Evolution...Change....Music....Emotion

Evolution is an important theme for our social community, since
our social evolution depends highly on how our elite percieves
evolution --- read-- change.... Change just means Freedom!
Freedom in all aspects...From our unnecessary obscuring old values,
.....freedom from unnecassary old family ties....freedom from social
constraints...freedom form old ideologies...freedom from religious
notions counter to enlightenment.....freedom from natural ties in
favour of integration....Freedom from our own unconscious .....etc.
...with all the unknown variables where awareness may be missing
.......in order to give our conscious a chance to determine our
human condition....

Music seems to play a big role in evolution....and nurture in a culture ...
...and in this context:

***

During the weekend I have been watching Phenomena "Michael Jackson"....
a great music-talent, who formed the "Pop Music" of our generation.
You know that he suddenly passed away on Thursday, 25-06-09. Sorry for him.

That brought me again to read some papers on the issue...

Why are masses hysterically fascinated by "Music".....?
Hysteria; it looks as if the masses are "plugged" for a period.....
to a "collective Intelligence" mediated through talented musicians...
and their fascinating waves of beautiful sound.

Mrs. ELLEN DISSANAYAKE has interesting aspects to say.
Her hypothesis ...gives a lot of clues to this inquiry... I like it and
it goes with my own perception (My Hobby; Quality of music
as a prominent parameter of Intelligence).
*

The Music of Nature and the Nature of Music 1)

It has been postulated that there is an unproven (and probably unprovable) concept
called mathematical Platonism, which supposes that there is a universal mathematics
awaiting discovery. Is there a universal music awaiting discovery, or is all music just
a construct of whatever mind is making it--human, bird, whale? The similarities among
human music, bird song, and whale song tempt one to speculate that the Platonic
alternative may exist--that there is a universal music awaiting discovery.

1) http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/291/5501/52

Understanding music as a universal form of human expression will provide insights into
the neurobiology of perception, performance, emotion, learning, development, and
plasticity--with a few hints about aesthetics, talent, and creativity thrown in.2)

2) http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/291/5501/54
*

1) Music-2009-Dissanyake.pdf

http://books.google.de/books?id=_KiPpy8Nd3wC&dq=Ellen+Dissanayake&printsec=frontcover&source=an&hl=de&ei=OgZKSpeqDovW-QaYpNjeBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10

If music is the food of love, what about survival
and reproductive success?

ELLEN DISSANAYAKE
School of Music
University of Washington

http://www.ellendissanayake.com/publications/

• ABSTRACT

This article departs from many discussions of the origin, evolution, and adaptive
function(s) of music by treating music not as perceptual qualities (pitch, timbre,
meter), formal elements (prosody, melody, harmony, rhythm), performed activity
(singing, drumming), or genre (lullaby, song, dance). Rather, music is
conceptualized as a behavioral and motivational capacity: what is done to sounds
and pulses when they are “musified” — made into music — and why. For this new
view, I employ the ethological notion of ritualization, wherein ordinary
communicative behaviors (e.g., sounds, movements) are altered through
formalization, repetition, exaggeration, and elaboration, thereby attracting
attention and arousing and shaping emotion. The universal sensitivity of infants as
young as 8 weeks to such alterations of (or operations on) voice, facial expression,
and body movements, when these are presented to them by adults in intimate
dyadic interactions within a shared temporal framework, suggests an evolved,
adaptive capacity that enabled and reinforced emotional bonding. Such protoaesthetic
(proto-musical) operations existed as a reservoir from which individual
cultures could draw when inventing art-saturated ritual ceremonies that united
groups temporally and emotionally as they did mother-infant pairs. Music in its
origins and evolution is assumed to be multimodal (visual and kinesic, as well as
aural) and a social — not solitary — activity. An appendix describes important
structural and functional resemblances between music, mother-infant interaction,
ceremonial ritual, and adult courtship and lovemaking (as differentiated from
copulation). These resemblances suggest not only an evolutionary relationship
among these behaviors but argue for the existence of an evolved amodal neural
propensity in the human species to respond — cognitively and emotionally — to
dynamic temporal patterns produced by other humans in contexts of affiliation.
Keywords: origin and evolution of music, mother-infant interaction, ritualization,
affiliation, multimodality, ceremonial ritual

169
© 2008 by ESCOM European Society
for the Cognitive Sciences of Music
Musicae Scientiae
Special issue 2008, 169-195
***

