Hello Class,
In our text book The Basics of Biopsychology, the author John P. J. Pinel, makes the broad claim that the brain is all there is. He states this by saying
“as evidence has accumulated, it has become clear that there is no need to postulate of the existence of anything other than the brain to account for particularly complicated psychological experiences.”
I will like to tell you that this is not how ALL scientists and more specifically psychologist, psychiatrists, and neurologist think, to the contrary even some noble prize winners and launderettes such as John Eccles PhD., Mario Beauregard, PhD, Wilder Penfield M.D, Candace Pert M.D., Stuart Hameroff PhD, and Roger Penrose PhD, think to the contrary, that the human mind is something more than just the brain.
I am not posting this to down play the importance of the brain in the overall human experience, nor do I think that the author’s book is disqualified as an adequate teaching instrument of the human brain/mind. I post this because as future psychologist we need to understand the workings of the human mind from many angles and I believe there is many phenomena which cannot be explained by the brain alone, memory restoration and consciousness or two of them. But I will give you links to the experts so you can think critically about this controversial issue yourself, which I have invested a great deal of time, blood, sweet, and tears in understanding.
A ancient fable may shed some light on this situation. Three blind men all walked up to an elephant at the same time. One felt the tale and said it has to be a broom, the other felt the skin and said it has to be limestone, and the third felt the trunk and said it must be a tree. This is a great example of one of the human conditions; none of us can understand everything at one time. The neurologist may see the mind as the brain and nervous system, the psychologist may see it as the brain and a mind, and a spiritual sage such as a pastor or father etc. may see it only as spirit. Different types of “see-ers” see it differently and not everyone agrees that the mind is only the brain.
It sounds like a nice idea to see the brain as more than the mind but is there any real merit for this? In deed there is.
The text mentions Cartesian Dualism which is similar to later philosophical ideas regarding dualism from Descartes, Kant, and the likes. Dualism says “mind is mind and matter is matter.” By mind we are generally talked about spirit or soul, something that could survive physical death, though not even all dualist are sure that it happens that way. Many have said dualism (spirt and body) is irrelevant because only like can affect like, Karl Popper, who has written the most up to date version on the philosophy of science refuted this claim but suggesting, like can affect unlike, gravity can affect matter, and matter indeed affects gravity. Therefore if mind is like gravity, totally invisible accept for its affects than it can indeed interact with the brain.
The author fails to mention the more modern version dualism. Modern dualism suggests that the human has two minds, the brain mind and another type of mind which is similar to gravity (Soul mind, or spirit mind). And it works similarly to how a T.V. works, it comes through the T.V. as a wave and if the T.V. functions correctly than the images on the screen will be clear and concise. According to modern dualism the brain is like a T.V. and the soul or mind is like the signals going into the T.V. If a part is broken in the T.V. then it will not function correctly.
A video game is also another great analogy. The soul-mind plays the character on in the game and the character on the game has nowhere near the same function as the actually gamer itself. Most modern dualist postulate that when the mind (soul, spirit, consciousness) takes possession of the brain and body, it losses itself in the body mind and therefore becomes highly entangled with it and cannot remember anything that happened before the occasion of conjoining with the brain/body!
This is quite speculative indeed but there are many phenomena which suggest that this is the case.
If one looks at and understands neurology, psychology, and parapsychology (there are some highly credentialed scientists in this field which do follow the accepted rules of science), than they are more likely to come to this conclusion, that mind is more than just brain and nervous system.
Memory function;
It is well known that the brain plays an important role in memory function, if we do not get enough B12 (which is responsible for the growth of new neurons) than we tend to have a difficult time with short term memory. The amazing thing about memory is that if person losses a portion of their brain often times they are able to get back all function and memory affiliated with that part of the brain. There was once a study where baby chicks who where just born were taught a trick. The used special dyes to see just were the memory of how to perform this function was stored in their brains. The researchers then cut that portion of the brains out of the chicks. An astounding 60% were able to still perform the trick and a greater number were able to learn how again.
So if memory is ONLY stored in the brain than why do the memories come back after that portion of the brain is taken out?
Some suggest a redundancy of memory storage in the brain. If this is so that those areas should have been highlighted by the dyes as well!!!
