9.1) Questions
9.2) Key Facts
9.3) Model
9.4) Comparison
Conclusion
References
Lexicon
5
«Man builds himself only by pursuing what is beyond him.»
André Malraux
The subject of concerns is the mind, this functional entity or should we say this fascinating concept. Free, curious and open thinker, with a scientific background, I would like to propose a vision of the mind simple and general, without prior cultural constraints.
How many of us have not asked themselves one of these questions. How do we define the mind? Is it limited to our body? What is its nature? Does he survive us? How does the spirit differ from the soul? Is man the only thinking being?
We do not know where the search for answers can lead us, but the objective is clear: to try to understand the interactions between the body and the mind as best as possible and then to broaden this analysis to our environment, near and far away.
From what angle should we begin this reflection at the crossroads of philosophy and science? With what degree of creativity?
In this quest, there are many temptations and pitfalls. How can we distinguish facts, their interpretations from preconceived ideas? Let us not be afraid to broaden the scope of our research, let us not limit ourselves to our education, to our perception of time and space.
Finally, let us be wary of theories, dogmas leading some ones to think that they alone hold the truth.
There are many subjects that can be studied, so we must arbitrarily limit ourselves. The choice of topics must be balanced, it will bring commonly accepted models closer to others, less intellectually comfortable, sometimes ignored.
6
For each topic, we will limit ourselves to the main data and theories and to a few authors, able to summarize their work in interviews or in books intended for the greatest number.
We will begin with a short study of the different thesis proposed by major religions and philosophical schools, in connection with the understanding of the human spirit.
We will then summarize the main contributions of astronomy and matter science to our understanding of the universe, from the infinitely large to infinitely small.
We will then move on to the life and behavioural sciences: biology, neuroscience, psychology and psychoanalysis, then observe the actions of other living beings.
Next we will study the altered states of consciousness such as dream, coma, near death experience raising such new exciting questions.
Finally, we will address less established, more controversial, but increasingly well-documented topics. That are astrology, intuition, synchronicity, telepathy and reincarnation.
We will conclude this exploration by grouping in our view the key elements by theme. We will be able then to get to the heart of the subject, the analysis and the interpretation of the data collected.
By connecting points sometimes distant, we will try to answer boldly to the questions raised.
This book is intended for any curious person, open to new ideas and without any a priori.
Good and surprising reading.
7
«Nothing exists before taking shape in our thoughts»
William Shakespeare
To every Lord all honor, let us begin by defining the spirit, the seat of our thoughts, and then approach religions and philosophy.
1.1) Mind
How to define the mind, term with multiple meanings sometimes even contradictory.
Larousse proposes several definitions: the intangible part of being, the seat of thought, ideas or the principle of the psychic life, the soul of the deceased and the immaterial being.
This word has many synonyms: intelligence, thought, consciousness, unconsciousness, understanding or breath, soul, genius, angel, demon.
In neurobiology, the mind is described as an intrinsic property of the brain, we talk more about consciousness.
In psychology, it designates mental processes and in philosophy, the faculty of thinking. In spiritist philosophy, this is the intelligent principle of the universe.
In metaphysics, it is the immaterial element embodied in man, the spirit symbolizing all the mental faculties: perception, affectivity, intuition, thought, concept.
In religions, it is the vital principle of the human being, surviving us and timeless.
For us the mind assimilates itself to the consciousness, unconsciousness and memory, it manifests itself mainly by the emotion, thought, reasoning, intuition and the dream.
8
As archeology shows, the prehistorical man asked himself existential questions. In the Middle Palaeolithic period (-
300.000 to -40.000 years), both the Homo sapiens and Homo Neanderthal already bury some deceased in individual graves.
100.000 years ago, Homo sapiens laid down his dead in the position of sleep, surrounded by various useful or symbolic objects and watched them around a fire.
More recent archaeological remains, such as Sumerian tablets, Egyptian hieroglyphics or Indian anthems confirm this behaviour, bringing us more precise testimonies. Mythology was born, trying to explain the creation of man and his environment.
The subjects covered by the myths during different periods and in different civilizations largely coincide with the great questions to which religion, philosophy and science try to answer in turn.
The topics cover both the birth of the world, of humanity and the role played by the gods from the beginning to the end of the world, such as: the birth of Zeus and his fight against the Titans or the myths of the Sun or, the man made from clay by the goddess Mami and the descent into the underworld of Dionysus.
Today, these stories are perceived as beautiful stories, but some of us have kept this curiosity and wonder in front of the mysteries and beauties of the universe.
In a sense, we can say that myths announce the advent of modern religions.
1.3) Religion
Religiosity
9
Man is naturally attracted to the mysterious and invisible that he feels in the beauty of nature, the elements and himself.
Religiosity* attempts to link attraction and respect for the hidden, the unknown with the visible, the observed.
(Words marked with * are defined in the lexicon) Religiosity has given birth over time, places and civilizations to the different religions we know today.
In Europe, it was in the 16th century that the term religion spread. It can be understood as a set of practices and beliefs, centered on the salvation of the soul and based on respect for a strict social order leaving relative autonomy to its followers.
Common grounds in religion
Appearing in different places and in different ways, based on different practices and beliefs, all religions nevertheless have certain similarities. Indeed, each one:
- Explains the origins of the world by the crucial role played by one or more gods.
- Affirms the existence of an afterlife for our spirit, leaving our body at our death.
- Recommends a set of collective rites and rigorous individual practice.
- Establishes sacred places, essential reference points for believers.
- Develops a sense of belonging, the social cement of the religious community.
- Is based on respect for a hierarchical institution and strict observance of rules.
Some figures
10
75% of human beings declare to be believers counting for 6
billion people. The Abrahamic religions have 4 billion followers: 2.3 billion for Christianity, 1.7 billion for Islam and 15 million for Judaism. As for the Dharmic religions, they total a little more than 1.5 billion faithful: 1 for Hinduism and 0.5
for Buddhism.
Judaism
Judaism is the oldest of the monotheistic religions, it refers to Abraham, presented in Genesis as the ancestor of the Arab and Hebrew peoples.
In Abraham, God chooses his people of the faithful and makes a covenant with them. This chosen people receives the Law: the Torah and the Promised Land: Israel. In return, God is not only the almighty Creator but also a living God demanding absolute obedience.
Moses received the Torah of God on Mount Sinai in the 13th century B.C. The Decalogue is one of the most important passages of the Law, it is considered as the founding charter of Western civilization:
1. I am your God, 2. Do not make idols, 3. Do not swear in vain, 4. Remember the Sabbath*, 5. Honour your parents,6. Do not commit murder, 7. Do not commit adultery, 8. Do not steal, 9. Do not be a false witness, and 10. Do not covet the good of others.
In Judaism, the fulfillment of the commandments is given more importance than the reflections one can make on God, nature or man.
It is a guided study of the texts leading to orthopraxia*: a conduct in conformity with rites rather than orthodoxy*: a doctrine erected in truth.
11
First a Jewish sect, Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire in the 4th century. In the 11th century is split in two, giving birth to the Catholic religion among the Romans and the Orthodox religion among the Byzantines. In the 16th century a new split took place: The Reform leading to Protestantism.
The Catholic and the Orthodox Churches are ecclesiastical: clerical hierarchy, ministries, mediating role of the priest and monastic life. On the contrary, in the Protestant religion no priest intervenes between Jesus Christ the Saviour and every believer, his simpler organization being limited to ministries.
Christianity also refers to Abraham. It is based on the Bible, composed of the Old and New Testaments. The first text corresponds to the Jewish Bible and the second relates the life of Jesus Christ, incarnation of God on earth and founder of Christianity.
Everything we know about Jesus Christ comes from the testimony of four disciples, Mark, Matthew, Luke and John. In Him they recognized the Messiah, the Son of God, and wrote their Gospels in the light of His resurrection. Among the most important texts of the Bible, the Gospels recount the words, gestures and teachings of Jesus Christ.
The Christian faith expresses the fundamental link between the human being and his Creator. It is because he comes from God that man recognizes Him as his Creator, Lawgiver and Saviour, but also as his origin and end.
Man will leave this life when his hour comes, exercising his relative freedom and responsibility during this time window in between his birth and death.
Islam
12
Islam is the youngest of the Abrahamic religions, it is at the beginning of the 7th century that the angel Gabriel asks Muhammad to transmit the word of God to his brothers.
For political reasons, from the beginning Islam is divided into three currents: Sunnism, Shiism and Ibadism. The first is the largest with 1.5 billion believers followed by Shiism with 150
million adepts. They are distinguished both by their doctrine, their interpretation of the Koran but also by their conception of the authority.
The Koran is a unique book whose author is God who speaks through the mouth of his prophet. Before being written, the revelations of the Prophet are oral, the divine Word descends on Muhammad who then repeats it.
The Sunnah specifies and completes the Koran, it consolidates the words and teachings of the Prophet, gathering in the form of stories the authentic traditions.
The practice of Islam is based on faith, a moral code, ritual obligations and a juridical set that take up the duties of each according to his social status. Every Muslim has five obligations:
1. The profession of faith, 2. Ritual prayer, 3. Fasting of Ramadan, 4. Almsgiving and 5. The pilgrimage to Mecca.
To these fundamental duties is added that of the Jihad of Defense and spread of Islam. It can take different forms such as small Jihad, an inner struggle in which the believer avoids everything that can turn him away from his submission to God.
Hinduism
Dharmic religions were born in India, the two main ones being Hinduism and Buddhism. They are based on the concept of 13
Dharma: the Cosmic Order and the principle of Reincarnation: the actions of previous lives determine future ones.
With no founder or clergy with millions of deities, Hinduism, dating from about the 20th century BC, is one of the oldest religions. It is a complex and diverse religion, respecting the castes of Indian society.
The main sacred texts are the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Mahabharata and the Romayana, containing hymns, incantations, philosophical elements and rites on which the faithful base their beliefs.
Considered polytheistic, Hinduism has however a supreme God: Brahma, present in every piece of reality and existence of the Universe. Brahma is impersonal and unknowable, it exists in three forms: Brahma, the Creator, Vishnu, the Protector and Shiva, the destroyer.
Since Brahma is all, we are all divine, the Atman (or oneself) merging with Him. All reality outside Brahma is considered pure illusion. The spiritual goal is to become one with Brahma, thus ceasing to exist in the illusory form of the individual self.
The cycle of life leads to the realization of the Truth: only Brahma exists and there is nothing outside him. The reincarnation of a person is determined by his karma, a principle of cause and effect governed by natural balance.
