Thinking,

The cerebellum
processes
input from the
muscles, joints,
and tendons
in order to
execute smooth,
coordinated
movements such
as threading a
needle.

EDITORS NOTE

BRIDGING THE GAP

Each neuron in the cerebellum has
a thousand times more connections
than the neurons in the rest of the
brain. That means a scraping of
cerebellum the size of your little
fingernail has more neuron connections than the whole neocortex.
Whats going on down there? And
can we make better use of it?

Doing, and Being:

The Cerebellum and Whole Brain

Activity

BY JOE DISPENZA

WHAT SCIENCE HAS DISCOVERED

ABOUT THE CEREBELLUM
The cerebellum is part of the hindbrain
or the reptilian brain. It is a small threelobed structure behind the occipital lobe
at the posterior part of the brain. It is
attached to the brainstem at the very back
of the skull and it has the appearance of
a wrinkled, folded, and lobed miniature
cerebrum (figure 1). Cerebellum literally
means little cerebrum or little brain.
Along with the brainstem, the
cerebellum is the oldest part of the
brain. It is a part of the brain called the
reptilian brain. The cerebellum has been
evolving since the first reptiles began their
journey in evolution. The cerebellum is
indigenous to all reptiles. It is part of the
reptilian brain because all reptiles, and
all the other kingdoms of species greater
than reptiles, have developed and housed
a cerebellum in their brain mass. For
example, reptiles, mammals, and even
primates share a similar anatomical
structure of the cerebellum, but they all
maintain variances (differences) in the
size and in the internal makeup of the
individual organ (figure 2). During the
last million years in evolution, the human
cerebellum has tripled in size.
Scientists of the early twenty-first
century have little data about the role of

the cerebellum in the human body. This

structure looks like a cauliflower and has
been considered the area of the brain that
is responsible for balance, equilibrium,
movement, coordination, posture, and
proprioception (our orientation in space).
Its uniqueness, however, allows it to act
like a motor or a brake. It has the ability to
process input from the muscles, joints, and
tendons in order to maintain or execute
smooth, coordinated movements. It also
inhibits the loss of control of the body
by reflexively refining our ability to do
coordinated activities like threading
a needle without our body jerking
randomly.
For instance, when we reach for
the coffee cup and put it to our lips
without spilling a drop, the cerebellum is
responsible for the fluid motor movement
of our arms and hands and the inhibitory
control of certain gross muscles to stop us
from moving in an exaggerated fashion.
It is the servant that executes, controls,
and coordinates the body to follow a
thought from the neocortex. Once we are
motivated to act, it is the cerebellum that
begins to demonstrate and carry out an
activity in an almost automatic fashion.
It is as if this part of the brain takes over
the body and it becomes a simple, natural,
subconscious process.

THERES JUST NOTHING TO THINK

ABOUT
It has been a common thought by
scientists that the cerebellum, unlike the
neocortices, functions with no consciously
aware centers of thought activity. This is true.
There is no thinking in this organ. However,
it now appears that the memory for certain
learned responses may be stored there,
particularly those areas of the cerebellum
that have evolved most recently. Heres an
example: The conditioned response created
by Pavlov ringing the bell and then feeding
his dogs ultimately produced immediate
salivation of all of the participants from just
the sound of the bell. Once the association
was learned by certain centers of the brain,
like the neocortices and hippocampus,
the deep recesses of the cerebellum gave
permission to automatically prepare the
body physiologically for the experience.
(However, if we surgically eliminated that
part of the cerebellum that is activated
during a conditioned response, the dogs
would never salivate even though they
consciously remembered the stimulus.)

Figure 1. Three different views of the cerebellum.

A. SIDE VIEW

B. VIEW FROM ABOVE

C. VIEW FROM BELOW

Since dendrite connections are

memories, does the cerebellum
have memories and knowledge
that we are not aware of?

herefore, the associative

memory of the stimulus
from the environment
produced the automatic
physiological
body
memory/response. That
is, the memory and
information about the experience were
stored neurologically within the folds
of the cerebellum. If this is true, then
our own addictions and habits, which
are conditioned responses, have a truly
subconscious, physiological memory deep
within our brain/body connection in the
cerebellum. Also our greatest skills and
most developed learned tasks are connected
to this organ.
The cerebellum is unique in the fact
that it has approximately one million
connections per neuron. This is the

Figure 2. Comparison of different brain sizes and shapes.

