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Mnemonic possibilities towards cognitive health


Transforming and Interweaving the Ways of Being Stoned (Part #8)

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For the purpose of this argument, the question is whether the image of the snake and the bowl can be used as an evocative (even provocative) mnemonic device to carry further significance in relation to sustaining a healthy cognitive system, its integrity, and any processes of corrective healing. The following possibilities could be considered:

Cyclic characteristics: It is readily acknowledged that physical health is dependent on a set of interacting circulatory systems (blood, lymph, air, nerve impulses, etc). The question is whether cognitive health merits similar recognition.

  • Cyclic nature of health from cognitive perspective: This has been discussed further in relation to the traditional Taoist understanding of the "circulation of the light" (cf. Circulation of the Light: essential metaphor of global sustainability? 2010). It is appropriate to note the importance attached to the pentagram in the western neo-pagan tradition -- especially given the attentive engagement with the natural environment in that tradition, offering a degree of bridging to the feng shui insights of Taoism relating to the environment.

  • Forms of enstoning as phases in a cyclic enwholing process: Namely the possibility of mapping onto the implications of various form of "being stoned". Use of the "bowl" might itself imply a 5-stage process:
    • imbibing an intoxicating potion (from the bowl) -- variously consistent with the subjectivity of dreams of strategic possibilities and visions (Annex 1)
    • preparation of a healing potion (within the bowl) -- as with the elaboration of remedial measures (Annex 2 )
    • production of healing tablets -- as with articulation of measures as (tabular) prescriptions (potentially competing with one another, as acclaimed and vigorously contested panaceas). From a cognitive perspective, such "tablets" could be understood more generally to include insightful tables and graphical configurations, whether with a scientific or religious focus (Annex 3 )
    • compilation of a pharmacopoeia (of pills that may be taken) -- as with collection of strategic measures and practices "that work", provided it can be remembered when they are variously appropriate and how to implement them (Annex 4)
    • administration of potions and pain-killers to effect change variously experienced (by the patient) -- as with implementation of objective strategic measures, typically destructive in part (Annex 5 )

    In the cycle, the last then engenders the first -- objectivity "re-cognized" and reframed experientially.

  • Recognizing the systemic cycle implied by the snake: As represented in the two images above, there is little sense of the dynamic in which the snake is engaged. In both cases the image is essentially asystemic, whether or not systemic connectivity is variously implied. Further possibilities include:
    • the circular stirring motion associated with appropriately mixing ingredients through that motion (in the bowl)
    • the completion of the cycle by the snake to form an Ouroboros, implying a higher order of sustainability and cognitive integrity
    • the implication that the snake enables and embodies circulation, as explored with respect to the above-mentioned "circulation of the light"
    • the potential of any "connection" between head and tail of the snake, as an indication of self-reflexivity (as discussed below)

  • Engaging with a "cosmic serpent": In a period of global environmental concern in which one preoccupation is possible disruption to the world-encircling thermohaline circulation -- the ocean conveyor -- its serpentine pattern is fruitfully echoed by the serpent in both images. This mythological theme, otherwise recognized as the Rainbow Serpent, has been extensively explored by Jeremy Narby (The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the origins of knowledge, 1995) in the light of insights from the Ashaninca, through their ingestion of entheogens, specifically ayahuasca (by which they are ritually "stoned"). As Narby argues, the serpent offers mnemonic clues to the form and dynamic of DNA. The pentagram of Hygiea might even be considered indicative of an axial view of its structure (as mentioned above in terms of a decagon).

    Hygiea's alleged preoccupation with "caring for snakes" -- understood in relation to the global health of the environment -- is indicative of the wisdom of a healthy concern for the ocean conveyor, as previously discussed (Potential Misuse of the Conveyor Metaphor: recognition of the circular dynamic essential to its appropriate operation, 2007). A widely recognized consequence of the lack of care for this conveyor is the expanding gyre of marine litter in the central North Pacific Ocean, known as the the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (or Pacific Trash Vortex). Systemic analogues within individual and collective psychology can be readily imagined. Provocatively it may be imagined that the circulation of a multiplicity of factoids and opinions via the web might come to be seen in this light.

