First Language is a coded sharing of mechanical vibrations and electromagnetic radiations, of sound and light.
VIZR VISIONS are the neurological expressions of the electromagnetic radiations we experience as “light”.
They are SIGNALS managed by “ORGANIC CODES” embedded in our organism that convey life enhancing MEANINGS at a pre-intellectual level of awareness.
VIZR VISIONS are native to the landscape of our deep internal consciousness and are an intrinsic feature of our own NEURO REALITY.
The Neuro VIZR offers extraordinary neuroplastic sensory-guided experiences of integrated light and sound.
As a whole, these experiences are composed in such a way that the brain is bathed in sensory themes that support a wide variety of positive functions that have been described as brain exercises and enrichment disguised as entertainment.
Although the VIZR experiences are an integration of both light and sound, it is the light aspects that are often considered most alluring and captivating.
This article explores specifically the light experiences and attempts to approach them for the perspective known as Neuro Reality or NR.
Recent science has given us two new technologies that expand our exploration of consciousness and perception. Virtual Reality and its younger sibling, Augmented Reality present a person with access to expanded sensory based cognitive experiences.
The author is here presenting another related category of experience, Neuro Reality.
Neuro Reality and its associated theories, technologies and methods are based on the ranges and realms of experience that present themselves when consciousness and the senses are turned inward.
Neuro Reality is complex and rich with information and can be explored purposefully with impressive rewards.
Our daily experience of conventional external Reality (Common Reality or CR) is a mix of sensory impressions, symbolic representations and cognitive interpretations.
This type of experience is normally rooted in Time and Space. Both Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality maintain these principles and extend or modify them in unique presentation styles.
Neuro Reality or NR functions with a different premise.
With consciousness and the senses turned inward, a quality of experience is available that pre-exists symbolic representation and cognitive interpretation. It is not poetry but rather the experience from which poetry emerges.
Neuro Reality presents a direct consciousness based non-symbolic language that communicates rich and meaningful information without layers of symbol or interpretation. This unique language is the primal expression of information using energy itself as its alphabet, word and voice.
It will be helpful to frame Neuro Reality (NR), at least in part, within the principles of another progressive new area of Life Sciences known as Biosemiotics.
In this way, the elements of one may be reflected in the other and make a deeper appreciation easier to attain.
Biosemiotics, all stripped down, approaches life as “semiosis” – which means it has a foundation of SIGNS & CODES.
Biosemiotics claims that the discoveries of the genetic codes found in DNA are real AND that this four-billion-year-old coding is not the only coding every expressed. Biosemiotics claims (with ample evidence) that this coding is but the first (and specifically NOT the only) of a series of organic codes that have shaped life on planet Earth.
The basic position of biosemiotics is that life as witnessed in living organisms is based not only on “copying” (as is the view of contemporary biology) but also on “coding”. Biosemiotics proposes that evolution is expressed not only by “copying” (Natural Selection) but also by “coding” (what biosemiotics terms, Natural Conventions).
VIZR Visions are generated using a portable, wearable device placed on the head (Neuro VIZR).
With the eyes of the user completely closed, various sequences and moving patterns of flickering white light produce the extraordinary visual experience within the “mind’s eye”.
In general, VIZR Visions can be described as being combinations of gorgeous, pure, “other-worldly” colors, elegant complex geometric patterns and shapes, moving vistas and inter-dimensional landscapes.
Depending on the phases of expression, the view ranges from profoundly simplicity to ineffable complexity.
It is critical to understand that VIZR Visions are not purely unique to the Neuro VIZR device.
In fact, the main thrust of this article is to recognize that VIZR Visions, as an aspect of NR, are an intrinsic component of a planetary means of communication shared by all living organisms on Earth.
