My ‘catholic’ schooling was shaped around the ‘revealed word of God’; the nature of consciousness was regarded as a spiritual enquiry – about our souls – the rightful preserve of priests, philosophers, poets and artists. Scientists pursued ‘objective’ truths and realities – shied away from experiential questions. But neuroscience has changed the rules – with new, compelling biological theories and explanations for consciousness and self-hood. A new book by a professor from Sussex University, Anil Seth, is attracting attention: it’s called ‘Being You: A New Science of Consciousness’.
Seth’s most challenging contention, is that everything we see, hear and perceive around us is a ‘controlled hallucination’ created by our brains. He calls the brain a ‘prediction machine’ that is constantly generating best-guess causes of its sensory input. The mind creates our ‘reality’ based on these predictions. This process includes our ‘sense of self’, built up from an assemblage of perceptual best guesses, prior beliefs and memories. “We perceive the world, not as it is, but as it is useful to us”. It seems we evolved this ‘generated reality’ because, operating through this hallucinated world, improves our survival.
I think I’ve known for some time that our conscious reality is a construct – selected fragments from more substantial sub-conscious brain activity; Seth’s ‘best-guess prediction machine’ is a new insight. In theory, when future generations master the biology of consciousness, they’ll be able to adjust our sentience in any direction they choose. When that time comes, the scientists will wish they had left such matters to the priests/philosophers.
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Debate is getting underway about the shape Scotland’s ‘National Care Service’; an obvious early tension will be between the default, centralising tendency of Scottish Govt (ministerial control) and the ‘subsidiarity’ option – giving Local Govt. and Health Boards the strategy, space and resources to get on with it. In my view, our Govt has floundered with community empowerment – clueless- and is ignorant of the level of goodwill to be harnessed in communities with even minimal co-ordination. Wednesday’s Scottish Community Alliance Briefing linked to this excellent discussion piece by Ron Culley, CEO of Quarriers, which addresses this very issue from frontline experience. Culley chooses ‘Local’ – the innate capacity of ordinary people to tackle their problems collectively.
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Neil Mackay, in The Herald, writes: ‘Time to calm down – the Greens are not going to destroy our way of life’. Although it pleases me, I honestly can’t understand the hysterical over-reaction of Scotland’s right to the Greens entering Govt. Is their panic for the Union, or is it for the economy? There’s something I’m missing.
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The bit of the NHS I’ve missed most, is face-to-face GP consultations – they seem to symbolise whether or not I’m being ‘cared for’ and are a new priority. I found this a helpful article, explaining aspects of Scottish Govt’s NHS Recovery Plan. A pleasing detail is the intention to recruit 320 Child Mental Health (CAMHS) workers
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The Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WEAll) is a global collaboration of organisations working to transform the economic system: Scotland has our own thriving hub. The week, the Norwegian Govt announced its intention to develop a new national strategy for wellbeing, which it hopes will be an inspiration to other countries.
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It’s recently been announced that Josephine Baker (1906-1975) is to be interred in the Pantheon in Paris – a very rare honour in France. I think of her as a stunning dancer, who symbolised the ‘roaring twenties’ – but it is for her work with the French Resistance and later with Black civil rights, that she is being honoured. The word Pantheon is derived from the Greek, meaning ‘All Gods’ – denoting a scared final resting place.
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I’ve been reflecting lately on what, if anything, I consider to be ‘sacred’. I can’t think of anything, but am aware at the same time, that I want there to be a ‘sacredness’ – don’t know why. This is from Jiddu Krishnamurti:
“There’s a sacredness which is not of thought, nor of a feeling resuscitated by thought. It is not recognizable by thought nor can it be utilized by thought. Thought cannot formulate it. But there’s a sacredness, untouched by any symbol or word. It is not communicable. It is a fact. A fact is to be seen and the seeing is not through the word. When a fact is interpreted, it ceases to be a fact; it becomes something entirely different.”
