SECTION VII Chapter 6. The Human Mind and its Perception of Reality "All that we are is the result of what we have thought." --Buddhist verse in the DHAMMAPADA "If the human brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we couldn't." --Emerson Pugh The human brain has been described as the most complex organism known in the universe. In terms of processing operations per second, the human brain outperforms even today's most powerful supercomputers. According to Charles Stevens, Ph.D, our brain matter is so densely packed that even an amount of it as small as a grain of rice contains the following: 1 million neurons, 20 miles of axon and 10 billion synapses. Considered by far the LEAST understood part of the body, neuroscientists are busy today throwing the latest technologies at the brain--electrodes, high- powered microscopes and imaging devices (such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET) scans), and superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDS)-- which can allow researchers to map the activities of the brain, in an attempt to learn more of its interworkings. Philosophical Conjectures on the Meaning of the Human Mind--the Realm of the Soul Prior to this recent deluge of technology being thrust at the brain, the MEANING of human consciousness and the mind was considered to be largely within the domain of philosophers. In ancient Greece philosophers were known to have speculated on the nature of the body and soul. During this time the popular Greek mystery religions (borrowing heavily from Egyptian religion) believed that a soul (or ethereal spirit) dwelled inside the human (material) body. The majority of philosophers were influenced by the mystery religions' outlook on the soul--viewing the mind as a separate and distinct substance that was not a function of the body. In his PHAEDO, Plato viewed the body and soul as opposites--one a material substance, the other a spiritual substance. In his REPUBLIC, Plato subdivided the soul (which he believed to be the center of human emotions and mental reasoning) into three parts. Animal-like passions, such as aggression and sexual feelings--emerged where the soul touched the lower body. Emotions such as courage and love arose where the soul connected with the chest region. The highest region of the soul resided inside the head. Here was the source of man's reasoning--and a window where one could (through philosophy) tap into the spiritual world of the divine. Although Plato's tripartite soul became the popular philosophical model of the mind, there remained a minority Greek philosophical view that the mind did not arise out of a spiritual substance--but instead was a part of our natural body. Democritus had concluded that the body and soul are comprised of the same substance--he called atoms. Lucretius (c 98-55 BC), a follower of the Epicureans, reasoned why the mind is a part of our natural body, in his "On Nature". His conclusions were based on his observations that: * When the body is severely wounded, the mind is also affected. * When one is drunk, the body AND the mind are both affected. * The mind ages with the body. Babies are born with few if any mental abilities. Learning over time greatly enhances our mental capabilities. As the body breaks down from age, mental capacity can diminish also. * "Understanding" does not occur at random in the body--say in the feet or hands. It occurs only in one physical place--the brain. * If the soul is immortal, why can't we remember actions from our previous lives? (See Chapter 4 and the discussion of reincarnation) Plato's philosophical model that the mind is comprised of TWO substances-- soul and body is referred to as "Dualism". The alternative view (espoused by Lucretius and others) holds that the mind and body are comprised of the SAME (one) substance. This model of the mind is referred to as "Monism". It was Platonic dualism, and not Monism that became the dominant movement within Greek and Roman pagan culture. During the third century AD, Plato's tripartite soul was modified by Plotinus and others-- whereby man's reasoning was REMOVED as the interconnecting link to the divine--and REPLACED by man's emotional, but irrational feelings of the sublime. The result, called Neo-Platonism, greatly influenced both Christian and pagan paradigms regarding the meaning of human existence and the divine. Early Christian theologians borrowed heavily from neo-Platonism in developing Christian dogmas on heaven and the soul. On through the Dark Ages, Plotinus' model of the soul (imbued with Christian themes and meaning) became the official doctrine of the Church. Plato's elevated role for "reasoning" was inverted--ie reasoning was now viewed as a sin, as opposed to being connected with the divine. (As proof of the dangers of reasoning, theologians pointed to Adam and Eve's ill-fated decision to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.) St. Augustine's doctrine of Original Sin was used to explain how the soul (and therefore mind) had become corrupted from the "sexual act" of our parents at the time of conception. St. Augustine's model of Original Sin became the basis for the medieval paradigm which taught that individuals were too helpless and sinful to reason for themselves--and should therefore rely on "authorities" for all true knowledge. St. Thomas Aquinas (influenced from the newly discovered works of Aristotle) argued that reasoning was not evil, as long as it never questioned Church authorities. The Scholastics, following in Aquinas' footsteps, BEGAN with statements of Church doctrine, and THEN applied REASON to explore new ramifications of these doctrines. Reason was never applied to question the original assumptions themselves (ie basic statements of Church doctrine). The hallmark of the Renaissance was its change in the paradigm whereby ALL men's soul were no longer viewed as necessary corrupt and damned. Instead, the view of Plato was revived whereby it was perceived that special individuals could be granted the gift of genius in discovering (through God's spirit) new and creative works of arts/inventions. Man was seen as being able to reason on his own (with God's help). Authorities were still important, however with the discovery of Greek and Roman writings, there was now a multitude of authorities, that one had to reconcile between. This led some to question further the foundations underlying philosophy, science, and religion. Rene Descartes was one of the most important of the Renaissance philosophers. In his DISCOURSE ON METHOD, Descartes determined to prove his existence and the meaning of human consciousness. Descartes (taking his beginning position from Plato), began with the premise that one cannot use our senses to infer our existence--as our senses cannot be trusted. However, Descartes reasoned that the fact that we have self-doubts and can be deceived means we can "know" that mental processing--ie thinking--is taking place. Descartes argued that it is this act of thinking that PROVES that we exist! Descartes summed this up in his famous dictate: "Cognito, ergo sum ("I think, therefore I am") . God, was reasoned to exist-- because the impression on our minds of an all-powerful being is proof that such a being exists. Descartes was very impressed by the recent discovery of the circulation of blood in