It is during these brain growth spurts that matrix 'shifts' occur. Intelligence does go through clear developmental stages, stages that should parallel the physical growth of the brain.

Humanities teacher Joseph Chilton-PearceR4 picked up on these stages in his controversial work, Magical Child, and was probably the first researcher to really grasp the concept of a matrix and a matrix shift (although his interpretation of Piaget's ideas, in religious/spiritual terms, I find at best bizarre). The major problem with both Chilton-Pearce and Piaget's work on this is that both insist on a stage specific unfolding of intelligence within the confines of biological growth, whilst I have found that intelligence continues to develop (albeit with more difficulty)1 even if this synchrony of timed maturation is missed. Many other researchers have had this disagreement with Piaget, although the work of Chilton-Pearce is less well known.

Chilton-Pearce's major contribution to Matrix Theory lies in his grasp of the roles of emotion and imagination in the formation of human intelligence (as Piaget's lies in his grasp of the role of scientific and logical thought). Both, however, had a separate part of the overall jigsaw, rejecting the other pieces, and what I have done is to cut and paste the relevant parts of their research together with that of others and my own, because only when all aspects of the development of intelligence are taken together do we begin to see a coherent picture of what human intelligence truly is.

Perhaps more importantly, we also get a picture of where it is going, together with the rather crucial facts that (1) if we do not go with it, it will almost certainly leave us behind, and (2) if we continue to act against it, both intelligence in humans, and humans themselves, may well be heading towards extinction.

Whilst I would bet on the ability of intelligence itself (with the multifarious forms already cast aside by evolution behind it over several billion years) to ultimately avoid this fate, I would not place the same degree of confidence in the ability of humans themselves (who may merely be another of those forms.)

What is a matrix?

To explore how I came to these extraordinary conclusions, we have to begin with the question, 'What is a matrix?'2

The word 'matrix' is derived from the Latin: 'womb'. The context in which it is defined in Matrix Theory is as a situation which provides three things: a source of input or possibilities for exploration and learning, a source of power or energy to fuel that exploration, and a platform or safe place from which to explore and learn. Whenever these three things are all present in the same space, there is a matrix. (In actual fact, what a matrix should mean to an intelligence is 'my current reality', because those three needs should be met throughout its existence). They can be thought of most simply as Input, Power supply, and Platform. Without those three things, intelligence cannot grow.

The growth and development of intelligence happens in a series of steps from one matrix to another. The current first matrix of our biology-based intelligence is indeed the womb. After we're born, the parent or permanent carer becomes our matrix for a while. After that, the natural world should become our matrix, then our society, and so on; our matrix should change throughout our development until we become completely self-sufficient at about age 15-16 and gain the abilities for mental autonomy and then synergy.

Matrix Theory:

The successful emergence and ongoing development of intelligence is based on its progression from one 'matrix' or set of neural networks, to another. Each matrix 'shift' occurs at first in synchrony with bursts of neurogenesis, then with neural arborisation and later synaptogenesis, psychologically this moves intelligence into a set of unknown, unpredictable experiences which it then assimilates and accommodates into the known using COMP. COMP is iterative; this process should repeat throughout our lives. This is the way intelligence emerges and grows; it is emergent in stages. The stages should parallel shifts to a new matrix; a new platform, new power supply, new input, new tools, new ways of processing information and new abilities.

Whilst this should all happen in a neat synchrony of genetically timed maturation, in humans it currently does not, for reasons we shall explore shortly. By accidentally interfering with the process we have slowed ourselves down, retarded our development, and caused ourselves all sorts of problems. With neurohacking, we can control COMP and we can accelerate a matrix shift.

This is, currently, most important, because without it, most people are stuck in an inappropriate matrix, and will never reach a full maturation of intelligence.

I must make it clear at this stage that I am not one of those people who think we only use one tenth of our brains, or whatever. (Indeed, if we did, the rest would atrophy and eventually disappear!) It is what we use our brains for that is the problem. We are missing out on all kinds of abilities because we are using the networks intended for their execution to frantically maintain cognition in an inappropriate matrix instead. Once we can shift matrices as intended, we free up those networks for their intended use. Intelligence is then free to emerge.

If you are now thinking that we should have all sorts of supernatural/telepathic/ESP skills I'm sorry to disappoint you but that's not it either. What is missing is competence, not to mention the ability to interact, real emotion, autonomy, self-sufficiency and synergy, and you're not going to know what any of that means until you go there for yourself. Inside every mind, is an intelligence trying to manifest. When it does, you may surprise yourself3

Matrix shifts: what should happen.

COMP runs all the time we encounter anything new, but at each matrix shift, the brain is undergoing a growth spurt and forming new connections, which prepare it for massive and rapid new learning. More hardware is being constructed.R3 The locus of our attention and motivation is shifting platform. Our relation to our power supply will change. The way our brain actually processes information will change. Our input needs will change. Finally, our behavior will change, because we have acquired new skills and/or abilities.

Whilst in childhood the time of our matrix shifts should coincide with physical bursts of brain growth, in adulthood they should coincide with bursts of arborisation and synaptogenesis, self-generated by the correct execution of COMP. But the brain is constructed physically as we grow in a certain order for a reason, and if this synchrony is interrupted at all we will develop less than optimal hardware.

What a matrix shift is, in summary, is a shifting of (a) the main locus of intelligence to another physical platform (different networks), (b) the relation to the source of energy or power, and (c) input type, needs and motivations. A matrix shift is like an upload, except you get to keep the original and have a whole new set of groovy tools to play with; the two then work in synchrony; in synergy4.

We are designed to use the relevant matrix to our stage of biological neurological development and our abilities. All of these should develop in synchrony. As a baby, your ability is not at first sufficient for you to feed yourself; you need a matrix which will do that for you. Later, you need a matrix that will fulfill your other, different needs, and so on. If our abilities do not develop as they should (because of insufficient or erroneous input) biological development goes right on ahead anyway, we don't have the required abilities to make a shift and we get stuck in a matrix.

If a baby is isolated from human contact, (as has been documented in some truly dreadful abuse cases), the resulting child remains stuck in matrix 2 and, despite eventually learning to shove food into its own mouth as physical growth continues and gives it the strength to, its intelligence will be seriously retarded, even though it was born in perfect mental health. Cases this bad are obvious to us all, but in a similar manner we are currently, by various accidental means, failing to provide the relevant input (and replacing it with erroneous input) and preventing our intelligence and abilities from developing as intended.

Without the correct input for the human body, (foods, water, exercise), growth is retarded. Further damage is done if toxins are given. Without the correct input for the mind, the growth of intelligence is retarded. And our mistake has been twofold; we have not know what the correct input for the mind should be, and we have further exacerbated the problem by replacing it with what is, for a growing mind, something rather noxious.

The good news is that we could sort all this out, repair the damage, and go on ahead. The bad news is that the very nature of the retardation that it causes makes us too dumb to realize there is anything wrong, and too afraid to face the possibility that there might be. And if we continue along the path that we are currently heading down, intelligence and humanity will part company on a permanent basis. How close we have come to this already, and whether it is too late to turn the tide, I shall leave for you to decide after reviewing the evidence.

I believe a matrix shift is possible at any time in our lives, through synaptogenesis, with as yet undiscovered limits. I also believe that running COMP is the only way a biological based intelligence can shift platform (which has big implications for would-be uploaders). Intelligence has an innate pattern, curiously enough, of already doing to itself what uploaders plan to do to it, as you will see. Physical brain growth (neurogenesis and arborisation) certainly coincides (or should) with the matrix shifts of childhood, but synaptogenesis coincides with matrix shifts after physical maturity and is a great deal more under our volitional control than genetic spurts of brain growth. Because of this, I do not think that the age of our shift to each matrix is so very easily limited or narrow, because through synaptogenesis we can all reach these points at a later time than that at which biology intended. The window of opportunity for mind development and ability need not close with physical maturity, as I am sure many people already know by experience. It may be more difficult to learn a second language in middle age than in childhood, but it is by no means impossible, and since we can reproduce the conditions for learning in childhood by induced synaptogenesis at any age, it may not even, with neurohacking, be more difficult.

