Happiness Is A Scam - Santosh Jha (best books to read .TXT) 📗
- Author: Santosh Jha
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Before we delve into how our brain has evolved over millions of years till date to work out perceptions of realities for us; we need to talk about a very contemporary scientific hypothesis and accept it as a probability to understand some important aspects of reality we perceive as. This hypothesis is very important as it may be accepted as the bedrock of all subsequent hypotheses we may accept as a probability. This hypothesis pertains to Intentionality. We need to first talk in some detail about the notion and reality of Intentionality.
Intentionality is intangibility; a feel, a perception of something, which is not in any physical form but as some energy, which we know as Causality. In contemporary scientific vocabulary, we may call it Information. We all already know how it is hugely tough to define and understand something, which is not tangible and eludes visual spectrum. Intentionality is also intangible like happiness, mood, sadness, disgust, etc. However, we also know very clearly that all intangibilities are seeded and engrained in tangible processes, which are essentially chemical processing. That is why; understanding intentionality shall help us in having better cognition and feel of all intangible realities of life-living.
Intentionality may be referred to as a ‘superordinate’ term, which means a higher and more generic classification or categorization of different related realities. As we all know, animal is the superordinate word for lions, horses, cows and tiger. Intentionality is also a reality, which accommodates and personifies so many related cognitive sensing and feeling. Intentionality is superordinate reality for most perceptional cognitions of brain states. Therefore, all perceptional states like happiness, sadness, fear, anger, disgust, surprise; which are known as Six Core Emotions of life-living, can be clubbed and merged in one generic term of Intentionality. As we know, scientists have listed 40-50 emotions, which evolved out of these six core emotions, as amalgamation for specific expressions of intentionality. This aspect must be kept in mind as we proceed further.
Now, the very critical hypothesis about intentionality, which modern neuroscientists have accepted is – Intentionality happens at cellular level. This makes the idea and reality of intentionality very difficult to understand and also qualify it to be a critical knowledge, which humanity has not understood till date very well. The scientists have only begun to unravel many mysteries around it. We have no space here to deal with the science of intentionality in detail. This aspect of reality and life-living however must be known in its holism by every aware person. This is true knowledge, which helps in optimizing one’s potentials in all walks of life-living. What we intend to do here for our navigational requirements is understand why intentionality must be understood well.
Intentionality is the third and final stage of sensory functionality. A single cell oceanic organism moves out in its milieu to optimize survival needs. It receives signals from external milieus. The cellular sensory mechanism then ‘processes’ the information to get the navigation map of the external milieu where prospects of better food may be present. However, the organism still has to make a decision to launch or not to launch the required action of moving towards the desired place of food availability. The information, the realization and the last stage is what we are calling as ‘Intention’ to launch motor action for movement. The intentionality is the intangible ‘tangent’ or ‘energy vent’ to convert or not convert the processed reality into ‘feel’ for ultimate action. Once this intentionality gets converted into motor action for behavior and actions, it enters into an interaction with external as well as internal milieus. The experience follows and memories are formed. A complex cycle of causalities get energized. That is why Intentionality is so important for both organism as well as milieus.
As scientists say, the Intentionality happens at cellular levels itself, we have to accept two probabilities – first, this intentionality very much looks like a chemical process but how does chemicals create intentionality, is something which needs to be known and deciphered with singular certainty. It is not yet available; at least to my knowledge. Secondly, as intentionality has to happen at cellular level and we humans have over 30 trillion cells in our body, it has to be hypothesized that the final intentionality, which shapes up our decision-making; the ‘finality of feel’, must be an emergent entity. Emergence has to happen when millions of cells together infuse their intentionality for a human organ or our mind space to decide on an actionable pattern. We have already talked as how brain is a cooperative of different organs, evolved in different timeline, separated by millions of years. Similarly, cells, which form tissues, tissues form organs and organs form us; work in a cooperative and assimilative mechanism and process to stick to the difficult discipline of singular Intentionality. This makes the mechanism and processes of emergence of intentionality in humans hugely tough. But, we must understand intentionality if we in any ways wish to understand the world of perceptions, we humans have, which shape up our decisions.
Science has done loads of good work in unraveling the system of intentionality by deciphering the mechanisms and processes of brain functioning. We need so many things and still; many aspects of brain functioning is not known. Human brain is too complex and also, it is not ethically possible to experiment with live human brain, as it is with animals and primates. Still, we have enough knowledge of brain system to accept some hypotheses, which shall help us in unraveling many complicated realities of our life-living; especially the world of perceptions. We shall now detail them.
