Nothing is more amazing than the highly improbable fact that we exist. We often ignore this fact, oblivious to the reality that instead of something there could be nothing at all, i.e. why is there a universe (poignantly aware of itself through us) and not some void completely unconscious of itself.
Consider that from light, air, water, basic minerals within the crust of the earth, and the at least 3 billion year old information contained within the nucleus of one diploid zygote cell, the human body is formed, and within that body a soul capable of at least trying to comprehend its bodily and spiritual origins.
The elders teach us: "somos la naturaleza" which means we are nature. This saying is about showing respect for our relationship to mother earth and the natural systems which keep her, us, the animals and all life in harmony and balance. Let's learn about the Quantum Nature of our Biology and the relationships we share with nature.
Jeremy Rifkin - an economist, consultant to the EU and Professor at the Wharton School of Business - teaches we have evolved from homo-sapiens in homo-empathicus the last 200,000 years, not on a genetic level but on a social level. The wiring of our brains have progressively focused more towards sociability thanks to mirror neurons, a important source for our empathy.
According to the research interconnecting tech like radio and the internet are a major drive for the telescoping of our emphatic ability to extend over the world and a important factor in societal advancements.
For example we've come from identifying and empathizing with only blood/religious/state ties towards the realization we are interconnected with everything alive as 1 family on 1 planet.
The rapid response of the world to help during natural/manmade disasters, crowdfunding, increasing availability of information are a few other examples of our social evolution in motion. According to Rifkin, to empathize is to civilize, and to civilize is to empathize and our emphatic drive is to actually belong.
<aside> 💚 “Empathy is the opposite of Utopia. [...] Empathy is grounded in the acknowledgement of death and the celebration of life and rooting for each other to flourish and be. It’s based on our frailty and imperfections. So when we are talking about building an empathetic civilization we are not talking about utopia, we are talking about the ability of humanity to show solidarity not only with each other but with our fellow creatures who have a one and only life on this planet. We are homo-empathicus.”
</aside>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7AWnfFRc7g
Imagine you and your friend just finished a marathon race and you are both very thirsty. Your friend finds a bottle of water. You watch as they open the cap on the water and then put it up to their mouth to take a sip. What are you feeling? What are you thinking at that moment? Think about it. If you were imagining that you were feeling your friends sense of relief from quenching their thirst THEN you are using your mirror neurons.
When you know the intention behind an action that involves the mirror neurons in the brain. When you follow a sequence of actions and you can - in your mind - predict that sequence you can determine what the implication of that sequence is.
The ability to understand the sensory implications of the motor actions you are perceiving allows you to visualize the intention of your friend. Beyond witnessing behavior, we see the intention beneath the behavior.
<aside> đź’š **We are hard wired to perceive the mind of another being.
</aside>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq1-ZxV9Dc4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGYKcqzG_7M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Th0aOoX4EM
One of my favorite threads of research shows just how interconnected we humans are. Studies reveal that if you bear witness to someone else experiencing pain—whether it’s a friend stubbing their toe, a person experiencing homelessness on a damp street corner, or a somber face in the waiting room of a hospital—you’re likely to experience some degree of pain yourself. The Association for Psychological Science (APS) dubs this the “I feel your pain” effect, and most everyone experiences it from time to time.
<aside> 💙 “When we witness what happens to others, we don’t just activate the visual cortex like we thought decades ago. We also activate our own actions as if we’d be acting in similar ways. We activate our own emotions and sensations as if we felt the same.” - Dutch neuroscientist Christian Keysers told the APS.
</aside>