    Given the currently evident global financial crisis and that of the eurozone, it is appropriate to recognize that the serpent metaphor, in the form of the "snake in the tunnel", was the first attempt at European monetary cooperation in the 1970s. It aimed at limiting fluctuations between different European currencies. Controlling serpentine fluctuations is currently a design preoccupation in the control of circulating nuclear plasma in fusion reactors -- seen as a key resource for future energy needs. Both suggest analogues of relevance to cognitive health (Primary Global Reserve Currency: the Con? Cognitive implications of a prefix for sustainable confidelity, 2011; Enactivating a Cognitive Fusion Reactor: Imaginal Transformation of Energy Resourcing (ITER-8), 2006)

The above possibilities contrast curiously with the emphasis on health as a state rather than a process. For the World Health Organization: Health is a state of complete of physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. The contrasting view has been notably articulated by Pierre Morin (Health as a Process: believing in change as healing and that healing is change, Creative Healing Blog, 2012): Health is not a state, but a process which is guided by a norm or standard which when threatened stimulates our awareness and motivates us to change.

Morin's further comment, with respect to health as a dream, is consistent with the first form of "being stoned" (Annex 1): Health is a vision or dream and as such it creates a directional and motivational pull for us to overcome our health challenges and injuries. Without this vision there is no reason for change and improvement.

In the Handbook of Health Behavior Research (1997), edited by David S. Gochman, the lack of agreement on whether health is a state or a process is specifically mentioned, noting:

A few atypical approaches raise the question of whether it makes more sense to think of health as a process. Within the context of Kierkegaardian psychology, health is viewed as the ability to deal with paradox or contradiction... such as tendencies to expand or constrict thoughts, feelings, and sensations, and to attach or separate. (p. 11).

The Handbook of Research on Adult Learning and Development (2008), edited by M. Cecil Smith, comments:

A unifying theory on health as a process variable still warrants further development. Aldwin, Spiro, and Park (2006) suggests conceptualizing health as a life-long process. They advocate that life-span psychology principles be applied to the study of health... the recognition of the dynamic interaction of gains and losses... As a process variable, health needs to be understood as a dynamic and fluctuating state variable rather than as a static trait variable. (p. 25).

Expressed in this way however, the cyclic nature of the experiential processes associated with health is obscured. It is further obscured when the process is understood in terms of treatment, care or health promotion (cf. S. Cowley, Health-as-process: a health visiting perspective, J. Adv Nurs, 1995; Frank H,. Millard, Public Health as a Process Control System: a simple application of systems theory, 2007). Appropriate to this argument, interest in "process health" is a preoccupation with respect to evaluation of industrial processes on which there is a body of literature.

The mystery of health might therefore be better explored as one of "living a process" or "living through process" as implied by a variety of references (cf. Sustainable Living: a process approach, Adventists for the Environment). Healthy identity could then be fruitfully understood as living through interlocking processes, as discussed separately (Emergence of Cyclical Psycho-social Identity: sustainability as "psyclically" defined, 2007).

Pattern characteristics: In the light of the above argument regarding health as a dynamic, it is then useful to consider detectable patterns in terms of understanding of standing waves.

  • Engendering the "bowl" from the "pentagram": The relationship would seem to have been lost between the original articulation of "hygiene/health" through the pentagram (by the Pythagoreans) and the later "bowl/snake" imagery. However it is possible to recognize:
    • the pentagram as framing a two-dimensional projection of the bowl at its centre -- somewhat reminiscent of the traditional lotus flower with petals (see discussion below of memetic osmosis)
    • the lines of the pentagram as implying the systemic connectivity from which the form of the bowl emerges as a three (or higher) dimensional dynamic
    • the systemic nature of the lines of the pentagram as implied by the behavioral characteristics of the snake, most notably various circulatory processes vital to sustainability

    A relevant clue is offered by the arguments of Pherecydes as a mentor of Pythagoras, regarding the Pentemychos ("five-nooks," or "five hidden cavities") -- considered by commentators to be the most probable origin of use of the pentagram as a representation of health, especially inner health (as particularly associated with eudaimonia, now a feature of extensive research into human well-being and happiness). The star pentagon image might be said to neatly distinguish and frame such "cavities".

