Know some of the exciting facts about your mind, the most mysterious and complicated thing in the universe.

The mind, like consciousness, cannot be pinned down to any specific system or area in the brain. We have seen that the awareness arises out of the simultaneous activities in different region of the brain. Many scientists say that the mind arises from the coherent activities in the brain specially the cortical region. The human brain creates a complex neural network in which consciousness appears along with the mysterious mind. The wrinkled and jelly like brain of 1.3-1.4 kg has nearly 100 billion neurons (i.e. the functional unit of brain) and each neuron contains from 10,000 to 100,000 dendrites/branches which form synaptic connections with dendrites of other neurons. Each neuron acts like an autonomous, miniature mind. In this way they form an intricate neural network with trillions of connections. Neurons communicate both chemically and electrically. It is also well established that the most important chemical functionaries of the brain are the neuro transmitters that carry signals in the neural network. They are capable of triggering different chemical processes in the neurons. Neuro transmitters cause a wide range of changes in the brain in which different mental states emerge in an inexplicable manner. From some of the sources I have compiled the following very interesting and exciting non technical facts (very briefly) about our mind.

1. A full blown mind is developed only during the teens because by that time, all connections in the neural network are more or less complete. And the idea of unique identity gets firmly attached to the image of the physical body. Then throughout the life, mind goes on extending and enlarging its capacities.

2. National Science Foundation, US reported a few years back that the average person has somewhere in the neighborhood of 1000 thought an hour. Depending on whether or not we are “deep thinkers”, we can have between 12,000 and 50,000 thoughts each day. Most of our passing thoughts remain just that: brief glimpses into what could be, what might come to be, or what has been.

3.John von Neumann, the ‘father’ of modern computer once calculated that the human brain could store as much as 280 quintillion bits (280 with 18 zeros following it) of memory. It is further estimated that the human brain has a mind boggling raw computational power between 100,000,000,000,000 and 100,000,000,000,000,000 operations per second.

4.The subconscious mind is larger and faster than the conscious mind, and can account for as much as 90% of our activities each day. Cell biologist, Bruce Lipton, describe the conscious mind as operating with the computer-processing power at about 40 bits of information per second, while the subconscious processes information at 20 million bits per second. In other words, the subconscious is 500,000 times faster at what it does.

5.Many of our most deeply held beliefs are subconscious and begins when our brain state allows us to absorb the ideas of others before the age of seven. This is because of the fact that until the age of 7, our brains are in a hypnotic or dreamlike state, where mind is absorbing everything it can about our surroundings.

6.The evidences indicate that the window of consciousness opens for a very brief period of only 15 seconds. Our short term memory can hold perceptual experiences only for a fleeting short span of time. Our mind creates an illusion of continuous consciousness by cleverly adding up several short term memory episodes. Hence our consciousness or awareness arises from 15 seconds awareness. Moreover, a single conscious event can hold only about 7 objects at a time.

7. Experimental evidences now establish that the the brain is capable of doing computations necessary for taking decisions much before the mind becomes aware of them. Several routine activities that we perform are totally automated. It shows that the mind is indulging in the worst kind of self-deception. All that the mind does at times is to add an explanation or justification for a particular act of commission or omission. 

Sources: The Spontaneous Healing of Belief by Gregg Braden, The Biology of Belief by Bruce Lipton, Upanishads for the Modern World by Dr G K Pillai and few papers from Internet