Preface
At the time of Isaac Newton’s invention of the calculus in the 17th
century, the mechanical clock was the most sophisticated machine
known. The simplicity of the clock allowed its movements to be
completely described with mathematics. Newton not only described the
clock’s movements with mathematics, but also the movements of the
planets and other astronomical bodies.
Because of the success of the Newtonian
method, a mathematics-based model of reality resulted.
In modern times, a much more sophisticated machine than the clock
has appeared: the computer. A computer includes a clock, but has
much more, including programmability. Because of its
programmability, the actions of a computer are arbitrarily complex.
And, assuming a complicated program, the actions of a computer
cannot be described in any useful way with mathematics.
To keep pace with this advance from the clock to the computer,
civilization should upgrade its thinking and adjust its model of
reality accordingly.
This book is an attempt to help smooth
this transition from the old conception of reality - that allowed
only mathematics to describe particles and their interactions - to
a
computer-based conception of reality.
Back to Contents
Introduction
A reality model is a means for understanding the universe as a
whole. Based on the reality model one accepts, one can classify
things as either possible or impossible.
The reality model of 20th-century science is the mathematics-only
reality model. This is a very restrictive reality model that rejects
as impossible any particle whose interactions cannot be described
with mathematical equations.
If one accepts the mathematics-only reality model, then there is no
such thing as an afterlife, because by that model, a man only exists
as the composite form of the simple mathematics-obeying common
particles composing that man’s brain - and death is the permanent
end of that composite form. For similar reasons, the
mathematics-only reality model denies and declares impossible many
other psychic phenomena.
Alternatively, the older theological reality model grants the
existence of an afterlife, and other psychic phenomena. However,
that model is unscientific, because it ignores intermediate
questions, and jumps directly to its conclusions.
For example, the theological reality
model concludes the existence of an intelligent super being, but
ignores the question of the particle composition of that intelligent
super being. As part of being scientific, a reality model should be
able to answer questions about the particles composing the objects
of interest.
The approach taken in this book is to assume that deepest reality is
computerized. Instead of, in effect, mathematics controlling the
universe’s particles, computers control these particles. This is the
computing-element reality model. This model is presented in detail
in chapter 2, after some groundwork from the science of physics is
described in chapter 1.
With particles controlled by computers, particles can behave in
complicated, intelligent ways. Thus, intelligent particles are a
part of the computing-element reality model. And with intelligent
particles, psychic phenomena, such as the afterlife, are easy to
explain.
Of course, one can object to the existence of computers controlling
the universe, because, compared to the mathematics-only reality
model - which conveniently ignores questions about the mechanism
behind its mathematics - the computing-element reality model adds
complexity to the structure of deepest reality.
However, this greater complexity is
called for by both the scientific and other evidence covered in this
book.
Back to Contents
1 - Particles
This chapter considers particles.
-
First, the idea of particles is
examined.
-
Then follows a brief history and
description of
quantum mechanics.
-
Last, several
experiments that place constraints on any reality model of the
universe, are described.
1.1 The Philosophy of Particles
The world is composed of particles.
The visible objects that occupy the
everyday world are aggregates of particles. This fact was known by
the ancients: a consequence of seeing large objects break down into
smaller ones.
The recognition of the particle composition of everyday objects is
very old, but the definition of what a particle is has evolved. For
example, the ancient Greek philosopher Democritus popularized
what became known as atomism. In Democritus’ atomism, the particles
composing everyday objects exist by themselves independent of
everything else, and these particles are not composed of other
particles.
Particles that are not composed of other particles are called
elementary particles. Philosophically, one must grant the existence
of elementary particles at some level, to avoid an infinite regress.
However, there is no philosophical necessity for the idea that
particles exist by themselves independent of everything else.
And the science of physics has found
that this idea of self-existing particles is wrong.
1.2 Atoms
In the early 20th century, a major effort was made by physicists to
explain in detail the experimentally observed absorption and
emission of electromagnetic radiation by individual atoms.
Electromagnetic radiation includes light waves and radio waves. The
elementary particle that transports the energy of electromagnetic
radiation is called a photon.
The atoms of modern science are not the atoms of Democritus, because
what today are called atoms are not elementary particles. Instead,
atoms are defined as the different elements of the periodic table.
The atoms of the periodic table are composite particles consisting
of electrons, neutrons, and protons. The neutrons and protons of an
atom reside at the atom’s center, in a clump known as the nucleus.
Unlike the electron, which is an elementary particle, both protons
and neutrons are composite particles, and the elementary particles
composing them are called quarks.
The simplest atom is hydrogen. Hydrogen consists of a single proton
and a single electron. Because of this simplicity, hydrogen was the
logical starting point for theoretical explanation of experimentally
observed electromagnetic effects.
However, the early efforts, using
classical methods, were unsuccessful.
1.3 Quantum Mechanics
The solution to the problem came in 1925: Werner Heisenberg
developed a new mathematical approach called matrix mechanics, and
Erwin Schrödinger independently developed a wave function.
Heisenberg’s approach presumed
particles, and Schrödinger’s approach presumed waves. Both
approaches worked equally well in precisely explaining the
experimental data involving electromagnetic radiation.
The work done by Heisenberg, Schrödinger, and others at that time,
is known as quantum mechanics. However, quantum mechanics actually
began in 1900, when Max Planck proposed that electromagnetic
radiation could only be emitted in discrete units of energy called
quanta.
Briefly, the theory of quantum mechanics retains the quanta of
Planck, and adds probability. The old idea of the continuous motion
of particles - and the smooth transition of a particle’s state to a
different state - was replaced by discontinuous motion and
discontinuous state changes.
For the particles studied by physics, the state of a particle is the
current value of each attribute of that particle.
A few examples of particle attributes
are position, velocity, and mass. For certain attributes, each
possible value for that attribute has an associated probability: the
probability that that particle’s state will change to that value for
that attribute. The mathematics of quantum mechanics allows
computation of these probabilities, thereby predicting certain state
changes.
Quantum mechanics predicts experimental results that contradict
Democritus’ notion that a particle is self-existing independent of
everything else. For example, there is an experiment that shoots
electrons toward two very narrow, closely spaced slits. Away from
the electron source - on the other side of the partition containing
the two slits - there is a detecting film or phosphor screen. The
structure of this experiment is similar to the classic experiment
done by Thomas Young in the early 1800s, to show the
interference of light. In that experiment, sunlight was passed
through two closely spaced pinholes.
In the above experiment, by shooting many electrons at once toward
the slits, one sees a definite interference pattern on the detector,
because electrons have a wave nature similar to light. When shooting
only one electron at a time, it is reasonable to expect each
electron to pass through only one slit, and impact somewhere on the
detector in a narrow band behind that particular slit through which
that electron had passed: no interference is expected, because there
is no other electron to interfere with.
However, the result of the experiment is
the same: whether shooting many electrons at once, or only one
electron at a time, the same interference pattern is observed. The
standard quantum-mechanics explanation is that the single electron
went through both slits at once, and interfered with itself. The
same experiment has been done with neutrons, and gives the same
result.
Such experiments show that Democritus’
notion - that a particle is self-existing independent of everything
else - is wrong, because for the particles studied by physics,
particle existence, knowable only through observation, is at least
partly dependent on the structure of the observing system.
1.4 Instantaneous Communication
The theoretical framework of quantum mechanics was laid down in
the 1920s, and received assorted challenges from critics soon
afterward. One serious point of disagreement was a feature of
quantum mechanics known as non-locality. Briefly, non-locality
refers to instantaneous action-at-a-distance.
In 1935, a type of experiment, known as an
EPR experiment (named
after the three physicists - Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen - who
proposed it), was offered as a test of the non-locality feature of
quantum mechanics. However, the EPR experiment they suggested could
not be done in 1935, because it involved colliding two particles and
making precise measurements that were beyond the available
technology.
In 1964, John Bell presented what eventually became known as
Bell’s theorem.
This theorem, and the associated Bell
inequalities, became the basis for a practical EPR experiment: The
new EPR experiment involved the simultaneous emission, from an
atomic source, of two photons moving in opposite directions. The
total spin of these two photons is zero. After the photon pair is
emitted, the photon spins are measured some distance away from the
emission source. The spin of a photon is one of its attributes, and
refers to the fact that photons behave as if they are spinning like
tops.
In the EPR experiments that were done -
first by John Clauser in 1972, and then more thoroughly by
Alain Aspect in 1982 - the instantaneous action-at-a-distance
that happened was that the spin of either photon, once measured and
thereby fixed, instantly fixed what the other photon’s spin was.
The
non-locality feature of quantum
mechanics was proved by these EPR experiments, which show that some
kind of instantaneous faster-than-light communication is going on.
1.5 Constraints for any Reality Model
In summary, quantum mechanics places the following two constraints
on any reality model of the universe:
-
Self-existing particles, that
have a reality independent of everything else, do not exist.
-
Instantaneous communication
occurs.
Back to Contents
2 - The
Computing-Element Reality Model
This chapter presents the computing-element reality model.
-
First,
the computing-element reality model is described.
-
Then, how this
model supports quantum mechanics is considered.
-
Last, the consequences of this model are
discussed, and the essential difference between common particles and
intelligent particles is explained.
2.1 Overview of the Model
Just as a rigid computing machine has tremendous flexibility because
it is programmable, so can the universe have tremendous flexibility
by being a vast, space-filling, three-dimensional array of tiny,
identical, computing elements.1
A computing element is a self-contained
computer, with its own memory.
1 The question as to how these
computing elements came into existence can be posed, but this line
of questioning faces the problem of infinite regress: if one answers
the question as to what caused the computing elements, then what
caused that cause, and so on. At some point, a reality model must
draw the line and declare something as bedrock, for which causation
is not sought. For the theological reality model, the bedrock is
God; for the mathematics-only reality model, the bedrock is
mathematics; for the computing-element reality model, the bedrock is
the computing element.
A related line of questioning asks what existed before the universe,
and what exists outside the universe - for these two questions, the
term universe includes the bedrock of whichever reality model one
chooses. Both questions reduce to wondering about what lies outside
the containing framework of reality as defined by the given reality
model. The first question assumes that something lies outside in
terms of time, and the second question assumes that something lies
outside in terms of space.
One solution is to simply assume that nothing lies outside the
containing framework of reality. But if one does not make this
assumption, then the question of what lies outside the containing
framework of reality is by definition insoluble, because one is
assuming that X, whatever X is, is outside the containing framework
of reality; but one can only answer as to what X is, by reference to
that containing framework of reality. Thus, a contradiction.
Each computing element is connected to
other computing elements, and each computing element runs its own
copy of the same large and complex program. Each elementary particle
in the universe exists only as a block of information that is stored
as data in the memory of a computing element.
Thus, all particles are both manipulated
as data, and moved about as data, by these computing elements.
In consequence, the reality that
people experience is a computer-generated virtual reality.
2.2 Components of the Model
Today, computers are commonplace, and the basics of programs and
computers are widely known.
The idea of a program is easily
understood: any sequence of intelligible instructions, that orders
the accomplishment of some predefined work, is a program. The
instructions can take any form, as long as they are understandable
to whatever mind or machine will follow those instructions and do
the actual work. The same program has as many different
representations as there are different languages in which that
program can be written.
Assuming a nontrivial language, any
machine that can read that language and follow any program written
in that language, is a computer.
Given the hypothesized computing elements that lie at the deepest
level of the universe, overall complexity is minimized by assuming
the following: Each computing element is structurally identical, and
there is only one type of computing element. Each computing element
runs the same program, and there is only one program; each computing
element runs its own copy of this program.
Call this program the
computing-element program. Each computing element can communicate
with any other computing element.
Regarding communication between computing elements, different
communication topologies are possible. It seems that communication
between any two computing elements is instantaneous, in accordance
with the non-locality property of quantum mechanics described in
section 1.4. Since apparent communication is instantaneous, the
processing done by any computing element - at least when running the
quantum-mechanics part of its program - is also instantaneous.2
Regarding the shape and spacing of the computing elements, the
question of shape and spacing is unimportant. Whatever the answer
about shape and spacing might be, there is no obvious impact on any
other question of interest. From the standpoint of what is
esthetically pleasing, one can imagine the computing elements as
being cubes that are packed together without intervening space.
Regarding the size of the computing elements, the required
complexity of the computing-element program can be reduced by
reducing the maximum number of elementary particles that a computing
element simultaneously stores and manipulates in its memory.3
In this regard, the computing-element program is most simplified if
that maximum number is one.
Then, if one assumes, for example, that
no two particles can be closer than 10–16 centimeters
apart - and consequently that each computing element is a cube 10–16
centimeters wide - then each cubic centimeter of space contains 1048
computing elements.4,5
2 A message is a block of
information that is transmitted from one computing element to
another. The communication topology describes how the computing
elements are connected, in terms of their ability to exchange
messages. For example, a fully connected topology allows each
computing element to directly exchange messages with any other
computing element.
An alternative and more economical communication topology connects
each computing element only to its nearest neighbors. In this
scheme, a message destined for a more distant computing element has
to be transmitted to a neighbor. In turn, that neighbor routes that
message to one of its neighbors, and so on, until the message is
received at its ultimate destination. In such a message-routing
scheme, if the message’s routing is conditional on information held
by each neighbor doing the routing, then it is not necessary that
the sending computing element know exactly which computing elements
should ultimately receive its message. An example of such
conditional message routing appears in section 2.3, where the
collapse of the quantum-mechanics wave function is discussed.
3 Throughout the remainder of this book, the word particle always
denotes an elementary particle. An elementary particle is a particle
that is not composed of other particles. In physics, prime examples
of elementary particles are electrons, quarks, and photons.