Buddhism
Buddhism was born in India in the 5th century BC following the enlightment of Siddharta Gautama: Buddha and his teaching for several decades. It is neither a religion nor a philosophy in the strict sense. It is sometimes described as the science of the mind or awakening.
The Buddhists speak of the Way of liberation from our human 14
condition, obtained by the true view and the right practice, accessible to every man who is ready to follow it.
The four noble truths summarize the essentials of Buddhist knowledge or the true view:
- The Dukkha: all life implies suffering and dissatisfaction.
- The Samudaya: the origin of suffering lies in ignorance and desire.
- The Nirodha: the end of suffering is possible.
- The Magga: the road to the middle path: the Noble Eightfold Path.
The Eightfold Path, true guide of life or the right practice:
- Understanding the Four Noble Truths.
- Refrain from selfish, malicious, hateful thinking.
- Do not unnecessarily lie, slander, insult, talk.
- Refrain from killing, stealing, committing adultery.
- Avoid any activity harmful to the humanity or the environment.
- Prevent any ill will from appearing.
- Pay attention to the 5 attachment aggregates: material, felt, relational, mental and conscious.
- Strive for supreme detachment.
Buddhism differs from other religions in many ways:
- It does not believe into a creative, organizing power of the Universe,
15
- Everything is part everything else,
- Everything is therefore interdependent, encompassing both the living and the mineral.
- Buddha did not present himself as a God but as a mere mortal,
- Teaching the path to enlightenment based on one’s own reflections and experience,
- While advising his disciples to test his teaching rather than to regard it as an unchanging truth.
- Buddhism initially has no form of clerical organization.
Buddhism shares with Hinduism the idea of reincarnation: succession of lives allowing us to rise gradually to reach the ultimate stage: Nirvana.
Buddhism is more like a philosophy in search of knowledge and understanding, advocating detachment and altruism, than a religious obedience based on faith.
1.4) Philosophy
Philosophy is a way of seeking wisdom, based on reflection and theoretical research. It is inseparable from the quest for truth and the awareness of our ignorance, the philosopher is interested in all areas of knowledge.
The subjects studied are numerous and many philosophers have influenced our vision of the world. Such, for example, Plato and Aristotle since antiquity, Schopenhauer and Sartre for contemporary philosophy, passing by Spinoza and Descartes among the moderns.
The theories and concepts developed during these centuries cover a broad spectrum of subjects. We will limit ourselves to a 16
few, studied in pairs and in direct relation to the study of the human mind.
Me / Other
The definition of “me” varies depending on the analysis angle.
- Ontological: A principle that makes the person’s own unity, beyond the diversity of his thoughts, feelings and actions.
- Psychological: Awareness of the person individuality, either by himself, the self being the subject of his thought, or by another who takes him as his thinking object.
- Psychoanalytic: Part of the conscious and preconscious personality, distinct from the Id and the Superego.
- Philosophical: The synthetic principle of our intellectual functions or, conversely, reality of our actions, states and thoughts.
According to Plato, this conscious dimension of the self leads to introspection: «Know yourself». Rousseau for his part invites us to become authentic again, sincere by the «Return to introspection». As for Nietzsche, he reminds us that being oneself is not given but a goal to achieve.
Other means what is not me, that is to say another conscious being, another me. Philosophy studies the mode of relations to others between two distinct beings, both similar and different.
For Sartre, others can be considered both a source of conflict, a loss of freedom «Hell is others» or on the contrary, as a way to the knowledge and the constitution of the self: «Others are the indispensable mediator between me and myself».
17
Consciousness / Unconsciousness Consciousness allows us to think of ourselves, to contemplate ourselves inwardly, we think and know that we think.
Consciousness would be the expression of our identity. For Descartes: «I think, therefore I am» is the certainty of existing, guaranteed by the fact of thinking and being aware of it.
For Kant, the possession of the «I think» gives all its dignity and value to man. This opinion is shared by Pascal, «Man is only a reed, the weakest of nature, but it is a thinking reed», adding that his thought helps him to realize his smallness at the universe level.
For Spinoza, consciousness gives us the illusion of being free:
«Men are aware of their actions, but ignorant of the causes by which they are determined», the real causes of our actions being situated in our body and our desires.
In the strict sense, unconsciousness refers to what is devoid of consciousness. In psychology, as described in Freudian thought, the unconscious is a fundamental structure of the psyche*, it is the seat of unconscious thoughts.
Freud speaks of repressed and dynamic unconsciousness expressing itself in dreams, missed acts and symptoms neurotic.
They correspond to disguised desires, condemned by our education, our morality. This theory: «Where Id is, the self must come» gave birth to psychoanalysis. We distinguish the unconscious of the body, relative to the vital functions: breathing, digestion, circulation... of the unconscious of the mind: free sequence of thoughts, certain memories...
Bergson distinguishes on the one hand useful memories, the
«memory-habit» anchored in the cerebral mechanisms, expressing our social self, and on the other hand, useless 18
memories, the «memory-pure» expressing our deep self, our spiritual and immaterial nature.
Existence / Time
The notion of existence and of time are intimately linked. Man exists in time whose flow is irreversible, our existence being merged with it. For Pascal, man is powerless in the face of time, unable to grasp and appreciate the present moment, busy maintaining the past or hastening the future: «We never live at the present time».
For Bergson, thanks to our consciousness we can connect the past to the present and anticipate the future, the measurable, objective mathematical time, being different from that of the qualitative, subjective consciousness.
For Sartre, man defines himself by his freedom, his actions and his existence, he chooses what he wants to be: «Existence precedes the essence». This philosophy affirms the global, fundamental freedom of the being through the idea of surpassing oneself, of the transcendence.
Finally for Epicurus, although it is inevitable, we must not fear death. Indeed, death is nothing since we do not encounter it as long as we live, we cannot experience it.
Matter / Spirit
Matter refers to materials, objects, bodies, which are material, perceptible, physical. The mind, immaterial, intangible, represents all the phenomena, mental faculties. As the body and mind affect each other, how do they connect?
The materialist thesis consists in bringing everything back to matter, Lucretius affirming that even our thoughts are material:
«The substance of the spirit and the soul is material».
Applied to the mind, materialism reduces our thoughts to 19
simple physico-chemical exchanges, which can be visualized thanks to technologies used in neurosciences.
But does matter really exist? From the notion of indivisible atom we moved to quantum physics where matter is energy.
Leading Poincaré to say that «matter does not exist». Berkeley advocated immaterialism, for him we meet only our perceptions and our mind therefore only our ideas exist.
Finally, for Bergson, consciousness is not material, the brain being the material support of mental activity. “And what is one's self? Something that seems, rightly or wrongly, to overflow the body attached to it on all sides, surpassing it in space as well as in time».
Consciousness is the source of freedom and creation, while the body, enclosed in space and time, is subjected to the mechanical determinism of matter.
Monism / Dualism
In monism* reality consists of a single substance, material or spiritual. For Epicurus, reality is made up of atoms, of various sizes and shapes, their movements being possible thanks to the vacuum. The matter structure comes from their interactions and the world variety from their numerous possible combinations.
Dualism* is based on the existence of two irreducible principles. Descartes distinguishes the «extended substance», the physical reality covering a defined space and the «thinking substance», the soul or thought, which can neither be divided nor located.
He further emphasizes that these two components: the body and the soul are closely united, this union making us thinkers.
Moral / Religion
20
Morality defines the right and the bad, to act morally is to act correctly, in the right way. Epicurus bases morality on the search for happiness and Hume on virtue and sincerity. For Plato, the wise man distinguishes what he knows from what he ignores: «No one is willfully wicked». According to Descartes, virtue is the opposite of vanity, it is the right knowledge of the value of things and of oneself. And for Kant, the moral man respects in others his dignity as a person, as a subject.
As ancient as humanity, religion evokes the idea of a link between men and the divine or between men themselves. It is a system of beliefs leading man to postulate the existence of another reality, divine and sacred. Religion has a collective dimension where rites and practices maintain the social bond.
Thus for Durkheim, the idea of society is the soul of religion.
In Pascal, religion is intuitive: «The heart has its reasons which reason does not know». Descartes and Spinoza on their side try to demonstrate the existence of God whose idea can be considered rationally.
Conversely, for Freud, it is an illusion, Feuerbach sees in it an alienation of the human essence. According to Nietzsche religion is based on human weakness and resentment. Finally, for Marx, it encourages us to accept our present misery without reacting: «Religion is the opium of the people»
Immanent* / Transcendent*
These terms contrast and characterize two separate orders of things. Such in religions: «the here below», the immanent of the spatio-temporal order and «the beyond», transcending it in an infinite extra temporal reality.
In philosophy, we wonder about the place of the immanent or transcendent man and his relationship with the world: is he subjected like other living beings to finitude and death?
21
Metaphysics supports the idea of the existence of a reality beyond the framework of our experience, the notion of the soul expressing an ideal of transcendence*. Similarly, monotheistic religions affirm the transcendence of God.
On the contrary, empiricism and materialism are philosophies of Immanence. In Spinoza, God immanent identifies with nature and for Epicurus, the soul and God are realities located in the material world and subject to its constraints.
Finally, in the existentialism of Sartre, transcendence expresses the capacity of our consciousness to be beyond itself: «All consciousness is conscious of something».
Determinism / Free will
In determinism* everything is subject to a definite causal chain: «Everything that is is the result of one cause, itself the result of another cause...». Thus for Spinoza, even the will is due to a prior cause.
According to Descartes, free will* corresponds to the possibility of choosing without any external constraint, from the liberty of indifference to informed freedom where the choice is based on reason.
Conclusion
The philosophy covers the topics addressed by religions but follows a different approach.
- It is a quest for knowledge, understanding rather than sharing a revelation describing the birth of the world, of the man and of a marvelous afterlife.
- The multiple philosophical thesis come from different schools that can oppose, but without want to impose on us a unique system of thought.
22
«The more powerful the eye of humanity, the more the Universe widens.» Bernard Werber What is its scale of size and time? What is its history?
2.1) Astronomy
Big Bang
According to the Big Bang theory, the Universe was born from an infinitely small point of extreme density, it describes its deployment from the first particles to the galaxies.
It took three minutes to form the first hydrogen and helium atoms from the quarks* and electrons, which then became gaseous clouds.
In 10 billion years, the condensation of these clouds gave rise to galaxies and after another 3 billion stars and planets, the spatial expansion is still accelerating.
Cosmos
13,8 billion years old, the cosmos is infinite. It would include hundreds, if not thousands, of billions of galaxies, each containing hundreds of billions of stars.
The Milky Way, home to our solar system, contains more than 400 billion stars and has a diameter of 120.000 light years.