HUMAN

MANATEE

CAT

FROG

reason why it is so dense and rubbery as

an anatomical structure. It is considered
almost completely gray matter. The
fabric of gray matter is made up of neurons.
Neurons are more granulated and much
more condensed when they have additional
dendrite connections. The cerebellum is
the most densely granulated gray-matter
material of the entire brain. Therefore, it
has the greatest number of connections and
potential connections in the entire brain.
The average neuron of the neocortices
or new brain has anywhere from 1,000
to 10,000 connections with neighboring
neurons. Interestingly enough, these
synaptic connections that are formed by
our conscious intent in the new brain
are developed through the experiences
we obtain in this life as well as the factual
intellectual memories that we enhance
by learning and studying knowledge.
The neuroconnections of the new brain
are memories we have to develop. We
consciously store memories throughout
our life in the new brain by interacting
and learning in our environment through
our sensual experiences.
Why then is the cerebellum filled
with so many neurological connections
without any outside influence by our direct
conscious intent, and why is it considered
an unconscious or subconscious territory
of the human brain? In other words, why
are certain memories not stored in our
conscious brain center and why are so many
memories already wired in the cerebellum
as if they are genetically predisposed as
our birthright? Since dendrite connections
are memories, does the cerebellum have
memories and knowledge that we are not
aware of?
Until recently, scientists thought that
the total number of neurons in the brain
at the time of birth was a fixed amount.
However, the cerebellum is one of the
few areas of the brain that continues to
divide and reproduce additional neurons
after birth. As a matter of fact, brain cell
multiplication continues long after birth
at different rates and at different times
of development. Why would our genetic
program provide such a feature?
THE ROLE OF THE CEREBELLUM IN
EVERYDAY LIFE
Many of our actions that are
developed throughout our lifetime are
wired to our cerebellum. Everything that
we do by repetition becomes wired to
this subconscious mind. Everything from
walking to eating, to driving a car, to
shaving, to riding a bicycle, to typing, to
making love, to dancing, to tying our shoes
has its connections to the subconscious
mind.

It was not always that way, though.

None of these actions came naturally.
We developed and learned these traits
and skills by consciously putting all of
our attention on a task and repeating
it over and over again until it became
natural, easy, common, familiar, simple,
subconscious unconscious. In other
words, we repeated it over and over
again almost to the point of boredom.
The moment that an activity becomes so
familiar that it seems boring is the point
at which we permanently wire the activity
to our cerebellum. That is, we no longer
have to think about what we are doing.
Then all we need is a motivated thought
and the action is automatically initiated.
Have you ever asked anyone who
performs a skill very well how they do it?
Every single person who is a master of his
or her passion will always say the same
thing, I have practiced this so much that
I never even think about it any longer. I
just do it. Think of the neocortex as the
thinker. Think of the cerebellum as the
doer. When the thinker and the doer unify,
we then have a natural state of being.
Being will involve the use of the whole
brain, because the unity of these two
parts of the brain creates activity in the
midbrain, which is that area responsible
for providing chemical and neurological
signals to the body through the autonomic
nervous system. The body now is in state
of being that is integrated with the wholebrain activity.

emember, earlier we
learned
that
the
cerebellum has no conscious centers; it does
have memory, though.
Its whole function is the
joy of doing and
demonstrating what the brain is thinking.
Its goal is to remember the intended plan
of the neocortices without any help
without any thinking. In other words,
the cerebellum loves to take intellectual
philosophy and practice it, execute it,
coordinate it, memorize it, and integrate
it with our body until it reaches a state that
it can automatically remember it without
the help of any other part of the brain
without the neocortices.
The greater the design built by the
conscious centers of the new brain, the
more developed and diverse the effect
of the cerebellum to execute it. At this
stage of ability, the neocortices then
become only a messenger, signaling the
cerebellum by a thought to start its activity
that the cerebellum already knows and
remembers. The neocortices send a visual
cue of what it wants the cerebellum to do.

