla was able to learn and demonstrate wonderful phenomena involving this technique, through an understanding of sonic amplitudes. Tesla's capacity to increase amplitudes to high levels revealed it literally threatened the structural coherence of buildings.
Sound or extremes of sound are well known by modern science to have extremely distructive effects on plants, animals and humans. A basic infrasound rhythm of seven cycles per second is able to make people feel extremely unwell. A combination of music and light accomplishes mutation in plants. Electrical impulses are themselves sonic packages on a small scale.
Science has failed to appreciate the principle that every form in nature is fundamentally composed of qualitative aggregations of ether/quantum fluid (crystallized as light) and that every associated structure is the result of geometrically organized sound and the resonance produced by it.
Sympathy and antipathy are the results of harmony and disharmony between the natural sonic amplitudes of different materials or forms....or the consciousness inhabiting them.
"ONE MIGHT PERHAPS BE FORGIVEN FOR THINKING THAT A LUMP OF STONE HAS NO SURFACE TENSION, BUT IT CAN BE INDUCED BY RESONANCE, AND ONCE INDUCED IT CAN BE UTILIZED TO OFFSET THE NATURAL INERTIA BETWEEN MATERIALS WHICH OTHERWISE MAKE TRACTION SO DIFFICULT.....

It is quite evident that the interlocking masonry of the Sphinx and numerous ancient stone edifices and walls were accomplished through the science of sound....

After years of experiencing the mystical and steadily contrasting the experiences with what was going on within my own consciousness and the elevation of my perceptual abilities...I would label nothing a disorder...I see it all, as fragments of consciousness we are fully able to experience and very relevant to this time in our history concerning the evolution of consciousness so all the kiddies being born now I see as being affected by what is happening to conscious energy as we continue to integrate our own consciousness....nothing wrong with them at all except the particular time slot they are being born into as far as I can see.....


Mikal

[austintorn@aol.com]

I had a case of mania once and did everything. Now here's nothing left to do but arrange those writings into a book. It's taking forever.

[Mikal]

Sociologist Emile Durkheim stated that "mania" is really what psychology and psychiatry call Monomania which means "excess of emotion." He stated that historically psychological schools of thought termed it as mental illness, however, he said it was originally based on the lives of those disenfranchised individuals who were failed by society and given up on by their family. He stated these were not mentally ill individuals but rather individuals deeply emotionally troubled by their incapacity to exist in a society which did not accept them...
Although we may use these terms to describe emotionally difficult stretches of life, Durkheim carefully laid out the true definition of the word mania....


Mikal

[munty13]

Hi Mikal, Austintorn...

Thankyou for reading.

"I had a case of mania once and did everything." -

well, that rings a bell.

"...soft, constant vibrational sound deep in my ear" -

I wonder is this the sound of the CNS?


"...I would label nothing a disorder...I see it all, as fragments of consciousness we are fully able to experience and very relevant to this time in our history concerning the evolution of consciousness so all the kiddies being born now I see as being affected by what is happening to conscious energy as we continue to integrate our own consciousness....nothing wrong with them at all except the particular time slot they are being born into as far as I can see....." -

I also dislike using the term 'disorder'. To communicate an idea we sometimes have to use the terminology. I would advise any one that suffers from stress to NEVER label it a disorder.

You're right. There's nothing wrong with the kids either.

Perhaps though, this might help to remove the stigma surrounding all stress related illness - specifically schizophrenia. We seem to regard stress 'disorders' as a problem in the brain. Perhaps, the truth of the answer is that they are really in the body.

[Mikal]

I could not agree with you more Munty and about Schizophrenia...I know from the experience of integrating my own consciousness there are like shards of consciousness that hold high visual information, very common to what is diagnosed as Schizophrenia...I suffered through those states, had no drugs injected into my brain and over a process these mental shards of experience just disappeared after my own consciousness settled down and stabilized.....


Mikal

[austintorn@aol.com]

One time I was hearing a great song playing in my night dream and I was able to keep it going after I awoke by staying very still and trying not to get all excited about it. It went on for maybe 15 more seconds.

I haven't been able to do it since, but it reminded me that true schizophrenia is probably a case of dreaming while awake.

[Mikal]

Quite possibly so Austie and makes you wonder why we have such a word as Mental Illness which is terribly insulting and assulting and very stigmatizing to a person experiencing the ongoing integration of consciousness. I am just glad that I had enough inner strength to allow myself to pass through that particular passage without involving medicine or drugs which surely affects the brain environment and disrupts what I see as a normal process trying to work itself out with our consciousness....


Mikal