Evolve Your Brain: The Science of Changing Your Mind

by Joe Dispenza

According to our working neuroscientific definition, the mind, then, is not the brain; it is the product of the brain. The mind is what the brain does.

If the brain and the mind can be made to work better by practice, and a mindful skill can be developed to change the internal workings of the brain, then who or what is doing the changing of the brain and the mind? The answer is that elusive thirteen-letter word, consciousness.

Without getting too mystical or philosophical, consciousness is what gives the brain life—it is the invisible life essence that animates the brain. It is the unseen aspect of self, both aware and unaware, both conscious and subconscious, using the brain to capture thoughts, and then coalescing them to create the mind.20

Consciousness enables us to think, and at the same time, to observe our thinking process.

there are two elements to our consciousness. One aspect, which we will call subjective consciousness, maintains our individual free will and enables us to express ourselves as a thinking self, with our own traits and characteristics. The individual, subjective part of us, this element of consciousness encompasses our unique qualities, including the abilities to learn, remember, create, dream, choose, and even not choose. This is the “you” or the “self.” Subjective consciousness can exist both in the body and independent of the body. When people have an out-of-body experience during which they are completely aware, yet can see the body lying in bed, it is subjective consciousness that is aware in the experience, independent of the body. Therefore, subjective consciousness is not the body, but it uses the body. It is our self-conscious identity. For the most part, throughout our life, it is localized within the physical body. The other element of consciousness is the intelligent awareness within us that gives us life every day. Let’s term this objective consciousness or the subconscious . This is a system of awareness separate from the conscious mind. It is subconscious, but it is incredibly intelligent and mindful. It is also separate from the thinking brain, but it operates via the other parts of the brain to keep our body in order. With objective consciousness running the show, the brain processes millions of automatic functions every second on a cellular level and an agg...

We have free will to choose the quality of life we desire,

The brain has the equipment, so to speak, to facilitate both these levels of consciousness. The brain without consciousness is inert and lifeless. When consciousness is facilitated through the human brain, as is taught at RSE, the end result is called mind. Mind is a working brain, a brain in action. Mind comes into being when an operating brain is animated with life. There is no mind without the physical expression of life through a functioning brain.

Consciousness has two specific qualities: • Objective consciousness is the life force, the Source, and the Zero Point Field. You and I are connected to that field, which affords us life through the midbrain, the cerebellum, and the brainstem. This is the subconscious mind. • Subjective consciousness, situated in the neocortex, is the explorer, the identity that learns and evolves its understandings for a greater expression of life. This is the conscious mind.

The brain has the greatest cluster of neurons in the entire body. A tiny slice of brain tissue the size of a grain of sand contains about 100,000 neurons. They are packed so tightly that a pebble-sized chunk of tissue from the human brain contains about two miles of neuron material. Your entire brain contains some 100 billion neurons, each one a fraction of a millimeter in size. To give you an idea of how many neurons this is, if you were to count to 100 billion, second by second, you would be counting for nearly 3,171 years. If you could stack 100 billion pieces of paper, the stack would be 5,000 miles high—the distance from Los Angeles to London.

We have two types of neurotransmitters in the brain and nervous system. Excitatory neurotransmitters stimulate or activate nerve transmissions; they change the electrical state of the postsynaptic membrane, allowing the action potential in the next cell to be initiated. These types of chemicals, in the appropriate combinations, enable our mental functions to take place at warp speed.

The major excitatory brain neurotransmitter is glutamate. When glutamate is released from a neuron’s presynaptic (sending) terminal, it binds to the receptor at the postsynaptic terminal of the next cell. Then it changes the postsynaptic cell’s electrical state to make it more likely that an action potential will fire.

Conversely, inhibitory neurotransmitters do just what their name says—they inhibit or stop activity in the next cell down the line, and end the excitement on the postsynaptic terminal of the receiving nerve cell. The major inhibitory neurotransmitter is GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid). When GABA is released at the presynaptic synapse it, too, attaches to the corresponding postsynaptic receptors. However, GABA makes it less likely that an action potential will be generated. Without GABA, nerve cells would fi...

Because the sympathetic nervous system prepares the body for emergencies, this part of the autonomic nervous system is sometimes called the fight-or-flight nervous system.

Just the opposite functions are the domain of the parasympathetic nervous system. This division of the autonomic nervous system conserves and restores the body’s energy and resources. When we do not perceive any threat in our environment, the parasympathetic nervous system slows the heart rate, increases energy to the digestive system, relaxes the body, and moves blood flow away from the skeletal muscles of the extremities and into the internal organs to support growth and maintenance processes. Think of our parasympathetic nervous system in relation to how we feel just after finishing a big dinner.

The seat of our free will, the voluntary nervous system, is located in the part of the brain called the neocortex.

