Chapter 61: Choosing a Diet that Works and ‘Suffer Little Children’

 

http://darrylpenney.com

 

Abstract: for 3,000 million years we evolved to take advantage of a natural diet, but 10,000 years ago we used our mind to alter the food supply for our benefit and we made mistakes by not fully understanding the relationship of the concepts that we used. Two successful diets of the past are examined and they show that the key elements can, through travel/transport, produce a modern diet that we evolved to eat and so reduce the incidence of the modern ‘diseases’ that inflict us increasingly in the developed world. This realization is brought out in examining the fundamental differences between the concepts of the hunter/gatherer and the farmer and shows that parents are not teaching/preparing their children properly to face the modern world because of a lack of understanding of the concepts behind modern living.

 

 

It is well known that it is difficult to get satisfactory results from dieting, so why not use the Mathematics of the Mind to look at the question of dieting to see if we can resolve the problems. Our choices are: pick a diet at random, pick a diet that appeals to us, combine all the diets, which is the mathematical idea of combining sets or, as I shall do, use first principles to see what a diet should be. This derivation of concepts might look complicated, but it is necessary to base it solidly on first principles and ‘flesh out’ the new ideas and present it as a simple explanation. The concepts are not difficult and it will be seen that the derivation will ‘align’ with other examples that have been presented in this book.

 

Under Survival of the Fittest, iteration powers life and ‘thought’ is an adjunct to opportunity as food supply availability determines the life-forms that are most successful and have proliferated. Thought/consciousness/creativity can be part of iteration and the increase in size of organisms led to the lensed eye that led to consciousness and an abrupt change in reality, and this, I believe occurred in the Cambrian. This iteration has been the state of our world’s life-forms for 3,000 million years and continued until about 10,000 years ago when Man used his mind/brain to change the environment to suit his own ends.

 

It is usually considered that 10.000 years is too short a time for our genetic make-up to have changed significantly, but I believe that the concept of hunter/gather is too distinct to the concept of the farming of 10,000 years ago and we are missing pieces of the puzzle. I believe that a different form of farming has been carried on for (say) 65 million years, especially in the primates and that did allow for a significant change to our genes, and that change is crucial to understanding our body’s nutrient requirements. I believe that the hunter/gather/farmer situation was heritable and led to a very wide-ranging diet that provided a ‘luxuriant’ supply of chemicals over a long period of time that enabled our bodies to provide increased health and that the current misapplication of concepts of diet has lead to the degenerative ‘diseases’ of today. We will return to this later.

 

At that point in time, 10,000 years ago, for Man, Survival of the Fittest (iteration) gave way to Survival of the Best (mind/brain, mathematics) and mathematics was developed to aid the farmer/trader that needed to record the exact quantities of produce. Concepts have been somewhat neglected and have evolved in an incomplete way. Mathematics is a concept that has blossomed, and all of the concepts of the fictional novels and of philosophy are fully developed, but the relationships between concepts has, in my opinion, been neglected and needs a mathematics of concepts, that I have called, for Man, the Mathematics of the Mind to ‘measure’ those relationships.

 

I also believe that ‘determination evolved a reality out of the probability of existence’ and have mentioned it many times, and CEM (mathematics of concepts/entanglement/measurement) is supported by a probability space because one of the properties of that space is that the sum of ‘something’ at every point in the space is equal to 1, and whatever CEM is, it seems, I believe, to show the three ‘faces’, above. The summation to 1, requires that measurement be necessary at each point and also between all the points (entanglement), and we are able to compare two measurement/concepts. Simply put, for a probability space of 2 points a+b=1 and that means that there are no ‘absolute’ solutions only ‘relative’ solutions.

 

This is, in my opinion, the definition of ‘relativity’ because, as we saw previously, in this ‘simple’ probability space, all measurement is between one point and the observer and a transformation may be necessary when we consider measurements between observers, and an example is the Lorentz transformation between two observers when the speed of light is involved. In other words, the ‘simple’ act of measuring something by an observer is ‘allowed’, and when two observers moving, or accelerating with respect to each other measure the same thing they must get the same result because there is no absolute reference point. This was shown to be true for the speed of light in a vacuum in the Michelson-Morely experiment, discussed earlier. It is only a paradox if we try to complicate matters because a+b=a+c=1 and the measurement b=c is always true, as was discussed previously for measurements made by observers b and c of the speed of light a. Notice that b and c are both measurements and observers because they are the same thing, but, if we compare b with c, we need a Lorentz transformation, as above, as in Special Relativity.

 

So, going back to ‘measuring relationships’, Mathematics of the Mind (mathematics of concepts) is necessary to compare two or more concepts using iteration and/or the mind/brain because there are no ‘absolutes’. We have to ‘identify’ a diet to ‘us’ and that is the hard part. It is easier to define the diet of a lion, kangaroo or Palaeolithic Man because they are part of an ‘iteration space’ where everything fits together under ‘iteration’ or Survival of the Fittest. When we changed the world 10,000 years ago, we used Survival of the Best (mind/brain, mathematics) that is incomplete because mathematics is a special case of the Mathematics of the Mind, and things are liable to go wrong if you use a special case thinking that it is the general case. The Survival of the Best (mind/brain, Mathematics of the Mind) should have been used, as we shall see.

 

At this point, it might simplify matters if we say that the problem is to know what diet we should eat and our genes and body have evolved to use the Palaeolithic diet, which is: small sized fruit grown naturally, a very wide variety of small sized vegetables, unprocessed small sized grains and seeds that means a high density of phytochemicals, ‘natural’ animals, both flesh and offal and no animal milk products. I used the term ‘small sized’ because development has increased the flesh of the fruit and vegetables, which decreases the density of antioxidants etc. that are mainly found in the skin to deter insects, moulds etc. from attacking the fruit and plant. The term ‘natural’ refers to the negation of the practice of feeding inappropriate diets to animals to increase fat in the meat at marketing.

 

I would also like to restate that fruit is produced by the tree or bush to disperse its seed in the ‘cheapest’ way possible for the plant, whereas, vegetables are that part of the plant that the plant doesn’t want eaten. In other words, fruit could be considered a second-class food. This is shown by the following, ‘servings of food that contain 100 calories each … apples 200g, bananas 120g, cherries 180g, kiwi fruit 200g, oranges 200g, pineapple 200g, strawberries 300g, tomatoes 500g, watermelon 400g. … asparagus 1500g, bell peppers 500g, broccoli 400g, carrots 400g, cauliflower 400g, corn 90g, cucumbers 800g, aubergines 500g, green beans 300g, lettuce 1000g, chinese cabbage 1000g, peas 150g.’ (The Joy of Laziness, Dr Peter Axt and Dr Michaela Axt-Gadermann, p 56)

 

This list shows that fruit are roughly twice as carbohydrate dense as vegetables in line with the statement above that vegetables are a better source of food, bearing in mind that both fruits and vegetables have been ‘developed’ in size etc, since the Palaeolithic. A single example that throws grains into a modern perspective is corn 90g, whereas, 5,000 years ago it was a small undeveloped seed, but now has a huge concentration of calories. Why so many calories? Because we bred it that way!

