|
Ordering
The Blissful Brain
The Blissful Brain is published
by Gaia Thinking. For more information on how to order your
copy, please click
here.
Guardian
G2: Mind over matter by Andy Darling
"Neuroscientist Shanida Nataraja has
proven meditation does more than clear your head, it can put
both halves of your brain to work, improving your concentration,
memory, and decision-making...". To read more, please
click
here.
Upcoming
talk: Yoga Ananda, Reigate, Surrey on Friday the 4th of June
Shanida Nataraja will be speaking at a seminar
on The Blissful Brain on Friday, 04th June 2010 at
19:30 at Yoga Ananda Ltd. 46 Albert Road North, Reigate, Surrey,
RH2 9EL. For more information, please click
here.
|
Experience
and Language
The
relaying of all experience is constrained by language. Let
us consider this in greater depth. Does the statement, “I
am happy”, actually convey the internal state you experience?
No. The state of mind that someone experiences when they are
“happy” is actually indescribable, and varies considerably
from person to person. It is therefore necessary to encode
the experience in the form of a symbol, the word “happy”.
As a result of life-long cultural conditioning, this symbol
conveys to others the kind of experience you are having. Without
this conditioning, the symbol becomes redundant. The same
statement, “I am happy”, spoken to someone with no knowledge
of the English language, conveys no information about the
experience, symbolic or otherwise. Similarly, let us consider
other ways of describing the experience of happiness. Even
the physical manifestations of an internal state of happiness
can be considered to be symbols of that state. Smiling, for
example, conveys to others the kind of experience you are
having, but still contains no precise information about the
experience itself, and its interpretation is once again culturally-dependent.
Furthermore, research into the neural basis of happiness has
revealed the importance of certain brain chemicals and structures.
However, a description of these neural processes also fails
to describe the nature of the experience itself. It is therefore
clear that the process of describing all experience is therefore
limited by language, and this limitation, although acknowledged
in mystical experiences and often used to discredit these
accounts, extends to our scientific observations as well.
Back
to index
|
