The assumption was made above in B that perfect recall in the form of eidetic memory or total recall is possible, it follows that a major part of memory is exercised via an external process that could not involve physical storage of information in the brain. Indeed the existence of such perfect recall, especially so under conditions of trance, it is a strong argument for the necessity for such an external mechanism. It seems safe to assume that there would be too much information to be stored physical within the confines of a single brain to be able to record and duplicate a full lifetime’s mental experience, as already described and assumed above.
The next step is to see if this might be adapted to the way in which ordinary memory operates. One problem is how the thought pattern from an earlier time can be recreated in perfect detail to be inserted into a brain in trance state some time later to instigate the perfect recall sequence, even though from observation of experiments with subjects under hypnosis, this does appear to happen. One possible answer in general terms is as follows.
DNA and RNA molecules are so complex and capable of carrying so much information that they have been considered good candidates for a basis of physical memory storage. Memory could be initially stored in short term form chemically in the brain, by series of single images received through the senses being encoded somehow within complex molecules (assumed to be similar to DNA molecular structures in their large storage capacity, also described as engrams), not yet identified and isolated as such. These engrams act to instigate curtailed sequences of long term eidetic memory, as far shorter bursts of short term working memory, whenever that is required later for rapid decisions to be made to enhance chances of survival.
C1.1 Curtailed memory Sequences triggered by engrams
If an event is repeated a large number of times, then the brain increases its physical store of these trigger engrams to increase their propensity be retained long term. Alternatively, if an event occurs just once but it makes a deep impression (a near escape from death perhaps) then the resulting engrams will be deeply etched in the brain, maybe permanently. Thus, the ordinary everyday working memory operates as a sort of telescoped perfect recall. Some external observation is made which is similar to a past experience, which stimulates the appropriate engram molecules, which then stimulates a short length or perfect recall as a brief burst of holoceptual flow. This then in turn jumps a number of frames to the next significant part of the earlier sequence and so on, so that the former full length sequence is reduced and presented almost instantly in a synopsis of memory frames. If the holoceptual flow created by a specific engram were allowed to endure too long, the reaction time to deal with the new external circumstances would be too slow for rapid and effective counter action. This would be no good for everyday survival of the fittest, but still can be invoked under special circumstances of trance or even quiet reflection, meditation, call it what you will. The is the main stem of the mental process that creates for reflective and creative thought, described later under intuitive ability.
To enlarge on this rationale for memory, if enough engram molecules are stored by repetition of an external event of consequence that enhances chances of survival, then it is postulated that this increased accumulation of such molecules will tend to become get absorbed permanently into the system, If so, then that might bear out to some extent Lamarck’s supposition that acquired characteristics are inherited (see below in 5.1).
The above was drafted initially in about 2018, and since then I have completed further papers on the operation of memory and intuition. I have also been impressed e by a paper from early 2021 by molecular biologist Ben Goult describing what he class his mesh code as a possible candidate for the operation of engrams. This will be mentioned in more detail in a recent copy papers of mine from mid 2021 attached hereto later on together with a paper on the subject of consciousness.
C1.2 Dream Sleep
As a side issue, I also speculate that every night in deep sleep the mind repeats to go through these physical recollections of the day and disposes of those engrams of little consequence towards enhancement of survival, when the brain is working at a high level of intensity, albeit unconsciously, testing and weeding out trivia, and and indexing those of use into stored categories. A further conjecture is that between such bouts of such serious unconscious activity, the brain takes time off in the form of dreaming, when the mind is put back into a neutral void state with its synapses firing randomly. The brain would then be in a most suggestible state, free to pick up on whatever might have happened recently or might hearken back to some event of deep significance. Or it might just act to take time off and relax away from the hard task of recording and storing some of the previous day’s more significant experiences.
Dreams are richly visual as has been shown by the activity at night of the occipital cortex, that part of the brain that mediates vision. The dream state can be detected by random eye movements (REM) of the otherwise unconscious subject, and occurs in bursts during sleep. There seems to be no accepted theory yet about their function, although it is known that REM sleep falls off with increasing age. In humans, infants spend half their sleeping time in REM sleep whereas adults spend only 10-20 percent of such time in REM sleep. My subjectively simple conclusion is that one function of dream sleep is for R ‘n R, or rest and recreation purposes. When not dreaming I assume that the brain is involved full time at in checking through such memories of the previous day’s experience that might have seemed beneficial to enhance survival, deciding and indexing the result, so that some experiences are registered and recorded by physically converting them probably into some form of RNA molecules. This must be hard work but very necessary for the brain to go through after each day, as part of the development of that individual’s learning process. The function of such physically created instigatory memory molecules is then to act as engrams to trigger short term working memory sequences in future. Interludes of dreaming will provide necessary bouts of rest and relaxation from such a heavy task, albeit one that is routine and carried out unconsciously, very different from the dream state.