The visible universe extends from the infinitely large: 100.000
billions of billions of kilometers to the infinitely small: one tenth of a thousandth of a micron. It is composed of 4% known matter, 23% dark matter* and 73% energy.
It is therefore mainly made of vacuum and energy, on average one atom per cubic meter is counted.
The energy comes from stellar radiation and supernovae, 23
resulting from the explosion of super-massive stars and also from gravitational vibrations, resulting from the big bang and deformations of space-time.
Black hole
A black hole is a celestial object with an extremely large mass in a very small volume. Its gravitational attraction is so great that time stops there and neither matter nor light escape.
As a result of this huge attraction, the nearby stars spiral around and eventually fall into it, emitting gas and ultraviolet rays. Black holes have begun to form with galaxies and have been growing for 10 billion years.
Two types are observed: stellar black holes formed at the death of stars and super-massive ones resulting from the collapse of super-massive stars. The latter have a mass greater than one million to billions of times that of the Sun. To date, each galaxy listed has a black hole at its center.
Is our Universe born of a black hole?
In 2014, Robert Mann and his team demonstrated that the equations describing the emergence of our universe, from the burning, dense state of the Big Bang, are similar to those relating to the dilation and cooling of matter on the horizon of a 4-dimensional black hole.
This is why recent astrophysical theories place our universe on the surface of a super-massive black hole, resulting from the collapse of a 4-dimensional star located in a meta-universe.
Earth
From the birth of the Sun, 4,6 billion years ago, dust and gas escape, forming small celestial bodies whose fusion then generated the planets.
At the periphery of our star, the giant planets are formed from 24
water, nitrogen and ammonia in a solid state. Closer to the sun, the condensation of metals and rocks produces aggregates that, under the effect of their regular collisions and gravitation, form planetary embryos.
After a million years of existence, our solar system has about thirty giant protoplanets, including the one that gave birth to Earth. In 10 million years, our planet reaches 70% of its size, stabilizing after 100 million.
At land level, intense volcanic activity and massive meteorite bombardment over 500 million years produce our atmosphere.
Continents were established 4 billion years ago, covering 30%
of our planet today.
2.2) Matter
Particle accelerators allow physicists to dive into the heart of matter, far beyond the boundaries of the visible.
Matter is energy and vice versa as formulated by Einstein. The kinetic energy of a body is equal to its mass times square of the light velocity. It is minimal at rest (weight) and maximum when in motion (kinetic energy).
37 particles, 114 chemical elements and 4 forces are enough to describe the matter, its elemental structure remaining identical from the infinitely small to the infinitely large.
Particles
We distinguish the particles of matter: the 12 fermions whose spin equals 1/2 and the particles of force: the 13 bosons whose spin takes the value 0, 1 or 2.
- Stable matter consists of 4 fermions: up and down quarks, electron and electronic neutrino, other quarks, neutrinos and muon are unstable.
- Each particle of matter has its double negative, 25
constituting the short-lived antimatter.
- Among the bosons are 8 gluons (strong nuclear force), the photon (electromagnetic force), the W+, Wand Z° bosons (radioactivity) and the Higgs boson (particle mass).
The cosmos is the most powerful accelerator that projects particles with extraordinary energy onto our planet.
Neutrinos
Neutrinos are present throughout the universe, emitted by the sun and supernovas. They are divided into 3 types: the electronic, the muon and the tau neutrinos.
They pass through the matter at very high speed being sensitive only to low nuclear force. 60 billion neutrinos per second reach every square centimeter of our skin.
Some of them could turn into sterile neutrinos, insensitive to the 4 fundamental physical forces, they could constitute the dark matter i.e. 85% of the universe.
Quantum properties
At the quantum level, matter has confusing properties, a particle can:
- Be at the same time a wave and a material body (wave-particle duality)
- Be in two locations simultaneously (non- locality),
- Be in several physical states at the same time (superposition of states),
- Lastly, when two particles from a single system are separated, they instantly adjust their characteristics, regardless of the distance between them
(entanglement*).
26
According to the model developed by Albert Rutherford in 1911, the atom consists of an electron cloud revolving around a central nucleus containing protons and neutrons.
At the atomic level, we find the structure of the solar system.
The infinitely small recalls the infinitely large, indeed, the atom:
- Consists of an extremely dense central nucleus around which electrons rotate in specific orbits.
- It is mainly made of vacuum, with the kernel representing a 100.000th of its size.
In its natural state, there are 90 atoms to which a good twenty synthetic elements are added. The 1869 Dimitri Mendeleev table of elements is still used, where they are ranked according to their mass and the number of protons of their nucleus.
Molecule
Below the millionth of a meter, matter is organized into molecules, with macromolecules such as DNA* and certain proteins visible under the electron microscope.
The cohesion of the molecules is due to the sharing of electrons belonging to different atoms, forming stable covalent bonds.
These bonds can be broken in chemical reactions releasing atoms, which can then recombine and form new substances.
Depending on their movement type: vibration, rotation, translation, each molecule emits or absorbs specific photons.
The simplest of molecules: dihydrogen results from the combination of two hydrogen atoms. It is the main constituent and fuel of the sun and other stars.
The state of matter depends on two antagonistic forces: 27
electrostatic force and thermal agitation.
- When the former dominates, the molecules are strongly bound together, the matter is in the solid state.
- When the temperature increases the molecules move away from each other, the matter becomes liquid or even gaseous if the heat still increases.
Forces and Waves
Forces
The elementary interactions present everywhere govern the whole Universe, there are four of them, each manifested by a fundamental force:
- Strong nuclear force is the most powerful, with an action range the size of the atomic nucleus, it binds the quarks to form nucleons that make up nuclei.
- The weak nuclear force ensures the cohesion of matter with the strong nuclear force. It is responsible for the radioactivity of subatomic particles and nuclear fusion within stars.
- Electromagnetic force is the result of interactions between particles electrically charged at rest or in motion. It is involved in most interactions between atoms during chemical reactions.
- Gravitational force is responsible for the attraction of mass bodies, of which the gravity holding us to the ground. Like electromagnetic force, it acts well beyond the atom and is the weakest of the fundamental forces.
Waves
A wave is the result of the propagation of a disturbance which reversibly alters the properties of the local environment, its 28
speed depends on the characteristics of the environment being crossed. There are three types of waves of different frequency:
- Mechanical waves propagate through a substance by temporary deforming it, such as sound waves supported by atmospheric molecules.
- Electromagnetic waves do not require support and pass through the vacuum, corresponding to oscillations of electric and magnetic fields, such as radio waves, the light and X-ray.
- Gravitational waves do not require any support, they come from the Big Bang or deformations of the space-time geometry.
2.3) Structure
General and special relativity
The principle of relativity was stated indirectly in 1632 by Galileo: all movement is relative, «Lock yourself in a ship...take a vase of water containing fish swimming from all sides...the ship put in motion...you will not discern the slightest change».
In his mathematical formulation, Galileo demonstrates that the total relative speed of the different moving bodies corresponds to the addition of their respective speeds.
Special relativity
Mathematician Henri Poincaré realizes that the simple addition of speeds is not the best way to connect referential in motion and proposes new equations.
In 1905, Albert Einstein connected these formulas all together in a new relativistic theory, underlying its spatio-temporal consequences.
29
Special relativity theory deals with relationships between referential but limited only to rectilinear and uniform movements.
General relativity applies to accelerating referential leading to gravitation theory.
General relativity
Isaac Newton in 1687 showed that gravitation was responsible for the fall of bodies and the attraction of the stars, the force of attraction between two bodies being proportional to their mass and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.
Einstein in 1915 extended this idea to accelerated movements.
Gravitation is not a force but rather a spatio-temporal effect similar to an acceleration, the matter bending our space-time.
The light rays passing near massive celestial objects are deflected by their mass and bend, thus distorting their image, like that of stretched galaxies.
On the Earth scale, Newton’s laws remain applicable.
General relativity has made it possible to predict the existence of black holes and gravitational waves, a first black hole having been photographed in 2019.
Quantum mechanics
The 1927 Heisenberg uncertainty principle stipulates the impossibility of measuring the position and velocity of a particle at the same time and accurately. It is the basis of quantum mechanics.
Previously, physics distinguished, on the one hand, bodies belonging to mechanics and thermodynamics and, on the other hand, waves obeying the laws of electromagnetism.
30
In 1905, Einstein shows that light, considered as a wave, consists of grains, the photons.
In 1924 de Broglie extended this concept of duality to all matter. The emission of electrons to the slots of Young confirms it, the electrons passing straight like balls but also interfering like waves.
Reconciliation of quantum mechanics and general relativity It is by the power of calculations that theoretical physicists manage to reconcile quantum mechanics and general relativity.
The string theory, loop theory and parallel universe theory predominate. They describe the universe as a network, not a multidimensional like our space-time, but of 10 dimensions.
String Theory
According to the string theory, the material would consist of one-dimensional filaments less than 10-35 m, without any thickness. These vibrating strings would cause the formation of quantum particles: electrons, neutrinos, photons, quarks.
These oscillating movements would not be limited to the 3
dimensions of space but would extend in 9 parallel dimensions.
The additional dimensions, small and wrapped in themselves, cannot be detected even by the most powerful telescopes.
Loop Theory
In the loop theory, space-time would be granular and correspond to an elastic mesh varying with the intensity of the gravitational field*. It would be composed of tangled loops where each cross would represent an elementary unit, these grains 10-33cm long being indivisible.
Parallel universes
In 1950, based on the superposition of quantum states, Hugh 31
Everett assumes the existence of multiple universes that constantly divide.
Since then, different scenarios have been studied, with multiple universes being:
- Prior to ours and cyclically generated for Paul Steinhardt and Neil Turok.
- Parallels and corresponding to different quantum states according to David Deutsch and Michael Lockwood.
- Very distant from each other, due to different cosmos inflation rhythms in agreement with Alain Guth and André Linde.
- Totally separated from our space-time according to Mag Tegmark and Dennis Sciama,
For Stephen Hawking, the Big Bang simultaneously generated multiple universes, the black holes being open passages between them.
Most parallel universes would be unstable, their fundamental constants being inadequate (mass, gravitation, electromagnetism...). However a small part could be solid and conducive to the appearance of life.
32
Chapter 3: Behavioural and Life Sciences
«Life is a mystery to be lived, not a problem to be solved »
Gandhi
Between the infinitely large (galaxies) and the infinitely small (particles), the complexity on our scale is maximum from crystals, macromolecules to living cells and man.
3.1) Life boundaries
Scientists are able to create entities at the edge of the inert and living from specific molecules or cells. These artificial structures possess certain characteristics of living beings, for example:
- By dipping hematite beads in hydrogen peroxide and exposing them to light, Paul Chalkin observed the formation of reproducing crystals.
