a holographic mind in a holographic universe
TRANSCRIPT
A Holographic Mind
in a
Holographic Universe
(A User’s Manual)
By Dr. Creig R Kronstedt, Ph.D.
© 1996 (revised 2019)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A MAP TO GUIDE US ON OUR JOURNEY ................................................................... 4
THE NATURE OF MEMORY ..................................................................................... 12
MAKING A HOLOGRAM .............................................................................................. 16
THE NATURE OF LIGHT ........................................................................................... 16
LIGHT FROM THE BRAIN ......................................................................................... 18
THE HOLOGRAM ...................................................................................................... 19
ANATOMY OF A NEURON ........................................................................................ 22
THE STRUCTURAL ORGANIZATION OF THE CORTEX ......................................... 26
DOMINANT FOCI ...................................................................................................... 28
THE NEURAL REFERENCE BEAM .......................................................................... 30
HOLOGRAPHIC MEMORY .......................................................................................... 32
A HOLOGRAPHIC REINTERPRETATION OF MEMORY THEORIES ...................... 32
EPISODIC MEMORY ................................................................................................. 33
SEMANTIC MEMORY ............................................................................................... 33
MEMORY ORGANIZATION ...................................................................................... 34
STATE DEPENDENT MEMORY ............................................................................... 36
PROCESS DEPENDENT MEMORY ......................................................................... 38
ENCODING VARIABILITY ......................................................................................... 40
MEMORY AS HYPOTHESIS ..................................................................................... 42
REGISTRATION AND RETRIEVAL ........................................................................... 45
RECOGNITION MEMORY IS PHOTOGRAPHIC ....................................................... 46
CONTINUOUS MEMORY .......................................................................................... 47
IS THE UNIVERSE A HOLOGRAPHIC GHOST? ...................................................... 49
THE MICROSCOPIC WORLD IS FULL OF HOLES ................................................... 52
MOTION AND THE ILLUSION OF SOLIDITY ............................................................ 52
HOLOGRAPHIC ENERGY FIELDS ........................................................................... 53
WHIRLPOOLS OF ENERGY HAVE GRAVITY .......................................................... 55
THE UNIVERSAL INTERFERENCE PATTERN ........................................................ 57
LASER LIGHT............................................................................................................ 62
THE UNIVERSAL HOLOGRAM ................................................................................... 64
THE FUNCTION OF MEMORY.................................................................................. 65
TIME .......................................................................................................................... 66
DURATION ................................................................................................................ 68
PERIODICITY AND RHYTHMICITY OF THE UNIVERSE ......................................... 70
ALTERING THE ILLUSION ........................................................................................ 72
LEARNING AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF MEANING ............................................... 74
BECOMING CONSCIOUS ......................................................................................... 75
SELF-MEMORY AND PERSONAL HISTORY ........................................................... 76
SELF DEVELOPMENT .............................................................................................. 77
THE DEVELOPMENT OF EMOTIONAL RESPONSES ............................................. 78
LEARNING AS A NATURAL PROCESS ..................................................................... 81
OBJECT PERMANENCE .......................................................................................... 85
PERCEPTS, CONCEPTS, AND CATEGORIES ........................................................ 87
LANGUAGE LEARNING ............................................................................................ 89
SYNTAX .................................................................................................................... 91
PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS OF HOLOGRAPHIC MEMORY .......................... 94
THE STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS ...................................................................... 94
ATTENTION AND HABITUATION ............................................................................. 96
COMPLEXES OF MEMORIES .................................................................................. 99
FREUD AND THE PRECONSCIOUS ...................................................................... 101
THE DISTORTION FACTOR ................................................................................... 103
FRAGMENTED MEMORIES AND PERSONAS ...................................................... 104
MULTIPLE PERSONALITY ..................................................................................... 106
HOW DRUGS MAY CAUSE DEPENDENCY ........................................................... 110
A MAP TO GUIDE US ON OUR JOURNEY
This is a book about the nature of the mind and of the universe in which that mind finds
itself. It describes a mind and a Universe that are by their very nature holographic. It
explains the concept of holography and discusses how the mind and the universe
interact to create the reality that we perceive. It explores a world that is real to us only
insofar as our mind comprehends it. It focuses on memory because memory is a
necessary condition of conscious awareness. It is essential to our experience of the
world around us. Memory is the holographic ‘film’ onto which consciousness writes its
experiences and interprets and understands the universe.
As described here, it is memory that gives our consciousness a sense of duration or
continuity. Duration or existence over time is critical to consciousness awareness and to
the material world. Memory is the living holographic record upon which reality inscribes
itself and gives itself permanence.
We all have a sense what it means to be consciously aware. We experience it, we think
about it, and, to retain our sanity we have each come to terms with our own reality of
what it means to be a conscious, thinking, functioning human being. Still, in those quiet
times when we find ourselves alone, in the deep recesses of our awareness, we may
wonder if it is all real and, if it is, we may wonder about what it all means. We all seek
an answer that provides a way to remove the uneasiness of not knowing. Many turn to
religion for an answer. Others turn to science.
This book is not so much an answer as it is an exploration of human consciousness and
the human condition using the knowledge and tools acquired over many years. Some of
that knowledge is scientific and some is intuitive. The author has put together the
experience gained in such diverse fields as philosophy, psychology, cognitive science,
human biology and physiology, electronics, and traditional and nuclear physics to come
to an understanding of what is it to be a conscious, thinking, feeling being in this reality.
It is our memory that allows our consciousness to compare the past with the present so
that it may become aware of itself and plan for its future. To be more specific,
consciousness must not only exist over time, but it must be aware that it had an
existence in the past and that it still exists in the present. To experience the world,
consciousness must begin to acquire a history which endures over time and which gives
it a perspective from which to view the world. That acquired perspective is the 'self'. It is
inseparable from consciousness and the memory of those experiences.
What is perhaps even more difficult to comprehend, is that consciousness is also
inherently inseparable from the universe. It is our conscious experience and our
memory which allows us to experience and comprehend the universe.
Since the beginning of time, philosophers have debated whether the world can exist
without consciousness. “If a tree falls in the forest with no one around, does it make a
sound?” Or for that matter, does the tree, the forest, or the sound, exist without a
consciousness to observe it? A pragmatist or logical positivist might say that it is
patently absurd to even think such a thing. Of course, the world continues to exist even
if we aren’t there. But without a conscious observer, what exactly is it? The human mind
has existed over time and has defined and interpreted the world. From generation to
generation, the world has been redefined and reinterpreted. What was believed to be
true a few generations ago is now dismissed as nonsense.
According to a dictionary definition: To exist is to have real being whether material or
spiritual; to have being in space and time. Existence is the state or fact of having being,
especially independently of human consciousness. But to have being, is to be for
someone or at least for some conscious being.
LOGICAL POSITIVISM
From the late 1920s to the 1940s, Bertrand Russell and others other formed the Vienna
Circle and Berlin Circle, these men helped formulate a doctrine that became known as
logical positivism (or logical empiricism). Logical positivism used formal logic to
underpin an empiricist account of our knowledge of the world. Philosophers such as
Rudolf Carnap, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Hans Reichenbach along with other members
of the Vienna Circle Phillip Franck and Otto Neurath, determined that the truths of logic
and mathematics were tautologies. They decided that the truths of science, on the other
hand were verifiable empirical claims. Logic and empiricism constituted the entire
universe of meaningful knowledge. Everything else was considered nonsense. Ethics,
theology, and metaphysics were neither true or false. They nothing more than
subjective preferences. Only empirical evidence was valid.
Since the advent of logical positivism much of modern science has come to reject every
kind of verification except observation (specifically scientific observation). It ignores that
all observation is subject to the interpretation of experiencer. Interestingly, recent
research such as a modification of Thomas Young’s, double slit experiment suggested
by John Wheeler and performed by Alain Aspect implies that quantum particles may
behave differently when they are observed as opposed to when then are not observed.
A conscious observer changes what happens at a quantum level. Just because two
people agree that they have experienced the same thing and claim that this verifies that
observation, doesn’t make it so.
All observation must necessarily be based on what our five senses (sight, hearing,
touch, taste, and smell) tell us. Our senses carry information to our brain where it is
recognized (Re – cognized) by stimulating and interacting with the same or similar
things that we have previously experienced. Sensory experience must be interpreted,
and it can only be reacted to or interpreted by the knowledge (experience) that we
already have. Our knowledge base is the accumulation and integration of our
experience. (We must recognize here that any error in previous perceptions or
interpretations will necessarily influence and change our judgment and interpretation of
the current sensory experience.
The problem is that everything that we come to know must necessarily be influenced by
everything else we have experienced whether that prior knowledge is accurate or not.
This knowledge is what Michael Polyani refers to as tacit knowledge. The Tacit
Dimension (New York, 1966), Tacit knowledge is knowledge gained from our senses
and interpreted by our previously stored knowledge. All “objective” observation must
ultimately be filtered through what we already know “subjectively”. Given that, as
children most of us come to believe in things like Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the
Tooth Fairy, Elves, etc., should we automatically assume that things we are told or
experience later in life will be evaluated by a totally different standard. What event
changes us from being totally subjective in our knowledge and experience to being
completely objective?
Rene’ Descartes said, “Cogito ergo sum.” (“I think, therefore I am.”) (Principles of
Philosophy ,1644)” Even existence cannot be established independent of human
consciousness and if I exist at one moment, am I the same person who exists one
moment later? As one who experiences human consciousness, I perceive my own
existence and I perceive a world and other beings. The question is whether there is in
fact a world outside of my own personal experience. Are space and time and reality
simply part of my personal dream, or do they exist apart from my ‘self’? My own human
experience of consciousness, of space, and time cannot be verified beyond my own
experience. If I have a dream and someone in that dream tells me that the dream is
real, it does not make it real.
Everything that we have come to know as reality has been defined for us by our
previous experience. The others that we perceive in our experience (whom we believe
came before us) have defined our reality for us. They have told us that if we can see,
hear, feel, smell or taste something that it is real. Existence is a continued manifestation
of our experience and to be manifest (from the Latin root (manu - meaning hand) is
literally, 'to be touched by the hand' (or, to be perceived or felt by the senses) and to be
understood and recognized by the mind. How can anything exist unless there is a
consciousness and a memory to recognize its existence?
It is clear that, ‘to exist’ is to be able to be perceived by consciousness. This means it
must be able to be ‘touched by the hand’ or experienced by the senses. Then it must be
remembered for it to continue to exist. Unless the conscious being has memory,
everything encountered would (in effect) be experienced for the first time. Each
experience would be new since there would be nothing in memory to relate to it. To
exist or ‘to be’ is implicitly ‘to be' for someone or something that is conscious and able to
recognize that something exists.
Based on this premise, objects in our world are merely fluctuating fields of energy.
These energy fields are perceived to endure precisely because there is a
consciousness and memory that is aware of these fields and that continues to be aware
of them. Consciousness retains a memory of these fields of energy and assigns to them
certain characteristics such as solidity and objectness. Without consciousness, we may
speculate that energy fields might still exist, changing in the same ways, but they would
clearly not retain the characteristics of solidity and objectness that they acquire because
of the conscious observer. Universal energy fields only acquire these physical attributes
because of their interaction with a conscious observer capable of defining them.
To be precise, we have no direct evidence that the world or the rest of the humans we
encounter have any reality outside of our personal experience. Based on what we know,
they could as easily be part of an elaborate dream that we are having. They move in
and out of our conscious experience, but when they are gone, we have no way of
verifying that they continue to exist. We can, of course, call them on our cellphone, but it
is our cellphone in our dream and therefore still unverifiable. While it may be egotistical
to make these assumptions, we have to take strictly on faith that the rest of the universe
has reality outside of ourselves. We are all obliged to make the same assumption,
because none of us can verify anything objectively. Nevertheless, whether we are
dreaming or not, it is our reality and we must pay attention to its rules and constraints if
we are to survive.
We start with the premise that though consciousness exists for ourselves and for all
other beings who inhabit this universe. We each understand the experience in our own
personal way. Yet, for all of us, it remains a mystery. Given this limitation, it is our intent
to explore how consciousness and memory emerge from the human mind. We will
continue by suggesting that learning, the development of self, and the acquisition of
meaning is a natural result of consciousness as it moves through the world it
encounters. We will then explore the nature of this experience through the conscious
acquisition of memories and through the nature of those memories. Finally, we will
elaborate on the mind's awareness of itself as an it experiences the universe, time, and
duration and come full circle to discuss the multi-dimensional, holographic nature of the
mind and the universe and how out of the gossamer fabric of energy, the mind creates
its own illusion of a solid stable reality which obeys the physical laws which it has
discovered. We will also suggest that the brain, from which consciousness appears to
emerge, is a part of that same holographic illusion and that consciousness and memory
seem to arise only when the hologram is arranged in a precise way, or, alternatively,
that consciousness decides to come into being by rearranging part of the universal
hologram.
Ultimately, this book suggests that only consciousness can alter the fabric of reality.
Whether the total of all conscious awareness is God or simply the totality of knowledge,
we leave to the reader. Nevertheless, whatever consciousness is, its ability to perceive
and remember gives it the capacity to change and create.
To paraphrase the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, "If we cannot say what we think, we
don't know what we think." Unless we make the effort to become conscious of our
consciousness, to talk to ourselves, to challenge the inconsistencies in our own minds
and analyze them rationally; we may never really know what it is that we think.
Understanding the mechanisms of memory and thought may help to prevent the mental
distortions and aberrations which occur far too often in the 'normal' human family. It is
after all, our memory which forms our perceptions and conceptualizations and it is with
these tools that we come to know our world. If they are formed with limited input, our
thinking becomes stereotypic and inaccurate. We become incapable of solving life's
problems.
For this reason, we have offered some ways to understand consciousness and memory
so that our readers may learn more and understand their world better and so that they
may remember who they are and forget themselves less. The ideas herein described
represent a personal pilgrimage through consciousness to understand it and the
universe in which it exists. At times, the goal may seem obscure and the divergence into
technical areas may seem a distraction, but each part builds a path to the next and
gives one the tools to continue the journey.
THE NATURE OF MEMORY
Contrary to popular misconceptions, memories are not collections of individual items
stored on individual memory lists or thrown randomly into nondescript memory boxes
through which we rummage when we need to retrieve something. Nevertheless, much
past and present memory research focuses on a subject's ability to access discrete bits
of memory. Experiments usually consist of giving people lists of words or nonsense
syllables presented either visually or auditorily. These individuals are then tested to
determine how many words can be recalled. Words with different characteristics are
compared to determine whether nouns are remembered better than verbs, or concrete
words are remembered better than abstract words, etc. Researchers attempt to
determine the effects of different methods of presentation or retrieval. Thousands of
variations have been tested and reported, some of less interest than others.
Over the years, various memory models have been suggested to account for the
disparate results. The models, which are developed from experiments examining
memories for discrete items are usually digital models which describe the way in which
these discrete items are shifted around, stored, and retrieved from memory. The
dominant memory models have been comparative models relating memory systems to
the technology of the time. For example, in the early part of the twentieth century there
was the telephone switchboard model which suggested that information was processed
in much the same way that telephone calls are switched and routed to various parts of
the country. More recently the computer model of information processing has been in
vogue. Regardless of the sophistication of the model, however, the digital mode
persists. Memories are treated as though they were beads to be strung together or
stored away by color, shape, or size.
With few exceptions (some of the more notable being Henri Bergson, Karl Pribram, and
E. Roy John), many memory theorists and researchers have attempted to isolate and
fragment the memory process in order to analyze it and find out how it works. This is
rather like dissecting a dog to see why it wags its tail. The act of tail wagging and more
importantly, the purpose for it, involves the whole dog. When we think about it carefully,
we must come to the conclusion that remembering involves all of our memory. When
presented with new information, we must first recognize it. That requires that we access
our past memory experience to identify what it is, what its characteristics are, and how it
relates to the rest of our memory experience. Once identified we must incorporate it into
our experience so that it modifies our knowledge base and, in turn, is modified by it. It
thus becomes an integral part of our total life experience and not some discrete isolated
occurrence.
Henri Bergson described memory as being like a snowball which grows layer upon layer
as it rolls down a hill (Bergson, 1896). Given the level of knowledge at that time, he
came close to capturing the essence of memory. As we experience life, each new
memory is layered onto our previous memories and these memories are shaped by the
shape of those previous memories as surely as the new memories cover up, compress
and reshape the old memories. It is one of a very few models that effectively integrate
previous experience with new learning. Given the information available to him at the
beginning of this century, Bergson's model is quite descriptive and accurate. (For a
detailed discussion, read Bergson's Matter and Memory, 1896.)
