for: John Minds Mind collectively refers to the aspects of intellect and consciousness manifested as combinations of thought, perception, memory, emotion, will and imagination; mind is the stream of consciousness. It includes all of the brain's conscious processes. This denotation sometimes includes, in certain contexts, the working of the human unconscious or the conscious thoughts of animals. "Mind" is often used to refer especially to the thought processes of reason.

The mind is a model of the universe built up from insights. Thoughts of the mind fall into 2 categories: 1) Analysis of past experience with the purpose of gaining insight for use within this model at a later date; and 2) Simulations of future scenarios using existing insights in the mind model in order to predict outcomes. A mature mind has assimilated many insights and understands cause and effect. When insight is not subordinate to a validation discipline like the Randomized controlled trial, fallacious thinking can result in a confused mind. A "common" or "world" mind refers to minds that are in exchange of ideas and insights with each other and form similar conclusions about cause and effect. Through the form of books and other media, minds from the past are able to communicate their insights about cause and effect to present and future minds.

There are many theories of the mind and its function. The earliest recorded works on the mind are by Zarathushtra, the Buddha, Plato, Aristotle, Adi Shankara and other ancient Greek, Indian and Islamic philosophers. Pre-scientific theories, based in theology, concentrated on the relationship between the mind and the soul, the supernatural, divine or god-given essence of the person. Modern theories, based on scientific understanding of the brain, theorize that the mind is a phenomenon of the brain and is synonymous with consciousness.

The question of which human attributes make up the mind is also much debated. Some argue that only the "higher" intellectual functions constitute mind: particularly reason and memory. In this view the emotions - love, hate, fear, joy - are more "primitive" or subjective in nature and should be seen as different from the mind. Others argue that the rational and the emotional sides of the human person cannot be separated, that they are of the same nature and origin, and that they should all be considered as part of the individual mind.

In popular usage mind is frequently synonymous with thought: It is that private conversation with ourselves that we carry on "inside our heads." Thus we "make up our minds," "change our minds" or are "of two minds" about something. One of the key attributes of the mind in this sense is that it is a private sphere to which no one but the owner has access. No-one else can "know our mind." They can only interpret what we consciously or unconsciously communicate.