I like the image David Eagleman uses in "Incognito" to depict a conscious mind assuming credit, taking ownership of the body and the brain, like a passenger on a great modern oceanliner taking credit for the whole ship and the whole voyage. That image makes clear that a great deal goes on in me that I don't know about: my heart beating, my breathing continuing, my digestive system adding energy and many other processes I cannot detect or control consciously.
So, I was surprised to read that Goleman and Davidson in "Altered Traits" research the mind and parts of the brain with different expectations depending on what sort of thoughts I am harboring. Since I rather figured that one thought is like another, I didn't think it would matter much what I thought about. But as I consider it more carefully, I guess it is not so surprising.
If I think about being in a physical fight, I get one set of reactions. I might get a bit aroused and my fight, flight or freeze system might get warmed up some. If I think about the world's worst sheep dog video I saw on Facebook, I smile and can even laugh. In those situations, I don't find it odd that parts of my brain and of my body react differently depending on what I am thinking about. When I have trouble remembering FDR's middle name or the year of the Star-Spangled Banner being composed, I would not be surprised if different parts of my brain get used.
I thought thoughts were all the same more or less, much as I think of all words being similar. Thinking of a looming deadline might make me feel nervous, anxious but I didn't think the thoughts involved used different parts of my brain/mind than the parts thoughts of lying in the warm sun on a nice beach use.
Sharon Salzberg and others emphasize meditation/concentration sessions that focus on thinking, feeling and emanating loving-kindness and compassion. Brain scientists know that when I feel compassion for another, a particular part of my brain gets used, the amygdala. Experiments have been done when seminary students, charged with giving a sermon about the Good Samaritan, had to pass by a person in need of aid. I am confident that I am the sort of person who would be thinking of my coming sermon and not notice that poor soul. Might be a dirty trick on the part of the experimenters to test me in that way.
Experiments have also been done that showed more compassionate behavior and bigger amygdalas in people who practice loving-kindness meditation.
