Thinking,

The cerebellum processes input from the muscles, joints, and tendons in order to execute smooth, coordinated movements such as threading a needle.

WHAT SCIENCE HAS DISCOVERED ABOUT THE CEREBELLUM The cerebellum is part of the hindbrain or the reptilian brain. It is a small three-lobed structure behind the occipital lobe at the posterior part of the brain. It is attached to the brainstem at the very back of the skull and it has the appearance of a wrinkled, folded, and lobed miniature cerebrum (figure 1). Cerebellum literally means little cerebrum or little brain. Along with the brainstem, the cerebellum is the oldest part of the brain. It is a part of the brain called the reptilian brain. The cerebellum has been evolving since the first reptiles began their journey in evolution. The cerebellum is indigenous to all reptiles. It is part of the reptilian brain because all reptiles, and all the other kingdoms of species greater than reptiles, have developed and housed a cerebellum in their brain mass. For example, reptiles, mammals, and even primates share a similar anatomical structure of the cerebellum, but they all maintain variances (differences) in the size and in the internal makeup of the individual organ (figure 2). During the last million years in evolution, the human cerebellum has tripled in size. Scientists of the early twenty-first century have little data about the role of

Each neuron in the cerebellum has

a thousand times more connections

than the neurons in the rest of the

brain. That means a scraping of

cerebellum the size of your little

fingernail has more neuron con-

nections than the whole neocortex.

Whats going on down there? And

can we make better use of it?

Doing, and Being: The Cerebellum and Whole Brain ActivityB Y J O E D I S P E N Z A

BRIDGING THE GAP

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the cerebellum in the human body. This structure looks like a cauliflower and has been considered the area of the brain that is responsible for balance, equilibrium, movement, coordination, posture, and proprioception (our orientation in space). Its uniqueness, however, allows it to act like a motor or a brake. It has the ability to process input from the muscles, joints, and tendons in order to maintain or execute smooth, coordinated movements. It also inhibits the loss of control of the body by reflexively refining our ability to do coordinated activities like threading a needle without our body jerking randomly. For instance, when we reach for the coffee cup and put it to our lips without spilling a drop, the cerebellum is responsible for the fluid motor movement of our arms and hands and the inhibitory control of certain gross muscles to stop us from moving in an exaggerated fashion. It is the servant that executes, controls, and coordinates the body to follow a thought from the neocortex. Once we are motivated to act, it is the cerebellum that begins to demonstrate and carry out an activity in an almost automatic fashion. It is as if this part of the brain takes over the body and it becomes a simple, natural, subconscious process.

THERES JUST NOTHING TO THINK ABOUT It has been a common thought by scientists that the cerebellum, unlike the neocortices, functions with no consciously aware centers of thought activity. This is true. There is no thinking in this organ. However, it now appears that the memory for certain learned responses may be stored there, particularly those areas of the cerebellum that have evolved most recently. Heres an example: The conditioned response created by Pavlov ringing the bell and then feeding his dogs ultimately produced immediate salivation of all of the participants from just the sound of the bell. Once the association was learned by certain centers of the brain, like the neocortices and hippocampus, the deep recesses of the cerebellum gave permission to automatically prepare the body physiologically for the experience. (However, if we surgically eliminated that part of the cerebellum that is activated during a conditioned response, the dogs would never salivate even though they consciously remembered the stimulus.)

Therefore, the associative memory of the stimulus from the environment produced the automatic phys io log ica l body memory/response. That is, the memory and

information about the experience were stored neurologically within the folds of the cerebellum. If this is true, then our own addictions and habits, which are conditioned responses, have a truly subconscious, physiological memory deep within our brain/body connection in the cerebellum. Also our greatest skills and most developed learned tasks are connected to this organ. The cerebellum is unique in the fact that it has approximately one million connections per neuron. This is the

Figure 1. Three different views of the cerebellum.

Figure 2. Comparison of different brain sizes and shapes.

Since dendrite connections are memories, does the cerebellum have memories and knowledge that we are not aware of?

