Neuroscientists learn that joy comes through dancing, not drugs. This posthumous reprint of Dr. Walter J. Freeman III’s (1927-2016) op-ed was originally requested by Peter Sylwan, Science Editor for Svenske Dagbladet, Stockholm, Sweden 24 May 1996 (in Swedish). Reprinted (in English) in the Journal of Consciousness Studies 4: 67-71. Professor Emeritus of Molecular and Cell Biology […]
Walter Freeman
A professor emeritus of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley […] Freeman is considered one of the founders of the field of computational neuroscience, which uses mathematics and computers to understand brain dynamics and neural networks. He published nearly 500 research articles in his lifetime, in addition to popular books –Societies of Brains: A Study in the Neuroscience of Love and Hate (1995) and How Brains Make Up Their Minds (2001) – that brought the ideas of brain dynamics and chaos theory to lay audiences. His studies led him to philosophize and write about the nature and origin of consciousness and perception, and the role of chaos in creativity and in allowing animal brains to respond flexibly to a constantly changing world. He proposed that the way brains work is compatible with the thinking of 13th- century philosopher Saint Thomas Aquinas about the unity of brain, body and mind, or soul. (Robert Sanders, Berkeley News, 2016)