 

‘Corn is a wonderful example of how careful selective breeding produced characteristics that are a far cry from those of corn’s likely wild ancestor. Teosinte looks completely different from today’s cultivated corn …. Three genes, known as teosinte branched 1 (tb1), pro-lamin box binding factor (pbf), and sugary 1 (su1), are key to creating certain traits that distinguish corn from teosinte…. (tb1, for example, determines how the cobs are arranged on the corn plant, while su1 determines the mix of sugars found in the corn kernel), all seem to have been under strong selection as early as 4,400 years ago, according to a recent analysis of these genes in ancient corn remains.’ (Pandora’s Seed – The Unforseen Cost of Civilization, Spencer Wells, p 51)

 

Whilst on this subject of ‘developed’ grains, ‘bread 50g, cornflakes 30g, pasta 30g (uncooked), potatoes 150g, rice 30g (uncooked), rolled oats 30g (The Joy of Laziness, Dr Peter Axt and Dr Michaela Axt-Gadermann, p 57) show the problems associated with modern developed grains with their extreme nutrient density, bearing in mind that the grains in the Palaeolithic were consumed with the bran, germ and other coverings intact that added to the fibre consumed. I should repeat that we have evolved to use the chemicals that bacteria produce from the fibre that our small intestine can’t use. The importance of the colon and the use of bacteria on food fibre is apparent when the colon’s size is considered (3 to 4 foot long and the diameter of a fist).

 

Notice that monkeys eat a large proportion of their diet as leaves that are difficult to digest and need a large colon, but also, leaves are available at all times, whereas fruit is not, and that fact is hunter/gatherer/farming, not hunter/gatherer/animal as in grazing herds. If the leaves are over-grazed, the trees are killed, the monkeys have to move to another occupied area and that is not a heritable trait, so hunter/gatherer/farming has been with us from the first primates, some 65 million years ago (The Humans Who Went Extinct, Clive Finlayson, p 5). As soon as a fixed location of a cave, shelter, house, sleeping-tree etc enters the picture the difference between hunter/gatherer/farmer and hunter/gatherer/animal becomes apparent because it pays to keep/farm food supplies near to strategic assets.

 

Things have gone wrong in our civilization because we have global warming, over-population etc. as well as the modern ‘diseases’ of the heart, cancer, Alzhimer’s disease, obesity epidemic etc. and these are all linked, in my opinion. Using a ‘fundamental’ operator usually produces wide-ranging effects because that operator underlies many derivations and using a special case instead of the general case is a ‘fundamental’ error that we will see produces or contributes to the above problems.

 

So, using the Mathematics of (our) Mind, our little space in the galaxy produces the three Laws of Life that are in both O and P worlds, and this derivation of diets uses the second Law of Life, mainly, bearing in mind that the three laws are interrelated. The second law is our relation to our environment and can be summed up as state of mind/exercise/nutrition (MEN) and we can relate this to CEM where entanglement suggests that everything is related and MEN is similarly related. Applying this to diets, it is immediately apparent that any diet that concentrates on less than all or the total of MEN is suspect as to it usefulness and worthiness.

 

This restriction cuts out the vast number of diets that have been publicised over the years because they concentrate on nutrition, or they concentrate on exercise, but then there are those, like Yoga that concentrate, to some extent, on all three of MEM, but still are not ‘complete’, so let’s see what we need to do by going back to the theory of the Mathematics of the Mind.

 

The operator Truth can be true, false, true some of the time and false the rest of the time, and both true and false at the same time. It is in this last term (chaos) where something can be both true and false at the same time and a couple of simple examples are that water is necessary for life, but too much will kill you, similarly, a little arsenic stimulates and is used in animal feed, a little more will kill. We have to take care that the concepts that we use are, and only are, uniquely defined as many of the concepts that we use are chaotic and, at the moment, we don’t separate some concepts sufficiently and a prime case is shown below. So, we are looking within the realm of chaos for the answer to the best diet and the second Law of life is (principally): state of mind …… exercise …… nutrition     (MEN).

 

The MEN are the major attractors (or concepts) and in Chaos Theory these attractors are ‘areas’ that cannot be reached, and indeed, they have no relevance on their own (because a+b=1) and the Mathematics of the Mind relates these concepts to the other concepts, bearing in mind that everything is related (entanglement). From CEM, every point in the probability space is linked to every other and any solution, such as above, MEN, can only be known when every ‘point’ has been considered and, of course, only an all-knowing god could do this. For mortals, as we are, the more attractors that we consider, the more accurate or relevant the answer will (probably) be. In other words, because everything is linked (CEM), every point in the universe may or may not add to the solution but must be considered for an exact answer. Effectively there is no exact answer possible to what diet we should follow and to measure a diet we are forced to the only point that we know that works as a certainty and that is the Palaeolithic diet because that was the diet we evolved with, provided that the foods, that we use, are at the same state of development.

 

However, in Chapter 60: Measurement of Time Dependent Concepts, Extrapolation, Variety in Food and the Nutrition Orgene it was shown that the Mid-Victorian diet, by a number of fortuitous circumstances, produced superior health that (may have) led to the formation of the British Empire. It was suggested that this diet was vastly superior to the modern diet and was attainable, whereas the Palaeolithic was difficult to emulate. Difficulties still exist with the mid-Victorian diet because more parts of animals were eaten, including offal, than are eaten today, also, modern animals are ‘feed-lotted’ to increase the fat content of the meat and change it from the healthier omega-3 of the ‘grass-fed’ to the omega-6 of the ‘corn-fed’ and modern diets contain far too much of the latter fatty acid compared to the former.

 

There are other attractors that are commonly considered as important to our wellbeing and with the addition of each one to our consideration, the relationships become clearer. For example: state of mind can be from pessimistic to optimistic and experiments have found that optimists live seven years longer, on average, than pessimists. State of Mind is important in combating Alzheimer’s disease because attending university, exercising the mind with puzzles etc. reduces the likelihood of getting the ‘disease’. State of mind is determined, in part by mental determination, and, as we have seen above, relates in importance with reality and existence and is crucial to keeping up exercise and nutrition regimes.

 

For exercise, it is often forgotten to exercise the mind/brain, from above, exercising the mind with puzzles etc. reduces the likelihood of getting Alzheimer’s disease and depression etc. Physical exercise has many ‘faces’, and I have mentioned balance exercises on one leg with eyes closed, also strength exercises with push-up as well as aerobic exercises such as walking. Remember that exercise was forced on us in the Palaeolithic and mid-Victorian times, but today, state of mind (determination) must be used. Nutrition is very important because food has changed so much that we don’t realize that our body, and in particular, our digestive system is locked into the Palaeolithic and is having difficulty coping with ‘modern’ foods. Many of the components in the body are in trouble with heart ‘disease’, diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, depression and so on, because, in my opinion, the components in our body are being given food that is outside of their capabilities to use effectively.

 

Some of the concepts mentioned above could be classed as second level attractors and we could go further with vitamin D from sunlight is a combination of exercise (being in the sun) and a necessity in nutrition and state of mind because we need to supplement it in many of the colder areas and particularly for those people with darker skin colour, or, consciously consider our time in the sun, its strength as an ultra-violet source, time of year etc. Mushrooms are also a significant source when they are field (in the sun) grown, and this surprising fact possibly relates to the fact that we evolved from fungi!

 

‘Further studies showed that even sunbathing can slightly lower your blood pressure. This effect is much more noticeable in people with high blood pressure. In an experiment, sunbathing lowered their blood pressure by more than twice as much as it did in people with normal blood pressure. The effect lasted for almost a week. The blood-pressure-lowering effect is probably due to the mild warmth of the sun; blood vessels expand and pressure drops. The influence of the sun may also be a factor in the production of as-yet undetected blood-pressure lowering agents.’ (p 117)

 

These two previous paragraphs contrast the approach of two different types of diet and lifestyle suggestions that differ in the importance of what could be called the ‘less relevant’ attractors. The book, The Vitamin D Cure by James Dowd and Dianne Stafford claims that many of the modern ‘diseases’ can be attributed to low levels of vitamin D in the body brought about by modern lifestyles. ‘The big advantage of the Vitamin D Cure eating plan is that it takes the DASH and Mediterranean diets one step farther …. Why not eliminate dairy and grains from the DASH and Mediterranean diets and replace them with vitamin D, more lean meat (especially dark-meat fish), and more green produce? (The Vitamin D Cure by James Dowd and Dianne Stafford, p127)

 

