GLIMPSES OF THE BRAIN

"As long as scientists think consciousness resides in individual bodies, encased in individual brains, it will continue to elude them." LESLIE READ Santa Cruz, California

The best part of your report on the mind and consciousness [COVER STORY, July 17] is the thought that scientists may have to acknowledge the existence of the soul. In faraway lands, even the most "ignorant" of people understand this. Scientists, on the contrary, get lost trying to find the components, without asking who provided the ingredients in the first place. For the Andean people who live where the sun kisses the morning first, this is no mystery. If we study their rich and ancient culture a bit more, we can probably solve many problems with less blood and more so-called consciousness. MONICA EICHMANN Miami

A primitive creature may take apart an internal-combustion engine to study it but still never understand how it works--because its secret lies external to it, in the principle that explosions exert pressure. This insight is vital to understanding the engine. Hence it is no mystery why scientists haven't grasped the brain: they have been studying it solely on its own terms, much the way a primitive creature studies the engine. In my opinion, the answer lies outward. Scientists should ask, What real-world principle is the brain designed to exploit? TOM SALES Somerset, New Jersey

You quote neuroscientist Dr. Rodolfo Llinas as saying colors and sound don't exist outside our brains, concluding that if a brain doesn't perceive color and sound, then they don't exist. He was using the famous metaphor of a tree falling in the woods with no one around to hear it. I couldn't disagree more with Llinas' conclusion. Light is the energy given off by a heated or excited object in the form of photons. Sound is the vibration of molecules in a medium caused by an object. Just because there may not be receivers around to pick up the light and sound does not mean they don't exist. When a tree falls in the woods, it hits the ground and vibrates the air and ground. That vibration of the air molecules is, by definition, sound. There is sound present, just no receptors to hear it. If I cannot hear my favorite radio station's broadcast, it doesn't mean that its radio waves don't exist; it just means that my radio is off. GREG SERRANO Lansing, Michigan Via E-Mail

If consciousness is merely electrons passing from neuron to neuron, could all matter be in some sense conscious? All matter exhibits energy transfer of some type. Could the entire universe be conscious and yet unaware of it, just as the living individual cells in our brains, which have cellular consciousness, are unaware of the whole of the human organism? There are cycles within cycles and levels within levels. STEVEN SWITZER Philadelphia

It is hard to believe that you have produced something as ruthlessly uninformative as this article. Descartes was wrong about the mind/body split? Consciousness is not centered in one specific part of the brain? All the main points of the article have been common knowledge for quite some time. STEVEN ZANI Binghamton, New York Via E-Mail

"The mind ... is created by the body-specifically, by the brain.'' Nonsense. Without experience and memory, the brain is mindless. LEWIS P. LIPSITT Providence, Rhode Island Via E-mail Particularly muddled is the idea that consciousness is just an illusion manufactured by the brain. Any illusion by definition is a conscious phenomenon. Thus the view of consciousness as mere illusion contradicts itself. We must do more than reduce the mind to a mass of brain circuits if we want to understand subjective human experience. DONALD MENDER, M.D. New York City

Actually, it would be hard to find many scientists who consider their own consciousness to be an illusion. And wouldn't such scientists come to this conclusion through their consciousness? Then the very edifice through which they perceived reality would be deemed an illusion and not an integral part of the real universe. Just because scientists don't know as yet how consciousness arises, it would be most unscientific to consider it an illusion. MANI L. BHAUMIK Los Angeles

You do not mention the profound religious consequences of the scientific investigation of consciousness. If it turns out to be true that consciousness--the soul--is not a separate reality but a consequential phenomenon of the material world, then a fundamental truth of Christianity is shown not to be true. Because the concepts of heaven and hell and eternal life are based on the immateriality and indestructibility of the soul, the scientific demonstration of the material basis of consciousness would seem to mean the end of Christianity. PAUL B. MARSH Lansing, Michigan

The purely analytical scope of science may be too narrow to satisfactorily explain consciousness; for that, philosophy may have to play a role. STEVEN A. BROWN Washington, New Jersey Via E-mail