4 In this book, very large numbers, and very small numbers, are
given in scientific notation. The exponent is the number of terms in
a product of tens. A negative exponent means that 1 is divided by
that product of tens. For example, 10–16
is equivalent to 1/10,000,000,000,000,000 which is
0.0000000000000001; and, for example, 3x108
is equivalent to 300,000,000.
5 The value of 10–16
centimeters is used, because this is an upper-bound on the size of
an electron.
Although instantaneous communication and processing by the computing
elements may mean infinite speed and zero delay, there is probably
an actual communication delay and a processing delay. It is possible
to compute lower-bounds on computing-element communication speed and
computing-element processing speed, by making a few assumptions:
For example, assume the diameter of the visible universe is
thirty-billion light years, which is roughly 1026 meters;
and assume a message can be sent between two computing elements
across this diameter in less than a trillionth of a second. With
these assumptions, the computing-element communication speed is at
least 1038 meters per second. For comparison, the speed
of light in a vacuum is about 3x108 meters per second.
For example, assume a computing element only needs to process a
hundred-million program instructions to determine that it should
transfer to a neighboring computing element an information block. In
addition, assume that this information block represents a particle
moving at light speed, and the distance to be covered is 10–16
centimeters.
With these assumptions, there are about
10–26 seconds for the transfer of the information block
to take place, and this is all the time that the computing element
has to process the hundred-million instructions, so the MIPS rating
of each computing element is at least 1028 MIPS (millions
of instructions per second).
For comparison, the first edition of
this book was composed on a personal computer that had an 8-MIPS 386
microprocessor.
2.3 Program Details and Quantum Mechanics
Chapter 1 described some of the
experimental evidence that self-existing particles, that have a
reality independent of everything else, do not exist.
And this same conclusion is a natural
consequence of the computing-element reality model: particles, being
data, cannot exist apart from the interconnected computing elements
that both store and manipulate that data.
In the language of quantum mechanics - which applies to the common
particles known to physics - a particle does not exist as a particle
until an observer collapses its wave function. The wave function for
a single particle can fill a relatively large volume of space,
until the collapse of that wave function and the consequent
“appearance” of that particle to the observing system.
Quantum mechanics offers no precise
definition of what an observer is, but the observer is always
external to the particle, and different from it.
A particle in the computing-element reality model exists only as a
block of information, stored as data in the memory of a computing
element. The particle’s state information - which includes at least
the current values of the particle’s attributes - occupies part of
the information block for that particle. Assume that the information
block has a field that identifies the particle type.
For a computing element holding a
particle, i.e., holding an information block that represents a
particle, additional information is stored in the computing
element’s memory as needed. For example, such additional information
probably includes identifying the neighboring computing element from
which that information block was received or copied.
Among the information-block fields for a particle, assume a simple
yes-no field to indicate whether a particle - or more specifically,
a particle’s status - is active or inactive. When this field is set
to active, a computing element runs a different part of its program
than when this field is set to inactive.
A description of the basic cycle - from
inactive, to active, to inactive - for a common particle known to
physics, and the correspondence of this cycle to quantum mechanics,
follows:
-
A computing element that holds
an inactive particle could, as determined from running its
program, copy the information block for that inactive
particle to one or more neighboring computing elements. This
copying corresponds to the spreading in space of the
particle’s wave function.
-
A computing element that holds
an inactive particle could decide, as determined from
running its program, that the held particle’s status should
be changed to active. That computing element could then send
a message along the sequences of computing elements that
copied that inactive particle.6
The message tells those
computing elements to erase their inactive copies of that
particle, because the message-sending computing element is
going to activate that particle at its location. This
erasing corresponds to the wave function collapsing.
-
Once a computing element has
changed a held particle from inactive status to active
status, it becomes the sole holder of that particle. That
computing element can then run that portion of its program
that determines how that particle will interact with the
surrounding information environment found in neighboring
computing elements.
This surrounding information
environment can be determined by exchanging messages with
those neighboring computing elements. Information of
interest could include the active and inactive particles
those neighboring computing elements are holding, along with
relevant particle state information.
The actual size of the
neighborhood examined by a computing element depends on the
type of particle it is holding and/or that particle’s state
information.
This step corresponds to the
role of the observer. Once the computing element has
finished this step, it changes the held particle’s status
back to inactive, completing the cycle.
6 Sending a message along the
sequences of computing elements that copied an inactive particle, is
both easy and efficient, if each computing element that holds a copy
of that inactive particle maintains what is known as a doubly linked
list, so that the sequences can be traversed in either direction.
Specifically, assume that each computing element holding a copy of
that inactive particle maintains a list of all computing elements
that copied to it, and a list of all computing elements to which it
copied.
This method of a doubly linked list efficiently uses the available
resources when compared to other methods, such as broadcasting the
message to all computing elements regardless of their involvement
with the inactive particle. However, there are other issues
regarding this change-to-active-status algorithm that are not
considered here, because reasons for selecting among the different
design choices are less compelling. For example, there is the issue
of arbitration logic when two or more computing elements both want
to activate the same particle.
2.4 Living Inside Virtual Reality
In effect, the computing-element reality model explains personally
experienced reality as a computer-generated virtual reality.
Similarly, modern computers are often used to generate a virtual
reality for game players.
However, there is an important
difference between a virtual reality generated by a modern computer,
and the ongoing virtual reality generated by the computing elements.
From a personal perspective, the virtual reality generated by the
computing elements is reality itself; the two are identical.
Put
another way, one inhabits that virtual reality; it is one’s reality.
For the last few centuries, scientists have often remarked and
puzzled about the fact that so much of the world can be described
with mathematics. Physics texts are typically littered with
equations that wrap up physical relationships in nice neat formulas.
Why is there such a close relationship
between mathematics and the workings of the world?
This question is frequently asked.
And given the computing-element reality
model, the easy and likely answer is that many of the equations
discovered by scientists are explicitly contained in the
computing-element program. In other words, the computing-element
program has instructions to do mathematical calculations, and parts
of that program compute specific equations. Modern computers handle
mathematical calculations with ease, so it is reasonable to assume
that the computing elements do at least as well.
Now consider what the computing-element reality model allows as
possible within the universe. Because all the equations of physics
describing particle interactions can be computed, either exactly or
approximately, everything allowed by the mathematics-only reality
model is also allowed by the computing-element reality model.7
7 Equations that cannot be computed
are useless to physics, because they cannot be validated. For
physics, validation requires computed numbers that can be compared
with measurements made by experiment.
Also, the mathematics-only reality model
disallows particles whose interactions cannot be expressed or
explained with equations.
By moving to the computing-element reality
model, this limitation of the mathematics-only reality model is
avoided.
2.5 Common Particles and Intelligent
Particles
A programmed computer can behave in ways that are considered
intelligent.
In computer science, the Turing
Hypothesis states that all intelligence can be reduced to a single
program, running on a simple computer and written in a simple
language. The universe contains at least one example of intelligence
that is widely recognized, namely man.
The computing-element reality model
offers an easy explanation for this intelligence, because all
intelligence in the universe can spring from the computing elements
and their program.
At this point one can make the distinction between two classes of
particles: common particles and intelligent particles. Classify all
the particles of physics as common particles. Prime examples of
common particles are electrons, photons, and quarks. In general, a
common particle is a particle with relatively simple state
information consisting only of attribute values. This simplicity of
the state information allows the interactions between common
particles to be expressed with mathematical equations. This
satisfies the requirement of the mathematics-only reality model, so
both models allow common particles.
Besides common particles, the computing-element reality model allows
the existence of intelligent particles. In general, an intelligent
particle is a particle whose state information is much more complex
than the state information of a common particle. Specifically,
besides current attribute values, the state information of an
intelligent particle typically includes learned programs (section
4.6), and data used by those learned programs.
Regarding the movement of an intelligent particle through space, the
most simple explanation is that this movement is a straightforward
copying of the particle’s information block from one computing
element to a neighboring computing element, and then erasing the
original. Specifically, assume this copying is done without
producing the multiple inactive copies that were assumed (section
2.3) for the common particles of physics.
As explained, the state information of an intelligent particle is
much more complex than the state information of a common particle.
In general, because of this complexity, including their learned
programs, expressing with mathematical equations the interactions
involving intelligent particles is impossible.
This explains why intelligent particles
are absent from the mathematics-only reality model.
Back to Contents
3 - Biology and Bions
This chapter presents some of the evidence that each cell is
inhabited and controlled by an intelligent particle.
-
First, the
ability of single-cell organisms to follow a chemical concentration
gradient is considered.
-
Then follows a description of cell division,
and an examination of the steps by which sex cells are made.
-
Last is a brief consideration of
development.
3.1 The Bion
The bion is an intelligent particle that has no associated
awareness.1
1 The word 'bion' is a coined word:
truncate the word 'biology', and suffix 'on' to denote a particle.
Assume there is one
bion associated with
each cell. For any specific bion, its own association, if any, with
cells and cellular activity, and biology in general, depends on its
specific learned programs.
Depending on its learned programs, a
bion can interact with both intelligent particles and common
particles.
3.2 Cell Movement
The ability to move, either toward or away from an increasing
chemical concentration, is a coordinated activity that many
single-cell organisms can do. Single-cell animals, and bacteria,
typically have some mechanical means of movement.
Some bacteria use long external
whip-like filaments called
flagella. Flagella are rotated by a
molecular motor to cause propulsion through water. The larger
single-cell animals may use flagella similar to bacteria, or they
may have rows of short filaments called cilia, which work like oars,
or they may move about as amebas do. Amebas move by extruding
themselves in the direction they want to go.
The Escherichia coli bacterium has a standard pattern of movement
when searching for food: it moves in a straight line for a while,
then it stops and turns a bit, and then continues moving in a
straight line again.
This pattern of movement is followed
until the presence of food is detected. The bacterium can detect
molecules in the water that indicate the presence of food. When the
bacterium moves in a straight line, it continues longer in that
direction if the concentration of these molecules is increasing.
Conversely, if the concentration is decreasing, it stops its
movement sooner and changes direction. Eventually, this strategy
gets the bacterium to a nearby food source.
Amebas that live in soil, feed on bacteria. One might not think that
bacteria leave signs of their presence in the surrounding water, but
they do. This happens because bacteria make small molecules, such as
cyclic AMP and folic acid. There is always some leakage of these
molecules into the surrounding water, through the cell membrane.
Amebas can move in the direction of increasing concentration of
these molecules, and thereby find nearby bacteria.
Amebas can also react to the
concentration of molecules that identify the presence of other
amebas. The amebas themselves leave telltale molecules in the water,
and amebas move in a direction of decreasing concentration of these
molecules, away from each other.
The ability of a cell to follow a chemical concentration gradient is
hard to explain using chemistry alone. The easy part is the actual
detection of a molecule. A cell can have receptors on its outer
membrane that react when contacted by specific molecules. The other
easy part is the means of cell movement. Either flagella, or cilia,
or self-extrusion is used. However, the hard part is to explain the
control mechanism that lies between the receptors and the means of
movement.
In the ameba, one might suggest that wherever a receptor on the cell
surface is stimulated by the molecule to be detected, then there is
an extrusion of the ameba at that point.
This kind of mechanism is a simple
reflexive one. However, this reflex mechanism is not reliable.
Surrounding the cell at any one time could be many molecules to be
detected. This would cause the cell to move in many different
directions at once. And this reflex mechanism is further complicated
by the need to move in the opposite direction from other amebas.
This would mean that a stimulated receptor at one end of the cell
would have to trigger an extrusion of the cell at the opposite end.
A much more reliable mechanism to follow a chemical concentration
gradient is one that takes measurements of the concentration over
time. For example, during each time interval - of some predetermined
fixed length, such as during each second - the moving cell could
count how many molecules were detected by its receptors. If the
count is decreasing over time, then the cell is probably moving away
from the source. Conversely, if the count is increasing over time,
then the cell is probably moving toward the source. Using this
information, the cell can change its direction of movement as
needed.
Unlike the reflex mechanism, there is no doubt that this
count-over-time mechanism would work. However, this count-over-time
mechanism requires a clock and a memory, and a means of comparing
the counts stored in memory. This sounds like a computer. But such a
computer is extremely difficult to design as a chemical mechanism,
and no one has done it.
On the other hand, the bion, an
intelligent particle, can provide these services.
The memory of a bion is part of that
particle’s state information.
3.3 Cell Division
All cells reproduce by dividing: one cell becomes two. When a cell
divides, it divides roughly in half.
The division of water and proteins
between the dividing cell halves does not have to be exactly even.
Instead, a roughly even distribution of the cellular material is
acceptable. However, there is one important exception: the cell’s
DNA. Among other things, a cell’s DNA is a direct code for all the
proteins that the cell can make. The DNA of a cell is like a single
massive book.
This book cannot be torn in half and
roughly distributed between the two dividing cell halves. Instead,
each new cell needs its own complete copy. Therefore, before a cell
can divide, it must duplicate all its DNA, and each of the two new
cells must receive a complete copy of the original DNA.
All multicellular organisms are made out of
eucaryotic cells.
Eucaryotic cells are characterized by having a well-defined cellular
nucleus that contains all the cell’s DNA. Division for eucaryotic
cells has three main steps. In the first step, all the DNA is
duplicated, and the chromosomes condense into clearly distinct and
separate groupings of DNA.
For a particular type of cell, such as a
human cell, there are a fixed and unchanging number of condensed
chromosomes formed; ordinary human cells always form 46 condensed
chromosomes before dividing.
During the normal life of a cell, the chromosomes in the nucleus are
sufficiently decondensed so that they are not easily seen as being
separate from each other. During cell division, each condensed
chromosome that forms - hereafter simply referred to as a
chromosome - consists of two equal-length strands that are joined.
The place where the two strands are joined is called a
centromere.
Each chromosome strand consists mostly
of a long DNA molecule wrapped helically around specialized proteins
called histones. For each chromosome, each of the two strands is a
duplicate of the other, coming from the preceding duplication of
DNA.
