The Universe Inside of Us
I am glad to the brink of fear…Standing on the bare Ground,
- my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite spaces
– all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball;
I am nothing; I see all the currents of the Universal Being
circulate through me; I am part or parcel of God.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
As the end of the year approaches, I traditionally take some extra time for reflection and contemplation. I also like to start my days by reading passages from my favorite writers. The quote from Emerson was part of something I read from Robert Greene in his book “The Daily Laws”. Here’s the rest of it:
“The one form of infinity that is perhaps the most sublimely marvelous to contemplate is the one that is closest to you – your own brain. Consider the following: There are approximately 1 million synapses (the links between nerve cells) in the cortical sheet of the human brain. As the biologist Gerald Edelman speculated, if you were to count these synapses one per second, it would take you about 32 million years to complete. Then, if you tried to calculate all the possible paths these synapses could take to connect, the number would be hyper astronomical – in the vicinity of twenty followed by millions of zeros, a sum greater than all the positively charged particles in the universe, and more than all the matter that it contains. The neuroscientist Christof Koch once declared that the human brain is “the most complex object in the known Universe.” Equally remarkable are the hyper speeds with which the human brain operates. The inner space of the human brain matches the outer space of the Universe; it is nearly infinite in scope. (And all this speed and power come from an organ composed of the basic elements found in rocks.) “
I found this absolutely incredible, especially since I’m fascinated to the point of obsession about the human brain. I’ve been privileged to witness the power of the brain each time I’m working with it to help patients through The Neurological Integration System (NIS). The vast complexity of the brain fills me with wonder and awe. I began thinking about Christmas, as it is the time we celebrate the birth of Christ. Even if you don’t believe in a deity, the vastness of the brain and the universe should inspire you to wonder at the mystery of it all.
Thinking about all of this I was reminded of another of my favorite authors, the philosopher Alan Watts, whose writings and recordings have inspired that same sense of mystery and wonder in me on several occasions. This recording of Watts expands Robert Greene’s thoughts on the brain even further:
My Christmas wish for everyone is that you experience the infinity inside of you, and your connection to whatever you call divinity, spirit, or the infinity of the universe.
Merry Christmas and May God Bless Each of You.
Jim Bentz