MANdala

This is what music does to our brain! Communion with the collective is never far away.

Why We Dream & Thoughts on DMT

People continue to investigate this age-old mystery. Why do we dream? Deirdre Barrett's new theory suggests that dreams are not merely a side effect of REM sleep, or a Freudian gratification, rather a way of problem solving, critically thinking while we sleep. I believe this also has long been a colloquial answer to the mystery of dreaming... however, I believe that scientific credit to Barrett's ten years of research will do much good for the acceptance of shamanistic practices, which, like dreams, make us "ripe for the type of 'out-of-the-box' thinking that some problem-solving requires". 


My hope is that one day, instead of reminding children to wash behind their ears, mothers and fathers will be shouting behind their children "don't forget to clean your brain!!" Our society already notices the importance of "clearing the mind". Perhaps one day LSD and DMT will be seen as evolutionary tools as simple as soap and hot water. 


Even so, mystery will remain. When we dream are we problem-solving, or are We problem-solving? Perhaps the tiny pulse of dmt into our sleeping brains is enough to drop-us into the fabric, into the collective... maybe only half way. Even more, dreams might reveal something about our soul or show us that we are not alone. 

As the universe seems to continually synchronize, I woke up this morning from the most terrible nightmare. More tremendous than all of my monster and dragon dreams combined, there were people killing people. It was a sight that I will not write down in my dream journal. The images are still burning my minds eye. After crying for some time, I got online to read and write about dreams. As I signed on to facebook, the top of my feed lent me this article on Barrett's research. Thank you Luke, Fredrik and David for participating in the synchronicity.

http://www.livescience.com/health/dream-problem-solving-100627.html

Brain Sand ( corpora arenacea)

Mind Hacks

Highlights:

Taken from the Wikipedia entry on 'brain sand':

Corpora arenacea (or brain sand) are calcified structures in the pineal gland and other areas of the brain such as the choroid plexus. Older organisms have numerous corpora arenacea, whose function, if any, is unknown. Concentrations of "brain sand" increase with age, so the pineal gland becomes increasingly visible on X-rays over time, usually by the third or fourth decade. They are sometimes used as anatomical landmarks in radiological examinations.

Chemical analysis shows that they are composed of calcium phosphate, calcium carbonate, magnesium phosphate, and ammonium phosphate. Recently, calcite deposits have been described as well.

French philosopher René Descartes famously concluded that the mind and the brain existed as entirely separate entities (a position now known as Cartesian dualism) and believed that pineal gland was the point at which the two interacted.

This was due to the fact that that, unlike most other structures in the brain, there is only one pineal gland and it is located exactly along the midline.

As Descartes largely thought of the mind and soul as the same thing, I'd like to think he would have called these calcified particles 'soul sand' had he known about them.

If you want some more details on 'brain sand', of which we know very little, this large abstract of a scientific study has a wealth of information.

http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2010/06/brain_sand.html