Athene's 'Theory of Everything' - A new take on neuroscience in relation to quantum physics

Athene's 'Theory of Everything' doesn't only refer to the scientific concept of a unified field theory, but also to the scope of his research, which encompasses everything that has deep significance regarding the way science can affect our views on life, death and reality, ranging from neuroscience to particle physics.

Here's a bit of background info on the author/gamer/theorist:

The Theory of Everything documents the research that has been the reason why Chiren Boumaaza, aka 'Athene', disappeared from his usual viral YouTube series for the past year. Known mainly for his record-setting World of Warcraft and online poker stunts and his extravagant character in his videos, Boumaaza had long been seen as a genius by some, a 'troll' by many and an incredibly capable gamer and entertainer by most.

Developments in neuroscience and sociology from the past decades have shed light on many aspects of human psychology that are only now beginning to be discussed in the fields of 'self-help' and self-development. While there is a lot of popular literature on the subject from authors that range from popular lifecoaches such as Tony Robbins to spiritual teachers like Eckhart Tolle, Chiren saw a huge lack of material that takes a purely scientific approach. 'God is in The Neurons' makes important correlations about mirror neurons, neuroplasticity, memory, social dynamics, evolution, altruism and identity.

Being an engineer, I was really happy to see no sensationalized or metaphysical claims in the documentary. On the contrary, it was great to see how he rigorously took the scientific method to heart in all aspects of his work, without making any of the esoteric correlations that modern quantum theorists sometimes resort to. Chiren's writing, which the documentary is based on, looks to science with respect for its roots in openness and skepticism, while bringing back a sense of wonder.

As with all new ideas, I imagine not everyone will agree with his views on things. Regardless, the documentary will undoubtedly quickly become popular, as it deals with the subjects of reality, quantum mechanics, neuroscience and human psychology. And who knows, perhaps it will even win the heart of the scientific community (in the event the findings are verified).

Evie (Aerospace Engineer of Florida)

So, I watched this 'theory of everything' on YouTube a few months ago and I have to say I was very impressed with the professional quality of the production and content. I have watched the first 23 minutes of the doc around 5 or 6 times now, as it will probably take the average person multiple viewings in order to fully understand the implications. I decided to audio type the information presented for those who can't view YouTube videos due to being at work. I was kinda frustrated to find out that somebody had already beaten me too it and uploaded it on several blogs however, without further ado here is the documentary. Script will be posted in second post.

The relevant information is within the first half of the video, up to 23minutes, however feel free to watch the full thing.



Related links that can help in understanding Athene's Theory of Everything:

Athenes Website: ipowerproject.com...
Athenes YT Channel: www.youtube.com...

(Neuroscience related
YouTube - Part 4 - Phantoms In The Brain (Episode 1)
www.youtube.com...=2m30s
YouTube - Part 5 - Phantoms In The Brain (Episode 1)
www.youtube.com...=3m36s
Where is consciousness?
discovermagazine.com...
Joseph M. Carver, Ph.D. - Norepinephrine: From Arousal to Panic
www.enotalone.com...
Dharol Tankersley, C Jill Stowe, and Scott A Huettel - Brain Scan Predicts Difference Between Altruistic And Selfish People
www.medicalnewstoday.com...
New Scientist - Empathetic mirror neurons found in humans at last
www.newscientist.com...
Dr. Christopher Reist - Psychiatry And The Brain
www.videojug.com...
John McManamy - Dopamine - Serotonin's Secret Weapon
www.mcmanweb.com...
Invalidation
eqi.org...
YouTube - The Neuroscience of Emotions
www.youtube.com...
How Our Brains Make Memories
www.smithsonianmag.com...
Alpha, beta, gamma - The language of brainwaves - life - 12 July 2010 - New Scientist
www.newscientist.com...
TSN: Take the Neuron Express for a brief tour of consciousness
thesciencenetwork.org...
LeDouxlab Web-AudioFearful_Brains
www.cns.nyu.edu...
Joseph LeDoux Can Memories Be Erased
www.huffingtonpost.com...
Zócalo Public Square :: Full Video
zocalopublicsquare.org...
When in doubt, shout -- why shaking someone's beliefs turns them into stronger advocates | Not Exactly Rocket Science | Discover Magazine
blogs.discovermagazine.com... nger-advocates/
The Brain: How The Brain Rewires Itself - TIME
www.time.com...

