by Kirsten H | Mar 28, 2021 | Where is your mind?
“In all questions of importance, I consult Kim Deal. She was in the Pixies, Throwing Muses, the Breeders, and she helped get Tanya Donnelly started with another of my favorite bands, Belly. You might know the lyrics:
Where is my mind? Where is my mind?
Way out in the water, she is swimmin.
If you’ve ever gotten a really good hand or foot massage, you know the feeling of your mind being somewhere other than in your head.
If you’ve ever cringed while watching a video of someone getting injured, you know the feeling of your mind being somewhere other than in your head.
At that moment, you are transported through time and space, into the head of another person.
If you put on a VR headset and fly around in a drone, your mind might literally be soaring over the Alps.
When I watch this video, my mind is with Kim Deal. I’m going “Woooo-oooo” in the background vocals.
When you read my books or my answers, you are transported into my mind.
Welcome! Dive in. The water’s fine.
Is the brain the same thing as the mind? I don’t think so. The brain is the substance, the mind is the focus of the substance, and consciousness is the mind telling the brain what it is doing.”
by Daniel S | Mar 28, 2021 | Where is your mind?
“In consciousness. What does that tell you?
I can’t say what consciousness is other than it is what you are. The body could be said to be in the mind. Consciousness is the only ‘thing’ that is not inside something else, but everything is within it, is it. Different aspects of consciousness have different functions. The mind has a particular function that has to do with physical reality.
The idea is that you generate, with your non-physical consciousness, electrical energy fields. That concept, acting through the symbol of the physical brain, generates a reflection – a symbolic reflection – of your consciousness in physical terms. And you call it mind, or mentality.
It might be better to think of the mind as an energy-translator. One side transmits non-physical energy, and the translator gives out a physical picture, using certain filters which include your unique blueprint, beliefs and definitions, personality construct.
If you’ve heard of the concept of “higher mind” communicating with “physical mind”, this is what is meant. Because the physical mind is designed only to translate what it receives and merely perceive “reality”. Receive and perceive. The higher mind conceives. Therefore, when you are inspired, for example, you are so attuned to your higher mind that it’s as though the translation of the non-physical information is more accurate. So you feel lifted, above your own mind.
The simple version: mind is the physiological representation of consciousness.
It allows there to be activity of consciousness in apparent matter. If you, as consciousness, weren’t on an apparent physical exploration, there would be no mind. No need. But as long as you project yourself into this “reality”, the mind is in full operation.
Now, the mind is not inherently negative. It’s just a mechanism for the conversation between non-physical and physical. All things become negative when they are asked to do a job they are not designed to do. Take humans, for example, give an office job to a free nature spirit type, and s/he will sooner or later decay. Same thing goes for the mind: give it the responsibility of controlling everything, of trying to figure out everything – it will become bitter, and then it will blame the world and everybody in it. Simply, the mind merely receives and perceives, using the symbol of the brain. Ask it to do more than that, and you will be assigning too much work to that which does not know how to handle it. The experience of that is what’s called “being caught up in one’s mind”. Therefore, the solution at this level is, “shut up, receive, perceive”. You can be ore nice about it and say “calm down, receive, perceive” 😉
The balanced mind may or may not be quiet. There is an idea in spirituality that the mind has to remain quiet, or else something’s wrong. That is because all we know is negative mind. But when you are in high frequencies like joy, inspiration and excitement, there might be a delicious “conversation” occurring with the higher aspects of yourself (for you are a multi-layered consciousness). For example, there are moments (everyone has) where so many pieces and bits of information “all of the sudden” fall into place. An “a-ha!” moment, where everything suddenly makes sense. The mind is then translating tons of information very fast, and that’s because you are in a non-resistant frequency (like joy). Also, what we refer to as silence or stillness is actually a state of TONS of energy and information moving. Things that move at infinite speed seem to be standing perfectly still, because they are everywhere at once. This is the state of infinite momentum, infinite acceleration. But it’s also stillness.
Yet if the mind needs to think, let it think. If you want to talk to yourself, talk to yourself. It’s much better not to suppress it, but to allow it while being conscious. Some thinking and self-talk is extremely creative, efficient and productive (surely I’m not talking about the type that goes in loops and spins blame stories, drowning in problems). It can be one way to be more connected to yourself. That’s because all day every day you are hearing others’ thoughts and talking, and sometimes you just really need to hear your own. Speaking to yourself, consciously, is not a sign of craziness, simply a way to hear yourself better.
I bring these points up because certain things that are presented in spirituality cause people to suppress themselves. That is never an wholistic approach.
The mind, from this perspective, is not an enemy. Especially when you work with your filters: remove a filter, “reality” changes. When you get really playful with this, you will blow your own mind how what you perceive as a limitation can be completely disappeared. “It’s all in the mind”, as they say. But do they really understand it?”
by Jeremy J | Mar 28, 2021 | Where is your mind?
“The answer to this question, in my opinion, depends on which mind one is talking about.
Many people contend that our mind is simply a construct of our brain and thus resides within the brain. However, in my CSD (Conscious Subconscious Dynamics) system, our two minds reside in different areas. My contention is that our conscious mind is a product of our brain and does reside within the activity of our neurons by way of electrical and chemical reactions.
Yet, I believe our subconscious mind resides within the entire body with a heightened focus pertaining to the brain, heart, gut, and genital areas.
So again, to answer the question, “where does the mind reside”, would depend on which mind one is referring to (conscious or subconscious).
This is not to say that our total experience of consciousness is simply the result of brain activity. Instead, what I am conveying is that our conscious mind, in of itself, is a product of our brain. Yet the total conscious “experience” goes beyond the construct of our conscious mind.
For example, the sensation of being “within one’s body” is a perception generated by the subconscious mind. Again, the subconscious is an integrated part of every cell of our physical self.
Typically I try to refrain from getting too much into my personal spiritual beliefs. Yet, to expand upon this question, I will say I view total consciousness as the end point of a large funnel of information/experiences.
It helps to think of it like a chain. The conscious mind is connected to the subconscious, the subconscious is connected to the universal consciousness, and the universal consciousness is connected to the All.
This flow from one part to the next, ending with us, is what gives us our total consciousness perception. A flow of knowledge where our two minds are but two links in the chain. So while our minds either can be said to reside within our brain or our body, our complete conscious experience resides as an integrated component of the totality of reality and beyond…”
by N Alvi | Mar 28, 2021 | Where is your mind?
Ryle: That’s a category mistake.
Churchland: ‘Mind’ is just a folk concept; you don’t really have one of those.
Smart: In your skull.
Hume: Whose mind?
Searle: Well it’s not in the Chinese Room.
Clark: All over the place and especially in your iPhone.
Descartes: It’s not located in space, but it’s also very near to your pineal gland.
Chalmers: In every possible world where you aren’t a zombie.
Dennett: In the eye of the beholder but not just in the eye of the beholder.
Spinoza: Everywhere God is.
Penrose & Hameroff: In your microtubules.
McGinn: We’ll never know!
Turing: Represented here, on this strip of tape.
Berkeley: As opposed to what?
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