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The Throne of B Y J O E D I S P E N Z A , D . C .
E D I T O R S N O T E B R I D G I N G T H E G A P
Our Divinity
The frontal lobe of the brain is what we use for focused
consciousness attention. When we change what is in our frontal
lobe, we change our awareness of the environment around us by
changing how we perceive it and thus respond to it.
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It was Wednesday night and I arrived home from a busy day of
seeing patients. I cooked a great spaghetti dinner and I was alone.
Almost alone, that is: My dog Skakus and I were sitting by the fire
on a midwinters eve under an almost full moon in the eastern sky.
James Taylor was singing Sweet Baby James in the background and
once again I was amazed at how great my Italian sauce had turned
out. As I looked over at Skakus, I wondered if he
even heard JT sayin like it is or if he could even appreciate
the rhythm of Taylors classic, simple masterpiece, Carolina in my
Mind. What I mean is, I know that he can hear, but what stops him
from comprehending and assimilating these sounds from his
environment into meaning? Does he hear what I am hearing from our
shared environment? Or . . . does he even hear the music at all?
Was Skakus missing out? One might argue that all species develop
specialized anatomy and physiology over generations in order to
adapt to environmental stimuli for survival. In other words, the
slow process of evolution over hundreds of thousands of years has
made Skakus, or any dog for that matter, far greater at his ability
to hear sounds. Thats evolution, isnt it? However, even though his
ability to hear a greater range of sounds is superior to mine (he
certainly has bigger ears than I do), he still may not be hearing
the music at all. Skakus has never had and may never have a need
for rock-and-roll. He only needs an acuity for fine sounds that is
an evolutionary, genetic requirement for guarding, hunting, and
assessing his environment from other predators. Its a dogs life. So
the question remains, Does he hear the music?
IT IS A DOGS LIFE Skakus certainly has the machinery to hear. Or
does he? The ears are the receptors for receiving sound. If they
are damaged, no one can hear. Given the fact that Skakus ears are
not malfunctioning and sound is being transmitted, maybe Skakus
brain is processing the sound but he is not hearing the music that
I enjoy so much. Maybe his brain is just not wired for James
Taylor, Tina Turner, or even Scooby-Doo. It has not been a part of
his ancestral environmental stimuli that was genetically imprinted
into his bloodlines. It might just be too harmonious for him to
hear. Skakus brain is conditioned to detect disruptions or changes
in his external world. He would hear the music being shut off and,
by the same means, he might hear it when it is initially turned on.
If I changed the volume of the music, that might get his attention
too. His brain, though, tunes out the music that I am
listening to, because it is not important enough for him to
attend to it. Its not a sound that his brain needs to hear
consciously. For example, you probably never pay attention to or
hear the phone ringing at your coworkers desk while you are working
at your computer, but you remarkably can hear your phone when it
rings. Your phone is important enough to get your attention, and
this suggests that something is happening. That something is called
attention or awareness or focus. When I drive my car, I never
consciously pay attention to what it sounds like when it is
running, except maybe when I initially start it. Once Ive paid
attention to the fact that it is now running, my focus shuts off
that particular cue, even though the car is still running. I just
dont think about it any longer. Even though my brain is processing
the sound of the car, my awareness is no longer present with that
particular sound; therefore, the sound disappears. However, if the
car starts to make sounds that are not part of the typical noise of
a running engine, I will immediately retune my awareness to that
different sound that my engine is now making, and it magically
reappears. The sound while it was running perfectly had always
existed. Are we missing out?
IT IS A HUMAN LIFE Our human brain processes 400 billion bits of
information every second; however, we are only aware of about 2000
of those billions of bits of data. We are not aware of all of that
information because we literally are not attending to those
stimuli. This does not mean the brain is not processing that data.
It means that processing the stimuli and being aware of the stimuli
are actually independent functions. Skakus ears pick up the sounds
and that information is relayed to the brain. However, the brain
tunes it all out because his awareness is not present with those
stimuli. They do not exist for Skakus. The same is true for human
beings in reference to all that information we no longer attend to;
we might be missing out on great opportunities proportional to what
we think we know. What if all the information of the cosmos already
exists for our brains to process, and accessing it is as simple as
where we put our awareness? Genius is at hand and it may already
exist. The metaphor of an open mind never meant so much. Think of
awareness in this vast sea of potentials as if you were walking in
the dark with a flashlight and shining your light on the reality
that has been there all along. The brightness of the beam is
awareness, and wherever we move our awareness is what we become
aware of. The light that we project is called focused
concentration.
THE METAPHOR OF AN OPEN MIND NEVER MEANT SO MUCH. THINK OF
AWARENESS IN THIS VAST SEA OF POTENTIALS AS IF YOU WERE WALKING IN
THE DARK WITH A FLASHLIGHT AND SHINING YOUR LIGHT ON THE REALITY
THAT HAS BEEN THERE ALL ALONG.
