The Human Mind Is the Most Powerful Thing in the Universe.

[MineralMan]

It can even create gods. Think of it. A few pounds of living matter with the consistency of pudding can create anything. Even something so powerful, like an invisible, nonexistent entity that can control the lives of countless other humans.

How remarkable that product of evolution truly is! Yet it's enormous power is unrecognized by most people. Thousands of deities have been created through its use by humans throughout history.

Just wow!

[PJMcK]

1. Uh, oh... (n/t)

[MineralMan]

2. That's what I say. Uh-oh...

I'm afraid the incomprehensible power of the human brain has not always been used wisely. Too many of the deities it has created have been angry, vindictive ones. Not good.

[Gin]

3. Where is the mind located?

Brain is separate...IMO

[MineralMan]

4. The mind is electro-chemical in nature.

It's what the brain does. The mind is the result of the activity of the human brain. Nothing more. Nothing less. It is not separate from the brain. It is the result of the brain's activity. Without functioning brain, there is no mind at all. As long as your brain is working, you have a mind. I have a mind, as long as my brain is functioning.

That mind ceases to exist if the brain does not receive oxygenated blood. When the brain dies, the mind is no more.

[trotsky]

5. Do you have any evidence of a mind existing without a brain? n/t

[PJMcK]

6. In your opinion, where is the mind located?

Respectfully, is there a different organ in your body that holds your consciousness? Or is the mind outside of the physical body?

[Gin]

11. IMO its outside the body....a collective consciousness....everything starts there

In the mind...that’s what I think anyway!

[MineralMan]

13. What a novel idea.

Wrong, but novel.

[guillaumeb]

15. Your word choice was incorrect.

Your response of "wrong" implies that you know the only correct answer.

[trotsky]

16. Your claim is incorrect.

We can know an answer is wrong without necessarily knowing which answer is right.

Example: We don't know exactly how our moon formed. But we know it isn't a giant space dragon's egg.

[guillaumeb]

17. A complete miss on your part.

MM has no way of knowing if the point is correct or incorrect. He is framing his opinion as the definitive answer to the claim, and it is only one person's opinion.

Even if you share the opinion, that act of sharing does not validate MM's claim.

[trotsky]

18. You did not even bother to read my post.

That is sad. But expected.

[guillaumeb]

19. I will allow you to feel that way.

No need for thanks.

[trotsky]

20. Aw, I am so flattered.

But also happy that once again I am victorious thanks to your total inability to support your positions.

[AtheistCrusader]

41. We do actually know that. Sorry you don't know that.

[Act_of_Reparation]

21. I'll bet you know a lot about neurology.

Maybe as much as you know about experimental methods, anthropology, and evolution.

[trotsky]

23. Hey now.

Only Neil deGrasse Tyson needs to keep quiet about things not in his area of expertise.

guillaumeb can make pronouncements on anything he chooses.

[guillaumeb]

31. I know enough to recognize unfounded assumptions when I read them.

But in such enlightened company, my poor thoughts are completely overshadowed.

[Act_of_Reparation]

33. Of course you do.

[guillaumeb]

34. If only there were more of us.

However, that is life.

[Act_of_Reparation]

35. If only there were more here who studied these topics at reputable institutions of higher learning?

Yeah, if only...

[AtheistCrusader]

42. Well, you described your thoughts accurately anyway.

[AtheistCrusader]

40. The 'location' and 'means' of the mind is well established with empricial evidence.

Your ignorance of that evidence does not suggest MM is wrong.

[Voltaire2]

24. So how does this "collective consciousness" get into the brain?

Is there a physical connection between the "collective consciousness" and "the brain" or are you proposing a mind/body dualism?

[Gin]

26. Not sure I can explain but here goes

IMO everything starts in the mind.....so .....ideas start in the mind..outside the body.....thoughts are things ....the brain follows up with the energy necessary to create whatever it is!

This may not make sense to anyone else.... but it does to me! It’s so simple and so difficult at the same time.

[Voltaire2]

27. so I still don't understand how these "thought things" that are outside the body

get into my mind.

[Gin]

28. My examples dont do the topic justice

Peace!

