Page 183 - Spirit and Mind. Vol 1

Nicolai Levashov. Spirit and mind. Vol.1

orientation to one's surroundings. Subjects and objects of the surrounding world
create, through the function of the sense organs, qualitative changes in the brain cells'
spatial structure. This enables a living organism to orient itself in its environment and

to perform the activities and reactions necessary to its survival.
Our eyesight enables the brain to recreate a holographic copy of our external
environment and the spatial orientation of the components of this reality relative to
each other. But, other than that, judging only by outer appearances, we cannot tell

anything about the qualitative conditions of our surrounding reality.
The sense of touch is more helpful in this regard since our skin receptors react to
heat and cold; to pressure, density and shape and to the various forms of matter
(solid, liquid, gas, plasma) that characterize the elements of our surrounding reality.
This provides us a qualitatively different layer of information about our environment.

Along with touch, the sense of smell helps us get some idea of the composition
of air, water, food and all the other elements surrounding us in our everyday life.

Hearing enables us to discern the direction of a possible danger, or conversely, a
potential prey, long before we can spot them.
But, in sum, all our sense organs just enable us to react appropriately to
constantly shifting conditions in our environment, which, of course, is crucial to all
living creatures, including our-selves. However, the effect on our nervous system of
this or that sensory signal lasts only long enough for the organism to react
appropriately. Following that, the sense organs and nervous sys-tem are ready for
the perception of new signals.

Thousands of signals bombard the brain ceaselessly, minute by minute, hour by
hour, day by day. Even in sleep, the sense organs continue to work, ready to rouse the

body to its full active state. Otherwise an organism could easily fall prey to two- or
four-legged predators. All creatures unable, for one reason or another, to detect
danger and react on time have perished in the cruel struggle for survival. And all that
makes sense, given the huge variety of living organisms that abound, including man.

So, for twenty-four hours a day, information from the environment enters the
brain through the various sense organs. The brain sifts all this information through its
"sieve" and responds only to those signals having a bearing on preservation of life or
integrity. All the other information flows through the brain in a wide and abundant
"river," unnoticed and unheeded by us. However, although unheeded, this does not
imply that the information has no influence on the brain. So let us explore just what
kind of influence it actually exerts.

Any information entering the brain from the environment, whether copious or
meager, whether momentary or forever, alters the qualitative structure of the
brain. In the case of a brief alteration, the external signal creates an etheric imprint
only, which, more or less rapidly, depending on its function disappears after the
signal's arrival. This constitutes short-term memory. When the qualitative
alteration of brain structure is lengthy, the signal creates an imprint on both etheric
and astral levels. In this case, the footprint on the qualitative structures of the
brain is virtually permanent (long-term memory).

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