***
2) Music-neuro-science.pdf

Music, the food of neuroscience?
Robert Zatorre
*

http://www.brams.umontreal.ca/plab/publications/from_author/zatorre_r

Abstract

Playing, listening to and creating music involves practically every cognitive
function. Robert Zatorre explains how music can teach us about speech,
brain plasticity and even the origins of emotion.
We tend to consider art and culture from a humanistic or historical perspective rather
than a biological one. Yet these products of human cognition must have their origin
in the function and structure of the human nervous system. As such, they should be
able to yield valuable scientific insights. This line of reasoning is nowhere more
evident than in the contemporary interest in the neuroscience of music.
Music provides a tool to study numerous aspects of neuroscience, from motor-skill
learning to emotion. Indeed, from a psychologist's point of view, listening to and
producing music involves a tantalizing mix of practically every human cognitive
function. Even a seemingly simple activity, such as humming a familiar tune,
necessitates complex auditory pattern-processing mechanisms, attention, memory
storage and retrieval, motor programming, sensory–motor integration, and so forth

***
A study of eight-month-old babies found that all possess perfect pitch which
is lost within a few years. Only a tiny minority of people - which has included
Mozart, J S Bach, Yehudi Menuhin, Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra - are able
to keep their innate ability to determine perfect pitch.3)

3)http://www.psych.mcgill.ca/levitin/pubspages/perfectpitch.html


*******

3) Music-brain.pdf

Brain tuned to music
Paulo Esteˆ va˜ o Andrade Joydeep Bhattacharya PhD

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=539509

Conclusion:
In this short review, we have presented evidence that
perception of music, with its immense emotional power,
can be studied in scientific ways. Further work in this area
can be expected to yield information on matters such as the
existence of an inherently musical mind, the relation
between music and language, and the process of creativity.
***


More on the role of the Unconscious:

Free Will Is Un-natural ! :-) Very interesting and enlightening!

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/oso

by John A. Bargh

Beware of the Unconscious!

Beware of the Unconscious!

The real danger lies at the backdrop of the "Mind"!!!

Politics in Ethiopia has always been and still is: Playing with the ultimate instincts

of the actors; instead of recognising the substance to promote its development

in the interest of the mutual existence and progress of the social community.


The following is an interesting relevant research:


http://pantheon.yale.edu/~jab257/BarghMorsella_UBGS_final.pdf

http://www.yale.edu/acmelab/Bargh_Morsella_Unconscious_Mind.pdf

http://www.yale.edu/acmelab/FreeWillIsUnnatural.pdf

Excerpts....

"Hence, despite our intuitions and how much consciousness may

mean to ‘us,’ consciousness is actually an atypical phenomenon and tool

with respect to both the natural world and the majority of human nervous

function. Figuratively speaking, it is as atypical regarding the nuts and bolts of
intelligent behavior as are the computerized, GPS-based navigational

systems in today’s automobiles. These devices, and their ‘reverse engineering,’

fail to reveal the basic principles of mechanized transport, and, as sophisticated as

they may be (interacting with satellites and creating graphical ‘representations’

of one’s current driving environment, including traffic conditions), they
are not responsible for either powering the car nor for conducting it. Just

as automobiles could get from one place to another long before the advent of such

systems, so did creatures express intelligent behavior before the advent of

consciousness. The intelligentia of this ‘unconscious fauna’ is still within us, and,

like the engine and driver of a car, it is working behind the scenes as the prime mover
of our behavioral repertoire, in the form of unconscious behavioral guidance systems."
.....
And the research concludes....

"In contrast, for those who have been focusing on action itself for many years,

and especially those of us who have focused on automatic or unconscious uses of

activated concepts, they are all about the mediation of higher mental processes, including complex action and behavior in social settings. As showcased in the Oxford

Handbook of Human Action (Morsella, Bargh, & Gollwitzer, 2009), these are exciting

times because science is beginning to unravel the basic nuts and bolts of
human action, the majority of which are unconscious. People are generally unaware

of the sources of their behavioral impulses and of how their actions are successfully guided to completion; it is difficult indeed then to understand how conscious awareness can

effectively guide action without massive support by unconscious guidance systems....

"In the rest of the natural sciences, especially evolutionary biology and neuroscience,

complex and highly intelligent design in living things is not assumed to be driven by

conscious, intentional processes on the part of the plant or animal (e.g., Dawkins, 1976). As Dennett (1991, p. 251) put it, “in biology, we have learned to resist the temptation to

explain design in organisms by positing a single great Intelligence that does all the work…

We must build up the same resistance to the temptation to explain action as arising

from the imperatives of an internal action-orderer who does too much of the work.”

Especially, we would add, when there now exist such promising leads to
how human behavior is generated and guided within the domain of unconscious

processes."

Given this or even 50% of It to be the ultimate truth of the "human condition".....

What is the role of political action...in a cultured community.....?

