We all have two minds.

Consciousness is not singular. Our brain produces two consciousness potentials. They glide along the synapses representing a complex array of connections that may or may not contain meaning. They are like ethereal trains being ever created and ever changed by subconscious layers combining and cooperating to produce consciousness. Each side of the brain is capable of creating high fidelity conscious streams. Streams that, if focused on and stabilized, create what we call consciousness.

Harmony between the two lobes can lead to enlightenment and/or flow states. Harmony between the two lobes comes from the practice of focusing on each stream. Understanding each one as separate consciousnesses that intermingle and inform each other's behavior. Each brain develops from subconscious experiences and then, with self-awareness, develops a certain level of consciousness. Each with their own defense mechanisms, habits, and dysfunctions. Each with its own potential for clarity and inclusion. Each with its own merits and importance. And ultimately accepting that the two are really in one creature designed to survive and thrive.

Perception is singular. We only perceive one consciousness at a time. Our perception allows for feedback to the other consciousness not being perceived. We communicate with ourselves as if there are two minds when we debate a problem or impersonate someone else. When we learn from those around us we have to imagine the mind of the other person which is easier because we are evolved to monitor two streams of concepts. When we put ourselves into the mind of someone else we perceive our own consciousness as well as utilize our second consciousness to role-play as the "other". We "watch" ourselves.

If we watch ourselves reacting to a stimulus via a recording, such as a video, then we are engaging in the third dimension of consciousness. One that allows for an additional source of perception and feedback. When one observes one's self one becomes two in the mind again.

Free will is the feedback loop that occurs when one influences one's self. When one observes their own perception and their consciousness in a way that acknowledges and manifests the concept "I am my own master."

Our consciousness is like the universe. It is like DNA. It is like a binary star.

Schizophrenia is a malfunction in the perception mechanism in that it always for two many conscious layers to surface and combine in unpredictable and unstable ways.

Each side of the brain is capable of mimicking the other. They each create crude backups to memories and functions held in the other half. This has a multitude of practical benefits. One is that if there is damage to one part of the brain that function may already have a backup stored in the other half as a reference or analog. The mimicry can be completely abstract and complexly differentiated.

We utilize our model of ourselves to create simulations and to learn lessons. We imagine what we might have done as if we were someone else. We think about what other's might have done as if we were them. When we run these scenarios we recreate the details with more or less accuracy and each piece of the lesson can be analogized and broken down into generalizations, references, categories, metaphors, syllogisms or what have you. We try to simplify the lesson in an effort to more efficiently extract any knowledge and wisdom from it.

Two Minds in One Brain

More Notes:

The right brain is for mimicking the left brain and the environment. It is more creative and physical. The right brain is for imagination. For non-verbal representations. For senses and feelings. It is intuitive and spontaneous.

The left brain is more logical and organized. It uses language to create meaning. To connect thoughts. To rationalize. The left brain is for solving problems. For remembering words and doing mathematical calculations.

Mimicking allows for learning. Sympathy. Perspective shifting. Mimicking allows for model building. For system testing or prediction modeling.

The left brain observes the model and dissects it. Analyzes it. Connects parts into a meaningful whole. It categorizes. Catalogs.

Maybe during sleep, the right half has more sway and when we are awake the left side holds more sway. This would be beneficial because it would allow the two sides to exercise their strengths more equally throughout the day. Also, it would allow us to be more rational while awake. More focused but during sleep, the left side is more of a follower than a leader and the right brains takes over allowing for the imagination to run rampant. This is why our dreams are so visually and emotionally stimulating but why we struggle to encode them. The right brain is not good at encoding experiences into easily recalled terms. As we awaken the right brain relinquishes control and the left brain takes over.

When we are awake the right side is either as fast or slightly slower. Not sure if the right side is a follower while we are awake or just running without a language. It might be processing things as fast and just as important but because it is missing a formal language... A deaf person surrounded by hearing people will follow someone around to start understanding the world. They would watch the person react to things. They would watch them interacting with the world and would learn how to experience and interact with the outside world for themselves. Just because there isn't a formal, verbal language there is still an internal language or protocol. There must be some mechanism for action and reaction and for learning.

But is something conscious if it has no language?

If a person loses the ability to communicate, are they still conscious? If so, how would we know?

How do we know someone is conscious other than that they communicate it to us. We tell each other that we are conscious. We tell ourselves that we are conscious. We believe that we are conscious. The definition of consciousness seems to be the feeling inside our heads that is self-reflective, narrative-driven and

The separation between the hemispheres is what allows for the ability to attend to two things simultaneously as long as their forms occupy different domains. Such as music with no lyrics and writing. Or listening to music with lyrics while jogging. Or listening to people speaking while driving. One part of the brain is able to take over control of the body without the need for the language parts freeing up the language parts to be used independently.

