YOUR BRAIN AND THE BIBLE 2 (with Tobi Delly)

What makes the difference when exactly we use the same brain to read and analyze, but we interpret the Bible in different ways according to the challenges we are facing or our present state of mind. The difference is brought about by our perception. We focused more on attention in the last edition but will be focusing more on perception in this section. First, let’s quickly analyze attention. There’s what scientist calls a top-down attention, this is your decision making attention, take a second to look from your bible to the closest doorway.  You’ve taken a conscious decision using your decision-making attention to look away at the doorway. And there’s what scientist call bottom-up attention; this is used to explain when something grabs your attention. E.g. when a phone rings and you think it is your phone. This has shown that in a split second when your focus is shifted from the Bible your brain can be manipulated and you can begin interpreting the Bible in a completely different way from what it should be.

Now this article, “Your brain and the Bible” will only graze what you should know about how your brain takes limited information from your senses to build you a trustworthy reality. And we can’t complete that without talking about our perception. Perception is internal. Most time our perceptions are the same. It is possible to interview a hundred people about a passage in the Bible and they’ll all say the same thing about the passage. Why is this? When you read the Bible, whether your eyes are very sharp or you use glasses, light is transmitted. The light reflected by what you’re reading. I.e. the letters is converted by your eyes into an electrical signal and is sent down a neurological pathway called the optical nerve to the back of your brain. Starting in a region called the visual cortex the image of what you’re reading is cross-referenced with memories of past experience stored throughout your brain as you try to interpret and define what you’re reading. Thus, you can understand why when you were listening to the Radio or watching a channel on Television and you saw a Pastor preaching, and after listening for five minutes you said, oh! This is wrong . . . this man is not preaching the true thing. And you change the channel. Focus, experience, and context are what create the contrast or difference between what the Pastor is reading from the Bible and what the congregation is reading. Therefore, the issue of the Bible is not physical or can be scientifically transmitted or concluded because God works in miraculous and personalized ways. So it’s always good to let your brain be in attunement in Christ. You might not believe it but this determines a lot of things when you are praying to God. What one man can pray to ask God in five minutes, another can ask for one hour. Why? The answer is in our understanding of attention, focus and perception. Last week I explained if you want to read the Bible, then make sure you don’t do anything but read. It is better to read for just five minutes than to stare for one hour just punning through the words. But now am telling you that whenever you’re reading the Bible with all that focus and attention. Don’t analyze, or interpret with your brain. The Bible is a book in existence for over a thousand years now. It is the most complete book you can ever hold with everything in just one book. From mystery, history, mythology, wisdom, proverbs, motivation, to prophecy, gemology, romance, songs, revelations, building, construction, etc. is contained in the Bible. Of recent it was announced a runaway bestseller. So take this book seriously and train your brain not to interpret but listening from the heart what God is really telling you or inspiring you to do. Shalom!