Quantum Brain Power

I saw the movie "What the Bleep do We Know?!" the other day, and it makes some interesting points. The basic gist of the first half of it is this: what seems like solid matter to us from our macro-perspective, at the atomic level is really mostly empty space and magnetic force fields, with very small particles that pop in and out of existence all the time.

Since there is a relationship between solid matter and energy (E=MC2), and since matter is much more illusory than Newtonian physics admits, and since our thoughts are like electric storms of the brain, therefore--they go on to argue--the mind is able to influence reality through energy in ways that at first do not seem possible.

This is an interesting theory, but I wonder if the brain really produces enough energy to affect matter beyond the brain cavity. It's one thing to have the power of static electricity at your fingertips. It's another thing to do Jedi mind tricks.

The movie goes on to mind/body connections, and I found this to be a much more convincing line of thought. The connections between our thoughts and feelings and our health are strong. Feelings, in some ways, are the body's thoughts. And thoughts can certainly affect well-being--anxiety and stress have one effect, while feeling loved and stable has another. Some maladies are strictly physical, but even then, how we think about them affects how they can be treated or healed.

Similarly, the subconscious mind can affect our actions in ways we don't understand. Day after day, we receive an overwhelming amount of information through our five senses. The conscious mind focuses on a small percentage of that information, but the subconscious mind receives it all. It seems entirely possible that our decisions are guided by factors that are not entirely conscious.

So where does that leave us? I'm not ready to believe in direct control of the physical world through quantum brain-power. But I certainly believe that the health of the mind is tied to the health of the body. And I also believe that the things that we say to ourselves in our minds--over and over again without realizing it--do shape that lurking iceberg of subconscious thought and its connection to the conscious mind. It seems reasonable, in other words, that positive thinking can affect our lives in unexpected ways.

Start working on your affirmations!

Of course, having said that, I shudder to realize that Deepak Chopra is featured prominently on the movie's website. Oh well.