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How we recognize things, think complex thoughts, and store our memory in the brain cells of the
cerebral cortex is under investigation by Neurobiologists working with new technology. Such studies can
monitor the activity of large groups of neighboring cells and has identified many of the functions of the
brain cells of the Cortex and Hippocampus.
The Cerebral Cortex is the "gray matter" of the outer layer of brain and is largely responsible for
higher nervous functions. The Cerebellum is the part of the brain responsible for regulation and
coordination of complex voluntary muscular movement. The Hippocampus is one of two ridges along
each lateral ventricle of the brain and is responsible for a higher order of activity encoding relations
among distinct precepts (or correlating recognizable items and ideas).
Scientific studies have not shown the existence of a central memory manager. Apparently
memory in each brain segment is modular and not all in one device. This means that each of the highly
subdivided real estate of the brain is responsible not only for its function but also for its own memory
storage.
Findings indicate that recognition comes from groups of neurons working together to identify
items. These groups may be very specific and respond only to a single item or may respond to a broad
range of similar objects or activity. These individual qualities such as shape, color, location, motion, etc.
are divided up by the cortical regions.
Scientists do not have an answer to the problem of how our memory works or how we actually
store so much data in so few cells. Unrealistic estimates based on mathematical regression techniques
have been made in an attempt to reconcile this difficulty. Don’t be confused by those who wish to bring
some fantastic n-space analysis to the biological problem of brain storage. Math tricks are just that. We
need to discuss simple arithmetic, not differential equations.
To help you understand the problem, let us assume that there are 100 billion brain cells and that
all of them only store memory. Let us further assume that each cell will store 100 pieces of information.
This is many times more than is realistic. Thus, we would be able to store 10,000,000,000,000 or ten
trillion bits of information. This assumes that all the brain cells are used only to store memory and are not
used to think with, run our bodies with, regulate our automatic functions with, etc. Clearly this is
impossible! and yet! Clearly we do store our memories and can retrieve them even without hypnosis.
The Tree of Life suggests that such memory storage is with your eternal soul which is represented
by the out-of-body brain circuit (circuit eight) where not only this life but all past life memories are stored.
This is the dimension we access for all of our extraordinary powers.
Another scientific difficulty with brain cells is that of E.S.P. Extrasensory perception can be
explained for most such events as simply an unusually high degree of perception on the part of the
individual. However, one item in particular stands out as a cognitive impossibility. There are others but
if only one exists, then the point is made.
Some people perceive aspects of the future which are directly important to their welfare and
sometimes people see events in the future which are remote from them involving the lives of others.
Much of this type of information cannot have come from knowledge available to the individual and
subsequent thought processes determining a future event.
One of the better examples of this comes from the airline industry. In spite of their excellent
safety record, airplanes do crash. Out of these sad statistics comes a small light of hope. Analysis of the
seating population of airplanes that crash vs. airplanes that don't crash indicates 30 percent of the normal
passengers decide not to go on that plane. In other words, planes that crash have about 30 percent fewer
people on them than on planes that don't crash.
People cancel on these death trips in a number of ways. Some planes just don't sell a full load of
tickets. Other planes have large amounts of no-shows. Others cancel tickets at the last minute, change
their flight plans, etc. The fact is that at some level, people are aware of the future of that plane and react
to it, saving their lives. How many people get on the plane knowing it will crash and ignoring the
information because we have been taught that to follow such a hunch is wrong.
Now, no one on that plane from passenger to pilot can possibly know that a bolt is cracked and
will fail this flight. Not even the chief mechanic, the F.A.A., nor the manufacturer may be aware of even
the slightest problem. And yet, somehow, some way, some of the passengers get the message and save
their lives. Actually, a fairly large statistical group, large enough that a half-empty plane should set up a
red flag for all on board.
Since it is clearly impossible to know about the mechanical failure or other random event about
to happen, these planes should be as full as the average and not significantly emptier. Where does this
information cone from? Science does not yet have a functional answer.