For a human cell, there are a total of
92 strands, comprising 46 chromosomes. The 46 chromosomes comprise
two copies of all the information coded in the cell’s DNA. One copy
will go to one half of the dividing cell, and the other copy will go
to the other half.
The second step of cell division is the actual distribution of the
chromosomal DNA between the two halves of the cell. The membrane of
the nucleus disintegrates, and simultaneously a spindle forms. The
spindle is composed of microtubules, which are long thin rods made
of chained proteins. The spindle can have several thousand of these
microtubules.
Many of the microtubules extend from one
half of the cell to the chromosomes, and a roughly equal number of
microtubules extends from the opposite half of the cell to the
chromosomes. Each chromosome’s centromere becomes attached to
microtubules from both halves of the cell.
When the spindle is complete, and all the centromeres are attached
to microtubules, the chromosomes are then aligned together.
The alignment places all the centromeres
in a plane, oriented at a right angle to the spindle. Now the
chromosomes are at their maximum contraction. All the DNA is tightly
bound, so that none will break off during the actual separation of
each chromosome. The separation itself is caused by a shortening of
the microtubules. In addition, in some cases the separation is
caused by the two bundles of microtubules moving away from each
other.
The centromere, which held together the
two strands of each chromosome, is pulled apart into two pieces. One
piece of the centromere, attached to one chromosome strand, is
pulled into one half of the cell. And the other centromere piece,
attached to the other chromosome strand, is pulled into the opposite
half of the cell. Thus, the DNA is equally divided between the two
halves of the dividing cell.
The third step of cell division involves the construction of new
membranes. Once the divided DNA has reached the two respective cell
halves, a normal-looking nucleus forms in each cell half: at least
some of the spindle’s microtubules first disintegrate, a new nuclear
membrane assembles around the DNA, and the chromosomes become
decondensed within the new nucleus.
Once the two new nuclei are established,
a new cell membrane is built in the middle of the cell, dividing the
cell in two. Depending on the type of cell, the new cell membrane
may be a shared membrane. Or the new cell membrane may be two
separate cell membranes, with each membrane facing the other.
Once the membranes are completed, and
the two new cells are truly divided, the remains of the spindle
disintegrate.
3.4 Generation of Sex Cells
The dividing of eucaryotic cells is impressive in its precision and
complexity. However, there is a special kind of cell division used
to make the sex cells of most higher organisms including man. This
special division process is more complex than ordinary cell
division.
For organisms that use this process,
each ordinary non-sex cell has half its total DNA from the organism’s
mother, and the other half from the organism’s father. Thus, within
the cell are two collections of DNA. One collection originated from
the mother, and the other collection originated from the father.
Instead of this DNA from the two origins
being mixed, the separateness of the two collections is maintained
within the cell. When the condensed chromosomes form during ordinary
cell division, half the chromosomes contain all the DNA that was
passed by the mother, and the other half contain all the DNA that
was passed by the father. In any particular chromosome, all the DNA
came either from the mother or from the father.
Regarding genetic inheritance, particulate inheritance requires that
each inheritable characteristic be represented by an even number of
genes.2 Genes are specific sections of an organism’s DNA.
For any given characteristic, half the genes come from the mother,
and the other half come from the father. For example, if the
mother’s DNA contribution has a gene for making hemoglobin, then
there is a gene to make hemoglobin in the father’s DNA contribution.
The actual detail of the two hemoglobin
genes may differ, but for every gene in the mother’s contribution,
there is a corresponding gene in the father’s contribution. Thus,
the DNA from the mother is always a rough copy of the DNA from the
father, and vice versa. The only difference is in the detail of
individual genes.
Sex cells are made four-at-a-time from an original cell.3
The original cell divides once, and then
the two newly formed cells each divide, producing the final four sex
cells. The first step for the original cell is a single duplication
of all its DNA. Then, ultimately, this DNA is evenly distributed
among each resultant sex cell, giving each sex cell only half the
DNA possessed by an ordinary non-dividing cell. Then, when the male
sex cell combines with the female sex cell, the then-fertilized egg
has the normal amount of DNA for a non-dividing cell.
The whole purpose of sexual reproduction is to provide a controlled
variability of an organism’s characteristics, for those
characteristics that are represented in that organism’s DNA.
Differences between individuals of the same species give natural
selection something to work with - allowing, within the limits of
the variability, an optimization of that species to its environment.4
2 The exception to this rule,
and the exception to the rules that follow, are genes and
chromosomes that are sex-specific, such as the X and Y chromosomes
in man. There is no further mention of this complicating factor.
3 In female sex cells, four cells are made from an original cell,
but only one of these four cells is a viable egg, having most of the
original cell’s cytoplasm. The other three cells are not viable
eggs, and they disintegrate. There is no further mention of this
complicating factor.
4 The idea of natural selection is that differences between
individuals translate into differences in their ability to survive
and reproduce. If a species has a pool of variable characteristics,
then those characteristics that make individuals of that species
less likely to survive and reproduce tend to disappear from that
species. Conversely, those characteristics that make individuals of
that species more likely to survive and reproduce tend to become
common in that species.
To help accomplish this variability, there is a mixed continued on
next page selection in the sex cell of the DNA that came from the
two parents. However, the DNA that goes into a particular sex cell
cannot be a random selection from all the available DNA.
Instead, the DNA in the sex cell must be
complete, in the sense that each characteristic specified by the DNA
for that organism, is specified in that sex cell, and the number of
genes used to specify each such characteristic is only half the
number of genes present for that characteristic in ordinary
non-dividing cells. Also, the order of the genes on the DNA must
remain the same as it was originally - conforming to the DNA format
for that species.
The mixing of DNA that satisfies the above constraints is partially
accomplished by randomly choosing from the four strands of each
functionally equivalent pair of chromosomes. Recall that a condensed
chromosome consists of two identical strands joined by a centromere.
For each chromosome that originated from
the mother, there is a corresponding chromosome, with the same
genes, that originated from the father. These two chromosomes
together are a functionally equivalent pair.
One chromosome from each pair is split
between two sex cells. And the other chromosome from that pair is
split between the other two sex cells. In addition to this mixing
method, it would improve the overall variability if at least some
corresponding sequences of genes on different chromosomes are
exchanged with each other. And this exchange method is in fact used.
Thus, a random exchanging of corresponding sequences of genes, along
with a random choosing of a chromosome strand from each chromosome
pair, provides good overall variability, and preserves the DNA
format for that species.
Following are the details of how the sex cells get their DNA: The
original cell, as already stated, duplicates all its DNA. The same
number of condensed chromosomes are formed as during ordinary cell
division. However, these chromosomes are much longer and thinner
than chromosomes formed during ordinary cell division. These
chromosomes are stretched out, so as to make the exchanging of
sequences of genes easier.
Once these condensed stretched-out chromosomes are formed, each
chromosome, in effect, seeks out the other functionally equivalent
chromosome, and lines up with it, so that corresponding sequences of
genes are directly across from each other.
Then, on average, for each functionally
equivalent pair of chromosomes, several random exchanges of
corresponding sequences of genes take place.
After the exchanging is done, the next step has the paired
chromosomes move away somewhat from each other. However, they remain
connected in one or more places. Also, the chromosomes themselves
undergo contraction and lose their stretched-out long-and-thin
appearance.
As the chromosomes contract, the nuclear
membrane disintegrates, and a spindle forms. Each connected pair of
contracted chromosomes lines up so that one centromere is closer to
one end of the spindle, and the other centromere is closer to the
opposite end of the spindle. The microtubules from each end of the
spindle attach to those centromeres that are closer to that end.
The two chromosomes of each connected
pair are then pulled apart, moving into opposite halves of the cell.
It is random as to which chromosome of each functionally equivalent
pair goes to which cell half. Thus, each cell half gets one
chromosome from each pair of what was originally mother and father
chromosomes, but which have since undergone random exchanges of
corresponding sequences of genes.
After the chromosomes have been divided into the two cell halves,
there is a delay, the duration of which depends on the particular
species. During the delay - which may or may not involve the forming
of nuclei, and the construction of a dividing cell membrane - the
chromosomes remain unchanged. After the delay, the final step
begins.
New spindles form - either in each cell
half, if there was no cell membrane constructed during the delay; or
in each of the two new cells, if a cell membrane was constructed -
and the final step divides each chromosome at its centromere.
The chromosomes line up, the
microtubules attach to the centromeres, and the two strands of each
chromosome are pulled apart in opposite directions. Four new nuclear
membranes form. The chromosomes become decondensed within each new
nucleus. The in-between cell membranes form, and the spindles
disintegrate. There are now four sex cells, and each sex cell
contains a well-varied blend of that organism’s genetic inheritance
which originated from its two parents.
A species is characterized by the ability of its members to
interbreed. It may appear that if one had a perfect design for a
particular species, then that species would have no need for sexual
reproduction. However, the environment could change and thereby
invalidate parts of any fixed design.
In contrast, the mechanism of sexual
reproduction allows a species to change as its environment changes.
3.5 Bions and Cell Division
As one can see, cell division is
a complex and highly coordinated activity, consisting of a sequence
of well-defined steps.
Cells are highly organized, but there is still considerable random
movement of molecules, and there are regions of more or less
disorganized molecules.
Also, the organized internal parts of a cell
are suspended in a watery gel. And no one has been able to
construct, either by designing on paper, or by building in practice,
any computer-like control mechanisms made, as cells are, from groups
of organized molecules suspended in a watery gel.5
Also, the molecular structure of cells
is already known in great - although incomplete - detail, and
computer-like control mechanisms composed of molecules have not been
observed. Instead, the only major computer component observed is
DNA, which, in effect, is read-only memory. But a computer requires
an instruction processor, which is a centralized machine that can do
each action corresponding to each program instruction stored in
memory. And this required computer component has not been observed
in cells.
Given all these difficulties for the
chemical explanation, it is reasonable to conclude that for any
cell, a bion controls the cell-division process.
3.6 Development
For most multicellular organisms,
the body of the organism develops from a single cell. How a single
cell can develop into a starfish, tuna, honeybee, frog, dog, or man,
is obviously a big question.
Much research and experimentation has
been done on the problems of development. In particular, there has
been much focus on early development, because the transition from a
single cell to a baby, is a much more radical step than the
transition from a baby to an adult, or from an adult to an aged
adult.
In spite of much research on early development, there is no real
explanation of how it happens, except for general statements of what
must be happening. For example, it is known that some sort of
communication must be taking place between neighboring cells - and
molecules are typically guessed as the information carrier - but the
mechanism is unknown. In general, it is not hard to state what must
be happening.
However, the mathematics-only reality
model allows only a chemical explanation for multicellular
development, and, given this restriction, there has been little
progress. There is a great mass of data, but no explanation of the
development mechanism.
Alternatively, given the computing-element reality model and the
bion, multicellular development is explained as a cooperative effort
between bions. During development, the cooperating bions read and
follow as needed whatever relevant information is recorded in the
organism’s DNA.6
5 The sequence of well-defined
steps for cell division is a program. For running such a moderately
complex program, the great advantage of computerization over
non-computer solutions, in terms of resource requirements, is
discussed in section 4.3.
6 As an analogy, consider the construction of a house from a set of
blueprints. The blueprints by themselves do not build the house.
Instead, a construction crew, which can read the blueprints, builds
the house. And this construction crew, besides being able to read
the blueprints, has inside itself a great deal of additional
knowledge and ability, related to the construction of the house,
that is not in the blueprints, but is needed for the construction of
the house.
For a developing organism, its DNA are the blueprints, and the
organic body is the house. The organism’s bions are the construction
crew.
The learned programs in those bions,
and associated data, are the “additional knowledge and ability,
related to the construction of the house, that is not in the
blueprints.”
Back to Contents
4 - The Bionic Brain
This chapter presents evidence that bions give
the brain its
intelligence.
-
First, the basics of neurons, and the cerebral cortex,
are described.
-
Then, arguments for bion involvement with the brain,
including arguments for the computerization of the mind, are
presented.
-
Then the location of memories is
discussed.
-
Last, the basic mechanisms by which learned programs come
about are explained.
4.1 Neurons
Every mammal, bird, reptile,
amphibian, fish, and insect, has a brain.
The brain is at the root
of a tree of sensory and motor nerves with branches throughout the
body. The building block of any nervous system, including the brain,
is the nerve cell. Nerve cells are called neurons. All animal life
shows the same basic design for neurons. For example, a neuron from
the brain of a man uses the same method for signal transmission as a
neuron from a jellyfish.
Neurons come in many shapes and sizes. The typical neuron has a cell
body, and an
axon along which a signal can be transmitted. An axon
has a cylindrical shape, and resembles an electrical wire in both
shape and purpose. In man, axon length varies from less than a
millimeter to more than a meter in length.
A signal is transmitted from one end of the axon to the other end,
as a chemical wave involving the movement of sodium ions across the
axon membrane. During the wave, the sodium ions move from outside
the axon to inside the axon. Within the neuron is a chemical pump
that is always working to transport sodium ions to the outside of
the cell. A neuron waiting to transmit a signal sits at a threshold
state. The sodium-ion imbalance that exists across the axon
membrane, waits for a trigger to set the wave in motion. Neurons
with a clearly defined axon can transmit a signal in only one
direction.
The speed of signal transmission through an axon is very slow when
compared to electrons moving through an electrical wire. Depending
on the axon, a signal may move at a speed of anywhere from ½ to 120
meters per second. The fastest transmission speeds are obtained by
axons that have a myelin sheath: a fatty covering.
The long sensory and motor nerves that
connect the brain through the spinal cord to different parts of the
body are examples of
myelinated neurons. In comparison to the top
speed of 120 meters per second, an electrical current in a wire can
move more than a million times faster. Besides speed, another
consideration is how quickly a neuron can transmit a new signal. At
best, a neuron can transmit roughly one thousand signals per second.
