Hadia Ali

Prof Cole Nathan

Eng 1010
Final Draft IEP
May 5,2016
Can the power of Human mind ultimately cure all diseases?
Introduction
For the past 200 years, science and medicine have approached the human mind, generally, as
an entity separate from the human body, while religious, spiritual and philosophical traditions
have emphasized their connection to man through "mind and soul". A new field of study is
emerging that connects the concepts of "mind, brain, body, soul (spirit), medicine and
technology" to determine true wellness and health.
Our brains have about 100,000 billion neurons (1011) and each neuron is connected to up to
10,000 other neurons who are passing signals to others through more than 100 trillion synapses
(1014 ). Mind as the software which operates (and perhaps controls) on the brain and the body.
Human mind has been called the ultimate frontier, since it is still a mystery (for the most part)
and it's true essence and power has yet to be understood and realized.
There is a perpetual scientific quest underway to understand, enhance and empower the mind.
The non-scientific quest has also been going on, in parallel, for centuries starting perhaps with
Buddha. The power it gathers and the tools it continues to create are becoming frighteningly
powerful. Theoretically, the mind empowerment, enhancement and tool creation has no end.
Taking care of and curing the body (the body the mind calls 'home' because it can't exist or live
anywhere else' should be it's main objective. By employing it's direct power (meditation, prayer,
spirituality) and with the help of the tools it has created, Can the mind ultimately cure all
diseases ?

It is anticipated that the power of the human mind will ultimately cure disease.
"Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve"

Napolean Hill.

The above over 50 years quote from Napolean Hill is more relevant today than during his
time. The line between what is conceivable and achievable and between science fiction and
reality is vanishing at an astonishing speed.
Humanity maybe at the verge of entering the realm of an integrated field of 'mind, brain,
body, soul' medicine. Some of the ingredients required for success are being developed and
gradually incorporated in, while others have been in existence in various forms for centuries.
These include meditation, prayer and various religious and spiritual practices.
We'll start our exploration right in our backyard
Utah - based technology reconnects brain, body.
The system that bypasses the damaged connections (between mind brain/body) may help
epilepsy patients.Salt Lake Tribune, April 26, 2016
"The technology, known as the Utah Electrode Array is a microchip composed of 100 needle
like electrodes implanted in the brain. When the electrodes are hooked up to an external
computer, they can simulate or record activity in the neurons (bypassing the damaged part of the
brain/ body during accidents). The array concept has tremendous implications and applications.
Hospitals across the country have started using it to record activity in the brains of epilepsy
patients. In epilepsy patients, the array allows doctors and scientists to zoom in on the exact
neurons that cause seizures, rather than a general large area of the brain. Scientists hope that "one
day these arrays can help quadriplegics walk again".
Artificial Intelligence
Whatever differences exist between human brain and machines will likely vanish in the near
future. The recent win by Google program 'AlphaGo' in a 'Go' game against human champion is
an example of the emerging power of intelligent machines. The blending of human and machine,

which Google's Ray Kurzwell calls the Singularity will likely happen within the next few
decades. The 'AlphaGo' like intelligent software with sophisticated sensors could ultimately
monitor human body at cellular or even molecular/atom level and detect and report anomalies
indicating pending discomforts and disease. Human brains/minds and body parts could become
infinitely upgradable by replacing diseased or aging parts. The strong argument for this
possibility is that various components of it are already being put in place today.
Mindfulness - dipping into the inherent and direct awesome power of human mind.
Mindfulness is a state of active, open attention on the present. When you're mindful, you
observe your thoughts and feelings from a distance, without judging them good or bad. Instead
of letting your life pass you by, mindfulness means living in the moment and awakening to
experience.
Mindfulness is rooted in Eastern philosophy, specifically Buddhism. Two factors set
Mindfulness apart from passing fads or smart marketing and give it a practical veneer that is
helping propel it into main stream medicine and various wellness therapies. During mindfulness
meditation practices, one can learn to become impartial observer of one's mind and life and help
solve some health and wellness issues.
Neuroplasticity
Kabat-Zinn (Professor of Medicine Emeritus and creator of the Stress Reduction Clinic and
the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of
Massachusetts Medical School.) and other proponents are careful to avoid any talk of spirituality
when espousing mindfulness. instead, they advocate a common sense approach. Think of your
attention as a muscle. As with any muscle, it makes sense to exercise it (in this case with
mindfulness practice). Like with any muscle, the mind/brain will strengthen with exercise. A
second potentially more powerful factor is what science is learning about brain's ability to rewire
itself. This phenomenon, known as Neuroplasticity, suggests there are concrete benefits and
amazing possibilities for healing the mind and the body. Time magazine, March 7, 2016.

