Mind and Matter

Trace chemicals linger in the air. The wind blows them towards delicate sensors. A receptor fires off, then more in rapid succession. A chain reaction begins. Electrical charges relay the signal from one node to the next, activating them at an incredible rate. It is like a flash of lightning in the darkness of night, illuminating one intricate path among the myriad possibilities of the rest.

Spacetime seems to shift. A child squats at the edge of a garden bed. The smell of freshly cut grass lingers in the air. The face of his grandmother smiles radiantly as she points at an earthworm wriggling in the soil. The reminiscence fades back into the present.

An interaction of matter associated with electrical activity. A smell associated with a distant memory. The physical and the mental are inseparable.

Asleep now, but brain activity spikes. He is a woman waiting in the backseat of a car. Feeling vulnerable, she locks the door. The scene outside the window begins to shift and she realises the car is moving. There’s a driver in front now; a craggy face, dark sunglasses and a black hat. Momentary panic, before she somehow knows where the man is taking her. They arrive at an ancient building. Perspective shifts. He is back in his usual body looking at a woman getting out of a car. He picks up his daughter to point out some oddly shaped buildings far below. He can feel her tiny hand against the back of his head. His wife’s laughter is still with him as he wakes up. A dream world. The activity of neurons!

It should not be possible, but it is. There is a principle translating the brain’s activity into a world of experience. Weaving the dance of electrical charges into the story of life.

Entities both physical and mental are the characters in this story. But the characters in a story cannot be aware of the story. They only come alive in the imagination of the reader. Life is being witnessed through the eyes of every character, but it cannot be the individual characters that are doing the witnessing.

 

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