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The REAL Burning Question

Dualism has been described as the distinction between the mind and matter, suggesting that the mind is non-material and not physical as opposed to the body which is physical and material. The communication of the body and mind then bring about a controversy, which is described by Descartes as a connection, which is bridged by a small organ called the pineal gland. This explanation has been deemed as unsatisfactory by other philosophers, adding other concepts like parallelism, and the aspect of God, controlling both the mind and body.  The placebo effect illustrates a clear connection between the body and mind in an attempt to work together in the process of healing. The placebo effect shows that it is possible to improve the physical state of a patient by giving them a drug they believe could have a positive effect on their illness. In this way, the mind influences the body to believe that it should heal, and it begins to heal. The fundamental question of how something immaterial affects something material is complex, and the attempt to answer it is filled with many revelations.  It is almost clear that only theories can attempt to explain how the mind communicates with the body. The only way to explain this communication is by past findings by philosophers and medical doctors.

The other way to explain it is the aspect of God or a higher being other than man. Materialism is a concept used against dualism, but it does not satisfy the description of the mind. It insists that the mind and conscience are matter. Many tests and philosophies suggest otherwise. Matter can be reduced into neutrons and particles, a process that is not true for the mind and the conscience. Following this logic, it is then inaccurate to use materialism as a basis for understanding the connection between the mind and body. The power of the mind comes in to show that there are instances where the mind takes full control of the body. Here, the mind dictates the functions of the body in disease, healing, or deterioration. Evident instances have been depicted in this work to show that the mind has a peculiar ability to influence the actions of the body. Dualism, the placebo effect, the effects of the immaterial to the material world, and the power of the mind have been used in an attempt to answer the question of how the mind is able to communicate with the body.

“Dualism is the belief in two kinds of reality, one being the material or physical and the other being a mental or spiritual” (Skirry, n.p.). In philosophy, dualism is the position that the mind and body are two different entities. It also eludes to mental phenomena as being nonphysical in nature. Dualism separates the mental events from the physical events claiming that they are various kinds of events. Dualism can be explained using the fact that mental properties and body properties are seemingly conflicting. There are three properties that separate the mind from the body:  namely observatory, spatial location and physical properties or lack thereof.

“Mental properties do not have observatory characteristics which means that they cannot be publicly seen” (Skirry, n.p.). It is possible for a person to see the hand of someone else moving back from a burning stove due to the pain inflicted by the heat. However, it is impossible for the same person to feel the pain that is felt by the subject. Similarly, it is impossible for the observer to see the pain. It is not possible for them to look into the mind and see the pain as one would of the physical reaction to stimuli. Even if they knew where to look, the observer cannot see thoughts and feelings by peering through the skull. In that sense then, the properties of the mind are private as opposed to those of the body that can be seen. In this way, the mind is separated from the body.

Unlike physical events, which have a spatial location, mental events are not spatially located. Emotions like joy do not have a specific location (Skirry, n.p.). Taking the example of a joyous person, it is not possible to locate where the happiness is situated when a subject says that they are happy. One could argue that the happiness is all over the body or in the individual’s head, but this is not scientifically proven. It is then, more accurate to say that happiness cannot be located in a particular space. However, it is possible to detect joy through a smile that is on the subject’s face. Using the same reasoning, it is clear that the events of the mind like emotions, do not have a spatial location while the events of the body, like smiling, have a spatial location.

The events of the mind lack physical elements as compared to the events of the body, which are generally physical. The word physical brings about aspects like weight, velocity, and mass. The events of the mind lack these specific elements of matter (Skirry, n.p.). For example, imagine a child craving ice cream. When that child says they like ice cream, it is not possible to measure their level of appreciation of ice cream. When the child thinks of how much they like ice cream, they are unable to put the elements of matter in these feeling of appreciation. The events of the body, however, are different in that when someone thinks of the body, they can say how much they weigh or how tall they are. The fact that the mind lacks the elements of matter while the body has the elements of matter makes the body and mind two different entities.

The placebo effect can be described as the peculiar tendency of human beings to respond positively to treatment that they think is efficacious. Scientists established this tendency and use it today as a way of testing the efficacy of new medication. In experimental conditions, the test subjects are divided into two groups where one unsuspecting group is given a placebo, which is an inactive substance, and the other group is given the real medication containing active reagents (Woollacott, n.p.). For the medication being tested to pass the test, it has to be more effective than the placebo. The question, however, is ‘how can an inactive substance have any healing effects in the subject?’