The split brain would explain why one can have a meaningful experience from a dream or hallucination or event without having a proper way of describing it. For an event example: If someone jumps out of a plane then there is little to rationalize so the right brain takes over allowing the person to feel the situation and experience it more emotionally.

A hallucination occurs when the right and left side are perceived simultaneously by perception. The right brain is making things up while the left brain is trying to fit these things into their rational models. The person has access to language and imagination to a degree normally unavailable. I wonder if corpus callosum activity is increased due to certain drugs.

Auditory Hallucinations as the Only Presenting Symptom of Right-Parietal Spontaneous Hemorrhage: FDG-PET Evidence of Corpus Callosum Hyperactivity
https://neuro.psychiatryonline.org/doi/pdf/10.1176/appi.neuropsych.11020054

An out-of-body experience is the opposite experience of falling out of a plane. In the out-of-body situation, the body is not being felt so the right side has nothing to feel other than emotions stored in the brain. It has no outside stimulus so the left side can take over. It creates elaborate rationalizations and can recall things that they wouldn't be able to normally. The left side takes over and tries to create meaning through language and it uses whatever the most deep-seated concepts you have. When asked it applies your most sophisticated language abilities to the task of explaining the out of body experience to others.

An experienced skydiver has jumped out of a plane so many times that can start thinking from the left side of the brain again. I bet that an experienced skydiver's right and left brain are in such harmony and cooperation during a dive that they are equally stimulated and equally attended to and the person feels at one with themselves and the universe. The two streams act as one allowing the person to feel and think in a way that is complimentary. They fuse together filling the person with understandable emotion. It is the opposite of internal chaos.

Language allows for communication, systematization, ideation, and mathematics.

Split Brain Patients:

It would make sense that an adult or someone sufficiently old enough would have a more integrated perception of self that permeates the entire brain and it's the concept of self prior to being cut would remain intact. As time goes by the two minds integrate and live generally as one entity so when they are cut later in life the person is mostly integrated other than a few physical abnormalities.

I wonder what the effects would be on a person born with no corpus callosum. Would they ever feel like a single person? The body would be the mediator. They would have to share the body. I wonder if the right side would be forced to adapt and create a language even just to communicate with the left side. Would they be like twins with their own language?

Consciousness:

Consciousness is a mechanism that grounds us in the now. It is a metronome that pulsates with the rhythm of the present. It measures time and by accessing memories it connects the past to the present. Consciousness analyzes, contemplates, feels, and interacts with the inner and outer worlds simultaneously. Consciousness is the rider on the wave of the nexus or apex of the two minds streaming across the synapses like a massive current, creating waves of experience.

Is consciousness just the voice in the head? The narrator of the story? Is it just the observance of an internal language generator? Is it what allows us to answer questions related to wakefulness? If a person can respond to other humans then we assume they are conscious. If we ask someone if they are conscious they will likely say yes. If we ask ourselves if we are conscious we will likely respond yes. If the internal observer is consciousness then what generates it? In what structure/s does it reside? What structures are their tools? How does it remain stable and singular? How does it become unstable and chaotic?

Is it just the opposite of the unconscious? When we are unconscious are we running on purely subconscious brain activity? So when we are awake and feel conscious we are doing the same that as when we are asleep except we have an added layer on consciousness.

Is consciousness in the corpus callosum? It can't be because when people have the corpus callosum cut they are still conscious. Do they feel disconnected from certain thoughts, feelings or actions? Since each side of the body is controlled by one side of the brain than when they are disconnected the two halves of the body could act independently. At least to some degree. I'm sure that certain aspect of the brain does not require communication between hemispheres and therefore continue to run normally. Many of these functions are probably related to automatic bodily functions that are so vital they do not require that the hemispheres communicate.

Music:

If music engages both sides of the brain in a harmonious way then that must help align the streams of consciousness allowing them to become fused and coordinated. Music is creative, surprising, and aesthetic which is appreciated and focused on by the right side. The left side is attracted to and focused on the rational nature of music. Music is rhythmic, measured, mathematical, and when there is singing the left side is even more enticed. Songs evoke emotion and contemplation. When music is the best the two minds become so in tune that the self disappears and the two become one with time devoid of self-centered ego.

