Kenneth Pelletier
(Ph.D Dept
of Psychiatry, UCSF/ Director Psychosomatic Medicine, Berkeley)
Excerpts from “Toward a Science of Consciousness”:
Karl Pribam’s analysis of brain
information processing involves cybernetics, holography and neuro-physiology. Holograms offering the most potential for
understanding brain functions are those which can be expressed in mathematical
terms as FOURIER TRANSFORMS [which can be best understood by picturing a
continuously oscillating wave e.g. EEG frequencies]. Fourier analysis is a
means of breaking up such a compound wave into its constituent components. Such
transforms, essential in assessing brain activity, are an integral part of
hologram theory.
Fourier transforms have a unique attribute, since the
identical equation convolves and devolves itself, and thus any process
represented by the spatial Fourier transform can encode and subsequently decode
simply by recurring at some second stage, pointing to the hologram property of
storing the whole in each part, each part being capable of generating the
whole.
In Pribam’s theory, memory
functions in a two-step process. A stimulus such as a sound, smell or an image
triggers an individual’s short-term memory, which then resonates through the
infinite complexity of the brain’s stored holograms until an association is
triggered in long-term memory. The correspondence between an immediate sensory
stimulus and a fragment of a stored memory initiates the retrieval of the entire
stored memory.
Remember, holographic theory states that the whole image is
replicated in each of its component parts – i.e. there is total multi-level
redundancy: therefore any pattern or pattern-set of long-term memory can be
elicited selectively from all others with infinite facility. Just
as the memory was encoded within an infinitesimal space by means of a
Fourier-like transform, that same memory can be decoded into a certain
dimensional wholeness by a precise reversal of the same Fourier transform.
Through these holographic transformations a highly complex, yet utterly
discrete, memory can be retrieved quite readily from an infinite array of
possibilities. While this is the ideal model, variables such as age, sex,
stimulus intensity, circumstances and environment, etc., affect the memory
recall process in actual experience.
Environmental influences could comprise circadian or
natural biological rhythms, or electrical field interaction; also the effect on
behavior as a result of alterations in the brain chemistry (neurotransmission
fluids) via drugs; or via meditation and biofeedback as a result of
self-induced changes in brain-wave frequencies.
(During an altered state of consciousness, the meta-programs of the
individual’s holograms are altered such that the probability of perceiving
events on the periphery of the programs greatly increases.)
Neuro-physiologists and physicists now familiar with many
details of cell life consider synaptic vesicles, slow wave potentials and
Fourier transforms to be the key principles by which MIND is operational
– ephemeral mind acting upon static matter – a model of ineffably subtle
interactions among infinitesimal energy fields occurring in quantum space.
Advanced thinking about brain function no longer employs hardware metaphors of
the brain as a machine or even a sophisticated computer, but rather the brain
is thought to function by virtue of ‘spatio-temporal
fields of influence’.
The Theta wave (4 – 7 Hz) frequency is augmented during
non-emotional activities – either perceptual or imaginative - and this
frequency offers significant creative potential to a person. At the
interface between Alpha (7 – 15 Hz) and Theta, an individual appears to be able
to use his conscious mind to focus upon unconscious imagery in a paradoxical
manner resembling free association. The ability to focus on unconscious
processes allows a person to formulate more creative problem solution – taking
advantage of previously unavailable information from his subconscious mind.
Re: psychosomatic disease: How ironic it is that
normal sub-cortical reactions are misinterpreted in the cortex as indications
of disease which, in turn, increase the individual’s anxiety. Perfectly normal stress reactions are labeled
as disturbing or even pathological by the individual who views them as
inconsistencies to be overcome rather than vital signals that he is under
stress. Essentially, an accumulating cycle of minute stress symptoms that is
ignored rather than halted appears to be the means by which psychosomatic
disease becomes established…While the basic instincts of sex, hunger, sleep and
fear are governed by sub-cortical systems in the brain, the wide range of human
emotions such as pity, shame, hope, guilt and joy are considered to be cortical
elaborations or interpretations of the more basic instincts…Phobic activation
of the sub-cortex by cortical processes is the neurological basis of stress
diseases such as ulcers, arteriosclerosis, diabetes, obesity and psychological
disorders such as guilt and depression.
zz
Keith and Marnie Elliott’s “REMEDY” Site
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