Tuesday, April 12, 2011

The Brain or The Mind: What's The Difference?

The brain is a structure with billions of cells that communicate with each other by means of neurotransmitters. It is made up of different sections that are responsible for certain duties. The brain learns more information in the first 3 to 4 years than it does its entire life. There is so much the medical profession has learned about the physiology and how the brain can re-learn to take up the slack if another portion is damaged. I have read a story of a child with a traumatic brain injury that required an hemispherectomy. That is a complete removal of half of the brain. Sounds like a death sentence, to me. What they found was remarkable. The half that remained learned to do the work of the missing portion of the brain. That is incredible. When there is a traumatic brain injury doctors now are able to surgically repair the trauma. The mind is something totally different. What makes someone a sociopath? Someone that has no conscious, whatsoever. Psychiatrists are spending time interviewing mass murderers to find out why their brain does not work like a normal individual. Personally, I believe the difference lies in the mind. My brain works as good as the average bear. I may have some memory problems due to my lifestyle at an early age. Other than that, it works okay. I cannot say that about my mind. At age eleven when I was told by a voice inside my head to skip school I saved my mothers life. When I called the plant that my dad worked the operator asked me for his extension. That same voice told me that my dad worked at extension 36. Now, if I would have been told beforehand the extension of my dad that would be the work of my brain. Retrieving information that I had been told would be the job of my brain. Making statements that I had no idea where they had come from was the work of my mind. I do not believe in fortune tellers or palm readers, that is just a money making scam. However, there has been many things that have happened in my life that defies logic. Webster defines logic as a system or principles of reasoning applicable to any branch of knowledge. Things that my mind has done has no principle of reason. That is the key word: reason. Now, check this out. Webster defines the mind as the totality of conscious and unconscious mental processes and activities. That is totally different than the brain. What is an unconscious brain? It is damn near coma, to me. So, my problem is what is responsible for knowing things I had not even heard? Hell, at eleven years old I didn't know an extension from extraction. I do, know, because I learned it in school. How did I know it at eleven? Something else that happened to me at a later age when I was thirty and had some knowledge, wasn't a dumb ass. My best friend and brother was killed in a car wreck. A couple days after he died something woke me up and my brother was standing at the foot of my bed. He looked a lot better than when I saw him in the ER after he died. I was not dreaming. I have had a lot of problems with nightmares because of my PTSD, so, I know when I am dreaming or not. This was most definitely a not. He stood there and told me to tell mom and dad that he was okay and happy, for them not to worry. Go back and read those two definitions. Which does it fit? Exactly, the mind. I know there is a difference and I will talk more about this at a later date. Thankx            theblogmeister

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