賽門•劉易斯: 不要把知覺性當理所當然的事
Simon Lewis: Don't take consciousness for granted
經過一次災難性的車禍，讓他處於昏迷狀態，西蒙•劉易斯找到了超越所有恢復身體和精神期望的途徑。在INK會議他詳述這個不平凡的故事如何引導他去關注所有對知覺性的威脅，以及如何克服它們。
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在我的生命裡曾經有一段時間， 一切似乎都很完美。 我到處哪裡，都覺得像在家裡般舒服。我遇見每個人， 我都覺得我跟他們認識了很久。 而我想與大家分享的是我如何來達到那個狀況， 以及從我離開那個狀況之後學到什麼。
這就是開始。 它提出了一個存在性的問題， 那就是，如果我當時是有完整的連接系統和全意識， 為什麼在照片看不到我， 以及這是什麼時間和地點？ 這是美國加利福尼亞州的洛杉磯，我居住的地方。 這是一張警方的照片。那實際上是我的車。 我們距離洛杉磯的最大的醫院之一不到一英里， 那家醫院稱為雪松•西奈半島醫療中心。 而情況是，一輛汽車載滿剛下班 在回家路上的醫護人員 遇上這事故後的汽車殘骸， 他們已經通知警方， 車內沒有任何倖存者，那司機已經死了，那我已死了。 而警方正在等待消防局的人到達 來分割車身 來搬出司機的屍體。 而當他們這樣做後，他們在玻璃的後面， 他們發現我 -- 我的頭骨粉碎，我的鎖骨粉碎，除了我的兩個肋骨， 骨盆和我的雙臂。 他們都被壓碎，但我仍有脈搏。 他們讓我進入那附近的醫院， 雪松•西奈半島醫療中心, 因為我的內部出血，那天晚上我接受了 45個單位的血液 --這意味著完全替換我所有的血液 -- 他們才能夠止住血流。 他們將我放入於生命維持系統， 而我又嚴重中風， 而且我的大腦陷入昏迷。
現在, 昏迷的測量指數， 其規模從15分至到3分。 15分是一種溫和的昏迷。3分是最深層的。如果你看，你會知道只有一個方法可以成為3分。 基本上就是從外表來看 沒有任何生命跡象。 我花了一個多月處於格拉斯哥昏迷指數表3分的狀態， 在這最深層的昏迷裡面， 在我的生死在輪輞之間， 我當時體驗了內部層次 完整的連接和全意識
從我的家人從外面看， 他們正在試圖找出 是另一種的生存問題， 也就是，從他們能將看得到、處於昏睡狀態的的大腦 到一個真正的大腦之間， 我們能夠做到多少程度的連結？ 我簡單地定義它為 當時還在殘存於我頭部裡的 大腦功能。 現在, 從一個更廣泛的角度來看， 我要你想像你是一個外來的外星人 從外太空看地球， 而你最喜歡的太空電視頻道是 是「地球頻道」， 你最喜歡的是有關人類的節目。 而我之所以認為你會對這個那麼有興趣， 是因為意識自覺是如此的有趣， 它是如此變幻莫測， 如此脆弱。
這就是我們如何開始的。 我們開始於埃塞俄比亞的阿瓦什河谷中。 節目開始有著巨大的特殊效果， 是因為有災難性的氣候變化 -- 這聽起來有點有趣，因為這變化與今天可並行對比。 由於地球上的傾斜軸 和那些災難性的氣候變化， 我們必須弄清楚如何找到更好的食物， 我們必須學習 -- 當時出現露西(南方古猿)，這就是我們大家的起源 -- 我們必須學會如何破開動物骨骼， 使用工具來做到以食用其骨髓， 來發展我們的大腦。 因此，實際上我們對這全球威脅的反應 增長了我們的意識知覺。
現在你繼續看著 意識知覺發展到這地步， 這裡在印度，中央邦， 擁有兩個現今最古老的岩畫之一。 這是一個用石頭工具、花了40至50,000次打擊打造出來的吸盤， 而且它是在這個星球上第一個 現今已知的表達藝術。 而今天它之所以能將我們與意識做連結的原因是 直至今日， 我們身為一個嬰孩時，繪畫出的第一個形狀 仍然是個圓形。 然後接下來我們就會在圓心中畫一點。 我們創造一隻眼 -- 而這隻眼經過我們歷史有所進化。 有埃及神賀拉斯， 祂象徵著繁榮、智慧和健康。 而且以這種方式傳承至現在 的美元紙鈔， 上面有普羅維登斯神的眼睛。
因此，從太空看著這一切， 你覺得我們會明白， 在這藍星球最寶貴的資源 是我們的意識知覺。 因為這是我們一開始便繪製的東西， 我們便會將它的圖像環繞着自己， 它可能是在這個星球上最常見的圖像。 但我們沒有這樣做。我們把意識知覺性視為理所當然的事。 雖然我在洛杉磯製片的時候，我從來沒有花一秒鐘想過它。 直到它從我身上被剝奪走之前，我從來沒有想過這個問題。 我從這事件和 我的復原中所學到的是 在這個星球上，意識知覺性是受到以前從來沒有受到的威脅。 這只是一些例子。
而我之所以如此榮幸能 在印度這裡演講 是因為印度在世界裡不幸地是 頭部受傷的首要國都。統計數字令人傷心。 沒有任何事情能比嚴重腦部創傷 在實際大腦及潛在大腦之間造成更大的落差。 每個受傷意味著高達十年的康復時間， 除非有所變化, 否則印度是正在積累需要 幾千年的康復時間。 在美國每20秒 會發生一次受傷 -- 這即是每年150萬次 -- 每40秒發生一次中風， 每70秒會有人患有阿茲海默病 (老年痴呆症)。 這些都代表着潛在大腦 和實際大腦之間的落差。
