More about The Brain
Synergy Principle - The brain operates synergistically. In a synergistic system, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts; in other words 1 + 1 will equal more than 2. In such a system, more can reach infinity
Roger Sperry, who won a nobel prize for work on left and right brain, suggested that the brain was a multiplying mechanism rather than an adding machine.
eg, day dreaming - you will take yourself ("one") and someone else ("another one") and you will start multiplying thoughts
From research such as Sperry's, from examples such as daydreaming, and from many other sources we can confidently state that the potential for the human brain to generate thought is theoretically, infinite.
The more appropriately and well your brain does "X" then the easier "X" Becomes
eg. if X = memory, then the more and appropriately and well you practice using memory, then the easier memorization will become
The Synergy Brain Principle indicates that the pervading beliefs that creativity withers with age, and other mental and physical skills necessarily decline, are dangerous misconceptions.
GIGO
Garbage in, Garbage Out
In the case of Brain - Garbage In Garbage Grows
Lower and Upper
Hind and Fore Brains
Your brain stem:
Common Title: Reptillian or Primitive Brain
Evolved: 500 million years ago
Location - Deep down in the brain, extending up from your spinal cord
Basic Life Support. Handles breathing and heart rate. Masterminds general level of awareness. Alerts you to important incoming sensory information. Controls temperature. COntrols the digestive process. Relays information from the Cerebellum
Interesting facts:
Recent research seems to be suggesting that this area of your brain is far more intelligent than we had previously thought
The Cerebellum
Evolved: Approximately 400 million years ago
Common Title: Little Brain or Hind Brain
Location: Attached to the rear of the brain stem - part of the lower brain.
Function: Controls body position, poise and balance. Monitors movement in space. Stores memories for basic learned responses. Transmits vital information via the brain stem to the brain.
Interesting Facts: In the human brain, the cerebellum has more than tripled in size in the last one million years.
The Limbic System
Evolved: Between 300 and 200 million years ago
Common title: Mammalian Brain or Mid Brain
Location: Between the brain stem and the cortex
Function: Maintains blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature, and blood sugar levels. Governs navigational skills in the hippocampus. Critical to learning and for short term and long term memory and stores memories of life experiences. Maintains homeostatis (constant environment) in the body. Involved in body survival emotions of sexual desire or self-protection.
Interesting Facts:
1. Scientist Robert Ornstein says: "One way to remember the limbic functions is that they are the four 'F's of survival: Feeding, Fleeing, Fighting and sexual reproduction!
2. The limbic system contains the hypothalamus, often regarded as the most important part of the "mammalian brain." It is often known as the brain of the brain. Although tiny (about the size of half an ice cube) and weighing only four grams, it regulates hormones, sexual desire, emotions, eating, drinking, body temperature, chemincal balances, sleeping, and waking, while at the sam time masterminding the master gland of the brain, the pituitary.
3. The hippocampus is increasingly thought to be the seat of learning and memory. In shape it looks remarkably like a little seahorse.
Two other major areas of the mid-brain include the thalamus, which makes preliminary classification of external information reaching the brain, and which relays information to the cortex, via the hypothalamus. It is the hypothalamus that is part of your brain which decides what comes to your attention and what does not - for example, telling you at which moment to notice that the room is getting warmer or that you are getting hungrier!
The basal ganglia, which are located on both sides of the limbic system (as is the cerebellum), are concerned with movement control, especially initiating movements. In the human brain (your brain) these networks have been growing larger and more well developed over the last few million years.
The Left and Right Brain
The Cerebrum (cerebral cortex)
Evolved: Approx. 200 million years ago
Common Title: The Left and Right Brain
Location: Fit;s like a giant "thinking cap" over the entire brain: extends into the full area of your forehead.
Functions: Organization, Memory, Understandin, Communication, Creativity. Decision making. Speech. Music. Other specific functions include the full range of the "left/right brain" cortical skills - dicussed below.
Interesting Facts:
1. Your cerebrum is by far the largest part of your brain.
2. The cerebrum is covered by that evolutionarily magical one-eighth inch thich, amazingly corrugated layer of nerve cells known as the cerebral cortex. It is the nature of our particular cortex that identifies you as human.
