At some point in the history of medicine, a picture coalesced about the role of the brain. From the first basic insight that the brain is the organ of thought, this picture became more and more complex, until neuroscience reached its present state, where the brain is glorified as “the three-pound universe.” Like a magic lantern casting pictures on a blank wall, the brain supposedly projects the three-dimensional world and everything in it. Placing the brain on such an exalted plane will lead to a dead end — in fact, it already has. There is no physical evidence that your brain has ever had a single thought, that it projects a realistic picture of the world, or that it creates mind as a byproduct of cellular activity the way a bonfire creates heat. Instead, the brain displays physical activity as thoughts take place, the same as a piano’s keys going up and down as a performer plays, say, Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. Our experience of life lies at the foundation of being human, and we have evolved by being Self-aware. This fact cannot be explained by declaring that the brain, with its 100 billion neurons and up to a quadrillion connections between them, somehow became conscious through sheer complexity. Likewise, freedom of mind is what the brain is here to serve. The brain isn’t a fixed object. It can produce new neurons and connections according to a person’s experiences in life. We misuse the brain by conditioning it into fixed habits, beliefs, and behaviour. This sort of self-limiting conditioning wasn’t caused by the brain. If you meet a stubborn, angry, controlling, or bigoted person, he became that way by interpreting the world and coming to fixed conclusions about it. No one lives in a neutral world — the human mind interprets every conscious experience. Therefore, we have a choice. Unlike a piano, which doesn’t change just because someone plays Mozart on it, the human brain is fluid, dynamic, and malleable. This provides a clue for how we should use it as the instrument of thought. We should think and behave in such a way that old conditioning is challenged and an open, accepting, fresh approach is favoured. If we managed to make such a shift, the unlimited capacity of the human mind would break free. The mind is both prisoner and jailer. As we engage in the mental act of interpreting the world, we decide what is fearful, dangerous, alien, and unknown. On that basis, we lay down our core beliefs. Then when a situation comes along that makes us feel afraid, angry, or threatened, we react automatically, as if we have no control over what the conditioned mind and brain are doing. We have ascribed to the brain far too much independent power when the real power lies in ourselves. The most primal responses that are difficult to reshape, such as sex drive, fight or flight response, and so on, do dictate behaviour in a very narrow set of circumstances. These set reactions are an evolutionary inheritance. But the vast majority of fixed responses–our habits, likes and dislikes, loves and hates–were created mentally. One can argue forever about how to reduce violence, crime, war, prejudice, and the bane of ‘us-versus-them’ thinking, but those matters are secondary. The primary thing is to reclaim our role as conscious agents who shape human reality. In that role, we’ve constructed the human world and all seven billion unique stories that belong to each individual. The only aspect of life that deserves a privileged position is Self-awareness. -Deepak Chopra
