Portrayed metaphorically as a breaking wave, the mind is grounded in optic flow–the confluence of spatial and temporal relations that constantly transforms the appearance of one’s immediate surroundings.[i] While its basic function is to situate the agent in space, the observer’s perspective vacillates between the spatial and temporal paradigms.[ii]–[iii]–[iv] Too much of the spatial paradigm causes the individual to see himself as an object. Too much of the temporal paradigm makes him oblivious to his circumstances. The individual needs to balance the two paradigms, to be able to act decisively in circumstances that continually change[v]–[vi]–[vii]–[viii]
Since the shape of the wave is influenced by both the depth and shape of the reef, these two factors represent either end of a spatio-temporal continuum; the reef inducing spatial relations and water temporal relations. Consequently, fluctuation in the tide represents the relative proportions of each, with low tide triggering more spatial than temporal relations and high tide triggering more temporal than spatial relations. At high tide, waves break less intensely, reflecting the reduced influence of the reef on wave shape. Somewhere between these two extremes, spatial and temporal relations blend in such a way as to produce an optimal shape for surfing, which can thus serve as a metaphor for psychological stability.
Tidal variation affects the surf in a similar way to how serotonin affects the mind. At low tide, waves encounter an abrupt incline in bathymetry, causing the crest of each wave to rise suddenly, just as low levels of serotonin result in hypersensitivity, causing sudden over-reactions. Serotonin promotes patience[ix], which ensures that memories have time to reach the surface, where they can help shape current experience; like waves that break more slowly in response to a gradual incline in the seabed.
The role of serotonin is opposed by dopamine[x], which promotes action. These two neurotransmitters interact in ways that correspond to the interaction between surfboard and wave. Basically, dopamine triggers the impulse to pursue a reward, like the shape of a surfboard affects directional changes; some designs being more or less responsive than others. The relationship between serotonin and dopamine determines the appropriate timing of a response. Where reward is concerned, a rapid response is not always beneficial, since patience might be needed to assess the situation before advancing toward an object. Similarly, where risk of injury is concerned, the timing of one’s response is critical to the outcome. The interplay between serotonin and dopamine is akin to surfing insofar as reaction times are encoded, like the shape of the surfboard and the bathymetry of the surf break, to facilitate performance.
The task of designing a surfboard requires insight into how this tension between surfboard and wave influences surfing performance. Since the response of the surfboard is derived simultaneously from the surfboard and the wave, the act of surfing represents a further spatio-temporal continuum, in this case with the surfboard inducing spatial relations and the wave temporal relations.
The difference between these two continuums corresponds to the difference between how the left and right hemispheres of the brain process information. Each hemisphere has its own cognitive style: the left being more linear, the right, more global. The path of the surfboard is therefore analogous to the sequential processing of information that is characteristic of the left hemisphere; while the multiplicity of complex curves in the shape of a wave is analogous to the global style of processing characteristic of the right hemisphere. Moreover, the subordinate position of the surfboard is analogous to the subordinate role played by the left hemisphere.[xi]
Representing the intellect, the penetration and release phases of a manoeuvre are analogous to concentration and contemplation; in the sense that concentration is active, while contemplation is passive. Actively engaging the wave invokes spatial relations, because the surfboard—its shape and motion—is the primary factor influencing where it is going. This is the penetration phase of a manoeuvre, when the surfboard rotates into the water. Passively engaging the wave invokes temporal relations, because the surfboard follows a track determined more by the shape and motion of the wave than by the shape and motion of the surfboard. This is the release phase of a manoeuvre, when the surfboard rotates out of the water.
In terms of neural activity, the release phase of a manoeuvre corresponds to low frequency rhythms disengaging the high frequency rhythms associated with focused attention.[xii]–[xiii] Brain waves interact in a way that can be likened to surfing, with higher frequencies riding lower frequencies.[xiv]–[xv]–[xvi] While different frequencies generally correlate with different states of mind, it is the interaction between frequencies that determines how the mind actually makes sense of the world.[xvii]–[xviii] Since the wake of a surfboard is a higher frequency than the wave being ridden, the activity of surfing mirrors the activity of the mind. Alternating phases of concentration and contemplation generate ideas in the same way that surfing manoeuvres are composed of alternating phases of penetration and release. Imagination can thus be said to negotiate a tension between reason and perception[xix] in the same way surfing manoeuvres negotiate a tension between the shape of the surfboard and the shape of the wave.
