Ancient people, king David (r. 1012- died ca. 972 BCE) and apsotle John (fl. 27 - ca. 90 CE) to name a few, were more technical in terms of understanding what 'mind' is. They understood 'heart' and 'reins' (kidneys) as mind. Other implicated mouth, lips, or tongue as 'mind', whereas some people told 'ear' as an organ that can understand and lips as can learn. They even have mentioned that 'heart' has thoughts or can utter (verbally and mentally) a speech.
Heart and thoughts can be also interchangeably used. (cf. Psalms 26:2 & 139:23)
Heart of 'flesh' and of 'feelings' are used interchangeably.
The biological reason is neurological !
All sensory-impulses-sending organs have consciousnesses and all mentioned organs (heart, lips, tongue, mouth, reins, and ear) are connected to the brain cells via neural pathways. (cf. Psalms 7:9, Ecclesiastes 3:11, revelation 2:23, Jeremiah 17:10 & 31:33 & 5:21, Proverbs 15:7,14, 28 & 17:20 & 14:7 & 10:19-21 & 16:1,21, Psalms 39:3 & 17:3, I Chronicles 28:9, Psalms 84:2 & 16:9, Job 13:1, Psalms 51:10,17, Proverbs 17:23, Obadiah 1:3, Proverbs 23:33, Isaiah 50:4 & 6:10)
The feelings we feel brought out by emotion is also called 'heart', so that heart (emotion) motivates the mind. And a function of heart of 'feelings', like being 'satisfied,' is a function of eyes, too, it is because eyes and heart are inter-affecting via neural pathways from the brain. as the heart mourns, so does the eye, or as the lips utter, so does the heart. Organs -intestines, stomach, diaphragm, muscles, etc.- of the abdomen are implicated as heart or mind. The activity of mouth or tongue is an activity of the heart. All these functions of mind are because of neural connections of all organs to the brain cells. (cf. Proverbs 25:20 & 15:28 & 16:9 & 27:10, Psalms 88:9 & 20:27, KJV)
" ... in the imagination of the thoughts of
the heart of thy people ... "
- I Chronicles 29:18 (KJV)
People has heart, which according to king David has thoughts, which have imagination. His son understood 'heart' as 'memory' or emotion memory. 'Thoughts' is defined 'ways', 'devices' , or 'plans. It is a fact that heart has ways or neural pathways to and fro the brain, and those ways of electrochemical impulses are important to have proper thoughts or plans. (Proverbs 19:21 & 14:22, Isaiah 55:8, I Kings 8:17,18, job 21:27, KJV)
" ... I will put My law in their minds,
and write it on their hearts ; ... "
- Jeremiah 31:33 (NKJV)
Instruction can be put in mind by writing it on the heart. It will be written by the Pneuma (Breath) of the living Causer-of-Existence 'on the tablet of heart' or on the 'tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.' What can 'flesh of the heart' do that was why it is considered having thoughts ? The heart and flesh can cry out! The 'flesh' of man cries out - How ? By resounding or making noise, like when being terrified. bio-technically, this is because of the fast beating of the heart as impulses from the brain's amygdala's & hypothalamus' neural pathways and as adrenaline from kidneys (reins) and brain run into the heart. FOCUS of conscious-self in this condition may be in the heart region and in the skin & muscle of other body's portions.
Jesus himself may refer to 'heart' as 'focus of consciousness' when he said: " For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (cf. Matthew 6:21, NKJV).
The skin & muscle of that region become more conscious because of the terror, fear, or intention. It seems that 'we' are the skin & muscle because those organs become more conscious. But it is clear that we are clothed with skin & flesh and have been granted life, so that 'we' specifically are not the skin, flesh or life (cf. Job 10:11-12).
