MY BRAIN
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I was thinking about my brain and how it has developed and become organized since I was born. Somewhere in my development I acquired the ability to think and to reflect. I developed a consciousness and the skill to think about things, including thinking about myself and what it means to think about oneself. I was able to think about me and the idea that I exist. Perhaps that is a particularly human attribute, this business of self analysis. And, then again, it might not be. We are, after all, animals in the strict sense of the word so maybe other animals who are not humans can do exactly the same thing as I am doing right now; thinking about one's self and one's attributes. Since I do not generally talk to animals on a regular basis I am not able to tell whether or not other animals can do the things that I am able to do.
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At any rate, that is not my real concern here right at this moment. My brain and its nature is my real concern. When I was born I did not know that I was born. As I developed as a child I became conscious of the fact that I was alive and that I was able to experience things; I was able to feel and see my environment and I began to think or contemplate about the things that I experienced. I suppose that is how one learns - by experiencing things. You learn that certain things behave in certain ways at certain times under different circumstances. Life is just really a whole set of experiences that you have come to know and how to react to as a consequence of your personal experiences with them. And, it is your brain that files away all of these experiences for you. The brain is probably the most important thing that each of us possesses.
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This thing called the brain has been with us since day one and when it dies we die. That is how important it is. It is the absolute most paramount thing in our lives. So, when it dies all of our experiences and emotions and everything else that it stored up for us disappear. Now, some religious people think that the brain is like a soul and it never dies; it just lives on and on, even after we die. That is an interesting idea of course and whether or not it is true we will never know. We will never know because when we die our brains die at the same time. Remember, it is the brain that is doing the thinking and if it is not " alive " it cannot be doing the job it is supposed to be doing. Just think of the brain as organized matter. Somehow in the organization of time and space some matter came together and became your brain. And, if this did not happen everything that you have come to experience and become knowledgable about would not have happened.
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I believe that is a key component of life, this business about the brain being an organized mass that is. I think understanding the organization of our brains and of any organized thing for that matter, is the route to knowing about the mysteries of life and the universe. My thinking and my brain are allowing me to make this assumption by the way. In my opening sentence I stated that I was thinking about my brain and how it has developed since I was born. Somewhere in my development as a child I became conscious of my surroundings. In other words, my brain began to take notice of its environment. My brain, which is a totality of its material parts came to the conclusion that it was perceiving things; that objects existed outside of itself and that, in fact, it existed as well. It was able to make this judgment as a consequence of its ability to process information. And, that is what the brain primarily is - a processor of information. It receives information, stores it and analyzes it. As a result of this ability it is also able to produce things called " emotions." Emotions are really interesting things that are at the basis of understanding what a human being is. Emotions are things that determine our personality. How we experience things and how our brains process these things and creates emotions out of them is what really defines us as individuals. People can experience the exact same thing at the exact same time but they may have a different emotional response. That is the really interesting characteristic of the human being, in my opinion.
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And, it is your brain, your organized existence, which has stored all of your information and experiences for you that decides the emotional response. That is how important this thing is called the brain. It truly is a wonderful creation. But, don't be fooled by the word " creation. " I am not implying that there is anything magical or religious about the brain and its attributes. I am suggesting that the brain, as it develops, has the ability to create things. It is just the power of the human being that its brain can visualize and create ideas as a result of all of the information that is has on hand. The ideas and emotions that it creates are limited to the experiences of the brain. But, I think you would agree that its ability to create ideas and concepts and to feel things like emotions is the thing that makes it profound.
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What gives the brain the ability to think and to be creative you might logically enquire at this point? Now, the more religious among you will most likely argue that God made this marvelous creation of the brain or of its attributes. I would disagree with this notion of course. Primarily because this is the stuff of the " idea." And, ideas only happen when we think about them. And, we only begin to think when we are able to, when our consciousness develops. That is to say, we only think and know about ideas when the brain becomes organized; that is when things come together to make that happen. We did not know God at birth because he was not there at birth. He is only something that develops as an idea after the brain becomes an organized entity. The brain matures through experience. You cannot create a thought or an idea without information; it is the food of consciousness. That is why when we are born we do not " know " that we are born. Knowing is only a later feature of life.
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But, as the brain develops it does in fact learn how to know. Each and everyone learns how to know and to feel and to create ideas. The totality of our experiences become the most important things for us. The emotions that we feel can be experienced over and over again if the right amount of sensory data is presented to us.
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So, why am I writing about the brain and its organization and its ability to produce emotions? I am doing this to point out to you that man is at base a selfish creature. If he was not a selfish creature he would die. He has a brain that does his thinking for him. Thinking is the thing that he does because it promotes his self interest. There is no other purpose for this business of thinking. The brain processes information and produces feeling for him. These feelings are translated into emotions and emotions are the things that make man human; emotions are the way man experiences life. Man learns that experiences cause these emotions. Emotions are good and bad things as everyone knows. But, since man is a selfish creature he would rather feel good rather than bad. That is why man created religion to try and manage these emotions in a more orderly way. His logical, self-centered brain allowed him to do that. But, his logical brain is also interested in the continuance of its well-being as well. That is why when it comes to experiencing an emotion or an experience that makes him feel good then he will find ways to reproduce or even experience those things as much as he can.
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That is why man is primarily interested in things like love and sex. He has learned, through experience, that these things make him happy. Love binds him to his society and sex fulfills a physical desire as well making more things like himself. And, he would not come to know about these things if he did not have an organized brain. It truly is amazing isn't it that matter can come together to produce all of these things that I am talking about right now. I am presenting you with an idea produced in the factory of my brain. The particular organization of my brain arranged these thoughts for me and allowed me to present them to you in this form.
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A confirmation of my beliefs as expressed above is something like the Kabbalah. I think a study of this system only affirms my ideas about man - he is a selfish entity who seeks understanding through organization. His ego demands understanding and knowledge.
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