Another aspect is shown by The Plant-Powered Diet by Sharon Palmer with more emphasis on the phytochemicals that are missing from modern diets caused by breeding larger fruits and vegetables and the lack of variety in modern diets. ‘The ground squirrels would clip down the tender shoots of my vegetable plants like a lawn mower, but they left one section of my garden completely untouched: the herb garden. …. My herbs were destined for survival. And when humans eat these herbs, it looks like we can gain protective benefits of our own. At the heart of the Indian diet is a veritable medicine chest of colorful, powerful herbs and spices, many of which have proven health benefits, including aniseed, bay leaf, black pepper, cardamom, chillies, cinnamon, clove, coriander, cumin, dill, fennel, fenugreek, garlic, ginger, mango powder, mint, mustard, nutmeg, onion seeds, parsley, poppy seeds, saffron, sesame seeds, tamarind, and turmeric. (The Plant-Powered Diet, Sharon Palmer, p 185)

 

‘Herbs and spices are not just about antioxidants; they contain other health properties, including anti-inflammatory compounds that can protect against the development of chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer. Some spices and herbs provide similar effects as anti-inflammatory drugs, without any side effects…. What’s even more fascinating is that the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of herbs and spices act synergistically; the benefits are magnified with the more varieties you throw into the mix.’ (p 186) This sentence is in line with the Palaeolithic ‘farming’ methods described later.

 

The Mathematics of the Mind has shown that the second Law of Life requires the relationship of state of mind, exercise and nutrition (MEN), but also, that everything is interrelated which leads to the requirement to consider other secondary, tertiary etc. relationships. Even complete books, as shown above, are valuable, but they still accentuate different aspects of the total picture and, I think that we have to admit that it may be too much for the mind/brain to control and we should eat and behave as they did in the Palaeolithic times. However, this is impossible in a modern society, so, perhaps the mid-Victorian exercise and nutrition would suffice, or is there a better way using the same basis?

 

I said at the beginning of the chapter that I would use the Mathematics of the Mind, so the most recent time that humans operated under iteration is Survival of the Fittest in the Palaeolithic Era. Animals graze, but the seventh, eighth and ninth senses, that I have mentioned previously move the animals to somewhat vary their diet in line with their requirements, but they don’t conserve or ‘farm’ their environment, they just move on. When humans lived in caves, shelters etc. in the Palaeolithic, the hunter/gatherers would have ‘farmed’ their environment in a synergistic manner to obtain the largest production from an area and the plants benefited from being farmed. Monkeys have family territory that they defend and naturally any part that they don’t utilize is taken over by offspring or others. The basic concept is ‘use it or lose it’ and denuding the closest food sources is not logical because the food sources closest to your cave, shelter etc. are your fallback supplies if rivals reduce your territory.

 

Gatherers broke off excess growth from clumps of vegetables to give the remainder room to grow, and those trimmings became the gatherers’ food and, as has been mentioned earlier, it behoved them to eat the widest possible diet to maintain stocks of plants for the future. This variety of vegetables in the diet links back to the synergy of the herbs and spices mentioned above, and our bodies were ‘invited’ by this method of farming to develop uses for this plethora of chemicals for our internal defences and wellbeing.

 

At this point, I have to emphasise two attractors that are of ‘key’ importance, or pivotal to the derivation. Firstly, a major cause of the mid-Victorian diet was the rise in rapid transport by the growth of railways and secondly, the ‘farming’ by the gatherers preceded, but was different to the ‘farming’ by the Neolithic Natufian people. This is an attractor (farming) that should be separated into two completely different contexts that have had radically different effects on our bodies and not realizing the distinction is where we went wrong. To belabour the point, the Obesity Epidemic hinges on the modern interpretations of ‘farming’, as stressed above, and is completely different to the Palaeolithic farming. The very fact of modern obesity and over-weightedness shows that a problem exists.

 

The ‘gatherer’ farming invited our bodies to use a huge range of phytochemicals because the anti-death orgene was to ‘store’, in the ground, future supplies of vegetables by growing the natural ‘stands’, and that requirement produced an extremely wide variety of foods. To expand this important concept, if it was edible, eat it, by ‘farming’ to keep it growing strongly because it was ‘native’ to that micro-climate and if the climate changed, that plant might be necessary to future tribal survival. It has been mentioned previously, that (some of) the ‘edge dwellers’ of an environment become dominant when the environment changed and acting as an ‘edge dweller’ is heritable (with a little luck). Modern farming methods tend to reduce the number of varieties to the extreme of ‘monoculture’.

 

‘The Natufians at Abu Hureyra consumed around 150 different plants, gathered (along with wheat) from the rich hills of the northern Fertile Crescent, but by the time domestication was complete, a few thousand years later, their diet had dropped to only eight species, and wheat was by far the most important dietary component. Today, the Big Three cereals account for around 90 percent of grain species under cultivation’. (Pandora’s Seed, Spencer Wells, p 51) This second half of the quotation defines the ‘farmer’ farming and the seeking of the ‘efficiencies’ of monoculture and shows the pivotal concept change that sent us along the wrong path. In other words, an extremely wide variety of foods was forced on us by the living conditions of the time versus the ‘convenience’ foods selected by our minds for reasons of convenience to us (iteration versus the mind/brain).

 

This is still the problem today and is responsible for the obesity problem and the modern ‘diseases, in my opinion. This concept of laziness/convenience/death orgene (LCD) is, as has been mentioned previously, necessary for evolution (of long-lived species) to be successful and requires that the old die in preference to the young. I maintain that older members, with the correct frame of mind, are far more able to survive than the younger members, but birth defects limit the usefulness of older females, and they must be removed, as they are, with the death orgene.

 

We say it all the time, ‘there has to be an easier way to do this’ and LCD has fuelled technology! In other words, the requirement of the death orgene through evolution is the power-house that is ‘pushing’ technology! This is a startling thought that technology has come about, not only by its usefulness, but through one of the most fundamental non-logical drivers of the success of our evolution!

 

Farming is considered a ‘breakthrough’ that allowed greater population growth by increasing the population density by growing foods that led to a second class diet and the average height fell by about 4 inches during the Natufian people’s transition. Other important attractors have followed us out of the hunter/gatherer times that are genetic and have contributed to the problem. Our diet is constrained by modern times and there seems to be a desire for more cereals, salt and meat in the diet. This is hardly surprising because carbohydrates, fat and salt are in short supply in the wild and tend to become (almost) an addiction if they are available. Small wonder that packaged ‘snacks’ are built around this formula and include all the potato ‘crisps’, cakes, biscuits, pre-packaged meals, take-aways etc.

 

This leads us to having to grasp the concept of the modern diet versus a traditional diet by ‘acid excess simply means you’re not getting enough potassium and magnesium in the form of fruits and vegetables, you’re consuming far too many acid-producing foods, or both. Make some moves to fix this problem because it’s important to stop what’s pulling potassium, magnesium, and calcium from your muscles and bones, to balance your body chemistry.’ (The Vitamin D Cure, James Dowd and Dianne Stafford, p 60) This quotation bears re-reading because it suggests that we are changing our basic body chemistry by our diet! This is a serious state of affairs and is way outside the (design) parameters of the components of the body! Is it any wonder that we are ‘haunted’ by modern degenerative illnesses?

 

It appears that fruit and vegetables have a value of 3 per serving and are alkaline, whilst seeds (cereals 8, bread 2, pasta 7, beans 4, nuts 7), meat/fish 9, and cheese 20 are all acid. (p 61) It appears that one should endeavour to keep ones diet alkaline to retain the chemicals, above, and in Palaeolithic times this would be easier as there were less cereals and no bread, pasta and cheese. Of course it was easier because we evolved to eat the foods that were available! Further, if salt (sodium chloride) or saturated fat is consumed, subtract 3 points from the alkaline total for each. Additionally, in Palaeolithic times, food was cooked in skins heated by adding hot rocks from the fire that carried wood ash into the meal and this process increased the consumption of the minerals potassium, magnesium and calcium. Fire presented a lot of benefits to humans, as mentioned earlier, and has been used for something like 400,000 years and has led to genetic changes, such as teeth/jaw size reduction.

