Brain re-engineering

2 Brain Re-engineering

Brain Re-engineering

Brain Re-engineering The Art of Being Mentally Tough

N.S. Srinivasan G. Balasubramanian

Response Books

A division of Sage Publications New Delhi t Thousand Oaks t London

Copyright © N.S. Srinivasan, G. Balasubramanian, 2003 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilised in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. First published in 2003

Response Books A division of Sage Publications India Pvt Ltd B–42 Panchsheel Enclave New Delhi 110 017 Sage Publications Inc 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, California 91320

Sage Publications Ltd 6 Bonhill Street London EC2A 4PU

Published by Tejeshwar Singh for Response Books, typeset in 11/13 points Minion Condensed by Innovative Processors, New Delhi, and printed at Chaman Enterprises, Delhi. Second printing in 2003 with corrections Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Srinivasan, N.S., 1961– Brain re-engineering: the art of being mentally tough/N.S. Srinivasan, G. Balasubramanian. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Consciousness. 2. Cognition. 3. Neurobiology. I. Balasubramanian, G., 1958–II. Title. BF311.S673 2002 153—dc21 2002026890 ISBN:

0–7619–9719–9 (US-HB) 0–7619–9720–2 (US-PB)

81–7829–112–6 (IND-HB) 81–7829–113–4 (IND-PB)

Production team: Ritu Singh, R.A.M. Brown, Neeru Handa and Santosh Rawat

To all individuals and organisations aspiring to reach the pinnacle of human growth.

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Contents

List of Illustrations List of Abbreviations Acknowledgements Prologue Questionnaire

9 11 13 15 25

Chapter 1 The Need for a Neurobiological Framework

27

Chapter 2 Annihilation of Stress and Gene Activation

49

Chapter 3 Bottom-Up Processing

81

Chapter 4 Top-Down Processing (I) Problem Solving

111

Chapter 5 Top-Down Processing (II) Differentiation and Innovation

137

Chapter 6 Passive Processing—The Art of Being Mentally Tough [ABMT] 155 Questionnaire Epilogue Appendix Glossary Select Bibliography Index About the Authors

183 185 189 195 207

List of Illustrations

Fig. 1.1 Fig. 1.2 Fig. 2.1 Fig. 2.2 Fig. 2.3 Fig. 2.4 Fig. 3.1 Fig. 3.2 Fig. 3.3 Fig. 3.4 Fig. 3.5 Fig. 3.6 Fig. 4.1 Fig. 4.2 Fig. 4.3 Fig. 4.4 Fig. 5.1 Fig. 5.2 Fig. 5.3

Skull, Left Side A Matter of Interpretation The Neuron Neuronal Transmission Pain Pathways Ascending Pain Pathways Existing Thought Processes The Limbic System Different Functional Areas in the Human Brain Effects of Overactivation of Brain Bottom-up Processing-I Bottom-up Processing-II Reverse Networking Dopamine Pathway Top-down Processing-I Completed Circuitry in TDP-I Parallel Processing Construction of the New Conceptual Scaffold in Science New Product Development in the New Economy

33 41 55 56 67 68 87 95 98 102 103 104 121 123 129 131 143 146 148

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List of Abbreviations

ADD ADHD ARISE CB—CID CEO CET CP EEG fMRI GABA GCs GTR HGH IIM IIT JAMA NREM PET REM SWM USA VR WWF

Attention Deficit Disorder Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Associates for Research Into the Science of Enjoyment Central Bureau—Criminal Investigation Department Chief Executive Officer Consciously Encourage Thoughtlessness Cerebral Palsy Electroencephalogram Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Gamma Amino Butyric Acid Glucocorticoids General Theory of Relativity Human Growth Hormone Indian Institute of Management Indian Institute of Technology Journal of American Medical Association No Rapid Eye Movement Positron Emission Tomography Rapid Eye Movement Shareholder or Stakeholder Wealth Maximisation United States of America Virtual Reality World Wrestling Foundation

12 Brain Re-engineering

Acknowledgements

We are deeply grateful to all those, including our gurus and teachers, who have helped in the compilation of this book.If any concept has been misrepresented, the fault lies with our understanding of what these great minds have taught us. We also acknowledge the help that we have received from Professor Ramakant Sinari (Professor Emeritus, IIT, Mumbai); Professor S. Ramachander; Professor M.J. Xavier; Mr Ravikumar Joseph; Ms Aparna Ranganathan; Ms Geeta Venkatraman; and Ms Vijayasudha Narayanan, for reading the draft and suggesting the changes needed to make the book more interesting. Our deepest gratitude goes to Mr Sankar Mahadevan who spent an enormous amount of time to understand and help us design the cover and diagrams in the book. We owe our heartfelt thanks to Ms Jaya Venkatesh; Ms Kripa Sridhar, and Mr Meenaski Sundaram, for all their help and encouragement. Our thanks also goes to every member of our respective organisations for their assistance. We also thank our publishers Response Books. We are indebted to them for their cooperation and their willing enthusiasm to publish this work. We also express our solemn appreciation to our immediate families, for all their encouragement and their tenacity to endure our idiosyncrasies, without whose support this work would never have begun. Chennai 22 April 2002

N.S. Srinivasan G. Balasubramanian

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Prologue

THE CONSTANT STRUGGLE

FOR

SELF-EXPRESSION1

Life means various things to people in different stages of growth. To an infant, it is the warmth of the mother; to a child, it is the pleasure from association with things near and dear or the pain associated with their separation; to a teen, it is uncertainty associated with his concepts; to a youth, it is the tolerance of ambiguity; to a man struggling for his daily bread, it is a curse from the Almighty; to a successful professional, it a challenge to constantly adapt to the changing scenario; to a dynamic entrepreneur, it is consistency of trends; to an enlightened individual, it is the sense of euphoria associated with perception, reaction, response and feedback, both internal and external, of every experience that he2 undergoes. Life, thus, is intrinsically woven into the tapestry of experience. The greater the selfexpression in any experience, the greater is the joy associated with it. All education, thus, aims at facilitating further individual gain and more self-expression with every experience. The challenge, therefore, is to find ways and means by which this can be achieved. Can empirical science help us tackle this challenge? Challenges are universal phenomena. One individual faces them with a spirit of enterprise, constantly and consistently striving to grow, 1 2

The innate need determined by one’s genetic code. Though the male gender is constantly used throughout this book, it refers to both the sexes. Both sexes are not referred to here for the sake of lucidity. Moreover, in the Indian tradition, pourusheyam refers not to the male alone but to one who is willing to take on the world, to live life with a spirit of adventure, who wants to grow consistently and constantly throughout one’s lifetime.

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develop and excel, while another proclaims challenges as sedulous drudgery that portends an impending disaster. For an individual with the former mind set, the source of joy and entertainment is the very struggle for excellence, the baby steps that he takes to offset obstacles that nature seems to throw at him; for another with the latter mental make-up, every step that he has to take is a source of misery which has to be alleviated and compensated through sense enjoyment, emotional upheavals and a hidebound intellectual outlook. What is the reason for this difference in attitude? Is there something called attitude? Is it a mere subjective assumption? Is it possible to give an ostensible and objective definition for this subjective term? If it can be objectively defined, can one change his ‘attitude’?

EMPIRICAL SCIENCE

AND ITS

OBJECTIVE

Empirical science from its very inception has tried to improve the quality of life of man. According to Hume, human nature is the ‘capital or centre’ of all science, and it is of paramount importance that we develop a science of man. His role in the development of such a science is primary for it is man who decides what is true and what is false. The empirical philosophy had no mean ambition and this is made explicit when Hume states, ‘In pretending, therefore, to explain human nature, we in effect propose a complete system of the sciences, built on a foundation almost entirely new, and the only one upon which they can stand with any security’.3 ‘As the science of man is the only solid foundation for the other sciences, so the only solid foundation we can give to this science itself must be laid on experience and observation’.4 Hume wanted the experimental method, which had been applied with much success in natural science, to be applied to the study of man as well, i.e., man’s psychological process and his moral behaviour and endeavour to ascertain principles and causes. He was of the opinion that we have to start with empirical data, and not with pretended intuition of the 3 4

Hume, David, 1739–40, Treatise of Human Nature, p. 20, retrieved from McMaster University Archive. Ibid., p. 20.

Prologue 17

essence of the human mind. ‘Where experiments of this kind are judiciously collected and compared, we may hope to establish on them a science which will not be inferior in certainty and will be much superior in utility, to any other of human comprehension.’ 5 With the dawn of the Renaissance in the fourteenth century and the flowering of the notion of ‘Cause,’ man began to use direct observation of facts that had hitherto remained dependent on the authority of ancient texts. Theological predomination and prejudice gave way to immediate acquaintance with empirical data. Discoveries in anatomy and physiology by Vesalius and Harvey undermined people’s trust in traditional theories and fuelled the fire for empirical investigation. Galileo Galilei’s experiments: (i) Archimedes’ principle proving that it was not the shape of the object or even its density which decided whether it would float, it is rather its density as relative to that of the fluids in which it is placed, (ii) confirming Simon Stevin’s experiment that bodies of different weight take the same time to fall a given distance and that they do not, as Aristotelians had thought, reach the ground at different times, firmly established the need for empirical investigation and verification through controlled experimentation. With the heliocentric theory being established firmly through the aid of hypothesis and mathematical deduction, and old paraphernalia of epicycles6 being firmly dispensed with and dismantled, natural philosophy was there to stay. A truly mechanistic model of the world, which was only a vague possibility, finally began to take shape. It is these humble beginnings that have today assumed gargantuan proportions. As Frederick Copleston, S.J. (1963), articulates, ‘It may appear that cosmology or natural philosophy has given way to physics, the philosophy of organism to biology, philosophical psychology to scientific psychology, and perhaps even more philosophy to sociology. In other words, it may appear that for all factual information about the world and existent reality we must turn to direct observation to the sciences.’ He adds, ‘The scientific insistence on observable facts as a necessary basis for explanatory theory found it correlative and its theoretical 5 6

Ibid., p. 23. Epicycles are circular orbits within orbits that were used to describe the orbits of objects in the Ptolemaic system. Wherever there was an aberration in the predicted happenings in the Ptolemy’s model of the solar system, it was explained away by stating that an orbiting planet (or moon) took an orbit about its own centre. This was used to explain any number of irregularities in the predicted calendar.

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justification in the empiricist thesis that our factual knowledge is ultimately based on perception.’ In fact,‘sentience’ is one of the few things that still evades the grasp of a rigorous empirical inquiry. It refers to the neuronal correlates of the human brain which remain activated in the deep-sleep state. The arousal of other areas of the brain is initiated by an individual’s genetic material. Explanations regarding the processes that are attributed to the mind are still shrouded in subjective terminology. This book is an attempt to objectify as many of these subjective terminologies as possible by developing a neurobiological framework. This should also help the modern audience to understand age-old traditions and culture in terms of neurobiological ‘Brain Processes’. The wisdom of yore, in fact, is getting corroborated in many ways. It is just that previously, people used a different conceptual framework to explain the nature of the world that they experienced. By developing this neurobiological framework, it is believed that a generation of people would be inspired to take the inductive leap, which is the bedrock of Ingenuity, the objective side of Change, Creativity and Innovation, and understand the wisdom of ancient cultures and traditions in a different light.

THE LIMITATIONS OF THE CARTESIAN PARADIGM TO FULFIL MAN’S CURRENT ASPIRATIONS The challenges that lie before man force him to make certain intuitive assumptions, as was the case with the father of modern science, Rene Descartes. He assumed that it was possible to empirically study, understand, explain and verify the nature of the World-out-there. This he believed, could be done using naturalistic concepts and without any references to anthropomorphic terms. It is this assumption that has led to the plethora of technical innovations and a lifestyle that is based on their inquiry, invention, production and maintenance. The initial condition for the assumption to be made is as important as the effects. Man was striving to overcome the consequences of the Dark Ages which were a composite environment of abject poverty, debilitating diseases, constant squabbling for power and position among the warlords, severe shortage of food, lack

Prologue 19

of infrastructure for growth of the common man and worst of all— ignorance—total non-apprehension about the nature of the world that man had to contend with on a day-to-day basis. Existing alongside all these was an abundance of natural resources. These provided the nascent and ambient factors for empiricism to be propounded. Also, the common man saw no way out of his miserable existence through the anthropomorphic philosophies and corrupt practices of the men in power. Empirical science started as a revolution against the then dogmatic views, by a handful of dauntless men who were skeptical about all anthropological definitions and superstitions based on tradition and culture. They wanted to understand the nature of the world, not life! They needed a conceptual framework that could help them overcome their immediate challenges, to explore, understand, conquer nature and harness its resources for the benefit of the suffering masses. This radical re-examination led to the Industrial Revolution in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The consequence was increased production of food, power, textiles, etc. Novel methods were devised in transport and communication and for educating the emerging work force. Once the initial inventions were in place, they had to be mass-produced, maintained, repaired by a team of people. A handful had to be given inputs that would help them come up with solutions to more complex tasks that needed to be addressed. For example, mere tree-trunks that served as bridges to cross streams, gave way to engineered stone pathways. These had to be upgraded to handle more people, freight, automated vehicles, multiple lanes, underground tunnels, etc. As the level of complexity of the challenge arose, technology had to be reinvented. A group of people, who were most suited for this, were given the freedom to reinvent technology by going back to the ‘first principles’7 of science time and again. It is this going back to first principles that helped scientists and researchers to take the ‘inductive leap’. A researcher takes an inductive leap in making a generalization about an entire population based on the observation of a limited sample. For example, an investigator might reason that because penicillin resolves an infection in one group of patients, it will do so for other patients with a similar infection. Inductive inferences are a must if science has to move ahead. 7

The nature of first principle is discussed extensively in Chapter 5 of this book.

20 Brain Re-engineering

As the initial inquiry made its way, it brought about changes that have eliminated almost all the factors that set it in motion. It has alleviated the suffering of humanity from hunger by developing techniques that have helped man manage his meagre resources better; cholera, small pox, and other diseases that devastated whole generations have been controlled, power is no longer in the hands of a few who consider themselves divine incarnations, but in the hands of the people; policy decisions of governments and corporations are all tacitly based on the development of products and services that act as a catalyst for human growth and development. The main predicament facing man today is that the initial conditions that fuelled empirical science no longer exist or have been mitigated. The issues that need immediate appraisal and resolution are (a) pollution, (b) population control, and (c) stress affecting modern man due to the lifestyle he adheres to today. We have to find solutions for the global warming8 produced by the greenhouse effect, develop a self-sustaining and eco-friendly economy, and probably—the most essential of them all—develop an objective conceptual scaffold that guarantees the growth and development of every sentient being. The emerging economy would be based on delivering customised solutions which would actualise these individual aspirations and goals. As requirements of man change, the assumptions that can help in the actualisation of these needs have necessarily to be amended. Otherwise we would be heading nowhere with respect to the fulfilment of aspirations. The current scenario necessitates that organisations come up with methods to manage natural resources, the reserves of which have almost been completely depleted; economically and holistically, products and services have to be more and more customised to suit individual customers; understanding and forecasting future market conditions, which has become impossible under the present conceptual physicalistic9 and materialistic10 8

9 10

The earth’s climate is predicted to change because human activities are altering the chemical composition of the atmosphere through the buildup of greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. The heat-trapping property of these gases is undisputed. Physicalism is a philosophical standpoint which says that physics—past, present and future—can explain the nature of everything. Materialism is a philosophical standpoint which believes that whole gamut of experiences can be explained in terms of matter.

Prologue 21

framework, have to be revived using an objective scaffold that accounts for human experience. Without this, infrastructural development would be rendered impossible. The emerging conceptual scaffold has to be based on neurobiological processes which form the bedrock for all human wants, aspirations and experience. The models that are currently available have a physicalistic predilection that fails to account for the variability in the experience. In a scenario where every member of an organisation has to contribute towards the development of differentiated products and services, an objective framework of the ‘Mind,’ in terms of brain processes, has to be worked out in elaborate detail. Moreover, the physicalistic notions of the universe have ended up in a paradox. The General Theory of Relativity (GTR) and Quantum Mechanics have definitely locked up the physicalistic representation of the Universe, in a framework where there seems to be no way forward. There has been no major discovery in physics for almost a century. The String Theory conceived by Green and Schwarz as a Theory of Every Thing has tried to explain how the four major forces11 of nature can be unified, but makes no attempt to objectify experience or sentience. With this not being attended to, how will the growth and development of every individual become an actuality? The world is possibly waiting with bated breath for the emergence of a new conceptual scaffold which is firmly established in empirical traditions, but is willing to shed the assumptions of Cartesian paradigm. It is possible that this has implicitly led to the scientific inquiry into the nature of cognition and consciousness. Where does one begin the quest for objective and ostensible definitions for mental phenomena? Auguste Comte, the founder of Positivism, according to Philipp G. Frank,12 ‘accepted even the theological principles as a starting-point to get science going’. In his book Positive Philosophy (written in 1829), Comte says, If, on the one hand, every positive theory has to be based on observations, it is, on the other hand, also true that our mind needs a theory in order to make observations. If in contemplating the phenomena we did not link them immediately with some principles, it 11 12

Forces of gravity, electromagnetism, strong and weak nuclear forces. See Schilpp, Paul Arthur (ed.) 1997.

22 Brain Re-engineering

would not only be impossible to continue the isolated observation and draw any useful conclusions, we would not even be able to remember them and for the most part, the facts would not be noticed by our eyes. The authors assume that if we have to gain objective and ostensible definitions for mental phenomena, we would have to step away from the existing physicalistic and materialistic framework. The new overarching framework would have to start with sentience by mapping the neurobiological correlates in the human brain associated with it and thereafter go on to explain how the multitude of experiences comes about. The theory could still be termed materialistic, for we are still talking about how the brain interprets experience, yet would be diagonally opposite to current materialistic theories that aim to explain the nature of experience and sentience by starting from some fundamental particle/s. The objective here is to obtain ostensible definitions for cognitive experiences in their entirety. This book is an attempt to serve as a vanguard in this struggle, in this adventure, in this enterprise, to know, to learn, to understand and to explicate experience through objective and ostensible definitions due to which the aspirations of scientists and the common man are actualised. The objective here is to move innovation that is stuck in laboratories to the market place, where it is as useful for human growth and development for progress into the next phase. The spirit of inquiry sets up a conducive environment for the framework to be built, reflection serves as the pile driver, theorizing lays the foundation, concepts define the various limits within this vast intellectual space that has lain fallow for nearly 400 years, technology provides the decor, scientists prepare the menu, the corporates advance the daintily prepared courses and finally it is we, the people, who order what is to be served.

THE LIMITATION

OF

OBJECTIVE DEFINITIONS

At the very beginning we would like to stress the problem that lies with objective definitions. Every ostensive definition is part of a theoretical scaffold that consists of many concepts stitched seamlessly together so that there are no loose ends. This framework holds true only when considered

Prologue 23

under a certain domain. A domain refers to a demarcated realm where certain specified parameters remain constant, while others are liable to change. ‘Science is not a system of certain, or well-established statements; nor is it a system which steadily advances towards a state of finality. Our science is not knowledge (episteme): it can never claim to have attained truth, or even a substitute for it, such as probability’, Sir Karl Popper (1965). The domain of this neurobiological framework is not confined to the waking state of consciousness alone, but to the entire gamut of cognitive experiences. It believes, based on already existing empirical research, that synonymously used terms like Consciousness and Cognition can be differentiated and given ostensible definitions. The main reason for this assertion is that the field of inquiry in the nature of consciousness resembles a vast tract of land that has lain fallow for a very long period of time. Once a land is acquired by a land developer, it gets segregated into many areas. So also is this new field, the scientific inquiry into the nature of consciousness. Most of the assumptions made today by the people working in this field, may not be useful in consummating the objectives that the field aims to fulfill, i.e., gain ostensible definitions for terms that were previously deemed subjective. If this is not accomplished, the whole inquiry does not find any pragmatic usage. The book aims at developing a comprehensive hypothesis that has immediate use to both the common man and industry. It does not stop at making empty claims and empirically unsupported data. Most of what has been stated here has been empirically verified in various studies in many recognised laboratories all over the world. It combines this scattered information base into a seamless tapestry that finds application in modern life and living. All the terms and terminologies used in this book can be empirically experienced and verified by ‘the waker’ in all of us. The waking experience is often stated to be that experience of the human brain when it is functioning in the beta range, i.e., between 12–40 cycles per second or Hertz (Hz). The book also helps one to understand the brain processes that are part and parcel of every experience. In order to overcome any challenge that the individual is faced with, he has to customise the input data that is necessary to overcome that particular challenge. This has to be well supported by the use of all brain processes that he has at his disposal. By partial

24 Brain Re-engineering

utilisation of the brain and its neuronal processes, the individual remains discontented and dissatisfied, leading to debilitating stress in the young and old. Modern education has more often than not, satisfied the information needs of people, though it has been implicit in its reference to brain processes. Without the proper usage of brain processes, this only leads to information overload. The main aim of this book is to explicate this apparent inequity. The authors firmly believe in the empirical foundations for knowledge and that the working hypothesis of the neurobiological framework which is being developed here would lend itself to verification by every earnest experimenter.

AN OVERVIEW The first chapter of the book starts with highlighting the need to understand the role of brain processes as each individual interrupts the world in his own way. It tries to emphasise the fact that all world views are only enlightened interpretations of men who strived to objectify their subjective notions or experiences about the world. The second chapter speaks about the need for every individual to strive and struggle to discipline himself in order to interpret the world as objectively as possible, while comprehending the underpinning limitations of every hypothesis already given out and every theory practised. The lack of this discipline results in debilitating stress. Stress saps one’s productivity, while making the individual susceptible to harmful diseases. One who learns to interpret and resolve incoming sense data can completely annihilate stress. The four remaining chapters scientifically and systematically explicate the methodologies involved in interpreting of the incoming sense data of the world, namely (a) Bottom-Up Processing (b) Top-Down Processing [I] (c) Top-Down Processing [II] (d) Passive Processing.

(Please fill in this questionnaire both before and after reading the book)

How Mentally Tough are You?

(Make sure that the scores are based on your day-to-day actions, not on information known) [1-Always think, 5-Never think] 1. 2. 3. 4.

5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

‘I could have achieved that’. 1 ‘I know that I should not be doing this’. 1 ‘You know, I failed because of X, Y, Z’. 1 ‘By the time I learn to do something, 1 others are asking me to do something else better’. I almost always try to impress others. 1 ‘How do I know what you want?’ 1 ‘It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there’. 1 ‘Why shouldn’t I sit back and relax 1 for a moment? ‘If only I had learnt about this earlier’. 1 ‘You know the world has changed so 1 much, there is no one whom one can trust’. ‘Luck is very important for success’. 1 ‘To err is only human’. 1 ‘I want to do this very much, but ......’. 1 ‘I am very disciplined, but cannot 1 accept the incompetence of others’. ‘If only I could live up to the 1 expectations of .......’. Total

2 2 2 2

3 3 3 3

4 4 4 4

5 5 5 5

2 2 2 2

3 3 3 3

4 4 4 4

5 5 5 5

2 2

3 3

4 4

5 5

2 2 2 2

3 3 3 3

4 4 4 4

5 5 5 5

2

3

4

5

If you need more clarifications, e-mail us at [email protected]

1 The Need for a Neurobiological Framework

Life and its meaning seem to have always been shrouded in the deepest mystery. From time immemorial, lives of generations of men have been dedicated to unravelling this mystery. Among the handful of those who claim to have succeeded in this most arduous adventure that a living entity can take, there are varying theories. The Vedas, presumably the oldest work on life, describe it as a Sanathana Dharma (those principles which lend support to the welfare of one and all); for the Greeks the very journey was sacred and the path termed as ‘the ascent of the soul’; the Jews claim that life is living in abidance by the Supreme Law; the Muslims claim it to be the Will of Allah, proclaimed through the words of Prophet Mohammed in the Quran; the Sikhs swear by the Holy Granth and so on. More blood has been shed than any other cause, in the name of Truth which is nothing but individualised conceptualisations or definitions worked out to define the possibly indefinable Life. The bloodshed continues even today and its latest chapter was the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre towers and the Pentagon in the US and the 13 December 2001 strike on the Indian Parliament. Despite all this, the unquenchable thirst for knowing the quintessence of life persists. Every individual is ineffably drawn towards it, consciously or unconsciously, to find his own answers to the what, why, how, when and where of life. What could be the reason for this eccentricity? Could it be that the innate inquiry is to know, to understand, to experience, to be free from the

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bonds of ignorance? Could it be that truth about life in its quintessence can never be defined and that all definitions are merely elaborate conceptual scaffolds that have their inherent constraints, and therefore their limitations? Could each one of us be pursuing it in our own limited way to build a coherent view of life, so that we can actualise our inherent potential? Could it be a case where Truth reveals itself according to the way the brain is hardwired? Are there any answers at all? Possibly yes, probably no! The quest seems to be a case where the seeker is not looking for any answers but finding more fundamental queries to ask! The more he unravels the puzzle, more remains to be known! Does this signify that every quest to gain one’s own view of life helps him to live comfortably with uncertainty? Could this be the reason why the famous poetess from Tamil Nadu, Aauviyar, proclaimed: Katrathu kaiman alavu, kallathatu ulagalavu (What is known is equivalent to a handful of DIRT1, what is UNKNOWN is the size of the World) — Tanipadal Tirattu (2nd century AD) The innate quest for the meaning of Truth seems to be a case for personal effectiveness by objectifying one’s subjective thoughts; for conquest of mental space in the minds of men; an attempt to capture and savour the infinite in this finite world!

LIFE

IN A

VIRTUAL WORLD

VIRTUAL REALITY

People are willing to pay even $5 to experience a film that allows them to live through an occurrence subjecting them to a thrilling senseexperience. The absorbing games and film shows with flight simulator seats fool the brain into believing that the thrilling experiences of going over cliffs, having near-death experiences and having major auto crashes are ‘real’. So what is ‘real’? If one feels that the absorbing virtual reality experience is actually taking place, is deemed to be actually taking place, is reality 1

Dirt has its uses if it is in the right place, but is useless, if not harmful, if it is present outside its domain of usefulness.

The Need for a Neurobiological Framework 29

nothing but the brain functioning at a particular mode or frequency? Empirical science has long known that no one can prove the existence of the world. Today’s science is not an attempt to prove its existence! All that science does in actuality is to interpret the experience that one has and lay down the foundations on which these experiences can give rise to knowledge. Virtual Reality (VR) is a technological application developed at the NASA Ames VIEW laboratory in the mid eighties by a team lead by Scott Fisher, though the initial conceptualisation would be attributed to the work of Ivan Sutherland in the early sixties. Using some of the following equipment: computer-generated three-dimensional graphics, flight simulator seats, data gloves, specially designed electronic masks, a body suit, etc., the human being enters this novel tailor-made technology environment and interacts with it. The cognitive processes in the brain are triggered through sensory inputs in the form of audio, video, tactile, etc., thus VR does not attempt to create an illusion. The objects and beings seem to have a spatial location independent of both the user and the display technology. In other words, the brain processes that are activated are almost the same when compared to the waking experience; the closer it is to the waking experience, the more successful is the product. In fact VR is a multi-million dollar industry. It has developed applications not only in the entertainment industry, but in others as well. Some applications provide ways of viewing from an advantageous perspective otherwise not possible, like scientific simulators, telepresence2 systems and air traffic control systems. Other applications are far different from anything we have ever directly experienced before. These latter applications may be the hardest, and most interesting systems, for example, visualising the ebb and flow of the world’s financial markets, navigating a large corporate information base, etc. Today’s VR environment apes the waking experience in such a convincing manner that today surgeons are able to practise convincing operations on ‘virtual’ patients, astronauts can already practise space manoeuvres on the ground, and anyone can be a ‘virtual’ racing driver in his own living 2

‘Telepresence’ refers to the sense of being in an environment, generated by natural or mediated means using computer graphics and other artificial media.

30 Brain Re-engineering

room. VR today is redefining the methodology used to educate students all over the world. When a person is immersed in the computer-generated, inputdriven virtual environment, the experience has a reality of its own. The user of the computer–human interface does not realise that the whole experience is a projection, a creation, an interpretation by his own brain. When such is the case, what is the probability of an individual in the waking state of experience, on which the VR experience is aped, ever realising that it is our brain that is creating and interpreting this Virtual Waking Experience? REALITY CREATED BY THE HUMAN BRAIN

It is almost impossible for the common man to be aware that the reality perceived by him as everyday experience is a mere creation of his own brain. This is largely due to his misapprehensions about (a) the compelling nature of the sensory input; (b) the nature of the brain processes involved in the perception of everyday reality. The Compelling Nature of Sensory Input Most people are not aware of the dominant nature of the sensory input that is provided by the environment around each one of us. Imagine that you are now seated on the ‘Viper’.3 For the next 150 seconds or so the ride takes you through loops where the G-forces constantly increase and decrease. The brain believes that it is floating, free-falling, etc. as you are being rammed back and thrown forward on your seat. The untrained brain cannot but experience sheer terror, thus releasing hormones into the bloodstream to combat this extreme stress. Is there any benefit you get other than the adrenaline-induced high? With respect to available research data regarding the nature of visual stimuli, television and video viewing, listening to music, etc., have been extensively studied regarding the changes they create in brain processes. Studies conducted by Dr Thomas Robinson4 in the Division of Paediatrics 3 4

Viper is a roller coaster at Six Flays Magic Mountain. Reference: http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/issues/v155n1/abs/poa00191.html & http://mednews.stanford.edu/news_releases_html/1999/mayreleases/tvstudy.html

The Need for a Neurobiological Framework 31

at the Stanford University, California, USA, have shown that extensive television viewing may be associated with aggressive behaviour, poor academic performance, precocious sexuality, obesity and the use of drugs or alcohol. Television, video games and music are very influential and if there is too much violence available for children to watch, play, or listen to, this can sway their attitudes in a negative direction. Many children’s programmes are extremely violent and a child can learn violent behaviour from watching them. For example, recently in Norway, a small girl was beaten, stripped and left to die by three boys aged between five and six. When asked why they had assaulted the girl, the boys replied that they were doing what the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers do. Also, they said they were copying the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It has been shown that viewing violent programmes can alter a child’s behaviour, making the child afraid, worried, suspicious, or increasing the child’s tendencies towards aggressive behaviour. Several Northern European countries, including Norway and Sweden, have taken The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers off the air because they feel it is too violent for children to watch. In Canada too the Mighty Morphins have been dropped. The telecast of WWF (World Wrestling Federation) programme was banned in many states of the USA, after a 12-year-old bashed the head of his younger sister against an iron pillar after watching WWF wrestlers doing the same in the ring. Auditory stimuli also influence the functioning of the brain. In an experiment conducted to inquire into the effects of classical music on memory at UC Irvine, the scientists had college students listen for 10 minutes either to: l l l

Mozart’s sonata for two pianos in D major, A relaxation tape, or Silence.

Immediately after listening to these selections, students took a spatial reasoning test (from the Stanford-Binet intelligence scale). The results showed that the students’ scores improved after listening to the Mozart tape as compared to either the relaxation tape or silence. Unfortunately, the researchers found that the effects of the music lasted only 10 to 15 minutes. Nevertheless, these researchers believed that memory was improved because

32 Brain Re-engineering

music and spatial abilities shared the same pathways in the brain. Therefore, they deduced that music ‘warms up’ brain processes involved in the spatial reasoning test. This effect has come to be known as ‘The Mozart Effect’, a song by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. There are many examples of educational and positive video games for children. In fact, there is an entire business dedicated to developing more challenging and interesting software for children’s use. Some programmes are designed to allow children to explore different places or environments, whereas others are developed to teach and drill specific facts or academic skills. Playing computer games can give a child intellectual confidence and can help increase his or her motivation level. ‘Many computer games promote a feeling of mastery,’ said Erna Fishhaut, a specialist reviewer who authored the article ‘Video Games: A Problem or a Blessing?’5 Each of these sensory inputs has a strong influence on the functioning of the brain and therefore on the behaviour of human beings. Talking about the effects of the indiscriminate use of the senses on discrimination, the Bhagavad Gita says in Chapter II, verse 67: As a strong wind carries away a boat on the waters, so also the roaming senses violently take away the mind and in its wake one’s discretion. — Swami Adidevananda (n/d) Sri Ramanuja Gita Bhasya Ramakrishna Mission Western theology claims that evil is something that residesout-there. Maybe this was what prompted the great acharya Adi Sankaracharya (in his work Vivekachudamani {Crest-Jewel of Wisdom, Verse 78}) to say that an organism which has a weakness for one sense organ is annihilated because of this. He says that the moth dies because of its affinity for light, the fish is caught because of its frail tongue, a deer is snared because of its debility for sound, an elephant falls into the pit and gets trained for hard labour during its mating season, the black bee is swallowed up by the carnivorous flower due to its infirmity for smell. A predilection for the 5

http://www.outreach.missouri.edu/extensioninfoline/youth & family/video_games.html

The Need for a Neurobiological Framework 33

acquisition and enjoyment of just one type of sense input destroys each one of these creatures. What then, is the probability of a human being surviving the onslaught of the world, when he has weaknesses for all the five senses? Ignorance Regarding the Nature of Brain Processes A very large proportion of people are not aware of the cognitive processes involved in the brain, which is ultimately creating the world that one perceives. By not understanding the nature of the cognitive process, the young and old, the illiterate and literate, the amateur and professional are

Fig. 1.1 Skull, Left Side

victimised by their own brains. Unscrupulous operators victimise people worldwide because the man on the street is totally ignorant about how his own brain is fooling him. He does not realise that the brain’s default or untrained mode is short-term oriented, instinctive, impulsive. He gets hijacked by his own faulty cognitive processes. There are examples everywhere in the world: 1. Las Vegas news agency6 reported a group of investors from Southern California and Las Vegas who simply could not resist the proposal for 6

http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/1999/Jun-27-Sun-1999/

34 Brain Re-engineering

recovering sunken treasure off the Philippine coast and trading ancient artifacts from Southeast Asia in exchange for potential riches. Robust, self-described treasure hunter, Dennis Standefer, sold their treasure-hunting dreams to them. Now, the group of investors can’t find Standefer or their money. 2. Non-banking financial institutions in Chennai duped thousands of people of their life’s savings by making claims that they would give a hitherto unprecedented rate of interest. They advertised that their rate of interest would be as high as 40 per cent. Most of the heads of these institutions cannot be found even by the CB—CID.7 3. In the name of ethnic cleansing, the Serbian army generals have convinced its cadres to kill and maim civilians—at least two hundred thousands of them—in Bosnia and Croatia since the beginning of the war. Tens of thousands of women were raped, some of them more than a hundred times, while their sons and husbands were beaten and tortured in concentration camps like Omarska and Manjaca. Millions lost their homes due to this process called ethnic cleansing. At the beginning of 1997 there were at least 27,000 people missing in Bosnia. 4. Monarchs murdered, plundered and ravaged the African continent in the name of colonisation, spreading the word of Christ. The public in Europe were taken in by the lofty words until they learnt the truth from the mouths of some conscientious prospectors. By the time the whole story came out, the damage had been wrought. All that was left was the anguish and guilt of a noble few. Before we look at the physiological aspects of cognition (in chapter 3) which could be the probable cause for people to be victimised by devious operators, let us examine the consequences of non-apprehension of cognitive processes with respect to different categories of people. Research shows that parents who use media as an electronic babysitter have to suffer its consequences in the future, as they are ignorant of the cognitive processes in the brain. ‘It’s easy to plop them (infants)8 down 7 8

Central Bureau—Criminal Investigation Dept. Authors’ addition, not in the original text.

The Need for a Neurobiological Framework 35

in front of the TV,’ says Dr Michael Cupoli,9 a paediatrician at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago. ‘It’s wrong, but a lot of us do things wrong because we’re too tired, we’re overwhelmed or we just don’t know better.’ Dr Cupoli says that a no-TV policy echoes the decade-long efforts of paediatricians to get parents to read to children as young as six months old. In a sense, Dr Cupoli believes that paediatricians who urge parents to read to children are already advising indirectly against watching TV. Moreover, ‘Infants respond in ways that adults don’t think of ’, he says. ‘They don’t just respond to somebody’s voice or sight but to touch or smell, even an aura of being wanted. TV interferes with that—it’s a two-dimensional response.’ The consequence is that children have major comprehension problems with topics that need greater attention spans. Children end up with inadequate cognitive skills to complete or compete in the present educational system. They become depressed, with low self-esteem and poor immune systems. Parents attribute the cause to everything except their own mistake: planting infants, toddlers and children in front of TVs and audio systems. Research has also proved that care and caressing help in the growth of the adipose layer on the axon (in a neuron). This fat tissue layer increases the speed of transmission of nerve impulses from the brain to the motor areas,10 thus providing the child with survival skills where faster processing and response times are critical for survival. Ignorance or the lack of ‘internalisation’11 of the knowledge of his own cognitive processes on the part of a student proves to be detrimental to his growth and development. For example, if a student undergoing an intense educational programme merely exposing himself to multitudinous concepts without striving to understand and interpret them from the shoes of the author/s, he would suffer from information overload and thereafter, cognitive dissonance.12 The ignorance of brain processes in a youth who is competing for employment opportunities, compels him to function on ‘likes 9 10 11 12

http://www.benton.org/DigitalBeat/db090299.html Motor area is a part of the frontal lobe of the human brain, which is involved in action and learning. The word educate come from two Latin terms, ‘edu’ and ‘cate’ which mean ‘to draw out from within’. ‘Cognitive Dissonance’ can ostensibly be defined as the internal and subliminal resistance to learn, grow, change and adapt. In neurobiological terms, it is the inability of the individual to develop new neuronal circuitry, which is the fundamental basis for change.

36 Brain Re-engineering

and dislikes’. Due to this mode of behaviour, he is unable to activate areas of the brain associated with higher-order processing, like analytical thinking. When such an individual gets a job and is faced with a challenging problem, most of the time he only seeks the help of his peers to get to know the answer rather than striving to understand the question. No ‘real education’ takes place though the problem situation may be diffused. This attitude of the ignorant youth becomes a serious handicap when he is in the marketplace endeavouring to compete with others for the advancement in his budding career. As far as a corporate executive is concerned, ‘over-activation’13 of areas of the brain associated with analytical processing, can lead him to be effective only in the short term. This stifles the progressive capability of any organisation. Ultimately, the individual who is very good at managing issues only in the short term finds it very difficult to make any headway in his career. In the current scenario where no objective measures are given to help him make headway in his career, the repercussion is Stress and all its debilitating effects. An individual occupying a senior management position today in any organisation, be it in a family, educational institution, corporate organisation, government, etc., is innately gifted with excellent analytical capabilities and develops a seamless conceptual scaffold from all the concepts that he has been exposed to, during his education and professional career. He might even have an excellent track record for developing and delivering ‘innovative’ products or services. If his customer needs were to change unexpectedly, which is quite possible in the current market scenario, the conceptual framework that has been developed after years of toil, has to be modified dynamically. Unless he quickly questions the very assumptions on which it is based and draws up another, which is in line with the assumptions of his target customers, he and his organisation will find it difficult to sustain their position in the marketplace.14 This is because current models of management do not equip senior management with a framework from which their own conceptual scaffolds can be deduced, while adapting the same to changes that are 13 14

Over-activation would mean excess blood flowing into a particular areas of the brain, stifling its normal, synchronised functioning. This is one of the reasons why the title has the word ‘Re-engineering’.

