Yay Ha Miy - The Art of Creating New Spaces of Existence
Yãy hã mĩy: The Art of Creating New Spaces of Existence
How do new ways of being emerge?
Throughout this series, we have explored a fundamental idea:
The Body-Territory lives through representational spaces.
These spaces may appear as Utupe.
They may acquire emotion and become Pei Utupe.
They may shine through Xapiri.
They may be sustained by attention.
They may leave marks through memory.
Yet one question remains:
How do spaces that do not yet exist come into being?
How does a child learn a language?
How does a scientist create a new theory?
How does someone learn music?
How does a society develop new forms of organization?
How does consciousness discover new ways of perceiving reality?
Decolonial Neuroscience proposes that these transformations involve an ancestral process present across human cultures:
Yãy hã mĩy.
What is Yãy hã mĩy?
The term Yãy hã mĩy originates from the Maxakali people.
In its original context, it refers to becoming close to that which one wishes to understand.
The hunter learns the animal before the hunt.
The body learns movement before action.
The being learns a possibility before incorporating it.
In our expanded framework, Yãy hã mĩy represents the process through which the Body-Territory recruits new spaces of existence.
Before a new way of being emerges, there is a period of approximation.
The Body-Territory observes.
Experiments.
Simulates.
Imitates.
Compares.
Makes mistakes.
Adjusts.
Reorganizes.
Gradually, new spaces become inhabitable.
Consciousness and Produced Metabolism
In our framework, consciousness may be understood as:
a movement that perceives itself within the metabolism produced.
What we perceive at this moment emerges simultaneously from two processes.
The first is metabolism currently being produced:
biochemical activity;
electrical brain activity;
interoception;
proprioception;
autonomic regulation;
sensory perception.
The second is metabolism already produced by previous experiences:
memories;
habits;
learning;
emotions;
Utupe;
Pei Utupe;
marks left by life itself.
Thus, what we call the present results from the interaction between what is occurring now and what continues to participate in existence through previously incorporated experiences.
Consciousness emerges from this movement.
The Body-Territory as a Marimba
A simple metaphor may help.
Imagine the Body-Territory as a large marimba.
Each representational space corresponds to one key of the instrument.
Whenever a space becomes active, it plays its own music.
Some spaces release words.
Others release images.
Others release movements.
Others release emotions.
Others release logical reasoning.
Others release creativity.
Others release belonging.
The richness of consciousness depends largely on the diversity of spaces it has learned to inhabit.
A person who learns music develops new keys.
A person who learns mathematics develops new keys.
A person who learns several languages develops new keys.
A person who learns science develops new keys.
A person who learns art develops new keys.
Every learning experience creates new spaces.
Every space expands possibilities of perception.
Every perception expands possibilities of existence.
Creativity as the Expansion of Spaces
Creativity is often presented as the sudden production of ideas.
A Body-Territory perspective suggests something different.
Creativity emerges when new spaces become capable of coexisting with older ones.
A scientist may continue being a scientist while learning music.
A physician may continue being a physician while learning theater.
A person may continue belonging to a tradition while exploring new territories of thought.
The emergence of the new does not require the destruction of the old.
It requires enough space for coexistence.
Recent creativity research suggests that creativity involves dynamic interactions among memory, internally directed attention, executive control, and generative exploration of mental representations. (Taylor & Francis Online)
The Young Researcher
Imagine a student beginning scientific training.
They learn concepts.
Protocols.
Methods.
Theories.
These first spaces provide an important foundation.
Eventually a question emerges.
A question that does not yet exist in textbooks.
A question without a ready answer.
At that moment, a new Yãy hã mĩy begins.
The student must sustain a space that is still forming.
They must allow coexistence between established knowledge and emerging possibilities.
Creativity appears when the Body-Territory can remain long enough within this intermediate territory.
DNA Intelligence and Technological Intelligence
Technological Intelligence primarily works with already represented spaces.
It reorganizes information.
Compares patterns.
Produces inferences.
Expands processing capacity.
DNA Intelligence possesses an additional characteristic.
It creates new modes of existence.
It transforms experience into belonging.
It transforms belonging into identity.
It transforms identity into new possible spaces.
An artificial intelligence may suggest thousands of musical combinations.
The Body-Territory determines which ones possess Xapiri.
An artificial intelligence may generate thousands of hypotheses.
The Body-Territory determines which ones acquire existential meaning.
Technology organizes representations.
Life creates existence.
Critical Thinking and the Creation of Spaces
Critical consciousness does not emerge simply through exposure to information.
It emerges through the construction of multiple representational spaces capable of interacting.
Language.
Mathematics.
Science.
Art.
Philosophy.
Movement.
Observation of nature.
Logic.
Belonging.
These spaces expand the ability to compare, evaluate, reorganize, and create.
Critical thinking emerges from their coexistence.
The individual moves beyond automatic responses.
They compare.
Relate.
Question.
Imagine.
Create.
We Are Massified by the Choices We Never Had
One of the deepest statements in this framework may be:
We are massified by the choices we never had.
Freedom is often understood as the ability to choose.
Yet choice depends upon the spaces we can represent.
No one chooses what cannot be perceived.
No one compares what cannot be imagined.
No one critiques what lacks representational space.
When a society develops few spaces for critical thinking, attention becomes easier to capture, behavior becomes easier to direct, and power becomes easier to concentrate.
Under these conditions, Body-Territories begin living inside territories designed by others.
