2. One brain. Why two minds?
How well do you know you?
It's a trick question really.
You are not just one 'you'. Basically there are two 'decision centres' which both unite to form different parts of your personality.
The primal mind decides things using emotions, urges and instincts.
The logical mind decides things using knowledge, truth, facts and reasoning.
'Blind reaction' to things without thinking them through is, often troublingly, the default position for us as human beings, as it is with most animals: the primal mind is the seat of all our primordial programming as a species, most of it geared to help us survive when facing an uncertain and threatening environment. It is the home of the ancient cavedwelling human tribes, whose instincts and emotions we have inherited largely intact and still strong.
The mind's eye is the main tool of attentiveness, but it is not automatically developed to seek all the options we need to be effective or true to ourselves. When unthinking and uninhibited, the mind's eye is effectively going along with the primal mind. We become aware of ourselves as conscious, thinking people as we grow. The mind's eye chooses to focus on the logical centre, relying on its capacity for seeking truth, facts and solving complex problems by contemplating them systemartically.
The mind's eye is also what helps us to learn how to react differently to different people in our lives: the mind's eye focuses our thinking to where we it thinks we will get the best solution: how to treat close family and loved ones in one way, friends in another, strangers in another, and enemies in yet another, if we are to become sophisticated and adept. This is a complex process which require integration of primal and logical capacity.
The attention and action of any person is as a rule, much more rapidly and powerfully dominated by their primal side. This is the default position for most of us, especially for young kids, for immature people, or for mature people who have to survive situations where constant threat and uncertainty are the order of the day, or where predicting and controlling the behaviour of large populations of people is important.
The mind's eye but it becomes adept, as we grow and mature, at looking at the logical side of the brain: our higher capacities as human beings. In the logical centres we find our ability to seek truth, find out facts, to act reasonably without emotional bias.
The truly effective person does two things:
1. Gets their energy and intuitions from their primal side, nurturing it to inform them of where good instincts and emotional comforts come from, and managing it when it is being outrageous or unreasonable.
2. Gets their knowledge, goals and actions from their logical side, being focussed on facts, fairness, equality and reasonability in the majority of their relationships with the outside world, but not becoming cold or unempathic.
3. Integrates the primal and logical side to give rise to a more agile and versatile mindset, adept at connecting emotional and intuitive ability with higher goals and aspirations, in a logical, sensitive and adaptable manner.
The attentive you is the real you. You are a thinking, living person, in the middle of your thoughts, actions and emotions, integrated fully within yourself, trying to just get ahead in life from day to day, in a good and meaningful way.