...Given this hard fact....Consciously recognise the imperatives of the

Unconscious of the actors and agents; to come to terms with each other.....

And.......Negotiate and Compromise....according to the conditions and the

terms of the "Rule of Law" etc....

If this is undermined ....by any one of the big actors......any "collective agent" is in

a position to sense and in its way to undermine the goal and objective of the other very easily.

The outcome is a "Zero-sum Game" where all of them will lose in their ultimate product.

This seems the vicious circle of the centuries old underdevelopment of Ethiopia and

similar communities! Or social darwinism....with all the disastorous consequences

witnessed in our or... the human history at large.

Our political class as a whole seems incapable of recognising these instincts....to handle

it wisely...

That is perhaps the main pattern of thought, which helped the "West" or the new "tigers"

to do better than Africa....in this century...or earlier....Always to reflect and maintain the

ultimate "Social Harmony", given all differences and interests of the particular agents...

Needless to say......Enlightenment is the only better alternative!

And perhaps :-) "The Planets" (cf. R.T. "Cosmos and Psyche") would tell us more in the aftermath!!!

But, neither would they change the past
nor would the Human cease to be responsible for the Future!!!

***
Reference of the research:

http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/bios/bargh.html

Unconscious Behavioral Guidance Systems
John A. Bargh
Department of Psychology, Yale University
Ezequiel Morsella
Department of Psychology, San Francisco State University;
Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco

Book Review, "Cosmos and Psyche" from Richard Tarnas

http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=F.a1941cfd-fc1f-4c0f-89ac-fc001450f0c9&hl=en_GB

"Cosmos and Psyche" from Richard Tarnas

"Cosmos and Psyche" from Richard Tarnas

On the way of my inquiry: "What is wrong with us?" I came across the book of Mr. Richard Tarnas, "Cosmos and Psyche".

http://cosmosandpsyche.com/

It is Fascinating! According to my opinion, it is a "must read" for all those who belonged to the "generation of emotion" and still live with a glimpse of hope and optimism (It renders a sense of hope that the sacrifice of all those dear friends and other victims of circumstances and history included is not in vain).

It is not just the "usual esoteric stuff" or astrological common place, you may be prejudiced to be engaged with. It is in effect a comprehensive integral research on the "history of modernity" and enlightenment ( to be read with his prelude, "The Passion of the Western Mind") from an astrological perspective with an astounding details of historical facts and events without the slightest touch of dogmatism and prejudice towards historically conditioned emerging thoughts but with an objective of showing the celestial synchronicity (cf. Jung) of human development and their archetypal meanings (interpreted in astrological or planetary archetypal complex of ideas and meanings).

FYI, see the following review from the astrologer's perspective.

"....let me try and put things into perspective.

Firstly, it has to be said that some of the astrological connections Tarnas makes in these pages are breath-taking. Perhaps my favorite is the parallel he points out between the French Revolution of 1789, and the contemporary mutiny on the Bounty, which he describes as: a kind of laboratory case of a continuing synchronous emergence of parallel events totally isolated from each other yet reflecting the same archetypal complexes. (p.303)
Though the parallels between the 1960's and revolutionary France around 1790
also need to be mentioned. (This is a recurrent motif in the book, beginning at p.144.)

Secondly, he is a respected academic. As events in university circles remind us periodically, there are plenty of academics with an untutored hatred for astrology.

So, by explicitly advocating astrology, Tarnas must surely be putting his reputation

on the line. And he is doing so in pursuit of what he believes in, in order to make
the world a better place. So, absolute respect to the man!"....
http://www.skyscript.co.uk/rev_cosmos.html

Even if you belong to the skeptic mind and give room for methodical errors in the collection of data and their synthesis, you may admire the fact of being reminded to the vast collection of historical and intellectual events, which made the contemporary human collective mind, be it the way you may like to see it interpreted or otherwise. I am touched and animated to dig more and engage myself with the human jungle of knowledge, more and more than ever.....There is a lot to learn... in the way I was engaged, especially during the last 4-5 years....after my own personal phenomenological experience; not out of the blues but out of the wits of my own inquiry into life, our experience and concern towards our own roots, which is still condemned to suffer under dogmatically blindfolded "children", who refuse to grow and are so much perverted to get their pleasure in throwing people with the slightest glimpse of enlightenment into their dark cells trying in vain to mold them into their obscure caves.
http://www.ethiopianreporter.com/content/view/5515/54/

Let alone their counterparts and opponents; even, such young artists, who just want to love, and live...in harmony...to make this short life for them and their generation a little bit more beautiful...are behind bars!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfYVu3lv_Ks

***

Anyway, coming back to the theme of "Knowledge", for sure, I will not be bored in my later ages as long as my intellect would like to cooperate.....