Mind over matter

...I can reshape my brain through meditationI can raise my body temperature
A group of Tibetan nuns can increase their core body temperature to about 100 degrees F in
subzero weather just by doing a type of meditation called g-tummo. Yes, that is a rare group, but
scientists taught Western people a similar technique and found the subjects could raise their body
temp. The breathing caused thermogenesis, a process of heat production. This could help people
function better in frigid environments,Reader's Digest, May, 2016.
Mindfulness therapy works as well as anti-depressant drugs, major new study find. It makes
complete sense to me that this wonderful faculty of thinking can both get us into trouble and also
get us out of trouble, researcher says Ian Johnston, Science Correspondent, Independent, News,
Science According to a recent article in May, 2016 Reader's Digest
Spirituality, Religion and Prayer to Heal
Spirituality, Religion Faith, Prayer and Meditation have been relied upon for centuries to come
to the aid of man to heal from it's suffering. Healing is different from curing (or usually the first
step in curing) in that healing may not mean you go back to the level of health you were before,
or even have your desired outcome. Healing is about working with the mind, body and spirit to
support what is needed in order to achieve a state of balance. When we are able to tune in and
find these states of balance, whether that be through a combination of prayer, reflection and
meditation, resting, cleansing our thoughts and emotions, forgiving ourselves and others from the
wrongs (assumed and real) that have been afflicted, we begin to heal.
The mystery of Placebos points to the power of mind
"Taking a sugar pill can affect heart rate, alter brain activity, ease depression, and improve
Parkinson's symptoms - all real, physiological responses to an essentially fake treatment. An
analysis of 84 chronic pain-drug trials found the placebo effect getting stronger. By 2013,
patients receiving placebos experienced a 30 percent decrease in pain levels on average,

compared with about 5 percent in 1990. Scientists are trying to figure out why you may respond
well to placebo but your friend doesn't, what precisely happens in people's bodies and brains
when a placebo is taken and the best ways to harness placebo's power".Reader's Digest - May
2016
Could the mindfulness be combines with placebo's to enhance their effectiveness ?
Synthetic Biology
There are some astonishing and even frightening advances occurring in the field of Synthetic
Biology in various labs and institutions around the globe.
" synthetic genomics will make it possible to go beyond standard practices in at least two way.
One by providing entirely novel methods of treatment of existing diseases. Mostly, this involves
geonomically engineering microorganisms or nonhuman mammalian species for the purpose of
performing specific medical interventions The other is by by re-engineering the genome itself for
the purpose of preventing many diseases in the first place. The second will be far reaching in it's
applications.If introducing small surgical alterations to our genome would make us immune to all
viruses, known or unknown, it would revolutionize medicine. The diseases just wouldn't exist
(just as Smallpox no longer does)".Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and
Ourselves. Book by G.M Church and Ed Regis
Disease is part of human evolution and destiny and cannot be cured by the power of human
mind
A little less celebratory view of the power of human mind is that while humans make progress
to eradicate disease and increase health and wellness, the disease itself becomes more sneaky and
deadly.There were only 404 kinds of diseases in the time of our ancestors, but today known
diseases are listed in thousands in medical books. Interestingly, many of them are created as
modern diseases of human error by scientists of the world. The following is a small sample of
diseases that continues to challenge and defeat human endeavors to eradicate:

HIV
The human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes HIV infection and over time
acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. The virus attacks the immune system - body's natural
defense against disease.
HIV continues to be a major global public health issue. Since 2000, 38.1 million people have
become infected with HIV and 25.3 million people have died of AIDS-related illnesses.
In 2014, an estimated 36.9 million people were living with HIV (including 2.6 million
children)

a global HIV prevalence of 0.8%.2 The vast majority of this number live in low-

and middle- income countries. In the same year, 1.2 million people died of AIDS-related
illnesses.
25.8 million people living with HIV are in sub-Saharan Africa, accounting for 70% of the
global total.4 Only 54% of all people living with HIV know that they have the virus.5
Zika
Zika virus disease is caused by a virus transmitted primarily by Aedes mosquitoes. People
with Zika virus disease can have symptoms that can include mild fever, skin rash, conjunctivitis,
muscle and joint pain, malaise or headache.
Ebola
Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) or simply Ebola, is a viral hemorrhage fever of humans and other
primates caused by ebola viruses. The recent Ebola outbreak in West Africa was first reported in
March 2014, and rapidly became the deadliest occurrence of the disease since its discovery in
1976. In 40 years of Ebola outbreaks, there has never been one as complicated as the most recent
one. The Ebola viruses seem to have the ability to lurk for months in hidden reservoirs: fluid
from eyes, breast milk, vaginal secretions and semen.

