By opening a debate on a newly formed theory one has not necessarily the intention of undermining it. Each new theory has to be evaluated, the sooner the better, and this confrontation with logical argumentation is the only way for that theory to be accepted and built in into the pylons of Science.
In a hopefully constructive analysis of Ralph Allison's Essence-Memory concept, interesting at any rate, let us begin with some minor questions. . The limitation of the "Geographical" Data
Traumatic memories consist of two components, the Geographical Data and Emotional Overlay. The Geographical Data consist of information about who, what, when, and why of the situation. (1)
First of all, the term "geographical" for the objective data associated with a memorized event is inadequately chosen. It would be much better to speak in more general terms, like "objective," " situational," "descriptive," "historical," etc. data vs. Emotional Overlay. Moreover, one could suggest to abandon the "why" element of the "geographical" ("objective") data, since this element implicates a cognitive level of the data processing and not any longer a pure perceptional one.
More important is the "when" problem: according to Allison. The data with a strict time concept cannot be stored as an Akashic Record. On the other hand, the "when" is part of the "geographical" data and is supplied, in favorable circumstances, from the same Akashic Records by the mediation of the Essence. . The stability of the Emotional Overlay
The Emotional Overlay consists of attitudes and feelings that the patient developed as a result of the event. At that particular time of their lives, the nature of the Emotional Overlay was created by prior experiences and the future implications of that traumatic event (2).
The interdependence of emotional context and memory is well known a phenomenon and it was described as a special case of "state-dependent memory, learning, and behavior" in the studies by Cheek and Rossi. (3) Allison's hypothesis however, that an event's memory is not fixed but is subsequently constantly emotionally modifying. This does not correspond to the experiences of the psychotherapists describing the "locked-emotions" state which has been cured by the well-known abreaction method. . The Inner Self Helper (ISH) as a substitution of the Essence
Once integration is completed, the role of the ISH is no longer needed. Now the entity who previously played that role becomes once again what each human has in her from birth, her "Essence" (4).
According to this view, the ISH is a quality connected with dissociation disorders, while the Essence is a property of a normally integrated personality. Since the ISH and the Essence have the same functions, it is not clear why they should be distinguished one from another at all. . The deja vu problem
The most easily appreciated function o the Essence in humans is intuition. Other functions include deja vu and creative inspiration (5).
Pity that the author did not attempt to explain how he defines intuition and creative inspiration and how these imaginary entities can be helped by an imaginary Essence. Deja vu, on the other hand, can hardly be understood as a "function," since it is well known that it can be provoked by a temporal-lobe-epilepsy seizure and by a stimulation of the temporal cortex. Allison's theory does offer an intriguing explication of this phenomenon. but only indirectly and not as a "function" of the Essence. . The world of the Akashic Records
One should not be ashamed of being a dualist. Ramon y Cajal, Sperry, Eccles, and Penfield, authorities who certainly knew something about the (material) brain, finished their carriers with a "clear doubt" that something "outside" does exist. (Science very often reluctantly looks upon the dualism, mostly because the acceptance of dualism seems as just postponing the problem, putting away the answer from the field of sight.) Therefore, it is not a wonder that Allison constructs his memories reservoir in a fictive Thoughtspace, opposed to the Physicalspace. (This could be considered as a Popper & Eccles' idea reduced to two worlds: World I with physical objects and states, and World 2 with states of consciousness. Allison is not interested in the World 3 from the original division - "knowledge in objective sense." (6)
This Allisonian "extrinsic" localization of the episodic memory offers a solution for the problem why it was impossible to induce memories by electric stimulation of the brain cortex.
When small discharges are applied to the temporal and occipital lobe surfaces, namely, as it have been experimented by Penfield, Ojemann, and some other, the result was not a provocation of memories, but of simple or complex visual or auditory hallucinations. The patients were mostly reporting "hazy" voices (if a voice was attributed to a known person, the situation was still new), unrecognized melodies. jamais vu and deja vu phenomena, etc. (7) Penfield and Perot believed that they had found records of memory, but already Jaynes suggested those conclusions to be incorrect. (8) Allisonian concept imposes the idea of the brain as a mere instrument which only shapes the contents of memories coming from outside (Akashic Records). Like when a person, in her first contact with a clarinet, blows through it and gets a sound but not a melody, so the brain itself cannot reproduce memories by mere electric stimulations but only the formal elements (images and sounds) in a chaotic state (like deja vu and jamais vu, occurring by temporal-lobe-epilepsy seizures as well).
Another interesting aspect of the Allisonian idea is that here the subconscious is located "outside" the brain, and the brain itself could be identified as consciousness.