both humans and animals by William Harvey (1628). Seeing the similarities in bodily functions between animals and humans, Descartes sought to understand the meaning of differences between humans and animals as well. Descartes reasoned that man's mind--which arises from a different substance that the body (ie a soul)--only exists in humans. Because animals do not have a soul, they have no capacity for conducting mental reasoning. From this, Descartes concluded that animals were merely unfeeling "automata"--or machines whose movements are due to instinctive reflexes. Although Descartes was careful to be respectful of the Church, nevertheless his books were placed on its List of Forbidden Books-- because it emphasized the role of the individual to discover spiritual truths, without assistance from Church authorities. It was not until the Enlightenment, that philosophers began to search for the meaning of the mind along NATURAL, as opposed to supernatural lines. One of the most famous philosophical conceptions on the mind came from the English philosopher, John Locke. According to Locke, the human mind is a part of our HUMAN BODY--and not our soul. All babies are born with a blank slate ("tabula rosa") for a mind--upon which is impressed all learning and knowledge through our EXPERIENCE. Enlightenment philosophers disagreed strongly with Descarte's view that animals were mere "automa" without feelings. Voltaire argued in his LE PHILOSOPHE IGNORANT that since animals were constructed similar to humans, it was absurd to believe that animals were mere "machines" which did not feel. The Romantic movement began in reaction to the Enlightenment's natural, as opposed to supernatural outlook on the world. Romantics revived Plato's paradigm of a spiritual, otherworldly realm--which lies beyond the peripheral boundary of our every day world of our senses. To Romantics, there were some things that could only be felt through our hearts, which would remain forever hidden from our rational minds. Philosophers used Immanuel Kant's concept of "a priori" knowledge to further develop their views that the mind is a mysterious, irrational substance which reaches out into the fringes of the supernatural. The debate has gone on ever since between those that follow the Enlightened paradigm of the mind (Monism) vs the Romantic paradigm of the mind (Dualism). Unconscious "HARD WIRED" Areas of the Human Brain. Modern science has had the opportunity to test at least some of the classical philosophical conceptions of the mind. Starting with John Locke's view of a "blank slate", it has been demonstrated that Locke's model did not take into account that there are some abilities that babies are BORN with--such as perception of objects, recognition of speech, sounds, and the human face-- along with an implicit understanding of cause and effect. Using the analogy of the computer, one could view the brain of a baby as being structurally "hard-wired" to perform these certain tasks--instead of these tasks being "learned". These hard-wired functions can be viewed as a form of "a-priori" knowledge--although modern researchers have categorized these differently than Kant. On the other hand, Lock's model of the mind's blank slate is considered to be a good model for describing the experiences and learning processes that take place AFTER birth--ie CULTURAL and SOCIAL differences. Other researchers believe that there is a "tendency" for certain behavior to be genetically determined at birth--ie hard-wired. For example, certain individuals appear to react more violently than others, despite being raised in similar environments. It has also been documented as physical causes--such as brain damage or tumors--has created radical differences in behavior of individuals. (Examples are given later in this chapter on this.) Currently, this research is considered controversial--partly because it is believed that admission of such a "genetic link" would be grossly and purposely twisted by certain ideologically minded groups to argue that ALL differences are due to genetics and NONE to environmental influences. This could then be misapplied to bolster fascist claims that some GROUPS (ie "their" groups) are racially or sexually superior to others.) There are a large number of neurological and physiological processes that are either partially or entirely OUTSIDE our normal field of awareness-- such as the regulation of our heart beats, our body temperature, breathing, urination formation and so forth. These processes are controlled by our (unconscious) automatic nervous system. Certain learning can also pass from our conscious into our unconscious mental states. Almost everyone has seen the fascination of a baby as it has discovered" its own hands and feet--and then literally spent days contemplating this new aspect of its "self". Over time, basic skills (such as holding an object, and walking and talking which have to be learned by practice) are shifted into the unconscious parts of our brain. There they become automatic so that we no longer have no actively "think" about them. Learned tasks can be transferred over to our unconscious brains even during adulthood-- for example, once we have learned--say how to play a piano piece, or how to drive down a familiar highway--this can later be done automatically, and without conscious thought. Our unconscious mental systems are important to allow the conscious brain to focus its time on other important matters around us. (In early times, this would include survival in a hostile environment). However this mechanism of the unconscious can also serve to push down very old memories. Psychologists believe that it is through this mechanism that stressful memories may be submerged within the unconscious recesses of the mind. This may cause neurosis in the patients. (Of course neurosis may be caused by PHYSICAL malformations in the brain--and not a stressful occurrence in one's past.) Theory of the Reptilian Brain Brain researcher Dr. Paul MacLean, has hypothesized that the human brain consists of THREE levels of brain. At the lowest level, or base, is what he calls our ORIGINAL reptilian brain--because of its similarity to the brain of many reptiles, such as that of a crocodile. It is here that many of our life support systems--such as heart regulation and alertness lay. On top of the brainstem is an accretion mass forming a second layer brain-- known as the limbic system. This second "brain"--the limbic system, deals with our emotions, including our maternal feelings. According to Dr. MacLean, when portions of the limbic system are removed from young mammals, they "cease to play and there are deficits in maternal behavior". "It is as though these animals regress toward a reptilian condition." (Ibid p 134) The third "brain"--the cerebral cortex-- exists in other mammals, and is by far the most highly developed in humans--especially in the prefrontal areas. Indeed, when comparing a human brain with that of animals, the most distinguishing structural difference is in the SIZE of the cerebral cortex-- or our higher brain mass to those of animals. It is also the cerebral cortex which provides us with our most human qualities--our ability to reason, our language, our use of symbolic thinking and our projection into the future. It is the cerebral cortex which is influenced