Mind:

	Dr. Linda Caviness is a professor of education at La Sierra University. She shares the results of her research on the inner workings of the brain and how she discovered that we are literally “wired” for a relationship with God. Throughout her research, she discovered that there is an integral relationship between the physical, mental, and spiritual aspects of development.
	Listen here for her presentation entitled "Brain and Heart"
“The heart now is being described as a sensory organ. Like other sensory organs, it can create hormones and neurochemistry, the substance that, along with electrical current, conducts information transfer and creates our emotional states. Some research now indicates that at times the heart responds to sensory data simultaneously or even nano seconds before the brain responds,” says Caviness who has researched brain learning since she learned that her son, Tad, had Niemann Pick disease. She read everything she could find on the brain and was amazed at how neuroscience confirmed what both the Bible and Ellen G. White taught. “Spiritual tone often gets relegated to the optional category as we consider mind and body health,” says Caviness. “But now new data emerging from the study of the heart-brain help us see more objectively—in graphic form—the advantages of keeping God at the center of our being. Research focused on heart-brain connections is helping educators and students understand the science that supports sound counsel in Scripture and the Spirit of Prophecy.” As an outgrowth of her research, Caviness stresses to each class she teaches how important it is to be right with God before working with students. “Formerly, neuron structures were believed to be properties of the brain,” adds Caviness. “These tiny structures help constitute the system of information transfer and memory within the brain. Now, however, approximately 40,000 neuron-like structures have been discovered in an atrial area of the heart. This is a minute number considering the 100 billion neurons in the brain. Nevertheless, this may help explain why an increasing body of data indicates that the heart has capacity for memory—like a little mind in the heart.”