Playing with fire

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Systems close to the edge of chaos display power-law behaviour. The closer one gets to the edge, the lower the power parameter. The lower the power parameter, the wilder the jumps made. A power parameter less than or equal to one makes the average value go infinite/undefined: chaos.

Ok, so supposing people are complex systems close to the edge of chaos, thus displaying power-law behaviours, with autistic people closer to the edge than most. What does it mean to go over the edge?

The obvious answer would be epilepsy.

My interest in this is that i am wondering what one can do to get closer to the edge. If stepping over the edge causes epilepsy, this is a somewhat dangerous game... but it also gives us an indicator of things one might do to get close to the edge.

An obvious first area to investigate would be religious rituals known to induce fits and visions, religious experiences often bearing similarity to epilepsy. (I'm currently reading the Acts of the apostles... man, those guys were going nuts, Holy Spirit flooring people left and right)

This view of epilepsy/ecstatic-experience is not the traditional scientific one of a disease with a physical cause, but it also does not accept epilepsy as a true connection to God. It does however suggest that some special insights might be obtained by skating close to the epileptic zone, thus granting some significance to such experiences. It also possibly means the descent of the Holy Spirit is some sort of real leap (or at least change in form) of intelligence.

This is all wild speculation.




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