Survival Tricks of the Human Brain

I’ve learned a few times in various psychology classes that the human brain likes to trick, deceive, and confuse the truth with us. It’s basically made me learn to believe that our brain isn’t nearly as powerful as we like to believe; That we’re really not much “better” than any other species out there as far as brain power goes. But more recently, I’ve discovered that the brain is much more powerful than almost any person is completely aware of, or will ever have the chance to experience.

After watching a few films concerning the way the mind works on the Discovery channel, as well as looking up some information in confirmation for myself, I’ve learned various mind boggling facts about how our brain can function.

It’s amazing actually, the things our brain can do. Our survival methods far outweigh what most of us even expect out of ourselves. A lot of us take the functions our brain provides us with for granted, and we can’t truly learn the value of our brain until we’re put under such stress that our brain functions under survival mode.

For instance, a few years ago, there was a devastating forest fire in which fireman were trapped. The chance of survival was supposed to be about one percent. The fireman were all running from this fire that was practically a storm cloud of burning death, and in the last few seconds before the fire would consume them all alive, their brain did something amazing. Their brains actually managed to slow down time, essentially. The brain normally takes in about 30 frames per second of information. Under extreme stress, like this situation, our brain can double or triple this rate, giving us a time-slowing effect. We can process much, much more information in a much smaller amount of time. This gave the fireman enough time to think about a plan within a matter of a second or two. The fireman were able to get out fire barriers, and be ready for the fire by the time it reached them. They lived with only about a second to spare. The entire event was a miracle to anyone who considered the facts.

Or how about an experiment concerning a stop watch. The numbers on the stop watch are moving so fast, that the human eye can’t even read the numbers under normal conditions. After jumping off a 200 foot platform and holding the clock in your hands, you’re somehow able to read the numbers at normal rates! Because you’re under such stress, you can process so much more information in a shorter period of time, giving you that time slowing effect.

A man stranded out to sea for weeks at a time was eating nothing but fish to keep from starving. Of course he was getting full, bu he wasn’t getting the nutrients he needed from the all flesh diet to stay alive. Suddenly, right before he would have died of vitamin deprivation, he had intense cravings to eat other parts of the fish he was catching. He was suddenly interested in eating the liver, the eyes, and other parts of the fish that he would otherwise throw away and find repulsive. The brain wanted these nutrients, and made him actually enjoy eating them.

These are just a few examples of the many amazing things that our brain can do. Our brain is much more powerful and able to help us survive on a scale that no one else could ever assume is possible.