Observations placeholder
Watson, Lyall - The Convoluta flatworm and its memory of the tides
Identifier
011369
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
What is maybe not clear from the quote is that it doesn't just come up at set times, it comes up in line with the tide, in effect it is tuned in to the sysytems of the universe that it needs to survive and the system which it needs to be tuned into the most is that of the moon and the sea.
The best way to clasiffy this is then that, as it needs to have the current state of the functions activated, it needs to tap into perceptions and not the systems themselves.
To use an analogy, there is no value in it knowing the train timetables [the system], what it needs to know is the current state of the trains [state]
The first picture I have chosen is The sea slug Elysia - a symbiont of Chlorella alga. It eats a variety of algae, keeps the chloroplasts alive in its tissues, and becomes red, green, or brown depending on the algae.
The seconf picture is of Convoluta itself
A description of the experience
Lyall Watson - Supernature
One very small flatworm … has entered into partnership with a green alga, and whenever the tide goes out, it must come up from the sand to expose its greenery to the sun..... Rachel Carson took some of these animals into the laboratory [to observe the effect] “Twice each day Convoluta rises out of the sand in the bottom of the aquarium, into the light of the sun. And twice each day it sinks again into the soil. Without a brain .. or even any very clear perception, Convoluta continues to live out its life in this alien place 'remembering' … the tidal rhythm of the distant sea”
The source of the experience
Watson, LyallConcepts, symbols and science items
Concepts
FunctionFunction dependency
Perceptions
Perceptions - accessing perceptions
Perceptions - what happens to perceptions
Perceptions - what has perceptions
Symbiotic relationships
System