In a culture of speed, where efficiency, performance, and now even "happiness" are valued at the click of a button, the time for reflection, study, and genuine research is shrinking drastically. Logical and critical thinking also weaken significantly in their expression.
Within this context, an idea that’s heavily promoted—and sold in many forms on the altar of the internet—is the idea of the mind.
The soul doesn’t escape unscathed either—it, too, is laid out on the stall of "reels education," as if it could be deciphered in 30 seconds, between a breathing exercise and a vaguely attributed motivational quote from Jung or Einstein.
We’re sold the illusion that self-knowledge is a shortcut-laden journey, where enlightenment comes dressed in insights from a viral video or an inspirational post, selected and served by algorithms—not from real introspection, patience, discomfort, or sincerely lived pain.
The mind becomes an "optimization tool," the soul—a "personal brand," and inner growth—a product packaged in algorithm-friendly aesthetics, with minimalist fonts and lo-fi music in the background.
Everything needs to be digestible, quick, and easy to share.
But what gets lost in this pseudo-philosophical soap opera?
I believe it's the sincere silence of self-seeking, of authentic inner search—the very personal meaning of one’s existence.
The mind and soul, still mysterious, are often viewed in a deeply unbalanced way.
The mind is stigmatized, split into “higher” and “lower” parts, suspected, and often treated as a “flaw” that needs to be corrected, while the soul is placed on a pedestal, idealized, sacralized. This dichotomy is unfair and reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of human nature.
The mind deserves to be brought into a fair light.
Last week I briefly mentioned the nervous system but oversimplified and presented it incompletely to emphasize that medicine isn’t something to be done in reels or social media posts. However, I didn’t mention the mind.
The most complex organ—both structurally and functionally—is not the brain, as one might expect, but the mind-brain organ.
Although we have no definitive conclusions, we’ve begun to understand that the mind is a process.
The mind is to the brain what breathing is to the lungs and digestion is to the stomach, liver, pancreas, and intestines: the living expression of its functioning.
Mark Lee, professor and director at the Krishnamurti schools, spoke at a 2009 conference in Kolkata about the challenges of working with his teacher. Jiddu Krishnamurti offered him a computer-inspired analogy to explain the functioning of the mind:
"The mind is a virtual entity, reflecting the activity of neural networks, of the brain’s chemical and hormonal systems."
The mind cannot be located in any single area, but the entire cerebral cortex and deep gray matter are essential components.
Consciousness, perception, behavior, intelligence, language, motivation, will, the impulse to excel, and high-level reasoning all result from vast and complex interconnections between various brain regions.
Likewise, the disorders associated with the mind—addressed by psychiatry and psychology—stem from imbalances, often in biochemical processes occurring in different parts of the brain.
The mind is not an enemy. It's not an obstacle to happiness, but the very space in which fulfillment can be understood, experienced, and questioned.
To treat it as a problem that needs to be "quickly fixed" is to deny our human depth.
In a rushed world that asks us to "function well" rather than "think deeply," defending the mind becomes an act of resistance.
Not every painful thought needs to be canceled.
Not every sadness needs chemical correction.
Not every inner impostor requires balancing by an "expert."
Not every pride should be erased by superficial guilt.
Not every deviation from the norm means illness.
The mind has the right to be different, complex, even contradictory.
It doesn’t ask to be “repaired,” but to be heard, observed, cultivated, and trained.
And the brain—this magnificent organ—is not just a biological computer to be optimized, but a living network shaped by experiences, meanings, behaviors, languages, and cultural interactions.
Between brain and mind, there is a subtle and profound relationship that science is only beginning to understand—but which humanity has lived with for millennia.
To understand the mind does not mean to "fix" it, but to respect it.
And maybe the first step is just that: to look at it with less suspicion and more care.
Even the soul—this hard-to-define dimension often considered “immaterial,” for which science offers biological or psychological explanations (only when equated with consciousness or identity)—seems to be connected to the brain, the most complex tissue we possess.
Leonardo da Vinci, with his profound genius and extraordinary intuition far ahead of his time, located the seat of the soul in the antero-inferior region of the third cerebral ventricle, just above the optic chiasm.
For Da Vinci, the soul wasn’t suspended somewhere outside the body but integrated into the intimacy of human anatomy—at the heart of the central nervous system.
In his writings and drawings, he sought not only to understand the mechanics of life but to locate the spark that gives meaning to that mechanism.
Paul Bloom, psychologist and professor at Yale, specializing in cognitive development and philosophy of mind, states:
“The mental qualities we associate with the soul are, in fact, entirely bodily; they emerge from biochemical processes that take place in the brain.”
Albrecht von Haller, one of the fathers of modern physiology, placed the soul in the medulla oblongata, the portion situated between the spinal cord and the pons (Varolio’s bridge).
The mind and soul remain fascinating mysteries.
Although progress has been made in understanding these two elusive aspects of life, much remains shrouded in uncertainty.
Some religious scholars ask scientists to abandon any attempt to study the soul.
Hindu philosophers say that the soul of a person who reaches moksha (liberation from the cycle of rebirth) reunites with God. The soul has often been called the divine spark within each of us.
The spirit of inquiry that underpins life sciences must continue to drive us to understand more deeply.
And if, in this process, we come to better understand God, then that can only be to our benefit.
We stand on the shoulders of those before us—of the great philosophers who paved the way toward understanding the human being.
But we also have the duty to look further, with our own eyes—to understand that mind and soul are ineffable expressions of living matter, not opposing or separate entities.
To try to split them apart simply because they cannot be “seen” under a microscope or with advanced imaging technology betrays a simplistic way of thinking.
They are born together, coexist, and express themselves through the same miraculous structure: the human brain!
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