The Structure of Human Mind and Behaviour

There is an uncanny agreement between the ancient scriptural wisdom on one side, and modern social and life sciences on the other. This leads to the importance of interdisciplinary research, and also of expert research from the perspectives of various disciplines and religions. Human understanding can be enriched with a variety of explorations.

Source

Faculty 1

Faculty 2

Faculty 3

The Vedas

Manas

Ahamkara

Buddhi

Genesis 1

Creaturely soul

Animal soul

Human soul

Genesis 2

Serpent

Eve

Adam

Islam

Vegetative soul

Animal soul

Aql

Kabbalah

Nefesh

Ruah

Neshamah

Sigmund Freud

Unconscious

Subconscious

Conscious

Neurophysiology

Nervous system & brain stem

Limbic brain

Neocortex

Human brain as the physiological correlate of the human  mind. The diagram shows the how our psychology and physiology are connected.

From the table presented above, we can see how amazingly the wisdom of various human scriptures on the structure of human mind and behaviour converges with each other on one side, and the narratives of life and social sciences on the other. In addition, the wisdom of human scripture is consistent with modern narratives of evolution of life on the planet and development of mind and brain since conception. Terminology may be different but essence is not.

This remarkable convergence is not just accidental. The authors of the scripture were serious researchers exploring the truth and truths are not many. Their methods were contemplative rather than empirical. The contemplatives with their one pointed focus can perceive nuances and connections with their minds that empirical researchers miss with their experiments. That is why the discovery of energy-mass equivalence and theory of relativity had to wait for Einstein to come to light. The world needs both the empirical and contemplative explorers as they complement and not conflict with each other in spite of their differences in approach. What is needed is examination of the truths revealed by one method in the light of the other to see if there an independent validation of them as was done here with the use of application to evolution of the brain, mind and behaviour as life as a whole evolved on the planet and as it evolves in every individual with growth from a single cell at conception to an adult of 37.2 trillion cells.

Yet, humanity at large has not been able to apply this perennial truth for one’s own individual good let alone the common good of all. It is a systematic failure of modern research and exploration processes.

The adoption of the assumption of the Cartesian split between mind and body by the western health care establishment is as much as a compromise with the truth of common human experience as a compromise can be. It is no wonder that we are unable to explore what is good for an individual human being and for humanity as a whole.