The Mind: Degeneration and Regeneration

The Corruption of A Perfect Design

By design, there are experiences that mankind was never intended to have. There is knowledge we were never supposed to possess: the knowledge of evil, the absence of moral righteousness. We were not designed to experience the absence of goodness. Our very makeup is foreign to any experience that is opposed to our happiness. “It was the will of God that Adam and Eve should not know evil. The knowledge of good had been freely given them; but the knowledge of evil,—of sin and its results, of wearing toil, of anxious care, of disappointment and grief, of pain and death,—this was in love withheld.”¹ Bear in mind that if the citadel, the mind, is impaired even in the slightest form, the whole body suffers. The knowledge of evil, which is the experience we get when we deviate from the law of love, is unhealthy for our minds; it disorients our mental powers and disorders their operation, causing all forms of mental disorders. This, in return, influences how our genes express themselves, making us vulnerable to diseases. Experiences such as loneliness, poverty, bereavement, chronic stress, depression, and the like downregulate—make less active—genes whose expression contributes to the regulation or resolution of inflammation and other disease-causing factors, while they upregulate—make more active—genes whose products promote inflammatory signaling and other disease-causing factors. It is very clear that mental disorders are experiences that God never intended for man to have. Living lifestyles that are contrary to the natural and moral law of God are the direct causes of mental and physical degeneration. “Low socioeconomic status, lack of social support and social isolation, stress at work and in private life, and negative emotions, especially depression and hostility, increase the risk of a first cardiac event and lead to a poorer prognosis in individuals with existing coronary artery disease (CAD).“² ”Immune dysregulation as the result of psychological factors, such as unhealthy emotions, could be the underlying mechanism for aging, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, type 2 diabetes, arthritis, some cancers, and even frailty, via the production of inflammatory chemicals in the body in response to a negative affect.“³ Now, it is crucial to note that it is not always the case that the one suffering from mental disorders is the one violating the natural or moral laws. Living in environments where these laws are violated also contributes to the problem. The environment itself can become pathogenic when it is structured around violations of the principles upon which human beings were designed to live. The consequences of violating the natural and moral laws do not remain confined to the individual who commits the transgression. They can affect families, communities, and subsequent generations.

The human mind was created to be a recipient and expressor of the divine mind’s operations; that is to say, we were created to partake and reveal the substance of God’s thoughts, affections, desires, passions, and emotions. Of Him we were to take and give. Therefore, mental degeneration is a consequence of deviation from the purity and holiness of the divine direction. Corrupt generational propensities, personal choices, and social environments have played and are still playing a great role in deranging our mental direction. All mental disorders are foreign elements in the human mind. Depression, anxiety, loneliness, sorrow, grief, pain, etcetera. All these were not in the original plan and design. The Creator’s divine plan was never for us to have any of these experiences or conditions. The original mind was capable of experiencing the full range of its God-given faculties without pathological disorder. When dysregulated, those same faculties progressively degenerate. For example, God encourages us to think ahead and consider realistically what might be in the future if things are not done prudently, “For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish…“⁴, yet He does not encourage us to be in a state of uneasiness or tension caused by excessive thoughts of possible future misfortune or danger. Again, He encourages us to meditate, to think deeply, but never to sink into a hole of sadness or despondence. “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.“⁵

A Disordered Masterpiece

The human mind is a masterpiece. How God integrated the amazing powers of the mind into a dynamic system, unified operation is a wonder. The mind was created to perceive the outward world, to evaluate, to assess, to judge, to remember, to desire, to be creative, to observe, to envision, to imagine, etcetera. Therefore, the possession of a mental faculty was never a problem, but the degeneration of it is a big problem. When any mental faculty is used outside the order of its design, it loses its force, its vitality, and its function. Take, for instance, thinking: when the subjects of one’s thoughts are not pleasant, they stimulate negative emotions, which create disorder and degeneration of the reasoning faculties. Introducing to the mind that which is evil or even ugly by nature, subjects that do not possess qualities that are pleasing to the senses, ennobling and elevating to the mind, disorders the mind. It is important to note that I use the word evil to refer to that which is contrary to God’s law and will for humanity, the opposite of that which is good and beautiful; my definition for beautiful being that which possesses symmetrical qualities that are pleasing to the senses, truthful by nature, ennobling and elevating to the mind, and purifying to one’s nature. Well, back to the point at hand, there are many events we come across and experiences we have that are in there nature unhealthy for our minds, traumas, pain, dissapoinments, lies, and many other elements of life that are negative or to use a strong word, evil, in that they violate the laws of our minds, the laws of love.  

By design, we were made to process only love and beauty, pure wisdom and power, noble and divine knowledge. We were created to dwell in an environment that had nothing hostile to our health and well-being. This was supposed to be the regulator and orderer of our minds. I hear someone say, “Wait a minute, that is not my reality. It is a beautiful picture, but not my reality.” Herein lies one of our greatest problems: our minds are so disordered that this corrupt and unhealthy perversion of existence has become accepted; we have embraced it and normalized it. As a result, we do not see the light above the clouds. This is a sad reality of a disordered mind, a degenerating mind: the inability to see or interpret life in a completely different way. Since humanity has lived with degeneration for generations, degeneration has become the baseline against which we judge reality. We can therefore mistake what is familiar for what is natural. Regeneration, then, will require more than correcting individual behaviours. It will require recovering the ability to recognize that something is wrong with the environment we have learned to call normal.