Extractivism of Body-Territories
There is extractivism of natural resources.
There is economic extractivism.
There is attention extractivism.
There is also extractivism of representational spaces.
When a small number of groups control money creation, information flows, and attention systems, they influence which spaces receive energy inside Body-Territories.
This is why education, science, belonging, retail CBDCs, and DREX Cidadão appear as related themes.
The discussion becomes more than economic.
It becomes existential.
What spaces does a society wish to cultivate within its citizens?
Scientific Materiality
EEG, fNIRS, HRV, respiration, GSR, EMG, eye-tracking, and behavioral measures can help investigate moments when new representational spaces are being recruited.
EEG can reveal rapid changes associated with learning, cognitive flexibility, imagination, creativity, and the integration of new information.
fNIRS can track cortical metabolic changes during exploration, hypothesis generation, problem solving, and the construction of novel strategies.
HRV, respiration, and GSR can reveal physiological states associated with curiosity, openness, engagement, and the maintenance of emerging spaces.
EMG can reveal bodily reorganizations associated with acquiring new motor, social, or expressive abilities.
Eye-tracking can identify exploratory visual patterns characteristic of individuals developing new ways of perceiving a situation.
Behavioral measures can reveal when individuals begin using novel strategies, producing original solutions, or establishing new forms of interaction with the environment.
Together, these tools allow investigation of how the Body-Territory creates, sustains, and incorporates new spaces of existence.
Closing Reflection
Yãy hã mĩy is the art of creating new spaces of existence.
It is the movement through which the Body-Territory learns to become more than it already is.
It is the passage between the known and the possible.
It is the human capacity to sustain emerging spaces until they become part of life.
Creativity emerges from this encounter.
Learning emerges from this encounter.
Science emerges from this encounter.
Freedom emerges from this encounter.
And perhaps consciousness itself continuously flourishes through this process of transcending one's current way of being.
References (Post-2021)
Green, A. E., Beaty, R. E., Kenett, Y. N., & Kaufman, J. C. (2024). The Process Definition of Creativity. Creativity Research Journal. Creativity is described as internally directed attention constrained by a generative goal. (Taylor & Francis Online)
Liu, C. et al. (2024). Neural, Genetic, and Cognitive Signatures of Creativity. Communications Biology. Creativity emerges through interactions among attention, memory, and higher-order cognition. (Nature)
Yeo, G. B. et al. (2024). A Neurocognitive Framework of Attention and Creativity. Journal of Organizational Behavior. Creative cognition involves dynamic interactions between attentional control and spontaneous processing. (Wiley Online Library)
Penaud, S. et al. (2023). The Role of Bodily Self-Consciousness in Episodic Memory of Naturalistic Events. Scientific Reports. Demonstrates the participation of bodily self-consciousness in memory formation and retrieval. (PubMed)
Dietrich, A. (2024). Where in the Brain Is Creativity? Communications Biology. Discusses creativity as a distributed process involving multiple cognitive and emotional systems. (PMC)
Parisi, G. (2021). In a Flight of Starlings: The Wonder of Complex Systems.
Foundational inspiration for understanding emergence, coexistence, and reorganization within complex systems.
This English version preserves the conceptual continuity of Utupe, Pei Utupe, Xapiri, Body-Territory, Memory, Attention, Consciousness, and Yãy hã mĩy while connecting them to contemporary creativity and cognitive neuroscience research.
NeuroDesafío LATAM — Preguntas para un Mundo Nuevo
NeuroDesafio LATAM — Questions for a New World
NeuroDesafio LATAM — Perguntas para um Mundo Novo
Neurociencia Decolonial: La Ciencia del Cuerpo-Territorio
Decolonial Neuroscience: The Science of the Body-Territory
Neurociência Decolonial: Ciência do Corpo-Território
EEG, fNIRS y la Materialidad de los Espacios de Representación
EEG, fNIRS and the Materiality of Representational Spaces
EEG, fNIRS e a Materialidade dos Espaços
Conocimiento Extractivo y Conocimiento Existencial
Extractive Knowledge and Existential Knowledge
Conhecimento Extrativista e Conhecimento Existencial
Tecnología Como Extensión de los Espacios
Technology as an Extension of Spaces
Tecnologia Como Extensão dos Espaços
Jiwasa y los Espacios Compartidos
Jiwasa e os Espaços Compartilhados
Yay Ha Miy - El Arte de Crear Nuevos Espacios de Existencia
Yay Ha Miy - The Art of Creating New Spaces of Existence
Yay Ha Miy - A Arte de Criar Novos Espaços de Existência
La Memoria como Territorio Vivo
La Atención: La Energía de los Espacios
Attention: The Energy of Spaces
Atenção - A Energia dos Espaços
Utupe, Pei Utupe y Xapiri: Imagen Cerebral, Alma y Representación
Utupe, Pei Utupe, and Xapiri: Brain Images, Soul, and Representation
Utupe, Pei Utupe e Xapiri: Imagem Cerebral, Alma e Representação
El Tiempo como Movimiento de Espacios
Time as the Movement of Spaces
O Tempo Como Movimento de Espaços
Las Cinco Dimensiones de la Experiencia
The Five Dimensions of Experience
As Cinco Dimensões da Experiência
El Ser Humano es Cuerpo-Territorio
Human Beings Are Body-Territory
O Ser Humano é Corpo-Territorio
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