Ohm-niscient
Despite my best efforts to stop it, my most productive planning always occurs in the last five minutes of a yoga class. Relax my mind? I don't think so! What goes on in the brain when we let our minds wander? Mason et al. report that a network of brain structures is active during daydreaming in a recent article in Science.
The authors had people do repetitive (i. e. boring) tasks, like memorizing and rehearsing the same short list of words forward and backward, for 30 minutes each day. The subjects reported that their minds wandered more during this task than when they were given a new task to do. On the fifth day, the subjects did the same task in an MRI machine. The authors identified regions of the brain that were active during this literally mind-numbing activity relative to those that were active when participants worked on a novel task. Then they correlated the activity of these brain regions to the participants' daydream frequencies. BOLD signal in the medial prefrontal cortex, cingulate, precuneus, right superior frontal gyrus and the left and right insula associated with daydreaming. In addition to daydreaming, the authors believe that these brain regions might be important in 'housekeeping' functions or might cause people to be aware of their daydreams.
Why do we daydream? I'll look that up once I stop thinking about a beach vacation...
Comments
I think you're onto something good. Real Good. Remember the greatest scientific daydreamer of all: Einstein.
One reason for meditation may be to release petty unwanted thoughts--while liberating the Mind to focus on what matters.
But what does matter? As much of a contradiction as it is--what Does Matter is what Doesn't Matter. For instance: Newton and the Falling Apple. The Simple, Unimportant, and Painfully Obvious Facts of Life that we take for granted and ignore: this is what matters. This is where the Secrets of the Universe lie.
I trust this is not too spiritual for you, but I'll go just a little deeper still: Through daydreaming, I feel we have the ability to unlock the doors of the subconscious. There are thoughts that we stuff down and swear to deal with later, but we rarely do. As we daydream, a surging fountain of Subconscious Waters, breaks forth. And every woman knows that after the waters break, the 'baby' soon follows. [This is somewhat Socratic.] This kind of 'baby' is born out of the Scientific Mind. It is your Theory.
Rachel Eagle Reiter
Posted by: Rachel Eagle Reiter | February 10, 2008 01:45 PM