Living Without a Brain, or a Partial One One thing we don’t understand is the human mind and consciousness. I have talked about consciousness before and there are quite a few people who now believe the source for consciousness may not be in the human body at all and that we may all be like radio receivers receiving a broadcast and that broadcast contains our consciousness. It is hard to believe that under certain circumstances people have any consciousness at all, and yet they do. I like to revert back to the story about the man who wasn’t feeling too good so he went to the doctor and the doctor had a scan taken of his head. The doctor couldn’t believe what he saw when he viewed the scan, the man had no brain just a piece of tissue above his spine and yet he seemed to be functioning fine and his IQ was average. How do we explain this? I certainly can’t explain it and I’m sure no doctor can explain it. So, what does this prove, is this man different than the rest of us and I am not talking about the difference being having no brain I am talking about the difference being he is not a human? Everything else about him seem to indicate he was a member of the human race. The question I have is are there others like him? I am going to tell you something that most people don’t realize and that is there are some people who are born who either have no brain or hardly any brain and still function normally with a normal IQ. This is not something that we hear much about. A baby was born in Scotland in 2013 and he had what is known as a severe case of Hydranencephaly. This means he had an unformed brain or partially formed brain. Usually when babies are born this way, they don’t make it and die. The doctors told his parents he had only moments to live. The poor boy was born with only a brainstem. His brain cavity had no brain and it was filled with a fluid. A funny thing happened to this boy, he never died. Operations were performed on him to drain some of the fluid from his head and they were successful. At a very young age he showed he was aware of his surroundings. He played with his brother and began watching his favorite TV show. He began to talk at two years old. Since that time, he has learned other words. He is not what we would call perfectly normal however and cannot stand or walk on his own, but he is still a living miracle, knowing when to laugh and play games. He definitely has an awareness or consciousness. Another boy was born with only a brainstem and even had part of his skull missing and yet he too has awareness and is several years old. He can speak some words and most recently told his mother that he loved her. Case after case has shown if you can survive the birth, there is a chance you may be able to live and function, though it may be lower than normal, but still have an awareness and a consciousness even though they don’t have a brain. Doctors have begun to notice the fact there are people who are missing large sections of their brain and yet they are living normal lives and don’t seem to have any ill effects. This brings up a question, people have been saying for a long time we don’t use 90% of our brains. Most scientists say this is not true that we use most of our brain. If that is true how do we explain what is going on here and is there only a tiny percentage of our brain which is needed to receive some sort of signal we know nothing about? Lately there has been a theory about the bacteria in our guts and some scientists feel this is really what controls us. Could gut bacteria possess some sort of life force and really be controlling us without our knowledge? Humans cannot live without bacteria. We know they are responsible for helping us fully digest our food and protect us from disease among many other things but the thought that they may somehow be responsible for our consciousness boggles the mind. Could it be the center of all our thoughts and our consciousness rest with bacteria? The bacteria inside our digestive system supply us with vitamins and also with some nutrients and animal tests have shown if animals were raised in a sterile environment, they have a much shorter life span. Without exposing our bodies to bacteria we would not have a strong immune system. We have so much bacteria in our bodies that it is estimated to be 10 times the number of cells. Is there more about bacteria we should know about concerning our consciousness? It could be. A woman in China, a young woman in her 20s, worked in a hospital complaining about nausea and dizziness. After scans she was informed most of her brain was missing. In its place was fluid. She never knew her condition and led a completely normal life. The doctors in China believed that her cortex took over the whole load of her existence. They believe it was completely rewired to handle the job. It is said there are far more people missing half of their cerebral cortex which is the outermost chunk of brain tissue than we would ever suspect. Take the case of a German girl who was living a perfectly normal life. It was found she did not have a right hemisphere of her cortex and nobody knew it until she was about three years old. It is said she’s intelligent, witty, charming, and perfectly capable of living a normal life. How can this be, does it prove we may have bigger brains than we need? If this is the case, do we have a lot more brain development to go before we reach our peak? It seems, based on what I have said, we are not using our brains to their full extent. It is not our fault; it is the fault of evolution and it may just show we have a long way to go. Once we reach full brain capacity what will the human race be like? Will we be just big brains who can’t even get around but know far more than anyone alive today? The other question is are we being controlled by an outside force which contains our consciousness and if this is the case maybe we don’t need a brain at all? Life is fascinating, but we certainly don’t have all the answers.
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