如果你看看整個地球, 這裡還有一些其他類別。 世界衛生組織告訴我們， 抑鬱症是地球上第一名的殘疾 就患有疾病的年歲數而言。 我們發現從15至44的年齡組別 排名第二的殘疾來源是抑鬱症。 我們的孩子現時以驚人的速度 變得抑鬱。 在我恢復過程的期間中 我發現青少第三大死亡原因之一 是自殺。 如果你看看些其他項目便是腦震盪。 急診室接診的半數青少年是由於腦震盪。 如果我談談偏頭痛， 40％的人口 患有發作性頭痛。 15％患有的偏頭痛 令他們受苦好幾天。
這所有一切是會導致對電腦成癮。 說到這點, 我們最常做的事， 是使用數位設備。 每一位青少年平均每個月 發送3,300則短訊。 我們談論的是當我們可能面臨 下一個巨大災難性的氣候變化時, 整個社會正在衰退到 抑鬱症和人際關係疏離。 那麼你想想，看着人類的節目， 要面對和解決 的災難性氣候的轉變， 我們是會發展我們的意識? 還是我們將繼續撤退？
而這可能導致你 會一天看一集 雪松•西奈醫學中心 以及深思潛在大腦和實際大腦之間的差異。 這是MRI跟踪156渠道的信息 的一個密集陣腦電圖 。 這不是我在雪松醫學中心的腦電圖;這是你昨晚和今晚的腦電圖。 這是我們每晚在腦海裡的活動 消化白天的一切 和準備從在睡著的潛在大腦 連接至到當我們第二天早上醒來的實際知覺大腦。 這就是我4個月後 從醫院回來的樣子。 你可以看到在我頭骨的馬蹄形狀 就是他們為了搶救我生命 需要做的大腦手術的部位。 但如果你看看意識的眼睛，你可以看到那單一隻眼睛， 我在向下看， 但讓我告訴你我當時的感受。 我沒有感到空虛，我在同時感覺到所有一切。 我感到空和滿，冷和熱， 欣快和鬱悶。 因為大腦是世界上第一個 全功能的量子電腦， 它可以同一時間佔用多個狀態。 並由於我的大腦所有內部監管受損， 我在同時感覺到一切。
但讓我們旋轉，從正面看我。 這是當我 已經被從醫療保健系統移除之後的時候。 看看那雙眼睛。我不能集中我那些的眼睛。 我不能跟着書的一行文字。 但系統已將我釋放出來， 因為，我的家人開始發現， 醫療保健系統裡 是沒有「長期」的概念。 神經損傷，10年的復健歷程， 需要以一個長期的角度來看待。
但讓我們一起來從我眼睛的後來來看， 這是一個伽瑪射線掃描圖片， 使用伽瑪輻射 到在大腦功能的三維地圖。 要看到三維需要一個實驗室， 但在二維我認為你都可以看到 一個正常頭腦有著 美麗和發亮的對稱性。 這是我的大腦。 這便是我的大腦右側超過三分之一 被中風破壞的結果。 所以我的家人， 在因為我們發現被醫療制度向前推進， 不得不設法尋找解決辦法和答案。 而在這個過程 -- 它花了很多年 -- 一個醫生說我的恢復，尤其是因為頭部受傷的地步,我進步的程度 是奇蹟。 而這時候我正開始寫一本書， 因為我不認為這是奇蹟。 我當然認為有奇蹟的元素， 但我也想到在我們的社會 沒有理由我們為一個大流行的問題 要奮力搜索才能找到答案。
因此從我恢復的這個經驗， 我想從四個特別層面來分享 -- 我稱它們為意識的四個C -- 它們幫助我的潛在大腦都每都增長 並發展至我每天用到的實際大腦。 第一個C是認知訓練。 跟那些被砸碎的車子玻璃不同的是， 大腦的可塑性 意味著一種治療訓練大腦的可能性， 使你總能夠恢復並提高你意識和自覺性的水平。 可塑性是指為我們總是可以對理智有 總有希望 -- 希望我們能重建該功能。 的確，頭腦本身可以重新定義， 這早在70年代兩位稱為哈根和席爾瓦的專家 已證明了。 全球的觀點是 在學校高達 30％的兒童 是有無法自我糾正的 學習能力不足，但透過適當的治療, 便可將他們進行篩選、發現和矯正， 以避免他們在學業上失敗。 但我發現的是幾乎找不到任何人 能提供這治療或護理。
以下是我的神經心理學家提供給我的資料， 假若當我找到有人可以應用它。 我不是醫生，所以我不會談論各種子測試。 讓我們只談全面的智商(I.Q.)。 全面的智商是精神的處理 -- 你可以如何快速取得資料， 保留和檢索它 -- 這對於今天生活中的成功是很重要的。 而你可以看到在這裡有三欄。 不可測試的 -- 這是當我在我昏迷中。 然後我慢慢地恢復到可以得79分的地步, 僅僅是低於平均水平。 在醫療健保系統中，如果你到達平均，就大功告成了。 那是我離開系統出院時的水平。 平均I.Q.究竟意味著什麼？ 這即是，當我要用兩個半小時來完成 這裡任何人可在50分鐘內 完成的測試, 我便可能得到F。 這是一個非常，非常低的水平， 便可以被醫療系統踢出來。 接著，我接受了認知訓練。 讓我告訴你當我做了一段時間的認知訓練,右邊欄發生了什麼事情。 這是不應該發生的。 I.Q.應該是在八歲 便穩定和固定不變。
現在, 全國醫學協會雜誌 給了我的回憶錄一個完整的臨床審查， 這是非常罕見的。 我不是醫生。我沒有任何醫學背景。 但當他們評審了完整回憶錄後, 他們評論說, 認為在書中 有着很重要的證據和信息。 但他們問了一個問題：「這是否可以被複製？」 這是一個合理的的問題，因為我的回憶錄只是對我如何有用的解決方案。
答案是可以的，而且這是第一次， 我很高興能夠分享兩個例子。 以下的例子是測試候選人在7歲及11歲 經歷的認知培訓。 而這裡是另一人，在高中和大學。 而此人是特別有趣的。 我不會在這裡交待分測驗中的細密數據， 但是他們仍然有神經系統的問題。 那人可以被認定 為有學習障礙。 但他們上了大學, 而且駐住宿舍， 並過著具有豐富機會的生活。