- By enclosing organic molecules in a silica membrane, Stephen Mann generated protocells performing exchanges with the outside and reproducing.
- Prion is a self-replicating viral protein that can evolve and reproduce.
- Two biologists M.Levin and D.Blackiston and two roboticians J.Bongard and S.Kriegman created a xenobit: constitued of embryonic frog cells, computer organized, it is capable of moving.
3.2) Biology
General
Whatever their size and complexity, all living beings are born, breathe, feed, rest, grow, reproduce and eventually die.
Today, the number of living species is estimated at more than 33
20 million, a quarter being aquatic and the rest terrestrial.
There are about 10 million insects, 8 million other animals, 400.000 plants and about 2 million microscopic organisms.
Phylogeny shows kinship links to the different stages of animal and plant evolution, from the earliest single-celled organisms to the most advanced species such as trees and mammals.
All living beings share at least 25% of their genetic material.
For example, humans share 35% of their genes* with daffodils, 60% with sponges and 99,4% with chimpanzees.
Life
Life as we know it on Earth is based on carbon chemistry where complex organic molecules are organized into structures of different sizes, ranging from micron to tens of meters.
Organic molecules
In 1953, Stanley Miller subjected to high temperatures and intense electric discharges a week long a mixture of the first molecules present in our atmosphere (hydrogen, water, methane and ammonia), it thus obtained organic molecules essential to the appearance of life: amino and organic acids.
Virus
A virus is a microscopic infectious particle (0.1 micron) whose genes are enclosed in a protein capsule. It replicates itself by penetrating a host cell and using its cellular machinery.
Viruses can infect bacteria, animals or plants, and are considered pathogenic when they cause diseases such as AIDS
or Covid-19.
Cell
A little less than 4 billion years ago, the isolation of organic molecules of the surrounding environment by a semi-34
permeable membrane led to the formation of living cells.
They are real microscopic biochemical plants synthesizing all components necessary for the development of living beings: sugars, lipids, proteins and nucleic acids.
The progressive specialization of these macromolecules gave rise to intracellular organelles* bathed in the cell fluid (cytoplasm), such as chloroplasts (photosynthesis), mitochondria (respiration) and later the central nucleus (duplication and transmission of characters).
The first bacteria date back 3,6 billion years, they will differentiate over 2 billion years and play an essential role in our ecosystem.
They are present everywhere including on the surface of glaciers or in volcanic waters and even in and on other living beings.
Man is made up of 30.000 billion cells, a few years being necessary to replace them all. Moreover, our body hosts 100.000 billion bacteria belonging to 500 different species.
Pluricellular
The first single-celled organisms with a true nucleus (eukaryotes*) are 1,9 billion years old.
A billion years later, the first multicellular algae appeared, then 580 million years ago the first multicellular animals.
Plants
Plants live on all continents and in all environments, aquatic: seas, lakes, rivers or terrestrial: deserts, valleys, heaths, forests, mountains.
Plants contain chlorophyll to capture light. During photosynthesis, they produce sugar and oxygen from carbon 35
dioxide and water, without which the animals would not be able to feed or breathe.
The first algae appeared 1,2 billion years ago, followed by fungi and lichens (-600 million), followed by aquatic and terrestrial bryophytes (mosses, hepatic, anthocerotes) 470
million years ago.
After it is the turn of the ferns (-375 million), endowed with rhizomes* and vascularized, they develop in height thanks to the lignin contained in their cell walls.
350 million years ago, seed plants appeared: gymnosperms (conifers), then 140 million years ago, flowering plants: angiosperms (broad leaves) distributed among monocotyledons: grasses, orchids, palms...and dicotyledons: buttercups, sunflowers, oaks...
Today the plant kingdom extends from microscopic algae to giant sequoia, including bamboo and mangrove from wetlands or aloes and cacti from desert regions. Let us not forget all the plants grown for food or ornamental purposes to be complete.
Animals
Unlike plants, animals are unable to synthesize their food, they depend on plants or other animals for food but can move to protect themselves, reproduce and of course feed.
Animals are present everywhere, in rudimentary or extremely elaborate forms, aquatic or terrestrial, in the seas, on land or in the air, living in groups or solitary.
Approximately 300 million years after the appearance of the first multicellular algae, the amounts of oxygen in the water allow the appearance of the first aquatic animals. These are rudimentary multicellular organisms: sponges (-630 million years).
36
Then, the size and level of organization of animals increases, leading to cephalopods (-500 million), insects (-350 million), vertebrates (-500 million) and modern man (-100.000 years).
The evolution is continuous following the successive acquisition of new structures. Examples include intracellular organelles in bacteria, jellyfish nucleus cells, skull for myxin, vertebrae in lamprey, turtle jaw, kangaroo hair and placenta in bats.
The vertebrate study illustrates this continuity, from chordae to the dorsal nervous system and ventral digestive tract (-550
million), to gill-endowed fish (-500 million) and skin-breathing amphibians (-350 million), then terrestrial reptiles with lungs (-
280 million), homeothermic birds (-150 million) and finally placenta mammals (-100 million).
The comparative embryology* of vertebrates underlines this evolutionary cohesion. For example, during the development of the human foetus, one observes some previous stages of evolution: draft of gills, palmar muscle tendon, coccyx, earlier stages during the development of the brain.
Human being
It is with other mammals that man is most closely related, even closer to other primates with which he shares certain points in common: prehensile hands, complete dentition, developed brain.
The man belongs with the chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas to the family of hominids whose skeleton has adapted to the bipedal and standing station: position of the skull, arch of the spine, width of the pelvis, shape and articulation of the limbs.
Southern Africa would be the cradle of humanity, our first ancestors: australopithecus (-4 million years) leading to Homo erectus, (-1 million), then to Homo neandertalis (-200.000
37
years) and ultimately to Homo sapiens (-100.000).
At the top of the evolutionary tree, man occupies a special place, making him the most evolved living being and his brain the most complex organ ever observed.
Genetics
Heredity
In general we took after our parents and yet while presenting the characteristics of our species we are all unique. What is passed down from generation to generation?
Between 1856 and 1864, Grégor Mendel studied the transmission of characters, summarized in 3 laws: the unity of hereditary characters controlled by pairs of factors, the law of dominance and recessivity and the law of segregation during gamete formation.
Gene
We now know that genetic information is identical in the nucleus of all our cells. But in what form? Genetics was born at the beginning of the 20th century, leading to chromosomal theory. The work of Walter Sutton and Thomas H.Morgan made it possible to deepen it.
A gene is a unit of function, recombination and mutation, each gene occupies a specific location on a given chromosome*
with the number of linked gene groups equal to the number of chromosome pairs of the species.
In 1952, James D.Watson and Francis H.C.Crick discovered the double helix structure of the DNA molecule, thus laying the foundations of molecular biology, leading since 1970 to the development of genetic engineering: cloning, sequencing and gene modification.
Environment
38
Our genetic heritage (genotype*) and our environment affect all of our observable traits (phenotype*), which of these factors predominates?
Our lifestyles change the expression of certain genes. Some changes are temporary: tanning in the sun, effect of temperature on the colour of polar animals, blueing of hydrangeas by alumina sulphate but other changes become permanent.
Heritability determines the extent to which hereditary factors control observed variations by measuring its incidence rate. For example, club Foot and harelip with high indexes are hereditary unlike epilepsy with a lower one.
Mutation
The structure of our genes can be altered accidentally during cell division or reproduction but also following exposure to mutagens: UV rays, pollutants, tobacco, alcohol, pesticides, hormones...
Charles Darwin in 1859 was the first to imply the importance of genetic mutations in natural selection.
Since then, paleontology, cell biology, molecular biology and genetics have refined his hypotheses.
Epigenetics
Does our education, journey or behaviour influence the expression of our genes?
Epigenetics* studies gene expression mechanisms in the lack of visible genetic mutation, leading to character changes.
For example, it explains:
- Differences in identical twins.
- The benefits of tenderness on the newborn’s brain 39
development.
- The transformation of bee larvae into workers or queens according to their type of feeding.
- The effect of the egg incubation temperature on the new born turtle gender.
All are due to environmental factors acting on a unique genetic set and leading to different individuals.
In humans, the proportion of the viral DNA is estimated at 8%
of the total and the coding one at only 2%.
The 98% non-coding would concern, among others, the RNA*
molecules controlling the gene transcription.
Our behaviour, emotions and lifestyle could influence the action of these RNAs, thus modulating the genetic mechanics.
Epigenetics acts on the methylation* of DNA, altering the condensation of chromatin*. The more methylated a gene is, the less active it is.
These epigenetic changes occurring over very short periods of time can be recorded, so newly acquired traits can be passed on to the next generation.
3.3) Neurosciences
Here are some figures describing the most complex organ of the human body:
- The energy consumed by our brain represents 20% of our total need, although its weight only accounts for 2%
of our mass.
- Its average weight is 1.4 kg, unfolding the surface of its cortex would reach 2 m2.
- It contains 100 billion neurons*, each with up to 40
10.000 connections via its synapses*.
- 1 billion signals pass through our brain per second at a speed of 432.000 km/h.
- Like any other living cell, neurons die and can be replaced by new ones.
- However, their total number decreases by only 5%
over the course of life.
- Its cells contain 12% fat, 8% protein and 1%
carbohydrates.
- The brain is made of 75% water, contains 150 ml of cerebrospinal fluid and as much blood.
- Daily production of spinal fluid is 500 ml.
- At age 6, the brain reaches 90% of adult size, its structure and cortex* especially continuing to develop significantly until adolescence.
- The average short-term memory time is 20 seconds.
Brain mapping
The cortex can be mapped according to three criteria: anatomical (furrow and circumvolution), fine anatomy (type of cellular connection) or functional (role of different areas). The maps obtained only partially coincide.
In addition to the areas involved in hearing, sight, body sensations, taste and smell, those of motor skills, memory, language and emotions have been identified.
Brain plasticity
Throughout our lives, our physical and mental activities change the structure of our brain. Our cortex is undergoing a constant process of adaptation, which changes the number and location 41
of our neuronal connections. Up to 4 years old, every second a few hundred thousand synapses are replaced in children.
This cellular plasticity allowed a 3-year-old girl amputated from her left hemisphere, following encephalitis, to recover all her mental abilities and develop normally.
According to psychoanalyst Normann Doidge, thought, therapeutic dialogue and imagination modify the microscopic structure of the brain.
Intelligence
It is not easy to define simply intelligence, the ethologists, the neurologists, the psychologists do not always agree. On the other hand, its seat in vertebrates has been identified: the brain and for mammals: the cortex.
