2013

Heart, Mind, & Soul

7/24/2013

Believe it or not the Human Heart refers to the Brain. The Heart is the place where actual thinking occurs. Now you might be saying Huh? What is this crazy lady thinking about? Well Ill tell you. The very context of it proves that your heart is the thinking part of your entire being; its not just some organ thats pumping blood through your body! Take a look at this verse.

For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, and blasphemies. ~Matthew 15:19

The Heart is actually an organ of intelligence, not just some muscle pump. Did you know that the heart is composed of approximately 40,000 neurons that operate independently in their own right? This is the very reason that Heart Transplants work because otherwise the severed nerve connections would be connecting to a different body. Believe It or not it has more functions than just regulating electrical activities to keep it pumping. Does this mean the heart cannot be influenced by messages sent from the brain? No it doesnt. Certainly it can. The Human Heart has what some call a mini-brain which means it can actually send signals to the brain to exercise its influence on it. Some people believe that the Hormone Oxytocin which is also referred to as the love hormone isnt just released from the brain, but its released from the heart as well. Oxytocins importance is for a wide variety of reasons which I wont go into. Dr J. Andrew Armour is a neurocardiologist who has some fascinating facts about the hearts nervous system. If you want to read his book go here: Neurocardiology: Anatomical & Functional Principles

Many people assume that learning and memory are part of the central nervous system function but after observations being made it leans more towards the systemic memory mechanism which doesnt limit intelligence functions of the brain. These observations stemmed from organ transplant patients or rather heart transplant recipients. Now during a study performed back in 2002, there were researchers from the University of Arizona and the University of Hawaii who published a paper titled: Changes in Heart Transplant Recipients that Parallel the Personalities of their Donors. The average recipient picked up two to five parallels per case from the ones previously investigated. In other words there was a high transfer of personality traits transferred that no drug, stress of surgery, or statistical coincidence cannot explain. I truly believe that the human body is more mysterious than any reductionist science can ever explain or try to make us all believe.

Let's take a look at what Intelligence actually is. Its normally defined as our reasoning, capacity for learning, or our understanding of things, among having the aptitude for grasping truth and meanings. It actually means faculty of understanding, discerning, and comprehension. So is the heart our organ of intelligence while our brains are our organs of cognition? If so wouldnt this cause people to take a look at mental illness a lot differently? Tons of things to ponder with this article. Now you might be looking at this and saying to yourself what about our Gut? Well its also a major neural centre which could also have a mini brain of its own as with any other transplant could. Neurogastroenterology would be something to look into if you want to learn more. The study Im writing about is mainly about the interaction between the personality of the donor and the recipient.

Now that the Brain and heart have been taken care of lets take a look at the Soul. Most us grew up being taught that humans consist of a soul and a body. You will constantly see Physicists assure us all that there is no such thing as matter where psychologists will assure you that there is no such thing as mind. I could write all about the arguments on both of these things but it would take tons of more pages and a lot of studying and time which I believe I will just skip. A good question to ask yourself however is whether or not the mind is immortal and whether or not the ultimate power in the universe is mental rather than physical. Given this would you think there would be any reason to think that except on the earths surface that anything happens because someone wished it to happen? It kind of reminds me of that book The Secret.

If we are to believe that there is any truth in physics at all, particularly in the second law of thermodynamics, then we cannot hope that the human race will continue to live on forever. Sorry if thats a bit gloomy but in all honesty whatever happens millions of years from now has really no great emotional interest for us here right now. This may be why that in spite of many theologians placing horror in our lives that we tolerate science. Now in my opinion the soul is a sign of Gods presence. Some of you may not believe in God so I dont speak for everyone who reads this. I dont believe any force on earth could equal the souls influential ascendancy. So is the Soul Immortal? Good Question. I dont have all the answers but if you look at it as though the soul may continue to progress even after the physical body passes away until it becomes present to God then maybe you can see it in a different way. So do you think the Soul would be a combination of elements? Composed of many atoms? Do individuals have any existence previous to their life on earth? According to Science everything knowable about the soul can be learned by studying the human brain. If you look at Einstein who said that E=MC ^2 Then by going by this equation then you have to consider that mass and energy are the same
thing which would be the law of physics. If you say the soul is merely energy or consciousness then you

are saying that the soul is matter which makes it no different from any other sort of matter, (yes biological matter included) because Matter = Energy. In reality there is no distinction between matter and energy of the self just as there is no distinction between biological matter and what you refer to as soul. Its all the exact same stuff. Some people dont believe the soul exists and may even state that they are an imaginary construct.

Heres a couple of verses to think on

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. ~Genesis 2:7

And he that searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. ~Romans 8:27

Looking at the passages above you see that there is a distinction between the heart, mind, and spirit. Another way to view this information is to think of a command post somewhere. They communicate with pilots to guide them and land them safely right? Isnt that what our minds do? Send information to your spirit which would be called having a conscience? Think about it

Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. ~Titus 1:15

The Bible is considered the Book of Truth. It exists for others to analyze. Maybe it could be considered as a makeover of your life if you want it to. We all have a choice.