Where do your thoughts and feelings come from? Let’s start with a brief review of what we know about the mind body connection, beginning with that the mind body connection is not really a connection. It’s actually a continuum, just as Spinoza said it was. However, because the part which overlaps occurs below the threshold of our perception, we experience the mind and body just as Descartes said we do, as two separate and distinct experiences.
Add to this that because the mind and body are actually two aspects of one continuum, that Descartes was right in that the mind and body each interact with each other as well; that the body influences the mind, and the mind, the body.
Now add to this the two ideas which carry these concepts into the physical world.
The first idea is that our experience of this continuum, from thoughts to feelings, derives from what we sense along a physical continuum which extends from the top of our heads to the base our spines. Here, by what we sense, I mean all the physical sensations we can possibly notice including not only the five observable physical sensations but also intuition, which in essence means our less than measurable occurrences of these physical sensations. Our slightly there, slightly not there sensations, such as when we sense someone is standing behind us or is staring at us from across a room.
How then do these sensations become thoughts and feelings? By one thing and one thing alone. By our noticing them. Thus by noticing the physical sensations occurring along this vertical column, we convert physical sensation into observed physical sensation, and this observed physical sensation is what we refer to as thoughts and feelings.
How do these observed physical sensations differentiate into thoughts and feelings? Very simple. The speed at which we perceive these sensations determines how we perceive them. In other words, the faster we sample these physical sensations, the more we experience these observed sensations as thought. And the slower we sample these physical sensations, the more we perceive these observed sensations as feelings.
Now to test for this being true yourself, simply speak to someone while deliberately varying the speed at which you are speaking. If you do, what you will find is that the faster you speak, the higher in the body the person will perceive this sensation being observed. Conversely, the slower you speak, the lower in the body the person will perceive this sensation being observed.
Thus if you reverse this process and have someone speak to you at a very rapid pace, you may feel urges to physically look up. An involuntary reaction most people have which reflects our intuitive sense of where in our bodies we are observing this sensation. As sensation in our heads. And as what. As thoughts. Which is why, when we are asked what we think, we look up. And if you have someone speak to you at an exceedingly slow pace, you may find yourself physically looking down. Again, an involuntary action which reflects our intuitive sense of where we are observing this sensation as well. And as what. As feelings. Which is why, when we are asked what we feel, we often look down.
Now if you wish to further test this hypothesis, simply try to looking down while someone asks you what you think. Or try looking up while someone asks what you feel. In either case, you will feel what practitioners of NLP learn to recognize all too well; that the body and the mind psychophysically parallel each other to such a degree as to be useful as a tool in the course of healing; change the person’s physical motion and you challenge the person’s psychological patterns.
Want to test this idea even more? Try saying something very meaningful to a close personal friend and while you do, deliberately slow down the speed at which you are saying this thing. What you will find is, the slower you say these words, the more the both of you will feel emotion. Possibly even to the point of becoming overwhelmingly unpleasant.
Now try saying this same personal thing to this same personal friend, only this time deliberately say it as fast as you can. What you will find is that the personal meaning of these words will have dissipated into thin air, perhaps to the point wherein you feel there is no longer any personal meaning. This despite the fact that contextually, this meaning will still exist.
For example, try telling your significant other that you love him or her and while you do, deliberately vary the speed at which you are saying this, first slower, then quicker. Here what you will find is that the slower you say these words, the less able the person will be to discern the logical meaning present, while at the same time, feeling more emotion. Conversely, the faster you say these words, the more able the person will be to discern the logical meaning present while at the same time, feeling less emotion.
The point? The only thing being varied here is the speed at which you are saying these words. Logically the content and intent will be the same. Despite this sameness however, what you will observe is that your experience of this communication will change from thoughts to feelings and or feelings to thoughts. All this simply because you have varied the speed at which you were noticing the sensations present; e.g. the speed at which what you saw, heard, and so on, occurred.
Finally, we need to add to all this one important point. That the converse is also true; that the mind can create sensation in the body. This, in fact, is one of the more important things to remember about the mind body connection. Why? Because despite this being an obvious truth, most current neurological researchers act as if this interaction does not exist.
To recap then, what I’m saying is:
- All thoughts and feelings begin life as physical sensations which occur at some specific height with regard to the primary vertical nervous system. This system extends from the top of the head, including the brain, through the enteric nervous system, to the base of the spine. Thus, this roughly describes the same path referred to in the ancient Ayurvedic system of medicine as the chakras.
- What we refer to as thoughts and feelings then occur whenever we notice these physical sensations. Including that the speed at which we do this noticing determines which of these two things we will experience; faster noticing results in thoughts, slower, in feelings.
- The mind then interacts with this whole process in a chicken and egg fashion by, in and of itself, creating physical sensations through our imaginings. Which, if then noticed, become thoughts and feelings again based on the speed at which we do this noticing.
- Finally, stated as the ideas of the four philosophers, we can say several things. One, that Descartes was right in that we experience the mind and body as two separate and distinct things, both of which interact with the other. Two, that Spinoza was right in that the mind and body literally are two aspects of the same continuum. Three, that to see these two things as true, we must apply Herbart’s idea that we have a threshold of perception, above which we perceive Descartes as right, and below which we find that Spinoza was also right. And four, that Liebniz was right in that our sense of time is what creates movement along this continuum, in that the faster we notice sensations, the more we experience them as thoughts, and the slower we notice sensation, the more we experience them as feelings.
All this said, so how does sensing more sensation (physical movement) affect us? The more we notice physical sensation, the lower in the body we sense it. And the lower in the body we notice this sensation, the less we experience it as thought and the more we experience it as feeling. Which is to say emotion, spiritual experience, and or warm fuzziness.
Steven Paglierani is a writer, teacher, personality theorist, and therapist whose work on learning and human consciousness is read weekly by thousands all over the world. He is the author of Emergence Personality Theory, and his mission is to make the world better for children by restoring and deepening their love of learning.
He can be read or reached at his site, http://theEmergenceSite.com
Tags: mind body connection, sensation
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