Brain Pictures

The brain thinks in pictures. It turns whatever it reads, thinks, hears, and so on, into mental pictures. You may have read a book, creating internal mental pictures about what the characters and environment looked like. Later on, seeing a movie based on the book, you may think, “That’s not like what I pictured!” The Reptilian 1^st brain layer and the Mammalian 2^nd brain layer are both subconscious portions of the brain. They are thought unable to use language per se but they can follow the pictures created in the 3^rd brain layer or neocortex. Tell a four-year-old child: “Don’t touch the stove,” and the first brain picture is that of touching the stove. It’s very difficult for a young child to convert that picture (and often not much easier for an adult’s brain) so the child may touch the stove and get burned. Often the child is then punished for disobeying, when there would be a greater chance for success by saying, “Keep your hand away from the stove.”