第二方面： 我仍然有着劇烈的偏頭痛。 這裡兩個因素我了解到， 百分之九十的頭部和頸部疼痛 是由於肌肉與骨骼的不平衡。 該頭顱下頜骨系統是至關重要的。 當我經歷它和發現解決方案， 這便是牙齒和顳下頜的關節。 高達30％的人口有着 由於下巴的毛病，疾病或功能障礙， 而影響整個身體。 我很幸運找到一個牙醫, 他用了你會即將看到的 整個宇宙的技術， 來重新把我的下巴定位, 頭痛的麻煩解決了， 但我的牙齒便不在正確的位置。 然後，他把我的下巴固定在正確的位置， 並把我的牙齒矯正到正確的排列。 所以，我的牙齒居然固定我的下巴在正確的位置。 這影響了我整個身體。
如果這聽起來像一個非常奇怪 和相當大膽的聲明-- 下顎如何影響整個身體？ -- 讓我向你簡單地指出， 如果我叫你明天 把一粒沙子放在你牙齒之間 然後去悠閒漫步， 你會可以走多遠 而不得不移除牙齒之間的沙粒？ 這微小的偏差。 請記得，牙齒並沒有神經。 這就是為什麼同樣的之間和前後， 很難看出差別。 現在試試把幾粒沙子放在你牙齒之間， 看看你有什麼差別。我仍然有偏頭痛。
接下來的問題便解決了， 如果頭部和頸部疼痛90％ 是失衡造成的， 其他10％便主要是-- 若你劃開動脈瘤，腦腫瘤 和激素的問題-- 便是循環。 想像一下，血液流經身體 -- 有人在加州大學洛杉磯分校醫療中心告訴我 -- 它是一個密封的系統。 有一個血液隨着它流過的大管道。 而大管道周圍是從血液 從血液裡吸取養分。 基本上就是這樣。 如果在密封系統的軟管管道上按着， 別的地方便凸起。 如果那凸起的地方 是在你的身體裡面最大的神經，你的大腦， 你便會有血管偏頭痛。 這痛苦的程度, 只有其他人患血管性偏頭痛會知道。 使用這種技術， 這是在三維空間的映射。 這是磁力共振成像, 磁力共振血管攝影, MRV, 一個有體積的磁力共振成像。 使用這種技術，在加州大學洛杉磯分校醫學中心的專家們 能夠找出 該軟管管道在何處被壓縮。 一名血管外科醫生取出我身體兩側的大部分[不清楚]。 而在接下來的幾個月甚至幾年， 我開始感受到了生活本身的神經重返回來。
「溝通」是下一個C。這是至關重要的。 所有的意識是關於溝通。 在這裡，非常幸運， 我父親的一個的客戶 有一個丈夫曾在 阿爾弗雷德曼恩基金會的科學研究所工作。 阿爾弗雷•德曼恩是一個優異的物理學家和創新家 著迷於意識與彌合的差距， 從恢復失聰的聽力，恢復失明的視力 到恢復癱瘓至運動。 而我今天只是想給你舉個 從癱瘓至運動的例子。 我從南加利福尼亞州帶來了， FM設備。 這是用手拿着。 它的重量不到一克。 因此，兩個植入體內的設備的重量會不到一角錢。 五個的重量仍會不到 一盧比硬幣。
它在身體哪裡去？ 它進行了模擬和測試, 可在體內無腐蝕 超過80年。 因此它進入便留下來。這是植入的位置。 他們正在努力發展這個概念，-- 他們有試驗性的原型-- 便是我們置它於的整個身體中 需要的的運動關節。 主要單位將會進入大腦內部。 一個FM裝置在大腦的皮層，運動皮質 會向相關的肌肉的運動關節 發出立即的信號， 這樣, 如果他已經失去了自己手臂的控制, 他就能在即時候移動手臂。 而其他FM裝置植入指尖， 接觸一個表面時， 便會將消息發送回知覺的大腦皮質， 讓人感覺觸覺。 這是科幻小說？不是。 因為我正穿着第一個應用這技術的裝置。 我沒有控制我左腳的能力。 一個無線電裝置控制着我每走一的步。 每次我起步都是感應器提起我的腳。
最後，我想分享 這對我那麼重要， 而且改變我生活的方向的個人理由。 在我昏迷中，在我感覺其中一個存在着 一個保護者。 當我從昏迷中醒來，我認出我的家人， 但我不記得自己的過去。 漸漸地，我想起了保護者是我的妻子。 而我通過被用線關閉着的破顎, 小聲竊竊地告訴夜班護士 這個好消息。 而第二天早上，我母親解釋， 我並不是一直在這個房間、這張這床上， 我曾經製作電影和電視， 直到事故, 而且，沒錯，我是已婚的， 但馬西在意外當下就死亡了。 而在我昏迷期間， 她已在她的家鄉鳳凰城安息。 在之後的這些黑暗的幾年中，我不得不思考我還剩下些什麼， 因為今天對我一切特別的東西已經是消逝了。 而當我發現這些意識的威脅 以及它們是如何包圍整個世界 和越來越多人每天的生活， 我發現了什麼真正依然存在。 我相信我們能夠克服到對我們意識的威脅， 我們這個人類節目 可以在未來千年繼續放映。 我相信，我們都可以排除萬難不斷發光。
你知道嗎， 當我聽到西蒙 -- 請坐下，我只是想和他說一會兒話-- 當我讀了他的書，我去了洛杉磯與他會面。 當我正坐在這家餐廳裡， 等待一個人前來， 我想, 顯然他會有些不便... 我在腦海不知道我會看見是什麼情況。 而他正在走動。 我沒想到我要見的人 便是他。 然後我們會面，我們聯天， 而我在想「他不像是 一個空框框無血無肉的人」。 然後我很驚訝 科學技術在你身上 發揮的恢復作用。 在外面的書店 我們有他的書。 最令我驚訝的事情 是書中那些詳盡的細節， 他記下了 去過的每家醫院， 經歷的每一個療程， 每次差一點的結果, 和他如何偶然發現創新的辦法。 所以我覺大家可能會 錯過這一個細節。 告訴大家一點關於你在腿上穿了什麼。
