The human brain size doubled, within the last 200,000 to two million years. Nothing compares to how fast evolution of the six pound thing inside our craniums has grown. The only thing that even comes close to touching that rapid speed of growth is an otters liver, it has doubled in that amount of time. It may sound like a long period of time, but when you consider the earth has been here for an estimated 13.8 billion years, a couple million is just a small slice of a huge pie. To put this in perspective, let’s say the earth formed at midnight and the present moment is the next midnight, 24 hours later, modern humans have been around since 11:59:59pm—1 second. What’s with this brain? And why does it vary so much compared to other animals?
The power of the mind is such a difficult thing to comprehend, we still have very little understanding on how it works, and why it works the way it does. As soon as we start to understand bits and pieces of it, we find even more about it that wasn’t even being considered; or, scientist and doctors find out they were just chasing their tales and were totally ass-backwards about what they thought within their findings.
As our technology heightens, so has our understandings about ourselves, as well as our evolution of our chemistry and biology is speeding up faster and faster just like the technology looking into us. Just at the end of last year (October 2014), a team led by researchers from Heidelberg University in Germany, found a new brain cell that is stronger and passes information more efficiently than our regular ones. Just when we thought we knew everything, the technology we have now proved us very wrong, for a lack of a better term: we don’t know shit. And it’s completely portentously moralizing to think otherwise. Our technology is now so advanced, we use it to advanced itself, and a computer for example can make its own algorithms better than our best minds at work can pull off. Soon, technology won’t need us anymore and hopefully they don’t turn on us.
Here I’ll discuss five things we don’t have any proper understanding about ourselves:
5. What is the Power of Mind over Body?
Time-and-time-again, we see and hear of people curing themselves of any and all ailments just simply from the power within. Anything from curing oneself of pain related injuries or diseases like arthritis to curing themselves of cancer; we call it the placebo effect. The placebo effect was discovered by a medic by the name of Henry Beecher during the Second World War. He found that once he ran out of morphine he was using a saline solution to help treat soldiers. Amazingly, it was 40 percent effective. So what is causing this hidden power within? Is it something that science can’t even determine? Do we have to look to spirituality to help understand this? Could it be the hiding forces of spirit guides taking over to help cure us?
4. Why is it we think?
This is a mind fuck within itself. Our brain has areas that most animals do not; it gives us the ability to think rationally instead of acting just upon instinct. Thankfully, we’ve evolved (well most of us) to the point where we can sit back for a moment, to think of different options to take when carrying out a task. You take a bear for example; if they’re hungry they’re going to eat, even if it’s their own kind. We tend to over-think things too, which can cause stress, and stress is the most common ailment found within adults, in turn can lead to anxiety or even depression. Where do these thoughts come from anyway? How is it we have the ability to think new ideas constantly? Why are there so many thoughts all day, without being able to shut the minds ability to think down? Even when we’re sleeping the mind is still working just as if we’re still awake…
3. Why do we dream?
Dreams, are one of the most understood abilities we all hold, has left neuroscientist’s and others alike, scratching their heads trying to grasp an idea of why this occurs, several times a night, during a normal sleep-cycle. Sigmund Freud theorized that dreams mainly express aggressive impulses, infantile sexuality, and an expression of repressed wishes. Some other psychoanalysis believed that dreams had more to do with feelings of inadequacy, or filling a compensation gap within. In more recent times, psychologists point more towards dreams help with memory consolidation and or threat stimulation. These leading theories account for some types of dreams, but clearly don’t define for all. During the rapid eye movement (REM) state, is when we’re dreaming, the areas of the brain that are working is the same as if we are in our awaken state.
2.What’s with our unconscious mind?
Our unconscious mind is approximately 30,000 times more powerful than our conscious one. While we are fully aware of what is happening in the conscious mind, we have no understanding of what information is stored in the unconscious mind. It consists of the processes in the mind that occurs automatically and is not available to introspection, and includes thought memory, processes, motivation, and affect. Empirical evidence suggests that unconscious wonder includes repressed feelings, automatic skills, subliminal perceptions, thoughts, habits, and automatic reactions, and possibly also complexes, hidden phobias and desires. We take in so much information during a normal day that there is no way the conscious brain can handle it so stores inside the unconsciousness.
1. What is imagination?
As a young child our imagination runs wild. As we grow it seems to start to diminish. We pretty much get influenced what to think that drives the imagination down. The greatest thinkers, scientist and minds alike have a huge imagination. Take Albert Einstein for instance; he contributes a lot of his amazing scientific discoveries and theories to his active imagination. He even was quoted as saying, “imagination is more important than knowledge.” Imagination is altogether possibly a uniquely human ability. In essence, it allows us to explore ideas of things that are not in our present environment, or perhaps not even real. Is one person’s imaginative thoughts, just being recycled from someone else’s? When someone’s imagination comes up with an idea, does someone else, somewhere else, think the same thing simultaneously? Are these imaginative thoughts actually fictional, or does it happen within different lifeforms on a planet somewhere within the cosmos?