Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor has identified what she calls “the deep inner peace circuitry” of the human brain. She believes that we can tap into that circuitry to transform not only our own conscious state, but the state of the world around us.
I would certainly have to agree with Taylor that our brains can transform the world. Our most recent Better All the Time feature focused on various good news developments having to do with the human brain. The news was all over the map — hope for treating brain cancer, an improved understanding of what a single neuron is capable of doing, thoughts on the proper care and feeding of our brains. All of this is great stuff, to be sure, but I wonder if by looking at individual news items we aren’t missing out on a hugely significant big picture?
The human brain is what brought us down from the trees and into art galleries. It is the reason we can build bridges, compose sonnets, cure diseases. It’s one thing to get all excited about incremental developments in biofuels or LED-based light bulb solutions — and I don’t mean that disparagingly, we should get excited about those things — but any improvement in how we use, care for, or even just understand our brains is good news with a multiplying effect. The human imperative is improvement of the human condition, and the human brain is, well, the brains of that operation. When we make better use of our brains, or care for them better, or understand them better, we are improving our Improvement Machine.