  • Recognizing emergence of a "chalice" from the "bowl": It is curious that a more fundamental symbol for long-term "health" within Western culture is the Chalice -- the focus of many mythological tales and quests for a panacea and eternal youth -- as with "health" itself, as conventionally understood. The question is how a pattern of systemic processes might engender and frame a "chalice/bowl", as previously mentioned (In-forming the Chalice as an Integrative Cognitive Dynamic: sustaining the Holy Grail of global governance, 2011).

    This possibility could take account of discontinuities and phase changes in a self-reflexive cognitive process, as previously explored (Interrelating Cognitive Catastrophes in a Grail-chalice Proto-model: implications of WH-questions for self-reflexivity and dialogue, 2006). What is the operative nature of the questions enabling cognitive healing and health -- as implied by the Zen koan? What reframing might enable recognition of questions of a quality responsive to the dilemma posed by James Hillman and Michael Ventura (We've Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy - And the World's Getting Worse, 1993)?

A further possibility is the recognition of the emergent pattern as essentially based on a 5-fold resonance -- as a resonance hybrid -- analogous to that extensively explored in the structure of organic molecules, most notably the 6-fold benzene molecule, so fundamental to life (cf. Patterns of Alternation: cycles of dissonance and resonance).

*** Stella 3D image

Human characteristics: Health is readily framed as a technical problem calling for management of isolated symptoms. Those suffering may call for a more holistic understanding.

  • Necessity of health "with a human face": The "excision" of the depiction of Hygiea from the symbolic representations of "health" and "hygiene" (above) -- which she originally embodied -- suggests the merit of an argument equivalent to that made so dramatically by UNICEF against the IMF focus on "structural adjustment" (UNICEF, Development with a Human Face, 1997). Does the absence of a "human face" imply preference for an equally problematic logic by conventional medicine, as would be argued by proponents of alternative and complementary medicine? However the merit of having done so is to imply that health as represented by Hygiea in many ways transcends that "visible" to conventional medicine. That transcendent health is then framed as systemically and cognitively contextual -- perhaps to be understood as a meta-pattern of (cognitive) connectivity, as argued by Gregory Bateson (Mind and Nature: a necessary unity, 1979) in making the point that:

    The pattern which connects is a meta-pattern. It is a pattern of patterns. It is that meta-pattern which defines the vast generalization that, indeed, it is patterns which connect.

    The "excision" argument could be considered as complemented by the unfortunate restrictions on use of the official symbol of global public health -- classified as the intellectual property of WHO (to be replicated at one's legal peril). Are both cases indicative of the extent to which communication of the essence of health has effectively become implicit or a secret? (cf. Global Strategic Implications of the "Unsaid": from myth-making towards a "wisdom society", 2003). Are both images indications of non-self-reflexivity -- or of a form of self-reflexivity as yet to become evident?

  • Requisite complementarity for collective health: It is curious, but consistent with the "rocks" cluster of Annex 3, that the principle of complementarity valued by physics is so systematically deprecated with respect to global strategic considerations and national politics. There are frew traces of efforts to hold this complementarity without condemning the other as misguided and dangerously irresponsible (cf. Remedies to Global Crisis: "Allopathic" or "Homeopathic"? Metaphorical complementarity of "conventional" and "alternative" models, 2009; All Blacks of Davos vs All Greens of Porto Alegre: reframing global strategic discord through polyphony? 2007). It is not difficult to infer that this cognitive incapacity may have major implications for individual health (Implication of Personal Despair in Planetary Despair, 2010; Cognitive Implications of Lifestyle Diseases of Rich and Poor, 2010).

