Читать книгу Mind - Body - God Connection - Darlene Hall - Страница 6

1

The Human Brain

Worldwide there are approximately 6.8 billion people, and a quick mathematical calculation tells me that there are 6.8 billion brains—and no two are alike, even twins. My father is totally different from his twin brother. Although they share the same genes, they have different experiences. They perceive and process information differently, which makes their brains unique.

When we look at the human brain, we can truly say as David said in Psalms 139:14: “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” This magnificent structure—only two percent of the body’s total weight—controls our entire being. All of our actions, good or bad, have their origin in the brain.

Our Origins

In 1994, a Time magazine article titled “How Man Began” raised questions about the various theories of our origin and stated that there were many inconsistencies, but the quest to know continues. The article states:

Starting with a Neanderthal skeleton unearthed in Germany in 1856, archaeologists and anthropologists have sweated mightily over excavations in Africa, Europe and Asia, trying to find fossil evidence that will answer the most fundamental questions of our existence: When, where and how did the human race arise? During a 1974 expedition, archaeologists thought they had found a crucial piece of evidence—Lucy, “the missing link between apes and humans,”—and the search continues. (Lemonick & Dorman, 1994)

This book that you hold in your hands is not just a study of the brain and the body, not just information to improve your emotional IQ. No! It’s much more. For we are on a journey to wholeness, with complete restoration in sight, and in order to embrace this future we must have knowledge of our past. So, where did we come from, what was our beginning, and when and how did it happen?

When Jesus walked the earth, He asked one of His disciples: “Who do you say I am?” (Matthew16:15, NIV). I asked the same question: “Jesus, Who do You say I am?” The account of our origins is found in the book of Genesis, in the beginning when He created the heavens and the earth. “And God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness’” (Genesis 1:26), and God tells us how He made us. “Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7, NIV).

God’s breath gave life to a lifeless body, in which the brain, the command center, began to send electrical signals to 100 billion nerve cells, setting into action the functioning of the human brain and body.

We are made in the image of the Eternal God. I don’t know about you, but that just blows me away! Perfection in form, symmetry, and intellect! To have a mind akin to the living God! Imbued with His thoughts! This was no evolutionary process. We are no accidental blob that resulted from a big bang. There were no random atoms that accidently assembled. Only the Divine Being, the Supreme and Eternal God, created the human mind to do what it does.

Straight from the hand of God, Adam and Eve were perfect, but as we all know, something happened along the way, and as a result we are in a terrible mess. The first few chapters of the book of Genesis reveal a perfect world. The last chapter of the book of Revelation shows a restored world. But between these two books, we see chaos, confusion, and devastation. It reads like the evening news broadcast, when the television anchors report violence, crime, and debased passions, and we wonder: have we lost our minds? Our mandate is to have the mind of God. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5).

Brain Development

Let’s take a short journey through brain development, an experience we all have had. It is indeed a wonderful and miraculous process. Within eighteen days of conception, from just a few cells, we see the beginning of the neural tube which will eventually become the brain and spinal cord. In this process timing is everything. There are critical periods—windows of opportunity for certain events to take place. And if one step fails during these critical periods, it throws off the process; the opportunity is missed and can never take place again.

Examples of missed opportunities are anencephaly and spinal bifida, neural tube defects in which the brain and spinal cord, which should be a continuous unit, fail to close. If this happens, the baby may be born without a brain or have spinal cord abnormalities, known as spinal bifida. The critical period for neural tube closure is within the fourth week of pregnancy. According to the Centers for Disease Control, neural tube defects affect 1 in 1,000 births (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010, August).

Dana and Paul’s baby was unfortunate to be that one in 1,000. The parents were young, newly married, and excited about their life together. Dana received prenatal care, and all was progressing well. However, upon delivery, it was discovered that the baby did not have a skull, and she died shortly after birth. As you can imagine, the couple was devastated, a memory that haunts Dana to this day.

But in the normal developing embryo, we see phenomenal processes taking place. Between the 12th and 20th weeks of gestation, during another critical period something amazing happens. There is an exponential explosion in the amount of cell division. Also during this time, some of the nerve cells in the neural tube begin to migrate, heading for the brain. These nerve cells move toward the outer cortex of the brain as if they were climbing a ladder. They keep inching up until the brain is six layers deep. At this time they have reached the outer region of the brain. They then take on a specific function, a process called differentiation. For example a nerve cell may differentiate into a motor cell that enables me to move my arm, or a visual cell that enables me to see.

Incredibly, the cells know when to go and where to move (Nash, 2002; Norden, 2007b). Each neuron takes its orders and does its job. What an object lesson for us! I don’t know about you, but sometimes I can get a “little” attitude. Just imagine for a second what would happen if some of the nerve cells copped an attitude and decided, “I don’t like that neuron. I don’t want to be next to him; I’m not moving!” Or what would happen if a nerve cell said, “You know, I’m just not feeling it today. I’ll take a rain check”? If this were to happen, we would have birth defects on a scale of epidemic proportions! But this process is out of our control. We have no say so in this matter. God genetically programmed our nerve cells to do a specific job at a specified time.

When we look at nature, we see that it’s obedient to the voice of God. All nature has a particular ministry. The beautiful leaves of the forest, on every shrub and every tree, give us life-sustaining oxygen so that we may breathe. Without oxygen our brain cells would die within minutes! Nature hears and obeys the voice of God.

