Memory, The Universe, And Weirding Myself Out With Silly Daydreams About Them Both
Stepping through the portal and into the unknown.
It's so weird going from
"I'll be the first to tell you I have no idea how the spiritual ish works, I simply believe Western science hasn't caught up and our brains are very big places."
to
"I'll be the first to tell you I have no idea how the spiritual ish works, I simply believe Western science hasn't caught up to how big the natural world actually is or how sophisticated our minds are to the extent many of my pre-Western scientific ancestors did, and p.s., math IS magic."
I think the weirdest thing to date that my Ancestors have told me has to do with this cockamamie idea that dark matter is actually information storage. This builds on their assertion that memory is actually what we call consciousness, and that memory is an inherent force or quality of nature, much akin to gravity. I think Rupert Sheldrake has tossed this out into the world, roughly, but I haven’t read his work.
Essentially what I was shown (allegorically, please remember at all times: I'm mathematically illiterate) was the example of how vinyl records are recorded and produce sound. When you play a vinyl, you have a diamond-tipped stylus that travels along a microscopic, wavy, spiraling groove that's been carved into an suitable surface. That movement creates physical vibration that matches the audio pattern, which is then turned into electrical signals, amplified, and sent out of speakers and bam, recorded audio. CDs and DVDs utilize similar logic, except they utilize a laser to reflect off the surface of the CD in a way that generates different light patterns, which are then converted into binary code, then sound. USBs use NAND flash memory, utilizing many many many oodles of these little things call transistors, which function like packets of memory (memory cells), to trap electrons into cells whose patterns form binary code, which gets converted into sound...roughly the same idea.
Hypothetically, this would mean that there's an aspect of our bodies that can subconsciously track sometimes imperceptible changes in this distribution, specifically because it changes how we're situated and in motion in timespace. Our nervous system converts this into the electrical signals used by our brain that make it possible for us to hear sound, smell things, taste things, and have thoughts, which could explain why there is a persistent sentiment that our thoughts have an ability to change how we experience reality/how reality exists. This may or may not be connected to our nervous system and our brain, but it could also partially explain why stillness and controlling the motion of the body (like breathing, dance, etc.), and the incorporation of certain sounds, types of matter, etc., impacts our perception, memory, and ability to access 'extrasensory' information about our environment or assert influence through, say, the placebo effect and 'magic'. This could also, theoretically, explain why astrology seems to work, because it would have something to do with how our unique systems read and interact with the geometry of motion/gravity of celestial bodies changing the distribution of these particles. Maybe this impacts us even in terms of genetic expression, too, because our cells are responding to the 'replaying' of certain pockets of information both within matter but also within the environment.
We have no idea what dark matter or dark energy are, really, other than the fact that the former doesn't appear to be emitting, reflecting, *or* absorbing light, and the latter is what is driving the accelerated expansion of the Universe. However, we do know that its gravity quite literally keeps the Universe together. I didn't know that until I felt compelled to share this batshittery today.
If the dark energy is the information, and the dark matter is the storage, the constant motion through increase and decrease of physical matter would change how much information is being stored and make it seem like the Universe is expanding, if I'm understanding that correctly. If gravity is generated from the interaction of mass and energy - the geometric bending of space and time by any object with mass - maybe we’re just carving our footpaths into the cosmos, and there’s something about us that developed the ability to sense and simultate/replay that information to help us survive and evolve over much longer periods of time. This ability to consciously pool our experiences and memories is what helped us stick around long enough to be able to perceive further and further beyond our local neighborhood solar system. Maybe our ancestors realized we’re all connected to whatever this ‘dark’ energy/matter is, which explains all that ‘immanent but transcendent’. Maybe that means our personality, our memories - these electrical impulses, trapping information like those little gated electrons - exist in a different state within this dark energy and matter.
Some additional things of note, although I don't know how they fit together:
Plants have proprioception - meaning they are capable of understanding their own position in spacetime by being able to detect changes by monitoring internal and external mechanical signals, even if they don't have a nervous system. There’s a thing called cellular proprioception in single-cell organisms.
Congenitally blind people very rarely (I don't think there are any confirmed cases) develop schizophrenia, but they *do* experience motion sickness _and_ have auditory hallucinations.
Schizophrenia has a clear connection to serotonin dysfunction, specifically higher concentrations released in certain parts of the brain. Congenitally blind people have an inverse issue: they tend to show reduced serotonin levels, and tend to develop issues with their sleep, because their perception of circadian rhythm (which is impacted by the presence of light, which requires some vision) is instead dedicated to non-visual sensory processing.
Proprioception is pretty critically impacted by serotonin, too.
Autistic people, who tend to have underdeveloped proprioception, *also* have universally higher concentrations of serotonin in their brains and blood. ADHD also impacts proprioception in a similar manner - see also Simone Biles and her 'twisties' - her orientation to time and space is thrown off and warped while in the air when her medication isn't dosed correctly or she's not taking it during competitions.
Autistic people consistently demonstrate enhanced focus and attention on detail alongside reduced sensitivity to global, moving, or social stimuli. Autistic people can demonstrate an ability to detect subtle details (pattern recognition), but struggling with the rest. Autism primarily has to do with different perception of stimulation and how that impacts sociability, relationships, and the ability to physically care for one’s self. It may or may be accompanied by other types of intellectual or physical disability.
Notably, we also know that psilocybin more or less functions by being an agonist of serotonin receptors, reducing the presence of serotonin in the brain and doing some other nifty shit. (“…psilocybin temporarily disrupts a critical network of brain areas responsible for reflective thinking, such as daydreaming and remembering.” [source])
Electrical stimulation also impacts the concentration and production of serotonin in different regions of the brain and spinal cord, impacting how we perceive pain, etc.
So, my best dummy guess hypothesis is as follows:
Our serotonin levels impact our proprioception and our ability to process visual information (light.)
Our proprioception potentially has the ability to orient based on the geometry created by gravity (mass and energy interacting). Maybe gravity creates pattern in the distribution of dark and regular energy, like binary code, that then influences the distribution, density, and form of dark and visible matter. Our bodies track these cycles and patterns (caused primarily by the presence of celestial bodies and certain imaginary points in their geometry) through this proprioception, and it impacts how we develop as beings.
Theoretically, people who have visual hallucinations or purport to see spirits are perceiving and interacting with these invisible impressions, and their brains are translating that information into sensory information. When people enter altered states, there’s some sort of interaction happening between their nervous system, their proprioception, and these imperceptible impressions, allowing them to - subtly or significantly - interact with and possibly even change this data in some manner.
I don't know.But now I can get this batshit off my chest, lol.