Humans have always experienced VIZR Visions that are stimulated by a wide variety of conditions. The following is a simple general list of such conditions:
a. Regular long winter nights especially spent in deep dark caves would certainly be sufficient to provoke phosphenic visual experiences;
a. Long migration treks or hunting expeditions or “vision quests” are likely.
a. In this group migraines and seizures rank high.
a. Certainly, current surviving ethnic shamanistic practices reinforce the belief in early hallucinogenic induced visions and internal Light experiences.
Because visual NR experiences in general have always been a part of human experience, it is of no surprise that there exist many concepts and interpretations as to what they are and how they are produced.
Ancient cultures have noted them and our own current culture has been aware while investigating them using our modern scientific methods. The attitudes regarding visual NR experiences range from one extreme to the other.
To some, such experiences are considered pure divinity and “not of this world”.
Others consider them meaningless neurological byproducts of a malfunctioning brain.
Discoveries in two related fields surged and overlapped over roughly the past 150 years.
The two fields are
The general term for the light/color/patterns in Neuro Reality experiences is “phosphenes”.
The word phosphene comes from the Greek words phos (light) and phainein (to show).
Alternatively, the term “entoptic” or “entopic” are also used meaning “within the eye/visual system”.
There is also a second category of related visual experiences that are often labelled “eidetic” or “photographic” hallucinations. The phosphenes (or entoptic/entopic) originate within the Neuro connections between the eye and the cortex as well as other areas within the brain.
Eidetic or photographic images emerge within the cortex or midbrain. (Psychedelic Information Theory, James L. Kent, 2010).
From Kent:
“Entopic hallucinations fall into predictable geometric patterns and can be measured by formal properties such as form constant, flicker rate, rotation, drift and decay. Common phosphene forms include web, grid, checkerboard, clover-leaf, honeycomb, spiral, funnel or more amorphous floating blobs and stars. Phosphene patterns may match recurring patterns in the natural world such as cells, stars, sand dunes, flowers, clouds and snakeskin. Evidence suggests that the form constants of phosphenes are directly related to spatial relationships between the ring-like structures of the retinal cells and the grid-like or columnar Neuro structures of the visual cortex. The spontaneous production of geometric hallucinations is due to excitation and loss of stability in these retinal-cortical feedback coupling pathways. The transition from seamless aliasing to spontaneous geometric patterns can be described as a trans-critical sensory bifurcation reflecting the spatial organization of the recurrent network.
Pulses in the same frequency range as brain waves (theta to gamma) are most effective in producing flicker phosphenes. Flicker phosphenes created by stroboscopic lights or “mind-machines” tend to be more amorphous at low frequencies (1-4 Hz), tend to fall into web, spiral or cloverleaf patterns at medium frequencies (4-9 Hz) and tend to lock into grid, honeycomb, or checkerboard patterns at higher frequencies (9-16+ Hz). Flicker phosphenes will have slow lateral drift at lower frequencies; a rotational drift at medium frequencies; and will maintain stability or produce flat lateral drift at higher frequencies. These phase-related transitions in standing wave shape are also seen in Chladni patterns created on vibrating plates.”
It should be noted that in the above description by Kent, the neurological elements include the retina of the eye.
There are other “non-light” sources of stimulation that also conjure up the same types of “mind’s eye” visions that do not involve light and the eye.
Various magnetic and electrical forms of stimulation to the head can also produce such visions.
Eidetic or photographic hallucinations tend to occur in stages of “uncommon” states of consciousness (sometimes referred to as NOCS or Non-Ordinary Conscious States) and are strongly influenced by cultural and personal conditioning.
Essentially, lacking recognition of the signal impulses, the “unconscious” mind of the person injects cultural/personal images into the “information vacuum” resulting from the novel stimulation.
In Jungian theory, the “Collective Unconscious” may also serve as a source of imagery. The process is similar to watching clouds in the sky and allowing imagery to develop (“that looks like a bear and that one is a frog”).
Once images begin to emerge as “signals” in the “noise”, meaningful interpretations rapidly follow.
The earliest “modern” account of phosphenes is that of the Bohemian physiologist Johannes Purkinje in 1819.
