The Nature and Existence of the Human Mind and its Relation with the Brain to Produce Thoughts and Emotions

Introduction

Our body is physical and we can feel it by touch. We can imagine its shape and colour. But the human mind is formless and cannot be felt or touched by us. At present there is a consensus among scientists that the human mind rests in the brain. The human mind is responsible for giving birth to thoughts, feelings, inspiration, doubt, curiosity. The human mind has been a mystery to mankind since time immemorial. Although various sages, religious leaders, philosophers, saints, researchers have tried their best to discover and unravel this mystery, the final conclusion has not yet taken place. The brain is the most complex, delicate, and even more complex organ of our body. While looking at the mind and its existence, we have to find the place or centre of this mind in our brain. Although emotions are naturally emitted from the mind, they are directly and indirectly related to many centres in the human brain. The different parts of the brain interact with each other through biochemical electrical waves. Also, different endocrine glands secrete different hormones and perform different functions. The process of obtaining and retrieving information and storing it is continuous in the brain. In this way some arenas are built in the mind by interpreting or connecting this information with the previously stored information which is called thought. The human mind and brain make all kinds of complex connections. These combinations are formed by biochemical processes, electrochemical processes and secretion of various hormones. Also, all parts of the brain are connected to each other by various nerve cells and neurons. While making these connections, it creates a moulded and formulaic idea. Emotions are also created by external or internal influences during this connection. In this review article we are trying to shed light on the human brain and the mind, their interrelationships and interconnections, the origin of the mind, the place of the mind, the origin of thoughts and emotions, how the mind functioned and also the various things related to it.

Literature Review

When learning about the human mind, we first need to understand the various concepts about the mind in the Vedic period. The Vedic period is thought to be between 1500 and 500 BC. The Rig Veda, the Sama Veda, the Yajur Veda and the Atharva Veda are the four Vedas. Each of these Vedas falls into four parts in total. These include Samhita, Brahmane, Aranyake and Upanishads. Samhita is the code of the Vedas is the information about the praise and worship of the gods. The Brahmins of the Vedas are the knowers of the rituals. Aranyaka of Vedas means knowledge of various rituals. The Upanishads of the Vedas are philosophy. The Vedas deal with God, creation, body, soul and mind. Jain philosophy and Buddhist philosophy have also tried to shed light on the mind and soul. Greek and Roman philosophers introduced the concept of dualism through mind and body. It is believed to have two separate elements or substances, the body and the mind. The second concept was materialistic. The idea was that the mind must be made up of matter, just as the body or the brain is made up of matter. Socrates believed that the mind and body were made up of different substances. Plato argued that the body and the soul are different. Pluto, however, did not believe in the human senses. Because the senses will imagine as they see, but the mind is not. Pluto used to say that truth can be revealed through the mind. He says that rational introspection is necessary for things that are not what they appear to be. The mind can be the instrument of truth. One of Plato’s disciples was Aristotle. Aristotle rejected Plato’s realm of forms, arguing that these forms were man-made concepts for classifying objects, and in the seventeenth century Thomas Hobbes argued that we can only imagine material things. That which is immaterial, like the mind and the soul, cannot be imagined. There is something in our body that gives us sensation, motion and movement, whether it is the soul or the mind.

Hobbes was another contemporary thinker, René Descartes, in his first philosophical commentary, first published in 1641. Descartes suggested that the mind differs from material things in three ways. The sensations that cannot be mechanically explained in it are the mind, the experience of such sensations comes to the mind, the mind does not exist physically like the brain, and the mind is a necessary whole. Therefore, the material object cannot be divided or replicated as it is possible. Happiness is the solution to desire. This means that if you want to complete any task, you have to make your mind happy.

Gangadharan S, Jena P [1] discussed about two simple models, ‘the Epistemological dualism’ and the model of ‘Mind- Spirit; dichotomy Vs coexistence’ based on the concepts in Indian Psychology, the paper throws more light in to the subject mind and its faculty. The two system views attempt to carve a middle ground between these two camps, allowing some aspects of theory of mind to be indeed evolutionary, ancient and early developing [2]. Fundamental mechanisms of the mind are discussed as steps to understanding music: concepts, instincts, and emotions. Aesthetic emotions are related to the knowledge instinct. The top of the mind hierarchy is analysed: emotions of the beautiful are related to the understanding of the highest meaning and purpose [3].

