Yesterday following a quote by Pierre Teilhard De Chardin, it was noted that our bodies are vehicles inhabited and driven by our souls. I was reflecting on this today and realized that I missed a step worth some further discussion, the mind. On Day 33, we discussed the Mind-Body connection from John Ratey’s book, Spark. Ratey explains that from an evolutionary standpoint, the brain developed to facilitate movement. In order for the most primitive cellular organisms to move, they needed to develop nervous systems and brains. Minds control movement and spirit controls the mind.
Think about this for moment. Spirit is a life force that exists in all things. There was a time when living things came into being as simple bodies filled of that life force, but they did not have minds and they did not move. Many such organisms still exist today. Plants are one such example. Humans are evolved versions of those simple creations. Over time, we have developed incredibly powerful and complex minds. Have you ever stopped to remember that these minds came into being simply to facilitate basic motion? The life force controlled the primitive minds, which in turn controlled the basic movements of the primitive creature. This is all quite simple.
Here’s the trouble: we’ve forgotten that spirit controlled the mind first. We’ve somehow gotten the idea that our minds are in control independently. We call this free will, or my will. Our nervous systems and brains have become so advanced that we’ve forgotten how they were created in the first place, thy will. But if we go back to the beginning, we can see how Spirit controls mind and mind controls body.
There are bodies that are controlled by minds void of soul. We call them robots. This reminds me of the classic Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, The Terminator. Remember the premise? Robots come very close to taking over the world, but a man named John Connor stops them from final destruction. However, the robots figure out how to send The Terminator back in time to kill John Connor so that he won’t be able to stop them from destroying humanity. Who’s going to win in the end? The robot minds or the man who’s mind is guided and controlled by spirit?
Hmmm…does this sound eery? As our human minds continue to become more and more advanced, are we destined to permanently forget about the spirit that lives inside of us, created us, and controls us? Is it irony that The Terminator sequels all have spiritual subtitles, such as Judgment Day, Salvation, and Genisys. When you look at the state of the world today, its hard not to wonder if fiction is becoming reality. Ego is the part of our mind that identifies itself as independent and separate. This illusion is the cause of conflict and wars. Is The Terminator really fiction or is it just a projection of our future yet to come? Perhaps the way to save ourselves from destruction by advanced and independent minds is to simply remember that spirit controls the mind, not the other way around.
Photo by Arseny Togulev on Unsplash
