The five essential ingredients of human beings

What makes up a human being?

The five essential ingredients of human beings

Imagine what would happen if you tried to make a cake but were only given two thirds of the ingredients? Probably not a tasty result!

To make a tasty cake we need to know all the ingredients, the recipe to know what to mix and when and also how to cook it, the temperature of the oven and the length of time required. If any of this is missing then we may have a cake that’s fit for the bin only!

Or imagine if a garage took in your car for repair for a fault in the engine but the mechanic was only trained in the tyres and exhaust system? Chances are he wouldn’t be able to fix your car or if he did, it might be a botch job! We expect a mechanic to know about all parts of the car and how they fit together so that if anything goes wrong they know how to find it and fix it.

And it is no different when it comes to humans and their health – we need to know what the ‘ingredients’ of a human being are, what the different component parts are that make up the whole human being and how they work together if we are to then correctly diagnose and treat whatever ailment presents. Just as with making a cake or mending a car, if we do not have all the ingredients, all the parts, then we will inevitably come up short.

So what are the different parts of a human being?

1) The Body

We all have a body – the physical part of us that comes with us wherever we go and never does it not! Our body lives all of our experiences, every single one of them and it reflects back to us the choices we have made. That’s right, our body tells us how we have lived, how we have used and in some cases abused the body we have – the sort of food and drink we have put into it, the quality of our thoughts and emotions, the level of care we have lived with – all of this and more is revealed by our body. Sometimes this comes out in a physical illness or disease and is our body’s way of getting us to stop and look at how we are living and caring for our bodies. The body is super-intelligent and wise and is well-worth listening to.

2) The Mind

The mind is an interesting one – some people think that our minds are in our brains, but this is a fallacy. The mind is actually embodied – in other words our whole body is intelligent and feeds the brain information that gives rise to thoughts. How we understand the mind is crucially important, and whether we see the mind as embodied or embrained.

Seeing the mind as limited to the brain means we miss out on the wisdom and true intelligence that we can access when we know our mind is actually embodied and where we listen to the messages from our whole body, not just the thoughts in our head.

When we just focus on the latter, we can be driven by all kinds of thoughts to do things and live in a way that is not truly healthy for our body. For example the thoughts in our head can get us to drink alcohol again and again – but if we listened to our whole body we would know after one hangover that alcohol was not good for us.

Our brain is like a transmitter – it receives and sends information and the quality of that information will depend on the quality of how we are living and looking after ourselves, and more specifically will depend on whether we are choosing to live in a way that is loving or not. Understanding that the mind is embodied means that if we truly look after our bodies, our minds will automatically be taken care of too.

3)The Heart

The heart has been much under-rated in medicine, with many seeing it only as a pump to shift blood around the body. But the heart is so much more – it is actually the intelligent overseer of the body and is a true source of wisdom, long recognised by mystics and sages down through the ages. By reconnecting to our inner heart, we are reconnecting to the source of love within us and in this way our thoughts can then be impulsed by love to be caring and loving of ourselves and others.

The intelligence of the heart is now being confirmed through science and research showing that the heart has neurons within it – some have called it the “brain in the heart”. It is also the first organ to form and function embryologically and is ahead of the brain in that respect – so it makes sense that it is the intelligent overseer of the body. If the heart needed the brain to function then surely the brain would need to be made before the heart?

We also know that the electromagnetic field of the heart is vastly stronger than the brain and radiates out into the world for huge distances – perhaps even greater than we imagine. It also impacts the quality of interaction between people – something we know intuitively when we talk of people who are open-hearted and warm versus those who are closed, cold or hard. Everyone has the same purity of love within their hearts, but due to being hurt we can shut down our awareness of this and keep people and love out.

4) The Spirit

The human spirit is the part that animates the physical body. When we die the spirit vacates the body and hence it is and appears to be dead or lifeless – the energetic being that was living in it has departed the physical body. The human spirit is the unseen driver of many of our choices – it loves to be recognised, accepted and identified and will do anything to get it. It is the part that incarnates life after life and carries with it the imprint of choices made in past lives that can play out in this life. The human spirit has a huge amount of pride and does not like to accept or admit it has been the source of suffering for the human being.

5) The Soul

The soul is our essence, the truth of our being and who we truly are – it is pure love that is unaffected by any hurt, injury, trauma, illness or disease. We reconnect to our soul through our inner heart. By reconnecting to our soul we are able to make choices that are more caring and loving for the body and we live life connected to a greater purpose than ourselves. We realise that we are worth looking after for our bodies are vehicles for the love and light of God and the degree to which we embody that is down to our daily choices of living. Without the soul, no true healing can occur.

So now we have the ingredients of the human being, the different parts or dimensions that make up a whole person. The next stage is to understand how these different parts work together such that we have health and harmony in the body and the being, and also what happens to cause disharmony, illness and disease.

Filed under

MedicineSoulSpiritHealth

  • Photography: Dean Whitling, Brisbane based photographer and film maker of 13 years.

    Dean shoots photos and videos for corporate portraits, architecture, products, events, marketing material, advertising & website content. Dean's philosophy - create photos and videos that have magic about them.