Bergson's model is unique in that it is a continuous analog model, which deals with the
duration of memory through time and demonstrates the effect of history on the formation
of new perceptions and memories. It suggests that memories are intermeshed rather
than discrete, and that they appear to stand out individually only because new
experiences are layered onto other similar memories just as small bumps on the
snowball grow as new snow forms itself around the previous layers.
At the risk of falling the errors of those who have gone before, we will discuss a new
model of memory. It is also derived from an analogue of modern technology. Unlike
earlier models, however, it is not digital. It incorporates the concept that information can
be 'carried' by electromagnetic energy (in the form of radio waves or light waves) and
the concept that holistic information storage is possible via interference patterns created
by the interaction of electromagnetic waves. This process of information storage and
retrieval has already been demonstrated with laser holography.
As explorers of our own consciousness we must necessarily investigate these nebulous
processes as analogues of something concrete in our environment. Karl Pribram (1980)
has already suggested such a holographic model of the mind. The model described
here is intended to elaborate on the concepts from physics that make the Pribram
model a more viable model. It also attempts to integrate present research in cognitive
psychology to demonstrate that the model is consistent with our understanding of
human learning and memory. This is not to say, irrefutably, that this is how the mind
works, but rather, that it gets us closer to a description of mind and memory given our
present level of knowledge. Clearly, as knowledge of brain physiology and modern
physics increases, this model may be replaced by one more appropriate, but it is
reasonable to assume that whatever memory model replaces this one, it will be
continuous and holistic rather than discrete.
Not all readers will be familiar with the concepts of physics and more specifically
holography and the characteristics of electromagnetic radiation and upon which this
model is based, so a brief review of these principles is in order before we discuss the
model itself.
MAKING A HOLOGRAM
THE NATURE OF LIGHT
A limited definition of light is that it is the band of frequencies of electromagnetic
radiation visible to the human eye. It is the light from the sun or other hot objects, or
incandescent or fluorescent bulbs. It bounces off objects and brings knowledge of their
color, shape, and texture to our eyes. Our eyes convert the light that shines through the
lens of the eye onto the retina at the back of the eye in a manner very similar to the way
images are produced with a camera. The light on our retinas is converted into electrical
impulses and travels to our brains where it is analyzed and stored as information for
later use.
A more scientific definition of light is that it is electromagnetic radiation. It consists of
constantly shifting fields of electric and magnetic energy. The visible electromagnetic
spectrum is the narrow range of wavelengths from 7.5 x 105 centimeters to 3.5 x 105
centimeters to which our eyes are sensitive. Electromagnetic radiation is sum of all
energy fields which propagate by alternately inducing electrical and magnetic fields.
All electromagnetic radiation propagates in waves similar to the waves we see in the
ocean except that light waves are three-dimensional, and they propagate spherically
from their source. The waves are measured by their strength (amplitude), their length
(wavelength), and how many wave crests pass a given point in a certain length of time
(frequency).
All forms of electromagnetic radiation have these characteristics. Above the visual
range, wavelength gets shorter and frequency increases (frequency and wavelength are
inversely proportional). This range extends from ultraviolet light, to X-rays, Gamma
Rays, and Cosmic Rays. It also extends downward from the visible spectrum to the
Infrared range (heat radiation), to microwaves (yes, technically, your microwave oven
cooks with light!), radar waves, television, FM radio, short-wave radio, AM broadcast
band radio, navigational radio, and finally to the very low frequency waves emitted by
the earth itself and by living organisms as they shift through various electrochemical
processes necessary for the continuation of life. The universe is virtually inundated with
electromagnetic radiation.
Ever since the “Big Bang” (when presumably all energy and matter came into existence)
electromagnetic energy and matter have been changing back and forth into various
versions of one another.
The formula, E=Mc2 describes the way in which matter becomes energy and conversely
the way energy becomes matter. The c2 refers to the speed of electromagnetic
radiation (or light) squared. In other words, when matter is converted to energy the
massive energy created expands in three dimensions at the speed of light. It follows,
then, that when we take the square root of electromagnetic energy, we compress that
energy into a minute amount of mass. This formula which explains what occurs and in
what proportions. When enough swirling energy fields begin to converge in the same
time and space they create a gravitational pull which draws even more energy. At some
point these swirling whirlpools of energy are converted into minute quanta, atomic
particles, and atoms. The millions of quanta of energy become clouds of swirling gases
and these gases pull together into swirling whirlpools of energy and matter and create
more gravity. The centers of these swirling clouds are singularity points which begin the
formulation of stars and Galaxies.
LIGHT FROM THE BRAIN
The comic book image of a light bulb turning on in our brain when we get an idea is not
so far- fetched. Electromagnetic energy is generated by the human brain when the
nerves are stimulated by the outside environment. The electric charges passing through
the brain cells generate electromagnetic fields, which interact with each other to form
interference patterns. Given the information about holography above, it is plausible to
assume that if we were to freeze that pattern at any given instant, we would have a
holographic image of everything which the brain was experiencing at that instant. The
brain of course does not freeze these patterns. They fluctuate and change moment by
moment as our experience changes. Still, when we encounter something in our
environment which we have encountered before, our brain cells react to the same
pattern and sequence of rhythms and the matching of those rhythms may constitute
holographic recognition. There is even a potential mechanism in the brain for generating
a coherent reference beam.
THE HOLOGRAM
The hologram is produced by splitting a coherent laser beam into two identical beams
one of which is modified by being reflected off the object to be holo-graphed. The two
beams are then refocused on a photographic film where they create interference
patterns.
The laser beam is split with the aid of a half-silvered mirror. Such a mirror is similar to
one-way glass. It is made of glass which is lightly coated with a silver reflecting
substance. When the half-silvered mirror is placed in the path of a laser beam at an
angle of forty-five degrees to the beam, half of the beam passes through the mirror and
half is reflected off the mirror at a right angle to the original beam.
The beam is therefore split although each half still retains the characteristics of the
original beam. One half of the beam is then directed at a photographic plate or film. The
other half of the beam is directed by means of conventional mirrors and lenses to fall
onto the object to be holo-graphed.
Because of the texture, shape, and color of the surface of the object, the laser beam
which strikes it is modified by the optical characteristics of the object. The beam is no
longer strictly coherent. It has been modified in a very precise way, since only that
particular object could absorb, reflect, slow down or speed up waves in that way.
The modified beam thus carries with it very precise information about the surface of the
object. The beams of light reflected off the object are then directed via mirrors and
lenses to the same photographic film as the other half of the original beam. The
unmodified beam is referred to as the reference beam and the modified beam is
referred to as the information beam.
As these two beams approach the photographic plate, they interfere with each other
since they are no longer precisely in step. These beams of waves of light energy
interfere with each other in much the same way that waves of water do when two
pebbles are thrown into a still pond. Where the ripples created by each of the pebbles
meet, they interact with each other's motion and create a pattern of interference on the
surface of the pond.
Just so, the two out-of-step laser beams create an interference pattern on the surface of
the photographic film. The pattern is very complex since the information beam has a
very irregular wave front.
The interference pattern is spread evenly over the entire surface of the photographic
film just as water waves spread over the surface of a pond. When developed, the films
surface resembles the iridescent swirls of light and color seen when sunlight reflects off
a thin film of oil in a puddle of water after a rainstorm.
The hologram is reproduced for viewing by shining the reference beam through the
photographic film. The interference pattern only reflects light information corresponding
to that from the holo-graphed object and thus the image of the object appears to be on
the other side of the plate just as our image appears to be behind a mirror when we look
in it.
Perhaps more interestingly, the information contained in the interference pattern is
distributed over the whole surface of the photographic film so that one does not need
the whole film to reproduce the image. Half of the film or even a small portion of it from
any part of the film may be placed before of the reference beam and the entire image of
the object will appear, still in three dimensions.
The only degradation which occurs is that the reproduced image becomes more and
more ghostlike as the piece of film used becomes smaller and smaller. While this may
be hard to understand, it becomes easier to accept if we remember that when we drop a
pebble into a pond, the waves that carry the information that a pebble was dropped,
travel over the entire surface of the pond (the energy level also spreads and thus is
weaker in any given portion of the pond).
The information exists everywhere no matter what part of the pond you stand near. The
same is true for the holograph. The interference pattern is a wave pattern created by the
wave fronts of the two laser beams and the information contained in that pattern is
transmitted at the speed of light over the whole film. It is this wholistic aspect of
holography which gives it its name. The idea that information may be stored everywhere
at once leads to some interesting theories of human memory which account for
properties of human memory that computer models don't.
Like coherent radio waves, the coherent light waves of a laser make a very efficient
'carrier' of information, but the discovery of holography multiplied this efficiency a
thousand-fold. Holography uses the principles of wave coherence and interference to
create a hologram. A hologram is a three-dimensional record of an object or event (like
those things you see on your credit card or the cover of National Geographic). They are
like a photograph in some respects, but very different in others. A photograph is made
by focusing reflected light onto a photographic (light sensitive) film. The developed
image is a two-dimensional replica of the photographed object. Considerable
information is lost with the two-dimensional photograph. The hologram retains three
dimensionalities as well as allowing the viewer to move about and look at the hologram
from any perspective in a 180-degree arc around the holographed object on the film.
NEURAL MECHANISMS OF THE BRAIN
ANATOMY OF A NEURON
Sensory inputs travel to the brain along neural pathways as electrical and chemical
messages (electrical as they travel along the nerve and chemical as they traverse the
synaptic gap between neural cells). The nerve (neural cell or neuron) is a specialized
cell. Physically it has a cell body with fine branching tubules called input dendrites
feeding into it and a somewhat larger tubule called an axon leading out of it. Branching
out of the axon like branches out of the trunk of a tree are more fine tubules called
output dendrites. Some neurons have only a few dendrites while others (particularly
those within the reticular activating system of the brain) may have as many as ten
thousand dendrites. The reticular activating system is a large network of neurons which
is spread throughout the brain and acts as a moderator of the overall arousal level of
the brain.
Because of the positively and negatively charged ions within it, the neuron transmits an
electrical charge from its cell body down its axon to its dendrites. Chemicals released by
the output dendrites of other neurons cause ionization within the cell body causing it to
develop an electrical charge. When the charge reaches a given ‘threshold’ it surges
across the surface of the axon tubule. The charge causes ‘pores’ to open in the cellular
membrane of the axon allowing potassium ions to flow out of the neuron and sodium
ions to flow in. As the ionic environment changes, the electrical potential between the
inside and outside of the neuron changes and a charge moves along the axon opening
more ‘pores’ until it reaches the output dendrites. The electrical charge stimulates the
dendrites at the end of the axon tubule causing them to release chemicals called
neurotransmitters. Because the function of neurons is to transmit signals from one
neuron to another, the output dendrites grow in close proximity to the input dendrites of
other neurons. Neurotransmitters from one neuron cross the minute space between the
dendrites of one neuron and those of another causing an electrical stimulation of the cell
body of that neuron. The gap between dendrites is referred to as the synaptic gap or
synapse. [For a more complete discussion of the action of neurons, see Charles R.
Noback’s The Human Nervous System (1967).]
Electrical stimulation of the neuron cell body is summative both temporally and spatially.
If one neuron stimulates it often enough or if several neurons stimulate it at the same
time, it will send an electric charge down its own axon causing its dendrites to release
more neurotransmitters. In this way, neurons are able to send signals throughout the
brain and nervous system.
Once they reach the brain, the sensory signals continue to sort themselves among
millions of tree-like, branching neural pathways to establish a point-for point
representation of the external environment as experienced by our body and our sensory
organs. As these neural cells interact with others in the brain, decisions are made
(consciously or unconsciously) and then signals are sent out along another set of
efferent (outgoing) neural pathways to animate the organs and muscles of the body. It is
the basic input/output activity of this internal circuitry, which coordinates the movements
of the human ‘robot’ as it goes through its everyday activities.
Most computer model theorists argue that the millions of interconnecting circuits created
by the ten billion or so neurons in the brain carry out the programs constituting human
behavior. They also assume that the brain ‘computer’ writes its own programs. While
this is perhaps plausible (since some computers are programmed to write programs), it
raises some difficult questions. Without outside intelligence to guide them, computers,
to my knowledge, do not suddenly decide to write programs. They do not suddenly
decide to combine programs in ways they have never combined them before. In
essence, they do not generate creative, intuitive ways of thinking and acting the way
that even the dullest of human beings do.
THE BRAIN AS A HOLOGRAPHIC GENERATOR
THE STRUCTURAL ORGANIZATION OF THE CORTEX
Computers are not wired in the unique way that the thinking part of the human brain, the
cerebral cortex is wired. Neurons in the cerebral cortex are arranged in a primarily
columnar fashion. That is, the cerebral cortex is composed primarily of vertical loops of
neurons running from lower brain nuclei (such as the thalamus) to the cortex and back
down to the nuclei (Noback, 1967). If the cortex of the brain were unfolded and spread
out it would cover an area of about a square yard and it would resemble nothing so
much a as a looped shag rug the underside of whose fibers were connected to the
thalamus and the other lower brain nuclei which are plexi (converging networks) of the
sensory neural inputs from and outputs to the body.
It is entirely possible that the cortical neurons were not just crumpled up and folded
together so that they would fit nicely within the skull. It is reasonable to assume that the
vertical columns of loops are pressed together in such proximity to aid them in
performing their unique function. And since humans have the largest cerebral cortex
and the greatest thinking ability, it is not unreasonable to assume that this is their
unique function.
More importantly, since there exist within the cortex millions of these neural loops or
circuits of neurons which feedback upon themselves, electrical inputs which enter the
brain, may be maintained as electrical charges or as electromagnetic fields which
oscillate around these neural loops. Researchers have demonstrated the presence of
oscillating loops in brain tissue which sustain themselves for periods of up to thirty
minutes without additional input (Lorente de No, 1938; Burns, 1954). It is likely that the
electrical oscillations in these loops alter the internal chemistry of neural cells to make
them more responsive to similar rhythmic oscillations later, thus providing a
physiological basis for memory storage. Hilgard and Marquis (1940) and Hebb (1949)
did, in fact, suggest that these neural reverberating loops were responsible for memory
storage.
Dr. Rafael Elul (1966), among others has carried out experiments demonstrating that
individual neurons not only produce electrical pulse trains, but also emit and absorb
extremely low frequency electromagnetic waves of ten to one hundred hertz. [One hertz
is equal to one cycle per second. It is abbreviated, ‘hz’.] Each neuron or each neural
loop is capable of acting as an extremely low frequency radio transmitter and receiver.
Other research confirms that the brain is very responsive to extremely low frequencies.
Moruzzi and McGoun (1954) demonstrated that exposure to brain stimulation at
extremely low frequencies could make an animal very alert at 300 hz or fall into a coma-
like sleep at ten hertz. Gavalas-Medici (1977) reported that after four hours exposure to
extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields, monkeys experienced time distortion
and their brain waves were matched in phase and frequency with the imposed waves.
Other studies with human subjects indicate that humans have longer reaction times
when exposed to frequencies of three to seven hz and shorter reaction times when
exposed to frequencies of ten to twelve hz (Konig, 1962; Hamer, 1965; and Friedman,
Becker, & Bachman, 1967).
DOMINANT FOCI
Both V.I. Rusinov (1973) and E. Roy John (1967) have demonstrated that extremely low
frequency ‘tracer’ waves can be impressed upon brain wave patterns of exposed
animals. Rusinov and his coworkers have reported the presence of steady potential
levels in various parts of the brain. It is entirely possible that these steady potential
levels may be physiological correlates of the perceptual ‘state’ of a person. These areas
of electrical potential shift and change more slowly than do individual neurons. Their
oscillation frequency ranges from approximately .5 to I hz. Rusinov has created artificial
‘steady potential levels’ or ‘dominant foci’ by applying a six-millivolt (six thousandths of a
volt) electrical potential to the motor cortex of animals. The motor cortex is the part of
the brain which controls muscle movement.
Presenting a ten hz audio tone to an animal with a six-millivolt potential injected into the
part of the cortex corresponding to its left forelimb, results in muscle flexion and
movement of the left forelimb. After ten or so presentations of the tone in the presence
of the electrical ‘dominant focus’, a ten hz ‘tracer’ wave is found to occur in the area of
the ‘dominant focus’, and the ten hz tone continues to cause the forelimb movement
even after the six-millivolt potential has been removed. The co-occurrence of the tracer
wave in the area of the dominant focus and the forelimb movement suggests that a
learned response is connected with the ten hz signal.
Rusinov has suggested that these dominant foci are similar in character to what is
naturally produced in the brain by the action of the reticular activating system when
ones attention is focused. [As mentioned previously the reticular activating system is the
very diffuse neuron network in the brain associated with the level of arousal of the
brain.]
These naturally occurring areas of electrical excitation may be the physiological
correlates of the perceptual state of consciousness at that instant. Over time, these
dominants shift and dissolve, to be replaced by others. This may reflect shifts and
changes in the stream of consciousness. The various perceptual states are usually
associated with specific frequency ranges (i.e. alert consciousness – fifteen to thirty hz,
relaxation or meditation – five to ten hz, and sleep – zero to four hz).
