Mind vs. Brain

Brain is not mind, and mind is not brain. Just as the symphony isn't the orchestra, and the orchestra isn't the symphony.

Your brain is the most amazing feat of engineering humanity has ever encountered. It's made mostly of fatty cells called neurons. Neurons look sort of like tadpoles with lots of fingers. The fingers are called dendrites and the tail is called the axion. Dendrites and axions can connect neurons to other neurons. But, they don't touch one another. There is where the magic is. The neurons talk to each other using electrical pulses that jump across gaps called synapses. The electrical activity is caused by different chemicals that are released and withheld at the right times.

Scientists and philosophers have been looking for the mind for millennia. Mind and spirit have been related to one another countless times. René Descartes was the first to put forth the idea that mind and body are separate. Later, Sigmund Freud would divide mind into conscious and subconscious. Much more recently, it was believed that mind is contained in the electrical impulses that constantly fire across the trillions of synapses in the human brain. Yes. Trillions.

We've mapped the brain pretty well. That is, as far as cognition goes. We know which parts of the brain control sight, hearing, and motor functions like breathing and keeping our hearts beating. We even know which parts of the brain become more active during extreme emotional events. We know that you can scramble the frontal lobe and the patient can still walk and talk, but their emotions and motivation have been suppressed. Lately, we've discovered that certain chemicals in the brain cause behavior and mood disorders like depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. We discovered that certain other chemicals can control the creation and suppression of brain chemicals that cause the disorders. Lobotomies with chemicals and without that messy brain scrambling. But, none of that is mind.

With all of what we know, we think we're on the verge of discovering mind. According to people who have tried to discover mind scientifically, as opposed to philosophically, we're nowhere near it. Many of them say the the human mind is incapable of understanding the human mind. We may never understand the processes we use to think. We understand cognition quite well. We create all sorts of machines that mimic human cognition. We call it artificial intelligence, but that's a little arrogant. Cognition isn't mind. Cognition is incapable of learning by testimony. Cognition isn't self-aware. Cognition isn't innovative.

Your mind might actually be rattling around inside your head, but maybe not. Maybe it is something even more separate and apart from the body than we thought. After all, we thought epilepsy was caused by bad air at one time, didn't we?