The ability to shift one’s perspective toward the spatial end of the scale might have evolved for self-defence. A clear sense of your own physical presence is vital when faced by danger. But, not all dangers threaten physical harm, especially in the modern world, where reputation stands for so much. If we subscribe to a mask and that mask is removed, we are confronted by an existential void. It can be terrifying to peer into the abyss. But, it only feels threatening when we look at it objectively.[xx] As paradoxical as it seems, the fluid present is the only truly stable perspective. In essence, the problem is not the void, but the perspective that renders it objectively.
Next chapter: Reality.
Back to intro: Surfism.
References
[i] Heidegger, M. (1926/1996). Being and Time, A Translation of Sein und Zeit, SUNY Series in Contemporary Continental Philosophy, (Section 18. Relevance and Significance: The Worldliness of the World), p.80.
“That within which Da-sein understands itself beforehand in the mode of self-reference is that for which it lets beings be encountered beforehand. As that for which one lets beings be encountered in the kind of being of relevance, the wherein of self-referential understanding is the phenomenon of world. And the structure of that to which Da-sein is referred is what constitutes the worldliness of the world.”
“Understanding can itself be referred in and by these relations. We shall call the relational character of these referential relations signifying. In its familiarity with these relations, Da-sein “signifies” to itself. It primordially gives itself to understand its being and potentiality-of-being with regard to its being-in-the-world. The for-the-sake-of-which signifies an in-order-to, the in-order-to signifies a what-for, the what-for signifies a what-in of letting something be relevant, and the latter a what-with of relevance. These relations are interlocked among themselves as a primordial totality. They are what they are as this signifying in which Da-sein gives itself to understand its being-in-the-world beforehand. We shall call this relational totality of signification significance. It is what constitutes the structure of the world, of that in which Da-sein as such always already is.”
[ii] Bergson, H. (1912). An Introduction to Metaphysics. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, p.63.
“[…] the intuition of our duration, far from leaving us suspended in the void, as pure analysis would do, brings us into contact with a whole continuity of durations which we must try to follow, whether downwards or upwards; in both cases we can extend ourselves indefinitely by an increasingly violent effort, in both cases we transcend ourselves. In the first we advance towards a more and more attenuated duration, the pulsations of which, being rapider than ours, and dividing our simple sensation, dilute its quality into quantity; at the limit would be pure homogeneity, that pure repetition by which we define materiality. Advancing in the other direction, we approach a duration which strains, contracts, and intensifies itself more and more; at the limit would be eternity. No longer conceptual eternity, which is an eternity of death, but an eternity of life. A living, and therefore still moving eternity in which our own particular duration would be included as the vibrations are in light; an eternity which would be the concentration of all duration, as materiality is its dispersion. Between these two extreme limits intuition moves, and this movement is the very essence of metaphysics.”
[iii] Kierkegaard, S. (1849). The Sickness Unto Death, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1941, p.29.
“For the self is a synthesis in which the finite is the limiting factor, and the infinite is the expanding factor.”
[iv] Ibid. p.33.
“The truth of this … is inherent in the dialectical fact that the self is a synthesis [of two factors], one of which is the opposite of the other.”
[v] Fuchs, T. (2019). Erwin Straus, Chapter 17, in The Oxford Handbook of Phenomenological Psychopathology, Oxford University Press, p.130-31.
“According to Straus, every relation to the Allon [intersubjectively constituted objects] already implies the possibility to be influenced, overwhelmed, or pursued. This possibility is inhibited due to the distance that gnostic perception entails. “If and when distantiation fails, then we are delivered up to the Allon, experiencing its power physiognomically as a growing menace”. In the state of psychosis there is a failure of gnostic-determining distance, and the expressive characters of the surroundings come to the fore. The Other now becomes “a realm of the hostile, in which the patient finds himself all alone and defenceless, surrendered to a power which threatens him from all sides. The voices point at him, they have singled out and separated him from all others. He is certain that they mean him and no one else, he is not puzzled that his neighbour does not hear anything . . . In this world, there is no community, no discursive explanation”. Intersubjective communication requires “the possibility to detach oneself from the impression, to reflect upon oneself, to place oneself within a general order, in which places are convertible”. With the pathic aspect becoming autonomous, the possibility of changing perspective and thus, the intersubjectivity of perception is lost.