 

It is not difficult, in light of the above to see the movement from potassium and magnesium to sodium (salt) as transport made it cheaply available, cereals, meat and cheese replaced vegetables, the infectious diseases were replaced by the degenerative ‘diseases’, the components of the body are increasingly unable to cope with the foods that we eat, heights drastically fell with the advent of farming and the mid-Victorian transport and milling of grain so that the minimum height for the British army was reduced to 5 foot, vegetables and fruit have been ‘developed’ to contain less phytochemical density and insecticides etc. also reduced the plant’s production of these chemicals as well (because there were no insect attacks) and the loss of variety of produce is restricting the body’s ability to function. Is it any wonder that the majority of the developed world is over-weight and obese and medical procedures are costing more?

 

It is for the reader to use their mind/brain to decide on the major attractors of MEN, and then the secondary, tertiary etc. attractors because everything is related and we can’t go back (Rule of Life), but with a little thought, we can go close to the Palaeolithic diet. This has been mentioned before, as has the spur that the death orgene can be reset to allow us to live longer. Logically, the determination to pursue the Best is the replacement of determination to survive.

 

Travel/transport appears to present a ‘core’ or ‘pointer’ that might best explain a complicated situation, and the Mathematics of the Mind allows comparisons and our mind/brain offers a solution. The hunter/gatherers travelled regularly over a large area tending the natural plants and culling excess plants and animals, and that necessitated using a wide-ranging diet (150 varieties, above) and getting exercise. That wide diet is the food/fuel/maintenance that our genes used to keep the body healthy and shows that food is for both fuel and maintenance, and so important is this concept, yet it tends to be ignored, that I will call food as food/fuel/maintenance (FFM) as I have done with other multi-faceted concepts.

 

The Natufian farmer settled and accepted a poorer diet and the average height decreased by 4 inches. The mid-Victorian era used the new trains to transport FFM from the country farms to the towns and the health and well-being of people became so high that it (may have) spurred the creation of the British Empire. Travel/transport (from around the world) brought processed and sweetened food from the colonies in other countries and within thirty years the minimum height for the British army had to be reduced by 6 inches.

 

The answer to the best diet for us today has been given earlier in this book, but theories have to be able to withstand scrutiny and the best way is to show that the answer is arrived at by different methods in different derivations. That is the core of the Mathematics of the Mind that no one, except a god, can know the ‘correct’ answer, but as everything is linked together (CEM), we should be able to get a ‘reasonable’ answer by coming through different derivations.

 

To this end, I would like to re-visit the acid/alkaline diet, above, and ‘”What can I eat?” …. The two simple rules are:

1. Eat mostly from two food groups: lean meat and fresh produce.
2. Consume three times as much fresh produce as lean meat by weight.’ (The Vitamin D Cure, James E. Dowd and Dianne Stafford, p 62)

The problem that I have with these rules is that they are too simple and skewed to an animalistic livelihood of gathering without the humanistic ‘farming’ of storing dried mushrooms, seeds, dried fruits, dried meat and fish, nuts etc.

 

‘A typical modern diet might be ‘breakfast: cereal and toast with coffee … lunch: sandwich (two slices of bread, lunch meat, cheese) and a diet drink … dinner: lasagna (meat, cheese, pasta), salad, and bread with a diet drink’ (p 61) and that gave a total acid excess of 59, which is a long way from <0. When I considered my usual diet, and taking vegetable servings as fresh and uncooked (‘the veggie group encompasses all kinds of fresh or frozen vegetables (p 58)), the score became:

Nuts and seeds (1), mixed cereals (2), noodle snack and chocolate (2), cheese (5) and legumes such as peas and beans (2), giving an acid total of 12. The total for fruit and vegetables was also 12, alkaline and that meant that there was balance and the diet is, I believe, healthier with nuts, seeds and legumes replacing meat. Notice some ‘slack’ for ‘treats’.

 

So, the ‘optimum’ diet is, I believe, to use travel/transport to bring fresh produce (FFM) into the towns, as in the mid-Victorian times and also to use the wide range of foods from around the world in the form of seeds, dried fruits, frozen fruits and vegetables, nuts, dried herbs, spices etc. I suggest 60 plus varieties be eaten daily including small quantities of a wide range of herbs and spices as an antioxidant mix sprinkled over the food instead of, and in the same way as salt and pepper are commonly used, though in larger quantities, to taste.

 

If these foods are available, on the kitchen counter, our mind/brain has the capacity to influence the mix of foods that we eat through the sixth, seventh and eighth (state of mind) senses. I use some from every container and my mind/brain determines how much of each is added to the blender depending on cost and ‘whatever’. The ‘whatever’ is your body’s choice based on the requirements of YOUR mind/body and is part of MEN. I think that this method is the closest that we can come to our personal dietary requirements.

 

This paragraph opens the way into the question of allergies, and as the mind/brain is plastic, and can change, it seems sensible that the body is also plastic in the immune system, and can change. Reports are coming through that allergies are being overcome by increasing (say) peanuts in the diet very gradually on a daily basis, and that is retraining the body to not react to peanuts. Possibly it is the restricted diets of today, but if tiny quantities of a wide range of the common foods are consumed every day, the body should tolerate them as in the reports that we are hearing about. This procedure aligns with the methods suggested above, that our body requires the knowledge of the variety of phytochemicals that the immune system will have to deal with and these will be presented to the body during the first years of life as FFM (food/fuel/maintenance) is gathered.

 

As an additional thought, animal products are a second rate food because the phytochemicals have been used to make the meat and are not available for a second round of digestion and body maintenance. Also, ‘the last Neanderthals of 28-24 thousand years ago were eating the same range of foods as their predecessors had been 100 thousand years earlier’ (The Humans Who Went Extinct, Clive Finlayson, p 152)

 

Finally, I believe that the above allows us to add allergies to the modern ‘diseases’ caused by a lack of MEN and it is the lack of awareness that the concepts of hunter/gather/animal, hunter/gatherer/farmer and farmer produce such different outcomes, but then, these are fundamental concepts and is another example of the lack of appreciation of the relation between concepts and is the reason why the Mathematics of the Mind is so important.

 

Now if we assume that our bodies expect the hunter/gather/farmer stream of FFM (food/fuel/maintenance), it is apparent that the vital missing ingredient in modern life, that has been caused by the (necessarily) inbred/inherent LCD (laziness/convenience/death orgene) that has produced the shift from the Mid-Victorian infections to the modern degenerative ‘diseases’ are (principally) caused by lifestyle. Further, it is bad enough that people are affecting and shortening their own lives, but they are affecting their children’s lives by not giving them the varieties of foods that they will encounter throughout life and so burdening them with allergies.

 

The third Law of Life is almost universal and it requires the formation of families to prepare children to face the world by giving them the best possible preparation for life outside the family and modern parents are not training their children’s bodies to recognise the foods that they will encounter throughout life. Small wonder that they are getting allergies and other problems! This law is fundamental to most of the higher organisms! Just as the colon is part of the Palaeolithic lifestyle that is not used as much as it should be (for consuming fibre), in the modern diet, so the body is set in the Palaeolithic and (probably) requires that children be introduced to the family’s expected fruit and vegetable foods in the first year or so.

 

In conclusion, LCD (laziness/convenience/death orgene) was necessary for evolution to proceed in the longer-lived species, and we know how to re-set it by using MEN (state of mind/exercise/nutrition), but unless we do re-set it, we, and our children will suffer the resulting modern degenerative ‘diseases’. There is a simple solution, as given above, and the answer is in the concepts that surround us, and in LCD, we see it as necessary (iterationally) but, with the proper mathematics of concepts, it can be turned to our advantage and we can strive for the Best.