The Need for a Neurobiological Framework 37

constantly taking place in established domains. The main reason for ‘Change’ is the modification in the neurobiological circuitry in the brain of today’s customer brought about by the enormous amount of sensory input that he is bombarded with. With this an abundance of information and sensory experiences, which had hitherto been available in sumptuous quantities only to a selected few people around the world, the brain is at a heightened state of excitation when compared to the lifestyle that was prevalent even 50 years ago. New neuronal networks in the human brain, which were dormant when life was a struggle to make both ends meet, are being rekindled. With new neuronal networks being opened up, human behaviour is no longer as predictable as what it was even a decade ago. As brain processes of customers change, their awareness level, analytical thinking capabilities, their judgement, aspirations, and behavioural patterns are also constantly increasing and getting more particular. Customers are demanding products and services that are customised to their innate needs in different markets and segments. Pepsi’s advertisement in India—Ye Dil Maange More—is indeed scientifically true. These may appear alarming to managers not accustomed to the current rate of change and are ignorant of the methodology in which the cognitive processes develop and operate in the human brain. The need of the hour is a model that facilitates an ‘Inductive Leap’. Tom Peters succinctly states this thus: ‘Most fundamentally, the times demand that flexibility and love of change replace our long-standing penchant for mass production and mass markets, based as it is upon a relatively predictable environment now vanished.’ —Tom Peters (1987) The factors that bring about change or changes in the neurobiological circuitry of the human brain, are an important variable for forecasting market trends in the current market scenario. Physicalistic frameworks do not account for this completely. A conceptual framework that starts from sentience, and has within its scope the capability to develop an objective model based on the neurobiological circuitry, can better resolve the present existential crisis in the marketplace. The model developed in this book and its proposed sequels, aims to facilitate the development of an objective model of brain processes that would help senior managers to forecast the nature,

38 Brain Re-engineering

direction, rate, magnitude of change and enhance their abilities to predict the place, time and causal effects of these changes taking place in their respective target markets. The excellent analytical capabilities can be better aided with another theoretical framework based on the new assumptions of existing and prospective customers. In today’s competitive scenario, profitability lies in the niche markets that educate and cater to the implicit demands of the customer. To compete successfully, an objective comprehensive representative model of human cognitive processes appears to be a must for every senior management professional. For example, a person who has moved to a cosmopolitan city like Mumbai from a town like Sangli or Miraj has to act in a way such that he and his family delight his current neighbours. If he does not make the effort to achieve this, the consequence is uncooperative and unhelpful neighbours. The small irritants that they create can add up to cause a major disaster. Strategic thinkers will be able to strategise effectively if they are aware of their own cognitive processes and those that they work with in an organisation. The all-time great novel All Quite on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, describes the cost that a country had to pay for such ignorance. German youth were sent out to fight the First World War, totally charmed by the romantic notions of patriotism eloquently taught to them by their teachers, parents, rulers, etc. No one had told these fresh, enthusiastic recruits that they not only had to fight the first industrialised war, but also had to take on thirst, hunger, cold, rain and rats. They had no clue that life in the trenches meant the company of decaying horses and corpses, of friends and countrymen. The sheer terror15 of the war devastated a generation of people. Most of them lost touch with reality. For those who survived, time stretched out. Life became a matter of survival, first for weeks, then days, hours, minutes and thereafter surviving that particular moment. The Bhagavad Gita and modern management gurus teach people to live-in-the-present, but this methodology of arriving at peak efficiency has a macabre twist. The handful that came out of the War cannot claim to have remained unscathed by it. The fears that they carried altered the cognitive processes in the brain more than the physical ones that were present 15

The term ‘Shell-shock’ was coined during the First World War. It denoted the absolute dread that a soldier had to live with every time a shell exploded. He could be blown to smithereens, his limbs blown away or worse, be buried alive.

The Need for a Neurobiological Framework 39

for everyone to behold. (This book is an attempt to achieve the same result but uses a technique that is moderate by any standards.) Ignorance of cognitive processes caused the strategy of the German rulers to backfire. Physicists like David Bohm have suggested re-examination of the current mathematical scaffold, if the current crisis in physics has to be overcome. They are of the view that the mathematical language that is necessary to account for space-time in quantum mechanics needs a thorough examination of the very assumptions of calculus. The development of a neurobiological framework would be an enormous help to those involved in the cutting edge of scientific research for it would provide them with objective guidelines that would help them know where they are and what they have to do to actualise their potential. The book attempts to develop a framework that would benefit people, be they students, middle-level and senior managers, top management personnel or scientists. The objective framework enumerated could help students overcome their urge to act on their surging emotions and feelings; middle management rise above their predilection for short-term orientation; senior managers to modify their completed neuronal circuitry; top management to be better strategic thinkers; scientists to reevaluate the assumptions made in the past by experts in their field. It is the understanding and examining of one’s neuronal circuitry that can help one discern the value of an individual to the current needs of an organisation, be it a research project, a corporation, a society, a home or a cricket team. The consequence of misapprehension or non-apprehension about the nature of human cognition, starts as errors in action, thereafter avalanching into a series of mistakes, before finally terminating as a disaster in the marketplace, unless it is checked through the Knowledge of Brain Processes. PERCEPTION, AN EXAMPLE OF VIRTUAL DECEPTION

Deceptions of the senses are the truths of perception. —Johannes Purkinje The man on the street falls prey to his own senses without a clear picture about the nature of his cognitive processes. For example, if an individual is viewing a cricket match, he can answer various questions concerned with it only if he lowers his brain frequency.

40 Brain Re-engineering

Question

Slowing down brain processes

What am I viewing? Why am I viewing it? How should I watch this match? When should I watch this match? Where should I watch this match? Who should watch this match? (or) With whom should this match be watched? What is the chance of even one prospective spectator ever lowering his brain frequency in order to ask these questions? The same deceleration of thought processes is a must for each and every day-to-day activity. Most people cognise a thought or desire and act on it. They do not care to think through a situation before acting. If at all they do so in challenging situations, how many have trained their brains to go to the precise frequency, utilise areas of the brain that optimises one’s capacity to answer the aforementioned set of questions? It is no wonder that nearly all of us are prone to errors and find a convenient excuse in the proverb, ‘To err is human’. Magic shows, be they in a street corner in India or a multi-million project in Las Vegas, are nothing but creation of illusions based on one’s expectations. Even an educated individual is not always able to lower his brain frequency sufficiently in order to understand the created illusion as it is taking place, caught up in the excitement of what is happening on the stage and being a part of an expectant crowd. If one were able to do so, then he would still appreciate the dexterity of the magician but would not be overcome by awe. Although we are concerned with how we see the world of objects, it is important to consider the sensory processes that give rise to the questions: What is this? Why am I perceiving this? How does this work? It is by coming to an understanding about the underlying processes associated with perception that we can comprehend how we perceive objects. Writing in his famous book Eye and Brain,16 Dr Richard Gregory says that the brain has a tendency to see, to ‘organise’. This, according to Dr Gregory, is essentially 16

Richard L. Gregory, Dr 1997, 5th edition, Eye and Brain. Princeton University Press, Princeton, USA.

The Need for a Neurobiological Framework 41

the problem of perception. He adds that we can see ourselves groping towards organising the sensory data into objects. ‘If the brain were not continually on the look-out for objects, the cartoonist would have a hard time. But, in fact, all he or she has to do is present a few lines to the eye and we see a face, complete with an expression. The few lines are all that is required for the eye and the brain does the rest: seeking objects and finding them whenever possible. Sometimes we see objects that are not there: faces in the fire, or the ‘man in the moon.’ One is trapped by/in his own cognitive processes. Every cartoonist works on the inherent capacity of the brain to fill in. If the brain is just given a few meaningless lines as those depicted in Fig. 1.2, it can interpret them as a woman bent over with a bucket, washing the floor!

Fig. 1.2 A Matter of Interpretation

Cognition, perception, experience of objects and beings involves ‘interpretation’ by the brain of data received from many sources of information beyond mere ‘sensation’ or the light rays from a object meeting the eye when we look in a particular direction. It generally involves interpretation of the object derived from previous experience, and this experience is not limited to vision but may include other senses viz., touch, taste, smell, hearing and temperature or pain. Interpretations are much more than patterns of stimulation: objects that are perceived have a genetic connection and therefore pasts and futures; when we know its past, we can overcome the excitement of the present and can guess its future. When an object transcends experience it becomes an embodiment of knowledge. Science is nothing but an objective justification of a subjective interpretation. From the

42 Brain Re-engineering

simplest laws of motion to quantum mechanical phenomena, every assumption, hypothesis, theory, is only a rationalisation of subjective experiences. The more one is able to rationalise any experienced phenomenon, the less likely it is to be opinionated and more likely to faithfully communicate the experience of the observer to any audience that is schooled in the observer’s terminology. The critical question that each one has to ask is: Can one minimise the effect of past experiences, the feverish excitement of the present, and the anxiety associated with future expectations, so that he can gain a clear insight into the fundamental nature of every interpretation-in-the-present? Unless and until this can be done, it is impossible for one to succeed in an environment where even day-to-day survival and sustenance depends on keeping one’s ingenuity alive all the time and manage Change resourcefully through Creativity and Innovation. Just how far one can disassociate perception or one’s interpretation of it from past experiences, the feverish present, and future expectations, by slowing down one’s own brain processes systematically and scientifically, in order to obtain an unclouded, crystalline picture of the present experience, is the paramount and principle mission of this work. MENTAL WEAKNESS

Everyday experience of reality to an untrained brain, does not involve going beyond the immediacy of the sensual input and interpretation of this data that is being constantly and consistently fed into us. It is this lack of differentiation or interpretation of input stimuli, in the form of information, that leads us into perceiving Illusions as plausible experiences. This is termed as the power of maya in Indian thought. Our brains put images together because they expect things. The television is just showing us a continuous flow of still pictures, one right after the other. Our eyes along with our brain fill in all of the empty spots. Our brain expects movement. As a result, it fills in all the missing pieces and the television appears to be actually moving to us, even though it really isn’t! Unless this habituation of the neuronal circuitry is bypassed, one cannot see through the fundamental building blocks of any experience. When this differentiation is not accomplished, experiences become a quagmire of swirling currents and

The Need for a Neurobiological Framework 43

counter-currents that appear chaotic. Just imagine what would happen if the action-director and editor of the action sequence of the helicopter smashing into the rock face in the movie like Cliffhanger were incapable of understanding how to shoot this sequence? The normal scene is shot at 24 frames per second, while an action sequence such as this is shot at 150–160 frames per second and projected at the normal speed of 24 frames per second. What do you think would happen to the ratings and the revenue earned from this blockbuster if the action-director and editor did not understand the technique involved in the shooting and projection of the film? Not only should every action-director and the editor understand the effect of a sequence such as this on their target audience, but each and every one of us have to train ourselves to do the same, if we are to meet the expectations of the environment that we are currently living in. It would not be too much of an intellectual tightrope to say that those who do not care to insulate themselves from the erroneous effects of sense-perception, by striving to understand and slow down their brain processes, are subliminally preparing themselves to abstain from the objectivity necessary for understanding their present experience. Translated in the terminology of the current ‘Market Economy’,17 it tacitly expresses the unwillingness of an individual to understand and meet customer needs. When one is incapable of interpreting an experience clearly, the assumptions that the customer makes are unknown, leading to the individual and his organisation being desynchronised from the evolving and emerging market scenario, while they should be striving to stay one step ahead of it. Change becomes a detrimental factor to such an individual and his organisation. The predictive capabilities for forecasting trends, the pro-activeness necessary to prepare oneself and the organisation for the future, are severely compromised. Those who are unable to gain expertise in leveraging their individual innovative skills cannot expect to manage the same in others, especially in a context where every individual’s innovative skills have to be efficiently and effectively managed if the organisation has to remain competitive. Today’s professionals—students, housewives, managers, selfemployed, retired people—are expected to: l 17

tolerate ambiguity;

Market Economy is one where people or consumers ultimately decide what they want. Ideally, the bureaucracy gets involved in developing the infrastructure for such an economy to thrive.

44 Brain Re-engineering l l l l l l l

make fast decisions that are also ‘strategic’; be action-oriented; maintain consistency of purpose; be creative; maintain a high energy level; update knowledge levels; and manage information overload.

In other words, everyone is facing the challenge of excelling under uncertainty in an external environment that is very complex. Students are expected to know almost every concept that has ever been explicated in their functional field; freshers, whether housewives or corporate recruits, are expected to customise their knowledge to the needs of their respective organisations and their customers. The more their capability to do this and think through the issue on hand, the greater is their Employability. Employers expect newcomers to add value to their organisations from day one on the job, by bringing in the latest technological developments applicable to that particular industry, so that bottom lines are buttressed. They expect experienced professionals to understand customer preferences, both internal and external, and develop foolproof systems that help in the management of delivering these customised preferences, incessantly. The more experienced are expected to anticipate changes in customer behaviour and help in strategic planning. Society expects the ‘retired’ to contribute in moderating the exuberance of youth and ambition of decision makers, thereby reducing the cost that has to be borne by it in the process associated with the growth and development of its members. Contribution and augmentation are implicitly expected of everyone and everything by society as a whole. The larger the contribution of one towards the growth of an organisation, be it a family, a corporate, a society, a country, etc., the greater are the rewards in terms of name, fame, position, status, etc. In such a situation of insistent pressure, demanding a high degree of flexibility and adaptability, Mental Toughness is required, if one has to survive, compete and excel. He has to fight every day, if not every moment, yet learn to conserve himself to continue the same tomorrow,

The Need for a Neurobiological Framework 45

and necessarily with more intensity. If he does not quickly learn this skill, master it and subsequently convert it into an Art, it would be difficult for him to retain even a semblance of sanity. The need of the hour is an objective framework by which one can become mentally tough. More important, is there a methodology for sustaining it, in other words, ‘Being Mentally Tough’? Anyone not possessing the capability to handle the aforementioned incomplete list of situations, is more often than not dubbed as being mentally weak. Mental weakness can ostensibly be defined as the nonfunctioning or malfunctioning of neuronal tissues in different areas of the human brain that lead to certain behavioural patterns that is categorised as non-productive. Modern education focuses on functional specialisation and does not do enough to equip people explicitly, through an objective and scientific system, to handle brain processes in times of uncertainty. There is a critical need to examine and understand the brain processes that are involved in cognitive tasks, so that they function at the optimum level irrespective of external uncertainty. For example, how many times in the past have we seen the Indian cricket team ‘snatch defeat from the jaws of victory’? Only a learned brain can interpret and re-interpret inputs from the external environment and help organisations deliver innovative solutions incessantly. The evolving and emerging field of scientific study of Cognition and Consciousness serves as an empirical and objective portal for understanding the brain processes that have immediate application in the dayto-day lives of all. It provides a gateway for one to become mentally tough. It would be sufficient here to label Mental Toughness as the capability of an individual to respond to every external input, holistically, integrally and strategically, while being capable of Real-Time Processing.18 It is believed that the understanding of the brain processes in the contemporary scenario would help in bestowing this capability and sustain it for one’s lifetime. It would also help one to manage, overcome and annihilate the greatest killer of the twentieth century—stress. 18

Real-time processing refers to instantaneous corrective action like in aircraft. In this book it refers to the corrective mechanism in the body.

46 Brain Re-engineering

Summary Ø Ø

Ø Ø

Ø

Ø Ø Ø

Ø

Ø

Every individual has to consciously or unconsciously, find his own answers to the what, why, how, when, where, etc., of Life. It is almost impossible for the common man to be aware that the reality perceived by him as everyday experience is a mere creation of his own brain processes. This is due to the compelling nature of the sensory input and the complex nature of the brain processes involved in the perception of everyday reality. Sensory inputs have a strong influence on the functioning of the brain and therefore the behaviour of human beings. A very large proportion of people are not aware of the cognitive processes involved in the brain, which is ultimately creating the world that one perceives. Children end up with inadequate cognitive skills to compete in the present competitive set-up unless they understand and ‘internalise’ the cognitive skills that the system demands of them. Over-activation of areas of the brain leads to errors. The brain keeps building the neuronal networks with every novel experience. As new neuronal networks open up, human behaviour becomes unpredictable. As brain processes of customers change, their awareness level, analytical thinking capabilities, their judgement and behavioural patterns also change constantly. The need of the hour is a conceptual framework that starts from sentience, and has within its scope the capability to develop an objective model based on the neurobiological circuitry, which can better resolve the present existential crisis in the marketplace. The critical question that each one has to ask is: How can one manage, minimise and thereafter neutralise the dissipative effect of past experiences, the feverish excitement of the present, and the anxiety associated with future expectations, so that he can gain a clear insight into the fundamental nature of every experience?

The Need for a Neurobiological Framework 47 Ø

A situation of insistent pressure demands a high degree of flexibility and adaptability, i.e., Mental Toughness. Ø Mental Weakness can be defined as the non-functioning or malfunctioning of neuronal tissues in different areas of the human brain that leads to certain behavioural patterns which are categorised as non-productive.

2 Annihilation of Stress and Gene Activation

WHO

IS THE

CAUSE

FOR

STRESS?

The complexity theory stated and proved that small changes can lead to catastrophic consequences. Paraphrasing Edward Lorenz, the pioneer of the Chaos Theory, on what he termed as the ‘Butterfly Effect’ the oft-repeated phrase can be quoted again for the benefit of those who are not acquainted with it: ‘A butterfly that flaps its wings in Brazil can set in motion escalating meteorological processes that lead to a tornado in Texas’. In 1963, Edward Lorenz, using Poincaré’s1 mathematics, described a simple mathematical model of a weather system that was made up of three linked non-linear differential equations that showed rates of change in temperature and wind speed. Some surprising results showed complex behaviour from supposedly simple equations; also, the behaviour of the system of equations was sensitively dependent on the initial conditions of the mathematical model. He spelt out the implications of his discovery, saying that if there were any errors in observing the initial state of the system, and this is inevitable in any real system, prediction of a future state of the system was impossible. Lorenz labelled these systems that exhibited sensitive dependence on initial conditions as having the ‘butterfly effect’. This unique name came from the aforementioned proposition. The message here is: ‘A 1

http://www.gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/nhistory/mathematicians/poincare.html

50 Brain Re-engineering

small change at one point in time in a system can lead to larger changes, which in turn trigger exponentially escalating effects’. Small mistakes, catastrophic consequences is something that immediately comes to mind when we recollect the kindergarten poem, ‘For want of a horseshoe nail’. We understand that a pair of chopsticks feasting on sharp-fin soup can drive a predator, which has remained almost unchanged by history for 300 million years, into extinction. The ‘unsinkable’ Titanic sank because a few rivets came off when the ship grazed an iceberg. Imagine a situation where a large multinational is setting up an Indian subsidiary. The plan-of-action is chalked out after a lot of freedom has been given to all the members of the senior management. Also visualise that the company is the first of its kind in India and that the lower levels are almost freshers with little or no hands-on experience in this industry. So there is no point in consulting them at this stage of the setting-up process. The situation is that one of the distribution managers suddenly decides to take a unilateral decision without taking others into confidence. The all-India incharge of the distribution function comes to know of this. He immediately apprises the CEO about the situation. The CEO losses his cool and tells the all-India manager and the personnel manager to get the ‘bugger’ to him so that the problem can be sorted out. Let us also presuppose that the CEO is in his early thirties. The senior manager is in his late thirties and the personnel man is in his late twenties. To them their CEO is the archetype of a successful and dashing contemporary executive, whose career graph is something they would like to emulate. The errant man is brought in and told of the consequences of his unwillingness to communicate his plans in terms of costs incurred by marketing, personnel, etc. He becomes aware of the need to keep others informed of what is going on and the situation is diffused. The CEO’s knowledge and experience helped to avoid a situation where the organisation would have spent a few millions of rupees. The CEO is also aware that he lost his cool when he was informed about the itinerant behaviour of the senior manager. He can review the situation either in a linear or non-linear mode. In the linear method, he would say: ‘I became dysfunctional for two minutes. Such a situation takes place 2–3 times a day on an average. Therefore, I lose about 15 minutes a week in productive time, 60 minutes a month, 360 minutes in six months. This, multiplied by my emoluments/minute, is the

Annihilation of Stress and Gene Activation 51

loss to the company. Well, this is the loss that the company has to bear for hiring me.’ If his reasoning follows a non-linear technique, he could think: ‘Hey, hold on for a second. These guys want to emulate me. They do not have either my information base, conceptual or man management skills; if the same situation happens at any time, they could think that the best way to solve the situation is to getting ‘aggressive’, i.e., to become emotional. I have learnt to overcome my emotions before I act, but they don’t know this. They could emulate this kind of behaviour. It would spread a culture that will spell disaster to the organisation. The travesty here is that I set the ball rolling. Millions could be lost in opportunity cost if this kind of behaviour is exhibited to the customer. All the resources to be spent on training would not bear a single innovative fruit. If I do not apologise to these two guys who saw me lose it, I could be the cause for disaster. Though I have to eat humble pie, this has to be done. Let me get on with it and apologise to them.’ Which mode would be more effective? Can you imagine how he would be perceived if he apologised in public (in the office) to his two colleagues? Would he not gain the respect and support of all his people? Would they not accept his occasional errors and support him until he rectified his behaviour pattern? Can you imagine him repeating the mistake wilfully? The CEO was awakened to the need for systemic thinking. What would be the cascade effect on his personality (and his organisation) if he did not do this? Stress. He is allowing himself to go through stressful situations, not understanding the consequences of his decision. Most people more often than not encourage small stresses. They do not realise that the brain is releasing chemicals to cope with these inputs. The same chemicals can become extremely harmful to us as the quantum of stress increases. Today’s environment is believed to consist of many stresses: blaring noises, television sound, glaring advertisements, shrieking video games, traffic horns, air conditioners, cat fights, sudden change in government policies, competition, overnight shifts in tastes of people, etc. The untrained brain automatically prepares the body for what is termed as the ‘fight-fright response’. It prompts, through the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland, the release of adrenaline into the blood stream from the adrenal glands, which increases the rate and pressure of every heartbeat, causes energy sources like nutrients, oxygen, etc., to be diverted from

52 Brain Re-engineering

functional organs to the muscles. The stronger the stress, the stronger the reaction. Though noradrenaline is also released into the bloodstream to counter the effects of adrenaline, the damage done to the entire body is almost irreversible if the body goes through this cycle once too often. The outcome of oft-repeated stress is high blood pressure, strokes and major, almost irreversible damage to pressure-sensitive organs. The initial response of the common man to any kind of stress is alarm. Chemicals are released from the adrenal glands to rally the body’s defences. If the stresses are too repetitive or too prolonged, it leads to the breakdown of one’s ‘adaptation energy’, according to Dr Selye2 of the University of Montreal. Once this happens, the immune system starts to malfunction, thereafter gets disrupted and finally ravished. Thus, the state of the brain affects the physical body. A recent study reported in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) showed that stress is a contributing factor in almost 75 per cent of all illnesses treated by interns and general practitioners. There have been more than 20,000 studies on the subject of linking stress to a variety of physical illnesses. Arteriosclerosis, gastric ulcers, cancer, gastrointestinal disease, asthma, high blood pressure, diabetes, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), alcoholism, drug-abuse, etc., are some of the consequences. Millions, if not billions of dollars are spent in research to find a sustainable cure for any one of these major challenges to the medical community. Yet how many of us even realise that it could be caused by an irritation here, an anxiety there, a little frustration or a petty whim hither and thither. Small mistakes can lead to catastrophic consequences. A common question that most people ask is: How can one manage the debilitating effects of stress? The lack of a viable solution lies in the way the question is framed! It is commensurate with asking: Can one or two viruses be allowed to thrive in the human body indiscriminately?3 The results will be detrimental. The only way out is to ask: How do I annihilate stress? There would be a few people who are already exasperated with this question! ‘When it is not even possible to manage it, what is the chance of 2 3

He was the first man to discover that the body reacts to any stress in the same way. Bacterial Phage, a virus, is a viable treatment today when various antibiotics are becoming ineffective. Even in this treatment, only that particular phage that kills the invading bacteria is used.

Annihilation of Stress and Gene Activation 53

one overcoming it, and finally annihilating it? Surely this must merely be a utopia.’ One of the main objectives of this book is to help anyone and everyone annihilate stress systematically and scientifically. Discovery Channel recently telecast a programme that compared the health status of people living on the border between USA and Mexico. The people compared in the programme belonged to the same race, native Indians. On the American side of the border, the programme showed people who have a lifestyle where there is hardly any physical work. They had pickup trucks, land mowers, powerploughs, etc. On the other side of the border were people who had none of these facilities. They had to work manually for more than 14/16 hours a day in order to attend to their meagre needs. The programme highlights the differences in body chemistry of the people on either side of the border. Those on the American side of the border were susceptible to heart attacks and other ailments that are part and parcel of obesity. Those on the other side of the border did not suffer from obesity because they still lived the traditional way of life, though many suffered from malnutrition, problems associated with lack of proper hygiene, etc. The idea that is being sown here is not to be taken as a retrograde. It is for modern man to open himself to the view that our ancestors knew things about life that the contemporary system lacks. How can we adapt some of their wisdom to our lives after empirical verification, without it creating both an emotional and cultural upheaval? This is the point that has to be viewed critically. For any change to be sustainable, it has to be gradual, one that brings about small corrections in an individual’s and/or an organisation’s operational style. Even a small change cannot be force-fed or spoon-fed. It has be understood, assimilated, practised, adapted and finally internalised by the society as a whole, before one and all reap the benefits. Essentially it is a long haul as far as a society or country is concerned. This does not mean that an individual and/or organisation applying these principles will not benefit in the immediate present from their internalisation, for they are parts of the macrocosm.

NEUROBIOLOGICAL EXPLANATION

OF

STRESS

The building blocks of the human body are called cells. In 1911, Ramón y Cajál came up with the idea that the neuron is the basic

54 Brain Re-engineering

component or building block of the brain. The neuron is also a cell but performs a function that is not performed by any other cell outside the nervous system, viz., transmission. The nervous system is the body’s control and communication network. In humans, this system performs four functions. They are: 1. The perceptive function: perceive changes both in and outside the body. 2. The integrative function: interprets and explains the changes. 3. The motor function: responds to the interpretation by making muscles interact. 4. The regulatory function: prompts glands in various parts of the body to secrete hormones or other chemicals into the bloodstream. The nervous system itself has two main parts: (a) The central nervous system that includes the brain and spinal cord and acts as a ‘control centre’. (b) The peripheral nervous system that includes all other nerve elements. These secondary elements connect the brain and spinal cord to the muscles and glands. Today we know that a human brain contains some 100 billion (1011) neurons with about 1,000 to 10,000 connections each (resulting in a total of 1014–1015 interconnections). Although one neuron is about 106 times slower than the transistor of a computer (neuron: 10–3 sec., transistor: 10–9 sec.), the massive parallel processing capability of the brain gives it a much higher efficiency. For example, it takes about 100–200 milliseconds for the brain to recognise a familiar face on a photograph; this simple task causes great problems to the computer, if it can do it at all. THE NEURON

Each neuron receives its input from neighbouring neurons over special nerve fibres called dendrites. These input signals could either be excitatory or inhibitory. Their sum builds up an electrochemical potential inside the cell body of the neuron. When this potential exceeds a certain threshold the neuron fires and sends signals along the output fibre, the axon. The axon—each cell has only one—normally is quite short, but can reach several metres in length. It ends in synapses. The neurons are connected to

Annihilation of Stress and Gene Activation 55

Fig. 2.1 The Neuron

other neurons through their dendrites, axons or receive direct input through other dendrites to their cell bodies. The synapses are thought to be mainly responsible for learning, reasoning and memory. Through the activity of neurons, the body responds and adjusts to changes in the external environment. These changes, called stimuli, set off impulses in our sense organs: the eye, ear, organs of taste and smell and sensory receptors located in the skin, joints, muscles and other parts of the body. Every time one senses or feels a change, millions of neurons are ‘firing’ messages to and from one another. These messages consist mostly of chemical and a few electrical impulses. NEUROTRANSMISSION

At first, it was thought that axons and dendrites simply ran through the body continuously, like wires. Then a space between each axon and dendrite called a synaptic gap, or synapse was discovered. The synapse is the space between the axon of one neuron and the dendrites of the next neuron in a nerve pathway. That gap is extremely small, about one-millionth of an inch. Researchers originally thought that electrical impulses jumped these gaps, like electricity jumps across the gap in a spark plug. It was Otto Lewis, the Austrian scientist, who first proved that neuronal transmission

56 Brain Re-engineering

is chemical and also discovered the first neurotransmitter, Acetylcholine. Now it is known that there are many neurotransmitters. Chemicals, not electrical impulses, travel across the synaptic gaps. Today we know of about 50 neurotransmitters. Undoubtedly there are more waiting to be discovered. Our bodies synthesise neurotransmitters. Some of the chemicalbuilding blocks for neurotransmitters, such as amino acids, come from the food we eat. Neurotransmitters are stored in areas called vesicles, located close to the ending of each axon. Neurons synthesise some neurotransmitters right in the vesicle. Other neurotransmitters are synthesised in the body of the cell and shipped down to the vesicle.

Fig. 2.2 Neuronal Transmission

Neurotransmitters are molecules, groups of atoms joined by a chemical bond that act as a unit. In order to be called a neurotransmitter, a molecule must meet these criteria: 1. the chemical must be produced within a neuron; 2. the chemical must be found within a neuron; 3. when a neuron is stimulated (depolarised), a neuron must release the chemical; 4. when a chemical is released, it must act on a post-synaptic receptor and cause a biological effect;

Annihilation of Stress and Gene Activation 57

5. after a chemical is released, it must be inactivated. Inactivation can be through a reuptake mechanism or by an enzyme that stops the action of the chemical; 6. if the chemical is applied on the post-synaptic membrane, it should have the same effect as when it is released by a neuron. NEUROTRANSMITTERS AND THEIR FUNCTIONS

Some of the important neurotransmitters in the human brain are: 1. Major ‘Feel Good’ Neurotransmitters (i) Endorphins (Opioids): Mood-elevating, enhancing, euphoric. The more present, the happier you are! Natural pain killers. (ii) Norepinephrine: Excitatory, feel happy, alert, motivated. Antidepressant, appetite control, energy, sexual arousal. (iii) Dopamine: Feelings of bliss and pleasure, euphoria, appetite control, controlled motor movements, feel focused. (iv) Acetylcholine: Alertness, memory, sexual performance, appetite control, release of growth hormone. (v) Phenylethylmine (PEA): Feelings of bliss, involved in feelings of infatuation (high levels found in chocolate). 2. Major Inhibitory Neurotransmitters (i) Enkephalins: Restrict transmission of pain, reduce craving, reduce depression. (ii) GABA (Gamma Amino Butyric Acid): Found throughout the central nervous system, anti-stress, anti-anxiety, anti-panic, anti-pain; feel calm, maintain control, focus. 3. Hormones that Act as Neurotransmitters (i) Serotonin: Promotes and improves sleep, improves self-esteem, relieves depression, diminishes craving, prevents agitation, depression and worrying.

58 Brain Re-engineering

(ii) Melatonin: Rest and recuperation and anti-ageing hormone, regulates body clock or bio-rhythms. (iii) Oxytocin: It is stimulated by Dopamine. Promotes sexual arousal, feelings of love, emotional attachment or want, etc. We could say that neurotransmitters chemically generate the following cognitive states, provided the other factors which influence nerve functions like ion gates,4 second messengers,5 etc., function normally: l l l l l l l

Feelings of happiness, Drive and motivation, Ability to focus, Emotional stability, Mental alertness, Good feelings toward others, Calmness in the face of ambiguity/difficulty. THE STRESS CYCLE

The Stress cycle starts when the opioid levels in the brain become very low.6 Low opioid levels automatically trigger the increase of Dopamine, leading to a feeling of increased alertness and anxiety. Continued Dopamine release causes emotional fatigue. An example of this is the emotional fatigue after a sexual climax when natural Dopamine release is at its maximum. Low opioid levels also cause lowering of the levels of the neurotransmitter GABA. When this happens, feelings of anxiety, insecurity and unexplained panic are cognised by an individual. If the lower levels persist, it leads to depression. Lowering of GABA levels automatically leads the body to fight anxiety and its repercussion, depression, by releasing Norepinephrine. Norepinephrine encourages quick emotional responses like anger, 4 5

6

These are specific orifices that open and close on the neuron that allow passage of ions like sodium, potassium, chlorine, etc. Neurotransmitters can also produce their effects by modulating the production of other signal-transducing molecules (‘second messengers’) in the post-synaptic cells (Cooper, Bloom and Roth, 1996). We will explore the reason for low opioid levels later in the chapter.

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irritation, frustration, etc., while simultaneously discouraging slower, deliberate analytical and pre-cognitive thinking processes. Higher levels of Norepinephrine cause the release of adrenaline from the adrenal glands. Adrenaline, as previously, stated causes the heart to beat faster and harder and red blood corpuscle reserves to be placed in the bloodstream. This in turn serves as an antecedent for energy sources, nutrients, oxygen, etc., to be diverted from functional organs to, especially, the skeletal muscles. Long-term diversion of oxygen and vital nutrients from functional organs causes almost irreparable damage. Low levels of GABA also decrease serotonin levels, which makes sleep and recuperation difficult, if not impossible. People who lack sleep stop being rational, gradually becoming irritable, thereafter hysterical. In laboratories dogs deprived of sleep have died in 10 days. Veterans of many wars and battles have suffered from loss of sleep and severe stress. There are reports of drug and alcohol abuse by them to overcome mental fatigue, leading to other psychiatric disorders. Serotonin further pushes the opioid levels lower; thus the stress cycle perpetrates itself. STRESS, ADDICTIVE BEHAVIOUR AND MORALITY

Empirical data collected from people who want to remain off drugs suggests that they can remain off drugs and can often resist the cravings brought on by seeing reminders of their former drug life. NIDA-funded researcher Dr Mary Jeanne Kreek7 of Rockefeller University in New York city has noted: ‘For 6 months or so, they can walk past the street corner where they used to buy drugs and not succumb to their urges. But then all of a sudden they relapse.’ She says, ‘When we ask them why they relapse, almost always they tell us something like, “Well, things weren’t going well at my job”, or “My wife left me”. Sometimes, the problem is as small as “My public assistance check was delayed”, or “The traffic was too heavy”.’ In another experiment conducted by Dr Kenneth Blum (White, 2001) at the University of Texas Health Science Centre in San Antonio on mice, it was found those that were free of any stressors, preferred water to water treated with 10 per cent alcohol. Yet once there was a stressor present, the very same mice preferred water treated with alcohol. Blum found that 7

http://www.drugabuse.gov/NIDA_Notes/NN Vol 14 N1/Stress.html

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the brain of the group of mice preferring alcohol, showed a significant shortage of the opioid neurotransmitter enkephalin that restricts transmission of pain, reduces craving and depression. The mice that did not want alcohol had normal quantities of enkephalins in their brain. Any stressor depletes the level of opioid in the brain; thereafter leading to behaviour that will help the person regain the feeling of wellbeing. The patterns could be as diverse as over-eating, going for a jog or a gym workout, watching TV (especially cricket in a country like India), studying incessantly, chatting on the net, gossiping, smoking, drinking alcoholic drinks, visiting places of worship, meditation, etc.8 These behavioural patterns in different individuals have the capability to restore the opioid levels in the brain. Over a period of time whenever a mild or strong stressor is present, the individual begins to repeat the same pattern of behaviour over and over again. From 1949, after the famous psychologist Hebb proposed his famous learning rule: ‘The strength of a synapse between two neurons is increased by the repeated activation of one neuron by the other across this synapse’, we have known that reinforcement of an action helps in one getting habituated to it. Once a habit has been formed, it is very difficult to get rid of. Research also shows that people have an innate capacity to produce sufficient levels of opioids in the brain. These people are in a continual state of well-being. These people are less driven towards the world for the acquisition, possession and enjoyment of objects and beings. Their laidback approach leads to behavioural patterns that are termed as moral. There are also others who have genetically impaired opioid production capability. These people have a mild sense of urgency compared to the laidback attitude of the former. This mild stress drives them towards behaviour that will restore the sense of well-being, thus self-perpetrating this behavioural pattern. The level of anxiety in these people drives them forcefully towards behaviour that they feel will help them acquire, possess and enjoy objects and beings. The more the level of inadequacy, the faster they want the process to be hastened. It is this behaviour that leads to behaviour that the 8

It is not even remotely suggested that any of these behavioural traits are right or wrong, only correct or incorrect. Each of these behavioural patterns have a use and contribute to human growth. The same traits become harmful only when they are indiscriminately used to overcome stress.

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society terms as immoral. Thus it is plausible to assume that one would have a significant propensity for doing actions that are not approved by society if the level of opioids in the brain is low. The activities would be of criminal intent or for bringing about dramatic changes in society. In the case of those who have to function in a highly uncertain environment and possess an innate genetic defect with respect to producing adequate opioid levels, the consequences are often disastrous for the sense of urgency becomes strong, leading to alcoholism, drug addition, chain-smoking, etc. The abuse of these substances, which either mimic the opioids or produce chemicals that mimic opioids, gradually reduces the brain’s capability to produce opioids. The sensors in the brain constantly give feedback on the quantity of opioid present. These mimics are also detected as opioids and the production is further lowered, leading to more addiction. Over a period of time, with continual abuse, the brain gradually loses its capacity to produce opioids. Stress levels are very high at any point of time and the individual has very little chance of escape from debilitating stress. This leads to the immune system constantly malfunctioning and therefore, disease. The more important questions that arise are something that mankind has been grappling with from time immemorial: What does a society do for those who are genetically impaired with respect to the production of opioids levels? What does it do with those whose sense of urgency forces them to commit crimes? If it is their innate sense of urgency that is causing the problem, can this be rectified? Can society afford to fling ‘criminals’ into prison and look the other way? Is today’s religious fundamentalism, which now appears to be a global phenomena, a sign of a set of people finding refuge in ‘spirituality’ to restore their opioid level in the brain? Do some of these people resorting to religion, possess sufficient opioid levels in the brain and are doing so only to re-engineer the neuronal networks to find answers for today’s existential questions? These and many such concerns can no longer be brushed under the carpet. IS MODERN MEDICINE PROVIDING PEOPLE WITH A CURE?