We must acknowledge the problem within and without. The whole human race has a mental dysfunction in one degree or another. What we call weaknesses when speaking of temperaments are clear manifestations of mental disorders. From this, it is evident that inherently our minds are not well ordered. These seemingly small natural defects tend to be the ones that orient our minds either towards depression or hypersensitivity, anxiety or hyperactivity. These imbalances are also the leading causes of our unpleasant social encounters, for some are inclined to coldness while others are inclined to downcastness. In our treatment of others, self-preservation and self-gratification often lead to the violation and suppression of another. The consequence is that one person’s disorder can become another person’s environment. The fallen individual contributes to the fallen environment, and the fallen environment in turn contributes to the degeneration of the individual. These are all disorders we call normal. Our minds were designed to operate in a specific order; the violation of that order creates a dysregulated and dysfunctional system. Temperamental weaknesses are not characteristics of uniqueness; they are defects that need to be overcome. Being analytical is a gift, but hyperanalysis is a disorder; being expressive is a beautiful gift, but effusiveness is a dysfunction. Loquacity, boisterousness, and overexuberance are all disorders. Whether inherited or cultivated, these are defective character traits.

The causes of our mental degeneration are clear. The first and primary culprit is the violation of a relational covenant, first between humanity and God, and secondly between human beings themselves. This then led to fractured relationships, broken families, dysfunctional societies, traumas, and then disordered minds. We are now inherently dysfunctional; at the spiritual level, the very immaterial aspect of our nature is in disarray. Here, we ought to start the work of reformation and transformation.

Regeneration

After ascertaining the cause of our mental degeneration, we must change the unhealthy conditions and habits that aggravate the problem. At some point, we have to become aware, to acknowledge that what we have accepted as a norm and perpetuated for ages is not good. The lack of love, which is a principle by nature, is and has been the defiler of our habitations for centuries. The very habits that create unconducive environments and unfavorable conditions for our mental health are direct outcomes of either lovelessness or incomplete and impure love. Love supreme to God and love impartial to our fellowmen is our greatest need. The key to ordering our minds in the right way is within our reach. Regeneration starts with the cultivation of pure love, the kind of love that we do not possess nor can generate in ourselves, love that is heavenly by nature and freely offered to all who will receive it. This kind of love is not a passing sensation or transient emotion. It is infinite wisdom to navigate through the recesses of life. It is a high and holy principles to be god-like. It is power and intelligence beyond human comprehension. This is the type of love that will eliminate disorder and abrogate selfishness. “This love of which I speak is slow to lose patience—it looks for a way of being constructive. It is not possessive: it is neither anxious to impress nor does it cherish inflated ideas of its own importance. Love has good manners and does not pursue selfish advantage. It is not touchy. It does not keep account of evil or gloat over the wickedness of other people. On the contrary, it is glad with all good men when truth prevails. Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything. It is, in fact, the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen.”⁶

This love is power and wisdom in all things that pertain to life. When it is cultivated, exercised, and assimilated in the life, then only can life be lived to the fullest, and all its joys and pleasures be fully and clearly realized. True love is the antidote to the diseases of selfishness and self-indulgence, diseases which bear fruit to the violation and rebellion against the principles which sustain, maintain, preserve, and perpetuate life, health, and well-being. The many factors that contribute to the degeneration of the mind are manifestations of the absence of this nature of love. One person might love, but if the primary focus of that love is self-preservation, someone along the line will be violated, and not only that, the heart and mind that possesses that kind of love is degraded. Selfishness is a pathological principle, not merely a moral defect. The human mind was designed to receive and express divine love; then self-centeredness represents a fundamental redirection of the mind away from its intended orientation. Loneliness, hostility, relational conflict, self-preservation, anxiety, and other forms of disorder are not completely unrelated phenomena; they all have a common beginning, and they all can be traced back to a common deficiency in the governing principle of the mind. Therefore, regeneration isn’t merely becoming nicer or changing one’s behaviour. It is the restoration of the governing principle of the mind. What governs the mind determines the direction in which the faculties operate. If self-preservation governs, the mind becomes organized around protecting the self; this increases the chances of creating an unconducive environment for others while degenerating one’s mind. If self-gratification governs, the faculties become organized around satisfying the self; this debases and degrades others and one’s standards, invokes the idea of subjectifying others, and is detrimental to mental and physical health. If divine love governs, the faculties can once again be organized around truth, righteousness, service, and the good of others. Divine love is the only principle able to restore order to the human mind because it is itself the principle according to which the human mind was originally designed to operate.

Regeneration means to undergo a fundamental change of perception, understanding, and moral orientation in response to truth, resulting in a turning away from sin and toward God. It necessitates a turning away from the false orientation of the mind that has been perpetuated for generations through false teachings concerning humanity, God, and reality, to embracing God’s revealed truth. Therefore, humility is a requisite of the path of regeneration. Often, pride and the love of our old, perverted ways hinder us from change. The defiance of truth for the sake of self-exaltation, self-praise, transient pleasures, and the license for self-indulgence is our greatest enemy and the strong man that stands by the gate of self-made prisons. The question, then, is not whether regeneration is possible—it obviously is—but whether you and I are willing to vulnerably humble ourselves in the light of truth and submit to the way of life as revealed in the life of Christ?

References

1. White, E. G. (1903). Education, p. 23.2. Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association.
2. Hemingway, H., & Marmot, M. (1999). Psychosocial factors in the aetiology and prognosis of coronary heart disease: Systematic review of prospective cohort studies. BMJ, 318(7196), 1460–1467. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.318.7196.1460
3. Thomas, L. (2022, June 6). How do your emotions affect your physical health? News-Medical. https://www.news-medical.net/health/How-Do-Your-Emotions-Affect-Your-Physical-Health.aspx
4. The Holy Bible, King James Version. Luke 14:28–30.
5. The Holy Bible, King James Version. John 14:1.
6. Phillips, J. B. (1958). The New Testament in Modern English. London: Geoffrey Bles. 1 Corinthians 13:4–8.