I am repeatedly reminded of nature’s obedience every time I cross over the Bay Bridge leading into San Francisco. I am simply amazed that the ocean does not overflow its boundaries. At times when I am driving along the coast, it looks as if the water level is higher than my car. And I am reminded of the scripture: “Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth” (Psalms 104:9).

Perhaps you have heard, as I did years ago, that we only use 10% of our brain. This is absolutely not true! We use every inch of it, and when it comes to complex functions such as memory, several areas of the brain are involved (Carter, 2009).

What is true is that we have an infinite storage capacity. It’s been estimated that the brain has enough room to store millions of years of information. I have often wondered about this. why would God give us such an infinite storage capacity that we could never use in our limited time here on earth? My personal belief is that this excess capacity will be used to study the mysteries of the universe in the new world to come where we will live forever. Scripture tells us: “For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him” (Isaiah 64:4). We will have eternity to take it all in, so what we don’t use now, we will use then.

The Lobes of the Brain

The human brain is the most complicated structure in the universe, and yet it performs flawlessly given the right operating tools—nutrients, oxygen and water. This three-pound structure, which has the consistency of tofu or Jell-O, is capable of infinite feats. Its operating system compares to nothing in the universe. It is capable of handling 400 billion bits of information per second, of which we are only conscious of 2,000 (Leaf, 2008).

Multiple activities are all occurring effortlessly at the same time: focusing in on a task; recruiting past memories, while simultaneously laying down new memories; performing complex chemical analysis, and milliseconds later administering the right therapeutic dose; detecting infection and sending a swat team on a mission to search, surround, and destroy; adjusting body fluids; maintaining oxygen balance; breathing; repairing body systems and orchestrating the growth of others; breaking down the components in food and converting it into the raw materials for body functions.

At the same time that these functions are occurring, I am acutely aware of what is going on around me: the sights, the sounds, the smell that wafts throught the air, the knock at the door, the ant crawling on my arm, the breeze blowing my hair. All of these and countless other activities—the brain does it all with precision. The human brain is no computer; it has no hard drive that you can pull out and update. It has emotions and thoughts that allow us to engage in life. There is nothing in this universe to which it can be compared.

When we take a closer look at this magnificent structure, we see that it is composed of four lobes:

 Frontal lobe

 Parietal lobe

 Temporal lobe

 Occipital lobe

At one time it was thought that each lobe had its specific function and was designated to do one job exclusively. But now we know that the brain is integrated. And although one lobe may hold the primary function, we now know that other lobes have secondary or associate functions which collectively work together to make the brain run smoothly.

For example, the occipital lobe, located at the back of the brain, is the primary site for vision. however, other lobes are associative, working in cooperation in their areas pulling everything together so that the end product is that we can see. The temporal lobe, located on the bottom section of the brain, has as its primary function hearing and language comprehension, and it is also involved in learning and memory. The parietal lobe, located in the middle section of the brain, is involved in sensory information. It receives and interprets stimuli such as touch, pain, and temperature.

Then there’s the frontal lobe, located, as one might guess, at the front of the brain. It is the primary site of higher cognition, which is what sets us apart from any other mammal. It is in the frontal lobe that executive function takes place. It’s the site of reasoning and judgment, the seat of personality, character, and our uniqueness (Bloom, Nelson, & Lazerson, 2001).

Another structure that has an impact upon the brain is the human heart. Although located outside of the brain, it has direct influences upon the mind. The heart, like the brain, is comprised of four lobes or chambers and has many functions, one of which—as we all well know—is to pump blood to all of the body’s vital organs, including the brain. However, another function, which is not well known, involves the direct communication between the heart and the frontal lobe (“Science of the heart,” 2010). When the heart and brain are in sync, we make wise decisions; we check with our heart and validate with our mind.

When we look back at our introduction, in the case of Eadweard Muybridge, we see a contrast in his behavior before and after his accident. Prior to the accident he was sensitive to the feelings of others (he had a caring heart), carried himself with dignity and respect, and exhibited sound judgment. However, after the accident he had a marked personality change. We need only to look at his behavior to pinpoint the lobe in which he incurred damage. In his case it was the orbital prefrontal lobe; his judgment was obviously way off. He was dressing oddly, stopped bathing, and did the unthinkable—murdered a man. Due to this frontal lobe injury, he was not able to resist, override, and suppress his wrong behaviors, nor was he capable of exhibiting empathy—all because of an unfortunate accident.

The probability of the average person sustaining a traumatic injury to the brain is low. however, with poor lifestyle choices, we sustain damage not only to the frontal lobe but the entire brain and body. Of course, the damage is not as obvious as seen in Muybridge, but cumulative changes do take place and the repercussions are gradual and later seen in physical and mental diseases.

Over the course of this book, it is my desire that you, the reader, will see the intimate relationship which exists between the mind and the body. It is my hope that you will grasp the vision and strive for complete restoration—God’s original design. This comes only through the renewing of the mind. He says: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5). The Creator God did not set the world into motion to leave us to navigate through life without a meaningful relationship with Him. “For in Him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28). He has given us a most precious gift, the human brain. His creative power that spoke the world into existence wants to speak to you.

Take the Challenge

Spend some time connecting and communing with the Creator. He is waiting to commune with you.