Then the unity of thinking and doing creates

a state of being. It is the process of taking
intellectual philosophy and applying it as
practical wisdom.
Think of the process in this fashion:
When you were young and just learning
how to walk, it took every bit of your
conscious attention to walk from one side
of the room to the other. You literally had to
focus during the whole activity. First, your
neocortex had to picture where it wanted
to go, then it visualized how the body was
going to get there, then it consciously took
a step, at the same time thinking which
foot it was moving, and then it attempted
to coordinate the whole process until you
reached your destiny. God forbid you
fell, because if you did, you would have
to restart the whole process over again.
Moment by moment, the thinking part
of our brain had to continually provide a
map of the journey by flashing different
messages to the cerebellum of an intended
outcome. The neocortices were attempting
to provide a continuous mode of how you
were to accomplish the task by repeatedly
remembering what it wanted to accomplish.
Thats focus.
Once you have learned how to walk,
though, you no longer have to focus so
intently. You dont have to plan your
movements step by step. Now when
you want to go to the refrigerator to eat
something, the neocortex just sends the
message to the cerebellum, you get up,
walk to the refrigerator, open the door,
and choose what you want. You no longer
think about how you are going to make
the journey. The cerebellum observes the
activity of the mapmaking neocortex
which is motivated by the thought of
hunger and then it performs the task
without the continuous conscious effort
it once had to make earlier in your life.
Therefore, all we really need when we
have wired our brains by repetition to the
subconscious cerebellum is the visual flash
of a thought along with the inspiration to do
it, and the body automatically follows. This
law of the mind is consistent with any skill.
Everything that is ever learned well with our
minds and executed with our bodies follows
this same process.
Everything from learning to type and
mastering it, to playing the piano and
mastering it, to skiing and mastering it, to
sewing and becoming great at it, to golfing
under par, is all possible. By this process, it
is equally possible to become a healer and
to heal without ever having to think about
it; to develop our intuative ability and have
it become natural and easy; to live in and
experience other dimensions on a daily
basis; to be able to manifest objects and
realities intentionally without effort; and
to perform "miracles" at will as long as we
have the knowledge that our new thinking
brain can conceive and model. Then all we

need is the permission to practice it until

the cerebellum remembers it and unifies
it to a state of being.
GETTING INTO THE ZONE
Professional archers who focus on
a target while their brain activity is
being measured with electrodes and
sophisticated instrumentation all have
very high neurological activity in the
neocortices as they prepare to shoot their
arrow. The thinking part of their brain is
reviewing everything it has to do from a
technical standpoint. Their brain is busy
thinking about keeping their arm straight,
controlling their breathing, the proper
grip of the left hand, the placement of the
bow with their right hand, the tension of
the fingers, and the contraction of certain
muscles, to name just a few. Then there
comes a moment when the neocortices
calm down and get very quiet. At that
moment, there no longer is any thinking.
Only the frontal lobe is holding the
archers single-minded intention. That
is, the moment that they focus on their
target and zoom in on the bulls-eye, the
cerebellum takes over by following only
one order from the frontal lobe. And that
order is the visual picture of an outcome.
The cerebellum then takes over the body
to serve the intention.
Studies in which instruments were
used to track brain activity, plus infrafed
lasers were fastened to the sight of the
bow, have shown that right when the
archer lines up the sight of the bow with
the center of the target, there is no cortical
brain activity and there is no thinking.
There is a momentary trancelike state of
the brain where the cerebellum now has
the space and time to remember what
it has been conditioned to, without the
neocortices talking in a constant state of
chatter. Thats how we master any action.
We rely on the rich dendrite connections
of cerebellar memory.

REMEMBERING WHAT WE DO NOT

KNOW
So in this "plane of demonstration"
that we occupy with these bodies, we are
only limited by our own knowledge base
and our own doubt of what is possible.
What we once thought of as impossible
for humans as recently as one hundred
years ago is now a definitive reality.
Knowledge is the prima materia for the
architectural skills of the neocortices.
Inspiration and conscious focused action
are the catalysts to activate any memory
deep within the automatic mind of the
cerebellum, the servant to the architect.
It will always respond to the design of the
neocortices by observing its plans, and it
will always provide the infinite mind and
unlimited energy to carry out those plans.

The clearer the instructions, the greater the

outcome manifested. The cerebellum is our
connection to the mind of God because it
will consistently endorse all of our focused
intentions. With its millions of connections
per neuron, the memory already exists
within, waiting to be activated. Perhaps
we only need to develop the skill of
remembering what we do not consciously
know but have subconsciously recorded as
the collective memories of our evolution as
a species.
A truly evolving spiritual person is not
an individual with intellectual skill and
memory of prayer or scripture. A spiritual
person also is not one who performs
repetitive rituals without knowledge and
awareness. A spiritually enlightened person
is one who activates the whole brain by
using the neocortices to marry philosophical
knowledge with the experienced memory
of the cerebellum so that thinking begets
doing, which ultimately manifests a state
of being. When we arrive at this state
independent of the feedback from our
bodies, the feedback from our environment,
and the enslavement of time, we are truly
evolved. Then making known what is not
known can be as simple as riding a bike
and we will never forget how to do it.

REFERENCE
Ornstein R., and Thompson R. (1984).
The Amazing Brain. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin Co.

Infrared lasers that have been fastened to the sight of the bow have shown that right when the
archer lines up the sight of the bow with the center of the target, there is no cortical brain
activity and there is no thinking.