This is the third installment in the Quantum Wishes series of blogs. In this I will move away from the ontological (conceptual study of reality) aspects of Quantum Wishes (QW) and into the biological roots.
The brain contains various regions which have different phylogenetic (evolutionary relatedness) sources. Some areas are older (in terms of evolution) and others are more recent. The primitive parts of the brain, most notably the limbic system, are where emotions are thought to arise. The prefrontal cortex is the “newer” part of the brain and is where complex thought such as value judgments, action consequences and goal formations occur. These two regions are tightly bound together in the normal human. Prior blogs on this subject suggest that both of these areas play a role in QW.
In the early days of medicine, disturbed patients were sometimes given what was called a prefrontal lobotomy. The common misconception is that this barbaric practice was a surgical removal of the prefrontal cortex. It actually involved severing the connection between the prefrontal cortex and the limbic system. This resulted in the removal of most motivation and emotion from the patient’s behavior. While still retaining some cognitive abilities, they displayed no emotional involvement in their environment and lacked desire in any form. The purpose for mentioning this is to illustrate that there is a tight coupling between these two brain regions which act together to formulate memories and generate what we perceive as consciousness. This interaction is central to QW.
The limbic system is the principle brain region in primitive animals. It provides the ability to react to environmental stimuli. The keyword here is react. When danger approaches, the limbic system triggers a “flight or fight” reaction for the creature’s defense. The creature does not “know” why there is danger; it simply takes an action based upon emotion, in this case fear. When coupled to the developed prefrontal cortex, the same external stimuli also evoke emotions, but it additionally provides the ability to judge the consequences of the threat and make decisions and choices of action to take. Early life (at least chordate forms) all have some sort of reactionary, “emotional “mechanism to deal with the conditions of daily existence. Somewhere down the evolutionary path came the coupling of this to rational thought. What happened?
The late Stephen Jay Gould a geologist and paleontologist at Harvard developed a theory of evolutionary development he called “punctuated equilibrium”. In his model, evolution proceeds at a slow, steady pace (equilibrium) and then, at certain junctures, a large evolutionary leap occurs (punctuation). This evolutionary jump is the result of some major stimulus. It could be the impact of a meteor changing the climate, a chemical composition change to the environment such as sea salinity, a change in the amount of solar radiation penetrating the atmosphere … or something else altogether.
Looking back at human history, we can see that there were “pre-historical” and “historical” eras. It seems that civilization blossomed all at once. At one point there were people living in caves and huts. The limbic brain was their primary means of survival. In the next moment (in geological terms) great civilizations appeared. Cities, science and creative thought grew rapidly. The pyramids were built and great feats of engineering conquered the environment. Reaction to the environment was supplanted by control of the environment. At some point in the past, humans gained the ability to join their emotional (limbic) reactions to their cognitive (prefrontal cortex) thoughts and, in some sense, control their reality. Visions started becoming “real”. A “punctuation” happened. I do not know what the stimulus was which may have prompted this apparently sudden change. It seems like whatever happened, it happened at the cusp of pre-history/history.
Many may argue that an evolutionary based theory is counter to religious thought. I don’t think that this is necessarily the case. As I said, I don’t know what caused the sudden changes in mankind. I have no objection to the premise that God intervened at some point and produced the punctuation. It is fine to say that God put the “!” into the story of man. Western religions say that God created humans in His image and likeness. What would be more like “Godlike” than for the Creator to grant humans a limited ability to bring their own visions to reality? I am not being blasphemous in this. I do not contend in any way that human beings are “gods”, but I rather suggest that those abilities may have been given by God, as some small reflection of His ability … His likeness.
Since the dawn of history, humans began to take control of their future. Leaders got their people to share their visions and moved them emotionally to make the visions come to pass. These skills in directing the future (QW’s) were an innate ability and not done in a “knowing” way. The successful QW’ers did not necessarily know how to do this; they simply understood that they could, in some way, mold their reality.
Perhaps we are now on the verge of a new punctuation mark. It could be that the subconscious control of reality is giving way to more conscious and willful control. Technology may become that new “!”. Combination of chemical additives in the brain to enhance the emotional, limbic areas coupled with conscious focusing technologies such as bio-feedback (brain waves), hypnosis or such may produce an enhancement of QW and raise it to the next level. Or it may be that the “equilibrium” phase has slowly given rise to humans who have developed QW to a higher degree. Are ‘lucky” people really “lucky” or are they willfully producing QW influences in their lives? I have known people who seem to control their destinies better than others. Perhaps they have developed QW abilities greater than the general population. Maybe Homo Sapiens (thinking man) is giving way to Homo Cupidos (wishing man). Watch the people around you and decide for yourself.
Many of you probably feel that this series on QW was full of weird or even crazy ideas, and that’s alright. I am not offended. Science has shown us that the nature of reality is sometimes counterintuitive. My main goal in presenting this is not to persuade you that I am correct. I simply want to get you to think about the world around us in different ways. We are all, to some degree participants in our own reality and not merely spectators. How this happens, I cannot say. All I can to is to present you with some different perspectives and let you take it from there.