The mind presents thoughts of healing and the body responds by curing itself. Science has not yet succeeded in explaining how the mind is able to manipulate the body into healing itself (Woollacott, n.p.). The reason why science is unable to explain the effect of the mind on the body is probably due to the view of every aspect of nature as material. In the materialistic view, neurons are the genesis of mental states, meaning that consciousness does not affect physical activities.

The placebo effect presents itself as an inauthentic form of cure where the body recovers from illness without any effective medication. Research suggests that the belief that a therapy or medication is capable of eliminating an illness is enough to show positive effects on that particular treatment or therapy. The state of mind during the time that the subject is receiving the medication has a significant effect on their thoughts, and this changes their brain and general physiology.

Pain is a subject that was tested to see the effect of the placebo to patients who were experiencing pain. It was found that the thought of taking pain medication triggered the brain’s pain pathways and the physiological activity brought about relief (Woollacott, n.p.). There was a significant decrease in activity of the thalamus and insula, which are connected with pain. Here it was found that the thought of taking effective medication may have similar effects to actually consuming medication.

The placebo effect was evident in depressed patients who though they were taking antidepressants. This effect was similar with patients who had Parkinson’s disease. The belief system seemed to counteract the effects of the disease on the body (Woollacott, n.p.).

There are certain forms of medication and therapy that rely on the client’s state of mind. Meditation is one of the therapies that heavily rely on the state of mind to achieve healing. Meditation has been seen to affect the mental ability of an individual positively. It targets the hippocampus, where the individual is able to learn faster and better compared to individuals that do not meditate in the same environment (Woollacott, n.p.).

The placebo effect is a mirror image of how effective the mind is on the body. It reflects the influence of the mind and mental beliefs on our physiology. The mental belief is immaterial but it is able to impact the material human body by facilitating the healing process.

For an individual to understand the functions of the mind and how they influence the body, it is necessary to be aware of the assertions of Descartes’ Mind-body theory. The first assertion is that the mind is a totally distinct being independent of the body. The second assertion is that the mind is never extended and the body does not think, thus thought and extension are two distinct issues. He then went on to disregard the issue of matter because a connection between the mind and body was established. It was then pointless to find out the exact connection. The issue of how the immaterial mind affects the material body has been debated extensively in history.

After establishing that the mind and brain definitely interact, Descartes went ahead to suggest that the mind and body interact via the pineal gland. This is a gland with a negligible size located at the base of the brain (Skirry, n.p.). According to Descartes (Skirry, n.p.), the organ is very small and hence can be moved by the immaterial mind. This assertion is mainly questioned by the fact that the pineal gland, no matter how tiny it may be, is physical, hence it is inaccurate to assume that it can be moved by the immaterial mind.

Gottfried Leibniz suggested that the mind and the body do not interact but rather move in a parallel manner (Velasquez, 91). Parallelism suggests that there is zero causal interaction between the mind and the body. Instead, they run side-by-side like the arms of a clock, in harmony. They seem as though they are interacting, but they just function in a parallel manner. This explanation was undercut as a bizarre coincidence. Nicholas Malebranche agreed to some extent, with Leibniz on parallelism, but said that God makes it possible for the body and the mind to be in sync.

Epiphenomenalism is a theory that asserts that the immaterial is a result of the material, but does not influence the material in anyway. It asserts that the actions of the mind are by products of the actions of the body just like smoke during a fire. The interaction of the mind and body were experience by Anna O., a patient of Joseph Breuer, who showed physical illness that was a result of her mental state (Velasquez, 91). Anna O. suffered from many physical illnesses with symptoms like speech impairment and blurred vision. The cause of this symptoms could not be explained by science. As treatment progressed, it was established that Anna had not coped appropriately with the death of her father. She had crossed and suppressed some difficult feelings in her unconscious mind (Velasquez, 91). This caused her body to react by bringing about the blurred vision and the impaired speech. Anna got cured progressively as she came in terms with her suppressed feelings. This example is an illustration of Descartes’ Theory of Interactionism (Skirry, n.p.).

Materialism suggests that everything, including the mind and consciousness, is matter (Armstrong, 29). Evolution is primarily based on the assumption that everything that exist is material in nature. There are several reasons why materialism is wrong.