There is considerable theoretical support for these observed brain activities based upon
well-established principles of electromagnetic interaction. When electric current flows
through a conductor, whether that conductor is a wire or a neuron, it generates a
magnetic field or ‘radio wave’ around itself. The laws of physics are the same for
neurons as they are for wires require that each neural loop generate magnetic waves
that are resonant at specific frequencies corresponding to the length of time it takes for
the electrical signal to traverse the loop. (Longer loops will have longer transit times and
will feedback at lower frequencies.) The loops are, in effect, miniature radio antennae
each transmitting information about a sensory event which has occurred. Depending on
what sensory information is occurring in the external environment, a certain set of these
neural loops will be generating magnetic waves and the waves generated will interact
creating an interference pattern which is a holographic representation of the neural
stimulation going on at the time, and by extension, they may also be a representation of
the external environment. If a wave pattern remains long enough, it may alter the
chemical responsiveness of the neural loops, thus providing a means by which the
rhythm may be reproduced. This would constitute a memory. The change in internal
chemistry may change the rate at which charges can move through the neural loop and
thus predispose the loop to respond only to specific frequencies or their harmonics
(whole number multiples of the original frequency).
When a second set of sensory inputs occur, the frequencies already present and those
coming in will add to the overall energy level in given regions of the brain if their energy
peaks are in step with each other and will subtract if they are not. The result is an
interference pattern created by the various inputs. Inputs, which are coordinated with
the presently existing pattern, will gain in strength and increase the overall response of
the brain to them. Other neural loops of the same length may also begin to resonate to
them. Thus, inputs, which are repetitive, will tend to gain strength relative to the overall
background pattern of energy. They will stand out from the general background and
become figures of focus.
THE NEURAL REFERENCE BEAM
One’s own heart rate and breathing pattern will be among the most dominant rhythms
which occur in the brain. They will necessarily interact with and modify the other fields
present in the brain, altering the interference pattern accordingly. These rhythms will be
stored as a part of the overall hologram. They will probably acquire the subjective value
of self or ‘that which is always present’. The rest of the generated holograms thus
created may then be recognized and interpreted by the ever-present reference beam of
self or consciousness. Consciousness is not a pure laser beam, but it is in a sense
coherent in that its basic physiological rhythms maintain themselves over a period of
time and have continuity.
Other patterns from the environment will emerge to a lesser degree as dominant
energies and frequencies. These less frequent regularities of pattern will merge into
concepts similar to the concept of self, but of less importance. Because new sensory
inputs which are similar will stimulate and activate these developing concepts, they will
become the referents to which new stimuli are compared. The complexes of energy
fields which remain active in the brain form a consistent pattern of self and memory with
which new holograms are continually compared. Consciousness thus develops a
memory and a sense of self which is essentially the same self that has existed over the
length of time that the brain itself has existed. It has constancy and consistency like
Bergsen’s snowball, but with perhaps greater flexibility. As we think and perceive, the
‘reference beam’ which we refer to as consciousness brings to the fore a fluid hologram
or “holo-wave” of experience and briefly holds a portion of it, which we experience as
the duration of ‘nowness’. We do not experience the ‘now’ as a single fixed hologram of
the present like a vacation slide of the Grand Canyon. Instead, we compare the present
input with the totality of our past experience and the internal representation we have
constructed of the immediate past. The interaction of sensory signals, our internal bodily
functions, and our memory experience creates a holographic interference pattern.
HOLOGRAPHIC MEMORY
A HOLOGRAPHIC REINTERPRETATION OF MEMORY THEORIES
Memory has been divided into numerous functional and descriptive categories. Perhaps
the one of most useful of these is the distinction drawn by Endel Tulving (1968). He
defined two types of memory which he labels episodic and semantic. Episodic memory
is a memory for events or episodes in one’s personal experience. Semantic memory is
defined as a memory for word meanings and concepts. While the two types of memory
are dissimilar, they are also intimately related. It is the layering of episodic events one
upon the other that eventually result in figures emerging from background and these
figures ultimately acquire semantic meaning. On the other hand, episodic events consist
of objects which have semantic meaning and their interrelationships.
EPISODIC MEMORY
An episodic event is not just one thing, but a combination of many things. It is a
personal experience. The stimuli which assail us as sights, sounds, smells, tactile
sensation, tastes, Feedback from muscle movements, and emotional feelings all
combine to give us a view of the world which we refer to as a conscious experience.
The merging and blending of these individual stimuli are what we experience as
ongoing consciousness.
How well we remember events will be determined by the attention we give to those
events. Our attention will in turn be affected by the positive or negative emotional
attachments we have to the event in question. The attachments are determined by our
past history, as determined by our memory.
For the present let’s just consider the episodic event. The event is filled with things
(semantic objects). We recognize these things and incorporate them into the episodic
event. The more we attend to the distinct objects in an episodic event and note how
they are related, the better we remember the event. However, since most of the time
perception operates at an automatic level, we often fail to focus attention on the specific
items of an episodic event and, thus, we fail to remember them.
SEMANTIC MEMORY
Because we tend to process events automatically, episodic memory has an
organization mainly unknown to us (except that we perceive events sequentially). Out of
a basic need to remember (as well as to communicate), we have developed a meaning-
based memory system referred to as a semantic memory system. Semantic memories
are the accumulation of related episodic events whose rhythm patterns merge with one
another over time to form a composite picture or concept. For example, when we say
the word ‘dog’, we do not mean some particular dog, but rather an idea which includes
personal historical knowledge of all of those instances when we experienced or thought
about dogs.
By assigning sounds and symbols to objects and their relationships, that is, by creating
language, people begin to organize their minds in new ways. Rhythm patterns, which
remain relatively invariant over time, are perceived as figures emerging from the
background. They become identified as ‘things’ and are given labels so that they may
be identified when they recur or so that they may be conjured up when they are needed.
Aside from communicating with others, the primary value of language is that it aids us in
‘mentally’ generating situations and objects which are not presently available to the
senses or those which have never occurred together before.
MEMORY ORGANIZATION
As described previously, a memory is registered and then analyzed, mentally
categorized, and grouped. Some memories are grouped under more than one category.
They are linked to each other by rather random connections because the world does not
present itself to us in an orderly manner. As a result, when something in our
environment triggers a memory, it is likely to trigger all rhythm patterns which have
some similarity to the stimulus trigger. Each of these memories will try to assert itself,
but the one which is the strongest, will thrust itself into consciousness.
It is difficult to determine the strength of a memory, analytically. A memory gains
strength through its associations and relationships (that is, by the number of holo-waves
in which it is incorporated or more precisely, by the number of times it appears in the
ongoing holo-wave of one’s experience.) The more items with which it is associated, the
more cues exist to trigger it. Keep in mind that a cue is not a specific item, but, rather, a
set of rhythms occurring in the holo-wave pattern which are similar or identical to
rhythms occurring in the interference pattern of the memory we wish to recall. Of
course, in any given situation it is probable that one memory will be triggered by more
cues (patterns) than another.
Holographically, cues are specific rhythm patterns which are incorporated into episodic
memories. One cue may stimulate many episodic events which will interfere with each
other equally. Each new cue will stimulate other memories, but some memories will be
stimulated by more than one cue and so will gain in strength and emerge above the
general level of noise. The holographic system is a probabilistic system. The
introduction of particular rhythms does not ensure that memories will be retrieved. It
only increases the likelihood that they will. The holographic system thus accounts for
forgetting as well as remembering.
The physiological correlate of consciousness is the exceedingly complex
electrochemical and electromagnetic activity going on in the brain. Measuring brain
waves of people gives us a general idea of their state of mind. The brain waves of a
sleeping person are different from those of an awake person and the brain waves of a
relaxed person are different from those of an anxious person. The brain state in which
we find ourselves varies greatly with the surrounding environment and with our internal
thoughts and mood state. Interestingly, state of mind seems to be an important factor in
remembering.
STATE DEPENDENT MEMORY
It makes sense that one can best remember an event if one’s mind is returned to the
same state as when the event was first experienced. The more cues given a person to
recreate the previous state of mind, the more likely it is to be remembered. This
becomes clear when we consider that it is easier to recognize a picture of a person than
it is to recall what a person looks like with no more cures than the person’s name.
It has been demonstrated that one’s mind state affects one’s ability to remember. In
studies involving both animals and people, tasks learned under the influence of a drug
were better remembered later if the subject was tested under the influence of the same
drug (Girden & Culler, 1937; Otis, 1964; and Overton 1964,1971). Not all authorities
agree why this effect occurs, but it does occur. Perhaps a description of the basic
experiment will help us to form our own conclusion.
Generally, the studies involving humans go something like this. A person is given an
ounce of alcohol. Then when the alcohol begins to take effect, the person is given a list
of words to remember. This type of test is, of course, a test of episodic memory, since
one must remember which words occurred at this given time. After the effects of the
alcohol have worn off, the person is tested to see whether he can remember the words.
Generally, verbal recall is quite poor. Most of us would attribute this to our belief that
alcohol dulls the brain and prevents remembering. That much is true. Alcohol does,
indeed, destroy brain cells and generally depresses the functioning of the central
nervous system.
However, researchers are always looking beyond the obvious explanations. Therefore,
after giving the person the first test while sober, he is given another ounce of alcohol
and is tested again. Under the influence of alcohol, memory improves. Now don’t run
right out and buy a bottle of booze to improve your memory. That’s not how it works.
What seems to cause the effect is recreating the previous brain state.
Recent research which I have done, indicates that other brain states can also affect
memory. I hypnotized subjects to generate feelings of anxiety or relaxation. I then had
them imagine themselves at home in a familiar room and gave them a list of words to
remember. Immediately afterward, I had them imagine themselves walking along a
beach. For five minutes, I had them describe to me what they saw on the beach. Some
of the subjects were then asked to imagine themselves back in their room again and
were asked to recall the word list. Other subjects were asked to imagine themselves in
a classroom and were asked to recall the word list. Subjects who were in an anxiety
state recalled quite poorly. When subjects were relaxed, they recalled the word list
much better. Subjects in the same imagined location and relaxed mood state
remembered twice as well as the others.
This state dependency experiment without drugs, demonstrates that relaxation aids
memory recall and that one can remember much better if one’s state of mind is the
same or close to the same when information comes in as when it is recalled. It also
demonstrates several other interesting things. First, it demonstrates that a mental state
that improves recall can be internally generated. In both study and recall sequences, the
situations were imagined. Second, it shows that we can alter the way we function so
that our memory can be improved. Third it shows that techniques that can heighten
human suggestibility (like hypnosis) create an excellent environment for developing
memory. Fourth, we see that relaxation which quiets the mind and body, aids recall;
while anxiety, which creates noise in the system, interferes with it.
PROCESS DEPENDENT MEMORY
I have described the above memory research as state dependent memory experiments
because that is the name typically given to it by memory researchers. However, in view
of the memory model under discussion, it should be clear that the states described are
not discrete, concrete conditions, but rather relatively stable interference patterns.
It might be more accurate to describe these ‘states’ as processes. Process dependent
memory would then be defined as memories or rhythm patterns which are consistently
generated in the process of generating other rhythms. The mood dependent memories
just discussed would be most closely integrated with rhythms generated by the lower
brain centers and would be embedded in those rhythms. Episodic memories would be
defined as the set of rhythms generated at any given time (time being defined as a
duration long enough for a rhythmic interference pattern to form and short enough so
that it does not change significantly). Obviously, the rhythm patterns of experiential
events, which are observed ‘automatically’, will change so rapidly that it is unlikely that
they will have more than a minimal interaction with already existing memories.
In contrast, the rhythm patterns of meaningful or emotionally charged stimuli will have
occurred over and over in conjunction with those patterns associated with the self (heart
rate, breathing, etc.) and acquire meaningfulness and emotional content precisely
because of that regular co-occurrence. For each of us, the process varies as our
experience varies and for each of us aspects of the process will recur with regularity
because there are regularities in our life experience. Our consciousness and our
memory then are a process of rhythmic interactions with recurring themes. As Walt
Whitman poetically put it, we are each singing the song of ourselves.
Song is an excellent analogy because the rhythms of consciousness have the same
interconnection and embedding that musical notes have to a song. Music and life
experience are both perceived to be linear. We seem to think we experience them that
way. However, as Bergson (1946) points out, if we were to perceive each note as an
isolated entity, we would not experience music, but rather just a series of tones. It is the
experience of the forward and backward interaction of the series of notes (through the
process of memory) that allows us to hear a tune. And it is the recurrence of certain
rhythm patterns throughout the musical piece which make it ‘music’ to our ears. It is
interesting to note that while the basic pattern does recur, it does not always recur
identically. Consider for example, the ‘da-da-da-daahm’ of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.
Occasionally the notes of the pattern are played faster and pushed closer together or
spread out over time, yet we perceive the same pattern. Sometimes the rhythm is
played in a higher register with different notes, by different instruments, but the notes
always have the same basic relationship to each other.
We do, in fact, perceive reality only because we have a memory which endures
throughout a continuous process and because within that process there are embedded
rhythms or sub-processes which emerge to interact with our perceptions. The end result
of the grand interaction of past and present is the experience of, ‘ourselves’ as we
merge with the rhythms of the universal hologram.
ENCODING VARIABILITY
For state dependency to be effective, two things must occur. Physiological rhythms (the
reference beam) must remain as constant as possible so that information may be stored
and retrieved from the same state; and environmental stimuli (the information beam)
must change to avoid habituation and to attach the information to as many memory
complexes as possible.
The more mind states in which an item occurs, the more likely it is to be stimulated to
occur again. However, if there are many distinct mind states, it will be easy to lose
memories among the millions of diverse rhythm patterns within the brain. The memory
will be easily recognized, but will be hard to recall. It is essential that there be some
consistency of mind states, but that information be encoded to connect it with as many
stimulus cues as possible. Appropriate rehearsal strategies provide variable encoding.
One-time presentation establishes a recognition memory, but rehearsal is necessary for
the introduction of a given memory into several memory episodes. Each rehearsal
creates a trace of the "to be remembered" item in a new episode. With simple rehearsal,
however, each 'new' episode is almost identical to the previous one. If rehearsal occurs
over a period of time, there may be more distinctive events, but a conscious effort may
be made to vary episodic encoding more often. Using visual imagery and multiple
encoding one weaves the new information into as many old memory complexes as
possible.
This is confirmed by the results of varied stimulus experiments (Bevan, Dukes, & Avant;
1966). One group of subjects is shown a series of photographs of people and is given
names to associate with them. They are shown the photographs three times. Another
group of subjects is shown the same photographs the first time, but the second and
third time they are shown two more sets of photographs of the same people wearing
different clothes.
When both groups are shown the first set of photographs, group one recalls more
names than group two. However, when both groups are shown a fourth set of
photographs of these people (which they have never seen before), group two recalls
more names than group one. When group one remains in a specific encoding state they
recall better than those who have variably encoded, but when a new episodic event
occurs, the group with variable encodings of a consistent stimulus, demonstrate a better
transfer of learning.
MEMORY AS HYPOTHESIS
The fact that memory is not discrete and that even the earliest experiences are laid
down on a bed of prior experiences suggests that memories get mixed. Memories which
have some degree of similarity (i.e., have some similar rhythms) tend to be woven into
the same memory fabric. Unlike discrete computer memories, our memories are not
stored separately like photographs of our summer vacation. Rather as experience
enters our sensory field it becomes part of the holographic interference pattern. That
pattern is a composite of all the resonant rhythms of previous experiences. Distinct
information and sequence of occurrence may be easily lost or blurred. It is precisely this
indistinct characteristic of human memory that militates against computer like, digital
theories of memory often proposed.
The problem is compounded at the time of subsequent retrieval. Information recently
learned and available as a part of the ongoing holographic experience will become part
of the same holographic pattern as the recalled information. Each time the information is
recalled, it will become contaminated with the present holographic experience. The
memory may soon differ considerably from the actual episodic event as perceived and
the perception itself will be biased by previous experience. This is in complete accord
with actual experience as described by Elizabeth Loftus in Eyewitness Testimony
(Loftus, 1979).
How then do we remember anything and how can we have any confidence in what we
'know'? The truth is we are often much more confident than we have any right to be.
Perhaps Mark Twain said it best. "I remember clearly, things that never happened at
all!!!"