One may call this the switching speed.
In comparison, the fastest
electrical circuits can switch more than a million times faster.
One important way that neurons differ from each other, is by the
neurotransmitters that they make and respond to. In terms of signal
transmission, neurotransmitters are the link that connects one
neuron to another.
The sodium-ion wave is not directly
transferred from one neuron to the next. Instead, the sodium-ion
wave travels along the axon, and spreads into the terminal branches
which end with synapses. There, the synapses release some of the
neurotransmitter made by that neuron.
The released neurotransmitter quickly
reaches the neurons whose dendrites adjoin those synapses, provoking
a response to that released neurotransmitter. There are three
different responses: a neuron could be stimulated to start its own
sodium-ion wave; a neuron could be inhibited from starting its own
sodium-ion wave; a neuron could have no response.
In the human brain, there are many different neurotransmitters.
Certain functionally different parts of the brain use different
neurotransmitters. This allows certain drugs to selectively affect
the mind. For example, a drug imitating a neurotransmitter can
stimulate signal activity in that brain part that uses that
neurotransmitter as a stimulant, thereby increasing the relative
“loudness” of that brain part in the ensemble of the mind.
Conversely, if the imitated
neurotransmitter has an inhibiting effect, the relative “loudness”
is decreased.
4.2 The Cerebral Cortex
There is ample proof that the cerebrum’s thin, gray, covering layer,
called the cortex, is the major site for human intelligence. Beneath
this cortex is the bulk of the cerebrum. This is the white matter
whose white appearance is caused by the presence of fatty sheaths
protecting nerve-cell fibers - much like insulation on electrical
wire.
The white matter is primarily a space through which an abundance of
nerve pathways, called tracts, pass. Hundreds of millions of neurons
are bundled into different tracts, just as wires are sometimes
bundled into larger cables. Tracts are often composed of long axons
that stretch the entire length covered by the tract.
As an example of a tract, consider the optic nerve, which leaves the
back of the eye as a bundle of roughly a million axons. The
supporting cell bodies of these axons are buried in the retina of
the eye. The optic tract passes into the base of a thalamus, which
is primarily a relay station for incoming sensory signals. There, a
new set of neurons - one outgoing neuron for each incoming neuron -
comprises a second optic tract, called the optic radiation. This
optic radiation connects from the base of the thalamus to a wide
area of cerebral cortex in the lower back of the brain.
There are three main categories of white-matter tracts,
corresponding to those parts of the brain the tracts are connecting.
Projection tracts connect areas of cortex with the brainstem and the
thalami. Association tracts connect, on the same cerebral
hemisphere, one area of cortex with a different area of cortex.
Commissural tracts connect, on opposite cerebral hemispheres, one
area of cortex with a different area of cortex.
Altogether, there are many thousands of
different tracts. It seems that all tracts in the white matter have
either their origin, destination, or both, in the cortex.
The detailed structure of the cortex shows general uniformity across
its surface. In any square millimeter of cortex, there are roughly
100,000 neurons. This gives a total count of roughly fifteen billion
neurons for the entire human cortex. To contain this many neurons in
the cortex, the typical cortex neuron is very small, and does not
have a long axon. Many neurons whose cell bodies are in the cortex
do have long axons, but these axons pass into the white matter as
fibers in tracts.
Although fairly uniform across its
surface, the cortex is not uniform through its thickness. Instead,
when seen under a microscope, there are six distinct layers. The
main visible difference between these layers is the shape and
density of the neurons in each layer.
There is only very limited sideways communication through the
cortex. When a signal enters the cortex through an axon, the signal
is largely confined to an imaginary column of no more than a
millimeter across. Different areas of widely spaced cortex do
communicate with each other, but by means of tracts passing through
the white matter.
The primary motor cortex is one example of cortex function. This
cortex area is in the shape of a strip that wraps over the middle of
the cerebrum.
As the name suggests, the primary motor
cortex plays a major part in voluntary movement. This cortex area is
a map of the body, and the map was determined by neurologists
touching electrodes to different points on the cortex surface, and
observing which muscles contracted. This map represents the parts of
the body in the order they occur on the body. In other words, any
two adjacent parts of the body are motor-controlled by adjacent
areas of primary motor cortex.
However, the map does not draw a good
picture of the body, because the body parts that are under fine
control get more cortex. The hand, for example, gets about as much
cortex area as the whole leg and foot. This is similar to the
primary visual cortex, in which more cortex is devoted to the
center-of-view than to peripheral vision.
There are many tracts carrying signals into the primary motor
cortex, including: tracts coming from other cortex areas; sensory
tracts from the thalami; and tracts through the thalami that
originated in other parts of the brain. The incoming tracts are
spread across the motor cortex strip, and the axons of those tracts
terminate in cortex layers 1, 2, 3, and 4.
For example, sensory-signal axons
terminate primarily in layer 4. Similarly, the optic-radiation axons
terminate primarily in layer 4 of the primary visual cortex.
Regarding the outgoing signals of the primary motor cortex, the
giant
Betz cells are big neurons with thick myelinated axons, which
pass down through the brainstem into the spinal cord. Muscles are
activated from signals passed through these Betz cells. The Betz
cells originate in layer 5 of the primary motor cortex. Besides the
Betz cells, there are smaller outgoing axons that originate in
layers 5 and 6. These outgoing axons, in tracts, connect to other
areas of cortex, and elsewhere.
Besides the primary motor cortex, and the primary visual cortex,
there are many other areas of cortex for which definite functions
are known. This knowledge of the functional areas of the cortex did
not come about from studying the actual structure of the cortex, but
instead from two other methods: by electrically stimulating
different points on the cortex and observing the results; and by
observing individuals who have specific cortex damage.
The study of cortex damage has been the best source of knowledge
about the functional areas of the cortex. Localized cortex damage
typically comes from head wounds, strokes, and tumors. The basic
picture that emerges from studies of cortex damage, is that mental
processing is divided into many different functional parts; and
these functional parts exist at different areas of cortex.
Clustered around the primary visual cortex, and associated with it,
are other cortex areas, known as association cortex. In general,
association cortex borders each primary cortex area. The primary
area receives the sense-signals first, and from the primary area the
same sense-signals are transmitted through tracts to the association
areas.
Each association area attacks a specific part of the total problem.
Thus, an association area is a specialist. For example, for the
primary visual cortex, there is a specific association area for the
recognition of faces. If this area is destroyed, the person
suffering this loss can still see and recognize other objects, but
cannot recognize a face.
Some other examples of cortex areas are
Wernicke’s area,
Broca’s
area, and the
prefrontal area. When Wernicke’s area is destroyed,
there is a general loss of language comprehension. The person
suffering this loss can no longer make any sense of what is read or
heard, and any attempt to speak produces gibberish. Broca’s area is
an association area of the primary motor cortex. When Broca’s area
is destroyed, the person suffering this loss can no longer speak,
producing only noises.
The prefrontal area is beneath the
forehead. When this area is destroyed, there is a general loss of
foresight, concentration, and the ability to form and carry out
plans of action.
4.3 Mental Mechanisms and Computers
There is a great deal of wiring in the human brain, done by the
neurons. But what is missing from the preceding description of brain
structure, is any hint of what the mental mechanisms are that
accomplish human intelligence.
However, regardless of how the computers
are composed, human intelligence is most likely accomplished by
computers, for the following three reasons:
-
The existence of human memory
implies computers, because memory is a major component of
any computer. In contrast, hardwired control mechanisms - a
term used here to represent any non-computer solution -
typically work without memory.
-
People have learning ability -
even single-cell animals show learning ability - which
implies the flexibility of computers using data saved in
memory to guide future actions. In contrast, hardwired
control mechanisms are almost by definition incapable of
learning, because learning implies restructuring the
hardwired, i.e., fixed, design.
-
Beyond a very low level of
problem complexity, a hardwired solution has tremendous
hardware redundancy when compared to a functionally
equivalent computers-and-programs solution. The redundancy
happens because a hardwired mechanism duplicates at each
occurrence of an algorithmic instruction the relevant
hardware needed to execute that instruction. In effect, a
hardwired solution trades the low-cost redundancy of stored
program instructions, for the high-cost redundancy of
hardware. Thus, total resource requirements are much greater
if mental processes are hardwired instead of computerized.
4.4 Composition of the Computers
Human intelligence can be decomposed into functional parts, which in
turn can be decomposed into programs using various algorithms.
In general, for the purpose of guiding a
computer, each algorithm must exist in a form where each elementary
action of the algorithm corresponds with an elementary action of the
computer. The elementary actions of a computer are known
collectively as the instruction set of that computer.
Regarding the composition of the computers responsible for human
intelligence, if one tries to hypothesize a chemical computer made
of organic molecules suspended in a watery gel, then an immediate
difficulty is how to make this computer’s instruction set powerful
enough to do the actions of the many different algorithms used by
mental processes. For example, how does a program add two numbers by
catalyzing some reaction with a protein?
If one tries to assume that instead of an instruction set similar in
power to those found in modern computers, that the instruction set
of the organic computer is much less powerful - that a refolding of
some protein, for example, is an instruction - then one has merely
transferred the complexity of the instruction set to the algorithms:
instead of, for example, a single add-two-numbers instruction, an
algorithm would need some large number of less-powerful instructions
to accomplish the same thing.
For those who apply the mathematics-only reality model, confining
themselves to a chemical explanation of mental processes, there has
been little progress. As with the control mechanisms for cell
movement, cell division, and multicellular development, all
considered in chapter 3, there is the same problem: no one knows how
to build computer-like control mechanisms satisfying cellular
conditions. And the required computer component, an instruction
processor, has not been observed in cells.
Alternatively, the computing-element reality model offers
intelligent particles. Each neuron in the brain is a cell, and is
therefore occupied by a bion. To explain the intelligence of one’s
own mind, it is only necessary to assume that bions in the brain
perform mental functions in addition to ordinary cell functions.
Brain bions are in a perfect position to read, remember, and process
the sodium-ion signals moving along their neurons from sensory
sources.
And brain bions are also perfectly
positioned to start sodium-ion signals that transmit to motor
neurons, activating muscles and causing movement.
4.5 Memory
Normal people have a rich variety of memories, including memories of
sights, sounds, and factual data.1
1 The conscious memories of sights,
sounds, and factual data, are high-level representations of memory
data that have already undergone extensive processing into the forms
that awareness receives (see the discussion of awareness in chapter
7).
Regarding memory, the whole question of
memory has been frustrating for those who have sought its presence
in physical substance. During much of the 20th century, there was a
determined search for memory in physical substance - by many
different researchers. However, these researchers were unable to
localize memory in any physical substance.
An issue related to memory is the frequently heard claim that neural
networks are the mechanism responsible for human intelligence - in
spite of their usefulness being limited to pattern recognition.
However, and regardless of usefulness, without both a neural-network
algorithm, and input-data preprocessing - requiring memory and
computational ability - neural networks do nothing. Thus, before
invoking physical neural networks to explain any part of human
intelligence, memory and computational ability must first exist as
part of the physical substance of the brain - which does not appear
to be the case.
In the latter part of the 20th century, the most common explanation
of memory is that it is stored, in effect, by relative differences
between individual synapses. Although this explanation has the
advantage of not requiring any memory molecules - which have not
been found - there must still be a mechanism that records and
retrieves memories from this imagined storage medium.
This requirement of a storage and
retrieval mechanism raises many questions.
For example:
-
How does a sequence of
single-bit signals along an axon - interpreting, for
example, the sodium-ion wave moving along an axon and into
the synapses as a 1, and its absence as a 0 - become
meaningfully encoded into the synapses at the end of that
axon?
-
If memory is encoded into the
synapses, then why is the encoded memory not recalled every
time the associated axon transmits a signal; or, conversely,
why is a memory not encoded every time the associated axon
transmits a signal?
-
How do differences between a
neuron’s synapses become a meaningful sequence of single-bit
signals along those neurons whose dendrites adjoin those
synapses?
The above questions have no answer.
Thus, the explanation that memory is stored by relative differences
between individual synapses, pushes the problem of memory elsewhere,
making it worse in the process, because
synapses - based on their physical structure - are specialized for
neurotransmitter release, not memory storage and retrieval.
Alternatively, given bions, the location of memories is among the
state information of the bions that occupy the neurons of the brain.
In other words, each memory exists as part of the state information
of one or more bions.
4.6 Learned Programs
Regarding the residence of
the programs of the mind, and with the aim of minimizing the
required complexity of the computing-element program, assume that
the computing-element program provides various learning algorithms -
such as learning by trial and error, learning by analogy, and
learning by copying - which, in effect, allow intelligent particles
to program themselves.
Specifically, with this assumption, each
program of the mind - such as the program to recognize a face
- exists as part of the state information of those bions occupying
that part of the brain that is the site for that program’s
operation.
For reasons of efficiency, assume that the overall learning
mechanism provided by the computing-element program includes a very
high-level language in which learned programs are written. Then, to
run a learned program, the computing-element program interprets each
high-level statement of that learned program by executing the
computing-element program’s own corresponding low-level functions.
Regarding the type of learning used by the brain bions to construct
the various programs of the mind, at least some of the learning may
be copying from other minds.2,3 Once a specific learned
program is established and in use by one or more bions, other bions
can potentially copy that program from those bions that already have
it, and then over time potentially evolve that learned program by
using any of the learning methods.4
Regarding learned programs within moving particles, absolute motion
through space is the norm for particles. And as an intelligent
particle moves through space, each successive computing element that
receives that intelligent particle continues running that
intelligent particle’s learned programs, if any, from the point left
off by the previous computing element.5
2 Given the discussion of rebirth in
section 7.3, at least some of the various programs of the mind may
simply be retained from the previous life and reused.