Discussion and Interpretation

The human mind is of an illusory nature and can only be known. Naturally, everyone has tried to come up with their own assumptions and concepts about the existence of this mind somewhere in the body. Our body is a complex, biological collection of blood, flesh, and bones. The brain, heart, lungs, kidneys and liver are important internal organs in this body. The coordination of all these organs is so disciplined that if there is a big obstacle in it, all these organs gradually die one after the other and naturally the human dies. The most complex, delicate, and even more complex of these organs is our brain. While looking at the mind and its existence, we have to find the place or centre of this mind in our brain. Although emotions are naturally emitted from the mind, they are directly and indirectly related to many centres in the human brain. While knowing the correlation between the mind and the brain, it is important to know about the brain in advance.

The brain weighs an average of one and a half kilograms and is approximately 2.5 percent of its total body weight. So this brain absorbs 20-30% of the energy produced in our body. The brain contains one trillion nerve cells. So these nerve cells and neurons have a trillion different connections. The brain performs a variety of functions, including functioning of your body and controlling your body. Research shows that the human brain has a centre called the amygdala, which is associated with human emotions. The human brain has various parts like thalamus, hypothalamus, amygdala, cerebrum, cerebellum, medulla oblongata, brain stem, pineal gland, pituitary gland. The brain also has a total of four lobes, including the frontal lobe, the parietal lobe, the temporal lobe, and the occipital lobe. The brain has a variety of centres and parts called cortex or lobes. The cortex is the outer membrane and the lobe is the part of the body that is most clearly visible. These various lobes and cortex contain many parts or centres like attention, planning, decision, reading, smell, memory, respiration, movement, sight, hearing, taste, touch. All these parts are connected to each other by different nerve cells, glial cells, joint points, nerves.

Also, all the different parts of the brain interact with each other through biochemical electrical waves. Also, different endocrine glands secrete different hormones and perform different functions. Thus the various parts of the brain, the mantle, the centre, have a kind of rhythm that is constantly working. The connection and communication of all these parts is done through various chemical and electrical waves as mentioned earlier. Such a brain is constantly playing a coordinating and leading role in our body. The brain does not develop overnight; it develops as the human embryo starts from female and male gametes. Brain formation begins in the fifth to sixth week after conception. Gradually, its various parts develop and its functioning begins even before the organism is born. By the time a baby is born, its brain is 50 percent enlarged, 90 percent of its brain is fully developed by the age of five, and it is fully developed by the age of 25. The brain is not inserted into the world as a prefabricated apparatus but through its plastic development in and from the world. Thus it adapts epigenetically to its specific natural and social environment like a key to a lock. This complementarily makes it impossible to restrict one’s view to the anatomic organ and requires an interdisciplinary approach to brain-environment investigation, as for example, under the heading of a “social cognitive neuroscience [4].

Thus, as the brain develops, so does the development of the mind. The genetic traits inherited from our ancestors and accordingly our body and brain grow. The growth and efficiency of the brain depends on the food given to the body and the environment at the time of growth of the body and the brain. It is said that the brain with higher capacity produces higher intelligence. But high intelligence does not always lead to a high quality and successful life. The human mind, however, is formed very slowly and is largely responsible for the variety of perceptions, cognitions and experiences that come from the brain. On the one hand, as the brain grows, the existence of the mind is formed and the conduction of the mind begins in different parts and centres of the brain. The growth of the brain is physical and visible, but the growth of the mind is not visible as it is not physical. So it has to be understood only.

The first function of the human mind to know and respond begins in the prenatal period. After that the child is born and his life journey begins in its true sense. The development of the mind means the formation of a variety of thoughts and feelings. It has now been proven that various centres or parts of the brain work to produce these thoughts and feelings. Also which part does which work? Researchers now have an opinion on this. However, there is not enough research on how these parts coordinate with each other to create emotions, feelings and thoughts. The brain receives energy from the body, which in turn coordinates with the body. That is, he takes something from the body, so he gives it to him. Overall it is a chain with a rhythm. But this is not the case with the mind; it is very arbitrary and uncontrollable and has no rhythm. It is very difficult to stop him. Because it has no single space, no single point and no single pulse. Although the human mind is thus arbitrary and uncontrollable, it should be noted that its apparent existence and connection is with the human brain and its various parts, lobes, membranes and centres.

