Feb 21, 2011

PHILOSOPHY OF MENTAL DECEPTION


The human brain is the most complicated structure created by nature. As per the report published in Scientific American, in spite of the enormous power of our brain, we only use 10% of its capacity whereas the brain represents 3% of the body weight and uses 20% of the body’s energy. If the myth about Albert Einstein is taken seriously that he used only 7% of his brain, then we, as ordinary people, can very well understand the percentage of the brain we use.

As per another report of Andy N. and the comments thereon, published in Scienceray on human biology, ‘there is no physical data to determine, in tangible evidence, the amount of usage the human brain has. Our brain is simply amazing. It contains about a hundred thousand miles of blood vessels (160,000 kilometres) and there are about 100 billion neurons or nerve cells and several billions of neuronal and synaptic connections (about 1000 trillion or 1010 = 1 quadrillion) for exchange of signals between the neurons in a human brain’.

Furthermore, another report published in Scientific American on March 10, 2009 states that- “a computer comparable to the human brain would need to be able to perform more than 38 thousand trillion operations per second and should hold about 3,584 terabytes of memory. (IBM's Blue Gene supercomputer, one of the worlds' most powerful, has a computational capability of 92 trillion operations per second and 8 terabytes of storage)”.

Moreover, 10% of our brain is conscious, 88% is subconscious, and 2% is unconscious. As per the article published in New York Times- ``Who`s minding the mind``, Dr. Mark Schaller, a psychologist from British Columbia, Vancouver said that- `Sometimes non-conscious effects can be bigger in sheer magnitude than conscious ones`. Researchers do not yet know how or when exactly unconscious drives may suddenly become conscious in the brain.

Considering all this, it is certain that modern science has a fairly limited knowledge of the human brain and its actual power, especially of 88% of the subconscious brain and 2% of the unconscious brain. In order to estimate the capacity of the brain, the human retina has been used as an example. The human retina is less than a centimetre square wide and a half-millimetre thick, but it has about 100 million neurons. In comparison, 1,500 cubic centimetre human brain is about 100,000 times as large as the retina. Therefore until now, all research on the ultimate capacity of the human brain has been either theoretical or hypothetical.

We are aware of the conscious part of our brain, as it controls our voluntary activity the way our mind thinks. The activities which are involuntary are controlled by the subconscious part of our brain. This part keeps on performing vital activities at a constant such as beating of the heart, breathing, digestion, secreting different enzymes and hormones as and when necessary, maintaining body temperature and so on. These involuntary activities are known to us, but we come to know about the malfunctioning of a particular organ only when we have a disorder, otherwise we have no control on them with our conscious mind.

Therefore, we are forced to analyze what other activities are being performed by the subconscious part of our brain incessantly and on a regular basis, and about which we have not even the slightest inkling. We see a part of its dramatic presentation in the form of dreams when we are fast asleep. Sometimes those presentations of the dream produced by the subconscious part of the brain have no direct or even the remotest connection with our lives; as such we are amazed how those dreams materialize to us. As per human psychology, ‘one cannot imagine anything beyond imagination’. Our power of imagining things have direct relevance with the worldly objects we have seen, read, heard or felt directly or indirectly. Hence, it is impossible to think of an object or imagine a situation which has not been imagined or explored yet by our conscious mind.

In addition, there are situations in our life which are beyond our control. There are no logical, theoretical, practical or scientific explanations of such events and we become absolutely perplexed contemplating how situations in life turn in our favour or against. Now the question may arise what role does the subconscious part of our brain play in the happening of those events?

To make my points clear, I would like to present an analogy between 88% of the subconscious part of the brain with modern cell phones. Consciously, we can talk or communicate on a cell phone with anybody in the world but we cannot see how the signals are being transmitted or with which ‘Bay Tower’ our cell phone is connected. Not knowing this fact does not bother us as long as we are able to communicate. The cell phone is just one of the gadgets with the least amount of intelligent software in comparison to the fastest computers in the world. And when the fastest computers are less superior to our brain cells, then imagine the power of communication being made by the subconscious part of the brain, if they are transmitting signals back and forth like a cell phone without our express knowledge.

