Current neuro-science tells us that there are more than a hundred billion neurons in the brain, and that each of them is interconnected with many thousands of fellow neurons. These form networks- we have an unlimited, virtually infinite number of neuron networks in our brain. See the following article by Robert Stufflebeam:
http://www.mind.ilstu.edu/curriculum/neurons_intro/neurons_intro.php
The model of the mind, proposed in The Psychology of Positive Thinking, proposes that these networks are programs that store the vast amount of information that has been presented to us by our senses over our life time.
What is much more limited, however, is the amount of information we can store in immediate memory at one time; in our stream of consciousness, if you will. George A. Miller discovered this to be The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two bits of information. He proposed this in his now classic article by the same name in The Psychological Review.
Thus we have available a nearly infinite amount of information- this would correspond to all our memories, all our experiences to this point in time. The Complete Past exists in our mind in the form of these programs. What a great resource this is! Billions upon billions of bits of information! But it is also a trap. Remember, we are limited to about 7 “bits” of information in immediate consciousness to go exploring our infinitely vast stored information. We can also lose ourselves in it!
This may happen all too often, and we get trapped in the past. Eckhart Tolle calls this the Egoic Mind. And while this could be a pleasant, or an unpleasant past, we are still trapped in it. Tolle, Robert Anthony, and many mental health professionals suggest self observation, and self awareness as ways to come out of this imprisonment trance we find ourselves in. Another way to escape this trap is meditation. Meditation helps quiet the “mind chatter” when our thought processes take us echoing around the vast programming storehouse of our “egoic” mind.
Oprah, who has joined forces with Eckhart and other spiritual leaders, has posted on her website a link to a meditation exercise called the “ten minute mind spa.” A link to that website is also posted here. This exercise not only frees us from being trapped in the past, but also helps develop self-awareness and brings us into the Now, and in the zone.
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Processing so much information requires a lot of neurons. How many? Well, "best estimates" indicate that there are around 200 billion neurons in the brain alone! And as each of these neurons is connected to between 5,000 and 200,000 other neurons, the number of ways that information flows among neurons in the brain is so large, it is greater than the number stars in the entire universe!
From Author Robert Stufflebeam:
http://www.mind.ilstu.edu/curriculum/neurons_intro/neurons_intro.php
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