The human intellect originates from the combination and synthesis of high perceptive power, high storage power, and high imagination of the brain. Wisdom is the process of consciously examining a matter perceived by the senses, interpreting it thoughtfully, reasoning from it, and making decisions from it, or solving problems. It should also be noted that human intellect also includes comprehension ability, abstraction, and decision making ability, creativity, planning ability, motivation, faith and desires. Naturally, human intellect plays an important role in human development and progress. But life does not come to an end unless it is accompanied by a calm, contemplative, discriminating mind. This is what we might call emotional intelligence.

The human mind is not a physical body, but it is manifested and permeated by the combination, synthesis, and synchronizations of different centres in the human brain and its and the characteristics of those centres. The human mind is a floating force that represents existence inside and outside the brain. The human mind is a consciousness and it always works to keep us awake. When the brain ceases to function, the mind ceases to exist. After the lamp is lit, light is produced. Similarly, the brain is the lamp and the light is the mind. The sound is produced after the loudspeakers are installed. The loudspeaker is the brain and the sound coming out of it is the mind. The flower produces fragrance. The flower is the brain and the fragrance is the mind. When a fire is started, heat is generated. Fire is the brain and heat is the mind. Here the existence of light is felt by the eyes, the existence of sound is felt by the ears, the existence of smell is felt by the nose, the heat is felt by the skin. Naturally, the existence of the mind is the same as knowing and arising from consciousness. The recent successes of molecular biology have strengthened this synthesis. Now, if it is true that cellular and biomolecular approaches will continue to provide us with a great quantity of important information, it is likewise certain that they cannot on their own reveal to us the complexity of neural circuits or of their interactions, unveiling that is the key passageway which links the cellular and molecular neurosciences to the cognitive neurosciences. In order to understand the relationship between neural systems and complex cognitive functions it is necessary to concentrate on neural circuits, to discover how their patterns of activity interact in order to generate coherent representations, to understand how neural networks are organized and, finally, to evaluate in what way their activity is influenced by attention and by consciousness [5]. So it is very common to say that what we are aware of exists. That is, the human mind is a consciousness created from the brain and that consciousness gives birth to many things and thoughts. The imagination, thinking and emotional capacity of this human mind is immense and it has no end. Naturally, due to this immense potential, the human mind becomes right and strong in the midst of all creatures.

It is worthwhile to look at how the human mind gives birth to emotions, thoughts, motivations, beliefs and ideas. As mentioned earlier, the human mind is a consciousness. So it is necessary to think and treat how that awareness should be created. The human brain is a complex physical organ of extraordinary shape and is the center of many important things. Everything that is created is from there and everything that is started is from there. The five senses of this brain supply a variety of information to this brain. That is, we wake up in the morning, open our eyes, and if we see a river, that information goes to the brain. When you open the window of your room, the sound of the car travels through your ears to the brain. After that, if we light incense sticks while worshipping God, its fragrance goes through the nose to the brain. If you take tea as a snack, the taste of that tea goes to your brain through the tongue. When you fold a soft quilt on your bed, its soft touch travels to the brain through the skin on your hands. Now when this information reaches our brain through various senses, it is only in the form of information. Once this information is received, it is related to the information stored in the brain memory in the past. That is to say, we experience or perceive the slow flowing vehicles of the river, the rustling sound of the car, the fragrant aroma of incense sticks, the sweet taste of tea, the soft touch of the quilt with the previously stored information. During this assessment, new information is stored in the memory centre. This means that the process of obtaining and retrieving information and storing it is continuous. In this way some arenas are built in the mind by interpreting or connecting this information with the previously stored information which is called thought. However, these thoughts are not always related to the objects or events that come up, but they are also very arbitrary and irrelevant. Knowledge is formed when these thoughts are presented in a coherent manner and this knowledge is used for growth, progress and development. That is, knowledge is created and used through utility.