3. The two cerebral hemispheres are connected by a fabulously intricate network of fibers called the corpus callosum; these 300 million nerve fibers shuttle information back and forth between the two hemispheres.
In the 1950s and 1960s Roger Sperry, who received the Nobel Prize for his work, performed some incredible experiments on the cerebral cortex, in conjunction with Professor Robert Ornstein. They asked students to perform such varying mental tasks as daydreaming, calculating, reading, drawing, speaking, writing, coloring shapes, and listening to music, while measuring their brainwaves. The results were a revelation. In general the cerebral cortex divides the tasks into two main categories - the left and the right.
The right tasks included rhythm, spatial awareness, Gestalt (whole picture), imagination, daydreaming, color, and dimension. The left included words, logic, numbers, sequence, linearity, analysis, and lists.
* Words
* Logic
* Numbers
* Sequence
* Linearity
* Analysis
* Lists
Right Brain
* rhythm
* Spatial awareness
* Dimension
* Imagination
* Daydreaming
* colour
* holistic awareness (gestalt)
Ongoing research suggested that where people have been trained to use either "side" of their brain to the exclusion of the other, they tended to form Dominant habits favoring those activities controlled by their chosen brain side, and to describe themselves in those terms.
The umbrella terms that evolved we "academic," "intellectual" and business" for the left hemispheric activities, and "artistic", "creative" and "intuitive" for the right hemispheric activities. But these only gave part of the story.
Further research by Professor Ornstein and others revealed that the ongoing strength and weakness of the cortical skills in any one individual was more a function habit than a basic brain design.
When people who were weak in one area were trained in that given area, and what's more, simultaneously strengthened their performance in other areas!
For example, if someone who had been weak in drawing skills was trained to draw and paint, their academic performance increased overall especially in subjects such as geometry where perception and imagination are so important.
Another example is the right-brain skill of daydreaming, which is essential to your brain's survival. Daydreaming gives needed rest to those parts of the brain which have been doing more analytical and repetitious work, exercises your protective and imaginative thinking, and gives you a necessary chance to integrate and create. Most of the great geniuses used directed daydreaming to help them solve problems, generate ideas and achieve their great goals.
My own work in the fields of Creativity, Memory and Mind Mapping has led to identical conclusions. It has shown that by combining the elements of the two hemispheres, suprisingly huge increments in overall performance are achieved.
In the 20th century the world's educational systems unfortunately favored the "left brain skills - mathematics, languages, and the sciences - over the arts, music, and the teaching of thinking skills, especially Creative Thinking skills. In focusing on only half of the brain's skill, it might appear that they were literally creating half-wits!
However, the truth of the matter is even worse. For as you now know from the Brain Principle of Synergy, the brain is a multiplier.
The left and right sides of the cerebral cortex shuttle messages back and forward between the hemispheres, creating a Synergetic formula for thinking and growth. By eliminating the possibility for this multiplying growth, it is not half-wits that are created, it is 1 percent wits!
This makes the findings of the research into the great geniuses understandable. These studies have shown that, invariably, they used "both sides" of their brains. Head Strong encourages you also to use "both sides", "aft and fore" and upstairs / downstairs, " and thus to explore and develop your own genius.
Downstairs / upstairs - some amazing revelations and stories.
We have already seen , in the story of Indian yogi Swami Rama, how upper brain can control the lower brain's "automatic functions", such as the control of certain bodily processes.
In primitive societies such abilities were taken for granted, although they were probably not related to the upper and lower brain.
...The Aborigines of Austrailia...the convicted individual, using power of his brain only, stopped all bodily processes one by one, until he had completed self-execution.
Similar examples of brain's extraordinary power are found in the Western society. Very often, for example, when one partner in a very close relationship dies, the other, themselves often in good health, will say quite openly that they "want to go with him / her". Countless stories confirm that within a day or two the cortex has instructed all other brain systems to close down, and the surviving partner dies of what is commonly called a "broken heart", but which is increasingly known to be a love-directed brain.
