We are on the threshold of something truly great. I’m so excited and optimistic about the possibilities of human potential. Part of this is driven by the incredible progress being made in our understanding of the human brain. Despite only beginning to understand the brain, the practical impact of these findings are going to be enormous. The scientists have switched their focus from studying diseased brains to studying healthy brains.
Below I share some of these findings with you. You need to know them. They will impact your future in a big way. You may know some of these already and in that case they should serve as a reminder to act on your knowledge. You can choose to rise above the crowd by acting or you can choose to be left behind. It is totally up to you.
The following facts are based upon science. They have been discovered because of new machines and tools that allow scientists to directly observe the activity in a living brain. They can watch what happens to your brain while they control your activities.
Many of the below relate to your non-conscious brain. There are many others but I chose these because of how important they are to high achievement.
1 – The Human Brain is the Most Complex Entity in the Known Universe
Your brain is an organ of staggering complexity. I love this stuff, don’t you too? Some of the numbers thrown around are unimaginably large. For instance, one author claimed that the number of potential connections in the brain was a one followed by zeros for the length of six million miles! I have found various other mind-boggling large numbers. Whatever it turns out to be, it is so large that nobody will ever approach their maximum capacity. It is for all practical purposes unlimited.
Here are some numbers you may be able to comprehend. Your brain is believed to have approximately 100,000 miles of capillaries and it can grow more. I’ve heard the same number for the whole body too. Your brain has 100,000,000,000 cells. It also has 100,000,000,000,000 to 500,000,000,000,000 connections between those cells.
What This Means to You:
No matter where you are at in your own brain development, you haven’t even begun to use a tiny fraction of 1% of your capacity. WOW! We can do anything! Never, ever stop learning. Your brain will use everything you learn to make you master of your universe (more on this below). It’s an upward spiral. Get on that spiral and soar.
2 – Your Non-Conscious Thinking is 5 Times Stronger Than Your Conscious Thinking
This is an incredible discovery. Your brain thinks in six different areas at the same time. You have six parallel processes going on at once. Only one of these is your conscious process. It’s important to know that when I speak of the non-conscious brain, that I am not referring to those automatic functions being performed by your limbic system like your breathing or heart beat. What I refer to as your non-conscious brain is a thinking brain. It is 5/6 of your thinking power. Actually it is more than that because of other reasons that we will get to later.
You should also know that these are different areas of your brain that are not accessible by your conscious mind. You conscious mind doesn’t switch between these six processes. You have a different set of neurons that comprise your conscious thinking and you cannot directly access your non-conscious thoughts.
What This Means to You:
You have a powerful friend or foe in your non-conscious brain. It is 5/6 of your thinking power. Learn to master the non-conscious part of your brain and you will have the key to unlocking a very bright future. Because you cannot directly control or access your non-conscious brain, you have to work at some techniques that will help you control it. The power of your non-conscious mind makes it a “no-brainer” decision to pay the price to achieve that control.
3- Your Non-Conscious Brain Sees, Hears, Smells, and Touches.
I’m sure you’ve all heard of subliminal pictures. Your conscious mind cannot perceive a picture that lasts for less than about 1/50,000 of a second. However it can be proven that your non-conscious mind does see it and does remembers it. What’s even more incredible is that scientists monitoring your brain activity can tell what picture your non-conscious brain saw by observing the firing patterns in your brain when one of these pictures is flashed in front of you. They are conscious of what you saw even when you are not! Oh my this is weird and also a little scary when we consider future implications.
What This Means to You:
This is very, very important. Your non-conscious mind is aware of everything that is going on around you. It is drinking in the world to a much higher degree than your conscious mind. Just because you are not aware of it at the conscious level, does not mean that you are not thinking about out and reacting to it.
This is good in that your brain can process a lot more data without you consciously focusing on it. However it has a down side. If you think that shutting something out of your conscious mind or attention means it won’t affect you, you are making a grave mistake. Be very careful what you expose yourself to as far as external stimuli goes. You are being affected for the good or for the bad in ways you have no conscious awareness of. Turn off that damn TV! Stop watching commercials and reading people magazine.