C1.3 The Same Location
In order to rationalise my proposals for both eidetic and working memory in terms of my new definition, notions of ‘the same location’ also have to be examined carefully. Einstein’s work had destroyed Newton’s classical concept of an absolute location in space, and I deduced that a structure could be considered to be in the ‘same location’ as long as its surroundings on the same scale were equivalent. For instance, if there is a memory of a thought structure of firing brain cells, then as long as the overall surrounding structure of brain cells in which the memory pattern is set, remains the same, then that second thought structure is in the same location relative to its immediate surroundings. Geographically, on larger scale, the head that contains the brain cells will be in another location, but that does not matter. However, the structure of the surrounding cells would have to remain fairly constant through time, and in the trance state, this seemed quite possible. If the mind in trance was instructed to void itself of thought entirely, then if it was impossible for the nerve cells of the conscious mind to stop firing altogether, then they would have to fire randomly, without structure or form. This seemed a fair enough assumption when it first occurred to me, and when the nature of random motion was analysed further, some fascinating possibilities occurred to me. At this stage, something needs to be said about the nature of the holoceptual image formed in the mind by the firing patterns of the brain’s synapses, before further conclusions are drawn.
C1.4 Further Discussion on Holocepts
The holocept or mental image created by holographic images radiated by the firing synapses, is conjecture and requires some further qualification and discussion. These holocepts result from interference patterns of the radiated EM waves that will be emitted by the firings of the myriad numbers of synapses, and are observed as three dimensional and can be viewed from any angle. The visual images in the mind formed by sight, with which we are so familiar, are so detailed and precise that such an assumption seems not unreasonable and indeed it is hard to remind ourselves that this is not more than an image, rather than direct experience of an object at a distance. The holocepts that must be set up by the other senses are nebulous and much less strong and therefore harder to describe in words, but they will nevertheless be mental holocepts of structures thrown up in the mind by these interference patterns.
On further reflection, the visual hologram set up in the mind by, say, a minimally informed tourist looking at the interior of Chartres cathedral, will be much less detailed than that of an architect who will have some understanding of the structural techniques involved. A historian who will also be able to impute the social considerations that went into the construction and its existence over centuries. All this information might be the in the mind of the well informed observer stimulated by the initial visual image, so that the holocept such specialist knowledge creates will be far more detailed than that of the casual tourist. In short, the understanding of Chartres Cathedral will be far greater as the holocept becomes more detailed in not just a visual sense. When the expert views the cathedral, all these elements are evoked at a stroke in his mind as a highly complex holocept: he is aware that he knows it all, without having to rehearse in his mind each point serially.
It is as if the greater the understanding of an object under consideration, the more that object is duplicated in the mind of the observer in conceptual form. If smaller objects are under consideration, say a leaf, then the concept of the holocept becomes a little easier to assimilate, and I am proposing that in a child’s mind, the leaf is just a visual image, but the holocept created in that of a botanist or a biochemist will be far more detailed. The scientifically trained will know a great deal about the leaf’s chemical composition, and even down its molecular structure. The sight of the leaf will instantly create in his mind a holocept, which is full of such detail beyond that of the visual image. He has not just an external image that sight brings, but also an internal image of some of the workings and structure inside the leaf. In his mind there will be a pretty accurate duplication of that leaf in full three and solid dimensions, and it will obviously be a more comprehensive description than that he can hold in his mind of a cathedral.
This lack of more precise information about the operation and composition of holocepts may be a weak part of the whole concept of Duplication Theory, but holograms are a relatively recent discovery and there is doubtless a great deal more to be learned and developed about this particular sector of science over the next few decades. A fair amount of research has been done on the possible holographic function of the brain
C1.5 Singularity States Further Examined
The concept of the singularity state in general is important to the understanding of a crucial section of the theory so that it needs some further discussion. A singularity state as I define it can never be achieved (or if it were, if is not detectable so we can never know what happens), and I have made the observation that when a close approach to one is made, then the laws of physics as we are familiar with them appear to start to distort. Consider a number of such states: absolute zero of temperature; light velocity, the concept of infinity, any dimension approaching Planck’s constant; the fusion of matter so that it occupies the same location (Black Holes) and so on. All these states are by definition unattainable: some as mental concepts by definition and some, as demonstrated by physical observation and experiment, bolstered by mathematical proof. I also observe that whenever a new singularity state is identified (not that often), and then investigated, it usually transpires that a whole new area of scientific research is revealed, so that the recognition and classification of singularity states could be regarded as one of the fundamental tasks of physics.
For instance, Euclidean geometry depends on the singular definition of parallel lines meeting at infinity; Newtonian physics on the assumption that energy can never be destroyed; relativistic physics on the singular velocity of light. Possibly another field of fusion physics will be disclosed on learning more about the existence of black holes. It is observed that although singularity states cannot be attained, close approaches can be made, and familiar laws of nature seem to change radically when this occurs.