There are examples of the minds communicating with another mind or reading thoughts of another mind which is known as telepathy. Recent discoveries in quantum physics and cosmology or quantum cosmology have also thrown light on how our minds interact with the universe. I also have personal experience of this phenomena when my yoga teacher late Swami Satyananda Saraswati surprisingly read my mind during my visit to him in Switzerland in the year 1984.

There is another example of our powerful subconscious mind commonly referred to as the “Sixth Sense”. We also call it our gut feeling that helps us understand the world. It is our ability to understand and perceive the subtle cause and effect relationship behind many events, which is otherwise beyond the understanding of our intellect.

Therefore, if we understand the above theory and if we believe that one part of our brain works like a transmitter or a receptor like a cell phone, and may be connected to a gigantic universal computer or cosmic mainframe, then whatever we think or do in our life must be getting uploaded or downloaded in to the cosmic database in a fraction of a second in the form of positive or negative energy. This traffic has to be inbound and outbound like cell phone calls originating from or getting received into our subconscious mind about which our conscious mind has no clue at all.  I also believe that all the science of predicting the past or future of a person, his or her actions, thought process and ultimate impact on the outcome of their actions may have something to do with this inbound traffic. We may call this energy, or a sixth sense or telepathy or influence of stars and planets, our luck, or fate, or destiny or whatever. This is just a conjecture however.

If the above theory is taken seriously then the questions that may be raised may include: why does it happen, and what purpose does our subconscious mind achieve by uploading or downloading mental data. In order to understand these phenomenas, we have to first understand the law of nature and how nature balances acts of humans in order to maintain universal harmony.

In order to manage a business or personal resources, the modern accounting system is based on the double entry system, whether it is accounted through the accounting software called simply accounting or quick books or other accounting systems. It takes into account all receipts and payments. It also establishes the fact that in order to spend X amount we must receive Y amount or vice versa. And the sum total of all receipts and all expenses must tally. It is also called the balancing of books.

I believe that the same system is adopted by nature. Nature keeps balancing its forces through-out the universe. For example, in our planet, if there is a drought at one place then nature balances this disparity by providing excessive rain fall at another place. If one part of the world suffers from excessive heat waves, then another part must experience abnormal winter. This logic is also applicable in economics. If there is excessive wealth in one part of the world then the other part must remain in poverty. A person cannot become rich without making another person poor. Something is always made, at the cost of other things. Therefore, we can safely draw on inference that if we have done some good work but never got the reward in this life then the universal law of nature has to balance its book by rewarding us in the next life. Similarly, if we have incurred some bad actions but escaped punishment in this life then the law of nature will balance its book by providing punishment in the next life.  

If we understand this logic then it is certain that we all have to face the consequences of our actions either in this life or the next or subsequent lives, as the law of nature will never allow the imbalance to continue for long. In order to make it happen, the cosmic mainframe (computer) keeps a record of our thoughts or actions in the form of positive or negative energy released or received by the subconscious part of our brain.

Here, the theory of KARMA kicks in.  If we are very happy and religious, go to the temple or church everyday with all good thoughts, never did anything wrong or never hurt anybody in this life, still if misery befalls upon us, then only the theory of karma with my above mentioned logic can define this sudden impact on our lives. To further illustrate my points- we have seen several people including politicians, government officials or people with money, power and position misusing their capabilities and performing atrocities on human beings or exploiting their resources. Since their KARMA of past lives is so strong, they are bestowed with all happiness and success in this life, nothing bad happens to them, or if anything bad happens, then it may be because of the violation of state rules and/or regulations. But what about the human pain and sufferings which they have caused, which is against the principles of Sanatan Dharma (the eternal law) which is coherent with nature?


Even we, in our day to day lives knowingly or unknowingly cause pain and mental sufferings to people around us. Sometimes we lie or do immoral acts and are never caught. We think that we are very smart, that is why nothing happened to us.  But due to our ignorance caused by greed, hatred, jealousy and ego, we forget that those actions or bad thoughts have already been registered in the form of bad energy in the cosmic mainframe.  We may not get immediate punishment, but it will come back to us in the form of mental or physical sufferings in the next life. This is the reason that sometimes we are perplexed about why a few are so happy in spite of having all the crookedness and why bad things happens to some in spite of their good nature, behaviour and actions in whatever life they are in. 