We have hypothesized that all realities are emergence of a navigational map in the brain states, which happen because of interaction of organism with its external as well as internal milieus. We have also hypothesized that all these happen as chemical processes, which may be simple as well as hugely complex. If we join the two hypotheses, we arrive at the reality of our own body-brain system working in a way, we have now known.
We now know that even when most of us think that ‘we’ are the protagonist of all actions and behaviors we do and don’t do; actually, the true and real ‘ownership’ of all actions and behaviors rests with chemical sensory signals and their processing. Modern science has experimented and done loads of simulations to know that if a small part of our brain is inactivated or blocked, we cannot even do simple task as moving our fingers and have a feeling of specific emotions. Therefore, intentionality is also a chemical reality. All intangibilities have tangible roots; the emergence makes it have multidimensionality.
It shall require further researches in arriving at all possible details about how complex shades of intentionality is engendered and how chemical coding expresses itself in brain-body environment to translate them into specifics of diverse behaviors and actions. However, science tells us about some aspects of how this intentionality is coded and then expressed to enable brain and body to translate into action and behavior. There is a plexus of hormones and enzymes; which are all chemical compositions, which lead the enactment of all relevant actions and behaviors. Science has also known that these hormones are very old, existing hundreds of millions of years back, in very simple organisms and evolved as hormonal system or what we know as endocrine system in humans. We need to understand this in short passage to have an idea about how they are important in shaping up our world of perceptions and reality.
Science tells us that dopamine; which is probably the oldest hormone of the Earth’s life-living history; known to we humans as ‘Reward Hormone’, works as a very complex hormonal system in human brain to elicit specific actions and behaviors in organisms, including humans. In a way, hormones are the ‘masters’ of human body, which we carry out as ‘slaves’ and yet, boast of as being the true protagonist and subject. Understanding even a single hormone like dopamine shall help us de-scam our perceptions.
Dopamine is a classic example of how nature’s intelligence works through chemical imprints and how perceptions about reality emerge as these chemical processes lead the external sensory information to convert into action-behavior patterns. Dopamine is a chemical compound, known as neurotransmitter, which is produced by brain. Dopamine is so critical for brain’s overall functioning as information processor and action-originator that scientists consider it as Dopamine System. Dopamine is said to have its presence in different parts of the brain and its complex functional mechanisms and processes shape up intentionality in different ways. Latest science research associates dopamine flurry with the dynamics of dreams. Everyone should know in detail about how hormones work their ways with multiples roles in our body-brain plexuses, performing such tasks, which looks like a magic and marvel. They help us unlearn many misconceptions we live out unconsciously and also facilitate learning of novel facts.
The human brain produces different types of hormones and all hormones have a mechanism. To put it in simple terms, the limbic system of the human brain, which senses out sensory signals from external milieus, signals suitably to the pituitary gland situated in the brain, which in turn releases different hormones. These different hormones, which are essentially chemicals, orchestrate different suitable motor action or behavioral action in humans. The hormone working mechanisms and processes are very complex and layered; involving almost all other systems of body as well as different parts of brain. The hormones can be both excitatory and inhibitory. This is seemingly a simple intelligence, working for nature in all complex organisms, including humans. However, the working of this hormonal process is complex and only parts of it are now being understood. We all know, how majority of diseases humans have in modern times are referred to as lifestyle diseases and almost all lifestyle diseases involve some sort of hormonal imbalances. We also know; huge ranges of medicinal treatment of maladies are using synthetic hormones, created artificially. This intelligence needs to be generalized and simplified for understanding of our body-brain functioning.
The external milieus, where a person moves, may present a situation, which is perceived as information, sensed out by brain, through sensory organs. This situational information has been categorized into six core Emotions, which brain states sense out for suitable action-reaction. As mentioned earlier, these six core emotions are happiness, sadness, fear, anger, disgust and surprise. These six emotions are like superordinate ones, as more than 40-50 shades of emotions are engendered out of the six emotions, depending on the specificity of the situation in the complex external milieus of modern humanity.
Here, it is important to stay put and understand what we have discussed at the start of our journey. We have already discussed how, we need to come out of the fixation and slavery of populist and dominant analogies, symbols and metaphors to understand reality, in its holism and entirety, divorced of perceptional mysticism. We need to dump the traditional perceptions of the words and terms like emotions
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