Brain as an organ

Back in my college days the brain was considered an organ and not a gland. The difference is that a gland produces chemicals, things like hormones. In the 60’s it was discovered that the brain does in fact produce chemicals and since that time the list of chemicals has grown into many thousands. Recent developments have expanded on this process and now it is known that many of these chemical have a direct influence on the cells throughout the body. Many of the chemicals manufactured in the brain are small groups of amino acids called peptides. These peptides circulate through the blood stream and attach themselves to cells. On the surface of the cell there are receptors where these peptides attach and when they do they affect the internal structure of the cell. They cause the cell to change according to the message from the peptide. Later when the cell divides into sister or daughter cells these new cells carry with them the changes activated by the peptide. In other words the change becomes a permanent part of the new you. If these chemicals can change who we are, then it behooves us to find out just how we can control the type of chemicals the brain makes so we can control the person we are becoming. As it turns out the chemical production can be determined from inside or outside of the brain. If you are asleep and you have a sad dream then the brain begins to produce sad chemicals and you awake feeling sad. If you are watching a sad movie the brain does the same thing. If you spend a lot of time being sad you will soon find that is your natural state. You become the person you think about. In 1937, the year I was born, Nepoleon Hill wrote a book called, “Think and Grow Rich”, in which he said that what the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve. Since that time science has given a logical explanation to this idea. We now have evidence that shows what who you think you are, will become who you are. The mind pays close attention to the words we speak and so some modern day TV preachers tell us that the two most powerful words in the English language are the words, I am, for whatever follows those two words is what I am or what I am becoming.