by culture and society--and where we feel our "rational" selves to be in control. This theory helps explains why alcohol--which is known to suppress the cerebral cortex region of the brain--can exhibit aggressive, irrational and very emotional behavior in individuals who drink excessive amounts. (That is, with the cerebral cortex region suppressed, this allows for the more primitive and aggressive areas of the brain to dominate behavior). Brain disorders, such as those cased by brain tumors and epileptic seizures, are likewise believed to disrupt the cerebral cortex's rational control over the lower regions of the brain. How Do Humans Differ From Animals? Enlightenment vs Romantic Models In his DESCENT OF MAN, Charles Darwin insisted on the continuity between human and animal experience-- that human beings evolved from the animals, as opposed to being separately created from animals. This meant that humans SHARED many of the same neurological and psychological processes with higher forms of animals such as the apes. The theory of the reptilian brain borrows heavily from Darwinian evolution, and its view that all complex life forms arose from earlier, simpler life forms. The human mind is seen as a build up of complex functioning on top of simpler brains inherited from our animal ancestors. Darwin's co-discoverer of natural selection, Alfred Russel Wallace, came to disagree with Darwin over whether human beings were created from a separate process than the one that had created animals. Some historians attribute Wallace's belief in Spiritual mediums during his later life, as influencing his earlier position on evolution. Wallace's supernatural explanation of evolution did not find much favor with later generations of scientists. However, his views that humans had somehow "escaped from biological evolution" unlike the rest of the animal kingdom--exerted a major influence -- especially in the social sciences and psychology which were developing during the late nineteenth century under the influence of the Romantic movement. During the late nineteenth up into the middle of the twentieth century, the Romantic view that human minds had somehow developed INDEPENDENTLY of the animals--and that mysterious forces lurked in the subconscious of human minds--became the common view among psychologists. Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, borrowed heavily from the well of Romantic thought. Freud speculated that our unconscious was a mysterious realm of our animal drives and urges. Irrational thoughts, based primarily on an overactive sexual drive, could well up in our unconscious--creating psychotic/neurotic behavior in our conscious actions as well. Only by deciphering the hidden meaning of our unconscious memories-- through the interpretation of dreams and reliving childhood experiences-- could an individual understand the emotional "cause" of their neurosis. Physical breakdowns in the functioning of the brain were not considered by Freud. Today, many scientists believe that Freud took a basic scientific idea "the primitive animal brain", and romanticized it into a mysterious, spiritual force-- as opposed to a physical structure that could be broken down into its components and rationally understood. Likewise, social scientists minimized Darwin's implications of BIOLOGY in explaining human behavior, preferring instead to focus on CULTURE (only!) in explaining human differences. Social scientists who did write on the awareness of animal action, were accused of engaging in "anthropomorphism"-- ie falling into the simplistic trap of attributing human qualities and intelligence towards unintelligent creatures and objects. As a result, there were few studies that looked at the basic underlying functioning of human thinking vis-à-vis the animals. Traditionally, both psychologists and social scientists have not viewed the human brain as sharing much of the same hardware as that of apes and other higher animals. Early social theories asserted (without testing) that animals could not communicate through language. It was also claimed that animals could not use tools (except for simple sticks and stones for defense.) It was not until a series of scientific studies were set up to observe actual animal behavior in the wild (beginning in the 1960s), that it was discovered that the thoughts of animals could be highly rational--and extended into the realm once claimed to be exclusively human. For example, dolphins and whales were found to communicate with clicking sounds. Chimpanzees were observed to use tools for sophisticated means--such as to pry open box lids and to dig in the ground for roots. Even more surprising was the discovery that gorillas could be taught sign language and communicate with humans. This meant that the dividing line between humans and animals on rational behavior was not always clear cut--as animals seem to "share" certain mental processes with humans. Still, although there were similarities found between animals and humans, important differences existed as well. After all, the human brain had clearly evolved to have a larger frontal section of the brain--which gave it some clearly higher mental advantage over the rest of the animal kingdom. The Role of Human Speech in Mental Processing According to John McCrone in his book THE MYTH OF IRRATIONALITY, humans while sharing many mechanisms with the animal kingdom, are different from animals in one important respect. Only humans appear to have evolved to have developed an "internal voice" that engages in a dialogue with our other senses, forming the mainstream of higher consciousness. McCrone speculates there is an internal template for speech, which is malleable in babies and hardens in childhood, and which serves as the physical mechanism for our human consciousness: "Most people are unaware of the role that language plays in the process of thought. In fact, people are often barely aware that they have internalized language at all. Yet a few minutes' introspection soon reveals that our minds are never quiet. All day long they buzz with an 'inner voice', a continuous if fragmentary conversation we conduct in private with ourselves. Even more surprising for many people is the realization that the habit of talking to ourselves silently is a habit that we have learned [as young children]. (pp 53-4) McCrone points to how young children can be heard talking to themselves at a very early age. He theorizes that this voice becomes "internalized" to engage in a dialogue with our senses of awareness and recognition. McCrone compares the abilities of animals with humans-- whose intellectual abilities were retarded, after being severely deprived of human communication during their childhood. Deaf mutes who were not taught how to sign in childhood, he notes usually grew up intellectually impaired. (McCrone believes that deaf individuals have replaced their inner voice with inner signing--which seems to perform the same higher mental function.) McCrone also reviewed documentation of children found raise by animals in the wild (feral children). Most psychologists have written off all these stories--as children who were BORN retarded, and just happened to have been brought up in the wild. McCrone argued the reverse.