Synergy Principle - The brain operates synergistically. In a synergistic system, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts; in other words 1 + 1 will equal more than 2. In such a system, more can reach infinity
Roger Sperry, who won a nobel prize for work on left and right brain, suggested that the brain was a multiplying mechanism rather than an adding machine.
eg, day dreaming - you will take yourself ("one") and someone else ("another one") and you will start multiplying thoughts
From research such as Sperry's, from examples such as daydreaming, and from many other sources we can confidently state that the potential for the human brain to generate thought is theoretically, infinite.
The more appropriately and well your brain does "X" then the easier "X" Becomes
eg. if X = memory, then the more and appropriately and well you practice using memory, then the easier memorization will become
The Synergy Brain Principle indicates that the pervading beliefs that creativity withers with age, and other mental and physical skills necessarily decline, are dangerous misconceptions.
GIGO
Garbage in, Garbage Out
In the case of Brain - Garbage In Garbage Grows
Lower and Upper
Hind and Fore Brains
Your brain stem:
Common Title: Reptillian or Primitive Brain
Evolved: 500 million years ago
Location - Deep down in the brain, extending up from your spinal cord
Basic Life Support. Handles breathing and heart rate. Masterminds general level of awareness. Alerts you to important incoming sensory information. Controls temperature. COntrols the digestive process. Relays information from the Cerebellum
Interesting facts:
Recent research seems to be suggesting that this area of your brain is far more intelligent than we had previously thought
The Cerebellum
Evolved: Approximately 400 million years ago
Common Title: Little Brain or Hind Brain
Location: Attached to the rear of the brain stem - part of the lower brain.
Function: Controls body position, poise and balance. Monitors movement in space. Stores memories for basic learned responses. Transmits vital information via the brain stem to the brain.
Interesting Facts: In the human brain, the cerebellum has more than tripled in size in the last one million years.
The Limbic System
Evolved: Between 300 and 200 million years ago
Common title: Mammalian Brain or Mid Brain
Location: Between the brain stem and the cortex
Function: Maintains blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature, and blood sugar levels. Governs navigational skills in the hippocampus. Critical to learning and for short term and long term memory and stores memories of life experiences. Maintains homeostatis (constant environment) in the body. Involved in body survival emotions of sexual desire or self-protection.
Interesting Facts:
1. Scientist Robert Ornstein says: "One way to remember the limbic functions is that they are the four 'F's of survival: Feeding, Fleeing, Fighting and sexual reproduction!
2. The limbic system contains the hypothalamus, often regarded as the most important part of the "mammalian brain." It is often known as the brain of the brain. Although tiny (about the size of half an ice cube) and weighing only four grams, it regulates hormones, sexual desire, emotions, eating, drinking, body temperature, chemincal balances, sleeping, and waking, while at the sam time masterminding the master gland of the brain, the pituitary.
3. The hippocampus is increasingly thought to be the seat of learning and memory. In shape it looks remarkably like a little seahorse.
Two other major areas of the mid-brain include the thalamus, which makes preliminary classification of external information reaching the brain, and which relays information to the cortex, via the hypothalamus. It is the hypothalamus that is part of your brain which decides what comes to your attention and what does not - for example, telling you at which moment to notice that the room is getting warmer or that you are getting hungrier!
The basal ganglia, which are located on both sides of the limbic system (as is the cerebellum), are concerned with movement control, especially initiating movements. In the human brain (your brain) these networks have been growing larger and more well developed over the last few million years.
The Left and Right Brain
The Cerebrum (cerebral cortex)
Evolved: Approx. 200 million years ago
Common Title: The Left and Right Brain
Location: Fit;s like a giant "thinking cap" over the entire brain: extends into the full area of your forehead.
Functions: Organization, Memory, Understandin, Communication, Creativity. Decision making. Speech. Music. Other specific functions include the full range of the "left/right brain" cortical skills - dicussed below.
Interesting Facts:
1. Your cerebrum is by far the largest part of your brain.
2. The cerebrum is covered by that evolutionarily magical one-eighth inch thich, amazingly corrugated layer of nerve cells known as the cerebral cortex. It is the nature of our particular cortex that identifies you as human.