The only things that stand in the way of our learning anything new, even how to shift matrix, are fear of change, and ignorance of the necessity for it. Avoiding experience prevents the growth of neural nets that are dependent upon it. Synchrony with the genetic timing of physical maturation may be the optimal time for making these changes, but it is not the only time. Intelligence is not so easily squashed.

So what's going wrong?

The genetic plan for the unfolding of human intelligence and the growth and development of the brain is currently being subverted largely because of our ignorance of its existence. A number of key damaging factors occur in our development, and it has now become impossible to avoid them without a radical restructuring of society itself. Of course, whilst people remain unconvinced that there is a problem or that there is any need for change, that won't happen. Because the damaging factors are everyday factors of our everyday lives; things it would be highly inconvenient to change. (We'll have a look at what they are, in the next chapter.)

The concept that most people's brains are being damaged, by everyday practices, and that we do not even know what they are, is a scary one. When the issue at hand is that our intelligence is being reduced by certain factors, these factors do though become relevant to us all, and vital to neurohackers. In the same way in which we have, through medical exploration and research, discovered more and more things which are harmful to the body, and attempted to eliminate them through medicine and therapy, so it is important to know if something is harming our minds. If Matrix Theory is correct, a large proportion of the western world (and probably the whole world) is being damaged by these practices, so I feel it prudent to investigate them. Doing so has so far proved an invaluable source of information and a guide to n-hacking strategy. In a way, I am partly the proof of the pudding. I got positive results fast because I knew exactly what to hack. First I had to hack myself out of a matrix, and I think that rather a lot of us will need to do that. It might be one of the fastest ways for intelligence to emerge, and I'd like to help it do so5

What does it mean to be stuck in a matrix?

Most people are stuck in a matrix. This is the current problem with human intelligence. If you are stuck in a matrix, it means that your mind's locus of consciousness and most of your brain's operations are using the networks of one particular brain module, instead of working together as a synergy of all systems as a whole (which is what it should be doing). All of the systems that developed after you got stuck will have been co-opted in the service of that one module.

If you are stuck, you will have no real understanding of people in a different matrix from yourself, as the people in different matrices are using different modules as their main locus of awareness. We are supposed to move through every module as we grow it in the first place, experience what it is about, learn how to use the tools it has to offer us and the abilities they bring, and then move on to the next module being built to explore that in a similar manner, retaining the abilities we learned in the last one, and adding them to our new abilities. Being stuck in a matrix means you have to specialize, in the very mechanics of how you think, because you are limited to the tools and abilities of that one module only. The longer you are stuck, the more difficult it is to change; you cannot comprehend other ways of doing things; other ways of thinking.

As you grew up, the other modules of your brain will have developed right on time, expecting you to move forward and start using them. But you will have little ability to use them except in the service of the bit you are stuck in, and your overall brain development will have slowed down. (You are unlikely to have noticed this, though, because almost everybody else is in the same situation, so you'll probably think your intelligence is pretty normal, or even pretty good.)

After initial formation the sparsely used new modules will gradually decrease in size, as you allocate more and more resources and attention to maintaining your world view as processed by the module you are stuck in. Your mind, unbeknown to you struggling to function on sub-optimal hardware, may develop problems, such as 'anxiety related' disorders, depression, or more serious mental problems (if these were not present already from childhood, as is ever more increasingly the case). On the other hand it may not, but the hormones it is producing to keep up the fight to try and fix itself on a constant basis will start to affect your body instead. Headaches, stomach ulcers, cardio-vascular problems, asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure, and an increasing need for low level stimulants; tea, coffee, sugar, cola, (to replace the deficiency of attention/concentration networks, cigarettes (to replace the deficiency in acetylcholine), cannabis (to replace the deficiency of dopamine receptors), sleeping pills (to achieve what the serotonin/melatonin cycle should be achieving but isn't), and so on. You will self-medicate, knowing that you feel better and less anxious on these drugs but not knowing why. The side effects of these will add to your health problems, and tolerance will force you to increase the doses. Your immune system will be poor, and minor ailments will be a constant nuisance.

As you get older, the decrease in your brain modules will steadily increase, and you will start to display the earliest symptoms of senility (memory problems) soon after middle age. You may not notice that either because, well, you expect that sort of thing as you're getting older, don't you? ...It happens to everyone...doesn't it?

Your wealth and your position in life will not save you from this decline. The problem cuts across all ages, sexes, and genetic types. It knows no bounds of color or size or shape. It has nothing to do with money, class or nationality. The only factor that can stop it is intelligence. No matter how clever you think you are now, the only thing that will save you from eventually becoming the mental equivalent of an infant, is to get COMP running and to get yourself unstuck. Real intelligence will not atrophy and will outlast the body (and there are other guys working on that one, in the fields of anti-aging, longevity, biotech and uploading; may they outlive their critics).

There is a difference between being stuck in a matrix and having under-developed or over-developed brain areas. What matters most is the networks, connections between areas, because this is what enables association and synchrony6.

Association is the kernel of COMP, and synchrony is its achievement.

Being stuck in a matrix does not imply a person is not talented. Nor does it imply a low IQ. Intelligence is not about being good at subjects or skills. It is about the ability to interact and synergise, with as many things as possible. Intelligence is good at anything and everything it chooses to do. It is competent in every situation, and excels at those things it finds necessary to specialize in, in each individual. No matter what happens to it, intelligence will prosper, because it can interact with anything; tools, the environment, other people, and new, unknown situations. It can pick up any skill it wants to and master it, with a creative, imaginative, and flexible logic. Intelligence turns any agent bearing it into a polymath.

The problem here is not intelligence itself; it is humans. If intelligence fails to manifest and grow in humans, it will sure as hell find some other means of explication (it always has so far). Humans may turn out to be a failed experiment as far as intelligence is concerned. We may have been a great success at first, with our groovy prefrontal lobes and executive functions, but if we turn away from the growth of intelligence and start destroying it (as we are currently doing), it will cast us aside and continue to evolve without us. It has, after all, all the time in the universe.

1. This is where neurohacking can really assist us, as we shall see.

2. The appearance of the popular movie 'The Matrix' in the year 2000, with it's amazingly coincidental allegories to Matrix Theory, and it's skillful use of analogical language, caused me to get a large influx of emails asking me if there were a connection. Developmental psychologists were using the term 'matrix' some 40 years ago, and a great fan of coincidence though I am (calling it the 'universe's sense of humor'), my only answer must be, 'No, Neo, there isn't'.

3. You may, in fact, fall over. Intense pleasant surprises often do this to people.

4. This is a summary and may seem vague; rest assured I will explain in more detail, probably until you are really sick of it.

5. Maybe I'm an upload midwife and these are prenatal classes. Maybe.

6. Modules use various different brain bits to perform their various tasks, which is why I refer to 'networks', as opposed to certain physical areas of the brain alone. The brain is subdivided anatomically because of the way it looks; if you get hold of one (not a live one, obviously. You can purchase a formaldehyde-preserved brain online for less money than it costs to buy an anatomical guide to one; dissect it with gloves on in the sink, preferably when your partner or parents are not at home) and pull the side bits off, you will have roughly a temporal lobe in each hand. If you poke your thumbs in the top and split the corpus callosum and then pull laterally, wiggling your thumbs towards you as you go, you will almost get a clean pair of hemispheres, exposing the 'limbic system' as a separate lump in the middle. This is how anatomists first explored the brain before we had scanners and things, so all the bits got named before we knew what any of them did. Most networks use various different bits of brain, and people keep changing their minds about which parts to include under which labels. Consequently I feel it's better to refer to networks, for purposes of greater clarity. Anybody who was just sick should not be neurohacking.