Prologue

The human brain is a network of over one hundred billion neurons. Different experiences create different neural connection which brings about different emotions.
While certain neural connections become stronger and more efficient, others can become weaker. This is dependent on which neurons are stimulated – this is called Neuroplasticity.
From this we can suggest that virtually any talent or skill can be created and enhanced through training. Whatever you are doing at any time, you are physically modifying your brain to become better at it.
Since this is such a foundational mechanism of the brain, being self aware can greatly enrich our life experience.

Social Neuroscience

Specific neurons and neurotransmitters such as norepinephrine (nor-eh-pin-freen) trigger a defensive state when we feel that our thoughts have to be protected from the influence of others. If we are then confronted with differences in opinion, the chemicals that are released in the brain are the same ones that try to ensure our survival in dangerous situations. In this defensive state, the more primitive part of the brain interpheres with rational thinking and the limbic system can knock out most of our working memory – physically causing narrow mindedness.

We see this in the politics of fear, in the strategy of poker players or simply, when someone is stubborn in a discussion. No matter how valuable the idea might be, the brain has trouble processing it when it is in such a state. On a neural level, it reacts as if we are being threatened, even if this threat comes from harmless opinions or facts that we may otherwise find helpful and could rationally agree with.
But when we express ourselves, and our views are appreciated these defence like chemicals decrease in the brain, the dopamine neurotransmission activates the reward neurons, making us feel empowered and increasing our self-esteem. Our beliefs have a profound impact on our body chemistry; this is why placebos are extremely effective.

Self esteem or self belief is closely linked to the neurotransmitter serotonin. When the lack of it takes on severe proportions, it often leads to depression, self-destructive behaviour or even suicide.
Social validation increases the levels of dopamine and serotonin in the brain and allows us to let go of emotional fixations and become self aware more easily.

Mirror Neurons & Consciousness

Social psychology often looks at the basic human need to fit in and calls this the normative social influence.
When we grow up, our moral and ethical compass is almost entirely forged through our environment, so our actions are often a result of the validation we get from society.

But new developments in neuroscience are giving us a better understanding or culture and identity.
Recent neurological research has confirmed the existence of empathetic mirror neurons. When we experience an emotion or perform an action, specific neurons fire. However when we observe someone performing this action, or when we imagine it, many of the same neurons fire again, as if we were performing the actions ourselves.
These empathy neurons connect us to other people, allowing us to feel what other feel. And since these neurons respond to our imagination, we can experience emotional feedback from them, as if it came from someone else. This system is what allows us to ‘self-reflect’.

“The mirror neuron does not know the difference between it and others” – and is the reason why we are so dependant of social validation and why we want to fit in.

We are in a constant duality with ourselves and how others see us. This can result in confusion in terms of identity and self-esteem. And brain scans show that we experience these negative emotions even before we are aware of them.

But when we are self aware, we can alter misplaced emotions because we control the thoughts that cause them. This is a neurochemical consequence of how memories become labile when retrieved and how they are restored through protein synthesis.

Self-observing profoundly changes the way our brain works. It activates the self-regulating neo-cortical regions which give us an incredible amount of control over our feelings. Every time we do this our rationality and emotional resilience are strengthened. When we`re not being self-aware, most of our thoughts and actions are impulsive and the idea that we are randomly reacting and not making conscious choices is instinctively frustrating.

The brain resolves this by creating explanations for our behavior and physically rewriting it into our memories through memory reconsolidation, making us believe that we were in control of our actions. This is also called backward rationalization, and it can leave most of our negative emotions unresolved and ready to be triggered at any time. They become a constant fuel to our confusion as our brain will keep trying to justify why we behaved irrationally.

Cont...

All this complex and almost schizophrenic subconscious behavior is the result of a vastly parallel distributed system in our brain. There is no specific center of consciousness; the appearance of a unity is, in fact, each of these separate circuits being enabled and being expressed at one particular moment in time. Our experiences are constantly changing our neural connections, physically altering the parallel system that is our consciousness. Direct modifications to this can have surreal consequences that bring into question what and where consciousness really is.

If your left cerebral hemisphere were to be disconnected from the right, as is the case in spit-brain patients, you would normally still be able to talk and think from the left hemisphere while your right hemisphere would have very limited cognitive capacities. Your left brain will not miss the right part, even though this profoundly changes your perception. One consequence of this is that you can no longer describe the right half of someone`s face. But you`ll never mention it, you`ll never see it as a problem or even realise that something has changed. Since this affects more than just your perception of the real world and also applies to your mental images, it is not just a sensory problem but a functional change in your consciousness.

‘God’ is in the Neurons

Each neuron has a voltage which can change when ions flow in and out of our cell. Once a neuron voltage has reached a certain level, it will fire an electrical signal to other cells, which will repeat the process. When many neurons fire at the same time, we can measure these changes in the form of a wave.