The latest drugs to hit the market as cure for defective genes and their inability to produce the much-needed quantity of neurotransmitters

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are Neurotransmitter Supplements. This is what Dr Eric Chudler9 of the University of Washington has to say about today’s Smart Drugs. ‘In most cases, cognitive enhancers have been used to treat people with neurological or mental disorders, but there is a growing number of healthy,‘normal’ people who use these substances in the hope of getting smarter. Although there are many companies that make ‘smart’ drinks, smart power bars and diet supplements containing certain smart chemicals, there is little evidence to suggest that these products really work. Results from different laboratories show mixed results; some labs show positive effects on memory and learning; other labs show no effects. There are very few well-designed studies using normal healthy people . . . ’. What is the possible solution? Contemporary drug treatment could be the intervention that helps people with major physiological and pathogenic disorders in the short and middle term, but it is reawakening the body’s natural healing system in the long run that could provide the necessary cure. One thing is for sure; none of the medicines that we use today are designed to produce a cure. The present system has yet to find a way out of weaning people from drugs like insulin, vitamin and neurotransmitter supplements, antipsychotic drugs, etc. It is finding a way out of this that would have farreaching ramifications. A report in the US News (25 June 2001) by Mary Brophy Marcus spells out the problems that society faces today. The report says, ‘Hard numbers are scarce, but some experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believe that about 1 in 50 kids has Type 2 diabetes, and the numbers are rising fast. A decade ago doctors called it adult onset diabetes, because it was practically unknown in children; “juvenile diabetes” meant Type 1 diabetes, caused by an immune system off kilter. ‘We’re seeing [Type 2] in younger and younger kids now, down in the 3 and 4 age range,’ says Kenneth Lee Jones, a paediatrician at the University of California, San Diego. The implications are very serious. Children with diabetes can be slower than adults to take steps to control their disease, such as changing their diet and faithfully checking their blood sugar and taking medication, because their analytical faculties are not yet completely developed. Yet they risk developing serious complications at a much younger age. ‘Are we now 9

http://www.faculty.washington.edu/chudler/ehc.html

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going to see Type 2 kids in their 30s and 40s [with] heart attacks, kidney transplants, blindness?’ asks Lee Jones. What has the medical community got to offer these kids who are suffering from Type 2 diabetes? The standard norm suggests exercise, diet and regular medication. It is easy to tell children what ought to be done, it is a totally different proposition when it comes to getting them to implement it. How is it possible for children and teenagers, whose limbic system10 are overactive, to exercise control? GENE ACTIVATION AND STRESS

The entire human body, its functioning or malfunctioning, is governed by the expression of a set of molecules called genes. The actions and properties of each cell within the human body, and thereby human behaviour, are determined by the proteins—amino acids, neurotransmitters, hormones, etc.—that it contains. What allows an individual to respond to changes in its environment? The concentrations of proteins that constitute each cell determine how he or she reacts to the environment. This in turn is determined by the frequency at which these proteins are made during the life span of a living organism. Which genes are expressed and their rate of expression in a particular cell type is largely determined by a set of genes called the ‘Control genes’. The differential expression of different genes largely determines the actions and properties of cells, thereby human response to the environment. Thus human behaviour has a causal relationship to our genetic raw material. Research in this field is still in its initial stages. The term ‘Gene Expression’ commonly refers to the entire process whereby the information encoded in a particular gene is decoded into a particular protein. The various steps in this process are tightly regulated and could lead to differential gene expression in different cell types or developmental stages or in response to external conditions. Empirical science today is trying to correlate input stimuli to triggering off gene expression in the human body. Suitable external conditions, consequently, play a vital role. Yet, external environment cannot provide a sufficient condition for growth and behaviour. For example, Ellen MacArthur, the 22-year-old girl who won 10

Areas of the brain associated with emotions and feelings.

64 Brain Re-engineering

second place in the Vendée Globe yacht race hails from the landlocked English village of Whatstandwell, in Derbyshire County. She does not belong to any yachting club nor has a ‘Howard’s Way’ culture and has not risen through the ranks of the sailing elite. Any hereditary connection with the sea is tenuous. When Ellen was eight, an aunt took her sailing on the east coast, after which she was hooked. Most people who are not associated with the knowledge of genes and gene expression, consider her achievements nothing short of miraculous. Prince Siddhartha was born in a royal household and was outstanding in all intellectual pursuits, physical sciences, warfare and administrative subjects. Living a life of luxury with his wife Yasodhara and son Rahula, his story should have been similar to that of any other aristocrat of his period. The twist came when he saw an ageing man, a sick man, a corpse and finally, a calm, serene ascetic monk, who inspired him to have the same kind of life. All of us have these four experiences, maybe on a day-to-day basis, yet his genetic expression made him the immortalised Buddha. What tells a particular gene to be ‘switched on’, i.e., to make a functional protein or to be ‘switched off ’ i.e., not to make this protein? These are governed by positive or negative signals that are transmitted through the cell. These control signals have been found to materialise from sets of Master Control Genes called Homoetic homeobox genes or Hox genes. These gossamer strands of DNA lay out the embryo from head to toe, controlling everything from the development of limbs and the wiring of the spinal cord to the patterning of the digestive and urogenital tracts. The most common signalling circuit begins with a stimulus that activates a protein to bind to its cognate receptor on the cell surface. This binding activates a signalling cascade within the cell, whereby proteins within the cell transmit the signal until it ultimately reaches the nucleus of the cell. The circuit is completed when these signals in the nucleus turn on gene expression, resulting in the production of a particular protein, which will then enable the cell to respond to the external stimulus that started off the entire set of events. This signalling circuit is also very tightly regulated. As the cells do not want to waste energy in making proteins unless there is a need for it, genes are turned on at different times in one’s lifespan. Different genes are turned on at different times; some are ‘early’ genes, some ‘middle late’ and some ‘late’. This is dependent on when a particular group of cells are needed during the life cycle of an organism. For example, the gene whose function

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is to facilitate the differentiation of cells in the zygote is ‘switched on’ earlier than that gene which is in charge of triggering the production of the proteins connected to the reproductive cycle in a human being. Stress is often understood to be an outcome of the ‘malfunctioning’ of the signalling circuit. Compelling an individual or oneself to respond in a stereotyped manner to certain external stimuli has always been the bane of human understanding. Without inquiry into the nature of input necessary to trigger a specific response for a particular individual, generalisations are often propounded and blindly accepted. For example, before dyslexia was discovered, many students were termed ‘dumb’ if they did not have language comprehension skills. The fact is that a dyslexic could be as intelligent, if not more, as in the case of Einstein, than a student with excellent language comprehension skills. Stress appears to be more an outcome of inordinate expectations placed on the individual upon himself or by society. The individual and/or society do not understand that he has not acquired all the inputs that are necessary for a particular response. The individual tries to achieve his ambitions, which are also part and parcel of the gene activation, without sufficient inputs to trigger a self-sustaining threshold of responses. The result is either failure or worse, unsustainable success. One example could be the string of poor performances by the Indian cricketeer V.V.S. Laxman. After a terrific season against the touring Australians in India, he had a poor season. One of the main areas that need to be looked at if the problem has to be rectified has to do with the type of inputs that his cognitive system is being bombarded with. Unless and until this is fine tuned, his chances of returning to peak performance levels appear remote. Thus the onus is upon the individual and the organisation that he is a part of, to determine the appropriate set of inputs that are customised to suit them in a way by which their responses meet the expectations of their customers. The path, more often than not, is arduous, uncertain, long-drawn and has to be customised. Crass generalisations will be of little help, though ‘inductive conclusions’ are a must to have a macroscopic representation. Excellence has always stemmed from paying attention to detail and providing the necessary infrastructure, in this case, the much-needed custom-designed input stimuli11 that will help one turn information into 11

The modus operandi is discussed in Chapter 6.

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knowledge, and endeavour into achievement. In this state of constant ambiguity, can stress be managed, overcome, annihilated? A VIABLE OPTION TO CURE STRESS

One of the main objectives of this chapter, if not the book, is to state that no ‘development’ can take place in a person who is under stress, let alone any ‘growth’.12 In other words, adaptability and flexibility that are part and parcel of any interpretation of perceived stimuli, and one’s response to it, are noticeable in their absence. The brain areas that remain functional in a stressed individual do not allow him to activate the areas of the brain associated with analytical processing. The limbic system, the area of the brain associated with emotions is over-activated during situations of stress, thus depriving the neocortex, the area associated with rationality, enough blood to function effectively. The world-renowned philosopher from India, Jiddu Krishnamurthy,13 says, ‘The feeling of insecurity, anxiety, and agitations can push intelligence to the back seat, and decisions based on incomplete analysis of available data leave a residue of frustration.’ If one has to manage, overcome and finally annihilate Stress, the place to look at, is the initiation of the Stress Cycle. The Stress Cycle begins when there exists low opioid levels in the brain. How can the opioid levels be increased? Does the body have a mechanism through which this can be achieved? The answer is yes! Where does it exist? Can it be activated? How? PAIN PATHWAYS IN THE BRAIN

There are two distinct pathways that are used to conduct the sensation of pain from the spinal cord to the brain. The neural pathways leading from the nociceptors14 to the central nervous system transmit the sensation of pain from the skin to the spinal cord. Once the stimuli reach the spinal cord, different stimuli take different pathways. The pathways for 12

13 14

‘Growth’, we believe, is a natural process controlled by genetic factors as opposed to ‘development’ which is directed by wilful volition. ‘Growth’ is long-term oriented, while ‘development’ helps the individual tackle short-term eventualities. It is the perfect balance between the two that helps one to overcome stress. Krishnamurthy, J., 1969, Freedom from the Known. Krishnamurthy Foundation. Perceptual receptors in the skin, muscle and other tissues that react to external stimuli.

Annihilation of Stress and Gene Activation 67

sharp or acute pain consist of rapidly conducting nerve fibres that travel from the spinal cord to the (ventrobasal complex of the) thalamus and from there to the somatosensory cortex. This pathway is termed as the Spinothalamic Tract; those for dull or chronic pain are made up of slow conducting fibres that travel to the (midline nuclei of the) thalamus and from there to various areas, including the limbic system (areas in the brain associated with emotions and feelings) and the frontal lobes of the cerebral cortex (areas in the brain associated with analytical thinking). This pathway is termed as the Corticospinal Tract. In the 1960s, Ronald Melzack and Patrick Wall made their mark on the scientific community by proposing a theory to explain how higher brain centres block incoming pain signals. Their gate-control theory of pain holds that ascending pain signals may be blocked within the spinal cord (referred to as ‘the gate’). When either ascending or descending signals close

Fig. 2.3 Pain Pathways

When special thin nerve fibres called nociceptors in the skin, muscle and other body tissues are stimulated, they carry messages to the spinal cord and the brain, where pain signals are processed. A thicker type of fibre transmits information about touch and pressure and can induce movement. Nociceptors normally respond only to strong stimuli, but injured or inflamed tissues can produce chemicals that sensitise them and cause them to transmit pain signals in response to even gentle stimuli.

68 Brain Re-engineering

the gate, the pain transmission is blocked from reaching the higher centres necessary for the perception of pain. The descending signal is blocked by a characteristic pattern of neural activity that inhibits neuronal transmission. This theory has profoundly influenced the study of pain. Recent research has upheld the basic tenet of signal blocking, but has revealed a neural mechanism that is somewhat different than the one proposed by Melzack and Wall. These recent findings suggest that a pathway descending from the midbrain, mediates the suppression of pain. A class of neurotransmitters, called the endorphins, which mimic the action of opiate painkillers, are likely to power this circuit.

Fig. 2.4 Ascending Pain Pathways

Beyond the suggestion that pain impulses are subjected to the modulating effects of a gate in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord, Melzack and Wall’s gate control theory of pain proposed specific roles for the ‘fast’ and ‘slow’ pathways in this process. The theory suggested that the large fibre input stimulated by gentle rubbing (dull pain) tended to close the gates, whereas the small fibre inputs stimulated by hard pinching generally opened the gates. This may be why gentle rubbing at the edge of an inflamed and painful injury seems to reduce the sharp, painful experience. It is also proposed that sensory input is modulated at multiple synapses along the projection pathway leading to the brain. The experience of pain occurs when the number of nerve impulses reaching each area exceeds a critical level.

Annihilation of Stress and Gene Activation 69

The sensation of pain has distinct sensory qualities, described as throbbing, unpleasant, or sharp and emotional qualities expressed as punishing, wrenching, exhausting, or overwhelming. Melzack and Casey have proposed three psychological dimensions for the pain experience: sensory-discriminative, motivational-affective, and cognitive-evaluative. Evidence from psycho-physiological studies support the possibility that each dimension is mediated by distinct systems in the brain that interact to result in the complex experience of pain. What is most critical for us here is that recent PET (Positron Emission Tomography) data indicates that the anterior cingulate gyrus is involved in the motivational-affective dimension of pain. Somatosensory cortex is responsible for the sensory-discriminative dimension, and other, perhaps diffused, cortical regions are likely to contribute to the cognitive-evaluative dimension. So how can we use this data to overcome stress, motivational-affective effects of pain? First and foremost, we now know that there is a release of opioids when the pain is dull and not when the pain is acute. It is sharp or acute pain that leads to stress and triggers the Stress Cycle. Therefore how can one trigger only the dull pain pathway on a consistent basis, while activating the sharp pain pathway only in situations for what it originally designed for, Operational Emergencies? The budding field of cognitive neuroscience is attempting to map all cognitive processes so that we understand the bio-chemical processes that could be their causes. This information is critical for normalising brain processes in an external environment where contribution to ‘Customer Delight’15 is almost mandatory. Moreover, it is ‘understanding’ one’s cognitive processes that give one consistency of performance and constancy of purpose, so that one is able to constantly change for the better while continuing to delight his target audience.

15

‘Customer Delight’ refers to improving the increasing of the ‘pleasure’ that a person or a group of people derive from the action/s of an individual/organisation that this particular individual/ organisation is trying to cater to. For example, if a person is a professional tennis player, he/ she has to be concerned with the audience that watches tennis, his/her sponsors interests, ATP/WTA officials, tournament committees, etc. He/She cannot be unduly concerned about giving tennis lessons for his/her neighbours’ children though they might want him/her to do so whenever he/she is in town.

70 Brain Re-engineering

OSTENSIVE DEFINITION

OF INTRINSIC

MOTIVATION

Reiterating what was brought out in the previous topic, the pathways for conducting dull or chronic pain are made up of slow conducting fibres that travel to the (midline nuclei of the) thalamus and from there to various areas, including the limbic system and the frontal lobes of the cerebral cortex. How can this dull pain pathway in which opioid chemicals, endorphins, block the transmission of pain signals by spinal neurons and the connections that carry signals from the brain back to the spinal cord, be activated? Let us take an example to understand what happens. If one reads the story of the great prophet, Moses, we stand in awe when we comprehend the titanic struggles that he took up without any instigation from the external environment! Here was a man who gave up the possibility of becoming the Pharaoh, presumably the most exalted position for a man at that period of history, his beloved princess Nefratteri, his position, his status, the love of his beloved ones, the respect that he had gained from the courtiers, etc., only to live a life of a slave. How could this be possible? Take a more mundane example of the American war hero, Dieter Dengler who was born in Germany in 1938. His father was killed and the rest of his family fled the country during World War II, according to newspaper accounts. During this war, he happened to see a fighter plane fly past his window. From that day, he wanted to be nothing but be a pilot. He arrived in New York city in 1957 at the age of 18, with no money. He later drifted to San Francisco and worked as a baker, a forest firefighter and a gold prospector before enrolling at the College of San Mateo and becoming a pilot. So what triggers a two-year-old to take a trail that seems impossible to everyone else? Contemporary research in genetics shows us that the gene gets attached to a particular neuron or cell in a particular part of the brain or body and relays growth-stimulating signal to the cell’s interior, the nucleus. For example, the her-2 or neu or erbB-2 is a gene that codes for a growth factor. It does not leave the receptor until the change is complete, which includes changes in the external environment, if necessary. Gene activation and its expression is the ‘internal hand’ playing a substantial part over the external environment. Ultimately it is manifestation of the genetic material

Annihilation of Stress and Gene Activation 71

that is cognised as thoughts, desires and actions. Thus it is this manifestation of the genetic material that can correlate Intrinsic Motivation in the erstwhile subjective terminology. Do genes control the consequences of actions also in some way? It is plausible that modern research in genetics, as it becomes more systemic, can explain ‘miracle’ phenomena as it has successfully explained the existence of multifarious species through a small set of master control genes and their clusters. Dieter Dengler’s story turns more interesting to a patriot and to a scientific inquirer. Dengler was shot down from his reconnaissance plane in 1966 over Laos near the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Captured by communist Pathet Lao forces, he was marched to a prison camp and tortured for five months. Dengler wrote of being kicked, battered with rifle butts and dragged behind a water buffalo. He also says that his captors hung him upside down from a tree, covered him with honey and broke a nest of ants on his face after his first failed attempt to freedom. Ailing and withered to 90 pounds, he escaped through the jungle and was rescued by a reconnaissance copter almost miraculously 23 days later. The American Navy awarded him the Navy Cross, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Purple Heart, and the Air Medal. In an interview in 197916 he said, ‘People say it is a miracle. I came out because I was meant to come out. I cannot say it was my doing. It’s beyond strength to do something like that. Something, someone has to have helped me.’ Was it his genes that helped him to go through what he did and yet succeed in this escape? How does one explain his escape while he was suffering from severe jaundice, when all others who tried to escape along with him, perished? Was he given this experience so that he finally came to the realisation that his childhood ambition was to fly and not to fight? In another case, two Germans striving to fly around the world, were trapped on the Australian outback near Kimberly, when their flight was thrown off course by a storm during their flight from Darwin to Timor. The pilot Bertram and his mechanic, Klausmann, believed that they were somewhere on the Indonesian archipelago and tried to reach Timor in their improvised boat. Without food and fresh water, swept away by ocean 16

Little Dieter Needs to Fly, DVD Produced by Werner Herzog, 1997.

72 Brain Re-engineering

currents, they ‘paddled’ in total delirium. In this state, it would be more apt to say that the only permanent source of fresh water in a radius of 200 sq. miles found them! It was 43 days before a group of aborigines, sent out by an evangelist, found them fortuitously. They had survived the outback without any food during the whole period. Was this experience given to them by their own genetic material to help them overcome their superciliousness and the haughtiness that they had exhibited towards the aborigines? In yet another instance, a pilot Geoff Henderson and his fiancée Victoria Friend, battled 44 hours for survival with broken limbs and severe burns in the Australian outback after their plane crashed upon being hit by a storm in January 1999. Detective Senior Constable Tim Seymour, who was in charge of the investigation said, ‘I’ve been in the bush for a lot of years, but that was the kind of dense scrub that made you feel uncomfortable even when you’re just standing there—without being injured or having had to overcome the effects of an impact. But for them, they’d had their aircraft drop out of the sky and burst into flames; just the shock alone would be enough to kill most people.’ Why should they have gone through such an experience where Geoff died just a few hours before the search party reached them, with Victoria being completely unaware of his death? The ancient terms like God’ will, Inshah Allah, Bhagawat Sankalpa, and customs like self-surrender or prapatti17 or bharasamarpanam, could well mean surrendering to the force of this unseen, unknown growth factor that is impelled and compelled by the genetic material. It is plausible that in the near future empirical evidence can be found to explain those experiences that are often termed as ‘miracles’ without resorting to any anthropomorphic terms. If we can account for consequences of actions through genetic material, will stress be annihilated? No! Lifestyles alone, not knowledge can contribute to this result.

A PRAGMATIC SOLUTION

FOR

STRESS

Genetic material appears to control how an individual reacts and responds to a particular input from the environment, including the choice 17

Prapatti and Bharasamarpanam are essentially Sri Vaishnavite (worshippers of Vishnu) principles, which essentially help one grow (in a non-linear fashion).

Annihilation of Stress and Gene Activation 73

of the field of activity. Ignoring or not interpreting the input from the external environment makes an individual become unproductive in the contemporary marketplace, thus generating stress. He has to learn the fine art of balancing the input received from his external environment and staying anchored to the manifestation of his own genetic material. By not adhering to his own internal development and growth needs, he misapprehends input stimuli, thereby reducing his capability to deliver a response that is in line with actualising his current potential and vastly reduces the possibility of remaining competitive in the future. Stress, therefore, appears to be a composite outcome of four factors: 1. lack of relevant input for the external environment; 2. non-interpretation of input information; 3. misapprehension of input stimuli leading to non-actualisation of the current potential; and 4. allowing the external compulsions and constraints to entirely shackle one’s growth needs. Each step in the process needs constant effort, consistent attention to details and, therefore, encourages dull pain, the reliever of Stress. The way out is to start with a field of inquiry that is of interest. This has to be objectively identified. This in itself would involve scanning a number of subjects. Any subject chosen has to inspire the individual. Life can be equated to a marathon race. He who succeeds in it will be one who is inspired to run it in the first place. Most people make the mistake of choosing a field of study that would give them immediate benefits like employment opportunities, social status, an opening to quick prosperity, etc. Some of these people may even gain their finite ends. Once the factors that trigger them to act are satiated, the inputs that were looked upon as ‘opportunities’ now turn into hindrances with only nuisance value. The first seeds for the manifestation of the parasite called stress have been sown inadvertently. Choosing a field of inquiry which one likes innately helps one develop the areas of the brain associated with feelings and emotions, the limbic system. Once the individual is in this field or environment, he has to thoroughly understand this field of knowledge and identify his field of specialisation. Without this goal, there is no methodology for directing his attention and categorising different ideas. A stimulating field of specialisation

74 Brain Re-engineering

gives an individual a chance to focus his haphazard emotions and helps him take the first step away from mere emotions and feelings. If he fails to do this, his limbic system will get over-activated, incapacitating his ability to think logically and rationally. If he has to achieve his goal, he has to overcome his likes, and the preference for the field and his chosen ideal has to be discarded. Speaking objectively, the functioning of the limbic system has to be normalised. This can be achieved by adhering to a ‘value system’. Without this, the areas associated with higher-order thinking in the brain do not mature. By adhering to it, the individual develops his discerning skills and learns to interpret data that is presented to him. Once this is done, he has to learn how he has to respond suitably to the stimuli received. Initially he has to learn to slow down his brain processes sufficiently so that his interpretation is not marred by a hasty response. This slowing down of thought processes helps him evaluate and customise his responses to emerging situations. The practice of slowing down one’s mental processes in order to help him and/or his team to think through before responding can be equated to different virtues like patience, gentleness, care, etc. Success in solving most problems is guaranteed for one who responds after due consideration, but the one who is faster than competition is the one who emerges the leader. The third thing that has to be done is learning to solve what his current expertise cannot solve. This happens because his current knowledge has procedures and processes that do not pertain to the present spacio-temporal conditions of his teachers. He has to start the process of re-examining his conceptual framework. For example, microbiologist Dr Palmira Ventosilla had to develop a method to biologically control mosquitoes that was simple, inexpensive and an environmentally safe alternative to insecticides in Peru. Peru has one of the highest rates of malaria in Latin America. She and others at the Instituto de Medicina Tropical ‘Alexander Von Humboldt’ in Lima, found that coconuts provided a cost-effective and efficacious answer to their particular problem. In many tropical areas of Peru, coconuts are both cheap and abundant. The fruit is a natural incubator for culturing Bti (Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis H-14). Bti is a spore-forming bacterium that produces a toxin lethal to mosquito larvae. It has been shown to be safe for both people and the environment. Although Bti is produced commercially, it is expensive to import. However, Bti can be produced locally using coconuts. When Bti is applied

Annihilation of Stress and Gene Activation 75

to ponds where malaria-transmitting mosquitoes breed, the mosquito larvae eat the bacteria along with algae and are killed. The toxic strain of Bti fermented in coconuts, when applied to ponds and other breeding sites, kills virtually all the mosquito larvae and stops further larvae development for up to 45 days. The last thing that has to be learnt is how to tune oneself completely to the environment around him. It is only such a person who responds fast18 consistently, directing others to take a particular direction, route, course of action. For example, a surgeon heading an operation of a cancer-ridden liver has to decide where the first incision has to be made. This vital decision more or less pronounces the final outcome of the operation. Years of experience and knowledge help the team leader to make this critical decision.19 Every step of the process requires effort. The effort is slow and painstaking, thus inducing dull pain. This in turn normalises the opioid level in the brain. In other words, the individual state of well-being is regained and/or maintained. If the individual does not want to face the rigours of constant change, opioid levels in the brain are reduced leading to stress, discomfort, disease and the logical extension of the argument, death. What one has to remember is that intrinsic motivation itself is changing constantly as different genes come up for expression. Most importantly, as one proceeds from childhood to youth, to middle age, etc., the order of importance of changing external stimuli to promote growth gradually reduces. As the brain begins to customise itself for performing its particular profession, internal factors like maintenance of particular brain-wave patterns, development of circadian rhythms that are most suitable for one to act most productively and maintenance of one’s natural circadian rhythms,20 become more important so that one’s cognitive functions and capability to respond dynamically and spontaneously, not impulsively, are enhanced. Expert advice and supervision are a must in the process of identification, promotion and acceleration of ‘change’. This seems to be the course 18 19 20

‘Fast’ is a relative word. Once the customer gets used to a particular speed, he expects a quicker response, so the individual and/or the organisation have to consistently get faster. We will deal with this aspect of brain processing in Chapter 6. Circadian rhythm is the daily biological pattern in which sleep, hunger, variation in body temperature and other physiological changes occur.

76 Brain Re-engineering

of action that one has to select in order to annihilate stress, while never falling victim to the Stress Cycle. Ambiguous situations are part and parcel of everyone’s life. In the book The Soul at Work, authors Roger Lewin and Birute Regine aesthetically and harmoniously describe the necessity of both individuals and organisations as Complex Adaptive Systems,21 to compulsorily face chaos if they have to go from a state of stability where there is almost no innovative activity, to the ‘zone of creative adaptability’ or the ‘edge of chaos’. As long as the individual and/or an organisation is still functioning within the ‘zone of intrinsic motivation’22 and ‘Adaptive Energy’,23 neither the individual nor the organisation will go through any stress or the debilitating effects of change. In fact, the very same factors that cause many to become stressful, will increase the opioid level in the brain of these people because they convert or interpret what is termed as acute pain by common folk, as dull pain, thus enhancing their state of well-being, improving cognitive levels and more importantly, promoting ‘growth’ and ‘development’.24 Take the example of people performing various religious rites; they stick spears, hooks and other painful implements into different parts of their bodies; fire-walking is another rite that is often performed. These individuals interpret the incoming stimuli from these experiences as dull pain, subsequently enjoying ecstasy. Imagine the quality of life of that people will lead if they can use this exercise as a model and convert every growth experience to dull pain. The trick lies not in the stimuli that is received, but in how it is interpreted by the individual. Let us end this chapter with an analogy. The more one tries to capture the head of his shadow,25 the further it recedes. Catch hold of the head, the head of the shadow is also caught! We are trying to make extrinsic adaptations to fill an intrinsic void. The earlier one realises this, the truth 21 22

23 24 25

These are highly interactive systems that act in a non-linear fashion, e.g., an ecosystem, a human being. The term refers to the change brought about by the prompting of genetic growth factors within the individual or a collective group of people pursuing a similar field of inquiry. As long as individuals and organisations (people following a particular field of inquiry) are pursuing these factors that exhibits itself in the form of triggering of certain brain areas, they are sure to stay well ahead of their niche customers. A term coined by Dr Selye, explained in the earlier part of this chapter. We will try to derive a neurobiological framework for this term in the following chapters. The source of light is behind the individual in this case.

Annihilation of Stress and Gene Activation 77

about Josh Billings,26 famous quote becomes obvious: ‘ The trouble with most folks is not so much their ignorance, but their knowledge of things which ain’t so’.

Summary Ø

Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø

26

The brain is releasing chemicals to cope with sensual inputs. The same chemicals can become extremely harmful to us as the quantum of stress increases. It prompts, through the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland, the release of ADRENALINE into the bloodstream from the adrenal glands, which increases the rate and pressure of every heartbeat, causes energy sources like nutrients, oxygen, etc., to be diverted from functional organs to the muscles. The stronger the stress, the stronger the reaction. Though Noradrenaline is also released into the bloodstream to counter the effects of adrenaline, the damage done to the entire body is almost irreversible, if the body goes through this cycle once too often. The outcome of oft-repeated stress is high blood pressure, strokes, major and almost irreversible, damage to ‘pressure’sensitive organs. The state of the brain affects the physical body. The neuron is the basic component or building block of the brain. The massive parallel processing capability of the brain gives it a much higher efficiency. Our bodies synthesise neurotransmitters; there are feel-good neurotransmitters and inhibitory neurotransmitters. The Stress Cycle starts when the opioids levels in the brain become very low; any stressor depletes the level of opioid in the brain. Continued Dopamine release causes emotional fatigue. Research shows that people have an innate capacity to produce sufficient levels of opioids in the brain. Drugs like alcohol mimic the opioids or produce chemicals that mimic opioids, gradually reducing the brain’s capability to

http:// ideotrope.org/index.pl?node_id=9282

78 Brain Re-engineering

Ø

Ø

Ø

Ø

Ø

Ø

produce opioids. The sensors in the brain constantly give feedback on the quantity of opioid present. These mimics are also detected as opioids and the production is further lowered, leading to more addiction. Over a period of time, with continual abuse, the brain gradually loses its capacity to produce opioids. Stress levels are very high at any point of time and the individual has very little chance of escape from debilitating stress. This leads to the immune system constantly malfunctioning and therefore, disease. Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) can be due to genetically impaired neurotransmitter imbalance causing a shortening of one’s attention span; people with ADD have trouble completing whatever they take up. Brain processes are involved in the cause of the disease. If this is factored in, the present system can find a way out of weaning people from drugs like insulin, vitamin and neurotransmitter supplements, etc., which has far-reaching ramifications. The entire human body, its functioning or malfunctioning, is governed by the expression of a set of molecules called genes; thus human behaviour has a causal relationship to our genetic raw material. Feelings of insecurity, anxiety and agitations can push intelligence to the back seat, and decisions based on incomplete analysis of available data leave a residue of frustration. Stress does not appear to be caused by external factors as popularly believed, but by how one interprets stimuli. It seems to be caused by one’s: 1. unwillingness to acquire input data that is relevant to the challenge at hand; 2. not taking the effort to interpret the acquired information; and 3. unwillingness to take any risk associated with gene expression, as a result shackling oneself to the beaten path. By learning to manage, overcome and annihilate stress, the quality of action is enhanced. Quality of Action is, therefore, directly proportional to:

Annihilation of Stress and Gene Activation 79

1. quality of input stimuli and their direct relevance to the problem at hand; 2. capability of interpreting the perceived data; 3. competency to respond in a manner that delivers a product or service which is innovative; and 4. capacity to be consistently faster than the competition.

3 Bottom-Up Processing

THE NEED

OF THE

HOUR

Today the model used to promote and accelerate human growth stems from increasing the economic wealth of nations, corporate organisations, communities, families and individuals. Every corporate organisation is managed by one key principle, SWM1 (Shareholder or Stakeholder Wealth Maximisation). This principle tacitly gets incorporated into almost all aspects of life and living. Even the performances of governments are today being judged on the effect of their policies on the economy in general and capital markets in particular. Human growth—its conceptualisation and implementation—which is the primary driver for economic development takes a distinct back seat. Market economy has lead to a system of education and investment in research projects that are socially useful and commercially viable. Yet the question that every organisation primarily has to ask is: Are we ensuring that people in our organisations grow? Profitability, in the new economy, is necessary but not a sufficient condition for growth. Guaranteeing human growth at all levels of an organisation, will provide the sufficient condition in today’s competitive setup where change, differentiation and innovation have to pervade through the warp and weft of every organisation, be it a family, a society, a commune, a corporate or a country. 1

The terms might change, but essentially corporates are bottom-line driven.

82 Brain Re-engineering

The first step in order to ensure proficiency in data collection, accumulation, assortment and processing skills, is to see that the individual is exposed to a field of activity that inspires and motivates him or her. Speaking objectively, the information from this field of activity has to trigger the limbic system of the individual. There has been a long established connection between increased attention and arousal with the limbic system. The reason for school dropouts and for those playing truant is that the courses do not capture or fire their imagination. The only way out is customdesigning courses to suit each child. Individual attention is slowly but surely becoming a reality. For example, Jamaica has already taken the first steps towards this. Research on child care practices from a gender perspective has helped to increase understanding of gender disparities in the Jamaican learning environment where girls are generally higher achievers in education than boys, which calls for different education strategies. The boys are given a curriculum that is more suited to help them achieve their ambitions. The dropout rates have come down markedly. In fact, many parents from England have sent their boys to Jamaica to learn because they find the curriculum there suits them better. Enticing people to meet mundane goals is only the beginning. They have to be gradually mentored towards the field of inquiry that intrinsically motivates them. In the new economy, jobs are going to be increasingly scarce. Success stories will be written about those who develop their innate capacities and gain expertise and entrepreneurial skills. Gradually, students have to be educated on the cognitive skills that ensure that their senses and emotions no longer fool them into making erroneous decisions. They have to develop the self-discipline necessary to monitor themselves to regulate inputs in such a way that it leads to building their neuronal circuitry and the management of stress. The current scenario demands that organisations have to deliver first and foremost products and/or services that fulfill their responsibility. For example, if a family does not provide its member the infrastructure to educate himself/herself, the cost is no longer merely the lack of growth or employability; it is sowing the seeds for stress, disease, dissension and perhaps fundamentalism. A product failure is no longer a mere service charge; it could lead to lawsuits, loss of market share and goodwill, perhaps closure of the unit, while continual upgradation of the knowledge-level of its workforce ensures that incremental improvements in productivity are consistent and constant, thus reducing cost on an ongoing basis. Some of

Bottom-Up Processing 83

this can be passed on to the customer, thus ensuring current levels of usage, while also endeavouring to capture new segments of users. For an organisation to grow exponentially, Differentiated and Innovative products and/or services, that are a derivative of breakthrough performance changes, is a must. Continuous process improvement can no longer suffice to sustain organisations in the long term, as competition of global proportions is heating up. The starting point for both these types of changes is essentially different. While breakthrough innovations need to start change movement on a clean slate, incremental improvements start with modifying current operational processes. Overcoming, not managing, the effects of stress only leads to incremental improvements, which is just not adequate in the current competitive set-up. Therefore, some of the corporates have realised the need to view the effects of stress differently. Though there is no clear-cut model for annihilating stress currently in vogue, the need for such a model has been understood both among premier management schools and corporate organisations. This book aims at providing an objective framework for annihilating stress and helping organisations, be they a corporate, a family, a society, etc., to innovate constantly and consistently, while also incessantly improving operational procedures that bring about continuous incremental benefits. Constant differentiation and innovation evolve out of the latent and unfulfilled needs of current products and services. They are essentially cognitive processes in the customers’ brain, which are outcomes of human experience. As needs change, it is the ingenuity of the organisational heads to first recognise the change, decipher the trend and quickly reposition the organisation as a whole to strategically tackle these changes. Ingenuity, thus, supplies the prerequisite or the objective side that enables the organisational heads to set the wheels of the change process in motion, so that his/her foresight helps the organisation to develop differentiated products and work out the operational processes that can deliver breakthrough changes on an ongoing basis. Continuous process improvements will be technology driven and will have to be adapted to the needs of the organisation on an ongoing basis. Technological changes, though an unconditional necessity, take a distant back seat because they can easily be duplicated by the competition. Both these processes of change are a must for any organisation to survive, succeed and thrive in today’s global markets and free trade policies.

84 Brain Re-engineering

Moreover, any forecasting method has to take into account the nature of experience. Unless and until this is accounted for, the cognitive changes that are brought about in the brain cannot be accounted for, therefore the standpoint taken can lead to erroneous strategic positioning. Constant and consistent differentiation and innovation are essentially ‘people-driven’,2 ‘knowledge-driven’3 or ‘growth-driven’.4 Therefore, SWM or any of its substitutes can only provide a necessary condition and not a sufficient condition for today’s organisation, for they handle only the challenge of overcoming stress through problem solving,5 not annihilating stress. It is understanding the factors that act as a catalyst for ‘Human growth’,6 rather than mere ‘Development’7 and nurturing them in organisations—both small and large—that will provide the sufficient condition. It is the identification of these catalysts and nurturing of the same, which will disintegrate all the problems associated with stress within the workforce. Annihilation of stress and constant innovation through human growth are two sides of the same coin. Do we possess ostensible and objective measures for human growth? The moment there is any discussion about human growth or growth needs, the discussion shifts towards subjective measures like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs or various personality types. In the eighties and nineties, corporate organisations developed novel ways to combat the effects of stress which was sapping the vitality of their members. ‘Wellness

2 3 4

5

6

7

Every individual in the organisation has to bring about sustainable change in his own area of work. Changes are not data-driven but knowledge-driven. Knowledge stems either from deductive or inductive reasoning. The infrastructure or conditions for growth (long-term change) have to be understood and carefully nurtured in organisations, if innovative products/services have to be delivered on an ongoing basis. Problem solving in this book includes development of novel techniques that are derived by exposure to cross-functional fields of scientific inquiry. For example, using the techniques of cognitive science to assure customer satisfaction. ‘Human growth’ deals with long-term strategies that are to be adapted for completing the neuronal circuitry, optimising the brain processes associated with delivering innovative products/services while responding immediately to customers’ needs. ‘Development’ deals either with short-term adjustments that are made in order to combat exigencies or adaptive changes made in order to maintain the completed neuronal circuitry and brain process.

Bottom-Up Processing 85

programmes’,8 relaxation through vacations, rest breaks during a workday, changing attitude towards variety and ambiguity in the workplace, time management, etc. The fundamental principle in all these measures is to develop work–life relationships. ‘Life’ was implicitly and inherently considered as a contributory aspect, the development of which enhanced the quality of work output. The whole was considered as a part. This misapprehension allowed the intelligentsia to assume that stress was part and parcel of everyday life. In fact, some psychologists even went to the extent of saying that stress was essential for productivity. A lot of research was done on ‘Life Stressors’. In their article, Thomas H. Holmes and Richard H. Rahe (1967), reasoned that major changes in a person’s life could lead to stress and disease. They gave mean values for life events and ranked them. Their ingenuity showed up when they related these events to work and productivity. Yet, many do not realise that the basic assumption that stress is part and parcel of life, stifled differentiation and innovation of the organisation as a whole. It also led to major health problems that have taken epidemic proportions today. Most successful organisations of the future would be those that promote long-term ‘Human growth’ and look upon developmental activities as mere short-term adjustments that are necessary to overcome present predicaments. Thus the need of the hour is to objectively understand the factors that act as catalysts to Change, Innovation and Human Growth. The tacit assumption here is: How do I reduce, overcome and finally annihilate stress that is assumed or believed to be caused by change? Maintenance of status quo is detrimental to the vitality and vigour of any establishment when it is surrounded by an environment that is changing dynamically; where constant innovation, both continuous and breakthrough improvement, is the criterion for day-to-day survival and long-term growth. Most of the current theorists are unwilling to abandon the physicalistic conceptualisation of the world, which cannot account for experience. With experience not accounted for, forecasting becomes impossible. The second set of management theorists, with little or no understanding of the philosophy of science and the underpinnings of current empirical theories, have abandoned forecasting as ‘impossible’, thereby going against the grain 8

Programmes designed to help people combat stress through gyms, weight-loss programmes, etc.

86 Brain Re-engineering

of scientific thinking. Without an understanding of ‘trends’, infrastructure development, which provides the scaffold for the growth and development of every organisation, would not be in place. People begin to react to change rather than responding positively to it. The end result is undifferentiated products and services, leading to unsustainable practices. Therefore the need of the hour is a conceptual scaffold that is based on brain processes, which is capable of furnishing an ostensive definition of ‘Human growth’ that can be measured, verified and replicated. In order to undertake this mammoth exercise, the emerging conceptual scaffold has to objectively explain Experience as well as the cognitive changes that take place in the human brain. The very foundations or philosophical assumptions of René Descartes have to be reexamined from scratch. This reexamination of the theoretical framework required to suit today’s needs necessitates that we use the term ‘Re-engineering’ in the title of the book. With the advent of PET and fMRI, the brain and its processes are being studied empirically and in real time. As the book presumes that the conceptual scaffold should be based on the cognitive processes in the human brain and start with sentience, it is titled Brain Re-engineering.

OUR NATURAL RELUCTANCE

TO

CHANGE

Most working executives—starting with the CEOs9 to those in the front office—firmly believe that their responsibility begins and ends with identifying suppliers, manufacturing (customising), distributing, acquiring feedbacks and responding as fast as possible to Customers’ Needs. They have an aversion to any inquiry into the apparatus that helps them in their day-to-day decision making and/or strategic judgements. If anyone even suggests this notion of re-examination of his or her conceptual scaffold, the instigator is dubbed a maverick! Everyone, starting with most top management personnel, seems inimical to the idea of any philosophical inquiry. Very few people are aware of the subjectiveness involved in making judgements and that their objective domain or frame of reference is dynamic rather than static. Only a handful of people 9

Chief Executive Officers.

