The Brain Runs Its Show Incognito.

Neuroscience Over The Next 50 Years Is Going To Introduce Things That Are Mind-blowing.

When A Male Vole Repeatedly Mates With A Female, A Hormone Called Vasopressin Is Released In His Brain. The Vasopressin Binds To Receptors In A Part Of The Brain Called The Nucleus Accumbens, And The Binding Mediates A Pleasurable Feeling That Becomes Associated With That Female. This Locks In The Monogamy, Which Is Known As Pair-bonding. If You Block This Hormone, The Pair-bonding Goes Away.

Our Ignorance Of The Cosmos Is Too Vast To Commit To Atheism, And Yet We Know Too Much To Commit To A Particular Religion. A Third Position, Agnosticism, Is Often An Uninteresting Stance In Which A Person Simply Questions Whether His Traditional Religious Story (say, A Man With A Beard On A Cloud) Is True Or Not True. But With Possibilianism I’m Hoping To Define A New Position - One That Emphasizes The Exploration Of New, Unconsidered Possibilities. Possibilianism Is Comfortable Holding Multiple Ideas In Mind; It Is Not Interested In Committing To Any Particular Story.

When The Brain Activity Is Kindled In The Right Spot, People Hear Voices. If A Physician Prescribes An Anti-epileptic Medication, The Seizures Go Away And The Voices Disappear. Our Reality Depends On What Our Biology Is Up To.

In The Traditionally Taught View Of Perception, Data From The Sensorium Pours Into The Brain, Works Its Way Up The Sensory Hierarchy, And Makes Itself Seen, Heard, Smelled, Tasted, Felt - "perceived." But A Closer Examination Of The Data Suggests This Is Incorrect. The Brain Is Properly Thought Of As A Mostly Closed System That Runs On Its Own Internally Generated Activity.