“Each material thing has its celestial side; has its translation, through humanity, into the spiritual and necessary sphere, where it plays a part as indestructible as any other”.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

And now we come to Brain Integration by Ilchi Lee. This works to reunite the diverse processing centers of the brain, reviving dormant connections between thought, emotion, and reasoning and helping you to discover your true self.

The human brain is the most complex structure we can imagine. Its billions of neurons interweave in countless neural connections, and it is a living, dynamic system. Millions of nerve cells die every day while more are created as a result of new experiences. Though we have made great leaps in our knowledge of the hormonal, electric, and functional operation of this amazing organ, we are still light years away from understanding how the physical brain gives rise to self, awareness, and consciousness.

According to a 2006 study conducted at the Yale School of Medicine, the brain uses both digital and analog coding for communications across its expanse. Digital signals, the yes/no option that defines today’s computers in everything from cars to video cameras, are very efficient and were though to be enough for the brain to do its complicated work. Not so. It turns out that analog signals, which depend on changes in the voltage of the electrical impulses that drive our brains, are also involved. The result is a solution far more subtle and efficient than we ever expected. Our brains are full of surprises, as are we. Your brain gives you the potential to reinvent yourself at any age.

In a way, your brain is three brains layered together. It has three distinct parts that echo or evolutionary past. At the deepest level is the reptilian brain, or R-complex. This is the brain we inherited from our distant ancestors, long before there were human beings. This brain is home to our most primitive instincts: reproduction, movement, the fight-or-flight response, and territoriality. The reptilian brain tends to be very resistant to change.

Above the R-complex is the limbic system. The parts of this higher brain control learning and memory, the expression of emotions, and the linking of past events to strong emotions. So when you remember a traumatic breakup with a boyfriend or girlfriend many years ago and feel the anger or grief again, that is your limbic system in action. This center is also responsible for attachment and protective, loving emotions, so it might be called the source of our emotional intelligence.

In Full Bloom—Ilchi Lee & Jessie Jones, PHD