Truth Determines Action and Behavior

The human brain and nervous system are engineered to react automatically and appropriately to the problems and challenges in the environment. For example, a man does not need to stop and think that self-survival requires that he run if he meets a grizzly bear on a trail. He does not need to decide to become afraid. The fear response is both automatic and appropriate. First, it makes him want to flee. The fear then triggers bodily mechanisms which "soup up" his muscles so that he can run faster than he has ever run before. His heart beat is quickened. Adrena­lin, a powerful muscle stimulant, is poured into the bloodstream. All bodily functions not necessary to run­ning are shut down. The stomach stops working and all available blood is sent to the muscles. Breathing is much faster and the oxygen supply to the muscles is increased manifold.
All this, of course, is nothing new. Most of us learned it in high school. What we have not been so quick to realize, however, is that the brain and nervous system which re­acts automatically to environment is the same brain and nervous system which tells us what the environment is. The reactions of the man meeting the bear are commonly thought of as due to "emotion" rather than to ideas. Yet, it was an idea—information received from the outside world, and evaluated by the forebrain—which sparked the so-called "emotional reactions." Thus, it was basically idea or belief which was the true causative agent, rather than emotion—which came as a result. In short, the man on the trail reacted to what he thought, or believed or imagined the environment to be. The "messages" brought to us from the environment consist of nerve impulses from the various sense organs. These nerve impulses are de­coded, interpreted and evaluated in the brain and made known to us in the form of ideas or mental images. In the final analysis it is these mental images that we react to.