3 Given the common observation that children typically resemble
their parents, and given the more specific observation made by
Arthur Schopenhauer in the 19th century - that general intelligence
seems to be inherited from the mother, and personality from the
father - it follows that in the typical case there is at least some
copying from the minds of both parents, before and/or after birth.
Schopenhauer made another interesting observation, regarding the
basis of sexual attraction: Each person has within himself an inborn
mental model of what an ideal person should look like. And the
extent to which that person deviates from that internal model, that
is the extent to which that person will find correcting or
offsetting qualities attractive in the opposite sex.
4 In effect, learned programs undergo evolution by natural
selection: the environment of a learned program is, at one end, the
input data-sets which the learned program processes; and, at the
other end, the positive or negative feedback from that which uses
the output of that learned program: either one or more learned
programs in the same or other bions, and/or the soliton described in
chapter 7.
It is this environment, in effect, that determines the rate of
evolutionary change in the learned program. The changes themselves
are made by the aforementioned learning algorithms in the
computing-element program. Presumably, these learning algorithms use
the feedback from the users of the output of the learned program, to
both control the rate of change, and to guide the type and location
of the changes made to that learned program. Within these learning
algorithms, negative feedback from a soliton (described in chapter
7) probably carries the most weight in causing these algorithms to
make changes.
Note that evolutionary change can include simply replacing the
currently used version of a learned program, by copying a different
version of that learned program, if it is available, from those
bions that already have it. The sharing of learned programs among
bions appears to be the rule - and, in effect, cooperative evolution
of a learned program is likely.
5 It is reasonable to assume that each intelligent particle has a
small mass - i.e., its mass attribute has a positive value - making
that intelligent particle subject to both gravity and inertia. This
assumption frees each intelligent particle from the computational
burden of having to constantly run a learned program that would
maintain that intelligent particle’s position relative to common
particles.
Back to Contents
5 - Experience and
Experimentation
This chapter considers psychic phenomena and the related subject of
meditation.
-
First explained is how the computing-element reality
model allows commonly reported psychic phenomena.
-
Then, after
identifying the obstacles to observing bions, an ancient meditation
method - which promotes out-of-body experiences, including bion-body
projections - is described.
-
Last, the meditation-caused injury known
as kundalini is considered.
5.1 Psychic Phenomena
Unlike the mathematics-only
reality model, the computing-element reality model is tolerant of
human experience, because much more is possible in a universe with
intelligent particles.
For example,
ESP: When an object is
within the accessible information environment of the bions of a mind
- the accessible information environment is all of the surrounding
information environment whose content can be directly examined by a
learned-program perceive statement, which one can assume the
computing-element program offers - that object can be directly
perceived by those bions.
The actual selection and processing of
the perception depend on the learned programs of that mind.1
1 ESP is an acronym for extrasensory
perception. Broadly, ESP is
perception by psychic means. Most often,
ESP refers to the ability to feel what other people are thinking or
doing. An example of ESP is the commonly reported experience of
feeling when one is being stared at by a stranger: upon turning
around and looking, the feeling is confirmed.
Remote viewing is one consequence of ESP. The parapsychology
literature has many examples of subjects “seeing” objects that are
thousands of kilometers distant. Thus, the accessible information
environment of a bion is a sphere with a radius of at least several
thousand kilometers. More precisely, given that objects on the other
side of the Earth have been remote-viewed, the accessible
information environment of a bion is a sphere with a radius greater
than the diameter of the Earth.
For remote viewing, “numbers and letters … were nearly impossible to
remote-view accurately” (Schnabel, Jim. Remote Viewers: The Secret
History of America’s Psychic Spies. Dell Publishing, New York, 1997.
p. 36). Because remote viewing is based on a scan of a volume of
space, and given that numbers and letters are typically very thin
layers of ink, then one likely reason for the inability to
remote-view them is that the scan and associated processing is not
fine enough to resolve them. Also, even if the scan were fine
enough, that scan data would still have to be specifically processed
for the identification of writing and its symbols.
As with other mental abilities - depending on the fine detail of the
relevant learned programs and associated data - the ability to
remote-view varies from person to person. For remote-viewer Pat
Price, who seemed to be the most talented, “When he was going after
a target, he could often read numbers or words on pieces of paper,
or names on uniforms, … It wasn’t easy, and he wasn’t always right,
but it could be done.” (Ibid., p. 126)
Claims of time travel by remote viewers - viewing alleged past or
future events - are sometimes made, but are necessarily erroneous.
The computing-element reality model does not support time travel.
Instead, at best, time travel can, in effect, be simulated by the
mind, by applying imagination and inference to whatever data is
available on the subject in question.
Precognition is another consequence of ESP. For example, when a
person feels the telephone about to ring, bions in the mind of the
caller have probably perceived the mind of the person being called,
and then communicated notice of the impending call. As another
example, when a person anticipates an accident, such as a train
wreck caused by equipment failure, the information could have, for
example, originated in the mind of a mechanic or similar person who
works with the relevant equipment, and who unconsciously used ESP to
detect the relevant flaws, and then unconsciously estimated the time
of failure. That person then unconsciously used ESP to perceive the
other minds to whom that person then communicated the danger.
Eventually, as the warning is unconsciously passed along, one or
more persons may consequently avoid the danger.
Synchronicity or coincidence is
another consequence of ESP. Because the mind’s bions can “see”
unobstructed by intervening objects, within a much larger volume of
space than the physical senses, and communicate with other minds,
arrangement by the mind’s bions of meaningful coincidence is easy.
In contrast to the computing-element reality model, the
mathematics-only reality model cannot accommodate ESP. With only
common particles to work with, ESP cannot be explained, and the
mathematics-only reality model states that ESP does not exist.
Besides ESP, there are many reported experiences that are denied by
the mathematics-only reality model. However, these experiences are
explained by the computing-element reality model. For example,
psychic phenomena such as the afterlife, materialization,
psychokinesis, out-of-body experiences, and communication with the
dead, are all allowed by the computing-element reality model. Brief
explanations follow:
An afterlife is possible, because the bions occupying the body and
brain are elementary particles. In general, the breakdown of a
structure leaves intact the elementary particles composing that
structure. Because human memories are stored as particle state
information, they too can survive the destruction of the body.
Materialization is possible, assuming that the computing-element
program offers learned-program statements that allow a learned
program to generate into other computing elements new information
blocks that represent common particles.
Psychokinesis is possible, because bions can interact with common
particles.2
Specifically, assume there is a
learned-program move statement, for moving particles to other
computing elements. Other than for moving common particles, an
intelligent particle can use this learned-program move statement to
move itself; and by this means, any intelligent-particle being -
such as a man projected in a
lucid dream (section 6.2) or in a bion-body
(section 6.3), or a Caretaker (section 8.6) - can move and “fly”
about.
Out-of-body experiences are possible, assuming at least some of the bions in the brain can neglect their cell-care duties for at least a
short time without causing unacceptable damage.
Communication with the dead is possible, because both an afterlife
and ESP are possible. Regarding the communication channel for
transferring data between intelligent particles, assume that the
computing-element program offers learned-program send and receive
statements, that allow a learned program to send and receive data.
This type of communication must always
be consensual between the sender and receiver, because reception by
the receiver is dependent on the receiver using the necessary
receive statement to receive the data.
Then, even if data is
received, it can be discarded, filtered, or otherwise processed,
depending on the learned programs on the receiving side.3
2 Psychokinesis is the ability
to move objects by psychic means. For example, the poltergeist
phenomenon which has been linked to children and adolescents who
were experiencing emotional upset at the time, is characterized by
psychokinetic activity. Psychokinesis, as commonly understood, is
rare. However, cell-occupying bions are engaged in psychokinetic
activity as they care for their cells.
3 The author has an anecdote that illustrates the consensual nature
of communication between intelligent particles: I once went to a
psychic fair offering readings by professional psychics. Interested
in a personal demonstration, I selected one of the available
psychics. To avoid helping her during the reading, I did not ask
questions, give personal information, comment on her reading’s
accuracy, or even look at her. Nevertheless, the reading she gave
was a personally convincing demonstration of direct communication
between minds, where the received communications were brought to
awareness in the mind of the psychic.
The point of this anecdote is that after the reading was over, the
psychic remarked that I was very easy to read, and that sometimes
she gets very little or nothing from the person being read. The
explanation follows: During a reading, bions in the psychic’s mind
are receiving information communicated by bions in the mind of the
person being read. If that person’s mind refuses to communicate, or
is unable to, then that psychic draws a blank and must either admit
defeat or rely on some secondary means, such as interpreting tarot
cards according to fixed rules, and/or making guesses based on
whatever clues are available. Thus, a skeptic who wants “proof” that
a psychic is fake can get “proof,” by unconsciously refusing to
communicate, or by communicating false information.
Psychic readings, when genuine, offer one a means to consciously
learn about hidden plans and expectations in one’s own mind,
circumventing the normal paths to awareness which are restricted and
heavily filtered. Channeling, when the source is not merely the
channel’s own mind, is a closely related talent which many psychics
have. When a psychic channels communications from another mind, such
as from the mind of a dead person, the same consensual communication
between intelligent particles is taking place. For some psychics,
channeling and doing a psychic reading are the same thing, in which
the mind of a dead person acts as an intermediary who telepathically
talks to the psychic and provides information about the person being
read; the psychic then repeats more or less what the intermediary
said.
Regarding the various props that psychics use, such as tarot cards,
tea leaves, crystal balls, astrological charts, personal effects
held by the psychic (psychometry), etc.,
“I read tarot cards for
people one-on-one, in person, or over the phone. They’re just a
point of concentration. I could use a crystal ball or goat innards,
but tarot cards are lighter than a ball and less messy than the goat
innards!” (Cooper, Paulette, and Paul Noble.
The 100 Top Psychics in
America. Pocket Books, New York, 1996. p. 266), and, “Sometimes I
use cards because then the person doesn’t become preoccupied with
‘Where the hell is she coming up with this stuff from?’ It’s easier
to blame it on the cards.” (Ibid., p. 250).
Regarding what is
brought to awareness in the mind of the psychic, this depends on the
psychic and the circumstances - or, more specifically, the received
communications and the way those communications are processed - but,
in general, “pictures, sounds, and symbols that the psychic
verbalizes” (Ibid., p. 297).
Using send and receive statements, data
is transferred as a message - or, for example, as a stream of
messages in the case of telepathic voice communication - from
whichever computing elements contain the sending intelligent
particles, to whichever computing elements contain the receiving
intelligent particles.
5.2 Obstacles to Observing Bions
Experimentation is an important
part of the scientific method.
Because bions are particles, one might
expect to observe bions directly with some kind of instrument.
However, observing an intelligent particle with an instrument made
of common particles is difficult in practice. This is because an
intelligent particle is selective about how it interacts with common
particles.4 For example, if an intelligent particle
chooses to ignore an instrument such as an accelerator, then that
accelerator will not detect that particle.5
4 Of course, the computing-element program decides all particle
interactions - either directly, in the case of common particles, or
indirectly, through learned programs, in the case of intelligent
particles - and all particles are blocks of information manipulated
by the computing elements that run the computing-element program.
However, as a literary convenience, intelligent particles will
sometimes be spoken of as having their own volition. This avoids
excessive repetition of the details of the computing-element reality
model.
5 In computational terms, ignoring other particles and not
interacting with them is always easiest, because interaction
requires computation, whereas non-interaction requires none. Thus,
for example, bions passing through a wall is computationally easier
for those bions than being repelled by that wall.
And bions remaining invisible to
ordinary sight is computationally easier for those bions than
reflecting and/or absorbing and/or emitting light and being seen.
Being partly composed of intelligent particles, it is possible for a
man to be his own instrument to observe bions.
However, because of
the fragility of the physical body, and its overriding needs, most
people cannot directly observe bions without some kind of
assistance, such as by meditation.
5.3 Meditation
The ancient books of Hinduism are
collectively known as the Vedas. It is not known with any certainty
when the Vedas were written, but typical estimates are that the
oldest books were written 3,000 years ago.
Among
the Vedas are
the Upanishads, a collection of ancient writings
which embody the philosophy of Hinduism. The Upanishads speak
clearly about a means to experience psychic phenomena. It is an
amazingly simple method: mentally repeat, over and over, the sound
Om, which rhymes with the words Rome and home. The o sound is
short, and the m sound is typically drawn out.
Robert Hume, in his book The
Thirteen Principal Upanishads, translates from the original
Sanskrit:
The word which all the Vedas
rehearse,
And which all austerities
proclaim,
Desiring which men live the life
of religious studentship -
That word to thee I briefly
declare.
That is Om!
That syllable, truly, indeed, is
Brahma!
That syllable indeed is the
supreme!
Knowing that syllable, truly,
indeed,
Whatever one desires is his!
That is the best support.
That is the supreme support.
Knowing that support,
One becomes happy in the
Brahma-world.6
The above verse is from the
Katha
Upanishad. In this verse, one sees the praises heaped upon Om. There
is also a promise of desires fulfilled and happiness attained.
The word Brahma is a technical term
which occurs frequently in the Upanishads, and often refers to the
experiences one can have as a result of using Om.
Taking as a bow the great weapon
of the Upanishad,
One should put upon it an arrow
sharpened by meditation.
Stretching it with a thought
directed to the essence of That,
Penetrate that Imperishable as
the mark, my friend.
The mystic syllable Om is the bow.
The arrow is the soul.
Brahma is said to be the mark.
By the undistracted man is It to
be penetrated.
One should come to be in It, as
the arrow [in the mark].7
The above verse is from the
Mundaka
Upanishad. The syllable Om is identified as a bow in the
fifth line, and in the first line the bow is called the great
weapon. By this bow-and-arrow analogy, the power of Om is expressed.
A straightforward interpretation of this
verse is that the use of Om can launch the awareness into an
out-of-body experience.
