Why Mind, Body, and Spirit.
The debate on whether we are two (dichotomy) or three parts (trichotomy) is not the focus of this article. One thing that is agreed about is that we are more than one part. We do have a physical body and we do have an immaterial body known as the spirit and/or soul. We have one body, yet many parts. So the focus will be on the importance of all the parts and what it looks like to take care and be mindful of them.
As it is more widely accepted, the soul includes the mind, will and emotions. Many people interchange soul and mind. With the dichotomy view the spirit and soul are one. With the trichotomy view, the spirt and soul are two separate parts.
MIND – Our thoughts
In the Bible, Proverbs 23:7 (King James Version) says, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
Also in Proverbs 4:23, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”
So our thoughts are going to have a direct affect on our heart. Our thoughts affect the intangible parts of us as well as the physical. Think of butterflies in the stomach when we are nervous or we may have to sit down when we hear of traumatic or exciting news. Heartbreaks can too often give us physical pain in our hearts.
In Mark 7:18 from the bible, Jesus separates the heart from the body when He states what enters the body doesn’t defile it, but it’s what comes out of the heart that defiles the body. Putting more emphasis on our thoughts and the way we chose to react to the outside.
A book by physicist and theorist, David Bohm, called Thought as a System, agrees with neuroscientists that thoughts come from everywhere. But what Bohm does is break it down even further and says our thoughts include our emotions and physical body connecting together all our organs through the nervous system, our experiences both past and present, the thinking that is happening now becomes the thoughts of our past (Bohm, D. 1994). It’s also our society and culture. Everything in and around us are connected or began with thoughts.
When we have a thought, that thought goes somewhere in the body. It produces an actual tangible chemical that travels somewhere in the brain and becomes a part of us. Bohm believes that somewhere is in the intellectual center in the cortex as well as deep into the emotional center (Bohm, D. 1994). So now we have connected the body and the emotions together. If we change our thinking, we can change our emotions. And that will change how our physical body responds to those thoughts.
Biblically, we are told in Colossians 3:2 (New King James Version) “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” Also, in Philippians 4:8 (New Living Translation), we are reminded to “Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”
Now, it makes even more sense why the Word of God encourages us to renew our minds daily and to guard our hearts for it is for our well being, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
BODY – our cells
The Epigenetics Revolution by Carey Nessa tries to give us an understanding of just how many cells we have when she explains that if scientists were actually able to look at and count each and every cell, “Even at the lower estimate, it would take us about a million and a half years, and that’s without stopping for coffee or losing count at any stage (Carey, N. 2012).” What a world of undiscoveries we are! Trillions of cells, roughly around 50 to 70 or more depending on our size (Carey, N. 2012).
A cell is a living form. It requires nutrients made up of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, nucleic acids, and inorganic salts, oxygen, and water to function fully. Here is where some get a little mixed up. Some think the quality of these nutrients don’t matter. Just like a car will perform better using high octane gasoline, so will we if we use the better quality nutrients. If even our thoughts matter, then so does the quality of food and drink that enters the body.
Our cells also send and receive messages. And those messages are passed down to each new generation of cell. We have memories passed down. We don’t want those messages to be incomplete or foggy or half sent. So they need all required nutrients to do a complete job.
It’s hard to think that all the way back in 1972, Dr. Harold Saxton Burr, PhD, wrote that modern research has revealed that, “our bodies and brains are renewed much more often than was previously realized. All the proteins in the body for example, are ‘turned over’, every six months and, in some organs such as the liver, the protein is renewed more frequently (Burr. H.S. 1972).”
Our cells have a lot of work to do, so feed them well.
SPIRIT – We are Electric and Magnetic
We are a spirit living within a physical body. Our spirit cannot be seen. But we know we have a spirit. In the Bible, in I Corinthians 2:11, “No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit.” And in Ecclesiastes 12:7, “For then the dust will return to the earth, and the spirit will return to God who gave it. Also, “It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.” I Corinthians 15: 44
Also, in the Bible, I Corinthians 2:14-16, “The unbeliever does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. And he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The one who is spiritual discerns all things, yet himself is understood by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to advise him? But we have the mind of Christ.” Also in the Bible, John 4:23-24, “But a time is coming – and now is here- when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such people to be his worshipers. God is spirit, and the people who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
What else is unseen that impacts us?