An attitude is a cluster of thoughts strung together, which turn on particular nerve cells in the brain, which then stimulate specific neurotransmitters to make us think, act, and feel certain ways.

In proportion to our body mass, our brain is three times as large as that of our nearest relatives. This huge organ is dangerous and painful to give birth to, expensive to build, and, in a resting human, uses about 20 percent of the body’s energy even though it is just two percent of the body’s weight. There must be some reason for all this evolutionary expense. —SUSAN BLAKEMORE

Recent findings show that when the human midbrain reached its present-day level of evolutionary complexity (250,000 to 300,000 years ago), our ancestors at that time experienced a 20 percent increase in actual mass of the neocortex, the thinking, reasoning area of the human brain.1 This sudden acceleration in the volume and density of brain mass appears to have occurred spontaneously and unexplainably, as opposed to the normal, linear course of evolution. Our rapid 20 percent outgrowth of gray matter is responsible for the superiority of the human brain. What caused this explosive brain development, which gave us a neocortex so much larger and denser than that of any other species, remains a mystery.

Nature’s solution to the need for a larger brain without a corresponding increase in skull size was simple and elegant. The brain folded in on itself, so that about 98 percent of the neocortex is hidden within the folds.

According to research pioneered by Paul MacLean, M.D., the human brain has three formations, each with a different shape, size, chemistry, structure, and pattern of function that reflect our development during distinct eras. In essence, the human brain consists of three separate sub-brains. MacLean’s research suggests that the three brains amount to three interconnected biological computers. Each possesses its own intelligence, its own individual subjectivity, its own sense of time and space, and its own memory, as well as other functions.2

The hierarchal order of these three brains tells us important information about our evolution and the brain’s functions. First to evolve, more than 500 million years ago,

The midbrain appeared somewhere between 300 to 150 million years ago.

Finally, beginning about 3 million years ago, the new brain—with its most important component, the neocortex (neo means new or modified) or cerebral cortex—molded itself around the first two brains. That makes this outer shell (which looks like the skin of an orange) the most recent layer and the most advanced brain area to evolve in primates and humans. The seat of our conscious awareness, the new brain houses our free will, our thinking, and our capacity to learn, reason, and rationalize. Figure 4.2 is a cross section of the brain (ear to ear) demonstrating the thickness and size of the neocortex. The gray matter (neurons) as well as white matter (glial cells) of the third brain are also visualized.

As we have learned, in the neocortex, the average number of connections per neuron is about 40,000. Remarkable as that is, in the cerebellum those neurons called Purkinje’s cells process between 100,000 to 1 million connections per neuron. The cerebellum is the most densely packed area of gray matter in the brain. More than half of all the neurons that make up the human brain are contained in the cerebellum. In fact, the cerebellum is one of the few areas of the brain where brain cells continue to reproduce long after birth. Interestingly, when a baby is rocked or cuddled, impulses are directed to the cerebellum, which actually stimulates his development. This benefit of rocking continues until around age two.

Although the midbrain occupies only one-fifth of the volume of the brain, its influence on behavior is extensive, which is why it is also known as the emotional brain. The midbrain is sometimes called the chemical brain as well, because it is responsible for regulating many different internal states. It is our midbrain that performs all those marvels that we usually take for granted, automatically maintaining and controlling body temperature, blood sugar levels, blood pressure, digestion, hormone levels, and innumerable other processes. The midbrain also adjusts and maintains our internal state to compensate for changes in our external world. Without

the midbrain is responsible for what we can describe as the four Fs: fighting, fleeing, feeding, and fornicating.

The spinal cord acts as a “fiberoptic” cable that conveys impulses from the brain to other parts of the body and relays messages from the body back to the brain. The brainstem helps regulate primitive functions like breathing, swallowing, blood pressure, levels of wakefulness, and respiratory rate. The cerebellum is responsible for balance, posture, and the body’s position in space. It also coordinates movements and facilitates automatic hardwired memories and behaviors. The midbrain acts as the chemical brain, where automatic internal regulation occurs and chemical balance is maintained. It also helps organize signals from the external world with our internal world. The thalamus acts as a junction box to integrate all incoming sensory information (except smell) to various regions of our conscious thinking brain. The hippocampus is responsible for formulating experiences with associated emotional memories, for processing vital information during learning, and for encoding long-term memories. The amygdala works with the hippocampus to generate primary emotions from external perceptions and internal thoughts. It helps to emotionally charge experiences and to warn us about vital sensory information. The hypothalamus chemically regulates the body’s internal environment so that homeostasis is maintained. Conditions like body temperature, blood sugar levels, hormone levels, and emotional reactions are regulated here. The pituitary gets its orders from the hypothalamus to secrete...