As the material form of fire
when latent in its source
Is not perceived - and yet there
is no evanishment of its subtile form -
But may be caught again by means
of the drill in its source,
So, verily, both are in the body
by the use of Om.
By making one’s own body the lower friction-stick
And the syllable Om the upper
friction-stick,
By practicing the friction of
meditation,
One may see the God who is
hidden, as it were.8
6 Hume, Robert. The Thirteen Principal
Upanishads, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, London, 1934. pp.
348–349.
7 Ibid., p. 372. (The bracketed note on the last line is by the
translator, Robert Hume.)
8 Ibid., p. 396. (The word subtile on the second line is an obsolete
synonym of the word subtle.)
The above verse is from the
Svetasvatara Upanishad. It uses
an outdated analogy, as did the previous verse.
Before matches and lighters, man started
fires by such means as rapidly spinning a stick of wood called a
drill, the pointed end of which - surrounded by kindling - is
pressed against a wooden block; the heat from the friction then
ignites the kindling. The beginning of the verse is scientifically
inaccurate; it is saying that fire exists in wood in some subtle
form. This mistake is excusable, given that the Upanishads are
pre-scientific writings.
The meaning of this verse starts with the fourth line. The first
three lines make the claim that fire has both a visible form and a
subtle hidden form. The remaining lines make the claim that there is
something similarly hidden in the body. Normally, this something is
hidden, as the writer of the verse supposed that fire is hidden in
the stick. But by using Om, one can draw out this hidden something,
and make it known to one’s own awareness.
Referring to the computing-element
reality model, this hidden something is the population of bions
inhabiting the cells of the body.
Whereas one thus joins breath
and the syllable Om
And all the manifold world -
Or perhaps they are joined! -
Therefore it has been declared to be Yoga.9
9 Ibid., p. 439.
The above verse, from the
Maitri
Upanishad, defines yoga as involving the use of Om.
5.4 Effects of Om Meditation
If one wants to meditate using Om, and risk the injury described in
the next section, then the typical procedure seems to be the
following:
-
Lie down comfortably on a bed - preferably at night
before sleeping.
-
The room should be quiet.
-
Then, close the eyes and mentally repeat
the sound Om, over and over, at whatever seems like a normal pace;
do not say the sound aloud.
-
Avoid stray thoughts, and try not to
feel the body.
-
Although movement should be avoided, do move if it
will correct any physical discomfort.
-
During the meditation, the
attention has to settle somewhere, and a good place to focus the
attention is the center of the forehead.
There is no guarantee that the use of Om will produce results. The
results of Om meditation have a high threshold. A single sounding of
Om is useless. Instead, it must be repeated many times. Many hours
of using Om, spread over many days, may be necessary before there
are any results.
The following are some of the effects
that may result from Om meditation:
-
Upon waking from sleep, there is
an enhanced clarity and frequency of dream remembrance.
-
During sleep, there is lucid
dreaming. A lucid dream is when one is conscious within what
appears to be a surrounding dream world, and in that dream
world, one can freely move about. As is discussed in chapter
6,
lucid dreams are out-of-body experiences.
-
During sleep, there is an onset
of consciousness, and a direct perception of a nonphysical
body. Often, this bion body, which is a body composed solely
of bions, is either coming out of or reentering the physical
body. This tangible, nonphysical body - which is capable of
movement independent of the physical body - convinces those
who experience it that they are truly exterior to the
physical body.
-
Something is felt in the body
during the Om meditation. This may be a vibration, or a loss
of sensation in the limbs, or a shrinking feeling.
Of these four effects, the first occurs
upon awakening, and the next two occur during sleep.
If one is going to have unusual
perceptions, the best time for them is when one is asleep. When
asleep, the body has the lowest need for the services of the mind.
If part of the mind were to wander off and leave the body alone,
then hopefully the body will not miss it.
However, regardless of whether one is
asleep or not, the primary limitation on any out-of-body experience
- and the primary limitation on its duration - is the extent to
which the bions involved can neglect their cell-care duties.
5.5 The Kundalini Injury
Although Om meditation has the
potential to promote unusual perceptions, it also has the potential
to cause a very painful injury. Om meditation, and meditation in
general, can, after long use, cause the devastating injury known as
kundalini.
This injury, which appears to be
nonphysical, happens during the actual meditation. Briefly, the
cause of the injury is too much meditation. Specifically, it seems
that excessive meditation can cause a neuron-inhabiting bion in the
lower spine to self-program, causing an alteration or corruption in
one of its learned programs; and the ultimate consequence of this
reprogramming is the burning pain of the kundalini injury.
The details of the kundalini injury are as follows:
-
At some point
during meditation, and without any warning, there is a strong
sensation at the spine in the lower back, near the end of the spine.
-
There is then a sensation of something pushing up the spine from the
point of the original sensation.
-
How far this sensation moves up the
spine is variable.
-
Also, it depends on what the person
does.
-
He should immediately get up, move around, and forswear future
meditation.
Doing so can stop the copying of the learned-program
corruption, if that is what the felt movement up the spine is:
a
side effect of the corruption-originating bion copying to
neighboring neuron-inhabiting bions, and those neighbors copying to
their neighbors, and so on up the spine.
The onset of the pain is variable, but it seems to follow the
kundalini injury quickly - within a day or two. Typically, the pain
of the kundalini injury is a burning sensation across the back - or
at least a burning sensation along the lower spine - and the pain
may also cover other parts of the body, such as the head. The pain
is sometimes intense.
It may come and go, during a period of
months or years, and eventually fade away, or it may burn
incessantly for years without relief.
The common reaction by the sufferer to the kundalini injury is
bewilderment. Continued meditation seems to aggravate the kundalini
injury, so the typical sufferer develops a strong aversion for
meditation.
The Indian,
Gopi Krishna, suffered the kundalini injury in December,
1937, at the age of 34. He had a habit of meditating for about three
hours every morning, and he did this for seventeen years.
Apparently, he did not practice Om meditation. Instead, he just
concentrated on a spot centered on his forehead. In his case, the
sensation rose all the way up his spine and into his head. The pain
he suffered lasted several decades.
The Indian,
Krishnamurti, who had been groomed as the
World Teacher
of the Theosophical Society, suffered the kundalini injury in
August, 1922, at the age of 27. He had been meditating.
His suffering lasted several years, and
the pain would come and go.
In one of his letters of 1925, Krishnamurti wrote,
“I suppose it will stop some day but
at present it is rather awful. I can’t do any work etc. It goes
on all day and all night now.”10
Such are the hazards of meditation.
10 Lutyens, Mary.
Krishnamurti:
The Years of Awakening. Avon Books, New York, 1983. p. 216.
Back to Contents
6 - Mind Travels
This chapter considers two kinds of out-of-body experiences:
lucid-dream out-of-body experiences, and bion-body out-of-body
experiences.
-
First, the difference between internal dreams and
external dreams is considered.
-
Then, lucid-dream out-of-body
experiences are examined, followed by bion-body out-of-body
experiences.
6.1 Internal Dreams and External Dreams
Dreams need no introduction, because dreaming is an experience most
people have. However, there has long been the question as to the
location of dreams.
Some past cultures believed in a
separate dream world, which exists around the dreamer: when a person
dreams, the mind of that person is moving about in that dream world.
Call this kind of dream an external dream (what is commonly known as
a lucid dream, is an external dream). The alternative is that dreams
are spatially confined to the dreamer’s head; call this kind of
dream an internal dream.
The mathematics-only reality model cannot explain external dreams,
and according to that model, all dreams are internal. In contrast,
the computing-element reality model allows both kinds of dreams.
For an internal dream, the imagery and sounds of that dream are
generated by brain bions, without using substantial sensory input.
That the mind can generate high-quality images and sounds, without
sensory input, is a certainty.
-
First, most people can imagine or
recall low-quality images and sounds while awake.
-
Second,
psychedelics, such as LSD and DMT, can provoke a torrent of
high-quality images while the person is awake.
-
Thus, the mind is
fully capable of internal dreaming.
For most people, internal dreaming is the rule, and external
dreaming is the exception.
However, if the mind uses ESP, and/or
receives communications from other minds, then a given internal
dream can incorporate direct perceptions of external objects and/or
communicated information from other minds. Thus, even an internal
dream can have an external component.
For an external dream, the imagery and sounds of that dream are
generated using substantial sensory input - by brain bions
that have collectively left the body for a short time.
However, the common particles normally
observed during an external dream are different from the common
particles observed when one is awake.
In other words, the common
particles observed during an external dream are a different class of
common particles than the electrons, quarks, photons, and other
elementary particles of physics. For convenience, call the common
particles of physics p-common particles, and call the common
particles observed during an external dream d-common particles. And
these d-common particles do not interact with p-common particles.
Those brain bions that have collectively left the body for a short
time, call a mind-piece. The word piece is used, because at least
some brain bions are necessarily left behind with the body.1
1 The various molecules of a
cell are more or less stable. Thus, typically, a cell without its
bion soon reaches a stable state where chemical reactions cease, and
the structure of the cell just before that bion’s departure remains
mostly unchanged - succumbing only slowly to environmental
stresses from outside the cell. This quasi-stability means that a
bion can leave its cell for at least a short time, and, upon return,
find its cell in much the same state as when it left it (in effect,
a bion also “leaves” its cell each time it sleeps - see section 10.3
- and this periodic sleeping of a cell’s bion has probably been a
contributing factor in the evolution of the cell’s stability).
However, because there is so much interdependency in the human body,
subpar performance by cells whose bions are absent - depending on
how many bions are absent, for how long, and from which cells -
could have a cascading effect that ultimately causes sickness or
possibly even death. It seems that to avoid these dangers, the bions
are collectively careful about staying with the physical body. For
the typical person who has out-of-body experiences, the bions
apparently maintain comfortable safety margins for those
experiences.
The sensory input for an external dream
comes from the interaction of the roving mind-piece with its
surroundings. These surroundings typically include other minds
and/or mind-pieces, and d-common particles.
6.2 Lucid-Dream Projections
Regarding out-of-body experiences, many good accounts have been
written in Europe and America. Many people have had isolated
out-of-body experiences, and some of these experiences have been
collected and published by researchers.
However, there are also books written by
individuals who have had many out-of-body experiences, without the
aid of meditation, drugs, or other means. They are called
projectionists, because they are self-aware while projected away
from their bodies; and they remember their experiences long enough
to record them.
In 1920, the personal account of Hugh Calloway - who used the
pseudonym Oliver Fox - was published in a British journal. About two
decades later, he wrote the book Astral Projection, which recounted
his experiences more fully.2
Fox was a lucid dreamer.
Fox had his first
lucid dream at the age of 16, in 1902. He dreamed
he was standing outside his home. In the dream, the nearby ocean was
visible, along with trees and nearby buildings; and Fox walked
toward his home, and looked down at the stone-covered walkway.
Although similar, the walkway in the dream was not identical in
appearance to the real-life walkway that it imitated. During the
dream, Fox noticed this difference and wondered about it.
The explanation that he was dreaming
occurred to him, and at that point he became self-aware. His dream
ended shortly afterward.
After that first lucid dream, lucid dreaming became a frequent
occurrence for Fox. He would be asleep, and dreaming, and at some
point he would become conscious in the dream. Fox noted two
interesting things about his lucid dreams: he could move about
within the dream, such as by gliding across an apparent surface; and
the substance that formed the objects in the dream could be molded
by thought.
Fox’s lucid dreams were typically short, and he did his best to
prolong them. But he would feel a pain in his dream-head, and this
pain signaled the need to return to his body. As this initially weak
pain grew, he then experienced a dual perception consisting of his
dream sensations and his body’s sensations. A sort of tug-of-war
resulted, with the body winning.
Unlike Fox, most lucid dreamers never report having a choice about
returning to their body, because at some point the lucid dream just
ends without any warning, and the dreamer awakes.
Presumably, in Fox’s case, the
perceptions he felt of his physical body were communicated from
bions still in his brain, to bions in his mind-piece, using the
learned-program send and receive statements.
Similarly and
conversely, the communication can be from the mind-piece to bions
still in the brain, as demonstrated by sleep-lab experiments in
which the physical body can show various movements and other
responses, that correlate with events in the lucid dream.3
2 Fox, Oliver. Astral Projection.
Citadel Press, Secaucus, 1980.
3 LaBerge, Stephen. Lucid Dreaming. Ballantine Books, New York,
1987. pp. 82–95.
Fox had wondered what would happen if he resisted the warning-pain
signal, and delayed the return to his body. He decided to
experiment.
About a year after his first lucid dream, he became
self-aware in another of his walk-around-the-town dreams. He felt
the warning pain and ignored it. The dual perception occurred, and
he successfully willed to retain the dream perception. Next, the
growing pain in his dream-head peaked, and then disappeared. At that
point, Fox was free to continue his lucid dream.
As Fox’s lucid dream continued, he soon wanted to awake, but nothing
happened; his lucid dream continued. Fox then became fearful and
tried to concentrate on returning to his body. Suddenly, he was back
in his body, but he found himself paralyzed. His bodily senses were
working, but he was unable to make any movements.
Fortunately, this condition did not last
long, and he was soon able to move again. However, immediately
afterward he was queasy, and he felt sick for three days. This
experience deterred him for a while, but a few weeks later he again
ignored the warning-pain during a lucid dream, and the same pattern
resulted. He says the sickness was less this time, and the memory of
the dream was lost.
After this second experience, Fox no
longer fought against the signal to return.
Fox remarks that years later, he learned that if he had only relaxed
and fallen asleep when he was paralyzed in his body, then the
subsequent sickness would have been avoided.
If the mind-piece is away from the brain for too long, then some
time may be needed for that mind-piece to restore to par performance
those brain neurons that it normally inhabits. Hurrying this
restoration process, and possibly ending it prematurely, may explain
the sickness Fox experienced.
