Our Amazing Brain

            You will notice that in the title of this essay I used the word “brain” as opposed to “mind.”  That’s because the “mind” is a product or phenomenon of the brain.

            There are many people who disagree with me and see the mind as being separate from the biological body.  It is called “dualism.”  The believers in dualism think that when the body dies the mind continues to exist and just floats away – where?  I guess that depends upon the imagination of the mind.  Dualism is a belief not a fact.  However, it is a fact that the brain is just one of many organs that comprise the body and if you do away with the brain, you do away with the mind. 

            There are a lot of synonyms or euphemisms for the concept of mind – consciousness, awareness, personality, self, ego and spirit – just to name a few.  The mind is how we evaluate what and who we are, who one is, one’s worthiness as well as the worthiness of objects like cars and computers.  We use our mind to evaluate the mind of our neighbor and conclude, here is a good guy, a bad guy or a weird guy.  We might think Joe Blow has a keen mind, beautiful mind, corrupt mind, or evil mind – using the word evil as an adjective and not a noun.  We tend to judge a person by how we evaluate his mind, how his mind, eyes and fingers coordinate to create or destroy, in other words the fruits of the mind – how he thinks and what he thinks.

            For example, Mormons believe we humans were unembodied spirits in a preexistent spirit world and when we die our self or spirit will become disembodied returning to the spirit world to be judged.  After being judged, (assuming we are not sent to hell) our spirit is reunited with our resurrected body and catapulted to one of several kingdoms depending upon our valiance on earth.  Judgment or valiance is usually contingent upon how well one conformed to Mormon priesthood commandments, the more valiant the higher the kingdom.  The celestial is the highest and greatest kingdom, reserved for Mormon polygamists, where the honorable men of the earth will be servants to Mormon polygamists who will become gods and creators of other earths.

            The above scenario is a belief, not a fact, and a good example of brain induced imagination.    

            According to dualists the spirit, self, or mind is eternal, and is the amalgamation of beliefs, experiences, history and conformity to some higher law.  According to Mormon belief, as mortals we don’t remember what the preexistence was like – but the leaders (prophets) assure us there was a preexistence at which time we chose who our mortal parents would be – but eternally, we are the children of our Father In Heaven.  Those that conform, say to Mormonism, Catholicism or Islam will be better off than the nonconformists.

            In the last four years, among the books I have read, were books dealing with neurology, psychology and genetics and how the brain works. (I am currently reading The Science of Good and Evil, by Michael Shermer.) As a consequence I find it difficult to accept the concept of dualism. If there is no such thing as dualism then it tends to shoot down the concept of a spirit world.  It also incurs doubt in a supernatural essence such as a god that choreographs the lives of groups and individuals, and that includes a non-biblical paranormal essence – often referred to as “they” or “them.”And here’s why.

            Lack of evidence!  If the brain suffers trauma such as a severe blow to the head, the personality or mind may dramatically change.  This is a fact.  So if Joe Blow was a really great guy before his accident, and a dirty bugger after, will Joe Blow go to heaven or hell?

            Associated with the concept of dualism, or spirit, is the ability of the individual to discern supernatural and symbolic meaning in events and inanimate objects like rocks.  It’s called Animism.

            For example, the Book of Mormon alleges that the ancient inhabitants of the Americas were Israelites who immigrated to the Americas prior to the mortal sojourn of Jesus Christ. True blue Mormons accept the Book of Mormon as being historically accurate even though there is no archeological, anthropological or genetical evidence to support the alleged accuracy.  The fact is the lack of evidence coupled with historical inaccuracies, not to mention that DNA refutes the notion that Native Americans have Israeli origins, is compelling reason to label the Book of Mormon a work of fiction. 

            But that doesn’t detour true blue Mormons form looking for and finding what they perceive as evidence.

            For example, a number of years ago I attended a tour of the Dream Mine in central Utah conducted by Ogden Kraut – a well known and respected Mormon author of Mormon fundamentalist literature. The Dream Mine, also called the Relief Mine was a project of a Mormon bishop named Koyle who received a revelation that a horde of Nephite gold and silver was stashed in a specific mountain near the town of Salem. Koyle was going to retrieve that horde and save the LDS Church which back then was in financial difficulty.  The mine was financed by pecuniary donations and donated labor.  Ogden Kraut had worked in the mine as a young man.

            No gold or silver has been found.  After a hundred years some faithful are still hopeful.  The only positive thing about the mine is the water flowing out the tunnel and irrigating a large apple orchard.

