The Relevance of the Beautiful
Embedded in the surface of the chrysalis, a constellation of ping-pong balls introduces a metaphor of play as a fundamental dimension of life—whether as challenge, experimentation, or strategy. They evoke life as a playing field in which we must invent, learn, and continually negotiate the rules as we move forward.
Play (Spiel): Aesthetic experience involves "play," a state where the individual is drawn into something larger, blurring the lines between observer and art, self and world.
Truth & Imitation: Beauty reveals truth, not through mere copying (imitation), but by making the universal visible in the particular, revitalizing concepts often dismissed today.
Integration: Art, when relevant, integrates individuals, community, and culture, countering the alienation of modern life.
Broader Relevance of Beauty:
Ecological Crisis: Beauty helps us perceive the interconnectedness of nature and human action, vital for addressing environmental destruction.
Human Need: It fulfills a fundamental human need for meaning, helping us express the ineffable and drive innovation.
In essence, The Relevance of the Beautiful asserts that beauty—often marginalized by modern emphases on utility—remains essential to a complete human experience, fostering connection, understanding, and a deeper sense of meaning.
Among other points, Argullol argues that: “The theme of art as the overcoming of time (a generically modern theme, from Baudelaire to Proust and from Proust to Beckett) offers Gadamer the opportunity to introduce the character of festival or celebration as a rupture of the present. Aesthetic experience is a time of celebration that strips us of time (linear or cumulative) and suggests the eternal.”
These lines led me to think of a lecture on medical research into meditation and relaxation conducted by cardiologist Herbert Benson, founder of the Mind/Body Medical Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital, director emeritus of the Benson-Henry Institute, professor in this field at Harvard Medical School, and sponsor of the American Institute of Stress.
Dr. Herbert Benson (1935–2022), a pioneer in mind–body medicine, identified the “Relaxation Response” as a physiological reaction opposite to stress. This response can be induced by practices such as meditation and involves measurable changes in brainwave activity toward slower, more coherent patterns—such as Alpha and Theta waves—along with reductions in heart rate, blood pressure, and stress hormones, thereby promoting calm and overall well-being.
At this point, it is worth outlining the main types of brainwaves and their associated states:
Delta Waves (0.2–4 Hz): The slowest frequencies with the greatest amplitude; dominant during deep, dreamless sleep and in infants; associated with bodily repair and unconscious processes.
Theta Waves (4–8 Hz): Linked to drowsiness, dreaming, creativity, memory, and deep relaxation; common in children and in adults during meditation or the transition to sleep.
Alpha Waves (8–12 Hz): Predominant during relaxed wakefulness with closed eyes, quiet rest, and meditation; reflect a balance between mental alertness and rest.
Beta Waves (12–30 Hz): Present during active wakefulness, mental alertness, concentration, logical thinking, and decision-making; associated with outward-focused activity.
Gamma Waves (above 30 Hz): The fastest waves, related to perception, learning, working memory, and high-level cognitive activity.
Brainwaves and the Relaxation Response
Context: Benson studied how contemplative practices such as yoga and meditation affect the body, identifying measurable physiological changes.
Alpha Waves (8–12 Hz): Associated with calm, relaxation, creativity, and a state between wakefulness and sleep.
Theta Waves (4–8 Hz): Slower waves linked to deep meditation, creativity, learning, and light sleep.
Benson’s Findings: The practice of the Relaxation Response increases Alpha and Theta activity, resulting in decreased metabolism, heart rate, and blood pressure, along with increased parasympathetic activity.
In his research, Dr. Benson also took into account his patients’ subjective reports, which included, among other things, an increase in creativity.
Discovered by the German psychiatrist Hans Berger in the 1920s, Alpha waves were among the first brain rhythms to be identified and continue to be of interest in neuroscience due to their association with relaxation, meditation, and creativity.
In relation to creativity and time, I also reviewed notes by Dr. Roger Wolcott Sperry (1913–1994), an American biologist, neuroscientist, and psychologist. Dr. Sperry received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1981 for his research on the functions of the cerebral hemispheres. He proposed that each hemisphere operates, in certain respects, as an independent mind.
According to Benson’s research, a stressed patient exhibits very fast brainwave activity—specifically high Beta waves—particularly in the left hemisphere, while the right hemisphere tends to show more Alpha activity. When the patient enters a state of calm, high Beta activity slows down and Alpha waves begin to spread. It appears that larger groups of neurons across both hemispheres begin to “communicate” with one another, which may account for the observed increase in creativity.
It should also be noted that the left hemisphere is associated with the management of linear time, whereas the right hemisphere—linked to Alpha waves—exists in what might be described as an “eternal present.”
In early childhood, the right hemisphere develops more prominently, which may explain the characteristic joy of those ages, as children tend to live fully in the here and now.
This reflection brings me back to Rafael Argullol’s observation on art as the “overcoming of time” or a “rupture of the present.” From this perspective, my reading leads me to ask:
Could the work of art possess the quality of existing within an eternal present?
:::::The text presents a simplified, lateralized (left-brain vs. right-brain) view of complex cognitive functions that is not supported by modern neuroscience. While the hemispheres have areas of relative specialization, they are deeply interconnected and work together as an integrated network for nearly all tasks, including time perception and emotional experience.
This narrative is a persistent pop-psychology "neuromyth." It takes a small kernel of truth about developmental asymmetry and relative functional strengths and extrapolates it into an inaccurate and deterministic explanation for human experience.
For credible sources:
To understand accurate models of time perception, you can refer to neuroscientific reviews on the topic, such as those published in journals like Nature Reviews Neuroscience or Neuron. For child brain development, authoritative sources include the Harvard Center on the Developing Child or textbooks like "The Developing Brain" by R. A. Thompson.
Comments
Post a Comment