 

 

Chapter 59: Measurement of Concepts, the Relativity Paradox Explained and Why our Health has Not Improved Over the Last 165 Years

 

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Abstract: concepts can be measured in a number of ways and used to explain such disparate subjects such as the Michelson-Morley experiment paradox which is one of the assumptions behind relativity, the fact that our longevity has not increased in the last 165 years and setting the stage to investigate the causes of modern ‘diseases’.

 

I believe that the ‘determination shown by life-forms evolved a reality from the possibility of existence’, as I have said before, and that space-time is different in our world (O) and the universe (P) because we evolved to use speed and distance to evade predators, probably in the Cambrian because multi-celled organisms evolved to become large enough to be able to use lensed eyes. Prior to that, a predator had to literally ‘bump into’ a prey and the improved eyesight required a brain that could record the vast amount of information that the eyes could see and construct a continuous and seamless reality with it, as well as decision making and consciousness.

 

The ‘fifth dimension’ of a probability space is that the sum of every point in that space must sum to 1, and this suggests that the Conservation of Energy is a ‘fact’ and not supposition or a ‘Law’, however, as pointed out before, energy and matter are two ‘states’ of the same thing and Einstein’s equation that E = mc2 is actually the identity energy = mass and the c squared is to make the dimensions correct. In other words, mass and energy are two forms of the same thing that can change from one form to the other, like water and ice, and must be conserved because they are (essentially) the same. If they weren’t the same, or essentially the same, after fourteen billion years the universe would have ‘run down’.

 

Gravity is something that has to act within our space for us to exist, as was mentioned before, and gravity leads to potential energy, so all energy can be considered as matter and potential energy. Matter is ‘fixed’ in the form of particles, but photons (and kinetic energy of the particles) are infinitely variable as they move throughout the universe and their energy (colour/frequency/speed) changes to keep the sum of energy in the universe at 1.

 

Also, a probability space must have a relationship between every point, so that the total sum is 1, and I call that ‘entanglement’, and I have used the relationship of mathematics-of-concepts/entanglement/measurement (CEM) to describe, as much as I can, the relation between two points and thus every point in the space. Notice that I said ‘between two points’ because the mathematical relationship can only be between two points at a minimum. It might be clearer to say that for two points a and b, a+b=1, and that means that we have one equation with two unknowns, and that means that we always need to make a comparison and that there are no absolutes.

 

In the previous chapter 58: An ‘Instant Cure’ for Depression, a ‘Do It Yourself’ Personality Change and the Armageddon Corner, vitality and happiness were set up as ‘opposites’ to depression and that gave us two points and thus we could make a measurement of the severity of the depression. In other words, we need two points at least, to make a measurement and that is shown by the fact there is a standard metre as a reference in France, and that is the reference that we use every time we measure something, because it ‘stands behind’ every ruler or tape measure.

 

There is the (apparent) anomaly or paradox that two observers moving at a constant speed relative to each other measure the speed of light to be the same to each of them. ‘2 The speed of light in a vacuum is the same for all observers, regardless of their relative motion or of the motion of the light source.The resultant theory copes with experiment better than classical mechanics. For instance, postulate 2 explains the results of the Michelson–Morley experiment.’ (Wikipedia, Theory of Relativity, Special Relativity) I should point out that ‘postulate 2 explains the results of the Michelson–Morley experiment’ is incorrect because the results of the Michelson–Morley experiment, were so paradoxial that they suggested the postulate and consequently, the theory.

 

Intuitively, we think that one observer should see the speed of light to be different because of the motion of their frames of reference. There appears to be a paradox because we have added a complication of trying to measure world P (the universe) in terms of (our) world O units. Our O world evolved units such as speed and distance because we needed them to survive in a predator/prey reality, but the world P is a simple place of CEM.

 

Space-time is our creation along with the evolutionary iteration/mind, and if we want to mix O and P, we have to use our mind with CEM. When we consider the photon, it is a concept that is entangled and indeterminant and does not exist to us until it is measured and P is a ‘simple’ space and we should interact with it on a single measurement basis. The answer to the paradox should be, why shouldn’t the speed be the same because it is a measurement between the light and the observer, but the paradox is still there because the observers are moving relative to each other!

 

The answer above is correct, but it is still unbelievable, at least to me! We have simplified the problem but can’t separate the two observers. We are use to the complex system that we have evolved as predator/prey and have ‘invented’ a time interval that leads to speed of attack as our margin of safety. A probability space contains three space dimensions, time passing and the sum of all points equal to 1, and so, only supports relations of the kind a+b=1, and if a light source a is measured by two observers b and c, then a+b=1 and a+c=1, then b=c! This is saying that the two observers are equivalent and there is no way to tell them apart in our simple universe.

 

In chapter 27: Existence, Reality and the Effect on Fundamental Physics, it was suggested that at the Big Bang, energy created time and when particles formed (after so-called inflation) space was created. Photons have no rest mass, but contain energy and it was suggested that the same mechanism that created the Big Bang occurs in a photon. Pure energy creates time and the particle nature creates space and the photon moves into it. Thus the speed of the photon is that required for us to exist and for the universe to support us, remembering that we ‘evolved reality out of the possibility of existence’, in my opinion. The point is that the photon has a speed independent of everything (in a vacuum) as found by the Michelson-Morley experiment. My simple theory can be extended in the following way.

 

The Special Theory of Relativity is valid because it is the relativity between two observers, using the assumption, as indicated by the Michelson-Morley experiment that the speed of light is the same when measured by two observers moving relatively to each other at constant velocity. From above, a+b=1 indicates ‘relativity’ between the observer and the photon and not between two observers. The other relation, b=c indicates that the two observers are equivalent and the above was to expand this thought. This statement that ‘the two observers are equivalent’ underlies the Michelson-Morley experiment and presents us with the paradox that the speed of light is the same, even when the observers are moving relative to each other.

 

I’m particularly interested in CEM, the ‘fifth’ dimension, and the effect of the ‘simple’ probability space. To me, there has always been a paradox in the supposition that the speed of light is the same for two observers moving relative to each other and now it can be resolved! I am going to take b=c one step further and say that it says that constant speed or even accelerated frames of reference are allowed. This takes us into the realm of General Relativity! The explanation is measurement and measurement is not in space-time, but it is in CEM (mathematics-of-concepts/entanglement/measurement).

 

I believe that: the Mathematics of the Mind is built on the basis/concepts of the mathematics of concepts, which is completely general, and the concepts form ‘pillars’ with entanglement linking them, allowing measurement. It was shown previously that a ‘decision’ could be made using (space-time) portions of the mind/brain, and it should be realized that the Rule of Life says that it will be done, if it can be done, because of the huge number of generations throughout evolution, and we can (and do) make decisions!

 

Logic is like mathematics and consists of measurement AND decision-making, and this should be kept in mind. The logic is simply that the photon(s) is moving through space changing colour/frequency/energy as it moves through the universe in response to its potential energy (with respect to every other particle in the universe), and its speed is measured. At that instant, both photon and observer are at rest and the speed/acceleration of the observer is irrelevant and this is a world P measurement albeit in world O terms or units. This simple explanation is true for any number of observers, but the relativity of two or more observers is world O and requires a Lorentz transformation between them. In other words, their velocity and/or acceleration requires a time interval in terms of world O, but world P only contains time passing, and not a time interval, so velocity and acceleration are zero at the instant of measurement. It was discussed previously that force and acceleration are world O units, whereas impulse is world P.