During his teens and twenties, Fox continued having lucid dreams,
and he noticed a pattern. Often, his lucid dreams never reached the
warning-pain stage, because he would do something that would cut the
dream short, and cause him to awake.
Fox gives some examples of what
he means: After ordering a meal in a restaurant, and then eating it,
trying to taste the food he was eating caused him to awake. While
watching a play in a theater, a growing interest in the play would
cause him to awake.
If Fox encountered an attractive woman,
he could converse with her, but when he thought of an embrace or
such, he would awake.
In general, to prolong a lucid dream,
“I may look, but I must not get too
interested - let alone touch!” 4
4 Fox, op. cit., p. 44.
Because the mind-piece of a lucid
dreamer is not the complete mind available to that person when
awake, when the lucid dreamer tries to think or act in a way that
requires involvement of the missing mind part, the two mind parts
are, in effect, rejoined to fulfill the functional request. The two
mind parts are the mind-piece and the remainder of the mind left
behind with the brain. A rejoining, of course, means a return to the
body.
Sight and hearing are the two senses of the lucid dreamer that work
as well in the lucid dream as they do in the body. The typical lucid
dreamer sees clearly in color, and can hear and talk by means of
telepathic communication - although conversation during a lucid
dream is typically infrequent. In contrast to sight and hearing, the
other senses are noticeably absent.
The lucid dreamer has no sense of taste,
touch, or smell. And any attempt to use these senses during a lucid
dream causes an automatic rejoining of the split mind.
In addition, apparently absent from the mind-piece is the ability to
understand writing.
For example, Fox remarks that he always had
trouble reading whatever writing he encountered. He could see the
writing, and he knew it was writing, but he could not read it -
except occasionally and with difficulty. According to Fox, other
people told him that they had this same inability to read
lucid-dream writing.
Instead of being an idle spectator watching the world go by, the
lucid dreamer is frequently in motion. He may be moving slowly, by
walking or floating, or moving more quickly by flying. However, the
most spectacular motion for the lucid dreamer is a sudden
acceleration to a great speed.
At first, the lucid dreamer may be at a
relative standstill, or flying, when this sudden acceleration
begins. As the acceleration quickly builds, the sight goes black,
and there may be a loss of consciousness. The next thing the lucid
dreamer is aware of, is a change in the location of the dream.
Apparently, the sudden acceleration happens when a large distance
has to be traveled.
The lucid-dream literature has many lucid-dream stories in which
transcontinental and transoceanic distances are quickly traveled by
the lucid dreamer. Thus, there is reason to believe that the
projected mind-piece can quickly accelerate to a speed of roughly
several hundred kilometers per second. In general, for any movement
of the mind-piece, the motive power of the mind-piece is the
learned-program move statement, used by the intelligent particles
composing that mind-piece.
Although the motion of the lucid dreamer is an impressive clue that
there is an external dream world, additional evidence comes from
encounters with persons known to the lucid dreamer. These dream
encounters are sometimes independently confirmed when the awakened
dreamer later talks with that person.
For example, Fox tells the
following story: He was discussing dreams with two friends. The three of them then agreed to meet
together that night in their dreams. Fox remembered meeting only one
friend in a dream that night. The next day the three friends
compared experiences. The friend whom Fox met in the dream also
recalled meeting Fox. Both Fox and this friend agreed they never saw
the third friend, who claimed to have no memory of his dreams that
night.
The experience that most convinced Fox that there is an external
dream world, involved a girlfriend of his, when he was 19 in the
summer of 1905. Fox had talked about his lucid-dream experiences
with her, but her attitude was that such things were wicked. Fox
tried to overcome her objections by claiming that she was ignorant
and he could teach her. However, her reaction was that she already
knew about such things, and could appear in his room at night if she
wanted to. He doubted her claim, and she became determined to prove
it.
That night, Fox had what he calls a
False Awakening - where he becomes self-aware, very close to his
body, having both his lucid dream vision and lucid-dream hearing.
While he was in this condition, his girlfriend made a sudden,
dazzling appearance in his bedroom. She appeared fully formed,
wearing a nightdress. She said nothing, but looked about the room.
After a while, Fox tried to speak to her, but she disappeared, and
Fox awoke.
The following day, Fox met with his girlfriend to compare
experiences. She greeted him enthusiastically with the news of her
success. Without having been in his room before, she successfully
described both its appearance and content.
The description was sufficiently
detailed to convince Fox of the reality of her visit. Fox remarks
that his girlfriend said his eyes were open during the visit.
In describing his projections, Fox often shows an apparent confusion
between dream-world objects and physical objects. For example, he
seems to think his girlfriend saw his physical bedroom, and that is
why he makes the remark about her saying that she saw his eyes open
during the visit. He is quite sure that his physical eyes were
closed. He finally concludes that she probably saw the open eyes of
his dream appearance.
It seems to be a rule that the things seen during a lucid dream are
objects composed of d-common particles. When Fox’s girlfriend
visited his room that night, she was having a lucid dream; and she
saw a d-common replica of his room, which occupied the same space as
the physical room.
In a lucid dream, d-common objects often duplicate the shape and
coloring of physical objects.
For example, the appearances of other
people seen during a lucid dream, are typically imitations of the
physical appearances of those persons. When Fox’s girlfriend made
her appearance that night, probably the only thing in that room that
was her was the mind-piece. If Fox had seen only the real her that
was present, he probably would have seen a small “cloud” of
particles, which he would never have recognized as his girlfriend.
A valid question is what causes d-common particles to assume shapes
and colorings that imitate physical objects?
Probably what shaped,
colored, and clothed Fox’s girlfriend during her visit, was the
girlfriend’s mind-piece. Specifically, the bions of the girlfriend’s
mind-piece constructed out of d-common particles the appearance that
Fox saw. The observed replica room was probably part of a larger
replica house or building. Probably these replicas are constructed
by the bions of those persons who are associated with the physical
objects in question. The replica of Fox’s room was probably done by
Fox himself, unconsciously.
Fox mentions the existence in the lucid-dream world of an entire
city - an imitation London which he visited and explored. By analogy
with Fox’s replica room, which shared the same space as his physical
room, the imitation London which Fox visited probably shared the
same space as the physical London.
Besides imitation buildings that looked
familiar, there were also buildings and monuments that Fox knew had
no equivalent in the real city of London. Fox says it was his
experience that his repeated lucid-dream trips to the same town or
city showed the same buildings and monuments - including those that
had no counterpart in the real town or city.
Once made, a d-common object seems to remain in the same location,
and retain its form - until intelligent particles move, change, or
destroy it. Although the actual manipulation of d-common particles
is normally done unconsciously, sometimes a lucid dreamer
consciously wills a change in some nearby d-common object, and sees
the change happen.
In spite of often similar appearance and location, there is no
linkage between d-common objects and p-common objects. For example,
an experiment that is often reported by lucid dreamers is that they
successfully move some d-common object that they think corresponds
to a familiar physical object; but once they are awake, and check
the physical object, they always find it unmoved.
Fox remarks how the memories of his lucid-dream projections were
fleeting. To counter this, he would often write down an account of
his projection as soon as he was awake. In his book, Fox wonders why
such memories are not more permanent. Of course, for most people the
memory of ordinary dreams is very fleeting, too.
Occasionally, a
projection or dream makes an impression on long-term memory, but
that is the exception, not the rule.
It seems that the learned programs that
manage the mind’s memory, when deciding long-term retention, assign
a comparatively low priority to both dreams and lucid dreams.
6.3 Bion-Body Projections
Overall, Fox was primarily a
lucid dreamer.
His bion-body projections, in which the
mind-piece is incorporated in a bion body, seem to have been very
infrequent. In general, the projected bion body can vary in its mass
and substantialness - depending on how many bions are withdrawn from
the physical body. It seems that Fox never had a bion-body
projection in which his bion body felt substantial. During his bion-body
projections, Fox was unable to directly sense physical objects.
Instead, when Fox was projected in his bion body, it always seems to
have been a flimsy bion body; and his senses were lucid-dream
senses.
Sylvan Muldoon was born in America in 1903, and spent his life in
the Midwest. In November, 1927, he sent a letter to Hereward
Carrington, a well-known writer on paranormal subjects.
Muldoon had read one of Carrington’s
books, and he wanted to let Carrington know that he, Muldoon, knew a
lot more about projection than did the sources Carrington had used
in his book. Carrington was so impressed by Muldoon’s letter, that
he wrote Muldoon back and invited him to write a book, which he,
Carrington, would edit and write an introduction for.
The result was The Projection of the
Astral Body, published in London in 1929.5
5 Muldoon, Sylvan, and Hereward
Carrington.
The Projection of the Astral Body. Samuel Weiser, New
York, 1980.
Overall, lucid dreams are more common than bion-body projections.
But Muldoon had only bion-body
projections. And his projected bion body was much more substantial
than in the case of Fox and similar projectionists, who often have
lucid dreams, and only occasionally have bion-body projections. In
its main elements, Muldoon’s account is consistent with the many
other accounts in the literature of bion-body projections.
The main elements of agreement are:
-
a
complete and unchanging bion body that comes out of the physical
body and then later reenters it
-
an inability to contact or
otherwise affect physical objects
-
the relatively short duration
of the projection experience, sometimes punctuated by brief returns
to the physical body
Where Muldoon’s account differs from the
standard account, each of the differences is attributable to either
the greater density of his projected bion body, or to the presumed
details of whatever learned programs regulated his projections.
Muldoon was only 12 when he had his first projection experience. His
mother had taken him to a camp of gathered spiritualists, in Iowa,
because she was interested in spiritualism.
Muldoon slept in a nearby house that
night, with other persons from the camp. He had been asleep for
several hours, when he awoke slowly. At first, he did not know where
he was, and everything was dark. Eventually, he realized he was
lying down on his bed - but he could not move. Muldoon soon felt his
whole body vibrating, and felt a pulsing pressure in the back of his
head. Also, he had the sensation of floating.
Muldoon soon regained his sight and hearing. He then realized that
he was floating roughly a meter above the bed. This was his bion
body floating, although he did not yet realize it. Muldoon still
could not move. He continued to float upward. When his bion body was
about two meters above the bed, his bion body was moved upright and
placed onto the floor standing. Muldoon estimates he was frozen in
this standing position for about two minutes, after which the bion
body became relaxed, and Muldoon could consciously control it.
The first thing Muldoon did, was turn around and look at the bed. He
saw his physical body lying on it. He also saw what he calls a
cable, extending out from between the eyes of his physical body on
the bed. The cable ran to the back of his bion-body head, which is
where he continued to feel some pressure. Muldoon was about two
meters from his physical body. His bion body, being very light, was
not firmly held down by gravity, and it tended to sway back and
forth, despite his efforts to stabilize it.
Not surprisingly, Muldoon was both bewildered and upset. He thought
he had died - so he resolved to let the other people in the house
know what had happened to him. He walked to the door of the room,
intending to open it, but he walked right through it. Muldoon then
went from one room to another, and tried to wake the people in those
rooms, but was unable to.
His hands passed through those whom he
tried to grab and shake. Muldoon remarks that despite this inability
to make contact with physical objects, he could still see and hear
them clearly. Muldoon says that at one point during his movements in
the house, he both saw and heard a car passing by the house. Muldoon
also says that he heard a clock strike two. Upon looking at the
hands of the clock, he verified that it was two o’clock.
Muldoon gave up trying to wake the other people in the house. He
then wandered around in the house for about fifteen minutes.
At the end of this time, he noticed that
the cable in the back of his head was resisting his movements. The
resistance increased, and Muldoon soon found himself being pulled
backward toward his physical body, which was still lying on its bed.
He lost conscious control of his bion body, which was automatically
repositioned, as before, above his physical body. The bion body then
lowered down, began vibrating again, and reentered the physical
body.
Upon reentry, Muldoon felt a sharp pain.
The projection was over.
Muldoon concludes his story by saying,
“I was physically alive
again, filled with awe, as amazed as fearful, and I had been
conscious throughout the entire occurrence.” 6
6 Ibid., p. 53.
Over the years that followed, Muldoon says that he had several more
projections similar to the first one, in which he was conscious from
the very beginning of the projection until its very end. In
addition, Muldoon says he had several hundred other projections,
where he was conscious for only part of the time during the
projection.
Typically, he would become conscious
after the bion body had moved into a standing position a short
distance from the physical body. As far as he could tell, the order
of events established by his first experience, was always
maintained. His situation, in terms of his sight, hearing, bion
body, and cable connection, was the same from one experience to the
next.
The cable that connects the bion body with the physical body is more
commonly called a cord, and has been noticed by some but not all bion-body projectionists.
What is this cord and what does it connect
to?
The cord is composed of bions. Back at
the physical body, the cord is connected to the bions that are still
with the physical body. In a sense, the cord does not exist as a
separate structure.
Instead, there are two body-shaped
masses of bions, which are connected by still more bions in the
shape of a cord. Potentially, bions can collectively assume any
shape, such as the shape of a cord, by individually using the
learned-program move statement to make changes in position relative
to each other. Similarly, by using the move statement synchronously
to move together, bions can maintain the appearance of being
connected.
During a bion-body projection, it often happens that, at regular
intervals, the bion body briefly returns to the physical body.
During each such brief return, a kind of pumping sensation is
sometimes felt.
-
First, the bion body quickly reenters the physical
body.
-
Then, during the brief period of a few
seconds when the bion body is with the physical body, the
projectionist may feel the whole bion body pumping.
Muldoon, and
other projectionists, have interpreted these brief returns as a
recharging, or reenergizing, of the projected body. This is the
fuel-is-low and batteries-are-run-down kind of explanation.
Actually, the likely reason for the brief return of the bion body to
the physical body, is the need of at least some of the bions in the
bion body to get back to their cells. The reported pumping sensation
is probably caused by bions both leaving, and joining, the bion body
- synchronously, in droves.
