Time Magazine: More Mind & Body
Time Magazine explores research in the mind-body connection
This continues a review of Time's special issue feature which explores what we know and don't yet know about mind, brain, body, and consciousness.
This is the second article of a personal development review of Time Magazine's January 28th, 2007 issue which carries a special feature on the brain, the mind, and consciousness, A User's Guide to the Brain. If you reached this article first you might want to start with this one.
In this part we explore Time's report on how friends can help or hinder your growth, how old is too old for personal development, is there proof of the Law of Attraction, and is mind bigger than brain.
The Influence of Friends:
Have you ever noticed that you feel bad when you're with someone who is suffering from a physical or emotional problem? It's often described as "catching their emotion." Researchers can see this happening in real time in the brain using an advanced MRI machine. The brain of person A reflects activity in the same area as person B when they are in close proximity.
It's called neural mirroring; how this works is currently not known. From a personal development and growth standpoint, this points out the danger of hanging around with negative, pessimistic people if you prefer to be positive and optimistic. You can "catch" their pessimism just by being in close proximity. It also suggests being with others whose values and positive attitudes are congruent with your own.
Too Old For Personal Growth?:
The decades old dogma that an adult human brain is fixed in form and function--captured by the saying that you can't teach an old dog new tricks--is wrong. The brain is flexible, changing in response to experience and thought. The term for this is neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity explains stroke victim's ability to regain speech or other motor functions previously destroyed. The brain rearranges itself to compensate. You're never too old for personal growth.
Law of Attraction:
Spiritualists teach us that the Universal Law of Attraction is at the heart of the events and circumstances of our lives. The Law of Attraction essentially states that we attract unto ourselves that which is like us in vibrational frequency and emotion.
Brain image research identifies the neural networks that form, not only as we take part in some activity, but also as we think about it. So thinking about an event or activity affects brain structure as if it is occurring. Does this provide scientific evidence of the Law of Attraction, showing the brain, in not knowing the difference between thought and experience, can manifest the experience by thinking of it? Time doesn't make this connection, but it seems a plausible conclusion.
The Mind, Brain, Consciousness, and Soul:
If you believe in the immortal soul and that the mind is broader than the brain, be prepared for conflicting information from researchers. The scientists acknowledge some unknowns, but appear to believe that mind and consciousness are all a physical phenomenon of the brain. The inference is that humans are not more than their physical bodies.
Though science and spiritualism seem to be converging in many areas, there are still divergences and gaps troubling to those of us longing for complete reinforcement. Research in these areas, though uncovering amazing understandings, is still in its infancy.
More related material under Mind & Attitude in the index.