“In normal experience the pathic and gnostic moments of perception are not separable from one another. The table is not only seen, but also felt, its color and form are sensed in bodily resonance. Yet, it is equally perceived as a table in terms of its generally attributable meaning which we have learnt from others. The common sense merges as practical meaningfulness with the specific senses. Thus, it becomes possible that perception, through its merely subjective or pathic aspect, is oriented to the objects themselves. However, in the case of a weakening or disturbance of the gnostic-intersubjective aspect, perception can no longer present the object as such and instead gives us only its impression, its subjective appearance. It then lacks the solidity of the object, the character of the Allon or reality. Thus, the surroundings are transformed into a stage-like scenery, an uncanny array of unreal, apparitional things that have questionable meaning. This uncanniness is the characteristic of the schizophrenic delusional mood (Wahnstimmung) at the onset of acute psychosis.”
[vi] Kierkegaard, S. (1849). The Sickness Unto Death, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1941, p.42.
“Personality is a synthesis of possibility and necessity. The condition of its survival is therefore analogous to breathing (respiration), which is an in-spiration and an a-spiration.”
[vii] Ibid. p.29.
“The self is the conscious synthesis of infinitude and finitude which relates itself to itself, whose task is to become itself, a task which can be performed only by means of a relationship to God. But to become oneself is to become concrete. But to become concrete means neither to become finite nor infinite, for that which is to become concrete is a synthesis.”
[viii] Tuan, Yi-Fu (1979). Space and place: Humanistic perspective, in Philosophy in Geography, Theory and Decision Library, Springer Netherlands, 20, p.419.
“We owe our sense of being not only to supportive forces but also to those that pose a threat. Being has a centre and an edge: supportive forces nurture the centre while threatening forces strengthen the edge. In theological language, hell bristles with places that have sharply drawn – indeed fortified – boundaries but no centre worthy of defence; heaven is full of glowing centres with the vaguest boundaries; earth is an uneasy compromise of the two realms.”
[ix] Cools, R., Nakamura, K. & Daw, N.D. (2011). Serotonin and Dopamine: Unifying Affective, Activational, and Decision Functions, Neuropsychopharmacology Reviews, 36, p.105.
“Time discounting is the subject of another prominent computational theory of serotonergic function (Doya, 2002), which posits that 5-HT [serotonin] controls (im)patience in intertemporal choice: the degree of preference for immediate rewards over delayed rewards. Specifically, Doya proposed that 5-HT controls a parameter common to many decision models known as the temporal discount factor according to which delayed rewards are viewed as less valuable than immediate ones, with higher 5-HT promoting greater patience.”
[x] Dawa, N.D., Kakadeb, S. & Dayanb, P. (2002). Opponent interactions between serotonin and dopamine, Neural Networks 15, pp.603–616.
[xi] McGilchrist, I. (2009). The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World, Yale University Press, Kindle Edition, p.192.
“Thus it is the right hemisphere that permits a living world to come into being, and it is from this that the re-presented world of the left hemisphere is derived.”
[xii] Miller, E.K. and Buschman, T.J. (2013). Cortical circuits for the control of attention. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 23, p.219.
“…, neurons representing an unattended stimulus showed increased low frequency (<17 Hz) synchronization. One explanation for this is that low frequency synchrony may reflect common and thus uninformative inputs to the neurons. Thus, the negative correlation between low frequency synchrony and attention may reflect a mechanism that improves information transmission by removing these common ‘noise’ sources.”
[xiii] Miller, E.K. and Buschman, T.J. (2013). Brain Rhythms for cognition and consciousness, Neurosciences and the Human Person: New Perspectives on Human Activities, Scripta Varia, 121, p.3.
“Visual cortical neurons that process a stimulus under attentional focus show increased synchronized gamma band (30-90 Hz) oscillations (P. Fries et al. 2001). By contrast, neurons representing an unattended stimulus showed increased low frequency (<17 Hz) synchronization. A variety of evidence suggests that low frequencies may help deselect or inhibit the corresponding ensembles (Buschman et al. 2012; Vijayan and Kopell 2012; Palva and Palva 2011; Ray and Cole 1985).”
