A systems view of biological health

Section 2: Theory

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Conscious agents (see comments on Douglas Hoffmann, note [4]) are a form of self-organising (i.e. potantially fractal and recursive) localised intelligent sentience that organise:

• the sensory system and meaning-making processes,
• responses associated with meaning-making, and
• optimisation and allocation of resources to support those responses.

Conscious Agents as ... Morphology and metabolism

Conscious agents come in many forms. Sometimes their expression is hard and fixed (e.g. when they have in-formed growth of the adult body.

The facial development of dogs - beginning from an almost featureless puppy face (that is not very far from that of a newborn human) expresses the fact that the main sensory organ is the nose, and the main tool available is the mouth/teeth, so everything about the dog converges on supporting and enhancing its main means to physically interface with the world. The feedback mechanism between form and function was nicely demonstrated recently in an experiment where a heavier dinosaur-like balancing tail was attached to the back of a growing chicken, which the went on to develop a musculoskeletal structure and gait very similar to that of a dinosaur raptor [1].

Here we also see the connection between Hoffmann's concept of conscious agents and Sheldrake's morphic resonance, and even Jung's collective unconscious. Hard expressions of conscious agents/gestalts give some indication that they may be impersonal, spread across society and species (or even the whole of Life) - as well as being individual. Therefore the less hard conscious agents may also inform not only the personal but also leak into the collective.

Conscious Agents as ... Sensory Gestalts

(see sensory Gestalts)

Conscious Agents as ... Habit

Conscious agents can be social or even a completely unfounded assumption as to what is sensible, normal, acceptable, best, etc. Sometimes they are (potentially) very soft and transitory - such as ...

My wife was surprised when we met because at some point I made her a breakfast with vegetables in it, and she had never ever considered eating vegetables (such as kale) in a that particular meal. Now it's a regular feature of her cooking. The process of that change interestingly follows the same pattern of Gestalt re-frames in far more substantial and serious situations (see below). So first there is recognition - and the recognition needs to include an open-enough mindset to allow for the world not necessarily being the same as the expected/familiar world. The recognition also requires some level of trust that what is being experienced is trust-able (see topic: trusting thge body). This combination of recognition with enough trust allows for a truly new experience - which can then inform a re-calibration - which may or may not then lead to a different view of vegetables - or of (e.g.) events that were triggering/traumatising.

Conscious Agents as ... Survival responses

Fight-flight (Plan A+) and submission-freeze-coma (Plan B+) are conscious agents that normally would have a very transitory ascendance, but take on a form that appears far more fixed and long-term if they are not adequately re-calibrated with reality. This is what we call “trauma”. Clearly for vegetables this recognition and trust is not such a big step for most people. But when it comes to trauma, the thing that has ultimately to be trusted includes the body and/or the sensory system - because it is only through these that recalibration to a safer norm is possible. And that might be a big call. So whoever is facilitating this needs some sensitivity to the many different ways in which individuals might be set up, and some degree of open-ness, creativity and familiarity with NVC (non-violent communication) such that options can be offered for exploration in a non-forceful manner.

Conscious Agents as ... Skills

One major function of Gestalts / Conscious Agents is to run skilled response patterns - such as your capacity to walk smoothly and effortlessly, especially when compared to a toddler. The image below [2] shows brai activity at different skill levels, indicating that spinal reflexes (or even muscles themselves) are delegated with the skilled tasks, leaving the brain more space to deal with new situations for which automatic reactivity is not a particularly good response.