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comprehend the need for objective measures to be put in place, if ingenuity has to spread across the length, breadth and width of organisations.

Fig. 3.1 Existing Thought Processes

Education, especially technical subjects, helps one to understand the use of technology. Yet it is the cognition of the limits of these technological instruments and the thought processes that brought about their development that are critical to progress. For example, one might learn through rote, understanding, application and experience, the various uses of a mundane screwdriver. This could also include how to use it to remove the outer fibres of a coconut shell. Yet it is understanding the limitations, in other words, the things that the screwdriver cannot do, that will propel technology forward. If one does not bother with this inquiry, two things happen: 1. one keeps striving arduously with a screwdriver, to solve a problem that it is not innately designed to solve, this adding to ‘costs’; 2. one does not attempt to look for an alternative until it is either late or too late, thus allowing competition to step in through one’s own mental inertia. If this is the cost of sticking with screwdrivers, can one imagine the costs that the organisations can save by inquiring into the limitations imposed by subjective judgements? Every judgement has a deep-seated spacio-temporal assumption that was understood by the person who invented the system. In the course of time, either the assumption was understood and continued to exist because there was no operational benefit derived by removing it or left unquestioned. When the latter takes place, the future use of the process comes under jeopardy. The physicalistic scaffold is one of them. As this was conceived in the sixteenth century and

88 Brain Re-engineering

science in its present form has become an accepted successful phenomenon, most people have taken it for granted. Except for a few scientists who are working at the cutting-edge of scientific research, the present scaffold is considered to be perfectly okay. Can we afford this continued complacency in the present scheme of things where understanding of brain processes is a must? We need an objective model that is based on brain processes and that allows for constant reexamination and change, while explaining the influence of experience on brain processes. The present-day customer would have no objections to change in the conceptual scaffold as long as it benefits him in terms of lowered cost of products/services, customised goods and services, a quality of life that is more holistic and considers the welfare of the entire ecosystem. The only objection would come from those who have ‘vested interests’ in maintaining the current status quo. They would quote Thomas Kuhn about paradigm shifts,10 paint doomsday pictures, hold on to their ebbing scaffolds without understanding the quintessence of all precepts and principles, all rules and regulations, all moral practices and social values have only one purpose: The ability to promote human welfare.

SLIDING DOWN

WITH

EYES WIDE OPEN

Different generations of people need different props for their development. No civilisation, no religion, and no gospel has had its sway during all periods of time. Every school of thought had and has its day in the limelight. The underpinnings for any school of thought lie in its ability to act as a catalyst, as a promoter, as a supporter to manifest and actuate human potential. Every school of thought and every empire, becomes a force to reckon with, because it has the potential to remove the remnants of the previous school or empire. None has the right to claim more sanctity over another that it replaces. Every system, every conceptual scaffold, every convention, presumably has only one intent: ‘Help mankind to adapt itself to change’. The integrity of the statement becomes clear if one considers the 10

Thomas Kuhn believed that a paradigm shift was brought about by those who are the periphery of existing technologies so that they get a share of the pie that they are currently deprived of.

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history of classical indian thought. The classical schools claim allegiance to the Vedas. The main schools of thought were: (a) Nyaya-Vaisesika; (b) Sankya-Yoga; (c) Purva Mimamsa; (d) Uttara Mimamsa. Schools of thought were often clubbed together because their metaphysical pre-suppositions matched. Nyaya-Vaisesika came into prominence after the Puranic period. The Puranas emphasised the principle of ‘Devotion’ or ‘self-surrender’. The remnants of this doctrine would have lead to discouragement of rational thinking, which in turn would have affected ‘Operational efficiency’. As a consequence, this school must have come into the limelight. In fact, perfection in man according to the Nyaya-Vaisesika school was attained through the quality of ‘Perfect Tranquillity and Freedom from Defilement’.11 Thus these schools were opposed to perfection through ‘Bliss’ that the Puranic period often talked about. The very fact that freedom from defilement was a pre-condition for perfection implicitly states that the early innocence and devotion of the Puranic period was probably replaced by depravity and degradation. The need to change pre-supposes the compulsion to grow beyond mere conventions and traditions. The pioneering spirit of man led to the Nyaya-Vaisesika school coming to the fore. In course of time, this school of thought must have led to mere linear and analytical thinking, thus curbing the ‘Inductive Spirit’ in the intelligentsia. Thus arose the next schools of philosophical thought, Sankhya-Yoga. They continued to maintain the rationality of NyayaVaisesika, while accepting the metaphysics of the Vedas and the Puranas. Perfection, according to these schools, was ‘Freedom from worldly attachments’.12 The operational efficiency of the Nyaya-Vaisesika schools must have lead to mere acquisition and aggrandisement, thus leading to the concentration of power in the hands of a few. Innovation to meet current needs must have demanded simpler living and higher thinking. SankhyaYoga filled this void admirably. These schools emphasised austerity and ascetic lifestyles. Unsullied discriminative knowledge13 was the means to perfection and excellence according to these schools. Austerity in its moderation is a boon, while the same becomes retrograde when it metamorphoses into its extreme form. Occultism and 11 12 13

Apavarga ‘Moksa’ or ‘Samadhi ’ Vivekakhyativiplava

90 Brain Re-engineering

extreme conservation would result, thus marginalising the needs of the common man. The consequence was the emergence of Purva Mimamsa. Attainment of heavenly bliss14 was considered to lead to perfection. This was through the performance of certain ritualistic practices. In fact, the main principle for this school was ethical behaviour.15 It tried to satisfy the ‘legitimate’ desires of the common man. The repercussion of this school was the entanglement of men in petty needs, leading to the gradual abandonment of innovative practices which needed reflection and contemplation. Uttara Mimamsa or Vedanta came to the forefront. Reflection and contemplation,16 not acquisition17 and enjoyment became the means to gain freedom (from ignorance) and excellence. The conceptualisation of the great masters of all schools of thought shows both rationality and, more importantly, compassion for the suffering of their fellow men. It is the rationalisation of the whims and fancies of the followers and the gradual change in the needs of the external environment that leads to their decline. If any organisation, society or fraternity, does not inquire into the nature of its presumptions on an ongoing basis, it is ‘sliding down with eyes wide open’. Empirical thought is in no way exempted from this precondition.

CHANGE

IN

EMPIRICAL SCIENCE

Human ingenuity always finds a way out of the rigmarole. According to Bertrand Russell (1997): Before Copernicus, people thought that the earth stood still and the heavens revolved about it once a day. Copernicus taught that ‘really’ the earth rotates once a day, and the daily revolution of sun and stars is only ‘apparent’. Galileo and Newton endorsed this view, and many things were thought to prove it—for example, the flattening of the earth at the Poles, and the fact that bodies are heavier there than at the equator. But in the modern theory the question between Copernicus and earlier astronomers is merely one of convenience; all motion is relative, and 14 15 16 17

Swarga Dharma Nivritti Pravritti

Bottom-Up Processing 91

there is no difference between the two statements: ‘the earth rotates once a day’ and ‘ the heavens revolve about the earth once a day’. The two mean exactly the same thing, just as it means the same thing if I say that a certain length is six feet or two yards. Astronomy is easier if we take the sun as fixed than if we take the earth, just as accounts are easier in decimal coinage. But to say more for Copernicus is to assume absolute motions, which is a fiction. All motion is relative, and it is a mere convention to take one body as at rest. All such conventions are equally legitimate, though not all are equally convenient. Empirical science also had to undergo some dramatic changes in its basic tenets. With the advent of GTR (General Theory of Relativity), the ‘Positivistic mode of thinking’ of Auguste Comte (in Schilpp, 1997) went through a turmoil for the first time since its inception. The ‘Positivistic requirement’ of Comte and Ernest Mach of using only terms and terminologies (in physics) that are given to sense-experience was breached for the first time after empiricism took firm hold of scientific thinking. GTR used terms and terminologies like geodetic datum,18 gravitational potentials,19 etc., that were mere symbols interpreted by Einstein during his derivation. ‘Positivism’ gave way, as it were, to ‘logical empiricism’ according to those scientists who worked in the logic of science, thus aiding the development of Mach’s philosophy of science according to the new developments in theoretical physics. If we do not make the transition now from a Cartesian framework, to a conceptual scaffold that explains the nature of the multitude of experiences based on ‘brain processes’, we could be sliding down an abyss with eyes wide open. This book attempts to address this need. It also aims at rationalising the hitherto subjective terms like quality, customer satisfaction, human growth, and taste in terms of objective brain processes. 18

19

Peter H. Dana, The Geographer’s Craft Project, Department of Geography, The University of Colorado at Boulder defines ‘Geodetic datum’ as the size and shape of the earth and the origin and orientation of the coordinate systems used to map the earth. Hundreds of different datums have been used to frame position descriptions since Aristotle made the first estimates of the earth’s size. Datums have evolved from those describing a spherical earth to ellipsoidal models derived from years of satellite measurements. Energy that is stored in the gravitational field is called gravitational potential energy, or potential energy due to gravity.

92 Brain Re-engineering INPUT DRIVEN BOTTOM-UP PROCESSING

Activation of the ‘Lower’ Cognitive Functions in the Human Brain The human cognitive system is organised hierarchically. The most basic perceptual systems like coding for lines, corners, etc., for sense-stimuli are located at the bottom of the hierarchy, and the more complex cognitive systems for analytical processing20, pre-cognitive processing21 and primary cognition22 are located at the top of the hierarchy. Information can flow from the bottom of the system to the top of the system and from the top of the system to the bottom of the system. When information flows from the bottom of the system to the top, it is termed ‘Bottom-up Processing’. Lower level systems categorise and describe incoming perceptual information and pass this descriptive information on to higher levels for more complex processing. Input or data from the environment is extremely important for building neuronal connections or circuitry. Brain development begins before birth. Amazingly, it is in the process of construction within a week of conception. By the time a baby is born, about 100 billion neurons or brain cells have been produced. Not only have most of the brain cells formed, they have spent time travelling to the right places in the brain and are beginning to connect with one another. Modern research proves that the inputs in terms of visual stimuli, speech, touch, etc., have an important role in the development of the infant’s brain. From a capacity to see fuzzy images at 9–12 inches, the infant develops adult-like clarity and focus in 8–10 months’ time driven by external input from its environment. Neuroscientists have found that an infant looking around at interesting things with ‘both eyes’ helps in the development of fine connections between cells in the visual cortex. Talking to an infant helps building of neuronal circuitry in the auditory area of the brain and facilitates language comprehension. 20 21 22

Sequential or linear processing: helps in planning day-to-day activity. Operation oriented, hence only effective in the short term. Capability for forecasting the future (as conceived in this working hypothesis). Maintains synchronicity among the various cognitive systems (as conceived in this working hypothesis).

Bottom-Up Processing 93

The newborn’s sensitivity to touch is well developed at birth. Caressing a newborn is ‘sensory nourishment’ or food for the brain, according to Dr Hellar23 (1997). Once again research proves that caressing and emotional support promotes the growth of myelin, a fatty tissue on the axon of motor neurons. This growth is called ‘Myelination’. Babies need gentle touching, holding and eye contact, just as they need food to grow and develop. Studies show that a nurturing touch actually helps many babies gain weight and develop healthy relationships with parents and caregivers. Studies also show that sharing books and stories as part of quiet cuddling time can be a great way for caregivers and infants to connect or develop healthy relationships with each other. One cannot spoil a newborn by holding, touching, caressing, comforting and meeting needs. In fact, the best evidence says that infants who receive a lot of loving attention in these early months become more independent, resourceful and less demanding toddlers.

INPUT AND GENE ACTIVATION DRIVES BRAIN DEVELOPMENT If we believe that only input from external environment drives growth, it is not true. As we mentioned earlier, gene expression plays a very important part in the process. Motor development in infants is an example of intrinsic stimulation rather than an extrinsic one. Many babies begin to sit at around seven months, to crawl at around 9–10 months, to pull, stand and cruise while holding on at around 10–11 months, and to take first steps alone at about 12 months. The infant’s developing brain, which in turn will be controlled by particular ‘growth factors’, influences this progression of motor development. When infants are born, the areas of the brain that will eventually control and coordinate voluntary movements are not yet well developed. These motor areas of the brain mature in a head-to-toe sequence, meaning that brain areas controlling movement of the head and neck muscles mature before those controlling arm and trunk muscles, which in turn mature more rapidly than areas controlling the legs. This progression begins at 23

http://www.zerotothree.org/brainwonders/

94 Brain Re-engineering

birth, and by 6–12 months, has reached the areas controlling trunk and leg muscles, which are critical to most of the gross motor milestones of this period. Maturation occurs as brain cells that originate in motor areas of the brain are coated with myelin. Myelin is a dense, fatty substance that helps neurons send and receive messages faster and more clearly, so that motor pathways in the brain, brain stem and spinal cord gradually become better at controlling and coordinating the movements necessary for sitting, crawling and walking. Movement is important for an infant. The more an infant is allowed to practise his/her budding motor skills, the more finetuned the motor pathways in the brain become. Practice helps not just in helping the infant’s movement progress from awkward and clumsy to skilled and coordinated, but in getting him/her to gradually tune inwards to the signals originating from the brain. Research indicates that infant ‘walkers’ do not permit the right kind of practice for promoting the growth. One problem is that infants cannot see their feet in a walker. This kind of visual feedback appears to be important when the baby begins to take those first steps on his own. Another problem is that they do not help babies develop a sense of balance, which is a proprieoceptive24 feedback from the infants’ muscles back to the brain. Therefore, the tools and toys provided to any infant, could actually retard, rather than accelerate brain growth. ‘Gross movement’ helps the infant to transform into a toddler, progressively evolving better motor circuits in the motor areas for control and coordination. When toddlers use objects such as pencils and crayons, they are practising their fine motor skills. Fine motor skills involve the many small muscles in the fingers, hands and wrist muscles over which the toddler is very slowly but surely gaining more control and coordination. This slow improvement in tasks such as drawing, fitting shapes in a sorter, or using a spoon and fork, etc., depends on the continuing development of the motor and cognitive systems in the brain. Another feature of brain development that contributes to toddlers’ improving their motor skills is the development of the cerebellum, an area 24

Proprieoception: the ability to control one’s body parts; the receptors for this sense are located in the joints and help control the amount of force needed for different tasks.

Bottom-Up Processing 95

of the brain important in the timing and coordination of most motor tasks. Growth of brain circuitry thus presumably starts from the ‘lower’ brain centres like the brain stem, in a newborn who is exhibiting behaviour like crying, spitting, soiling, etc., without any conscious control to his perceptive areas in the brain, thereafter progresses steadily to his motor areas. THE LIMBIC SYSTEM

Fig. 3.2 The Limbic System

The ensuing cognitive area of the brain that develops is called the ‘limbic system’. It generates raw feelings and emotions like fear, anger, elation, etc., and is located deep in the interior of the brain. The hippocampus and the amygdala are important areas associated with the ‘limbic system’. Connectivity between brain tissues to these areas is reflected in the development of a ‘taste’ for certain colours, particular types of dresses, specific tastes and smells, etc. The period of whims and fancies, likes and dislikes, has come to stay. Input or data has a powerful influence on the growth and development of the limbic system as well. As stated in Chapter One, a study conducted by Dr Tom Robinson, Division of Paediatrics, Stanford University, California, it was found that viewing of overtly aggressive films,

96 Brain Re-engineering

videos, games, etc., brought about behaviour that was aggressive. Dr Robinson says,25 Well, I was mostly interested in the aggression that’s common among these same kids, the 8 to 9 year-old-children, which is the hitting and kicking and rough-housing on the playground, or verbal teasing and cursing other children. So the type of things that have been seen in other studies of aggression in children of this age, we measured aggression in the study with several measures: one was peer rating of aggression in which kids in your class would rate you on how likely, well actually they would rate everyone else in the class on how likely individuals were to say talk back to the teacher, or hit another child without a reason. In addition we asked positive things as well, like share their toys with each other, so it wasn’t just all negative. The research found that the children who were in the school that received the curriculum26 actually reduced their ratings according to their peers by approximately 25 per cent compared to the children in the comparison school. In terms of playground aggression, the children in the school that received the curriculum performed about 40 per cent fewer physically aggressive acts per minute, and performed about 50 per cent fewer verbally aggressive acts per minute. When the limbic system is over-activated in a child or an adult, the input from the environment short circuit areas associated with higher-order processing (areas associated with analytical thinking, pre-cognition, etc.), often lead to dissipative and destructive forms of behaviour. Thought would be equated to a small pebble that begins to roll, picking up mass as it goes along, gradually building up to become an avalanche. Individuals and societies, while understanding the constructive power of thought in creativity, quite often misapprehend the destructive vigour of both individual and collective thought-processes. Many an organisation—be it in the name of religion, secular principles, educational institutions, corporates—propound and propagate its own conceptual scaffold. People who blindly believe in what is stated come 25 26

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/helthrpt/stories/s307657.htm The curriculum educates children on changing their behaviour with respect to excess of sensory stimuli.

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to the conclusion that this organisation alone speaks the absolute truth; it shows a path to the extrication of man from his suffering, and that there is only one way out. These institutions are eloquent about the defects of other systems while stifling any inquiry into their own first principles. What is promoted is blind faith, a passionate indoctrination of a concept or principle, thus quelling the spirit of inquiry inherent in man. This ultimately leads to dogmatism, intolerance and fundamentalism, causing more harm than the good that they claim to address. This attempt to construct a conceptual scaffold based on brain processes could serve as an eye-opener for both the intelligentsia and the general public to understand that all conceptual scaffolds are only conventions and that one can be as correct or incorrect as another. It would provide an opportunity for development and co-existence of different conceptual scaffolds at any one time, thereby restoring peace and prosperity in a world that is torn asunder in the name of truth and knowledge. The choice of one framework over another is merely based on convenience for those who use the same. HIGHER-ORDER PROCESSING IN THE HUMAN BRAIN

Analytical Processing The neural circuitry is not completely installed in most people until their early twenties. As the circuitry advances into the pre-frontal cortex, one of the areas associated with higher-order processing of input data, the controls necessary to quell the over-activated limbic system are in place. ‘The prefrontal cortex’, says Karl Pribram27, director of the Centre for Brain Research and Informational Sciences at Radford University in Virginia, ‘is in charge of “executive functions”. These include the brain’s ability to handle ambiguous information and make decisions, to coordinate signals in different regions of the brain, and to stifle or prolong emotions generated in the limbic system’. In an adult, for instance, an insinuation may stimulate a tempestuous anger until the pre-frontal cortex comes to the conclusion that the affront was meant for someone else and tells the limbic system 27

http://www.lcsc.edu/ps205/inside.htm

98 Brain Re-engineering

Fig. 3.3 Different Functional Areas in the Human Brain

to cool down. Prof. Pribram believes that, ‘The prefrontal cortex is the seat of civilization.’ The only exceptions to such situations of the pre-cortex exerting influence over the limbic system seem to apply to areas where there is an innate desire or a genetic propensity to acquire, possess and enjoy a particular object or being. A PET scans taken by neurologist Dr Deborah Todd on the child prodigy Michael Kearney28 showed that his pre-frontal cortex performed cognitive tasks. When he was asked to perform tasks that involved his emotional personality, the limbic system, especially his amygdala, became active. As stated in Chapter One, people easily dupe individuals like Karl Ryll because they are coerced from within to fulfill their childhood aspirations. Karl Ryll grew up dreaming of searching and finding lost treasures in faraway places. The moment the input was received, the limbic system appears to get over-activated. Thereafter the higher functions like analytical processing are compromised. Though his father, whom Karl respected, advised him not to take up this adventure, Karl went ahead. The 28

Michael Kearney finished his high-school curriculum when he was six. After getting a Master’s in biochemistry at Middle Tennessee State University at the age of 14, he is currently working on his second Master’s degree in advanced computer science.

Bottom-Up Processing 99

result was disaster, though this is not always the case. There have also been many success stories of people throwing away secure lives and becoming megastars. The point that is being stated here is that one’s objectivity and judgement are compromised whenever the input from the world pertains to one’s innate interest. The person has to have a mentor (discussed later in the book), whose prerogative is to make the final assessment on the course of action to be taken pertaining to critical decisions. Another way of wording the function of the pre-frontal cortex is to say that it promotes and propagates analytical or linear thinking, i.e., answering the questions that are essential for executive functions to be completed: What? Why? How? When? Where? Who/Whom? This removes most of the ambiguity generated by any input. The necessary condition for these questions to be both consciously and instinctively answered, is the quelling of the limbic system. While over-activation of the limbic system is an essential part of the growing-up process, indiscriminate promotion of the limbic system appears to be the cause (and prime accused) for school drop-outs and social rejects. A research conducted on the effect of television viewing by children showed that: 1. higher levels of television viewing correlate with lowered academic performance, especially reading scores. The compellingly visual nature of the stimulus blocks development of left-hemisphere language circuitry. A young brain manipulated by jazzy visual effects cannot divide attention to listen carefully to language; 2. the nature of the stimulus may predispose some children to attention problems; and 3. the neuronal circuitry in the brain’s executive control system, or pre-frontal cortex, is not developed to handle the rigours of planning, organising and sequencing behaviour for self-control, moral judgement and attention. In the name of civilisation, are we losing our sense of moderation over modern gadgets? Pooh-poohing of impulses and feelings are destroying the human being’s innate ability to know, to understand, to conceptualise, and above all, innovate.

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The Role of ‘Pre-cognition’ The circuitry is complete only when the areas associated with ‘Pre-cognition’ and ‘Primary cognition’ are also in place. By ‘Pre-cognition’ we mean objective ‘understanding’ of abstract concepts, comprehension of spacio-temporal (operational) functions and formulae, visualisation, etc. It also includes understanding theoretical frameworks that have been laid down by other great minds or dealing with problems associated with causation and correlation. It helps one to use the same to predict future changes in the external environment. This area of the brain, which is believed to be a part of the parietal lobe, is also postulated to deal with non-linear thinking. The unspoken rule for activating this area of the brain is to understand Aristotle, Einstein, or Bohr through ‘seeing’ not thinking. The recent Oscar-winning film, ‘A Beautiful Mind ’ portrays the visualization of an economist–mathematician, John Nash. It is suspension of thought that provides the foundation. ‘Thinking’ in the normal sense of the term is detrimental for ‘seeing’29 for one gets enmeshed in logical thought-processes. This essentially means that one has to gradually give up his individuality and put one’s entire being into the shoes of these great thinkers until the understanding is complete. Understanding the concepts of another person from his point of view is an important learning attribute when an individual is involved in bottom-up processing. Thus learning in bottom-up processing signifies a discovery made by the individual by consciously aligning oneself to the ‘conceptual thinking patterns’ of another. By this method, one makes another’s knowledge his own. This mode of aligning thought often makes the individual adopt a lifestyle that is similar to those he is trying to understand. This can be verified by observing sincere students or disciples becoming look-alikes or mimicking behavioural patterns of the teachers or gurus in educational campuses and ashrams all over the world. What one has to do to evolve one’s own conceptual scaffold will be extensively dealt with in subsequent chapters. ‘Thought’ by its very nature appears to be a double-edged sword. On the one hand it helps a person combat ignorance, while on the other it appears to lead to serious mental illnesses if its flow into the individual’s 29

This will be dealt with more elaborately in subsequent chapters.

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cognitive system is not tightly regulated. Schizophrenia as a disease affects people who have had a normal and healthy childhood, in their teens and twenties. No one seems to know the reason why this happens. The new emerging conceptual scaffold that starts with sentience would be able to give us a clue as why this takes place. Schizophrenia appears to have both mild and severe versions. As input from the environment keeps flowing in, new circuitry keeps getting built. As new data keeps coming in, the nature of that data over-activates areas of the brain processing it. This is shown by experiments conducted on people trying to learn the computer game TetrisTM. Here the pre-frontal cortex gets highly activated. This activation gradually gets reduced when the individual gets accustomed to the input over a period of time. This normalisation could be taking place because there are other aspirations like trying to play the game better could be impelling the individual genetically. This could be absent in some cases where the individual, instead of moving ahead, gets satisfied and continues to ruminate over the nature of the input over and over again, thus overactivating that particular area of the brain. The part of the brain where this happens could very well account for the mildness or the severity of the disease. It is here that the primary cognitive area plays a very special role. With scientific thinkers assuming that consciousness has as much a role to play in individuals as a train moving on full steam, we have contributed to our non-apprehension of the cause of paranoia, schizophrenia, and a host of other mental illnesses. Function of ‘Primary Cognitive Areas’ The ‘primary cognitive areas’ in the brain are believed to act as ‘spike arresters’ in the human brain, which help to maintain the equanimity and synchronicity in the human brain by checking over-activation in various areas of the brain. They are also believed to be responsible for the brains functioning holistically. For example, in the waking state of consciousness, the brain is usually functioning in beta range (16–40 Hz). The dilemma arises every time the human ear hears a sound. The range of the human ear is between 50 and 20,000 Hz. Every sound over-activates the area associated with audition in the human brain. Unless over-activation is arrested at the earliest, it results in ‘cognitive dissonance’ which can ostensibly be defined as the internal and subliminal resistance to learn, grow, change and adapt.

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As long as the neuronal circuitry is incomplete, it leads to overactivation of areas down the line, leading to dissipative behaviour that is commonly termed as ‘Mental Weakness’. By the process of mentoring and careful guidance of the individual towards an overarching goal, it is possible to check over-activation of brain areas. Goal-orientation and activation of the primary cognitive area in the brain seem to be very closely related, as long as it is a ‘stretch’ goal. When genetic origins for mental illnesses appear to be the cause, better understanding of the brain processes involved, superior quality of treatment and cure also appear to be possible within the new conceptual scaffold. Overactivation of areas of the brain is inversely proportional to clarity of thought. Overactivation of any area leads to: 1.

Brain Stem—excessive self-preservation;

2.

Areas associated with perception—information overload;

3.

Limbic System—overwhelmed by emotions and feelings;

4.

Pre-Frontal Cortex—only analytical thinking, hence shortterm orientation;

5.

Parietal Lobe (Pre-cognitive thinking)—‘pushing’ rather than ‘pulling’ the customer, loss of touch with reality.

Fig. 3.4 Effects of Overactivation of Brain DEXTERITY OF ACTION AND BOTTOM-UP PROCESSING

Bottom-up Processing plays a very important role in helping people interpret data and not fall prey to subjective assumptions. The individual in this mode of development builds his neuronal circuitry using input stimuli. Unless the connectivity is completed, the incoming stimuli are not analysed completely, leaving undigested assumptions. Bottom-up processing needs undivided attention and dedication to specialisation in one’s chosen field. Does an engineering degree from one of the IITs help one complete his neuronal circuitry? No. It is only those who come to original conclusions, after having mastered the interpretations of various masters in their chosen field of specialization, who are able to complete their neuronal circuitry.

Bottom-Up Processing 103

Fig. 3.5 Bottom-up Processing-I

In fact, such people do not need jobs, for they will perceive gaps in the marketplace for their products and services. A student who has completed his neuronal circuitry appears to overcome the dissipative effects of his limbic system like fear, anxiety, worry, nervousness, etc., and his fascination for his own thoughts. He appears soothingly confident about his technical skills. The subject of specialisation is of no consequence. He knows exactly the need that he can cater to and most probably, the market where he can succeed. What most students lack, appears to be proper guidance and the necessary endurance to do this. It means that the student has to let go of his innate sense of ownership, for he is only functioning on a borrowed set of concepts and conceptualisations; it would mean endless hours of discussion with his mentor, guide and peers; it would mean almost no senseenjoyment as his inquiry thunders towards fundamental issues. Living a spartan livelihood where discipline and self-control help him focus all his thoughts towards his energy in activities would help him complete his neuronal circuitry. It means overcoming emotions, feelings and a fascination for his original conclusions. In other words, he has to overcome his innate tendency to over-activate different areas of the brain and come to his own conclusions. Let us take an example of the effort put in by a famous individual in a non-technical subject. Bruce Lee. Before Lee set sail for San Francisco,

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he was no more than a tough guy on the streets of Hong Kong. Once let to fend for himself in the US, his innate interest in martial arts was kindled. He read voraciously. His biographer says that he read no less than 25,000 books. This included books not only on Chinese and Japanese martial techniques, but also fencing, gymnastics, philosophy and any other subject that would help him get lighter, faster and quicker. After having learnt and understood the quintessence of almost all of them, he developed his own style, Jeet Kune Do (JKD), and his own method of imparting it by teaching any person of any race (until then most Asian Martial Arts schools would only teach people of their own race). Thus began the humble journey that made him the superstar of martial arts. Clarity of thought is inversely proportional to the quantity and intensity of emotions, feelings, and thoughts.

Fig. 3.6 Bottom-up Processing-II BOTTOM-UP PROCESSING’S EFFICACY IN A COMPETITIVE SCENARIO

Bottom-up Processing is not ideally suited to a competitive setup. Most importantly, this mode does not help the individual to gain any understanding of the brain processes involved in problem solving or shortterm, action oriented decision-making. Therefore, when there is any threat

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to the organisation, the individual or the organisation could adapt a brain frequency pattern or activate areas of the brain that are unsuitable for operational efficiency. When this happens, most solutions arrived at, are aimed at alleviating the impending crisis rather than understanding the longterm repercussions of such activities. By the time there is an inquiry, a report, a meeting of the people involved, too much time elapses. The infrastructural weaknesses go undetected because the focus shifts to the latest set of inputs—present challenges—that have to be attended to. What gets priority is what is currently perceived. The brain processes in this mode are, after all, input driven. This does not help anyone involved in the situation. ‘Innovation’ and ‘differentiation’ are non-functional in this method of functioning. Too much time is taken for any change to saturate and permeate every level of the organisation and for it to metamorphose itself into an improvement of productivity. Once the neuronal circuitry is completed, the next challenge surfaces, the problem of overcoming ‘habituation’. Habituation takes place due to the repetitive use of a particular neuronal pathway. When any fresh input is received, the brain processes it through a well-worn pathway, leading to standardised, predictable responses and encouraging one to remain within their comfort zones. There has to be a conscious attempt made to advance to Top-down Processing, without which today’s global competitive set-up portends disaster. Imagine a student completing a set of educational programmes from one of the IITs and IIMs.30 The input from programmes is strenuous enough to build new neuronal circuitry that activates analytical, pre-cognitive and primary processing. Yet when he/she gets into the marketplace, the intellectual challenges may not be as strenuous; the pressures he faces there are altogether of a different kind; socialising and other new behavioural patterns, that are part and parcel of any job, have to be undertaken. With no intimate knowledge of one’s brain processes that help one tackle these new set of challenges, lower-processing areas (like the limbic system, brain stem, sensory areas, etc.,) and the areas associated with higher-order processing, can get over-activated. When this happens, people who were found to be very ‘mature’, start becoming emotional, clueless, overloaded. Errors of judgement begin to creep into daily actions. Gradually, 30

Indian Institute of Management.

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occasional errors turn into regular costly mistakes. If this is not checked, blunders and disaster follow. The individual gets blacklisted. Even if the person checks his decline, he might once again begin using behavioural patterns that helped him in building up his neuronal circuitry, thus not alleviating the crisis. The only way out of this predicament is to switch to ‘Top-down Processing’. In the din and roar of the marketplace, every individual has to make sure that he is using the brain processes that are most suitable to tackle the problem at hand. Unless he trains himself to do this, he would not be able to resolve and respond in a systematic manner. He would be incapable of repeating actions that have brought him and his organisation success. The result of ignorance of this method that helps one’s optimise his brain processes during various tasks, leads to physical exhaustion, emotional upheaval and intellectual burnout. Every organisation pays a huge price due to bottom-up processing behaviour of its managers both in terms of opportunities lost and cost savings that could have been made. In the contemporary scheme of things, how many people can claim to have acquired expertise in their field of specialisation? How can people expect to overcome work-related stress? When they lose their capacity to interpret the stimuli thrown to them in their professional life, social and personal life begin to suffer. Organisations that do not have people with completed neuronal circuitry are bound to lose market share, if not businesses, for they are not equipped to find solutions to problems that the competitor does. Marketplaces will very soon stop being places where individuals and organisations can learn and perfect their technical skills and gain expertise. Individuals and organisations that are immersed in Bottom-up Processing, tend to forget that their present and future activities have only one target, satisfaction of customer needs. They are preoccupied in finding answers to their innate quest for knowledge. Their thoughts, concepts and practices become golden chains that imprison them. They fall prey to ‘crisis management’. Their clarity and objectivity of interpretation is lost. They gradually get stymied. Change, thereafter, takes the organisation into a chasm of disaster, decay and self-destruction.

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Summary Ø

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Guaranteeing human growth at all levels of an organisation, will provide the sufficient condition in today’s competitive set-up where change, differentiation and innovation have to pervade through every organisation, be it a family, a society, a commune, a corporate or a country. Gradually everyone has to be educated on the cognitive skills that ensure that their senses and emotions no longer fool them into making erroneous decisions; they have to develop the selfdiscipline necessary to monitor themselves, regulate inputs in such a way that it leads to building their neuronal circuitry and the management of stress. Overcoming the effects of stress only leads to incremental improvements, which is just not adequate in the current competitive set-up. Very few people are aware of the subjectiveness involved in making judgements and that their objective domain or frame of reference is dynamic rather than static. The human cognitive system is organised hierarchically. The most basic perceptual systems for sense-stimuli are located at the bottom of the hierarchy, and the more complex cognitive systems for analytical processing, pre-cognitive processing and primary cognition are located at the top of the hierarchy. When information flows from the bottom of the system to the top of the system, it is termed ‘Bottom-up Processing’. Lower level systems categorise and describe incoming perceptual information and pass this descriptive information on to higher levels for more complex processing. Input data from the environment is extremely important for building neuronal connections or circuitry. Growth of brain circuitry starts from the ‘lower’ brain centres like the brain stem.

108 Brain Re-engineering Ø

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When the ‘limbic system’ is over-activated, the input from shortcircuits areas associated with higher-order processing (areas associated with analytical thinking, pre-cognition, etc.) often leading to dissipative and destructive forms of behaviour. The neural circuitry isn’t completely installed in most people until their early twenties. As the circuitry advances into the pre-frontal cortex, one of the areas associated with higher-order processing of input data, the controls necessary to quell the over-activated limbic system are put in place. The functions of the pre-frontal cortex include the brain’s ability to handle ambiguous information and make decisions, to coordinate signals in different regions of the brain, and to stifle emotions generated in the limbic system; another way of wording the function of the pre-frontal cortex is to say that it promotes and propagates ‘analytical or linear thinking’. This removes most of the ambiguity generated by any input. The necessary condition for these questions to be both consciously and instinctively answered, is the quelling of the limbic system. Learning in bottom-up processing signifies a discovery made by the individual by consciously aligning oneself to the ‘conceptual thinking patterns’ of another. The ‘Primary Cognitive Areas’ in the brain are believed to act as ‘spike arrester’ in the human brain, which help to maintain the equanimity and synchronicity in the human brain by checking over-activation in various areas of the brain. They are also believed to be responsible for the brain to function holistically. As long as the neuronal circuitry is incomplete, it leads to overactivation of areas down the line, leading to dissipative behaviour that is commonly termed as ‘mental weakness’. Over-activation of areas of the brain is inversely proportional to clarity of thought. Clarity of thought is inversely proportional to quantity and intensity of emotions, feelings and thoughts. After completion of neuronal circuitry, the next challenge is overcoming ‘habituation’. It takes place due to the repetitive use of a

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particular neuronal pathway. When any fresh input is received, the brain processes it through a well-worn pathway, leading to standardised, predictable responses and encouraging one to remain within their comfort zones. There has to be a conscious attempt made to advance to Top-down Processing, without which today’s global competitive set-up portends disaster.

4 Top-Down Processing (I) Problem Solving

THE MUCH NEEDED TRANSFORMATION Completion of the neuronal circuitry is an ‘active process’. By ‘active process’ what is meant is that the individual has to strive to receive the inputs that will help him complete his neuronal circuitry. It does not matter what the field of inquiry of the aspirant is. The interested student has to pursue his field of concern until he can construct a holistic framework and come to an original conclusion. This would mean that he develops the capability to answer all queries with respect to his field of specialisation and then ensure that the answers would be at his fingertips. This necessitates the apprentice to construct the theoretical scaffold similar, not same, to that of the experts in his field of specialisation. In striving to assemble this elaborate framework, every student is compelled to abandon all comfort and luxuries and focus all his concentration on developing his framework. All this changes quite dramatically the moment the ‘trainee’ draws his first pay cheque. It is the unequivocal instance of paucity to profuseness. Now inputs change, the amount of time spent on study, reflection and contemplation is also modified dramatically. The ‘purpose for action’ shifts from ‘learning about the field of activity’ to ‘learning about the needs of one’s customer/s’. The student has to function under multiple constraints probably for the first time. The responsibility to deliver results day in and

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day out does not rest easy on inexperienced shoulders. This shift in paradigm can lead to disastrous consequences in the capability to deliver ‘benchmarks’ set by organisations, if a corresponding alteration in not made in the individual’s perspective. The shift has to be from receipt of stimuli to building a conceptual scaffold, to gaining an intimate knowledge of one’s own brain processes associated with receiving, interpreting and responding to customer needs. If results have to be delivered consistently and the quality of output improved progressively, then he has to gradually and consistently build relationships with people—customers, team members, vendors—along with his day-today activity. Without an objective knowledge of his own brain processes, his ability to optimise his responses to different situations is compromised. His bottom-up processing experience may help to interpret experiences, but this, more often than not, would lead to behaviour that is argumentative, rather than that which can help him deliver results consistently. Moreover, this adjustment needs another significant modification. The ‘active processing’ of the student has to give way to ‘active listening’ of a professional. The transformation has to be from processing of input stimuli for developing a conceptual scaffold to activating the brain processes that will first help him respond suitably to customer needs that gradually lead to the modification of his neuronal circuitry that can reorient his conceptual scaffold to be in synchronisation with the assumptions of his and/or organisation’s target audience. It is this modification of the conceptual scaffold constructed through bottom-up processing that would help him deliver differentiated products in the future. Only a student who has constructed his neuronal circuitry is capable of making value-additions to an organisation, be it in the role of a home-maker, a chef, an interior designer, an architect, etc., on an ongoing basis. Today, individuals who have completed the neuronal circuitry through bottom-up processing do not strive to take up this change, because they are unaware of it. By rationalising cognitive processes, every individual who has completed his neuronal circuitry can be trained to achieve this tour de force. Other freshers have to be motivated to complete their neuronal circuitry by making them aware of the consequences of their not doing so, in terms of career development in a market situation where every individual has to contribute to an organisation’s success.