4 – Your Non-Conscious Brain Treats Everything as Real
Notice how when you are watching a scary movie, you actually get scared? You react emotionally even though your conscious mind knows it is not real. The same thing is true for happy or sad movies too. That is because your non-conscious mind is watching the movie to and it does not have the ability to have the pictures it sees and the sounds it hears be tempered by your conscious knowledge that it is not real.
Burn this fact into your conscious brain: Your non-conscious mind believes everything it thinks, sees, hears, etc. is real. It cannot tell the difference between reality and fantasy or between the truth or a lie.
What This Means to You:
Whoa, is this a big one. This is the power to do harm or good to yourself with exponential power. You are sad after a sad movie because your non-conscious mind made you sad. If you watch violent movies and play violent video games they do affect you. Remember I said video games are good for your brain? Well they do stimulate your brain, but be careful what you play.
The flip side of this is that you can lie to your non-conscious brain and it doesn’t know you are lying. That is why you can visualize something your conscious mind believes you cannot achieve, and yet your non-conscious mind will continue to work at it anyway. It doesn’t know the difference. This is a key to your future. Hold on to this key because it will unlock the door to the power you seek.
5 – Your Non-Conscious Brain Operates at Full Speed 24 X 7
When you go to sleep, scientist monitoring your brain can see one of the six lights go out. But the other five keep on working. They are like the Energizer bunny; they just keep going and going.
What This Means to You:
This is one of the reasons that your non-conscious brain is actually more then 5 times as powerful as your conscious brain. It thinks when you are sleeping. It thinks when you’re are awake. It knows when you’ve been good or bad so be good for goodness sake. OK, that was lame, but my non-conscious brain came up with it while I was writing this.
The abilities of you non-conscious mind are something you can use to powerful advantage, if you choose to learn how to do it.
6 – You Don’t Lose Your Memories
What actually happens is that you cannot recall them. They are still there. A very few rare individuals can actually access these memories with their conscious mind, but they are very rare. It is miserable for them to live with their memories flooding into their conscious mind all the time.
Scientists can stimulate the brain with electricity and trigger the recall of these “lost” memories. It is quite incredible what can be produced by this method. Some people claim everything you have ever stored is still there in perfect form. I don’t know about that, but it is quite clear that at least most of what you have ever learned and experienced is still stored in your brain.
Here is the real kicker however. It appears that your non-conscious brain does have access to your entire memory bank. Holy crap! I don’t know about you, but that amazes me and gets me pumped up.
What This Means to You:
This means that you should drink in experience and knowledge like you are drinking from a fire hose. Learn, learn, learn. Even if your conscious mind loses access to that experience and knowledge, your non-conscious mind can use it. This is one reason why you need to trust your intuition. Your non-conscious brain is far more powerful and has access to far more information than your conscious brain. Better information yields better decisions. You still need down time but don’t worry about doing something you won’t use or do again. Your non-conscious brain will use it. Experience life.
7 – Your Non-Conscious Brain Sets Goals
You are not even aware of these goals and they can hamper or help you. I thought this was strange but when I heard about an experiment it made sense. Participants were frustrated for months afterwords and they did not know why. It was because their non-conscious mind had set a goal that was impossible to achieve.
What This Means to You:
You must learn to control what your non-conscious mind is doing so that you can ensure that this incredibly powerful machine in your head will work for you and not against you.
8 – You Can Grow Your Brain
I addressed this in a recent article: Top 10 Ways To Grow Your Brain. So here I just list the most important ways to grow your brain.
- Exercise
- Eat Blueberries
- Take Anti-depressant Drugs
- Learn, Learn, Learn
- Meditation
- Take Care of Your Brain
- Avoid Caffeine
- Avoid Stress
- Restrict Your Calories
- Take Ibuprofen
To Be Continued…
This article is getting too long. I have more to say about this but I need to put it in another article. I will eventually be sharing the techniques you can use to control your non-conscious mind, but it is important to get a background understanding of how it works first. Great things await you and your amazing brain! Stay tuned…
What do you think? Leave a comment below.
Tagged as: brain facts, brain science, cognitive science, Neuroscience