Geoff-Allen
Resident megalomaniac
I am reading a great little book called "Siddhartha's Brain".
It explores the science of mindfulness, meditation and enlightenment.
Here's an excerpt you might enjoy -
Scientists have unpicked the firing mechanism of isolated nerve cells, cracked their signalling code and are using increasingly sophisticated technology to interrogate the workings of the brain. But the operation of the three-pound organ we all carry around inside our skulls remain largely a mystery. If you didn't already know its wonderful and marvelous qualities such as consciousness, metacognition, language, love and creativity, you couldn't begin to predict its abilities from an examination of its individual components. The brain is so much more than the sum of its parts, not least because each of its 100 billion nerve cells is an information processing unit in its own right, interconnected with thousands of others and each densely populated region is just a single node in many interconnected networks. No wonder neuroscientists are still puzzling over what their MRI images and EEG traces actually mean. The scale of the challenge facing them is breathtaking. It's as if upon hearing an orchestra perform a violin concerto you were to attempt an "explanation" of the music by dismantling each instrument in turn. You would end up with a tangle of catgut, scraps of varnished wood and metal tubing, still none the wiser.
There are also some great tips & exercises on being more mindful and enjoying the present moment.
Worth a read or two!
Cheers.
It explores the science of mindfulness, meditation and enlightenment.
Here's an excerpt you might enjoy -
Scientists have unpicked the firing mechanism of isolated nerve cells, cracked their signalling code and are using increasingly sophisticated technology to interrogate the workings of the brain. But the operation of the three-pound organ we all carry around inside our skulls remain largely a mystery. If you didn't already know its wonderful and marvelous qualities such as consciousness, metacognition, language, love and creativity, you couldn't begin to predict its abilities from an examination of its individual components. The brain is so much more than the sum of its parts, not least because each of its 100 billion nerve cells is an information processing unit in its own right, interconnected with thousands of others and each densely populated region is just a single node in many interconnected networks. No wonder neuroscientists are still puzzling over what their MRI images and EEG traces actually mean. The scale of the challenge facing them is breathtaking. It's as if upon hearing an orchestra perform a violin concerto you were to attempt an "explanation" of the music by dismantling each instrument in turn. You would end up with a tangle of catgut, scraps of varnished wood and metal tubing, still none the wiser.
There are also some great tips & exercises on being more mindful and enjoying the present moment.
Worth a read or two!
Cheers.