3. The two cerebral hemispheres are connected by a fabulously intricate network of fibers called the corpus callosum; these 300 million nerve fibers shuttle information back and forth between the two hemispheres.
In the 1950s and 1960s Roger Sperry, who received the Nobel Prize for his work, performed some incredible experiments on the cerebral cortex, in conjunction with Professor Robert Ornstein. They asked students to perform such varying mental tasks as daydreaming, calculating, reading, drawing, speaking, writing, coloring shapes, and listening to music, while measuring their brainwaves. The results were a revelation. In general the cerebral cortex divides the tasks into two main categories - the left and the right.
The right tasks included rhythm, spatial awareness, Gestalt (whole picture), imagination, daydreaming, color, and dimension. The left included words, logic, numbers, sequence, linearity, analysis, and lists.
* Words
* Logic
* Numbers
* Sequence
* Linearity
* Analysis
* Lists
Right Brain
* rhythm
* Spatial awareness
* Dimension
* Imagination
* Daydreaming
* colour
* holistic awareness (gestalt)
Ongoing research suggested that where people have been trained to use either "side" of their brain to the exclusion of the other, they tended to form Dominant habits favoring those activities controlled by their chosen brain side, and to describe themselves in those terms.
The umbrella terms that evolved we "academic," "intellectual" and business" for the left hemispheric activities, and "artistic", "creative" and "intuitive" for the right hemispheric activities. But these only gave part of the story.
Further research by Professor Ornstein and others revealed that the ongoing strength and weakness of the cortical skills in any one individual was more a function habit than a basic brain design.
When people who were weak in one area were trained in that given area, and what's more, simultaneously strengthened their performance in other areas!
For example, if someone who had been weak in drawing skills was trained to draw and paint, their academic performance increased overall especially in subjects such as geometry where perception and imagination are so important.
Another example is the right-brain skill of daydreaming, which is essential to your brain's survival. Daydreaming gives needed rest to those parts of the brain which have been doing more analytical and repetitious work, exercises your protective and imaginative thinking, and gives you a necessary chance to integrate and create. Most of the great geniuses used directed daydreaming to help them solve problems, generate ideas and achieve their great goals.
My own work in the fields of Creativity, Memory and Mind Mapping has led to identical conclusions. It has shown that by combining the elements of the two hemispheres, suprisingly huge increments in overall performance are achieved.
In the 20th century the world's educational systems unfortunately favored the "left brain skills - mathematics, languages, and the sciences - over the arts, music, and the teaching of thinking skills, especially Creative Thinking skills. In focusing on only half of the brain's skill, it might appear that they were literally creating half-wits!
However, the truth of the matter is even worse. For as you now know from the Brain Principle of Synergy, the brain is a multiplier.
The left and right sides of the cerebral cortex shuttle messages back and forward between the hemispheres, creating a Synergetic formula for thinking and growth. By eliminating the possibility for this multiplying growth, it is not half-wits that are created, it is 1 percent wits!
This makes the findings of the research into the great geniuses understandable. These studies have shown that, invariably, they used "both sides" of their brains. Head Strong encourages you also to use "both sides", "aft and fore" and upstairs / downstairs, " and thus to explore and develop your own genius.
Downstairs / upstairs - some amazing revelations and stories.
We have already seen , in the story of Indian yogi Swami Rama, how upper brain can control the lower brain's "automatic functions", such as the control of certain bodily processes.
In primitive societies such abilities were taken for granted, although they were probably not related to the upper and lower brain.
...The Aborigines of Austrailia...the convicted individual, using power of his brain only, stopped all bodily processes one by one, until he had completed self-execution.
Similar examples of brain's extraordinary power are found in the Western society. Very often, for example, when one partner in a very close relationship dies, the other, themselves often in good health, will say quite openly that they "want to go with him / her". Countless stories confirm that within a day or two the cortex has instructed all other brain systems to close down, and the surviving partner dies of what is commonly called a "broken heart", but which is increasingly known to be a love-directed brain.