| It may seem to go against the grain of nonduality to suggest that the human mind is composed of discrete components, yet in the full spirit of nonduality, it is realized that these components blend together like the components of flavor to produce a perceputal whole, the conscious mind.
We will first review a dozen discrete components associated with twenty-two classes of neurotransmitter receptors:
Cognitive domain:
The self (ego) - serotonin-2
Consciousness - serotonin-7
Pure cognition (thought, logic, reasoning) - serotonin-1
Affective domain:
The self (id?) - sigma
Consciousness - kappa
Comfort - mu
Essence of things or one's self - alpha-2
Joy of life - beta
Tenderness, compassion, forgiveness - imidazoline
Holding another's soul in our heart - histamine
Cognitive - Affective Bridge
Religious sentiment (awe, certainty) - dopamine
Mental protection - cannabinoid
We will explore the major division of the mind: between the cognitive
and affective domains. We will place a special emphasis on exploring
and understanding the affective domain, which as adult humans we tend
to lose touch with, and poorly understand.
Then we will examine how these receptors blend together to form the
human "modulatory personality," how it evolved, and how variations in
the blend affect personality, and in extreme cases underly conditions
such as schizophrenia, autism, or bipolar disorder.
Finally, we will examine the relationships between the various mental
components and various mystical states, including the state of
complete nonduality.
Dr. Thomas Ray
earned undergraduate degrees in biology and chemistry at Florida State University. He received his Masters and Doctorate in Biology from Harvard University, specializing in plant ecology. He was a member of the Society of Fellows of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. In 1981 he joined the faculty of the University of Delaware, School of Life and Health Sciences. In 1993, he received a joint appointment in Computer and Information Science at U. of Delaware, and was appointed to the External Faculty of the Santa Fe Institute. In August of 1993, he joined the new Evolutionary Systems Department at ATR (Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International) Human Information Processing Research Labs in Japan, as an invited researcher. In August 1998 he became a Professor of Zoology at the University of Oklahoma, with an adjunct appointment as Professor of Computer Science. |