--That by being deprived of speech during their early years, this prevented their internal voice mechanism from developing--which MADE them retarded. Per McCrone: "The inability of chimps to learn language is reminiscent of feral children and 'uneducable' deaf-mutes. While chimps lack a speech template because of their biology, deaf-mutes and feral children miss the chance to develop one because of an accident of childhood. However, the result in either case is startlingly similar. Both chimps and speech-deprive children can pick up a smattering of vocabulary, but this is not enough to give them a human-like mind. They lack a grammatical engine to pump out words in a forceful flow." (p 131) According to McCrone's model, human consciousness can be explain as the combination of our brain's hardware for processing external data COMBINED with an internal voice that serves to monitor our thoughts and ideas: "The naked hardware of the brain gives us no more than pure awareness; an awareness that is OUTWARDLY focused. Turning awareness round on itself to look inwards and monitor the passing of thoughts and ideas is a trick we have to learn [in early childhood]. Once we have established the habit, we start to build up the tight knot of memories that eventually constitutes our sense of self." (p 149-50) Animals such as the higher apes may master a number of signs--and even understand how to creatively combine two or three of these into a short meaningful sentence. However, animals appear to have no physical mechanism to engage their language in a dialogue with their consciousness, to engender higher forms of thought. The Meaning of "Genius" Up to this point, we have considered the scientific (Monism) model that the mind can be broken down into physical components and UNDERSTOOD using rational, scientific means. The hardware of the mind (which we have inherited from the animals) gives us our capabilities of perception, recognition, association, and imagery. Sitting on top of this hardware is software derived from our culture and an inner voice that sits at the crossroads of human consciousness. Despite the recent scientific discoveries of some physical properties of the brain, the Romantic (Dualism) model is still invoked to argue that not ALL of the brain's functioning may be explained by complex physical, electrical, and chemical processes. Instead, there still resides AT LEAST SOME element of human consciousness that can NEVER be reduced down to mere physical, chemical, and electrical activities within the brain! This is usually seen as having a SPIRITUAL (or soul) component that science may never find. As we have seen this was the prevalent view of the Romantic movement,-- that there are spiritual truths we can tap into with our feelings, which our logic can never know or experience. To Romantics, the mind is not a rational area that could be understood. Genius and other creative drives well up in the irrational side of our minds.--Romantics believed in allowing our feelings to tap into these unexplored areas of our minds--to generate bursts of creativity and insight. Drugs were often thought to be able to enhance our ability to tap into this mysterious, but highly creative area of our minds. The difference in the two models can be seen in how it explains the "cause" of genius. Romantics view geniuses as individuals who can tap into highly creative recesses of their brains--cutting loose of their rational functioning which can "stifle" growth, and instead feeling with their emotions. Mozart is often touted as an example of an individual who could tap into a spiritual realm to effortlessly create music. Mozart's brilliant music was written down the FIRST time--with no later corrections needed. The scientific view is that brilliance results from the creative use of data that we have already learned. Even though the thinking may occur in our subconscious instead of our conscious--there is thinking occurring somewhere nevertheless--which can be dissected and understood. No geniuses in an area occurred without them being first EXPOSED to their area of genius (preferably in childhood) and WORKING HARD at their profession. Returning to the example of Mozart, the scientific view would note that Mozart had extensive training in music from early childhood. His practice sessions would have helped him develop mental shortcuts--where experience with clusters of notes would allow him to call for these notes as a group effortlessly, without having to build these from scratch in his mind. Therefore Mozart could go over the general score of his music in his mind, before he wrote anything down. Then he could return and write in the detail cluster notes later. Brain Disorders Important insights into the complex HARDWARE mechanisms within the brain have been obtained through case histories of individuals with known mental disorders/aberrations: --Depression Most of us have experienced a period of sadness, or depression during their lives. These periods are usually brought about by such EXTERNAL causes as severe and prolonged stress, tragedy (such as the death of a family member or friend), or another traumatic event (such as a divorce, loss of one's job, an illness, etc.) Yet, despite the onslaught of depression, most people are able to cope during this period--and to carry on with their daily lives in the long run. This is not true with individuals who have been diagnosed as "manic depressives": Manic depressives are individuals who experience wild swings in mood from ecstasy (or "highs") to severe depression (or "lows"). During a "high", these individuals can work at an incredibly fast and furious pace--sometimes doing a day's worth of work in only a few hours. Many can work for days with only a few hours worth of sleep. With manic depressives, there is often no identifiable "cause".--Still they cannot overcome a feeling of overwhelming hopelessness. The manic depressive can barely get out of bed, or even carry on the most routine of duties. He often looses interest in almost everyone and everything around him--including food. If especially severe, the manic depressive may seek to end his melancholy by committing suicide. Indeed, studies have shown that "depressive disorders are found in the vast majority of those who commit suicide." (Richard M. Restak, MD, THE MIND, (Bantam Books, 1988), p 174) Depression exists in all cultures, and has been a known problem throughout history. Both the ancient Egyptians and Greeks described treatments for depression. In the ODYSSEY, for example, Helen of Troy is described as giving Telemachus the drug nepenthe (an opium derivative) to bring relief to his sorrow. Probably the most creative NON-drug treatment was described in a text written around the same time, by temple priests on an Aegean island. According to this account, depressed patients were flung off a very high cliff, and then rescued by Greek priests waiting in boats below. It was claimed that the shock of this experience, cured many patients out of their depression. (Restak, Ibid, p 181) During the second century AD, the Greek physician Seranus Ephesios suggested "natural waters such as alkaline springs" as a treatment for depression. This treatment became popular over the following centuries and depression was one of many cures touted at mineral springs throughout the world. Today we know why this treatment seemed to help--that is, the waters in these springs