"Where there is unity, there is always victory." Publilius Syrus
At the risk of straying well outside of generally accepted dogma, let us address the issue of duality. Specifically, the concept that the mind exists as something separate from the body. The division of the human animal into distinguishable components is not new, and for most people it is an unassailable preconception. Ancient Eastern philosophy, pre-Socratic Western philosophy, and virtually every religious tradition has as a core tenet the differentiation of the soul and the body. Rene Descartes codified the modern understanding of body-mind dualism in the 17th Century. His basic proposal, that the body is a physical form bound by the laws of mechanics while the mind is not, has been refined and debated since then, but it is rarely challenged and even less frequently refuted. To quote our friend Jules Winnfield…”well allow me to retort.”
I kid. This is neither the time nor place. And I would never be so oblivious as to challenge Descartes to a philosophical debate. But I will ask you to consider this question: What has our insistence that our bodies are separate from our minds earned us as a species? Are our brains not at least, though perhaps not at most, organs, composed of fats and chemicals, susceptible to the type and quality of inputs provided? Liquor not only poisons but physically destroys your liver. Cigarettes destroy your lungs and cause cancer - genetic mutation, not just clogged lungs or physical injury, but derangement at the genetic level. Surely, we cannot believe that the regular and life-long consumption of less than optimal “nutrition” would leave the brain unperturbed when inputs demonstrate such clear impact on other parts of our bodies.
Consider the possibility, for just a moment, that a healthy brain is just as dependent on the correct inputs as is a healthy body. This seems reasonable, even preferable, when we analyze it critically. If we assume that the brain ISN’T susceptible to negative outcomes based on inputs and we’re WRONG, the price we pay could be steep. If we presume that the brain IS, and we treat it with due respect for its integrity and well-being, and we’re wrong, the cost would be minimal. Under these conditions, the only way to preserve the illusion of a healthy mind coupled with an unhealthy body is to further bifurcate the mind from the brain. I, for one, am unwilling to do so. The mind is inseparable from the brain and the brain is inseparable from the body.
Our personal unity is inherent in the very term we use to describe ourselves: “individual.” A unit inseparable, unable to be reduced. The further we reduce ourselves into our component parts, the further we get from the truest expression of our being. Many argue that the natural state of man is one of ennui, depression, and dissatisfaction. I think it is truer to say that is the common state of the modern man. A species overfed but under-nourished, overworked but unfulfilled, comfortable but restless, entertained but unsatisfied, over-stimulated and over-medicated but unengaged. States unshared by our ancestral predecessors. Our depression, anxiety, and deaths of despair are unknown even to the few remaining contemporaneous hunter-gatherer cultures. Maybe, just maybe, if we nourish our bodies correctly, our minds might also thrive.
Comentarios