The Extraordinary Power of Mind

The ‘mind’ and the ‘body’ are two independent, though interdependent, aspects of the human body.

The Greek mathematician and philosopher ‘Plato’ had described ‘mind’ as a separate entity from the body around 2300 years ago (Indian Vedic scriptures have also described that our five sense organs along with body, mind, ego and the intellect are the nine key constituents of a human being).

When we sleep, we are ignorant of what is happening around us unless an extraordinary event takes place like thunder or an earthquake or any violent act shaking the body. However, when we are performing some action, our ‘mind’ is active, but most of the times we lose focus because our 'thought' suddenly shifts from one subject to another like a pendulum.

Therefore the moment we start thinking or making use of our memory stored in the neuron cells of our 'brain,' the 'mind' which at times, for few seconds are silent, becomes conscious or more focused.

Even when we are NOT performing any activity and sitting or idling in our bed,  'thoughts' keep on moving at a fast pace because despite all our efforts we can’t keep the 'mind' still or 'thought-free' for more than a few seconds, unless we practice or ritualise the process called 'silencing of the mind.' 

During an activity, for example like a car driving, our 'mind' is constantly occupied with some other 'mental activity' because  'thoughts' constantly flow like a stream or ocean waves which are ongoing or continuous. None the less, our eyes always keep a watch on the road for other alerts or new information because  car driving is a 'learned function' for an ‘experienced driver’ having already registered the task in the brain memory cells and therefore does not require any new or focussed thoughts when driving on a road that one has traveled before. Neuroscientists state that the brain is already wired with that particular program, either driving or path direction or what so ever.

As we normally drive the same road several numbers of times, the process called 'thoughts' create pathways in our brain and each time we drive, 'thoughts' are created (like etching or a printing press) in different parts of our brain on different days. Thus a large network of paths gets created in several regions of the brain on a regular basis. This is how pathways get well established in our brain like a well "rehearsed or repetitive drama or stage acts."

"As we have trillions of dendrite connections among the 100 billions of neuron cells inside the  human brain, a multitude of thought-ways or pathways get created of the "things often repeated" giving us the unique ability to automatically pilot our way through our daily life of routine activities thereby providing us parallel thinking or multi-tasking capabilities".  

But on the other hand, when we drive towards a new destination, or it is a new route our 'mind' is more alert, and our 'conscious awareness' is highly focussed because the 'brain' has to do new registration in the memory cells because it is something not done before. 

Thus further external inputs and new thoughts are put into our brain cells. Here we use the operating system (the mind-software), and the brain is no more automatic because the pathway or wiring inside the brain is getting created for the first time!

Similarly, when we are in a deep sleep, our conscious ‘mind’ is NOT working. However, some parts of the brain are active even when a person is unconscious or sleeping because scientists have confirmed this experimentally that some of the neurons in the brain keep firing or sparking. These sparks are basically electrical impulses but have different frequencies at different times.

The electrical sparks during deep sleep (REM or first phase) or unconscious state has the lowest frequency of about 0.5 to 3.5 cycles per second.

When we are dreaming during our sleep (REM-second phase) our memory cells of the brain are more involved and shows higher wavelength up to 4 to 7 cycles per second.

Though it has not been proven, there seems to be some interplay between the sub-conscious mind and the neurons in the brain during dreaming (the phase known as rapid eye movement) because of higher frequency wavelength suggest higher activity inside the brain although the mind is not conscious because the body has no awareness!

Usually, we inhale and exhale 'air' constantly irrespective of the state of our 'consciousness' or 'state of mind,'  whether our body is at rest or not.

 In English, the word ‘spirit’ comes from the Latin spiritus, which means ‘breath’ which is a vital energy or vital force that operates within us and we are always performing the act of breathing without any effort, and this is an automatic function.

Under normal circumstances, all living person does breathing involuntarily without any efforts on our part because it is just happening automatically except that one might modify the breath by performing deep breathing exercise. Although we have the power to modify our breath we cannot stop breathing, and if we try to hold our breath, we can do it only for a few moments, and if our normal breathing is chocked due some external reasons, we will be dead within no time.