While others have suggested that memory may be a process of testing and rejecting
various hypotheses, the hardware mechanism has not, to my knowledge been
suggested. The concept coalesced for me one night while watching 'JEOPARDY' on
television. An answer was given to which I was sure I did not know the question. A
paraphrase of the answer is, "He was elected Governor of New York in 1826, but is
perhaps better remembered for the major project with which he was associated." I was
sure I didn't know who the governor was, but I reviewed my knowledge of American
history of the 1800's. The Erie Canal popped into my head and with it the name DeWitt
Clinton, though the link escaped me. Nevertheless, since it was the only name my fuzzy
memory could identify with the period, I chose it as my guess. The question as it turned
out was, "Who was Dewitt Clinton?" Frankly, I never knew Dewitt Clinton was a
governor of anything.
Upon reflection, it occurred to me that I often relied more on 'educated guesses' than I
did on certainties retrieved from specific memory slots. In fact, most, if not all, of my
'memory retrieval' seemed to fit the hypothesis generation model. That is, the cues of a
question or an environmental situation seemed to trigger the generation of categories or
areas of memory. In holographic terms this would imply generation of sets of rhythms.
The rhythms would of course contain varieties of information and the interaction of
generated wave patterns would result in the emergence of dominant rhythms which
would in all probability contain the correct answer. However, the additional conscious
generation of cues or categories might be necessary to single out a particular rhythm
representing a particular memory or hypothesis. The hypothesis being that this pattern
best fits the question being posed to memory.
Clearly, this waveform averaging process would not generate discrete memories. It
would rather be a physiological 'Fourier Analysis' of the various waveforms available at
that instant. (Fourier analyses are mathematical analyses which breakdown complex
waveforms into their most probable component parts.) The waveform averaging
attempts to generate the most likely or most frequently occurring waveform by
summating the energy of those resonant patterns occurring at the time.
Evoked potential researchers attempt the same thing by presenting the same stimulus
to a subject repeatedly and then averaging the time-matched electroencephalographic
records. This causes electrical activity relating to the stimulus to incrementally add while
random noise interferes with itself (out of phase waveforms, particularly those 180
degrees out of phase subtract or average out to zero) thus producing an enhanced
rhythm pattern relating to physiological response to the stimulus. It is entirely
reasonable to assume that the same process occurs naturally in the brain.
The accepted hypothesis would then be the one which would be most probable.
Probability being determined by which averaged set of waveforms was occurring at the
time of memory retrieval. Such a process would be blocked if the individual persisted in
a memory search process which attempted to retrieve what was perceived to be the
appropriate memory pattern when it was not in fact. As often occurs, we fail to 'find'
what we are looking for and then give up the memory search only to have the correct
information 'pop' into our heads a few minutes later. Apparently, the correct waveform
emerges as soon as it becomes unimpeded by the rhythms forced upon it by conscious
memory search.
REGISTRATION AND RETRIEVAL
Most memory difficulties can be traced to input/output problems. Let's discuss a
common situation. We are trying to retrieve what has been stored previously and we
don't get a very good recall. Is our retrieval poor or was the information stored badly? I
believe that memories stored away systematically can be retrieved systematically.
Correctly registered memories are stored much like books in a library. Books are
categorized and filed under a specific number in the Dewey Decimal System or with a
Library of Congress number. When you know the system, you can find anything you
need in the library, but you must know the system. Then you can approach the proper
shelf and pick out the information you want.
Let's suppose that you (or someone) wasn't careful in returning a book to a shelf. Since
it is not linked to the system, you have no way of retrieving it at a later date. You would
be forced to go through the stacks looking at one book after another until you luckily
stumbled onto the misplaced book. More likely, you would look at the enormous amount
of work ahead of you and after pulling a few books off the shelves you would say "forget
it". Most of the time we say "forget it" after making a few feeble attempts to recall
information from our memories.
That is really all that is wrong with your memory. It is why you have difficulty recalling
the old situation, name, etc. Most of us do not attend carefully to incoming stimuli and
so they enter and are stored almost randomly. I say almost, because when information
is stored unconsciously there may indeed be a system, but we don't know what it is or
how it works. Once you learn to register information by paying attention to it as you
encounter it your natural memory system can help you function at a much higher
capacity with less time wasted trying to remember.
RECOGNITION MEMORY IS PHOTOGRAPHIC
We recognize things that we have seen or heard before because there is a rhythmic
memory match between what we are presently experiencing, and we have experienced
before and stored away. Recognition memory occurs when all of the cues are present,
as when we identify a photograph we have seen previously. It is a matching process
where brain rhythms from the incoming information are compared to those stored in the
brain. Our recognition memory is almost perfect. A study was performed where subjects
were asked to view 2560 slides presented very briefly one after another (Standing,
Conezio, & Haber; 1970.) A week later, half of the slides were mixed randomly with one
thousand new slides and the subjects were asked to identify which of the slides they
had seen before. Subjects were able to identify better than ninety percent of the original
slides. In fact, through an experimental error one of the original slides was put into the
projector backwards and a few of the subjects not only identified it, but indicated that it
was backwards.
CONTINUOUS MEMORY
Memory, because it is holographic in nature, cannot be discrete. We perceive
holistically with all our senses. True, we do separate out objects from that holistic view
and perceive them as figures on a background, but they do not stand totally by
themselves. A chair, for example, may be perceived as a discrete unit, but it is only a
chair in that it is used by human beings as a place to sit and further it must have a
certain set of characteristics such as a seat, a back, four legs, and perhaps armrests.
Some of its characteristics may vary. It may be made of wood, metal, plastic, etc. It may
or may not be stuffed and covered with fabric. It may have three legs or four or none at
all (i.e. it may be constructe6 so as to be supported by a single support as with a barrel
chair or one of molded plastic).
Chair is a category in which individual instances with slightly varying characteristics are
combined to generate a generalized concept. The concept while it may be practically
considered distinct, is really an amorphous combination of perceptions which changes
as our experience with ‘chairs’ changes.
All such conceptualizations are in fact created out of the continuously changing
holographic patterns of electromagnetic waveforms generated in the brain from neural
impulses arriving from the sensory receptors. They constitute a generalized waveform
made up of many complex subcomponents. As such they cannot be independent of the
energy patterns which make them up. To be more specific, one cannot think of a chair
without the presence of one or more of the waveforms in which the chair pattern first
occurred. The memory of a chair is inextricably woven into the overall holograms in
which it was first introduced to memory. However, during the course of one’s experience
one is exposed to many thousands of sensory experiences in which a chair occurs, any
one of them or a combination of them can regenerate the chair memory and since the
occurrence of one sensory experience will tend to regenerate memory patterns which
are similar, a general interference of waveforms will occur in which the similar patterns
which relate specifically to chair will tend to dominate.
The ideas in one’s present memory are merely those which are strongest because they
are stimulated most strongly by present input and the most recent thought patterns.
Memory is thus necessarily analogue by nature. Thought patterns are intrinsically
woven into the time and space of their initial and subsequent appearances and will only
be brought back to conscious awareness as a part of their previous spatial and/or
temporal state. This is precisely why we are occasionally unable to bring to awareness
things that we know we know. They are incompatible in waveform with our present
waveforms and though they are still there – on the tips of our tongues- they cannot
emerge into consciousness until we shift our conscious wave patterns to a more
conducive form. This is also why thoughts suddenly pop into our heads for no apparent
reason (the reason of course, is that a wave pattern or combination of patterns occurs in
which the thought has previously been prominent or in some cases several wave
patterns occur in neither of which the thought was prominent, but in both of which the
thought occurred and the juxtaposition of both wave patterns gave the thought
prominence because the wave forms of the thought are additive when they occur
proximally in space or time).
This is precisely why we can strengthen memories by increasing the number of contexts
in which they occur. This will occur naturally if we are exposed to things over time
especially if the to be remembered item remains constant while the background in which
it occurs changes constantly.
Using vivid imagery or telling oneself a story about an item that we wish to remember
elicits whole sets of previous wave patterns from our well-rehearsed memory store
which are then tied to the new item. The more mind states in which an item can occur,
the more likely it is that an environmental or internal thought stimulus will trigger it when
we need to remember it.
IS THE UNIVERSE A HOLOGRAPHIC GHOST?
The world outside, as described by eastern philosophers, is all ‘Maya’. It is all an illusion
of the mind. If modern physics is to be believed, the ancient mystics and philosophers
were, indeed, right. According to physicists, whether Unified Field Theorists or String
Theorists, the world really is only swirling shadows of energy rhythms following the laws
of relativity and/or quantum wave mechanics.
According to current scientific theory, all energy and matter came into existence as a
result of the “Big Bang”), Since that time, electromagnetic energy and matter have been
changing back and forth into various forms of one another.
Einstein’s formula, E=Mc2 describes the mathematical relationship between energy and
matter in terms of the amount of energy generated when matter becomes energy and
conversely the amount of matter created when energy becomes matter. The c2 refers
to the speed of electromagnetic radiation (or light) squared. In other words, when matter
is converted to energy, the massive energy created expands in three dimensions at the
speed of light. It should be noted here, that according to Einstein and modern science,
nothing can travel faster that the speed of light. To what then does the c2 refer? If a
beam of light bends or a photon changes direction, it must still move at the speed of
light and therefore as the light wave continually changes direction it appears to exist as
a minute singularity point of matter.
Essentially, we have taken the square root of the available energy, divided it by rate at
which light energy travels, and compressed that energy into a minute amount of mass.
(M= √𝐸/𝑐). This formula defines what occurs when energy becomes matter and in what
proportions. When enough swirling energy fields begin to converge in the same time
and space they create a gravitational pull which draws even more energy.
It must be remembered, however, that, even as light is squared (i.e., changing direction)
it is not stationary. It is moving through space and through time. It is only perceived as
stationary by an observer presumably moving in relationship with it. Viewed by another
observer it would appear to be doing something quite different or to totally cease to exist
in that viewer’s world. An object which ‘exists’ in one space-time may cease to exist in
the same space during the next time interval or may seem to have disappeared in that
space because in the next time interval it may be occupying another space or during the
next time interval it may be occupying same space (even a few fractions of a second
later). This is the kind of effect that one sees when a string stretched tightly between
two points is plucked (i.e., energy has been added to it. The string vibrates and a
standing wave with nodes appears. The wave and node seem to occupy a series of
spaces, yet they actually only occupy that space briefly and repetitively. Our perception
is what gives the movement a characteristic of continuity. A similar thing would occur for
our consciousness if, for example, we saw that a chair is in a room and then ten
seconds later someone removes it from that room (when we are distracted). The chair
has ceased to exist.
How do we reconcile our view of the world as solid and real with that of physicists who
see it as a holographic ghost? As solid as the world appears to us, these physicists tell
us that it is mostly empty space. Looking at the macroscopic world of stars and planets
where we know that there are vast reaches of empty space between stars and planets,
it is easy to agree with them. It is much more difficult to understand how a world full of
the objects with which we interact every day, can be mostly empty space. It seems so
solid. How can it be empty?
THE MICROSCOPIC WORLD IS FULL OF HOLES
Matter, we were told in school, is made up of tiny solar systems called atoms, in which
minute particles called electrons orbit around larger particles called protons and
neutrons. The electron planets circle around their nuclei suns in orbits, which are as far
away, in relative terms (given the size of the particles), as our earth is from the sun. The
rest of the atom is empty space. How can this be? How can empty space appear to be
solid?
The answer lies in movement. Movement traces a path. It temporarily fills a void and our
consciousness is fooled into thinking that a reality exists which is not really there. A
simple experiment should help clarify this. Imagine a bicycle wheel mounted horizontally
in space. Its axis rests on a vertical pole standing on the floor. Like an atom, most of the
space between the axis of the wheel and its rim is empty. Only a small portion of the
space is taken up by spokes. With the horizontal wheel stationary, it is relatively easy to
drop pennies through the spaces between the spokes. They meet with almost no
resistance.
MOTION AND THE ILLUSION OF SOLIDITY
If we begin to spin the wheel, however, the pennies begin to encounter spokes and are
deflected by them. The faster we spin the wheel; the more pennies are deflected. At any
given moment, as a penny falls toward the spokes, the probability that it will be hit by a
spoke increases as the speed of the wheel increases. If the wheel were to move
incredibly fast (approaching the speed of light), it would seem to the person dropping
pennies, as solid as a table top. If we were to rotate the wheel and gradually change the
axis or angle of rotation from the angle at which it was initially spinning and then
increase its speed to near the speed of light, the wheel would appear to be a solid
sphere.
Similarly, electrons orbit at gradually changing angles at close to the speed of light
around the nucleus of an atom. According to Albert Einstein, angular momentum is
essentially indistinguishable from gravity. Thus, the atoms would appear to be as solid
as marbles to any force that comes in contact with them and would have gravitational
attraction. Is our solid universe, in fact, empty space through which electrons and atoms
move very quickly in very precise patterns, giving the impression of solid matter?
HOLOGRAPHIC ENERGY FIELDS
"Not necessarily, say the physicists. The particles themselves do not really exist and
space is not empty. What does exist are waves of force referred to as matter waves
emanating from points in space known as singularity points. Modern research suggests
that space, itself, is not empty. In fact, a cubic centimeter of space is filled with energy
waves, so much energy that this tiny space is thought by some scientists to contain
more energy than that contained by all the matter of the known universe. The matter of
the universe is actually little more than relatively permanent swirls and eddies in the
fabric of the universal energy pattern. It is those swirls and eddies which are perceived
and identified by consciousness as the material world.
These waves of force interact with each other and to our conscious experience they
create the sense of permanence and solidity. How they accomplish this may be more
easily understood if we think of a force we have probably all experienced, the magnetic
force. Two magnets will attract each other if their unlike poles (north and south poles)
are brought close together. If two like north poles (or south poles) are brought close
together, the magnets push each other away. One can feel the force even though there
seems to be nothing between the two magnets.
If the idea of force fields is still unclear, consider another example. When we drop a
stone in the water it creates ripples of force in the water. The water itself only moves up
and down as the crests and troughs of the waves pass by. It is the waves of force that
move away from the place where the stone was dropped. Like the two-dimensional
water waves, electromagnetic waves or matter waves move outward from their source
in three-dimensionally expanding spheres of force. Thus, it is not objects we
experience, but the forces created by the swirling movements of energy. These forces
interact with our sensory surfaces, which are a part of the same universal holo-wave,
and because they change our interference pattern, we perceive them.
WHIRLPOOLS OF ENERGY HAVE GRAVITY
The singularity points from which matter waves are supposed to emanate appear to be
the points at which several energy waves intercept each other to form an interference
pattern and generate a new matter waveform. This is suggested by the Compton effect
in which 'pair production' of a positron and an electron occur when a high-energy
electromagnetic wave known as a gamma ray encounters another gamma ray (or where
a gamma ray is deflected by the field surrounding the nucleus of an atom). When this
occurs the gamma, rays disappear and two ‘particles' or eddies of energy appear (one
defined as matter and the other as anti-matter), Each whirlpool has an opposite
electrical charge (positive for the positron and negative for the electron), and they spin
off in opposite directions. Some researchers have postulated that positrons are
electrons moving backwards in time. The anti-matter positron swirl annihilates itself as
soon as it encounters another electron swirl, and both are converted back into gamma
rays. Matter seems only to exist for another particle of matter moving in the same time
direction. Or perhaps, when there is no time, there is no matter. The electron remains a
'material object', moving through time, but what is it, exactly? Presumably, it is just a
swirl of energy.
The electron and positron apparently get their 'spins' from the waves which produced
them. Gamma rays, like all electromagnetic waves, have a basically sinusoidal pattern.
That is, they wax and wane in strength in a cyclic manner. When they encounter each
other, one might expect the waves to interact with each other and in effect push off from
each other. If the interacting crests of energy are building in strength, they may push off
from each other with increasing force. As the force increases, the vector angle at which
they move away from each other will also increase and the energy wave may acquire
angular momentum or spin. Having acquired angular momentum, they also acquire
acceleration since acceleration is defined as a change of either velocity or direction of
movement. Consider for example the identical feeling we get by being thrown back
against the seat as a car accelerates or the feeling of being thrown against the
passenger side door as the car swings around a corner. According to Einstein's General
Theory of Relativity (Einstein & Infeld, 1938), this acceleration is indistinguishable from
gravity. In his classic experiment, he demonstrates that it is impossible for a conscious
observer in a sealed elevator to tell the difference between the downward force exerted
on us by the upward acceleration of the elevator in free space and the downward pull
exerted on us by the same elevator in a gravitational field such as that of the earth.
Things which have gravity also have mass (which may be defined as the ability “bend
space” or to attract other masses toward themselves). Einstein believed that mass was
energy that was changed in form and that it in turn changed the shape of space around
it. Particles of mass, then, would seem to be simply the result of the bending of energy
waves. They are energy bundles with cyclical movement and angular velocity (i.e.,
movement about a point).
When they approach close enough, each particle's swirling motion prevents it from
being sucked into the other particle. They are not spinning in precisely the same way
and are changing the shape of the space around them in different ways. To better
visualize this, imagine two pencils tied to a string. As we turn the pencils about their
vertical axes, they each wind up the string, drawing themselves closer and closer to one
another. However, at some point, since each is trying to pull the string toward its own
center, they bump into each other and can move no closer.
