6 Weird Things Your Mind Might Be Capable Of

Human mind

The human mind is one of the most powerful tools in the world.

It has so far shaped the course of human history on our planet. Despite all the studies performed to understand the complexity of the mind, there is still so much we don’t know. Its potential can be considered to be limitless and for centuries, we have been looking for ways to unlock it. What is fascinating about the human mind is that it’s not a physical organ like a heart or a brain. It may be a product of the brain but due to its intangible nature, it’s difficult to truly understand it and how it works.

There are even theories that state that the mind is a product of some external source and not just the brain. Although such a hypothesis is not widely supported, there might be a few merits in some of their points. Perhaps looking at some of the strange phenomenon of the mind might give us some insight. Here are some of the weirdest things your mind might be capable of.

1) The Power of Savants

Savants are people who suffer from a mental disability but that of a very unique kind. The Savant syndrome creates significant deficits in the way the brain works while at the same time increasing certain capabilities to limits that far exceed what is considered to be normal. One great example of a Savant was the late Kim Peek. He could recite from memory any detail from all the books he had read but his IQ was only 87. The low number might make you think his mind’s capabilities are weaker than most but in reality there were far superior in certain aspects like memory or calculation. He was even able to accurately calculate the exact day of the birth of any person he had met.

human mind The Power of Savants

2) Hyperthymesia

This is an exceptionally rare condition that allows a person to remember just about everything that has ever occurred to them. These exceptional people can instantly recall every single event or moment they have ever experienced without breaking a sweat. The interesting thing is that when tests were performed on a number of people who had this ability, they discovered that some had brains that were smaller than average while others had normal sized ones. One would assume people with such extraordinary abilities to have bigger sized brains but that clearly isn’t the case.

Hyperthymesia human mind

3) Brain Anomaly

There is a unique type of surgery called the split-brain surgery. During one such surgery, the large collection of nerves connecting the two brain hemispheres was cut to stop the spreading of electrical impulses. In essence both hemispheres of the brain stopped sharing input with one another. Fascinatingly it was found out that each part of the brain performs just as well as both of them. The ability to problem solve or hypothesize wasn’t diminished despite losing half the brain.

human mind split-brain surgery

4) Extrasensory Perception

ESP is the ability of some who can obtain information through nontraditional ways more akin to paranormal ways. It is an extremely controversial subject in the world of science because there has never been any hard evidence proving its existence. Some of the types of ESP are telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition and psychometry. All these types basically are believed to allow people to perceive things beyond the traditional senses we possess. One example of someone who is believed to have such abilities is Nostradamus. He predicted several events far into his future such as the reign of Napoleon, the atom bomb and even the assassination of John.F.Kennedy. Whether or not this is an actual phenomenon of the mind is something we might never find out in our lifetime but who knows what the mind might actually be capable of.

Extrasensory Perception human-mind

5) The Placebo Effect

The Placebo Effect basically creates an illusion for the individual by forging an unshakable belief that he/she will be cured. Several studies have shown that patients who suffer from a variety of diseases when given sugar pills actually end up being cured despite not taking any actual medication. This of course doesn’t occur for every patient but there have been hundreds of thousands of people who got cured simply because they believed they were getting the right treatment. There have even been many cases of people getting cured of cancer because they simply believed that could. In most of these cases, the patients created a mindset where they stopped thinking about the disease and instead focused solely on the fact that they were perfectly healthy. This of course should never discourage anyone from taking actual medication but there is certainly merit to using the power of one’s mind to their advantage. A healthy mind has the ability to shape a healthy body.

placebo effect human mind

6) Disowning Pain

Recent studies done at prestigious institutes have discovered something remarkable. It showed that the intensity of pain can actually be alleviated with one’s mind. In the study, inverted binoculars were used as a tool for the subjects to look at their wounds. When they looked through the binoculars and saw their wounded areas in smaller view, the intensity of pain greatly reduced for them.  It seems that the amount of pain we feel is influenced by our other senses as well. As we grow up, we absorb information from the world around us and sometimes that leads us to conclusions even if we personally haven’t experienced them yet. For instance, even though we might never have been in a car accident, seeing images of it creates a particular feeling in us. That feeling also may lead us to several assumptions such as the potential pain we might feel if we land up in such a tragic predicament. However, the reality of it could be far different. This is not to say that by controlling your mind, you can become invincible. We are after all still made up of flesh and bones at the end of the day. But we can control our perception and that might help us more than we think.

Disowning pain with binoculars human mind