Although there are certain vital energy forces that control our body automatically without our self-effort humans, have the capability to control the mind, to be precise the thought process!  This can be achieved by training and more importantly some initiation by a very senior experienced person who can give guidance in the process called ‘meditation.’

One of the reasons this self-regulation is possible because our 'thoughts' come up at regular intervals in our 'mind,' very similar to air that flows through one window to flow out of another window!

However most of the times we always have a tendency to shut one of the windows and are unable to remove the entrapped thoughts which haunt us time and again; but as we know 'mind' is not a physical entity, and therefore it is a virtual window in this game of mind management and therefore requires a lot of training!

It is interesting to compare the 'mind' similar to a drama stage where different backgrounds are set up, and many characters (thoughts as well as images) come and go at regular intervals. Therefore in our 'mind' different thoughts are constantly generated like continuous waves, and therefore drama continues until the time we keep on the show going. No doubt the show has to continue, but if we have self (conscious) control we can put the curtains down as many times as we desire to do so!

'Thoughts' , I believe is one part of the universal energy because people who have creative abilities like the poets, the writers reveal that at times they get into a sudden mood which makes them write a story or poetry because for them these thoughts come up unexpectedly like the sudden breeze or a sudden flow of wind.  

So we need to consider 'thoughts' as some energy (read the blog - IS MONKEY OUR REAL ANCESTOR?) which could be put to use for various purposes.

When people talk about controlling the mind, we are referring to controlling 'thoughts, ' but there are several instances where people have shown the ability to control the physical aspects of the body by mind control.

As we all know the brain not only stores 'thoughts in the memory cells' but also transmit commands for movement of our body and using neurotransmitter chemicals can control the endocrine system(hormonal glands) in our body!

One such example is Dr.Wim Hof who is famous for his ability to withstand cold even after he was immersed in cold water for nearly half an hour. His body temperature was constantly measured, and he showed that he could keep his body temperature at 36.4⁰ C despite his body being in contact with a cold environment. His body showed an increase in temperature to 36.8⁰ C where a normal human being would have been shivering and become unconscious under such harsh conditions.

Dr.Wim Hof also did something incredible by running a half marathon (22 km)near the Arctic circle bare feet and bare bodied only wearing a half pant and a cap for nearly two hours at temperatures ranging from -14 to -18⁰ degrees. He says he can control his body thermostat through his mind!

Like any other normal human the bottom of Dr.Wim Hof's feet did have severe frostbite due to continuous exposure to the ice surface, and therefore his feet had to be bandaged for several days. However, he had the remarkable ability to create life in the dead tissues of his feet which became normal very soon. He has announced that he is going to try climbing Mount Everest but obviously not with bare feet!

However, it is obvious that we cannot control our physical body for very long periods and this is one of the reasons that our body changes from the time we are born to grow from an infant child to boyhood and then become an adult to finally become old and ultimately perish.

But the fact that ‘mind’ is so powerful it can either make us confident that we can survive harsh conditions or tough situations in life or it could also happen that one's mind could drive the person towards destruction, for example committing suicide! 

Although we can take preventive measures for our body to avoid some disease by regulated habits, medicines etc., but then we all know we have no total control over our body during the entire length of our life because our body is a perishable substance whereas mind is eternal because it is subtle and is neither a substance nor has an energy value! 

Our 'mind' though powerful and complex can be controlled to a very great extent by the spiritual soul (the absolute state of pure consciousness) to reach that blissful state called 'inner peace' and 'joy.'

There are certain regimented requirements for 'mind control, ' and this could be learned by training with the guidance of a very experienced Guru.  One of the most amazing or mysterious thing in life which one could REALIZE only when one experiences what mind control can do to oneself.

For more details pertaining to mind and spiritual aspects of human life please go to the link

https://www.amazon.com/Jonathans-Journey-Bonding-Science-Spirituality/

                                                         OR

https://notionpress.com/read/jonathan-s-journey