I Can’t Read Your Mind

As he thinketh in his heart, so is he.

Proverbs 23:7, KJV

It weighs just three pounds and is composed of mostly water, yet the human brain has been called the most sophisticated information system on earth. To call it amazing is an understatement. That’s why various organizations in nearly sixty countries dedicate a few days in March each year to highlighting the immeasurable importance of the human brain during Brain Awareness Week.

Consider what your brain is doing right now while you are reading these words. Your occipital lobes, near the back of your head, are processing how you see this sentence. The frontal lobes of your cerebral cortex are engaged in thinking through the meaning of these words, helping you see how the content might apply to you. Meanwhile, you just blinked because of the motor area of your brain. And it is because of your cerebellum, in the lower portion of your brain, that you are able to hold this book in your hands, as well as anything else you’re doing right now that calls for balance and coordination—like sitting.

All the while, your metabolism and hormonal functions like the ones that control various levels in your body are being controlled by your pituitary gland, deep inside your brain. And if you are sitting outside on a park bench on a cold, early spring day right now, your hypothalamus is responsible for warning you to go inside by causing you to shiver. By the way, you’ll remember what you’re reading here due to your hippocampus, whose job it is to transfer short-term to long-term memory. It also enables you to remember that the point of this elaborate example is to underscore how complex and marvelous your brain is.

We usually take the brain for granted, yet it is amazing. Complete understanding of the brain will be a long time coming. Even so, the human brain is child’s play compared to the intangible human mind. “The mind is its own place,” said English poet John Milton, “and in itself, can make heaven of Hell, and a hell of Heaven.” Scientists have pretty well mapped out the terrain of the brain, but they are far from understanding the complexities of the mind. After all, you can’t x-ray the mind. It’s beyond physical location.

Yet how often do we couples run into trouble because we expect our spouses to read our minds? “You should have known what I was thinking,” we might say in exasperation. French philosopher René Descartes gave us one of history’s most memorable sound bites: “I think, therefore I am.” We want to amend this for couples: “You think, therefore I want to know what’s on your mind.”

The next time you catch yourself wanting your spouse to read your mind, make it easy and just say what you have on it.

The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous.

—Carl Sagan

From the book