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The many creative ideas of a fresher who has completed his neuronal circuitry, have to be tempered and modified only through ‘experience’. Trying to implement their creative ideas forcefully could lead to failure, for there could be a mismatch between the freshers’ assumptions and customer expectations. In all probability, there could be more infrastructural needs that have to be developed and further rationalisation of their subjective interpretations, before the same can be offered to the marketplace. There are no short cuts to success. Subjective qualities like sincerity, perseverance and tolerance, are a few subjective terms used to denote the active effort and ‘dull pain’ that the fresher has to endure in order to modify his neuronal circuitry, to match his assumptions with those of his customers, both implicit and explicit. Hasty responses without mobilising the necessary resources could leave a huge communication and expectation gap between the beginner’s intentions and the customer’s understanding of the same, leading to customer dissatisfaction, loss of market share and other eventualities. An instance of such a case is the failure of Sterling Resorts Ltd. One of their novel ideas was to set up resorts that would be used on a timeshare basis in places heaped with age-old culture and traditions. They marketed their idea as a ‘Heritage of India’ package. Unfortunately, the market acceptance of the idea far exceeded the company’s expectations. The market grew exponentially. If they had kept a low profile and catered to a niche market, using referrals for furthering their business, they would have given themselves time to reach threshold levels that would have helped them build the necessary infrastructure, when they went in for market penetration. This they failed to do. By attempting to penetrate the market without proper infrastructure to support the generated demand, their customers lost faith in their capacity to deliver what they had promised. The company ultimately folded up though it had an excellent service to offer.

TOP-DOWN PROCESSING Information can flow both from the bottom of the system to the top of the human cognitive system, and from the top of the system to the bottom of the system. When information flows from the top of the system to

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the bottom of the system, it is termed ‘top-down processing’. The implications of this top-to-bottom flow of information is not just that information coming into the system through the senses (perceptually) can be influenced by what the individual already knows about such information, but ensures that the response to the environment is conceptualised, planned and thereafter executed. Top-down processing ensures that appropriate brain processes are used in conceptualising, planning, executing and obtaining feedback. More importantly, this mode of processing guarantees that the feedback obtained does not pertain only to the external environment, but also gathers the internal feedback from various bodily sensors, thus helping one retain a perfect equilibrium between the two for optimisation of one’s productivity. An Indian adage says, ‘A student learns one quarter of his learning from his teacher, another quarter from his classmates, yet another quarter through his own intellect, and the remaining quarter in course of time.’ In today’s market economy, this maxim translates as: One quarter of a student’s education is acquired through data/information about his functional field of knowledge, the next quarter is ‘listening’ to his customer’s needs, the third quarter is gained through ‘re-engineering’, and the last quarter is learnt through experience. The ideal of every organisation is to be a ‘learning institution’. The previous chapter spoke about the need to actively get suitable inputs for one to complete his neuronal circuitry. This chapter deals with the next aspect of an individual’s education. It deals with the need for everyone who has completed their neuronal circuitry to start the process of ‘listening’ to customer needs and deliver the same by becoming objectively and intimately familiar with their own brain processes, so that one can find perfect synergy between external stimuli and internalised past knowledge. Thereafter ‘customer delight’ and continuous process changes become an ongoing practice in any organisation. From an operational point of view, an objective methodology has to be put in place if people have to make sure that all that has been stored from past ‘learning’ is used as and when an opportune situation arises. It is never surprising to hear the words: I knew all about this; how the hell did I forget about using it there? The implicit questions that are on the lips of almost everyone in today’s competitive situation are: How can I deliver optimum performance?

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Are there any objective measures that can be put in place? How does one validate to oneself and his organisation the oft-repeated subjective assertion, ‘I am doing everything that I can?’ Empirical science can provide an objective measurement; as PET and fMRI and other technologies become more cost-effective, they would be used more extensively to solve many current-day problems with respect to personal and organisational effectiveness. The method suggested here is an objective, ostensible and cost-effective measure that any individual and organisation can use to know where one or a group or the organisation as a whole, stands. In what direction and at what rate have they got to proceed? How can they implement objective measures that will provide constant and consistent ‘growth’? Top-down Processing as far as problem solving is concerned consists of two distinct stages: 1. learning to actively listen to incoming stimuli by shutting down a student’s natural reaction to categorise, classify and analyse input stimuli until the receipt of stimuli is complete; 2. becoming intimately acquainted with one’s own cognitive processes in order to understand and supply customers’ needs consistently. The former helps the individual gain temporary control over his internal brain processes. The latter helps one to effectively deploy his past knowledge in the field of his specialisation and come up with solutions to customer needs. Both are a must for all individuals. For example, even Ellen Macarthur (winner of second place in the Vendee Glober yacht race) has to first find out what has gone wrong when the keel is not functioning, when the sails get ripped, when the electricity supply that powers the satcom communications system shuts down. Thereafter she has to use the proper cognitive processes in the brain to solve the problems on hand, be it feeding 15 litres of fluid into the keel through a tiny funnel, taking down the sail and sewing for five hours through the night, etc. This is not an easy process by any means. Bruce Lee, who had been teaching all his students to ‘empty their mind’, could not do the same when it came to filming the movie Enter the Dragon in Hong Kong. It took him three days to settle down though his martial arts’ training had helped him do the same while he learnt how to fight. Yet when it came to serving his audience, the very principles that he

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taught appear to have deserted him. This apparent contradiction is due to the fact that the neuronal circuitry needed by him to follow his own precept, i.e., ‘empty the mind’, seems to be totally different when it comes to catering to customer needs; he did not train himself to become intimately associated with his own brain processes that can help him cater to different customer needs. The hypothesis that is being put forward here for ‘quietening the mind’ or ‘listening’ to customer needs appears to be a totally different neuronal circuitry that is built during bottom-up processing. It appears to start being built from the ‘primary cognitive area’ to other functional areas of the brain. This circuit complements the neuronal circuitry, which is built up during the bottom-up processing period. This is termed as reverse networking. In this process, the neuronal circuitry appears to be built from the primary cognitive area to other functional areas in the brain.

BRAIN WAVES SOLVING

AND THEIR

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PROBLEM

When a student assumes the role of supplier of products and services, be it at home, in a community or a corporation, he/she has to quickly make an almost radical change with regard to brain processes. When the individual is being fed with information in the marketplace, most of the time there is only one chance for the acquisition of cues, be they in terms of visual, auditory, body language, etc. Recording all input fed into the cognitive system of the individual is almost improbable and also not costeffective. In other words, reflection and analysis of deeper implications of any input has to be done only when the receipt of stimuli has been completed. This is quite different to what a student usually does. Tutors, lectures and professors encourage students to ask questions as the lecture is going on. In fact, most good schools give marks for classroom participation. Input in the form of books, videos, etc., always gives a chance to the student to take his time when he meets with information that is puzzling. He can untie the knotty issue and then proceed. Thus a normal student has been habituated to thinking, categorising, analysing, etc., while the input is being fed into his cognitive system.

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In the marketplace the emphasis shifts from analysis to ‘active listening’. Imagine a marketing professional out on a market visit, sitting in a dealer’s showroom which is stocking most of his competitors’ brands. At no point can he afford to either ‘switch off ’ nor can he start evaluating the input he has just heard for fear of losing out on input that could have been gathered while he is thinking. The only analysis that could take place is when he is asked a direct question that has to be answered immediately. The contemplative student has to metamorphose into a savvy professional who is constantly scanning the external environment for the most recent and upto-the-minute market information. This overnight shift in emphasis puts tremendous pressure on the fresher’s cognitive system even if he possesses a completed neuronal circuitry. One can imagine the situation in the case of another in whom this pre-requisite has not been met. The brain begins to function at a very high frequency that is often referred to as the beta level even in the case of a technical expert. The frequency at this level is said to be in the region of 16–40 Hz. Beta wave activity in the brain is often only equated to painful feelings like anxiety, frustration, anger, etc. Feelings of intense pleasure, which are often subjectively termed as inspiration, excitement, satisfaction, also belong to this category of brain frequency. Performing a variety of normal activities like attending to one’s professional duties, taking the family pet for a walk, attending social occasions, etc., along with the occasional activities like going on an outing with the family, taking a meal at a lively restaurant, playing a round of golf on a Sunday, etc., gives us a lot of pleasure. One might wonder how professional duties give pleasure. If one has taken up a field of activity (see Chapter 2) that he is innately interested in, it is very difficult for the individual to have an extended holiday. After a few days, he becomes restless as he finds that the holiday is not serving any purpose; in other words, it is not helping him to act more efficiently and/or effectively. Getting back to work gives him pleasure. These feelings of pleasure engender happiness, health and help people fight disease. The effects of the endomorphins produced during enjoyment, many scientists believe, are first felt in the brain and thereafter spread throughout the body to be absorbed by neuronal receptors, thus producing and promoting an overall sense of well-being.

118 Brain Re-engineering GUILT AND ITS NEGATIVE EFFECTS ON PEOPLE INVOLVED IN PROBLEM SOLVING

In a research conducted by ARISE1 (Associates for Research Into the Science of Enjoyment) in its first international study to examine the relationship between pleasure and guilt, it was found that too many people are losing the health benefits they get from doing the things that they enjoy because of unnecessary guilt. According to their international research study published in October 1996, the scientists said that today, 43 per cent of the people would enjoy their everyday pleasures more if they did not feel so guilty. The scientists proved that enjoyment relieves stress and enhances the immune system, while needless guilt reduces this enjoyment as well as the quality of people’s lives, undermining both mental and physical health. Sapolsky (1996) found that excessive exposure to glucocorticoids (GCs), which are produced in moments of stress including feelings of guilt, has adverse effects in the rodent brain, particularly in the hippocampus (part of the limbic system), a structure vital to learning and memory and possessing high concentrations of receptors for GCs. Guilt and individual/ organisational productivity appear to be inversely proportional at this stage of development. A few days of stressors or GC overexposure, compromises the ability of hippocampal neurons to survive seizures. Over the course of weeks, excess GCs reversibly cause atrophy of hippocampal dendrites, whereas GCs overexposure for months can cause permanent loss of hippocampal neurons. Cortisol has even been implicated in causing brain damage. Sustained levels of cortisol secretion, resulting from chronic guilt, could decay the hippocampus, which is the part of the brain responsible for cognitive functions like memory. Loss of hippocampus has also been found in patients with ‘Cushing’s syndrome’,2 which is characterised by the overproduction of cortisol and can lead to depression, baldness, diabetes and facial hair growth, even among women. 1 2

http://www.arise.org/ Cushing’s syndrome is a hormonal disorder caused by prolonged exposure of the body’s tissues to high levels of the hormone cortisol. Sometimes called ‘hypercortisolism’, it is relatively rare and most commonly affects adults aged 20 to 50. An estimated 10 to 15 of every million people are affected each year.

Top-Down Processing (I) Problem Solving 119 THE APPARENT CONTRADICTION

Beta activity in the brain also appears to help the fresh entrant into the marketplace get externally focused. When this happens, the compelling nature of the sensory input received—visual, auditory, etc.— received, stimulates the brain, resulting in loss of synchronicity, at least temporarily. This is termed ‘evoked potential’, or EP action in the brain. The individual assimilates the input signal. It is in the analysis of the incorporated signal that the technological expertise of the individual comes into play. This is the ability of the individual to ‘Consciously Encourage Thoughtlessness’ (CET) along with one’s technical expertise that determines the quality of response. Thoughtlessness is often associated only with Stage 4 of NREM (No Rapid Eye Movement) sleep or dreamless sleep.3 The brain in this frequency is known to function in the delta frequency, i.e., 0.5–2 Hz. During sleep our brain increases delta waves to decrease our awareness of the physical world. When we need to go to sleep, delta waves increase. To go into a deeper sleep, our brain makes our delta waves larger and stronger, while turning down certain faster frequencies. If the sleeper is awakened in a state of NREM, about 40 per cent of the time there is report of a dream. The rest of the time the report is of no dream or ‘nothingness’. It is also a state where the vital functions of the body are at their lowest ebb. The other body tissues are believed to be repaired during this state. If a person does not get enough deep sleep or dreamless sleep or he is unable to consciously keep his mind still, in other words his brain is at the lowest level of brain activation (delta frequency), when he is not required to deliberate over any problem, he would be heading for a physical, emotional and intellectual burnout. Most people diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) increase delta activity involuntarily, when trying to focus. This inappropriate, unintentional and unwitting delta response dampens and often severely restricts the ability to focus and maintain attention in the physical world. It seems as if the brain of an individual with ADD/ADHD is perpetually locked up in drowsiness and locked out of the world. Thus there exists an apparent contradiction. Productivity is directly proportional to ‘thoughtlessness’. A fresher in any field of activity in the 3

Refer to the Appendix 1 for more information on modern sleep research.

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marketplace is often asked by the experienced professional to relax. What is the message that is being conveyed in this statement? ‘Slow down the brain frequency to an extent that there are no thoughts; remain thoughtless.’ The idea here is to help him acquire as much information from the environment as possible. When we are watching a cricket match, you would find a nervous starter often hitting shots straight to the fielder, while another who is more relaxed, with sufficient talent is able to pierce the field at will. While the former is narrowing all his concentration on the ball or the bowler, the latter is acquiring more information and knows where to place his shots. Though the relaxed batsman may not be aware of what the cognitive system is doing, it his ability to remain relaxed, in other words CET, that has helped his cause. Even in other avenues of nature, opposites complement each other. For example, children with cerebral palsy (CP) often have difficulty with walking. This is caused by muscle tightness (spasticity) in the legs. The spasticity interferes with important activities at home, at school and in the community. Botulinum Toxin (Botox) is a natural substance that can be injected into the muscles to decrease spasticity. Botox affects only the muscles where it is injected. The reduction in strength and spasticity is temporary. Botox has been used in the last five years to successfully treat spasticity in children with cerebral palsy. Another avenue is the use of venom from the infamous rattlesnake to treat heart attacks and strokes. The anti-coagulant property in the venom dissolves the blood clots and has been found to be 8–10 per cent more successful than contemporary methods of treating blood clots. Testosterone injected into a male, acts as a contraceptive. In this 10-centre trial, it was clear that weekly injections of testosterone achieved greater efficacy than condom use and approached the efficacy of the oral contraceptive agents used by women. When the injections are stopped, complete recovery of spermatogenesis occurs. The male hormone, testosterone, inhibits the signals from the hypothalamus and the anterior pituitary by shutting off the releasing hormones and gonadotropins. These events, in turn, diminish testicular function, which suppresses spermatogenesis to azoospermia or severe oligospermia. The ability to relax, to remain thoughtless when input is fed into the cognitive system of an individual, has to be gained through conscious effort especially after the experiences that one undergoes in order to emerge a brilliant student. Having been habituated to categorising and interpreting

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thought as it is being picked up by his senses, the student has to unlearn this skill. This becomes probable when new connections are established from the ‘primary cognitive areas’, whose function it is to maintain synchronicity, to other functional areas of the brain. As this circuitry gets built, the activation of the functional areas of the brain are held in check when input flows into the system. Any neuronal circuitry-building takes time and the duration and intensity of the experience appears to matter. With the modern practice of people changing jobs very often, their experience in a particular environment may not be enough to build the reverse networking circuitry. When they move into a new environment, the circuitry has to start all over again because the input received could be different, thus activating different areas of the brain. The most important issue of operational efficiency in problem solving suffers with frequent changes. The next step in the growth of the individual, which is the capability to conceive and deliver differentiated and innovative products and services, is also severely impeded. Thus experience in the same or similar environment plays a critical role in building of the neuronal circuitry associated with ‘reverse networking’.

Fig. 4.1 Reverse Networking

Until this circuitry is completed, there is always some unconscious processing that goes on in the background whenever input is fed in to the cognitive system. It is only a matter of which level of the brain functioning

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is impairing one’s productivity. Due to this anomaly, not all the input that is fed in is actually assimilated. This is the reason why information appears ‘spaced out’ to a fresher. To control this involuntary functioning of the brain’s functional areas, it is better if a fresher took notes, thus checking his random activation of the brain. As this stabilising circuitry gets built, unconscious processing of information can be stopped for short intervals of time. The time interval for which the unconscious processing can be suspended, presumably determines the field of activity in which one is employed. For example, a Formula I driver like Michael Schumacher has to remain almost quiet for the 180 minutes it takes to complete a Grand Prix circuit, while a shop assistant does so only for a couple of minutes when his customer tells him what he, the customer, is interested in purchasing. Each professional has to be capable of maintaining this ‘attention span’ over and over again, when he is involved in his profession. It can be stretched a little but any drastic change is not possible without proper mentoring and training by an expert. To maintain this attention span itself is a major problem. This is often subjectively referred to as a test of character by human resource professionals. NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF INDISCRIMINATE TRIGGERING OF THE REWARD MECHANISM

While beta activity in the brain as EP, can help severely handicapped people communicate, and superbly fit pilots to fly their planes using brain waves, indiscriminate, careless and promiscuous promotion of this beta activity increases the activation of the limbic system. The negative aspect of the pleasure is that individuals become susceptible to addiction. The brain has a ‘reward’ mechanism that forces individuals to repeat pleasurable experiences over and over again. A satisfying meal is followed by another; an enjoyable day out in the country often impels one to repeat the same experience etc. Every rewarding experience elicits common chemical responses in the brain, according to Professor Ronald Harris-Warrick,4 a researcher 4

http:www.studentadvantage.hfcos.com/hfcos/issue/0,4712,c1-i28,00.html

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Fig. 4.2 Dopamine Pathway

of neurobiology and behaviour, Cornell University. He says, ‘Brain cells reinforce rewarding behaviours by sending a chemical messenger called dopamine to a specific region in the brain called the “nucleus accumbens”. When dopamine is released in high quantities, that is correlated with reward. If you block the actions of dopamine, then the reward aspect goes away’. Every pleasurable experience has hidden within it, a whirlpool that would drag the individual into itself and destroy him. The famous verse in the Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 18, verse 38 says, ‘That pleasure that arises from the contact of senses with their objects, which is like elixir at first but like poison in the end, is said to be Rajasic’.5 ‘Judgment is the first thing to go,’ says Community Health Educator at Cornell, Janis I. Talbot. With judgement compromised, the functioning or control of the higher areas of the brain associated with judgement is impaired. A variety of behaviours become unleashed because the areas that are supposed to control them have been rendered invalid, impotent. Errors, accidents, mistakes, blunders could easily take place if the individual continues to function in this state. 5

Rajasic signifies a state of mind where it is vacillating and emotional. In other words, thoughts, words and deeds from this state are predominantly driven by the limbic system.

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Progressive triggering and reckless patronage for the one or more forms of ‘reward’ over-activate the limbic system. The craving for reward can become an addiction, dependence for an object, being, feeling or thought. Once addicted people are caught up in their own idiosyncrasies and personal eccentricities, the individual becomes a liability not just to himself, but to the organisation, community, society, country, if not to life on earth. Any individual in whom beta is the ‘predominant brain wave 6 pattern’ would only be capable of doing those tasks which are clearly defined and demarcated to him/her. He is prone to injury, accidents and disease. His immune system and judgement are impaired. Irrespective of the person’s qualifications and track record,7 a predominant beta activity in the brain would indicate that the lower areas of the cognitive system are overactivated. The person is compelled to act on his ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’. Any decision made by a person who is currently exhibiting predominant beta activity, would definitely be based on mere ‘survival’ in the present. If no action is taken to rectify the situation either by the management of an organisation or the individual, such people become potential time bombs: ticking, waiting to explode and cause a major disaster. Every individual/organisation would possibly be at an advantage if it had a system in place to help, to dissuade and ultimately to control those who possess excess beta activation in the brain. In cognitive terms, activation of the temporal lobes instead of the pre-frontal cortex or the parietal lobe, when being fed a stimuli either from their professional or personnel environment on a PET, would give empirical evidence to the fact that the individual is externalising his problems and is not making any attempt to interpret the same, threadbare. Such over-activation of the lower areas of the brain appears to reduce the attention span of the individual. Such individuals do not attempt to find ways and means of tackling the problem, only to escape 6 7

If one is to check out the individual’s 24-hour EEG pattern, it would show that more than 50 per cent of his waking experience exhibits beta brain wave pattern. While neuronal connectivity (bottom-up processing) decides whether a person has a thorough knowledge about his field of activity, it is the nature of brain processing that decides whether the individual chooses to use this knowledge. If the lower areas involved in the cognitive process of the brain are over-activated in any individual, it is not possible for him to suddenly activate higher-order processing areas of the brain, when he is processing a particular input. The influence of the predominant area alone will prevail.

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the issues at hand by blaming them on factors that are not within their control. If the system cannot help them or if they are not willing to be helped, then they have to be asked to relinquish their responsibility for they are incapable of performing the same. All necessary efforts have to be made to ‘mentor’8 the person, identify and eradicate the root-cause for him to slip into this mode of brain activity. The same rule would apply to professionals in all avenues of activity: sportspersons, movie stars, marketing professionals, etc. While efficiency depends upon the completion of neuronal connectivity to bottom-up processing, effectiveness depends upon one’s ability to control the processes involved in processing9 the input information. Most people who fall victim to their own reward mechanisms in the brain never realise that their neurosis stems from the promotion of their own limbic system or indulgence in activities that are prone to encourage beta waves in their brains. They are, thus, depriving the neocortex of blood supply and gradually diminishing its functions of planning, organising, forecasting, creativity, etc. The Kathopanishad (Swami Sivananda, 1942), one of the principal canons of Indian thought, says: ‘Man is turned outward by his senses and so loses contact with his inner self. His self is immersed in outer things, in power and possessions. It must turn round to find its right direction and to find the meanings and realities it has missed.’ (II, 1, 1) DELAYING SENSE GRATIFICATION

For people to stop recklessly encouraging beta activity in sensegratification, they have to gain knowledge of, understand, promote and nourish the idea of what is termed as ‘delaying sense gratification’ promulgated by psychotherapist Dr M. Scott Peck (1998). By consciously delaying sense gratification, one gradually overcomes the effect of the reward mechanism in the brain by increasing one’s capacity to endure ‘dull pain’. He is also 8

9

A mentor is a guide who is outside the system and has no axe to grind. His sole motive would be to facilitate the person to ‘see’ the errors objectively and nurse the person back to the level of productivity that the organisation expects of him. It is worth mentioning that a mentor need not necessarily work only with people who go astray. He could also help productive people become more proactive. One without the other does not lead to sustainability.

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trying to Consciously Encourage Thoughtlessness (CET). His compulsion to act on his whims and fancies gradually diminishes. The higher areas in the brain begin to get more blood supply, thus helping them reach a threshold level for functioning efficiently. Once he begins to function, the same experience is interpreted differently and the force of one’s likes and dislikes, emotions and feelings diminish, the effects of the limbic system are outmanoeuvred by the results obtained by the use of the areas associated with higher order processing. People who conquer their reward mechanism improve their capability to contribute to their respective organisations—corporates, educational institutions, homes—and thus their own welfare. In the present competitive set-up, where everyone in the organisation has to contribute towards innovation, there is no place for mechanical activity. Mechanical activities, today, are being shifted to robots. These people have to make themselves useful to organisations in tackling day-to-day problem solving, otherwise they would end up unemployed and as social rejects. As the reverse networking circuitry continues to build, unconscious processing in the temporal lobe is gradually discontinued. The individual stops reacting emotionally to incoming stimuli, though the pre-frontal cortex still functions without any voluntary control. Such an individual would become more relaxed. As the circuitry is completed in the pre-frontal cortex of the brain, the individual functions rationally even when he is under stressful situations. Thus normal brain frequency has been reduced and it is functioning more efficiently. This has been confirmed with PET imaging of a player engrossed in playing the computer game TetrisTM. Research has also showed that athletes produce better performances when they encourage alpha waves in the brain during action. Rhythm, poise, planning and symphony take the place of uncoordinated, disorganised, discordant and inconsistent movements, when alpha waves are consciously promoted in the brain. At the same time, indiscriminate promotion of alpha activity without completion of BVP leads to results that are not sustainable. The ostensible objective measure for improving listening capability and judgement is the encouragement of alpha activity (8–12 Hz) in the brain. This practice should continue until this becomes the predominant pattern even during mundane activity. Even as he is changing his brain wave pattern, his behaviour towards his own self and others will change gradually but appreciably. Behaviour would be modified from being ‘self-centred’

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to being ‘customer-centred’. He would have less difficulty in ‘paying attention’ to others and himself, while striving to fulfil what they want him to do, even though these requests are tacitly communicated.10 The individual is no longer caught up in What but moves on to Why. His attention span should increase and because of this he would ‘be-in-the-present’ for longer spans of time. Encouragement of alpha activity in the brain would gradually slow down or control beta activity in the brain. As the reverse networking circuitry completes building into the pre-frontal cortex, it is believed that people would maintain or promote alpha wave patterns in the brain, thus developing long-term relationships. They become better team players. They strive to understand and respond promptly to their respective customers’ needs. They develop their ability to ‘think on their feet’, thus delighting their customers. They become very useful resources of feedback to the organisation. They do not overreact to situations and are able to spot the first signs of change in customer behaviour. They are always reasoning, thinking, planning, understanding consequences before stepping into action, and can thus avoid errors. Analytical processing appears to be the subjective aspect of experience associated with alpha activity, the objective side of brain function. The main drawback with people who overtly maintain alpha activity is that their ability to conceptualise and do rigorous thinking is still not brought into solving problems. When they face issues that they have not confronted earlier, they fail to wait and do more research on the problem. The questions are addressing some fundamental issues that lie concealed. The most important premise that can be hypothesized from the foregoing argument is that the slower the frequency of the brain waves, the more suitable it is for one to understand the nature of experience. Frequency of thought appears to be inversely proportional to ‘clarity of thinking’. THE WAY OUT OF COMPLEXITY AND NON-LINEARITY IN PROBLEM SOLVING

Problem solving does not end with being able to think and act; conceptualisation and meticulous planning are an essential part if the 10

It would even help a student who has attention problems to improve his grades because he begins to pay more attention in class and while he is studying.

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problem to be tackled is very complex and non-linear. Think of a father who plans to send his child abroad for study; an automobile trying to tune an engine for Race Day at the Indy 500 to maximise ‘down-force’ and reduce ‘drag’; a task force assembled to address the problem of ‘air safety’ after the 11 September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre. These people cannot afford to think on their feet. Research to gather data would be elaborate; analysis of the collected data would be extremely complex; they have to think through all the possibilities, come up with multiple solutions and back-up plans, while thinking of all consequences involved. They have literally to ‘discover’ solutions. Discovery appears to take place at a brain frequency called theta frequency (3–5 Hz) that is often found in Stage 1 of sleep. This becomes more rational when one analyses the following statement of the Austrian scientist Otto Loewi, who discovered that neuronal transmission is chemical rather than electrical: In the night of Easter Saturday, 1921, I awoke, turned on the light, and jotted down a few notes on a tiny slip of paper. Then I fell asleep again. It occurred to me at six o’clock in the morning that during the night I had written down something most important, but I was unable to decipher the scrawl. That Sunday was the most desperate day in my whole scientific life. During the next night, however, I awoke again, at three o’clock, and I remembered what it was. This time I did not take any risk; I got up immediately, went to the laboratory, made the experiment on the frog’s heart, . . . , and at five o’ clock the chemical transmission of nervous impulse was conclusively proved. O. Loewi, Workshop of Discoveries, Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1953. As individuals maintain alpha frequency on an ongoing basis, they have to be motivated and trained to gradually and consciously encourage theta waves in the brain in order to improve conceptualisation and elaborate planning skills. This conscious effort appears to stimulate the reverse networking circuitry to be built between the primary cognitive areas and the areas associated with pre-cognition. As the circuitry builds, there is a two-fold benefit: (a) it prevents areas of the brain associated with precognition from getting activated unconsciously as the data that needs

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conceptualisation and foresight are discussed and debated; (b) once the information to be acquired is ‘complete’, it would help the individual to process the information in a more profound manner. In the attempt of designing a car, a clay model of the prototype is only the starting point. Once the design has gained initial approval, all the departments come together to find out how best to come up with a winner. Representatives from systems, production, marketing, logistics, finance, ad agency, market research, shop floor, vendors, dealers, etc., all act as resources. The final product that reaches the marketplace is an integrated creativity of all these people.11

Fig. 4.3 Top-down Processing-I

Structural engineers have to come up with novel and cost-effective ways to prevent buildings from being torn down during cyclones, hurricanes and tornadoes. Their methods essentially involve ways and means by which the wind can be stopped from coming into the buildings. Others may have to contend with advancing coast lines, designing ways and means by which a bridge can be rebuilt while the traffic is still on it, designing structures that will not collapse even during an earthquake, etc. Each one of the issues need 11

It is believed by the best designers that it is the perfect and elusive blend between ‘art’ and ‘technology’ that guarantees a car’s success. How this can be achieved is tackled in the following chapter.

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the individual to maintain a very low brain frequency for a sustained period of time while striving to come up with novel solutions to extremely complex situations that are essentially non-linear. The gradual and conscious slowing down of brain frequency and the maintenance of the same leads to greater clarity of any input and the ability to ask questions that have not been asked before. This process of consciously slowing down brain frequency can be compared to the microscopic understanding of the methodology used in the ‘shooting’ of a movie when the film is studied frame by frame. A student of movie making learns substantially more about how a movie has been directed and produced, by studying it frame by frame, than when it is being projected on a screen at 24 frames per minute. He also understands the theme of the movie and whether the argument has been set forth in both a cogent and consistent manner. As the student matures, he understands that the same theme can be conveyed in many different ways. The rare few also understand that one can develop a totally new medium of communication.12 THE ART OF BECOMING MENTALLY TOUGH

As the individual’s neuronal circuitry for reverse networking is completed, the activation of the functional areas of the brain are held in check when input flows into the system. His ability to absorb almost all the input information given to him in his field of specialisation becomes complete. Once the information is assimilated, he thoroughly analyses the input, though unconsciously in terms of concepts and comes up with meticulous plans for action. He also oversees that these are executed by motivating his team to accomplish them. He has ‘Become Mentally Tough’. As a leader of a team, such an individual is able to take what others call ‘risks’. There is no element of uncertainty or ambiguity involved in his actions from his perceptive. James Burke as the chief reporter and anchor for US and Russian mission coverage for the BBC, while covering the first landing on the moon, saw some manoeuvres that were incoherent with the time schedule for Apollo 11 to land on the moon. He made the decision for the television channel to stay on air, thus capturing the first landing. Though his head was on the block, he had no doubts about his decision. He saw 12

We will deal with this in Chapter 5.

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what others probably did not attempt to see because of his ability to keep the mind still, in other words, consciously stopping all unwanted processing in the brain. It is believed that Bradman could see the seam on a cricket ball hastening towards him while it was still in the air. How could this have been possible? CET. A volcanologist studying an erupting mountain, a pilot flying a plane into a tornado in order to gather meteorological data, a copter pilot on an attack helicopter, have only an instant to decide which way to reposition and move. If they allow any unconscious processing to come in the way, their indecision could prove fatal.

Fig. 4.4 Completed Circuitry in TDP-I

Presumably the best example of an individual who reacted in this state would be the greatest ice-hockey player of all time, Wayne Doug Gretzky, nicknamed ‘the White Tornado’ for his speed and skill. His talent was evident even when he was a six-year-old playing with 10-year-olds and as a 16year-old, in the Canadian team in the World Junior Championships in 1978 where he scored the maximum number of goals and was named the best centre. Yet to convert his talent in goals at the highest level in the National Hockey League (NHL) is not always possible for every talented hockey player. Wayne was not only able to maintain his attention span but increase it as well. His records speak for themselves: in his first full NHL season, Gretzky

132 Brain Re-engineering

tied Marcel Dionne for the scoring race. The next year, 1980–81, he won his first of seven straight scoring titles and broke Bobby Orr’s assists record with 109. The year after, he shattered Phil Esposito’s record of 76 goals (a record many thought was unbreakable) by scoring 92 times. He also registered 212 points, the first of four times he had a score more than 200, and to this day he is the only player to have done so even once, a record that itself probably stands the test of time. Each year he played at a higher level, and each year he maintained his superiority. In his last season he scored almost a preposterous number of goals—378. When asked how it was that he outscored everybody else in the NHL, he allegedly said that while others follow the puck, I go to where the puck is going. The statement and his actions are proof of his fantastic conceptual and planning skills. He used the trailing man on rushes rather than a man skating ahead of him. Gretzky would come in over the blue line and then curl, waiting for a defenceman, often Coffey, to join the rush and create a great scoring chance. When on the ice to kill penalties, Gretzky wasn’t looking to ice the puck in a defensive role; he was looking to take the other team by surprise, to take advantage of their defencelessness to score shorthanded. His style was unique and almost impenetrable. Gretzky won the scoring race virtually every year in the eighties. His team, the Oilers, scored 400 a season as a matter of routine. Gretzky was the perfect team man: selfless, constantly motivating others in the team. The area behind the opposition goal was dubbed ‘Gretzky’s office’ because it was from there that he made so many perfect passes for his teammates to score goals. The result was goals and more goals for the Oilers. They went to the Stanley Cup finals in 1983. The next year they made their first of four Cup wins over the next five years by defeating the Long Islanders in five games. The fact that Gretzky led the playoffs in scoring and the team kept on winning is proof of the man’s capacity to handle pressure and deliver results. No doubt the phenomenal talent of Mark Messier, Glenn Anderson, Jari Kurri, Paul Coffey and Grant Fuhr in goal surrounded him. Yet his magnanimity became evident when he huddled the team at centre ice for an on-ice group portrait after the Oilers won the Stanley Cup in 1988. Gretzky’s wonderful gesture established a tradition for every winning team at every level. NHL admiringly returned this gesture by retiring his number—99—after his last season to ensure that no one else would ever wear it. Inducted into the Hall of Fame, he remains the most consistently ranked

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hockey player to claim the title ‘The Greatest Hockey Player of All Time’ in the century-end polls. Yet, has he reached perfection? Is there something more to accomplish. The following chapter provides the objective vistas into the next stage of human growth.

Summary Ø

Ø

Ø

Ø

Ø Ø

Ø

Ø

Completion of the neuronal circuitry is an ‘active process’. By ‘active process’ what is meant is that the individual has to strive to receive the inputs that will help him complete his neuronal circuitry. This would mean that he develops the capability to answer all queries related to What, Why, How, When, Where, Who/Whom, What Next with respect to his field of specialisation. After completion of the neuronal circuitry, the shift has to be from receipt of stimuli to building a conceptual scaffold, to gaining an intimate knowledge of one’s own brain processes associated with interpreting and responding to customer needs. An objective knowledge of one’s own brain processes helps an individual to optimise his responses to different situations. His bottom-up processing experience may help to interpret experiences, but this could, more often than not, lead to behaviour that is argumentative, rather than help him deliver results consistently. The shift has to be from ‘active processing’ to ‘active listening’. By rationalising cognitive processes, every individual who has completed his neuronal circuitry can be trained to achieve this tour de force. When information flows from the top of the system to the bottom of the system, it is termed as top-down processing. The implications of this top to bottom flow of information ensure that the response to the environment is conceptualised, planned and thereafter executed. Top-down processing ensures that appropriate brain processes are used in conceptualisation, planning, executing and obtaining feedback.

134 Brain Re-engineering Ø

Ø

Ø

Ø

Ø

Ø

Ø Ø

Top-Down Processing guarantees that the feedback obtained does not pertain only to the external environment, but also gathers the internal feedback from various bodily sensors, thus helping one to retain a perfect equilibrium between the two for optimisation of one’s productivity. In the context of problem solving, Top-Down Processing consists of two distinct stages: (a) Learning to actively listen to incoming stimuli, by shutting down a student’s natural reaction to categorise, classify and analyse input stimuli until the receipt of stimuli is completed; (b) Becoming intimately acquainted with one’s own cognitive processes in order to understand and supply customers’ needs consistently. This circuit, built from primary-cognitive area, complements the neuronal circuitry which is built up during the bottom-up processing period. This is termed as Reverse Networking. The EEG (electroencephalogram) patterns of brain functions show predominantly four distinct patterns. They are beta (12–40 Hz), alpha (8–12 Hz), theta (3–7 Hz), and delta (0.5–2 Hz). The brain begins to function at a high frequency that is often referred to as the beta level. The frequency at this level is said to be in the region of 16–40 Hz. Beta wave activity in the brain is equated to painful feelings like anxiety, frustration, anger, etc. Feelings of intense pleasure, which is often subjectively termed as ‘inspiration’, excitement, satisfaction, also belong to this category of brain frequency. The ability of the individual to Consciously Encourage Thoughtlessness (CET) along with one’s technical expertise determines the quality of his response. Thoughtlessness is often associated only with Stage 4 of NREM sleep or dreamless sleep. The brain in this frequency is known to function in the delta frequency, i.e., 0.5–2 Hz. Productivity is directly proportional to ‘Thoughtlessness’. New connections are established from the ‘primary cognitive areas’, whose function it is to maintain synchronicity, to other functional areas of the brain. As this circuitry gets built, the activation of the functional areas of the brain are held in check when input flows into the system.

Top-Down Processing (I) Problem Solving 135 Ø

Ø

Ø

Ø

Ø

Ø

Ø

Ø Ø Ø

Experience in the same or similar environment plays a critical role in the building of the neuronal circuitry associated with ‘reverse networking’. Indiscriminate, careless and promiscuous promotion of this beta activity increases the activation of the limbic system; progressive triggering and reckless patronage for the one or more forms of ‘reward’ also over-activates it. A predominant beta activity in the brain would indicate that the lower areas of the cognitive system are over-activated. The person is compelled to act on his ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’. Any ‘decision’ made by a person who is currently exhibiting predominant beta activity, would definitely be based on mere ‘survival’ in the present. While efficiency depends upon the completion of neuronal connectivity to bottom-up processing, effectiveness depends on one’s ability to control the processes involved in processing the input information. Most people who fall victim to their own reward mechanisms in the brain never realise that their neurosis stems from the promotion of their own limbic system or indulgence in activities that are prone to encourage beta waves in their brains. They are, thus, depriving the neocortex of blood supply and gradually diminishing its functions, viz., planning, organising, forecasting, creativity, etc. The ostensible objective measure for improving listening capability and judgement is the encouragement of alpha activity (8– 12 Hz) in the brain. This should continue until it becomes the predominant pattern, even during mundane activity. The main drawback with people who overtly maintain alpha activity is that their ability to conceptualise and rigorously think is still not brought into solving problems. Frequency of thought appears to be inversely proportional to clarity of thinking. Discovery appears to take place in at a brain frequency called theta frequency (3–5 Hz) that is often found in Stage 1 of sleep. As individuals maintain alpha frequency on an ongoing basis, they have to be motivated and trained to gradually and consciously encourage theta waves in the brain in order to improve

136 Brain Re-engineering

conceptualisation and elaborate planning skills. This conscious effort appears to stimulate the reverse networking circuitry to be built between the primary cognitive areas and the areas associated with pre-cognition. Ø The gradual and conscious slowing down of brain frequency and the maintenance of the same, leads to greater clarity of any input and the ability to ask questions that have not been asked before. Ø As the individual’s neuronal circuitry for reverse networking is completed, the activation of the functional areas of the brain are held in check when input flows into the system. His ability to unconsciously absorb almost all the input information given to him in his field of specialisation becomes complete. Once the information is assimilated, he thoroughly analyses the input in terms of concepts and comes up with meticulous plans for action. He also oversees that these are executed by motivating his team to accomplish them. He has ‘Become Mentally Tough’.