西蒙•劉易斯：我在對演說計時的時候 便知道不會有時間讓我談論這個-- 就在於此。這便是控制裝置。 這個控制記錄了我每一步, 哦，已經五，六年了。 如果我這樣做，麥克風是可能將收不到音。 這個小喳喳聲接著再兩個小喳喳聲便是開啟了裝置。 當我再按一次，它會喳喳聲三下， 這將意味著它已準備好了,可以使用。 這是我的朋友。我每晚把它充電。 它很好用，實在很有用。 因為我沒有時間, 而且我很想補充，
它是做什麼呢？其實，我會在這裡告訴你。 在這裡，如果攝影鏡頭可以帶到的話， 這是一個小天線。 我腳跟的下面有一個傳感器， 它測檢到我的腳離開地面 -- 所謂腳跟的抬起。 這東西總是閃爍着，我放它出來，你也許能看到它。 這總是閃爍的東西。它發送實時的信號。 如果你走得快，即是如果我走得快， 它測檢到所謂的時間間隔， 即是每腳跟抬起的間隔。 它便加速刺激的數量和水平。 他們其他的工作 -- 我沒有時間在這裡談 -- 便是他們已經幫助數千位的失聰人士 成功恢復聽覺。
我可以告訴你這個故事：這本來是一個被遺棄的技術， 但阿爾弗雷德•曼恩會見了將要退休的醫生， [辛德勒博士。] 而他將要退休 -- 所有的技術是將會被丟失， 因為沒一個醫學製造商願意將它採取， 因為它是一個小問題。 但世界上有數百萬的失聰人士， 而現在人工耳蝸給予數千位失聰人士聽覺能力。 它實在有用。 而他們其他的努力正是在開發人工視網膜給予失明人士。 而這個，這個是可植入的科技世代。 因為我在演說並沒有談到的是 這實際上是骨骼外。我要澄清。 由於第一代是骨骼外置， 它纏着腿， 纏着受影響的肢體周圍。 我必須告訴你，他們是驚人的 -- 在該建築物裡有一百個人在工作-- 工程師，科學家 和其他團隊成員 -- 所有的時間在工作。
阿爾弗雷德•曼恩建立了這個基金會， 以推進這一研究， 因為他看到， 沒有一個創投會投資這種研究。 目標群眾實在太小了。 你會想說，世界上有大量癱瘓的人， 但群眾數目太小了，而且要大量的研究，所花費的時間， FDA (美國食品藥物監督管理局) 的許可， 投資回報期實在太長了 讓創投人士沒有興趣。 因此，他認為有需要便實行了。 他是一個非常，非常了不起的人。 他研發了很多非常尖端的科學技術。
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There was a time in my life when everything seemed perfect. Everywhere I went, I felt at home. Everyone I met, I felt I knew them for as long as I could remember. And I want to share with you how I came to that place and what I've learned since I left it.
This is where it began. And it raises an existential question, which is, if I'm having this experience of complete connection and full consciousness, why am I not visible in the photograph, and where is this time and place? This is Los Angeles, California, where I live. This is a police photo. That's actually my car. We're less than a mile from one of the largest hospitals in Los Angeles, called Cedars-Sinai. And the situation is that a car full of paramedics on their way home from the hospital after work have run across the wreckage, and they've advised the police that there were no survivors inside the car, that the driver's dead, that I'm dead. And the police are waiting for the fire department to arriveto cut apart the vehicle to extract the body of the driver. And when they do, they find that behind the glass, they find me. And my skull's crushed and my collar bone is crushed; all but two of my ribs, my pelvis