A. SIDE VIEW

HUMAN

C. VIEW FROM BELOW

MANATEE CAT FROG

B. VIEW FROM ABOVE

reason why it is so dense and rubbery as an anatomical structure. It is considered almost completely gray matter. The fabric of gray matter is made up of neurons. Neurons are more granulated and much more condensed when they have additional dendrite connections. The cerebellum is the most densely granulated gray-matter material of the entire brain. Therefore, it has the greatest number of connections and potential connections in the entire brain. The average neuron of the neocortices or new brain has anywhere from 1,000 to 10,000 connections with neighboring neurons. Interestingly enough, these synaptic connections that are formed by our conscious intent in the new brain are developed through the experiences we obtain in this life as well as the factual intellectual memories that we enhance by learning and studying knowledge. The neuroconnections of the new brain are memories we have to develop. We consciously store memories throughout our life in the new brain by interacting and learning in our environment through our sensual experiences. Why then is the cerebellum filled with so many neurological connections without any outside influence by our direct conscious intent, and why is it considered an unconscious or subconscious territory of the human brain? In other words, why are certain memories not stored in our conscious brain center and why are so many memories already wired in the cerebellum as if they are genetically predisposed as our birthright? Since dendrite connections are memories, does the cerebellum have memories and knowledge that we are not aware of? Until recently, scientists thought that the total number of neurons in the brain at the time of birth was a fixed amount. However, the cerebellum is one of the few areas of the brain that continues to divide and reproduce additional neurons after birth. As a matter of fact, brain cell multiplication continues long after birth at different rates and at different times of development. Why would our genetic program provide such a feature?

THE ROLE OF THE CEREBELLUM IN EVERYDAY LIFE Many of our actions that are developed throughout our lifetime are wired to our cerebellum. Everything that we do by repetition becomes wired to this subconscious mind. Everything from walking to eating, to driving a car, to shaving, to riding a bicycle, to typing, to making love, to dancing, to tying our shoes has its connections to the subconscious mind.

It was not always that way, though. None of these actions came naturally. We developed and learned these traits and skills by consciously putting all of our attention on a task and repeating it over and over again until it became natural, easy, common, familiar, simple, subconscious unconscious. In other words, we repeated it over and over again almost to the point of boredom. The moment that an activity becomes so familiar that it seems boring is the point at which we permanently wire the activity to our cerebellum. That is, we no longer have to think about what we are doing. Then all we need is a motivated thought and the action is automatically initiated. Have you ever asked anyone who performs a skill very well how they do it? Every single person who is a master of his or her passion will always say the same thing, I have practiced this so much that I never even think about it any longer. I just do it. Think of the neocortex as the thinker. Think of the cerebellum as the doer. When the thinker and the doer unify, we then have a natural state of being. Being will involve the use of the whole brain, because the unity of these two parts of the brain creates activity in the midbrain, which is that area responsible for providing chemical and neurological signals to the body through the autonomic nervous system. The body now is in state of being that is integrated with the whole-brain activity.

Remember, earlier we learned that the cerebellum has no con-scious centers; it does have memory, though. Its whole function is the joy of doing and

demonstrating what the brain is thinking. Its goal is to remember the intended plan of the neocortices without any help without any thinking. In other words, the cerebellum loves to take intellectual philosophy and practice it, execute it, coordinate it, memorize it, and integrate it with our body until it reaches a state that it can automatically remember it without the help of any other part of the brain without the neocortices. The greater the design built by the conscious centers of the new brain, the more developed and diverse the effect of the cerebellum to execute it. At this stage of ability, the neocortices then become only a messenger, signaling the cerebellum by a thought to start its activity that the cerebellum already knows and remembers. The neocortices send a visual cue of what it wants the cerebellum to do.

