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Neuroscience & Karma
not mere peripheral luxury activities. They are literally the most important of all the functional features that ensure human homeostasis.
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In this chapter, we shall try to show that aesthetic creation (and enjoyment) are fundamental features of human life. They are activities in which the brain is operating in the same way as it does in daily life but at a higher level, as it were. In the next chapter, we shall examine some of the ways in which beliefs operate and will discuss why they are so important.
2. The Necessity of Art and Aesthetics
Human perception is a form of creative activity. We appreciate the products of artists (painters, musicians, poets etc.) because they express and amplify our creative aptitude and stimulate our reward-centres. Our daily lives and perceputal activities continue satisfactorily because of the rewards that come from these centres. They continually influence our thoughts, words and actions, urging us, as it were, to do things that are satisfactory.
The search for satisfaction goes on continuously. Pleasure and indeed all enjoyments involve search for the meaning and significance of satisfying situations or objects. The significance may be intellectual or emotional or both. Works of art are the symbols which show that the process of living is proceeding satisfactorily. They reassure us that things are ordered as we supposed. The activities that go to the creation and enjoyment of works of art are thus quintessentially those by which the brain, working every day as a creative agent, synthesizes inputs from the world to make a satisfactory life. The creations and satisfactions of art include and symbolize both our individual acts of perception and the expression to others of what we perceive. These are the very brain actions that give us the powers of communication by which we obtain all the rest - food, shelter, sex, social life and recreation.
Art in general and painting in particular, ensures that life is worth while for its own sake, irrespective of any ideology. We are, all, aware of the relationship between artistic creation and the daily programs of the brain, but it is difficult to express its depth. Even the most philistine