Our memory does not consist exclusively of the Objective Truth, that is, of the records reflecting the occurrings recorded in the same way by our surrounding (and therefore verifiable). Our memory should rather be considered as a set of a Subjective Truth, which can sometimes coincide with the Objective Truth, but sometimes "distort" it as well. The "distortion" of the Objective Truth is not conscious and aims always at self-protection. What hypnosis, for instance, reveals is not a "dis-distorted" Objective Truth, but precisely the Subjective Truth in all its "distortions." Thus it seems that hypnosis does not only release repressive and suppressive mechanisms, but also the conscious checking of what we could call " possibility," "probability," "contradiction," and "provability" of an utterance. (9) The neglecting of Subjective Truth is exactly the important defect of Allison's Essence-Memory concept. . Security Coding of the Akashic Records
The minimal level of security of traumatic memories is attached to those memories which are unpleasant to recall, but in which the Emotional Overlay does not include conflictual feelings, such as guilt and shame. [... I The medium level of security of traumatic memories is attached to those memories which would be unpleasant to recall, and in which the Emotional Overlay includes conflictual feelings, such as guilt and shame. The maximum level of security of traumatic memories is attached to those memories which are unpleasant to recall, and in which the Emotional Overlay is so horrible that remembering any of it will make the person catatonic and disabled for life. (10)
"Unpleasant" has always a negative emotional impact (fear / guilt / shame / anger). It is disputable why Allison chooses precisely "guilt" and "shame" which are less biologically emotional and much more shaped by the learned ethics. At any rate, the entire division (of the phenomena better known after their Freudian names - repression and suppression. respectively) should not be considered as a qualitative one, but as a more quantitative one. . The type of memory in the Akashic Records
In memories stored in the Akashic Records, only sequential information is noted, so that one can recall which event happened first, second, or third. Anything to do with WHEN any event happened must be stored in the brain, as time data cannot be attached to the files in the Akashic Records. Other memories that cannot be stored in the Akashic Records are those having to do with physical bodily functions. All neurological reflexes are managed by the Central Nervous System. And learned physical behavior, such as how to drive a car or ride a bicycle, must be stored in the brain, for similar reasons. (11)
Obviously, the only memory located in the Akashic Records is the episodic memory, while the encyclopedic memory and all kinds of implicit memories (procedural, reflexes, etc.) are stored in the brain. A problem immediately arises: if the brain itself is capable of creating encyclopedic-memory engrams, why the creation of episodic memory would have so different mechanism (explicantia non sunt multiplicanda sine necessitate)? If the Emotional Overlay is the distinguishing factor, then this is not correct, since it is well known that the data without any connection with personal experience can have a strong emotional impact (facilitating or aggravating learning and retrieval). . The interdependence of individual Akashic Records
If the memory involves family members or friends, the CIE [Celestial Intelligent Energy) will only authorize the clearance after a discussion with each of the Essences of the individuals involved (12).
If one accepts the Akashic-Records idea, one can accept also that the "memories reservoir" is mutual. Nevertheless, insisting upon the concordance of all the persons involved in the same event is exaggerated: is it not possible that only one person recalls an event which is under repression for another person? . The Essence vs. the Emotional Being
If the Essence is defined as a faculty, as the Intellectual Being, as energy, as an abstract category transferring the memorized material, then it should not be opposed to the Emotional-Being antipode: (13) emotions should be considered as neuro-vegetative and instinctive manifestations of stimulations of certain brain structures. Therefore, emotions are supposed to be on a lower level than the Essence. . The memories-deliver question
When the Essence decides to retrieve memory of' a traumatic episode, the Geographical Data will be sent first. If that is accepted by the person, the Essence will deliver some of the Emotional Overlay in the form of small puffs of feelings. These bits of emotion will be just enough to remind the person what she felt like at the time of the event, but not enough to unbalance her in the present situation. (14) Breuer and Freud would not agree with this: they were obtaining the best results with patients who were able to reproduce their memories together with an extensive affective impact. (I5) If the Essence senses that the therapist is interested in using the patient as a political pawn in a battle with authority figures, the Essence will withhold any information that would help with the therapist's planned revenge. (16) Since, at least in hypnosis, the repressed more or less does come from memory, it is question why now the Celestial Intelligent Energy would "betray" the interests of the individual. (Needless to mention the well known cases of the hypnosis abuse.)
If one would like to conclude these remarks on the Allisonian Essence-Memory concept, one should admit that the hypothesis does offer some new possibilities (hallucinations and deja vu), but containing numerous shortcomings and banalities (for instance, that Spiritual Professor-Teacher-Guardian hierarchy, reminding of the angel classes), has to pass through many corrections and re-shapings.