We are the consciousness, dust (elements) of our body, and breath (metabolic effects). Without any of these -soul (i.e. that which breathes), body and spirit (breath) - we are not 'we' . (cf. Jeremiah 17:1, IICorinthians 3:3, Proverbs 3:3, Ezekiel 11:19 & 36:26, Psalms 84:2, Isaiah 15:5 & 16:11, Isaiah 21:4, Jeremiah 1:19, Psalms 55:4,5, Psalms 119:120, Habakkuk 3:16, Jeremiah 23:9 & 48:36, Nahum 2:10, Psalms 22:14)
Soul was understood in ancient Israel as 'head' - a place of the brain - which breathes, and therefore 'living soul' may mean 'breathing head (brain)' and 'dead soul' means 'breathless head'. In Hebrew it is nephesh, literally means 'that which breathes,' and translated in Greek psyche, literally "breath" and understood as 'principle of life' or 'life', and derived from the verb psychein (which means "to breathe"). Soul or Head, which all the body , is nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments (bands) and continuously increasing with the increase which is from the Causer-of-Existence. Inside these joints or spinal bones are the nerve fibers connected to the brain. the brain cells, dendrites and telodendria (axon terminals) are continuously increasing as neurons in the brain are also continuously damaged or dying.
Why head is called soul ('that which breathes') ?
In terms of breathing, brain in the head is the most consumptive of molecular oxygen (which is the very reactive component of air or breath) because of its 100 000 000 million synapses, where metabolic activities are greatly taking place.
Man is himself a living soul (breathing brain).
" And YHWH formed man of dust from
the earth, and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life,
wayehi ha-adam le-nefesh hayya
and became the man a breather / soul living . "
- Genesis 2:7
(Psalms 63:5, Job 16:4, Psalms 78:50 & 116:8 & 56:13 )
The tangible man can be divided into
(1) the head portion (soul) and
(2) the body portion (where belly is located).
(cf. Isaiah 10:18, Colossians 2:19, Matthew 10:28)
There was a knowledge in the ancient days that cutting off the head could totally kill a man.
(cf. ISamuel 31:9 & 17:51, cf. Psalms 74:14)
Soul (Head portion) : e.g. brain (i.e. soul), nose (nostrils),
mouth (lips, tongue-palate, throat), eyes, ears
Body : e.g. heart, bosom (belly, bowels: stomach, intestines; inner most parts:
solar plexus), reins (kidneys), hands, legs
Nefesh -soul- which literally means 'that which breathes' is scripturally referring to the head portion or, for Levites,figuratively the blood's hemoglobin (which breathes).
Soul (brain) is the watery fatty portion of the head. (cf. Proverbs 13:4, KJV)
" The liberal soul shall be made fat ; and he that
watereth shall be watered also himself "
- Proverbs 11:25 (King James Version)
Brain is the most oxygen-consumptive organ of a man.It processes the organismic 'life', the knowledge, praising, hearing, hearing, eating, hunger, tasting, thirst, desire, longing, joy, discouragement, abhorrence etc. knowing is one of its effects and thus it is the seat of knowledge. Living soul is a 'breathing brain,' which can be departed. a person with a departed soul (living brain, breathing head) is dead. (cf. I Kings 17:21-22)
Soul (head) can be slinged (hurled) as out of the middle of a sling or can be beheaded or can be lifted up, or can be bowed down to the dust. It can be hunted by making kerchiefs upon the head and when it is bound in the bundle it will die. It is considered to be the 'life' of a man. (Leviticus 26:43, Numbers 21:4, Psalms 139:14, Proverbs 24:14, Joshua 11:11, ISamuel 25:29, Revelation 20:4, Psalms 143:8 & 44:25, Isaiah 58:5, Ezekiel 13:18-19 & 18:4, Psalms 24:4,7)
The uttering (throat, mouth) portion of the soul (head) can be emptied and, therefore, will become thirsty (cf. Isaiah 32:6, Proverbs 25:25).
Every soul (head) upon the water that tries to escape a flood or overwhelming sea will die if water has gone over that soul (cf. Revelation 16:3, Psalms 124:4,5,7) The mouth portion of the soul (head) may eat (to taste how sweet a meat it wanted to eat) to be satisfied from hunger, or it can also refuse to touch meat to avoid the soul (brain) to be polluted by abominable flesh even it longs to eat flesh (Deuteronomy 12:15, Proverbs 13:19 & 19:15 & 13:2,4,25 & 27:7, job 6:7, Psalms 63:5 & 107:9,18, Revelation 18:14).