In a colloquial term, we say that God is watching everything or God is punishing us. Whereas the truth is, that we are responsible for our success or pleasures or the pain and suffering in this life. And when we are responsible for our destiny, then why blame God? If we could understand this philosophy then those who are successful and happy must be careful not to transmit negative energy to the cosmic mainframe in order to suffer in the next life.

Therefore, if anybody would believe in my philosophy of this mental deception or mental vagaries, then one will have to be careful in what they talk or even think in their day to day life. I call it mental deception, because our mind hides several activities which it is performing without letting us know and the consequences may be enormous.

I am looking for an opportunity to research on the subject and I am sure that one day I will validate my philosophy with evidences on how our mind deceives us by concealing hidden secrets of life and how the philosophy of KARMA actually works.

Your comments are very much solicited.

Suman Saran Sinha

6 comments:

Raja R. said...

I just wanted to say this is a very well written article, Suman uncle. The connection between the neurological workings of the brain and its ultimate connection to Karma is a topic I haven't explored too far in depth, but you have done a fantastic job in summarizing it. I am forwarding this article to my father as well, as I am sure he will find it fascinating given that he has done a fair bit of reading on the mind-thought-spirituality connection.

There are a few points I would like to address in your article itself. First off, I found it very interesting that you brought up the fact that a large component of our brain works in the subconscious. I read an article recently about a neurologist in the US who suffered a stroke several years ago. In the article she recounted her experiences following the incident and she stated that she felt as large as the room she was in and was able to see colours and shapes in vivid detail and size. Part of our brain works to orient ourselves to the size of our body. That is why we know exactly where our body begins and ends. After the stroke, this part of her brain had been damages, so she no longer knew where her body began and ended so she began trying to touch objects that were across the room even though she was sitting in her chair because she no longer had the perception of the boundaries of her body. It is these small functions of the brain that work in our subconscious, so to speak, and I'm glad you brought up the point that SO MUCH of what we do is out of our direct control.

Secondly, I very much identify with the comment you made regarding the accounting system of the universe and its balancing force. It has been experimentally proven that even atoms have counterparts in the universe - therefore, if you affect an atom in any way (by moving it, changing the electrical charge on it and so on) you will affect its counterpart in the exact opposite way (the counterpart to the atom will move in the opposite direction, or the electrical charge will be the opposite). Furthermore, scientists at CERN are currently attempting to find traces of antimatter - the exact opposite of matter. I agree very much with the points you made regarding the balancing forces of the universe because it is very much evident in the physical world around us - whether or not we can see it.

Once again, I just wanted to say that this was a fantastic article, and I very much enjoyed reading it! Please let me know if you write any articles similar to this in the future!


- Raja

manish Verma said...

A very good article indeed....you have written in a very lucid and simple way about such a complex subject. I had some facts about this subject but you have put it nicely.
What i really liked is the way you have brought about the concept of "next life" and Karma with the balancing of cosmic account. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

Anonymous said...

A well researched, comprehended and thoughtful set of articles.
Binoy Shanker Prasad

Anonymous said...

Dear Suman ji, this morning read your latest article on "Philosophy of Mental Deception". It is very informative and enlightening. You have very nicely related the Karma theory with mental deception. Thank you so much for sharing you views with us. With love and respect,
Kundan and Kanta
Mississauga.

Anonymous said...

Hi,

Read your article and found it very interesting and will go through it again to digest the concepts fully. Thanks for sharing it and we'll talk about it when we meet.


With best wishes,
Ira

babu krishnan said...

Dear Sumanji:
Compliments on the very informative and challenging article and one has to admit that the connections between KARMA and the activities from the mind games are indeed remarkably true and relevant today and forever.
What is clear that Agama Karma as opposed to Prarabdha Karma causes the current misfortunes or gains to be amplified and exaggerated. One is always subject to the effects of the Sanchita karma, which one might not even notice or feel important since most of us tend to be blase or blissfully ignorant . BTW, well documented study the neurons and their potent impact on our actions or inactions.

Post a Comment