Intentional Mind Management Reverses Brain Damage Through Neuroplasticity

Key Quotes

Once someone's had a traumatic brain injury, you're pretty much written off. We were trained to compensate. I said, "Okay, there's hardly any research in the 80s on brain injury and how to treat it." So I thought, "Okay, I'm going to start there." I worked with people that had been in comas for longer than two weeks. At that stage, if you were in a coma for longer than eight hours, the brain damage was considered irreversible. Now, we know that's not the case, but in the 80s, that was the going philosophy. So I was completely swimming upstream when it came to this concept.

Dr. Caroline Leaf explains that the prevailing medical philosophy in the 1980s considered severe brain damage, such as prolonged comas, to be irreversible. Leaf describes her early work as going against this established scientific consensus, indicating a significant challenge in her approach to treating brain injuries.

I showed with my subjects that by using your mind--not in any weird way, but through systematic, deliberate, intentional mind management, different brain building, and dealing with emotions--you can actually change this. My very first case study was a girl who was 16 at the time of the accident. She had lost a whole year of school, written off as a "vegetable." That's what the doctors used to say in those days, which is a terrible thing to say to someone.

Dr. Caroline Leaf highlights the power of intentional mind management, including brain building and emotional processing, to effect change in individuals with severe brain injuries. Leaf uses the example of her first case study, a 16-year-old girl deemed a "vegetable" by doctors, to illustrate this principle.

Within eight months, she caught up to a 12th-grade level, finished school with her peers, and went on to get a university degree. One of the coolest things was that she was actually a really average student and not even good at math. After the accident, using her mind to change her brain, she became like a math genius.

Dr. Caroline Leaf shares the remarkable progress of her case study, demonstrating how the girl not only recovered academically to a 12th-grade level and obtained a university degree but also developed exceptional mathematical abilities. Leaf attributes this transformation to the individual's active use of her mind to rewire her brain.

I thought, "No, I can't do this," because I am mind. You are mind. If I don't manage it, you can go three weeks without food, three days without water, three minutes without oxygen, but you don't even go three seconds without using your mind. So my underlying premise was, "Okay, if that's that case, what is it? And how do we manage it?"

Dr. Caroline Leaf asserts that the mind is fundamental to human existence, being constantly in use even more than basic necessities like food, water, or oxygen. Leaf's core belief is that understanding the nature of the mind and learning how to manage it are crucial.

Mind is malleable. You can direct the neuroplasticity of your brain. I did some of the first neuroplasticity research in my field in the late 80s, early 90s, before it was accepted. By the mid-90s, neuroplasticity was well-established.

Dr. Caroline Leaf explains that the mind possesses the quality of malleability, meaning it can be reshaped through directed neuroplasticity. Leaf notes that she conducted early research in neuroplasticity, which was not widely accepted at the time but later became a well-established scientific concept.

I'm not talking about the fact that you cannot control events and circumstances, but you can learn to manage your mind, which means your responses. Things are going to happen--trauma, death, life happens. But it's about how you manage it.

Dr. Caroline Leaf clarifies that managing one's mind is not about controlling external events or circumstances, but rather about controlling one's internal responses to those events. Leaf emphasizes that while life inevitably brings challenges like trauma and loss, the key is one's ability to manage their reaction to them.