4. Find (Key factors of damage, or, what matrix you may be stuck in)

Why people are what they're like

When I first found out about all this, for me there was one requirement only; to get the information out there. Having found not only the problem but also a solution, it seemed all that remained necessary was to tell everybody as soon as possible and set things on the road to recovery. First of course, we needed more research and we needed results. We needed cold, hard, irrefutable scientific proof (although the truth seemed so self-evident). We needed people doing the experiments. What I didn't realize was that the extent of change necessary to implement a solution on a large scale was far too vast for most people to take on board precisely because of the damage already done. It was like living in a world where everyone saw only in black and white, and trying to tell people they had a disease which prevented color vision...everyone just thought, 'but I can see just fine; what the hell is he going on about?' Trying to explain to people that there's something wrong with them that prevents their intelligence developing is just like that. You cannot even explain what color is to a person who has never experienced it, and even if you could, they would be unlikely to believe that they were meant to see it.

I have never suffered from 'gotta save the world' syndrome, especially not for selfless reasons (because I'm not stuck in matrix 3 or 4). I'm well aware of the pitfalls of thinking that you know what is good for other people. If I do what is good for me, and the world gets saved by accident, or as a side effect of that, that's fine, obviously. Similarly, if something threatens me that also threatens us all, I have a problem with that for mainly personal reasons. I'm not sociopathic; I quite like humans and I'm married to one, but I don't think I am responsible personally for their survival, or for their access to intelligence. When I found a solution to this problem for me, and it was found to be elitist by default, I therefore decided to proceed anyway, whilst also looking for a way to extend that solution. The formation of Matrix Theory and this current work was a pivotal point for me in studying the development of intelligence, in that it pins down clear factors of damage to that development and explains their effect in terms of real, everyday life. So the discussion of these factors is not in any way an intellectual or emotional protest against 'wrongs' long past set into motion. My issue is, we cannot act to deal with any hypothetical 'wrongs' affecting our intelligence unless we first improve it sufficiently to understand the information available about itself. People have been trying to 'put right what is wrong' with society, based on how they would like it to be, ever since we figured out how to light fires and hit things, but any attempt at action without the relevant knowledge or ability is doomed to the same fate as the Titanic. More research does need to be done. The key points themselves can only stand or fall according to the proof for or against. So far, they stand.

The damaging factors cited, in list form, are as follows:

1. Prenatal nutrition, blood and oxygen levels affected adversely by current western diet and lifestyle, causing under-development of vital brain tissue, neuro/psychological effects being mental subnormality.

2. Induction of birth before the fetal intelligence is sufficient to cope with life outside the womb, causing sensory overload, which produces hormones that prevent brain growth, neuro/psychological effects being development difficulties.

3. Anesthetics at birth interfering deleteriously with body and brain chemistry of the fetus and affecting the development of intelligence on a long-term basis.

4. Prolonged labor in the supine position causing fetal distress, leading to the production of hormones that prevent brain growth.

5. Premature cutting of the umbilical cord at birth causing oxygen-deprivation-related lesions in the reticular formation and cerebellum, damaging brain tissue and causing some types of asthma, neuro/psychological effects being dysfunction or underdevelopment of these regions, problems with information processing, sensory motor systems, timing and rhythm, orientation and balance.

6. Inappropriate and traumatic physical treatment at birth causing shock and sensory overload, producing hormones that prevent brain growth.

7. Failure of mother and newborn to activate the newborn's sensory systems by full sensory interaction within a short 'window of opportunity' immediately after birth, causing sensory overload and an ongoing series of problems with brain development, neuro/psychological effects being insufficient reticular formation activation, difficulty processing information, and an inability to form personal relationships.

8. Isolation and abandonment (i.e., lack of human interaction) at any time during the first year or so of life, causing the production of hormones which prevent the growth of intelligence, neuro/psychological effects being personality based on insecurity and a subconscious chronic fear of abandonment.

9. Lack of physical contact, ditto.

10. Lack of physical presence of main caretaker at any time before age seven or so, ditto.

11. Exposure to television before about age 11 preventing full sensory interaction, neuro/psychological effects being prevention of full brain growth by default, and inability to use creative imagination. (NB: This has nothing to do with which kinds of subjects or shows are viewed.)

12. Lack of full sensory interaction with environment preventing brain growth.

13. Lack of appropriate stimulus at all times preventing brain growth.

14. Medical interference throughout childhood (mainly immune system intervention) causing brain damage.

15. Literacy before about age ten causing overspecialization of certain parts of the cortex at the expense of other parts, causing a loss of mental abilities, damaging eyesight permanently, and causing premature onset of puberty.

16. School attendance preventing full sensory interaction with environment and appropriate stimuli, causing premature enculturation and preventing the growth of intelligence by default.

17. Infant comfort-derivation solely from material objects, neuro/psychological effects being an inability to form successful human relationships and an obsessive-compulsive attachment to material objects.

18. Premature imposition of an adult value system preventing the successful development of personality.

19. Inhibition of the like/dislike response, ditto.

That is a peculiar list and a complicated one. Some of these points may seem excessively fanatical. I intend to share with you what proof there is of each of these assertions, however I wish to keep these studies in context so I shall first cover the basics here, and then explain in detail afterwards.

One common denominator in all factors reducing or destroying intelligence is that they cause anxiety, or 'does not compute' space, and anxiety is always the blue screen of death for intelligence. That anxiety cripples intelligence I am aware of one hundred percent, for it is amply backed up by research.R5 So I have to further explain the clinical definition of anxiety here, at first in biological terms.

Anxiety is what most people refer to as stress. In a scientific or medical sense, stress is not strictly the same thing as anxiety; stress is, for example, when a muscle is stressed and then relaxed; we call this 'exercise'. In the same way, when the mind is stressed (encounters the unknown) and then relaxed (understands it and incorporates it into the known), we call this 'learning'.

Biologically, anxiety is unresolved stress. Unresolved stress leads to cramp in a muscle. In the mind, it causes the production of harmful hormones that prevent the growth of neurons and synapses, which is why humans find it so vital to try to resolve; we cannot concentrate on anything properly if we are anxious because our brains are concentrating so hard on trying to resolve the anxiety (did you ever try to concentrate on a lesson at school when someone much bigger than you had threatened to beat you up at lunch time?) It's a vicious circle. Obviously in a developing mind this slows up thinking and without thinking we not only cannot build new neuronal connections but we will actually start to lose some. This holds up the development of intelligence for as long as it remains unresolved. Eventually, in computer terms, we crash. As biological creatures we go into shock.

If this occurs during the physical maturation of the neural net, it causes an ongoing problem, because brain-growth spurts are under genetic control and do not wait; the next brain-growth spurt takes place, neural processing changes, and we move into the next matrix (or should). This is where AI may have an advantage; biology cannot take into consideration or monitor the possibility of failure of the development of intelligence in any particular stage, and since biological development rests on the appropriate use of the brain to establish sufficient synaptic connections, if use is inappropriate those connections will not form.R3 The next stage unfolds, we have to live with it. Puberty happens to teenagers whether or not they are intellectually and emotionally prepared for it, because the genes expect the organism to be sufficiently prepared and mature enough to cope. In the same way, changes in brain processing attempt to take place automatically, whether or not a proper development of the brain has taken place to prepare for those shifts. When it hasn't, we get stuck in a matrix.

