Memories, Habits, Fantasies, Fears, Hopes, Skills

Everything that makes us up; the "you” and the "me”- our thoughts, our dreams, our memories, our hopes, our secret fantasies, our fears, our skills, our habits, our pains and our joys - is etched in the living lattice work of 100 billion brain cells. If you learn even one bit of information today, tiny brain cells will make new connections between them, and who "you" are will be altered.

The images that we create in our mind as we process different streams of consciousness leave footprints in the vast endless fields of neurological landscape, which contribute to the identity called "you.” For the "you" as a sentient being is immersed and truly exists in the interconnected electrical web of cellular brain tissue. How our nerve cells are specifically arranged by what we learn, what we remember, what we experience, what we feel, what we envision, as well as what we think about ourselves defines us individually and it is reflected in our internal neurological wiring. We are a work in progress.

Here is what I mean. According to the working model of neuroscience, mind is the brain in action. Mind is the brain at work. It is the product of brain activity when it is animated with life. With 100 billion nerve cells seamlessly wired together, it becomes apparent that we can produce many different levels of mind.

For example, the mind we use to treat patients is different than the state of mind we use to drive our car. We make the brain work differently when we brush our teeth compared to when we play the violin. Equally, we make a different mind when we play the victim in contrast to when we demonstrate joy. All of this is so because we can, quite simply, force gangs of nerve cells to fire in unique ways.

Not more than thirty or forty years ago, there was a unanimous belief in biology that the brain was hardwired, meaning that we are born with a certain amount of neurological connections and the finality in life was that we were going to turn out like our parents. It was an accepted perception that this delicate organ was unable to upscale its hardware. But with the advent of the latest technologies in functional imagery it is apparent that it is very possible to make the brain work differently. In fact, the research out of the University of Wisconsin has proven something as simple as attention or focused concentration is a skill just like golf or tennis. In other words, the more you practice being conscious or mindful the better you get at it.

In addition, functional imagery has clearly proven that we can also change the brain just by thinking differently. For example, people that never played the piano were divided into groups. (2) The first group physically played one-handed finger exercises like scales and cords, and as a result of the new activity, their brains changed. The before and after results of the functional brain scans

showed new areas of the brain activated. In essence, not only did they make a new mind, literally new brain circuits flourished.

However, when a second group was asked to mentally rehearse the same scales and cords in their mind for the same amount of time, they grew the same amount of brain connections as the group who physically demonstrated the activity. Simply put, when we are truly focused and attentive, the brain does not know the difference between what is happening in our minds eye and what is happening in the external world.

Other research has proven similar results not only in the brain but in the body as well. These tests have shown that there is veritable a mind-body connection---in fact, the mind changed the body. In one study, subjects who were asked to do a finger exercise against the resistance of a spring over the course of four weeks for an hour a day showed a 30 percent increase in muscle strength. (3) Nothing special here. However, the second group never lifted a finger. They mentally practiced the same activity for the same length of time and demonstrated a 22 percent increase in muscle strength without any physical activity.

This research is significant because it clearly showed that the body as well as the brain changed before the experience of really pulling the spring. In other words, without touching the spring or physically doing the exercise, the body was stronger to reflect a mental effort not a physical effort. These two studies show that physical changes can occur by our thoughts, our intentions, and our meditations.

So, when you take the time out of your busy schedule and begin to intentionally dream a new reality, plan a new life, set a new practice goal, or design a new event for you to experience in your future, just remember that your brain is rewiring itself to your desires and your body is being reconditioned in order to prepare itself for that new event. Therefore, if you would mentally rehearse daily what it would be like to experience any event (just like the piano players), there would be internal changes taking place as if you were already beginning to experience your dream.

By applying this understanding to the quantum model, which states that our subjective mind has an effect or control over our objective world (consciousness creates reality), we can begin to explore the idea that if our brain and our bodies are evidencing physical changes to look like the experience has already happened as a result of our mental efforts well before the physical manifestation has occurred, then theoretically the experience will find us!

By Dr. Joe Dispenza

As seen in Science to Sage E-MagazineDream a New Reality