Mind, the unlimited powerhouse

Most of us take thinking for granted. We are not bothered about how or why we think. In fact, such an exercise would be something difficult for anyone who is not familiar with abstract analyses of philosophers and psychologists. As all sane people can think of various things while working, travelling or eating, they do not realise that the very act of thinking is a complex psychological process.

It is not easy for us to leave our mind blank without allowing any thoughts to penetrate it. Sometimes, the mind has been compared to an energetic horse raring to gallop. So, we cannot shut out positive and negative thoughts getting into our mind even without our knowledge. So long as our mind is full of thoughts, we carry on with our daily routine without any difficulty. However, what will happen to us if we lose our capacity to think due to some accident or other misfortune?

If we lose our capacity to think, we will behave like insane people, not knowing what to do or what not to do. We will not know when to get up in the morning, how to take a bath and attend to a thousand and one other simple tasks performed on a daily basis. In other words, all our activities will come to a standstill on the day we stop thinking.

Vital process

Although thinking is such a vital process in our life, we rarely take any notice of it. Unknown to many of us, thinking is quite automatic and effortless. You do not have to make an attempt to think of your girlfriend or the delayed promotion. Therefore, we are virtually unaware of the mind though we are not certain where it is located. The mind operates in close association with the brain. However, if you cut open the skull and look inside, you will see the brain but not the mind.

Although nobody has found an organ called the mind, we cannot deny its existence. Even Buddhism has recognised its importance in The Dhammapada. Philosophers and psychologists have been analysing the thought process from time immemorial and they unanimously agree that the mind is the forerunner of everything else. Thinking precedes every activity, not vice versa. We cannot even open a door without thinking.

The capacity of the mind is astoundingly limitless

Psychologists, more than philosophers, have studied the mind and its behaviour in-depth. In fact, psychology is all about human behaviour and mental process. In psychology, thoughts are technically known as “cognitive processes” that include memory, reasoning, problem solving, imagination and conceptualising. By observing the cognitive process, psychologists have come to various conclusions.

Introspection

Such conclusions were formerly known as 'introspection'. However, introspection has fallen out of favour in modern psychology as its uses were found to be limited in scope. Psychologists are looking at how computers operate to find a model for human thinking. According to the new 'computational model of the mind', all thoughts are an information processing procedure. In other words, for modern psychologists the mind has become an information processing machine similar to the computer. Then the question arises, what is information? Psychologists say that information means 'symbolic representation'. For instance, when you think of your girlfriend, her beautiful face is etched in your mind in exquisite detail. Provided you are a good artist, you can even draw her face quite accurately. But where does the picture of her face lie? You will not see the picture anywhere in the brain. Psychologists say that it is in your mind, in the form of a symbolic representation.

This brings us to an interesting area. Now we know that thinking consists of symbols that represent information we receive through our five sensory organs: the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin. The manipulation of the information so received appears to be a highly complex mental process. Even without our knowledge, a series of sensory symbols are generated while we are awake. Even during sleep, the mind remains active and we see all kinds of dreams.

Concepts

When we are in love, we talk about various fancy projects. Sometimes, we want to go on a long trip to a foreign country. On the other hand, we might want to put an end to a romantic affair because no relationship is permanent. Psychologically speaking, all this can be reduced to 'concepts'. A concept is a thought that represents a set of related ideas. For instance, love, marriage and divorce are concepts. In the information processing, all the concepts are represented as symbols.

In addition to absorbing symbols, the mind keeps on building 'mental models' all the time. For instance, if we hear the word 'terrorist' while we are on the move, an impact is made immediately on the nervous system. It will be a fight or flight situation. This is because we have experienced the atrocities perpetrated by terrorists. As well-known psychologist Adam Cash says, “Attributes are combined into concepts. Concepts are combined into propositions. Multiple propositions are combined into mental models.”

Just like the computer, our mind requires certain basic components. It has to get sensory information. We call it 'input'. Then we have to store the sensory information for future use. So, we store it in the memory. The capacity of the memory can vary from person to person. It is the same with the computer memory. Then the memory uses the stored information in a particular order known as 'operation'. Finally, the mind tells us what to do and what not to do in a given situation. This is similar to 'output' in computer language. All this leads to one conclusion, ie. there are similarities between the mind and the computer. However, the computer is no match for the mind the capacity of which is astoundingly limitless.