You can add many other examples of impossible knowledge used to save lives. If we think about
it, many, regrettably evil persons have probably caused a lot of death and suffering by using just such
impossible knowledge for evil instead of for good.
A hint of possible access to impossible information comes from the science description of brain
circuit eight. Considered as a possible circuit for accessing E.S.P. abilities and described as a "non-local
quantum communication system", scientists may be on the right track.
Only the brain with its special cells could reach out to gain such information. It is logical that
only higher circuits could do this. In addition, only at the highest level would such information be
gathered from wherever it is held at and brought into the brain and delivered at a subconscious and finally
a near-conscious level.
Astoundingly, some people have the ability to become aware consciously of these messages.
Such people are called psychic and can actually see into the future. Some ordinary people are suddenly
struck with a vision of the future, possibly showing a disaster, who then attempt to communicate this in an
desire to save lives. Others may see the future clearly, buy the right stock, piece of land, house, car, store,
etc., and make money.
The future is not an amorphous, blank page with no writing on it yet. We constantly predict the
future. Calendars, tide charts, sun/moon/star charts, seasons, scheduled events, and much more are all set
into the future and occur without mishap.
It is principally when we come from the realm of intelligence, that the future becomes
unpredictable. The higher the intelligence, the more unpredictable the individual becomes. Thus, one-
celled animals are totally predictable, earthworms and snails are predictable, dogs are unpredictable and
humans are very unpredictable.
We can predict the sun and its relation to the earth with virtually 100% accuracy. We cannot
predict our spouse's mood or actions with any real accuracy to say nothing about predicting the actions of
those not near and dear or even those we don't know (but who are driving around in a car right now
looking for us to run down). Actually, they aren't doing that on purpose but you know what I mean.
Some important questions to address are:
1. Where does the brain get information about the future from?
2. How does the brain store the great amounts of information gathered and
actually remembered?
3. How come part of our brain located in our head can only be accessed by out-
of-body experiences?
4. In what areas do science and spirituality interface?
5. Can we account for some of the extremely odd E.S.P. events?
Information/Storage/Retrieval
The estimate that the brain receives ten million (10,000,000) bits of information per minute may
seem large at first learning about it. However, with some thought, it will be seen to be a minimum
estimate.
To begin with, our visual reception is based on the smallest thing we can see. This visual item is
called a pixel. For a normal human, the smallest object visible is about 1/250 of an inch in size. A speck
of dirt this size on a white piece of paper will be barely visible to the average human. The page you are
reading contains many thousands of pixels this size. The Sunday comics are made up of just exactly that
sort of thing. The colors and shames are made by tiny dots at about 1/250th inch and you see them as a
solid color. Get out a magnifying glass and look at Dagwood.
Everything around you consists of pixels of some sort; even the truly smooth walls painted one
color have contrasts of light, texture, flaws, etc. How many pixels in the rug? In the painting? In the
furniture and furnishings in the room you're in right now? AND, if you want to keep your input down a
little so you don't run out of storage, DON'T look out the window! Instant pixel overload!!!
Now, time a minute and note how many things you see during that minute. Long time, isn't it?
You probably begin to see that even counting only visual signals ten million bits of information per
minute, or very low.
Let's add hearing, touch, smell, taste, the interaction between these and the complex thoughts
they evoke. All of these are huge lumps of information which the brain receives, processes, cognates,
makes decisions on, adds to memory, and evaluates. Later, this memory, cognition, decision, and
evaluation can be retrieved and reworked or communicated second by second. Thus, an interminably
boring day is stored in memory second by second and can be recalled in its seemingly infinite boredom.
We can add in a small way also the dreams, plans, daydreams, schemes, emotional turmoil,
science fiction stories, TV. and its ills, etc., all while you're looking about in the room. Plus the complex
interconnecting thoughts about others you interact with such as job, friends, community, neighbors,
children, spouse, etc., minute by minute, the amount of information brought in from the outside may
actually be smaller than the amount of information stored by the brain from its own thinking processes.
