the brain is a universe unto itself

  

 .

Our eyes are not transparent windows to the outside world, despite evolution’s brilliant illusion. 

When we think we’re walking the streets of a city, we’re really strolling the neural paths of our brains. Everything that appears to be outside is really inside. For all intents and purposes, there is no outside. 

The brain is a universe unto itself: billions of twinkling neurons, dendrites splayed like fingers reaching for the beginning of time, chemical messengers leaping across the mindless darkness of deep intracranial space.

—Amanda Gefter

Trespassing on Einstein’s Lawn

.

The Brain—is wider than the Sky—

For—put them side by side—

The one the other will contain

With ease—and You—beside—

The Brain is deeper than the sea—

For—hold them—Blue to Blue—

The one the other will absorb—

As Sponges—Buckets—do—

The Brain is just the weight of God—

For—Heft them—Pound for Pound—

And they will differ—if they do—

As Syllable from Sound—


—Emily Dickinson

. 

And I asked myself about the present: 

how wide it was, how deep it was,

how much was mine to keep.

—Kurt Vonnegut 

Slaughterhouse-Five

 

.