He was the first to publish a detailed account of phosphenes (Oster 1970:85).
In 1845, a Frenchman named Jacques Moreau used hashish to induce a hallucinatory condition, but was still able to report his experiences. However, such methods were not approved of by his colleagues (Siegal 1977:132).
Eight years later, in 1853, his fellow countryman Brierre de Boismont stated that hallucinations were all characterized by excitation and the production of images from memory and their imagination whilst in states of insanity, delirium tremens, drug intoxication, nervous disorders, nightmares, dreams, ecstasies and fevers (Siegal 1977:132).
In 1926, at the University of Chicago, Heinrich Klüver began a series of investigations. These were not dissimilar to those methods employed by Moreau eighty years earlier. Hashish had been replaced by mescaline, a hallucinogenic alkaloid derived from the peyote cactus Lophophora williamsii, and remarkable for the visual hallucinations it produced (Siegal 1977:132).
In 1928, a German neurosurgeon, Otfrid Foerster, noticed that when he electrically stimulated the surface of the occipital lobe at the back of the brain, the patient experienced the sensation of light (Oster 1970:86).
However, it was Max Knoll (best known for the invention of the electron microscope) and his colleagues at the Technische Hochschule in Munich in 1956, who carried out the most extensive investigation of electrically induced phosphenes (Oster 1970:85).
More recent research has been built upon the work produced by these men, and references to their work can be found in the majority of publications on the subject.
Although much research has been done following 1970, the article appearing in the Scientific American, February 1970 by Gerald Oster (referred to above) still stands as an excellent comprehensive summary of the topic.
According to Oster (1970:83) ‘Seeing Stars’ is seeing phosphenes, an experience that can be induced by a blow on the head or by other mechanical means.
A less violent procedure is to apply pressure to the eyeballs with the fingers. If, with the eyes closed, one gently touches the lid with the tip of a finger, a phosphene appears: a glowing circle or part of a circle, apparently about a quarter of an inch in diameter.
The phosphene’s location in the visual field is opposite the point the finger touches: at the outer edge of the field when the eyelid is touched near the nose, low in the field when the center of the upper lid is touched. This is discussed in more detail by Walker (1981:142) when he describes all the methods by which phosphenes can be generated by pressure alone.
Increasing the pressure on the eyeball produces more dramatic phosphenes. One procedure is to apply the index fingers at the inner edge of the eyeballs and press in and toward the temples.
The visual field lights up and then, as pressure is maintained for a few seconds, a scintillating design appears – a kind of checkerboard or shifting field of glowing dots, sometimes with elaborate substructures arrayed around a luminous center.
When the pressure is released, the checkerboard fades away, sometimes leaving the central luminosity. If the pressure is then renewed, a pattern of bright, irregular lines appears that resembles a system of blood vessels. When the pressure is again released, a fine filigree image appears and remains for some time.
The checkerboard design is probably some manifestation of the orderliness of the neural network of the retina; it shifts in the visual field as the gaze is shifted. The filigree, on the other hand, may be generated farther along the visual pathway, since it remains stationary regardless of where one looks.
However, there is a degree of individual sensitivity; some people can make phosphenes occur regularly with little provocation and after-images which last a long time, others cannot (Oster 1970:83-4; Brindley 1963).
One way of producing phosphenes for experimental purposes is to induce them electrically. In an early account, Johannes Purkinje “applied one electrode to his forehead and the other to his mouth, and by rapidly making and breaking the current with a string of metal beads he was able to induce stabilized phosphene images” (Oster 1970:85).
However, it was Max Knoll and his colleagues at the Technische Hochschule in Munich who carried out the most extensive investigation of electrically induced phosphenes.
“He found that pulses in the same frequency range as brain waves (from 5 cycles per second to about 40) were most effective in producing phosphenes. He tested more than 1000 people and found that all of them, after becoming dark-adapted, saw at least a flickering light; by concentrating carefully about half of the subjects also a saw geometric figures” (Oster 1970:85).