 

It should be noted that a ‘proof’ of this ‘paradox’ has been give earlier based on logic, but this approach through the properties of probability space is revealing and accentuates the interconnectedness of these concepts and strengthens the assertion that this is a useable and simple way to view our existence and reality through the three Laws of Life. Further, this interconnectedness leads us into the interesting question of how ‘modern’ ‘diseases’ have taken over from the diseases of 165 years ago, and how lack of measurement reveals how little that we understand our changing world, and this is considered below.

 

Another example using proverbs, that is leading us into the measurement of concepts in society, is the proverb ‘if you benefit, you can’t vote for it’ and this is used universally when voting is done, except in the elections to elect politicians! Firstly, the Mathematics of the Mind sets up the ‘opposite’ that ‘if you benefit, you can vote for it’ and the mind/brain makes a ‘value judgement’ and decides that the ‘correct’ answer is that ‘if you benefit, you cannot vote for it’, and this decision is made because to allow it, would be unfair/absurd/rip-off and against commonsense, except that our government allows welfare recipients to vote, and this was discussed in chapter 22: Magic, Proverbs, Politics and the Voting System and a proposal was put forward to decrease the ‘value’ of the vote of those seeking a ‘hand-out’.

 

I feel that more should be made of this ‘breakdown’ in logic. Why are politicians allowed to get away with such an abuse of logic? Perhaps their modus operandi is to tell people what they want to hear, but can we afford that type of behaviour in a modern world that has global problems. Perhaps we should start to try to remedy this state of affairs with a quotation from the previous chapter: ‘We are used to trial and error and the common sense approach, but science works by a much more formal process that leads often to counter-intuitive conclusions’ (The Beginner’s Guide to Winning the Nobel Prize, Peter Doherty, p 26) This chapter, and the whole book is an attempt to use scientific methods on day-to-day concepts that the government should be better equipped to handle. In fact, it is hard to imagine the following scenario occurring over 165 years in the world’s super-power (of the time) without governments providing better direction, or appreciating what was happening.

 

The growth of the welfare system is ‘unmeasured’ because there is only one starting point, and that was about a hundred years ago when government-funded welfare started. Government is about concepts and yet it is not measuring them properly, and that is what started this book with the first chapter written (chapter 6: Dancing, Nutrition, Poker Machines, Philosophy and Quantum Mechanics) in response to politicians wanting to control poker machines to limit the damage that they can cause. The politicians in question did not succeed because they used a ‘poor’ method, in my opinion, and there are many other concepts that government uses, that do not stand up well to scrutiny

 

I doubt that it is possible to find anyone, anywhere, that would not agree that modern medicine has extended our lives greatly over the last 165 years by improvements in water quality, antibiotics, surgery, vaccinations, painkillers and anaesthetics and so on. Actually, this is untrue! Its all in the way that you measure, and we have all heard the proverb ‘lies, damned lies and statistics’ where you can make anything that you wish to appeal to voters, appealing by the way that you present measurements. Notice that I have used the word ‘voters’ because we are trying to be scientific and a non-voter doesn’t get a vote and so has no input!

 

From above, we have been able to compare concepts by measurement when we have at least two, and we have seen that we are lost with just one unless we can set up an agreed ‘opposite’. Mathematics is a special case of the Mathematics of the Mind and, if we are careful, we can use mathematical quantities within the concepts to clarify, but it can lead to the ‘statistics’ in the proverb above, that rates this use as worse than ‘damned lies’. So, let’s look at the question of public health, as determined by longevity, and it so happens that the Mid-Victorians in Britain (1850 to 1880) lived as long as we do today, and this ‘fact’ allows insight into that which I have been calling ‘modern’ ‘diseases’. In this chapter, I will deal with the measurement that has led to the idea that our longevity (as a measure of health) has been increasing, and in subsequent chapters, the reasons for these ‘modern’ ‘diseases’ and how easy it is to overcome them, bearing in mind the negative effects of the antibest syndrome, determination and the death orgene.

In Mid-Victorian times, Britain’s ‘world-dominating empire were supported by a workforce, an army and a navy comprised of individuals who were healthier, fitter and stronger than we are today. They were almost entirely free of the degenerative diseases which maim and kill so many of us’ today. ‘The implications of the mid-Victorian story are far-reaching, because, unlike the paleolithic scenario, details of the mid-Victorian lifestyle and its impact on public health are extensively documented.’

I can only suggest that the magnitude of the effect of ‘modern’ ‘diseases’ on society has only been tolerated because society has not measured properly, and as will be shown, a measurement was taken at an unfortunate time and has led to complacency and a feeling that society was ‘on the right track’, when, actually, it was all going horribly wrong as shown in a paper: ‘How the Mid-Victorians Worked, Ate and Died’ by Paul Clayton and Judith Rowbotham, from which I have extensively quoted. I have extensively quoted from it because it is ‘right on the money’ and there is little to add, except that it does not seem to have had the effect that it should have. I attribute this to the fact that specialists work in a specialist area and the ramifications need a ‘broader platform’, which I can hopefully supply as an uncommitted generalist owing nothing to anyone.

‘The decline was astonishingly rapid. The mid-Victorian navvies, who as seasonal workers were towards the bottom end of the economic scale, could routinely shovel up to 20 tons of earth per day from below their feet to above their heads. This was an enormous physical effort that required great strength, stamina and robust good health. Within two generations, however, male health nationally had deteriorated to such an extent that in 1900, five out of 10 young men volunteering for the second Boer War had to be rejected because they were so undernourished. They were not starved, but had been consuming the wrong foods. This reality is underlined by considering army recruitment earlier. The recruiting sergeants had reported no such problems during previous high profile campaigns such as the Asante (1873–4) and Zulu (1877–8) Wars.’

‘The fall in nutritional standards between 1880 and 1900 was so marked that the generations were visibly and progressively shrinking. In 1883 the infantry were forced to lower the minimum height for recruits from 5ft 6 inches to 5ft 3 inches. This was because most new recruits were now coming from an urban background instead of the traditional rural background (the 1881 census showed that over three-quarters of the population now lived in towns and cities). Factors such as a lack of sunlight in urban slums (which led to rickets due to Vitamin D deficiency) had already reduced the height of young male volunteers. Lack of sunlight, however, could not have been the sole critical factor in the next height reduction, a mere 18 years later. By this time, clean air legislation had markedly improved urban sunlight levels; but unfortunately, the supposed ‘improvements’ in dietary intake resulting from imported foods had had time to take effect on the 16–18 year old cohort. It might be expected that the infantry would be able to raise the minimum height requirement back to 5ft. 6 inches. Instead, they were forced to reduce it still further, to a mere 5ft. British officers, who were from the middle and upper classes and not yet exposed to more than the occasional treats of canned produce, were far better fed in terms of their intake of fresh foods and were now on average a full head taller than their malnourished and sickly men.’

From above, the statement that ‘the Mid-Victorians in Britain (1850 to 1880) lived as long as we do today’ has changed to the statement that the minimum height in the British army had been reduced to ‘to a mere 5ft’, and further that the men were ‘malnourished and sickly’ by 1900! Something had gone horribly wrong and the problem was not recognised, but considering the quotation above, ‘we are used to trial and error and the common sense approach, but science works by a much more formal process that leads often to counter-intuitive conclusions’ and this will be shown because I am using a scientific mathematics of concepts.

‘In 1904, and as a direct result of the Boer disaster, the government set up the Committee on Physical Deterioration. Its report, emphasising the need to provide school meals for working class children, reinforced the idea that the urban working classes were not only malnourished at the start of the twentieth century but also (in an unjustified leap of the imagination, reinforced by folk memories of the ‘Hungry 40’s) that they had been so since the start of nineteenth century industrial urbanisation. This profound error of thought was incorporated into subsequent models of public health, and is distorting and damaging healthcare to this day.’

‘The crude average figures often used to depict the brevity of Victorian lives mislead because they include infant mortality, which was tragically high. If we strip out peri-natal mortality, however, and look at the life expectancy of those who survived the first five years, a very different picture emerges. Victorian contemporary sources reveal that life expectancy for adults in the mid-Victorian period was almost exactly what it is today.’

