Leadership, Consciousness, Mind & Brain

This article offers leaders the chance to understand more about the distinctions between consciousness, mind and brain and why this matters to their growth and success as leaders.  It draws on recent neuroscience research and explains the essence of self-mastery.

Mainstream Scientific View

The mainstream scientific view is that mind – and indeed consciousness – is simply the brain in action; that both are products of the brain.

However, the new model of the human psyche I introduced in my book, The Three Levels of Leadership: How to Develop Your Leadership Presence, Knowhow and Skill, takes a different view.  It says the mind is more than the brain.  But the model goes further.  It also says that you are a Self (a centre of consciousness, will and imagination) and you are more than your mind.

Why Consider Another View?

Why is it important for leaders – and anyone wanting to become a leader – to consider an unorthodox view like this?  Two reasons:

• First, because science is increasingly showing us that the orthodox view doesn’t stack up with the facts.
• Second, because if you see yourself as a Self using mind as a creative tool while knowing you are more than your mind, you immediately put some space between the essential “you” and the mind’s unceasing flow of thoughts and feelings, giving you a chance to grow faster and grow your presence (sometimes called executive presence) as a leader by practising self-mastery.

What is self-mastery?  Self-mastery is the process by which the Self takes command of the contents and activities of its mind.  Self-mastery is the key to emotional intelligence and what’s now being called spiritual intelligence.  It offers you the freedom to control your mental state (and therefore your brain), your use of time and how you respond to other people and, indeed, all events outside your control.  In my view, you cannot develop the true leadership presence / executive presence (which by the way is not the same as charisma) that endures through tough times without putting in effort on self-mastery.

Self-mastery techniques include mindfulness meditation, self-enquiry and centring (an exercise from Psychosynthesis psychology).

Neuroscience and Neuroplasticity

I mentioned that self-mastery lets you control your mental state.  It does so , at least in part, by affecting your brain in a positive way.

Neuroscientists used to believe that once human beings had grown to adulthood their brain could no longer change.  We now know this is false.  Late in the 20th century, neuroscientists found that it’s possible to rewire the adult brain, repair damaged regions, grow new neurons (brain cells) and reorganise where the brain handles its tasks.  They called this “neuroplasticity.”

For example, they proved that stroke victims with brain damage can rewire their brains and recover lost control of their limbs through repeated physical practice.  Repeated practice enables the healthy parts of the brain to take over work previously controlled by the now-damaged parts.

Self-Directed Neuroplasticity & Effects of Mindfulness Meditation

Now at first, it seemed only repeated physical actions could cause neuroplasticity.  However, for over a decade neuroscience has been throwing up hard evidence that mental force affects brain structure – meaning that there’s a distinction between mind and brain.

For example, Jeffrey Schwartz, a research professor of psychiatry, found that we can change our brain through focused, sustained mental attention alone.

He showed this with patients suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.  By teaching them certain mental techniques, he proved with the help of PET scanners that they could rewire their brains and free themselves from their troubling condition.  He called this “self-directed neuroplasticity.”  You can read about it in his book, The Mind & The Brain.

Neuroscientists have noticed a similar effect on the brain when studying people who practise mindfulness meditation.  A study by Sara Lazar and others showed that seasoned meditators’ brains were physically different to those of non-meditators.  For example, the zones associated with attention and sensory processing were thicker.  The scientists also noticed that meditators showed less age-related thinning of the cortex (which is key to memory, attention, thought and language).

Alvaro Pascual-Leone’s Remarkable Study

Alvaro Pascual-Leone carried out an even more remarkable study of the mind’s ability to affect the physical makeup of the brain.

He and his colleagues asked a group of volunteers to practise a five-finger exercise on a piano keyboard.  They had to practise every day for two hours over five days.  After five days, the scientists mapped the area of the motor cortex controlling the fingers and found it had grown compared with its size before the exercise began.  Now given that neuroscientists had begun to accept the brain’s plasticity, this wasn’t a surprise.  After all, they knew that a brain devotes more space to tasks its owner performs often and minimises how much it gives to rarely used functions.  They’d found, for example, that pianists’ brains give more space to the zone controlling the fingers than the average person.

But here’s where Pascual-Leone’s study gets especially interesting.  The scientists asked another group of volunteers to simply think about practising the five-finger piano exercise – no physical work, just imagining how they’d move their fingers to play the music.  Five days later, they found the part of the motor cortex governing the fingers had expanded just as much as it had in those who played the piano.  In short, mental rehearsal had had the same effect on the brain as physical rehearsal at the piano.

Drawing Conclusions

Neuroscience is therefore teaching us that the mind and concentrated mental attention can affect the brain in measurable ways.  In other words, the practice of self-mastery works.

But is the “mind” doing it or is the brain changing itself?  Do these findings show mind is more than just the brain?

Most objective observers would, I believe, say yes.  However, I’d put it differently because if we focus on the distinction between mind and brain we can miss a much more important insight.

I’d say not that “mind is changing brain,” but that the Self (the centre of consciousness) is focusing the mind which, in turn, causes change in the brain.  In other words, there is a hierarchy and it is consciousness – mind – brain.

In other words, “self-mastery” refers to mastery of the mind and brain by the Self.

What this means, I believe, is that you as a leader are fundamentally a creative centre of consciousness.  This holds out exciting possibilities because it means leaders can achieve self-mastery by rewiring their brains with mental techniques like meditation.