The Brain, the Mind, and the Gut

To look for the mind within the brain seems then as silly as looking for the music between the strings of a piano.

Human needs to be humbled. Not only do we only know the tip of an iceberg about what’s going on in our environment, but also we know so little about ourselves: Who are you? Are you more than just body and brain? If so, what's behind the wheel? is it your brain that's doing the thinking, or is it you? The brain, the mind or the gut, where does your intelligence come from?

The mind is a brain in action. The brain itself is just a bunch of connections, but the mind is a result of those connections in actions interacting/relaying information almost simultaneously throughout different parts of the brain. The brain is the physical, tangible organ in the physical body. It orchestrates the operations of that body. The mind, on the other hand, is not physical -- it has no form. What we call "the mind" is actually referring to the conglomeration of little energy impulses we call "thoughts." Because we experience something called "thoughts," the thoughts piled upon the thought and forms what’s being called MIND:

1) Brain: Is the biological organ representing the center of the nervous system

2) Mind: The brain sum of cognitive faculties: thinking, judgment, memory, etc…

To look for the mind within the brain seems then as silly as looking for the music between the strings of a piano. If we realize that the brain consists mostly out of “wires” guiding electrical impulses in feedforward- and feedback-controlled loops, that cannot even tell our senses apart, it is difficult to imagine where to find the mind. It might start getting far easier if we assume the mind as an emergent property, created, millisecond by millisecond, partially by the brain and partially by its environment. Mind - or 'consciousness' - is proposed as a 'quantum mind' by some physicists. Others - also reputed scientists - disputed this but invoke a more fundamental structure. According to social constructionism, the mind would be more *between* people, in their interaction. If the mind is a characteristic of living creatures, then it is highly related to what makes a living creature.

There are three centers of intelligence, head, heart, and gut: all aligned as a system that brings clarity, openness, wisdom and an ability to speak from the heart without judgment to receive information. The brain, the gut, and the entire body are the receiving and transmitting miracle machine. From an eastern medical and philosophical perspective, the gut is the battery that stores the nutrients to feed the brain. one’s gut is the power center and the 'truth-plane." It is probably a synergistic association in that the gut flora plays a pivotal role in breaking down ingested material to extract the micronutrients which pass into the bloodstream the peptides among them. So the miracle of the body is its ability to shunt what is needed to where it is needed and discard what is not.

The brain reacts to the mind as a CPU to software applications. The brain has to do with the matter, like hardware. The mind has to do with the flow of energy, like a software, thinking is only a small aspect of consciousness. The veins, vessels, and synapses of the brain are like a computer, able to download everything. Technologists routinely refer to the natural division of technology as hardware and software. In reality, human beings are actual 'largely driven by "wetware." 80% of our brain is made of water. This is why the mind-body connection is so interconnected. Some argue, theoretically, a brain could survive on its own without a body if it was fed the nutrients, so the brain is more like a complete system - in other words, we need the brain more than the brain needs us.

The mind is the output of ideas, opinions, feelings, emotions, attitude, attributes of one’s behaviors. You are just these four things; body, mind, emotion, and energy. Right now, the combination of these four is what you call “self.” The best of your body can reach is health and pleasure. The best your mind can achieve is sharpness and peace. The peak of your emotions is love and joyfulness. The "mind" represents our consciousness and awareness - even though there is a large part of our mind that operates below our level of awareness - the subconscious. This is what "thinking" is all about. Every thought takes place in the "mind" and because thoughts are holistic, there is not one place in the brain from where they emanate. When we make a commitment, it has to be a conscious one - one that we have thought through and decided that it is exactly what we want to do. Though the science of consciousness is a philosophical one.

From conscious to knowledge development: It seems that the development of implicit knowledge relies on four distinct areas of consciousness, which are:

1). Present consciousness -- the development of implicit knowledge depends upon practice.

2). Active subconsciousness -- developing new knowledge through the synthesis of ideas and concepts drawn from differing experiences.

3). Latent subconsciousness -- developing new knowledge through the application of concepts or principles learned long back but have become fragile and weak through disuse.

4). Unknown consciousness -- a completely new idea or concept that suddenly jumps out from nowhere. It simply happens.

So the brain is the engine of our mind. Our brains are beautifully made and necessary to sentient life. How about considering the mind as TRUE YOU who connects and controls your body through your brain using wireless connectivity. You can not find mind inside the body, it’s outside (at least partially.) The brain has a simple role: make sure the body is functioning so the mind can explore. “Thinking and consciousness are not synonymous. Thinking is only a small aspect of consciousness. Thought cannot exist without consciousness, but consciousness does not need thought.” -Tolle

Posted in: Mindshift