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What mind is and where it is situated has been debated for centuries. Rarely two philosophers agree on one definition or location for mind.
Rene Descartes, French philosopher, scientist and mathematician, said that there is a total and absolute distinction between mental and material substance and that mind is situated in pineal gland. Endocrinologist Ernest Gelhorn thinks that mind is an activity of entire nervous system. Hughlings Jackson, a neurologist, thinks that consciousness and mind are same, whereas Percival Bailey, director of Psychiatric Research Institute, disagrees.
I believe mind is nonmaterial and cannot become part of a material brain, pineal gland or amygdala. We can go through every nerve cell, analyse it electrochemically, spectroscopically, mass-photographically, electronically, and, using all known tests, we will not find any indication of mind. There is no single location for mind. The human mind is distributed throughout human body and its environment. Every cell has its own mind and has ability to function independently or jointly with all cells of body.
For example, a neuron is capable of deciding whether it will transmit information to another nerve cell and, if it will, to which of thousands of cells it is in contact. Similarly, endocrine cells decide whether they will respond to a demand for a particular enzyme by cells in another far corner of body.
Even sponge cells exhibit a similar capacity of awareness. When a piece of sponge is ground up and individual cells are suspended in solution, they will come together and become a complete sponge within a few hours. This indicates that each cell has a mind of its own to decide to combine with another sponge cell.
Just as each of thousand pieces of a splintered mirror will show same reflection of an object as whole mirror, each cell reflects our mind and each cell in universe reflects universal mind. To use another analogy, mind is current that makes every cell work like electrical current that makes radio operate. _________________________________________________________________________
Resource Box: Universal Mind Copyright 2003. by Dr. P.C. Simon, a retired research microbiologist, philosopher, philanthropist and author. Also by Dr. P.C. Simon, informative, inspiring, and life-changing book, The Missing Piece to Paradise. More articles by Dr. Simon and a description of his book can be seen at http://www.interchange.ubc.ca/psimon/book2.htm
Dr. P.C. Simon, the informative, inspiring, and life-changing book, The Missing Piece to Paradise. More articles by Dr. Simon and a description of his book can be seen at http://www.interchange.ubc.ca/psimon/book2.htm