" My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness;
and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips "
- Psalms 63:5
"... to afflict his soul ? ... to bow down his head ... "
- Isaiah 58:5 (KJV)
"... soul is bowed down to the dust : ... "
- Psalms 44:25 (KJV)
"...and make kerchiefs upon the head of every stature
to hunt souls! Will ye hunt the souls
of my people, and will ye save the soul alive
that come unto you ? ...slay the souls that should not die,
and to save the souls alive that should not live,.. "
- Ezekiel 13:18,19 (King James Version)
"...and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded... "
- Revelation 20:4
"All they that ...none can keep alive his own soul "
- Psalms 22:29 (KJV)
"...and every living soul died in the sea "
- Revelation 16:3
"...the soul that sinneth, it shall die "
- Ezekiel 18:4 (KJV)
The mouth's lips of the soul (head) can be used to praise, rejoice, and cry (cf. Psalms 119:75 & 35:9, Job 24:12, KJV).
The ears of the soul (head) are the organs to hear (cf. Isaiah 55:3, Acts 3:23).
The life will be lost if soul (head) is laid in the dust, and it will be destroyed. But soul from hell (grave, death) may be regained its life in some circumstances. cf. Psalms 7:5 & 63:9 & 78:50, acts 3:23 & 2:27, 31, Matthew 10:20, IKings 17:21,22, Proverbs 23:13,14, Psalms 89:48 & 56:13 & 116:8)
In ancient times, souls (heads, life, persons) of men were sold by the Babylonians and Phoenicians in a barter (cf. Ezekiel 27:13, cf. Revelation 18:13)
Soul (head) is too important because all of our consciousness are processed here to be realized or perceived In fact, head (soul) and life can be interchangeably used, and people may be counted per head (soul).
" For the word of God is quick, and powerful,
and sharper than any two-edge sword, piercing
even to the dividing asunder of soul (head) and spirit (breath), and of the joints (spinal bones)
and marrow (brain), and is a discerner
of the thoughts and intents of the heart (mind). "
- Hebrews 4:12
The Scriptures give a lot of references where this nefesh or psyche (soul) can be located in the body.
"...the soul (head portion) of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul (head) " - I Samuel 18:1
" Take no thought for your psyche ('head which breathes'), what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on " - Luke 12:22
"... the soul... eat ..." - Proverbs 13:2
"... blood of the souls of the poor innocents: ... " - Jeremiah 2:34 (KJV)
"...sword reacheth unto the soul " - Jeremiah 4:10 (KJV)
"And they smote all the souls that were therein with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them: there was not any left to breathe:..." - Joshua 11:11 (KJV)
"...smote them with the edge of the sword, and utterly destroyed all the souls... ...utterly destroyed all that breathed..." - Joshua 10:39-40 (KJV)
"Who have for my psyche ('which breathes') laid down their own necks: ... " - Romans 16:4
"...for his pysche (brain which breathes) is in him " - Acts 20:10
" Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his psyche (head which breathes) for his friends " - John 15:13 (compare to Mark 6:27-29)
"...soul chooseth strangling, and death..." - job 7:15 (KJV)
"... I lift up my soul unto thee " - Psalms 143:8 (cf. Jeremiah 52:31, KJV)
"...but sent leanness into their soul " - Psalms 106:15 (KJV)
"...his blood shall be upon his own head. .. . his soul " - Ezekiel 33:4-5
"... to shed blood, and to destroy souls,... " - Ezekiel 22:27 (KJV)
"...waters are come in unto my soul. ...my throat...mine eyes.../. mine head...me..." - Psalms 69:1,3,4 (KJV)
"... the soul (head) of Jonathan kissed the soul of David,.." - ISamuel 18:1
BRAIN
Unlike to other ancient beliefs, the scriptural soul (brain) can be died; and is taught to have the ability of knowing, converting into wise, remembering hearing, choosing, desiring, longing, refusing, saying (words), seeking (something), abhorrence loathing, being discourage; getting sorrow, angry, hungry; praising; being satisfied; being weary, afflicted, with bitterness; making sin, being strangled (obstructed seriously the normal breathing of); capacity of refreshing, being polluted, getting fat, receiving water, being delighted, preserving, dying, becoming lean, and so forth. all these activities were not in favor with the popular belief about brain during Aristotelian and Roman imperial days which changed the meaning of psyche into "mind" and then apparently adopted the Egyptian or Babylonian 'soul'. (cf. ISamuel 25:25, Proverbs 11:25, Isaiah 32:6, Proverbs 13:19,25 & 19:15 & 23:16 & 25:25 & 24:14, Psalms 63:9 & 63:5, Isaiah 10:18, IKings 17:21,22, Psalms 33:20 &78:50, genesis 12:13, Psalms 143:8, 11 ; Exodus 30:12, Proverbs 25:13, Psalms 142:7, Isaiah 29:8, Psalms 78:50 & 116:8 & 56:13, Colossians 2:19, Job 20:23-25, Psalms 24:4, Psalms 24:4,7)
"So that my soul chooses strangling, the death rather than my bones " - Job 7:15
From this statement of Job we can discover two things about nefesh (soul):
Soul (brain) has the ability to 'choose',
and soul (head) can be on the condition of being strangled (choked to death by compressing throat by something).