C1.6 The Concept of Order, Pattern, Structure and Form
There is another general observation that should be made about Duplication Theory: it is negentropic, and a principle of negative entropy: in other words, an order forming principle. hereas the second law of thermodynamics states that entropy (disorder) in a system always increases as time passes, anything which involves the duplication of equal intervals in time and space will be order forming and counter entropic, and this is exactly what is proposed here. In short, it is what used to be known as a vitalist theory, and one that lends itself to a possible explanation of the mechanism behind organic development, and life generally. I leave this to Rupert Sheldrake and others whose field of expertise is biology, and who wish to clarify this point on the subject of form and order much further.
The concept of geometrical structure is fundamentally based on the perception of the repetition or duplication of equal intervals in space, or harmonics of such intervals. Elaborating briefly, there is no structure in a particle system in random motion (a gas cloud) unless a number of composite particles arrange themselves at equal intervals within the system, then pattern will become perceivable, and with the imposition of order, structure becomes apparent. It is the near singularity of duplication of equal intervals that creates perceivable structure out of indecipherable chaos. Most normal mental activities involve the perception of pattern and order out of what initially might appear as a formless jumble of chaotic facts or shapes if it is in a visual context. However, as the subject under consideration becomes better comprehended, a pattern or structure will become perceivable and this can be reduced in its simplest form to a duplication of similar intervals in space (and/or time) or harmonics thereof.
C1.7 Random Motion, Trance & Singularity States
From observation, it is clear that under hypnotic trance the brain is capable of mental feats that are not usually possible in a conscious state. It has been noted that under trance, there is such a thing as perfect recall, and that subjects can be regressed to relive passages of time from their past experience, and what is more, in near perfect detail to that which was experienced at the time. It has also been proposed this is little more than a resonance over time between structures of firing synapses that are very complex and similar down to near singular levels.
Duplication theory shows how this resonance is precipitated when two complex structures become so near identical that it becomes difficult to decipher which one is which, and is a result of the distances apart of the component particles being similar down to near quantum levels of tolerance. Perfect similarity or structure duplication, is a singularity state as I define it, and can never be achieved. But, as close approaches are made to this state, so the capacity to resonate increases. It has been postulated above that this resonance effect becomes more manifest under trance because the interference effect of information coming in from the external world through the senses is excluded. It has also been assumed that in trance, the synapses in the brain are firing randomly, with no form or structure about them.
So what is so significant about random motion that might further clarify how the mind operates in trance? A careful analysis of what happens when randomicity increases will prove helpful. If a system of tiny particles is imagined visually, maybe gas molecules bashing about in a container, then the action of each one will be remarkably similar to each of its neighbours. If there are just a limited number of such particles then the action of each will be markedly different (diagram 1), their velocities not at all regular, and their distances apart changing radically at all times. But if there are millions in a relatively confined space, say in a gas under high pressure, all knocking about and into each other at very high frequency, then the action of each one will become increasingly more indecipherable from that of its neighbour or any other particles in the system, for that matter (see diagram 2). If the pressure and content is increased yet again so the at particles are pushed together with not that much space between them in which to knock about, then their distances apart will have to become increasingly similar, as will their motion (diagram 3).
In other words as the system becomes increasingly more complex, and apparently thereby increasing the randomicity, the result is in fact an increasing degree of order, or at least the possibility that the system is becoming more ordered. In other words with increasing complexity the distances apart and motions of all the composite particles will become increasingly similar. If this is extrapolated to infinity, then the system would be a perfectly ordered structure. If I imagine a near perfect randomness, I can see in my minds eye that the action of each particle has to be a perfect duplicate of all the others: and they will be all the same distance apart at the same velocity. There are doubtless no easy proofs for this, but it is not difficult to visualise. Ilya Prigogine was awarded a Nobel Prize in chemistry for showing that disordered systems suddenly become self ordering if the rate of randomness is suddenly increased (Prigogine 1977).
In trance, the mind is capable of producing great degrees of order and pattern, in that perfect recall becomes possible: the deeper the trance the more perfectly ordered the firings of the synapses. How does this order manifest itself? The concepts of order and form are nothing more than the near perfect duplication of intervals in space or time. The development of Duplication Theory was based in part of the concept of extrapolating not only structures, but any system to near singular states of similarity, and anticipating that curious side effects might be observed when close approaches were made to near perfect duplication. Using this concept it is impossible therefore to produce a system that is perfectly random. If it were, then by the argument above, all its component particles would be spaced at identical distances apart and all at the same velocity. This would be a perfect structure, and is not possible, but if these curious side effects should start to manifest themselves, in what form might they be expected? It might seem anybody’s guess upon initial consideration. But we know that the brain is capable of currently inexplicable abilities in trance so might this not have something to do with the effect of the synapses in the brain are firing near perfectly randomly?