  • Multiple implications of "remedy" and "medicine": These are variously explored in the problematic debate between conventional and complementary medicine. Of particular interest are:
    • measurable outer health vs. subjective inner health and well-being (including happiness)
    • the ambiguity in prescription of remedies which are effectively poisons, especially when taken in excess
    • the dangerously addictive nature of some remedies -- of which "the snake" may be a metaphor
    • imposition of remedies against the desire of the patient

Inner health: The systematic identification of the more evident diseases and disorders suggests the possibility that these could be used as a means of deriving insight into the nature of disorders of "inner health" -- understood as being "intangible" but systemically analogous (cf. Cognitive Implications of Lifestyle Diseases of Rich and Poor: transforming personal entanglement with the natural environment, 2010; Memetic and Information Diseases in a Knowledge Society: speculations towards the development of cures and preventive measures, 2008).

With respect to the cognitive emphasis here -- the considerable investment from a Chinese perspective on "inner alchemy" merits attention (Wang Mu, Foundations of Internal Alchemy: the Taoist practice of Neidan, 2011; Livia Kohn and Robin R. Wang, Internal Alchemy: self, society and the quest for immortality, 2009). For Ye Zude and Maurice Yolles (The Cybernetics of Taoist System Thinking):

However, beyond TCM [Traditional Chinese Medicine] there is a hidden system of thought that arises from Taoist thinking, and that is sometimes referred to as Taoist Internal Alchemy. The Chinese notion of alchemy originated from a search for immortality using drugs, herbs, and chemicals, and was called waidan or external alchemy. Besides this the neidan or internal alchemy also developed, concerned with life-force and the attainment of immortality of the personality. The two together (waidan and neidan) constitute the relationship between the mind and body, which is the interest of this paper.

Within the context of medicine, waidan approaches have been explored by laboratory techniques and processes of evidencing, resulting in current medical practices and knowledge. It is also, consistent with the structural notions of systems as explained by Gu, et al. (2007). Beyond the systemic view however, there is also a cybernetic dimension that explores its inherent principles of communications and control. Yin-yang, 5-elements, jiag-qi-shen, and bagua are all illustrations of cybernetic processes expressed in different terms.

Much has been done to clarify the cognitive implications of classical "European" alchemy in relation to those of modern physics in various studies by Steven M. Rosen (Pauli's Dream: Jung, Modern Physics and Alchemy, 2011; Topologies of the Flesh: a multidimensional exploration of the lifeworld, 2006). In the latter he notes:

Ancient and medieval alchemy were for the most part prerational. They involved a certain absence of distance between psyche and physis or subject and object, an inability to distinguish the two sharply.... Just this fundamental confusion was reflected in pre-Renaissance alchemy's notorious difficulty with sealing the "Spirit Mercurius" into the bottle. In my essay [Pouring Old Wine into a New Bottle, 1995], I demonstrated the promise of the modern topological approach to the problem. I suggested that there is a greater likelihood of hermetic closure in the new alchemy because it benefits from advances in science, mathematics, psychology, and philosophy -- that is, from a heightening of reflective consciouness. What the modern alchemist can grasp that the ancient alchemist could not is the onto-topodimensional nature of the uroboric vessel, entailing as it does the self-permeation of three-dimensional Kleinian Being. The new incarnation of the alchemical bottle, being constructed of "perfected glass"... i.e. constructed in terms of the conceptually mature, highly differentiated idea of mathematico-ontological dimension -- can contain the "mercurial genie" in a way that the old bottle could not. (pp. 187-188)

Such language justifies very careful reflection on the cognitive implications of current reserarch on the design of toroidal nuclear fusion reactors, as discussed separately (Enactivating a Cognitive Fusion Reactor: Imaginal Transformation of Energy Resourcing (ITER-8), 2006; Complexification of Globalization and Toroidal Transformation: topological implications of invagination and gastrulation in embryogenesis, 2010; Implication of Toroidal Transformation of the Crown of Thorns: design challenge to enable integrative comprehension of global dynamics, 2011).

Self-reflexivity through mirroring and complementarity: The various postures of the snake in the Bowl of Hygiea, in the Rod of Aesclepius, and in the Caduceus, merit reflection in relation to cognitive "health" in its most general sense -- individual and collective, encompassing sustainable governance. With respect to the Bowl, the snake is focused on looking "into it". With respect to the Rod, it may well be represented as looking "elsewhere". With respect to the Caduceus, the snake is "intertwined with a pair" (possibly the embodiment of the rod), with each looking at the other.