[xiv] Miller, E.K. and Buschman, T.J. (2013) Cortical circuits for the control of attention. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 23, p.219.
“…during visual attention there are increases in higher frequency synchrony between cortical areas along with an increase in low frequency synchrony between the thalamus and cortex. These low frequencies may provide a ‘carrier wave’ on which higher frequency oscillations across cortex can become entrained.”
[xv] Dürschmid, S., Zaehle, T., Kopitzki, K., Voges, J., Schmitt, F.C., Heinze, H., Robert, T., Knight, R.T. and Hinrichs, H. (2013). Phase-amplitude cross-frequency coupling in the human nucleus accumbens tracks action monitoring during cognitive control, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7, p.11.
“We investigated the dynamics of PAC in the human NAcc and show, that in the NAcc contralateral to a movement the θ phase modulates the high gamma amplitude (≈100–140Hz) following a motor response. Importantly, this previously undescribed oscillatory pattern in the human NAcc increases with cognitive control and predicts behavioral adaptation as reflected in the reduction in error rates.”
[xvi] Buzsáki, G., and Draguhn, A. (2004). Neuronal oscillations in cortical networks. Science, 304, p.1929.
“Slow rhythms synchronize large spatial domains and can bind together specific assemblies by the appropriate timing of higher frequency localized oscillations.”
[xvii] Rodriguez, E., et al. (1999). Perception’s shadow: Long-distance synchronization of human brain activity. Nature, 397(6718), 430-3.
“To our knowledge, our results are the first to support the theory that phase synchrony is directly involved in human cognition. The long-range character of the phase synchrony indicates that gamma-phase synchrony (and desynchrony) may be viewed as a mechanism that subserves large-scale cognitive integration, and not just local visual-feature binding.”
[xviii] Uhlhaas PJ, et al. (2006). Dysfunctional long-range coordination of neural activity during Gestalt perception in schizophrenia, The Journal of Neuroscience, 26(31):8168-75.
“The results of this study support the hypothesis that patients with schizophrenia are characterized by dysfunctions in long-range coordination of neural activity, as indicated by significant reductions in phase synchrony during Gestalt perception. These findings are relevant for current concepts of schizophrenia, which emphasize that core aspects of the pathophysiology of the disorder arise from a deficit in the coordination of distributed brain activity. Moreover, the close correspondence between behavioral deficits in Gestalt perception and reduced neural synchronization, which we observed in our data, supports the role of impaired phase synchrony as an underlying mechanism of dysfunctional cognition in schizophrenia.”
[xix] Gabora, L. & Aerts, D. (2009). A model of the emergence and evolution of integrated worldviews. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 53, pp.434-451.
“The modern human mind has the ability to shift between analytic thought, conducive primarily to realizing relationships amongst states of a known concept, and associative thought, conducive primarily to forging new concepts through the formation of conjunctions, which are entangled states that result through application of the tensor product of the Hilbert spaces of the two constituent concepts. It is proposed that the penultimate step toward achieving an integrated worldview was to acquire the capacity to spontaneously focus attention (conducive to analytic thought) or defocus attention (conducive to associative thought) depending on the circumstance. This is modelled as onset of the modulation of µ, the transition probabilities using a variable we called Φ. Once the capacity has evolved to alter Φ according to the situation, analytic thought and associative thought can work in concert to organize and reorganize conceptual structure. Analytic thought enables the identification of causal relationships, while associative thought facilitates recognition of items in memory that are correlated, i.e. that share properties, which in turn provides more ingredients for analytic thought.”
[xx] Young, J. (2001). Heidegger’s Philosophy of Art. Cambridge University Press, pp.132-133.
“Understanding one’s (in Kantian language) ‘membership’ [in] the mystical realm of ‘plenitude’ abolishes anxiety, establishes one as ultimately secure in one’s world because one understands, now, that that which surrounds the clearing is no longer abysmal but is, rather, the richness of all those concealed (and unintelligible) possibilities of disclosure which, in addition to one’s ego, one is.”
Dan Webber 