‘Given that modern pharmaceutical, surgical, anaesthetic, scanning and other diagnostic technologies were self-evidently unavailable to the mid-Victorians, their high life expectancy is very striking, and can only have been due to their health-promoting lifestyle’, and we will look at this lifestyle in subsequent chapters and contrast it to our modern lifestyle.

‘The contemporary anti-ageing movement whose protagonists use 1900 – a nadir in health and life expectancy trends – as their starting point to promote the idea of endlessly increasing life span’ are presenting a misrepresentation of the facts as I believe them to be.’ The above quotations have been pulled out of the cited paper to show how the general populus has been misled because of the poor use of concepts. As I am presenting, what I believe to be, a new, or perhaps I should say, revived (from pre-mathematics) method that I call the Mathematics of the Mind (a general mathematics of concepts) it does have a scientific base and may possibly produce some counter-intuitive claims.

The quotations above present the picture that our health and longevity have been increasing over the years, and clearly this is not true because the mid- Victorians lived as long as we do, after adjusting for infant mortality over the first 5 years. Health, as reflected in height, dropped to a low point around 1900 and has been climbing ever since to the level enjoyed by the Mid-Victorians. This change in standards reflects how little that we understand the inter-play of worldwide events that have occurred, and should have alerted us to being more able to control events that affect populations to the large extent cited above, however, I can only hope that this book may go some way to bringing this about.

Unless we measure concepts using the Mathematics of the Mind, we can’t control them and the above, and following chapters will point out that (without knowing it or controlling it), we have passed from a period when death was from infection to a time, now, when death is mainly from degenerative ‘diseases’ without the population living longer. There is so much that we can do to lengthen life and the enjoyment of life when we understand the forces that we have unleashed, and that is for subsequent chapters.

Chapter 57: A New Treatment of Depression and the Antibest Syndrome

 

http://darrylpenney.com

 

Abstract: an account is given of a successful outcome over depression and a disadvantaged childhood, together with a theoretical derivation of the optimal treatment for depression through a mathematics of concepts that gives a different method of treatment to current practice.

 

 

This is a more personal chapter generally, and I’ll start with the reason for writing this book, and that is to understand modern life better, and I am quite happy to share it with anyone that aspires to the group that I call the ‘Best’. But there is another side that has to be called the Antibest syndrome because it is very prevalent and consists of two factors, firstly, an inability to see the forest for the trees and secondly a refusal to change their lifestyle, even when they know that the existing lifestyle is killing them.

 

The previous chapter saw the suggested use of proverbs to simplify thinking and to bring the thinking into line with society, and an organisational proverb might be ‘lumpers’ and ‘splitters’. The aim of this book is to simplify and ‘lump’ diseases such as (some) mental diseases, Alzheimer’s disease, heart, disease, cancer, diabetes etc. as ‘modern’ diseases and treat them through state of mind, nutrition and exercise of the body and mind/brain. On the other hand, disease in general tends to ‘concentrate’ the mind around that disease and the mind ‘focuses’ on that disease and ‘splits’ that disease from the overall reality. This is the first factor in the Antibest disease.

 

‘Before we move on to address other types of depression, I want to touch on the relationship between depression and anxiety. The fact is that most depressed and bipolar patients also experience a great deal of anxiety; often it’s difficult to tell which should be the primary diagnosis.’ (Undoing Depression, Richard O’Connor, p 51) This quotation shows the complexity of the subject and is a case in point that the author (Richard O’Connor) has suffered from depression. It is also relevant that the mother and daughter, below, suffer depression and anxiety respectively, although for simplicity, I will assume that they are the same. ‘Depression and anxiety are always closely inter-related; most patients have a combination of symptoms that could be diagnosed either way’. (p 52) Again, this is the first factor in the Antibest syndrome, a concentrating of the mind into channels associated with one modern disease

 

As an example of how strong is the second factor, ‘doctors tell their patients: If you want to keep the pain from coming back, and if you don’t want to have to repeat the surgery, and if you want to stop the course of your heart disease before it kills you, then you have to switch to a healthier lifestyle. You have to stop smoking, stop drinking, stop overeating, start exercising, and relieve your stress. But very few do. “If you look at people after coronary-artery bypass grafting two years later, ninety percent of them have not changed their lifestyle”.’ (Change or Die, Alan Deutschman, p 4) “People go to great lengths to view the world in a way that maintains a sense of wellbeing. We are masterly spin doctors, rationalizers, and justifiers of threatening information.” Wilson and his colleague Daniel Gilbert have called this ability the “psychological immune system”. (p 208)

 

We consider that our bodies and minds are part of a modern reality, but our digestive system is really part of the Palaeolithic reality and has difficulty coping with modern ‘foods’. Likewise, our mind/brain can handle modern complexity, but it is starting to break down with mental illnesses such as depression. This chapter is designed to show how (some) of the modern problems can be overcome, and as an example, I will use my lovely dancing partner, whom I shall call DP. When DP was a child her mother was mentally ill with depression and DP had to stay home from school and help look after the family. As I mentioned previously, I believe that DP developed her own problems of anxiety and lack of stimulation from her home life, leading her to being considered borderline ‘disadvantaged’. Perhaps there is a genetic base, but I am assuming that the body is a component, if for no other reason than simplicity. She has had the same job in the hospital kitchens serving patients for 36 years, and whilst saying that she dislikes it, she hasn’t changed jobs in all those years. Her father put a house and investment property into a trust for her, she is married and secure, however, she is worried that she will follow her mother into a home with depression/anxiety.

 

I first met DP about 3 years ago, after splitting with my previous dance partner of 8 years, at a club, dancing on her own. She was on Long Service Leave because she had pain in her elbow from pushing heavy meal trolleys at the hospital. She had been ‘dumped’ by her dance partner after completing her ‘medals’, nine years before and wasn’t dancing except at that time, when she was on leave. So, we got together dancing a couple of nights a week and her elbow didn’t inconvenience her dancing, but was painful to the touch. I suggested that she change her breakfast to something much more healthy and the pain subsided quickly, but not so quickly that she didn’t go to doctor and get ‘compo’ with 3 months off. I am pointing out that nutrition is part of the second Law of Life, state of mind/exercise/nutrition (MEN).

 

“The true opposite of depression is not gaiety or absence of pain, but vitality: the freedom to experience spontaneous feelings.” (Undoing Depression, Richard O’Connor, p 36) I pointed out in the last chapter that ‘vitality’ must be an attractor when talking about depression because there has to be the ‘opposite’ to measure from. Remember that nothing exists until it is measured because it is indeterminate until measured, and measurement is the fifth dimension (mathematics of concepts/entanglement/measurement (CEM)) and to measure depression we need a measuring stick, and that could be ‘vitality’, or the distance from vitality. Now, from above, DP suffers from anxiety, that I believe originated from her home-life, so, DP is ‘self-medicating’ herself by dancing and using her anxiety/ hyper-activeness in the best possible way by dancing, and it must be what she needs because she LOVES dancing. Rationalizing this, the placebo effect is apparent because her mind is, apparently, telling her body that she should dance, and dancing fast is exercise and moving fast uses her mind and adds ‘pleasure’ to her life, the opposite of depression, as shown in the next paragraph.

 

Apart from this ‘internal’ effect there is the ‘external’ effect of dancing fast and well, in front of an appreciative crowd, often on our own on the floor between brackets of music if the ‘canned’ music is suitable. Usually, once a night someone complements her on her dancing. She is a ‘show pony’ and loves showing off on the dance-floor. ‘The hallmark of depression is a persistent sad or “empty” mood, sometimes experienced as tension or anxiety. Life lacks pleasure.’ (Undoing Depression, Richard O’Connor, p 28) DP seems to have a maximum of vitality and life doesn’t lack pleasure at a dance and yet she complains of anxiety during the week, so is dancing helping her in general?