Now, we must note that even if we have a 100 billion brain cells we use a major portion of them
to think with, to run our automatic/autonomic circuits, to operate our motor/muscle circuits, to run disease
fighting, vascular, pulmonary, cardiac, etc. This does not leave a lot of brain cells unoccupied. Scientists
have said we use only 1/6 of our brain, but that's obviously not true. We really use ALL of the brain and
somehow much more.
If 1/2 (one half) of the brain's cells are used for something other than memory storage, we can
only store about a year's memories. No matter how you look at it, the brain cannot store all the memories
we actually have access to. To begin to approach an answer to how and/or where the brain stores
memories in excess of the overload print, we'll look at some of the characteristics of the brain. The first
characteristic to consider is the way the eighth circuit is approached. How come we have a brain circuit in
our heads that we must get out of our body to become aware of?
The eighth circuit as defined by researchers can only be activated and made apparent to the rest
of the mind by out-of-body experience. Our minds do not "see" circuits higher than fourth without special
techniques. The fifth circuit, for example, can be reached through a strong religious experience, by
exciting, captivating music, by great sec, etc. The sixth circuit is opened by focusing on body/mind
feedback. The seventh is opened by concentrating on our highest creative powers. The eighth is opened
by....???...by getting out of our body!?!?!? Where is this circuit, anyway??
The Tree of Life maps out an eighth, ninth, and tenth circuit and also notes that these are
reached only in OOBE's (out of body experiences). This type of conformity between modern research and
ancient spirit wisdom indicates something real, not imaginary. These eighth, (9th, 10th) brain circuits are
actually located in the frontal lobes, the newest portion of our brains. It is interesting to note that the
barbaric surgical technique called a prefrontal lobotomy destroyed the functioning of this brain area. Such
a lobotomy did not kill the persons or harm their ability to think rationally and morally. The operation
did not impair their motor skills. A lobotomy took away their drive, vitality and individuality.
So far as I am aware, no studies have been reported on lobotomy patients showing the
relationships between the operation and higher brain circuit functioning such as E.S.P., out-of-body
experiences, day dreaming, etc. It is likely that much of this ceases to happen for the victim.
From this we can understand that the eighth (9th, 10th) circuit is functioning all the time. We
are not consciously aware of it. One of the goals of the Tree of Life is to become consciously aware of all
of our brain circuits including the eighth (9th, 10th), and the lowest 1st and 2nd circuits. To become
consciously aware of the eighth (9th, 10th) that can only be reached through out-of-body experiences
seems daunting indeed.
All techniques known for reaching the eighth brain circuit are quite difficult or dangerous. Drug
techniques opening this circuit have resulted in permanent brain damage and death too often to make
such a method advisable. Science has used such techniques as electroshock, brain probe, hypnosis, gestalt
therapy, and surgery to attempt to pry secrets from the eighth (9th 10th) circuit. The Tree of Life states
clearly that these circuits are only for the highly advanced. In fact, few books on the Tree even bother to
give a techniques for opening the eighth (9th, 10th) circuit.
Highly advanced yogis seem to be able to become aware of and to use these circuits of their own
volition. Examples of advanced yogic techniques such as feigned death -- death-like trances lasting as
long as a year -- in which a yogi is actually buried, abandoned for a year, dug up and the yogi
astoundingly rises and walks away, are eighth (9th, 10th) circuit controlled experiences. Breatharianism
(a method of sustaining life solely from breath with no food or water intake) is another example of eighth
(9th, 10th) circuit performance. Basically, any extreme and impossible occurrence reaching the use (or
misuse) of the body or mind involves the eighth (9th, 10th) circuit functioning.
Runaway eighth (9th, 10th) circuit functioning can have all sorts of miraculous happiness and
trouble. Sudden emergencies sometimes bring forth seeming miraculous strength or abilities in a person.
These people do things during the emergency which they cannot duplicate no matter how hard they try.
As they say, "I didn't think, I just did it," and, "it was like I was watching myself do it."
