Conventional wisdom holds that the human mind is nothing more than the human brain. This belief derives from materialism. By "materialism" I don't mean the mania to shop unceasingly at the mall. Rather, I mean the philosophy that material reality is all that there is. Immaterial or spiritual realities are, in this view, simply epiphenomena of the material world.
We find the materialist view ably expressed in Francis Crick's The Astonishing Hypothesis. What Crick finds astonishing is that our thoughts, emotions and feelings consist entirely in the physiological activity in the circuitry of the brain. Daniel Dennett argues that "mind" is simply a term for what the brain does. And how do we know that the brain and the mind are essentially the same? The best evidence is that when the brain is damaged, the injury affects the mind. Patients whose brains atrophy due to stroke, for instance, lose their ability to distinguish colors or to empathize with others.
But in his book The Spiritual Brain, neuroscientist Mario Beauregard shows why the Crick-Dennett position is based on a fallacy. Yes, the brain is the necessary locus or venue for the mind to operate. It does not follow that the two are the same. Beauregard gives a telling analogy. "Olympic swimming events require an Olympic class swimming pool. But the pool does not create the Olympic events; it makes them feasible at a given location." Far from being identical to the mind, Beauregard argues that the brain "is an organ suitable for connecting the mind to the rest of the universe."
A provocative idea. Beauregard produces several lines of evidence, but there I focus on just one: the placebo effect. The placebo or sugar-pill effect is one of the most widely-attested phenomena in medicine. One medicine journal notes that "the history of medicine is the history of the placebo effect." So powerful is the impact of the sugar pill that today the effectiveness of drugs is measured by the FDA in comparison to the placebo effect.
Yet as Beauregard points out, the placebo effect is an embarassment to the simple-minded conception of the mind as an ephiphenomenon of the brain. The reason is that this effect shows the mind shaping the brain. The mental expectation of being cured leads to an actual alteration in the physical workings of the brain, and the patient experiences a measurable physiological improvement. One doctor who cured a patient through the placebo effect was asked what he gave the patient that produced such an incredible result. His answer? "Hope."
Beauregard also writes about something I didn't know much about: the nocebo effect. "The nocebo effect is the harmful health effect created by a sick person's belief and expectation that a powerful source of harm has been contacted or administered." So if patients are strongly convinced that a particular pill will give them nausea, they frequently become nauseous, even when the pill they have taken is not the one they expected but only a sugar pill.
Materialism is based on the assumption that the only way to alter the mind is to alter the physical operations of the brain. But Beauregard uses the placebo and nocebo effect to show the reverse. The mind can also regulate the operations of the brain. Beauregard writes that he placebo and nocebo effects are not triggered by the sugar pill but rather are "triggered by the patient's mental state. In other words, they depend entirely on the patient's state of belief."
But if minds can control brains, them minds are not the same as brains. This leads to the unavoidable conclusion that there is an aspect of thought and feeling that lies outside the realm of the material. This is what Beauregard calls "the spiritual brain." Atheists too have one, even if they refuse to admit it.
Reader Comments ( Page 4 of 22)
46. http://creationismisthedumbestideaever.blogspot.com
http://onlyidiotsbelieveingod.blogspot.com
http://onlythedumbestarestillterrifiedofevolution.blogspot.com
Knight_of_BAAWA at 6:08PM on May 26th 2008
47. "I hope that your religion has a self-punishment program, Hailmarys and such."
Pboy, don't you mean
"Hail YESSS!! Mary!"
:)
brandon at 6:11PM on May 26th 2008
48. @40 - "I do not like to talk to the snakes in the grass. Sorry. So you'll understand if I rarely even acknowledge your presence in the future.
Godless Heathen Brian at 4:05PM on May 26th 2008"
Wise choice, GHB. He's worse than a snake, and a divider to boot.
brandon at 6:20PM on May 26th 2008
49. A 'snake'? A 'divider'? Apparently you don't have very good memories, or highly selectively ones - SAD. Actually, guys, I am exactly the OPPOSITE. And at least I TRY. Can YOU say the same?
Robert at 6:31PM on May 26th 2008
50. So anyway, GHB, how's the sex poll going on the other blog? Any takers?
brandon at 7:02PM on May 26th 2008
51. DD talking about a brain? Why don't you head down the yellow brick road DD and see the wizard. He may give you one. Ask the Scarecrow for directions to OZ. Perhaps you will also find that dead cult hero of yours there?
