Boston bombings

Two young misguided kids let off bombs killing three people. The Americans call these kids terrorists. What is true is that they are Muslims. All suicide bombers believe in the dogma of the soul. That consciousness is not dependent on the brain. This is at the core of the problem. You do not get atheist suicide bombers. You do not get Jewish suicide bombers. Much of what we know about consciousness comes from Jewish scientists, from Kandel to Freud. Why should it be that so many of the greatest names in studies of the mind and brain are Jewish? I believe it is because Judaism never put much in to the afterlife. They already knew, as we know now, that there is no soul. Perhaps this wasn't articulated but it is clear. Even now, the Christian west pay reverence to suicide bombers commitment to belief. I think the idea of the soul is a malignant idea. Something we need to work ourselves away from.

The emotions are neurochemicals. They wash over us. Cognitive systems have been the focus of brain studies, they are only half the story. Most study of emotion has been behavioural. Only recently has anyone tackled the molecules of matter that are emotions. This must be the reason why some people are addicts. When opiates enter some peoples systems they act as a corrective. They normalise them. The contrasting pictures the cognitive systems and emotional soaking deliver are schizophrenia. Where thoughts and feelings clash. Split brain patients, a treatment for certain extreme forms of epilepsy, have two awarenesses that are seperate. One can be shown a picture of a devil, but the other side will be unable to say what the picture is of. It will be able to say it has a bad vibe though. The emotional reaction comes before recognition. Countless times we have walked in to rooms and felt bad vibes, turned down a street and felt animal fear. We may have not yet been able to figure our what it is we are scared o but we know. These feelings punctuate the lives of some people, wired sensations of distrust. Certainty that things are wrong yet having no way to tell why. This is where the answers to depression, schizophrenia and addiction lie. In the understanding of the biology of mind, the molecules that are our emotions.

Birds and Chimney Pots

Evening Walk

Blossom...and a hazy return from psychosis to work

Beech and Birch

A further point about the self. It may be a convenient illusion to think of ourselves in the singular but in truth we are many. we are only partly human cells. Thousands of millions of bacteria outnumber the human cells. Parts of us are left everywhere we go, parts exchanged when we kiss or shake hands. The bio flora isa quagmire of different life forms, breeding and dieing around us. Picture a childhood memory. Christmas or holidays. No part of you that is here now was there then. If you are my age and committed a crime in your early twenties, there is no particle of you left, attached to or living on you, that was there then and could in any real way be heald accountable.  Rather than thinking of ourselves as solid, fixed, physical beings, it may be more accurate to think of a wave, travelling through the various human cells and bacterial particles. A swarm of living micro organisms carrying, temporarily the energy, as a patch of sea holds the wave, but briefly, before it passes.

Why the dogma of the Soul is so bad for all of us

Recently I was aske d why I deemed the idea of a soul so bad. It is a good question. The idea of a creator, a god may not have a deep effect on the workings of a persons mind. The idea of a soul, a consciousness that does not depend on the brain or body has far deeper implications. When I talk of the self being an illusion I include the notion of a soul. It is believed, by some that, though the body dies, the essence of the person in a state of awareness can transcend death. The first and simplest implication is that life becomes not so important. Killing people becomes not such a bad thing. If a paradise or even another life happens after we die, the current life becomes less important. It becomes a period we pas through, like puberty or a mid life crisis. In truth it is far worse than this. If the soul is eternal then this life is as significant as one second of your childhood. Mos t people who say they believe in the soul transcending death are just pretending. If they really believed it there would be people breaking on through to the other side all over the place. Trains would be stopped by an endless flow of attempted suicides. Tall bridges and buildings would have piles of the bodies of those who chose to enter paradise early below them. The correct reaction when you meet someone who has just learned that they have a terminal illness would be, "congratulations! Glad to here you are on the way to heaven soon." But people don't say that. Because they don't really believe. Some people do. Suicide bombers. The pilots of the planes that flew in to the world trade centre believed in the afterlife. They are prime examples of soul focused people. For them life has little value. It is just a step on the way to paradise.

A further consequence of this type of thinking is to do w itch compassion and understanding. Our society had its routes in the belief that there is a soul, that there is a self. That a person sits in your skull, taking in all the thoughts that come its way and deciding which have merit. This was and still is the broad consensus thinking. What is really exciting is that neuroscience is proving that this is not true. We are much the same as all other animals, a bundle of impulses and urges. There is no person within your skull, steering the vehicle that is your body. If it were true, who would be inside his head, and who inside his. The philosophy, though the basis of our legal system, begins to crumble under close inspection. The drug addict is deemed weak willed. The paedophile is blamed for having the thoughts fate gave him. The stupid are blamed for being stupid. The bright rewarded for being bright. None of us had any say in this. When a drug addict succumbs to their nature, it isn't like a normal person choosing to take drugs. They are in a constant, daily state of craving. The serial rapist, though we revile them, is not like us. They are constantly holding back. Constantly holding back the urge. If they can not control themselves, let us be adult about this, let hem come forward, without stigma, so we can work together for a better world.

This discovery has profound implications. The idea of keeping dangerous people locked away for the rest of our safety is still relevant, but punishing people for their nature is clearly immoral. Locking them away only makes sense to stop them acting out their nature, not to punish them for something they had no choice in. But we must also recognise that if there is sufficient neuroplasticity, if the person can be retrained to not act on their impulses they must be helped. Paedophiles ought to be able to submit themselves to doctors or police before they act on their impulses. We must overcome our revulsion and recognise that they never chose to be what they are. Let them come forward for help.

We are only alive this once. Don't put off what you want to achieve till the next life because there isn't one.

Moving hasn't worked out. It seems I am predestined to remain homeless. I moved in to the new flat. It took me weeks to get settled there. Last week I decided to lock myself away in there to catch up with the drawings I have to do. There I a bookcase for one place, a fireplace, an office, bookcases and a desk. All needed drawings.  These days I spoke to no one. I got a bout half way so far. One evening a guy walks in. I aske d him what he was doing, he said he was an estate agent and the flat is up for sale. So I had one month of chaos, bought furniture and took out cable contracts, but soon will have to move. I rang the landlord who says the letting agent should have told me. Well, I was pretty pissed off. I walked out in to t own and sorted myself out.

Blossom and Rust

Out in the Woods

Weeks Woodwork

Final few pieces for the house I'm currently working on are coming together. Drawings for the next stuff are underway too.