Various lines of my study of the brain and infant workings on integrations are related here.
Bipolar and Psychedelics: Both the manic phase of bipolar disorder and psychedelics share a similar signature of mPFC-PCC decoupling. These two regions, alongside the precuneus, are the main hubs of the Default Mode Network, and are responsible for the sense of identity, the curation of a personal narrative, and the integration of experiences in the context of that self. Disintegration of the DMN is the decoupling of these networks to, as it were, "open the borders" of the self to the world. In psychedelic experiences, the altered state of consciousness is a result of this decoupling of the regions associated with the self. Alongside this decoupling, the regions of the DMN decouple with one another and couple with other regions of the brain, increasing global connectivity and fostering the post experience integration which is a result of these global coupling patterns occurring in the brain. This is what makes psychedelics a useful treatment of depression and other mood related disorders: its ability to loosen the rigid coupling of the mPFC and PCC that is the central neural signature of these conditions. Classic psychedelics such as psilocybin and LSD consistently reduce blood flow and neural activity in the mPFC and PCC. The magnitude of this decrease often correlates with the intensity of the subjective "psychedelic" effects reported by users.
It can be logically hypothesized that the manic stage of bipolar is itself a form of "self-induced psychosis" as it has similar neural signatures to the psychedelic experience, only spread out across time and, the key distinction, with more instability - this self-induced psychosis can be thought of a natural corrective of the depressive phase that characterizes depression. Further hypotheses:
- bipolar disorder is a sort of prophetic neural signature that facilitates a natural process of the expansion of consciousness.
- the rebirth experience in mystic, alchemical, hermetical, gnostic, new age, traditions is this momentary expansion of self mediated through the opening of the borders of self (reduced coupling of the mPFC and PCC) followed by integration after the fact.
- Pathology, temporarily cured by the rebirth experience, involves either excessive binding or insufficient binding of mPFC–PCC coupling.
- Bipolar individuals experience their sense of self more discretely from other individuals: the continuity of self is repeatedly broken by the experience of mania which decouples the regions associated with sense of self and self-narrative.
- Bipolar develops from growing intensities of experience and greater oscillation of coupling patterns. Common coexisting illnesses include ADHD and anxiety disorders: intensity of experience with reality in relation to self manifest themselves neurologically in patterns of oscillation. Insight triggers rebirth followed by collapse. Treatment involves consciously authoring one's own development.
Theory of the development of the human brain in conjunction with the development of human religion My theory of religion involves a developmental trajectory of the conception of God. I initially formulated this concept after reading Mircea Eliade, Eric Voegelin, and Gerschom Scholem. The original conception of reality before the break into monotheistic tradition, which, rather than a state of oneness is actually a state of twoness as it articulates a separation from man and God, was a pluralistic union with a cyclical reality. The birth of monotheism inagurated the concept of a birth of humanity, a fall, as it were, from oneness with God, and thus a tension between man and God the Father was articulated. The next stage, following the tension between union with God - nonduality - and separation from God - duality - was inagurated by Christ: the union of nonduality and duality: Trinity. This stage is yet to reach fruition.
The development of religious consciousness in terms of complexity occurs from a oneness with divine reality, followed with a separation with divine reality in which "history" and "self" as differentiated entities are individuated from nature (with the Jewish people, history as Westerners understand it was articulated: linear history. This in contrast with the Eastern conception of cycles which reflects non-monotheistic Western traditions: see Eliade, Voegelin, Scholem, Walter Benjamin, and other historians of religion and philosophers of history), and then, the conscious mediation of self, the union of nondual and dual reality, the completion of history (the union of the beginning of the end), the becoming of God of man (return to oneness but mediated through threeness).
This basic formulation, which is simple to expand and verify, of the historical development of religious consciousness for me reflects the development of the human brain as all human development is an externalization of the inner world of man, that is, the product of man's mind seeking truth: seeking itself.
The brain, like religious consciousness, also develops from oneness, to a tension of opposites, and finally, in mature development (which is rarely seen) to threeness which is a union of twoness and oneness. God is One, the tension of Two, the witness of Three, and all Three. So too is the Self and the Mind.