This ability to choose is popularly called 'free will'. Peter elaborates further, suggesting that psyche ('which breathes') or soul (brain) could rationalize against lusts (e.g. of the body's sex organ) when he said "...fleshly lust which war against the soul " (IPeter 2:11). Paul connotes this 'soul' as 'mind' when he testifies: "...another law in my members (organs), warring against the law of my mind,..." - Romans 7: 23
Likewise, Jeremiah suggests that the nefesh (soul) can function the function of the brain-mind.
"My soul still remembers...This I recall..." - Lamentation 3:20,21
This categorical statement in Lamentation 3:20 that nephesh or soul (brain) could remember proves what knowledge did ancient scriptural people had had. The organ of man that breathes, i.e., nefesh (soul), can remember.
Literal translation of
Proverbs 23:7 a (i.e. " For as one thinks in his soul, so is he... ")
proves that the king Solomon (r.972-c.932 BCE) and, inevitably, his people knew that ' in nephesh (head-brain)' man is thinking. Why this statement of the said king-scientist is important ? Because it suggests that we are what we think or we exist because we think, and vice versa. It is not surprising because his father, David taught that 'soul knows right well ' (cf. Psalms 139:14).
(Psalms 107:9,18, numbers 21:4, Job 24:12, Psalms 143:6 & 124:4-5, Isaiah 32:6, Psalms 35:12,9, Deuteronomy 12:15, 20, Acts 3:23, job 24:12)
If we are because we think or because 'man thinks, so is he,' then
WHERE IS THE SELF ?
The question "Where exactly 'we' are in the body? " is simply answered by almost all religions as that 'we' are immortal being entirely apart from and riding on and controlling the mortal brain.
However, ancient scriptural people have a different knowledge about man. King David taught to his kingdom that 'certainly every man at his best state is but vapor,' a lie or delusion (cf. Pslams 39:5, cf. 2Thessalonians 2:11, NKJV).
Man is a delusion, some say an illusion, lighter than vapor.
"Surely men of low degree are a vapor, men of high degree are a lie; If they are weighed in the balances, they are altogether lighter than vapor " - Psalms 62:9 (NKJV)
" Men of low estate are but a breath, men of high estate are a delusion; in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath " - Psalms 62:9 (RSV)
When somebody says " I am out of my mind, " who is the self - the "I" or the "mind" ? Whom that " I " is referring to? Is not the "I" subduing the "mind" or the mind ruling over the " I " or the self controlling the self ? The " I " could be out of its "mind".
"... mindful... visit... "
"...take knowledge of... " - Psalms 8:4 & 144:3 (NKJV)
Mind is a taking of knowledge or a visiting. It is the 'blindfoldedly' visiting on our 'switches' ('neurons') in the brain to control 'playback' (e.g. remembering, recalling), 'command' (e.g. choosing'), 'emotion center(s)' (e.g. feelings), associative neurons of reflexes (e.g. unconscious), 'reverberative replays' (e.g. evaluating), and many more. This visiting (mind) is done of the unified nascentiraptic Force (charges) of the synapses.
"...the imagination of the thoughts ..." - IChronicles 29:18 (KJV)
Thoughts are ways, devices, and plans and, in the body, imply to the neural connections, centers of neurons, and detailed formulations of a program of actions (e.g. designs, plots, schemes).
