Belief, or The Memes

[I can't get blogger to accept the proper spacings for the poem below, but I'm posting this somewhat mutilated version anyway.]

Belief, or The Memes

The dead live on, not just
as memories, but as “programs.”
Sitting beside a gravestone, we might speak
& think we hear a reply.
It would be natural to ask for advice –
which way to go find water
or the best trail for a hunt.

Drop a bundle of sticks on the ground
or heat a clay pot until it cracks
the pattern forms a map
a communication from the other side.

Centuries later people would fill mosques
cathedrals and synagogues
not really knowing how they got there.

Spreading genes favorable to belief?

Memes leaping from mind to mind?

Wind spirits & rain gods
wood nymphs & leprechauns.
The scary world
a cacophony of superstition
lurking behind the scenes
meme against meme.

At first the winnowing would be unconscious
some ideas would be groomed & domesticated.

Gauging and deciding
slowing the pace
or ripping it up
adding or losing a phrase.

O what a fine protective screen!

We want to believe.
We live to believe.
We believe to live.

[Most of the words and phrases here come from a Scientific American review of Daniel Dennett’s Breaking the Spell.]

Neuroplasticity and Meditation

Two interesting new books are reviewed in the latest issue of Discover: Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain, by Sharon Begley; and The Brain That Changes Itself, by Norman Doidge. As the titles suggest, both books are concerned with our burgeoning awareness of the extent to which the adult human brain exhibits “neuroplasticity,” or the ability to alter its structure in response to new stimuli. It wasn’t all that long ago, of course, that we were confidently told that adult brains couldn’t grow new neurons, etc. etc. But now researchers are seeing more and more evidence of dramatic neural change in situations where the brain has to compensate for severe brain injuries. And in what is perhaps an even more exciting development for most of us, they are also seeing surprising levels of neural adaptivity in response to plain old “learning” as well, thus offering the possibility that you really can shape the brain you want, even long after the halcyon days of youth have fled. According to the review, Begley reports on the recent collaborations between neuroscientists and Buddhist monks—collaborations which have revealed that these monks show “neural activity that is off the charts, relative to meditation novices, in circuits that involve maternal love (caudate), empathy (right insula), and feelings of joy and happiness (left prefrontal cortex).” Yep, there’s our old friend the insula again, and it turns out that the insulas of these monks are actually significantly enlarged.

These findings are particularly interesting to me right now, since I recently completed a six-week Mindfulness and Meditation course. I have dabbled with meditation here and there in the past, but this is the first time I have ever had a regular practice for an extended period of time, and I’m finding it to be pretty powerful stuff. I plan to keep it up, and I’d like to learn more about specifically Buddhist meditative practices eventually....