“As Knoll varied the frequency of the pulses the patterns changed, and by altering the frequency Knoll’s group identified 15 classes of figures and a number of variations within each class. For each person tested the spectrum of phosphenes (the kind of pattern at each frequency) was repeatable, even after six months” (Oster 1970:85).
Ancient scientists were fascinated by the phenomenon of flickering lights. Apuleius experimented in 125 A.D. with the flickering light produced by the rotation of a potter’s wheel, finding that it could reveal a type of epilepsy.
Ptolemy studied in 200 A.D. the phenomenon of the flickering generated by sunlight through the spokes of a spinning wheel. He noted that patterns and colors appeared in the eyes of the observer and that a feeling of euphoria could be experienced.
French psychologist Pierre Janet, one of the first who reported a “rescripting” procedure, noticed that the patients at Salpetriere Hospital in Paris experienced reductions in hysteria and increased relaxation when exposed to flickering lights. (Budzynski, The Clinical Guide to Light and Sound, 1995.)
The history of flicker-induced hallucinations certainly goes back to the pre-scientific era. There is a popular story, for example, in which Catherine de Medici had Nostradamus sitting on her rooftop.
The prophet would subsequently receive visions by watching the sun with his eyes closed, quickly interrupting the light with his spread hand.
Fact or fiction?
One of the first official accounts was made in 1819 by Purkinje, who saw various patterns like crosses, stars and spirals, when waving his hand between his eyes and a gaslight in a way similar to Nostradamus.
His contemporary Brewster produced similar images by running alongside evenly spaced vertical railings, thereby directing his eyes towards the sun which was behind them.
Brewster, a physicist from Scotland, likened the checkerboard patterns he provoked to the ‘brightest tartan’. Further investigations were made by Helmholtz in his Physiological Optics, who coined the term ‘shadow patterns’. (From Stroboscopic to Dream Machine: A History of Flicker-Induced Hallucinations; Meulen B.C., Tavy D., Jacobs B.C.; Eur Neurol 2009;62:316-320)
After Du Bois-Reymond had demonstrated the electrical nature of nerve impulse in 1848, speculations arose as to whether sensory impulses in the brain were also electrical.
In 1875, Richard Caton of Liverpool, showed that in experimental animals, variations in electrical potential were produced in specific parts of the cortex by corresponding movements. (Bioelectrodynamics & Biocommunication, Ed. Mae-Wan Ho, Fritz-Albert Popp, Ulrich Warnke, 1994)
Successful recordings of human brainwaves were not achieved until 1924 by the German psychiatrist, Hans Berger who came across what is now termed the alpha 10 Hz frequency during his failed attempts at determining the physiological basis for psychic phenomena such as telepathy.
He worked progressively to also discover a faster frequency characteristic he termed beta.
The naming using Greek letters was simply a cataloguing convenience as the first was called “alpha” and the second “beta” only because of the sequence of letters in the Greek alphabet.
He did not publish his findings until 1929 when he had given up on the psychic aspect and accepted the simple neurological finding. It was here in 1929 that he coined the lasting term “electroencephalogram” (EEG).
In 1935 Edgar Douglas Adrian confirmed Berger’s findings as well as discovering the range of brainwaves we now call delta.
The theta waves were discovered in 1943 by the American neurologist William Grey Walter. It is also Walter (and associates) that discovered the visual evoked potentials produced by rhythmical stimuli such as strobe lights shone on open or closed eyes.
They observed that at certain frequencies the stimulus not only evoked changes in the visual field but also spread over the entire brain and entrained it to oscillate synchronously. (V.J. Walter & W.G. Walter, The central effect of rhythmic sensory stimulation, Electroenceph, clin. Neurophysiology, 1 (1949) 57).