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The diameter of the visual field and the scope of our vision are
the knowledge that we acquire through intellectual memory. We have
to know what we are looking for. Consequently, until we familiarize
and educate ourselves to what is potentially already out there, we
will only see what we already know. If we accept this as truth,
then how do we influence the brain to go from a processing unit to
a conscious receiver of awareness of even greater potential
experiences? How do we learn to listen to the music?
You see, Skakus is handicapped. It is not because he has four
legs and we have two and are upright. It is not because we have
op-posing thumbs and he has digits that lack
dexterity. And it is not because we have language and he has not
the proper skill of advanced communication. It is not even that we
have a bigger brain than Skakus, because elephants have bigger
brains than
human beings. It is because the frontal lobes of our brains are
proportionally more enlarged and developed than his, and for that
matter, all species on this planet. This is what truly
differentiates us from all of Gods creatures. It is the most
important piece of anatomy in the human body.
THE NEW FRONTIER: THE FRONTAL LOBE The frontal lobe is the
crowning achievement of the human being. In fact, it is the latest
development of anatomy in the human brain. The enlarged size of our
frontal lobe makes us unique from all other species of animals; no
other area of anatomy so distinguishes us from other lifeforms. For
example, in rats the frontal lobe is minuscule. In cats it makes up
3.5 percent of their brain anatomy. In chimpanzees the figure rises
to 17 percent. In Homo sapiens, however, the frontal lobe makes up
30 to 40 percent of all the cerebral cortex. Since it is a newly
developed area in evolution, maybe we are just learning how to use
it and maybe
we have not used it to its true capacity. Until recently,
scientists knew very little about the frontal lobe. They considered
it the quiet area because most of the measurements of brain
activity using instrumentation gave them little data as to what was
really taking place there. However, with the advancement of
technology, we now know more about its true function. It is the
seat of inspiration of a human being. Let's have a brief anatomy
lesson. The brain developed methodically in three distinct patterns
or evolutionary stages. These three formations of the evolving
brain absolutely differ in structure, chemistry, and function. The
brain is really quite an archaeological site. Time has molded it
into the biocomputer that it is today. The first part that
developed is called the reptilian brain. The second part, the
mammalian brain, formed and evolved around the first. The third
part, new brain or neocortex, molded itself around the first two
(figure 1). Dr. Paul McClean, the director of the Laboratory
OUR HUMAN BRAIN PROCESSES 400 BILLION BITS OF INFORMATION EVERY
SECOND; HOWEVER, WE ARE ONLY AWARE OF ABOUT 2000 OF THOSE BILLIONS
OF BITS OF DATA. WE THEREFORE ARE NOT AWARE OF ALL OF THAT
INFORMATION BECAUSE WE LITERALLY ARE NOT ATTENDING TO THOSE
STIMULI.
The Frontal Lobe
Human30% to 40%
Chimpanzee17%
Cat3.5%
Rat?%
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of Brain Evolution and Behavior in Bethesda, Maryland, has
stated, The three brains amount to three interconnected biological
computers, each having its own intelligence, its own subjectivity,
its own sense of time and space, and its own memory of functions.
This hierarchy has become a part of our biological inheritance.
Geographically, the neocortex is divided into four regions: the
frontal lobe, the parietal lobe, the temporal lobe, and the
occipital lobe (figure 2). The neocortex is where conscious
awareness exists. You are comprehending the information on this
page by the use of your neocortex. It is the seat of our identity,
our personality, and our conscious mind.
THE FUNCTIONING FRONTAL LOBE
The frontal lobe is the area of the brain that we use for
concentra-tion and focused atten-tion. It is the executive
decision-maker. It de-cides on action, it regulates behavior,
and it is responsible for firm intention. If we were to use one
word to describe the frontal lobe, it is intention. It is the
intentional planner of our destinies. Therefore, whatever we
continuously have on our minds whatever we focus on becomes our
future destiny,because we inevitably will make choices based on
what we repetitively keep our awareness on. Remember, the frontal
lobe is that part of the brain that decides on action and regulates
behavior because it is the chief executive of our intentions.
Thomas Gualtieri, a neuropsychiatrist from North Carolina,
excellently describes the frontal lobe as having the capacity to
formulate goals, to make plans for their execution, to carry them
out in an effective way, and to change course and improvise in the
face of obstacles and failure, and to do so successfully, in the
absence of external direction or structure. The capacity for an
individual to focus on what they want and to achieve those
goals/dreams in spite of obstacles or failure is what makes them an
effective personality. These traits are hardwired in the
construction of the frontal lobe and its connections.
The frontal lobe takes information from our environment and it
effectively learns from those external stimuli. It is the
problem-solver, the organizer, the forward thinker, the critical
thinker, and the supervisor. It governs attention span, it
maintains persistence, and regulates impulse control. Think of the
frontal lobe as an area of the brain we use when we finally make up
our mind about something. When we are aligned to an ideal in
thought, deed, and word, we are truly focused individuals that are
quite invincible. This is what makes human beings great.