The little woman who lifts a pickup truck to save her son's life is using these higher circuits. The
yogi who stops his breath and heart for long periods of time is using these circuits. The psychic who finds
a body of a murdered child by touching the child's toy is using these higher circuits. The examples could
go on and one.
These experiences to the average person are so strong we don't even normally know we're doing
them. Many people who have had such an experience, when shown what they have done, refuse to believe
they could have done such a thing.
As we view the circuits of the brain, these highest levels (eighth, ninth, tenth) are the ones that
connect the out-of-body. They are so connected to out-of-body that we can only approach them by an out
of body experience.
To reach conscious levels from circuit eight, two great gulfs must be passed and three lower,
unconscious circuits must be passed through. These highest circuits are for removal from conscious
thought processes. The remoteness masks any message or ability carried by these circuits. Use of these
circuits is thus proscribed by our inability to directly get to such far away and difficult to reach but
wondrous personal brain power.
What do these highest circuits offer? This part of your brain serves to connect us with the
cosmos (or with God, if you wish). Kind of on the order of linking a small laptop computer to the home
P.C. by modem and then the P.C. to a mainframe by a dedicated link, followed by main frame connection
to a super computer, etc.
The eighth circuit is our connection to God (Goddess, Cosmic power) through even more layers
of cosmic circuitry. Through these eighth, ninth and tenth circuits, we speak to the Lord of the Universe
(gods, archangels, etc.) and information is passed down to us. All the knowledge of the universe is
available through these circuits. The past, the future, alternate futures and pasts, other dimensions, even
the will and mind of God.
Our highest and most permanent part of our personality is given us from here. Without these
functionings we have no personality, no charisma, no joy, no sadness, no awareness of good and evil, no
discrimination or discernment ability.
The proto-mind, the source, the archetypal patterns, are passed on from above to below. Even
though we build our basic personality from the lowest (first) circuit to higher and more complex brain
circuits, the influence of the pattern of the highest three circuits colors the formative years and our whole
personality.
The brain of a new-born is not completely functional. The child fresh from the womb has only
the first circuit open and functioning. This is the instinctive survival circuit and the baby is functioning at
an instinctive level. However, even at this age, our connection with God is established, although at a low
level. During the fist year of our lives, only the first circuit is fully active. Other brain circuits are
inactive or function at low levels, slowly growing connections toward the day they will be needed as fully
functioning parts of the person's life.
Once the instinctive survival circuit is imprinted with habits of responses, those responses stay
with you all of your life. Such first circuit instinctive reactions are the strongest reactions you ever have.
These responses are basic to our survival and when the areas of imprinting are threatened we feel we may
die. Therefore, this instinctive survival circuit overrides all other circuits when it senses danger.
Retraining of this circuit by such means as a martial art only teach it a response, and not to relax in the
face of a threat. This circuit always reacts to a threat in order to continue life. Retraining with a martial
art teaches the circuit how to fight and gives us a better chance of survival.
While this first circuit is forming, the eighth (9th, 10th) circuit is functioning at low levels and
influencing the growth of the first circuit patterns. In this way, all babies are not born equal. Even with
all outside circumstances the same, the internal signals from the brain cause babies to believe differently.
This would not happen if all the brain were a blank page at birth. We are born with genetic patterns
imprinted into our brain circuits, with gestation patterns hooked up in our brain during our stay in the
womb, and with natures roll-of-the-dice random serendipity or error in accidental connections made by
variations of the chemistry available to us as the brain is grown in the womb.
This is why we hear mothers speak of "he was such a good baby. He never gave us a problem."
Others say, "He was a terror from the day we got him home from the hospital." We are all different
because we start off different.