W.G. Walter went on to write the first definitive book on the subject entitled The Living Brain. In his book The Living Brain, Walter wrote about:
‘whirling spirals, whirlpools, explosions … In testing a device to study epilepsy, we had stumbled on one of those natural paradoxes which are the surest sign of a hidden truth’.
Interestingly enough, the chapter he used to describe the effects of stroboscopic light was named ‘Revelation by Flicker’, which certainly must have struck the artists we are soon to discuss.
A colorful description of the hallucinations comes from the poet Margiad Evans, who is cited by Walter:
‘Lights like comets dangled before me, slow at first and then gaining a fury of speed and change, whirling color into color, angle into angle. They were all pure ultra-unearthly colors, mental colors, not deep visual ones. There was no glow in them but only activity and revolution’. (From Stroboscopic to Dream Machine: A History of Flicker-Induced Hallucinations; Meulen B.C., Tavy D., Jacobs B.C.; Eur Neurol 2009;62:316-320)
It was this book that famously (infamously?) inspired William Burroughs, Brion Gysin and Ian Sommerville in 1959 to create the Dream Machine (aka Dreamachine) in an effort to provoke hypnagogic experiences when placing the face with eyes closed near the rhythmic pulsing or flickering of light. They were the first to introduce “Neuro Reality” technology into popular, non-scientific society.
Gysin had aspirations to create a consumer product based on the Dreamachine but was never successful.
The ongoing parallel paths of cranial electrodynamic neuroscience and exogenous brain signaling increasingly overlapped with the advent of progressive new, non-invasive technologies.
One of the “children” of this dual exploration is known as the “frequency following response”.
In the simplest terms, this means that if a signal with a sustained set periodicity (timing or rate) is experienced by the brain, the brain will tend, in very general terms, to be inclined to follow that signal in its electrical activities.
It is experienced commonly by anyone who finds themselves tapping their foot to some rhythmic music.
The “frequency following response” has become better known by its popularized name “brain entrainment”. Shamanic and First Nation drumming is another example which often tends to settle intuitively in the “twilight consciousness” range of theta brainwave frequencies from a “frequency following response”.
Unfortunately, the ease of concept has led to an oversimplification of the fact – an especially easy thing to achieve in our Internet age and social media.
The idea of the entire brain resting in one single frequency is naïve.
The distribution of specific brainwaves is uneven throughout the entire brain. It is unlikely for a person to have an excess of one frequency in one area while having a deficiency of another somewhere else. Brainwave activity is exceedingly complex and rapidly changing according to internal and external adaptive stimulation.
We are all different, especially when it comes to the distribution of our brainwaves.
Boosting a certain specific brainwave state may be beneficial for one person, and emotionally uncomfortable and contra-productive for another.
The following is a quote from Thomas Budzynski, PhD, (professor University of Washington and Stanford University) The Clinical Guide to Light and Sound (1995).
This is considered a classic summary article written by one of the preeminent early scholars and practitioners.
The point in particular relates to “delta brainwaves and sleep” and illustrates the fact that oversimplified concepts of singular brainwaves controlling singular states is erroneous and potentially misleading:
“It is important to note that these various bands do not necessarily appear one at a time although they can do just that. In most instances however, there will be a dominant frequency mixed in with some other frequency energy. Thus, some individuals will show an alpha pattern mixed with occasional theta and beta. Additionally, a drowsy theta pattern can be interrupted by an alpha burst, if the individual becomes a bit more alert, or even delta if the individual becomes sleepier. For most people the transition into a theta state (if alpha or beta are not mixed in) signals a state of unconsciousness. If the EEG shows primarily theta energy yet is mixed with some alpha and/or beta, the individual may report feeling drowsy yet conscious.”
It is also well known that sustained rhythmic signaling from various sources such as light and sound but also electrical, magnetic and kinetic stimulation can, in a very small minority of persons, result in negative experiences. This fact is of special interest in the rapidly evolving fields of Virtual Reality applications.