Skakus does not hear the music because his frontal lobe is not
developed enough to integrate the relatively new sounds into
meaning. Hes wired for reaction, not integration. He may
never in his lifetime develop the ability to learn music,
because he will never attend to what hes not neurologically capable
of. His frontal lobe does not allow him to leap in a nonlinear
progression of thought.
Figure 1
A. Reptilian B. Mammalian C. Neocortex D. Cross section through
midline of the entire brain
UNTIL RECENTLY, SCIENTISTS KNEW VERY LITTLE ABOUT THE FRONTAL
LOBE. THEY CONSIDERED IT THE QUIET AREA BECAUSE MOST OF THE
MEASUREMENTS OF BRAIN ACTIVITY USING INSTRUMENTATION GAVE THEM
LITTLE DATA AS TO WHAT WAS REALLY TAKING PLACE THERE.
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The proportion of the human beings frontal lobe to the rest of
the neocortex is three times as great as the
frontal-lobe-to-neocortex ratio in a dog. Therefore, we gain more
meaning from the environment through our five senses because the
size of our frontal lobe allows us to be more adaptable, skilled,
and integrated. To Skakus, the music is just continuous or
discontinuous.
OUR FRONTAL LOBES GREATEST ABILITY Then what is it that gives us
the unique ability to make the music appear or disappear at will?
Or by free will attend to anything else, for that matter? Why do we
have this gift of selective awareness and resultantly selective
focus? How do we make our reality appear and disappear at will just
by moving our conscious awareness? The answer is, once again, the
frontal lobe. Whenever we learn something and we are integrating a
thought into a long-term memory bank in our brain, something
special happens. When we put all of our attention on the task at
hand, the frontal lobe of a human being literally turns the volume
down to the external world, to the feedback loop of our bodies,
and to relative time. When the frontal lobe is in full function,
the internal process of concentration becomes so important to
attend to that all of our conscious attention and awareness moves
away from the stimuli of the external world and, as a result, the
external world disappears. It is the common saga of the teenager
humming to Pearl Jam in his head, and his mother struggling to get
his attention to take the garbage out. She literally is not there.
For him, she does not exist. At the moment that we are truly
concentrated and truly committed to a concept, it neurologically
becomes a part of our being. This is an intricate rewiring and
pruning process that reshapes us from the inside out. The brain
re-forms itself to include those thought processes as a new fabric
of our being. What might take Skakus thousands of years to learn
and adapt to may literally take moments for us. Our enlarged
frontal lobe affords us this immediate skill. There is one
requirement, however, for this luxury. It requires absolute
single-minded focus. Think of it like this: If we are to give life
to a concept that our brains can depend on, we cannot do it in the
already-wired section of the brain that is connected to other
thought patterns or our identity. In other words, you cant be in a
section of your brain concerned about the shopping list for dinner
or the ill health of your cat if you are interested in planning or
creating your next vacation. Your attention would become divided
and the wiring would just get more complicated. There must be
virgin territory for a new wiring network. All of our associations
to our identity have to be put aside for the proper long-term
wiring. The executive frontal lobe wants to make whole new
combinations of patterns built upon the knowledge of old ones. When
our awareness is linked to these old ways of thinking and being, we
will only choose to experience from the same awareness of our own
memory. In
HOWEVER, WITH THE ADVANCEMENT OF TECHNOLOGY, WE NOW KNOW MORE
ABOUT ITS TRUE FUNCTION. IT IS THE SEAT OF INSPIRATION OF A HUMAN
BEING.
Figure 2
Parietal Lobe
Frontal Lobe
Occipital LobeVisual Cortex
Temporal Lobe
other words, we are shining the flashlight in the same place and
we are missing out on whats really taking place. We are only seeing
more of the same. When we turn down the volume to the old wired
patterns stored in the rest of the neocortex and we take bits and
pieces of information from memory to build bigger ideas, we are
truly bridging to new ground in our brains and in our life. The
frontal lobe is the great architect that loves the freedom to
create a bigger model of ideas based on concepts it has proven
useful from the integration of past experiences. Brain researchers
have now proven, through the use of sophisticated technology, that
truly focused individuals can calm down all the areas of the
neocortex are associated only with the awareness of the body and
the environment. Therefore, the illusionary separation of an
individual from the environment becomes a loose, thin membrane when
one is truly focused. That is, one stops using the part of the
brain that is the associative memory bank that reaffirms us to
people, places, things, time, and past events. We literally become
one with an idea. The throne of our divinity is the frontal lobe
and its sword is focused concentration. The free will of the human
being allows us the privilege to choose where we put our awareness.
As we now know, our reality is where awareness is.
nRECOMMENDED READING Robertson, Ian. Mind Sculpture: Unlocking
Your Brains Untapped Potential. Bantam Books. Amon, Daniel G.,
Change you Brain, Change your Life. Three Rivers Press. Restak,
Richard M. The Brain: The Final Frontier. Doubleday.