Then the unity of thinking and doing creates a state of being. It is the process of taking intellectual philosophy and applying it as practical wisdom. Think of the process in this fashion: When you were young and just learning how to walk, it took every bit of your conscious attention to walk from one side of the room to the other. You literally had to focus during the whole activity. First, your neocortex had to picture where it wanted to go, then it visualized how the body was going to get there, then it consciously took a step, at the same time thinking which foot it was moving, and then it attempted to coordinate the whole process until you reached your destiny. God forbid you fell, because if you did, you would have to restart the whole process over again. Moment by moment, the thinking part of our brain had to continually provide a map of the journey by flashing different messages to the cerebellum of an intended outcome. The neocortices were attempting to provide a continuous mode of how you were to accomplish the task by repeatedly remembering what it wanted to accomplish. Thats focus. Once you have learned how to walk, though, you no longer have to focus so intently. You dont have to plan your movements step by step. Now when you want to go to the refrigerator to eat something, the neocortex just sends the message to the cerebellum, you get up, walk to the refrigerator, open the door, and choose what you want. You no longer think about how you are going to make the journey. The cerebellum observes the activity of the mapmaking neocortex which is motivated by the thought of hunger and then it performs the task without the continuous conscious effort it once had to make earlier in your life. Therefore, all we really need when we have wired our brains by repetition to the subconscious cerebellum is the visual flash of a thought along with the inspiration to do it, and the body automatically follows. This law of the mind is consistent with any skill. Everything that is ever learned well with our minds and executed with our bodies follows this same process. Everything from learning to type and mastering it, to playing the piano and mastering it, to skiing and mastering it, to sewing and becoming great at it, to golfing under par, is all possible. By this process, it is equally possible to become a healer and to heal without ever having to think about it; to develop our intuative ability and have it become natural and easy; to live in and experience other dimensions on a daily basis; to be able to manifest objects and realities intentionally without effort; and to perform "miracles" at will as long as we have the knowledge that our new thinking brain can conceive and model. Then all we

need is the permission to practice it until the cerebellum remembers it and unifies it to a state of being.

GETTING INTO THE ZONEProfessional archers who focus on a target while their brain activity is being measured with electrodes and sophisticated instrumentation all have very high neurological activity in the neocortices as they prepare to shoot their arrow. The thinking part of their brain is reviewing everything it has to do from a technical standpoint. Their brain is busy thinking about keeping their arm straight, controlling their breathing, the proper grip of the left hand, the placement of the bow with their right hand, the tension of the fingers, and the contraction of certain muscles, to name just a few. Then there comes a moment when the neocortices calm down and get very quiet. At that moment, there no longer is any thinking. Only the frontal lobe is holding the archers single-minded intention. That is, the moment that they focus on their target and zoom in on the bulls-eye, the cerebellum takes over by following only one order from the frontal lobe. And that order is the visual picture of an outcome. The cerebellum then takes over the body to serve the intention. Studies in which instruments were used to track brain activity, plus infrafed lasers were fastened to the sight of the bow, have shown that right when the archer lines up the sight of the bow with the center of the target, there is no cortical brain activity and there is no thinking. There is a momentary trancelike state of the brain where the cerebellum now has the space and time to remember what it has been conditioned to, without the neocortices talking in a constant state of chatter. Thats how we master any action. We rely on the rich dendrite connections of cerebellar memory.

REMEMBERING WHAT WE DO NOT KNOW So in this "plane of demonstration" that we occupy with these bodies, we are only limited by our own knowledge base and our own doubt of what is possible. What we once thought of as impossible for humans as recently as one hundred years ago is now a definitive reality. Knowledge is the prima materia for the architectural skills of the neocortices. Inspiration and conscious focused action are the catalysts to activate any memory deep within the automatic mind of the cerebellum, the servant to the architect. It will always respond to the design of the neocortices by observing its plans, and it will always provide the infinite mind and unlimited energy to carry out those plans.

The clearer the instructions, the greater the outcome manifested. The cerebellum is our connection to the mind of God because it will consistently endorse all of our focused intentions. With its millions of connections per neuron, the memory already exists within, waiting to be activated. Perhaps we only need to develop the skill of remembering what we do not consciously know but have subconsciously recorded as the collective memories of our evolution as a species. A truly evolving spiritual person is not an individual with intellectual skill and memory of prayer or scripture. A spiritual person also is not one who performs repetitive rituals without knowledge and awareness. A spiritually enlightened person is one who activates the whole brain by using the neocortices to marry philosophical knowledge with the experienced memory of the cerebellum so that thinking begets doing, which ultimately manifests a state of being. When we arrive at this state independent of the feedback from our bodies, the feedback from our environment, and the enslavement of time, we are truly evolved. Then making known what is not known can be as simple as riding a bike and we will never forget how to do it.

nREFERENCE Ornstein R., and Thompson R. (1984). The Amazing Brain. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.

Infrared lasers that have been fastened to the sight of the bow have shown that right when the archer lines up the sight of the bow with the center of the target, there is no cortical brain activity and there is no thinking.