Bonnie Nack Ed. D. - THINKING ABOUT THINKING: How the Brain Creates Your World Automatically

THINKING
ABOUT
THINKING

HOW THE BRAIN CREATES YOUR WORLD
AUTOMATICALLY

Bonnie Nack, Ed. D.

Copyright 2021 Bonnie Nack, Ed. D.

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ISBN: 978-1-9822-6958-6 (sc)

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Balboa Press rev. date: 10/13/2021

CONTENTS

Most of our lives we focus our attention out into the world. We focus on what is going on out there and on our desires and opinions in relation to it. We seldom observe what our brain and mind are doing. And therein lies the problem of being human. We have no awareness of the fact that our brain functions automatically. We are not aware that our brain may be misleading us and we are just going along for the ride.

This book is not about the content of your mind; it is about how your brain automatically manipulates its content. Sensory input goes into the brain randomly, but what is received there is transformed and automatically organized by the brain to create your experience of being a human being living in this world.

Like every other organ in the body, the brain functions dependably and lawfully. This does not seem to be the case when it is undisciplined and out of control; but even when it is out of control it is still functioning lawfully. Like a programmed computer, it can do no other; unless it is reprogrammed. It is unfortunate that human beings are not aware of how the lawful functions of the brain create their reality. If they were, they would be able to consciously choose re-program their brain to manage their lives more efficiently.

The purpose of this book is to make the reader aware of the laws of how his brain and mind function; but instead of observing them from outside the skull like a neuroscientist measuring brain waves or a psychiatrist inferring unconscious motivation, this book is about looking inward to your subjective experience of what the brain is doing automatically. When you know how something works you can exert control over it. When you have no idea of how something works, you cannot control it and things can go haywire. The end result of reading this book should be that you become consciously aware of your subjective experience of how your brain works automatically, and how you can learn to deal consciously with what it is doing automatically -- every moment of your life.

Thinking About
Thinking

Chapter One
THINKING ABOUT THINKING

In ancient Greece, Minos was a mythical king who ordered
a labyrinth to be built. A labyrinth can be seen as symbolic
of the convolutions of the human brain. It is the labyrinth
of the human brain in which a thinker can get lost.

Thinking underpins everything that that exists in our world. If you could not think your life would be meaningless; you would be no different than a plant growing in the ground. All activities in the whole world -- everything that we see around us and everything we experience -- is the expression and embodiment of thought. Personal relationships, the social order, automobiles, sciences, medicines, electronic devices, skyscrapers, cities, ships and bridges; everything is the manifestation of the thinking of human beings. Without thinking none of these things could have appeared on earth. On the other side of the coin, because of thinking people argue and wars are fought and the collective material creations made possible by thought are destroyed and demolished.

Because thinking is so fundamental to who we are, we take our ability to think for granted and seldom if ever think about thinking itself. Instead of being taken for granted the ability to think is something that needs to be examined and understood. Unless you understand what thinking is, you cannot really understand anything you unwittingly just go along for the ride. As the venerable Einstein commented; We cannot solve the problems facing us by using the same kind of thinking that created them.

Human beings have been created with minds that far exceed the minds of animals in ability to think. But it is something of a tragedy that they do not know that their mind does many things automatically; how it works or how to make the best use of it. Instead, like animals they focus on the external world or their body sensations and desires, and like an animal mindlessly allow their brains to react and run their lives instinctively. Animals limited ability to think is a protection for them. Although they cannot, through cumulative cooperative and creative thought, rise above the limitations of their environment to improve their life situation; neither can they create confusion, suffering and destruction for themselves like human beings can do. It is the infinite range of the creative possibilities of human thinking that has both blessed and cursed the human race.

We can understand the biblical statement; In the beginning was the word, to refer to mans ability to think as the foundation of creation. Words are the vehicle by which man uses his mind to create finite forms within the realm of the infinite. Words are the way that God allows man to break His grand infinity into little pieces and manipulate those pieces as he wishes. For example, different cultures have different words for different aspects of reality and they all slice up the pie of infinity in different ways. Eskimos have seven words for snow. Most other cultures have one. Ancient Sanskrit has ninety-six different words for love; English has only one or two.

WORDS ARE THE FOUNDATION OF CONSCIOIOUS THOUGHT

Give me a child before the age of seven and
I will show you the man. Aristotle

The creation of a human being does not end when a child is born. The human brain is designed so that its earliest experiences program it, forming the foundation of his thinking for his whole life. The brain receives various sensory inputs and automatically organizes and stores them automatically in specific areas of the brain. A child is born out of the silence and cannot think using words, but observation of his attempts to master moving his body and exploring his environment, it is obvious that an infant is thinking even without the use of words. When learning a language, first a child mimics sounds; then he learns that these sounds represent things. Only after that can he learn a language and begin to think with words. At a year and a half of age a childs brain automatically begins to associate words with sensory input. Words are verbal symbols that your brain formulates against the data of sensory input. They impose themselves on the wordless inner silence and reduce the complex sensory experience of this world into simple sounds and symbols. Words are giant steps removed from the electro-chemical functions of the brain, sensory input, and the experiences that form our world.