A dialogue written in Blueprint for Immortality by Harold Saxton Burr, says:
“Someone once asked a question, ‘What is this electricity which constitutes a field?’
A distinguished physicist gave the best answer that the author knows: ‘Electricity is the way Nature behaves (Burr. H.S. 1972).’”
Everything on earth carries an electrical current. Every organ and gland, every single cell. Every fruit and vegetable. Our thoughts and our cells have electrical currents as well as the very things that feed our thoughts and cells. These currents can’t be seen by the naked eye, nor can our Spirit.
Around the 1940’s, Dr. Rheinold Voll, a German doctor, discovered acupuncture points were enhanced when an electrical current was applied to the points (Odell, J. 2017-2025). He also discovered that when a patient held medicine in their hands, the response from the applied electrical point was affected. (Odell, J. 2017-2025). Because everything carries an electrical current, he could then determine which medicine would affect the current diseased or inflamed tissue by how the electrical point responded.
Robert Becker explains in his book, The Body Electric, that we have both AC and DC magnetic fields running through our bodies with the AC strongest in our hearts and DC in our brains (Becker, R. 1985). Our thoughts can be seen with brain imaging technology through the firing of neurons says Caroline Leaf in her book, Switch On Your Brain (Leaf, C. 2013). Every mental and physical reaction and every thought and feeling produce an electrical current in our brain says Becker (Becker, R. 1985) . Our cells would cease to exist if they did not contain the electrical current flowing through them (Becker, R. 1985).
We can read the rate of our electrical currents via frequencies. And our frequency is maintained by the choices we make. If the earth has its own frequency called The Schumann Resonances or the “Earth’s heartbeat” at 7.83 Hz (Rather, P. 2021), and the food we eat holds its own frequency, then our environment and the foods that enter our bodies should support our natural frequency instead of lowering it or altering it in a negative way.
WORKING TOGETHER
Our mind contains our thoughts and decides how to process those thoughts. Do we want to hold on to the negative or the positive? Do we want our future thoughts to be shaped with the bitterness of the past, or do we want a brighter, healthier future that brings us joy and peace shaped by the way we feed our minds today.
Our body contains the cells that need to be nurtured. Do we want to neglect our cells and leave our health up for chance? Or do we want to make sure we give every cell the best chance by feeding them all their needs through quality foods as much as we can.
Our spirit contains our life-force. It’s what runs through us deeper than blood and it’s what will remain when the physical is no longer here. In my belief, it’s where faith matters most. Because my faith says my spirit has a destination where I’m heading towards. Our spirit can connect us to the unseen world. Our mind and body are deeply connected until they pass away. Taking care of our body and mind will only carry us so far, we must nurture our spirit through spiritual things.
Mark 12:30, Jesus says, “And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.” We are more than one part. We must love God from all that we are made of from our mind, soul, will, emotions, our physical body and our spirit.
Feeding our body isn’t just through high quality food and drink. It’s what we listen to, read, sing, watch, and think. We live this life through all that we are; through all our many parts. More than just the two or three we may call Mind, Body, Spirit, Soul. It actually doesn’t stop there. It’s our environment, our neighbors, our workplace, the books we read, the music we turn up loud to dance with our dogs and children, friends, and spouses. It’s the thoughts we choose to feed in the morning, afternoon and night.
The reason we must take care of our Mind, Body and Spirit is because they are wholly one. They won’t exist without the other. Until we die, we remain connected and must feed each one carefully. And to truly reach health is to not leave any part of us neglected.
References:
Becker, R. (1985) The Body Electric. New York: HarperCollins
Bohm, D. (1994) Thought as a System. New York, New York: Routledge
Burr. H.S. (1972) Blueprint for Immortality – The Electric Patterns of LIfe . Essex, England:Neville Spearman Publishers
Carey, N. (2012) The Epigenetics Revolution. New York: Columbia University Press
Leaf, C. (2013) Switch On Your Brain. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books
Odell, J. (2017-2025) History – Reinhold Voll. BRMI Bioregulatory Medicine Institute https://www.brmi.online/reinhold-voll
Ratner, Paul (March 18, 2021) Is the Earth’s “heartbeat” of 7.83 Hz influencing human behavior? Big Think. https://bigthink.com/hard-science/schumann-resonance-earths-heartbeat/