Brainwaves underpin almost everything going on in our minds, including memory, attention and even intelligence. As they oscillate at different frequencies, they get classified in bands, such as alpha, theta and gamma. Each are associated which different tasks.

Brainwaves allow brain cells to tune in to the frequency corresponding to their particular task, while ignoring irrelevant signals, similar to how a radio homes in on different waves to pick up radio stations.

The transfer of information between neurons becomes optimal when their activity is synchronized. This is the same reason why we experience cognitive dissonance, the frustration caused by simultaneously holding two contradictory ideas.

Will is merely the drive to reduce dissonance between each of our active neural circuits. Evolution can be seen as the same process, where nature tries to adapt or “resonate” with its environment.

By doing so, it evolved to a point where it became self-aware and began to ponder its own existence. When a person faces the paradox of wanting purpose while thinking that human existence is meaningless, cognitive dissonance occurs.
Throughout history this has led many to reach for spiritual and religious guidance, challenging science, as it failed to give answers to existential questions, such as “Why or what am I?”

Thoughts? Please keep the discussion mature and on topic guys.

Peace and Love

K

If you are looking for more than yet another "theory of everything", i.e., if you want to move beyond contestable theories and speculations to the actual truth about everything (for, indeed, as Plato declared, there is such a thing), then spend the next six months studing the breakthrough, rigorous research at:
smphillips.8m.com...
You won't find theories, just the truth written into number and sacred geometries, now being revealed also in particle physics. You will discover the mathematical nature of the universal pattern underlying holistic systems.

Thank you for adding the text, and all of the links - this is like snacktime for my brain!

I'm at work but plan to return to this over the weekend, both to watch the vid you linked and peruse the other links provided. The TOE that gets to me is when I think about how much a galaxy, from a distance, resembles neurons and their synapses. That one kills me.

Thanks again - S&F!!!

reply to post by Kluute


Notice how everything stated in this video is confirmed in one passage of the Bible.

John 1

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Not only is the fact that all of reality is Word (Information / Wave), but the very reason many people will not believe it is directly tied to bias and its affect on awareness. The closer a baby is to the breast of the mother, the less aware they are to the world around them. The more a person allows the self to let go of the mother (material world), the more open it becomes to what is right there in front of it the whole time.

The entire Bible is wrapped in an allegory of symbols that underlay the entirety of reality. In the short verse above, we see the following symbols.

Word - Information and Programming
Programming - Creation of reality from Information
Light - Understanding and Learning
Darkness - bias and judgment against what is learned
Life - Awareness

Image what could be learned when the bias against God is dropped and we start reading the word of God for the programming of reality it is.

Keep in mind what is stated in John 1. Jesus is the image of God in reality. He is the Wave of light duality, but particle and wave. We collapse the indeterminate wave to make it determined. In other words, we use the Word of God (Christ) to make choices toward darkness or light by our life (Awareness). If you know what Cohesion is, then you know that we are held together in the light by the balance of three things. Father (Light), Son (Word) and Holy Spirit (Consciousness of God).

Cohesion - the act or state of cohering, uniting, or sticking together.

1 Colossians 1:

15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Symbols

God is Hidden. Light can only be seen when it reflects off of matter (Particle and Wave with form from superposition).

Son is Word and is expressed in an image when we collapse the wave. The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics verifies that consciousness creates matter.

Heaven is Space

Earth is Matter

What is revealed in the light and what remains hidden from the light. (Electromagnetic Frequency).

Throne - Where power resides.

Powers - Energies in nature.

Principalities - That which governs the other two.

All thing created by HIM (Word / Information).

All things hold together by WORD (Cohesion).

There are four properties of matter that produce the world around us: Cohesion, Adhesion, Attraction and Repulsion.

For more, follow the link in my signature and read my full article on my theory of existence. What you will find is a mirror of this video. I didn't get this from scientific observation alone. I got it from reading the theory and seeing it in the Bible with the eyes of a child.

Wow watching that I felt as if I were opening new neurons space in my tiny tiny little neuron filled brain. I am going to need to watch that at least 10 times.

Thanks for comments and additional information guys.

K

Originally posted by micpsi
If you are looking for more than yet another "theory of everything", i.e., if you want to move beyond contestable theories and speculations to the actual truth about everything (for, indeed, as Plato declared, there is such a thing), then spend the next six months studing the breakthrough, rigorous research at:
smphillips.8m.com...
You won't find theories, just the truth written into number and sacred geometries, now being revealed also in particle physics. You will discover the mathematical nature of the universal pattern underlying holistic systems.