The Petit Larousse offers several definitions of intelligence: the ability to understand, to grasp through thought or the set of mental functions in charge of conceptual knowledge or the ability to adapt or to choose according to circumstances.
This is why they are different forms of intelligence: logical, organizational, spatial but also emotional, social, intuitive, artistic, creative.
A person level of intelligence should not be confused with his IQ, figuring only his mental ability to quickly solve logical problems, compared to a reference population.
Memory
Every day we are exposed to hundreds of events and receive thousands of information more or less interesting.
To avoid cluttering our memory, the amygdala sorts the events, useful information or high emotional content are retained preferentially.
42
Then, the memory is created in the hippocampus* as a precise list of all different brain areas involved in its creation.
From adolescence, at least 1.400 neurons are generated every day in the hippocampus.
We can characterize a memory as a single neuronal spatio-temporal map, we speak of engram* or biological footprint.
To keep a memory, the neuronal network of the hippocampus consolidates at activated synapse level, the number of receptors neurotransmitters* increasing, communication between neurons is amplified.
Over the months and years, memories are transferred from the hippocampus to the prefrontal cortex where neurons also create privileged links. This long-term backup would explain why the oldest memories are the most stable.
Finally, when recalling a memory, we reshape it slightly and the mechanisms of neuronal plasticity are again observed in the hippocampus.
5 types of memory
- Working memory allows us to manipulate in real time the information needed for the language, calculation, reflection, planning. It is located mainly in the frontal lobe.
- Unconscious but indispensable, procedural memory
is the memory of know-how and motor skills: tool handling, riding a bike, playing the piano...
The motor cortex, the basal ganglia and the cerebellum are widely involved.
- In an involuntary and automatic way perceptive memory imprints in our mind a trace of perceived 43
images, smells, colors, sounds.
It could facilitate the encoding of memories and relies on sensory areas of the brain: the gustatory, visual, somatosensory, auditory and olfactory cortex.
- Semantic memory stores knowledge of ourselves and the world. It represents the whole knowledge not related to lived events, only the frontal and left temporal lobes are involved.
- Significant events are recorded in our episodic
memory. The prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus play a major role in the storage and recollection of episodic memories.
Childhood amnesia
We keep no conscious memories of our early childhood, except for a few unconscious ones like some smells and some faces.
For neurobiologists, this infantile amnesia is due to the progressive maturation of the hippocampus structures which spreads between 2 and 7 years.
Psychologists, for their part, explain it by a poor control of the language tools at early ages.
Memory disorders
Our memory can go wrong, leading to amnesia or the opposite, hypermnesia or even the development of false memories.
The main causes of these disorders are accidental, genetic, psychological or the result of cellular aging.
In animals
The other animals are also endowed with memory: unconscious in the single cell blob, semantic in the bee, spatial in birds and 44
mammals and close to ours among others in the parrot, chimpanzee, dolphin and elephant.
Consciousness
The Little Larousse defines consciousness as more or less clear knowledge that each can have of the external world and of oneself.
Consciousness is expressed through our thoughts, emotions and perceptions, which correspond to a different level of attention, concentration and type of brain activity.
One distinguishes the consciousness of the present moment: the observed events are not memorized, the consciousness awakened: the events are recorded in memory and self-awareness: the memorized events can be recalled, the person is conscious of his acts.
Our sense of self allows us to appropriate our experiences and connect our thoughts and intentions to our bodies and actions.
It plays a central role in the experience of consciousness and is closely linked to our ability to recall our memories.
Attention manages consciousness, it is divided into 5 types: divided attention (multitasking), alternating attention (passing from one stimulus to another), selective attention (choice of its object), sustained attention (ability to stay focused) and concentrated attention (one object and no distraction).
The brain plays a major role in the production of consciousness, various regions are involved including the cortex (idea and perception, awareness, emotion), the thalamus (attention) and the hippocampus (memorization).
It is within neurons that the processes inherent to conscious are observed but it is possible that it is at the molecular, atomic or quantum level, involving then unknown mechanisms.
45
Our perception of time is subjective, time can pass more or less quickly depending on our feelings.
Our notion of time flow depends on the speed of transmission of signals through our neurons, controlled by our neurotransmitters.
The more active our neurons are, the more information we process at the same time and the more we feel that time is slowly flowing. This is often the case for young people with higher rates of neurotransmitters.
We note the events with half a second of delay but do not perceive it, following the delay between the moment of their detection and the moment when the nerve stimulus reaches the brain.
This delayed effect can be suppressed if the brain is stimulated simultaneously with the body aera that perceives the signal. As in the Tibet experience where are carried out at the same time the hand epidermis stimulation and the somatosensory cortex.
Mental illnesses
A mental illness, often referred to a psychiatric disorder, is accompanied by psychological and behavioural manifestations.
Depression, psychosis, autism, addiction, bipolar disorder... so many examples covering specific pathologies, with various causes.
Medical management and psychological follow-up are essential in their treatment, bringing the double benefit of accompanying the patient throughout his illness and the prescription of the most appropriate medication.
All classes of the population are affected without any social, geographical, sex or age distinction.
46
Neurodegenerative diseases Neurodegenerative diseases are pathologies associated with progressive and irreversible degeneration of nerve tissue, leading to dementia. The brain and spinal cord may be affected.
The most common are Alzheimer’s disease, resulting from neurofibrillary degradation and formation of cortical amyloid plaques and Parkinson’s disease, due to a significant decrease in brain dopamine levels.
These diseases affect older people more, but not all young people are spared.
3.4) Psychology
Psychology belongs to the human sciences, it studies the behaviour of others, psychic facts and mental processes. It brings together the intuitive knowledge of feelings, ideas and thoughts.
Psychology dates from the late 19th century, Gustav Fechner and Wilhem Wundt are the founders of experimental psychology, John Watson of behaviourism and Sigmund Freud of psychoanalysis.
Today, psychology benefits from the achievements of other disciplines such as neurosciences, neurolinguistics, cognitive sciences and information theory.
Its fields of investigation have developed. They range from animal psychology to psychopathology, including the psychology of learning or gender.
Among the multiple subjects studied, emotions, placebo or nocebo effect, Pavlov’s reflex caught our attention.
Emotions
47
Emotions are physiological responses to stimuli in order to protect us but also to reward us, to please us. There are six basic emotions: joy, sadness, anger, surprise, fear and disgust.
Emotions are produced continuously in the limbic system even if we are not always aware of them. Other brain structures are also involved, including the hypothalamus and pituitary gland.
The amygdala, on the other hand, transmits the information received to the appropriate brain regions to react as best as possible.
According to William James and Carl Lange it is the physiological processes that provoke emotions and not the other way round: smiling makes you happier.
This contrasts with the experience of Walter Cannon where the section of the spinal cord* in dogs, thus preventing any body feedback to the brain, does not inhibit their emotions.
Placebo / nocebo effect
The simple idea of therapeutic treatment triggers the physiological processes of healing inducing a beneficial effect in the mind and the body.
Placebo has a very powerful and quantifiable psychobiological effect. Our body produces effective therapeutic molecules, making it possible to reduce for examples the effects of pain, asthma or depression.
Take the example of Henry K.Beecher, an anesthesiologist during the Second World War, who administered a saline solution to his patients, hiding them the chemical nature of the injection, he observed his patients felt relieved and complained much less.
After taking a placebo, the release of endorphin* and 48
dopamine* into the brain can be observed. These are neurotransmitters involved in our response to pain, resulting in an analgesic effect and a feeling of well-being.
Similarly, placebo administration for analgesic purposes results in a decrease in brain activity in the regions involved in pain sensitivity.
Even more surprising, various studies have highlighted the following facts:
- The more expensive a tablet, the more effective it is.
Cambridge, USA, 2008.
- Knowing that you are taking a placebo does not suppress its effect. Basel, Switzerland, 2007.
- Active molecules no longer act with the patient ignorance of taking them.Turin, Italy, 2003. Sydney, Australia, 2012.
- Placebo also works in young children. Hershey, USA, 2014.
- A placebo effect also exists in animals. San Antonio, USA, 2008.
The nocebo effect is the negative counterpart of placebo: in the absence of any physical effect, the expectation to suffer can cause the onset of pain:
- A clinical test participant wanted to commit suicide swallowed placebos and showed all the symptons of a drug overdose.
His condition only improved once the harmless nature of the drug was revealed. Jackson, USA, 2007.
- A doctor mistakenly diagnosed a patient with esophagus cancer, his immediate caring did not save 49
him, the autopsy revealing no cancer. Nashville, USA, 1974.
Reflex of Pavlov
Classical conditioning is a concept of behaviour proposed by I.Pavlov. This theory focuses on the learning results due to the association between environmental stimuli and automatic reactions of the organism.
If two consecutive events occur on a regular basis, the second event is expected to follow the first one and induces an appropriate physiological reaction.
Classical conditioning also exists in plants, which can combine two stimuli and thus remember information and react accordingly.
In 2016, Monica Gagliano highlighted a classic conditioning in peas, combining light and wind stimuli during their growth.
3.5) Psychanalysis
In 1870, observing hysterical patients Jean-Martin Charcot spoke for the first time of mental illness, that is to say of a condition whose cause is not physiological. He studies carefully symptoms of hysteria and treat patients by hypnosis.
Influenced by the work of Charcot and Breuer, Freud has the intuition that it is up to the patients themselves to remember the origins of their suffering. He abandons hypnosis and lets the patient express himself freely, in full consciousness.
Previously, consciousness was considered the centre of ideas, feelings and reason. Freud upset this vision by discovering that it is the unconscious that governs our thoughts, the interpretation of the dream being a good way to explore it.
Preconscious, Conscious, Unconscious
50
As early as 1895, Freud developed the first topical describing our psychic functioning, distinguishing the preconscious, which could be recalled to consciousness, the conscious and the unconscious including repressed, inaccessible memories.
In 1896, Freud gave birth to psychoanalysis by systematizing the free association where the patient is required to say everything that comes to his mind in session.
Id, Ego, Superego
In 1920, Freud describes in a second topical the three parts of our personality: the Id, the Ego and the Superego.
The Id is the seat of our aggressive, sexual impulses, their contents being repressed or inassimilable by thought. It is mainly the unconscious.
The Ego corresponds to the representation we make of our own person, it is the imaginary part of our personality.
The Superego refers to the moral structure of our psyche. He is the heir of the Oedipus complex through the interiorization of the prohibitions, reflecting the codes of our education, of our culture in what is to be done.
Collective unconscious
A concept created by Carl Jung, the collective unconscious describes images brought to consciousness but not belonging to our own experience, it would be composed of all human experiences since the dawn of time.
