“Who’s Really In Control?”

Imagine that you are part of the following experiment:

Equipment is set up to measure three separate parts of your physiology.
1)  A special clock is placed in front of you so that you are able to know, to the millisecond, when you decide to lift your finger.  We’ll call this part the “conscious decision.”
2)  Electrodes are placed on your skull to measure activity in the part of your brain that controls body movement.  We’ll call this step the “muscle action potential.”
3)  An electrode is placed at the place where your peripheral motor nerve interfaces with your finger flexing muscle.  This spot down in your forearm is called the “neuromuscular junction.”

Your job is very simple:  flex your finger at a random time of your own choosing while watching the special clock.  You will note the time of your conscious decision and the researcher will note the times of the muscle action potential and the firing of the neuromuscular junction, respectively.

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The existence of free will is surprisingly controversial. In our everyday lives it feels pretty clear cut.  After all, we decide to do something and then… do it.  Right?

In the last two month’s newsletters, I explored the idea that we actually have two minds inside of us.  This is no metaphor.  It is literally true that the two halves of our brain exhibit parallel thinking processes, as has been demonstrated through research on people who have had their brains “split” as a treatment for epilepsy.

These minds can sometimes be in conflict, and this conflict is at the root of disease.

Last month, I described some of the fallibilities of our so-called “conscious” mind.  I pointed out that our memories and our ability to see patterns are not always accurate.  In fact, experiments have shown that they are OFTEN not accurate, especially during times of stress and overwhelm.

It seems that we are comforted by the feeling of a clear memory or a clear belief of what will come next, even if we don’t have one.  In the absence of such clarity, we fabricate our memories and our sense of patterns.

This daily fabrication- the nearly instantaneous covering up of our blind spots - is so much a part of our nature that we never notice it is happening.  We only know about it after careful experimentation.

So what is the nature of this second mind that I refer to?  This is often called the “subconscious mind.”  This term comes from the fact  that the workings of this second mind do not make it into our awareness.  It doesn’t have “thoughts” in the way that we are used to.  It doesn’t “talk” to us.

This is because your subconscious mind is non-verbal.  It is just as “conscious”, i.e., it can process and store information.  However, it doesn’t talk to you with words.

How does it talk to you?  With emotions and sensations.  This is why emotions are so important.  Your feelings of love, fear, sadness, anger, and worry are ways that a deep, subconscious wisdom communicates with you. And just like all the words of a sentence are important to the overall meaning, every emotion is critical to your overall health.

But this second mind is even more powerful than that.  There is some evidence that the subconscious mind, which some people call your deeper wisdom, intuition, or gut sense, is the part of you that is actually in control.

It is possible that our conscious sense of free will is just another one the fabrications that our ego presents us with, and that there is another part of us that is making all the decisions.

You decided to flex your finger at a random time, and your brain’s muscle potential activity was measured as was the firing of the neuromuscular junction.  The next step was a comparison of the individual timings of these events.

When you decided to flex your finger, it felt like it was your ego aware mind that decided when to do it.  However, if we actually took the measurements, it would show that a full 200 milliseconds BEFORE you made the decision to flex your finger, your brain started the signal to the muscles.  The SECOND thing to happen is your decision to flex your finger, and the THIRD event is the actually triggering of the muscle.

200 milliseconds, or 1/5th of a second is a long time in terms of neurology.  Somehow, even though you picked a completely independent and random time to flex your finger, a part of your brain knew that it was going to happen.  In other words, there was a part of your brain that knew you were going to flex your finger before you did!

Now this is only one experiment.  But it has been repeated many times in different situations and joins a host of other research that starts to make the idea of free will, as we understand it, a little shaky.

But this is not to say that all of your life is up to fate, and that you have no choice.  I am saying that it is simply another part of you that is making the choices.  Not your ego; your aware sense of “I.”

In addition, follow up experiments have shown that even though you may not have much free will, you do get to exercise “free won’t.”

I will talk about this “free won’t” phenomenon and how it is at the root of the conflict between your two minds, and therefore disease itself, next month.