Consciousness;
Consciousness is somewhat of an umbrella term; it has many different meanings in different fields. What I am talking about is actual awareness in general, the ability to generate new thoughts (in essence free will or the appearance of it), and possibly even self awareness. The brain and neural networks, are a vast and intricate network of chemical-electrical sensitive capacitors. It is an expanded version a computer with many devices (such being the organs and endocrine system etc) or possibly a network of computers. Computers are not aware nor are they self aware, true they can perform functions very similar to cognitive functions but they are not self aware nor can they seem to generate new thoughts out of the blue, they are deterministic, the human mind seems un-deterministic. How does a cascade of firing capacitors create consciousness? If one looks into neurology than one will find there is a lot of debate, this is something that neurologist have not been able to get a grasp on.
What if they have not gotten a grasp on this because there is one more component to the human Psyche?
Noble laureate Sir John Eccles believes that it does.
“this extraordinary belief cannot be accommodated to the fact that only a minute amount of cortical activity finds expression in conscious experience.”
By “this” he means “monism” the idea that brain is responsible for the entire human experience. And what he is saying here is that there seems to be more data at a given time in the human experience, sights, sounds, smells, touch, then the brain seems to be processing at that same given time!
Wilder Penfield, A Nobel Prize WINNER! states;
“The patient’s mind, which is considering the situation in such an aloof and critical manner, can only be something quite apart from neuronal reflex action!”
He also states
“although the content of consciousness depends in large measure on neuronal activity, awareness itself does not!”
Wilder Penfield was a Nobel Prize Winner for his work in understanding epilepsy, he also states
“There is no area of gray matter, as far as my experience goes, in which local epileptic discharge brings to pass what could be called “mind action”…. There is no valid experience that either epileptic discharge or electrical stimulation can activate the mind.”
Penfield also had this to say on the last page of his book
“I worked as a scientist trying to prove that the brain accounted for the mind and demonstrating as many brain-mechanisms as possible hoping to show HOW the brain did so. In presenting this monograph I do not begin with a conclusion and I do not end by making a final and unalterable one. Instead, I reconsider the present-day neuro-physiological evidence on the basis of two hypotheses: (a) that man’s being consists of one fundamental element, and (b) that it actually consists of two. In the end I conclude that there is no good evidence, in spite of new methods, such as the employment of stimulating electrodes, the study of conscious patients, and the analysis of epileptic attacks, that the brain alone can carry out the work that the mind does. I conclude that it is easier to rationalize man’s being on the basis of two elements rather than on the basis of one.”
The author of our text is a highly credentialed person, however we ought to at least hear out what some of these Nobel Prize Winner and Laureate has to say regarding the brain-mind issue!
Modern Physics;
Everyone has heard of “quantum physics” but few people understanding it. Quantum Physics is incredibly dualist (Matter / Mind) in nature. Ask any quantum physicist and they will tell you something along the lines of “matter especially matter on the quantum scale exists in a state of probability until consciousness has a chance to few the measurements regarding that particular matter.” This is called the observer effect in modern physics (quantum physics) and it is best illustrated by the infamous double split experiment.
Here is a very understandable video regarding it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfPeprQ7oGc
Modern Parapsychology
While not all scientists would agree that this Parapsychology is a “science” there are some that are not “ghost hunters” and who run experiments rigorously in accepted modern scientific methods. One of them is MIT graduate Dr. Dean Radin;
http://www.deanradin.com/
He has done many experiments involving the relationship of mind and matter. Many of which show that mind can have an effect on matter. In one of these experiments 75 other researchers performed the same or similar experiments and have the positive results as well.
Conclusion
Much of this information you will have to look into a bit more yourself. There is sufficient data out there that dualism still needs to be taken as a serious hypothesis of the mind. There are some who like this idea and some who do not. In your own research you may find very emotional people on either side of the debate. You should know from experience that these people are probably less objective about the issue and more “belief” oriented. If you are interested and it serves you I hope that you too will look into these exciting field with an open mind. I would love to communicate with anyone further on these matters as long as they are not malicious or rhetorical in regards to the information, or the discussion of such information. In such a case I would ignore you. I hope to discuss this further with anyone who enjoys the topic.
Recommended Books and Links
Books
Science and the Near Death Experience: How Consciousness Survives Death
By Chris Carter
The Scientific Evidence of the Afterlife
By Dr. Jeffery Long
The Conscious Universe
By Dr. Dean Radin
As well as the material written by the scientists throughout the post.
Web Sites
http://www.iands.org/
(International Near Death Studies, Inc)
This is a highly credential panel of researchers
http://www.nderf.org/
Largest single effort to create a database of near death experience surveys.
Also check out the many articles related to this in our university library.
Monday, October 4, 2010
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