Atomic particles, however, are not marbles attached by inelastic strings. We must
continually remind ourselves that these 'particles' are really just swirls in the fabric of
energy woven throughout the entire universe. Each swirl affects the whole Fabric just as
twisting any portion of a sheet of cloth pulls and distorts the entire sheet. Just so, these
swirls are drawn to each other choreographing intricate dances around each other
which we interpret as elemental and chemical bonding of matter.
THE UNIVERSAL INTERFERENCE PATTERN
As these atomic structures arrange themselves in 'empty' space, they change the shape
of space. Energy (whether wave or particle) moves through the altered fabric of space
toward the centers of accumulated masses. Whirlpool approaches whirlpool along the
lines of curved space. Because space is curved by the masses within it, masses tend to
“fall” towards each other. Imagine a large ball bearing being placed in the middle of a
sheet of thin rubber. Its weight stretches the rubber sheet downward and smaller ball
bearings placed on the sheet roll downward on the sheet towards the curved depression
made by the larger ball-bearing. Because each of the particles or whorls of energy are
spinning, they tend to be drawn together and merge their attributes with one another,
creating even larger curves in space so that more and more mass is accumulated in
these centers of curved space.
As the whirlpools grow and accumulate more and more energy, they eventually become
clouds of gases and the clouds of gases become stars in which energy is curved and
recurved in upon itself. The stars themselves, swirl about each other and are drawn
together to form galaxies of stars. Some theories suggest that the galaxies of stars
swirl about black holes. Black holes are apparently formed when massive stars become
so massive that they collapse in on themselves and create a gravitational pull so strong
that they begin to draw other stars and gases towards themselves to form galactic
clusters of stars. Whether these black holes existed at the beginning of the universe or
developed as the result of the interaction of electromagnetic fields is unclear.
Nevertheless, they and all other forms of matter are apparently created by the swirls of
energy which result when “out of phase” electromagnetic waves of energy encounter
one another. The mass, charge, and angular momentum of already formed matter will
also contribute to the gathering of electromagnetic energy to form more matter, by
changing the shape of the space around itself.
In large accumulations of mass-energy such as stars, the gravitational attraction is very
strong. Swirls of energy pull and curve space towards themselves forming atomic
particles (protons, neutrons, and electrons). Small atoms of hydrogen gas (with one
proton and one electron) are formed and then are drawn together and compressed
tightly so that they combine to form larger atoms of helium (with two protons, two
neutrons, and two electrons). As gravitational attraction increases, more particles are
drawn together to form even larger atoms with larger and larger nuclei. The dance of
energy becomes more intricate and complex. The more gravity pulls and compresses
matter together, the more energy (electromagnetic radiation in the form of heat and
light) is released. This fusion energy produces our sunlight and starlight.
As larger and larger atoms are formed, they become less and less stable. This may
occur because each of these tiny whorls of energy is trying to pull the rest of the
universe into its own center and thus most of them are pulling against each other. Or it
may be that the natural tendency of energy is to move freely. In any event, certain
larger atoms split spontaneously (or with the introduction of a small additional bit of
energy), releasing electromagnetic energy and small particles and fragments of the
original nucleus. We refer to this as nuclear fission.
The more gravitational attraction increases in the center of a star, the more of these
reactions occur and the more energy is released. The stronger the pull towards the
center, the more energy is released and pushed outward. Thus, on a larger scale, the
same thing that happens when atoms become too massive, happens when stars
become too massive. The continual release of energy from atoms being pulled into the
center of the star combined with the jostling of other atoms being pushed and pulled by
the swirling forces within the star may cause the star itself to explode in a huge
supernova, throwing 'pieces' of itself off into space. Some of these pieces may
eventually be gathered into the curved spaces of other stars and form planets.
Sometimes, the remaining central core of the star becomes unencumbered by the outer
fragments which have blown away, and it compresses even further. The accumulation
of mass is so great in this core that atoms are forced out of existence and finally only
neutrally-charged particles of matter remain in existence. These stars then become
neutron stars in which the collapsing pressure of gravity is so great nothing can escape
once it comes into the gravitational field. If these whirlpools are massive enough, they
become black holes.
Alternatively, especially with extremely massive stars, the star may not explode, but
rather implodes from the strength of its own gravitational field. Black holes may suck
mass and energy into themselves with such force that they squeeze it out of existence
in this universe. Some theorists maintain that this energy reappears in other universes
or in another part of this universe as a white hole that spews out masses of energy to
begin the cycle all over again. Energy is continually changing.
It is time to remind ourselves once more, however, that this solid universe which we
have just been describing is really just the twists and turns, swirls and eddies in the
fabric of universal energy fields. Perhaps the proscription uttered by God in the Hebrew
and Christian Bible, "Let there be Light!" is the best indication that before there was
anything else, there was energy and that the entire universe has been created out of
those gossamer threads of electromagnetic “light” energy. It also makes sense then that
beings with conscious awareness would experience and interpret the universe by
means of such energy.
This energy is intricately bound into the nature of the universe. It is crucial to an
understanding of it. Einstein's classic formula, E = mc2, tells us that energy (E) is equal
to matter or mass (m) when multiplied by the speed of light (energy) squared (c 2).
When mass is converted to energy, as in a nuclear explosion, massive amounts of
energy are released, just as Einstein's formula predicts. Mass is presumably created by
somehow absorbing and containing those large amounts of energy within a small
volume of space. Perhaps the reason that electromagnetic energy seems to have the
properties of both matter and energy is that it is the transition point between them.
In essence, the universe is very much a holographic illusion. Energy released from the
big bang, black holes, white holes, or other energy sources impinge on each other and
form interference patterns. These are complex, multi-dimensional interference patterns,
and to human beings, who are part of the universal hologram, they seem very real and
substantial because we obey the same physical laws of energy interaction as the rest of
the universe. Consciousness has the luxury of observing the universe of which it is a
part.
Starlight is produced by interactions of subatomic and atomic particles within stars. It is
the product of nuclear fusion in which hydrogen atoms are converted into helium and
larger elements with a resultant release of electromagnetic energy. The energy released
in this process is a random scattering of many different wavelengths of electromagnetic
energy. We are quite aware of the electromagnetic radiation from our sun which is in the
visible range (light) and in the infrared range (heat), and in the ultraviolet (which causes
suntans). We are essentially unaware of the rest of the stellar or solar radiations
(although we do notice the occasional radio and television interference caused by it).
Solar radiation, like all electromagnetic radiation, spreads out (in three dimensions) from
its source and bathes the earth, the planets, and the rest of the universe with its light.
Energy waves spread outward from the source just as circular waves appear and
spread out on the surface of a pond when a pebble is dropped into it. Because solar
energy spreads out in a spherical manner, its energy level at any given point in space
decreases with the square of its distance from its source. The energy field gets thinner,
just as the skin of a balloon gets thinner as it expands.
To this natural background radiation, our modern technology has added radio and
television waves. Scientists discovered that causing an electric current to flow through a
wire results in the generation of a magnetic field around the wire which spreads out
endlessly into space. This is the principle around which radio and television developed.
There are several differences between man-made electromagnetic radiation and that
from other sources. Man-made radiation used for communication is coherent
electromagnetic energy. It is controlled so as to radiate only at specific frequencies and
wavelengths. Using a process known as modulation, ripples are inserted into this
coherent 'carrier' wave so that it is modified slightly to carry useful information such as
radio sounds and television pictures.
LASER LIGHT
A much more intense form of coherent electromagnetic radiation is produced with a
laser. Like transmitted radio or television carriers, laser light is electromagnetic radiation
of only one wavelength. All the waves of light which emanate from the laser are in step.
A burst of electromagnetic energy is injected into a small crystalline cylinder such as a
ruby. The ends of the cylinder are highly polished and reflect the energy like mirrors.
The photons of light move back and forth between the mirrored surfaces deflecting
other photons in the same direction until most of the photons are in step with each
other. When enough photons have been recruited, they burst from the end of the
cylinder as a beam of coherent light. The fact that all of the waves of light move in step
in a coordinated fashion is what accounts for the tremendous power of a laser beam
and for fact that laser beams spread out much more slowly than ordinary light beams.
In human terms, a marching band at half time of a football game resembles a laser
beam. The marchers are all in step and no energy is lost by their bumping into each
other. They have perfect precision and a minimum of inefficient energy expenditure.
Sunlight, on the other hand, is not coherent and thus the waves of different frequencies
are all out of step and continually collide and interfere with each other. It resembles the
unruly crowd of people who leave the football stadium at the end of the game. They
have much more energy than the marching band, but most of it is wasted because it is
not coordinated. Each person, like a photon of non-coherent light, is trying to go his own
way and so is constantly bumping and jostling others, losing energy and efficiency.
THE UNIVERSAL HOLOGRAM
THE BIG BANG
At the time of the purported Big Bang there probably were not any stars, planets, and
galaxies. In fact, elemental atoms may not even have existed. There may only have
been electromagnetic waves or photons of energy. However, since it was an explosion,
the energy and any particles like quarks, electrons, neutrinos, and protons and neutrons
would not all have been released at the same time and given their different masses,
they would have been traveling at different speeds. As a result, the faster particles
would have caught up with bigger slower particles, and the mass of the bigger ones
would have attracted (or bent the space-time continuum around themselves) that other
smaller particles would have been diverted and begun to revolve around bigger
particles. Eventually, “clumps of matter would begin to aggregate (further bending
space-time) creating larger and larger masses of swirling whirlpools of matter.
Ultimately, stars, then black holes and galaxies swirling around the black holes would
have been created. Within the universe, as it continued to expand there would be
massive clusters (black holes and galaxies) drawing matter in their localities into the
centers of themselves.
This energy is intricately bound into the nature of the universe. It is crucial to an
understanding of it. Einstein's classic formula, E = mc2, tells us that energy (E) is equal
to matter or mass (m) when multiplied by the speed of light (energy) squared (c 2).
When mass is converted to energy, as in a nuclear explosion, massive amounts of
energy are released, just as Einstein's formula predicts. Mass is presumably created by
somehow absorbing and containing those large amounts of energy within a small
volume of space. Perhaps the reason that electromagnetic energy seems to have the
properties of both matter and energy is that it is the transition point between them.
In essence, the universe is very much a holographic illusion. Energy released from the
big bang, black holes, white holes, or other energy sources impinge on each other and
form interference patterns. These are complex, multi-dimensional interference patterns,
and to human beings, who are part of the universal hologram, they seem very real and
substantial because we obey the same physical laws of energy interaction as the rest of
the universe. Consciousness has the luxury of observing the universe of which it is a
part.
THE FUNCTION OF MEMORY
Memory is the way that consciousness keeps track of and verifies its world. As
explorers of our own consciousness we must necessarily investigate these nebulous
processes as analogues of something concrete in our environment. Karl Pribram (1980)
has already suggested a such a holographic model. The model described here is
intended to elaborate on the concepts from physics that make Pribram’s model a more
viable model. It also integrates research in cognition to demonstrate that this model is
consistent with our understanding of human learning, memory, and perception.
At the risk of falling the errors of those who have gone before, we will discuss a new
model of memory. It is also derived from an analogue of modern technology. Unlike
earlier models, however, it is not digital. It incorporates the concept that information can
be 'carried' by electromagnetic energy (in the form of radio waves or light waves) and
the concept that holistic information storage is possible via interference patterns created
by the interaction of electromagnetic waves. This process of information storage and
retrieval has already been demonstrated with laser holography.
This is not to say, that this is absolutely, how the mind works, but rather, that it gets us
closer to a description of mind and memory given our present level of understanding of
the hardware and software of the brain and of the physical universe in which it resides.
Clearly, as knowledge of brain physiology and modern physics increases, this model
may be replaced by one that is more accurate, but it is reasonable to assume that
whatever memory model replaces this one, it will be continuous and holistic one rather
than one that is discrete and fragmented.
TIME
Consciousness occurs in a constantly moving, infinitesimal space between the past and
the future; perceiving, analyzing, and planning. Time and matter can exist only if there is
a consciousness with a history and a memory to perceive them because time and
matter are definitions created by consciousness. It is consciousness that gives things
duration and continuity. It may be argued that the universe would continue to 'be' with or
without a consciousness to observe it, but what is the universe without a consciousness
to define it. Being requires consciousness to endure. Because to exist it must exist for
someone, unless we are willing to bestow consciousness on the universe itself. This is
precisely why God was defined as the creator of the Universe. Consciousness must
come before existence. And our consciousness comes to experience the creator
through his creation. And its past existence must be retained in conscious memory.
It is the universal hologram that generates change. Without change, consciousness
would have nothing to perceive. Without consciousness and memory, the universe
would be only unperceived fluctuations in energy fields. It is the duration of
consciousness and the movement of the universe that together make up reality as we
know it.
Seeing an object move from point A to point B means that we must retain a memory of it
at point A, at the same time we experience it at point B. There is a consciousness of
how it was and then a revised consciousness of how it has changed. These two
holographic rhythms must then be compared to one another.
That comparison does not take place within an immeasurably thin wall between past
and future which we know as the 'now' or the present. If the present lasted only an
infinitesimal instant (as we usually assume) nothing could occur there at all because
there would be literally, no 'time' for it to occur. The present does indeed have a
boundary or contact point with the future which is ever rushing up to meet it, but the
means by which consciousness apprehends the present and that which is necessarily
an integral part of it extends backward to the first glimmerings of thought.
DURATION
Consciousness resides in duration. Its contact point with the future consists of the
endless waves of neural impulses coming into the brain from the sensory surfaces (all
of them delayed slightly because of the time it takes for impulses to traverse the length
of the neurons). The holo-wave or interference pattern which occurs in the brain then
stimulates circuits, which resonate with various aspects of the incoming pattern just as
tuning forks of a certain pitch, will be set in motion by another vibrating tuning fork of the
same pitch if it is placed near them. The vibrating rhythms of the holo-wave recede into
those dark recesses of our first conscious awareness and from within this space our
awareness meets the future, trailing its past behind it like ribbons blowing in the wind.
Within this region recognition occurs, decisions are made, actions are initiated, and
mental manipulations are performed. The purpose of the manipulations is to put
meaning to the incoming jumble of energy by organizing it in terms of the memories,
concepts, and categories elicited by it.
Memories are durable which means they have duration or that they last. We often
entangle memory, duration, space, time and movement. For example, I have just
described consciousness as existing in a space. I placed the future out in front of a wall
and the present, the past, and memories in a linear space behind it. None of us would
attempt to suggest that concepts like consciousness, memory, or time are physical
objects which occupy space and, yet, as Bergson expresses it, we continually "project
time into space". In order to measure our seconds, we must place them side-by-side in
space and count them to see how many have gone by. If this is unclear, observe the
movement of a secondhand as it sweeps around the face of a clock. Have we not
physically placed seconds side by side around the edge of the clock face so that we
may count them with the sweeping second hand'?
So, to measure time we must objectify it in space, but we also require that there be
movement within the space. Whether it is a shadow moving around a sundial, sand
moving through an hourglass, hands moving on a clock face, or numbers changing on a
digital clock; we seem only able to perceive the passage of time when space and
movement are involved. In fact, the term 'passage of time' implies movement past
something, but can time, movement, and consciousness really be digitalized and placed
in space?
Let us go back briefly to the perception of an object at point A and then its appearance
at point B. Disregarding for the moment its movement in the real world, consider its
perceived movement. Does the brain perceive the object at A1 at time T1, then at A2 at
time T2, then at A3 at time T3, etc., or does the brain rather perceive a gradual
analogue change in brain waves as the object 'moves' and then a much slower change
as it comes to rest? The digitalization of movement and time is not a function of the
mind, but a function of scientific measurement which attempts to understand the world
by fragmenting it just as language tends to fragment the world by labeling 'things'.
Consciousness and memory cannot be fragmented and digitized. Consciousness has
continuity and endures. While it may change its focus from time to time it retains
continuity. Memory also has continuity. Though we often try to fragment objects from
their immediate surroundings and remember them individually, our frequent failures
should convince us that things in our perceptual field are intricately connected with
everything else there as well as with our personal memory which because of its
connection with the observed object has allowed us to identify it in the first place. We
tend to separate and objectify our world not because it is that way, but because we find
it easier to measure and manipulate it that way.
In reality, time flows, movement flows, and the holo-wave of consciousness flows. They
are in constant flux as is the universe of which they are a part. It is to keep ourselves
from being tossed about as universal flotsam that we have defined various regularities
of the holo-wave and fragmented it into permanent fixed objects to which we may
anchor ourselves.
