waking state: "hen thalamic cells reverberate at two cycles per second, the brain is in a state of deep sleep. At 10 cycles per second, the human brain is awake but not paying attention to the outside world. And at 40 cycles cycles per second it is either wide awake or vividly dreaming." P. 236 S. Blakeslee, "How the Brain Might Work: A New Theory of Consciousness." (March 1995) In, N. Gade, Editor, The Science Times Book Of The Brain. New York, 1998. p.236.
"There were nine "Malic Moulds". How did they come? I did a drawing, in 1913, in which there were eight - the ninth wasn't yet there. It came six months later. The idea is amusing because they are moulds. And to mould what? Gas. That is, gas is introduced into the moulds, where it takes the shape of the soldier, the department-store delivery boy, the cuirassier, the policeman, the priest, the station master, etc., which are inscribed on my drawing. Each is built on a common horizontal plane, where lines intersect at the point of their sex. All that helped me realize the glass entitled "Nine Malic Moulds", which was made in 1914-1915. The mould side is invisible." M. Duchamp. From Dialogues with Marcel Duchamp: Interview with Pierre Cabanne. New York, 1971. pp.48-9. In all, the moulds represent a priest, delivery boy, gendarme, cavalryman, policeman, undertaker, servant/flunky, busboy/waiter's assistant, and a station-master.
masturbation: "It is amazing how few persons asked themselves why a loss of semen in masturbation should be harmful while a loss of semen in coitus should have no ill-effect; no one grasped the concept that if masturbation were harmful, marriage would by the same token be suicidal." P. Gedhard, et al., Sex Offenders. New York, 1965. p.503.
circulation: "On the Hippocratic model, the nervous system is a set of very fine tubes or pipes through which circulate the somata hormonta or corps excitent. This circulating essence is a psycho-physical vital fluidum described in many ways and given many names in subsequent centuries. It was linked by Galen to his theory of the four humours and their nourishment and replenishment. This 'animal' or 'vital spirit' has always been ambiguously psycho-physical, at times described as an actual fluid, at times as an immaterial flow." J. Hillman, "Towards the Archetypal Model for the Masturbation Inhibition." In, Loose Ends. Dallas, TX. 1975. p.109.
"The hydrodynamic model of circulation goes back to the dawn of thought in China and foretells the discovery of the circulation of the blood, Similar expressions are the 'circular thrust' (periousis) in Plato's Timaeus, prana in Indian psycho-physiology, the notion of breath in Avicenna, the essence of which circulates in The Secret of the Golden Flower. Freud's notion of the libido, of the damning by repression and channeling by the ego, of its special connection with the sexual instinct--even sexual fluids--is a modern restatement of the same archetypal hydrodynamic model of the psyche." (Ibid.).
illuminating gas: The illuminating gas is "continuously transformed-from gas to solid to liquid and finally to an optical quality with no physical dimension whatsoever-by various types of equipment including molds, tubes, sieves, and charts." D. Joselit, Infinite Regress: Marcel Duchamp, 1910-1941. Cambridge, MA., 1998. p.114.
mood disorders: "The myth proceeds in a nonlinear way, rhythmically. laying out an irrational path of development./ The goddess keeps shifting, gaining knowledge and losing it, embodying power and not knowing what her power is, transforming the death experience and falling back into depression and grief around it. She shifts back and forth, embodies and suffers the pain of ignorance she has denounced while moving deeper and deeper into the transformative power that pain will draw forth." K. Carlson, Life's Daughter/Death's Bride. Boston, MA., 1997. p.31.
his bride: "That the connection between marriage and death is in the nature of things, is indicated by the fact that, according to ancient experience, a marriage in a dream means a death, and a death in a dream means a marriage. This correspondence is explained by the fact that any given union presupposes an extinction of the earlier, still differentiated, state. In the marriage of man and woman, each gives up part of his or her independence, whereas, the other way round, death (which in the first instance is a separation) is followed by the union of the body with the earth and of the soul with its original essence. On 'chemical marriage' Quicksilver (female) takes unto itself Sulphur (male), and Sulphur, Quicksilver. Both forces 'die', as foes and lovers. Then the changing and reflective moon of the soul unites with the immutable sun of the spirit so that it is extinguished, and yet illumined, at one and the same time." T. Burckhardt, Alchemy. Dorset, England, 1987. p.156.
to return: When the hypothalamus becomes is aware of a problem it sends neural signals to the autonomic system - the (lateral) hypothalamus projects to the (lateral) medulla, where the cells that drive the autonomic systems are located. These include the parasympathetic vagal nuclei and a group of cells that descend to the sympathetic system in the spinal cord. In this way, the hypothalamus controls heart rate, vasoconstriction, digestion, combativeness, etc., returning the system to homeostasis.
blossoming: "The bachelors transform raw materials like gas or chocolate to produce sparks and splashes--explosions--but the bride blossoms. She is not alienated in the manner of the bachelors, who are fueled upon 'not them,' but the price she pays for her tautological blossoming is immensurability, her ultimate inaccessibility." Joselit. p.125.
consciousness: "The thalamus is a particularly interesting centre because of its connectivity and its obligatory involvement in all types of consciousness....neurons in the thalamic reticular network are GABAergic. This is not to suggest that the thalamus is the centre of consciousness, but I would like to see evidence of any consciousness event that does not have circuits passing through the thalamus." D.Friend. jcs-online@sol.zynet.net. 23 Jun 1999. (Journal of Consciousness Studies.)