and both arms -- they're all crushed, but there is still a pulse.And they get me to that nearby hospital, Cedars-Sinai, where that night I receive, because of my internal bleeding, 45 units of blood -- which means full replacements of all the blood in me -- before they're able to staunch the flow. I'm put on full life support, and I have a massive stroke, and my brain drops into a coma.
Now comas are measured on a scale from 15 down to three. Fifteen is a mild coma. Three is the deepest. And if you look, you'll see that there's only one way you can score three. It's essentially there's no sign of life from outside at all. I spent more than a month in a Glasgow Coma Scale three, and it is inside that deepest level of coma, on the rim between my life and my death, that I'm experiencing the full connection and full consciousness of inner space.
From my family looking in from outside, what they're trying to figure out is a different kind of existential question, which is, how far is it going to be possible to bridge from the comatose potential mind that they're looking at to an actual mind, which I define simply as the functioning of the brain that is remaining inside my head. Now to put this into a broader context, I want you to imagine that you are an eternal alien watching the Earth from outer space, and your favorite show on intergalactic satellite television is the Earth channel, and your favorite show is the Human Show. And the reason I think it would be so interesting to you is because consciousness is so interesting. It's so unpredictable and so fragile.
And this is how we began. We all began in the Awash Valley in Ethiopia. The show began with tremendous special effects, because there were catastrophic climate shifts -- which sort of sounds interesting as a parallel to today. Because of the Earth tilting on its axisand those catastrophic climate shifts, we had to figure out how to find better food, and we had to learn -- there's Lucy; that's how we all began -- we had to learn how to crack open animal bones, use tools to do that, to feed on the marrow, to grow our brains more. So we actually grew our consciousness in response to this global threat.