Intelligence is given or builds for itself sets of tools at certain stages of growth, and if it does not then know how to use them, and so does not, those tools will rot away to oxidization, because the tools themselves are programmed to do so. They're smart software tools. The more they are used, the more efficient they become, and one of their jobs is to construct new hardware (actual physical thickening of connections for speedier and more efficient use of that network). Those that are not used are broken down, the parts recycled to where they are needed. If they don't seem to be needed anywhere, they die. Unused muscle atrophies. So do unused brain cells. We don't grow so many new brain cells after physical maturation so the window of opportunity for using and keeping them is limited. The reason I believe that the opportunity to shift matrix is not limited is because synaptogenesis, the formation of new neuronal connections, goes on throughout life,R6 and can compensate for lack of neurons by increasing the number of connections between neurons. Synaptogenesis is I believe, meant to fine-tune our intellects on top of and including successfully developed neuronal modules, not instead of them, but currently it is usable as a backup plan for our brain development despite lack of resources. For I do now have sufficient reason to believe that currently most people's intelligence and brain growth are significantly slowed by these various factors, and pretty much everyone gets stuck in one or another matrix along the way. I believe that neurohacking, particularly with a specific program in mind, is possibly our only way forward with intelligence under the constraints that it currently is (i.e., biological). I have also come to believe that in order to survive in the future, we will need to alter our intelligence to a point where we may no longer consider ourselves human (or others may not). From my point of view, it is the other way round. We are currently not truly human, and changing our minds into what they are fully designed to be is the only way we shall achieve that. (This is unlikely to be popularly recognized, however.)

Those humans who currently manage to achieve a reasonably full brain growth and development of even one or two networks, in our society, are considered (or consider themselves) geniuses. (And by comparison to 'the norm', they certainly appear so.) What human genius really is has probably not yet been experienced, and I would hesitate to estimate its parameters.

I find this shocking, exciting, and compelling.

At ground zero in your everyday life, if you bother to examine other people, most people's lives, (if you actually look at them, without any sentimental gloss-over or pretending), give the impression of being very rarely in an ambient of relaxed inspiration, or even basic happiness. Neither is there an abundance of creative intellectual competence in the world. Matrix Theory can start to give us some possible answers about the reasons why so many humans seem so confused by life or so incompetent. About why so many people self-medicate with tobacco and alcohol, drugs and self-help nonsense and therapy. About what that 'something more' was, that they expected from life but was somehow missing.

When I originally began to see the indications of 'why people are what they're like', I felt very pissed off at first, because I realized that we are probably capable of such a lot more than we are led to expect by current society. As I got further in though, I recognized this as self-pity; it was sentiment, playing the victim; it was a part of the problem, not the solution. If I believed Matrix Theory was right, it was time to put my gray matter where my mouth was. I experienced a renewed sense of amazement about intelligence itself, put my trust in the theory I had built around this information, went with it and began to learn how we can hack our way back to that 'something more'. So much more is supposed to happen, and I believe that what should happen is intelligence. I now have some personal experience of the difference n-hacking can make to both cognitive ability and personality, and it has left me, as the Irish say, a bit gobsmacked, but nevertheless delighted. Intelligence need never be lost over time, quite the opposite in fact. I believe now that we should start fighting back, reclaim our optimum and push it, just as we are with our pathetically short 'natural' lifespans. And I believe that I know how to do that, and where we must go from there.

The basic overall architecture of the original hardware is pretty much the same in all humans. Imposed upon that from conception you have: (a) Physical platform, (should be safe place from which to explore); affected by genetic influences, (that may develop more or fewer neurons or connections in one or more areas,) (b) Energy with which to explore (Power supply); dependent on nutrition (which may enhance or restrict growth and development,) and (c) Things to explore; (Input, from both within and without the brain.) All of these are susceptible to damage or lack of resources. All are susceptible to both positive and negative interference. That is how our key factors are relevant in all this. Let's have a look at them in a less clinical context...in their real social context in the real world.

How people stuck in different matrices behave.

(If you are the correct age for your matrix, by the way, you are not stuck. I do not approve of 'hothousing', or trying to speed up the development of a growing mind. If an engine's running as it should, leave it alone.)

First, a quick, easy summary:

Matrix 1:

· Matrix should be: The womb

· Locus of attention/awareness: Sensory motor 'old' brain networks

· Should take place: In the womb

People stuck in M1:

· Relate everything to: Womb experience (fists clenched, curled up, thumb sucking)

· Get anxious when: Awake, due to sensory overload

· Cannot handle: Sensory motor input

· Deal with anxiety by: Sleeping heavily, or crying, whimpering and screaming if made to stay awake

Matrix 2:

· Matrix should be: Parent or permanent carer

· Locus of attention/awareness: Sensory motor 'old' brain networks

· Should take place: From birth to 3 years of age

People stuck in M2:

· Relate everything to: Sensory motor input (sex, food, fighting, physical movement)

· Get anxious when: Their desires are not quickly met, or when faced with anything too different from themselves, or when their 'parental substitute (usually a partner) seems threatened

· Cannot handle: Silence

· Deal with anxiety by: Using aggression, noise, physical violence, rage

Matrix 3:

· Matrix should be: The environment/nature

· Locus of attention/awareness: Emotion and imagination 'mid' brain networks

· Should take place: Between 3 and 7 years of age

People stuck in M3:

· Relate everything to: Emotion and imagination (fantasy, superstition, magic, religion, mysticism, stories)

· Get anxious when: The environment/nature seems threatened, or they believe they have 'sinned (transgressed the moral rules of their belief system)

· Cannot handle: Confinement

· Deal with anxiety by: Complaining, protesting, moaning and whining, or appealing to a 'higher power' (prayer, self denial), or emotional blackmail (an attempt to make others feel they have 'sinned')

Matrix 4:

· Matrix should be: Society and the material world

· Locus of attention/awareness: Concrete operational 'RH' networks

· Should take place: Between 7 and 11 years of age

People stuck in M4:

· Relate everything to: Material things and constructs (tool usage and manipulation, society, objects, systems)

· Get anxious when: Their position in society or their group seems threatened, or material things do not function as they should

· Cannot handle: Solitude

· Deal with anxiety by: Sulking, leaving in a huff, slamming doors/thumping or kicking material objects, posturing, threats, or legislation and 'official' punishment.

Matrix 5

· Matrix should be: self

· Locus of attention/awareness: Formal operational 'LH' networks

· Should take place: Between ages 11 and 15

People stuck in M5:

· Relate everything to: Their own ideas about it, and coming up with those; analysis

· Get anxious when: Anything gets in the way of their flow of creative ideas or anyone disagrees with them

· Cannot handle: tedious repetitive tasks, distractions, interference, boredom

· Deal with anxiety by: Self isolation, running away, self medication, or expressing it in creativity

...Now I'm going to go into this in a lot more detail. Note that not everybody experiences all the behavioral problems associated with a particular matrix; the worse you are stuck the more of them you'll notice.

M1 is the matrix we can all acknowledge there is a problem with being stuck in, basically with the mind of a baby. Those stuck in M1 are those spoon fed and incontinent individuals who will never be able to speak, move very far or indicate their needs very well, if indeed they are aware of having any. Everybody knows, if you are stuck in matrix 1, there is obviously something wrong with your brain. If you were stuck in M1, you wouldn't be reading this; you would be chewing it. The problem is obvious because it creates a problem with the body. Being stuck in other matrices does not, so the damage is more difficult to spot. Also, because such conditions are considered 'normal', we don't notice so easily. For example, people stuck in M2 look quite normal (to most people) and can actually be great fun to be with, if you're in the mood for drinking heavily and shouting a lot. (I tend to go home before the fighting starts).

M2 people operate from the 'old' brain module. They are emotionally between one and three years old. They need instant gratification, have a short attention span, get impatient and irritable often and have no awareness of the consequences of their own actions. They do or grab whatever makes them feel good now without regard to what the consequences might be later. Anything that goes wrong is somebody else's fault. If they are thwarted they express rage as tantrums, shouting, yelling or fighting. Their greatest fears are failing to get what they want, or facing something too different from themselves to comprehend.