Twin studies have shown the strong influence of genetics. Many, in fact a very great many, of
our characteristics and quirks come from genetic imprints. We are the way we are because that pattern is
what our DNA carried. Thus, the child of an African Pygmy couple is not likely to grow up to be a six
foot blonde. Nor is the opposite likely to occur. In the same manner, it is unusual to find a family in
which only one person has a good singing voice or only one person is a good musician, or only one person
with good artistic ability and so on. Family traits are identifiable. The twin studies show that such traits
are extensive even when the twins were separated at birth and adopted by widely different parents. In
fact, the twin studies show so much genetic influence, it almost shakes my faith in free will. We'll talk
further on this later.
Eighth (9th, 10th) circuit activity, however small, definitely adds to the manner in which a child
grows and comports themselves, and this influence alters the connections made in the brain during this
growth. In this way, as we reach about one year of age and our second circuit begins to become active, we
are already moving to one side or the other side of the circuit.
Let's use an analogy for this. Pretend we have a large amusement park with every kind of
entertainment imaginable. This entertainment starts very simple with kiddie rides around the outside and
gradually reaches adult rides, moving on ultimately, to life and death rides in the middle.
The person arriving at the amusement part may enter from many portals around the park and will
have, therefore, different rides to get on. Brain hookup is similar. Because of this variation of genetics
and chemistry (among others) we start off at different locations, seeing different things, seeing things
differently.
Once the person has played at the first level land knows how to handle it, the park operator opens
the portals to the second and more complex level. Now, the person may have fallen in love with the first
level games and have no desire to go on to any other levels. After all, we can never fully exhaust the
novelty of the first level rides anyway.
Sometimes, the person will move into the second level rides, enjoy and go on to the next or third
level. Other times, the person may get hurt on the rides of a certain level and forevermore be in trauma
from that level. If this happens, asking that person to go back and get on a second level ride, will create a
real problem. Also, since all the rides contain some aspect of the level below them, a second level
traumatized person will "see" those dangers in the third level rides and be frightened, angry, frustrated, or
etc. This person will also "see" the dangers in the fourth, fifth, and so on, and will have difficulty
throughout the rest of the park, not riding, choosing easier rides, passing up levels, etc.
Others learn only the rides that go around and around are good and never try the fun house since
it frightened them the first time. Some learn to enjoy a game of chance, others a game of skill, some stay
in the fun house, some endlessly circle on level, never learning. The possibilities are virtually endless and
it is the same with your brain functioning.
Even as we enter the park we hear, however slightly, the calliope in the middle of the park
calling us to higher levels. Because of the distance, we have difficulty making out the melody and each
person sings a different song but the melody is there for all of us and as we get close, we begin to sing
more and more similar songs. Finally, we will sing the same songs, the song God is also singing.
The eighth (9th, 10th) circuit can only be reached through out-of-body experience because this
brain circuit is focused out of the body. This is the area of the brain that is the true intermediary between
the mind (circuits one through four, the heart (circuits five through seven, and the Cosmos. Circuits
eight, nine, and ten could be called the soul.
The "immediacy" or "of the moment," "present minded," and "being here now," are words and
phrases associated with the characteristics of the four lower circuits. "Enlightenment," and "higher
consciousness" and terms describing the fifth, sixth, and seventh circuits. Such words as infinity,
touching god, and out-of-body describe circuits eight to ten.
The highest circuits are in contact with something outside our bodies. This contact includes
information about the future, information about loved ones, and spurious bits of information among the
whole realm of knowledge given us by these high-level brain circuits.
While it may be difficult or impossible to squeeze in a portion of our life's information with the
small amount of brain storage available, when we add past lives and the detail available from them, it is
totally impossible to store all of this knowledge.
Past life regression information represents a line of investigation which shows information
storage in something other than the human brain. If our brains were the sole repository of information
gathered during our lifetime, such knowledge could not go with us into the spirit world and certainly
could not come to us in a reincarnation starting as a baby and regrowing all our cell anew.
Research into past lives has shown examples that even the most skeptical could not deny the truth
of. Although this does not actually prove reincarnation, it comes really close. Other studies have been
made which prove the validity of reincarnation. No past live information should ever be available to any
person. No past life information could be available to any person unless it (the knowledge) is stored some
place and the new personality can reach out and access such storage. No past life information is carried
by the egg or sperm except genetically. There is no room for the storage of many lives of activity. There
is only room in the DNA to build another human body from the union of two cells.