            When I investigated the TLC (True & Living Church) polygamist group a disaffected member told me about some Nephite rock writings behind the Manti Temple.  The Nephites were supposed to be the first people to occupy North and South America.  The Native Americans are supposed to be the remnants of the Book of Mormon Nephites.

            There were seven or eight inscriptions carved in the rock.  Some looked old, much like the many ancient Indian petroglyphs found throughout the west, but a couple looked very recent.  In fact one glyph was the ankh, a well known Egyptian symbol which is conspicuously inconsistent with Indian petroglyphs and was an obvious forgery.  Nevertheless, the polygamist leader of the TLC, James Harmston and a local boy named Jerry Mower claim the rock writings are Nephite.  I suspect it was Mower who chipped out the ankh as he was allegedly the one who first discovered the petroglyphs. 

            Near the petroglyphs is a tree unlike any other tree in the neighborhood.  It is a scrubby looking thing, the foliage of which resembles grease wood – a shrub that only grows in alkaline soil. Needless to say, the polygamists tout it as the only tree in existence and further evidence of a Nephite presence. However, along Utah Highway 20, a mountainous road connecting I-15 with Utah Highway 89, there are hundreds of these trees. 

            The above examples are just a couple of many subjective perceptions by Mormons desperate to find evidence of the Book of Mormon.  And of course, Mormons are not the only religious people who see things perceived as God’s handiwork, things that they think validate their beliefs like the Lady of Fatima. 

            Hurricane Katrina was punishment for sin, the Titanic was predestined to sink, Joe Blow was meant to die – and then the mind does some cognitive gymnastics to justify it. Nor is it uncommon for true blue believers to believe God still sends storms, floods and earthquakes as punishment.

            Predestination is the belief that things happen because they are supposed to happen.  Predestination is related to a philosophical belief called “determinism.”  The Internet defines determinism as “the philosophical idea that every event or state of affairs, including every human decision and action, is the inevitable and necessary consequence of antecedent states of affairs.”

This differs somewhat from the religious concept of predestination in that events are the preordained acts of God.  That explains why God is all knowing and can see into the future.  In so many words, life is a script.  Which helps explains the phenomenon of “déjà vue.”  If you believe in that sort of stuff. 

            Either way, predestination and determinism conflict with the concept of free agency.  The philosopher, Daniel Dennett, who is not a believer of dualism suggests that the phenomenon of free will has an evolutionary antecedent:

… free will is located in the “self,” a metaphor for an adaptation our brains evolved for monitoring what is happening in our own and others’ brains.  But where is the self located.  The answer is not clear, but wherever it is, it is not in one location.

            The concept of “self” as being separate from the body and equipped with free will is a thought.  Shermer had this to say about thought”

… our thoughts and actions are shaped by a myriad of causes – genetic, environmental, and historical.  Every individual set of genes is unique (with the exception of identical twins), each environmental setting is matchless, and every historical pathway that each of us has gone down in our individual lives is distinctive.  We are, each and every one of us, unique and different from every other of the six million members of our species.  And those conditions are so complex, so interwoven, that no one could possible know all of the casual variables for themselves or anyone else.  Human freedom arises out of the ignorance of causes.             

                The anatomy of the brain is composed of a left and right hemisphere.  Each hemisphere is composed of lobes and each lobe has its function.  For example the frontal lobe of the Cerebrum has been identified as the source of abstract thought, problem solving, intelligence, etc. , the Occipital lobe – vision and reading.  The point is the concept of self is probably a combination of the different functions of the lobes. 

                But what I find particularly fascinating and revealing is that evolutionary psychologists and neurologists have been able to stimulate parts of the brain and artificially produce in subjects supernatural phenomenon like revelations, visions and out-of-body experiences.   In these experiments they have been able to identify what lobes are responsible for what behavior.

                Researchers have found that most supernatural or spiritual events occur during  trauma, high period of stress or deep periods of meditation.  The exceptions would be revelations such as Joseph Smith is alleged to have received.  It has been speculated by skeptics that Joseph’s revelations might be explained by epilepsy or some other malfunction of the brain.  However, Joseph’s revelations seem to be well calculated and sophisticated like the Book of Mormon and his plural marriage revelation.  They do not fit the template of trauma, disease or extreme stress.  Therefore if they were not traumatically induced could they have been made-up?  I think so.  Did Joseph benefit from the revelations?  Sure!  Power, money, ego, recognition, lots of sex …..  the very same benefits Mohammad received. 

                If we were to take supernatural phenomenon and measure its authenticity by placing on one side of a scale “true,” and on the other side of the scale “false,” because of biological certainty, mathematical predictability, and the scientific method, I am afraid the “false” would considerably out weight the “true.”

false