This development, in neurological terms, is from the DMN, to the ECN, to the *conscious self-development of the SN*. The DMN is the earliest coherent large-scale network detectable in development. Infants show strong midline DMN connectivity before robust executive control exists. Developmentally, the child begins in a state of primary inwardness. This corresponds to experiential unity, fantasy, and pre-reflective consciousness. Then the ECN develops in late childhood, early adolescence, and adulthood. The ECN develops in opposition to the DMN. Its emergence marks impulse control, sustained attention, and rule-based behavior. Where the DMN is pre-existent unity, the ECN is the emergence of resistant reality, in the tension of which emerges rules and restrictions: the Father/Authority. Adolescence is characterized by incomplete ECN maturation, which explains impulsivity, emotional volatility, and heightened creativity and risk-taking. The child is molded by the force of the Father (external reality) into a form of conformity: self. Stronger than average individuality results in difficulties conforming, and a lack of the Father principle in childhood leads to adolescence in adulthood (a development which reflects the majority of individuals who are incarcerated in the US who come from single motherhood households: the lack of the father policing the child often leads to the State policing the child).
The ECN is a tension which inhibits, represses, and overrides the DMN. In and through this tension, the concept of self, which was originally in union with external reality (the infant in the womb and attached to the mother), develops.
The SN is the final network of the brain to mature. It is the network responsible for mediating/switching between the other two networks. The SN develops chiefly through experience of tension between the two networks.
In average individuals, the tension between the ECN and DMN is dominated by external forces: the ECN is offshored to external rules, concepts, beliefs, and structures. This corresponds to Freud's super-ego concept. The SN barely develops in this individual as the tension that is predicated on a strong sense of self is erased by adaptation and conformity to external standards of identity and self. Existential crises and traumatic experiences can contribute to the development of an individual outside of external standards of self but is rare. Kierkegaard famously said that the cost of authenticity - the becoming of a person - is anxiety. Erich Fromm wrote in Escape from Freedom that most people, when given freedom, cannot bear the burden of self-responsibility and relinquish it to others - this was his explanation of the birth of Nazi Germany from the excessively liberal Weimar society.
In rare individuals, the basic sensitivity to reality is higher alongside a stronger than average individuality: a more overactive DMN. Notable is the fact that most mental illnesses are neural signatures of higher connectivity in the DMN and lower connectivity in the ECN, alongside the fact that creativity is linked with both sensitivity and mental illness. Additionally important is that sensitive individual are both more creative and vulnerable to mental illness. The basic trait that defines creativity: openness. The loosening of the boundaries of self is a necessity in the possibility for *growth* which is the telos of the human organism.
In these individuals, the possibility of higher growth exists in greater likelihood. Many remain within imbalanced forms of development, mutations of growth, but these periods of imbalance are necessary for higher balance as the primary struggle of these individuals is their curation of self: their creation of themselves. The example of higher growth in humans - greater consciousness - is seen in mystics, philosophers, artists. Notably, scientists commonly lack the quality of genius which is universality. Hyper-ECN specialization leads to a loss of universality and local optimization leads to global blindness. Understanding this will make clear why modern academia is insufficient in its understanding of the human as well as its lack of creativity and integrative thought. Great minds are rarely found within the borders of institutions as great minds are chiefly concerned with the dismantling of borders. The inability to think globally is the main insufficiency of the typically scientific mind. The example of the greatest consciousness among humans, the perfected human being, is Christ.
The greater integration of the SN is the neural signature of the higher individual. Notably, schizophrenia, a disease common in fringe studies of the prophetic personality, is an aberrant functionality of the SN. Mental illness, in my view, reflects intensified life, intensified consciousness, and the possibility of higher consciousness and development: there are people not healthy enough to be considered sick. The implications of this should not be lost to the reader in their appraisal of human society and human development.
The full development of the SN, the ability to observe one's own tension between the DMN and ECN, implies a continual confrontation with the reality of experience, and the continual development of consciousness. Theosis is the becoming of God: the becoming fully conscious. The complete integration of the mind is the ever-present priority of the human.
Creativity, the divine function, is a dynamic oscillation between the DMN and the ECN. For me, creativity is the process through which greater integration of the brain networks occurs, as creation is the divine function of God.
The development of man's mind reflects the development of man's collective religious consciousness. In my study of the human and pursuit of truth/wisdom, recognizing this has revealed many secrets of life to me. I believe that the project of truth is a fully integrative one. All human expressions *are true*. They reflect something about the human condition. Things that explain are part of what must be explained. Human development reflects this collective development, and the various pathways of human development reflect the complex nexus of human potentiality and particularity. However, there is a convergent end point mediated by the basic telos of humans: growth. History is the story of man coming to know himself, remember himself. From the Garden of the Tree of Life, man fell upon the earth as a seed and thus the story of man is a union of the beginning and end: time is destiny. Man is the seed that comes from the Tree of Life. God is the man who could not live without becoming a child: we eternally reoccur: we are perpetually arriving at and departing from ourselves. The union of all opposites in the greatest tension is the integration of consciousness, a dynamism in which goal and method are united.