Following on from yesterday’s post… (I was going to post artwork this week, but as so often happens in my blogging, world events take over, and like the superhero greenYgrey could’ve been, I have to fly to the rescue… in my mind!?)… Unconscious Bias should only be a first line of defence.
Then if you have to get to know them; spend more time with them; conscious evaluation should take over!
Groomers/terrorists recruit people from other races/genders to do their work for them (Lord Haw Haw was a famous U.S./U.K. one in WW2!) if they think they won’t be trusted by their targets/victims’ Unconscious Bias (maybe Prince Harry is a victim?).
The blog post image above is a ‘self-portrait’ drawing of how I thought my ADHD conscious/unconscious worked when I finished my PhD and started my creative writing in 2005.
My posts on Facebook are already backlogged for this site, going back to some of my childhood and youth TV highlights; and how they influenced the pagan me and wondering how today’s Black Power focus is going to inspire the younger generation; and centuries of British history!
This is not a fracking poem! It’s brainy poetry!! Autobiography neurology!!!
Fracking My Brain Up, Down To Coffee Cup
mine mine, it’s all mine
exploring all day, digging for sign
word connections, startling revelations
sparking neurons, storing learns
deep seams all dried out
written what it’s all about
now I’m just chipping away
just to keep thinking day by day
pump coffee mixing in, flood blood stimulating adrenaline
hoping hormone rushes to stem of brain
where hippocampus and amygdala contain
short and long term memories
together with all humanity’s
universal mind, original creation
mother earth, genetic lactation
will these words, contribute to legacy
something like Shakespeare, to be
I’ve enrolled my second and latest poetry collection, 242 Mirror Poems and Reflections, along with Werewolf of Oz: Fantasy Travels By Google Maps, in theSmashwords read an ebook week for free sale, starting Sunday March 3rd.
Marc Latham’s latest Folding Mirror poem mixes sight and thought, memory and recall. Thanks for reading this, and I hope some of it, or something on this site, is worth recalling sometime.
One Way Optic Nerve, Visual Cortex Return Signals
some times you see what you look for
other things just come into view
often the scenery is normal
occasionally it’s surprising too
sky changes colour at least twice daily
although clouds often obscure the view
time changes everything, memory records moments
but best times always fly obscured
in mental zone of ephemeral thoughtless focus
when brain runs automatically
like yoga master body lotus
other times images enter the mind
some things only register when triggers prompt us
Meditation and optimism can make a healthy mind and increase life expectancy according to a new documentary, but does it also mean hiding from reality and neglecting your human duty?
Frontal lobe, gyri and sulci (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Hi, it’s Stephen Wolfing, science correspondent at the Greenygrey. I was reminded of my recent mind, brain and psychology (with a nice greenygrey gyrisulci image just found!) blog by a recent Horizon documentary that featured Michael Mosley investigating how meditation and optimism can add years to your life. It’s available in the U.K. on BBCiplayer until 10pm Wednesday 17th July; don’t know about other availability.
Michael Mosley’s Mind Meditates
Despite seemingly having a nice life, Mosley revealed he was prone to pessimism and depression; resulting in anxiety, insomnia and neuroticism.
This was shown in a brain scan revealing cerebral assymetry: filtering the world more through the right side of his brain’s frontal cortex, which is associated with negativity:
The right side of the brain is also associated with creativity of course, with the left side of the brain associated with logic.
Maybe that is why negative events in people’s lives can result in great bursts of creativity: because the right side of the brain is so active.
Over the course of the documentary Mosley meditated and tried to build a more positive outlook. By the end of the documentary Mosley said he felt better, and a brain scan revealed his frontal cortex correlated with this.
There was more symmetry between left and right: positive and negative:
Avoiding Bad News and Negativity
While meditation and a positive outlook benefitted Michael Mosley’s mind; a comfortable middle-aged scientific celebrity who should really be happy; maybe it wouldn’t work for people who have pressing problems outside their mind: such as a lack of work and money.
And building a more positive outlook might also mean avoiding bad news. There is a nasty side to the human and natural world out there if you look for it, or you can largely avoid it by not following the news and current affairs.
People who work in human and animal welfare charities, or join the army and go to a conflict zone; that are always exposed to the negative side to the world; should be more prone to depression. This is supported by the recent news story about British armed forces suicide rates.
Exposing yourself to the danger of depression I suppose depends on how much ‘negativity’ you think you can take, and how much you feel the urge to try and make a difference. Most humans seem to have that urge for a few years, before family and regular work becomes the main concern, and social philanthropy becomes a sideline.
Meditation and seeking happiness can seem selfish in the modern world, but if everybody was doing it, maybe there wouldn’t be the social problems that make people feel they need to risk happiness to make a difference.
Scenes of Inner Taksang, temple hall, built just above the cave where Padmasambhava meditated (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Risking happiness should also depend on how likely you are to be successful in making a positive difference. Thinking you’re making a difference should increase morale and mood. However, if you’re exposing yourself to negativity, and don’t think you’re achieving anything, that is likely to cause depression.
There have always been causes to support, and there always will be. I hope people will continue supporting human and animal welfare charities, and doing the right thing as they see it, but I wouldn’t encourage people to go further than they think they can handle. I don’t think I could work in charities regularly exposed to real and filmed cruelty… and not be depressed.
Hi, it’s Wolf Whistzer, news hound at the Greenygrey. There were lots of interesting stories in the latest World Science newsletter, so I’ve copied the links below. Some of them partly inspired Marc Latham’s latest FM poem about similarities in the shape and scientific knowledge about space and brain. Enjoy.
* Planets from long ago puzzle astronomers:
Scientists have identified a planetary system that
they describe as a likely survivor from one of the
earliest cosmic times.
Marc Latham’s latest Folding Mirror poem compares space and brain, which are both better understood now than in the past. This is because of advances in technology and the accumulation of evidence over the centuries. However, there are still many mysteries remaining, with the majority of knowledge about how both space and brain work beyond the reach of science at the moment.
Once upon time sky was mystery?
Filled only by the imagination?
no solar systems, galaxies and nebulae
lenticular, spiral, starburst
until technology was developed
telescopes delving into space
to the limits of observable
before the stars disappear
infinity beyond finite science
our origins unobservable in the unknown
oval enclosure
universe is mine, mind is universal
egg hatches
we are happiest living within unconscious
cruising in a daydream
trying to enjoy memories
stored in the primal psyche
scientists scan the brain
finding how thought interacts
cerebellum, amygdala, hypothalamus
with nervous systems, life and world
Do we remember our creation?
Does it drive our desired destiny?
Brain scanning technology is quickly approaching levels of detail that will have serious implications (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
mistYmuse 