[Paleopsych] thought and genes

[Steve Hovland]

Nicholes Perricone (p 30 of Perricone Promise)
notes that neuropeptides seem to be the "stuff
of thought."  Thought is materially expressed
in these chemicals.  There are receptors for
these chemicals in many types of cells, and
one might assume that when neuropeptides
attach to cells they affect the expression of
the genes.

Steve Hovland
www.stevehovland.net


-----Original Message-----
From:	Michael Christopher [SMTP:anonymous_animus at yahoo.com]
Sent:	Sunday, April 03, 2005 11:23 AM
To:	paleopsych at paleopsych.org
Subject:	[Paleopsych] thought and genes


Steve says:
>>Perhaps genes are not the ultimate control unit 
of life. Perhaps there is something smaller or more 
etheric. Perhaps something more like thought controls 
genes.<<

--Do you mean something LIKE thought, or thought in
particular? I think we have many misconceptions about
thought (for example, that it's a "master controller"
rather than a tangle of nested subroutines and
feedback) that we mistakenly apply to other domains.
Nature seems to like synergy, emergent complexity,
spirals, and cooperative assemblies in which no
particular part controls everything. I don't think
thought escapes those patterns, however much it may
feel subjectively like there is one thing in control
in our minds (sometimes I wish there were!) 

There seems to be a subjective or "mystical" sense in
many people that thought and DNA are somehow related.
Perhaps thought is analogical to genetic processes,
another fractal manifestation of complexity in nature.
Perhaps the mind's body-map interacts with thought in
a way that feels like thought reaching into the cells
(hypnotherapists and new age healers talk of "new
mental patterns absorbing into your cells") or perhaps
new metaphors from biology and math are being applied
to thought simply because they are available as
models. That's an interesting idea to explore, but I
don't see any evidence that thought interacts with DNA
or quantum mechanics in any direct way, any more than
the content of a priest's sermon alters the molecular
makeup of the bricks out of which the church was
built.

Michael


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