Finding My Religion

 

I’ve only recently started seeing literature that seems to support some of the ideas Rupert Sheldrake and the famous YouTube star, Bruce Lipton, have been alluding to for some time. I probably shouldn’t mash them together in this way, but these two scientists helped me to develop some of my own ideas and even beliefs.

Some of the latest studies seem to prove that basal cognition is a thing. I know I am putting this in the simplest of terms, but I want to be able to discuss things like this in layman terms, so that laymen like myself can appreciate the implications of the new research.

My experience with basal cognition began when I was a young person. I was only eight years old when my friend Kenny invited me to his house, where we could watch his father and uncle kill some chickens. I have no idea why the idea sounded interesting to me, but I was eager to see this process for some strange reason. Unfortunately, the primitive process I witnessed did not involve any sort of stunning. The grown birds were taken from their small cages and taken directly to an equally primitive chopping block, made only of a portion of a tree’s trunk. The chicken was held to the edge of the block and instantly dispatched with a sharp hatchet. In many cases, the body was allowed to go on its final adventure; headless.

Amazingly, the headless body of the chicken could run as if it were determined to escape the situation. As graphic as this may be, I was very intrigued by the display of cognition present in a brainless animal.

The men responsible for the slaughter had one more lesson for me that day. As if the first mystery wasn’t enough to keep me thinking for the rest of my life, they told me that it gets even more mysterious when you go further into the process. I watched them take hearts from two beheaded birds and I watched them place two beating hearts in one cup. The hearts were not in sync when placed in the cup separately, but when the cup was tilted and the hearts were brought together, the touching hearts started beating together and did so until they both finally stopped.

These two, graphic experiences were obviously unforgettable for me; it was over a half-century ago and I am still talking about it. It was not really the inhumane treatment of the animals that I could not forget; I had not yet developed enough empathy to feel sorry for the chickens. What stayed with me most, still stays with me; Life is more than a story or many stories; it is that from which stories arise.

On that day, all those years ago, I was a scientist. I did not really know to refer to myself in such a way, but by definition - “someone studying one or more of the natural or physical sciences” - I was characteristically certified.

More recently, more qualified scientists have been considering basal cognition in more detail. The planarian is a particularly dull animal in one way. It doesn’t really do anything exciting until you chop off its head. Salamanders are really gifted at growing new tails when their original tails are cut off; planarians do this too. However, the planarian takes it one step further; their bodies can grow new tails, while their tails grow new heads. This is an example of basal cognition. Groups of cells are somewhat like groups of individual humans. At least, this is how I think of these experiments. A group of cells in a planarian, who has just lost its tail, will form a team of tail-constructors. In another “dish” or environment, a headless tail forms a committee and goes to work on a new head.

Lipton’s work with epigenetics fits perfectly into the studies of cellular cognition and memory. Speaking of memory, the beheaded tails of a planarian remember what was learned back when they were thinking with their heads. Scientists have trained whole worms, cut them in half, and observed their behaviors as two, new, whole worms. Both halves grow into complete worms who both remember their former training. This is something like entanglement.

The two chicken hearts I witnessed in a cup pointed to this kind of collective participation. Once their beating had been synced by touch, they could be separated and retain the rhythm enjoyed while touching.

Sheldrake’s Theory of Morphic Resonance only goes one level beyond basal cognition, where he seems to be suggesting Extra Basal Cognition. Some refer to this as a philosophy known as Panpsyschism.

I believe that science will eventually shore up Sheldrake’s ideas by testing and retesting his hypothesis in the labs of the world; with the world as a lab.

Meanwhile, I can only offer a philosophical, or religious assumption. Without the proper degree, I don’t have a team of researchers working with me at present. However, if I could label my hypothesis today, I would simply call it Extra Basal Cognition (EBC).

My fundamental prompting would be to suggest that if a headless tail can form a new head, with memories of a former, complete life as another whole, then former Life itself may be responsible for what forms today and how it forms. An idea formed in one mind can then arise in another. Ruling this out would be the end of Sheldrake’s hypothesis; but to put research behind it would only be the next, logical step beyond the study of basal cognition.

We seem to exist based on what came before us. We seem to develop based on what was learned by former experiences had by the Life in us. I believe that plants and planets are what they are as a result of the data that has gone into their designs. I believe we exist in instinctual fields where The Akashic Library informs all of the observable properties of the universe.