This is as far as this life is concerned. If there happens to be another one....which I no doubt Hope for all the rest of my life....I will be the first to welcome this, if it is a sort of regeneration, in which all sorts of new archetypal meanings with different new major (planetary, to remain in the schema of Mr. R. T.) constellation will emerge and exist as new beings in the new generations to ultimately make and bear the "Harmonious Man" at the end of the Day...at the end of Time, if it has an End at all or No-Time. "The Harmonious Man" with all the major archetypes coherently embedded, and interacting to make the divine proportion, where “…the very heart of one’s being is united with the cosmos and the divine in a sublime harmony”. (R.T. on Dante’s epiphany, “Cosmos and Psyche”, p. 369)

(See my pictures:)

So be it that or this way....
Wonderful....is the work of Mr. Tarnas...Try to get it on the Amazon....It is not that expensive in paper back...
http://www.cosmosandpsyche.com/ExploreTheBook.php
I could not escape the temptation of having it for my own, for future reference, since I am grateful to come across these thoughts, which enforced me in my faith that "Life is full of purpose" and not simply a sort of an accidental "chemical scum" happening to emerge out of nothing and exist somehow around there in the universe... After the tiny intuition on "The purpose of Life", which I was trying to formulate in my playing ground -"The Harmony Model", I would say this was the sort of a scholar work which I was looking for.

To make the circle complete, because of my Ethiopian roots, it just remains to see how far and deep this astrological interpretation has its validity to particular areas of the globe too. I would be very eager to see an analysis of Ethiopian historical events and development out of this perspective. If I get the Data I need, I would take the pleasure of this hobby and will look into Ethiopian historical and perhaps intellectual landmarks (if any, globally relevant) to see how far the "universal archetypes and meanings" have their imprints on us and our people too. Or is it just a "Western" or Euro-centric" interpretation as some "patriots" may rush to condemn this work of an interesting scholar without the slightest bias towards other cultures (from whatever corner of our beautiful earth the culture emerges), as you would certainly conceive in his analysis of the relevant global events, insights, thoughts and inventions he collected for his research.

Please take a break and a breath ...and read it...I am sure you will not regret your time...Past ....present ….and.....future...but be enlightened and multidimensional in your outlook.

During my readings into Richard Tarnas ' "Cosmos and Psyche" and out of a further curiosity, laying aside all prejudices , I searched for relevant sides in the Web , in order to be engaged some more on astrology for the first time in my life. (Though, in my playing ground -the harmony model...Astrology was also a point of reference. I was not that biased and have sensed that there may be a healthy fluid interface towards astronomy /see alchemy too/).

I came across the following interesting references on Astrology and Science.

http://www.chaosastrology.com/astrostudy.htm
http://www.chaosastrology.net/chaosarticles.cfm
http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/jag8/table.html
http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/jag8/index.html

I looked at some examples of astrological charts (in my family, including myself) and I found an overwhelming substance which is apparently true. Along this I looked into the "Harmony Model" with which I am playing to understand the world and our psyche, whether the archetypes of the astrological system fit into it. They indeed do and as long as the tenets of the „Harmony Model" is understood, I think it is helpful in perceiving the phenomena.

Planetary Archetypes and Meanings*

Integrated in the Harmony Model

1. Sun / Selfhood: The intersection of the Absolute, the Material, the spiritual and the Human planes

2. Moon / Psyche: The intersection of the Absolute, the Social, the Cultural and the Human planes

3. Mercury /Mind: The intersection of the Human and the Material planes within the Spiritual sphere

4. Venus / Love: The intersection of the Human and the Social planes within the parameters of the Cultural sphere

5. Mars / War; Struggle: The intersection of the Absolute and the Cultural planes in the context of the Social sphere

6. Jupiter /Victory; Success: The intersection of the Absolute and the Spiritual planes posited in the Material sphere

7. Saturn / Power: The intersection of the Absolute and the Social planes

8. Uranus/ R-Evolution: The intersection of the Human and the Cultural planes

9. Neptune / Faith: The intersection of the Human and the Spiritual planes

10. Pluto / Transcendence: The intersection of the Absolute and the Material planes.

All said, nonetheless, my foundation is still reality, as far and deep as the universe and as open as the reasonable mind can always permit!!

Reality on

1/ a material foundation

2/ a cultural background

3/ a social structure

but including ....

4/ a reasonable spiritual pre-disposition

...based on a non-dogmatic philosophy, which gives room for a lot of substance as much as my human condition, nature or life allows.

LIFE is a beautiful adventure full of Wonders for the curious Human Intellect!

H.B.