the human mind - actions and derivations within - 20 April 2014

On the human mind - Is a semi-comatose person actually active within the mind? 
Bharat Bhushan - 20 April 2014

A very close friend of mine is in a coma. He has been in a coma for many years, and luckily for him, he went into a coma while in Canada. I was absolutely certain that he would not have survived if he would have gone into a coma while in India. The health services in Canada have taken care of him splendidly. Most splendidly. The system also took care of his family and provided various forms of support. He is a friend from childhood and I was deeply struck by his slipping into a coma. He was ever smiling, always active, full of good and positive energy and tremendously happy. He was always with good intentions.

It seems that he went into a coma through some diabetic trauma. In the meantime, his sons have grown up and are becoming adults. They would have totally enjoyed him when they were young boys. The health services escorts him once in a week to his house, allows him to enjoy family life and happiness and then takes him back to the hospital.

I keep wondering about it. How would he journey back to the hospital after meeting his wife and sons? Would he know that he would not see them for a week? Can he measure the time in his semi-comatose mind and does he know that it is time to go back to the house? Whenever he is at the hospital, does he actually know that he is semi-comatose, or does he know that he is at the hospital, and that his condition is not normal at all? These and many other questions pain me when I think about him. I do want to go to Canada and jog him back to a normal life.

All these questions have made me to wonder about the matters of the mind. I feel that the mind is the most mysterious frontier that Science and Man has not explored fully and that there are many challenges. It is known that people in a coma rarely reverse out of the situation into a normal manner. A family that is proximate to the situation would certainly know that nothing would be normal in the future. So, how would they react? How would they plan? Would they begin to anticipate the changes that they would have to make? There is a not-so-recent study based on the diagnosis of several comatose patients that them ind always stays active in spite of the body being in a vegetative state. So, if the family and doctors presume that the comatose man is no longer active in a mental ability, is it wrongful diagnosis?

Fortunately, the family of my childhood friend have tremendous faith in the ability of my friend to get back to normal. But, for how long would they continue to do so? Being in Canada, the medical teams must have explored the recesses of his brain with MRIs and Scans. I wonder what did they find? In time, would my friend be neglected by the medical teams, merely due to boredom? It would have certainly happened thus in India, a very long time ago, for sure.

Surprising statistics points out that nearly 300,000 persons ae in the vegetative state in the US alone. Do we have such statistics in India? For each State, or district or city? One of the important medical journal of the world claimed that a study showed that people who have been in a vegetative state for more than a year have little chances of recovery. It also said that a duration of more than a year can be justification for withdrawing medical treatment or support. But, the Canadian health services are, luckily, not following this line of thought. That is good for my friend who has been improving steadily. There is a condition that is now recognised as 'minimally conscious', and that prevents health services from withdrawing medical support to semi-comatose patients. 

Is change very deceptive or is it merely a perception? - 1 January 2012

Does change actually happen or is it a deceptive perception within our minds?
Bharat Bhushan - 1 January 2012

People change. From a child, to a young person to an adult, as a spouse, as a young parent and as a middle-aged individual. Relationships change over the years. Proximacy may cause occasions for arguments and lead to dissension. Age-old perspectives can be deceptive within different periods of time. There is always a first time for beginning with all activities. The correct approach to understanding change is to accept it.

We may question change and we may hesitate. We analyse those who are close to us. We analyse too much. We examine intentions, behaviour, reasons, logic, friendship and enmities. Our assumptions become our convictions within our mind. Why? Because, we think we are correct. We determine the correctness of our deceptive perceptions within our minds.

Distance can also lead to the same ideas. "The myth of Sisyphus" tells us that "there is no punishment more severe than eternally futile labour." This is true within our minds. We are always at labour within our minds, determining how our close ones understand us and examine our actions towards them. We are always living out a myth. Any examination of the reasons of behaviour of those individuals close to us is always a dirty way of going about our lives.

There is always a supplier and a recepient of actions. We supply reasons for analysis and we assume reasons for the actions of others. It seems more and more apparent that each individual is a lonely island. We live by ourselves within our midns, and we  grow positively and negatively within ourselves. We lose objectivity, and we establish a bias within us.

Our value systems may destroy themselves within our lifetime. We are products of our own values and we cannot retain our value neutrality. Maintaining the freedom from our values is crucial because all our values are our assumptions to social facts. Empirically observable reality is a perception. Public opinion is a social fact. Qualitative matter being observed objectively is an endeavor. Relativity, within any particular context, should give us similar behavior patterns, which does not happen. We will end up nowhere as always, and this would become a trend.