Hearts think and brains feel?
About the day a neurocardiologist turned thought on its head.
Many years ago I bought an unassuming little book that left a deep mark on me to this day — just not in the way the author probably intended.
The tiny hardback was bound in green cloth and protected by an obscenely yellow dust jacket sporting a woodblock line drawing on the front — the robed-Jesus version of Rodin’s Thinker.
Above that, in large type, sat four words: As A Man Thinketh.
On recommendation from a friend, this was the first Bible-based, self-help book that took the “ye olde English” of my King James Version and put it into everyday language that felt practically useful.
I was in my 20’s at the time, and, to be honest, the only thing I still remember from the book is the verse of scripture James Allen stole his title from.
“As a man thinketh IN HIS HEART, so is he.”
Those three words in the middle confused the hell out of me.
As a man thinketh in his HEART??? What does that even mean?
I don’t think with my heart; I FEEL with my heart.
I THINK with my head.
Or so I thought… (with my head, of course).
Fast forward over a decade. The book had long since found its way into either the dumpster, Goodwill, or someone else’s bookshelves.
Meanwhile, I’d continued to struggle with a pornography addiction, the lies to cover it up, and the massive suicidal shame that frequently came alongside it. Not to mention the angry outbursts and manic depressive swings that kept my wife and family on edge because, no matter how hard I tried or how intelligent I was, I couldn’t think my way out of this one.
Not with my head, that is.
I “knew better,” but I didn’t act better.
And I began to believe that those behaviors, those feelings, that addiction said something about who I was. I couldn’t get away from them despite every program, book, and therapy I had tried.
It was only my desperation to escape the (then) 18-year-long nightmare that led me down a path of “not thinking” to get my life back on course and hopefully save my marriage.
I learned to use very non-verbal processes like various breathing patterns, movements, postural shifts, and tension control to retrain my nervous system and let go of my instinctive reaction to the things that used to trigger me.
So much so that the triggers went away.
The depression, shame, and frustration went away.
Even the addiction went away.
That’s when I ran into a little anatomical quirk dubbed the “heart-brain” by neurocardiologist J.A. Amour in 1994.
This little cluster of about 40,000 neurons often acts independently from the rest of the nervous system and is what makes heart transplants a living reality instead of a pipe dream.
Neurosurgeon Christiaan Barnard boldly introduced these transplants to the world of Western medicine on December 3rd, 1967, while wildebeest grazed outside the Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa.
As the donor organ was being cooled and prepared in the next room over, Barnard cut out his patient’s heart with a scalpel.
“For the first time in my life,” he later told an interviewer, “I stared into an empty chest.”
Despite his hundreds of open-heart surgeries performed, he had never before looked into a living human chest and seen no heart there.
The vagus and spinal nerves connecting it to the brain were severed, the organ removed, and a new heart sewn in its place.
Those nerves would take a long while to regrow.
And yet, somehow — without any input or help from 53-year old Louis Washkansky’s brain, mind you — his new heart started pumping and sustaining his body all by itself.
The reason?
A heart-brain that would not be discovered, described, or detailed for almost 30 years.
Researchers then observed that the torrent of information sent from the heart through the medulla and into the brain significantly affects the way we perceive and react to the world.
With its remarkable capacity to remember, learn, and adapt, it sends what appear to be “meaningful messages” to our head-quarters in a way that our brains not only understand, but obey.
Not only that, but it has an electromagnetic field 500 times stronger than that of the brain.
One that extends several feet outside the body.
Which means that every bit of information that our brains get about the outside world is first evaluated by our heart, not our head.
Be that:
* Light
* Sound
* Smell
* Taste
* Or texture
It first has to pass through that enormous electromagnetic field before ever reaching the sensory neurons in our eyes, ears, noses, mouths, and fingers.
In short, our heart is always the first responder on the scene.
What it decides in that split second — in a completely non-verbal way, mind you — determines everything about our initial experience of the world.
It either rattles our rib cage, tightens our blood vessels, and spurs our diaphragm into action…
… or it softens our veins, eases our chest, and loosens its reins on our breath.
Only then does the brain take all that information and decide what to FEEL about it.
Which means that the ancient Hebrews had it right — the heart DOES think.
And when I learned to bypass the brain and teach my heart directly how to react differently in those split seconds before the brain got involved?
I finally experienced that change of heart I’d always wanted and constantly prayed for.
What’s beautiful about this is that this approach doesn’t take anything away from the miracle of life, either.
If anything, it added to my wonder at the power of creation when I stopped trying to have my brain be in charge of everything.
If you’d like to learn this way of doing things, start with this simple program:
http://www.thefreedomspecialist.com/feelbetternow
Once you’ve gotten that under your belt, we can really get to work.
To your change of heart,
Bob “Free to Live Again” Gardner
PS — Don’t forget about those scholarship funds offered to help you get to a retreat so you can accelerate how quickly your heart learns a new way to beat. The funds are only available until 14 June, if that’s something that calls to you.
Use coupon code SCHOLARSHIP and make sure you see the 37% price change before registering.
The link is in yesterday’s email.
All of this I go deeply into in my recent book Built For Freedom.
And when you sign up for my daily emails below, I'll send you the first chapter (including the audio) for free.
Either that, or you can purchase the whole book (along with the companion course to go with it if you want) here:
Bob Gardner