With such poor understanding of the fundamental aspects of their own subject, scientists--and some journalists--are obviously not on the "verge of understanding consciousness." WILLIAM WOMACK Austin, Texas

RESOLVING THE BOSNIAN CONFLICT

The allied quandary and bankruptcy of policy in Bosnia have one root cause: the refusal to risk allied soldiers for the stated U.N. and NATO missions [THE BALKANS, July 17]. The overriding priority is to keep our troops out of harm's way. If translated to the police department, this priority would mean keeping police officers out of high-crime areas. TED KRAMER Ames, Iowa Via E-mail

Serbia's President Slobodan Milosevic may dupe the international community, but the man who started the war cannot become a peacemaker overnight. Even if Milosevic is being honest about his new intentions of becoming a peace broker in the war, internal nationalist pressures, especially from the Serbian Orthodox Church, will eventually prevent any softening of his position. And just as Milosevic cannot change overnight, neither can genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia be remedied overnight. The inhuman wounds need time to heal. The solution to the region's problems requires, first and foremost, patience.

The imposition of sanctions has had a positive effect on the balance of power in the area. It is the only effective international mechanism and should not be traded away at any cost. Instead, sanctions should be given time to work. While keeping and even strengthening the sanctions against Serbia, the international community should help Croatia and the Croat-Muslim entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina refocus their energies and resources on economic development. Clearly the solution for the region is not with Belgrade. It rests in sanctions, assistance and, most of all, patience. MARIO NOBILO Permanent Representative to the United Nations from Croatia New York City

There must be no more U.N. veto of NATO military actions. The Serb military-industrial infrastructure in both Serbia and Serb-held Bosnia must be destroyed, which will prevent Serbia from furnishing weapons and fuel to proxies in Bosnia. The arming of Bosnia must occur, with logistical support from Western powers. To continue with empty talk just buys Serbia time to implement its fascist agenda. GORDON HAWLEY Ottawa

Threats against the Balkan fighting cocks will make things worse. We in the West have not the will, the manpower nor the sense to stop those at war in the region. Can anybody defend the actions taken by the Balkan warlords or the useless talk by NATO members and the U.N.? Can't we shame those "leaders" into behaving like humans? ROLF JAMES Toronto

Just as the Serbs cannot tolerate a Muslim person in the Balkans, neither can the international community, led by Britain and France, tolerate a Muslim country as a wholly European neighbor. RASHID HAQ Tully, New York

The Serb forces break every "treaty" put forward as they continue on their quest for total genocide. Meanwhile, the world just stands by and watches the Serb forces wreak havoc and destruction. The U.N. has totally disgraced itself in its handling of the situation. There is too much politics involved, and no true action. MICHAEL MARKOWSKI Newark, Delaware Via E-mail

Lift the arms embargo on Croatia and Bosnia. Only an equity in weapons and force will draw the Serbs to the bargaining table. Moreover, the West must punish those responsible for atrocities; a lasting peace cannot be achieved unless those whose lives have been ripped apart by Serbia's rulers see justice done. It is long past time for the U.S. to take its stand as a world leader instead of a subordinate member of the U.N. Without American guidance and support to the democratic governments of Croatia and Bosnia, will peace ever come? ANDY DECKER Alexandria, Virginia

A TALK WITH MILOSEVIC

Seldom have I read such a collection of lies and hypocritical nonsense as your interview with Serbia's President Milosevic [THE BALKANS, July 17]. The international community has a short memory. Milosevic and his allies, like Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic, are definitely war criminals, all right. But Milosevic gets the undivided attention of the world press and the willing ear of Western politicians. FREDDY SULS Vorselaar, Belgium

Part of a journalist's training must be to keep a straight face while interviewing a character like Milosevic. WILLIAM J. KRIEG Fairport, New York

