How the Brain Decides

Information, Entropy, and Freedom of Choice

“Life is like a game of cards.
The hand you are dealt is determinism;
the way you play it is free will.”

— Jawaharlal Nehru

Our culture emphasizes the physical and chemical reality within which we live. Not surprisingly, our healers tend to work with bones, tissue, and organs. Mental concerns and problems are dominated by chemical diagnoses and medical treatments to “put things right.” But when we work with the brain and neurofeedback, we enter a unique realm of intervention, compared to those conventional modalities.

Neurofeedback utilizes “soft” concepts, such as information, rather than “hard” concepts, like chemistry and physics. While neurofeedback can produce lasting change at the synaptic level, its mechanism of change is information management, not direct physical effects.

When dealing with mental conditions, it is appropriate to consider this about the brain: “What does it take to make a decision?”

In the most abstract sense, three factors are needed:

1. The ability to discern
2. The energy to make change
3. The intention to choose

These three factors are sufficient to cause any individual or system to change, and to use that change to lead in a particular direction. If any of these factors are missing, directed change is no longer possible.

The information neurofeedback provides to the trainee is the key element of discernment — specifically of their brain state. The EEG process makes the unseen seen and the unfelt felt. Because we are not normally aware of our brainwaves, this information is missing in everyday experience.

So now that brain states can be discerned, what are the factors that allow positive change to occur? Quite simply, they are the presence of the intention to change and the energy to make that change. The amount of energy needed to change a system can be exceedingly small.

James Clerk Maxwell is responsible for the concept of “Maxwell’s Demon.” This is an imaginary agent that can determine the temperature of a particle, open or close a door, and allow that particle to pass from one chamber to another. It can be shown that such an agent could cause a contained gas to become hot in one chamber but cold in the other. In principle, such an agent could create an unlimited amount of energy, simply by selectively letting tiny particles move. In reality, no such demon exists.

However, the concept illustrates the immense power of decision. Fortunately, our brains are endowed with the ability to make discernment and decisions that facilitate our progress in life, should we choose to make decisions. This capacity leads to the possibility of learning, or operant conditioning, the guiding principle that leads intelligent beings to understand and adapt to their environment.

In neurofeedback, each point earned, each moment of progress, constitutes a tiny decision. Each decision produces a change in direction, and with proper care, that direction is well-determined and purposeful. The presence of information, which permits change, produces no less than the freedom of choice that separates us from all other beings on earth. We are capable of making discernment, and of making decisions based upon them. When a system is deprived of the ability to discern, or the information necessary to make a decision, free will is compromised. Freedom requires good information, and the clarity to make decisions.

The power of neurofeedback lies in the simple ability of the brain to discern small events and to make small decisions. Through the progress made during thousands of tiny decisions, great change can become possible, and significant order can be achieved.

What are the elements that make this possible?

1. Belief in change
2. Willingness to change
3. Intention to use the information provided

Given these precursors, a tiny amount of energy and effort is sufficient to reap the benefits and progress that are there for the taking.

Tom Collura

“To improve is to change;
to be perfect is to change often.”

— Winston Churchill