Biology of Mind: a trivial foundation

### The correct interpretation of REM sleep, Libet’s experiments, and Pavlov’s reflexes

DOI references:

https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.29973007.v1

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16929983

> This essay revisits three classical pillars of cognitive science — REM sleep, Libet’s experiments, and Pavlov’s reflexes — and shows how they can be reinterpreted within the framework of Biology of Mind. The aim is to challenge the received wisdom, highlight overlooked mechanisms, and invite critique from the rationalist community.

Introduction (lower phase — sarcasm) For more than a century, the scientific community has managed to amuse itself with three great misunderstandings: Sleep, reduced to chaotic fireworks of neurons. Free will, buried by premature electrical potentials. Reflexes, glorified as if the brain were nothing more than a Pavlovian doorbell. One almost admires the consistency: generation after generation of scholars dutifully repeating these half-truths until they sound like eternal laws. Entire careers have been built on confusing preparation with choice, noise with signal, and isolation chambers with natural life. It is almost touching. Humanity, proud of its science, has managed to remove from itself not only the notion of freedom but also the complexity of its own mind — all in the name of “rigor.”

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Main body (middle phase — factual declaration)

#### 2.3.3 REM sleep as an evolutionary training ground for consciousness REM is not chaos but a training ground for consciousness. Its primary function is to relieve emotional tension and to package key associations (images, situations, conclusions) into long-term memory. In parallel, REM also functions as a simulator: consciousness is placed into absurd scenarios where familiar actions fail to produce expected outcomes. This is not random noise but a systematic mechanism of the brain — restricting possibilities in the most illogical yet universal ways. That is why identical archetypes of nightmares recur across cultures: running without reducing distance, trying to act while everything reverses. The frustration of this “helplessness” strengthens flexibility and determination in waking life. Nightmares do not arise from “raw” problems. At least minimal acceptance of a situation, or an outline of resolutio...

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