The human brain and psyche are complex self-regulating systems (CG.Jung). They are a macroscopic collection of microscopic subsystems, an intricate machine, of sorts. Consider complex systems as being composed of millions of tiny subsystems, for example, the cells in our body, the molecules in an object, and the citizens of a country. While it is highly likely that both the brain and psyche possess global properties, such as memory and consciousness each subsystem is able to act randomly while the overall system is in equilibrium, and remains relatively predictable (Mainzer, 1994).
‘Chaos theory’ studies the behavior of dynamical systems. One of the findings of Chaos Theory is that complex systems that seem to be in equilibrium are not really at equilibrium. Tiny variations present within the macrocosm can send the system into chaos at any time. Complex systems, and especially living systems, like the brain and psyche, require more than conditions of equilibrium to maintain self-organization or growth (Cohen & Stewart, 1994; Gleick, 1987; Kellert, 1993; Prigogine & Stengers, 1984).
One finding of Chaos Theory is ‘Bifurcation Theory’. Bifurcation being a crisis point in the life of a system, in which the future of that system becomes uncertain. It is like a fork in the time sequence of a system, in which a system can take two possible paths, one or both leading to chaos. All dynamic systems go through bifurcations, most of which are irreversible (Cohen & Stewart, 1994; Gleick, 1987; Kellert, 1993; Peitgen, Jürgens & Saupe, 1992; Prigogine & Stengers, 1984).
Entropy is a measure of chaos (Nicolis & Prigogine, 1989). The second law of thermodynamics suggests that there that can be no perpetual motion machine as all systems wear down, energy is lost and cannot be totally recovered by a system. We can also consider entropy to be a measure of internal randomness, or molecular chaos. As entropy increases, chaos increases (Angrist & Hepler, 1967; Atkins, 1984). All too much science for your brain? Well, the FACT is these theories began to make a little sense to me after listening to this song:
The heart-beat of a drum and the singers’ call to a Soldier somehow, through the complex machinations of my brain and psyche, became an energy input. The result: emotional crisis by the friction it brought to my psyche, as memory and consciousness came together to remind me that one day, in the late summer, of 1997, by a random act, previously inconceivable by me, the level of entrophy increased within another subsystem of my body – my womb, and a son, my son, died. The memory of his death is made stronger still by the FACT that he died by my own hands. I have lived these many years with the appearance of equilibrium, while, within the microcosm of my systems, the loss of energy from terminating the pregnancy of my son, was increasing the entrophy within to produce what seemed an 'irreversible' state of grief.
FACT: Ending the life of a human fetus is a death that never dies, because those who commit this act go on living that death perpetually in the memory and consciousness (and subconscious) of the brain and psyche. Following the abortion, my life was truly a season of bifurcation for me. I was suicidal, depressed and plain tired of struggle after struggle, only compacted by the death of my beloved grandmother...Realizing, I needed more than the equilibrium of coming to a place of 'emotional rest' about what I had done to my son, I chose one of the forks in the road of life, and I came to Christ and continued to grow towards a greater equity of Spirit --- Irreversibility Theory be damned! Christ takes the sting out of death:
Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed - in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
But though I have received the forgiveness of God, REALITY FACT: my brain and psyche, as evidenced from the trigger from the song above, still work together to remind me, of the murder I committed upon another Soul. The difference, now, in the law and science of my brain and psyche - knowing who Christ is has allowed me not to be moved so extremely that all subsystems within me shut down. I remember my son, yes, with regret and grief, but I remember the death of Christ that brings a resurrection LIFE. Through Christ I defy the second law of thermodynamics - my psyche is a "perpetual motion machine". My energy for life shall not be depleted while Christ remains integrated into all subsystems of my being. May my son's death never die, but live forevermore in me, as a memorial of his LIFE, and the LIFE I found through Christ because of his death...for I shall not be moved by past sins. R.I.P ‘iShaaka Zulu’.
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be (Psalm 139:13-16).
- In the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, the United States Supreme Court ruled that women, in consultation with their physician, have a constitutionally protected right to have an abortion in the early stages of pregnancy—that is, before viability—free from government interference.In 1992, the Court reaffirmed the right to abortion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
- Nearly half of pregnancies among American women are unintended, and four in 10 of these are terminated by abortion. Twenty-two percent of all pregnancies (excluding miscarriages) end in abortion.
- In September 2000, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved mifepristone to be marketed in the United States as an alternative to surgical abortion. In 2008, 59% of abortion providers, or 1,066 facilities, provided one or more early medication abortions.
- Forty percent of pregnancies among white women, 69% among blacks and 54% among Hispanics are unintended. In 2008, 1.21 million abortions were performed.From 1973 through 2008, nearly 50 million legal abortions occurred.
- Each year, two percent of women aged 15-44 have an abortion; half have had at least one previous abortion. At least half of American women will experience an unintended pregnancy by age 45, and, at current rates, about one-third will have had an abortion.
References:
*Abortion statistics: http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html
· Jung, C. G. (1973). On the nature of the psyche. Hull, R. F. C. (Trans). from Bollingen Series XX. The Collected Works of C.G. Jung. 8. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. First published in 1960.
· Mainzer, K. (1994). Thinking in complexity: The complex dynamics of matter, mind, and mankind. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
· Cohen, J. and Stewart, I. (1994). The collapse of chaos: Discovering simplicity in a complex world. New York: Viking.
· Gleick, J. (1987). Chaos: Making a new science. New York: Penguin.
· Kellert, S. H. (1993). In the wake of chaos: Unpredictable order in dynamical systems. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
· Prigogine, I. and Stengers, I. (1984). Order out of chaos: Man's new dialogue with nature. Toronto: Bantam.
· Nicolis G. and Prigogine, I. (1989). Exploring complexity: An introduction. New York: W. H. Freeman.
· Angrist, S. W. and Hepler, L. G. (1967). Order and chaos: Laws of energy and entropy. New York: Basic Books.
· Atkins, P. W. (1984). The second law. New York: Scientific American.