If, for instance, two separate but similar synapse systems, or brains are considered, say of identical twins, if both are put into trance, then what? Both systems will be more similar than they are at any other time. When they are conscious, they will inevitably have different thought structures in their head. Even if they are in the same room, talking about a subject familiar to both, there maybe be some striking similarities due to common experiences in the past, but inevitably there will be small differences due to slightly separate circumstances, and this will be enough to exclude any possibility of resonance at near molecular levels. However, if both are in deep trance, having been instructed to empty their minds, and then the action of the synapses firing randomly will be more similar in the two systems than at any other time, and what is more, by a huge margin. Indeed this would also be true for any two human brains in trance, but it is easier to imagine in the special case of identical twins. Generally speaking, when people are thinking about nothing at all, their minds are more similar than they will ever be in a state of conscious or constructive thought.
Recall also premise of Duplication Theory: that it is impossible for one structure in space (or time) to be duplicated exactly by another, either in the same location at the same time (obvious) or at any other time in that location, or in any other location at any time (not so obvious). Through an application of the Uncertainty Principle, there can never be two identical structures in the universe, since it is impossible at near quantum levels to ever be certain of the distances apart of the component particles in any structure. But, and it is a crucial “but”, close approaches can be made, and when they are, such similar structures increase their potential to resonate and interact, and tend to duplicate their separate structures and motion more perfectly. So if there are these two identical twins in trance, Rupert & Roland, there will be a degree of resonance between their two void thought systems, even though they are highly complex, consisting of billions of interacting synapse firings: the deeper the trance to exclude all stimuli and external perturbations, the greater the potential for resonance. Now consider what happens if into the midst of this randomicity, a strong and complex pattern or structure of these same particles, relatively fixed with respect to itself, were suddenly introduced by some external force, in to the mind of one twin Rupert, and then kept steady, what then? (See diagram 4) Nothing much other than Rupert will now have a specific thought or holocept created in his consciousness.
But if a second near identical structure were then somehow introduced into a similar random swarm of identical particles for just an instant in the mind of Roland, what then would happen? The second law of thermodynamics would certainly be observed as we might expect: that entropy is increased so that the system moves to reduce its energy level. Might it not then be reasonable to assume that this second structure might be prompted to continue act in a manner to increase stability and lower energy potential, given that it still has some freedom to move its own composite structure to emulate that of the first? If all external perturbations were still excluded by the persistence of trance (other than the one inserted structure) so that were no forces pushing Roland’s mind in any other direction, it seems inevitable that Roland’s thought processes would proceed to duplicate exactly those of Rupert (see diagrams in 5). No assumptions have been made as to whether the resulting holocepts are produced from firing structures of synapses in large areas of the cortex, or from one small area, or combinations of different areas
At the risk of tedious repetition, and since it is an important issue, this first structure in Rupert’s mind, although fixed by this assumed external force, it cannot remain static on a minuscule level. Its composite particles will continue to move slightly with respect to themselves. By doing so, it would ensure that the potential to convert to radiation (or to reduce its energy level) would be kept as high as possible. It also seems that no extra external energy would be needed by the second Roland structure, once inserted, to keep its constituent particles in line: the latter have inherent motion about them in any event from their random motion. They would have to move on to form a different structure in any event, and they would need no extra nudge to move to another shape, if by doing so, the its energy level were kept at a minimum. How such a pattern might be inserted into a random state is a question, which has not been addressed in any detail other than to assume that DNA, as a molecular storage system for one frame of time, should be capable of sudden insertion to trigger the ensuing holoceptual flow of former events.
There is a further possibility that presents itself, although perhaps not quite so easy to assume. If both Rupert and Roland are in deep trance, with both their thought patterns firing in near perfect random motion, and resonating with each other then when the thought pattern is instigated into Rupert’s mind, it should simultaneously be precipitated into that of Roland: instant telepathy in short. Or, if the insertion of the pattern into Rupert’s mind is then inserted into that of Roland at a later time, or Rupert himself for that matter, when that in deep trance, then the same resonance effect will be set up. This would effectively be the total recall for Rupert or total recall of the experience of thought structures of another. Furthermore, they do not have to be identical twins if the trance state is deep enough, but it is likely that with the same gene make up, near perfect duplication of structure is going to be easier.
This would seem to be born out in general terms by the many studies done on identical twins. Such speculations bring up the difficult subject of ESP and the paranormal which I exclude from this web site other than to mention the possibilitiy in passing, and which I qualify a little further in section K below which contains a paper I published in 1999 titled “The problem of repeatability: do the laws of nature evolve?”