Brain structure linked to hallucinations and musical aptitude: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171211140832.htm

Music is fundamental to humans just as sleeping is in that they are both activities that create a balance between the minds. I think that activities that stimulate the two minds in a harmonious way are valued in societies and perpetuated through culture. This would explain why music, stories, and sports proliferate in societies that have the time to indulge in them and why nearly every human society engages in these kinds of activities.

Also, these kinds of activities are social and can help connect people with each other. People are drawn to things that engage their minds and bodies and the ones that do this harmoniously thrive.

The bad side of two minds:

If both sides of the brain are in sync but are both contemplating negativity, doubt, fear etc they work together in a way that creates problems like depressions, nervousness, mania. Actually, with mania, I am not sure what is going on. Maybe the left brain takes over too much and is overstimulated and manifests a frenzied state.

The body:

The fact that the right brain is connected with the left side of the body and vice versa with respect to the left brain makes perfect sense if the two brains are to act in harmony. Because of this fact even if the two hemispheres are disconnected, as in the split-brain patients, the person does not fight themselves to move about the world. The right and left do not try to take their half somewhere else because their half is connected to the other half through the body and the nervous system.

The body and the mind are linked inexorably. They need each other to live and to communicate. If the body is made of cells and cells are like machines then our body needs an "internet". Our nervous system is the bodies internet and allows for massive amounts of communication. The brain needs oxygen and other supplies and gets these things from the body. The lungs breath in oxygen which is absorbed into the bloodstream. The blood is pumped to the brain which keeps the brain alive. The brain helps protect and direct the body ensuring it stays alive.

The body feeds back information to the mind about how the body is doing. Pain indicates to the brain that there is a mutually beneficial reason to solve the problem. The brain analyzes the problem and takes measures to solve the problem (if solutions are available). The body responds to the problem as well and does what it can to solve the problem such as engaging the immune system. The body and brain either help of hinder each other which determines how well the person does physically and mentally.

This link intertwines the body and the mind and forces each side to be dependent on the other. This allows for harmonious communication and cooperation between each half of the person, which might otherwise work independently.

Flow state:
The two are aligned but the right side is dominant.

Opposite of flow would be chaotic or unaligned. The two sides are working at odds.

We live mostly in a state between total chaos and flow.

Two become four:
When people get together the number of brains and consciousnesses double in size. The amount of connections between hemispheres goes from 2 to four. Now the right side of one can connect with either the right or left side of the other and vice versa.

Most people in the world are right-handed. This must be due partly because of a tipping point in engineering as certain tools get shared, selecting for people to share handedness and partly due to the dominance of the left brain. (Especially during waking hours) If the right brain becomes dominant during sleeping then the left side of the body should have some increase in sensitivity and control.

Scholarly Articles:
https://www.google.com/search?q=scholarly+articles+about+right+and+left+hemispher+characteristics&oq=scholarly+articles+about+right+and+left+hemispher+characteristics&aqs=chrome..69i57.18990j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

The Pineal Gland:
https://www.google.com/search?q=is+the+pineal+gland+connected+to+the+corpus+callosum&oq=is+the+pineal+gland+connected+to+the+corpus+callosum&aqs=chrome..69i57.7928j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pineal_gland

Helical and Wave Representation:

I imagine consciousness as a rider desperately trying to ride a stream of consciousness flowing around the brain and corpus callosum. Sometimes it rides the right side and sometimes it rides the left. Sometimes it straddles the two and sometimes the streams connect and create a torrent of consciousness. Sometimes the two streams meander away from each other creating a disconnect and chaos. All around the rider is an ocean of uncertainty but the rider tries to hang on. Sometimes the rider can barely stay on and sometimes it can pass from one to the other effortlessly.

But... maybe there is no rider. Maybe perception is non-local and it just seems to be focused as a stream of words inside our heads. Maybe it is just epiphenomena that just oozes out of the mind with no purpose or effectiveness. If writing these words comes from the same place as consciousness then consciousness must be localized in the mind. It has to come to some kind of focused point to single generate a single word out from the other possible actions. There has to be a filter or funnel that channels the flow of consciousness in a certain direction.

Maybe the rider can mold this funnel by influencing its direction and speed of flow. Maybe the rider can manipulate the environment of the mind responsible for consciousness to help control consciousness. The rider does this through repetition, meditation, learning, and self-awareness. This is where free will exists and where it can be strengthened. When a person decides to take their own consciousness seriously, to listen to themselves as they interpret the world and makes a conscious effort to do something, they are building up their will power. The stronger the will the more freedom a person can attain as they are less and less controlled by the uncertainty of their own mind and body.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_number