Dark Matter: Ode to Marcus Raichle

When we daydream, our brain is busy. In a recent article in Scientific American, a Neurologist realizes a mind at rest but which is also miswired leads to diseases like depression, Alzheimer, and schizophrenia. The brain is an organized structure including a cacophony of competing signals. As a system of interdependent components, some electrical signals take precedence over others… The demands of the outside world may seem chaotic when the brain wrestles with the need to stabilize planned responses with the needs of the moment. How can we prevent disease when six million bits are transmitted through the optic nerve, only 10,000 bits make it to the brain’s visual processing area and only a few are involved in forming conscious perception---to little to generate a meaningful perception,---and the brain projects constant predictions about the outside environment in anticipation of paltry input?—This question was derived from my reading of Scientific American March 2010 Edition by Marcus E. Raichle. His article “Dark Matter” was my inspiration for this poem. I have attempted to answer this question…

Conductors orchestrate cues with the wave of a baton.
Signals coordinate activity to ensure
all players are ready.

Do we really have time to live
like chained cowards with our eyes covered by an iron mask and
horns growing out of our ears;
stuck in flames?

Sick with a disease, he holds her waist outside
in the cold; it is below zero. She would like to ask him several questions,
“Do you want to carry ten huge logs that will break your back?
Do you want to surrender sharp power
and a silver cup filled with clear confident awareness?
Why deny your true feelings?"

His thin muscular legs are bare.
She is unsure why things are ambiguous, but she still looks up
to him. He is glaring into a spark-filled moon.
With his back to her, he fearlessly watches the night
dressed in a dark violet coat.

The lake below encompasses a fluid shadow;
The light reflects, refracts, and bends at an angle.
She hunches over beside this shimmering ball of heat.
A perfect profile is resting inside a blazing translucent moon
that is positively focused within all of this uncertainty.
Ah…to these moments---when life works to reveal---
what is working for you?

In an ever-changing world, how about if we ensure the right computations
coordinated appropriately in the present moment?

The solid man moves forward
when the black and white vehicle
----whether the car(t) is right way up or upside down----
is driven with balance and control----------------- beyond our polarities.
We gain power when we speak with clarity and
express the voice of our truths.

How about we break out from rules we learn in church?
Let’s forget about the man with the stick
who points at us and pins his cane to the ground and tells us what to do.
The golden power of the Chariot can guide us to ride toward ourselves.

A need to remain still is required
to understand neurological maladies
so we can shed light on disease.

The more consciously we act, the more depth our insight inherits.
Mistakes occur when focused concentration abates.

Dear friends, forget over active messages while daydreaming.
With a clearly controlled consciousness over
The Brain’s dark energy ---- what goes below the level of awareness----
we can view the small window of consciousness we experience
to create a properly wired concert that
marks a departure for the Brain's default mode.