Now you also continue to watch as consciousness evolved to the point that here in India, in Madhya Pradesh, there's one of the two oldest known pieces of rock art found. It's a cupule that took 40 to 50,000 blows with a stone tool to create, and it's the first known expression of art on the planet. And the reason it connects us with consciousness todayis that all of us still today, the very first shape we draw as a child is a circle. And then the next thing we do is we put a dot in the center of the circle. We create an eye -- and the eye that evolves through all of our history. There's the Egyptian god Horus, which symbolizes prosperity, wisdom and health. And that comes down right way to the present with the dollar bill in the United States, which has on it an eye of providence.
So watching all of this show from outer space, you think we get it, we understand that the most precious resource on the blue planet is our consciousness. Because it's the first thing we draw; we surround ourselves with images of it; it's probably the most common image on the planet. But we don't. We take our consciousness for granted. While I was producing in Los Angeles, I never thought about it for a second. Until it was stripped from me, I never thought about it. And what I've learned since that event and during my recoveryis that consciousness is under threat on this planet in ways it's never been under threat before. These are just some examples.
And the reason I'm so honored to be here to talk today in India is because India has the sad distinction of being the head injury capital of the world. That statistic is so sad. There is no more drastic and sudden gap created between potential and actual mind than a severe head injury. Each one can entail up to a decade of rehabilitation, which means that India, unless something changes, is accumulating a need for millennia of rehabilitation.What you find in the United States is an injury every 20 seconds -- that's one and a half million every year -- stroke every 40 seconds, Alzheimer's disease, every 70 seconds somebody succumbs to that. All of these represent gaps between potential mind and actual mind.
And here are some of the other categories, if you look at the whole planet. The World Health Organization tells us that depression is the number one disease on Earth in terms of years lived with disability. We find that the number two source of disability is depression in the age group of 15 to 44. Our children are becoming depressed at an alarming rate. I discovered during my recovery the third leading cause of death amongst teenagers is suicide. If you look at some of these other items -- concussions. Half of E.R. admissions from adolescents are for concussions. If I talk about migraine, 40 percent of the population suffer episodic headaches. Fifteen percent suffer migraines that wipe them out for days on end.
All of this is leading -- computer addiction, just to cover that: the most frequent thing we dois use digital devices. The average teenager sends 3,300 texts every [month]. We're talking about a society that is retreating into depression and disassociation when we are potentially confronting the next great catastrophic climate shift. So what you'd be wondering, watching the Human Show, is are we going to confront and address the catastrophic climate shift that may be heading our way by growing our consciousness, or are we going to continue to retreat?
And that then might lead you to watch an episode one day of Cedars-Sinai medical centerand a consideration of the difference between potential mind and actual mind. This is a dense array EEG MRI tracking 156 channels of information. It's not my EEG at Cedars; it's your EEG tonight and last night. It's the what our minds do every night to digest the dayand to prepare to bridge from the potential mind when we're asleep to the actual mind when we awaken the following morning. This is how I was when I returned from the hospital after nearly four months. The horseshoe shape you can see on my skull is where they operated and went inside my brain to do the surgeries they needed to do to rescue my life. But if you look into the eye of consciousness, that single eye you can see, I'm looking down, but let me tell you how I felt at that point. I didn't feel empty; I felt everything simultaneously. I felt empty and full, hot and cold, euphoric and depressed because the brain is the world's first fully functional quantum computer; it can occupy multiple states at the same time. And with all the internal regulators of my brain damaged, I felt everything simultaneously.
But let's swivel around and look at me frontally. This is now flash-forward to the point in time where I've been discharged by the health system. Look into those eyes. I'm not able to focus those eyes. I'm not able to follow a line of text in a book. But the system has moved me on because, as my family started to discover, there is no long-term concept in the health care system. Neurological damage, 10 years of rehab, requires a long-term perspective.
But let's take a look behind my eyes. This is a gamma radiation spec scan that uses gamma radiation to map three-dimensional function within the brain. It requires a laboratory to see it in three dimension, but in two dimensions I think you can see the beautiful symmetry and illumination of a normal mind at work. Here's my brain. That is the consequence of more than a third of the right side of my brain being destroyed by the stroke. So my family, as we moved forward and discovered that the health care system had moved us by, had to try to find solutions and answers. And during that process -- it took many years -- one of the doctors said that my recovery, my degree of advance, since the amount of head injury I'd suffered, was miraculous. And that was when I started to write a book, because I didn't think it was miraculous. I thought there were miraculous elements, but I also didn't think it was right that one should have to struggle and search for answers when this is a pandemic within our society.