I'm on board as well... People Get Ready:


System of Truth

reply to post by EnochWasRight


I AM the people--the mob--the crowd--the mass.
Do you know that all the great work of the world is
done through me? I am the workingman, the inventor, the
maker of the world's food and clothes.

I am the audience that witnesses history. The Napoleons
come from me and the Lincolns. They die. And
then I send forth more Napoleons and Lincolns.
I am the seed ground. I am a prairie that will stand
for much plowing. Terrible storms pass over me.
I forget. The best of me is sucked out and wasted.
I forget. Everything but Death comes to me and
makes me work and give up what I have.
And I forget.

Sometimes I growl, shake myself and spatter a few red
drops for history to remember. Then--I forget.
When I, the People, learn to remember, when I, the
People, use the lessons of yesterday and no longer
forget who robbed me last year, who played me for
a fool--then there will be no speaker in all the world
say the name: "The People," with any fleck of a
sneer in his voice or any far-off smile of derision.
The mob--the crowd--the mass--will arrive then.


-Carl Sandburg (1878-1967)

reply to post by Kluute


So we're all on the same page:


wikischool.org...

Originally posted by Kluute

Here's a bit of background info on the author/gamer/theorist:

The Theory of Everything documents the research that has been the reason why Chiren Boumaaza, aka 'Athene', disappeared from his usual viral YouTube series for the past year. Known mainly for his record-setting World of Warcraft and online poker stunts and his extravagant character in his videos, Boumaaza had long been seen as a genius by some, a 'troll' by many and an incredibly capable gamer and entertainer by most.

I'll go with conspiracy on this topic, since you are posting information produced by one of the biggest trolls on YouTube.

Let's start, shall we?

1. Why did he make this documentary?
2. What qualifies him to speak honestly with anyone when he is a notorious troll? Why should anyone take him seriously?
3. How does being good at trolling and gaming make someone an expert on neroscience and metaphysics?

These are the questions I ask myself. I cannot think of one good reason to watch anything by this guy that should be taken "seriously." This guy is like Andy Kaufman on YouTube, and he's a real riot sometimes, but I am taking this whole documentary/"revelation" as one big troll.

I am an open minded guy, but Chiren Boumaaza makes his living off of being a character and I would say, professional troll. Maybe even King of the Trolls.

The dude doesn't shoot straight, in that he lies a lot to express himself creatively. A lot of times, this comes at the expense of others. And now he wants to contribute to science? I don't think so. I think he wants to TROLL science.

IMO, study elsewhere.

reply to post by Kluute


Kluute,

I'm going to play the devil's advocate and ask :- if consciousness is purely a function of the brain then how can you explain out of body experiences, such as NDE's? ie experiences that can be scientifically validated through recall of observations of objects/activities in locations far away from the body.

Peace - Ned

reply to post by nimbinned


To answer your question with a question, are consciousness and awareness the same thing? Or just facets of the same thing?

reply to post by nimbinned



All NDE's are subjective.

There is no scientific validation via recall or observation of objects in far away locations.

Originally posted by bigfatfurrytexan
reply to post by nimbinned

 

To answer your question with a question, are consciousness and awareness the same thing? Or just facets of the same thing?

Consciousness is the awareness of the the conscious self

Trying to grapple at what consciousness is, is a bit like trying to grab a bar of soap in the shower with one foot. It can't be studied because it is not scientifically tangible. Which is cool IMO

Peace Out - Ned

reply to post by nimbinned


I dont think that conciousness is merely a part of the brain, personally i believe that conciousness is all around us.

I mean they say that atoms are composed of 99.9% 'empty space' - I believe that 'conciousness' fills this empty space, and provides life.

Neuro linguistic programming can save man from himself. discovered this about 2 weeks ago and started reprogramming actively. its definitely working.

typing with one hand. suffering with serious tennis elbow.

want to come back to respond properly. subscribe not always reliable for me.

xcellent thread! thank you.

reply to post by UnlimitedSky


Thank you for the positive comment!

Peace K

Wow! Where to begin?

The first half was basically a bad rehash of a number of lectures given by Daniel Dennett who is the Fletcher Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University. In particular this lecture...

www.youtube.com...

(sorry have worked out embedding yet)

The explaination of cognative dissonance was horrible. I suggest of you are interested in this even Wikipedia will give you a better introduction.

Also the split brain stuff was very weak, again if you're interested look up Roger Sperry here's a starter link for you www.nobelprize.org...

As for the physics half of the video I had to stop watching.