These postures variously suggest or avoid:

All these postures variously imply the effort to "make a connection" with some form of complementary otherness necessary to "health". The long-standing misleading use of the caduceus as the insignia of the Medical Corps (MC) of the U.S. Army (as noted above), was corrected in the case of the United States Air Force Medical Service in using the Rod of Aesclepius in its own insignia -- subsequent to its formal separation from the Army.

Of particular relevance to the "stoning" theme of this argument is the extent to which both military services have central responsibility for the use of drugs to enhance the capacity of personnel under stress in dealing with "others" (cf. Stimulant Use in Extended Flight Operations, Airpower Journal, Spring 1997; Soldiers at war in fog of psychotropic drugs, The Seattle Times, 9 April 2012).

Failure to establish a healthy connection with oneself, emblematic of the wider strategic issue, may also be usefully explored in relation to the incidence of suicide in combat arenas (cf. Army faces highest monthly total of suicides, Army Times, 16 August 2012). Ironically aerospace requirements have resulted in remarkable technical facility in development of connectivity (in-flight refuelling, shuttle docking, tactical communications, etc).

Encompassing the twisting representation of snake dynamics implies the existence of a higher order of cognitive challenge -- usefully framed with respect to self-reflexivity in terms of "twistedness" and its paradoxes (Twistedness in Psycho-social Systems: challenge to logic, morality, leadership and personal development, 2004; Engaging with Questions of Higher Order: cognitive vigilance required for higher degrees of twistedness, 2004). This possibility has notably been explored by Douglas Hofstadter (I Am a Strange Loop, 2007) as discussed separately (Sustaining a Community of Strange Loops, 2010).

It could be argued that art has occasionally endeavoured to embody this paradoxical understanding of individual identity, as with the Cubism of Picasso, Braque and Gris. Consistent with this argument, some sculpture -- such as that of Henry Moore -- could be seen as an approximation to a Klein-bottle embodiment of individual identity in stone. The cognitive challenge of such paradox with respect to collective identity has been discussed separately (Strategic Complexity 8 Attracting Consensus: Klein is beautiful 8 Sustaining identity in time, 2011) -- notably with respect to the extensive treatment by Steven M. Rosen (Topologies of the Flesh: a multidimensional exploration of the lifeworld. 2006).

The constrained ability of an individual to encompass the cognitive dynamics of the paradox might well encourage the framing of dialogue with oneself as comparable to talking to a stone -- as explored by Nobel Laureate Wislawa Szymborska (Conversation With AStone, 1997). The "conversation" is interpreted by Mary Ann Furno, who introduces her review (Sarmatian Review, January 2006) with the following citation:

Throughout the Middle Ages... the stone remained the main symbol of folly -- hard, impenetrable, stolid... It was above all a metaphor which demonstrated well-nigh mythologically the intrinsically foolish nature of human beings. (Anton C. Zijderveld, Reality in a Looking Glass: rationality through an analysis of transitional folly, 1982).

As Furno then notes:

In Conversation With A Stone, Wislawa Szymborska gives "her" stone a voice; further, she allows a dialogue with an unidentified speaker who remains quite insistent throughout that this stone should allow entrance to its "insides" so as to "have a look around." Quite a bit of folly takes place here as the ensuing exchange develops. But then, Szymborska is a poet, and she considers it her business to rekindle Memory with its original Understanding that reality is not what it appears to be.

In the light of such terms and the arguments of Rosen, is the engagement with globality fruitfully to be understood as Intercourse with Globality through Enacting a Klein bottle (2009)? Rosen refers to the inscription -- known as the Enigma of Bologna -- on a much-studied tombstone, which concludes:

The Enigma of Bologna
This is a tomb that has no body in it.
This is a body that has no tomb round it.
But body and tomb are the same.
Translation of concluding stanza from Latin, in commentary by Carl Jung
(Mysterium Coniunctionis: an inquiry into the separation and synthesis of psychic opposites in alchemy, 1963)

The paradox is helpful in suggesting the nature of the relationship between the "petrification cluster" (Annex 5) and the "imagination cluster" (Annex 1) by which the fivefold cycle is renewed.

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