often contained lithium-- which is today prescribed to bring a patient out of an acute bout of depression. Studies on certain closed populations--such as the Amish have established a GENETIC link towards manic depression. Studies of identical twins have likewise shown a strong tendency (50%) for one identical twin to be a manic depressive, if the other is. (This compares to about 10% in fraternal twins.) Because BOTH identical twins do not always develop manic depression, this would indicate that there are other socio-environmental factors present, as well as genetic ones. Researchers have found important chemical differences in the brains of manic depressives. Since the 1950's numerous drugs have been offered which can offer relief to many of its victims. For example, according to Douglas Barton who suffered from depression since he was a child, "Two of my antidepressant pills a day make all the difference in my life as to whether I live in misery or I function." (Restak, Ibid, p 177) --Schizophrenia Schizophrenia is the most common form of insanity in humans. Typically, the sufferer of schizophrenia experiences fantastic hallucinations and hears strange voices or buzzing sounds in their head. Schizophrenics often develop paranoid or grandiose delusions--ranging from such delusions as the CIA is watching them or controlling their thoughts--to the belief that it is their destiny to fulfill some messianic mission. (Tony Dajer, "Divided Selves", DISCOVER, September 1992, p 40) Schizophrenics sometimes lapse into severe withdrawal symptoms while, at other times, displaying outbursts of irrational sometimes violent behavior. (Footnote: Interestingly some psychoses such as deficiency of vitamin B6, syphilis, and certain inflammations of the brain, also exhibit behavioral disturbances that appear identical to schizophrenia. It is only after doctors have eliminated the above other possibilities, that a diagnosis of schizophrenia is reached). It has been estimated that roughly 1% of the world's population suffers from schizophrenia. Like depression, schizophrenia appears in all cultures, and has been a known problem throughout history. Because of this, plus the fact that the condition does appear to run in families--scientists strongly suspect there is a genetic link associated with schizophrenia. However, ENVIRONMENTAL factors are also suspected to play at least some role--It has been documented that among IDENTICAL twins, for example, that only ONE of the two twins will develop schizophrenia in about 50% of the cases. Some statistical evidence points to viral infections (which can affect one twin in the womb and not the other) as possibly being the agent that triggers schizophrenia in a person. Others have speculated that stress plays a possible role in triggering schizophrenia. The working theory currently accepted by most scientists is that schizophrenia is probably a genetic inherited tendency. The interaction of a person who has a predisposition to schizophrenia with his/her environment--such as stress, viral infections, birth complications, etc--is what determines whether the disease will actually develop. Within the hippocampus (a deeper, older layer of the brain), researchers have found important PHYSICAL differences that exist between those belonging to normal and schizophrenic individuals. In normal individuals, nerve cells within the hippocampus are lined up in almost perfect order. In schizophrenia patients, these nerve cells are all out of order, oriented along random directions. According to Dr. Arnold Scheibel of UCLA's Brain Research Institute on these findings: "We speculate that the connections are also quite different, and it is our hypothesis that the schizophrenic must be experiencing the world quite differently from the way the nonschizophrenic person does." (BRAIN, p 292) Before the 1950's there was no effective treatment for schizophrenics, other than to place them under heavy sedation, and apply other practices such as electro convulsive shock therapy in mental hospitals. In the 1950's, a series of drugs were discovered which were found to lessen the symptoms of schizophrenia. As schizophrenia is probably a name given to a broad range of mental disorders, treatment helps some much more than others. Treatment does not represent a cure--but can reduce both the frequency and intensity of hallucinations and delusions suffered by the schizophrenic. Epilepsy Like schizophrenia, epilepsy is believed to be not one, but a wide range of various disorders that affect the brain. A diagnosis of epilepsy means that there is some discharging lesion (exhibited as a fit or seizure) within the brain. Depending on which section of the brain has the seizure, attacks can very from a light seizure (the patient appears to be in a light trance--but the eyes may appear glazed and there may be twitching around the mouth and eyes)-- to a deep seated seizure (whereby the patient may appear to be a deep trance, and/or exhibit excessive salivation or foaming of the mouth, sometimes even passing out.) There may be a partial or total loss of memory of events during the attack. As many victims of epilepsy do not understand the neurological happenings within their brain, many epileptics describe their seizures as a period of time when they felt bewitched or were being placed under a spell. Others report that they hear "voices without any sound" or internal sounds. Still others report seeing visions--of spirits, ghosts, demons, and other weird creatures. Some epileptics, suffering their first mild attack are sometimes reluctant to tell anyone, least they be thought crazy or put in an insane asylum. Epileptic attacks can be induced from flashing or flickering lights-- (for examples, the flickering stroboscopic lights, the changing patterns of light and darkness caused by a flickering candle, or from passing the hands back and forth over a light source). Likewise certain auditory sounds-- drums, chanting, music, bells, hissing, and rhythmic repetitive sounds such as rain hitting a can--can cause an abnormal electrical discharge within the brain. Interestingly, these are the same conditions often used to initiate "hypnosis" within a patient. Some researchers have argued that Mesmer induced a "reflex epilepsy" in his patients (a large number of whom would have been suffering from neurological disorders) using his "Mesmeric fluid". (Robert A. Baker, HIDDEN MEMORIES, Prometheus Books, 1992, p 175-6) Demon Possession or Mental Disorder? During ancient times, it was a commonly held belief that individuals were possessed either by spirits, gods, or demons. Hippocrates wrote in his ON THE SACRED DISEASES how epilepsy was commonly perceived in his day to be of "divine" origin. Being skeptical he wrote: "Men think epilepsy divine, merely because they do not understand it. But if they called everything divine which they do not understand, why there would be no end of divine things." Chapter 5 in Mark describes how Jesus drove a demon out of a possessed man into a swine of heard. In the fourth century AD, Zero of Verona described the characteristics of possession: "His face is suddenly deprived of color, his body rises up of itself, the eyes in madness roll in their sockets and squint horribly, the teeth, covered with a horrible foam, grind between blue-white lips, the limbs twisted