Their sensory motor skills will be clumsy and uncoordinated. They will find it difficult to move with grace and to learn anything such as dancing or driving a car, which skills they will perform jerkily, like a machine or like a child still learning to walk. They will have no sense of rhythm or timing and be unable to keep time with a musical beat. Their interests will be those that provide sensory motor gratification; physical sports, sex, beer, chips and gravy. If they like art, it will have tits or manly thighs in it. They will buy the music by the sexiest artist, or performed by people who look like they do.

They will interpret the body language of friendship as being sexual, and if anyone of the same sex but from another matrix shows friendship they will think that that person is either gay, or taking the piss (and probably give them a good beating for either). They are likely to be sexist, probably also racist and homophobic, these stances based on their deep fear of anything different. Anything outside of M2 they will either have no interest in or look upon with scorn. Intellectuals, classical artists and musicians they will see as pompous sissies, religious/mystical people as 'bloody weirdoes', and politicians 'money grabbing bastards' or 'upper class twits'. If they vote, they will vote for the bloke who looks most like they do, or the woman with the biggest tits. They do not read books, but they may read comics and popular newspapers, as long as they have enough sex and sport in.

They'll be the group with the highest convictions for violent crime and they will look down on all 'educated' types, saying they have no balls.

Keywords and favorite topics: sex, food, fighting, status, the team, the gang, sport, and bloody foreigners.

They are currently the second largest group in western society.

Now, whilst you may find this kind of a lifestyle hopelessly immature and even crazy, there are whole sections of society where this kind of behavior is accepted as the norm, and they would think you are crazy for disagreeing with them. That i am calling it mental dysfunction is not because I dislike such people any more than any other damaged group, it is because it is mental dysfunction, and I am not prejudiced about dysfunction, whichever group it appears in. People stuck in other groups are equally damaged in different ways, so before you start thinking, 'wow, at least I'm not stuck in M2', let me remind you, neither was Hitler. Hitler was an M4 boy.

If an M2 person builds enough connections from the 'old' brain module to the 'mid' brain module1, s/he will shuffle somewhat uncomfortably into matrix 3 and get stuck there. There may still be M2-related sensory motor problems, but the locus of attention, awareness and interests will be run on 'mid' brain networks.

M3 is the land of (aptly) 'middle earth', of elves and faeries, UFOs, religion, new-age mysticism, superstition, hero worship and deep ecology. People stuck in M3 tend to be anti-tech and often anti-science, saying technology or science 'has no soul', or 'has no heart'. M3 people suffer deeply from sentiment, living with great, whooping feelings, which they believe are caused by external events, ignorant as they are of the wonders of the human limbic system and temporal lobes. Emotionally aged between three and seven, they are drawn to the input relevant to that age; fantasy, stories, music and song, poetry and magic...these are the people you meet at stone circles dressed as wizards, or in protest camps complaining about anything harmful to the earth (or failing that, anything that might be.) They require no scientific proof -they feel it, man. Anyway, 'science' is not to be trusted. The rest of us are just too insensitive or too out of touch with our inner child. They are often obsessed with a 'connection to nature'.

Instead of beer, they are more likely to prefer cannabis, instead of sex, 'free love'. (Each person stuck in a matrix tends to use intoxicants that stimulate the relevant networks). They are often anti-materialistic and anti-politics, drawn towards a 'natural tribal' or religious/spiritual lifestyle, but are still quite happy to use contraception, and even antibiotics (if 'alternative therapies' fail, of course; they will go to a spiritual healer before visiting a doctor). They are highly suggestible, and brilliant targets for the placebo effect, which gives weight to their belief in whatever they think cured them. A lot of them are pagans, and those with a more traditional religious leaning are more likely to be Zen Buddhists or Sufis or 'new age' Christians, eschewing organized religion, although 'churchianity' still captures a large percentage of the older generation. They place a great deal of emphasis on being 'selfless', often due to not having one. They may meditate, do yoga, or pay large quantities of their worldly goods to some spiritual advisor. They are often vegetarian and almost always pacifists. They tend to believe in an afterlife, karma, or otherworldly entities. They used to be found in large quantities at free festivals, taking drugs and having sex (sorry, free love). These days, such festivals are full of M2 people, drinking and fighting, but the times they are a-changin'.

M3 people can be intensely creative, although they often have little idea how to explicate it to their financial gain (and usually wouldn't want to -material gain is for breadheads, man). They value creative expression, but without the addition of working executive functions, rarely do anything with it. Our ability to predict and control, plan, assess, strategize and execute that plan all depend on the integral functioning of the prefrontal cortex. So M3s have some great ideas, but are rarely able to put them into practice. Often they feel that their talents are unrecognized, and they are correct; they are unrecognized by another bit of their own minds. We always externalize our problems, however, and M3's failures are blamed (by them) upon society for valuing the 'wrong' things. This can actually be quite dangerous for them because strong imagination without frontal lobe computation can seriously unbalance neurochemistry. Artistic and poetic 'genius' is associated in the minds of the general public with insanity for good reason, but it is not only the artistic ones who go loony. The psychiatric wards are full of M3 people gone awry, who think they're Elvis, or God told them to do it. They are especially susceptible to bipolar disorder and schizophrenia (although M4 has its share of bipolar folks).

When M3s are placed under stress they behave like any other 3-7 year old; they moan, whine, complain, protest, and resort to emotional blackmail. They may also turn to 'higher powers' for help, including fortunetellers, astrologers, spirit mediums or god.

People stuck in M3 tend to make enemies of those in M4, saying they have no soul.

Keyword and favorite topics; Spirit, belief, faith, supernatural, sin, fate, destiny, altruism, caring, with all my heart.

The idea of a soul would make a person in M4 laugh, or more likely shake their heads in disgust at such primitive beliefs and put it down to an inadequate education. M4 people think most art, especially poetry, is a bit of a waste of time and pretty meaningless. They may appreciate science-fiction (but only if the tech makes sense; I mean, you have to be able to explain how the warp engines work, or, what's the point?) M4 people will more than likely be interested in politics, sometimes as ardently and as blindly as M3 types may be interested in religion. They will put a lot of emphasis on what they see as fairness, often involving irate opinions about crime and punishment, and the issues of social control and legislation. They can be religious, but it will be of the church/temple hierarchical structure type and they will join in mainly to conform. They are likely to be pro-science and technology.

They will pride themselves on being clever (they will call it intelligence), and will earn status in their peer group by having a high IQ and getting qualifications. M4 people will criticize M3 people, saying they have no brains.

Most of the world's population is stuck in M4. They are pedantic, argumentative, and on the whole take life and themselves far too seriously. Pomposity and self-righteousness rule the world.

Keywords and favorite topics: Education, credentials, social, intelligence, fairness, justice, crime, order, progress, rights.

Actually, both M3 and M4 people have a lot in common (although they would be loath to accept this). The intensity of their beliefs, their absolute trust in their religious/political system, their conviction of their rectitude, and their opinion that all others have got it wrong or just haven't seen the light or been educated enough yet, are all common factors in their behavior. Both groups will send their more extroverted adherents to knock on your door canvassing for your support. More introverted members will spend their time, money and energy on the aims of the group they are in, and M4s in particular are often afraid of being alone, or without that group. Rejection by those they care about will cause M4s intense anxiety, and when their chosen group endorses them will feel a pleasurable glow. When under stress, M4s will behave like any other 7-11 year old; they will either sulk, leave in a huff, spend time posturing, rowing (they call it argument, but it includes name calling and deliberate insults) and threatening, or resort to seeking help from society; through legislation and official punishment.

Rarely, someone's neural miswiring results in them being stuck in M4 with a fully wired set of temporal lobes. These people are the political/religious fanatics/extremists, the tyrants and dictators of this world, utterly convinced that their point of view is the only sane one and that everybody else is not only wrong, but evil. If you ever meet one of these people, run. Run your ass off. They are quite likely to explode, either literally via their suicide vest or mentally via the asylum.

