The Map of Middle Earth is a Brain

 The map of middle earth is very obviously related to brain anatomy; and the functions of various areas of the brain are symbolized in Tolkien's descriptions of these areas, their culture and history. 

The three chief markers of this are the three elven settlements that come into the story: Rivendell, Lorien, and the Grey Havens. 

The Shire, the river Greyflood, and Fangorn Forest also can be fairly easily located by function and position on an anatomic cross section of the brain. This is important to the understanding of Tolkien's masterpiece, and, in part, it is meant to act as a guide to spiritual evolution.

In brain anatomy the structure which roughly corresponds to both The Greyflood and Rivendell, is the Sylvian Notch, or fissure. This area of the brain was first defined by Franciscus de la Boe Sylvius, in 1641 . It is now usually referred to as the lateral sulcus or lateral fissure, and it is one of the most prominent structures of the human brain, dividing the frontal lobe and parietal lobe above from the temporal lobe below. In more modern times it was understood to house neural complexes vital to hearing, language skills, language comprehension, and speech. But most interesting to this discussion is that electrical stimulation studies of the right sylvian fissure found that patients often heard heavenly music, reported “seeing God", saw dead friends and relatives, and even had a panoramic life review. One patient is reported as saying: "Oh God, I'm leaving my body," and another saying "I'm half in and half out." This particular part of the brain is now under scrutiny by scientists interested in the Near Death Experience phenomenon. 

Poetry and song, an otherworldly air, life review (Bilbo is writing his book there), remembrance of the past... these are the essence of Rivendell. And the word Sylvian is too obviously related to Sylvan. There may not be many Sylvan elves in Rivendell, but the closeness of Sylvan and Sylvian is very evocative of Elves. And, of course, Rivendell is in a notch, or fissure, near the Misty (grey and brain-like) Mountains. 

The Grey Havens represent what is known as the “Seat of God”. Anatomically this is the extreme forebrain. The “quiet area”, as it is called. Its name is not to imply that God dwells in that particular place in the brain, but that anything focused upon in this part of the brain, long enough, will be communicated to God, and will manifest in one's life. If one imagines these focused upon images as elven boats leaving the harbor and sailing beyond the curve of the Earth to the realm of the Valla, you will have a very visual understanding of how this works. 

Michelangelo's "Creation of Man" panel from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, gives further evidence that this part of the brain is indeed seen as having divine implications. Note how the pointing arm, and finger, of God protrude out through what would be the extreme frontal lobe, as if his will is focused in a powerful yet very specific manner. He strains to reach Adam, but Adam seems distracted, or perhaps very comfortable. It is important that Michelangelo did not name this panel “Creation of Man”. 

Also of note is an experiment that was performed at the U of Wisconsin. The experimenters took a group of Buddhist monks who had between 10,000 to 50,000 hours each of focused meditation under their belts; and as a control, a group of non-meditators. The subjects had electrodes attached all over their heads for the purpose of mapping the differences, if there were any, between the two groups. What the readings showed was that the monk’s frontal lobes lit up incredibly when they began to focus. The control group showed little of this effect. This is important not only because it indicates that focused meditation is a process of the frontal lobe, but more so because it shows that with disciplined practice this area of the brain can be developed. 

Thus, if the ordinary observer affects the quantum level of reality, perhaps the trained observer can do so more effectively. 

Lothlorien corresponds to the cerebellum. This is the House of God in the human body. To establish Lorien as the Cerebellum I need to explore the origins of the word, the meaning of the tree, and the forest in symbolic language, and the way Tolkien has characterized Lorien.

Generally the word cerebellum is said to mean “little brain”, but its root lies in the Indo-European word Kara, which means “head” and Keas which means “horn”. From this it is important to recall that divinity was often represented, iconographically, as horns. Also of note in this, is the goddess Caryatis, or Carya, a pre-classical goddess of the walnut or hickory tree, who was later assimilated with Artemis. Artemis Caryatis was goddess of healing and wisdom. The walnut was called caryon, in Latin, which Cowley suggests, is due to the resemblance of the kernel to the form of the brain. 