For Jung, the human psyche is multi-layered, the deepest base is common to all men and the upper floors vary from one individual to another. Thus the consciousness and the self are balanced between two opposite poles: a universal pole and an individual one.
Bayesian unconscious
51
A.Cleeremans, P.Carruthers, S.Ayan speak of automatic brain control, of a Bayesian unconscious* where the boundary between consciousness and unconsciousness is fluid.
The unconscious making predictions about the environment would guide our actions and give way to conscious analysis only in case of misinterpretation.
52
Chapter 4: Other intelligences
«To accept the smallness of man is the beginning of intelligence.» Frédéric Beigbeder To what extent is the intelligence proper to man, can it be reproduced?
4.1) Animal intelligence
Man is not the only animal endowed with reason and capable of communicating with his fellow creatures. There are many examples of animals behaving in a thoughtful, coordinated manner, such as those presented below.
Blob
Physarum polycephalum is a giant, single cell, multinucleus-containing organism with a complex genome. It presents exceptional learning and memorization abilities for a living being deprived of the nervous system.
A.Dussutour and D.Vogel have shown that the blob can:
- Spread out to form a rug the size of a city.
- Navigate a maze.
- Overcoming caffeine or quinine repulsions to access food.
- Yet devoid of brains, keep these learnings for more than a year.
- Transfer acquired knowledge to congeners by merging with them.
Using oat flakes, T. Nakagaki reproduced a map of the Tokyo region and its major localities.
In less than 30 hours, the blob connected the 35 food sources creating a structure as efficient as the railway network designed 53
Flatworm
Dugesia japonica is a 1 cm long flat worm with a nervous system, synapses and a primitive brain. Its tissues contain a high number of stem cells.
Thus, when this worm is cut in two then in four then in eight..., it regenerates as many individuals as initial pieces, the maximum being 32.
This worm is able to control its innate reluctance to light to obtain its food but also to keep in mind this learning.
More astonishing, after decapitation and formation of a new head, he regains his memory intact, keeping the capacity acquired before his mutilation, to feed on the light.
As if the stem cells in his body were able to save his memories, suggesting a mode of memorization outside the brain.
Termite and Ant
These insects are able to erect collective habitats a hundred times the size of their own. These structures are true architectural wonders including pillars, vaults, cavities and ventilation systems.
The construction of these giant nests requires the coordination of many individual specific behaviours. It is probably obtained by depositing pheromones* on the different materials to be assembled.
Octopus
As T.Tregenza, L.Dickel and T.Gutnick were able to observe, the octopus has amazing learning, memorization and innovation abilities for an invertebrate.
These cognitive abilities and behavioural flexibility could 54
result from the organization of its large genome, as well as its centralized nervous system, close to that of vertebrates.
Thus this cephalopod is able to observe and then copy its congeners, to plan an action, to recycle coconut shells in shelters or to orient themselves in a maze.
Raven
The numerous examples of the adaptation of corvids to their environment continue to surprise us. They illustrate their ability to colonize, recalling that of man. In various situations, ravens act in an organized manner, such as:
- Drop nuts on a pedestrian crossing and wait for the fire to blush to recover.
- Fill a container with water to access food on the bottom.
- Bend a wire to catch food.
- Act in successive steps: retrieve a stick, use it to catch pebbles, place them on a toggle to receive a wand and use it to reach its food.
These abilities are quite impressive for small brain animals.
The explanation lies in a specific structure located at the centre of the avian brain, the CLN* (caudolateral nidopallium), analogous to the primate prefrontal cortex.
The density of neurons is much greater than that of mammals.
The CLN of crows and parrots contains as many neurons as the cortex of capuchin monkeys.
Chimpanzee
Studying a chimpanzee community in Uganda, S. and J-M
Krief discovered new skills in these primates: 55
- Use and shape rudimentary tools to harvest sweets such as honey or termites.
- Consume medicinal plants used by African healers to treat stomach pain,
- Or Makokou leaves to treat sprains or inflammations, the properties of this bitter tasting plant being ignored.
- Caring others congeners by picking medicinal plants.
- Eat meat flavoured with nicely tasted leaves.
Examples of empathy in captive chimpanzees are numerous, such as those described by D.Premarck, G.Woodruff, F.de Waal and M.Tomasello:
- Video recognition of emotions perceived by a filmed congener.
- Hug to a sad chimpanzee, often by a younger one.
- Rescue of a strangling congener by releasing it from a rope wrapped around its neck.
More surprisingly, primatologists have observed chimpanzees dancing under a waterfall or heavy rain. This rite can last more than ten minutes.
It recalls the false causal link, characteristic of superstitious behaviour.
Animal ethics
In front of the death, some animals behave likewise we do.
Here are examples observed in the wild or in captivity.
- In a Cameroonian park, when a female was buried by guards, other chimpanzees who saw the scene remained silent and prostrated.
- Biologist M.Bekoff observed magpies tapping a dead 56
congener while bringing grass.
- Ethologist C.Moss noticed the panic of elephants in front of one of theirs dead trying to redress him up, feed him and finally cover him up.
- Off the coast of China, a mother dolphin was filmed carrying a young dolphin remains kept out of the water.
- As for dogs and cats, following the death of their owner, some remain where he passed away, others watch over his grave or even some starve to death.
4.2) Plant intelligence
Plants have cognitive and behavioural abilities as impressive as those of animals.
We are talking more and more about the plants intelligence, of plant neurosciences or even botanical ethology.
Too different from us we have difficulties in unravelling their mysteries.
Here are some examples of elaborate behaviours, making plants social beings.
Wood Wide Web
Biologist S.Simard highlighted a large root network connecting trees in a primary forest.
These are mycorrhizae and especially their mycelium* that allow trees to communicate and help each other.
These fungi are responsible for the transfer of their nutrients between individuals through their roots.
Laboratory studies have shown that the exchange intensity of these essential elements is conditioned on the donor and 57
recipient access to light, water and minerals.
The work of B.J. Pickles and his team, using marked carbon, indicates that the mother tree gives more nutrients to its progeny but does not neglect the neighbouring species. When they die, the old trees transfer their carbon to the younger ones, of the same species or not.
The forester P.Wohlleben speaks of a sense of the community of natural forests, lost in plantations where young trees are separated from their elders.
Sensitive plant
Mimosa pudica is well named. When an insect or mammal touch its leaves, they close immediately to protect themselves.
Similarly, if a worm hits its roots, it releases a mixture of smelly sulphide compounds to keep it away.
In 1902, J.C. Bose measured an electrical signal in the phloem*
of the sensitive. This tissue carries the sap throughout the plant and extends from the roots to the leaves.
In addition to its primary role of vascularization and following the work of teams of F.Baluska in 2004 and of A.Volkov in 2007, the phloem is now assimilated to a giant nerve cell encompassing the entire plant.
In 2015, S. Mancuso and A.Viola detected in plants the presence of brain neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin or glutamate* circulating throughout the plant.
Thale cress
The caterpillar feeds on the leaves of the Arabette, as long as the larva is walking the plant ignores it but it reacts as soon as the caterpillar nibbles its leaves.
A series of reactions is then triggered, leading to the release of 58
hormones and defensive molecules throughout the plant, indicating then an internal communication.
In 2013, the team of E.Farmer highlighted the spread of a low electric current of the attacked leaf to all the neighbouring leaves, followed by the production of jasmonic acid.
This team then identified three genes involved in this defense process, which are identical to those responsible for the nerve transmission of animal neurons.
Apple tree
During an attack by the foggy moth caterpillar, the apple tree emits odorous messages to attract the great tit so that it can get rid of it.
In 2013, Mr. Gagliano team demonstrated that birds are indeed attracted to this specific scent and not to the sight of the caterpillars or the damage they cause.
Sea-rocket
This northern plant growing in the dune and on the beach keeps its beans until its death. Then the seeds fall on the sand and germinate side by side, so all the young plants are related.
By cultivating related seeds, S.A. Dudley has shown that they share the space and nutrients and develop fewer roots. In contrast to unrelated plants in competition developing larger, intertwined ones.
4.3) Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence tries to reproduce the functioning of the human brain or at least its logic.
To date, consciousness, emotions or elaborated reasoning are not within its grasp, however some researchers believe that this could be the case by 2050.
59
Artificial intelligence combines electronic equipment with algorithms inspired by the neuron network to create machines that simulate our intelligence.
By analyzing mega databases, these devices cover requests from different sectors as: health, industry, finance... for:
- Analysing texts or images
- Modelling of knowledge,
- Automatic learnings,
- Carrying out specific actions,
- Assisting in decision making.
This has already resulted in multiple applications including facial recognition, automated medical diagnosis, industrial robots or autonomous cars.
60
Chapter 5: Consciousness states
«We will call emotion a sudden fall of consciousness into magic.» Jean-Paul Sartre Let us now take a closer look at consciousness and the different types of awakening.
5.1) Brain states
There are about ten altered states of consciousness: relaxation, sophrology, yoga, meditation, shamanic trance, hypnosis, sleep, dream, near death experience and ecstatic state.
5 types of brain waves are measured: gamma: intense mental activity, beta: active awakening, alpha: light relaxation, theta: hypnosis or meditation and delta: deep sleep or meditation.
The more intense the relaxation of the mind, the lower the brain waves and the greater the sense of dissociation of oneself from the environment, leading to the loss of consciousness and of the temporality.
5.2) Meditation
Definition
The Petit Larousse defines meditation as the action of reflection, of thinking deeply about a subject or as the attitude of being absorbed in deep reflection.
Here is a description of the consciousness of a Buddhist monk and a neurobiologist whom regular discussions have been published.
«Mental events are not intrinsically part of consciousness. They simply unfold in the space of awakened consciousness.»
Matthieu Ricard
«Contemporary conceptions of brain organization include 61
consciousness as an emerging property of brain function.»
Wolf singer
Are these positions incompatible or complementary? Can we develop our mental capacities through training as for our physical capacities? Does meditation affect our body and brain in the long term?
Effects
For more than twenty years, psychologists and neurobiologists have collaborated with meditators, their studies allow us to answer positively, they have shown at the:
Brain level
- A.Newberg and R.Davidson: Increased prefrontal lobe activity among experienced Tibetan monks (intense concentration) and inhibition of the parietal region (temporal and spatial attention).
Similarly, activation of limbic areas (emotions), reflecting a sense of well-being.
- R.Davidson: 30 times greater intensity of gamma waves (intense mental activity) among Buddhist monks compared to novice meditators.
- S.W.Lazard and his team: a significant increase in cortex volume in experienced meditators.