PERIODICITY AND RHYTHMICITY OF THE UNIVERSE
Periodicity is inherent in a holographic universe. The energy, which inundates it, waxes
and wanes rhythmically. Energy waves of all different frequencies build to their peaks
and then drop to their lowest levels again and again as they flow outward toward infinity.
Even when these waves interact as they do countless times in their travels, they form
complex waveforms which retain the element of periodicity. Sometimes the interactions
result in less regularity, as happens when the energies which make up ocean waves
create infinite, irregular forms and vary the rate with which they lap at the shore.
Nevertheless, even in their irregularities, no one would deny the essentially regular
rhythm of the ocean as its waves beat upon the shore.
It is only reasonable then to assume that the minute atomic 'particles' which make up
the physical universe should spin on their axes and orbit other particles in a cyclic
fashion and maintain at least some degree of regularity. It is also reasonable to assume
that in the larger aspects of the universe, such as planetary orbits and spins and in the
actions of stars revolving around themselves in galaxies, that periodicity should
continually emerge.
The movements of this universal dance, the changes of position in space, are perceived
to occur over time. Planets revolve around the sun in a certain amount of time and suns
revolve with other suns in galaxies over longer periods of time. The occurrence of a
certain event in a certain place is said to occur in that space and time or 'space-time'.
The recurrence of such cyclic events are measures of time. For instance, the time it
takes for the earth to rotate on its axis so that the same point faces the sun again, is a
day. The time it takes for the earth to revolve once around the sun is a year, etc. We
thus divide time into incremental units. But time, as we said, is not a sequence of serial
events occurring within a given space. Time is the river of consciousness. It flows, and
events flow into one another. Time is the process by which the universal hologram
changes. It is the swirling tapestry of events that occurs as each wave of energy
interacts with every other wave.
Time and substance are perceptions of the human mind. A planet does not know how
many revolutions it has made around its sun, or where it was a few weeks ago. An
electron does not know that it is presently in one position in relation to the nucleus of an
atom and that a short while ago it was someplace else. Planet and electron do not even
know that they exist. They do not exist for themselves because they have no selves.
Without the movement and change of the external universe, consciousness would have
nothing to work with, but having once experienced the external world, it can operate for
some time experiencing the shifts in its own awareness. Even when the environment
does not change, we feel the changes in ourselves, our bodies, and our thoughts. Our
consciousness shifts its focus, activating, strengthening, and bringing into awareness
first one then another part of the ongoing internal hologram. While constructed from the
fabric of the external hologram, consciousness is somehow distinct from it. It gives
meaning to it and makes it real. Nothing can exist unless it has duration and duration is
an experience of consciousness. Put another way, if a tree falls in a forest, it does not
make a sound unless someone hears it. In fact, the tree and the forest do not exist
unless someone experiences them. If one believes in God or a supreme consciousness
which is omnipresent, then the universe has perpetual duration and continues to exist
so long as the supreme consciousness does. When consciousness disappears, the
universe will disappear with it.
ALTERING THE ILLUSION
Consciousness thus has options. It has power over the universe. It modifies the ripples
in its near vicinity and sends them through the entire universe to alter it forever. We are
then truly like gods, or at the very least like agents of God. The universe takes its
direction from the sum total of our choices and actions as conscious beings. It is true
that we are constantly buffeted about by ripples set in motion by the unconscious
universe and by all previous consciousnesses since the beginning. It is also true that we
still have the power to follow this course or that one, and to change the universe, at
least our immediate part of it, more or less to our liking. Those of us who feel powerless,
who feel that we have no choice, are the hapless victims of the waves of energy that lap
at us from all directions. We flounder and founder in a sea of energy generated by the
universe and all other consciousnesses.
That those who strive to change the world, often succeed, is the best reason to accept
the premise that consciousness offers us the means to affect our world. Some of us
have experimented with our power to change things, and as we have gained
experience, we have increased our power to recreate our universe. Our control seems
like magic to those who have not exerted theirs, and it is just that, 'real magic'. It is the
secret knowledge that consciousness has the power to change the illusion to our liking,
has allowed powerful beings to change the course of history. The totality of this
conscious force has changed our reality into what it is today. The extent to which we
exert our own conscious choice on the world determines the extent to which it changes
into the kind of reality we would like to have. Most of us have not even begun to explore
the potential that we have to change the nature of reality. Most of us are not even
convinced that we can.
The fact that we are not always successful, does not mean that we have no power, but
rather that others are more experienced at exerting theirs, or that we exert ours in
ineffective ways. Brute force will seldom allow us to exert our will because the brute
force of the universe is always stronger. When we act without thought, we only create
massive interference which buffets and disorients us so that we become a piece of
driftwood in the powerful ocean of experience. Instead, we must learn to watch the ebb
and flow of the holographic universe and use our will to gently nudge it (in a sort of
mental ju-jitsu), combining our small energy with the ongoing hologram and in step with
it, so that it begins to move in the direction we have chosen.
LEARNING AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF MEANING
BECOMING CONSCIOUS
The mind does not come to this world with a full knowledge of it nor is it as John Locke
called it a "tabula rasa" (a blank slate). The infant comes into the world with the ability to
perceive sensations and the ability to know which sensations feel good and which feel
bad. Soon it begins to make more and more precise distinctions about its environment.
First it senses the energy of its own biochemical operations as the brain becomes
aware of impulses coming from other parts of the body and it becomes aware of the first
major premise. Things change. The rhythmic patterns are not always the same. They
vary. However, even though changes occur gradually, change is probably noticed all at
once in an 'aha’ experience. Consciousness has become aware of itself. There is
presence and then there is absence and there is an awareness of the 'I' that has noticed
the change. The universal continuity has been broken in half. Very quickly it is more
narrowly defined and fragmented into discrete pieces. Energy coming into the brain will
be experienced as having variations of intensity and pattern. When a new stimulus is
experienced, we say "yes" (I again experience something) but,” no" (that is not the
same something).
As we make finer and finer distinctions, we create categories and subcategories. For
instance, in the case of visual stimuli, we experience energy; then we experience light
energy; then we experience that the energy is less than usual (gray); then we may
experience that the stimulus changes position relative to its surroundings. It is not only
defined as presence or absence at this point, but as object defined from background.
We quickly discover that movement has two qualities. Either we are related directly to
the movement of objects or we are not. That is, some objects (not yet defined) move of
their own accord without our intervention; others move only when we cause them to
move (moving our heads makes objects move across our visual field or picking up
objects with our hands moves them).
SELF-MEMORY AND PERSONAL HISTORY
The immediate self is the set of perceptions and memories present at the moment. It is
a subset of the memories which constitute the total self. There are sets of rhythms
which are similar and each memory set is attached to the others. As we become more
aware of things and relations in the world we begin to define "self" as those things that
we have been aware of and can still conjure up (remember). As soon as an experience
occurs it permanently interacts with the system and makes a connection with "self"
which must be defined as the sum total of our thoughts. Initially, there are few thoughts
and self is relatively uncomplicated.
Initially, only familiarity is recognized. The newborn infant is relatively at ease when
familiar things like mother's face and body are present. It becomes uneasy when
unfamiliar inputs are present. In time, concepts like 'redness', 'roundness', ‘warmth',
'cold', etc. begin to emerge. More concepts develop and an ordered arrangement of
memory complexes (consisting of groups of concepts or behaviors) create a unique
personality with a history.
SELF DEVELOPMENT
As mentioned earlier, our first memories are those we use to analyze and categorize
our later memories. These earlier memories will have the greatest use and thus the
greatest strength and interrelationships.
For the infant, there are only two basic things in its world, pleasure and pain. We are
basically hedonists. We seek pleasure and avoid pain. Things that are good for a child
are things like eating, being warm, and being held securely. Mother and father become
part of this pleasure complex. On the other hand, being wet is not pleasurable and the
child cries to indicate its displeasure. Crying successfully eliminates displeasure and the
newborn child regularly uses it to get rid of bad experiences. As the child grows, it
begins to classify more and more things under the abstract notion of good things and
bad things and tries to maximize the good and minimize the bad. The motivation
towards pleasure and away from pain is thus established early in life and continue to
affect the strength and direction of our behavior for the rest of our lives. A child who
cries is only seeking what we all seek, elimination of pain. If we pick up the child, we
solve its problem. If we do not pick it up, it must get rid of its pain by itself. It is aided by
the phenomenon called habituation. Some cells in the brain stimulate other cells and
some inhibit. The child, left to its own devices, may learn appropriate or inappropriate
responses to its environment.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF EMOTIONAL RESPONSES
At times insight is gained by a reexamination of the facts. It is important to understand
what we know about what we know. In puzzling over some of the basic problems of
memory and learning, we often overlook the obvious precisely because it is obvious and
seemingly self-explanatory.
For instance, it is fairly common knowledge that we tend to remember things that have a
strong emotional attachment. As humans, we respond positively to pleasurable stimuli
and negatively to painful stimuli. (i.e. Food is rewarding, but electric shock is not.) We
take this as a given, but is it really a given. What is it about food that is rewarding and
what is it about electric shock that is punishing?
Let's focus on food as a reward. Food which does in and of itself provide sustenance
for the body does not tell the brain (by its taste) that it will provide this sustenance. To a
young child, spinach (which is obviously a food) may not be perceived as a reward. In
fact, many children do not like spinach. It has a brackish taste which many of us do not
respond to positively. Sugar, on the other hand, is 'sweet' and we like it and perceive it
as a reward. However, a sugar substitute which tastes sweet like sugar, but provides no
food value whatever, may also be perceived as a reward. Even pain only remains pain
as long as it is variable. When it becomes continuous we become numb to it. Some of
us do, in fact, learn to love pain, usually because it is a constant part of our lives.
Emotional behavior such as rage may even be elicited from de-cerebrate animals (those
with the cerebral cortex, the thinking part of the brain removed), but it cannot be elicited
in response to a specific stimulus. Thus, even in simple things, we have perhaps
overlooked some of the assumptions required to make these simple distinctions.
What does reward mean? What does positive mean? What does it mean to say we like
or dislike something? What is emotion? Are not these basic concepts in and of
themselves learned responses'? Isn't emotional attachment and detachment or rejection
an acquired response rather than a built-in mechanism?
We need only look at the diversity of human behavior to ascertain that what is positive
to one person is negative to someone else. We must, therefore, learn to like or dislike.
We learn to respond to stimuli over time and those which we have been exposed to
repeatedly become familiar and, I would argue, tend to become positive and reinforcing
precisely because they have a stored match in the brain which thus does not unduly
disrupt ongoing brain activity. We must be careful here because we have used 'learning'
and 'familiar' without prior definition.
Learning is defined here as a specific neurologic response to a specific set of stimuli.
Familiar is defined as that which does not disrupt ongoing neural activity because the
neural impulses generated by bringing it into the sensory field are similar or identical to
neural impulse patterns presently incorporated into the system.
Like most organisms, most humans seem to prefer steady-state homeostasis to
disruptive change. Still, survival requires that humans move around and expose
themselves to the environment to obtain food and to avoid harm that might come to
them even if they remained in one place within a changing environment. Activity is
essential and that means exposure to an ever-changing stimulus environment. Since
activity eventually brings about exposure to those steady-state conditions and leads to
familiarity and comfort, it may gain some positive aspects in and of itself. Nevertheless,
when the stimulus environment is constantly changing and no familiarity occurs, it is
almost certain that extreme stress and probably panic will ensue.
To make the point as simple as possible, emotions are learned responses to the
environment. It may be argued, therefore, that we do not learn things because they
have an emotional aspect to them, but rather that they have an emotional aspect to
them because they fit into already established learning patterns. The more learning
patterns to which a stimulus is attached the more emotionally we are attached to it.
We must be careful here to distinguish between emotion and general arousal. Arousal is
a behavioral response that is characterized by increased sensitivity to our environment.
Emotion is the value-laden attitude that we attach to such periods of arousal.
Interestingly, according to Noback (1967), "[Electrical] Stimulation of the hippocampal
formation results in respiratory and cardiovascular changes and in a generalized
arousal response. Such sexual activities as grooming and erection can be elicited." He
goes on to say, "After the bilateral removal of the hippocampal formation, monkeys
appear normal and feed themselves but are lethargic, apathetic, and slow to anger.
They lack emotional tone."
Similar circumstances are found in individuals with brain damage due to excess alcohol
consumption (Korsakoff's Syndrome) and those with Alzheimer’s Disease or other forms
of dementia. However, as these diseases progress, old memories and even speech
deteriorate. While damage to the whole brain may be involved here, the similarities
suggest that damage to the hippocampal formation may be involved.
In any event, the hippocampus appears to have a crucial role in the transfer of new
information into the permanent memory bank of an individual. When it is removed
bilaterally from both hemispheres of the brain, it prevents new learning. Individuals who
have suffered such damage to the brain have no trouble remembering information
which they learned prior to the damage, but they are unable to fix in memory anything
that occurs in the present. For instance, if you were introduced to such a person, they
would greet you properly and even carry on a conversation with you. However, if you
then walked out the door and then reentered a few moments later, the person would not
remember who you were and you would be obliged to introduce yourself all over again.
You could repeat this again and again with the same results. While perception appears
to occur, there is no permanent learning. For learning to occur, interest must be
‘aroused' and that seems to require hippocampal arousal as well as stimulus input.
LEARNING AS A NATURAL PROCESS
The process of learning begins with a narrowing of focus. The universe out there is too
large and complex for us to comprehend it as a whole. Still, many stimuli hit us and our
sensory apparatus all at once. Thus, our developing mind begins a filtering process. It
'learns' first to attend to a single thing at a time.
As encompassing as it is, our sensory system is limited in its range of perception. It can
only view one sensory 'scene' at a time. Within the limits of our perceivable world there
are, nonetheless, innumerable different and distinct objects to perceive. They are
distinguishable by their various sensory properties (i.e., they have texture, shape, color,
size, taste, smell, and feel). All of these sensations arrive at the brain and modify its
operation by varying the pattern of electrical, chemical, and electromagnetic activity.
The sensory scene subtly changes the physical properties of brain tissue to leave a
memory trace. The precise nature of that trace is still unknown, though there is
evidence that repeated electrical stimulation may alter the process by which ribonucleic
acid (RNA) replicates certain chemical molecules within the neuron thus modifying its
chemical makeup and its responsiveness to certain frequencies of electrical rhythms.
Our sensory field is limited, its contents change as we move through it or as things
outside our field move into it. Some of the pattern changes and some of it does not.
(Certain objects remain in our sensory field.) The 'new' sensory field lays down a new
set of memory traces, some of which are identical to the traces laid down by the old
sensory field. When we are then exposed to a third sensory field containing an object
present in the original fields, the sensory stimulation caused by it is stronger. It stands
out in the sensory field. The brain focuses more of its attention on it, since it has
remained in the sensory field longer and it becomes a 'figure' while the rest of the field
becomes a less important 'background'.
As the brain attends to or focuses on the object, the field narrows further, and specific
sensory features of the object gain prominence (they are attended to as we explore the
object and lay down more memory traces). The features become the new 'figure' and
the object itself becomes the 'background'. The advantage of this narrowing of focus is
that we learn that objects exist and differ from one another in various sensory
characteristics. We learn to respond to these objects in preferential ways. This is the
business of learning.
The disadvantage of this learning is that it requires that we pay less attention to the
sensory field as a whole. To function in our world (the sensory field), we must
sequentially learn about as many of the objects in it as possible (specifically their
characteristics and interrelationships).
Based upon the ways in which the objects of our world impinge upon us individually and
in combination with other objects, our consciousness creates an internal model of the
world outside. However, because of the randomness with which the world thrusts itself
upon us, the replica is not a precise copy. It is biased by our attention to those parts of
the world which (for whatever reason) we have been exposed to the most and which
have aided us most in dealing with that world. For example, being able to identify and
eat those objects which ensure our survival is a successful learned behavior. Learning
to fear enclosed spaces (claustrophobia) is an unsuccessful learned behavior.
Learning, then, is developing specific behavioral responses to specific sensory stimuli. It
is a simple, natural process whose complexity increases as our learned behavioral
responses and sensory perception become increasingly complex. It is the growing
demand on us to deal with the many objects and aspects of the world simultaneously
that makes learning difficult. We feel like a juggler who is juggling one too many balls.
There is just too much to pay attention to at once.
Those things we want to learn have meaning and usefulness, while the rest of the
sensory field is simply noise. When we try to juggle too many sensory inputs at once,
we experience information overload (frustration and stress). The brain activity involved
with maintaining bodily functions and already stored internal memories interact and
interfere with the effective storage of incoming sensory input. Virtually nothing stands
out from the general noise and thus nothing can be efficiently attended to or stored.