5 Top-Down Processing (II) Differentiation and Innovation

ISSUES THAT PROBLEM SOLVING NOT ADDRESS

DOES

Though one might be tempted to believe that one has achieved perfection after the completion of stage I of Top-down Processing, the world around demands one to change, grow and adapt continuously in the future as well. One of the main drawbacks of the problem-solving mode of behaviour is that it tends to look at issues as independent situations that have to be tackled. This ‘habituation’ over a period of time, stops one from considering the big picture. This lack of comprehension or in some cases, misapprehension of the whole, has lead to minor irritants flaring up and creating major problems. Recently in the south India metropolis of Chennai (formerly Madras), traffic police seized the equipment of contractors laying pipes for the residents of the city, which was having perennial water problems. The reason given was that the works caused major traffic jams during peak and lean hours. When the matter was taken up with the metropolitan water supply board, they claim to have got all the necessary sanctions from the corporation for completing the work. Meanwhile the water-starved residents, who saw no work being done, caused a minor upheaval when they stopped the traffic of the main road leading to the

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avenue. In all this confusion, the main issue appears to be very simple: relaying the roads at the earliest. No one seemed to be bothered about that. Today the metropolitan water supply board pays the corporation for relaying the roads. With the corporation being strapped for funds, these payments get diverted to other exigencies. The roads lie in a state of repair until there is a public uproar. The simplest way seems to be for the contractor incharge of laying the pipes to complete this also. The issue has gone to the courts today. Why? Each department is holding on to its stand. The metropolitan water board believes that it is not responsible for relaying the roads; the corporation has more important priorities than laying every road that has been dug up; the traffic police believe that the road users abuse their personnel for no fault of theirs other than their being one of the more perceptible arms of the government. If only the heads of all the departments left their problem-solving psyche aside and looked at the larger picture, which is ‘Our only job is to serve the public’, the issue could be amicably resolved in no time. Yet such instances of viewing the larger picture are far and few between because of the ‘habituation’ that problem solving leads people into. There is a more serious predicament than this. The Wayne Gretzkys of the world need not be the only ones to complete both bottom-up and top-down processing. Anyone interested in any subject who sacrifices his time and is focused on his interest can complete his goal, with or without formal education. Gaining employment with this expertise and prioritising his customer’s needs would help him complete his neuronal circuitry. Once this is done it could lead to an explosive situation. The person now knows his field very well; his knowledge of customers’ strengths and weaknesses could tempt him towards a life of immorality. The movie Oceans Eleven portrays this tendency. This Frank Sinatra film portrays Danny Ocean and his handpicked crew of specialists gathering in Las Vegas to attempt the most extravagant casino heist ever. In another heist of sorts (See Chapter 1), hundreds of thousands of people lost their life’s savings when they invested money as fixed deposits in non-banking financial institutions in Chennai. The snazzy corporate buildings and ostentatious advertisements enticed many an educated person to deposit his life’s savings with them at interest rates that no regular, reputed, longstanding financial institutions could afford. People were promised up to 40 per cent interest. The conmen had no such problems, for they never thought of ever paying back the money. Having acquired the necessary wealth, the

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owners and the main culprits vanished, leaving the employees holding the baby. Joseph Conrad (1902) in his novel ‘Heart of Darkness’, talks of such a man, Mr Kurtz. The novel is about the experiences of Mr Marlow when he his hired by an ‘Export and Import company’ to find out what has happened to one Mr Kurtz, who was a first-class agent and the best ivory trader in the company. Marlow’s journey takes him into the heart of Africa. Kurtz, before he left for Africa, was a role model of a civilised and urbane gentleman. He is a journalist, an artist and an astute professional. In Africa, he metamorphoses into a monster, a beast, a ‘cannibal’. He forgets that he owes a debt to the company that has hired him. The land, its riches and resources—ivory, rubber, people—have now become his, he claims, when Marlow finally meets him. The natives worship Kurtz, while he, hankering for power, exploits them ruthlessly to fulfill of his own ends. (This is plausible for one who has sharpened his business acumen with experience and has understood the strengths and weaknesses of the native people.) Kurtz is very sick, both mentally and physically, and needs to be taken back to England, but he does not want to go. That night, Kurtz tries to escape to the natives but Marlow catches him and takes him back to the steamboat to head back for England. While still on the way out of Africa, Kurtz dies speaking the immortalised words, ‘The horror, the horror’. The latest trend is for savvy operators to fool people with health benefits. If one had a look at the website http://www.quackwatch.com hosted by Stephen Barrett, M.D., it possible to get an idea about the massive scale of such frauds the world over. Probably the worst of them all would be people like John Anthony Walker who sold out his country and its people to the Soviet Union, so that he could pay off his gambling debts.

A DIFFERENT BRAIN ARCHITECTURE IS NEEDED TO ADDRESS CURRENT SCIENTIFIC, ECONOMIC AND HUMAN ISSUES Bottom-up Processing essentially deals with understanding the terms and terminologies of experts in one’s field of specialisation, though it helps one arrive at one’s own conclusion. The concepts that are studied arise

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from different internal compulsions and spacio-temporal situations. These could have little or no relevance to the existing situation in which the now thorough professional has to operate. Most of his problems could still be solved using old systems of thought. Yet in every professional life there are issues that do not fall into the oft-used mould. As the pressure from these unsolved mysteries rises, most professionals are forced from within to seek a solution; to relook at the very foundations of the concepts that they studied and used and their assumptions. In a few cases political compulsions and other environmental factors act as coercive factors to re-examine the foundations of their science. The essential difference between problemsolving and the development of new products or services is that in the past others have cracked similar situations in the case of the former. Only an adaptation is necessary so that the current predicament can be resolved. The latter consists of a set of things that have to be conceived from scratch because the issue has never been taken up in the past or it could be a case where the constraints faced in the past are irrelevant in the present scenario. The issues involved could be from the outlandish to the sublime: (i) Papillon (Henri Charriere) striving to find a way out of the notorious penal colony off French Guiana; (ii) Dr Lourival Possani, a Mexican doctor striving to find a new cure for Malaria by genetically implanting a polypeptide found in the toxin of a scorpion, which inhibits the growth of malarial parasite in the mosquito, thus making it immune; (iii) people striving to save the lighthouse, a national monument, on Long Island; (iv) rocket scientists striving to put rockets and man on the moon during the time of the Cold War, etc.; (v) a mathematician working to integrate Quantum Mechanics with the General Theory of Relativity. The issues could be merely pertaining to a specific set of people or region, i.e., local phenomena, e.g., the erosion of land on the Californian coast, communal riots in the state of Gujarat, etc., or those that pertain to a larger interest of mankind, i.e., a global phenomenon, e.g., global warming,

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population control, etc. To tackle these issues, the brain processes need to be changed, altered, improved and reconnected all over again. Over and above the issues that need to be solved in science, there is a problem facing economies the world over. Markets and contemporary customers are becoming more demanding; their requirements are more towards customised products; producers of products and services from cereals to palm tops have to differentiate their products from the competition if they have to survive in the new economy. The old economy respected people who could come up with constant and continuous improvements.1 This is no longer enough for the long-term survival of any organisation. Breakthrough improvements in both processes and products have become a must for capital to flow into an organisation. Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc. knows exactly how this works. When the corporate pioneered Antisense2 technology in the marketplace, the investor expectation was very high. When the drugs were administered, patients developed complications that were not foreseen at the testing stage. Isis and its scientist had to go back to the drawing board all over again. Investor interest fell; share prices dropped; Isis is still striving with the impressive drug technology. Other established organisations cannot hope to live on their current ‘Cash Cows’ for long. They are also sailing in the same boat as Isis, with respect to developing breakthrough products. The question here is: Can a neurobiological framework help them solve their current quandary? Most important of all is the issue that currently confronts us with respect to human survival, that is, being threatened by the indiscriminate use of modern day technology. This has been brought about by: 1. Dramatic reduction in the land covered by rain forests; 1 2

Top-Down Processing (I) provided one the cognitive architecture to accomplish this customer need. Antisense drug technology is a novel method where the drugs work at the genetic level to interrupt the process by which disease-causing proteins are produced. Proteins play a central role in virtually every aspect of human metabolism. Almost all human diseases are the result of inappropriate protein production (or disordered protein performance). This is true of both host diseases (such as cancer) and infectious diseases (such as AIDS). Traditional drugs are designed to interact with protein molecules throughout the body that support or cause diseases. Antisense drugs are designed to inhibit the production of disease-causing proteins. They can be designed to treat a wide range of diseases including infectious, inflammatory and cardiovascular diseases and cancer and have the potential to be more selective and, as a result, more effective and less toxic than traditional drugs.

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2. poisoning of infants, children and livestock caused by chemical pesticides and fertilizers; 3. the loss of soil fertility caused by its overexploitation; 4. plastics, which are not biodegradable and cannot be recycled have added to the problem of pollution; 5. dwindling natural resources; 6. ever increasing rate of eradication of fishes, plants and animals; 7. depletion of the Ozone layer; 8. global warming, etc. How are we going to survive if we do not develop an eco-friendly economy? Can a neurobiological framework give us any clues on which to go ahead?

DEVELOPMENT OF NEW PRODUCTS AND SERVICES THROUGH DIFFERENTIATION AND INNOVATION As the problem-solving capability of an individual is sharpened and the ‘Reverse Networking’ circuitry gradually becomes complete, all the constituents for a potential crisis are in place. In the case of those interested in the pursuit of knowledge or better clarity regarding the world around them, this compels them to take up the second phase of top-down processing. It starts with exposure to education in cross-functional fields of knowledge and evaluating the philosophical import of existing and alternate conceptual scaffolds. The former helps in gaining a larger perspective. The latter helps to prime existing circuitry that is irrelevant in the existing spaciotemporal environment. If the individual has specialised in an objective field, the inquiry turns towards philosophy so that he is able to understand the very assumptions of the field that he has specialised in. If these assumptions can no longer help in tackling current problems in his field, a new set of assumptions that will solve the issues on hand have to be taken up. People like Henry Stapp, the Californian Quantum physicist, Larry Dossey, M.D. from Texas, did strive to do this. If the individual has specialised in a subjective field of knowledge, he takes steps to develop an objective framework for his subjective notions, e.g., the present tendency of philosophers of language, mind, psychiatrists, etc., venturing into the field of cognitive neuroscience.

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With this exposure, uncertainty and ambiguity return with full force all over again. Survival and identity become a problem. The lower levels of the brain again get overactivated. People who have hitherto been very productive turn inefficient because they are preoccupied with their intellectual pursuits. Organisations would be well advised to leave these people alone for a period of 3–4 years for them to assimilate the new information and build a more sophisticated neuronal circuitry. The input appears to increase the parallel processing capacity of the brain to neverbefore heights.

Fig. 5.1 Parallel Processing

There is one major advantage: the individual, at this stage of growth with respect to brain processing, appears to have the ability to be aware of any overactivation in different areas of the brain during the receipt of input stimuli from cross-functional fields of knowledge. With the neuronal circuitry between the primary cognitive area and the other functional areas in place due to the completion of top-down processing (I), he is able to make sure that the triggering does not overactivate the functional areas by immediately changing the nature of the input. This was absent during bottom-up processing, compelling the individual to take long breaks from his main purpose, which was gathering and classification of information and thereafter analysis, reflection and contemplation on it. This is a major

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advantage in terms of time taken to complete this neuronal circuitry and his ability to be completely focused on his goal, i.e., building his own Conceptual Scaffold. Subjectively speaking, the individual in this mode is able to be an abject witness to the processes that are going on in the brain. As input continues to flow into the cognitive system from crossfunctional fields of knowledge, the lower levels of the brain processes appear to gradually quieten down. Rationalisation of hitherto subjective notions that were mere opinions manifest as superficial questions regarding the nature of one’s conceptual scaffold. As the experience continues, questions or thoughts give way to what Einstein terms as ‘mystical insight’. This is the first step towards the hitherto mysterious ‘first principles’. A scholar can recall this ‘Inner Visual Show’ at any time, consciously. When this process has been completed, the construction of the new conceptual scaffold begins. The scaffold constructed by a ‘student’ who has completed his neuronal circuitry through bottom-up processing, is based on intellectual comprehension and insight of terms and terminologies used by the experts in this field of specialisation. The terms that he uses are mere ‘Symbols, Tokens’. They denote, connote and represent various things in the world that make operational sense. Today’s scientific scaffold exposes an inquirer to skeletal structures like energy, force, atomic weight, gravity, chromosome, gene adaptation, etc. which form the bedrock on which this system is woven. Though some of them appear to be no different from common language expressions, a scientist uses them in a very specific way, as ‘formal concepts’. A concept is a formulated thought that does not have its origin in sense perception. It has been culled out after thorough inquiry, analysis, and intuitive insight, that Einstein terms as ‘Free Creations of the Mind’, Plato terms as a ‘World of Ideas’, Ramanujacharya, the Indian philosopher, terms as a ‘World of Divine Objects and Beings’. The concepts in science could take the cosmological,3 cosmogical,4 ontological, 5 epistemological6 or merely logical ones. The motivation behind this ‘philosophical insight’ is the need for clarity and consistency. The growth and evolution of the science is based on the formation and formulation of such concepts that are all systematically interconnected to 3 4 5 6

Cosmology concerns itself with the basic structure of things. Cosmogony deals with origin of things. Ontology examines what exists. Epistemology examines knowledge claims.

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one another such that a systemic structure gets woven out of the warp and weft of these intuitive perceptions that connect to the sensations and perceptions that the individual perceives in the external world. Each and every concept is a part of this elaborate framework that is internally consistent and externally comprehensive. Thus, addressing the question of the conceptual framework goes beyond the outward practice of science; it deals with the very roots of the individual’s innate quest to know, to understand, to integrate perceptual diversity with reflective unity. When every time the cosmological speculations, shibboleths and adumbrations: What is this all about? How can one account for the diversity of things and beings in terms of one elementary stuff or experience? etc., manifest themselves as unquenchable, undying, uncontrollable questions in the human brain, the processes, the ‘re-engineering’ of an individual’s borrowed conceptual scaffold becomes imminent. This places a severe strain on the existing neuronal circuitry that is compelled and impelled to gradually modify itself through reassessment, until the change metamorphoses into a reformulation of a conceptual scaffold that is tuned to the fulfilment of today’s global needs and necessities in the chosen field of specialisation. No organisation can afford not to accomplish this in the new economy where competition is no longer local but global. The concepts used in the new framework may continue to use the same ‘tokens’ that were used in previous frameworks. For example, ‘a’ is a symbol that denotes a particular sound in English. The sound can be denoted successfully by another symbol. The usage of the symbol is a mere convention and if the same one is used, it is more for convenience. So also is the case with every concept in the newly constructed scaffold. It could still choose to use the same old tokens for the sake of convenience. Only after this is in place can differentiated products and services be designed and developed. This book makes no attempts to even suggest answers to seminal questions in natural science. The attempt made here is to understand and to inquire into the assumptions made by the current system; whether and how these could be modified; to inquire if the ‘top-down processing’ method can be more valuable than the prevalent methods used to develop products and services; to question whether this method would present any advantage, in terms of the new framework’s capacity to predict market trends than the systems that are used today because it takes into account one factor that current physicalistic frameworks are unable to accomplish, viz., ‘Account for Experience’.

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THE CONSTRUCTION SCAFFOLD

OF THE

NEW CONCEPTUAL

Describing the scientific process of developing new theories, Rudolf Carnap, the famous mathematician, in his book Foundations of Logic and Mathematics says: If . . . abstract terms are taken as primitive . . . then the semantical rules (which connect the abstract terms with observational terms) have no direct relations to the primitive (abstract) terms of the system but refer to terms introduced by long chains of definitions. The calculus is first constructed floating in the air, so to speak; the construction begins at the top and then adds lower and lower levels. Finally, by the semantical rules, the lowest level is anchored at the solid ground of observable facts. The laws … are not directly interpreted, but only the singular sentences. Abstract Symbols Semantic Rules Definitions Observable facts that can be verified

Fig. 5.2 Construction of the New Conceptual Scaffold in Science

The conceptualisation has to start at the top for the new scaffold to be contrived. The top starts with abstract symbols or forms that are thereafter given semantic meaning. This is where the scope for differentiation starts. The third step consists of different definitions and the lowest rung in the model consists of observational facts that can be empirically verified. In Indian thought, the individual who was capable of directly and consciously cognising the ‘universe of ideas’ was called a Mantra Drasta. In the Nyaya system of philosophical thought, there are two types of inferences

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(anumana) that are given out: (a) svartha anumana, (b) parartha anumana. The former deals with the individual drawing up inferences for the sake of his own understanding, while the latter is for the sake of others, for it starts from his own interpretation of cognised symbols. The Indian grammarians called the alphabet or aksara that is perceived by the common man as crass (vaikari). That which is comprehended by the educated grammarian, is known as that which is in the middle (madhyama), for it is useful as immediate application in problem solving. The third level was termed the ‘seen’, (pasyanthi) for it might have to be apprehended and thereafter interpreted, not being in contemporary use. The last was termed para, the very foundation for any alphabet. It refers to the consciousness or the primary cognitive areas in the present conceptual scaffold.

THE PROCESS

OF

NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

The thought process for ‘giving birth’ to a differentiated product or service is essentially a ‘top-down approach’. There are two different types of processes: 1. The ‘discoverer’s’ approach (as mentioned in problem solving) consists of exposure to different fields of knowledge, unique experiences, keen insight or to a team of diversely experienced professionals, that would lead him/them to come up with a new product or service, e.g., Dr Bigelow coming up with the use of hypothermia in heart surgery, Anita Roddick’s exposure to the skin and hair care of woman in native societies leading to the setting up of the ‘Body Shop’, Frank McNamara’s embarrassing experience of forgetting to take his wallet to a New York restaurant leading him to create the Diners’ Club, etc. This type of a product or service can be aped in the marketplace. 2. The ‘Differentiator’s’ approach is distinct. He has a vast experience both in his own field and cross-functional fields. His process starts with the reconstruction of his conceptual scaffold. Every small bit of the jigsaw puzzle is started not from previous conceptualisation but afresh. It is no different from the conceivement, elaboration and embellishment of a scientific concept or framework.

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The conceptualisation has to start at the top, both for a discovery and for a differentiated market offering. In the case of the former, concepts are based on an existing scaffold. They are apprehended as different pieces and arranged differently, as in a kaleidoscope. In the latter, what is perceived are tokens, symbols. These are re-interpreted by the ‘visualiser/s’. The interpretation could lead to some of the same concepts being used, i.e., being given a similar meaning but that is only for convenience. The product or services thereafter are derived from first principles. Firsthand experience of ‘Customer Needs’ is a must in both cases. This firsthand experience of ‘Customer Needs’ has to continue until: (a) The neuronal circuitry of the individual or the team associated with ‘pre-cognitive thinking’ is completed; and (b) the neuronal circuitry associated with new ‘product/service development’ has modified itself to adapt to the current market situation. Therefore the time-period will vary from person to person, product/service to product/service, and organisation to organisation. Abstract Symbols/Ideas Semantic Rules Important Features Enumerating Specific Protocols for Manufacture and Service Orientation Observable products/services that can be tested and verified

Fig. 5.3 New Product Development in the New Economy

Recognising and recalling ideas or symbols at will forms the first step of the process. In the second step, these symbols or ideas are given semantic meaning. The third step addresses the main features of the product or service. The fourth step would be to specify the exact specifications of the parts. The final step would be the empirical testing of the product or service, its verification, fine-tuning and customisation. The product thus arrived at is totally unique. It is developed through a unique set of experiences

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and brain processes that also have a genetic component. Mere imitation of all the processes involved in the development of the product or service would be almost impossible and moreover, the cost for such duplication could end up to be much more than what is borne by the original inventor of the new product or service. If any organisation wants to bring forth a distinct, differentiated product or service into the marketplace, those involved in product development need firsthand experience of their customer needs. Yet this alone is not enough, because by merely catering to a need, the individual or team is liable to do what the competition can deliver. Their product or service would lack novelty. This would make them vulnerable to competition, for their customer also consciously or unconsciously knows that there is no extra ‘delight’ in the acquisition, possession and enjoyment of the product or service, when compared to the competition’s. In objective terms, a ‘faithful’ customer is one whose limbic system is triggered whenever he is trying out a product or service. Such a customer is drawn towards a ‘Brand’ because it gives him a ‘Reward’, which he may not be asking for. He is receiving pleasure from associating with a market offering or service, when he is only expecting functionality. He is, thereafter, forced from within to search for the same product or brand because his brain is associating and anticipating a ‘reward’, an emotional upsurge, consciously or unconsciously with the brand. Going back to first principles is, therefore, a must in the new economy. DIFFERENTIATION would mean that we derive the product or service to be offered for a niche group of people. INNOVATION, which would be a more profitable option, would refer to customising the same for the use of a specific customer or group. With this methodology in place, the ‘pull’ rather than ‘push’ method would become more sustainable than what it is today. An example of an organisation that followed this methodology is almost a household name throughout the world: Harley Davidson. In 1981, 13 members of the Harley–Davidson management team purchased the company from the AMF (American Machine and Foundry) in a leveraged buyout. The Japanese were flooding the market with their 50–250 c.c. bikes. The Honda advertisement slogan said, ‘Meet the nicest people on a Honda’ to counter the Harley’s ‘Bad Boy’ image. Harley–Davidson went through an identity crisis. The past performances had to be forgotten. Willy G. Davidson, who saw the world as a motorcycle rider, was put incharge of product design.

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He believed in return to quality and wanted to re-engineer both the components and the manufacturing processes. Before he did this, he went to quite a few bike shows, the Rolling Thunder Memorial Days, the HOG (Harley Owners’ Group) rallies, Easyriders Shows and other motorcycle events. He met hundreds of Harley and other motorcycle fans; spent thousands of hours getting feedback from them and getting to know their expectations. He assembled a team around him who shared his views and showed the same commitment to differentiation and innovation. The innovative new management and manufacturing techniques paid off. Harley emphasised ‘the spirit of freedom’. The new slogan was ‘Doing your own thing in your own time’. By 1986, the company surpassed Honda and regained the top spot in the US super heavyweight market, making President Raegan hail Harley–Davidson as an ‘American success story’. Its market share in its segment grew to 47 per cent in 1987, 54 per cent in 1988, 56 per cent in the following year. Today Harley-Davidson is a global player having a strong presence even in Japan. Harley–Davidson no longer sells bikes, they sell ‘a culture’. Dr Juan Parodi is an internationally recognised vascular surgeon who is the chief of the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at the Instituto Cardiovascular de Buenos Aires and vice director of the Postgraduate Training Programme in Cardiovascular Surgery at the University of Buenos Aires. He is a pioneer in the area of endovascular surgery. His endovascular graft concept has revolutionised the treatment of vascular disease. Recently, his ingenuity helped him bring about another major innovation, the reversal of blood circulation to the brain during brain surgery. This was done to remove clots that are already there or to prevent those that could be formed due to the use of various instruments during the actual surgical protocol, thus leading to fatal contingencies. This is what he has to say regarding most recognized procedures in the most conservative of field of science: ‘What is established medical procedure is not the best’. Differentiation and Innovation are not the sole property of a handful of scientists or researchers in developed nations. Anyone who strives for it can achieve it irrespective of culture, country, background or profession. Let us end this chapter by trying to understand the quintessence of the method that catapults one into this esoteric realm. If one cared to visit an Indian temple, one would find that the various gods and goddesses are depicted as either standing or sitting on a

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‘lotus’ (Padmam in Sanskrit). The lotus grows only in fresh water that is still. It blossoms at sunrise and shuts its petals at sunset. It roots are entrenched in the mud at the lake or pond, while the stem raises the flower above the level of the water. Presumably the allegory used here by the ancient wise men gives us a clue as to how one can develop his conceptual framework. An individual worthy of respect is one who is firmly grounded in the world (through bottom-up processing), faces up to the challenges thrown by it (through problem solving) and gets beyond all the sensual experience it provides7 (through the development of a new conceptual scaffold). Such a person has a mind (brain processes) that is still,8 not stagnant; ideas that are fresh; not putrefied. He is inspired by the source of all knowledge9 and is not unduly concerned about anything else. Maybe this was why the Indian government awards for civilian honour in various fields are titled Padma Vibhusan, Padma Bhusan, Padma Shri. Oliver Goldsmith (1770) mirrors the same viewpoint in his poem: To them his heart, his love, his griefs were given, But all his serious thoughts had rest in heaven. As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form, Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm, Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread, Eternal sunshine settles on his head. The bottom line is that the individual who wants to develop his own conceptual scaffold has to give up, renounce his need to enjoy pleasure associated with things, beings, emotions, feelings, thoughts, ideas, that are prompted by his limbic system, pre-frontal cortex, etc., for the sake of mental stability, equanimity and poise. He has to avoid all inputs both external and internal that will agitate him. If the objects of the senses, emotions, feelings, thoughts and ideas still seek his company, he has to learn to withdraw his attention to his primary cognitive area in order to strive and maintain tranquility, thus consciously slowing down brain processes. As the brain 7 8 9

So how does one continue to stay beyond it, remain unaffected by it, while still living in it? Water for a pond or lake is normally through underground springs based on the level of the water table. We will take up the scientific evidence available today regarding this in Chapter 6.

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processes slow down, only the primary cognitive areas remain activated when the individual is awake. External input would drive brain processes giving rise to real-time processing. Every input thereafter is completely interpreted with respect to a new conceptual scaffold. The resolution of the input is complete. There are no remnants to agitate the individual. Stress is annihilated. If one strives to reach this level, it is a commitment to all living creatures to fulfill one’s responsibilities and remain objective, neutral, productive, in spite of all situations and circumstances. Such unswerving people were called the Vedikas (those who dare to choose the path of knowledge) in Indian thought. The rest were called Laukikas (those who wanted to enjoy the world). The choice of action is always left to the individual. Every society expects this level of growth from its ‘elders’. If people do not grow up to this height, if they wish to remain caricatures, they would be scoffed at, ridiculed, joked about, just as we do with Steve Martin in his role in the movie Father of the Bride.

Summary Ø

Ø

Ø

Ø Ø

One of the main drawbacks of the problem-solving mode of behaviour is that it tends to look at issues as independent situations that have to be tackled. This ‘habituation’, over a period of time, stops one from considering the larger picture and can be the cause of major problems. The essential difference between problem solving and the development of new products or services is that others have solved similar situations in the past. The latter consists of a set of things that have to be conceived from scratch because the issue has never been taken up in the past or it could be a case where the constraints faced in the past are irrelevant in the present scenario. Constant and continuous improvement is no longer enough for the long-term survival of any organisation. Breakthrough improvements in both processes and products have become a must for capital to flow into an organisation.

Top-Down Processing (II) Differentiation and Innovation 153 Ø

Ø

Ø

Ø

Ø

Ø

As the problem-solving capability of an individual is sharpened and the circuitry with respect to it becomes complete, all the constituents for success are in place. The second phase of top-down processing starts with education in cross-functional fields which builds the new neuronal circuitry pruning the non-essentials of the existing circuitry built due to the completion of Bottom-up Processing and Top-down Processing (I). There is a major advantage in terms of time taken by an individual to complete the next level of circuitry and his ability to stay completely focused on his goal, i.e., ‘building his own conceptual scaffold’. Subjectively speaking, the individual in this mode is able to be an abject witness to the processes that are going on in the brain. As input continues to flow into the cognitive system from crossfunctional fields of knowledge, and different conceptual scaffolds, the more primitive levels of brain processes gradually quieten down as the new circuitry get completed. Rationalisation of hitherto subjective notions that were mere opinions, initially manifest as superficial questions regarding the nature of his conceptual scaffold. Thereafter, a person visualises things from first principles. With the vast experience, both in his own field and crossfunctional fields, a person starts the process of reconstructing his conceptual scaffold. Every small bit of the jigsaw puzzle is started not from previous conceptualisation, but afresh. It is no different from the conceivement, elaboration and embellishment of a scientific concept or framework. Going back to first principles is a must in the new economy so that an organisation is able to develop products that cannot be aped and those that are eco-friendly.

6 Passive Processing—The Art of Being Mentally Tough [ABMT]

RECENT EVIDENCE

IN

NEUROTHEOLOGY

In an experiment by Professor Andrew Newberg, Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania using an imaging technology called SPECT scanning, the mapping of brain activation of Tibetan Buddhists monks and Christian nuns was carried out. The scans revealed that during peak moments of meditation and prayer, the orientation association area in the left parietal lobe that demarcates the self from the rest of the experience had dramatically less blood supply. This in turn led the subject to experience a sense of limitless awareness, infinite space and transcendence. Plato would call this experience the ‘Ascent of the Soul’; Christians refer to it as the mystical union with God, a Buddhist calls it interconnectedness, a Hindu calls it Brahmasayugyam (being one with the Supreme Being). The research of the late Eugene d’ Aquili, a psychiatrist and anthropologist and Dr Newberg (Newberg et al., 2001), proves that the intense feelings are not wishful thinking but the genetic material expressing itself in the form of brain processes and experience. The reason why ‘God won’t go away’1 even in today’s world of science and reason is that it is 1

Phrase used by Vince Rause in the article written in The Readers’ Digest, January 2002, pp. 125–9.

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not a primitive belief or superstition in a supernatural being, but appears to be a genetic compulsion towards an experience that frees the individual from the world, helps him find rest (when he is not transacting with the world) from his concepts and conceptualisation, from the pairs of all opposites, from all duality, thus helping him grow. Water baths cool the brains of babies that have suffered brain damage during processes of birth. Hypothermia is used to reduce the metabolism of the patient who has to be operated upon. Meditation appears to be a genetic trait that helps one to slow down brain processes, thereby performing a very important function giving better clarity of thought, hence aiding interpretation when stimuli is fed into the system. THE SUPREME SECRET

2

What appears to be an insurmountable problem often has a solution that is so simple that one wonders why no one had thought of it. Let us look at some of the symptoms exhibited by a ‘highly intelligent’ patient in her twenties: l

l l l l l l l l

rigid paralysis accompanied by loss of sensation in both extremities on the right side of the body, the same affecting the left side from time to time, disturbed eye movements, the power of vision subjected to numerous restrictions, the posture of the head having numerous restrictions, a severe nervous cough, aversion to food and water, the power of speech reduced to an event that the patient could not speak even in her native tongue, subjection to delirium, the personality of the patient was also found to be distorted.

One would not be blamed for thinking that the patient had a serious pathological condition and with little or no prospect of recovery.3 She had 2 3

The heading is borrowed from the title of the ninth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. Case sited by Sigmund Freud as one of the patients of Dr Breuer, in his lectures delivered at Clark University, Massachusetts, September 1909.

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no pathological symptoms! One is bound to be astounded if he were told that the patient recovered completely! The patient was cured of all the aforementioned symptoms by Dr Breuer by diagnosing that all the symptoms were remnants of emotional experiences. For instance, he found out that the patient’s aversion for water stemmed from her emotional experience of watching a lady’s dog drink water out of the glass meant for the lady’s personal use. Almost all the symptoms stemmed from the period during which the patient was trying to nurse her father back to health and were precipitates of what were later termed ‘emotional experiences’. The limbic system again stands implicated. One never realises that most of the problems that one faces stem from the stress that the limbic system has exerted through the upsurge in the emotions it produces. Emotionalism is a bane to oneself and society, rendering the individual, and thus the society, ineffective, paralysed, impotent. When the overactivation of the limbic system is corrected, many people—children and adults who have worked with the authors—have been able to overcome those emotions that are detrimental to their growth, e.g., fear, anxiety, worry, frustration, excitement, addiction, attention problems. In fact, it was found that in most cases problems of addiction to cigarettes, alcohol, food, constant ‘talking/chatting’, etc., could be overcome with ease when the overactive limbic system was normalised. There have been some cases of people being able to reduce and sometimes overcome problems like back problems, obesity, diabetes, asthma, etc. This happened when tests proved that there was nothing wrong with their internal mechanism and that it is the stress that they have put themselves through over and over again by overactivating their limbic system that has been the cause of their ‘Disease’. Antonio Damasio, the famous researcher and neuroscientist, believes that it is the activation of the prefrontal cortex that helps one regain one’s sense of ethical and socially acceptable behaviour. Let us also look at how Dr Breuer could cure his young and intelligent patient. The method used was ‘Hypnosis’. Hypnosis is not sleep, but a natural, normal, relaxed and focused state of attention characterised by: 1. Feelings of well-being; 2. increased muscle relaxation;

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3. increased pain threshold; 4. alpha waves dominating brain activity initially, followed by theta waves; 5. diminished ability to vocalise; 6. access to stressful memories; 7. improved understanding of ideas based on the quintessence of ‘Concepts’, not superficialities; 8. consequently leading to greater ability to accept new ideas about the self and the nature of the environment. As stated previously, the most important aspect of hypnosis is that the patient’s brain frequency is lowered, thus leading to better clarity of thought. The patient and the hypnotherapist are able to recollect events and occurrences that correlate to the patient’s current psychological condition. The hypnotherapist later interprets these conditions in consonance with the patient. The phobia/s is resolved. Modern education has understood the benefits of building a neuronal circuitry or Bottom-up Processing. This helps an individual to thoroughly learn about his area of specialisation. Many in the age of ‘Consumerism’ have reaped the benefits of ‘Top-down Processing (I)’. ‘Topdown Processing (II)’ has also been effectively and profitably implemented by globally successful organisations. It is the lack of an objective framework to understand, verify, practise and perfect brain processes that has been the reason for our misapprehension about the application of metaphysics or the delta activity in the brain, leading to the non-apprehension of ‘Passive Processing’. Modern empirical research in ‘Consciousness’ is trying to set right this lopsided view, though very few people understand that the problems that lie in shackling our theoretical network lie with the physicalistic framework that we unconsciously adhere to. Do you know that an adult crocodile can stay in water for an hour or two without taking a single breath?! It can live without having a meal for almost a whole year! It has learnt the art of remaining alive in the Stand-by Mode or suspended animation. Despite being in this state, it can act with a tremendous speed and decisiveness if it sights a prey. It is allowing the input to drive its brain processes while allowing its prey to find its rather waste energy planning, programming and scheming ways and means to get food.

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The crocodile is believed to have remained at the top of its foodchain almost 300 million years of evolution only because of its successful adaptation. More importantly, people who are taught or have discovered their own conceptual frameworks, fall victim to them. They take their thoughts too seriously and slowly, but surely, begin thrusting their interpretation on others. Fascist regimes and unrelenting policies forget that all conceptual scaffolds are mere interpretations. They help the interpreter live a better quality of life. If one man’s interpretation takes precedence over that of others, the result will no doubt be revolution, war and bloodshed in the near future. In an experiment conducted at the Stanford University, students were picked to play act as prisoners and their guards. Within just two days the ‘guards’ started abusing their ‘prisoners’. They were so caught up in their own concepts that they firmly believed that harsh physical punishment is the only way to get these ‘prisoners’ in line. The experiment that was to have gone on for two weeks was stopped in just six days because the behaviour of the ‘guards’ had gone completely out of control. This is what happens to even elite students because their own concepts and notions fascinate them. No wonder that the Kenopanishad (Swami Sivananda, 1942), says that people who are ignorant are in darkness, but those who are caught up in knowledge are in blinding darkness. W.G. Bigelow, OC, MD, FRCSC (1984), wrote: ‘I had never indulged in planning or promoting my career beyond the next year’. He returned from the Second World War without plans, but a ‘bolt from the blue’ came from his supervisor at TGH, Dr William Gallie.‘How would you like to be a vascular surgeon?’ asked Gallie. That was the offer that led Bigelow to Johns Hopkins, where he had his breakthrough idea of using hypothermia in heart surgery. Bigelow believes that by not consciously planning, he may have missed some petty opportunities. ‘However, such a state has its advantages . . . it leaves one free to accept the wonderful chance offers such as that proposed by Dr Gallie.’ ‘A wonderful chance offer’ helped to bring to the common man the benefit from the use of hypothermia in surgery, the heart pacemaker, and the team approach to surgery and surgical recovery. Not surprisingly, one of Bigelow’s favourite quotations is from Louis Pasteur4: ‘Chance favours the prepared mind’. Learning ‘Passive Processing’, lowers the metabolism of not just the brain alone but also the body. It appears to help an individual 4

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/1/q134068.html

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who has completed his neuronal circuitry understand his customers’ needs and evolve his own conceptual framework to adapt himself to external changes and come up with novel solutions, effortlessly. For a mind that naturally slides into passive processing when there is no external input, realtime processing becomes an actuality. BRAIN SYNCHRONISATION

The human brain does much of its work by communicating with itself, by rapidly connecting, disconnecting, then reconnecting with many other specialised areas. Brain Synchronisation can be termed as a measure of the ability to react productively to different stimuli from the external world, by switching on those circuits involved in the processing of the present stimuli, while switching off others that lead to dissipative activity. For example, Francis Crick’s (1995) hypothesis is that 40 Hz hypothesis is the frequency that binds together different parallel processing areas in the brain associated with vision. Forty Hertz is presumably the neuronal correlate of ‘visual consciousness’. Lack of synchronisation leads to overactivation of some areas in the brain, thus deactivation or under-activation of others processes, which could be critical for the development of ingenuity. Overactivation can be compared to a choked drain system. While the choked area has too much of the substance meant to flow through the system, the succeeding areas in the system are not productively used. A brain that is not synchronised suffers from insufficient communication between different areas involved in the processing of a particular stimulus, leading to deficient or below par performance. Common synchronisation problems would be associated with learning disabilities, poor hand–eye coordination, fuzzy thinking, confusion, etc., leading to phobias, dizziness, headaches. The brain’s electrical signals ripple to and fro across the brain through the neuronal circuitry. They have to move fast enough for the communication to be fruitful. If electrical signals are travelling excessively fast, brain signals arrive too early from one processing area to another because they are short-circuiting some areas, probably those areas involved in higher-order processing. This leads to a response that is erroneous or that which is inferior to what the system is geared to produce. Sometimes the signals arrive too late because there are areas in the brain that are active

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when they are not of any productive use, thus acting as impediments to one’s normal processing capability. For example, how many times have we seen a batsman in his nineties get out to a stroke that he has been playing with aplomb all through his innings. The anxiety to get to a hundred, slows down his reaction time just a wee bit. The stroke that got him most of his runs and got to the threshold of a century, could let him down. So could be the case with a tennis professional at match point in a grandslam final, say Wimbledon. He/She has played the same stroke fabulously throughout the match and yet he/she falters. An individual may be brilliant when he is discharging his duties under somebody’s stewardship; give him this added responsibility, his whole ‘gameplan’ comes apart. His dazzling and daring dexterity, is replaced with procrastination and self-doubts. Alas, the weight of responsibility rests far too heavily on these ‘mighty’ shoulders. Lack of ‘brain synchronisation’ is the problem. Inappropriate timing of the brain waves creates performance difficulties. Signals are arriving too fast or too slow. They could eventually lead to traumatic brain injury or even a stroke if the ‘pressure-cooker’ situations, in which the individual has to perform, persist. Situations and circumstances are not going to change; challenges only get tougher, as performers are generally handed over more difficult tasks. Moreover, too much or too little of a particular brainwave frequency, leads to performance that is below par. If slow delta wave activity overpowers its fast waves, one is locked out of being able to efficiently focus and pay attention. Insufficient alpha waves, and excessive beta or gamma waves (40–90 Hz) make one prone to stress and anxiety. Excessive alpha activity prohibits efficient engagement in performance of tasks, due to the tendency to procrastinate. They also restrict one’s ability to shift moods becoming too caught up in their professional lives ultimately leading to depression and an emotional burnout. Excessive theta activity makes people live in a dream all the time or makes them slaves of their own conceptual frameworks. These people start thrusting the same on others in the name of ‘Proactivity’, religion, science, marketing strategies, etc. Too little of theta activity, and the individual has no capacity for ‘Conceptualisation’, ‘Strategic Thinking, Planning and Implementation’. Problems with focus and attentional flexibility are reflected in one’s brain wave patterns. Excessive slow waves with deficient fast wave activity cause one’s attention to internalise, making purposeful,

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logical decisions difficult and daydreaming likely. If, on the other hand, excessive, non-responsive fast waves and insufficient slow activity dominate, we are clamped into the physical world and out of the benefits and rewards of our internal world’s free-flowing insight. This is what the ‘Scientific American’5 had to say after the 11 September 2001 terrorists’ attack on New York, USA: On September 11th, American life changed—but most of us are still not sure what it changed into. As our definition of normal continues to evolve, though, one thing is clear: Americans are more anxious than ever. Before the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, anxiety-related disorders cost the US $42 billion6 a year in medical and work-related losses. Now mental health professionals can only make educated estimates of how many more of us will be affected in the near future, although they have begun studying the problem. Is there a way out of this quagmire? Aren’t terrorists targeting the current human weakness? Is it not the responsibility of empirical science through its scientists to address this problem?