Mental level
- B.Fredrickson: an increase in positive emotions and personal satisfaction in people meditating on compassion.
- Researchers from the Texas Tech University Faculty: decreased anxiety and improved attention, memory, emotional management and creativity.
62
- J.Richard and colleagues: increased immune response to influenza vaccine during several months, following a regular meditation.
- M.E.Teixeira: a beneficial effect in the treatment of chronic pain in meditative elderly people.
Gene level
- R.Chaix, P.Kaliman, A.Lutz and R.Davidson: a modification of gene regulation following an eight-hour meditation.
5.3) Hypnosis
Hypnosis leads the brain into a unique state, resembling neither awakening nor sleep. It affects judgment, perception and temporality.
The brain then shows a high activity of areas involved in bodily control, emotions, empathy and time perception.
This modified state of consciousness takes place in 3 phases:
- Detachment from the subject of his actions resulting in a loss of critical sense.
- Highly focused attention on internal sensations, emotions, which promotes relaxation.
- Creating an inner bubble that eliminates negative emotions and opens doors to suggestion.
The patient focuses all his attention to the central object of his thoughts, losing contact with his environment, which causes a phase of dissociation between the unconscious and the conscious, as if his self-control were turn off.
5.4) Sleep
63
5 stages characterize sleep, the first 4 form slow sleep and the fifth REM* sleep, each stage having a specific brain activity, identifiable by electroencephalogram.
Stage 1 corresponds to falling asleep, stage 2 sleep is confirmed but the sleeper remains sensitive to external stimuli, stage 3 it is more difficult to wake him up, stage 4 sleep is the deepest and stage 5 dreams are the most frequent.
During slow sleep, brain activity decreases as it gets deeper but muscle tone remains. On the contrary, during REM sleep, the brain activity is intense and the muscles are at rest, except for the eye muscles.
Indeed, the rapid eye movements observed during REM sleep are similar to those of an awake person.
At night, 4 to 6 cycles of an hour and a half are observed. In the first cycles slow sleep is the most important, it decreases at the end of the night while REM sleep increases. On average, we sleep a third of our lives.
Some brain areas remain on
During sleep, some brain areas turn off and others reactivate.
During slow sleep the thalamus*, prefrontal cortex and precuneus have reduced activity, they are involved in vigilance, memory, reasoning, consciousness, thinking.
During REM sleep, the amygdala*, the hippocampus*, the anterior cingular cortex are activated, they are related to emotions. The same is true for the temporo-occipital cortex involved in vision. The activation of these brain areas could partly explain the rich content of images and emotions of our dreams.
Why do living beings succumb to sleep despite the resulting 64
To develop, the brain must be stimulated, REM sleep would play this role. In the newborn the proportion of REM sleep is 80% compared to 20% in adults.
At any age, REM sleep would promote brain reorganisation by strengthening or creating neural connections.
This synaptic consolidation would increase memorization, the absence of external stimuli allowing the hippocampus to improve daily learning at the level of the cortex.
In summary, slow sleep would be used to pretreat information acquired during waking thus strengthening their consolidation during REM one.
It is in fact possible to improve memory by exposing the brain to waves corresponding to those measured during slow sleep.
Animals and plants
All living beings sleep but adapt their sleep to their way of life and natural environment. For example, in animals:
- The jellyfish though devoid of brain sleeps, suggesting that the brain is not essential to the control of the sleep-wake cycle.
- Tattooed, python or bat sleep nearly 20 hours per day.
- On the contrary, giraffe, horse and elephant less than 4
hours.
- Newborns in orcas and dolphins do not sleep at all in the first few months.
- In manatee, mallard or sea lion, only one hemisphere sleeps the other while awake, then the sleeping hemisphere takes over and the second falls asleep.
65
The plants also have an internal clock, their activity being reduced during the night. For example, mimosa leaves open and close according to the time of day, even in darkness.
5.5) Dream
It is during sleep that the brain elaborates dreams, which are among the most intense and odd experiences of life.
Psychoanalysis, neurobiology and brain imaging gradually reveal their nature, their functions and their mechanisms.
We dream in two ways: during deep sleep, our dreams are vague and rich in emotions; during REM sleep, where they are intense, complex and animated.
Some figures
- We have about 100.000 dreams in our lifetime.
- 38% concern the coming days compared with 14% the previous one.
- 30% have no link to reality.
- 80% of feelings are negative.
- 42% of us remember dreaming almost every day, compared to only 4% once a year.
Key features
- Our studies and professions are recurring themes.
- Dreams are reminiscent of B-series films: chase races, dizzying falls, erotic scenes.
- Men often have super powers.
- Female dreams have more often negative content.
- Children under 7 years of age dream less.
- We dream in colour.
66
- The 5 senses are involved, with vision and hearing dominant.
- Disabled persons recover all their abilities.
Activated Areas
The brain areas activated when we dream are similar to those involved in the perception of reality in the wakefullness phase.
Similarly, the sensory zones treating and integrating the different information are similar to those of awakening.
In the rarer case of dreams containing complex thoughts, the reflection seat, the frontal lobe, is also activated.
In lucid dreams, the sleeper is in a hybrid state of consciousness; the seat of complex thoughts, metacognition*
(reflection on one’s own thoughts) and executive functions on oneself are then activated.
These are respectively the frontal lobe, the dorso-lateral cortex and the fronto-temporal region.
Interpretation
Carl Jung offers 4 types of meaning:
- The dream represents an unconscious reaction to a conscious situation, relating to the day impressions.
- The dream reveals a conflict between the consciousness and the unconscious, to a given situation, the unconscious adds another.
- The dream shows a tendency of the unconscious to transform the conscious attitude, opposing the feeling of consciousness.
- The dream reveals unconscious processes unrelated to the conscious situation.
67
Theory of the unconscious According to Freud, the dream plunges us into our unconscious, their study allowing us to better understand its nature and its mechanism.
For Antti Revonsuo, to the main dream functions: the memory consolidation and the emotion treatment, would be added the reality stimulation leading to a better approach of it.
In addition to the expression of our repressed desires, the unconscious would thus confront and overcome our fears.
In animals
The paradoxical dream appeared 280 million years ago, it is observed in reptiles, birds and mammals, so the dream and the unconscious are not the proper of man.
The eyes of the octopus are as complex as those of man, during his sleep, REM are also observed.
5.6) Coma
Coma corresponds to a severe impairment of consciousness, the person no longer responding to external stimulations. It results in the absence of the wake-sleep cycle and the loss of self-consciousness and of the environment perception.
This condition can last an hour or several weeks to progress towards either a progressive awakening or the locked-in syndrome or a vegetative state or brain death.
The minimum state of consciousness may be the next step where the person presents signs of self-awareness and recovery of a functional communication, it responds to an instruction.
The locked-in-syndrome, or LIS, often follows a stroke or an accident, the patient is conscious again but totally still.
The vegetative state or non-responsive awakening syndrome is 68
characterized by an awakening without consciousness and a return of the wake-sleep cycle with the opening of the eyes and other involuntary reflexes.
Brain death is the irreversible disappearance of brain activities.
5.7) Near Death Experience (NDE)
Features
A near death experience is characterized by a modified state of consciousness, usually following a cardiac arrest, a hemorrhage or a serious trauma, the patient is then in an deep coma. During a NDE*, the person no longer reacts to any stimuli, the brain no longer shows activity and the EEG* is totally flat.
A near death experience may include several of the followings: A increased consciousness, an impression of leaving one’s body together with a 360° vision, a complete review of one’s life, a passage through a tunnel, an immersion in a bright and soothing light, a meeting with deceased relatives and sometimes access to a broader level of knowledge.
It is a global phenomenon that crosses different cultures and periods, hundreds of thousands of people of all social backgrounds and countries have experienced NDE.
Its most striking effects on experiencers* are a disappearance of the death fear, a development of altruism, a lack of interest in material life and often a profound change in professional and/or private life.
Mechanism
Despite the number of near death experiences collected, the multiple similarities of the testimonies and the rigorous and multidisciplinary approach of their studies, a significant proportion of doctors and neurobiologists continue to minimalize or deny them.
69
For them, NDE looks more like a brain dysfunction, or even a hallucination.
They thus emit different assumptions: bad dosage of oxygen or carbon dioxide, disturbance of the neurotransmitter levels, side effects of anesthetics. These very simple theories only partially explain few observed facts.
Some characteristics of an EMI can be partially reproduced, by the electrical stimulation of the tempo-parietal crossroads or the injection of DMT * (dimethyltryptamine, powerful psychotropic).
However, there is no theory describing clearly even partially the near-death experience.
We must admit that a global understanding of the memory, consciousness and the unconsciousness eludes us.
5.8) Death
One of the greatest mysteries, death corresponds to the cessation of life, its definition evolving with advances in neurobiology and medicine. The WHO defines death as “the irreversible disappearance of any brain activity”.
Death results from the cessation of heartbeat and breathing, for comatose patients a third criterion is taken into account: a flat electroencephalogram.
The latest studies further nuance the fatal diagnosis, with patients being kept alive artificially and showing signs of brain activity or minimal consciousness.
Jean Dreier and his team in Berlin have determined the process from the shutdown of the cardio-respiratory system to the definitive one of the central nervous system, he describes it as a cerebral tsunami.
- 20 seconds after cardiac arrest, the brain is no more 70
oxygenated,
- The neurons then stand by between 2 and 5 minutes,
- Then the first neurons depolarize, releasing two neurotransmitters: potassium ion and glutamate,
- First local, this phenomenon spreads throughout the entire brain,
- The disappearance of the electrical potential of the neurons eventually leading to their disintegration.
Death is coded in our genes, our chromosome ends (telomer*) shorten during the cell duplication leading eventually to the inhibition of the cell renew.
Death can be seen from different angles:
- For physicist B.Derrida, death evokes on our scale the notion of irreversibility of time.
- It could be different at the atom level, its elements being able to recombine infinitely.
- According to J-M Alimi, astrophysicist, the Universe evolution is opposed to the concept of death, being in perpetual extension, it creates space-time.
- But this is not the case for its constituents subject to gravitational collapse.
71
«If science is evolving, it is often because a still unknown aspect of things is suddenly revealed.» François Jacob Let us conclude this general knowledge review by addressing five somewhat controversial topics, while remaining as rational and objective as possible.
6.1) Astrology
Unlike astronomy, astrology is an empirical discipline, it is not a science in the strict sense but rather a set of practices based on astronomical calculations in order to establish astral themes.
Western
Western astrology is based on the twelve zodiac signs each linked to a constellation of stars, circling our planet. They are grouped by four elements: fire, air, earth and water.
