OUTLINE OF THEORY OF MIND
1. ALL MUSCLES--including core muscles--are sensory 2. CORE REFLEX links all sensory activity--i.e. eyes, ears, nose, skin, tongue--to the core muscles 3. INTER--CORE REFLEX coordinates core muscles to move together 4. Bodies exercise CORE POSTURES: architectural poses of the core muscles 5. Bodies SUBPOSTURE core muscle movement 6. Imagination (MIND) is a macrostructure process of body--
"SELF-GENERATING SENSORY EXPERIENCE" 7. Sensory needs and sensory stimulation drive imagination 8. Words are a body exercise 9. Creating words is a different body exercise than imagining a wordless sensory experience. 10. BODY EXERCISES MIND.
Sensory body exercises mind in the absence of sensory stimulation.
Sensory body exercises mind to plan for body.
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1. ALL MUSCLES--including core muscles--are sensory
All muscles gather information about their states of being from moment to moment.
They are sensory. Like the skin is sensory, muscles are sensory. I think of the muscles in continuous dialogue with the brain, continually gathering sensations of pain, pleasure, stretch, fatigue, warmth, cold, contraction, relaxation, tension, fatigue, rejuvenation, release.
The CORE muscles are muscles of the torso, neck, and head and move in breath and emotion. Core muscles include muscles like the soft palate, muscles in the nose and face, the throat, intercostals, diaphragm, abdominals, pelvic floor. Core muscles also include organ muscles like the gut, stomach, and heart. The core muscles gather sensations as they interact with the world. AND they gather sensations of their changing state of being from moment to moment from inside the body.
2. Core reflex links all sensory activity--i.e. eyes, ears, nose, skin, tongue--to the core muscles
Put your hand on something hot and notice what happens. Even though the skin is what is touching the hot surface, it immediately triggers a core reflex response in the core.
Do it, and feel the core muscles contract. Imagine the same process when you hear a loud sound or see a bright light. The sensory stimulation triggers an immediate core reflex throughout the core, head to pelvis. That reflex experience is felt. This means that the senses--eyes, ears, tongue, nose, skin--are linked to the core muscles, so that sensory experiences become inwardly felt experiences. The core muscles are wired to experience reflex activity directly caused by the experiences of other senses as the other senses gather information about the world.
3. INTER--CORE REFLEX coordinates core muscles to move together
You know when a person gets punched in the gut and they double over groaning? Ok, not a pleasant example, but stay with me. Even though the initial pressure was only in the gut, inter-core reflexes automatically triggered core muscles in the chest and neck and head to reflexively contract too, so that as the air left the lungs, the core muscles structured the exhalation to a vocalized groan/moan "ungghhhh" causing the person to double over. Same kind of process when you cough. Starts in the throat right? Then inter-core reflexes coordinate core muscles head to pelvis to contract all at the same time .<COUGH>. It starts in the throat, intercore reflexes contract many muscles, and that entire exercise is felt.
4. Bodies exercise CORE POSTURES: architectural poses of the core muscles
Core postures are architectural poses of the core muscles, head to pelvis. Inter-core and core reflex mechanisms are instrumental in the structuring of core postures. For example, try to smile with the lips while relaxing the rest of the core. A fake smile, right? Now expand the ribs, create a little contraction in the deep abdominals and pelvis and smile. That's the core posture of a smile. A smile is a full body pose; core activity within the torso triggers reflex contraction in the face, and the face muscles ride the wave of reflex activity. You smile and it looks authentic, because you are engaging a full core pose. Same thing with other emotions: anger, joy, sadness. If the entire core is not engaged, no inter-core reflexes are stimulated and the expression on the face looks fake, because the muscle contraction does not reflect the inter-core reflex activity of the entire core.
5. Bodies SUBPOSTURE core muscle movement
Inter-core reflexes and core reflexes happen at varying degrees of intensity, from robust exercise to subtle. Reflexes can be stimulated at 100% intensity, creating INTENSE core posture events--screams and moans and cries. Oh the drama. But inter-core reflexes, core reflexes, and core postures can also be exercised at 90% intensity, and 80% and 70% and 60% and 50% and 40% and 30% and 20% and 10%, until the movement is so subtle that no one may notice that you are exercising a core posture. You might smile ever so subtly, with core muscles contracting at 10%, exercising the same muscle groups as a great big smile but with a fraction of the intensity so that it is verrrrry subtle. At 10% muscle engagement, you are SUBPOSTURING a smile.