A POSITIVE ROLE FOR TRANSCENDENCE EMERGING SCAFFOLD

IN THE

We began the book by saying that our aim is to develop a conceptual scaffold beginning with ‘Sentience’ and thereafter going on to explain the nature of everyday experience. Starting with the very rudiments of sentiency, i.e. the ability of one to remain at the lowest level of brain activity that can be ostensibly defined and empirically verified, it becomes possible to objectively map the neuronal correlates of Consciousness, Cognition, Qualia, ‘I-ness’, presumably for the first time in the history of mankind. Dr Colin Blakemore (FRS), the director of the Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, 5 6

http://www.scientificamerican.com/explorations/2001/111201anxiety/#study Bold type not in the original text.

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University of Oxford, and many others like him believe that science might never be able to solve the subjective problem of ‘qualia’. This is because they are still operating with the physicalistic framework. Starting with ‘Sentience’, it becomes a distinct possibility to circumvent all dualism: ‘Nature and Nurture’,‘Quantity and Quality’,‘Skill and Talent’,‘Mind and Matter’,‘Growth and Development’, etc. This experience, a total blackout of the orientation area, gives us the first hint at the areas associated for sentience in the brain.7 As the individual gradually and consciously lets go of this state where he feels a sense of unity, infinitude, he begins to activate other areas gradually. D’Aquili and Newberg (Newberg et al., 2001) believe that lower degrees of blockages could produce a range of milder experience of transcendence. As the individual consciously lets go of this unity, duality reappears. Thereafter the ‘world of ideas’, that is no different from the dream state then the notion of the self is recognised and finally the world as it appears in the waking state of consciousness. The exact mapping of the specific areas involved in each level of activation would take a few years, but would be possible only if we start with sentience and thereafter explain experiences in terms of brain activation. It would help us understand why we need sleep and the role of dreams in shaping the experiences in the waking state. The mapping would help us integrate the role of our genetic material to growth and its role in shaping the environment around us. All dualistic principles associated with empirical study of consciousness that have long thwarted the attempts of scientists, can be explained if this conceptual framework starts from the brains lowest frequency or primary activation and thereafter is built up hierarchically to explain the multiplicity of human experiences. The ancient Upanishadic axiom: Ekam Sat vipraha bhahudhavadanti,8 thus would still hold true. The only important point to be noted here is that passive processing contributes to real-time processing only if preceded by one’s effort to complete the other three circuits. It will be harmful trying to directly promote passive processing. Current religious schools are trying to cut short the method, not understanding that ‘the shortest route is the longest way’. As a ‘stand alone’ in the contemporary scenario, it leads to overemphasis of just one mode of brain activity, delta frequency. As the slow delta wave activity 7 8

More rigorous research is needed, that also involves sleep-dream and no dream states. All this multitude has emerged from One.

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increases, it overpowers its fast waves; the individual is locked out, being unable to efficiently focus and pay attention. The individual becomes inattentive to his own needs, those of his family, his community, his society, his country, mankind and all living and non-living things. The Vedic aphorism states: Loka samasta sukinobavantu. ‘Let there be welfare of all.’ How can one attend to everyone when he is incapacitated to meet his own needs? Religion, metaphysics, that were boons, have metamorphosed into a curse. In the name of religion, people are belittling other conceptual systems, encouraging fundamentalism, inciting terrorism and bringing about chaos and confusion. What was meant to instill peace, productivity and prosperity, has been misappropriated and misused. Millions of people are starving to death, thousands are suffering from disease and hundreds are tormented by stress. What is the use of all the scriptural knowledge, be it in chaste Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, or Latin, when it cannot produce a single action that can wipe the tears of the eyes of the anguishing masses?

THE KINGLY PATH9—BECOMING

TO

BEING

COMPLETION OF NEURONAL CIRCUITRY THROUGH BOTTOM-UP PROCESSING

As stated in Chapter 3, the first and foremost point to be noted in the contemporary educational environment where primary education is compulsory, is that one has to strive to complete his neuronal circuitry10 through bottom-up processing. The inquiry for this process to be completed is based on the individual’s field of interest. The area of inquiry does not matter. The neuronal circuitry is not completed until one is able to excogitate original conclusions. This is the basic idea behind the working on projects, assignments, research programmes, where the student has to submit a dissertation or thesis and also defend his position objectively. Personal counselling plays a ‘critical’ role in this process of growth. It is not possible for the individual to remain objective during the decisionmaking process when he is in this stage of development, because in the 9 10

The heading is borrowed from the title of the ninth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. Refer Chapter 3.

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bottom-up process, the input goes through an ‘uncontrolled’ limbic system before it reaches the areas associated with analytical thought and other higher processing areas in the brain. If the input triggers the reward mechanism, the anticipation of reward conditions one’s judgement. The ‘mentor’ has to be one who is established in either Top Down II or Passive Processing, in other words, has the ability to CONSCIOUSLY EXPERIENCE THOUGHTLESSNESS (CET). Such a person has no axe to grind. OPTIMISATION OF BRAIN PROCESSES THROUGH

‘TOP-DOWN

PROCESSING’

During the bottom-up process, the focus is on acquiring the correct input from the external environment in order to build a neuronal circuitry. Once the neuronal circuitry is completed, the emphasis has to shift to the ‘management’ of brain processes. While input from the external environment continuous to be received, one’s basic lifestyle has to become tuned to optimise his brain processes. The main objective here is to help the individual gradually slow down his brain processes in order to help the individual use the brain globally in each and every activity. It does not mean that one uses only the brain processes that are associated with conceptualisation, analytical thinking, or emotions and feelings. Faster brain processes have a very important part to play in action. These processes associated with motor activity come into play only after the input from the environment has been thoroughly understood with reference to the present predicament, and the development of a plan conceptualised, thereafter a complete blue-print for an operational plan discerned, this thereafter amalgamated with one’s /organisation’s creativity and flair. The process starts the moment one takes the first step into the marketplace. The emphasis has to shift from understanding data to watching for cues from external circumstances and situations. Thereafter, one has to make sure that the correct processes in the brain are activated to ensure proper responses back into the world. It does not matter if the individual is from the elitist technological and/or management schools. He has to learn this use his brain processes if he has respond successfully, constantly and consistently.

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So how does one slow down brain processes so that the process for activating the brain globally can begin? An individual who is habituated to being externally tuned has to start getting tuned to ‘listening’ to his internal signals: perceptions, emotions, feelings, thoughts, brain states, etc. ‘Biofeedback’, that also includes ‘Neurofeedback’, provides us with an objective protocol to slow down brain processes in a cost-effective manner. As PET, fMRI and other techniques become less expensive, their usage in helping people synchronise their brain processes to the external environment increases. The word ‘biofeedback’ was coined in the late sixties to describe laboratory procedures then being used to train experimental research subjects to alter brain activity, blood pressure, heart rate and other bodily functions that are normally not controlled voluntarily. Research has demonstrated that biofeedback can help in the treatment of many diseases and painful conditions. But it has also shown that nature limits the extent of such control. If there are anomalies in the development of different organs, their functioning cannot be altered through this method. If the organs have been fully developed and their functioning is inappropriate because the input to and from the brain is inapt, then biofeedback can play a major role in their rectification. Clinical biofeedback techniques that grew out of the early laboratory procedures are now widely used to treat an ever-lengthening list of conditions. These include: l l l l l l l l l l l

Migraine headaches, tension headaches Backaches and many other types of pain caused by stress Disorders of the digestive system High blood pressure and its opposite, low blood pressure Cardiac arrhythmias (abnormalities, sometimes dangerous, in the rhythm of the heartbeat) Raynaud’s disease (a circulatory disorder that causes uncomfortably cold hands) Epilepsy Paralysis and other movement disorders Stammering Depression ADD/ADHD, etc.

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Biofeedback is not magic. It cannot cure disease or by itself make a person healthy. It is a tool. It gives the patient an objective insight, a possibility to experience for himself and ‘understand’ the effects of slowing down or hastening brain frequency. It initially gives him a verifiable proof as to how he could alter brain frequency, thereby emotions and feelings, thoughts and behaviour. It profoundly influences his physical and mental well-being. It also helps the patient understand how he/she and their ‘Doctors’11 must work together as a team if the body’s natural healing system can help in curing oneself. What is most significant here is the fact that biofeedback is not new to any individual. Every one of us uses it all the time. We used it extensively even when we were infants. As stated in Chapter 3, an infant appears to need the visual feedback when he/she takes the first few steps. He needs the proprieoceptive feedback from his muscles to the brain for him/her to develop strength in his/her muscles and the sense of balance. Every time we walk, run, stretch to pick up something, these sensors in the muscles are sending a feedback to the brain. This effectively decides the pace at which we move or the extent to which we stretch. Look at a tightrope artist. He/She is constantly in tune with the feedback from the muscles so that balance is maintained through micro adjustments. Yet by externalising our attention during the bottom-up process, we lose touch with the internal feedback mechanism. A golfer like Worth Dalton has used it to learn, play and gain expertise in playing golf. Mr Dalton took up playing this sport after he became ‘blind’ and was able to achieve the rare accomplishment in this sport, ‘A hole in one’. Yet when normal people are blindfolded they are not even able to hit the ball of the tee, let alone score a hole in one. This only goes to show how much we have externalised our attention and not realised the extent of the damage. Emotions, feelings, anxieties and worries, analytical thinking, thoughts of the future, ambitions, vision, etc., are also feedbacks from the neuronal tissue. Just as a tightrope artist will definitely fall off the wire if he does not tune in to the feedback he receives from his muscle sensors, so also would an individual head for failure if he one does not tune in to his brain processes. If people get totally entangled in the input stimuli that is being received from the external world and fail to tune into their brain processes, 11

The word ‘doctor’ means a teacher, a mentor, a guide.

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the first symptoms are a sign of discomfort, followed by displeasure, mild depression, mild infections and ultimately the immune system gives way.12 Top-down processing, through biofeedback, helps us to tune in to one’s internal source of information, i.e., manifesting genetic material through brain processes associated with thoughts, feelings, etc. All biofeedback will sooner or later boil down to facilitating the individual to alter brain frequency at will, depending on the nature of response that is expected from him from the environment. Complicated biofeedback machines are similar to a weighing scale or thermometer. These machines can detect a person’s internal bodily functions with far greater sensitivity and precision than an untrained brain. This explicit and precise information is invaluable to one who is trying to slow down his brain processes. He is able to get a ‘first-hand experience’13 of the correlation between brain frequency and thought processes that are triggered at a particular frequency. Both biofeedback trainees and therapists use it to gauge and direct the progress of treatment. The biofeedback machine acts as a kind of sixth sense that allows one to ‘see’ or ‘hear’ activity that the trainee has not yet tuned in to receive inputs from within. One commonly used machine-type, for example, picks up electrical signals in the muscles. It translates these signals into an objective form that patients can detect. It triggers a flashing light bulb, or activates a beeper, gives out a number reading, etc., every time muscles grow more or less tense and if the status quo is maintained. As patients change their brain frequency by relaxing tense muscles, breathing more deeply, replacing negative thought processes with positive ones, removing positive thought processes to heighten alertness, etc., the biofeedback machine also slows down or stops flashing or beeping. Biofeedback can help a person learn—perceive, emote, analyse, understand, predict, react and respond—faster than what he is currently achieving by matching optimum brain frequency with the respective activity, 12 13

The same set of pattern appears repeated when one fails to tune himself to the external environment. What is today subjectively called first-hand experience can be objectively defined as a correlation between external input and internal brain processes triggered. As research in cognitive science, genetics, molecular biology and other sciences progresses, it is a plausible to establish a distinct causal relationship. The Humean doubts regarding the nature of cause will then be rent asunder.

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be it for perceiving, emoting, analysing, etc. The authors have found very effective results in many cases. One of our trainees, a rifle shooter, had received extensive mentoring, biofeedback training, and other techniques. While shooting, he had been taught always to tune in to his body and brain and receive their feedback constantly. As he was shooting in a local competition, the weather suddenly turned misty. He had to continue because his session was to be completed in less than seven minutes. He had 10 shots to complete. He remembered the lessons he had been taught. Though he could only see a fuzzy target, let alone the ‘Bull’s Eye’, he tuned in and maintained the exact body position—arms, legs, shoulder, head and brain frequency. He almost shot blind. Five of his last ten shots hit the bulls eye, the rest were nines. There is an anecdote given in the Indian scriptures that allows for an interesting interpretation. The anecdote goes like this: Once there was a famous archer who could hit the bull’s eye with 99 per cent accuracy. As he was travelling through a forest from one competition to another, he found that a person had shot 100 per cent bull’s eye using the trees as targets. When he neared the next village, he requested the people there to tell him who had achieved this fabulous feat. Recognising him, the villagers paid their respects and told him that the shooter was a ‘mad man’ roaming in the forest nearby. The archer went in search of the ‘mad man’ and found him living in a lonely hut, wearing some rags and sustaining himself on fruits and nuts that he gathered from the forest. Having paid his obeisance, the famous archer asked this ‘mad man’ the secret behind him shooting with 100 per cent efficiency. The ‘mad man’ refused to even lend an ear to the archer’s query. He simply walked away. The archer was persistent. He dismissed his charioteer and served his newfound teacher for many years. One day his teacher called him and asked him to shoot. The famous archer showed him the technique and explained to the master how he developed it and executed the same. The master told him that the technique was flawless and that the blemish was caused by something else. Without revealing the secret, the master walked away. The archer continued to stay there and serve him. After some time had elapsed,

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the master called him one day and said that he would teach him the secret if the archer promised not to reveal the same to others. The archer agreed. A target was set and the archer shot at it till he missed the bull’s eye. Finally his master said, ‘This is the secret; you outline the target and then shoot; I shoot and thereafter mark the target.’ Do you think that the master was a ‘mad man’ as the villagers thought or was he a genius? (Answer this question before reading on.) Let us understand one thing. The famous archer would never have stayed in the company of someone for a long time unless he observed something in the behaviour of the person that he did not possess. Research in communication skills states that (approximately) words communicate only 8 per cent of the message, 37 per cent of it gets conveyed through presentation skills and 55 per cent of it is through body language. The interpretation, therefore, goes like this. The first non-communication was possibly to test the famous archer’s willingness to improve. The famous archer must have had excellent physical and mental conditioning to work out his aim and all the other aspects of his technique. The master checked this out first. The completion of the neuronal circuitry and both stages of top-down processing was completed. By walking away again after questioning the archer, the master tacitly communicated the need for allowing input to drive brain processes. This was down by the archer by continuing to stay with the master and serving him. When he was satisfied that the trainee’s brain processes were sufficiently slowed down and he was allowing input from within and without to drive brain processes until they manifested as motor responses, the master told him his secret. What was it? The implied message seems to be, ‘Understand that the “target” is only something that helps you develop and thereafter complete one’s neuronal circuitry. Once this is done, tune in, ‘Listen’, not just to the input from the external environment, also to the input in the form of natural biofeedback from the physical body, its muscles, its emotions and feelings, its analysis, its predictions, etc., without ever getting affected by them. This is where the constant and continuous effort to gradually slow down the mind becomes a boon. As the Bhagavad Gita advises, sanaih sanair uparamed buddhya dhrti-grhitaya atma-samstham manah krtva na kincid api cintayet (Bh. Gita: V:25).

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Gradually let him quieten the mind by exercising the force of his intellect unceasingly; having established the mind in quietude, let him not think of anything. As one learns to tune in, his intelligence can be hijacked by his improving sensitivities, just as an external input can bewitch him in bottomup processing. His goal is directed towards the lowest brain frequency or objectively and ostensibly defined as the delta frequency. In other words, he has to Consciously Experience Thoughtlessness (CET). Once he is successful at CET, he has to maintain it. In doing so, he allows external input to drive action. This is why the ‘mad man’ became the famous archer’s master or guru. His tendency to shoot arose from the manifestation of his genetic material, impelled by external circumstances and situations. The famous archer also had the natural tendency to be an archer but forced himself to express this tendency instead of allowing environmental conditions to act as inputs to drive brain processes and, subsequently, action. This is what caused that marginal error in his capability. Ask any world-class 100 metre sprinter about the ‘start’ of the race. He would say that he has to ‘explode’ off his blocks if he has to beat a field composed of world-class sprinters. If he forces himself to ‘explode’ off the blocks, he could end up ‘jumping the gun’, leading to a disqualification. If the race is the finals of the Olympics or the World Championship, would it not be a blunder? This happens because he did not learn to consciously stay at the delta level of brain frequency and let the input, in this case the starter’s gunshot, drive him to respond. If he forces himself to be at delta, he will definitely fail. His ‘reaction time would be too slow’, if he does not stay at delta, he might fail. Staying at delta ‘naturally’ or ‘consciously’ is something that not many individuals can do without the help of a mentor, who is himself established in Top-Down Processing (II) or Passive Processing. The speed of brain processing has to be accelerated. The brain differentiates the input into the small segments and different parts in the brain interpret each of these minute segments. This is what we call ‘understanding’ in common parlance. Once this is completed, the response to the input has to be evaluated and processed. This has then to be communicated to the motor cortex to enable the body to respond, and respond fast.

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Ultimately only a brain that is established in passive processing facilitates one’s natural reaction that is ultimately governed by manifestation of one’s genetic material. So Top-Down (II) also comes into the picture. Reengineering of one’s scaffold is thus a must for every individual, irrespective of his profession. As one slows down brain frequency, this natural quality of the brain to synchronise is increased. A tennis player receiving a 140 miles/hour serve has a split second to react. Ask anyone who returns serve very well on the ATP tour, he would tell you that this fraction of a second appears as if it is a few seconds. His brain is slowing things down, differentiating between the various serves of his opponent and thereafter communicating it so that he can respond effectively. The ‘fitness’ of the body is another important factor. ‘Fitness’ is a relative word. What is effective for one is unfit for another. Each person’s need has to be individually determined and his regime customised so that it helps in his genetic material finding suitable expression, in other words the achievement of one’s Intrinsic Goal. CHRONOBIOLOGY AND ITS USE IN GROWTH

Traditional systems have always insisted on discipline. The reason for this is that the over-activation of the limbic system is prevented by discipline. Discipline is a must for both Bottom-Up and Top-Down (I) Processing. In Top Down (II), one has to discover his own natural rhythms and stay with them, unless compelled to do so by emergencies. Discipline is not an end in itself. It is only a means to help one serve his target customers to the best of his present capacity, simultaneously becoming better with time. Yet a discipline that is not in line with one’s circadian rhythms retards growth rather than aiding it. This is where the science of chronobiology comes into focus. The physical body functions in a perfect rhythm. Research has shown that the body clock spans a period of 24 hours. This is termed as the circadian rhythm by chronobiologists. The single most completely reported and thoroughly analysed series, involving 1,175 young women, indicates that surgical timing in the case of breast cancer, is likely to be relevant, if not significant, to the outcome of the procedure. Dr Deepak Chopra (1993), gives out a timetable for peak efficiency derived by chronobiologists. It is as follows:

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Morning

Noon

Afternoon

Late afternoon/ early evening

Evening

Midnight to dawn

Alertness gets increasingly sharp Short-term memory is at best Sensitivity to allergens dips Sex hormones peak Body temperature peaks, heightening vigilance and alertness Mood is at its best Sight is sharpest Manual dexterity peaks Flexibility is at its height Long-term memory is at its best Best time for easy repetitive tasks Best time for physical workout Taste and smell are at their sharpest Worst time for allergies Worst time to eat a large meal if you want to lose weight; metabolism at its lowest Alertness at worst between 3.00 and 6.00 a.m. Most accident-prone period Most common time to give birth

Dr Chopra continues by stating that it would be debatable as to whether everyone has to follow this precisely. Any individual who is building his neuronal circuitry has to draw up a daily schedule that suits his body clock, in consultation with his mentor. The schedule has to cater to all five aspects that compose his personality, viz.: 1. his physical body; 2. his cardio-vascular system; 3. carefully planned acquisition of information in the field of study in which the individual has an inherent interest and allied fields; 4. contemplation on the information gathered; 5. activation of associated brain processes.

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In the second phase of top-down processing, the individual has to allow himself to gradually let go of all external prompts and gradually discover and follow his own rhythm. The primary cognitive area alone remains active all the time, while other brain processes switch on and off, depending upon the external input. It is only at this point that he becomes a witness to his own thoughts, feelings, perceptions and actions, and thoroughly understands the truth behind the statement that the world that he is experiencing is nothing by a construction of his own brain processes. Allowing oneself to flow with one’s own internal rhythm helps the individual’s genetic material to express itself completely any time, every time. The brain and body begin to synchronise and function at their own natural rhythms. Any growth, be it bottom-up or any one of the two phases of topdown processing places unusual demands on its practitioners. They must examine their day-to-day lives to learn where they may be contributing to their own distress and confusion. They must recognise that they have a very important role of disciplining themselves. They have to learn the art of committing themselves to their goals in bottom-up processing. In top-down processing, they have to gradually slow down brain processes to facilitate their genes to express themselves in complete synchronisation with the external environment. THE ART OF BEING MENTALLY TOUGH

In the epic work Les Miserables, Victor Hugo presents a man of perfection in Jean Valjean, an ex-convict who was imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread. The kindness of Bienvenu Myriel, the bishop of Digne, changes him into a man who does not use his intellectual prowess to protect himself but employs it to provide succour to others. This seems to be the most essential quality of a man capable of being mentally tough. Lord Rama, the hero of Sage Valmiki’s work was another who did not use his precocious intelligence and physical prowess to his own benefit. This why he is still known today when so many kings and their linkages have long since been forgotten. It is this principle that he held on to that bestowed upon him ‘Greatness’. Unfortunately this is not understood. The very same people who are praying and praising him are preying on others. Everyone who ever wants to be a mentor has to follow this simple principle. Anyone looking out for

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one should make sure that the person that he accepts as a mentor does not use his well-developed intellect for personal ends. If the individual had already made a choice and finds that he has made a mistake, he should get out of such an association at the earliest. If he does not, he is sure to be manipulated and coerced towards avenues of activity that are only beneficial to the ‘mentor’. The fault lies not with the manipulator, but with the follower of such a person. Personalities, communities, organisations, kingdoms, countries, etc., born many centuries ago are still known because they followed this simple principle. This is the mark of civilisation, not palaces, art, technology, etc. If man has to stand on the shoulders of the titans of yester years, he has to understand this one principle and gradually evolve in such a way that he is able to follow it. Merely taking an ‘idealistic stance’ would throw him back into the Dark Ages; refusing to take up the passive processing would make him a victim of stress and a slave to his own conceptualisations. The path to being mentally tough is no doubt an arduous route to pursue. Yet it pays rich dividends to those who follow it and to those who have learnt it thoroughly through action. The dividend is dull pain that gives rise to endomorphins in the brain; to a sense of well-being, irrespective of situations and circumstances and to a sense of total freedom.

STRATEGIC THINKING

AND

PASSIVE PROCESSING

Every organisation, be it a family, community, corporate, political party or country has to learn to grow beyond it narrow constraints of Vision and Mission, if it has to emerge a global player. Every vision statement has something to do with what the company wants to achieve. It has nothing to do with what its customers want. A vision or mission facilitates an individual or a team to reach the third stage of development, i.e., developing differentiated products and services, nothing beyond. Yet the more important question is, ‘Does the market want such a product or service?’ It is here that the role of strategic thinker comes into the forefront. It is he who initiates the first steps in a particular direction that others follow-up through planning and execution. We have often used subjective phrases like, ‘What is bold about boldness?’ Passive processing gives an objective framework that helps every organisation develop at least one srategic thinker.

176 Brain Re-engineering

A strategic thinker is one who is an expert in his chosen field of specialisation (completed neuronal circuitry through bottom-up processing), has excellent problem-solving skills and has delivered a differentiated product or service (can modify or activate brain processes that can help him deliver a response that his customer wants consistently through top-down processing). Such an individual has developed the capability to globally activate his brain irrespective of the nature of the input. Such a person is totally tuned towards delivering what his customer wants because his internal compulsions to activate brain processes no longer exist. His future growth entirely depends on his ability to adapt and change continuously, based on external constraints. Such an individual could be from any walk of life, a king, a scholar, a labourer, an illiterate, or even a beggar! His responses are tuned to identifying and delivering customer expectations. He is completely free from all preconceptions and prerogatives, and completely driven by input from the external environment. Only such an individual is fit to be a leader. Imagine what would have happened to IBM if Thomas Watson’s (Jr) decision to go in for System/360 had failed. It would have wiped out everything that the company had made until then. The $750 million in R&D, and $ 4.5 billion in infrastructure would have ended the company in bankruptcy, yet it did not. Why? This was because IBM had excellent market intelligence, it possessed exceptional R&D capabilities. For instance, they knew how to commercialise products, they developed an admirable team of individuals who acted as leaders and motivators to guide the organisation to deliver what it had designed and promised to its customers, and it managed its cash-flow well during the transition period. All this stemmed from one man making the right decision from all the inputs that were available. Every organisation comes to a threshold where it has to break with the past and forge its future. It has to let go of the most successful tragedies that it had undertaken to reach the stage of growth that it is currently laden with. Unless it has an individual who is capable of passive processing, it cannot hope to take this leap of faith. Most organisations start with handling local problems. They could become very successful at solving these issues. They reach a threshold where they have to give up their narrow precincts and take flight. Reliance Industries of India did it successfully, so did Microsoft Corporation and a host of others. The credit for this has to go mainly to their respective leaders and partially to the team who delivered what was strategically thought of.

Passive Processing—The Art of Being Mentally Tough [ABMT] 177

Every organisation, be it a family, a society, a corporate, a political party, needs leaders who possess unconstrained views of emerging trends based only on customer needs. These leaders cannot be catalogued as being from a particular country, community, vocation, etc. They can only be termed as men anchored to eternal value systems, who strived and succeeded in Being Mentally Tough. Let us end this book, which is to serve as a vanguard for the new conceptual scaffold based on brain processes, with this small anecdote. In ancient Kashmir, there lived a great grammarian called ‘Kayita’. He was paralysed hip down from birth and lived a life of abject poverty. He taught many children the science of grammar. The students’ daily routine was for one batch of students to go and collect medicinal herbs, fruits, nuts, twigs and firewood from the forest, while the second batch sold the previous day’s gatherings in the nearby marketplace, and the third had its lessons. When gatherers and marketers returned, the former would rest while the latter had their classes and the third batch sorted the day’s gatherings and so on. The money that was earned from the sale was the only source of income. Bark was used for dress; fruits and nuts, along with whatever grains that could be bought from the meagre income for food. One day a group of famous scholars from south India, went to meet Kayita to clear some of their doubts. Seeing the plight of the students and their teacher, they felt that the situation had to be rectified. They met the king and censured him about the treatment he meted out to the great savant. The king had never heard of this giant intellect. The next day he left for the forest with his retinue carrying gifts of gold, ornaments, silk, exotic fruits, etc. When he reached the ashram, he paid his respects to the great soul and begged forgiveness. He requested the sage to grace his court and said that he would make all arrangements for the students to stay and study in his capital. Responding to the request, the Kayita said that he, the king, had only called on him now, but his prime minister had made this request often enough. The prime minister was none other than Kayita’s younger brother. He said that just as a good king needed all the pomp and grandeur to establish his authority on the common man, he and his students needed this way of life to sharpen their intellects and control their minds. If they moved away from their way of life, they would blunt their laser sharp intellects, which was a must for grammarians. He said that his blessings were always showered

178 Brain Re-engineering

on the kingdom and requested him to leave all the inmates of the ashram in peace to pursue their objective. The king and scholars left the ashram with a lesson well learnt and an inexplicable joy in their hearts, allowing the great teacher and students to ‘enjoy’ their poverty-stricken lives. Maybe it is this state of perfect synchrony of one’s being with the external world that the Bhagavad Gita claims as the state of Stitha Pragna— ‘A Man of Perfection’, which each one of us is heir to.

Summary Ø

Ø

Ø

Ø

Ø

A recent experiment has showed that during peak moments of meditation and prayer, the orientation association area in the left parietal lobe that demarcates the self from the rest of experience had dramatically less blood supply. This in turn led the subject to experience a sense of limitless awareness, infinite space and transcendence. The reason why ‘God won’t go away’ even in today’s world of science and reason is that it is not a primitive belief or superstition in a supernatural being, but appears to be a genetic compulsion towards an experience that frees the individual from the world, helps him find rest when he is not transacting with the world, from his concepts and conceptualisation, from the pairs of all opposites, from all duality, thus helping him find the energy necessary to grow. Meditation appears to be a genetic trait that helps one slow down brain processes, thereby performing a very important function giving better clarity of thought, therefore aiding interpretation when stimuli is fed into the system. One never realises that most of the problems that one faces stem from the stress that the limbic system has exerted through the upsurge in the emotions it produces. When the overactivation of the limbic system is corrected, many have been able to overcome emotions that are detrimental to their growth like fear, anxiety, worry, frustration, excitement, addiction and attention problems.

Passive Processing—The Art of Being Mentally Tough [ABMT] 179 Ø

Ø

Ø Ø Ø

Ø Ø

Ø

Ø Ø Ø

Ø Ø

It was found that in most cases, problems of addiction to cigarettes, alcohol, food, constant ‘talking/chatting’, etc., could be overcome with ease when the overactive limbic system was normalised. People who are taught or have discovered their own conceptual frameworks can fall victim to them. They take their thoughts too seriously and slowly but surely begin thrusting the same on others; Kenopanishad says that people who are ignorant are in darkness, but those who are caught up in ‘Knowledge’ are in blinding darkness. Chance favours the prepared mind. Learning ‘Passive Processing’ lowers the metabolism of not just the brain but the body. It helps an individual who has evolved his own conceptual framework, to understand his customers needs, adapt himself to external changes and come up with novel solutions ‘effortlessly’. For a mind that naturally slides into passive processing when there is no external input, real-time processing becomes an actuality. The human brain does much of its work by communicating with itself, by rapidly connecting, disconnecting, then reconnecting with many other specialised areas. Brain Synchronisation can be termed as a measure of the ability to react productively to different stimuli from the external world, by switching on those circuits involved in the processing of the present stimuli, while switching off others that lead to dissipative activity. Lack of synchronisation leads to overactivation of some areas in the brain, thus deactivation or under-activation of others processes, which could be critical for the development of ingenuity. Inappropriate timing of the brain waves creates performance difficulties. Signals are arriving too fast or too slow. Too much or too little of a particular brain wave frequency, leads to performance that is below par. The important point to be noted here is that passive processing contributes to real-time processing only if it is preceded by one’s effort to complete the other three processes. It will be harmful trying to directly promote passive processing. The first and foremost point is that one has to strive to complete his neuronal circuitry through Bottom-up Processing. The inquiry for this process starts from the individual’s innate field of interest.

180 Brain Re-engineering Ø

Ø

Ø Ø

Ø

Ø

Ø

Ø Ø

During the bottom-up process, the focus is on acquiring the correct input from the external environment in order to build the neuronal circuitry. Once the neuronal circuitry is completed, the emphasis has to shift to the ‘management’ of brain processes. While input from the external environment continues to be received, one’s basic lifestyle has to become tuned to optimise his brain processes. The main objective here is to help the individual gradually slow down his brain processes in order to help the individual use the brain globally in each and every activity. Faster brain processes have a very important part to play in action. An individual who is habituated to being externally tuned has to start getting tuned to ‘Listening’ to his internal signals, viz., perceptions, emotions, feelings, thoughts, brain states, etc. ‘Biofeedback’, that also includes ‘Neurofeedback’, provides us with the objective way to slow down brain processes in a costeffective manner. As PET, fMRI and other techniques become less expensive, their usage in helping people synchronise their brain processes to the external environment increases. Emotions, feelings, anxieties and worries, analytical thinking, thoughts of the future, ambitions, vision, etc., are also feedbacks from the neuronal tissue. Top-down processing, through biofeedback, helps us to tune in to one’s internal source of information, i.e., manifesting genetic material through brain processes associated with thoughts, feelings, etc. All biofeedback will sooner or later boil down to aiding the individual to alter brain frequency at will, depending on the nature of response that is expected of him from the environment. As one slows down brain frequency, the natural quality of the brain to synchronise is increased. Traditional systems have always insisted on discipline. The reason for this is that the overactivation of limbic system is prevented by discipline. Discipline is a must for both Bottom-up and Top Down (I) processing.

Passive Processing—The Art of Being Mentally Tough [ABMT] 181 Ø

Yet a discipline that is not in line with one’s circadian rhythms retards growth rather than aiding it. Ø The primary cognitive areas alone remain active all the time, while other brain processes switch on and off, depending upon the external input. It is only at this point that the individual becomes a witness to his own thoughts, feelings, perceptions and actions, to understand that the world that he is experiencing is nothing but a construction of his own brain processes. It is believed that allowing one to flow with one’s internal rhythm, helps the individual’s genetic material to express itself completely. The brain and body begin to synchronise and function at their own natural circadian rhythms.

(Please fill in this questionnaire both before and after reading the book)

How Mentally Tough are You?

(Make sure that the scores are based on your day-to-day actions, not on information known) [1-Always think, 5-Never think] 1. 2. 3. 4.

5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

‘I could have achieved that’. 1 ‘I know that I should not be doing this’. 1 ‘You know, I failed because of X, Y, Z’. 1 ‘By the time I learn to do something, 1 others are asking me to do something else better’. I almost always try to impress others. 1 ‘How do I know what you want?’ 1 ‘It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there’. 1 ‘Why shouldn’t I sit back and relax 1 for a moment? ‘If only I had learnt about this earlier’. 1 ‘You know the world has changed so 1 much, there is no one whom one can trust’. ‘Luck is very important for success’. 1 ‘To err is only human’. 1 ‘I want to do this very much, but ......’. 1 ‘I am very disciplined, but cannot 1 accept the incompetence of others’. ‘If only I could live up to the 1 expectations of .......’. Total

2 2 2 2

3 3 3 3

4 4 4 4

5 5 5 5

2 2 2 2

3 3 3 3

4 4 4 4

5 5 5 5

2 2

3 3

4 4

5 5

2 2 2 2

3 3 3 3

4 4 4 4

5 5 5 5

2

3

4

5

If you need more clarifications, e-mail us at [email protected]

184 Brain Re-engineering

Self-Assessment Table 15–55 : You have to strive to complete Bottom-Up Processing (BUP) 56–65 : You have to strive to complete Top-Down Processing I (TDP-I) 66–74 : You have to strive to complete Top-Down Processing II (TDPII)

Epilogue

When Dr Robert Ader’s study1 of conditioning in rats in the seventies first stated the connection between immune system and stress, there was a hue and cry from almost everyone in the two disciplines of immunology and neurobiology. Each was entrenched in their separate university departments: immunologists poking at blood cells in test tubes and dishes; neurobiologists into the nerves of frogs and squids . . . According to David Felten, neuroscientist, University of Rochester, ‘the two camps would rather use each other’s toothbrushes than use each other’s terminologies’. Paradigm shifts, and changes, are not acceptable to a mindset of those entrenched in their own conceptual scaffolds. The main objective of this book is to help people overcome the effect of their limbic system, their whims and fancies, their respective ‘comfort zones’ and contribute to the ‘Welfare of oneself and all’. Its intent is to encourage one to see, not look; to listen, not hear; to care, not ‘commercialise’. ‘Commercialisation’ is believed to be a setup where ‘numbers’ enslave, strangulate human imagination, creativity, innovation. It is merely cutting bottom-line costs without any idea of how to spur top-line growth. It is akin to a bird becoming apprehensive of flight, thus clinging to the branch. Commerce is a mere tool to help people ground their creative ideas to pragmatic ones and help the less gifted in a sustained manner. Mere creative ideas resemble debris floating around in space. They are of no use to people on the ground, while possessing the potential to inflict a crippling calamity. Both original ideas and commerce are a must. They have an important place in our lives. The most important satellites are those whose view can penetrate Earth’s cloud cover and are tethered to their monitoring stations here on Earth. 1

http://www.alumni.uchicago.edu/magazine/0012/research/coursework.html

186 Brain Re-engineering

Bottom-up processing helps one develop wings; top-down processing helps one sustain his flight and gives it a higher purpose: to serve others and actualise one’s potential. Bottom-up processing alone leads one to live in a fool’s paradise; top-down processing as a ‘stand alone’ converts the exuberance of life into a dull existence. Overemphasising the former leads to the lack of ethical behaviour, while accentuating the latter leads to one being at the mercy of natural elements. One without the other leads to error, mistakes, disasters and finally revolutions. The Art of Being Mentally Tough, i.e., allowing the input from the external world to drive brain processes after the completion of both bottom-up and top-down processes, helps one to blend one with the other. If ever we needed evidence that both bottom-up and top-down processing have to go hand-in-hand in the present context, cancer treatment in this era shows the way. In a research conducted in the developing field of ‘Psycho-Neuro-Immunology’, pioneered by The Bristol Cancer Help Centre in the eighties, various techniques like relaxation, visualisation, hypnosis, support groups, counselling, etc., were used as complementary aids to help people to overcome the after effects of chemotherapy, radiology, etc., in their fight against cancer. After more research, the strides made within an incredibly short time by researchers elucidating the mechanisms of psychoneuro-immunology have succeeded in placing psychological approaches to stress management at the forefront of cancer treatment: in the management of nausea from chemotherapy (visualisation, relaxation), pain control (visualisation, hypnosis), and living with cancer (psychotherapy, counselling). Chemotherapy and other techniques have evolved due to bottomup processing. The need to slow down brain processes or top-down processing, has been verified by relaxation and counselling techniques that have evolved in cancer treatment. This book attempts to formalise the system and takes an inductive leap, which benefits not just cancer patients, but the whole of mankind, its growth and development. This formalism would necessarily mean unshackling ourselves of past assumptions and defining new limits. It means more research, more struggle, more dull pain, and therefore more well-being. Science and scientists have to first understand this different lifestyle and take to ‘drudgery’ willingly. Only then will they be able to give up their fascination for ‘excitement’. Excitement and motivation fuel our

Epilogue 187

imagination and lead to one embarking on new trails. Once this has been achieved, the same passion has to be gradually reined in, for the sake of finding ways and means by which the common man can benefit from the same. Heartfelt choices are a must to begin with, but it is wisdom that delivers customer satisfaction. What appears to be most critical is our collective health, happiness and well-being. Thus, everyone has to ‘understand’ for himself/herself the need to overcome the inordinate passion exerted by the limbic system. An educational system or an economy based on ‘excitement’ is doomed in the contemporary value-based customer-oriented framework. Science and scientists of the past have set us free from the ravages of starvation, disease and mental torture of ignorance which mankind suffered from during the Dark Ages. It is up to the present generation of scientists to take up the gauntlet to convert their individual heartfelt choices into objective technology that can improve the quality of lives, and not just honour their own needs. It is up to each one of them to ensure that lives are fully lived, thus bestowing a new enhanced meaning to the phrase ‘quality of life’.

