To be completely integrated we must seek a whole answer, and consider what part our physical bodies play (For a detailed study on the many approaches to physical health and healing read, The Biblical Guide to Alternative Medicine (Regal books, 2003), which I co-authored with Dr. Michael Jacobson. In the book, we developed a grid by which you can evaluate medical practices. Since we are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Ps. 139:14), it would only make sense that God would create the outer person (material) to correlate with the inner person (immaterial).
The correlation between the mind and the brain is obvious, but there is a fundamental difference between the two. The brain came from the dust of this earth and will return to dust when we physically die, and we will be absent from our bodies and present with the Lord, but we will not be mindless. The brain/mind combination is similar to that of a computer. Every computer system is comprised of two distinct components, the hardware and the software. Using this analogy, the hardware (the physical computer) is obviously the brain.
The brain functions much like a digital computer which has billions of switching transistors. All the information is coded in a binary numbering system of 0’s and 1’s. A personal computer is mechanical, but our brains are living organisms composed of approximately 100 billion neurons. Each is a living organism that in and of itself is a micro computer. Every neuron is composed of a brain cell, an axon, and many dendrites (inputs to the brain cell).
Each brain cell has many inputs (dendrites) and only one output through the axon which channels neurotransmitters to other dendrites. The axon is covered by a myelin sheath for insulation because the cell sends electrochemical messages along the axon. Every neuron is connected to tens of thousands of other neurons. Given that there are 100 billion neurons, the potential number of combinations is mind boggling. There is a junction between the axon of one neuron and the dendrites of another called a synapse. Every brain cell receives information through its dendrites, which it processes, integrates and sends on to other neurons.
Neurotransmitters are produced in the axon. When a signal from the cell reaches the axon it releases neurotransmitters which cross the synapse to other dendrites. There are numerous types of neurotransmitters of which norepinephrine, dopamine, serotonin, and acetylcholine are the most known and the most important for our discussion. These neurotransmitters carry signals throughout our bodies. Only 5% of serotonin is located in the brain, the rest is busy in the rest of the body.
The brain and the spinal cord make up the central nervous system which splits off into a peripheral nervous system. The peripheral nervous system has two channels; the autonomic and the somatic (skeletal of body) nervous system. The somatic nervous system regulates our muscular and skeletal movements such as speech, gestures, etc. It correlates to our will. We don’t do anything without first thinking it. The thought-action response is so rapid that one is hardly aware of the sequence, but it is always there. Involuntary muscular movements can occur when the system breaks down as is the case with Parkinson’s disease (shaking palsy), which is a progressive degeneration of nerve cells in one part of the brain that controls muscular movements.
Our autonomic nervous system regulates our internal organs. We do not have direct volitional control over our glands. We don’t consciously regulate the beat of our heart or the functioning of our endocrine system. They function “automatically.” In a general sense, we don’t have volitional control over our emotions either. You cannot will yourself to feel good or like somebody you hate. We do, however, have control of what we think and we can decide to believe what God says is true. Just as our glands are regulated by our central nervous system, our emotions are primarily a product of our thoughts. Consequently, it is not the circumstances of life that determine how we feel. How we feel is primarily determined by how we interpret the events of life (i.e. what we choose to think and believe), and secondarily by how we choose to behave. Between the external stimulus and the emotional response are the brain (receiver) and the mind (interpreter).
