Chapter 1
Thoughts:
Understanding Thought and the Mind
What are Thoughts?
The word “thought” originates from Old English. It means “to conceive of in the mind or to consider,” and it refers to an intellectual or mental activity. Thoughts are impulses that are broadcast from the mind.
Athought is like an electrical vibration that is produced in our mind and leads us to feel and then act. Athought “happens” by itself and is something beyond our control. It is produced by the mind that acts as a machine, which I would like to refer to as the “Thought Factory.”
Everybody has a Thought Factory. This factory manufactures thoughts, both positive and negative: thoughts of love, hope, courage and compassion as well as thoughts of hate, fear, worry and jealousy. Is it possible to enter this Thought Factory and program it to produce positive thoughts? Do we have a direct command over our mind? Unfortunately, we don't! Science is yet to invent a machine or a medication that can consistently create positive thoughts. Yet, some people always think positively, while others are filled with negative thoughts. What makes these positive thinkers always think ever-positive thoughts?
Undoubtedly, it has to do with the Thought Factory that produces thought. By taking charge of the Thought Factory, we can take charge of the thoughts it produces. But how does one do that and think positively all the time? Over the years, philosophers and authors have optimistically recommended the “Think positive” mantra. However, when one is surrounded by negative circumstances, how can one think positively? The thought process becomes involuntary, and like impulsive reactions, the mind begins to emit negative thoughts. Thus, it is very important to understand the nature and origin of thought.
Where do thoughts come from?
While it may seem that thoughts originate from nowhere, they are actually born in the mind. Before we understand how we can control our thought, let us first understand the link between the mind and the body. The mind perceives or senses the objects of perception through the sense organs. When the body sees, smells, tastes, hears and touches, the sense organs trigger thought in the mind.
For instance, I see an apple and feel hungry. I smell something burning and panic. I hear my favorite song and feel like dancing. I feel the cold breeze and feel like I am in the mountains. I touch currency notes and feel rich! Thus, whenever our sense organs are exposed to something, thought is created. This thought leads us to feel and then act.
We are essentially emotional beings because we are able to feel, and we do so consistently and naturally at all the phases of our life.
However, does this mean that we give in to the demands of our sense organs completely? For instance, I see apples and feel hungry. But do I eat all the apples? Let's consider another example, I see a beautiful car that does not belong to me and develop a desire to drive it. Do I break open the door and zoom away? No, I don't. The question that now arises is what controls or influences the sense organs? Our intellect does. My intellect counsels me that the car is somebody else's and my desire to zoom away with it is unethical. In such situations, the intellect creates further thoughts and feelings. Hence, there is an aspect within us that regulates, controls and influences the sense organs: our intellect.
The mind is known to think, but the deeper question is how does it choose its thoughts? How does it decide whether it should give in to the demands of the senses, allow the intellect to govern or allow something else to take over?
To seek an answer to these questions, let us attempt to understand the mind. Our mind is structured in layers. These layers can be differentiated into three: the conscious, the subconscious and the superconscious.
Most of us are fully aware of the power of the conscious mind alone. However, it is only the tip of the iceberg. Afew people realize and actualize the power of the subconscious mind, but the power of the superconscious mind continues to remain a mystery. The conscious mind is the active mind that is alive and thinks from moment to moment. When we sleep, the conscious mind goes to rest and we are said to be in an unconscious state.
The subconscious is awake even when we sleep. It is a storehouse of all the information processed by the mind during the day. Pictures, sounds, feelings and circumstances, amongst other things, get automatically stored in the memory of the subconscious mind. We may not consciously register certain things, but the subconscious mind grasps and registers all these things in detail, which are otherwise invisible to the conscious mind. Thus, it is very powerful.
The superconscious mind is that domain of the mind which is responsible for intuition, sixth sense, creativity, hunches, imagination and telepathy. It functions as a powerful receiver and transmitter of thoughts from and into the Universe. While the study of the power of the superconscious is still in its infancy, the superconscious mind is said to have tremendous powers, yet unknown to man, but capable of strengthening both the conscious and subconscious mind, ultimately making man a genius.
We now know that the mind is a combination of the conscious, subconscious and superconscious. We also know that thoughts are constantly produced in the mind, the Thought Factory. Before we can take charge of our mind and the thought it produces, we must understand how the mind is formed.