Appendix

LATENT ASSUMPTIONS

AND

SLEEP

The ‘Western’ notion of sleep was termed as ‘the brain turned off ’, which is analogous to a car sitting in a garage with the ignition turned off and the motor silent. This point of view stems from the commonsense notion that the brain must ‘rest’. The ‘Eastern’ notion of sleep has always been a dynamic one. The Mandukya Upanishad and its Karika1 are proof of this. An oft-repeated Eastern quote says, ‘King Janaka dreamt that he was a beggar who was suffering from penury, affliction and starvation. Suddenly he awoke and found that he was a king enjoying luxury, opulence and living in robust health. While most people would be relieved that the nightmare was over, Janaka’s meditation was: “Am I the veritable Janaka dreaming that I was a beggar or am I the beggar, dreaming that I am a king?”’ From a purely descriptive point of view, we need to know what is going on in the brain during sleep: Is there something unique about the metabolic activity? Is gene expression more predominant during sleep than during wakefulness? What is the type of neuro-secretion during sleep and so on. This could be the most probable gateway to understanding specifically how ‘higher order processing’ takes place in the brain. The Cartesian framework2 is more suitable for understanding the world-out-there, therefore it gives too much prominence to the waking state. In order to study the brain holistically and completely, it is necessary to 1

2

A sort of summary or an elaboration on the Upanishadic literature which describes how one can resolve the ill-effects of the world by understanding the three states of consciousness: waking, dreaming and deep sleep. Developed by the mathematician, Descartes.

190 Brain Re-engineering

understand its nature and functions during wakefulness and sleep. With current methodologies in science implicitly preoccupied with the waking experience, scientists have not pursued the functioning of the brain in dream and dreamless states as vigorously as the study of it in its waking experience. Moreover, with the initial inquiry of the Cartesian framework predisposed towards learning about the nature of the ‘waking world’, the origin and the need for dreams and dreamless sleep lay shrouded in the deepest of mysteries. Though there has been significant work done by Breuer, Freud, Charcot, Jung, etc. on the ‘Reality’ of dreams, psychology and psychologists have tried to interpret dreams based on waking experience. If we have to understand brain processes that contribute to growth and development systemically and comprehensively, a new conceptual scaffold, which assumes that mental phenomena can be empirically studied, and that which starts from sentience, is the need of the hour. With such a framework, it would be possible to integrate hitherto fragmented research evidence on dreams and dreamless sleep. The very purpose of sleep cannot be understood under the current conceptual scaffold. The need of the hour is a conceptual scaffold starting from ‘sentience’. It is this starting point that would help us ostensibly to define ‘life’ and annihilate stress. The scaffold would start from ‘dreamless sleep’ or NREM (Stage 4) and thereafter construct a model that would explain how our waking experience comes about in terms of genetic control, activation, expression and growth factors. Most inquiry into the nature of experience is limited by the unquestioned assumptions of the inquirer. Today’s scientist is unconsciously limiting himself to the waking experience by holding on to the physicalistic framework. He may be setting limits that would stifle his inquiry. It is synonymous to an astrologer who unconsciously assumes that the universe is limited to the solar system or the Milky Way. Once this is done, the theory that evolves is also limited. Let us not pooh-pooh the importance of assumptions. It was the embedded supposition that there is harmony in the universe that helped Albert Einstein explicate the General Theory of Relativity (GTR) and bring Newtonian Mechanics and the Laws of ElectroMagnetism under one overeaching theory.

Appendix 191

WHAT

IS

SLEEP?

Sleep can broadly be classified into two types of experiences: REM and NREM sleep. In REM sleep, rapid eye-ball movements, deactivation of voluntary muscles and irregular and accelerated activation of the autonomic nervous system takes place. NREM sleep, by contrast, lacks the visible motility of eye movements and muscle twitches, has a totally different EEG pattern which is synchronised and slow and appears to present more regular patterns of autonomic function. Traditionally, three primary measures have been used to define physiological sleep. These are: 1. The electroencephalogram (EEG) 2. The electrooculogram (EOG) 3. The electromyogram (EMG).

WAKEFULNESS

The EEG alternates between two major patterns during wakefulness. One is low voltage (about 10–30 microvolts), fast (16–40 Hz or cps; cycles per second) activity, often called an ‘activation’ or desynchronised pattern. The other is a sinusoidal3 8–12 Hz pattern (most often 8 or 12 Hz in college students) of about 20–40 microvolts which is called ‘alpha’ activity. The alpha activity is mostly found when the individual is relaxed and the eyes are closed. The ‘activation’ pattern is most prominent when subjects are alert with their eyes open and are scanning the visual environment. REMs may be abundant or scarce, depending on the amount of visual scanning, and the EMG may be high or moderate, depending on the degree of muscle tension. NREM: Stage 1 Alpha activity decreases, activation is scarce and the EEG consists mostly of low voltage, mixed frequency activity known as ‘theta waves’, much of it at 3–7 Hz. REMs are absent, but slow rolling eye movements appear. The EMG is moderate to low. 3

A wave pattern that has equal amplitude for both crest and trough.

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NREM: Stage 2 Against a continuing background of low voltage, mixed frequency activity, bursts of distinctive 12–14 Hz sinusoidal waves called ‘sleep spindles’ appear in the EEG. Eye movements are rare and the EMG is low to moderate. NREM: Stage 3 High amplitude (>75 mV), slow (0.5-2 Hz) waves called ‘delta waves’ appear in the EEG; EOG and EMG continue as before. NREM: Stage 4 There is a quantitative increase in delta waves so that they come to dominate the EEG tracing. REM The EEG reverts to a low voltage, mixed frequency pattern similar to that of Stage 1. Bursts of prominent rapid eye movements appear. The background EMG is virtually absent, but many small muscle twitches may occur against this low background. The EEG (electroencephalogram) patterns of brain functions show predominantly four distinct patterns. They are beta (12–40 Hz), alpha (8–12 Hz), theta (3–7 Hz), and delta (0.5–2 Hz).

Appendix 193

Glossary

Four major forces Adrenaline

Alpha waves

Anthropomorphism Antisense

Forces of gravity, electromagnetism, strong and weak nuclear forces Adrenaline, or epinephrine, is a hormone secreted by the central part (medulla) of the adrenal glands. It is the hormone that increases the heartbeat and blood pressure in response to stress or anxiety. The flow of blood to the muscles increases, the skin becomes paler, the pupils of the eyes dilate and energy-producing glucose is released from the liver. These changes prepare the body for immediate action. These waves range between 7–12 Hz. This is a place of relaxation when compared to the beta state. When an individual maintains alpha frequency all the time, he/she becomes more tuned to understanding the nature of current experience from the superficial level. It is the gateway to higher and subtle levels of understanding. Belief in a transcendental entity that has humanlike persona. It is a drug technology, a novel method where the drugs work at the genetic level to interrupt the process by which disease-causing proteins are produced. Proteins play a central role in virtually every aspect of human metabolism. Almost all human diseases are the result of inappropriate protein production (or disordered protein

196 Brain Re-engineering

Autonomic nervous system

Axon

Bacterial phage

Beta waves

performance). This is true of both host diseases (such as cancer) and infectious diseases (such as chicken pox). Traditional drugs are designed to interact with protein molecules throughout the body that support or cause diseases. Antisense drugs are designed to inhibit the production of disease-causing proteins. They can be designed to treat a wide range of diseases including infectious, inflammatory and cardiovascular diseases and cancer and have the potential to be more selective and, as a result, more effective and less toxic than traditional drugs. It controls involuntary functions in the body. These functions include gland activity, contraction of involuntary (smooth) muscles, blood pressure control, breathing, gastrointestinal function, urination, defecation, sexual function and the action of the heart. Within the autonomic nervous system, there are two divisions: the sympathetic system and the parasympathetic system. The long arm of a nerve cell that transmits the response of the neuron from all the inputs it receives at any moment of time, to the surrounding neurons. It is a virus that is used to treat various pathological cases where antibiotics have become ineffective or as an alternative to antibiotics. In this treatment, only a particular phage can kill a particular invading bacteria. These waves range between 13 and 40 Hz. The beta state is associated with heightened alertness, anxiety, worry, hand–eye coordination and visual perception. Nobel Prize Winner, Sir Francis Crick, and other scientists believe that the 40Hz frequency could be the neuronal correlate of Visual Consciousness.

Glossary 197

It is a tool by which an external input gives a continuous auditory or visual feedback to enable a person to maintain pre-determined frequency in the brain so that he/she becomes aware of and learns to control particular body functions that were previously assumed to be involuntary. In biofeedback therapy, the patient learns to control such bodily functions as heart beat, blood pressure, muscle tension, brain activity, etc. Biofeedback may be used to lower blood pressure, prevent headaches, reduce pain, etc. Bottom-up Processing When information flows from the bottom of the system to the top of the system, this is termed Bottom-up Processing. Lower level systems categorise and describe incoming perceptual information and pass this descriptive information on to higher levels for more complex processing. Brain processes Functioning of different areas of the brain. Butterfly effect Edward Lorenz, the pioneer of the Chaos Theory, proved using Poincaré’s mathematics, that a small change at one point in time in a system can lead to larger changes, which in turn trigger exponentially escalating effects. Cartesian paradigm Rene Descartes believed that the world can be empirically studied while the same does not apply to the study of the ‘mind’. Circadian rhythm It is the daily biological pattern in which sleep, hunger, variation in body temperature and other physiological changes occur. Cognition Individual awareness which can be represented by the thought form, ‘I am Aware that I am aware of X, Y, Z, etc.’ Cognitive dissonance It is ostensibly defined as the internal and subliminal resistance to learn, grow, change and adapt. In neurobiological terms, it is the inability of the individual to develop new Biofeedback

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neuronal circuitry, which is the fundamental basis for ‘Change’. Complex adaptive These are highly interactive systems that act in a systems non-linear fashion, e.g., an ecosystem, a human being, etc. The Dark Ages The period in human history where reason was cast to the winds and the whole belief system was based on superstitions. Delta waves Long, slow, undulating. Delta is the slowest of all four brain wave frequencies. Most commonly associated with deep sleep, certain frequencies in the delta range appear to trigger the release of Human Growth Hormone (HGH), which is beneficial for healing and regeneration. Maintenance of this frequency by one in the waking state of consciousness helps him use external input to drive neuronal activity and become capable of real-time processing. This is why deep appears restorative. Delta waves range between 0 and 4 Hz. Dyslexia It is a disorder leading to a variety of reading and writing problems. It may be a disturbed understanding of what is read, ranging from a minor disability to a complete and permanent inability to read that is inconsistent with the individual’s intelligence. It is often accompanied by an inability to spell correctly. Dyslexia appears to be caused by congenital or acquired brain damage, probably affecting the speech centres. Reading disorders tend to run in families. More boys are affected than girls. Dyslexia is not a sign of low intelligence. Affected individuals may benefit from special teaching. Eco-friendly economy A scientific management approach to the manufacturing, marketing and distribution of goods and services in such a way that these

Glossary 199

Education or Internalisation Empirical science Epicycles

Gene expression

Genes

Geocentric theory Global warming

Habituation

do not cause any long-term harm to the global environment. The word ‘educate’ come from two Latin terms, ‘edu’ and ‘cate’ which mean ‘to draw out from within.’ Theories based on data that can ultimately be verified by the senses. Epicycles are circular orbits within orbits that were used to describe the orbits of objects in the Ptolemaic system. Whenever there was aberration from predicted happenings in Ptolemy’s model of the solar system, it was explained away by stating that an orbiting planet (or moon) took an orbit about its own centre. This was used to explain any number of irregularities in the predicted calendar. It refers to the entire process whereby the information encoded in a particular gene is decoded into a particular protein. Genes are the basic units of heredity that carry ‘instructions’ for particular characteristics. Within the nucleus of nearly all human cells there are 23 pairs of chromosomes. Each cell contains thousands of genes. Exceptions are sex cells (eggs and sperm), which contain only 23 single chromosomes each. The theory is constructed on the belief that the earth is the centre of the solar system. The earth’s climate is predicted to change because human activities are altering the chemical composition of the atmosphere through the buildup of greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. The heattrapping property of these gases is undisputed. The strength of a synapse between two neurons is increased by the repeated activation of one neuron by the other across this synapse.

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Heliocentric theory Hormones

Hypothalamus

Hypothesis

Inductive leap

Ion gates

Limbic system

Market economy Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

The theory is constructed on the belief that the Sun is the centre of the solar system. Hormones are substances produced by glands (organs found throughout the body) that are carried to different sites in the body to affect various body functions. It is a part of the brain containing nerve centres that control appetite, thirst, body weight, fluid balance, body temperature and sex drive (libido). It is located below the thalamus and above the pituitary gland and acts as a link between the nervous system and the endocrine system. A framework for understanding, analysis and contemplation of acquired data. This forms the building block for a future theory. A researcher comes to an inductive conclusion when he makes a generalisation about an entire population based on observation of a limited sample. The limits under which this generalisation holds true are implicit. It needs a great effort on the part of a researcher to explicate them and understand where the generalisation holds in another framework. These are specific orifices that open and close on the neurons allowing the passage of ions like sodium, potassium, chlorine, etc. It consists of a group of brain structures associated with the autonomic functions of the body, with memory and with certain emotions such as anger, fear, happiness and sexual stimulation. The limbic system of the brain includes such structures as the amygdala, the cingulate gyrus and the hippocampus. It is an economy where consumers ultimately decide what they want. Abraham Maslow’s theory states that human beings are motivated by unsatisfied needs, and

Glossary 201

Master control genes or Homoeotic homeobox genes or Hox genes.

Materialistic philosophy Maya

Naturalism or Natural Science

Neuron Neuronal transmission Neurotransmitters

that certain lower needs—Physiological (hunger, thirst, bodily comforts, etc.), Safety/Security, Belonging and Love ( affiliate with others, be accepted), Esteem (to achieve, be competent, gain approval and recognition)—need to be satisfied before higher needs—Cognitive (to know, to understand, explore, aesthetics), SelfActualization (to find self-fulfillment and realise one’s own potential), Transcendence ( to help others find self-fulfillment and realise their potential—can be satisfied. These control the expression of a gene. They chemically ‘instruct’ a particular gene to be switched ON i.e., to make a functional protein or to be switched OFF, i.e., not to make this protein. These are governed by positive or negative signals that are transmitted through the cell. Materialism is a philosophical standpoint which believes that the whole gamut of experiences can explained in terms of matter. Perception of ‘Illusions’ as plausible experiences due to lack of interpretation of input stimuli from the senses or the mind. The science that strives to do away with the concept of a transcendental entity and explains the perceived world and the perceiving entity in terms of natural phenomena. Basic unit of the brain. Means by which neurons communicate with one another. These are substances in the brain that contribute to the transmission of nerve impulses between nerve cells. Levels of neurotransmitters such as serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine in the brain appear related to different thought and emotional processes.

202 Brain Re-engineering

Nociceptors Noradrenaline

Over-activation of brain areas Parasympathetic nervous system

Physicalistic philosophy Pituitary gland

Pre-cognitive areas in the brain

Perceptual receptors in the skin, muscle and other tissues that react to external stimuli. Or norepinephrine, is a hormone that is secreted by the sympathetic nervous system, nerve endings, nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, central part (medulla) of the adrenal glands, from where it passes into the bloodstream. Norepinephrine is a hormone that prepares the body for ‘fight or flight’ in situations of stress. It would mean excess blood flowing into a particular areas of the brain, stifling its normal, synchronised functioning. It is one of the two divisions of the autonomic nervous system, the other division being the sympathetic nervous system. Parasympathetic nerve fibres occur in some of the cranial nerves of the brain and in the sacral nerves of the lower end of the spinal cord. Parasympathetic nerves connect with many parts of the body, including the eyes, the internal organs and the intestines. The effects of the parasympathetic nervous system include constriction of the pupils, slowing of the heart rate, contraction of the bladder, increase in the rate of digestion, and constriction of the air passages (bronchi). The parasympathetic nervous system effectively calms the body down again, after the sympathetic nervous system has speeded up its responses. Physicalism is a philosophical standpoint which says that physics—past, present and future—can explain the nature of everything. It is a small gland about the size of a pea, situated at the base of the brain. It is larger in women than in men. The pituitary gland is connected by a short stalk to the hypothalamus. The areas of the brain associated with ‘understanding’ of abstract concepts, comprehension

Glossary 203

Primary cognitive areas

Pourusheyam

Real-time processing

Re-engineering

Reflection

Renaissance

of spacio-temporal (operational) functions and formulae, visualisation, etc. The areas in the brain that are believed to act as ‘spike arresters’ in the human brain, which help to maintain the equanimity and synchronicity in the human brain by checking its over-activation in various areas. Does not refer to the male gender in Sanskrit but to one who is willing to take on the world, to live life with a spirit of adventure, who wants to grow consistently and constantly throughout one’s lifetime. Real-time processing would mean instantaneous corrective action. These are self-correcting systems like in an aircraft where, if there is a technical snag while the aircraft is flying, the correction programmes are initiated and the snag killed at the inception. In the context of this book, it would mean that a natural corrective mechanism in the body kicks in every time there is a problem that is perceived by the cognitive system. It would also mean that perception, processing and response converge to bring about a particular reaction to an external stimuli. Here the cognitive system is totally input driven and all internal vacillations, indecisions, dithering have been quelled. Re-engineering (Business Process) is the strategic analysis of business processes and the planning and implementation of improved business processes. The analysis is often customer-centred and holistic in approach. Refers to the habit of mulling over an issue or concept over and over again, striving to perceive the possibilities that it posits from different points of view. The dawn of the need for a rationalistic belief system in the fourteenth century.

204 Brain Re-engineering

Sanathana Dharma Schizophrenia

Second messengers

Sentience or Consciousness Smart drugs

Stress

Stress cycle

Sympathetic nervous system

Those principles which lend support to the welfare of one and all. Sudden or gradual onset of disorganised and bizarre thinking; feelings of persecution; irrational behaviour; auditory hallucinations. Neurotransmitters can produce their effects by modulating the production of other signaltransducing molecules (‘second messengers’) in the post-synaptic cells. Pure awareness which even precedes the thought, I am aware. Cognitive enhancers which have been used to treat people with neurological or mental disorders, but there is a growing number of healthy,‘normal’ people who use these substances in hopes of getting smarter. Physical state caused by excess or repetitive production of harmful chemicals in the body, leading to the lowering of the capacity of the immune system. It starts when the opioid levels in the brain become very low. Low opioid levels automatically trigger the increase of Dopamine, leading to a feeling of increased alertness and anxiety. Continued Dopamine release causes emotional fatigue. It is part of the autonomic nervous system. It operates in conjunction with the parasympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system prepares the body for action by dilating the pupils of the eyes, cooling the skin and raising the blood pressure and pulse rate. The blood is diverted from the intestines to the skeletal muscles, and the adrenal glands are stimulated to produce the hormone epinephrine, which enhances these actions. All this activity raises the basic metabolic rate of the body, increasing the

Glossary 205

use of glucose released from the liver, and prepares the body for instant physical and mental activity. Synapse The space where the axon of one neuron and the dendrite/cell body interchange chemical signals. Telepresence It refers to the sense of being in an environment generated by natural or mediated means using computer graphics and other artificial media. Thalamus It is a collection of nerve cells situated above the hypothalamus. There are two thalami, one on each side of the midline of the brain. The thalami act as coordinating centres for nerve impulses from all the senses. The impulses are then relayed to the appropriate areas in the cerebral cortex, where they are consciously perceived. The Mozart Effect Immediately after listening to a selection of music played by Mozart, students taking a spatial reasoning test (from the Stanford-Binet intelligence scale) showed results that improved their scores. Theta waves In this state the brain becomes receptive to imagery, intuition, inspiration, ‘First Principles’, long-forgotten memories, etc. Theta waves range between 4 and 7 Hz. Viper Viper is a roller coaster at Six Flays Magic Mountain. Wellness programmes Programmes designed to help people combat stress through gyms, weight-loss programmes, etc. ‘Zone of intrinsic The term refers to the change brought about by motivation’ the prompting of genetic growth factors within the individual or a collective group of people pursuing a similar field of inquiry. As long as individuals and organisations (people following a particular field of inquiry) are pursuing this prompt, that exhibits itself in the form of triggering of certain brain areas, they are sure that stay well ahead of their niche customers.

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2. Hobson, J. Allen, Pace-Schott, E. and Stickgold, R. 2000. ‘Dreaming and the Brain: Towards a Cognitive Neuroscience of Conscious States’, BBS, 23 (6): XXXXXX. 3. Revonsuo, Antii. 2000. ‘The Reinterpretation of Dreams: An Evolutionary Hypothesis of the Function of Dreaming’, in BBS, 23 (6): XXX-XXX. 4. Hamel, Gary and Prahalad, C.K. January 1993. ‘Strategy as Stretch and Leverage’, in Harvard Business Review, vol. 71, issue no. 2, pp. 75–84. 5. Porter, E. Michael. January 1996. ‘What is Strategy’, in Harvard Business Review, vol. 74, issue no. 6, pp. 61–78. 6. Boyatzis, Richard, Mckee, Annie and Goleman, Daniel. April 2002. ‘Reawakening Your Passion for Work’, in Harvard Business Review. 7. Thomke, Stefan and Von Hippel, Eric. April 2002.‘Customers as Innovators— A New Way to Create Value’, in Harvard Business Review. 8. March 2002. ‘Psychometrics Wins All the Way’, in Human Capital. 9. Raijada, S.K. April 2001. ‘Organization Development, a Long and Arduous Journey’, in Human Capital, vol. 4, issue no. 11, pp. 22–25. 10. Sanchez, Ron and Collins, Robert P. December 2001. ‘Competing and Learning in Modular Markets—Long Range Planning’, in International Journal of Strategic Management. 11. Singh, Pritam and Bhandarkar, Asha. March 2002. ‘Ten Commandments for Organizational Renaissance’, in Management Review, vol. 14, no.1,pp. 9–26. 12. Wheatcroft, Patience. April 2002. ‘The Human Factor’, in Management Today, p. 29. 13. Borkowski, Mark and Alaily, Sherif. February 2002. ‘Finding a Fresh Perspective—Do You Need a Consultant, a Coach or a Mentor?’, in Management— CMA. Canada. 14. Bartlett, A. Christopher and Ghoshal, Sumantra. Winter 2002. ‘Building Competitive Advantage Through People’, in MIIT Sloan Management Review. 15. Srinivas, M. Vijayabhaskar. July 2001. ‘Look Beyond to Compete—The Only Way to Build Sustainable Competitiveness’, in The Journal of Indian Management and Strategy. World Wide Web References: 1. http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/helthrpt/stories/s307657.htm 2. http://www.arise.org/ 3. http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/issues/v155n1/abs/poa00191.html 4. http://bisleep.medsch.ucla.edu/sleepsyllabus/def.html 5. http://www.benton.org/DigitalBeat/db090299.html 6. http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/ehc.html 7. http://mednews.stanford.edu/news_releases_html/1999/mayreleases/ tvstudy.html 8. http://www.lcsc.edu/ps205/inside.htm 9. http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/1999/Jun-27-Sun-1999/

Index

Acetylcholine, 56, 57 acquisition, 90 action oriented decision-making, 104 actions, 174, 181 ‘active process’, 112, 133 adaptability, 44, 47, 66 ‘Adaptive Energy’, 52, 76 ADD, See Attention Deficit Disorder addiction, 124, 157, 178, 179 ADRENALINE, 59, 77 aggression, 96 alcoholism, 60, 61 alpha activity/waves (8-12 Hz), 126– 27, 128, 134, 135, 158, 161 ambiguity, 99, 108, 130, 143 amygdala, 95, 98 anger, 58, 117, 134 anterior cingulate gyrus, 69 Antisense drug technology, 141 anxiety, 46, 58, 60, 66, 78, 103, 117, 134, 157, 161, 162, 167, 178, 180 ‘Ascent of the Soul’, 155 Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), 78, 119, 166 austerity, 89 axon, 54–55, 56 azoospermia, 120 BVP, 126 behaviour, 46, 47, 60, 63, 112, 126, 133;

dissipative, 108, 160, 179; problem solving mode, 137–39 beta activity/waves (12-40 Hz), 119, 122, 124, 127, 134, 135, 161 Bigelow, W.G., 159 Blakemore, Colin, 162 blind faith, 97 bliss, 89, 90 Blum, Kenneth, 59 Bohm, David, 39 Botulinum Toxin (Botox), 120 brain : activation, 130, 136;— ‘lower’ cognitive functions, 92–93;—overactivation, 101, 102, 103, 108, 124, 143, 160, 176, 178, 179; cognitive processes, 29, 33–39, 45, 86; frequency pattern, 105, 136, 158, 167, 171, 172, 179, 180; and sensory inputs, 30–33; tissues, connectivity, 95; waves and their use in problem solving, 116–17 brain processing, 101, 102, 125, 127, 141, 143, 144, 145, 149, 151–52, 158, 163; analytical, 92–97; bottom-up, 112, 116, 125, 133, 135, 139, 144, 153, 155, 158, 164–65, 171, 174, 179, 180, 181; higher order, 96, 97, 126; improvement, 83; management, 180; optimisation through top-down process, 165–

212 Brain Re-engineering

72; top-down, 105, 106, 133–34, 145, 153, 158, 165, 174 Breuer, Dr., 156n, 157 Bti (Bacillus Hurringiensis varisraelensis H-14), 74–75 bureaucracy, 43n ‘Butterfly Effect’, 49–50 CET, See Consciously Encourage Thoughtlessness catastrophic consequences, 49, 50, 52 cerebral cortex, 70 Cerebral palsy (CP), 120 change, 88–89, 112; in Empirical Science, 90–1; our natural reluctance to, 86–88; process of, 83–84, 85, 86 Chaos Theory, 49 child’s behaviour, impact of television viewing, 31, 35 childhood aspirations, 98 Chopra, Deepak, 172–73 chronobiology, 172–4 Chudler, Eric, 62 cognition, 162 cognitive areas, primary, 101–2, 108, 116, 121, 134, 136, 147, 151, 174, 181 ‘cognitive dissonance’, 101 cognitive process/ system, 101, 113– 14, 115, 116, 117, 120, 121, 124, 133, 135, 144, 153 cognitive skills, 107 communication skills and the perfection, 170, 179 competitiveness, competition, 43–44, 79, 83, 87, 107, 109, 114, 145, 149; and bottom-up processing’s efficacy, 104–6 Complex Adaptive Systems, 76 complexity theory, 49

computer games, positive effect on children, 32 Comte, Auguste, 91 concept formulation, conceptualisation, 108, 127, 128–29, 132, 133, 135, 136, 144, 145, 146, 148, 153, 156, 161, 165, 175, 178 connectivity, 102, 135 Consciously Encourage Thoughtlessness (CET), 119, 120, 126, 131, 134, 165, 171 consciousness, 45, 101, 147, 158, 162, 163 consistency, 144 consumerism, 158 contemplation, 90 ‘Control genes’, 63 cortex, prefrontal, 99, 101, 108, 126, 127, 157 Corticospinal Tract, 67 cortisol, 118 creativity, 42, 96, 125, 129, 135 crisis management, 106 Cupoli, Michael, 35 curriculum and child’s behaviour, 96;—and imagination, 82 ‘Cushing’s syndrome’, 118 ‘Customer Delight’, 69 customer satisfaction, 91 Damasio, Antonio, 157 deception, 39–42 degradation, 89 delaying sense gratification, 125–27 delta activity/waves (0.5-2 Hz), 119, 134, 158, 161, 163, 171 dendrites, 55, 118 Dengler, Dieter, 70, 71 depravity, 89 depression, 58, 60, 118, 161, 166, 168;

Index 213

and thought process, correlation, 168 Descartes, Rene, 86 development, 81, 84, 85, 86 devotion, 89 dexterity, 102–4, 161 differentiation, 81, 83, 84, 85, 105, 107, 149; and innovation, development of new products through, 142–45 discipline and brain process, 172, 177– 78, 180–1 discovery, 135 disease and brain process, 78, 85 dopamine, 57, 58, 77, 123 drowsiness, 119 drugs, 62–63, 77 dualism, duality,163, 178 dyslexia, 65 EEG(electroencephalogram), 134 eccentricities, 124 eccentricity, 27 efficiency, 125 Einstein, Albert, 91, 144 emotions, emotional fatigue, 58, 66, 73–74, 77, 98, 103, 104, 106, 108, 126, 149, 157, 165, 166, 167, 170, 180 endomorphins, 117, 175 Endorphins, 57, 68, 70 enjoyment, 117 Enkephalins, 57, 60 equanimity, 101, 108, 149 ethnic cleansing, 34 evil, 32 ‘evoked potential’ (EP), 119, 121 excitement, 117,134, 157, 178 exerting, pre-cortex, 99, 101 experience, 113, 127, 155 expression, 75

failure, 113 feedback, 114, 133–34, 167; Biofeedback, 166–68, 169, 170; Neurofeedback, 166 feelings, 73–74, 103, 104, 108, 126, 134, 149, 165, 166, 167, 170, 174, 180, 181 ‘Fight-fright response’, 51 Fisher, Scot, 29 Fishhaut, Erna, 32 fitness, 172 flexibility, 44, 47, 66 fMRI, 86, 115, 166, 180 ‘Freedom from world by attachment’, 89 freedom, sense of, 175 frustration, 59, 66, 78, 117, 134, 157, 178 fundamentalism, 61, 82, 97, 164 GABA (Gaba Amino Butyric Acid), 57, 58, 59 gene activation and brain development, 93–97 ‘Gene Expression’, 63 genetic propensity, 98 Geodetic datun’, 91 Glucocorticoids (GCs), 118 goal-orientation,. 102 growth process, 99, 164, 172–74 GTR (General Theory of Relativity), See Relativity, General Theory of guilt and negative effect on people involved in problem-solving, 118 habituation, 105, 108, 137, 138, 152 Harris-Warrick, Ronald, 122 Hippocampus, 118 Holmes, H., 85 Homoetic homebox genes, 64

214 Brain Re-engineering

hormones, 57–58 human brain, See brain human growth, 81, 84, 85, 86, 91 hypnosis, 157–58 hypothalamus, 120 hypothermia, 156 ignorance, 77, 100; regarding the nature of brain process, 28, 33–39 illusions, 40, 42 immune system, 52, 124, 168 inactivation, 57 ‘Inductive Leap’, 37 ‘Inductive Spirit’, 89 infant’s, brain development, 92–95 information, 114 ingenuity, 83, 85, 87, 90, 160, 179 innovation, 42, 43, 81, 83, 84, 85, 89, 99, 105, 107, 126, 142–45, 149 input, 99, 101, 102, 105, 107, 108, 109, 111, 112, 116, 117, 119, 121, 124, 130, 133, 134, 135, 136, 143, 144, 151, 152, 153, 158, 160, 165, 166, 167, 171, 174, 176, 179, 180, 181; and brain development, 93–97 inquiry, spirit of, 97 insecurity, 58, 66, 78 insight, 144 inspiration, 117, 134 intellectual burnout, 106, 119 intelligence, 66, 171 internalisation”, 36 interpretation, 41–42, 106, 156, 159, 178 intuition, 144–45 ion passage, 58 irritation, 59 Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc., 141 Jones, Kenneth Lee, 62, 63

judgement and brain, 123, 124, 126, 135; errors, 105–6 Kearney, Michael, 98 knowledge, 97, 144, 153; internalised past and external stimuli, 114; quest for, 27, 106, 145 Kreek, Marry Jeanne, 59 Krishnamurthy, Jiddu, 66 learning process, 114, 115 Lewis, Otto, 55 life, concept of, 27–28; in a virtual world, 28–30 limbic system, 63, 66, 67, 70, 73, 74, 82, 95, 103, 118, 125, 126, 135, 149, 157, 180; activation, 122, 135;— over activation, 96, 97, 98, 99, 108, 124, 157 listening, 114, 116, 135, 166, 180 Loewi, Otto, 128 Lorenz, Edward, 49 MacArthur, Ellen, 63–64 Mach, Ernest, 91 manual work and health, 53 Marcus, Brophy, 62 market change, market economy and cognitive processes, 35–39, 43, 81–82, 113, 114, 117, 119, 120, 129, 141 maya, 42 meditation and prayer and the brain process, 155–56, 178 Melatonin, 58 Melzack, Ronald, 67, 68, 69 memory, 118 mental illness, 100, 101, 102 mental space, 28 mental toughness, 44–45, 47, 130–33, 136, 174–75, 177

Index 215

mental weakness, 42–45, 47, 102 mentor, mentoring, 102, 125, 165, 169, 173, 174–75 Microsoft Corporation, United States of America, 176 Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, 31 mimics, 68, 78 morality and stress and addictive behaviour, 59–63 Motivation, Intrinsic, 70–2, 5, 76 motor activity/skills, 93–95, 165 Mozart Effect, The, 32 music, effect on memory, 31 ‘Myelination’, 93 mylen, 94 ‘Mystical insight’, 144 NASA Ames VIEW, 29 nervous system, 54 nervousness, 102 networking circuitry, 120, 126, 127, 128, 130, 133 neuro theology, 155–62 neuronal circuitry, 92, 97, 99, 102–3, 105, 106, 107, 108, 111, 112–13, 114, 116, 117, 121, 124n, 125, 134, 135, 136, 138, 143, 144, 145, 148, 148, 165, 170, 173, 176, 179, 180; completion through bottom-up process, 164–65; construction of new, 146–47, 152, 153 neurons, 53–55, 56, 60, 70, 77, 118 neurotransmission, 55–57 Neurotransmitters, 58, 68, 77, 78; Supplements, 62 Newberg, Andrew, 155 No Rapid Eye Movement (NREM), 119, 134 nociceptors, 66, 67 Noradrenaline, 77

Norepinephrine, 57, 58–59 NREM, See No Rapid Eye Movement “nucleus accumbens”, 123 nucleus, 70 Nyaya-Vaisesika, 89 obesity, 53 Objectivity and judgement, 99 occultism, 89 oligopermia, 120 operational efficiency, 121 opioid level, 58, 59, 60, 61, 66, 75, 76, 77 over-eating, 60 oxytocin, 58 pain : gate-control theory, 67, 68; pathways in the brain, 66–69; three physiological dimensions, 69 paradigm shift, 88 parietal lobe, 100 passive process, See brain process, topdown Peck, M. Scott, 125 Perception, 39–42, 144, 145, 166, 174, 181 ‘Perfect Tranquillity and Freedom from Defilement’, 89 perfection, 89, 90, 137 perseverance, 113 personal counselling, 164 PET, See Positron Emission Tomography phenylethylmine (PEA), 57 physical exhaustion, 106 planning, 127, 128, 132, 133 pleasure, 117, 134 Poincaré, 49 positivism’, 91 Positron Emission Tomography (PET), 69, 86, 98, 115, 124, 126, 166, 180

216 Brain Re-engineering

pre-cognition, role, 100–1 Pribram, Karl, 97–98 pro-activity, 161 problem solving, 104, 141, 147, 153, 176; complexity and non-linearity, 127–30; issues not addressed, 137– 39 process, See brain process procrastination, 161 product development, new, process of, 147–52 profitability, 81 Puranas, 89 Purva Mimamsa, 89, 90 Qualia, 162, 163 Quality of Action, 78–79, 91 Rahe, Richard H., 85 rationalisation, 113 rationality, 66, 89, 90 reality, 42, 46; created by human brain, 30 Real-Time Processing, 45 reflection, 90 Relativity, General Theory of, 91 Reliance Industries, India, 176 rest, 58 reverse networking, 116, 121, 130, 134, 135, 136, 142 reward mechanism, negative effect of indiscriminate triggering, 122–25, 135, 165 Robinson, Thomas, 30 Robinson, Tom, 95–96 Ryll, Karl, 98 Sankhya-Yoga, 89 satisfaction, 117,134 scaffold, conceptual, 86, 88, 91, 97, 100,

101, 112, 133, 153, 158, 160, 162, 177; physicalistic, 87–88; scientific, 144; theoretical, 111; role for transcendence, 162–64 schizophrenia, 101 Schools of thought, 89–90 self-control, 99, 103, 107 Selye, Dr., 52, 76n sensation, 145 sense gratification, See delaying sense gratification sense organs, 55 sense perception, 144 sensitivity, 168 sensory inputs, 30–33, 37, 46, 77 sentience, 101, 162–63 serotonin, 59 sincerity, 113 sleep, 119, 128 socialising, 105 somatosensory cortex, 69 soul, 27 spasticity, 120 spatial reasoning test, 31–32 SPECT, 155 spinal cord and pain sensation, 66, 67, 68, 70 Spinothalamic Tract, 67 spirituality, 61 Standefer, Dennis, 34 Stapp, Henry, 142 status quo, 85 Sterling Resorts Ltd., 113 stimuli, 42, 55, 65, 66, 67, 73, 74, 75, 76, 78, 79, 102, 106, 107, 112, 114, 115, 124, 126, 143, 156, 160, 167, 178, 179; auditory, 31; visual, 30– 1, 92 stress, stress cycle, 36, 45, 58–59, 66, 69, 76, 77, 85, 106, 118,157, 175,

Index 217

178; and addictive behaviour, 59– 63; annihilation, 83, 84, 85, 152; management, 82, 84, 107; neurological explanation, 53–54; pragmatic solution, 72–77 supermatogenesis, 120 Sutherland, Ivan, 29 SWM (Shareholder or Stakeholder Wealth Maximisation), 81, 84 symbol, 144, 145, 148 synapses, 54–55, 60, 68 synchronicity, synchronisation, 101, 108, 119, 121, 134, 160–2, 174, 179, 180, 181

thoughtlessness, 119–20, 134 Todd, Deborah, 98 tolerance, 113 touch, 92, 93 tranquility, 149 transcendence, 162–64, 178 transformation, 112 transmission, 54 Truth, 27, 28, 97

taste, 91 television viewing, 60; negative impact, 31, 35, 99 Testosterone, 120 Tetris, 126 theta activity/waves (3-7 Hz), 128, 134, 135, 158, 161 thinking/thought, 149; analytical, 167, 180; clarity, 104, 108, 127, 135, 156, 158, 178; frequency, 135; linear, 99; non-linear, 100; pre-cognitive, 178; process, 96, 102; strategic and passive processing, 175–78

Vedas, 89 Ventosilla, Palmira, 74 Vesicles, 56 Viper, 30 Virtual Reality (VR), 28–30

understanding, 100, 147 ‘unsullied discriminative knowledge’, 89 Uttara Mimamsa (Vedanta), 90

Wall, Patrick, 67, 68 ‘wellness programmes’, 84–85 work-life relationship, 85 World Wrestling Federation (WWF), 31

About the Authors

N.S. Srinivasan has three Master’s degrees respectively in Indian Philosophy, Western Philosophy, and Consciousness Studies as also a Post-Graduate Diploma in Business Management. He has been consulting for leading Indian corporations like Hindustan Lever Ltd., Pepsico, and Tatas, besides conducting mentoring programs for senior management professionals on ‘The Art of Being Mentally Tough’ (ABMT). Mr Srinivasan has been working full-time for the last three years in the research and development of the neurobiological framework presented in this book. Before taking up consultancy and developing ABMT, he studied Indian philosophical thought for ten years under various gurus by living with them in different ashrams all over India. This sojourn was after he had completed his graduation in Physics. He can be contacted at [email protected] G. Balasubramanian is a Professor at the Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR), Chennai, and has a doctorate in neural networks. He has been associated for more than ten years with consulting and with training senior and middle level management in both the public and the private sectors. He has also been conducting extensive empirical research on blending systemic living with management practices. He can be contacted at [email protected]