Mind, Brain, Soul - What's the Difference ?
Mind, Brain, Soul - Who we really are ...
Most of us prefer to think that we possess something that is greater than the sum of our neurons; something that animates us and makes us the human individual that we are. But a lot of what we perhaps used to classed as mind seems to be turning out to be brain and some part of that must surely also be the soul.
So what is the difference between the Mind, Brain and Soul?
If we question who we are in these terms, we will soon discover that we are not only our minds, but something else and maybe everything else at the same time. And what about the soul? Is the soul individual or are we all separate souls?
It seems though, a long way from simply not having enough serotonin to thinking you are not really taking part in the same world as everyone else; to believe that you are merely watching a play where the people around you are acting out a scenario. It is even further from you as a person being totally driven by this thought. There’s a lot of room left here then, for mind.
And something must be interpreting the neurological activity.
This interpreter does not necessarily have to be non physical or even metaphysical; it is more probably a very large number of brain functions working in parallel. It takes an entire network of simultaneous tiny actions to constitute a thought and if this network were identified and mapped, then 'mind' might be visible.
However, whatever it is that’s doing the interpreting, it is invisible and can not be mapped out - yet.
Yet it is full of reasons and claims about what
you are feeling and why. Sometimes it appears reasonable - you are feeling low because you have had a
lot of stressful things happen lately in your life, it says. It doesn’t say-
your levels of serotonin have gone down. Other times it says things like, you
can walk in front of that moving bus and you won’t be harmed. Clearly it’s
talking nonsense in this case and when you decide it’s wrong, something is making that
decision. This could be classed as 'consciousness' - another player in the game of 'thinking'.
There are also 'thoughts' and there is 'thinking about thoughts'. This means that there are two
different types of 'thought' coming from the same brain so therefore the brain must have more
than one aspect of functioning.
When communication between the two aspects becomes confused, messages sent between neurons are incorrect, the chemicals triggered are the wrong ones and the impulses are going to the wrong connection so we may become mentally ill. If we can’t distinguish between reality and fantasy then we can be classed as having a 'mental disorder'. If we can question this, the two aspects provide enough doubt to keep us this side of 'reality'.
It seems then that the brain has chemical problems and so can be treated with chemicals and that the mind has problems with perceptions and can be treated with psycho analysis. It does not seem likely that there can be brains which recognise reality and brains which don't so there must be a case for mind within this concept. The mind helps the brain to understand the accepted reality for the occasion.
Recently, I watched the 2017 film " The Discovery", in which Robert Redford plays Thomas Harbor, a scientist who believes he has scientifically proven the existence of an after life. The announcement of this discovery leads to an extremely high suicide rate as people are desperate to see this 'other' life but Harbor doesn't feel that he is responsible.
On the second anniversary of the discovery, Harbor's son Will, travels to the isolated mansion where his father is continuing his research. On the way he meets Isla, who Will notes looks very familiar. He tells her that he is upset that people keep killing themselves, while Isla thinks it's an easy way out. Will shares a memory he had while being dead for a minute, where he saw a young boy at a beach.
Will's brother Toby tells him that the large number of helpers, who Toby says used to be suicidal and now have a new purpose.
Will meets Lacey and Cooper (his father's aides. Thomas is periodically "put under" and revived while hooked to various machines. When they speak, Will blames Thomas for starting a cult and for the high suicide rate. Will announces his intention to get Thomas to recant his statement about the afterlife and stop the suicides.
Later, Will sees Isla on the beach preparing to commit suicide. He barely saves her and brings her to the mansion, where she is taken in. At a later meeting with the occupants, Thomas reveals his new work - a machine that can record what people see in the afterlife.
To test the machine, Toby, Will and Isla steal the corpse of Pat Phillips from the morgue. Will reveals to Isla the reason for his resentment towards Thomas: his mother killed herself when Thomas was too obsessed with his work to care about her.
Phillips' corpse is hooked to the machine, but nothing happens. After everyone leaves, Will undoes his earlier sabotage on the machine. Immediately the screen shows a video sequence of Pat Phillips driving to a hospital, visiting someone and fighting with a woman there. Will visits the hospital, but finds the hallway from the video gone.
During a meeting, Thomas confronts Lacey about revealing to others about the failed test and expels her from the mansion. Will shows Isla the recording, theorizing that the machine records memory rather than the afterlife. They find a record of Pat Phillips' father, who died in the hospital. Further investigations reveals the events in the recording don't match what actually happened. Pat never visited his dying father in the hospital.
Isla confides in Will that she had a son, who died while she was asleep. Isla and Will grow closer together and share a kiss, which is interrupted by Toby.
Together they rush to Thomas, who is hooked to the machine. They observe that he is seeing the night their mother killed herself, except that Thomas stops her. They are able to revive Thomas, who concludes the afterlife is an alternate version of their existing life, only with different choices made. They agree to destroy the machine, as this revelation would provoke millions of suicides by people wanting to improve the lives they have. Thomas prepares to hold a speech, which is interrupted by Lacey shooting Isla, claiming she has just "relocated" her. Isla dies in Will's arms.
Later, a devastated Will hooks himself up with the machine. He arrives back on the ferry, where he meets Isla again, who states this is a memory. It is revealed Will is living in a memory loop trying to prevent Isla's death and he restarts on the ferry every time. Isla says he saved her and they both will move on now. Although Toby and Thomas try to revive Will, he dies, promising Isla to remember her.
Will stands on the beach, where he sees a little boy and gets him out of the water. The little boy's mother, Isla, arrives and thanks Will. They don't recognize each other. After she leaves, he walks away, but as he starts to recall who Isla is, he stops and slowly looks back.
This film has both fascinated me as well as making me annoyed with myself for not being clever enough to understand deeper, the theories and discoveries around the mind that have influenced great scientists, doctors, thinkers, philosophers, writers and poets.
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