M5 should happen to us between the ages of 11 and 15, and people stuck in M5 behave very like anyone else of that age. Their own ideas about everything are paramount to them and they talk about themselves almost without exception (and in some cases, without cessation). They may be preoccupied with their 'image' (although they hardly ever go out in public, being too busy with their own things). They are totally self-centered and uninterested in what anybody else is doing. They resent distractions, and will be dismissive of anything or anybody that interrupts or gets in the way of their thoughts and ideas. They can be workaholics, and they much prefer to work alone, but the work must be that of their own choosing or they will resent the time spent doing it immensely. They find a tedious boring or repetitive job unbearable, and become depressed very quickly if forced to do one. They can find it very difficult to relax without drugs or drink, although they rarely get addicted (this would distract too much from doing their own things).

Everything an M5 does is based upon the mantra 'I, me, me, mine'. They have very little interest in looking outside of themselves at all, except in pursuit of the things they are interested in. They deal with anxiety by ignoring it; stonewalling the problem, and doing nothing, often claiming it is 'somebody else's problem' even when it is quite blatantly not. They can appear very flat, emotionally, on the outside, but they are usually in quite a bit of turmoil internally (they cannot show this, however; it would be 'uncool'.)

The attitude of M5s should not be mistaken for arrogance. They are quite happy to admit that they are having a rotten time (if they are) and moan about it, as long as they are talking about themselves. Their problems, their difficulties, their lives. If their lives are interesting, many people don't mind M5s; it's fun to hear about someone's adventures if they make an entertaining tale. But M5s find it very hard to listen, and there comes a point when people get tired of a one-way conversation.

Keywords and favorite topics: Me. My work, my ideas, in my opinion, in my experience, I'm here now; time to talk about me. That's what I think.

If you are stuck in any of these matrices, you will find you cannot understand, let alone agree with, the mindset of someone from another matrix. Often it won't even make any sense to you; you'll be baffled that anybody could think that way. This causes anxiety and alienation. You really can feel all alone in a room full of people. You may think, 'Oh, they're just not my types', or 'it's just not my kind of scene; I don't feel at home here'...and you'd be correct, You're not. You are never 'at home' until your matrix provides all your needs, and what intelligence needs, is interaction.

...And you don't get a lot of that round here.

1. Remember that I am referring to 'modules' or networks here, not to brain parts. Although the location of many of these networks fall within these brain parts, not all of them do so. The 'midbrain' has suffered several changes of definition over the years and currently includes, anatomically, parts of the 'old' brain module.

5. System Information (Chain reaction: how each factor contributes to the problem.)

In this chapter I have covered each point in context of the matrix in which it arises, in order to help show the steps in the growth of intelligence as well as the relevance of the points themselves, because many of these points have a knock-on effect. The overall picture is greater than the apparent sum of its parts. You will recognize the key points mentioned from the context in which they are demonstrated, but I have also numbered them for ease of reference throughout. Most of the key points of damage occur in the first three matrices; from birth until about age seven, so only those three matrices are covered here. However the knock on effects of this damage are lifelong, and we shall take a look at some of those effects in later chapters.

MATRIX 1

The womb (conception to birth)

Because of the order of our brain growth we tend not to remember before we were born. Or the experience of being born, one of the most unusual experiences we ever encounter, an unknown at the time akin to an upload... Isn't it about time somebody told us what happened?

Unfortunately there's a massive difference between what should happen and what does happen, for most people. And we probably had a reasonable birth, compared to some. From the moment our intelligence starts to form, it is at the mercy of biology's vulnerabilities.

Key Factor (KF) 1: Prenatal nutrition, blood & oxygen levels affected adversely by current western diet and lifestyle.

It is now well known that maternal nutrition affects the growing fetus fundamentally.R7 Recently a bunch of scientists caused a minor uproar by changing the colors of the coats of baby mice merely by altering their mother's diet. They went on to improve the spatial memory ability of baby mice in a similar manner. By feeding her certain vitamins, they had altered gene transcription.

Gene transcription is a seriously useful trick in the neurohacker's toolbox. It's the key to all sorts of changes, including many of those affecting memory and cognitive abilities. It can be done throughout life; not whilst still in the womb, and we'll look at it more closely later on. The issue here is, what our mother eats during pregnancy shapes our mind, and most mothers, currently, eat a good deal of nasty things whilst pregnant.

One major gene transcription effect is the 'CR' effect, which, when the gene is turned off, can mimic the practice of calorie restriction without the subject needing to diet. When this controlling factor is turned on, it's much easier for a baby or young child to become overweight unless fed in a manner which turns it off again. Putting babies on calorie restricted diets is a ridiculous suggestion, we just don't know enough to make such a practice safe, and untold damage to growth and development could occur. Once the gene is on, therefore, it must currently stay on until the person is old enough to make the changes themselves through diet or n-hacking. But if you do have a weight problem, either your mum's diet when you were in the womb, or your own diet as a child, was probably responsible. And if you don't get the expression of that gene deactivated, you'll always find it very hard to lose weight and keep it off.

Other maternal diet factors that affect fetal development are all the everyday drugs pregnant women take and consider 'normal': tea, coffee, sugar, food additives, alcohol (and in some cases still even cigarettes). None of these are expected by biology in the body of a growing fetus, however most of them pass through the umbilical cord in about 45 seconds. Consequently a lot of us are grown in a vat of neuroactive stimulants which our biology is not expecting to encounter. Try this experiment:

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EXPERIMENT:

(These experiments are not essential to neurohacking progress; they are for a laugh. I personally have done them all, and am not recommending or advising against any of them. It's up to you. I do not, however, accept responsibility if during any of these experiments the subject is unable to stop laughing.)

You will need:

A packet of white granulated sugar.

A teaspoon

A willingness to read a lot of labels for 14 days

A really hot, fresh cup of tea

Willpower

Method:

1. For 14 days you will eat no sugar and take no stimulants. No coffee, no tea. No white, brown, or any other kind of sugar. No crumbly candy bars. No cupcakes. No cookies. No chewing gum. No puddings. No cereal with added sugar, no canned food with added sugar, in fact, absolutely nothing with sugar in or on. Put those Oreos down.

2. On getting up on day 14, leave yourself at least two hours before going to work, (or driving, or anything requiring being sensible). Eat no breakfast. Half an hour later, eat one whole teaspoonful of white sugar on its own. Now drink a nice, fresh hot cup of tea. Or two even.

3. See what happens. (ROFL)

4. If you want to stay off sugar, to prevent this effect recurring if you eat something sweet by accident, every two or three days eat one cookie. I promise you, by the time you're done eating it you'll feel right as rain.

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Most of these everyday chemicals do not normally affect us like this because they cause tolerance very quickly. The fetus gets used to a chronic state of overstimulation. If the newborn is breast fed, this state will of course continue, and one of the problems with weaning, or with bottle fed babies, is the sudden dead stop of that chemistry which causes severe withdrawal symptoms (you might have noticed them at the start of your experiment), including headaches, colic, digestion/egestion problems, kidney and liver pains, and fatigue. Stopping something like sugared coffee after nine months' overdose of it is not an easy thing to do. The brain is also lacking its stimulants, and it takes time to get the production of relevant hormones back on line at their natural levels.

