Seeking Patterns: Part One

December 2, 2006

In terms of the "human" inclination to need to seek out patterns in the process of life, this is of course "natural to the species", and it is one of the reasons that apparent patterns are as eagerly embraced as patterns that genuinely reflect relationalities. We have said before but we will reiterate, because brain development in the species continues long after birth, the alignment of patterns perceived at various levels of brain development not only change but become more discriminatory with the passage of time it is also the reason while all pattern perception is highly influenced by cultural paradigms.

When the Jesuits say "give us the child by [age] seven and we will never lose him", this has much more to do with the nature of brain development than with the "correctness" of religion. The most enduring patterns known to any member of this species and indeed for a great many individually ensouled species, are those perceived before the Second Monad when such things as rationality and logic are barely understood, let alone used as criteria to evaluate observed phenomena; it is also why many children tend to mirror the understandings, fears and behaviors of their parents, as a way to endorse "normality".

Once the brain has reached its functional maturity at approximately age 20, then careful discernment of emerging pattern can and does become a major factor in assessing the experiences of life. Until that time, of course the other factors are not only stronger but more "satisfying" and for that reason, continue as the framework in which the more refined discernment occurs.

There have been occasions when unusual precocity have led to greater brain development than is "normal" and one of the patterns discerned enter the world of thought as advanced theories in intellectual terms or as what might be called avante garde emotional expression, including but not limited to art and performance. We would not encourage the assumption that enhanced brain activity or enhanced brain capacity are synonymous with artistic or intellectual brilliance, we did not say that nor did we mean to imply it, such things being the realms of talent or the accumulated skills of lives and recognition as well as Life Task decisions and Overleaves. However, the chances are that fragments having chosen such physiological developments will become capable of illuminating aspects of the processes of perception through the brain than those whose learning intellectual and emotional capacities fall within the "standard issue".

Of course where there are significantly disrupted patterns early in the life no matter what the capacity the brain may have for development, the disruptions can and usually do interfere with the potential inherent in the greater brain capacity, and this can result in number of conditions including some labeled as insanity. But even the most "insane" brain functions, are still rooted in the earliest patterns perceived in life and the ramifications of those patterns in terms of perceptions.