BetaBlockers and Trauma memory .

Andre Willers
30 Apr 2010

This technology is safe and cannot be leveraged beyond Beth(3) levels . AW

Synopsis:
Trauma memory at synapse level can be edited .

Discussion:
How it works :
Specialized glial cells label synapse memories (arbitrary scale 1-10) on the difficulty of changing . This has major evolutionary advantages in preventing learned-helplessness lock-ups in the neural feedback networks .

But , a traumatic event (say scale 10) may lock in a memory unable to change .

Propranolol is a beta-blocker chemical that blocks the signal from the glial cell to the synapse .

The synapse can then be edited .
But synapse memories are holistic , while glial memories are specific . Thus a memory of a memory remains without the toxic inability to remove it's specificity .

Notice the similarity to lower-back pain (see http://andreswhy.blogspot.com "Peripheral Neuropathy" )
This is used extensively in trauma therapy :
Quote:
"Twelve years ago, two men robbed the pet-food store where Coutu was manager, put a gun to his head and threatened to kill him. Coutu played dead after one of the criminals bashed his head with the weapon. For years, he had nightmares and flashbacks. He broke up with his girlfriend; he quit a job he loved as president of a bird club in Montreal. Usually upbeat, Coutu became depressed. "Inside, I was dying," he says.
On his first visit with Brunet, Coutu wrote down the details of his trauma. Once a week for six weeks after that, he received propranolol, then read the disturbing account. At first, it was agony. "I realized all these emotions I thought were gone weren't," he says. But the fifth time, Coutu noticed a distinct change. "I felt like smiling. All of a sudden, it wasn't me anymore." At his last session, doctors tested Coutu's physiological reactions—his heartbeat, his palm sweat, his facial muscles—to his script and to neutral stories, like a beach scene. His response was similar. "It feels like there's been water poured on the fire," he says. Brunet's early data are compelling: participants' symptoms dropped by 50 percent, and 70 to 80 percent no longer meet the full criteria for PTSD.
What's so fascinating about this research is how it plays on the geography of memory. We often think of memory as one entity wrapped neatly in a bow. But our remembrance of a single experience lands like confetti in the brain, scattered into different locations. The dry facts about what happened—I was walking home, a man assaulted me—appear to lodge in the hippocampus. But the emotional trauma of that same event—the anger at the man, the horror of the moment—seem to be housed in the amygdala. When the memory is recalled, both parts emerge together, like the sound and images in a movie, says Brunet. This is critical to the science of forgetting: researchers believe they may be able to target the fear part of the memory but leave the details of what happened intact. "People cherish their memories, even their bad memories," says Brunet. "They don't want them to be erased, they want to recall them with less pain." "
Other beta-blockers ?
I don’t know , but I suspect that they all have varying degrees of the same property .
Targeting the memories:
As Eben said , propranolol has been used as a general lowering of anxiety at the basic neural levels .
But I want to do better , and target the exact memories .
But the holistic structure of the brain makes this difficult . What we want is a self-focussing system . And we have one that has evolved for about 3000 years at least .
It is called Tarot cards . Archetypes that are provably minimum necessary sufficient for n inclusive singularities . But not for higher Beth(n>3) orders . Don't worry about it .
The Tarot Algorithm :
1. Take the betablocker (preferably propranolol)
Look through all the tarot cards .
2. Repeat 1 to 2 at least 5 times .
3. That’s it .
Other ways :
1. Exposure
The memory to be meaning-apoptosed is presented via an external feedback loop .
The problem is that memory elements not directly associated with the traumatic event will also be locked .This can lead to learned-helplessness very quickly .
2. Beth(n) choices .Not advised unless you know what you are doing .
3. Therapy (which is a combination of 1 and 2 above)
What I am trying to say , is that the best general therapy is the Tarot Algorithm . All the rest must involve individual , non-self-focussing mechanisms .
Ironically , a virtuality is not the optimum . (It does not have enough discontinuities to satisfy a human mind)
Instead of Tarot , a composite of Bosch , Giger , Escher ,et al can be used , but these are not necessarily as complete as the Tarot in a mathematical sense .
I would have expected that Virtual Systems to be the optimal . But they cannot search transfinities . Just looking through Tarot card pack is superior .
It does not matter what they mean , only that they are complete . The system will self-focus and assign values according to the individual .
I looked at iChing , NLP , Chritianity , Islam , etc .
But Tarot is the optimal system for general usage .
Now cut the cards .
Andre .