THE HUMAN BRIAN: the great organ of perception. It’s brains this way and brains that way. Everywhere there are brains. Not every reader of this weblog will want to go further into the reflections of noted Morphologist-Professor John Sundsten.  As with any text in neurology this is not ordinarily easy reading.  However, for this blog only, the good professor has included revealing illustrations and most of them, thank god, are merely analogies.  Our fine anatomical explorer offers heartfelt alternatives for both new age readers and others who hope that modern brain science might offer some relief from both mankind’s anxieties of concern and its frequent stupidity.  (I for one will be studying this for any clues on how to prevent cats from peeing on the furniture.)  This compassionate lecturer also respects the early efforts of Phrenologists and their detailed study of cranial bumps, and again notes several correlations in characteristic faculties between the findings of modern neurology and those bone topographists. Our steadfast professor makes note of some other charming coincidences. You will, we feel certain, be surprised to learn that there are many fine correspondences between the overall shape of Green Lake and a cross-section of a human brain. In appreciation for this gift we will also include a few more Sundsten Snapshots from his walks around the lake.  And we will conclude with a revealing exposition of the morphologist as bird watcher titled “Fourteen Ways of Looking at a Blue Crane.”

For the neurology lessons that follow you may wish to draw a cup of tea – mint perhaps – and find a comfortable chair for you, your laptop and your cat, if you have one.   What follows is mostly Sundsten, unless it obviously is not.  John Sundsten’s own exposed head has been used for this illustration.

[Remember – CLICK to ENLARGE.]

A recent study of the effect of whole brain Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) with laser guided stimulating technology (GST)* has been proposed. It was suggested that by tracing a laser-guided stimulating magnetic beam around the Chakra patterns affixed to the head, results on behavior and or the relief of medical symptoms might be achieved. One part of the study intends to determine whether laser-guided TMS to the whole brain through the crown Chakra pattern (Skrt … Sahasrara), the round symbol at the top of the head, could expand consciousness, possibly opening awareness into a more spiritual global sense. On the other hand, TMS through the head-placed symbol of the root Chakra (Muladhara), the symbol at the top left, was proposed to test its effect on lower back pain and sciatica.  One Yoga instructor suggested that perhaps the brain itself houses the energies, initially proposed by practitioners to flow through the traditional Chakra sites at various body levels; eg, crown chakra at top of head, and root chakra at base of spine. Thus the investigators would be activating, or releasing such energies directly at deep brain sites, instead of by traditional meditative techniques. (*It will not be necessary to warn readers against trying this guided stimulating technology (GST) at home for it is not yet available – anywhere really.)

Included next for closer inspection are enlargements of examples drawn from the Accordance of Analogous Brain Faculties Matrixes (AABFM).

[Always CLICK to ENLARGE and sometimes CLICK TWICE.]

Dumb Luck or Fate? Believe it or Not! Many “Faculties of the Brain” as described by the “pseudo-science” Phrenology correlate in temperament and position with brain physiology and anatomy as described by modern science!

Phrenology Chart … Real Brain Sites

combatitiveness … amygdala

amativeness … pyriform cortex

alimentiveness … hypothalamus

calculation … parietal lobe

language … superior temporal gyri

conscientiousness … prefrontal lobe

conjugal love  … cingulate gyrus

friendship (pleasure)… septal nuclei

GREEN LAKE SIMILITUDES

Look carefully and you will see both the Thalamus and Hypothalamus on a midline view of a human brain at the left, and also on the Olmsted’s 1910 Green Lake planning map at the right. You can also see intimations of the pineal (pine cone) gland at the left of the brain’s Thalamus in the bulge at the left on the map. Comes to mind something like the Sherlock Holmes case of the “purloined letters” that were not seen because they were exposed on the table for all to see, so here to the right in the center of the Thalamus sits the shining Massa Intermedia. Imagine the wonderful coincidence. On the map it is Duck Island! Quack Quack!!! It seems to shout. There are other comparisons – certainly more subtle – but we leave those to learned readers who will know that the Hypothalamus is functionally involved with what we call the “Four F’s”: Feeding, Fighting, Fleeing and Sex.

GREEN LAKE on the MIND

Recent details from John Sundsten’s walks around Green Lake.

BIRD WATCHING, BLUE CRANE & GREEN LAKE BE HERE NOW

With modern digital recreations – also known as “photoshop polishing” – the anatomist bird watcher has crossed the country from corner to corner and transported a Floridian cousin’s Blue Crane (and not a Heron as some might perceive) to the shores of our Green Lake. The testing required for this operation is sampled at the bottom with “Fourteen Ways of Looking at a Blue Crane.” As a vestige or glimmer of the Crane’s southern origins Sunsten has made no fussy effort to conform the lighting on the tall bird’s plumage with that on the Green Lake shore. A good four hours of day light had passed between them.  The gregarious professor was mostly pleased that the bird fit so well in the hole he’d reserved for it.

MASSA INTERMEDIA REVISITED

The agile professor concludes with another analogy for the Massa Intermedia – the familiar inverted psychotropic mushroom: L’Enfant Magnifique ou Terrible.  Also known here as Duck Island.