The term 'transmission' occupies a notably bifurcated terrain within the depth-psychology corpus. In its neurobiological register — represented most fully by Eric Kandel's memoirs of neuroscience — transmission denotes the electrochemical mechanism by which neurons communicate: synaptic transmission, whether chemical or electrical, is the foundational process linking action potentials across the synaptic cleft, mediating all learning, memory, and mental life at the cellular level. This physiological sense carries significant weight for depth-psychological theory insofar as it grounds affect regulation, memory consolidation, and conscious experience in verifiable biophysical events. In a wholly distinct but no less consequential register, transmission appears in contemplative and institutional contexts — Zen lineage transmission, shamanic hereditary vocation, and cultic spiritual authority — where it designates the authorised passage of insight, practice, or power from teacher to disciple across generations. Dōgen's Record of the Transmission of the Light, Suzuki's account of patriarchal orthodoxy, Eliade's comparative shamanism, and Welwood's critique of self-styled gurus each interrogate whether authentic transmission requires verifiable succession, testing, and embodied lineage. The tension between these two domains — neurochemical and initiatory — is itself revealing: both concern how something essential passes from one locus to another while preserving integrity.
In the library
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synaptic transmission: The mechanism by which one neuron influences the excitability of another, either chemically or electrically. Chemical synaptic transmission is mediated by the release of a neurotransmitter from the presynaptic cell, which acts on receptors in the postsynaptic cell.
This glossary definition establishes synaptic transmission as the foundational neurobiological concept: the mechanism — chemical or electrical — by which neurons influence one another across the synapse.
Kandel, Eric R., In search of memory the emergence of a new science of mind, 2006thesis
The process of testing and transmission serves as a form of quality control to ensure that given teachers do not distort the teachings for their own personal gain. But most of the dangerous cultic figures of our times are self-proclaimed gurus who sway their followers through their charismatic talents, outside the stabilizing context of tradition, lineage, or transmission.
Welwood argues that authentic spiritual transmission functions as an institutional safeguard against abuse of authority, and that its absence defines the pathology of cultic leadership.
Welwood, John, Toward a Psychology of Awakening Buddhism, Psychotherapy,, 2000thesis
Voltage-gated channels generate action potentials that carry information within neurons, while chemical transmitter-gated channels transmit information between neurons (or between neurons and muscle cells) by generating synaptic potentials in postsynaptic cells.
Kandel articulates the dual-channel model of neural transmission, distinguishing the intra-neuronal propagation of action potentials from the inter-neuronal chemical signalling that underlies all synaptic communication.
Kandel, Eric R., In search of memory the emergence of a new science of mind, 2006thesis
morbid phenomena frequently accompany both spontaneous manifestation and hereditary transmission of the shamanic vocation. Let us now see what the situation is in regions other than Siberia, Central Asia, and the Arctic.
Eliade identifies hereditary transmission as one of two universal pathways to shamanic vocation, noting that pathological crisis accompanies both modes across diverse cultures.
Eliade, Mircea, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, 1951thesis
they acknowledged the importance of chemical transmission in the autonomic nervous system, but they were convinced that signaling between cells in the brain and spinal cord was simply too quick to be chemical in nature. They, therefore continued to favor the theory of electrical transmission in the central nervous system.
Kandel reconstructs the historical debate between electrical and chemical models of synaptic transmission, showing how empirical evidence eventually displaced the electrical hypothesis in central nervous system research.
Kandel, Eric R., In search of memory the emergence of a new science of mind, 2006supporting
Grundfest remained a sparker for a very long time, even after Eccles and most other neurophysiologists had become convinced about the chemical nature of synaptic transmission.
This passage traces the resistance to and eventual acceptance of chemical synaptic transmission as scientific consensus, illustrating the sociological dynamics of paradigm change in neuroscience.
Kandel, Eric R., In search of memory the emergence of a new science of mind, 2006supporting
In 1227, Ejō heard that Dōgen had come back from China intending to transmit Chinese Zen. Ejō thought to himself, 'I have already clarified the essential teachings of the three'
Dōgen's biography presents transmission as a living, historically situated event — the deliberate return from China to propagate an authorised lineage — while noting that the Record of the Transmission of the Light formulaically attaches awakening narratives to every biographical subject.
The twenty-eight patriarchs of Zen regarded by its followers as the orthodox line of transmission
Suzuki contextualises the patriarchal lineage of Zen as the institutional expression of orthodox transmission, while noting that historians must construct a continuous, unbroken succession to validate the tradition's authenticity.
Suzuki, Daisetz Teitaro, Essays in Zen Buddhism (First Series), 1949supporting
altering the transmission of body signals to the brain. As a consequence of natural analgesic actions or as a result of the administration of drugs that interfere with body signaling (painkillers, anesthetics), the brain receives a distorted view of what the body state really is at the moment.
Damasio employs 'transmission' to describe the interoceptive pathway by which body-state signals reach the brain, arguing that pharmacological or endogenous disruption of this pathway produces a hallucination of the body's actual condition.
Damasio, Antonio, Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain, 2010supporting
Three pioneers of synaptic transmission worked together in Australia during World War II and then went on to make major contributions individually.
Kandel situates the collaborative history of synaptic transmission research within a biographical and institutional narrative, attributing the field's advances to Kuffler, Eccles, and Katz.
Kandel, Eric R., In search of memory the emergence of a new science of mind, 2006supporting
My translation made from the Japanese text in Foulk, Record of the Transmission, 563–64.
A bibliographic citation to Foulk's scholarly edition of the Record of the Transmission of the Light, indicating the primary source apparatus underlying the historical claims about Dōgen's lineage.