What is of note in this is that Galadriel offers the company both healing, from their grief at the loss of Gandalf, and wisdom; and when they leave she gives Sam, along with soil from Lorien, a silvery nut. A mallorn seed. The goddess Ceres, as goddess of grain, is related to the nut goddess in both the origin of her name, and in that the kernel of the grain replaced the kernel of the nut as a food staple. She is also associated to the cerebellum in that its texture is grainy in comparison to the other brain tissues. Thus cerebellum can be seen as Ceres bellum, or “beautiful” Ceres. Grain goddesses are always portrayed with long golden hair, which when shorn, as in the case of Siff (recalling that Galadriel cut her hair for Gimli) represents the harvest, or end times of a cycle, in this case the end of an age. 

In symbolic language the neuron is a tree, the nervous system is also a tree, in an “as above so below” manner. Thus a forest represents a brain structure, as all the trees in it have achieved a symbiotic balance. The neurons of the cerebrum, on average have 50,000 synaptic connections per neuron. These are the branches of the tree. The neurons of the cerebellum, however, have more than 1,000,000 synaptic connections per neuron. To symbolize this one needs a much greater tree. Such as a tree is the mallorn. To add to the divinity of the mallorn we find it came from Tol Eressea, the island off the coast of Aman in the Undying Lands; and that its name means “golden tree”. All things gold and golden are symbolically divine. 

In esoteric understanding the state of trance is understood as a state of consciousness outside of time, and mundane space. The external reality of the senses is not as real as the inner reality of the dreamer. This is very much in keeping with the way Frodo and Sam feel in Lorien. Sam says: “Well, I can remember three nights there for certain, and I seem to remember several more, but I would take my oath it was never a whole month. Anyone would think that time did not count in there!"

I would also like to pass on a few examples of the unconscious processes the cerebellum oversees: 

It runs all the organized processes of digestion.

Every second we loose 10 million cells, and in the next second it makes another 10 million to replace them.

Every one of the 100 trillion cells in the body goes through 100,000 chemical reactions every sec. 

There are 3.2 billion nucleic acids that make up the genes in one cell, and enzymes are sent up and down those chains all the time repairing mutations.

The heart beats pumping over 2 gal of blood every minute, over a hundred gal every hour. It beats 100,000 times every day, 40 million times a year, and over 3 billion times in one lifetime.

These are just a few examples, but I find them very impressive. 

Fangorn Forest is a bit of an anticlimax after the cerebellum. Still it represents a part of the brain that is quite important, the reticular formation. The reticular formation is a group of neurons located in the core of the brainstem. It is considered a very old part of the brain. Its function is to pass information from the cortex to the spinal cord and body; or, deny the information passage. In addition it appears to control physical behaviors such as sleep, walking, and eating, and has been shown to play a major role in alertness, fatigue, and the motivation to perform various activities. Fangorn is characterized by its age, its sleepy ents who must be motivated into action. Fangorn himself spends much of the time he is with Merry and Pippin walking, eating, sleeping, or getting motivated. We are told that many who enter Fangorn are never seen again, and we see this as well in the case of Saruman’s army. This is the filtering of thoughts that is so important. Why, if thought creates change in the body, does every thought not do so? Because the thoughts that are not consistent with your plan for this lifetime are denied access to the body. They are filtered out. Thus you may contemplate the thoughts which lead to diabetes, for instance, and possibly never get the disease. 

There is certainly more to be gleaned from this train of thought. What do Mirkwood, the Misty Mountains, Rohan and Moria all represent. Where is the pituitary? Is the Pineal present? I am certain there is more, and I will be looking for more clues as I progress. But, why is all this important? Why did Tolkien include these things? We have searched all creation for God. We have run out of high mountains and finally put him in the sky. Could it be that God was in us all along? Could it be that we are part of the holy trinity, and that our brain is our hookup to the divine? Could be.