Can you ascertain all that is happening in your immediate world? From birds flying by to the micro-organisms in your gut to the flow of thoughts in your brain to the clouds floating by overhead (assuming you are outside)? No. It’s pretty much impossible to be aware of everything but still the brain is receiving those signals, those sensory impulses, the light or the sound or the feeling is going into our brain but we don’t notice it. We have tuned out everything except what we have determined to be important.
All that information is there somewhere, on a subconscious level if you like. An ocean, if you like, a universe. The universe wouldn’t exist if our brain didn’t perceive it. It’s an amazing organism, semi-divine like Gilgamesh. No one has even come close to figuring out how it works.
In that small space, about the size of a football, we have billions and probably trillions of synapses (nobody seems to know what the number is) each making thousands of connections to other neurons in a network that is constantly changing. New pathways are being discovered, old ones are abandoned.
Looking at the brain as a computer (an oversimplified comparison) it would be by far the most powerful supercomputer in the world.
This is what sits in our head. This is our organ of cognition that we have been given at birth, to have and to hold until that time comes.
We have access to one of the most incredible organisms in the universe and that includes galaxies and black holes and dark energy (my estimation only).
It watches the day pass. It is influenced by the diurnal cycles of night and day, dawn and dusk.
Right now I’m sitting in the sun room, at the front of the house, watching the light dim and the sun, our nearby star, lower itself into the ground.
That’s how our ancient ancestors saw it, the sun returning to earth, melting into the mountains only to be reborn again on the other side of the world. Birth, death and rebirth. It was obvious.
Anyways I’m witnessing the end of the day and calibrating the brightness, the ambient light, the life giving energy rays, as it fades away. I wonder what that does to my brain.
That’s the thing, we don’t know what’s going on in our brain. 99% of it is hidden like a black hole or dark energy. We know it’s there but we just don’t know what it is.
I say this not to make a point but just to point out the praiseworthiness of our little cradle of consciousness up there in our noggin.
We have it. It’s not Sci-Fi. It’s ours to use or abuse. Boredom is the most insidious AND common form of abuse. That and listening to the news. I could add public education in there too but that would be controversial.
I guess my other point (although I’m not trying to make a point) is that we can discover the possibilities of this thing, we can inquire and explore. Who can stop us? It’s an endless journey of adventure if you’d like to look at it in a romantic way.
I wrote this post sitting in the sun room at the front of the house (as previously mentioned) letting my mind go blank, so to say. It’s never blank even when you’re sleeping. Anyway, sitting here feeling nothing or being open to everything, which is really the same thing, led me here. See what I mean? I never would have imagined or thought about my own brain unless my brain had compelled me to do so, somehow.
Contemplate the messages and the information being transmitted in your brain. It’s like trying to imagine how big is the universe. It’s impossible.
Contemplate the 17 trillion micro-organisms in your gut. Bacteria and archaea and fungi and viruses are all represented and communicating among themselves. What are they saying? They are saying something. We just don’t know what it is. They’re not only communicating among themselves, they’re also communicating with the cells of our own body. Strange but true. Weird but amazing. Oh to be witness to that conversation.
The light dies so sweetly, so gently and all are affected by it. We are touched by our sun whether we’re aware of it or not. Tomorrow will be a new morning, a chance to start again. That’s why in some cultures each day is like a god. That’s how they thought of it, the Aztecs for example.
Beautiful thought, huh? To be blessed by that god is to have a great day. That’s how I think about it. Of course I’m a historical romanticist. That’s how my brain conceives of it. It could be any way, a different way for you.
I don’t know what your model is, how you see a day. It’s a mystery to me.
And that’s cool. I kinda like that.
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podcast music from 40:13
