Tending the Soil

You could say that the core of my career has been devoted to attempting to heal and care for the unconscious mind. It is clear to me that our happiness, our behaviors, and even our conscious thoughts and beliefs flow from here. In fact, I believe that what modern science calls the unconscious or subconscious mind is the same as what ancient manuscripts call the “heart,” or at least that it’s strongly related.

I remember seeing a study published in the Atlantic magazine a number of years ago. The study had found that in the moment just before a person is conscious of making a decision, there is an unconscious spike of electrical activity in the brain, mandating what that decision will be. Apparently, the researchers seriously considered burying the study rather than publishing—a serious taboo—because they were worried about the effect it will have on people. From their perspective, the study threatened to disprove free will.

Personally, I see the reconciliation of this discovery in the words of Solomon: “Guard your heart above all else, for from it flow all the issues of life.” Consider that this electrical spike takes place a moment before the event of conscious decision, presumably based on the conditions and products of the unconscious mind and heart. This means, then, that we can influence these “mandated” decisions, if we can find some way to influence those unconscious conditions, what we might refer to us “intentions of the heart.” So the question becomes, do we have such an ability?

Of course, I believe that we do, and an excellent place to start that search is with Victor Frankl’s book, Man’s Search for Meaning. Victor Frankl, PhD and M.D. was an Austrian neurologist, psychologist, and holocaust survivor who drew on his time in Nazi concentration camps to develop his theory of logotherapy. Essentially, Dr. Frankl came to believe that the fundamental drive of human life was not pleasure, as Freud believed, nor power, as Alfred Adler believed, but meaning.

He noted that those who lost all hope in the camps were inevitably the first to die, and he wrote that what saved him was the ability to call on “the last of human freedoms,” which he called the ability to choose his attitude, in other words, his outlook, in any situation. According to Frankl, a person “may remain brave, dignified, and unselfish, or in the bitter fight for self-preservation he may forget his human dignity and become no more than an animal.”

I believe that this “last human freedom” is a true manifestation of free will. It is not reliant on our present physical circumstances, nor can it be wholly suppressed by trauma and unresolved pain. We cannot change the environment of our minds and hearts at will, but we can choose their intention. We can resolve ourselves toward good and truth, toward meaning, as Dr. Frankl might put it. Or we can “forget our human dignity and become no more than an animal.”

There’s a particular part of scripture that I want to look at regarding this concept: the parable of the sower. In this story, I believe Jesus is not only commenting on the importance of receiving His word, but describing the possible intentions of our mind and heart, and the characteristics of each.  

“A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.”

So in this parable, we see four possible intentions of the mind and heart, represented by the path, the rocky shallow soil, the thorny soil, and the good soil. We’re going to look at each of these in some detail, which may carry us over into next week’s post as well.

First, the seed falls on the path, where nothing happens. When He explains the meaning of the parable a few verses later, Jesus says that this represents those who hear the word, but do not understand it. But this is not a matter of insufficient intelligence. I have known brilliant people of faith, and I have known mentally handicapped people of faith. No, faith is an education in itself, and it reveals itself to whoever searches earnestly.

But perhaps that earnestness is the key. You have to be authentically open, and that naturally means a willingness to change. That’s no easy thing. In my experience, people usually want the easiest solution with the least deviation from their current lifestyle, even if they know it’s not the best or healthiest solution. The genuine willingness to pursue what is best and most truthful is something that nearly everyone professes, but few are willing to sacrifice their preferred lifestyle for it.

Have a blessed, wonderful day!

Dr. Alex Loyd