Ahhh. I see this and I feel like I can breath again. This, this is home. A comfy chair and cave full of books. Surrounded by knowledge, historians, people who have LIVED and people who have died with their small fingerprint left on the world. This is a room I cant wait to have for myself.

 

This is how I feel when I read. Shit, if I could swim in a book I would.

Pictures of The Mind

Pictures of the Mind: What the New Neuroscience Tells Us About Who We Are By Mariam Boleyn-Fitzgerald. A book I asked for for Christmas, received a couple months ago and finally started to read about a week or two ago. WHAT a read! I found it so interesting I took notes on it and I will share with you some of the most interesting of findings.


-People who experience less pleasure in response to food might overeat to compensate, whereas people who experience more pleasure stop because they are satisfied. How fascinating! They did MRI scans that came up with this conclusion, a conclusion that is basically the exact opposite of what we have always thought about the obese.

-Happiness circuits are among the most plastic circuits in the brain. Now isn't that a lovely insight?

-There is something called a "dark network" which is basically a network that is buzzing when we are doing nothing at all and goes dark when figuring out a problem or doing an activity. Its thought to play an important role in learning, memory and in maintaining energy equilibrium in the brain. Isn't that interesting? Even when we think we aren't using our brain, we are. and it turns out to be an important part to our very existence as an intelligent race.

-The larger a persons neural response to increases in the public good the more likely they will give [money] voluntarily. Not that astounding of a discovery, but an interesting study nonetheless.

-Scientists are incredibly close to "erasing" (taking away the emotional aspect of) memories. Most notably this could be used in helping people with PTSD and not having the emotional responses to memories of war, rape, violence, etc. The book talks about scientists who have already been able to achieve this with a drug and other scientists who have serious ethical issues with it. Does this effect the real "you"? By doing this can it make you not learn from your experiences? Personally, I think its a chance for people who are truly suffering from PTSD to have a second chance to live a normal life. This erasing method doesnt actually make them forget the memory, they recall it just fine, they just aren't traumatized by it any longer and that is something that those patients could really use.

-30-40% of people who have temporal lobe epilepsy have intense spiritual experiences. Like talking to god, or feeling connected with the universe, etc. I found this very interesting. It went on to talk about how the left hemisphere, the "logical" side of the brain, often tries to come up with "rational" explanations of things occurring in the right hemisphere that it cant account for, for instance a seizure in the temporal lobe making you feel all these emotions you cant explain, and thus the best explanation for such pleasurable experiences (which are in reality just chemicals being released in your brain) is a connection with god or the universe. There was also a particularly enjoyable quote from scientist Ramachandran, "God is the ultimate confabulation by the left hemisphere".



So there you have it! It is a spectacular book full of tons of really interesting information on a vast amount of different topics (in concerns to the brain of course). The book actually took an unexpected turn towards meditation and mindfulness at the end and how it actually does a lot of good things to our brain, and can produce high-frequency gamma activity, which is believed to be an indicator of neural synchrony. there is a lot of research being done currently on the link between meditation/mindfulness and happiness and other benefits.

Neuroscience is an up and coming field and there really are no limits to what we can study and what we will find. And thats a big reason why I am finding myself jumping in with both feet. Be expecting a lot of neuroscience related books in the future.

Coming next, my thoughts on Mind Wide Open by Steven Johnson and my favorite passages. This book has been my favorite book for at least five or six years, I am rereading it once again to take notes, like Ive always wanted to, and to look at it with fresh eyes and a new-found passion.

Harry Potter

So the last movie of the Harry Potter series came out and after having finally completed (visually) the series I just had to reread the books. and Im really glad I did! I must say they really hold up to rereading, and I mean several times. The amount of detail and characters and whatnot really brings you into its world and you can so see everything that is happening. I still stand by that the books are better than the movies (of course) just because of the amount of detail and getting to know the other more obscure characters and inter-relationships with one another. But really, the movies are still damn good, they really do the books justice and are just as visually as exciting and accurate as they are described in the books. And I think that is really quite a feat. I really cant wait to see if J.K. will continue to write. I really hope she does, and i dont mean more Harry Potter books (I already know thats not going to happen) but just a different series of sorts in a different world. She is a great author and really knows how to take you along the exciting and emotional rollercoaster with the characters. But we shall see, its not like she will ever "have" to work again.

Where Good Ideas Come From

Let me just start by saying Steven Johnson is one of my favorite authors. I fell in love with his writing when I first read Mind Wide Open (a book about the neuroscience of every day life) and I have read that book several times since. He has a way of talking to you like he is sitting in front of you having a conversation, not talking AT you or trying to sound like he knows more than he does. It’s really awesome.

Anyway this book I just finished, Where Good Ideas Come From, was a really great read. I finished it in about a week. It talks about his theory on where most of the best ideas/inventions come from (open source as opposed to being secretive) and how they are formed. He talks about what some of the great inventors of the last 200 years had in common (they hung out in coffeehouses or commons and talked with a varied amount of kinds of people instead of a tight-knit group, and they tended to have a lot of hobbies and varied interests in different studies.) He talked about how most great ideas are not eureka moments but slow hunches that take a long time to develop and conjure. It really is fascinating how he pulls all these ideas together. In fact it really has given me a swift kick in the ass to be more active. Be more active in pursuing all of my interests, and instead of reading in bed or on the couch to go read at a Starbucks, to take lots of walks, and write down more of my thoughts and ideas. To be ok with not getting it right all the time and to absolutely revel in all the serendipitous moments in my life. Like I said, its a great read, and I highly recommend it to those interested in where good ideas come from and potentially interested in having some of their own.

Two favorite quotes:
“Chance favors the connected mind.”

“‘Perhaps the history of the errors of mankind, all things considered, is more valuable and interesting than that of their discoveries. Truth is uniform and narrow; it constantly exists, and does not seem to require so much an active energy, as a passive aptitude of soul in order to encounter it. But error is endlessly diversified.’ - Benjamin Franklin”

Art Of Non-Conformity

What a book! This beautiful masterpiece is pure inspiration for those who have always felt like their path isn’t that of what society tells us it should be. It gives you hope that you can do it (and also to stay realistic in your journey of non-conformity), it makes you realize that you are certainly not alone in feeling uncomfortable living the life you were told you are supposed to have, and it makes you just want to get up and do it! Chris also has a website where he posts his newest work, ideas, and his own journey in completing his goal of visiting every single country in the world by the time he turns 35 (amazing, right?). I subscribed to his email list and get a weekly email of his most recent inspiration and story that makes you think and keeps you wanting to work toward doing whatever it is you need to do for yourself. I highly suggest buying this book, or at the very least check out the website. It’s worth the read/look and you could find it very useful to getting the courage to do what you want to do (which I know from experience, can be a very very hard thing to do).