 

When I met her 3 years ago, I met some of her friends and saw pictures and she pointed out that this one had schizophrenia, this one epilepsy etc., and when she met someone that I knew, she would communicate by showing pictures of her pet rabbits. She mentioned that in 2 years, she would give up work, so I asked ‘how, when the pension age is 67 not 57?’. I suspect that she thought that being borderline ‘disadvantaged’ she would get a disability pension if she wanted it. However, she is in for a shock, because she is now ‘normal’ and communicates with ‘normal’ people as friends.

 

DP still has anxiety attacks and I tell her to ‘count her blessings’ when they occur, and she has many blessings to count:

A: her anxiety can and is being improved by ‘counting her blessings’,

B: her social skills have reached the point where she visits other tables during the breaks in the music, much to my displeasure, as I’m left alone.

C: She has a family, son and house (in a trust).

D: She has job of only about 25 hours a week.

E: She has a dancing partner two nights a week that can show her off.

F: She has a ‘rock-hard’ body and goes to the gym.

G: She ‘more or less’ eats the foods that I advise, and so, shouldn’t get sick from the modern diseases. And so on.

 

I have given an example of what I believe is a ‘self-help’ means of turning a ‘disadvantaged’ life into a personal triumph because several very important points are exposed. I shall number them to try to keep them distinct.

 

A: the first part of the antibest syndrome is a natural focussing of the mind to a problem, but in this case the problem is a change in reality from the Palaeolithic to the modern, and this means that it is a change ‘across the board’ and the focussing of the mind is the opposite to ‘expanding’ our mind to approach the problem through the second Law of Life (state of mind, exercise and nutrition (MEN)).

 

B: the second part of the antibest syndrome is the resistance to change in patients’ behaviour, and I put that down to the death orgene where it is necessary that the older, higher risk breeders be eliminated in favour of the younger breeders, and that is an organisational necessity for evolution. I will repeat a quotation ‘Why do people persist in self-destructive behavior when they can see that it does them no good. Freud had to invent theories as elaborate and arcane as the death instinct to answer this question. (p 3) It is interesting that Freud’s ‘death instinct’ and the death orgene are similar, but, Freud’s interpretation is confusing, whereas the death orgene is required by logic.

 

C: the Mathematics of the Mind (a general mathematics of concepts) is necessary to arrange the concepts surrounding the problem, in this case depression, so that we can examine the attractors, and the most important in this case, appears to be ‘vitality’ and ‘happiness’. You can’t fix something unless you know where you want to go, and that is measurement. This simple point is the very basis of our universe, which is reality (mathematics of concepts/entanglement/measurement (CEM)) and that is the purpose of this book to put a mathematical basis to social problems through the Mathematics of the Mind that will give a better solution. In other words, you have to find a target to aim for and that requires knowledge that only comes from measurement (otherwise it is indeterminate). Remember that reality is not existence because we ‘evolved reality out of the possibility of existence’.

 

D: DP is ‘self-medicating’ and using two specific means that are the opposite of depression, namely, from above, gaiety and pleasure, and are apparent in her love of dancing two nights a week with me.

 

E: The body is composed of cells that have combined together to access the benefits of lensed eyes and allowed the creation of a mind to access the new reality that took place in the Cambrian. The placebo/nocebo continuum uses this ‘contract’ between the cells and the mind to communicate both ways, and we are familiar with the body repairing itself when damaged, as well as the mind changing the brain to record thoughts, but it appears that the mind can repair itself by using the body’s (including the brain’s) ability to repair itself. Or is it DP’s mind fighting against her situation? Perhaps a little of each, but the important part is the completeness of her attitude in using the three parts of the second Law of Life (state of mind, exercise and nutrition (MEN)).

 

F: the second Law of Life combines the three areas that must be ‘correct’ if we want to function in the way that we evolved to do because everything is connected, as shown by the interconnectedness of the three Laws of Life, and indeed interconnectedness of the universe itself (CEM).

 

G: the Mathematics of the Mind, as used above, can never give a unique or exact answer because there are (or may be) things that we don’t know that might affect the result. Only a God, that knows everything could give a unique answer, bearing in mind that mathematics is a special case. As more attractors or concepts are brought into the discussion, the better or more accurate will be the answer (probably). I have brought the antibest syndrome into the discussion to show how the current situation is lacking in essential ways. However, it would be nice to help everyone, but it must be held in mind that compassion is an addiction and so any solution must be in line with Survival of the Best to limit and give direction to our compassion (see previously).

 

H: It should be noted that the Mathematics of the Mind is a mechanism of comparison and does not make a decision, and that requires iteration or a mind/brain, and in practical terms, a 50/50 vote, or 70/30 vote, or by an appointed person etc. These restrictions may seem unnecessary, but if the social sciences are to be ‘solidly’ based, there must be cognisance of the reality/laws behind the social sciences, and there appeared to be little formalism to the social sciences before this book because a mathematics of concepts was needed.

 

I: Who determines treatment? A doctor does and he/she learns from (somewhat) specialist medical courses based on research papers that are based on specialists, but this book is based on an over-arching generalist approach, and that is ‘foreign’ to the current methods and will probably be slow to be appreciated, and even slower to be used.

 

J: When DP arrives at a dance and complains that she is agitated/depressed, I say, wait until the music starts and you’ll be OK. I am using a proverb along the lines that ‘if you are depressed, exercise!’, or, ‘when you hear the music, you will perk up!’. It is well known that exercise is good for anxiety/depression, and that her mood will change when she starts dancing. I realize that ‘this is where we came in’, but the proverb above is similar to all of the derivation, above, and supports the idea of using proverbs, but, it is nice to use more attractors to be more sure of the answer. In other words, the above is ‘similar’ to what is known about depression, and so it should be, because this derivation is correct, but it goes a lot further, and crucially, has a logical ‘basis’.

 

K: The above is an account of a successful outcome over depression and a disadvantaged childhood, but the theory appears complicated because I have gone back to first principles so that it can be fully understood by those interested, but the antibest syndrome makes it unlikely that the depressed will ‘self-help’ or ‘do it yourself’, so the next chapter will give a method that should (possibly) ‘instantaneously’ ‘cure’ depression in (some of) those attempting it.

 

Conclusion: the above is a logical derivation using the Mathematics of the Mind and if the concepts were bricks, they would make an interlocking wall, but the result is reasonably close to what we think now, about the treatment of depression (as one would expect) and aligns with the proverbs, but if we only look at the bricks that we know, we fall into the antibest syndrome. The strange concepts, such a MEN, CEM, Laws of Life, death orgene etc have been derived in earlier chapters as well as strange assertions such as that compassion is a modern disease/addiction etc. and show the areas that lack current understanding.

 

The specialist area of mental health needs to be broadened as I have shown to cover existence (CEM), evolution (death orgene), the body/mind (MEN) etc., if we are to offer ‘the best’ cure/help to people, as they have a right to expect from the medical system. The body can help itself overcome the modern diseases and modern mental problems, but, I believe that it has to be put on the correct path with due consideration (especially) given to state of mind, exercise and nutrition (MEN), that is a reality problem.

 

It is apparent that many concepts are necessary to the discussion and I should remind readers that these are only the major attractors and in fact, everything is linked throughout the universe through the mathematics of concepts/entanglement/measurement (CEM).

 

Prediction: a prediction is necessary from the Mathematics of the Mind because there is no one/exact answer, and I am pleased that the Best is emerging as a concept that is attainable with determination and can be used by the disadvantaged and the advantaged because mental health is (principally) derived from our upbringing and life experiences. Survival of the Best tries to improve mental health of children by fostering family security and the payment of social security to childless couples promotes determination, as derived previously.