Posted on 09/21/2023 3:52:12 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
For many people, the mind and brain are interchangeable. They use one word or the other to talk about the same thing: the organ in our skull that we use to think.
However, the mind and brain are actually two very different, but interconnected, entities. As a neuroscientist, this reality is the foundation of my life's research and work: The mind works through the brain but is separate from the brain.
What is the difference between the mind and the brain? So what exactly is the difference between the mind and the brain? Well, the mind is separate, yet inseparable from, the brain.
The mind uses the brain, and the brain responds to the mind. The mind also changes the brain. People choose their actions—their brains do not force them to do anything. Yes, there would be no conscious experience without the brain, but experience cannot be reduced to the brain's actions.
The mind is energy, and it generates energy through thinking, feeling, and choosing. It is our aliveness, without which, the physical brain and body would be useless. That means we are our mind, and mind-in-action is how we generate energy in the brain.
This is a major part of the activity we pick up with brain technology. When we generate this mind energy through thinking, feeling, and choosing, we build thoughts, which are physical structures in our brain made of proteins. This building of thoughts creates structural changes in the brain, called neuroplasticity1.
In my recent clinical trials, we saw how energy in the brain changed as the subject was thinking, stimulating neuroplasticity. The brain was responding to the person's stream-of-consciousness and nonconscious activity.
The mind is a stream of nonconscious and conscious activity when we're awake, and a stream of nonconscious activity when we're asleep. It's characterized by a triad of thinking, feeling, and choosing. When you think, you will feel, and when you think and feel, you will choose. These three aspects always work together.
So, how does this affect us?
The brain is an extremely complex neuroplastic responder. This essentially means, each time it's stimulated by your mind, it responds in various ways—including neurochemical, genetic, and electromagnetic changes. This, in turn, grows and changes structures in the brain, building or wiring new physical thoughts.
The brain is never the same because it changes with every experience you have, every moment of every day. In sum: Your mind is how you, uniquely, experience life. It's responsible for how you think, feel, and choose. And your physical brain merely responds to these unique experiences.
Knowing your mind and brain are separate puts you in the control seat because you can learn to manage your thoughts and actions. Ultimately, it means you can choose what you build into your brain and how you choose to change what's already built in.
When you learn how to manage your mind, you can make feelings of depression, stress, anger, and anxiety work for you instead of against you. You can bring balance back into your brain and life.
Totally agree.
Mind is like the term Love, it means different things to different people.
This woman is a psychologist and they try to form terms to describe things that are intangible. One of my degrees is in psychology, before I went into studying neuroscience.
Basically, if I understood him correctly, the brain is a CPU and the mind is the data that is input.
;-)
…soul = operator…
>>That is of course not dealing with the philosophical and religious questions regarding the nature of consciousness and self-awareness.
Discussions of these questions by philosophers prior to developments in neurology and computer science from the ‘80s and ‘90 are not well informed.
All words are made up terms. And some are just shorthand so that people know what we’re talking about when we discuss a subject.
Sometimes people can discuss a subject without having full knowledge of the details. I can discuss my HVAC system with my plumber by using semi generic terms that allows us to complete successful communication without me becoming an expert HVAC system installer.
‘I told the doctor I didn’t want brain surgery, but he changed my mind.’
Personality is a function of the totality of the consciousness flow patterns in the soul.
Carl Jung was fairly accurate when he used Plato’s term “Archetypes “ to describe groups of consciousness flow patterns.
Basically, at the base layer of consciousness external to the physical body are two types of consciousness that rotate in oppose directions. They are masculine and feminine consciousness. Which ever one is dominant, that detrrmines gender identity, regardless of actual gender.
Memories are stored external to the physical body as holograms at the intersection of the two aspects of consciousness.
While both aspects of consciousness interact with the entire peripheral nervous system, the operating consciousness interacts eith the pyramidal neurons in the cerebral cortex.
The masculine/logical aspect primarily interacts with the hippocampus and the feminine/ emotional interacts with the amygdala. These organs are sensory translators, along with the thalamus and sevrral other areas of the brain.
That’s a very simple summary of how the soul interacts with the physical body and uses it like a projection screen.
Yes, but your HVAC system is physical, while the mind is intangible to the author.
That’s one excellent interpretation of mind.
I don’t use the term mind as it has many different definitions and confuses people.
To communicate definitively with psychiatrists,I had to learn an entirely new vocabulary with very specific meanings. They have corrected me many times.
We ran into this semantic problem during a Symposium at the University on the Neuroscience of Psychotherapy. Psychologists seldom know neuroscience, or neurobiology which is pretty much understanding neurotransmitters, hormones, and pharmaceuticals.
Feelings are difficult to quantify scientifically.
Good point!
CC
…I’ve used this analogy in my Sunday School class…
…Holy Spirit = firewall/virus protection
…very important to keep updated 😁🙏🏻…
Very, very interesting article. Thanks for posting.
I think the mind is intangible. In fact, I believe it’s an insertion into our physical realm from the spiritual realm.
SCS Lewis said, and I paraphrase, “It is said that you have a soul. You are a soul. What you have is a body.”
If I may use another example, your body is like a desktop computer. The brain is the hard drive storage and all those background processes running, while your mind is the application that uses all of that. Yet the application technically doesn’t actually physically exist. When the computer is shut off, the application goes away. It is a virtual thing.
Of course, all analogies have their limits, but I think you know what I’m driving at.
…be it just an OS with varying amounts of applications …
…we have souls, an operator with the ability, if chosen, to control the software and the peripherals…
Your posts are interesting on this.
Can you help someone who is bipolar change the way they look at what others do or say? I know someone who is bipolar, and this person tends to look at things from a very negative viewpoint, so misinterprets the other person’s intentions. It’s like being in a courtroom where you are judged guilty for everything you do, and there’s no defense lawyer allowed to explain why someone said or did something, It’s like a toxic spiral downward.
How do you help someone stop thinking in negative terms? Can they be helped if they think everyone else is the problem?
Ultimately, there is only one way to develop a positive attitude...and that way is Jesus.;-)
For a positive attitude to be realistic and durable, it has to be based on "real" hope.
BTW, I am mildly bipolar (cyclothymia). My case got better with age.
…but I used to struggle with how to interpret others as well as my own “wrong” thinking…
…my simple self came up with…
…sometimes there are hardware problems…
…and sometimes there are software problems…
…the user may have a he best of intentions…
…but occasionally we need bug fixes and physical work arounds to get the user’s intended outputs…
…(yeah I know, I’m a bit of a simpleton 🤣)…
…bug fixes = therapy (psychiatric)…
…work arounds = drugs …
Jesus is definitely missing in this person’s life. I do pray about that a lot. It is my main concern for this individual.
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