The Mind is Not the Brain

How do we know that the mind is not the brain?

The brain is a physical organ housed inside our skull. It has weight, dimension, substance.

The mind, however, is not tangible. It is the mind of a mother, for example, that knows the precise moment her son has fallen in a war, and when the telephone call or telegram, or official visit comes some days later to inform her of the facts, she is able to pinpoint the moment of his death.

It is the mind that can tell about an experience during clinical death after the body (and brain) have been resuscitated.

It is the mind that knows seconds before the phone rings, that it is a specific person on the line.

Interestingly, researchers (eg., Dr. Norman Doidge ... The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science) are calling this the new paradigm in neuroscience. Also listen to The Power of Plasticity, an interview with Dr. Doidge on All in the Mind.

Craig Hogan, Ph.D. has written about this as well in his excellent compilation of investigative work done on the subject: Your Eternal Self.

The mind is eternal, the brain is temporal.