Earlier this evening I heard a television show which spoke of the mind. And it was in part, work that I have been waiting to do, (due to circumstances beyond my control). I decided, as I’ve done before, that I better write at least some of my work on this subject promptly. This has happened so many times now with a number of my chosen subjects and it’s really painful. I spent many years on my work regarding the mind. I actually had to change the tv channel because it was almost word for word my work. I’m sure any scientist or inventor would understand the bond I feel with my work.
There was a question asked me quite some years ago, ‘Did I know where the mind is? And I pondered this for all these years because in part, the person who posed the question was/is important to me and once I began working on the question, it became all the more interesting.
It’s important to put aside emotion (temporarily) when understanding the mechanics of how we work. And it’s fascinating and warming to see the love that has gone into the mechanism of these mechanics so that we can function as we do.
I discovered that the mind is the sum of all parts in a sense. There is a meeting place of all the information of brain and body and the parts that our minds get to know about is what our minds can experience. Like stubbing your toe for instance. The information you can know is generally how much it hurts, whether it is bleeding, or worse, broken. The other activity taking place is separate from our minds.
When we see the problems that people with Alzheimer’s deal with, its because the mind is so reliant on memory. The memory system is helpless without a mind and the reverse is also true.
Other conditions that are not effecting memory, but alternate functions, do not really affect the mind, only how much information is available to it. Rather like a jigsaw puzzle, we can take sections and the mind will simply work with what it has. And in that regard, there are people who seem to think I should be able to think myself out of the problems that my particular Rett Syndrome cause for me, but it isn’t like that. Like someone who cannot see colour, (and other people have used this example because it’s easy for people to understand) how do you explain colour to them? They can know colour exists but they just cannot see it. I need people to explain things and they think I should be able to grasp it on my own, when it actually isn’t about grasping the thing. I may not know what a certain experience is like, but if its told to me, I never forget that there are people who do. If you couldn’t see that grass was green, how would I give you a sense of what green is like? Worse, if a person was total blind from birth then its colour and vision and so touch is then used to provide to the mind what can be gleaned via that faculty. And I believe this does give the blind person some sense of the thing whereas for me, I cannot form a picture for my mind. It is thought or memory of a picture that I have to have seen in the past.
Which leads me to an interesting observation of myself which people should find interesting, as well as professionals, because it’s an insight into how we all function that is usually not knowable. It was a strange feature, among the myriad I have experienced and sad, but there’s no point in the experience going to waste.
I have never been able to see imagery in waking time but when young I could dream and recall imagery. This is because being awake took all my energy yet while being asleep, there was some to spare. (this took near my lifetime to understand this). Dreaming requires the mind. Babies dream but it would only be in their limit of experience. Like being warm and snuggly and mum’s voice and all those type things. I shouldn’t think there is much imagery for the tiny person, more memory of nice feelings. If you see a little smile on the sleeping baby’s face that’s likely a dream of just such new and happy memories.
I had a dream that I used to have for a very long time, years in fact and it was so very frightening. The only reason I can think of for such a dream is that when my condition started to become apparent I must have spent a deal of time on doctor’s tables and likely held so I would be still and my goodness, I can advise to be very careful about this because you could end up with a child waking in distress in the middle of the night. The delayed child doesn’t understand what is going on and can process this in a not so healthy way. Gentle medical professionals are required. But it also helps if they look that way too.
For those people researching the brain, this long-term dream had imagery. While still pre-school age, perhaps by a year, I was getting some imagery in my dreaming while asleep, despite it being nightmarish.
And I saw colour, it wasn’t vivid colour but there was some. Then by my next regression, my dream imagery had become greyish black and white imagery. Not even a dot of colour. Then by end of primary school there was no imagery at all in my dreams. I was dealing with such difficult issues during this time that this was the least of them though.
I was able to observe some of my losses, peripherally, if that makes sense and this particular feature tells us a lot about brain function. In this case, this faculty I was losing also gave the opportunity to understand some fundamental principles behind mental imagery. Nor did I know at that time that this experience was unique to me, because at that age you only have your own experience and I also had no way of articulating or talking about it.
This is likely not unique to me when it comes to others with Rett Syndrome however, though I would consider that this most likely coincides with those who have some cognitive impairment. I’m sure I could come up with a method to determine and for anyone who thinks their child may have this issue, then give them all the pictures they wish to look at, of all types of things, whether real or animation and they can utilise a picture memory as I do.
We know the autonomic nervous system (ANS) is the department in the brain that’s in charge of important life support systems. Its monitoring breathing, heart rate and so forth. Your mind gives you some access to these functions and allows you to moderate them somewhat, like when you realise your heart is beating way too fast, or if you hyperventilate, your mind can communicate with these systems and can calm them some. Your mind can do this because the energy system supporting these systems is also supporting mind function. And the mind has more than a single energy system supporting its function in able people. All the memory systems are like shelves and shelves of files. Unaware of each other or their contents and any problem occurring with them will result in the feeling of forgetting something to having no memory of that lost memory whatsoever. Another problem that can occur is a memory system devoted to specific function that cannot or can no longer, set down memory and it can be minor or sadly, it can be major. And though it might feel like the mind is able to remember, it isn’t.
When you wake from a night’s sleep, your memory system boots up and reloads. The speed at which people do this is varied and individual. Most people likely think all their memory is just sitting there waiting to be accessed when they wake, but it isn’t, it requires energy to be at the ready. As well, the memory system needs to rest and reload for it to function reliably. The need for memory to regularly refresh is likely due to our being organic. If it didn’t refresh, memory would start dropping out so we need sleep and our whole beings, minds included, rest, recharge and refresh. Many people with Rett Syndrome take significantly longer for their memory system to reload and can likely seem irritable or frightened when woken too quickly, or look a little lost, or be physically awkward until working memory has gone into place. If you’ve ever seen a person jump out of bed but their legs aren’t ready, that’s their physical working memory still reloading
I have much more to say on ‘The Mind’ as with all the subjects I have written essays on which will either be in my book or my blog but I feel compelled to state the following:
In the course of my work, I determined that we are not functioning in a random manner, we are functioning in a manner that was determined long, long, ago. At the risk of stating something controversial, our manner of functioning is most certainly modelled on a lifeform that is longer lived than the planet we are living on. Therefore, I must deduce that the mind of our heavenly father is most certainly working in the same manner, which is a ‘sum of all parts’ format.
By Fiona MacLeod ©
