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Nobody can really say where the mind is at all. There's no way of proving that it is in the head or even in the body. In fact, common thought is that if you destroy a body, the person that body represented is thought to "have gone to a better place." We don't destroy a being by destroying a body but simply destroy the communication device that person used. So what if we got it exactly backwards? What if the mind isn't in the body at all? What if the body is in the mind? The body is simply a construct that is the result of thought. Why not? Perhaps the body is a construct in the mind like there can be a construct in a computer. A three-dimensional construct inside a computer is said to be virtually real. To change or alter a construct within a computer, one must work with the programming that created that construct. In the same way, to make change or alteration with a body, something must change in the mind or "computer" of the person whose body it is. This is what all that "mind/body medicine" is all about.
When we are born, we have a mind. That "who," that "Self" that we are has a mind. (Using the capital letter "s" differentiates from the small "s" self that is self-image.) But the mind with which we are born has no verbal skills, no analytical powers, no mathematical abilities. When we are born, our mind has no intellectual prowess at all. Though not be able to define, equate, verbalize or count, we can do one thing. We can feel. The initial operating system of our onboard "computer" is based on feeling. Feeling is the common human denominator. A Wall Street lawyer and an Australian aborigine do not speak the same language nor have the same worldly goals. But they are common in one area. They know "feels good" and they know "feels bad." (We're talking emotional feelings, not the sense of touch.) Feeling is the Rosetta stone of understanding the mind. The mind is split then. At birth, we become conscious of a world around and "outside" us. That's much different from our first nine months on the planet. As soon as we are born, our "feeling mind" sees that there is a world of form. We find that we need to develop skills to interface with this form world. Words and definitions, logic and analysis will come in handy. The intellectual or conscious mind is initiated. The flow dynamic goes from how we feel, to expressing that outwardly. First we feel, then we do. We feel, however, in the "pre-conscious" or subconscious, mind. The split of the mind is then the subconscious and the conscious. The two aspects of the mind have different concerns. One has to do with our deepest inner workings and who we truly are. The other is concerned with and was initiated to deal with the material world and who we become as defined by that world. Both use a form of thought, but the thoughts are of different tonal qualities. Somewhere near the deepest aspect of the subconscious mind lies that quality known as spirit. Somewhere near the farthest and most material edge of the intellect, lies that concern with things worldly known as the ego. Throughout the course of time spent on earth with this construct known as the body, great amounts of attention are given to educating and exercising that intellectual mind. It is held in many ways as a valued asset to acquire as much intellectual knowledge as possible. It is considered that the stronger the intellect, the more things we can "do" or "get" or "accomplish." Yet the power of that intellect to "do," "get" and "accomplish", if seen clearly, is still minuscule compared to the amazing feats that the subconscious mind pulls off on a daily basis. Even tasks taken for granted are far beyond the capabilities of the intellect. Take driving a car for example. Without the subconscious control of our bodily functions that our deepest mind maintains, driving would be impossible. You need only remember the kind of driver you were when first learning. You had to "think" about every little move or judge every distance with extreme effort and exertion. Driving a couple of miles while first learning and using intellectual evaluations of your surroundings was harrowing. But now you can drive 20 miles across town without thinking about it. All the while doing your eye makeup or eating a burger or buying stocks on the cell phone. Your subconscious can guide your car through streams of other two-ton chunks of plastic, steel and glass at 60 miles an hour and not think twice. And something as simple as a little cut on the back of your hand could never be healed by the intellect. If left alone, the subconscious can heal a broken bone or scratch while the intellect wonders. When we take on a body, we begin building an intellectual mind that we can use. It works for us to interface with the world. So begins a learning curve of training the intellectual mind, which literally didn't exist before we initiated it. But somewhere along that curve, instead of the intellect working for us, it acquires such a lofty opinion of the power of data and analysis over feeling and intuition, that the relationship reverses and we begin to become subject to the intellectual mind. It keeps us awake at night like a barking dog. We turn restlessly in bed as it broadcasts thoughts like : "Did you pick up the dry cleaning?" or "Jeez, I've got to remember to pay the car insurance tomorrow," or "I should have read that chapter on family law again." All are the concerns of the world. Occasionally something like a disaster or tragedy will come along to jar us back into perspective but by and large, we live with the little concerns of our little intellects. All are concerns of the body. And that's not even who we are. The ego is concerned with the body. Period. It just doesn't see it for what it is. The body is not a goal. It is a means. Connecting with the innate power that is the subconscious can put us in contact with ourSelves again. In some glimmering way we can intuit things about what to do and how to do it. Homage to intellect and analysis has obscured our ability to connect with our higher and innate energy. However, with practice, it is possible to restore that intuitive connection, to remember the original Self a little better. It is actually only a skill that we forgot. Be well. |
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Michael Braunstein is Executive Director of Heartland Healing and certified by the American Council of Hypnotist Examiners in clinical hypnotherapy. He graduated from the Los Angeles Hypnotism Training Institute and was an instructor at the UCLA Extension University for 11 years. Heartland Healing is devoted to the examination of various alternative forms of healing. It is provided as a source of information and not as medical advice. It is not meant as an endorsement of any particular therapy, either by the writer or by Heartland Healing Center, Inc. © 1997- Heartland Healing All Rights Reserved. |
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