The affected person may be aware of their tendency and diagnosed as epileptic or, in some cases, be entirely unaware of their sensitivity until their first experience. An event as unpredictable as fireworks in the night time sky or flashing car headlights at night in the rain can act as the surprise trigger.
Brain Entrainment techniques basically fall into two related approaches with significant differences:
a. The signals in the output device are singular and predetermined with an effort to create a generalized “frequency following response” in the brain;
b. Basic Brain Entrainment shall be discussed further below;
a. The feedback derived from real time measurements of brainwave activity is used to help the subject actively generate certain singular brain waves in certain parts of the brain;
b. Neurofeedback is one of the very few forms of Biofeedback to survive into the 21st century despite all of the glorious claims and expectations of the late 20th century;
c. Neurofeedback is a field in which numerous professional theories compete for acceptance and validation – it is still theoretically maturing despite its overtly simple premise – it is especially challenged with the advent of neuroplasticity, brain networks and harmonic connectomes, all of which illustrate unforeseen complex interactions.
Now with inexpensive digital technologies and the internet, there is a flood of Basic Brain Entrainment products and postings many of which make outrageous and highly dubious claims.
It is interesting that many of the persons producing these are of such an age that they are apparently unaware of the decades of previous credible academic/medical research in these fields – most of which came to matured findings and conclusions by the mid 1980’s – perhaps well before many of these newly involved persons were even born.
Another quote from Budzynski illustrating the rapid increase in the phenomenon in the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s:
“During the turbulent 60s and 70s interest in ways of producing altered states without drugs proliferated alongside drug experimentation. Alpha EEG feedback by Dr. Joe Kamiya at Langley~Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute in San Francisco helped initiate the age of biofeedback. Others found greater psychedelic-like effects in rhythmic light/sound combinations and numerous nightclubs began using strobes to dramatize the effects of the compelling music for dancing. Scientists continued their investigation of light/sound, examining the phenomena of hemispheric synchronization and EEG entrainment. Jack Schwarz, best known for his demonstrations of conscious mind control over autonomic responses, developed the ISIS, a device which used rhythmic sounds and variable frequency lights in goggles to produce certain mental states. Other contemporary explorers of the L/S phenomenon included Richard Townsend, who in 1973 published a description of a device with goggle-mounted lights for photo entrainment. Seymour Charas, a scientist at City College of New York, in 1974 obtained the first patent on a L/S device, but according to Hutchison (1990), it was never put into production. Breakthroughs in microelectronics in the 1980s enabled a number of inventors to develop various programs of L/S frequency changes and light intensity modulation.”
As noted above, the brain is highly complex and can be induced or influenced in a variety of ways.
When coaxed or shocked out of its normal ranges of ordered or stable network relationships, the brain can become temporarily “destabilized”. In such periods of “destabilization”, the subjective consciousness of the person is often altered resulting in an “uncommon” perspective.
These uncommon states have been also labelled as Non-Ordinary Consciousness or NOC. Here is an attempt at a very simplified categorization of experiences associated with a destabilized brain state:
a. Notice the subtle suspension of “Common” consciousness as you go into a “search mode” for a suitable (truthful or not) answer as to “why?’;
b. The famous “unanswerable” Zen Koan technique is a good example of the skillful use of destabilization to “open the mind” to new perspectives on experience.
a. The length of actual time is brief;
b. The well-known “déjà vu” experience may be set in this category.
a. The disorientation may seem strong for a brief period in which the person may not know where they are physically or interpret sounds and sights erroneously.
a. Disorientation with possible short and/or long-term types of amnesia.
a. Music, especially of certain types, can create an impressive destabilization with the result of a wide range of subject Uncommon states many of which are attractive with a positive valued outcome expressed in mood change;
b. Sustained highly rhythmic stimulation is capable of inducing the “frequency following response” resulting in brain signal entrainment:
i. The narrow band signal entrainment will tend to generate in susceptible persons a range of Uncommon states associated with calm, relaxed or alerted vigilance or dreamy twilight imagery;
ii. This category is characterized by its restricted “trance” quality which tends to involve a narrow, sustained restriction of brain activity.