The first analogy is that of comparison between the human mind and a computer. A computer is fed information and it is able to process this information. The computer does not have awareness of what it is processing, hence it cannot question the authenticity or the truth of this information. This is because the computer is not conscious. Assuming that the human mind was structured with terabytes of information it would be impossible to be aware of information in terms of logic and knowledge without consciousness. Information can be described as the product of conceptualization of data in respect to its origin, which is impossible without awareness thus consciousness results (Armstrong, 29-30).

Universal concepts like mathematical formulas are unchanging and the human mind registers them as unchanging. In the same way, consciousness is unchanging. Material things are said to change in nature and stature. This fact makes consciousness, which is unchanging, immaterial, thus the mind is not matter (Armstrong, 30). Materialists may argue that the mind changes as an individual grows. They may argue, for example, that a child thinks differently from an adult. This argument by itself changes the perception that the mind is unchanging, thus suggesting that the mind is material in nature. The counterargument is that the mind gets information from many sources, but it processes this information with its pre-existing awareness building onto pre-existing notions (Armstrong, 139-141).

Children are able to understand mathematical formulas by vetting their truthfulness just like an adult would. In this way, the mind is already aware of this formula (Armstrong, 124). If it were different, and the mind was changing in nature and stature, just like matter, it would be difficult for an individual to know when they were learning something new. It is necessary to understand that rationality is a pre-existing condition of the mind. This means that the mind does not change. These evidences negate the suggestion that the mind is material.

Consciousness is the awareness of the mind, which is not tangible. Materialist ignore the fact that the existence of matter is unnecessary in explaining the experiences of an individual. The mind is where feelings, experiences, and thoughts exist and these are intangible, thus the mind is immaterial (Armstrong, 95).

Materialist argue that the mind is matter and hence can be reduce to separate particles and exist in a spatial location. This is not true because it is impossible to see the feeling of joy or pain. These feelings have physical signs of smiling and crying respectively, but without these physical signs it is difficult to know when an individual is in pain or when an individual is happy. In the analysis of mental phenomena such as thoughts, memories and emotions it is clear that they do not share the properties of matter. They neither have mass nor spatial location. It is necessary for materialist to research further in an attempt to convince critiques that the mind is indeed material. Until then, the theory that the mind is material, has many flaws, which weaken it as a basis of an analysis of the connection between the mind and the body (Armstrong, 98-100).

Researchers have found evidence that the mind has great power over the body’s physiology and general well-being. There are many examples in which thoughts and beliefs change the status of our body both physically and psychologically. When people are trying to lose weight, it is necessary for them to think that they can possibly lose weight. It is important for their mindsets to be about losing the weight and not proving to themselves that they cannot lose their weight. This helps in making sure that they understand that they are doing what it takes to lose that weight. When the mind is convinced that efforts are being taken to lose weight then the body responds by losing the weight.

Positivity and meditation has been used by many doctors to help with stress and anxiety. It has also been used by doctors to ease the pain of terminal illnesses like cancer. The patient goes through meditation where they imagine good health and wellness. The patient then experiences relief just from thinking that they are okay.

The placebo effect refers to the ability of the mind to facilitate healing of the body.by the material thought that the drug being used is effective. This works well for therapies and other psychological treatments. The opposite of placebo effect is the nocebo effect. While placebos present positive effects, noceboes present negative effects. A good example is when cancer patients throw up just before chemotherapy.

Multiple personality disorder is about example of the mind taking over an altering the body. When a patient is suffering from multiple personality disorder their mind alters their nature. For example, one personality may need glasses while the other is able to see perfectly well. In such a case, the mind makes the body have physical characteristics of short sightedness.

Works Cited

Armstrong, D. A Materialist Theory of the Mind. Routledge. London. 2002.

Skirry, Justin. Rene Descartes: The Mind-Body Distinction. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://www.iep.utm.edu/descmind/#H3

Velasquez, Manuel. Philosophy: A text with readings. 13th ed. Cengage Learning. Boston. 2015.

Woollacott, Marjorie. The Placebo Effect: Harnessing the healing power of the mind. HuffingtonPost. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marjorie-woollacott/the-placebo-effect-harnessing-the-healing-power-of-the-mind_b_8257964.html. 2