How to Let Go of Memories and Open Up the Future – 2

(Continued from last time)

Memory Is Not to Blame

I said a moment ago “open up the future without being hindered by memory,” but for the sake of memory’s honor, let me say that what sticks to memory and won’t let go is “the self you think of as yourself,” and to tell the truth, memory itself isn’t to blame at all.

You may think, “What strange thing are you saying?” but memory is part of the functions the physical body has, and it should be seen as clearly separate from the life consciousness that is the true body of a human being.

To recognize that clearly, it’s good to untangle the relationship between memory and the brain.

To do that, first, please read the following passage and get the general idea.

A synapse is a contact structure for transmitting information that develops between the side that outputs neural information and the side that receives it. The most basic structure is one in which the axon terminal of the presynaptic cell contacts a dendrite of the postsynaptic cell. Synapses are broadly divided into chemical synapses and electrical synapses; the cell on the output side is called the presynaptic cell, and the cell on the receiving side is called the postsynaptic cell. At chemical synapses, which make up many of the synapses in the central nervous system, the arrival of an action potential opens the voltage-dependent calcium channels of the presynaptic terminal; as a result, calcium flows in and triggers the exocytosis of synaptic vesicles. As a result, the neurotransmitters contained in the synaptic vesicles are released into the synaptic cleft. The neurotransmitters bind to neurotransmitter receptors in the postsynaptic terminal and carry out transmission either by directly changing the membrane potential or by activating intracellular second messengers. Chemical synapses are further divided into excitatory synapses and inhibitory synapses. An electrical synapse, on the other hand, is a structure that directly transmits changes in membrane potential to the next nerve cell via gap junctions on the contact membrane. The synaptic potentials received in this way travel to the cell body, are integrated at the axon hillock, and ultimately determine whether the postsynaptic cell fires. This interaction of influences is called neural integration. The efficiency of synaptic transmission is also not always constant but changes depending on the strength of the input. This is called synaptic plasticity and is thought to be the cellular mechanism of learning and memory.

RIKEN Brain Science Institute

Memory Is Nothing More Than Data Based on Experience

Depending on how synapses connect with one another inside the brain through mechanisms like the one described here, people come to have a forward-looking nature or a backward-looking personality.

It isn’t our intention to lecture on specialized medical knowledge, so let’s bring the talk back to the main thread, “letting go of memories and opening up the future.” What’s very important for understanding this is that “memory is originally nothing more than data based on experience.”

It was from the time they began confusing that “mere data” with “their own consciousness” that human beings forgot the divinity everyone originally had.

And so, generation after generation, the humans of Earth up to now have locked themselves in the inescapable prison of physical memory.

(To be continued)