Posted: Jul 04, 2019 6:29 pm
Thanks for sharing all this Jay. I know I can't be of any real help, and I doubt many people here will be able to offer much that you haven't already looked into and know well yourself cognitively, even if you can't persuade yourself of the 'rationality' of it.
For me, I would say there's something intriguing here between your brain knowing something and your mind knowing it. A lag in awareness that you are very sensitive to.
On the Wikipedia link about the neuroscience of free will, there's a useful image that may serve better than a rambling description by me:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroscience_of_free_will
The text explaining this picture says:
So, although the specific topic in the link is about volition, such as making a decision, it also serves to highlight that there is a small period of time where the brain has already 'decided' on an action prior to the person becoming aware of that decision, or perhaps better that they believe they make a decision.
Perhaps, and I say this entirely hypothetically and not suggesting it is valid, you and people like you who suffer from some of these conditions have a more compressed lag between the brain processes and the mind's awareness, or some other interruption or ordering between them, such that you misperceive the actual order in which they happen. Essentially, the split second scenario you describe is happening, but the instigating word happened first, your brain caught it, generated the sense of impending doom which you sensed, then you became conscious of the instigation... but your perception of it reversed the order. Similarly, a deja vu literally has been seen before, moments ago by your brain, then your mind sees both the thing in the world and the 'memory' of your brain seeing it just before.
There's obviously a lot more in your post to talk about and respond to, but I don't want to go overboard right away, and I particularly don't want to be unhelpful or irritating. I have no background in the neurosciences other than general lay interest, but I have taken pretty much every psychotropic substance known to humanity specifically with the purpose of finding out what it did to me and its effects on my thought process, so I am very much aware of what the brain can do, and similarly skeptical like you that anything supernatural is occurring - I think the brain is a complex, sensitive piece of hardware, and even subtle errors can lead to quite bizarre and difficult to explain experiences.
For me, I would say there's something intriguing here between your brain knowing something and your mind knowing it. A lag in awareness that you are very sensitive to.
On the Wikipedia link about the neuroscience of free will, there's a useful image that may serve better than a rambling description by me:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroscience_of_free_will
The text explaining this picture says:
On several different levels, from neurotransmitters through neuron firing rates to overall activity, the brain seems to “ramp up” before movements. This image depicts the readiness potential (RP), a ramping-up activity measured using EEG. The onset of the RP begins before the onset of a conscious intention or urge to act. Some have argued that this indicates the brain unconsciously commits to a decision before consciousness awareness....
So, although the specific topic in the link is about volition, such as making a decision, it also serves to highlight that there is a small period of time where the brain has already 'decided' on an action prior to the person becoming aware of that decision, or perhaps better that they believe they make a decision.
Perhaps, and I say this entirely hypothetically and not suggesting it is valid, you and people like you who suffer from some of these conditions have a more compressed lag between the brain processes and the mind's awareness, or some other interruption or ordering between them, such that you misperceive the actual order in which they happen. Essentially, the split second scenario you describe is happening, but the instigating word happened first, your brain caught it, generated the sense of impending doom which you sensed, then you became conscious of the instigation... but your perception of it reversed the order. Similarly, a deja vu literally has been seen before, moments ago by your brain, then your mind sees both the thing in the world and the 'memory' of your brain seeing it just before.
There's obviously a lot more in your post to talk about and respond to, but I don't want to go overboard right away, and I particularly don't want to be unhelpful or irritating. I have no background in the neurosciences other than general lay interest, but I have taken pretty much every psychotropic substance known to humanity specifically with the purpose of finding out what it did to me and its effects on my thought process, so I am very much aware of what the brain can do, and similarly skeptical like you that anything supernatural is occurring - I think the brain is a complex, sensitive piece of hardware, and even subtle errors can lead to quite bizarre and difficult to explain experiences.