It would appear to be an impossible situation. The more we learn, the more that
knowledge interferes with new things we want to learn. To overcome this difficulty, we
have developed strategies for learning. In learning to focus our attention, we become
able to inhibit and filter out undesirable stimuli and increase learning effectiveness. We
gradually build up in our minds an orderly worldview that allows us to rank the
importance of incoming stimuli and to attend to them a few at a time. We also begin to
respond to certain stimuli automatically, by generating stereotypic reactions to them.
Certain sensory inputs are recognized as fitting into certain categories and are quickly
channeled off into already established memory complexes. Thus, more attention can be
given to the truly 'new' information which is to be learned. These memory complexes
are orderly patterns of perception and behavior which are continually modified and
varied with each new set of inputs.
OBJECT PERMANENCE
Early in a child's life, if an object is removed from view by being put under a blanket, the
child ignores it and for all practical purposes, the child assumes it is gone (Piaget,1972).
As the child matures, however, an object put under a blanket is still assumed to be there
and the child will crawl to the blanket, reach under it, and retrieve the desired object.
The child has developed the idea of constancy of an object or object permanence.
When we see something in one place, we expect it to remain there. In fact, one of the
reasons that magicians are so successful is that they play upon the expectations which
we acquire early in life. When we see a dove in the magician's hand, we assume it will
stay there and since we do not see the actual removal of the bird because of the
magician's skill, we are amazed when it is not there.
The systematic grouping of similar objects is a necessary result of the overlapping of
memories one on top of another; things which send the same basic types of rhythms to
the brain are defined as the same. Now, the astute person might ask, "How it is that an
object is perceived as the same when it is viewed from a different position?" For
instance, a bicycle is a bicycle whether it is standing up or lying down or being ridden
down the street.
One must go back to the perceptions of the child. When the child sees a ball; he may
move it around, roll it on the Floor, throw it, etc. But of the continuous number of images
relating to it, it has certain characteristics which remain the same. The color does not
deviate as the ball rolls away and appears to become smaller. It also retains its round
shape. Objects may vary in some of their characteristics, but others will remain
constant. The constant ones will be the first to be incorporated into a concept and
others will come later. Note for instance, that a child may learn to call the family dog,
'bow wow' and the give the same label to a cow. Obviously, the similarities such as four
legs, a tail, and a body covered with hair are part of the holographic interference pattern
that the child is using to categorize.
Living things are probably the most difficult to categorize because their physical
flexibility allows them to change their shape easily. For instance, how does the child
deal with a dog which has just lain down? It no longer has any legs. It must not be a
dog. The child has presumably become aware of a few other basic premises. It sees the
same colored object in the same location. Location has a quality of sameness to it.
The child similarly develops shape constancy. Objects do not always appear the same.
For instance, when a toy block is viewed from different angles. Yet, its location, color,
and general quality of squares and intersecting perpendicular lines suggest to the child
that it is viewing the same object. Early in its life it learns some major premises. Objects
are not always exactly the same; objects differ from one another and different objects
are sometimes the same in many ways. These notions do not come easily.
It is believed that during one's dreaming periods, one organizes the experiences which
one encounters during the day. It is interesting to note then that the newborn infant
dreams or at least experiences REM sleep during a large part of its sleep period. (REM
sleep is rapid eye movement sleep and occurs in adults when they report that they are
dreaming.) It is more interesting that dreamtime decreases with age until it takes up only
a small portion of the sleep cycle for older adults. Perhaps as we develop an organized
mind, we require less and less time to add new material to the old system.
PERCEPTS, CONCEPTS, AND CATEGORIES
A percept is established by making it distinct from the background. This is referred to as
developing a figure ground distinction. When a new object enters the sensory field, it
changes the interference pattern and the brain responds to the rhythms it produces. If
there are previous mind states which contain those same rhythms, those patterns are
activated and the parts of the pattern which do not relate to the present situation tend to
interfere with and subtract from the strength of the overall pattern while the rhythms
which correspond to the new object strengthen the rhythms generated by the object,
making it stand out from the background.
Concepts are the result of internal superposition or matching of percepts.
Conceptualization first occurs with concrete objects. As varieties of a particular object
occur, the memory traces superimpose themselves. Differences subtract out and
similarities add in until the essence of the object emerges.
As more and more distinctions are made, we find that the concept of "similarity" exists.
Some objects are less different than others. More specifically, some stimuli seem to be
quite alike (though with differences) while totally different from others. A is not like B, but
C is more like A than B and D is more like B than A or C. Categories have been born.
To avoid confusion when comparing new stimuli to old patterns we begin to repress
some of the patterns so that 'appropriate' old patterns can more easily be compared
with new ones to link them to the appropriate concept. (There is, of course, no
guarantee that the appropriate pattern will emerge.)
Present stimuli do seem to have primary control over which patterns are repressed,
though the specific aspects of our environment to which we attend are in turn
determined by our past experience. Nevertheless, whether appropriate or not the new
stimuli activate sets of old memories. The memories define the new object in terms of
similar characteristics and note differences. The abstraction and comparison processes
are automatic. Even the repressive aspect becomes automatic. Their operation is
preconscious, so we are unaware of a part of ourselves.
Categorization now runs apace with each new object having aspects that fit many
different interference patterns. It may be a car, a red object, a new object, a shiny
object, a moving object, or some sub category of these much too general categories.
Finally, we refine to a particular object by making it the only member of a very narrowly
defined category whose requirements can be met by this object and no other. In the
process of defining objects we become aware of the context in which they occur, and
relationships become established.
At a more abstract level we can understand the concept of categorization like this.
Categories are made up of specific instances which have some characteristic in
common. Complex categories have more than one characteristic in common. One is
exposed to the objects and over time the memories of each instance will tend to trigger
the other instances. When all of the memories are triggered, they will, of course, tend to
interfere with each other since they are not exactly alike. Only the parts that are alike
will not be interfered with. In time only the generalized concept will remain accessible.
This idea, which suggests that abstraction and conceptualization interfere with the recall
of episodic events, appears to be quite true. In fact, when children begin to acquire
language, they tend to lose their ability to retain information with photographic
exactness. This ability is referred to as eidetic memory or more colloquially, as
photographic memory.
LANGUAGE LEARNING
In any event, when the child begins to learn language it need only carry over the same
type of organization which it has used previously. The objects which it already knows to
some degree, constantly occur in conjunction with sounds which represent the name of
the objects in our language. The occurrence of the sound under different circumstances
may leave the child bewildered at first, but, over time, the overlapping memories of
events reveal the simultaneous occurrence of the sound and of one particular object or
groups of similar objects, like dogs.
As language learning proceeds, we learn that words have visual representations too.
We learn spelling patterns and we learn the principle of alphabetizing. Words are
grouped according to their first letters as well as according to their sounds. After we
learn the basic principle, we seem to carry it on automatically without thinking about it.
You can test this yourself. Think of as many words as you can that start with the letter
’P’. Now name as many vegetables as you can that start with the letter ‘P’. Think of
rhymes for 'pump’. It is not unusual that we can do this, but it may surprise you that
some of the words you have learned only recently, will also be included in the lists
which you have just recited. Now think of as many animals as you can that end with the
letter ‘T’. This is more difficult because we do not alphabetize words by their last letters.
Systematic memory search demonstrates that our memories are not as poor as we
might think. Consider trying to remember the name For an American wildcat. We know it
because we can see it 'in our mind's eye'. 'Bobcat' comes to mind, but we know it is
more exotic than that. We know in addition that it resembles a jaguar, but it is smaller. If
we try to think of the letter it begins with, we may come up with ‘ocelot' when we have
recited the alphabet to '0'. The point is, our memories are already cross-referenced and
categorized by the way in which we learn. Often, all one has to do is think of as many
different kinds of cues as one can and then note where they intersect in one's memory.
The mind is organized in other ways, too. For example, we often learn categories of
words like synonyms (same meaning words), antonyms (opposite meaning words),
homonyms (sound alike words), and homographs (words with the same spelling, but
different meanings). If we have one of the words, we can often easily generate the other
words.
SYNTAX
Language is organized in an additional way. All languages have a syntax. That is, words
are assigned to their own special categories and may only be combined in certain
orders. We have nouns, verbs, prepositions, pronouns, etc. When we store words, we
generally store this information, too. In addition, we store the rules which govern the
way in which these words can be used together. Generally, we know that only nouns or
adjectives can follow words like THE. We would not say, "The ran cat big." Rather we
follow a special sequence and would say, "The big cat ran." There are many of these
combinations and, of course, some of us know the rules in more detail than others, but
we all have a basic knowledge of them. Noam Chomsky created the nonsense
sentence, "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously." To demonstrate how syntax allows us
to understand a sentence because of its structure even though the sentence itself is
nonsense.
We use all the above-mentioned cues to help us understand fuzzy verbal information.
When we hear part of a sentence, we generally use these cues and syntax as well as
knowledge of the constancy of the world to solve the problem of the missing words. We
do the same thing in reading. As we read, we generally get an idea of what is going to
be said before the sentence is completed. This is referred to as analysis by synthesis.
Ulric Neisser suggests that language perception is not a passive process (Neisser,
1967). As we hear the first few words of a sentence, we analyze them and begin to
make predictions based on their meaning and the syntax (structure). As we hear the
next words, they either confirm or negate the prediction. With this additional information
the prediction is extended. The final understanding of the sentence is a combination of
what is said and what is predicted. This explains why we don't always hear what is said.
As we learned in the previous discussion, language is used to elicit various aspects of
the holo-wave. Upon hearing a certain set of sentence patterns concerning a certain set
of circumstances, certain aspects of the holo-wave will begin to emerge. Depending on
our past experience, the emerging holo-wave patterns will generate thoughts which lead
us to expect and predict what will come next.
We use our world knowledge from previous experiences and our knowledge of
language to predict the end of sentences. Take, for example, this sentence. "Now is the
time for all good men to come to the aid of their women." As you can see, your previous
knowledge prepared you for the last word to be country. Now I grant that this was a
sentence which most of us have already encountered and thus we would expect
constancy. However, if we consider another sentence we can still see the prediction at
work based upon the interpretations of words and their arrangement and upon previous
memories. “The boy threw the ball into the air and hit it with the _____”; or, “The baker
put the dough into the _____.” Now in the first case, I'm sure that you thought of the
word bat and in the second sentence you very likely ended the sentence with oven, pan,
or bowl.
The point is, you had some specific word in mind and it was almost certainly based
upon your previous memories of events and your knowledge of the basic rules of
language. The various cues in the first part of the sentence generated a particular holo-
wave aspect and predicted the end of the sentence. You already use the internal
system of language to help you remember things and to predict future events based
upon experience. The internal language system is often referred to as the internal
lexicon (or dictionary). This lexicon is a set of interference patterns that not only
generate meanings of words, but also establishes the logical as well as the syntactic
relationships between them.
This information seems to be 'stored' on the left side of the brain. People who have had
damage to the left side of the brain often have trouble either understanding or speaking
language or both. The particular problem depends upon the area that is damaged.
Sometimes one doesn't recognize word meanings; sometimes the words are recognized
but cannot be spoken. Sometimes the arrangement of words cannot be controlled (the
syntactical function is lost). Apparently, what one has on the left side of the brain is the
processing mechanism that we use in our human language behavior. Damage to the
right side of the brain almost never interferes with language. (Some individuals have
been found who have the language function on the right side, but these individuals are
rather rare.)
Language cues are very important memory techniques. They are problem-solving
approaches. Simply by taking the available cues, one can cross-reference one's
memory to elicit various aspects of the holo-wave. Of course, these techniques will work
even better if the cues are of distinct types such as sound cues, meaning cues, location
cues, or visual spelling cues.
PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS OF HOLOGRAPHIC MEMORY
THE STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Whatever is going on in the mind at the present time will help determine what will occur
in the brain in the next few seconds. We refer to this function of memory as the stream
of consciousness. Stream of consciousness normally flows best when it is not
interrupted by incoming stimuli from the environment. We often refer to this
uninterrupted flow of thoughts and images as day dreaming. New, strong stimuli work to
change the flow of thought and start new streams. If there is a lot of activity in the
environment, the stream will be changed constantly. Humans respond to new stimuli
with an orienting response just as animals do. This response is best seen when a dog
hears a noise and perks up its ears. If you own a pet, watch it for a while and notice how
it shifts its attention to new sounds or movements. We all do this to varying degrees
depending on our general state of arousal. If stimuli are coming in too rapidly, we
become easily confused and lose our concentration and orientation. Our state of mind
changes so rapidly that we can't focus.
Let us assume for the time being, that we are able to focus on one stream of
consciousness without outside interference. What guides our stream of consciousness
then? As mentioned previously memories have different strengths determined by their
associations. Memories in addition, will tend to interfere with one another since, if even
moderately activated; they try to come into consciousness. Therefore, in considering
stream of consciousness, we must recognize that in the absence of external cues, the
retrieved memories which are now floating around in our heads will direct our thoughts
by favoring some ideas over others.
For instance, if I am looking in my high school yearbook at pictures taken at our
homecoming game, my next thoughts may move in any of a number of directions. For
the sake of argument, let's say that the two strongest recollections hovering just below
the level of awareness are the big play I made in that homecoming football game that
resulted in a touchdown and the girl that I took to the homecoming dance. If I tend to be
sports minded and focus on personal accomplishments, I am more likely to reminisce
about that play. However, if I still harbor a 'crush' on the girl, I am more likely to begin
thinking about my date and my stream of consciousness is likely to carry me back to the
things the two of us did together. What I am suggesting is that preconscious
dispositions direct our memory patterns.
We must remember that just because the brain works in a very orderly fashion as it
takes in and analyses data, it is not necessarily rational. That is, if you feed faulty data
into your brain, it cannot give you accurate information. It is random experience which
determines the events our brain records and since we encounter the world rather
haphazardly, memories are not always stored in the most efficient or logical way. In
addition, if the method that we have learned for categorizing is not perfect, our behavior
will often be less than reasonable or rational. Consciousness is indeed a stream, then.
Controlled by internal and external events, the flowing fluctuating field of neuro-electro-
magnetic waves sets up sequential patterns, incorporates them into the ongoing flux of
external stimuli and synthesizes and predicts its own future.
ATTENTION AND HABITUATION
Attention is a natural response. Its natural function is the orienting response. More
specifically when something unusual or unknown enters our environmental space, we
react. We detect its presence because it doesn't fit into our ongoing memory pattern. Its
newness initiates a basic response whose value is to keep us aware of any dangers
that have just entered our environment. That is the natural function of attention.
However, we have developed a new way to use attention. We have learned to direct it
at particular objects. We have learned to 'pay' attention to particular things at the
expense of others. Paying attention is an appropriate term. Indeed, attention has a cost
and it must be paid for. Many of us are unwilling to pay the price of attention. It does
require some work, but the reward is well worth it. When one is properly paying
attention, life seems to take on a new quality. It becomes more real.
The opposite of attention is habituation. Habituation may be best defined by example.
While I was in the Navy, I was assigned to duty on a submarine. The submarine was an
old World War II, "pig boat" which ran on diesel fuel and smelled of it. Anyone who has
smelled diesel oil knows how strong and pervasive the odor is. When I had been on
board the ship for about two weeks, I thought that I was going to have to transfer out of
the sub service because I couldn't stand the smell of the diesel oil which seemed to
cover the whole ship and even got into our clothing. In a short time however, I realized
that I was no longer aware of the diesel smell. The smell became so much a part of my
experience and memory that I habituated to it. I noticed it only when I made a special
effort to smell it. It had virtually dropped out of awareness.
On the other hand, as I became more and more familiar with the submarine, I made it a
point not to ignore another smell because it had a great deal of survival value. That
smell was chlorine. If salt water leaks into the sulfuric acid in the enormous electrical
storage batteries of the sub, deadly poisonous, chlorine gas, is given off. Once our duty
section crew was thrown into a panic when a new sailor brought a packet of chlorine
bleach back from the laundry. Even in a sealed packet, we could all smell it. We did not
rest until it was unearthed from a locker and thrown overboard.
Normally, new stimuli attract our attention. Then, as the length of our exposure
increases, we learn to respond to the stimulus positively, negatively, or as a danger, or
we may learn to ignore it. Learning to ignore stimuli is a major problem of attention.
Focusing attention tends to cause habituation. The longer we attend to an object the
more we begin to ignore it.
In fact, it has been demonstrated that fixated attention can fatigue our sense organs so
much that they fail to respond. If an image is focused upon one spot on the retina of the
eye by means of a special contact lens, a set of mirrors, and projection apparatus; the
image will very quickly begin to fade. The visual receptors in the eye and the brain
refuse to send the same information over and over. They need variability in order to
function efficiently. Without variability we very quickly become bored.
