Two phrases are frequently used in our culture: “I think, therefore I am” (Descartes) and “Think before you act (or speak).” In my experience, both phrases seem to reflect a misguided wisdom.
We “think” with the cerebral parts of our brain – reason, learn, decide, judge, believe – all are cerebral thought operations. And the assumptions are that they are the higher mental functions of our brain, and therefore they are the “rulers” of our neural activity and consciousness. Nice fantasy, but totally contradictory to real life. Alcoholism and addiction alone totally blows this apart – as well as codependency, PTSD, and gambling addiction – and even typical human depression and anxiety. Thought has no significant effect on serious dependencies and emotionalmental disorders.
Yet thought is worshipped as the God of humanity who controls and can control any problem and challenge a human being might face. In the end, humanity becomes severely crippled, injured, diseased, and generally self destructive. At best, thought is a powerful mood altering neurochemical that suppresses and anesthetizes brain pain cells. At worst it becomes the excuse and justification for massive harm and abandonment of others.
Thought operates at the discretion and direction of the primitive limbic brain. The primitive limbic brain does not reason, learn, decide, judge or think anything. Its function is to monitor and control the neural energy levels of the brain as a whole. And it does so in minute increments that have no real consideration of long term consequences. Hence, “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results” is really untrue. The primitive limbic brain is only monitoring and controlling on short impulses of time and results. So repetitive actions produces the “desired” and anticipated response. It is not dealing with long term effects.
Relationships are guarded and protected from intimacy and true closeness because it would make the brain so vulnerable to explosions of neural energy – energy- in motion (emotion) – when the intimacy and closeness results in rejection and abandonment. So human brains are attracted to others who have similar levels of ability to be intimate and close in order to protect our brains. Relationships are like xray scanned images of where our brains are and what they are really unconsciously seeking. There are really no mistakes – just cerebrally unexpected and undesirable outcomes.
Perhaps, we could rephrase these phrases as follows:
- “I think therefore I am” – I consciously experience my self in God’s Presence and therefore I am becoming more and more my Self.
- “Think before you act (or speak)” – I will experience conscious contact with myself and with my God before I act or express myself with others.
Experience involves consciously feeling the energy frequencies that our brain constrictions are causing – numb, angry, scared, sad, lonely, guilty, and ashamed – and connecting with a higher Presence who can bring levels of manageability back to our brains and lives.
When we are tempted to think, let’s take a few deep breaths, and let our God help us experience consciously the emotional and spiritual wholeness of who we really are.
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