IUBio

DC lesion? - a lesson?

John H. johnh at faraway.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk
Mon Feb 16 22:40:46 EST 2004


Peter,

The best thing you can do for Ken is teach him your sense of humour and
lightheartedness. Damn, they're all so serious around here, not a joke
amongst the lot. I sometimes wonder if they smiled whether or not their
faces would crack. I can see the headlines now: Joke told at Neuroscience
Conference. Plastic surgeons are working around the clock to repair damage.

Some here say Ken has a psychopathology, I have certain concerns in that
regard (both for me and him-me I'm sure about, him don't know and don't
really care). My retort to this is that it takes a certain kind of nut to
choose a career in Neuroscience. The cognitive demands are extraordinary,
the workload horrific, and they're all so bloody serious. Hey bods, there's
much better and easier money to be made elsewhere. Jeez I know brickies who
make better wages than many research scientists in Australia. Seriously
though, just for a passing moment, I do respect and admire their work(ie,
brickies and neurobods).

I have no idea why Ken is so intense about all this. Stuff humanity, Risen
Apes are not that precious to be that concerned about. I'll be giving a
short presentation in an INS\ASSBI conference in Brisbane in July (brain
injury) so if you're up that way I'll meet you at the Victory Hotel and
we'll see who can kill the most brain cells. At my age with this bloody
eyesight its not like I need those little buggers anymore.

And ...

Yes, there was a recent report on identifying "religious regions" in the
brain. So what? One can find motor regions, does that make movement an
illusion? And there is that fascinating work of Michael Persinger re magnets
and religious experience. And a study last year found that people who see
visions to show differential activation of the temporal lobe area (can't
remember where precisely but think it was right side at least). I agree with
you that religion is very much an instinctual type of impulse, thus I have
encountered far too many individuals who adopt a religious attitude to
science. As if it will provide all the answers we need, as if it is the only
way to establishing truth, the Holy Grail of human cognition, and the
persistent tendency of scientists to attack religion is reminiscent of how
religions like to attack each other. I dislike religions except for those
that engage in self mockery. Eg. Zen, but that most who get into Zen get so
bloody serious ... . "Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the
seriousness of a child at play." (Heraclitus).

"Before you study Zen, mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers; while
you are studying Zen, mountains are no longer mountains and rivers are no
longer rivers; but once you have had enlightenment, mountains are once again
mountains and rivers again rivers."

Same crazy dude.


"... the religious impulse rests on an instinctive basis and is therefore a
specifically human function. You can take away a man's gods, but only to
give him others in return.

 Jung, C.J., The Undiscovered Self. Trans. R.F.C. Hull. (London: Routledge &
Kegan Paul, 1958), p.55.

If there is anything Zen strongly emphasizes it is the attainment of
freedom; that is, freedom from all unnatural encumbrances. Meditation is
something artificially put on; it does not belong to the natural activity of
the mind.

  Suzuki, An Introduction to Zen Buddhism, page 41

Zen wants to have one's mind free and unobstructed; even the idea of oneness
or allness is a stumbling-block and a strangling snare which threatens the
original freedom of the spirit.

  ibid, page 41

We're so lucky to live in this country!

John H.

PS: liked this:

IDEAS can
impact and feel important because they work as AS OPIATES - REGARDLESS of
how factually false OR TRUE the ideas might be ".



"Peter F." <effectivespamblock at ozemail.com.au> wrote in message
news:4K4Yb.324$682.9061 at nnrp1.ozemail.com.au...
> "k p Collins" <kpaulc@[----------]earthlink.net> wrote in message





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