Nearly all discoveries of past lives have come through the use of hypnotism. The original
discoveries were apparently made when someone searching for the source of a patients problem went all
the way back until the patient began speaking German. Since the patient did not know German and had
never visited Germany, they realized something unique had happened and pursued it. Many cases of past
life regression have been documented and past lives are now generally accepted as fact.
In order to give a full range of coverage to studies brought up, let me point out a small problem
with past life regression. Many people regressed into past lives display as many as twenty or more past
lives. When we consider that there are estimated to be alive right now more people than all the dead of
the past, there seems to be a difficulty finding enough past lives to go around. If some people are "old"
souls and have had many reincarnations, then a great many people must be "first timers" with no
possibility of a past life. Of course, the process of reaching back beyond our conception may cause our
eighth (9th, 10th) circuit to access a piece of the past, bringing that life to us for our knowledge. We
might even use this type of technique to review the past.
Spiritualists describe eighth (9th, 10th) circuit out-of-body experiences as astral projection. A
release of the consciousness into a cosmic field of spirit energy or esoteric energy on which the released
spirit can travel. A thin silver thread connects the spirit body with the physical body. This connection, in
theory at least, must not be broken when out of body.
Psychologists bring in the Jungian concept of synchronicity to say that the out-of-body experience
in which a person "sees" what is happening at a distance is confused by a kind of educated, lucky
guessing. In this system, which nearly always involves a known area and loved ones, the person is aware
of a great amount of knowledge about what can and might happen even though it is at subconscious
levels. This information combines to give a report of probable conditions at the most likely time and
pushes it into conscious levels at that time. This synchronicity (same time event) is caused by knowledge
in the subconscious forcefully (in voice and vision) displaying itself on the screen of consciousness.
Doctors know that out-of-body experiences may occur during near death or clinical death
experiences. Many believe that the brain is so stressed that it sets up a fantasy escape mechanism so it
will not have to face the agony of death. In this case, the subconscious awareness of what is going on
even under anesthetic is used to give the brain information which it uses to "pretend" it is out of the body.
Those who believe this way cannot accept the consciousness actually leaving the body.
Drug gurus know that heavy doses of certain types of hallucinogens will create out-of-body
experiences. Such heavy doses of chemicals have attendant risks. Brain damage and even death have
resulted from those attempts.
Rationalists either chose a description similar to that of the psychologist or attempt to find a way
in which the reporting person "cheated." By knowing in advance or gaining some information by
collusion with the other person. Belief in anything other than an ice cube (hard cold facts) is difficult for
the rationalist.
Science-oriented investigators are attempting to add this experience of out-of-body awareness to
Bells' Theorem. While Bells' Theorem says a lot, one aspect of it states that a whole system is a single
unit, no matter how large. Thus, our universe might be thought of as a single system, one universe
containing all that a universe should. Now, if a sun goes nova near the edge of this universe, the universe
has changed instantly. Change does not occur at the speed of light. Change occurs instantly. Thus, if I
change a portion of the universe, all the universe is now different or changed.
In this way, our minds may be thought to be in contact with the whole universe at an
instantaneous level, not requiring the speed of light, a slow transmission taking millions of years (actually
billions of years) to cross the universe.
According to the Tree of Life, each human (with a fully functioning brain) has instant access to
any aspect of the universe. Whether this be of the past, present or future, all information of all possible
time lines exists and can be accessed. Without this accessibility, no one could imagine a future that could
not come to be, nor imagine a future that does come to be. Such information would not be available so we
could use it for prediction. We could build predictions solely on the past. Thus, we could predict the sun
rising but could never think the sun might not rise. Since we know we can imagine that, we also know we
have access to a kind of information that does not exist in actuality.
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SPECULATIONS ON MEMORY STORAGE