(1) Ralph B. Allison. "Essence Memory A Preliminary Hypothesis," Hypnos 23. no. 1 (1996): 6. (2) Ibid. (3) Cf. Ernest Lawrence Rossi and David B. Cheek. Mind-Body Therapy: Ideodynamic Healing in Hypnosis (New York: W. W. Norton and Company. 1988): Ernest Lawrence Rossi. The Psychobiology of Mind-Body Healing: New Concepts of Therapeutic Hypnosis, New York: W. W. Norton and Company. 1986): Ernest Lawrence Rossi, "New Theories of Healing and Hypnosis: The Emergence of Mind-Gene Communication." European Journal of Clinical Hypnosis 3 (1994): 4-17: etc. (4) Allison, Hypnos, 8. (5) Ibid. (6) John C. Eccles, The Human Psyche: The Gifford Lectures, University of Edinburgh 1978-1979 (London / New York: Routledge, 1992),.167. (7) Cf. Wilder Penfield and Phanor Perot, "The Brain's Record of Auditory and Visual Experience: A Final Summary and Discussion," Brain 86 (1963): 595-702. (8) Julian Jaynes, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (London: Penguin Books, 1993), 112. (9) Cf. the findings by Michael R. Nash. "Hypnosis as a Window on Regression. " Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic 52 (1988): 383-403. (10) Allison, Hypnos, 9. (11) Ibid., I0. (12) Ibid. (13) Ralph B. Allison. "Essence Memory," Paper presented at the 7th European Congress of Hypnosis Eurohypnosis '96, Budapest, Hungary, August 1 7-23, 1996. (14) Allison. Hypnos, 12. (15) Cf. Affektloses Erinnern ist fast immer vllig wirkungslos; der psychische Process, der ursprunglich abgelaufen war, muss so lebhaft als mglich wiederholt, in statum nascendigebracht und dann "ausgesprochen" werden. Joseph Breuer and Sigmund Freud. "Uber den psychischen Mechanismus hysterischen Phnomene (Vorlaufige Mitteilung)" in Joseph Breuer and Siegmund Freud.
Studien ber Hysterie (Frankfurt: Fischer, 1987), 30. (16) Allison, Hypnos, 12
Commentary on Dr. Muzur
Ralph B. Allison. M.D.
Dr. Muzur's commentary on my paper on Essence Memory is appreciated, since. only by such feedback can I know the degree of understanding achieved in presenting novel findings. The subject of memory is complex. and the proven data about the "neurological memory system" is being expanded daily in laboratories around the world. Now I come along and describe a parallel processing "Essence memory system," which only humans use, a system which is completely interactive with the "neurological memory system." A fuller description is in a book in progress. and the article in Hypnos was a brief extract of one chapter. I myself am constantly learning more about this system.
Dr. Muzur is concerned about some of the terms used. This is of concern as I wish accurate understanding by readers. Instead of "Essence Memory," I will now use "Essence Memory System," which can process many "kinds" of memories. I picked "Geographical Data" as my favourite term for the facts of narrative memory, since, in therapy, I first must orient myself as to where the patients see themselves. Then I need to know how they feel about what is going on, the "Emotional Overlay" (or Qualia, a term invented by philosophers). The "when" factor is "at my first birthday party" or "before my parents divorced," not calendar time. The "why" factor is meant to be an explanation of how the event happened to come about, not "Why did it happen to me?". I will use "how" in place of "why" to avoid this confusion of the two meanings of the word "why." To avoid these semantic confusions. the Essences and the CIE have their own extensive language, which is similar to Ancient Sanskrit.
Regarding Akashic Records. I have been told by my sources, who reside in Thoughtspace, that it is incorrect to think of their "universe" as some other physical universe existing parallel to our known universe. Thoughtspace consists only of energy, and intelligent energy at that. It co-exists with the physical universe and is completely interactive with it. It does not exist "somewhere up there above the clouds." It is right here inside of you and me and all around us.
To accept that makes me a "dualist interactionist, as were Popper and Eccles (Popper & Eccles, The Self and its Brain, Berlin, Springer-Verlag, 1977). Their World I is my "Physicalspace." Their World 2 is my "Thoughtspace." Their World 3 is one portion of my "Akashic Records in Thoughtspace." I accept their opinion that the interface between World I and World 2 is the cortex of the dominant hemisphere of the human brain, at least in regard to memories.
Recall of memories from Akashic Records in Thoughtspace to the brain as a conscious memory is determined by the person's Essence on a case-by-case basis. There are no rules for researchers to discover which will hold true for anyone else.
The individual's Essence is concerned only about the welfare of its human charge and will deliver the amount and type of memory it knows the individual can handle. If more than that individual can handle is recalled, that will be for a teaching purpose for that individual and their inept therapist.
Dr. Muzur's concluding comments that my paper contains "numerous shortcomings and banalities (for instance, that Spiritual Professor-Teacher-Guardian hierarchy, reminding of the angel classes)" indicates that he needs to read the last chapter of the work in progress which outlines the duties and responsibilities of these three types of CIE. In my interviews with these CIE, they are clear that there are no vertical hierarchies in Thoughtspace. Hierarchies only exist in Physicalspace. No CIE is better than any other CIE. All have a specific area of responsibility and adequate power to accomplish their respective missions. While the CIE have been called angels ("messengers") by theologians. the CIE I interviewed consider that label much too limiting and prefer to be called