ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the memory consolidation function is small because it takes second place to the rehearsal of genetic memory and that genetic memory is the reliable and robust template upon which experiential memory is inscribed. Most of psychology has concerned itself with these two kinds of memory and it has accordingly and appropriately restricted the attention of science to the waking state. Orientation and memory are thus clearly functions of the healthy waking brain which become compromised in normal sleep and in abnormal conditions of neurology and psychiatry. Protoconsciousness theory holds that genetic “memory” sets the stage for important structural specificity in the brain but that the functional adaptation of consciousness depends upon the epigenetic activity of spontaneous, self-organizing brain activation, which produces a virtual reality model of the world. Orientation and memory are thus clearly functions of the healthy waking brain which become compromised in normal sleep and in abnormal conditions of neurology and psychiatry.
