Mind As A Radio Set

We can best think of mind and brain with the model of a radio set and broadcasting station.

The brain is the equivalent of a radio set; we need it to listen to the broadcasts. The broadcasts are the true equivalent of the mind. But that doesn’t mean the brain is the origin of these transmissions.

Of course mechanistic scientists argue that there is ONLY the radio set and offer as proof the fact that they can block or alter the broadcasts by tweaking the radio set. Of course they are just tuning in to a different broadcast!

I go into this in more detail elsewhere but I just wanted to remind you of the radio set metaphor, to say this:

What do mind altering drugs do?

It could be argued that chemicals change brain functions and therefore transcendent states due to mescaline, cannabis and so forth are really physical in nature. It’s all brain, in other words.

But actually, that argument is not logical.

To continue the radio set metaphor, psychedelic drugs may simply re-tune the set—much as fiddling with a knob would do—and tune it to rather exotic stations, with strange messages!

The truth is that the broadcasts, of whatever nature, do not come from or reside in the radio set.

It’s the same with the mind: it’s not “in” the brain any more than the radio station is “in” the radio set!

So when you read that stimulating the brain with micro-electrodes provokes ancient memories (Karl Pibram), or that right and left brain behave differently in different thought states (Roger Sperry), you are not facing inconvenient science!

You do not need to change your understanding that our minds and spirit are non-material in nature. The idea that the mind evolved through physical evolution is silly logic; the mind has caused physical evolution!

Just thinking out loud!