How does the spiritual Being fit into this picture. The Being is able to adopt a viewpoint from which to perceive and to have considerations, opinions and intentions. This is one kind of mind - a Higher Mind. The Being also has the ability to get itself into a right mess, stuck in a fixed identity - such as identifying with a human body in order to perceive through the human, to experience life and express itself through that organic system.

But the human body also has a life of its own - it is a genetic entity - a life form programmed by genes. It is a wonderful animal, on a higher plane of evolution than other animals. It is further conditioned by stimulus-response learning, in which trauma and cultural pressures play a part. It has inbuilt survival drives and develops a more or less sophisticated intelligence, the first phases of cognitive and linguistic development described above. It may also be programmed by the Being that identifies with it. This second kind of mind, that of a located identity, therefore has both analytical and reactive programs, both of which may be distorted. In the case of a human being, the imprinted mental programs are carried out by the brain, an incredibly sophisticated computer.

A stimulus, such as an image or perception, may cause an increase or decrease of brain arousal, if the stimulus is interpreted as frightening or reassuring. This stress or relaxation response is transmitted throughout the nervous system, and is measurable as a change in skin resistance. Increase in tension and arousal will cause a fall of resistance on the Biofeedback Monitor, and relaxation or detachment will cause a rise (and corresponding movement of the needle). Overwhelm would cause a dramatic drop in resistance and dissociation would cause a long rise. A 'periodic' needle pattern, on the other hand, occurs when there is no reactive activity or conflict occurring between the body-mind (the composite) and the Being and there is an intuitive (non-verbal) open-channel to the Being. The needle follows the gentle pulse - reach and withdraw - of this communication line.

If the Higher Mind and the body-mind are not differentiated, confusion results. Part of the misunderstanding stems from an identification of the thinking personality, the left-brain verbal intelligence, with the awareness of awareness that is the Being. The verbal intelligence is very much 'of the brain', whereas the Being is not 'of the brain' but influences the brain through non-verbal communication and subtle energies.

The following diagram illustrates how the Being (YOU) inter-relates with the human body-mind:

The Being is able to operate a mind quite independently from the brain, making 'facsimile' pictures as desired and communicating pictures to the right brain. These then change the arousal level and affect the Biofeedback Monitor. The body-mind has learnt the programs for 'intelligence': it can do an IQ test unaided by the Being. Only the Being, however, has knowingness, awareness of its own goals and creative intention - will and choice. Being essentially outside of space and time, it has an objective viewpoint that is unaffected by the reactive mental processes of the body-mind subconscious. It is the source of the highest values of life, love and truth. This is constantly demonstrated in The Insight Project, as it is the conflict between the knowingness of the Being and the composite body-mind's lies or suppressions, which causes the meter to respond.

The brain does have functions, they can be improved, and these functions relate directly to spiritual awareness; the whole system of Transformational Psychology works to this end, including the The Insight Project course.