[Voltaire2]

29. The problem with dualism and a remarkable woman.

Elisabeth, Princess Palatine of Bohemia (1618–1680) is most well-known for her extended correspondence with René Descartes, and indeed these letters constitute her extant philosophical writings. In that correspondence, Elisabeth presses Descartes on the relation between the two really distinct substances of mind and body, and in particular the possibility of their causal interaction and the nature of their union. They also correspond on Descartes's physics, on the passions and their regulation, on the nature of virtue and the greatest good, on the nature of human freedom of the will and its compatibility with divine causal determination, and on political philosophy. Descartes dedicated his Principles of Philosophy to Elisabeth, and wrote his Passions of the Soul at her request. While there is much to be learned about Descartes's views by reading this exchange, my concern in this entry is not to focus on its import for understanding Descartes's philosophical position, but rather to summarize Elisabeth's own philosophical views. Elisabeth seems to have been involved in negotiations around the Treaty of Westphalia and in efforts to restore the English monarchy after the English civil war. As Abbess of Herford (Germany) convent, she managed the rebuilding of that war-impacted community and also provided refuge to marginalized Protestant religious sects, including Labadists and Quakers.

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/elisabeth-bohemia/

Her objections remain unresolved.

[AtheistCrusader]

43. When a brain is physically damaged, thoughts change. Personalities change.

Your ability to lie or tell the truth can change.

Actually, it doesn't even require damage. You can render a person unable to lie, by applying a mild magnetic field to a specific part of the brain, without even entering the skin with a probe. It is temporary and reversible.

The brain is entirely electro-mechanical. Physical changes affect it, and the 'person' that runs on that brain, in predictable and repeatable ways.

[AtheistCrusader]

39. Tell that to people who've been hit by lightning or experienced other traumatic brian injury.

Frankly, it's a vicious lie, that actually hurts real people who have suffered a brain injury, and the lie is told entirely in the service of pretending the supernatural is real.

Please stop that.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. I beg to differ. The human libido

(or the part of the nervous system that controls it) is the most powerful thing in the universe. Just think of all the cataclysms that have occurred just because the little head was thinkin' for the big head - for example:

Henry VIII wanting so desperately to marry Anne Boleyn that he rejected the Pope and formed a whole new church, with all the many consequences that followed for England.

Helen of Troy, the impetus for the Trojan War.

Prince Edward abdicating the British throne to marry Wallis Simpson, giving the throne to the younger brother, the father of Elizabeth.

Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, leading to an investigation and impeachment that went nowhere but disrupted the presidency and cost the government a fortune.

And all the political careers upended due to misdirected lust: Gary Hart, Elliot Spitzer, John Ensign, Gary Condit, Anthony Weiner, Larry Craig, Dennis Hastert, Roy Moore, John Conyers, and many others.

And then there's Donald Trump...

Point being, humans are animals, and the big brain often takes a back seat to the animal brain, frequently with surprising or even disastrous consequences.

[MineralMan]

12. Well, the libido is part of the mind, as well.

It comes from the oldest part of our brain, which some call the "lizard brain," the part of the brain that keeps our hearts beating, makes us hungry, and looks for someone to reproduce with.

It's still a function of the mind, though.

Your mention of the "back seat" is quite apt though, since the libido often moves humans into such back seats, especially during adolescence.

[Act_of_Reparation]

8. I'm sticking with black holes.

They break literally everything.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

9. And there's Donald Trump, the human black hole, who breaks everything.

[Act_of_Reparation]

10. Not even Trump can break space-time.

[Lordquinton]

36. We hope...

........................

[guillaumeb]

14. As far as you are aware.

As long as you understand that fact.

[trotsky]

25. We have evidence of the mind's power.

We have zero evidence of your creator's power.

Fascinating, isn't it?

[MineralMan]

30. Then demonstrate otherwise, please.

I'll wait here...

In the meantime, you can consider my signature line.

[guillaumeb]

32. I consider many things when I read posts like this. eom

[MineralMan]

37. And yet you do not provide any information

to the contrary of what I have said. I know why that is, but you perhaps do not.

[guillaumeb]

38. Thus validating your initial opinion, in your mind.

I understand, but perhaps you do not recognize it.

[MineralMan]

44. ..

[Jeroen]

22. 'Yet it's enormous power is unrecognized by most people'

Isn't that a contradiction in itself?