So from this experience of my recovery, I want to share four particular aspects -- I call them the four C's of consciousness -- that helped me grow my potential mind back towards the actual mind that I work with every day. The first C is cognitive training. Unlike the smashed glass of my car, plasticity of the brain means that there was always a possibility, with treatment, to train the brain so that you can regain and raise your level of awareness and consciousness. Plasticity means that there was always hope for our reason -- hope for our ability to rebuild that function. Indeed, the mind can redefine itself,and this is demonstrated by two specialists called Hagen and Silva back in the 1970's.The global perspective is that up to 30 percent of children in school have learning weaknesses that are not self-correcting, but with appropriate treatment, they can be screened for and detected and corrected and avoid their academic failure. But what I discovered is it's almost impossible to find anyone who provides that treatment or care.
Here's what my neuropsychologist provided for me when I actually found somebody who could apply it. I'm not a doctor, so I'm not going to talk about the various subtests. Let's just talk about full-scale I.Q. Full-scale I.Q. is the mental processing -- how fast you can acquire information, retain it and retrieve it -- that is essential for success in life today. And you can see here there are three columns. Untestable -- that's when I'm in my coma. And then I creep up to the point that I get a score of 79, which is just below average. In the health care system, if you touch average, you're done. That's when I was discharged from the system. What does average I.Q. really mean? It meant that when I was given two and a half hours to take a test that anyone here would take in 50 minutes, I might score an F.This is a very, very low level in order to be kicked out of the health care system. Then I underwent cognitive training. And let me show you what happened to the right-hand column when I did my cognitive training over a period of time. This is not supposed to occur. I.Q. is supposed to stabilize and solidify at the age of eight.
Now the Journal of the National Medical Association gave my memoir a full clinical review,which is very unusual. I'm not a doctor. I have no medical background whatsoever. But they felt the evidences that there was important, valuable information in the book, and they commented about it when they gave the full peer review to it. But they asked one question. They said, "Is this repeatable?" That was a fair question because my memoir was simply how I found solutions that worked for me.
The answer is yes, and for the first time, it's my pleasure to be able to share two examples. Here's somebody, what they did as they went through cognitive training at ages seven and 11. And here's another person in, call it, high school and college. And this person is particularly interesting. I won't go into the intrascatter that's in the subtests, but they still had a neurologic issue. But that person could be identified as having a learning disability. And with accommodation, they went on to college and had a full life in terms of their opportunities.
Second aspect: I still had crushing migraine headaches. Two elements that worked for me here are -- the first is 90 percent, I learned, of head and neck pain is through muscular-skeletal imbalance. The craniomandibular system is critical to that. And when I underwent it and found solutions, this is the interrelationship between the TMJ and the teeth. Up to 30 percent of the population have a disorder, disease or dysfunction in the jaw that affects the entire body. I was fortunate to find a dentist who applied this entire universe of technology you're about to see to establish that if he repositioned my jaw, the headaches pretty much resolved, but that then my teeth weren't in the right place. He then held my jaw in the right position while orthodontically he put my teeth into correct alignment. So my teeth actually hold my jaw in the correct position. This affected my entire body.
If that sounds like a very, very strange thing to say and rather a bold statement -- How can the jaw affect the entire body? -- let me simply point out to you, if I ask you tomorrow to put one grain of sand between your teeth and go for a nice long walk, how far would you lastbefore you had to remove that grain of sand? That tiny misalignment. Bear in mind, there are no nerves in the teeth. That's why the same between the before and after that this shows, it's hard to see the difference. Now just trying putting a few grains of sand between your teeth and see the difference it makes. I still had migraine headaches.
The next issue that resolved was that, if 90 percent of head and neck pain is caused by imbalance, the other 10 percent, largely -- if you set aside aneurysms, brain cancer and hormonal issues -- is the circulation. Imagine the blood flowing through your body -- I was told at UCLA Medical Center -- as one sealed system. There's a big pipe with the blood flowing through it, and around that pipe are the nerves drawing their nutrient supply from the blood. That's basically it. If you press on a hose pipe in a sealed system, it bulges someplace else. If that some place else where it bulges is inside the biggest nerve in your body, your brain, you get a vascular migraine. This is a level of pain that's only knownto other people who suffer vascular migraines. Using this technology, this is mapping in three dimensions. This is an MRI MRA MRV, a volumetric MRI. Using this technology, the specialists at UCLA Medical Center were able to identify where that compression in the hose pipe was occurring. A vascular surgeon removed most of the first rib on both sides of my body. And in the following months and years, I felt the neurological flow of life itself returning.
Communication, the next C. This is critical. All consciousness is about communication.And here, by great fortune, one of my father's clients had a husband who worked at the Alfred Mann Foundation for Scientific Research. Alfred Mann is a brilliant physicist and innovator who's fascinated with bridging gaps in consciousness, whether to restore hearing to the deaf, vision to the blind or movement to the paralyzed. And I'm just going to give you an example today of movement to the paralyzed. I've brought with me, from Southern California, the FM device. This is it being held in the hand. It weighs less than a gram. So two of them implanted in the body would weigh less than a dime. Five of them would still weigh less than a rupee coin.
