Quite often, people have been raised to think of their brain as a single -- or at most, two sided -- organ. In one sense, this is correct but in many other senses it is not. Through millions and millions of years of evolution our brains have developed into wondrous machines that not only are more powerful than even the most powerful supercomputers yet invented but are also capable of some of the most sublime thought processes yet known in the universe.

Evolution, at least as we know it, does not work in what is called a linear -- or straight line -- sequence. We grow as organisms and as thinking, feeling human beings in fits and starts. Sometimes we make great leaps forward and then fall back a little and other times we stay in place, treading water, before we make another great leap forward. This is just a fact of nature and we are no more immune to it than we are immune to eventual death in the physical sense.

What happens to our consciousness, of course, is the greatest mystery in the universe and one we may yet be able to figure out at some point in our evolutionary life that has not yet been reached. In actual physiology, we know that our brains are not in fact a single unit in the sense of the word. There is a series of interrelationships between at least four parts of the brain, which are usually referred to as being the four lobes. For the most part scientists usually concern themselves with only three of the four lobes, for some reason.

We also know that there are parts of the brain that serve highly specialized functions and purposes. This is part of the miracle of our evolution, though it is also helpful to remember that the brain will work in a holistic fashion in order to accomplish its main goal; to give life, breadth and scope to our consciousness, the outward manifestation of which is our corporeal existence. What we are also beginning to understand is that there are other levels to our brains than just the commonly-accepted four lobes.

Indeed, there seems to be seven levels within our brains which logic, direct experience and objective observation seems to confirm. These three other levels seem to center on what most professionals who study the brain call the "higher levels." Generally, these fifth, sixth and seventh levels of the brain can be looked at as the final steps in a long stairway which leads to a platform that leads to ultimate consciousness.

In the fifth -- or interbrain -- level, we can work to gain a mastery of the thoughts and experiences which we have accumulated through a lifetime of living. Through this newly-developed ability we will be able to gain a new and fresh way of looking at history which we have either lived or learned about, and which we can then use to increase our sense of devotion and commitment to the accomplishment of other things.

The sixth level is highly interesting in that it -- if trained properly -- will allow us to look forward into the future with a highly developed sense of intuition. Using this level requires that we not allow ourselves to be bound up in the chains of our past experiences as things that hold us back. When employed with full effect it permits us to erase a sense of limitation that works to hold back human beings in general. We can make a "great leap forward," in other words.

The seventh and last level can best be related to as one that can give to us ultimate consciousness of ourselves as a total entity. Some call this being able to use imagination to the highest possible degree. Through such consciousness even the most abstract of the thoughts, concepts and reasoning can become easily available to us with just a few simple mental commands.

This is why we should all strive to harness the power of our brains -- all seven of them -- to the maximum extent possible. We should not hesitate to break free of the bonds which chain us to this physical reality and mundane worldly existence.