Recent events demonstrate how quickly e landscape can change. Four months ago, the World
Health Organization issued a list of the top emerging diseases that could cause major epidemics,
including Ebola, SARS and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever. Notably, Zika didn't make the
list.
Manmade disasters working against eradication of disease
"Three decades after the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded and sent a plume of
radiation as far away as United Kingdom, fears remain that the world's worst nuclear disaster
could still trigger cancer, illness and death. ....there are (possibly) thousands and thousands of
Chernobyl children who have severely compromised immune system.USA TODAY - April 26,
2016
Biosecurity Threats
In the aftermath of anthrax attacks of 2001, the Ebola outbreak of 2014 and more recent Zika,
it is no longer a question of if but when the next biosecurity threat will occur. In fact, experts
believe a pandemic, not nuclear terrorism or climate change, is most likely to cause 10 million or
more deaths in a single event.
Manmade Environmental Threats
The above sample and many others pose challenges which humans are often scrambling to
fight and control, after the fact. Add this to the problem of population explosion, lack of hygiene
and clean drinking water for millions, disappearance of forests and millions of species, wars,
global warming, man-made disasters and we may have a recipe for the birth of super virus(s) of
the deadliest kind. This unfortunately does not speak well for the power of the human mind and
it's accomplishments.
Dire Warnings from the Brightest Minds.

The outspoken engineer and inventor Elon Musk has famously called Artificial Intelligence
(AI ) "our greatest existential threat", fretting that it maybe equivalent to "summoning the devil".
Elon Musk - entrepreneur, SPACEX Founder, CEO of Tesla Motors
Bostrom warns that AI could turn dark quickly and dispose of humans. The subsequent world
would harbor "economic miracles and technological awesomeness, with nobody there to
benefit", like "a disneyland without children".Nick Bostrom - Director of the Future of Humanity
Institute at Oxford University.
The famed theorist Stephen Hawking believes that AI could be both miraculous and
catastrophic, calling it "the biggest event in human history" but also potentially "the last, unless
we learn how to avoid the risks".Stephen Hawking - Theoretical Physicist, Pioneer of Black Hole
Physics.
Humanity maybe at the verge of entering the realm of 'mind, body, soul, medicine'. Some of
the required ingredients are being developed and gradually incorporated into the relevant fields
of medicine, while others have been in existence in various forms for centuries. These include
meditation, prayer and and various religious and spiritual practices.
Conclusion
While the progress in technology and medicine advances and accomplishes at breath-neck
speeds, it is feared that the whole endeavor might be off track, if the eradication of disease and
human suffering was the goal. Most would argue that humans are much more than just body
parts and complex wiring of brains. The human consciousness, the soul (or spirit), human body,
brain, mind, environment, other forms of life, and many other aspects of humanity are in a
complex interdependent relationship to make a human being. In that realm, disease, suffering and
death are an integral part of being human and all life experience. Humans will never be able to
free themselves from their inherent destiny by the power of their mind.
Ultimately, the real power of the human mind will be in it's ability to develop humility to
recognize the connectedness of all humanity and living things, and the realization that human

disease is inseparable from the larger societal, social and environmental problems facing
humanity.
As mentioned above, Synthetic Biology is moving forward at an astonishing speed.
However, many of the challenges being faced (to eradicate disease), are not entirely of the
technical nature. They are rather human nature. If we are scared or suspicious of genetically
engineered or modified foods, we would be terrified at the thought of genetically reengineered
(fully or partially) human beings. A major psychological and socio-psychological shift would
need to take place for the humanity to deal with the new reality of Synthetic Biology and its
implications. Add politics, religion, culture and money to the mix and we'll be dealing with an
entirely new set of challenging rather than just disease.

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References:

Geroge M Church, Ed Regis , Regenesis book , How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent
Nature and Ourselves.
Ray Kurzweil The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology Ray Kurzweil p.b
Time magazine, March 7, 2016
Teresa Domain Secret Your Body Telling You, t p.b Reader' Digest May 2016
Alex Stuckey.. Utah-Based Technology Reconnects brain, Body building Salt Lake Tribune,
April 26, 2016
Kim Hjelmgaard. chernobyl- Nuclear Disaster Could trigger Cancer. http://www.avert.org/
professionals/hiv-around-world/global-statistics
Kate Pickert. The Art Of Being Mindful, p.b Time magazine , February 3,2014