in all directions are given over to trembling; he sighs, he weeps..." (Baker, op cited, p 191) During the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed that demons could enter into a person's body and take possession of it. During the witch craze, the "possessed" were usually (although not always) considered the VICTIMs of a witch's spell and therefore not the cause of the evil itself. Typically, the authorities would encourage the possessed to name the witch which had smitten him with the demons. (It would be the so named, luckless "witch" who would then face torture and execution.) As for the "victim", their possession would be treated by the clergy through exorcism, prayer, and fasting. Ecstatic, Divine-like Sensations Felt by a Small Percentage of Epileptics The experience of the individual during an epileptic seizure can vary-- depending on which cells and areas of the brain were affected by the seizure. A small percentage of epileptic sufferers have reported pleasant, even orgasmic experiences during their epileptic seizures. Doctors believe these pleasurable sensations occur because the seizures happened to occur along the neural pathways that normally relay these type of sensations to the brain. (Harold L. Klawans, MD. NEWTON'S MADNESS AND FURTHER TALES OF CLINICAL NEUROLOGY, Harper Perennial, a division of Harper Collins Publishers, 1991, pp 43-4). According to the famous Russian novelist Dostoyevski (who was diagnosed as an epileptic in the mid nineteenth century when he lived) his seizures helped him to experience divine-like sensations. Sophia Kovalewski wrote how Doestoyevski relayed to her the following story: He had been arrested and placed in solitary confinement for eight months in Russia after being accused of sedition against the czarist government. He was then sentenced to death by a firing squad. Unknown to him, his death sentence was commuted to exile in Siberia. However, in an attempt to shatter his nerves, he was forced to go through a mock execution anyway as a warning. This event left deep emotional scars on him. Later, he was visited by a friend who began talking on the subject of God. Suddenly a bell from a nearby church began to toll for the midnight mass. Dostoyevski explain what he experienced next: "The air was filled with a big noise and I tried to move. I felt the heaven was going down upon the earth and that it had engulfed me. I don't remember anything else. You all, healthy people... can't imagine the happiness which we epileptics feel during the second before our fit. Mohammed, in his Koran, said he had seen Paradise and had gone into it. All these stupid clever men are quite sure that he was a liar and a charlatan. But no, he did not lie, he really had been in Paradise during an attack of epilepsy; he was a victim of this disease like I was. I don't know if this felicity lasts for seconds, hours, or months, but believe me, for all the joys that life may bring, I would not exchange this one." (Harold L. Klawans, MD. NEWTON'S MADNESS, and Further Tales of Clinical Neurology, Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc, 1990, p 47, referencing Sophia Kovalewski's CHILDHOOD RECOLLECTIONS) In one of his letters, Dostoyevski gave another description of his aura: "During a few moments I feel such a happiness that it is impossible to realize at other times, and other people cannot imagine it. I feel a complete harmony within myself and in the world, and this feeling is so strong and so sweet that for a few seconds of this enjoyment one would rapidly exchange ten years of one's life---perhaps even one's whole life." (Ibid) As discussed in Section I, Chapter 7, some believe that St. Paul was describing an epileptic attack when describing his conversion experience to Christianity. Of course, although there appears to be some evidence for this, this remains in the realm of speculation only. Left Brain/Right Brain During the 1940-50's, epileptic patients suffering from large seizures, were sometimes given a lobotomy--an operation that cuts the bundle of nerve fibers connecting the left and right hemisphere of the brain. The operation was effective in stopping formerly untreatable seizures--and appeared to have resulted in no apparent impairment in mental functioning. At the time, neurosurgeons hailed the operation as an effective procedure for helping epileptics. However, some brain researchers were puzzled as to why there was NO impact from cutting off a connection of literally millions of nerve fibers between the cerebral hemispheres.-After all, it would seem that the complex conduit between the two lobes of the brain, would surely serve SOME purpose! In the 1960's, brain researchers followed up on some of the epileptic patients who had undergone a lobotomy. One of the split-brain patients that they studied was a woman in her thirties named Vicki. Vicki no longer experienced the GRAND MAL epileptic seizures after her operation--but she still suffered from small attacks (ie a PETITE MAL) almost daily. While Vicki's attacks had lessened, she complained about other strange happenings that she couldn't explain: "My left hand is under control, but yet it grabs things that it shouldn't grab, or it grabs things I don't want it to grab. It sort of just reaches out, like that. I don't like the idea of that, because I don't know what is happening. Sometimes I just take my right hand and grab hold of my left hand or arm and pull it back. Other times, it may sound silly, but I slap it because I get mad at it, I really do, I get really mad at it, and I find that doesn't do any good, except it hurts after it's slapped." Getting dressed in the morning could be even stranger: "I knew what I wanted to wear and I would open my closet, get ready to take out what I wanted, and my other hand would just take control. It would just reach in. I told the lady at medical college that I was really fighting with it and she said to talk to it, talk to your hand. But it didn't do any good. It would reach in and get something I didn't want at all. And a couple of times I had a pair of shorts on, and I would find myself putting on another pair of shorts on top of the pair I already had on. I knew that was wrong. I wouldn't go out of the house that way, I knew that was totally wrong, but my hand sort of took control, got that other pair of shorts and put them on." (HUMAN BRAIN, op ct p 171) Psychological tests performed on Vicki confirmed that she had not one but two separate brains, that now did not always know what the other was doing. This effect of the operation was later confirmed by further testing on other lobotomy patients--For example, in one such test, an object placed in the left hand of a blindfolded split brain patient would deny that anything really was in their left hand. Based on these and other studies, most scientists today believe that the LEFT hemisphere of the brain controls much of the RIGHT side of the body-- while the RIGHT hemisphere controls much of the LEFT side of the body. In addition, the left hemisphere controls language and analytical capabilities such as mathematics. The right hemisphere controls spatial abilities such as drawing. (Popular literature has characterized the left brain as the analytical scientist and the right brain as the artist in all of us.