c. Sustained highly randomized stimulation is capable of inducing Uncommon states of consciousness:
i. Lacking specific periodicity and/or frequency, the subjective experiences will tend to vary dramatically;
ii. Because the signals do not have a sustained predictable timing (periodicity) or intensity, there is no frequency following response or brain entrainment;
iii. Imagine trying to dance to music in which the rhythm, tone and tune keeps changing irradicably;
iv. Subjectively, the experience will be strongly influenced by “set and setting” including previous concept and expectations combined with the personal psycho-emotional disposition of the individual.
d. Hallucinogenic drugs have a highly reliable capacity to create brain destabilization:
i. Certain drugs are known to project a signature “tone” into the Uncommon state;
ii. This “tone” combines with the psycho-emotional disposition of the person which is then merged into the circumstances at the time;
iii. It is well known that the USA/CIA experimented with LSD and other hallucinogens at the peak of the Cold War when concerns of Mind Control and Psychic Warfare were prevalent.
e. Regular practice of various spiritual techniques:
i. The list of examples here would be very large and long;
ii. Debates continue as to the validity and credibility of the Uncommon conscious states that typify this huge category;
iii. Human societies have always (for the most part) considered this category to be significant if not precious;
iv. Although regular themes and reports do appear as to the nature, content and meaning of these Uncommon states, there is also a wide variety of interpretations that complicate the issue.
f. The Near-Death Experience (NDE) is well known and often has reports of similar content:
i. This category fuels a highly contentious debate;
ii. Persons having had an NDE often (but not always) report a radical change in their attitude and perception of daily life following the NDE.
g. Various physical and psychological disturbances can induce short or long-term destabilization and the resultant Uncommon states:
i. Loss of certain senses (eg. blindness) can create certain Uncommon states;
ii. Dementias are well known to destabilize critical brain networks resulting in many types of disturbing Uncommon states;
iii. Neuro-psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia famously destabilize healthy brain network functioning.
h. Sustained high levels of physical and/or psychological exertion:
i. “Life or Death” conditions can push a person beyond Common physiological and psychological boundaries with the result of destabilized brain networks;
ii. Various “extreme sports” with high levels of risk and exertion can induce temporary neurotransmitter driven Uncommon states;
iii. The highly excited neurological states currently associated with “flow” and “the zone” are fair examples of short term biochemically induced Uncommon states often times assigned as positive and valuable.
Why does pressure on the eyeballs create phosphenes?
Mathematician G. Bard Ermentrout explains that the pressure inhibits signals from the retina, thereby encouraging the brain’s cortex to fill the void. The brain begins firing spontaneously and creates hallucinatory patterns. Distinct shapes are commonly seen in phosphenes.
Phosphenes are said to be generated by the nervous system’s intrinsic geometry.
It is also hypothesized that phosphenes may be the behavior of atomic particles as observed by the naked eye: the interface of two worlds, the normal and the nuclear. (Does the Nervous System Have an Archaic Intrinsic Language: Entoptic Images and Phosphenes; Umit Sayin, Neuroquantology, June 2004).
Given the basic neurophysiology and electrophysiology of the central nervous system, the most important point we should stress is that entopic images and phosphenes do not originate from the retina only, although some simple phophenes can be activated by pressure or electrical stimulation of the eyeball. Entoptic images, most probably, originate from the occipital lobe, somato-sensory cortex, temporal lobe, and parahippocampal gyrus, some different structures of the limbic system, hippocampus and paleo-cortex. The profound activation of some neurotransmitter systems, such as serotoninergic system, GABAergic system and interneurons, cholinergic system, and dopaminergic systems, and deactivation of gulatamatergic and noradrenergic pathways may also underlie the neurochemical mechanisms of the formation of entoptic images and phosphenes.
