Black and white
We measure distance in the dark
People tend to feel great when they can sort and divide realities, problems or issues into groups. Something is either dark or light, a person is good or bad, an idea is great or to be thrown away. This way of sorting makes many of us feel like we are in control, that we know what we want and that we know where we are heading. The behaviour is also easily linked to politics or religion, by taking a stand and following that strongly we feel connected and grounded to something concrete. But could this be to take the easy way through life? I’ve recently read multiple articles about new research and us humans that make me believe we are much more intricate than the too common black and white idea.
A few years ago a research team at Autonomous University of Barcelona managed to show how much the female brain changes during and after pregnancy. They found significant gray matter changes in brain regions associated with social cognition and theory of mind. There has been very little research that has focused on anatomical brain changes during pregnancy and this study might be a start to follow up leads. But suddenly the idea of who a woman is during and after pregnancy might fall out of the black and white perspective.
Another scientific dive is the “biofield”, the energy and information that surrounds and interpenetrates the human body. The biofield is composed of both measurable electromagnetic energy and hypothetical subtle energy, or chi. This structure is also referred to as the "human energy field" or "aura." We have known for a long time now that everything has an electromagnetic and measurable field. In humans our hearts have the strongest fields and they reach out about a meter from our bodies. Yet this wider idea of this being connected to a more intangible field is an intriguing idea. It has been proven that we, via our magnetic fields, can interchange moods and feelings quietly and unconsciously. An extremely multi grey coloured zone if you ask me.
Connected to the electromagnetic field of the heart is the heart-brain connection. The heart and the brain communicates in an astonishing way through nerves and biochemically via hormones, but also biophysically through waves and energetically through magnetic fields. But what is most mind-blowing is that this connection is not unidirectional, as one would first imagine. What our hearts feel has now been proven to also communicate and change our brains; the hearts behave as if they have a brain of their own. Our brains and hearts seem to work in a deeply complex arena where things are not so easily divided into different boxes.
True thoughts are those alone which do not understand themselves.
Theodor W. Adorno
To try to make your own world seem more clear and safe by dividing people, thoughts or actions into black and white areas might not be an effective way if you truly want to understand your surrounding. The pace in which scientists are progressing makes all constantly change, but there also seems to be a stronger will to prove ideas and thoughts that we have maybe always known but not been able to validate. I am quite happy seeing all in greys and believe that it is wise to cruise in between all these black and white boxes for an honest yet slightly confusing view of this intricate world.