Each element has a characteristic set. To fire, strength and determination; to air, spirituality and adaptation; to earth, pragmatism and logic; and to water, calm and reflection.
Each sign is different. For example, the aries beginning the astrological year have the characteristics of renewal: energy, enthusiasm. On the other hand, pisces, the last sign of the zodiac, are calmer, more sensitive and intuitive.
Depending on the place, date and time of birth, an astrological sign and an ascendant are associated with each individual. The astrological sign represents the deep part of the personality and the ascendant its apparent one.
Chinese
Chinese astrology is based on astronomical calendars whose cycle of twelve years is represented by twelve animals, yin or 72
yang. They are classified into five elements to which a particular planet corresponds.
The year of birth determines the astrological sign. Each element nuances the characteristics of the sign: metal brings will and ambition, wood harmony and creativity, water intuition and communication, fire excess and tenderness and earth organization and autonomy.
For example, the rat, first sign of the Chinese zodiac, is intelligent and skillful and the pig, last sign, is solid and curious; both are yin, open individual and social. The tiger and the rooster are yang and more reserved, meditative.
The Chinese year of varying length is divided into twelve lunar houses, each modifying the manner in which the astrological sign is expressed. It depends on the place, date and time of birth.
Thus according to Western and Chinese astrology, our place and our date of birth influence our personality, our character and consequently our behaviour.
6.2) Intuition
Definition
The Petit Larousse defines intuition as the immediate perception of truth without the aid of reasoning or as the ability to predict, to guess.
For Plato, intuition is the immediate grasp of truth by the soul.
For Sartre, all knowledge is intuitive. According to Spinoza, it is a bridge between the unconscious and the conscious, and for Einstein, the intuitive mind is a sacred gift, the rational mind a faithful servant.
Examples:
73
- Composer Johannes Brahms says he composes his music in a state of semi-trance. His conscious sound temporarily suspended, his ideas flow as if he were directly connected to God.
- Businessman G. Soros confesses to managing his portfolio intuitively, with acute pain in his back warning him of any bad investment.
- Inspector D. Horan of the Los Angeles Airport puzzled by a woman searched her suitcase and found 200.000 $ for the purchase of marijuana.
- Having an urgent call to give and his mobile phone being unloaded, L. deprived of cash entered in a telephone booth containing a forgotten prepaid card.
- Blandine wanted to read Frank Herbert’s Dune cycle, borrowed several times it didn't work. Determined to buy it, she goes shopping in a mall and finds the book in her cart.
Types
There are eight types of intuitions:
- Instinctive: we act in a certain way without really knowing the reasons behind it.
- Creative: often manifests itself from a reflection, provoking the emergence of an inspiration that gives us a fresh and creative look.
- Inspiring: occurs when we let ourselves be guided by a taste, a desire, an idea, it often assumes a deep desire.
- Integrated: the person is aware of the process and can use it voluntarily, communicating with their creative resources, currently referred as the intuitive mindfulness.
74
- Dissociated: is perceived as a manifestation with the appearance of an energy, of an external force transmitting key information.
- Stimulated: by the use of divinatory techniques such as tarots, numerology or astrology.
- Sensitive: based on a response from the unconscious, it can be stimulated by learning.
- Unconscious: Carl Jung says that the creative resources of the unconscious are released into our dreams, broadening the limited views of our consciousness.
Mechanism
For Chistopher Chabris, intuition would simply result from our innate need to create causal links. But according to other psychologists, it would encompass very rapid mental processes such as associations of ideas.
Psychiatrists R. Assagio and C. Jung support the hypothesis proposed by Spinoza describing intuition as a bridge between the conscious and the unconscious.
Intuitions would develop in consciousness according to empirical, heuristic* methods developed in the unconscious.
By analogy with the heuristics of the gaze. This innate ability to follow moving objects allowing us to predict their point of fall without recourse to any form of calculation.
6,3) Synchronicity
Definition
Larousse defines synchronicity as the character of that which is synchronic, relative to synchronous, concomitant facts.
75
According to Carl Jung, synchronicity is the simultaneous occurrence of two events that do not have a causal link but whose association has a certain meaning for the witness.
Examples
Here are some examples of synchronicity cited by Jean Moisset.
The scarab of Jung
A patient of Jung tells a dream where she received as a gift a scarab of gold, at the same time, the psychoanalyst heard a noise at the window, it was a scarab.
Five shipwrecks and fate
In 1820, during his fifth shipwreck, Peter Richley was picked up on a liner. On board an elderly lady looking for her missing son for ten years and badly suffering described him in her delirium. Noting the resemblance, the doctor asked the shipwrecked man to impersonate his son, what was a surprise when he recognized his own mother.
The two Jim’s
Jim Lewis and Jim Springer, twins born in 1939, were separated at birth. At the age of 40, they found themselves and discovered a number of similarities:
- They were named Jim by their adoptive family and one of their adoptive brother Larry.
- They divorced a Linda and married then a Betty.
- They each have a dog called Toy and a son named, one James Allan and the other James Alan.
- They were sheriff’s deputies, worked in a Mac Donald and gas stations.
76
- They owned the same car of the same colour.
- They drank same beer and smoked same cigarettes.
- They spent their summer vacation on a beach in the same region of Florida.
Faster than the post office
In 1984, a Member of the European Parliament in charge of sending letters from London, introduced the envelopes in a mailbox at Heathrow, one of which fell. A little later, a Canadian picked it up, it was the destinee.
Mechanism
Carl Jung speaks of a phenomena unity implicit in the principle of synchronicity, suggesting a relationship not bound by causality and representing the unity of being.
Arthur Schopenhauer speaks of a simultaneity without causal link, Paul Kammerer of the law of series and Hubert Reeves sees it as a manifestation of the unity of the universe.
6.4) Telepathy
Human beings
The Petit Larousse defines telepathy as the transmission of thought from one person to another without communication through known sensory pathways, for example:
- Célestine Galli-Marié performing the role of Carmen in Georges Bizet’s opera, on stage on June 2
1875 suddenly stopped singing, she had just experienced a pain in the heart.
- On her way back to her dressing room, she announced that something had just happened in Bizet.
- At the same time, the composer had a heart problem 77
and died two hours later.
Freud wrote “Psychoanalysis has prepared us to admit phenomena such as telepathy by inserting the unconscious between the physical and what has been called, until now, the psychism.”
In 1965, T.D Duane and T.Behrendt demonstrated that the stimulation to produce alpha waves in a homozygous twin also modifies the electroencephalogram of his brother.
In 1997, Lawrence Wright, a New Yorker journalist, revealed that the CIA in the sixties (during the Cold War) had a successful interest in the telepathic capabilities of twins in its MK-Ultra program No. 136.
Since telepathy is sporadically the subject of experimental studies. It manifests itself between close protagonists: twins, mother and child, friends, man and pets.
Thousands of cases have been reported,
- According to G.L.Playfair, 3 conditions are necessary: the transmitter must be exposed to a powerful stimulus, transmitter and receiver must be in the right state of mind and the stronger the link, the stronger the signal.
- Lived experiences fall into 5 categories, as described by Debbie LaChusa: pain transmission, simultaneous accidents, premonition,distance view and death awareness.
- According to studies by the University of Edinburgh, artists are 25% more susceptible to telepathy.
Perhaps because they express their emotions better and communicate without exchanging words or looks.
Animals
78
Researchers at the Parapsychology Institute in North Carolina have tested our mental capacity to act on animal physiology.
In 1971, G.K.Watkins and A.Watkins compared the awakening of previously anesthetized mice, divided into two groups: In the experimental group, the mice were observed from the same room or through a tinted glass when they woke up, in the control group, they were left to themselves.
They showed that mice that are the subject of human attention woke up faster than those ignored.
Plants
In their studies on plants, C. Backster and R. Miller demonstrated an effect of thought on plant growth.
Thanks to the use of the electrodes of a polygraph, in 1966, C.
Backster observed a change in the pattern of a dragon tree when he imagined approaching it with a match.
The electrodes pattern changed with each alarming thought to return to normal afterwards.
In 1967, R. Miller demonstrated a beneficial effect on the growth of rye from thoughts emitted from their homes of Olga and Ambrose Worrall, the lighting, temperature and watering being identical.
In vitro
Enzymes* are proteins that regulate intracellular chemical reactions. In vitro experiments show an action of thought on different cellular processes.
Here are two examples, following the visualization protocol:
- W. Braud observed a slowdown in hemolysis* in human blood.
79
The effect being stronger if it was the participants' own blood, which they did not know.
- W. Tiller and colleagues measured a significant increase in human liver enzyme activity.
RNG
A RNG* is an electronic device that generates numbers randomly. Hundreds of studies have been conducted to highlight the potential impact of thinking on outcomes.
In 1989, D.Radin and R.Nelson of Princeton conducted a statistical analysis that included the results of 597 experiments, led by 68 researchers and covering a 30-year period.
According to their calculations, the probability that the observed results are due to chance is exceedingly low, it amounts to one chance in more than one billion.
Driving by thought
The object management by thoughts or even other living beings is no longer science fiction, here are 3 examples:
- As part of the brainflight project, a remote drone pilot trial by Germans took place in the Lisbon region.
Involving a driver equipped with an EEG headset associated with an algorithm, relaying his thoughts to precise commands.
The pilot turned the drone right or left in mid-flight.
- With a brain implant decoding the motor commands, a tetraplegic patient was able to activate the limbs of an exoskeleton through his thoughts.
This is the work of the team at Grenoble’s Brain Computer Interface, published in The Lancet.
80
- Equipping a rat with microelectrodes, connected by Bluetooth* to electrodes placed on the skull of a human, researchers from the Zhejiang University allowed the control of animal movements.
Six volunteers guided the rodents through a maze, with 98% of the trips succesfull.
6.5) Reincarnation
Definition
The Petit Larousse defines reincarnation as the migration of the soul at the time of death into another body and J.Keil, psychologist, as the survival of an individual immaterial principle passing in successive lives.
The belief in reincarnation is mainly found among Buddhists and Hindus. It is shared by other cultures: African, Amerindian and even Western, 25% of Americans and Europeans adhering to it.
Example
The most famous story is that of Shanti Devi, born in Dehli in 1926, briefly:
- At the age of 4 Shanti said his real home was in Mathura.
- She used words from the region dialect, which no one spoke in her family or at school.
- She named her husband Kedar Nath.
- The principal of her school, discovering the existence of a merchant of this name in Mathura, wrote to him.
- The stunned merchant told him that his wife had died ten years earlier at the birth of their son.
81
- One of his cousins sent to Delhi was recognized by Shanti who asked him about his son.