A Simple Explanation of Slime Molds--with a Cool Video Example

Slime molds are pretty smart for single-celled organisms. 

This assembly of single-celled yellow slime mold chooses to grow into a fractal shape as it searches for food.  photo credit: Audrey Dussutour, CNRS

Slime molds are not bacteria, but single-celled organisms called "eukaryotes" who have been on the planet for a couple of billion years, long before the emergence of multi-cellular life forms. They are the "first life" progenitors of all of the plants, animals, and fungi on the planet. Eukaryotes possess a true cell nucleus and DNA with the double-helix structure, and all of the complicated cellular mechanisms that go along with that, still used in our bodies today.

From wikipedia:
When a slime mold mass or mound is physically separated, the cells find their way back to re-unite. Studies on Physarum polycephalum have even shown an ability to learn and predict periodic unfavorable conditions in laboratory experiments.^[10] John Tyler Bonner, a professor of ecology known for his studies of slime molds, argues that they are "no more than a bag of amoebae encased in a thin slime sheath, yet they manage to have various behaviours that are equal to those of animals who possess muscles and nerves with ganglia – that is, simple brains."^[11]  MacPherson, Kitta (January 21, 2010). Princeton University.

One cool thing about slime molds is that they are individual, single-celled organisms, yet when conditions call for it, they come together and form one fully coordinated body. Once in that aggregated body, the mold acts with one mind, one will, and one goal. 

When an assembly is pulled apart, the individuals and fragmentary clumps will crawl toward one another and pull themselves back together. 

When it comes time to reproduce, the mold body individuals will form themselves into stalks and reach upward to the sky, holding their spore sacs into the surrounding water or air to be carried away. While the withered stalk drops back down in self-sacrificial death, the memory of the stalk's form swims away in the wake of the new single cell, propelled by the long, trailing flagella that emerges from the remains of the umbilicus.

Physarum polycephalum "many headed slime" photo credit: HelenGinger

Watch this short video that shows slime mold aggregations acting as a single, multi-cellular animal.

Now, if you think this behavior is surprisingly complicated, take a look inside a cell and see a whole 'nother world of complications. Here are two articles from the Simple Explanation blog that take you inside the machinery of the cell:
"ATP Production Machine"  and  "Inner Life of a Cell."

Humans like to arrange themselves into pyramids and stalks, too.

According to the Simple Explanation of Absolutely Everything, consciousness is not dependent upon size, nor is operational complexity. Every single thing in our universe, no matter how big or how small, carries within itself the blueprints and consciousness needed to get its job done, whatever that job may be. The Simple Explanation calls these blueprint-carriers "Units of Consciousness." 

This simple torus diagram represents the basic blueprint for every material instantiation in our universe. 

Here is the Simple Explanation hierarchy as manifested by the human body. This hierarchy is formed by Units of Consciousness "holding hands" with their neighbors to level up to the next, more complex, form. At each level, new Units of Consciousness emerge to inform and coordinate the tasks.

The lowly slime molds are a beautiful example of the Simple Explanation's Golden Rule--reaching out to others like themselves with love, information, assistance, and the willingness to work together for the common good.

These single-celled organisms-who-work-as-one are living proof of the Simple Explanation's model of aggregated consciousness and collective will.

The Simple Gnostic explanation is that these slime molds are emanations of the Fullness, as are we all. These single-celled primitives are part of the Second Order of Powers, put on earth to rectify the Deficiency. There is no need to puzzle over the level of sophistication demonstrated inside the cells and amongst the single-celled Eukaryotes because they reflect the intent of the Fullness to redeem the Deficiency that began with Logos, the Demiurge. The Eukayotes, and their use of the DNA double-helix, bring the will of the Son and the Hierarchy of the Fullness, to the earth.

This illustration represents the Fullness of the ALL as a hierarchy where every aeon knows its place, power, function, and name. The rays behind the pyramid represents the ALL, and the white cloud behind is the Son. The Fullness and the ALL dream of a plan to correct the lifeless condition of the Deficiency.