Jeremy Narby is a Canadian anthropologist who spent 15 years among the indigenous people of the Amazon. He is familiar with shamanic psychedelia (he felt radiant and energetic under the effects of ayahuasca) and sympathizes with the indigenous vision of a nature where everything perceives and feels. Nature is a constant exchange of signs. Shamanism, a dialogue with this intelligent nature. The instrumentation is not mechanical but physiological: the shaman’s body and his visionary ability. “Plant spirits travel from place to place to cure disease. Well, plants take great care of humanity.” The stones and the water, the animals and the plants have spirits to dialogue with under the prism of ayahuasca and who can teach us things of great benefit. The shaman also uses hallucinogens to penetrate the minds of other species, gaining the jaguar’s agility or the owl’s night vision. Opportunities to refine perception and share in the common heritage of all species.
The best way to understand the mind is anthropological. And the best way to understand the brain is through the neuroscientist. If we equate mind and brain, then we face a dilemma. When the mind is in the brain, neuroscientific research should take precedence over anthropological research. If the brain is in the mind (the model I propose and that proposed in this book), anthropology should prevail. Half measures or reconciliations do not work here: in life as in knowledge one has to choose. It is a political and historical question.
Magnetic resonance imaging can be used to obtain images of brain activity. But those blobs of light on a screen don’t explain how the brain works.
The brain houses the mind and memories. This is the modern paradigm. But the brain, that mysterious jelly, is malleable and plastic. If not, we couldn’t learn. Knowledge and experience transform it. Magnetic resonance imaging can be used to obtain images of brain activity. But those blobs of light on a screen don’t explain how the brain works. The fact that certain neurons are associated with a certain behavior does not mean that they cause or produce it. Increased blood flow to an area simply indicates that the neurons are active and absorbing glucose and oxygen from the blood. Nothing tells us how we experience what happens to us.
For decades it was believed that the adult brain could not change. Today we know that he transforms like a butterfly, even though he bears the heavy burden of evolution. The deepest layers, the thalamus and the amygdala, are the seat of the instincts. This passionate and instinctive brain activates the body before a threat or a desire. A sophisticated survival system. Being able to see these reactions from the outside has been the goal of contemplative practices throughout the ages.
Proteins, synapses and neurons are not pictures or melodies. They are points of light on a screen. Neuroscience admits that the way brain matter creates mental images remains a mystery. “The study of the brain and mind is still in its infancy. We ignore how the sense of self arises in a biological organism.” This unified self is a brain-forged illusion. However, it would be more accurate to say that it is created through perception, memory, and desire that make us who we are. And also through the language that enables pronunciation and understanding. The totality of these four factors I call spirit. And the brain is in it.
Narby’s mission is to collect testimonials about natural intelligence from around the world. Bees process abstract concepts, plants communicate through roots and volatile substances, dolphins through underwater sound waves. Cockroaches decode air clutter. Ravens make tools. The Kraken get angry, dress up and steal lobsters. Bats practice reciprocity with food. Some birds act as sentinels, warning of the arrival of predators.
Animals are not mere reflex machines, some can abstract, communicate knowledge, or modify their instincts as they gain knowledge.
The general consensus is that brains, made up of cells, think. But there are cases where a single cell thinks for itself, like in amoebas. These single-celled creatures move through transformation. Travel changes the traveller. They lack eyes and a nervous system, but can navigate and avoid obstacles. In fact, Slime Mold, a cunning and calculating single-celled organism the size of a hand, is capable of solving a maze and avoiding its dead ends. All of this confirms that animals are not mere reflex machines. Some animals can create abstractions, communicate knowledge, or modify their instincts as they acquire knowledge. Schopenhauer was wrong. Representation must not be a slave to the will. Buddhists live by this belief.
Living beings are the result of a long series of transformations. Ovid and Kafka foresaw it. The essence of nature is metamorphosis. Humans can accumulate knowledge outside of themselves (in books or databases) and that gives us a certain advantage. But it also alienates us. Intelligence is built into the remaining beings. Doing it artificially and externally can lead to a general dumbing down of the species.
We can use Narby’s exciting book to write down a tentative metaphor. The brain is more like a sponge or antenna that absorbs or captures knowledge than a computer that produces it. The book concludes with an example of an animal world that we could emulate. The jaguar is at the top of the Amazon food chain. It eats everything from fish to monkeys, lives a discreet life and moves stealthily, having no other rival than humans. These impeccable predators control their own power, neither displaying nor displaying it. “We are a young species and have only just begun to understand.”
Jeremy Narby
Translation by Silvia Moreno Parrado
Errata Nature, 2023
314 pages. 22 euros
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