-- However, this is really a gross oversimplification because the specialization is not always so distinct as this, but can occur in either lobes.) Dr. Gazzaniga who tested Vicki and other patients like her, wrote: "...we have come to the conclusion from studying these patients that we have to quit viewing man as a single psychological entity, that in fact his psychological self is a multiple self. He has a variety of mental systems existing in his brain, most of them non-verbal, like the one in his right hemisphere tends to be. They have emotions, they have memories, they have incentives, they have destinies and they are able to control the motor apparatus, to make movements...So what we are moving away from is the idea that there is, in modern parlance, "a cognitive system", one centre of cognition in the brain. More likely it's a psychological problem, a variety of cognitive centres in the brain all of them being monitored and all of the being closely watched by this dominant language system..." (Ibid, p 175-6) Multiple Personalities In some individuals, two or more different personalities co-exist within the same mind--leading to two or more MULTIPLE PERSONALITIES. Studies of such patients, hooked up to EEG machines to examine their electrical patterns may show very different patterns when each of their differing personalities appear. (In contrast, actors asked to mimic such changes, cannot do it with the ease of a true multiple personality--plus their EEG shows no change). Based on case studies of individuals suffering from multiple personality, neuroscientists have concluded that this condition may represent different "altered states of consciousness". As such, multiple personalities may represent an extreme example of what we do every day--such as when we try to "put something out of our minds" or lapse into our own world of daydreams. It is also known that our conscious awareness can be affected by drugs, alcohol, and even the amount of sleep that we've had the previous night. This does not mean that we all have multiple personalities looming inside of us--But instead, that our everyday personalities are not as uniform and consistent as one might like to believe. (Restak, p 336) How Brain Disorders Can Affect Our Minds The following are some famous cases where the victim's brain damage clearly affected their "minds". *In 1848, Phineas Gage accidentally set of a dynamite charge while on the job at the Rutland and Burlington Railroad. The explosion sent a 1-inch thick metal rod through his cheek, upwards destroying his left eye and cutting a clean hole through the frontal lobe section of his brain. A co-worker drove him by oxcart to a hotel, where a local doctor attended his wounds. Two months later, Phineas Gage had completely recovered, albeit he was now a completely different person. Earlier, Gage had been well-like by his friends and co-workers, and was considered honest and of the most exemplary character. After the accident, Gage became a rude and foul-mouthed liar. He lost his friends and could not hold onto a job. One previous friend described him as such, "Gage, was no longer Gage." Phineas Gage's physician believed that the accident had been the cause of Gage's personality transformation, stating-- "The equilibrium... between his intellectual faculties and animal propensities seems to have been destroyed." Gage died some thirteen years later in an epileptic fit. His family donated his skull for medical research. Today, scientists agree that Gage's personality was transformed following extensive damage to the ventromedial region of his brain. (This has been further collaborated by other individuals who have shown similar anti-social personality changes, after this region of their brain was similarly damaged by surgery, tumor, or accident.) *A patient named "Clive" was a victim of viral encephalitis--an inflammation of the brain--which in his case seriously damaged the functioning of his hippocampus, temporal lobes, and part of his frontal lobe. As a result, Clive was perfectly normal only for the present snapshot of time.-- He could not remember anything in the past nor make any plans for the future. According to his wife, "It's a blinkered moment. He sees what is right in front of him, but as soon as that information hits the brain it fades. Nothing makes an impression, nothing registers. Everything goes in perfectly well, because he has all his faculties. His intellect is virtually intact, and he perceives his world as you or I do. But as soon as he perceives it and looks away, it's gone for him. So it's a moment-to- moment consciousness, as it were, a time vacuum." Clive has spent his remaining days in a hospital room playing solitaire and writing entries into his diary. The entries were always the same: "Now I am completely awake, for the first time in years". Every time Clive returned to his notebook and read it, he could not remember having written it, insisting: "I do not know who wrote that. It was not me." According to his wife, "You're dealing with a perfectly lucid, highly intelligent man who has been robbed of the knowledge of his own life... He can't grasp what's wrong with him because even as you are telling him something, he is forgetting the previous sentence. So he can never take in or understand what is wrong with him." (Richard M., Restak, M.D. THE MIND, Bantam Books, 1988, p 29-30) *Julie, had a terrible mumps infection at the age of two, during which time she suffered from severe inflammation of the brain. Around ten, she began having epileptic seizures. Between seizures she could flare into violent outbursts of anger. After her "spells" she would be remorseful for what she had said or done. At the age of eighteen, she had a particular bad "spell" during which she attacked a woman in the bathroom of a movie theater. Her father took her to see a neurosurgeon named Dr. Vernon Mark. Dr. Mark and a colleague experimented on Julie, by stimulating different sites of her brain with electrical impulses. They found that when their electrodes stimulated her amygdala, that within seconds, she would become nonresponsive--and then explode with anger, ready for attack. Just prior to the violent outburts, her brain waves exhibited a rush of abnormal, spiked epileptic waves from her right amygdala. After pinpointing the site of her aggression, Dr. Mark operated on Julie, and destroyed the abnormal tissue in her right amygdale. Following her surgery, Julie's aggression attacks completely halted. (She was checked over a fifteen year period during which she showed no recurrent violent attacks.) Most neuroscientists believe that the sites of the brain most responsible for triggering violence are in the older parts of the brain-- known as the limbic system--which includes the frontal and prefontal areas, the amygdale, the hippocampus, and the hypothalamus. Thus, Julie's abnormal tissue in her right amygdale was believed to have been directly related to her violent outbursts. (Restak, THE MIND, p 279-80) When asked whether Julie should be morally accountable for her earlier attack in the bathroom of a movie theatre, Dr Mark stated: "I think that someone like Julie has very little control over her activities. She had attack behavior that was related to a brain abnormality. She had very little ability to control this by free will." (Ibid) *Mark Larribas had been described as an