Hypothalamus. This area of the midbrain is a chemical factory that regulates your body’s internal environment and balances your systems with the external world. The hypothalamus (which translates literally to “under the thalamus”) is the most important and fascinating part of the midbrain, because it generates the chemical messengers for the entire body. The oldest part of the limbic system, it can affect any organ or tissue in the body.

Unlike the thalamus, which monitors external stimuli, the main job of the hypothalamus is to make chemicals called neuropeptides that keep the internal affairs of the body in balance with reference to the external world. The hypothalamus regulates many bodily functions necessary for survival through the process of homeostasis, the automatic self-righting mechanism that, like a thermostat, regulates and maintains the body’s chemical balance and internal order.

The pituitary is often called the master gland, because it governs and controls many vital processes in the body. This pear-shaped gland, which hangs off the hypothalamus like a piece of fruit, helps in manufacturing most of the hormonal signals created by the hypothalamus to communicate with the body’s major glands.

Think of the pineal gland as the brain’s internal clock—

Two neurotransmitters are produced in the highest quantities in the human body by the pineal gland. Serotonin, the so-called daytime neurotransmitter, prepares the brain to be awake during the hours of daylight. Melatonin, the nighttime neurotransmitter, prepares the body to experience restorative sleep during the hours of darkness and plays a role in causing the brain to dream.

The hippocampus makes long-term memories.

A sort of clearinghouse for memory, the hippocampus classifies incoming information as having either short-term or long-term importance, and files it accordingly.

explore how the hippocampus accomplishes this feat. It keeps a log of facts associated with people, places, things, time, and events. Humans tend to remember experiences better when they are somehow connected to one of these items.

The reason we cannot remember many conscious memories as a very young child is that the hippocampus is not fully developed until after we are four years old.

Associative memories allow us to use what we already know in order to understand or learn what we don’t know;

Many studies involving the hippocampus suggest that for several different animal species, learning new things is a reward in itself.7

Amygdala. The amygdala, which means “almond-shaped,” is a structure of the midbrain that is responsible for alerting the body in survival situations. It also stores the four highly charged primitive emotions: aggression, joy, sadness, and fear. The amygdala also helps to attach different emotional charges to our long-term memories.

the amygdala is the part of the midbrain that activates the body to respond even before you are consciously aware of the danger, so we sometimes call this a precognitive response.

When activated, the amygdala also creates emotions of rage and aggression to help us protect ourselves in potentially threatening situations.

Recent studies also indicate that the amygdala is associated with the storage of emotional memories and with the perception of certain situations based on those memories. The amygdala brands survival situations as emotionally fearful, so that memories of threatening circumstances can help us avoid similar situations. In humans, highly charged emotional experiences involving anger, fear, sadness, and even joy are encoded by the amygdala for long-term memory.

However, the amygdala does not assign any specific region of nerve cells to store memories of these primitive hardwired feelings in order to create or facilitate memory of any single, specific emotion. Researchers cannot point to a particular region of the brain and say that it is where sadness, for example, resides. Similarly, studies involving primates have found no specific areas of the amygdala that produce joy, sadness, rage, or fear.

In an intriguing new study, scientists at the University of Wales worked with a blind patient who seems to possess a sixth sense that allows him to recognize sad, angry, or happy faces. Patient X, age 52, cannot see after having two different strokes, which damaged the brain areas that process visual signals. However, brain scans reveal that when he looks at faces expressing emotion, another part of his brain besides the visual cortex is acti...

From this experiment, the researchers concluded that emotions displayed on a human face are registered not in the visual cortex but in the right amygdala, which sits deep within the brain’s temporal lobe.

Having memory stored in this area of the brain, which also triggers instantaneous responses, could explain much about the sensitivity of some individuals.

Basal ganglia. The basal ganglia integrate thoughts and feelings with physical actions. Basal ganglia are intricate bundles of neurological networks that are interconnected with the neocortex; they are situated in each hemisphere of the midbrain, directly under the neocortex and above the midbrain’s deeper structures.

In addition to that role, the basal ganglia allows us to control our impulses, to set our idle speed for anxiety, and to contribute to our feelings of pleasure and ecstasy.

At one time or another, most of us have been in a situation in which our basal ganglia receive so much input from the neocortex that the threshold of electrochemical charge is too high for the basal ganglia to process. When this happens, the stimulus causes the basal ganglia to act like a breaker in a fuse box and throw the main circuit, so to speak, putting the body into a temporary state of disruption.

Just as some cars idle faster than others, some people have overactive basal ganglia. These people are frequently anxious or nervous. Without good cause, they constantly evaluate their environments, anticipate risks, and prepare for potential danger. Their basal ganglia operate in a heightened state—not high enough to throw the body’s circuit breaker, but higher than seen in most people.