Shariq Anis

Summary of Evolve Your Brain: The Science of Changing Your Mind Joe Dispenza’s book is a user's manual par excellence for the brain. Thought drives body reactions. The thinking could be unintentional or intentional behind our awareness and yet the effects of the thought are influential and extensive. In Chapter one “beginnings” Joe Dispenza sets the stage. He says that neuroscience has determined that just by focusing on pain manifests pain - which can be bypassed by diverting focus on something else. Ironically just returning focus on pain reactivates the corresponding brain circuits, rekindling the pain sensation. The related brain circuits get enriched if focus is on pain perception and as Joe suggests that is “how pain, and even memories from our distant past, characterize us”. The multifarious stimuli constantly bombard us. Joe has described the brain physiology in intimate detail that makes us function as we do. A growing body of knowledge points to the effects of stress on our bodies. Living with stress is like living in a primitive state of survival – and this mode limits our evolution, making us more animal like. He goes on to comment that we can change and, evolve our brain, so that we no longer fall into the repetitive, and unhealthy reactions that are produced as a result of our earlier experiences. Neuroplasticity is the science of brain forgoing its habitual inner circuitry and learning to fire in new patterns and combinations. This book illustrates how the evolution and change can help break the traditional habit and allow new “you” to come forth. Joe recounts his personal story when he was in a life threatening accident having his spine fractured in multiple place and was faced with option for surgery that would put metal rods in his back for recuperation, which could be as long as an year. He forewent the back surgery and opted for visualization, hypnotic trance and alternative medicine to restore his body to complete vitality within 10 weeks. Chapter 2 is “On The Back of A Giant”. Joe claims that brain is not hardwired, and that change is possible and that the tendencies one inherits from one’s family is not the destiny. The brain possesses elasticity. It has an ability to shut down old pathways of thought and form new ones, regardless of age and time. He opines that many people are crippled by and don’t reach the heights of their existence, never get to experience the freedom and exhilaration of a life unencumbered by fear or doubt. Specific examples of Sheila and Dean are quoted who were able to defeat illnesses where doctors had promised no cures. The examples of cures beyond medical science are countless and many men and women have recovered miraculously when no conventional treatments had been effective in reversing their conditions. The function of mind is paramount in spontaneous remissions and healings. Joe recounts that each person with spontaneous remission believed in higher order intelligence that is giving them life at every moment. It is the same intelligence that organizes and regulates all the functions from breathing to other body functions without any conscious thought. The body responds to a thought by having a feeling, initiating a response in the brain. Our state of the being is conditioned by having same thoughts repeated ad infinitum. Improvement of health thus requires changing the entire patterns of thought, and these new thought patterns or attitudes will eventually change the affected state of being. Conscious effort is required to observe the automatic thought processes, especially the harmful ones and replace them with beneficial ones. We thus have the privilege to make our thoughts more real than anything else, and with this process the brain records those impressions in the deep folds of its tissues. Mastering of this skill is what allows us to begin to rewire our brains. “Contrary to the myth of the hardwired brain, we now realize that the brain changes in response to every experience, every new thought, and every new thing we learn. This is called plasticity.” The aim of this book is to raise questions and provide information which may help in comprehending how the human brain, mind, and consciousness interact to create your health and your experience of life. This book thus puts together a working model for understanding the marvelous organ called the brain. He explains the functioning of brain impulses, neurons and its constituent elements. Brain has three main parts - cerebellum, the midbrain and the neocortex and Joe deliberates at length on each constituent part’s functions. Brain is shaped by external influences and stimuli. It was considered that in the ages of mid-twenties the brain development stops but now we know that brain is not as rigid and hardwired as though of, rather brain is neuroplastic and the brain gets remolded and shaped throughout the adult years. We inherit up to 50 percent of our parents’ knowledge, emotional and behavioral tendencies. New learnings are encoded by the brain by making synaptic connections that store the memory of what it has learned. Neuroplasticity gives our brain the ability to change its synaptic wiring. It affords us the privilege to learn from experiences in our environment, giving us the flexibility to change our actions and modify our behavior to produce outcomes that are more desirable. An example is case of blind person in whose brain area devoted to visual cortex gets modified to handle sound and tactile perceptions. Synaptic patterns for a specific trait can get modified and neural connections within that specific module may become enriched to give that concerned person heightened sensitivities or abilities. “If we change the way we do things, the brain will change as well”. When one area of the brain is damaged, other areas can be taught to process the stimuli of the impaired sensory organ. Brain thus have the remarkable ability to adjust and adapt. We can learn to use the brain’s neuroplasticity without having a compromised brain or body defect – simply by learning and experiencing. Learning is the new relationship between neurons. Repeated firing of the same neurons strengthens the connections between the synapses. Our brain will make stronger, more intricate synaptic connections (lasting, long-term relationship) to facilitate that new level of mind. “Our identity is our unique set of neural networks, with specific synaptic wiring that is as individual as the features on our face” Most of the people seeking medical care do so because of the stress related disorders. Cortisol produced during stress response is responsible for degenerating brain cells in the hippocampus. Hippocampus helps us form new memories and acquire new knowledge. If this area is damaged pursuit of novelty is stopped and we end up pursuing routine and activities including learning, making new memories and exploration get affected because the responsible organ for making new memories gets affected. When acute stress occurs, it ends, and we have time to recover from it. Chronic stress however gives our body no recovery time. This is when our body starts to steal energy from other vital processes Joe describes the intricacies of a relationship – both persons “synaptically fire neural nets” which results in making their experiences feel a certain way, and those feelings reaffirm each party's personality. The force of habit makes it very difficult to break the neurological wiring. Body goes into chaos because of chemical deprivation caused by absence of habitual neurons’ firing. “There is a greater level of familiar comfort in being a victim than the discomfort of being a victim”. Episodic memories are stored as emotions with past holding the emotional content. Changing brain is analogous to changing the future. Frontal lobe decides on action, plans the future and once we activate the frontal lobe there is a conscious choice for acting in a certain way, or once the mind is made up. Conscious thought can get empowered if the frontal lobe takes up so much conscious attention that nothing else matters and external world disappears. Experienced meditators are able to fire up this frontal lobe willingly. Joe then goes on to describe the process of mental rehearsal where all faculties re engaged and complete experience of the new intended behavior is experienced as if it was actually happening. Since the brain does not know if the experience is real or imagined, so focused experience to exclusion of all outside distraction helps to fire up the same neural pathways that would fire if the behavior were actually manifested. Thus mentally rehearsing and the actual doing are one and the same. Focused concentration would thus help in bringing about powerful changes. Our complete attention and focus allows the frontal lobe to mentally hold whatever images we choose. Thus by focusing on the frontal lobe the other part of the brain don’t get the blood flow and grow numb and help unwire the previous connections previously hard wired so we can wire in new connections and prune out the unneeded ones. The frontal lobe allows us to modify our existing circuits to become a new individual. “The only thing it takes to become a more compassionate person—or to create any new attribute we desire-is focused concentration, will, knowledge, and understanding”.