easygoing, steady individual. Then, he began having violent attacks, one which led to a breakup with his wife. Larribas described the attacks as an unpredictable change in mood, which he could not control: "When I hit my wife, it would be just like something I couldn't control. Like getting into a car accident on an icy road and the car loses control and there is nothing you can to stop it. And then afterwards I would feel a lot of remorse, and I would find myself crying and begging her forgiveness." Larribas went to a psychiatrist who ordered a CAT scan. A large lesion was found at the tip of his right temporal lobe. Mark Larribas then underwent surgery to remove the brain tumor (which was not malignant). Over the course of the next few years, Mark's uncontrollable aggressive outbursts completely halted. According to his psychiatrist who ordered the CAT scan: "The case of Mark Larribas clearly shows that the pathology of the brain can be associated with violent behavior." (Restak, BRAIN, p 138) Larribas' case was not the only known case of a brain tumor in violent offenders. A postmortem was performed on the brain of the madman Charles Whitman who killed seventeen people in the 1960's from atop a tower in Austin, Texas.--It showed that he too had a brain tumor. Dr. Vernon Mark (the same neurosurgeon who was involved in Julie's case above), believes there was a connection between his brain tumor and the resulting violence. (Ibid, p 139-140) The Meaning of the Mind--Spiritual vs Physical Metaphor Traditionally, the separate fields of neurology and psychiatry are based upon a dualistic-- mind vs brain metaphor. If you have an illness of the MIND (ie mental illness), one goes to see a psychiatrist. If there is a physical BRAIN disease, one goes to see a neurologist. Only recently have the two scientific disciplines been united into a new one--behavioral neurology-- which is based on the premise that the brain is responsible for all behavior that is attributed to one's mind. (That is, the mind is only a metaphor for describing some of the complex functioning of the physical brain.) Not all neuroscientists agree that the mind and brain should be so united. These neuroscientists insist that because the exact functioning of the mind has NOT been precisely pinpointed, that the mystery that still remains may be due to mystical, spiritual considerations. Accordingly, these scientists (who also tend to be religious), have expanded the scope of their research to look for more transcendental evidence, that would point to the mind being a separate entity from the body. Wilder Penfield was a well-respected neuro-scientist AND dualist. He was a firm materialist for many years while conducting studies on the temporal lobes of patients. In response to his electrical probe, patients reported being stimulated to experience vividly real memories. At the time Penfield wondered if this meant our consciousness only amounted to sensations from electrical impulses. Penfield switched sides to become a dualist in his later years--writing about the relationship of the mind to the brain in his book, THE MYSTERY OF THE MIND. Sir John Eccles, who pioneered early research on left brain/right brain activities, was another famous dualist, who believed the mind and the brain were separate entities: "I do believe that we are the product of the creativity of what we call God. I hope that this life will lead to some future existence where my self or soul will have another existence, with another brain, or computer if you like. I don't know how I got this one, it's a pretty good one, and I'm grateful for it, but I do know as a realist that it will disappear and with it all my detailed memories. But I think my conscious self or soul will come through." (HUMAN BRAIN, p 180) According to Richard Restak, M.D. in his book, THE MIND: "Why should it be surprising that the study of the human brain often leads to mysticism? Consider the paradox involved: The inquiring organ, the brain, is itself the object of its own inquiry. The brain is the only organ in the known universe that seeks to understand itself. Looked at from this point of view, one might expect an even greater number of brain scientists to turn toward mysticism. After all, are not our brains part of the same physical universe whose essential nature remains, after years of research and speculation, essentially mysterious?" (p 349) However, on the other hand, Restak cautions: "The appeal of dualism--the belief that there is a mind that exists apart from a brain--springs from our improper understanding of everyday states of consciousness. Until the advent of PET scanners and evoked potential studies, it was possible to maintain the fiction that thoughts can occur independently of bodily processes. 'I think, therefore I am,' as the philosopher Descartes formulated it in 1637." "But since the development of appropriate technologies, it has become obvious that thoughts, emotions, and even elementary sensations are accompanied by changes in the state of the brain. Glucose, oxygen, and other nutrients and metabolites vary according to mental states and the circumstances of the moment. To this extent, a thought without a change in brain activity is impossible. In a very real sense, thoughts have neuronal consequences. In many instances the reverse is also true." "Drop a tab of acid, snort some cocaine, take a few puffs from a joint-- in all these instances mental activity (or the mind) is transformed by altering brain chemistry. Thanks to research on memory, certain forms of mental illness, and dementia, neuroscientists are approaching the day when ALL mental activity will be formulated in terms of brain activity. The exact degree of correlation, however, remains to be determined. It is not likely, for instance, that all thoughts will ever be directly translatable into neuronal activity patterns or shifts in the tides of neurotransmitters. For this reason, "thought reading" on the basis of brain activity is very unlikely. Unfortunately, this failure to correlate mind with brain is a one-to-one fashion probably will provide the basis for continued claims for the existence of a mind independent of a brain." "Studies on readiness potentials, the preparatory adjustments in the cerebellum and basal ganglia prior to an act of 'will', the prefrontal discharges that occur prior to any motor activity, however trivial--some people see these discoveries as proof that the mind exists independent of a functioning brain. But where is the mind in a state of unconsciousness? When the brain writhes in the throes of an epileptic seizure, or is plummeted into an alcohol or drug stupor? Or even when the brain is put under the hammerlock of a powerful anesthetic? It is puzzling why well- informed people continue to hold out for the existence of a mind independent of the brain..." Still, most scientists would admit that we are a long ways from unraveling all the mysterious of the human mind. As we have seen, some scientists are determined to explain every element of the brain along natural lines--thus eliminating any divine connection. Others are looking for scientific evidence that would prove just the opposite--that there are "mystical" (implying divine) elements within our being. This, in turn, could imply a soul and therefore a future existence beyond death!