During the brief return, those bions
whose time is up can leave the bion body and re-associate with their
cells. Simultaneously, among the bions currently associated with
their cells, some may leave and join the bion body. In other words,
an exchange of used for unused bions takes place. If, during a
return, there are not enough available unused bions to replace the
used ones, then the whole projection experience probably ends at
that point.
The consistent shape of the bion body suggests its origin. The bion
body is always a match of the physical body in terms of its general
outline. No projectionist ever reports an incomplete bion body, or -
aside from ordinary movement such as the bending of limbs - a bion
body that alters or transforms its shape.7 This is
different from what is possible during a lucid dream.
The apparent body of a lucid-dream
projectionist is constructed on the spot out of d-common particles,
which have no connection to the projectionist’s physical body.
Thus, lucid-dream projectionists
sometimes report having no body - or an incomplete body, or a
nonhuman body. Also, they sometimes report seeing someone else
undergo a transformation of their apparent human form. However, such
variability is never reported for the bion body.
Instead it seems
that the projected bions retain more or less the same relative
positions that they have in the physical body.8
7 In medical literature, there
is the related subject of
phantom limbs. Amputees typically
experience sensations in their missing limbs, such as position
sensations and pain sensations. Also, phantom limbs seem to play a
role in the use of artificial limbs. The phenomenon of phantom limbs
answers the question: what happens to the bions occupying a body
part, if that body part is severed? At least some of those bions
remain in their old position with the remainder of the body. In the
event the severed body part is reattached, those bions can reoccupy
it at that time. Overall, phantom limbs demonstrate the tenacity of
the bions to stay together for the good of the physical body.
8 When it comes time for a projected
bion to return to its cell, a possible return mechanism is that the
bion navigates back to the correct cell by remembering, prior to its
departure from that cell, its location relative to neighboring bions,
and then, after the bion body has returned en masse to the physical
body - perhaps by contraction of the cord, if there is a cord - the
bion communicates with whichever of those neighboring bions are
currently with their cells, and then uses triangulation to control
its movement back to its own cell. Given this mechanism, it follows
that there must always be at least some bions left with the physical
body, but this is already known to be the case. Also, in the case of
cells that exist within moving fluids, such as blood, probably the
bions of such cells never project, because stable reference points
allowing safe return to those cells are lacking.
The typical bion-body projectionist finds himself in a flimsy bion
body. These projectionists make no connection between physical
health and bion-body projections - unless to claim that good health
promotes projections. Muldoon, of course, was not the typical bion-body
projectionist.
When compared to other projectionists,
his bion body was consistently dense; and his projections were
sometimes long lasting, such as the roughly twenty-minute duration
of his first projection. It is interesting that Muldoon takes a very
decisive position on the relationship between physical health and
projection ability. He claims that sickness promotes projection, and
health has the opposite effect. His basis for this claim was his own
experience: Muldoon was often sick.
According to Carrington, Muldoon wrote
his book from his sickbed.
Muldoon’s identification of sickness with projection ability may be
accurate in his case. Muldoon’s opinion was that sickness comes
first, and then the projections follow. However, Muldoon’s
projections kept many bions away from their cells, and sometimes for
comparatively long periods of time. Therefore, it seems more
reasonable to suppose that the projections came first - followed by
the sickness.
Regarding the vibration of the bion body, the bion body is known to
vibrate at times. The typical literature of the 20th century has an
erroneous explanation for this vibration of the bion body, based on
the premise that there are different invisible planes of existence.
The phrase planes of existence is a figure of speech, used in the
literature to suggest separateness.
According to the erroneous explanation,
these planes operate at different frequencies, and the vibration
rate of the bion body can match these different frequencies. Thus,
according to this explanation, the vibration rate of the bion body
determines which of these invisible planes becomes visible and
accessible to the projectionist.
There are three reasons why this erroneous explanation came about.
-
First, bion-body projectionists report that when they feel the
vibrations increasing in frequency, then separation of the bion body
from the physical body will happen. Conversely, when they feel the
vibrations decreasing in frequency, then re-association of the bion
body with the physical body is likely. Thus, it was argued that there is a
correlation between low vibration frequency and the physical plane
of existence.
-
Second, projectionists often report experiences that
are very different from each other. It was argued that this suggests
different planes of existence. For example, lucid dreams are
happening on one plane, and bion-body projections are happening on a
different plane.
-
Third, vibrations are easily described with
mathematics. Thus, a vibrational model of reality appealed to those
who were influenced by the mathematics-only reality model.
The correlation of decreasing frequency with physical re-association,
and increasing frequency with physical disassociation, suggests that
when the bion body is separated from the physical body, and the
projectionist does not feel any vibration, then the bion body is
nevertheless vibrating, but at a frequency too high to be felt or
otherwise noticed.
Probably this vibration of the bion body
is a consequence of the process that keeps the bion body together
when it is away from the physical body. However, regardless of the
specific cause, the vibrations have nothing to do with tuning in
alternate realities - as though the bion body were a radio-or
television-tuner switching stations and channels, instead of being
what it really is: a population of cooperating intelligent
particles.
After the onset of the vibrations, Muldoon felt himself floating. As
he was floating upward, his senses of hearing and sight became
active. That Muldoon could see and hear physical objects is unusual.
Most bion-body projectionists see and hear physical objects either
poorly or not at all. Instead, they see either darkness or d-common
objects. Also, they can see their own bion body - typically as a
darkness-enveloped, grainy, gray-looking, wispy body - when they
look at it. To try to understand what Muldoon’s senses were like,
here are a few quotes:
When the sense of hearing first begins to manifest, the sounds seem
far away. When the eyes first begin to see, everything seems blurred
and whitish. Just as the sounds become more distinct, so does the
sense of sight become clearer and clearer.9
9 Ibid., p. 233.
As is often the case, everything at first seemed blurred about me,
as though the room were filled with steam, or white clouds, half
transparent; as though one were looking through an imperfect
windowpane, seeing blurry objects through it.
This condition is but temporary, however
- lasting, as a rule, about a minute in practically all conscious
projections.10
Once you are exteriorized, and your sense of sight working, the
room, which was dark to your physical eyes, is no longer dark - for
you are using your astral eyes, and there is a ‘foggish’ light
everywhere, such as you see in your dreams, a diffused light we
might call it, a light which seems none too bright, and yet is not
too dim, apparently sifting right through the objects of the
material world.11
10 Ibid., p. 255.
11 Ibid., p. 204.
The primary difference between Muldoon and most other bion-body
projectionists, was the high density of his bion body.
There were
many more bions in Muldoon’s projected bion body than most bion-body
projectionists have in theirs. Bions interact with the p-common
particles of one’s cells, and it appears that some of the bions in
Muldoon’s projected bion body were collectively sensing p-common
particles.
By sensing photons, and the atoms and
molecules of the air, data is available that can be processed into
sight and sound perceptions of physical objects. Apparently, the
greater density of Muldoon’s bion body meant that there were more
bions available that could do the sensing and processing.
Although Muldoon’s sight perceptions could have been constructed
from ESP of the nearby physical objects, without having to sense
photons, there is a complexity cost. Specifically, to get results
and accuracy comparable to algorithms using photon data, the
processing algorithms using ESP data would have to be much more
complex, because of such complications as having to determine
visible surfaces, perspectives, and, most difficult, colorings
and/or grayness.
Thus, for simplicity, assume photon
sensing. Specifically, Muldoon’s ability to see physical objects in
an otherwise dark room, suggests an extremely sensitive light sensor
and/or a sensor that measures more of the electromagnetic spectrum
than just the visible-light portion.
The cord that Muldoon noticed during his first projection, was a
common feature of his later projections. He often studied this cord
when he was projected. For Muldoon, out to a somewhat variable
distance of a few meters from his physical body, his cord remained
thick. As long as the cord appeared thick, his bion body was
strongly influenced by his physical body. Within this range, Muldoon
felt happenings to his physical body reproduced in his bion body.
For example, once a pet dog jumped on
the bed and snuggled against Muldoon’s physical body, while he was
projected within range. He felt this dog as though it were pressing
against his bion body. Besides feeling his physical body’s
sensations, Muldoon could also control its breathing when within
range.
Either these communications between the projected Muldoon and
his
physical body were being directly communicated from brain bions to
mind-piece bions, and vice versa, in the same manner as during a
lucid dream - in which case cord thickness and communication ability
correlated only because the learned programs regulating Muldoon’s
projections made them correlate; or, these communications followed
an indirect path along the cord, conditional upon the cord’s
thickness.
As Muldoon moved further away from his physical body, the cord
became very thin, like a thread. Muldoon claims that the cord kept
its threadlike thinness out to whatever distance he moved to - even
to a distance of many kilometers. Perhaps the cord is, in effect, a
life line, guaranteeing that the bion body can get back to its cells
in a timely manner.
However, there is no evidence for any
kind of cord during a lucid-dream projection; a likely explanation
for this difference is that the mind-piece has a sophisticated
collection of learned programs for such things as ESP and inter-mind
communication, which support an independent return capability -
whereas the bions in the bion body have a more limited and less
autonomous return capability.
One might wonder if there is a limit on how far away a bion body can
move from the physical body, because of the trailing cord. Although
there are many stories of lucid-dream projectionists moving
thousands of kilometers away from their physical bodies, there is no
good evidence that a bion-body projectionist has ever moved such a
distance away.
Thus, it is probably safe to say that
the range of the bion-body projectionist is substantially less than
the range of the lucid-dream projectionist.
During Muldoon’s first projection, he tried to make contact with the
other people in the house. He saw their physical bodies lying in
bed, but his bion-body hands passed right through them. There seems
to be a fair-play rule involved here.
Broadly, the fair-play rule
covers all the restrictions imposed on bions for the sake of organic
life.12
12 The fair-play rule exists primarily
in a negative sense, in terms of what is missing. Given the
fragility of organic structures, the bions concerned with organic
life have evolved their learned programs so as to avoid any
heavy-handed use of those learned-program statements, such as the
move statement, that could damage those fragile structures.
For those learned-program statements that cannot directly affect
p-common particles - such as the perceive, send, and receive
statements - there is no direct danger to organic structures. Thus,
in the human population with regard to psychic phenomena, one would
expect to see a higher incidence of those phenomena that are
physically harmless. And this is indeed the case. For example, both
ESP (which uses the perceive statement), and direct communication
between minds (which uses the send and receive statements), are much
more common than psychokinesis (which uses the move statement), and
materialization.
Still, overt displays of ESP and inter-mind communication are not
widespread, and it appears that different evolutionary forces are at
work to suppress such physically harmless psychic phenomena. For
example, social forces are at work: In Europe, during the Middle
Ages, women who were overtly psychic were murdered as witches by the
religious establishment.
For example, a consciously controlled
bion body can contact other bion bodies, but it cannot contact the
bions within physical bodies, and it cannot contact physical
objects. However, because d-common particles have no part in organic
life, bion manipulation of d-common particles, as was indicated in
section 6.2, is apparently unrestricted.
Muldoon remarks how frustrated he was that he could never make
contact with physical objects. In the many projections he had, his
bion body never made contact with a physical object while he was
conscious. However, there were a few instances when Muldoon knew
that his bion body had made contact with a physical object while he
was unconscious.
For example:
On the night of February 26, 1928, Muldoon had a serious stomach
sickness, which caused him great pain. At near midnight, he was
overcome with pain, and called out to his mother for help. She was
asleep in an upstairs bedroom, and did not hear him. Muldoon
struggled out of bed, still calling, and he fainted from the pain
and effort. He regained consciousness, only to
struggle and faint again.
The next time he regained consciousness,
he was projected in his bion body. His bion body was moving without
conscious control up the stairs, through a wall, and into the room
where his mother and small brother were sleeping. Muldoon saw both
of them sound asleep on the bed. Then Muldoon lost consciousness for
a brief period. Upon regaining consciousness, Muldoon saw his mother
and small brother excitedly talking about being rolled out of bed by
an uplifted mattress.
After witnessing this scene, Muldoon’s
bion body was drawn back and reentered his physical body. Back in
his physical body, Muldoon called to his mother. This time she heard
him, and came downstairs. Ignoring that he was lying on the floor,
she excitedly told him how spirits had lifted the mattress several
times. And she was, of course, frightened by it.
That the bion body is restricted from physical contact - and from
contact with other bions in a physical body - is obviously for
the common good. It seems that the only contact allowed is what may
be called fair contact. And the only fair contact for a projected bion body, is contact with other projected bion bodies, or contact
with bion bodies that have no physical-body connection.
Because they are meeting on equal terms,
the two bion bodies can make contact with each other. Most bion-body
projectionists eventually have encounters with other bion bodies.
Struggles and fights are often reported. These encounters can be
both frightening and painful. Muldoon gives one example of this kind
of encounter:
In 1923, Muldoon listened to a conversation between his mother and
another woman who lived in town. This other woman described what an
awful man her husband, who had just died, had been. Because of the
stories the woman told, Muldoon became angered against that man.
That night, Muldoon had a projection.
Upon turning to look at his physical body, Muldoon was shocked to
see the bion body of the dead man talked about earlier in the day.
Muldoon describes this man as having a savage look, and being
determined for revenge - and he quickly attacked the projected
Muldoon. There was a fight, and Muldoon was getting the worst of it
- as well as being cursed at.
However, the fight soon ended when
Muldoon was drawn back into his physical body. Once he reentered his
physical body, Muldoon no longer felt or heard the attack of his
enemy.
Muldoon remarks how his attacker clung
to him and continued his attack while Muldoon was being slowly drawn
back toward his physical body. However, the attacker was unable to
prevent Muldoon’s reentry.
This chapter has considered in detail both lucid-dream projections
and bion-body projections. A third kind of projection is covered in
chapter 7.
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