Psilocybin and meditation can have a huge impact on our predictive organ. This can make a new person of you, provided it is used the right way.
The free will fallacy: Libet’s error
Does the free will exist? No present research provides any evidence for or against. The idea that the free will does not exist is based on a lack of understanding how complex dynamical systems like the brain work.
Your will is what you want
You think you have a will, but that is a misconception about your ego. The will as a tangible thing does not exist. You want something at a certain moment after you choose from different wishes. And that choice can change within a short time, perhaps even to the complete opposite.
Memories of early childhood?
The memory develops after birth. A baby starts by registering how it should move. From around the age of three, a child can register events which form part of its life story, to be recalled in later life. But emotional events such as traumas are possibly registered much earlier as stray facts. These can elicit reactions, although you can’t retell them.
Driving and memory
When you drive a car, you have to execute several actions at the same time, and also pay attention to traffic. For this to take place, most of your actions are performed automatically. These are laid down in a separate memory in a specific part of the brain: the corpus striatum.
Why people don’t want antidepressants but do want psychotherapy
A lot of people think antidepressants are worthless. Is psychotherapy better than an antidepressant? There is no evidence for this. It seems to me that antidepressants suffer a disadvantage in our perception as compared to psychotherapy, in that their mechanism of action is quite invisible and not instinctively comprehensible.
Does dopamine make you happy, and is methylphenidate (Ritalin) addictive?
Dopamine the happiness hormone? Not at all! Dopamine helps to choose where to direct your attention. This process does not work properly in children and adults with ADHD. Methylphenidate (Ritalin) corrects this without having an addictive effect.
What is colour? How blue can look white…
How do we see colour? Can white look blue and vice versa? And does it matter which word you use for a colour?
Where are the limits of the body?
Where does your body end? All fairly clear to you, but not to your brain. A tool you hold in your hand is a part of your body, and sometimes a rubber hand can seem like your real hand. How can this be?
Amazing and paradoxical
What is the relation between what the neurologist calls amazing and the psychiatrist paradoxical? Our impression of the world around us is not formed on the basis of what we actually perceive with our senses. Instead, we carry a preexisting image of our surroundings in our head, and we check if that matches with our perceptions. Sometimes this goes awry.