Dr. Wilder Pennfield: The Mystery of the Mind

Dr. Pennfield was a highly respected brain surgeon. He taught and practiced at McGill, University in Montreal. I read one of his books entitled "The Mystery of the Mind". It is a fascinating book. He talks about the brain which is material that we can see and then mind which we cannot see. In the mind aspect he explores the existence of spiritualism. Here is a video where he is operating on one of  his patients, who is actually his sister:



The quality of the video is not very good but it is worth watching. I recommend his book, The Mystery of the Mind, to my readers.

Here is an interesting quote by Dr. Pennfield:

"I realized that there was a thrilling undiscovered country to be explored in the mechanisms of the mammalian nervous system. Through it, one might approach the mystery of the mind..."

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Ravi Shanker Sitar Music and Spirituality

Does certain music appeal to spirituality in humans? I don’t know but a lot has been written on it. Ravi Shanker of India is well-known for his Sitar music which some consider spiritual. You listen to his sitar and decide on your own.



“Pandit Ravi Shankar, the sitar legend, recently performed at his twice-postponed 90th Birthday Concert at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. The 91-year-old maestro took to the stage with a walking cane and (relatively) flowing white beard, looking more like the mystic Sri Aurobindo than the young sitarist who introduced Americans to classical Indian music more than 50 years ago. But as soon as the flute and percussion accompaniment kicked in, his fingers started to fly and his sitar began to sing, mesmerizing the musicians and the crowd alike. As he left the stage, the rapturous audience gave him a resounding standing ovation, not just for a magical evening, but also for a mythical career.”

Read the story here.

Update: Some have opined that the Beatles’ music touched human spirits too.



...and my favourite:

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Scientology and other religions

There was a fascinating documentary on Scientology on the CBC program, the Passionate Eye. Another big fraud in the name of religion. As I go through the journey of life I am feeling more and more repulsed by almost all organized religions. I do believe in spiritualism but I don’t much care for organized religion. I had some personal experiences that gave me some hints about spiritualism – I should emphasize the word “hint” as beyond that I have no knowledge.
Religions and their fanatic followers are more interested in rituals than the spirit of the religion as such. And we all know some of these fanatics could be very dangerous indifferent to any particular religion. The real spiritual experiences are hard to explain and are very personal.

To read the story on Scientology and to watch the video click here.

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Human Brain and Computers

This subject matter has been intriguing me for a quite a while. Don't worry, as I won't go into technical or philosophical stuff. Yes I have read books by a brain surgeon, books by psychiatrists and psychologists but I will set all that aside and talk about something different.

If on your computer in the left corner you click on Start and then All Programs you will see dozens and dozens of programs which are there but you never used them or very rarely used them. The human brain is somewhat similar but manifolds more complex and we use very limited "programs" available to us in that grey matter. It also depends on a person's up-bringing and how different brains are developed differently. Also every brain differs physically and in its content of knowledge. Computers have many chips and software in it consisting of various programs. Is it possible that there is a chip (using computer language to make it simple) which is related to spiritual programs and only a few once in a while click on it and have spiritual experiences? How do you click on it. I don't know. Maybe Mother Teresa knew as she found spiritualism by helping the poor and downtrodden in India. Those are experiences which quite often cannot be explained in human terms or language. Others who do not understand it just reject them off-hand and make light of them. I am not an expert on spirituality but trying to understand it.

We all have some very unusual experiences which no science can explain. I have my share of it and it left me in complete bewilderment. Let's say you have a relative and you think that you can never survive if something happens to that relative. You love that relative dearly. Unfortunately it does happen and one loses that relative and then an unusual and unexplained calm prevails which allows a person to keep on living. It happened to me and this is just one example. In other words is it possible that that spiritualism and the soul are there but we have just not clicked on that program yet and quite often unknowingly. And it does not lend itself to an easy clicking as we do on computers.

On your computer if you disable certain programs and then at some point in time download an update and try to upgrade it and it does not happen because it was disabled. Is spiritualism a similar kind of program in the brain that some of us disable it? And when we meet a very spiritual person he/she has no impact on us, as our spiritual base is not there. Finally when I am talking about spiritualism I am not talking about any particular religion but inherent spiritual ability of humans indifferent to their colour, creed or gender. Also I am not talking about spirituality of the likes of Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck as they have clicked on a junk file in their brain and not necessarily spiritual file. When I am talking about spiritualism I am talking about something real and pure and not specific to any biased religious views.

My discussion about spiritualism is something to think about and by all means tell me about your experiences if you feel up to it.

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