Where does it go inside the body? It has been simulated and tested to endure in the body corrosion-free for over 80 years. So it goes in and it stays there. Here are the implantation sites. The concept that they're working towards -- and they have working prototypes -- is that we placed it throughout the motor points of the body where they're needed. The main unit will then go inside the brain. An FM device in the cortex of the brain, the motor cortex,will send signals in real time to the motor points in the relevant muscles so that the person will be able to move their arm, let's say, in real time, if they've lost control of their arm. And other FM devices implanted in fingertips, on contacting a surface, will send a message back to the sensory cortex of the brain, so that the person feels a sense of touch. Is this science fiction? No, because I'm wearing the first application of this technology. I don't have the ability to control my left foot. A radio device is controlling every step I take, and a sensor picks up my foot for me every time I walk.
And in closing, I want to share the personal reason why this meant so much to me and changed the direction of my life. In my coma, one of the presences I sensed was someone I felt was a protector. And when I came out of my coma, I recognized my family,but I didn't remember my own past. Gradually, I remembered the protector was my wife.And I whispered the good news through my broken jaw, which was wired shut, to my night nurse. And the following morning, my mother came to explain that I'd not always been in this bed, in this room, that I'd been working in film and television and that I had been in a crash and that, yes, I was married, but Marcy had been killed instantly in the crash. And during my time in coma, she had been laid to rest in her hometown of Phoenix. Now in the dark years that followed, I had to work out what remained for me if everything that made today special was gone. And as I discovered these threats to consciousness and how they are surrounding the world and enveloping the lives of more and more people every day, I discovered what truly remained. I believe that we can overcome the threats to our consciousness, that the Human Show can stay on the air for millennia to come. I believe that we can all rise and shine.
You know, when I heard Simon's -- please sit down; I just want to talk to him for a second -- when I read his book, I went to LA to meet him. And so I was sitting in this restaurant,waiting for a man to come by who obviously would have some difficulty ... I don't know what I had in my mind. And he was walking around. I didn't expect that person that I was going to meet to be him. And then we met and we talked, and I'm like, he doesn't look like somebody who was built out of nothing. And then I was amazed at what role technology played in your recovery. And we have his book outside in the bookshop. The thing that amazed me is the painstaking detail with which he has written every hospital he has been to, every treatment he got, every near-miss he had, and how accidentally he stumbled upon innovations. So I think this one detail went past people really quick. Tell a little bit about what you're wearing on your leg.
Simon Lewis: I knew when I was timing this that there wouldn't be time for me to do anything about -- Well this is it. This is the control unit. And this records every single step I've taken for, ooh, five or six years now. And if I do this, probably the mic won't hear it. That little chirp followed by two chirps is now switched on. When I press it again, it'll chirp three times, and that'll mean that it's armed and ready to go. And that's my friend. I mean, I charge it every night. And it works. It works. And what I would love to add because I didn't have time ...
What does it do? Well actually, I'll show you down here. This down here, if the camera can see that, that is a small antenna. Underneath my heel, there is a sensor that detects when my foot leaves the ground -- what's called the heel lift. This thing blinks all the time; I'll leave it out, so you might be able to see it. But this is blinking all the time. It's sending signals in real time. And if you walk faster, if I walk faster, it detects what's called the time interval, which is the interval between each heel lift. And it accelerates the amount and level of the stimulation. The other things they've worked on -- I didn't have time to say this in my talk -- is they've restored functional hearing to thousands of deaf people.
I could tell you the story: this was going to be an abandoned technology, but Alfred Mann met the doctor who was going to retire, [Dr. Schindler.] And he was going to retire -- all the technology was going to be lost, because not a single medical manufacturer would take it on because it was a small issue. But there's millions of deaf people in the world, and the Cochlear implant has given hearing to thousands of deaf people now. It works. And the other thing is they're working on artificial retinas for the blind. And this, this is the implantable generation. Because what I didn't say in my talk is this is actually exoskeletal.I should clarify that. Because the first generation is exoskeletal, it's wrapped around the leg, around the affected limb. I must tell you, they're an amazing -- there's a hundred people who work in that building -- engineers, scientists, and other team members -- all the time.
Alfred Mann has set up this foundation to advance this research because he saw there's no way venture capital would come in for something like this. The audience is too small.You'd think, there's plenty of paralyzed people in the world, but the audience is too small,and the amount of research, the time it takes, the FDA clearances, the payback time is too long for V.C. to be interested. So he saw a need and he stepped in. He's a very, very remarkable man. He's done a lot of very cutting-edge science.
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