Your Intelligence: Systematic Approach and Thinking (Part III)

Continued from Parts     1      2

Before we proceed to using systematic approach in

1. your problems healing/solving, and

2. getting real miracles from your desires,

I want to open the greatest secret about brain,

Our brains are not for thinking!

Brain is a super organ for your body for dealing with physical environments. When we are awake, our brain intermediates our

• vision,
• hearing,
• sensations,
• smells perception,
• tastes and
• movements,
• interest and attention in the outer world,
• people,
• emotions,
• reactions,
• intents,
• intelligence and personal meaning about everything,

through our body, hands, arms, skin, mouth, face, lips, tongues, etc.

There are plenty of natural mechanisms within our brain-body system, organized by biological intelligence (Koch & Ullman, 1985; Grossberg, 1999a; Grossberg & Raizada, 2000; Itti & Koch, 2001; Culham & Kanwisher, 2001; Rajeev & Grossberg, 2003; Grossberg, 2006).

But brain never thinks instead of us! Those, who believed in this myth, often experience pain, so-called “inner self-talking”, ‘inner voices’ and fall into depression or gloomy moods. In these cases, PET-scanning registers active processes in region of brain called Broca’s area (Barnaby, 1995).

Broca’s area (red circle on the diagram)

People differ in the amount that they pay attention to their internal self talk. Those who talk a lot are called “Ruminators” in cognitive psychology (Bolstad & Hamblett, 2000). Rumination in itself is not a problem. But combined with a permanent, pervasive explanatory style, this pattern cements depression in place.

Seligman (1997, p 82-83) points out: “The more you are inclined to ruminate, the more it arises. The more it arises, the more depressed you will be. Brooding, thinking about how bad things will be, starts the sequence. Ruminators get this chain going all the time.”

The person feels an uncomfortable feeling (F).

They then talk about how permanent that will be and tell themselves off (T).

They then check how they feel now (F).

Not surprisingly, they feel worse (F).  

They then talk about that (T).

This is the strategy of failure.

Formula of failure and depression

Mental strategy is the succession of elements of experience to get certain outcomes or results (ex. states of pleasure vs. negative feelings). Any strategy can be recorded as a mathematical formula.

This strategy describes an active ongoing self-hypnotic process. Potentially it is a healthy process. In anticipating future challenges, we estimate the significance of the challenge, and the strength of our resources to respond to that challenge (Beck and Emery, 1985).

In the case of depression, the focus is on past experiences – failures, losses and defeats which have already happened and are thus fixed facts. The depressed person may not even have a bright future of success, let alone to have goals in. Their comments about life and their own self are thus based on a “permanent pervasive style” of explanation (“This is the way I and other things are; everything is like this, and it always will be”). The depressed person has understandably little interest in doing anything, because they expect failure (“What’s the point, it only gets you to the same place I’ve always been – nowhere.”).

If we fill this strategy (i.e. succession of elements) with positive contents, words and emotions, we will get what we want.

Mental strategy of success

That is why it is important to enrich your intelligence and create your own concepts of success.

Think about it, because when we learn with you how to use systematic approach with desired outcomes, you will have to talk about them only in positive manner and language.

References

Barnaby, W. “Saner Views of Schizophrenia”, Briefing, The Royal Society, London, 1995

Beck, A.T. and Emery, G. with Greenberg, R.L. Anxiety Disorders and Phobias: A Cognitive Perspective, Basic Books, New York, 1985

Bolstad, B., Hamblett, M. Resolving Psychiatric Challenges Using NLP. Christchurch. NZ, 2000.  

Culham, J., C and Kanwisher N., G.: Neuroimaging of cognitive functions in human parietal cortex. in Neurobiology 2001, 11:157–163.

Grossberg, S. & Raizada, R. D. (2000).Contrast-sensitive perceptual grouping and object-based attention in the laminar circuits of primary visual cortex. Vision Res. 40, 1413–1432.  

Grossberg, S. (1999a). How does the cerebral cortex work? Learning, attention, and grouping by the laminar circuits of visual cortex. Spatial Vision, 12, 163-186.

Grossberg, S., (2006) How Does the Cerebral Cortex Work? Development, Learning, Attention, and 3D Vision by Laminar Circuits of Visual Cortex. Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems. Boston University.

Itti, L., Koch, C.: Computational Modelling Of Visual Attention. Nature Reviews.  Neuroscience. Volume 2, March 2001.

Koch, C. & Ullman, S. Shifts in selective visual attention: towards the underlying neural circuitry. Hum. Neurobiol. 4, 219–227 (1985).

Rajeev, D. S. R. and Grossberg, S.: Towards a Theory of the Laminar Architecture of Cerebral Cortex: Computational Clues from the Visual System. Cerebral Cortex, Vol. 13, No. 1, 100-113, January 2003.

Schill, K., Umkehrer, E., Beinlich, S., Krieger, G. & Zetzsche, C. Scene analysis with saccadic eye movements: top-down and bottom-up modeling. J. Electronic Imaging (in the press).

Seligman, M.E.P. Learned Optimism, Random House, Sydney, 1997.

Love,

Natalia Levis-Fox