People generally believe the brain to be mind, the intelligent directional center of man. A nationally syndicated magazine article on this subject begins: "My brain is me...[it] fashions my personality, controls my needs, my desires." Parade Magazine, February 16, 1986 .
It is now also asserted that one side of the brain feels, the other thinks. A "map" of the brain labels different areas for different functions: speech, vision, hearing, heart, movement, behavior, pleasure, pain. The brain's nerve network is believed to cause stress, fatigue, violence, sexual desire, madness. It is claimed that through control of the brain all sorts of mental and emotional ailments can be cured, and even that a race of geniuses can be developed.
But is brain the center of thinking and feeling? Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer of Christian Science, asks, "Does brain think, and do nerves feel, and is there intelligence in matter?" It answers "No" and then goes on to say: "The assertion that there can be pain or pleasure in matter is erroneous....How can intelligence dwell in matter when matter is non-intelligent and brain-lobes cannot think? Matter cannot perform the functions of Mind." Science and Health, p. 478.
