/lit/ - Literature

French man asks a belgian to check if his blinkers are working, so he puts on the hazard lights

The belgian looks and say yes they work, wait they don't ! oh yes they work, oh wait no they don't ! oh but yes they work !

About a month ago I was reading "A Symphony in the Brain: The Evolution of the New Brain Wave Biofeedback", an exposition about (surprise) biofeedback. The author goes over the history of it, famous personalities, and the ways in which using neurofeedback to concentrate the brain on producing certain brain waves, which then has a variety of subtle and profound effects on mental functions: most notably, it has been shown great potential in curing seizures.

At one point, the author mentions several studies on focused Theta brain wave production. This is difficult to do, because Theta seems to correspond to the state of mind bordering on sleep, and subjects tend to fall asleep. In some cases however, people achieving a prolonged waking Theta state report auditory and visual hallucinations, involving some weirdly Jungian imagery (the author mentions seeing old men, feelings of traveling downwards, ect.).

This particular part struck me, and not just for its inherent spookiness either, but because the exact same experiences were described in another book I'd been just reading: Introduction to Magic by Julius Evola and the UR group. In that book, it describes the exact same experiences as being achievable through deep meditation, even the reported symbolism of descending and wise old wizards are the same. The difference is that it was written nearly 100 years ago, generations before brain imaging was even an idea.

Tom Wolfe wrote an essay on this subject called "Sorry But Your Soul Just Died". He ends with the following:
>"Recently I happened to be talking to a prominent California geologist, and she told me: "When I first went into geology, we all thought that in science you create a solid layer of findings, through experiment and careful investigation, and then you add a second layer, like a second layer of bricks, all very carefully, and so on. Occasionally some adventurous scientist stacks the bricks up in towers, and these towers turn out to be insubstantial and they get torn down, and you proceed again with the careful layers. But we now realize that the very first layers aren't even resting on solid ground. They are balanced on bubbles, on concepts that are full of air, and those bubbles are being burst today, one after the other.""
>"I suddenly had a picture of the entire astonishing edifice collapsing and modern man plunging headlong back into the primordial ooze. He's floundering, sloshing about, gulping for air, frantically treading ooze, when he feels something huge and smooth swim beneath him and boost him up, like some almighty dolphin. He can't see it, but he's much impressed. He names it God."

It seems to me like this is the current path of neuroscience. The most cutting edge is seemingly verifying what occultists and alchemists have known for centuries. It's interesting to see a field go full circle like that.

>>11798770
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw8bMDRld8k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m442ajPbQkI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_QLnENB8Zk

There's good music out there, but the ((cultural industry)) will never let it out there.

I've also been meaning to read this. I understand he builds off foucault's biopolitics but what else should one have read beforehand?

>>11698130
>muh what's bad
Why do you guys keep assuming the pics I'm posting are bad? They're merely reflections of the capitalist society in which we all partake.