But by far the worst drugs that pass from mother to infant are anxiety hormones such as cortisol. The tiny body is physiologically in a constant state of anxiety without a feasible cause, a permanent 'stress-without-resolution'. Stuck in this situation, the brain of the fetus cannot develop intellectually in preparation for birth.R5 However, genetic timing cannot do anything about this. Growth (physical) goes on, while intellectual growth creeps along more slowly, falling farther and farther behind. If the infant is not miscarried, it will be born deficient in intelligence if not in body, highly likely to be mentally retarded, or dysfunctional in a wide variety of ways. The child's brain will automatically start to compensate for its deficiencies. The greater the deficiencies, the harder it must compensate. 'Compensating' means remaining intellectually behind whilst trying to get the brain working properly by somehow finding the correct bits of input to shift matrix. But meanwhile, time goes on, the mind is meant to be concentrating on the present time and adapting to it, but instead it is back somewhere still trying to get bits of itself working. If the first learning experiences are incomplete or faulty, the next learning experiences will be twice as difficult. The child's intelligence slips further and further behind because the brain growth spurts take place automatically; the tools are delivered on time but we are not competent enough or ready to use them.R3 (Despite this, I believe that intelligence is rarely stopped from developing; it is merely slowed down. The reason people do not fully mature is that they don't live long enough for biology alone to catch up. Most of us don't get anywhere near our full potential before the body starts falling apart.)

KF2: Induction of birth before the fetal intelligence is sufficient to cope with life outside the womb.

Notice the intended time we should spend in the first matrix. We are supposed to be in the womb from conception to birth. Our genetic code includes a biological clock, that tells us when to grow which bits, and that clock knows when we're ready to be born. This is one of the situations when nature usually gets it right. It's the baby who decides when to start the birth process, by sending out hormones into the mother's bloodstream to start the contractions. This, our birth, is our first 'shift' (or should be), from one matrix to another. It is genetically timed to coincide with a massive brain-growth spurt, to prepare the baby for the new abilities it will suddenly need (breathing, feeding, etc.) and for the huge amount of learning it will suddenly have to do.

These days, in most hospitals, the mother is called in when the doctor thinks she is 'due', and birth is 'induced'. This means, drugs are given to the mother to make birth begin, at a time that is convenient for staff (i.e. like not the middle of the night, or at weekends). So most babies are born before this vital brain-growth spurt has had time to take place, and are ill equipped to deal with life outside the womb. This is considered 'normal procedure' and the baby is expected to survive (earlier, the same sequence of events would have led to an abortion).

KF3: Anesthetics at birth

KF4: Prolonged labor in the supine position

KF5: Premature cutting of the umbilical cord

There are various examples of experimental proof to support several of the key factors in Matrix Theory about birth. Some years ago, Dr. W.Windle studied hospital childbirth and found two dangerous procedures: One was the automatic use of drugs (pre-medications and anesthetics) and the second was the usual practice of cutting the umbilical cord as soon as the baby's body was out.R8

Dr. Windle then did the following experiment: He took pregnant monkeys, and subjected them to our modern medical practices. At the time of the mother monkey's labor and delivery, he gave her anesthetics in the same amount (by body weight) that a human woman would be given. At the birth of the baby monkey, he cut the umbilical cord at the same time as practiced in hospitals.

In every case, Windle's newborn monkeys could not breathe, and artificial means had to be used to assist them. (Hospitals now have various machines to aid in this process with humans.)

In the natural world, such aid is not available. Unless an animal is born dead, it will breathe the moment its head pops out. Soon after birth, baby monkeys are quite proficient; they can cling to their mother, who gets on with her life, carrying the baby with her, giving it only the necessary assistance in those first few hours of life. In a short time, the infant is autonomous, on its feet, jumping about, leaping away from its mother and back to her.

Windle's infant monkeys, whose birth had been the equivalent of a human one, showed very different results. The babies were totally helpless. They could not cling to the mother or get their limbs working at all. The mothers, recovering from the anesthetic drugs and a greatly lengthened labor (which anesthetics and the supine position (flat on their backs) also cause) could do little to help. Windle had to assist to keep the babies alive.

He performed autopsies on some of these damaged infants and found in every case that their brains had scars of a kind caused by oxygen deprivation, in the reticular formation and cerebellum. He kept some of the monkeys alive until they had grown up, and when he autopsied some of these grown-up monkeys, he found that their brains still had exactly the same scars found at birth. Oxygen deprivation apparently always damages the brain, and the damage done at the beginning seems to be permanent.

Windle next studied human infants who had died following known birth histories of anesthetics, immediate cutting of the umbilical cord and so on. Autopsies showed that these babies' brains had exactly the same scars he had found in his oxygen-deprived monkeys. Cases of children who had similar birth histories but who had died at ages three or four were then studied. Again, the brains were found with the same scars.

Windle pointed out that in those first critical moments when the lungs must begin providing all the oxygen for the newborn, biology expects to call on the extra supply from the umbilical cord. A drugged mother automatically means a drugged infant, and a drugged infant cannot get its breath. Artificial means must be used. The cutting of the umbilical cord at this time denies the infant the extra oxygen at the most critical point in its life. 'Spanking the baby' (holding the newborn up by the heels and slapping it on the backside) is supposed to assist the resuscitation process by causing the infant to gasp in reaction to the shock of pain. (Recent studies suggest that this can cause slow internal bleeding in the spine resulting in 'cot-death' weeks or months later.)

KF6: Inappropriate and traumatic physical treatment at birth

Shock is also a major cause of brain damage. The infant's nervous system is certainly aware of discomfort, pain and distress at birth.

Ever been into traumatic role-playing experiences just for the crack? Here, have a quick nightmare. I dare you:

Imagine you are in a warm, dark, safe, sensual, nourishing, comfortable place, feeling really groovy. Things have been this good forever, in your experience so far. You have never known hunger or thirst or physical distress. Every sensory motor exploration has met with interesting success. You float, dreaming or playing as consciousness demands, safe in your own sweet universe.

You are suddenly ejected, without warning, into a brilliantly lit space, drugged, with a metal screw inserted into your head, almost suffocating trying to breathe an unfamiliar element, choking on tubes, loud sounds ringing in your ears, you are turned upside down and slapped until you scream, your eyelids are peeled back and harsh chemicals are dropped into your eyes, you are dropped into cold scales, weighed, measured, wrapped in plastic, and put into solitary confinement you know not where, but you can hear others of your kind crying and wailing. Unable to move, your cries for help ignored; even with everything you know and have experienced in life so far, are you not a bit traumatized? It sounds rather like those alien abduction stories to me.

A mind that has no experience at all of the world and that is born open-mindedly expecting its needs for safe, pleasant nurturing to be met has little choice when faced with this sort of experience but to go into shock. The venture of innocent intelligence excitedly into the unknown has been met with torture and abandonment. Association training has begun. All future learning will be affected.R5

Learning and behavior problems resulting from brain injury at birth are found in 15 to 20% of all children examined. It is estimated that 20 to 40% of the school population is handicapped by learning problems that may be related to 'neurological impairments at birth' (brain damage).R4 There are degrees of brain damage, of course, and this minimal amount is not usually severe enough to turn us into dribbling vegetables, however any damage to the brain obviously affects our intelligence and further development.

Let me point out at this stage that I am in no way opposed to technology or medicine in childbirth. All technology can be good or bad, depending on how it is used. It would be handy if it were used in ways that would benefit and enlighten, rather than harm us, obviously. Unfortunately sometimes it isn't.

KF7: Failure of mother and newborn to activate the newborn's sensory systems by full sensory interaction within a short 'window of opportunity' immediately after birth

Another subject deeply related to this which is either ignored by medical textbooks or horribly misunderstood, is the idea of infant /mother 'bonding'.R10 Such a huge amount of crap is talked about bonding; people describe it as some sort of sweet, cuddly, sentimental, emotional thing or a new-age-tribal, magical, spiritual, mystical experience. Yuck. Hand me the vomit bag.

Bonding is a part of the competent functioning of intelligence, not sweet fluffy sentiment or cosmic mysticism. Bonding is your intelligence finding links between the known and the unknown, for your brain and its growth. Bonding is forming links of communication, getting access to information and linking in with a system we can copy and download programs from. It is like our 'server' for the biological Internet, a bridge between realities to enable us to learn more and more about the new ones. It builds the corpus callosum and uses the networks of association in the parietal lobe, the hard-line for perception of reality.