PORK MARCHES ON

When will people learn that politicians are in Washington for their own benefit and will do anything to keep their jobs? The party in control just changes who gets the pork, not how much pork is handed out [CONGRESS, July 17]. Why is it going to take seven to 10 years to balance the budget? Because politicians are afraid that if they cut the budget too deeply, they will lose votes and possibly their jobs and salaries. So the pork will march on in Washington, whether led by Democrats, Republicans or others. KEVIN FORSBERG Chandler, Arizona Via E-mail

We owe Arizona Senator John McCain and his aide Mark Buse, the antipork specialist who ferrets out "ridiculous spending projects," a 21-gun salute for blocking pork-barrel appropriations. ROBERT G. ROWE Denver

ABOUT THOSE CONE TOWERS

With your report on pork-barrel deals [CONGRESS, July 17], you ran a photograph showing large cone-shaped structures with white plumes pouring from the top. The casual reader may believe the plumes are smoke, noxious chemicals or radioactive by-products of nuclear power. In fact, the structures are environmentally safe cooling towers, not nuclear reactors. They cool water and produce a relatively harmless plume at the exhaust when the ambient air is colder and denser than the mist released by the evaporative process. RON WRIGHT, Project Manager Ceramic Cooling Tower Co. Fort Worth, Texas

A BLOW TO ALL HOSPITALS

Your report "Teaching Hospitals in Crisis" correctly presents the situation faced by the nation's hospitals [MEDICINE, July 17]. In the midst of their economic struggle for survival, Congress has proposed reducing the growth of Medicare payments for patient care. While such a blow would diminish the financial strength of all hospitals, teaching hospitals could face the knockout punch of additional targeted reductions in Medicare's support for their medical-education activities. The triple whammy of the competitive marketplace, reduced Medicare reimbursements and significantly decreased federal support for medical education and research could force teaching hospitals to abandon their academic commitments. There is danger of a new kind of national deficit-a deficit in the advancement of medical knowledge, expertly trained physicians and health-care services for all Americans. JORDAN J. COHEN, M.D., President Association of American Medical Colleges Washington

Six months ago, I might have read about cutbacks for teaching hospitals and said, "What a shame!'' Today I am lying in a bone-marrow transplant ward in a Cleveland hospital. I have acute leukemia. As I watch the teams of dedicated doctors and nurses collaborate to make me well, as I realize all the research that has taken place to make my life and comfort possible, as I participate in studies to help others, I see that the crisis at teaching hospitals is more than "a shame'': it's a tragedy. If all the people working for Medicare or an hmo were to be in my position, instead of pursuing "the bottom line,'' they would agree. BONNIE L. RYDER Doylestown, Ohio Via America Online

WHAT THE SIMPSON TRIAL'S ABOUT

The O.J. trial is not a real court proceeding in the criminal-justice system [JUSTICE, July 17]. It has become a moneymaking venture for thousands of people because of the high-profile defendant. The scales of justice appear to be loaded with a preconceived verdict that he is guilty. This trial makes you wonder about the blindfold that covers the eyes of Lady Justice. We all must remain open minded. L.F. BOONE Los Angeles

The Simpson trial is a classic case that should be used as a means of educating future barristers in how not to rape our judicial system. CURTIS F. HAMLIN JR. Albany, Georgia

THE REALITY OF EDWARD HOPPER

Kudos to Robert Hughes for his insightful look at the originality of artist Edward Hopper in his report on the show at New York City's Whitney Museum [ART, July 17]. It was once said of Hopper that his paintings were a reflection of his own loneliness. Hopper lent majesty and dignity to ordinary objects (fire hydrants, desk lamps) and to people, whose courage in the midst of desolation he captured with sensitivity and pride. JOHN R. LEOPOLD Pasadena, Maryland

MUCKRAKING OUT FRONT

God bless the muckrakers. your Milestone stirred up fond memories of critic George Seldes [CHRONICLES, July 17] and his wonderful newsletter, In Fact, which contained news "the press refuses to print." In the 1940s he published a shocking account of smokers and cancer and sadly concluded that in deference to advertisers, the mainstream press would not touch it. It was two decades before anyone else seriously broached the subject. STEWART EAST Santa Clarita, California