Ben Carson on the power of the mind

you know the human brain if you have an average brain you're capable of almost anything because of the complexity of our brains billions and billions of neurons hundreds of billions of interconnections it can process more than two million bits of information in one second it never forgets anything you've ever seen anything you've ever heard and you know with something like that sitting up here why would you ever utter the words I can't two words that hold us back and keep us from following our dreams many years ago the words I can't might have defined ben Carson not that you would ever know that from where he is today Ben is the world's foremost pediatric neurosurgeon based at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore in 1987 he became the first person to successfully separate Siamese twins joined at the brain he's also the subject of a Hollywood film a philanthropist and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom amazing achievements made all the more impressive when set against his troubled childhood well you know growing up for myself and inner city Detroit in very desperate situations then we live in a tenement large multifamily dwellings boarded up windows and doors sirens and gangs rats and roaches it was a miserable environment I was a pretty awful student and didn't have a lot of belief in myself academically and neither did my classmates they all thought I was stupid they called me dummy I was the butt of all the jokes but despite the fact that no one else believed I mean my mother did you know we were very poor there was never money for anything but it didn't cost anything to get a book from the library and between the covers of those books I could go anywhere in the world I could be anybody I could do anything it was like an escape from my world of poverty and violence to places that you could only imagine almost as a side effect of the reading I was looking at word to all the time so I learned how to spell and I had to take those words and put them into sentences so I learned grammar and syntax I learned how to express myself and you have to take those sentences you have to make them into images so you learn to use your imagination all of those things are extremely important hello my name is Leila and why Bobbi has epilepsy baby you're Bobby Daniel so where else in your family has epilepsy I hope this book will let you know what to do if they have a seizure my bobby was a special deficit half a world away from Baltimore in the city of Bristol UK lives a remarkable young lady called Layla an avid reader with a limitless sense of wonder for the world around her Layla turned her passion for knowledge into a profession when at the age of seven she became a published author there wasn't a book about adults with epilepsy for children at and I probably died so he was written by a child as well cuz if he did have this book you I think what shall I do don't really well today Layla's mum Sarah developed epilepsy following a head injury when she was a child alongside being mum to Layla and her baby sister Sarah also works as a carer for adults with learning difficulties even with her medication Sarah still has unpredictable seizures and it was trying to find something to explain why they happen that led to Layla's amazing achievement I looked everywhere for a book let's see English I'll do got a family member with epilepsy but there was just nothing out there I notice later was carrying around a notepad and curious what she was writing in there and has a little look and she written loads of information about epilepsy this is a really good idea so I looked into having it published local publisher pomegranate books thought so too and put Layla's book to print so far it sold over 300 copies around the world and has set Leila on course for her future career elsewhere right I'd like to a venture book story book information books I am very proud of him it's lovely that's seeing how vivid imagination she's got it just takes me back to when I was a child she's there eager to be a teacher and she's also wanting to write more books for example that she was asking my father-in-law about his diabetes recently so I know she wants to write a book to help children who's got family member of diabetes I just think it's amazing that she just wants to help so many people it makes me feel really proud we can learn a lot from children their sense of wonder and thirst for knowledge puts the world at their feet it was this discovery and a strong faith that set a young Ben Carson on the path to an extraordinary life I would get on the bus and I would go downtown to the Detroit Institute of Arts and roam through those galleries until I knew every painter who painted the picture and when they were born and when they died and what period it represented and I was always listening to my portable radio listening to classical music and you know I'd be walking down the streets of Detroit listening to classical music and if people thought I was nuts this guy's crazy but years later when I decided that I wanted to be a neurosurgeon I want to go to the place that's best known for neurosurgery net would be Johns Hopkins but as I said before they only took two people a year out of 125 applicants but when I got an interview and I went there the fellow who was in charge of the neurosurgery residency program George beat over hi was also in charge of cultural affairs at the hospital and somehow the conversation turned to classical music and we talked for over an hour about different composers and their styles conductors orchestras orchestral halls there was no way he wasn't taking me in the program because he had to have somebody to discuss these things with but what I emphasize to young people all the time is there's no such thing as useless knowledge because you never know what doors it's going to open for you and the more you know the more options you have we cannot trace you know the origins of a thought we cannot define where imagination comes from and I'm not sure we ever will because that exists in a different dimension the brain is the conduit through which we reach that other dimension but we have no way of quantifying and measuring it but we do have the ability to enjoy it and to use it to the fullest extent

Channel: Imanuel Goncalves

Views: 361,657

Keywords: Ben Carson, neurosurgery, neuropsychology, neurophysiology, johns hopkins, the brain, learning, education, gifted hands, power of the mind, brainpower, potential, inspiring, inspirational, psychology, success, achievement

Id: nmNP5Z0Info

Length: 7min 48sec (468 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 19 2013