Newborn babies don't talk so biology relies on an instinctive response, brought online automatically as each generation copies the last. Mother animals instinctively do certain things with their baby at birth (if left alone with their baby and allowed to, and sufficiently free from brainwashing not to be afraid to do or ignorant of), and infant animals are genetically programmed to expect this and respond to it.

The fulfillment of five needs, will achieve the first bonding after delivery: a thorough stimulation and activation of the baby's five senses. Bringing the systems online. Nature must receive the five signals that birth has taken place, otherwise the baby's body will continue to produce the stress hormones that it needed for birth. Biology will continue stress-hormone production unless the signals are sent, until a critical mass builds up and sends the infant body into shock, which can range from minimal to severe. If the brain's needs are not met within about forty-five minutes after delivery, the critical mass level is reached, the infant's sensory-motor system largely shuts down, there is a retreat into the 'womb' state of consciousness, and the child's mind remains in matrix one, emotionally and intellectually.

(You may be wondering at this point why hospital staff don't know all this. Some specialists do. But who is going to listen to a load of information that proves that they, too, are brain-damaged? Certainly not average medical staff, who are, after all, also probably caught in a matrix. And who is going to attempt to change the entire system of how we give birth to and raise our children, using information that effectively tells everybody that there is something wrong with their minds? Fancy a situation of total mass panic, laced with justifiable rage? Remember that most people don't yet have the potential or the desire to change their minds.)

A part of our brains is called the reticular formation (RF), one of the parts that I mentioned earlier which suffers lesions through oxygen deprivation. Four of our five somatic senses send their information through the RF. The job at birth is to get the sensory system working in the shortest possible time, because this is the only way to activate that part of our brains.

From the moment of birth, input to the newborn affects already existing networks, and acts to strengthen, weaken, or otherwise modify their structure and activities. For example, when the baby is looked at face to face, brain networks for visual acuity and focus, color, shape and form are all activated, and this activation causes new connections to form within those networks. When the baby hears the mother's heartbeat, and when she speaks to it, different networks are activated to process sounds and interpret them, and new connections form in the auditory cortex. When the child is touched and cuddled, sensory motor processing networks spring to life and connections thicken, and so on.R3

This entire system only works at optimum if the newborn is not drugged, oxygen deprived, or swamped with anxiety hormones, obviously.

The reason these key factors are the cause of an ongoing chain reaction is as follows: Any additional brain growth, including that of arborisation (the elongation and branching of axons and dendrites) depends (for both quality and quantity) on what exists already (i.e., what has already grown) but also depends on the quality and quantity of input being given in the here and now.

It is the input of the here and now which generates the networks of tomorrow. This is the case throughout our lives, but it is most especially the case at the beginning of it. The first matrix shift is when we are supposed to power up and bring the systems online.

So, how do we get the systems online?

First, vision. Our brain is pre-programmed to recognize a human face.R11 (We don't have many of these presets, just the essential few; breathing, sucking, grasping, face recognition, and the ability to automatically close off access to our throats and noses if we fall into water, are about all we start out with). At delivery a baby can recognize a face, will spend 80% of its visual time looking at a face, and, if it is given a face to look at within a distance of six to twelve inches during the first 45 minutes after delivery, its entire visual system will be fully functional by the end of that time. The baby will then smile every time a face is seen. Biology has had one of its signals met. (If this doesn't happen, the baby will remain almost blind for about three months, which is considered normal by most people.)

Hearing has been experienced in the womb by the infant's hearing the mother's voice and heartbeat. If the infant is held close to the breast, those sounds are recognized, there are enough points of similarity between the 'then' (the known) and the 'now' (unknown) for COMP to recognize, and biology ticks off signal number two.

The breast-feeding position, (in which all five needs can be met,) triggers the third signal, feeding and tasting. The first milk transfers to the baby the mother's immunities to disease gained over her lifetime, and proteins that help stop the production of stress hormones in the baby.

The human infant is supposed to feed between forty-five to sixty times a day. (This is not a typo; most of these feeds are very short). Biology expects humans to carry their babies about, feeding them whenever they're hungry.R12

The fourth signal is touch, and skin-to-skin contact with the mother, as well as a constant gentle massage, brings this sensory system to life.R12

The sense of smell is the last signal. The newborn can immediately pick out its mother's smell from among that of many other humans and will respond to it.

The incredibly complex cortical spreading of networks caused by these seemingly simple bits of input are only just beginning to be noticed, because of MRI and PET studies of the effects of these kinds of input on newborns.R3 Quite what the 'scientific establishment' decides to do about the fact that most infants don't get them, and what conclusions they will draw about that, remains to be seen. Perhaps the most significant finding is that these specific forms of input act to stop the production of stress hormones after birth.

'Bonding', is COMP making a bridge between the known and the unknown. Links between the old situation and the new one can be made, because there are enough recognizable similarities. If bonding does not take place, the brain has no choice but to try to put the new experience back into that which it already knows. In the case of birth, this means relating all new experience back to the womb experience rather than bringing the new stuff forward and understanding it. Instead of bonding to the new reality we become attached to the old. (This is 'attachment' behavior. We'll explore attachment behavior in depth later on, because it really deserves its own chapter.)

Whenever someone is stuck in a matrix, you will find attachment behavior of some kind. For example, an infant who is stuck in matrix one will keep its fists clenched –a delivery behavior- for several weeks after delivery. In the same way, the child caught in matrix two will cling physically to the parent, in fear of loss of contact, and will not freely explore the world.

Other experimental work has been done with macaque monkeys and with elephants, among other animals, showing differences between the infant animals raised by an ever-present, attentive mother and those raised with only intermittent mothering. By age 2, the latter groups of all mammals were fearful almost all the time, distressed when separated from their mothers, socially inept, and displaying many of the symptoms of 'anxiety disorders'.R13

There are genetically programmed parts of the brain that are designed only to develop if the appropriate input is given. R3 The brain growth spurt shortly after birth mainly facilitates the growth of cerebellar networks, maturing its connections that will deal with activation and control of motor functions. If the baby does not have the correct inputs to precipitate this growth, the new connections will be trying to connect to already sub-optimal networks, so the new connections will obviously be sub-optimal themselves. This is the chain reaction referred to in Matrix Theory. One cannot build optimal walls, on sub optimal foundations. That seems so blindingly obvious that I should not need to restate it. If there is nothing for new connections to connect to, they will simply not function; they will atrophy, and when the next stage happens and the new networks come along trying to connect to them, they will be gone.

As biological creatures, and especially as tiny babies, we are genetically concerned with our own well being. We must be able to compute that the world we are in is reasonably friendly, wants us to exist, and will help us in our endeavors to succeed. If we do not receive the signals to confirm this, we will be forced to concentrate on our need for self-preservation (later this becomes a need for self-esteem). We need to have this basic feeling of safety under our belts before we can pay attention to anything else. We need our matrix to be absolutely rock solid before we can explore further.

Let me make it clear here that although most people who experience hospital birth do become stuck for a while in the 1st matrix, very few remain there for long. Getting stuck in any matrix does not stop us developing; it merely slows us down. Most people do not escape matrix one, for example, until they are about six months old. The problem is, we have limited life spans, and the backlog of work to be done to catch up gets ever larger and larger. Most adults only get as far as matrix 3 or 4 before they run out of time. (That means many people never develop emotionally or intellectually beyond the age of 11!)

MATRIX 2

Mother or permanent caretaker (birth to age 3)

KF8: Isolation and abandonment at any time during the first year or so of life

KF9: Lack of physical contact

So, when we're born, our brains have just undergone a massive growth spurt. Our neurochemistry is keyed up to learn more, faster, than we may ever have to do again. We are focused, receptive and anticipatory. What do most people learn whilst in this highly receptive state?