"Behold, I know your thoughts, and the devices which ye wrongfully imagine against me " - Job 21:27 KJV
Thoughts have visualize or imagine (formed mental image of something not present to the senses). Where the thoughts or visualization happen ?
" I saw a dream which made me afraid, and the thoughts upon my bed and the visions of my head troubled me " - Daniel 4:5 KJV
Dream, thoughts, and visions happen in the head.
To think is to device or to plan, or to visit (mind) the thoughts (neural connections, centers of neurons, and detailed formulations of a program of actions).
"Surely, as I have thought, so it shall come to pass, and as I have purposed, so it shall stand: This is the purpose that is purposed...the hand that is stretched out over all... " - Isaiah 14:24,26 (NKJV)
Thinking is 'coming to pass a purpose' - a visiting of the unified nascentiraptic Force on thoughts - or is stretching out the hand (power) over the neurons.
How a purpose can be established ?
" without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellers they are established ' - Proverbs 15:22 KJV
"Every purpose is established by counsel: ... " - proverbs 20:18
What is a counsel ?
"...the words...the counsel... " - Psalms 107:11
The words-assembling neurons in the different locations in the brain establish the purpose (plan) we think as we speak mentally. Multitude of 'counsellers' or centers are involved to establish a purpose (plan). The hands or 'branches' of neurons are stretched out by thinking, adding their length little by little as 'thinking' is continuous. Thinking has a collateral effect, it causes the development, increase, and enhancement of dendrites, telodendria (axon terminals), and apparently of neurons.
Unified Nascentiraptic Force (charges)
Mind is a visiting on
Thinking is a visiting on thoughts
Thinking is a visiting of unified nas-Force on thoughts.
Kinds of Thinking
In an inborn deaf person, imagining is possibly the most active kind of thinking. Feeling touches & speaking mentally are most apparent kinds of thinking for an inborn blind person, whereas an inborn deaf & blind person uses 'feeling touches' mentally as kind of thinking.
For ordinary normal person 'speaking mentally' is the usual active way of thinking, making his speaking-generating neurons active.
This 'thinking' is what we called 'self' because by it we can ask, imagine, compare, give attention, recall, react, feel, command, evaluate, or interpret. Traditionally it is called "mind", others called it "interpreter", and Aristotle called it "mind" or "soul'. But there is a force makes 'thinking' functional or possible, that is, the nascentiraptic Charges, also called 'ruakh/pneuma (breath, wind, spirit) of mind.
"Therefore my anxious thoughts make me answer... ...and the ruakh (breath, spirit) of my understanding causes me to answer " - Job 20:23
"... the spirit of your mind " - Ephesians 4:23
We all know what are active in this ruakh (wind) or pneuma (spirit,), the electrons of molecular oxygen, if referring to the metabolic effect "breath" or electrons of sodium ions, if referring indirectly to effect of metabolism (or to the electrochemical conduction).
Mind or visiting nas-Force has active electrons (electric charges).
"Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father,..." - Deuteronomy 32:7
The most remarkable feature of our thinking, to know ourselves who we are, is the remembering of our past experiences. Without it, we cannot know our selves in the past. And if we forget our experiences over and over again without any recall, we will forget what had happened to us from time to time. Imagine if your relatives and friends are introduced to you and telling you who they are and who you are over and over again.
One of the famous examples to have problem partly similar to it was H.M., who due to epilepsy had undergone an operation, removing both medial portion (where hippocampus is located) of his temporal lobe in 1953 when he was 27 years old. He could remember his past experiences except from two years ago to his present days because he had minor retrograde amnesia.However, he has a profound anterograde amnesia, that is, he could not transfer new 'experiences' from short-term to long-term memory. To quote R.A. Baron:
" For example, he could not remember people he met even if he encountered them over and over again. When his family moved to a new home, he could not find his way back to it, even after months of practice. He could read the same magazine over and over again with continued enjoyment because as soon as he put it down, he forgot what it contained." (Psychology 2nd edition, page 237. Boston: Allyn & Bacon/ read also: Further analysis of the hippocampal amnestic syndrome: 14-year follow up study of H.M. Neuropsychologia, 6. 317-338, by B. Milner, S. Corkin, & H.L. Teuter. 1968)
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