Larry at 7:59PM on May 26th 2008
52. No takers yet, dude. Fl Chick promises she'll comment later on it.
For those unfamiliar with it, I'm asking women about how the average man is as a lover. Go here:
http://news.aol.com/newsbloggers/2008/05/23/why-secular-liberals-are-so-unhappy/36#comments
It's about halfway down the page. It's ust the previous DD blog, the one about why Secular Liberals are So Unhappy... In response to Big Tuna's claim that christians have better sex.
Hope all the girls comment... Truthfully, please! Nobody knows you here...
Godless Heathen Brian at 8:00PM on May 26th 2008
53. Does Mr.D'Souza still believe a woman came from a rib and Noah had dinosaurs in the Ark too? People cling to Stupid-stitions rather than use their MINDS to figure 2+2=4. If you are purely faith based than 2+2 can = 22, or 5, or any number. Why? Because they simply believe it! Now, that's mind altering!
Reality at 12:36PM on Jun 2nd 2008
54. I'm not a woman, so I can't really say how I am in bed. I don't think my girlfriend has any complaints.
However, when I'm in the shower, I know for a fact that my hand has never had any complaints. To put it mildly, I am a cock deisel in the shower.
But one thing I find disturbing, is that when you masterbate a lot, you run out of references. When instances like that occur, you can only think about the other times you masterbated to use as a current reference.
Let's see Renzo take a spin on that argument. What a jerk off.
Thomas Flint at 8:28PM on May 26th 2008
55. This is not a catholic idea, it has been taught in Eastern Religions for centries.
Lamar Rawllinson at 8:53PM on May 26th 2008
56. D'Souza say, or quotes someone as saying, "Yes, the brain is the necessary locus or venue for the mind to operate. It does not follow that the two are the same."
Is this not exactly like saying, "Yes the clock is the necessary locus or venue for telling time, but it does not follow that clocks and time are the same."
The brain is the mechanism, the mind is 'what the brain does.
That is fairly obvious, even to a child.
not-pboyfloyd at 9:13PM on May 26th 2008
57. I sometimes look at all of you and wonder which ones are the real people. The ones I've known a while, I can be pretty sure of, but so many of the rest are suspect. Hey, it's probably just my healthy paranoia kicking in.
Or maybe not. I mean, I know Robert is somewhat fishy, and a few others as well, like Renzo/Jesse/whatever form it takes.
Oh well. Guess you have to take this blog for what it is, and stop wishing it were something better.
And I can't help wondering which ones are Dinesh, either. Or if most of them are. Or any. It seems something he'd do, something he'd gloat about to himself. But, perhaps not. Hard to tell. He has no discernable morality, as far as I can see, so it could be that he takes on many personas here just for kicks. But, it could just be a DD Wannabe. Or a few retards trying to fuel their egos. Or my imagination.
Still..............
Legion? You listening? I cast you out, foul demon of the pit!
Godless Heathen Brian at 9:13PM on May 26th 2008
58. Dear Mr. D'Souza,
I have never heard anyone claim that "minds are the same as brains" - Daniel Dennett certainly does not make that claim when he says "the mind is what the brain does". What he is saying is that mind is an emergent property of a brain - not synonymous with the brain and not capable of existence apart from or seperate from the brain.
An analogy would be water and wetness - water is not the same thing as wetness - yet wetness is an emergent property of water - and water would not be water without wetness.
Viewed in this way, the placebo effect can be interpreted as "the brain altering the brain". Because the mind is a property of the brain, because it is part of what the brain is - it can help shape the course of future brain activity.
Another example in nature would be the existence of the minimal frictionional properties exhibited by ice. When a block of ice come into contact with, say, a metal surface - this emergent property influences the activity of the block of ice, shaping the way it moves across the surface. Now, of course you would agree that this does not mean that the low-friction exists apart from the ice - and nor could you deny that this particular emergent property is having a physical effect on the block.
Likewise, the emergent mind or "mental state of a brain" can influence the neural activity of the brain without having some mysterious seperate existence.
insaneatheist at 9:23PM on May 26th 2008
59. Beauregard gives a telling analogy. "Olympic swimming events require an Olympic class swimming pool. But the pool does not create the Olympic events; it makes them feasible at a given location."
Similarly thinking(the stream of consciousness) requires a brain.
The pool analogy that D'Souza thinks is 'telling' is horseshit.
Living brains DO create thought. It is what they do.
Pools don't create anything because they are not alive.
Even a child could understand that.
not-pboyfloyd at 9:22PM on May 26th 2008
60. I hear and obey, oh mighty one! Thing that scares you is, I might just be REAL. Oh, shit!
Genuinely, Legion. (aka Robert)
Robert at 9:24PM on May 26th 2008