February 15, 2015 3:00PM III. THE INTELLIGENT BODY How the body molds the way we think. Place: The Reynolds Homestead Reynolds Homestead http://www.reynoldshomestead.vt.edu/map.html

 

 

A series of lectures by

David Oliver

 

Mind and brain are intimately integrated within the body. Indeed, it is the body—breathing, eating, walking, lifting, grasping, listening, and looking—that has shaped the mind. Spiritual thoughts too are grounded in the body and the physical world. The word “spirit” derives from the Latin word for breath.  Ancient spiritual concepts such as karma and dharma likewise have meanings rooted in the body that then emerge into higher levels of abstract thought.  But these Sanskrit  words originated in the physical acts of hands and arms holding, legs and body walking.

 

In this lecture I’ll point out recent discoveries about the role of the body in intelligent behavior. I’ll describe how  walking through the environment and grasping things with legs, arms, and hands has built our brains and minds to think in particular ways strongly tied to the physical.

 

I’ll also bring forward the central role of the gut. It may seem surprising that the gut, of all body parts, is central to the body’s intelligence possessing its own “second brain” rich in neurons  and equal in importance to the brain in our heads. We recognize the gut’s brain in the saying “I know it in my gut”—which is more than a metaphor. A healthy mind and healthy gut have a lot to do with one another.  We are “one life” made of “many intelligent lives within.”