Let us imagine the mind of a newborn child. Is the newborn already full of thoughts and habits? Does it have a character or is its mind like an empty board spotless without thoughts? A newborn lacks thoughts, habits or character; therefore, it is obvious that the newborn's mind is empty. Then, how does a newborn's mind develop thoughts, feelings and habits?
Each newborn is naturally born with the five sense organs, that is, sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch. These sense organs trigger the mind when they come in contact with any stimulus. The conscious mind of a young child will react while the subconscious mind will register and memorize all that it hears, sees and feels. A child that grows up in an environment of anger and violence, where the parents are screaming and fighting most of the time, develops a mind filled with negative emotions like anger, hatred and tension. Whereas, a child that grows up in a nurturing environment of love and understanding develops an uncomplicated mind that eventually leads to positive personality traits and emotions. The subconscious mind of an infant is believed to be more dominant until the conscious mind develops adequately.
There is a global debate on the influence of nature vs. nurture. The question debated is, “Is a child's life capable of being nurtured or are a child's genes preset by nature and incapable of being molded and changed?” Scientists, philosophers and doctors have more or less agreed that while a child's genes determine its physical appearance and health, the genes do not influence the child's thoughts, habits and character. Upon further study, they have realized that the subconscious mind of a young child will definitely absorb whatever it sees, hears and feels, and this will influence the child's character as it grows up. However, if the same child was brought up in a different environment, the subconscious mind of the child would absorb a different character and culture – the one that it is exposed to. This has, by and large, laid to rest the debate on the role of nature and genes in influencing the mind and thoughts of a child.
The mind is born with empty thoughts like a blank slate. Every impression influences the conscious mind and is registered in the subconscious mind, leading to the formation of our character. Thus, a large part of a child's mind and character is formed during its youthful years.
If a mind is already formed and if its character is already set, can it be changed? The good news is that the mind of a child is still in the process of formation and is capable of being molded as the child matures into a teenager and an adult. The experiences of a youngster growing into an adult are instrumental in creating its character. Once the mind is formed, it can be visualized as constructed in cement, stone and steel, difficult to break and change. This realization gives further hope and possibility for an individual to take charge of their mind, thought and life.
As the mind grows, various constituents are responsible for its final formation. The five sense organs, of course, respond consciously to the stimuli, creating impressions on the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind absorbs impressions from the environment and helps build the structure of the mind. As an individual grows up, the mind thinks, leading to feelings and actions. These repeated actions become habits, and they further influence the mind. The mind, by its nature, reacts and responds. These behaviors also influence the thought that the mind produces through the Thought Factory.
Since the mind has so many sources that influence the thought it produces, is it possible at all for us to control our thoughts? Is there a way to strategically build a mind of our choice or does our mind evolve on its own as we grow up? Is it possible to take charge of our mind, our Thought Factory and thus our thought; or is this beyond our control? Since circumstances influence our habits, do we become creatures of our habits and thoughts, or is there a way to take charge of our habits and thus our mind and thoughts?
Since our mind is already conditioned to react in a particular way, is it possible to control our reactions and responses or is our behavior involuntary, based on the state of our mind? Is the mind so deeprooted that its shoots and roots are predetermined? Has our childhood crystallized our mind into a character that is irreversible or is there a way to change? Is the mind already programmed permanently or can it be reprogrammed to think the way we want it to?
While it seems possible for a mind to change its thought patterns, we haven't scientifically studied how to do it. We spend much time, money and energy learning to program and reprogram our computers, but we are yet to discover how to perfectly program our mind to think positively all the time. I believe it is possible to reverse the conditionings of our childhood! But unfortunately, science has not invented a device to directly reprogram the mind to think positively. If such a machine were invented, it would be a global best-seller; one could plug into it and be able to think positively all the time!
However, while there is no such device to directly control the mind and thus the thoughts, there is definitely a way to influence the mind and take charge of our thoughts and hence our life. If only we learnt how the mind functions and how we can program and reprogram it to think the way we want, we would be able to control our feelings, our actions, our habits and our destiny! Let us understand how this is possible by understanding what I call “The Thought Chain,” discussed in Chapter 2.