The river seen through the window of the house is connected to our previous information and new information is stored and knowledge is formed when it is used and utilised. The river was flowing from east to west, it was flooded due to rains, its flow was diverted to the agriculture fields and the stored water could be used for agriculture. Naturally, knowledge is created through the perception of information, its comprehension, its analysis, its storage and its reproduction. Information and knowledge are stored in different parts of the brain in such a way that based on that information, various types of information are transmitted and synthesised and combined into one thought system. This means that the information about the river and the previous information creates a thought process whether to go for a swim or to go fishing when the river calms down. Based on the aroma of the incense sticks, the idea is to buy rose incense next time. Overall, this thought process is formed around the brain and it rises and stops there, and again a new different thought process starts and stops. In this way this thought process is constantly immersed in our mind.

When this same thinking or thought process does not capture reality, we call it imagination. That is to say, if the flow of a flowing river is suddenly stopped, if the water of the river is lost, if the water of the river flows in the opposite direction, then we have this kind of imagination. Unfortunately, this is not the case today. Imagination certainly doesn’t come from the air. How much information do you have for her? And the imagination depends on how you reorganise and reconcile based on that truth. Human faith, inspiration, and desires are not understood to be entirely related to the mind. Beliefs are a kind of tradition and are maintained in the course of time. Motivation is a positive response from your heart or mind to accomplish a task. It is formed by the coordination of the mind and the brain.

The human mind and brain make all kinds of connections. These combinations are formed by biochemical processes, electrochemical processes and secretion of various hormones. Also, all parts of the brain are connected to each other by various nerve cells and neurons. While making these connections, it creates a moulded and formulaic idea. Emotions are also created by external or internal influences during this connection. This is especially true of the amygdala, which is located deep and in the centre of the brain. Also, other parts of the brain are involved in the production of different kinds of emotions in complementary ways. Naturally, through these connections, the human mind produces a variety of emotions. It includes some main emotions and sub emotions. The emotions that form in our mind include happiness, pleasure, contentment, sorrow, pain, fear, anger, anger, surprise, hatred, hatred, jealousy, desire, contentment, contentment, pride, lust, love, compassion, kindness, lust, ego, It includes melancholy, apathy, boredom, worry, love, envy, jealousy, hatred, praise, appreciation, curiosity, loneliness. There are vertical and horizontal layers of this emotion. Some emotions represent a solitary existence while some emotions show their existence by combining with each other. These feelings are changeable and intense and mild. Also, these feelings are never the same. The main characteristics of these emotions are that they are individual and subjective. That is, their existence varies from person to person.

Naturally, these feelings have a unique general significance in human life. Human life revolves around these various emotions or it is these emotions that move a person’s life. The ups and downs in the life of the mind are due to these emotions. These emotions control a person, and it is this emotion that makes a person uncontrollable and arbitrary. Emotions have a huge impact on everything that happens around us and in life, that is, the whole life of a person is occupied by emotions. It is our mind’s job to understand the emotions properly and to make them flow properly. Emotions are the same in all human beings. However, its intensity can be more or less. Also, behaviours, attitudes, and actions based on those feelings may be different. When anger arises, the feeling is the same in all human beings, but its intensity and the action or response that takes place accordingly is different. Because our information, knowledge, comprehension, and memory are influencing and controlling every emotion.

Conclusion

It is revealed that the mind is a floating centre or space that produces thoughts and feelings and is located in the brain. While understanding and comprehending the mind, one has to know in depth about the brain. The brain is a complex and highly capable human organ. The brain consists of various parts and centres and is made up of nerve cells and neurons. Different thoughts and feelings are formed through the collaboration, connection, synthesis and synchronizations of these different parts and centres. Naturally, since the mind is immaterial, it only needs to be known and understood. The mind and the emotions and thoughts that arise from it can give meaning and direction to human life by controlling and flowing it in the right way. For that, we have to perform various rites on our brain, mind or whatever is one. These rites can be nurtured by adopting proper family and social environment, intuition, positive attitude, mutual harmony, mutual cooperation, proper diet-sleep-,. We need to bring the mind, the brain, the body, the energy, the thoughts and the emotions into one direction with the help and understanding of the Yoga-Pranayama-Meditation so that life becomes meaningful and you begin to live a straightforward, simple, easy, comfortable and happy life.