Boredom or lack of stimulation may occur wholly, shutting out the environment
completely so that we daydream a whole new experiential world; or it may occur in part,
creating what is called a negative hallucination. A negative hallucination means 'not
experiencing' an object or objects in the environment that are actually there. My not
smelling the diesel oil was a negative hallucination. So is not seeing my car keys on the
table because I am sure that they are somewhere else. The negative hallucination has
to be recognized at some level because we must be aware of an object in order to
decide, even unconsciously, to ignore it. This is an example of preconscious
processing.
To remember better, we must learn to use our attention in a manner which allows it to
focus on parts of our environment, but not to remain fixed for too long. If attention is not
to fall into boredom and reverie, it must be a constantly shifting attention. Often because
we are bored and only partially aware, we experience negative hallucinations to the
point that we see and hear only a small portion of what is going on around us. It is no
wonder, then, that when we try to retrieve experiential information from memory, we
have difficulty. There are a number of ways that directing and shifting attention may be
accomplished.
COMPLEXES OF MEMORIES
Sigmund Freud was one the first to describe complexes. Though his description was
psychoanalytically based, it is very clear that he was referring to memory complexes.
Perhaps the most valuable aspect of Freud's work, his understanding of perceptual and
memory processes, got lost in the psychoanalytic shuffle. Freud believed that memories
of events, thoughts, and feelings which relate to the same general category are
interconnected and arranged in some sort of hierarchy. He spoke of Ego, Id, Superego,
love, hate, etc., as being complexes.
The Id is that complex of memories whose primary object is to seek gratification of its
own needs. It is the uncivilized aspect of our personality. An example of a subcomplex
of the Id is the crying complex. The child learns early that crying gains attention and
often leads to satisfying a need. [An interesting sidelight is that the normal children of
deaf parents tend not to cry. While the child can hear its own crying, the parents cannot
and so the child learns very quickly to gain attention differently. It waves and kicks its
arms and legs because the deaf parents can see and, thus, respond to this kind of
behavior.]
Some of us continue to use the crying response as adults to get what we want or to gain
attention. Memories of past events in which crying led to satisfaction and comforting
may often trigger the crying response in an adult. Consciously we may only know that
we are sad, but events from the past cued by present events will often generate tears.
While it is socially acceptable for girls and women to cry, boys learn early that, "Big boys
don't cry," and typically withhold public displays of crying when they become adults.
Rules like, "Big boys don't cry.” are stored with other parental strictures such as, "Eat all
the food on your plate”, Ladies don't do things like that.” “Children should be seen and
not heard.", are stored in the memory complex known as the Superego. The Superego
or conscience becomes the internalized parent that attempts to make the child behave
in a ‘civilized' manner.
The complex of memories that constitutes our conscious experience and awareness is
referred to as the Ego. It uses its knowledge of the world to deal with real world
problems. The Ego according to Freud is the result of the battles between the Superego
and the Id. As the Id tries to satisfy its basic needs the Superego tries to rein it in with
the fear and guilt associated with the parental rules. The child's Ego develops to deal
with the real world by acting as negotiator to soften the parental rules and restrain the
extremes of the Id to prevent the wrath of the parents. Whether these memory
complexes are the same in every individual in every culture is questionable, but
certainly there are a few of these dominant complexes which develop in each of us.
In addition to the memory complexes which are very central to our personalities, there
are other complexes which we acquire as we move through life. The sports fan, for
example, has an interrelated set of memories which constitute his knowledge of the
games and the players. Our political complex consists of memories our experiences,
our parents' attitudes, books we have read, arguments we have had, and charismatic
political leaders we have met or seen. This is not meant to imply that these complexes
are isolated. On the contrary, they are all interrelated to varying degrees. In fact, it is the
interrelation of the various complexes which alternately aids and interferes with our
memory.
Regardless of the validity of the Freudian system of psychoanalysis, his assessment
that there are memories which fit into interactive groupings or complexes with a central
theme seems to coincide with the way we humans behave. Obviously, these memory
complexes form the various facets of our personality and, undoubtedly, we behave in
certain ways because we have found those behaviors to be rewarding in past events
similar to the present circumstances (which evoke those behaviors as either conscious
or perhaps preconscious memories).
FREUD AND THE PRECONSCIOUS
Freud believed that we do not forget, but rather we repress memories. He has
suggested that the major complexes are constantly warring with each other. He goes on
to suggest that the Ego and the Superego gang up on the Id and repress it. As a result,
the consciousness one experiences and the memories one can retrieve are determined
to some extent, by the repression of these various complexes. In physiological terms,
we would say the holographic interference patterns combine to form a new pattern and
the new pattern's rhythms dominate the brain to prevent incompatible rhythms from
emerging. Since we have learned to repress or inhibit memories, we may do this in our
everyday life. When something stimulates an inappropriate or incompatible memory, our
preconscious rhythms will inhibit it.
The preconscious is not some mystical sort of being, but it is hard to talk about
precisely because we cannot experience it directly. We can only infer it from some of
the things that it does. We may think of it as the undercurrent of the holowave; the
eddies, swirls and rhythms which are too weak or too undefined to thrust themselves
into consciousness. We notice its effects most often when we are distracted by
something. When I am engrossed in reading and someone speaks to me, I look up and
realize that I don't know what was said. However, if I mentally run the just heard sounds
through my head again, I can quite often retrieve the gist of the sentence. In other
words, at some level, my brain had processed the information before I was consciously
aware of it. This is also demonstrated by what psychologists refer to as the Cocktail
Party Phenomenon.
Most of us have been at a party where we are very carefully attending to what a friend
is saying and suddenly hear our name mentioned in another conversation to which we
had not previously been paying attention. Even though we were giving our full
conscious attention to one person, the processing of the rest of what was going on was
being screened at some level of our brain. Since most of us are egotists, our own name
and things said about us have a very high priority and thus intrude into our conscious
thoughts.
There is considerable evidence that we store away the emotional value of memories
perhaps in the same way that we store other memories and that we respond to these
triggered memories in a hierarchical Fashion. An excellent example of this ordering is
the mother who will sleep through a thunderstorm of violent intensity but will wake at the
first murmurings of her newborn child. Sounds trigger memories and, if the memory is
important enough, we may even be awakened out of a sound sleep. Clearly, the 'self' is
an integral part of memory.
THE DISTORTION FACTOR
What we experience as reality are the momentary rhythmic patterns that are the sum
total of our past experience (memory) and the 'now' of our present sensory experience.
Our focus of consciousness continually shifts from external to internal moment by
moment. The ease with which we deal with the world is a function of how unusual or
distorted our first perceptions are and how long the distortion continues. If we learn to
perceive rhythm patterns which have no commonality and thus no value in our
communally experienced "real" world, we may be considered eccentric or odd or we
may be viewed as psychotic or neurotic. Depending on the extent to which our
perception differs with the way the consensus of society sees them, we may be
embraced by our fellow humans or we may be outcasts.
The distortion factor is intricate. In some individuals, the distortion comes from a
chemical imbalance or physical deformity of the brain structure. A damaged machine
cannot work right. For the rest of us, however, most of the distortion comes from
outside. When other people (parents, teachers, etc.) try to teach us (they impose their
perceptions of the world on the very impressionable mind), the information invariably
becomes distorted.
In the process of translation from idea to language and from language back to idea,
there is a major problem. The languages of the adult and the child are not the same.
The adult has thirty-odd years of nuances and abstract meanings in his language of
which the child is totally unaware. Yet both believe that their language is the same.
Their store of memories, of course, are doubly different, in quantity and quality, not to
mention that each is a unique personality. The distortion of information as it is
transferred is unavoidable. The remarkable thing is that we manage to communicate at
all. Our brain is very capable of informing us about the general nature of the world. Its
organization of perceptions and memories, however, is unique and peculiar to each one
of us. This explains why a concept which one of us grasps easily proves extremely
difficult for someone else. Recognition of the problem and learning how our own system
works can help us deal with it more effectively.
FRAGMENTED MEMORIES AND PERSONAS
Occasionally, memories are specific to certain states of mind and are not accessible to
us in our normal state of mind. This can result in some rather unusual experiences in
which certain types of information about ourselves or knowledge of our behavior may be
unavailable to us. This temporary forgetting is may be explained by not being able to get
the mind to resonate at the proper set of frequencies which will regenerate those
specific memories.
While there is clearly a basic coherence of consciousness, there is also a fragmented
aspect of it. Sometimes one part of our brain may not know what another part of our
brain is doing or one brain state may not be in sync with another brain state thus
creating periods of amnesia or time lapses. We may not even be aware of these lapses
in time unless something or someone brings them to our attention. Most of us have had
such lapses from time to time. Some of them are rather frightening.
I recall one instance while I was commuting to work in my car. It was a forty-mile drive
from Del Rey Beach, Florida to North Palm Beach and the route I took along Military
Highway was for the most part uneventful and lightly traveled. I remember turning onto
Military Highway and negotiating a wide “S" curve. The next thing I remembered was
applying the brakes at a stop light about two miles from work. I do not recall any
daydreaming and I am not suggesting that I was picked up by an alien spaceship.
However, whatever happened during that period, it was totally disconnected from the
mind state immediately preceding and following it. It is also clear that whatever mind
state I was in I was still capable of accessing the memories necessary to drive my car
for approximately thirty-five miles without incident. Of course, we often drive
automatically, but usually there is at least a cursory awareness of the events connected
with the experience.
I believe that what happened to me was a rather graphic example of the fact that our
memories and to some extent our personalities are fragmented. We almost certainly
adopt various ‘personas' while we are at work, at play, visiting relatives, etc., and our
memories of these circumstances are rhythmically tied to these personas or states of
mind. In extreme cases very sharp fragmentation may result in psychological problems
such as amnesia, schizophrenia, or even multiple personalities.
In cases of amnesia, some traumatic event usually blocks access to memories of who
we are while allowing access to memories which allow us to speak and function
relatively normally. These latter memories are consistently used in all mind states and
thus transfer easily from one to the next. They also are much less likely to remind us of
the traumatic event. In order to avoid the traumatic event, we avoid the mind state that
is connected with it and also the persona or personas that relate to it, much as a child
who has been burnt by a stove may avoid the kitchen.
MULTIPLE PERSONALITY
The case of multiple personality is essentially an extreme case of the fragmented
memory or persona situation. While a Freudian explanation may be too simplistic, it
does provide an excellent model for what is going on in the psyche. As indicated
previously, Freud argues that a newborn child seeks only to satisfy its own needs and
that the behaviors associated with this need satisfaction constitute the Id. Since the
infant's needs do not always match the needs of the parents, conflict arises and
parental restraint is forced upon the child.
Over time the parental restraint becomes integrated into the mind of the child as the
conscience (or Superego). Some might refer to it as socialization or social restraint. In
either case, even when the parents or social controls are absent, the child knows what it
should do to please the parents and behave “properly”. Usually, these two mind states
vie for power and a mediating mind state emerges and generates compromises
between the two opposing mind states. Freud referred to this as the Ego.
I am reminded of a story told by one of my professors. He was walking through a
supermarket when he saw a mother with a child sitting in the child seat of her shopping
cart. The mother was reaching for groceries and putting them into the cart. The child,
watching his mother, began to reach for groceries as well. The mother, took the items
away from the child several times and returned them to the shelves, saying, “No, no”, to
the child. As she continued to reach for objects, the child did as well. Finally, in
frustration, she slapped the child’s hand. He cried briefly and then settled down. The
next time she reached for a box, the child slapped her hand and she immediately
slapped his face. More crying. The mother and child disappeared around another aisle.
A bit later, my professor happened upon them again. The child started reaching for a
box and then pulled back his own hand and slapped it. The child had internalized his
own control mechanism and the conflict had been resolved. The child had also begun to
develop some healthy and perhaps some unhealthy inhibitions.
In unusual circumstances, the conflict may be so strong that compromise is impossible,
Each mind state perceives itself as threatened by the other. The solution to this problem
may be that each persona or mind state seeks to isolate itself and maintain control over
the body of the child (so that it may act to achieve its goals). Such a situation is
documented in the account of The Three Faces of Eve (Thigpen and Cleckly, 1957) and
Sybil (Schreiber, 1974). Lack of a strong mediating and coordinating influence such as
the Ego may result in numerous fragmented memory complexes each of which may
become a personality without connection to or knowledge of the others. If the dominant
rhythm pattern of each mind state is unique, the memories contained in it will be
transferred only with great difficulty.
The solution to such situations has been to therapeutically inform the most socially
acceptable personality about the others and to gradually introduce that personality to
the others and integrate it with the other parts of the personalities into the knowledge
system of a new ego structure.
In extreme cases, the withdrawal into one mind state may be so complete that autism or
schizophrenia may result, and environmental stimulation becomes distorted or almost
nonexistent. The perceptual distortion of continual focus on one aspect of the internal
world is demonstrated by the unusual (and often repetitive) behavior of the autistic
individual and by the delusions of the schizophrenic. In both autism and schizophrenia,
physiological or chemical abnormalities of the brain may be the root cause for this
withdrawal.
While most humans do not develop these personality disorders, we do experience to a
greater or lesser degree the inability to control our behavior under certain
circumstances. For instance, when we get angry, we may have a voice inside us which
is saying to us, "Calm down, things are not so bad. Take it easy,", while another voice is
saying, "No, this person has hurt my feelings and I won't give in until I have hurt them
back." While the adrenalin is flowing, we will remain in this chemically induced mind
state. In such a state, we will probably remain angry and probably say or do something
harmful to another or ourselves. Usually, the best solution to such a problem is to
remove ourselves from the environmental setting, perhaps by taking a walk. In this way,
a more rational mood state may regain control.
Another instance of lack of control is exhibited by the person who is overweight and
wishes to become thinner. We usually think that our failure to stay on a diet is because
of our lack of willpower (whatever that is). More appropriately, our failure is the result of
certain memory patterns and learned behaviors that put us in a particular mood state
when we are exposed to food. Anyone who has a weight problem can probably relate to
the feeling that while we are alone and eating we are content and are not worrying
about how fat and ugly we are going to look because of our behavior. In fact, those
thoughts almost invariably come after we have satiated ourselves and after the demon
that inhabited our body while eating has gone. The person who wishes to be thin is then
left to suffer for the sins of that other persona who is the unrepentant glutton.
A similar situation may emerge with addiction to legal and illegal drugs like alcohol,
cigarettes, valium, cocaine, and heroin; or with other forms of addiction such as abusive
behavior, gambling, or depression. In fact, in these latter circumstances a drug may
induce the mood state.
In the past, electro-convulsive shock therapy (ECT) was used with considerable
success to eliminate chronic depression. Electric current was passed through the brain
and as might be expected, the massive electrical disruption resulted in amnesia for one
or two weeks. The patient essentially forgot how depressed he was and new positive
behavior could be developed during therapy without interference, from the depressive
state. The downside of such therapy is that strong electric current can damage brain
cells and as a result the use of ECT has generated strong disagreement in the mental
health community and has been discontinued in most institutions.
HOW DO DRUGS CAUSE DEPENDENCY?
Drug use and abuse has reached epidemic proportions. How has this happened and
why is the hold of drugs so tenacious? Part of the answer may lie with the ability of
drugs to create memory specific mood states. As has been described previously,
neurons conduct information in the form of electrical signals from input dendrites down
axons to output dendrites. The output dendrites release neurotransmitters across the
microscopic synaptic gaps to other neurons. The millions of different neural pathways
form billions of potential resonant loops. However, none of the loops can be completed
without neurotransmitter substances to bridge the synaptic gaps. The body contains its
own pharmacopoeia of chemicals which act as neurotransmitters in various parts of the
brain. Not all neurons are responsive to the same neurotransmitters and some
potentiate while others block synaptic transmission. Depending on the neurotransmitters
being released at any given time some loops will be open and others will be closed. The
length and location of neural loops will establish a specific holographic pattern in which
certain behaviors and memory patterns will predominate. If such a pattern becomes a
regular part of one’s daily life and becomes comfortably familiar, it is easy to understand
why psychological addiction occurs and why even one drink or snort of cocaine can pull
one back into full blown addiction.
Most drugs were originally derived from plant alkaloids. In other words, they are organic
chemicals taken from living things. Even though many drugs are now synthesized, their
chemical structure is basically the same as their naturally occurring equivalents. Some
of these substances mimic the action of naturally occurring brain neurotransmitters.
When these drugs enter the brain in larger than normal quantities, they will have the
effect of radically changing the activation or blocking of synapses and thus altering the
availability of various loops in the brain (i.e., if synapses of some loops are blocked the
loops become broken loops and are unable to emit electromagnetic fields at the
frequencies they normally emit. Certain holographic patterns are thus available only in
the presence of the drug capable of activating those loops.
Perhaps the best and least invasive made of treatment for these problems is to
eliminate the disruptive state and stimuli associated with it and to gradually strengthen
the mood states that are associated with positive behavior. This may best be
accomplished by generating positive mood states as often as possible so that a
preponderance of memories and actions are associated with the desired behavior.
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