The hippocampus, which is the phylogenetic locus for the three-dimensional perception and the place of space recognition of the mammals and higher primates, is the main memory source of geometrical shapes and images, as well as the temporal lobe and some other limbic structures. (Does the Nervous System Have an Archaic Intrinsic Language: Entoptic Images and Phosphenes; Umit Sayin, Neuroquantology, June 2004).
Most probably, in Homo sapiens, the recollection of archaic information from the collective un-sub-consciousness enables the species to recall and learn the ancestral information pool, consciously, which may help the Homo species to adapt the environment and also to evolve in a better way.
Thus, the ancient archaic information recalled during the religious rituals induced by PSC (psychoactive)-plants may help the evolution of the Homo species and, also, the neo-cortex and the brain of Homo sapiens. [Does the Nervous System Have an Archaic Intrinsic Language: Entoptic Images and Phosphenes; Umit Sayin, Neuroquantology, June 2004. Carlos H. Schenck, M.D. Personal Communication].
Psychedelic information is generated within the domain of the personal; yet many people who take psychedelics perceive the information as having species-level importance.
There are a few reasons for these phenomena. The subject may experience a deconstruction of consciousness associated with animal consciousness, reptilian consciousness, plant consciousness, the Gaian mind, genetic-level intelligence, or deep species memory; information perceived to be of value to all humans or all living creatures. (Psychedelic Information Theory: Shamanism in the Age of Reason, Kent, James L; PIT Press, 2010)
There are those that consider VIZR Visions as being “epiphenomena” – which is to say just the simple byproduct of other processes…rather like the foam on beer.
Interesting but nothing special.
These same persons are also likely to say the same about “consciousness” itself which would seem to be a theory in the extreme.
The position of the author of this paper does not agree with the above “epiphenomena” concept.
Instead, VIZR Visions are considered an intrinsic aspect of a fundamental First Language that is a key factor in the Biosemiotic principle of “organic codes” and the classic concept of Homeomorphism.
Those are two big fact words. Let’s quickly break them down a bit.
Biosemiotics:
At the beginning of this article, there was an introduction to “biosemiotics”. Here it is again. Biosemiotics, all stripped down, approaches life as “semiosis” – which means it has a foundation of SIGNS & CODES.
The basic position of biosemiotics is that life as witnessed in living organisms is based not only on “copying” (as is the view of contemporary biology) but also on “coding”. Biosemiotics proposes that evolution is expressed not only by “copying” (Natural Selection) but also by “coding” (what biosemiotics terms, Natural Conventions).
Homeomorphism:
Homeomorphism (homeo = same/similar & morph = shape/form) is a concept introduced by the great William James at Harvard in the early years of the 20th century.
Essentially, he proposed that because all living organisms on the planet evolved within the same conditions and elements, all organisms must have developed an interdependent form of interaction that resulted in adaptive styles of communication.
The biosemiotic approach explains that in order for SIGNS/SIGNALS to have a consistent MEANING across all living organisms, the relationship between the SIGNALS and their MEANINGS must be managed with consistency.
This management is the job of the CODE.
CODES exist throughout all of Nature. They allow Nature to act as one unified Complex Adaptive System with no centralized controller.
CODES ensure that SIGNALS originating from one class of organisms accurately convey the intended MEANINGS to other classes of organisms. The result is a way of KNOWING WITHOUT THINKING – a homeomorphic means of harmonious communication between bees and flowers – and everything with everything. A FIRST LANGUAGE.
First Language is a coded sharing of mechanical vibrations and electromagnetic radiations, of sound and light.
VIZR VISIONS are the neurological expressions of the electromagnetic radiations we experience as “light”.
They are SIGNALS managed by “ORGANIC CODES” embedded in our organism that convey life-enhancing MEANINGS at a pre-intellectual level of awareness.
VIZR VISIONS are native to the landscape of our deep internal consciousness and are an intrinsic feature of our own NEURO REALITY.
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