6. Imagination (MIND) is a macrostracture process of body "SELF-GENERATING SENSORY EXPERIENCE"
Imagination is a macrostructure body exercise. We need big structures of body---senses including core muscles as well as brain--to exercise mind. Imagination is an activity in which there is a continuous dialogue between brain and senses. When I imagine, body self-generates sensory experience. When the eye, for example, "sees" an imagined image, the brain and eyes self generate a sensory experience with a small percentage of the rods and cones of the eyes exercising as if they were actually gathering sensory information.
Say I imagine water. Eyes structure as if I am actually seeing blue waves of the ocean. Ear structures move as if I am hearing waves fall on the shore. Skin and muscle contract as if I am immersing myself in the cold water. Core muscles, head to pelvis, contract reflexively, as I imagine immersing myself in cold water. I self-generate the sensory experience of water and as I self-generate, the senses exercise.
7. Sensory needs and sensory stimulation drive imagination
Senses NEED to exercise. They need to exercise in order to maintain themselves. Not only do the senses gather sensory information from the outside world, they exercise according to their own needs. Muscles need to move. Eyes need to see. Ears need to hear. The senses need to exercise to maintain themselves, to continue being. This means that needs of the senses drive imagination. Needs of the senses drive processes of mind.
8. Words are a body exercise
Words label sensory experiences. There is the experience of water and there is the word "water" which is its own experience. The word water consists of spoken consonants and vowels said with one breath. W---a---t---e---r. I speak the word with core muscles, tongue, jaw, soft palate, throat, intercostal muscles between the ribs, diaphragm below the lungs, abdominal muscles. These core muscles all work together to say the word "water."
In addition to muscle movement, the eyes also exercise: I see the word "water"-- the word being a combination of straight and curved lines. My eyes gather the sensory experience of seeing the word "water."
The ears hear the word "water." The structures of the ear move in different ways as the word is spoken, consonant, vowel, consonant, vowel, consonant, each with their own quality.
The word "water" is its own sensory experience and serves as a label for the wordless sensory experience of water.
You say the word "water" I hear the word "water" --ears gather the sensory experience of the word I say the word subtly to myself, Core muscles subposture the word "water" Eyes and brain visualize the word "water" I am self-generating a sensory experience
I imagine a wordless sensory experience of water Eyes structure to see blue waves Ears structure as if hearing waves crashing on the shore. Core muscles move mimicking the wave sound, "shhushaahhh" I move into "ah" ---a subtle pleasure pose of the core muscles
OR the other way around!
I self-generate a sensory experience of water
Eyes structure to see blue waves Ears structure as if hearing waves crashing on the shore. Core muscles move mimicking the wave sound, "shhushaahhh" I move into "ah" ---a subtle pleasure pose of the core muscles
I am self-generating a sensory experience
Core muscles subposture the word "water"
I say the word "water"
You hear the word "water" Eyes and brain visualize the word "water."
I am self-generating a sensory experience
I move into "ah" ---a subtle pleasure pose of the core muscles
9. Creating words is a different body exercise than imagining a wordless sensory experience
Saying the word "water" has a different function, and is a different activity, than exercising a sensory experience of water. Saying the word exercises the core muscles in the face, mouth, throat, torso to shape vowels and consonants in exhalation. Subposturing a sensory experience of water can include a diverse range of core movement:
Moving into a contracted state as one might when plunging into cold water,
....moving subtly inwardly as one hears and moves to the trickle of water,
....subposturing the movement of swallowing water
....moving into a core posture of "ah" when imagining submerging body into warm water
10. Body exercises mind
Mind is an exercise of a sensory body. The sensory body moves through the world, gathering information. Sensory experiences and sensory needs drive processes of mind.
Sensory body NEEDS to interact with the world. Body SELF-GENERATES sensory experience to plan for body.
Sensory body MAINTAINS itself by self-generating sensory experience in the absence of sensory stimulation.
The process is continuous