Reflections From The World...Christopher Bryson Series

Journal Entry: 11/15/18
Red sky by morning...

I am often asked; “What you been up to?
"Oh not much. Just trying to be present.”

Sometimes, in the sweet spot where day meets night, you catch cloud formations drifting in off the gulf. I have seen thousands of them and they are all intriguing and unique in their own way. They remind me that we are constantly traveling in a much larger space, on this spaceship called Earth.

Sometimes, probably depending on my state of mind, or state of being, I see an unusual formation that makes me stop, contemplate. In my mind, it may be a succubus, a giant squid, a stray nebula, a wraith seeking shelter before the full light arrives. Or, it could be a civet, gently pawing a dangling bergamot as a parade passes on the Champs-Élysées in the 8th arrondissement—with the aroma of baking bread, street crepes, and cigarettes.

Much like any new day, clouds can be anything we want them to be. If we use our imaginations, and ignore the noise, we can begin to shape our own reality. We are free to do this. It is part of what makes us human.

If your day is cloudy, I hope you find a way to enjoy it. Be a trapeze artist, a shoemaker with a puppet, or just sing something, even if only you can hear it...

From Inside The Sane Asylum...standing on one leg

Your guess is good as mine...

They say, or at least some say, that development of neural patters in our outer layer of the brain, has allowed for better processing of vision and auditory patterns. It’s that spacial awareness, for example, we use on our morning walks, remembering the songs of birds, and sensing any pattern of uneasiness that something may be going array. All these patterns reside there, just to increase our chances of survival.

The most basic approach to human pattern recognition. is a theory that assumes that everything we see is stored as a “template” into some long-term crevice in our brain. Then, all this incoming stuff we receive is compared to these templates to find an exact match, and if not, something similar in pattern. It seems to do this little number just to scare the carp out of us at times. Funny as it seems, that’s what the brain does. It regulates our inner stuff to match the incoming stuff.

In other words, all the stuff we see is compared to multiple template cartoons in our brain so we can form one single conceptual picture of what the hell is going on. Our own little movie, in a sense.

Now if this theory is true, it assumes that everything we see, we understand only through past exposure, which then informs our future perception of the external world. Would it not?... Now, how screwed up is that? And we call ourselves Sane...:)

On a more positive note...our wisdom is derived from these patterns of recognition called...knowledge templates. The more you “knowledge” from your experiences, the more at ease you will be with Living life. You have wisdom stored like temples in the form of background information. It answers the question of Happiness from a different perspective. We should explore happiness not as a pleasurable feeling but as a way of being that gives you the resources to deal with the ups and downs of life. And that encompasses many emotional states, including sadness.

So it appears your brain always begins with your previous knowledge, and makes predictions due to this already acquired knowledge. It is estimated however, that about 90% of the information is lost between the time it takes to go from the eye to brain and that is why the brain must guess what the person sees based on past experiences.

I observe these little ones on my morning walk...not sure why, but that behavior of standing on one leg seems to be a pattern, as I see it often...enjoy your day, my virtual friends...Doc