Are we in control of our mind or is it an automatic process?

Can we really control what we take in and what we dont or do we only remember things that are actually needed in our lives and reject everything else.





Eg. your in a room full of people, you've come to meet your old school friend, another friend is in the corner but your not expecting to see her, would you notice her or anyone else for that matter or simply the person you where looking for.Are we in control of our mind or is it an automatic process?
Both!





You can control attention - i.e. in searching for stimulus (which is applicable to your friend in a party scenario) which may lead to you ignoring other stimuli (it inhibits the brians response to stimuli you are not specifically looking for, and controlled by the frontal lobes)





This is similar to the ';cocktail party effect';. However, further study into this specific effect suggests that processing of some stimuli - or the process of all stimuli to a certain level perhaps - is automatic (although we can ignore background noise when talking to someone, when our name (for example) is spoken in one of the unattended conversations we a re immediately alerted).





The Modularity of Mind hypothesis suggests a lot of processes are both automatic and inpenetrable (uncontrollable) although expectation does play a large role (we have more difficulty recognising people in a situation we wouldn't expect to see them in.





In you example, whether you recognise your second friend might depend on how badly you want to find you first friend, and therefore how much attention you are giving to that search above all others.Are we in control of our mind or is it an automatic process?
AUTOMATIC
Except the distribution of food and the eventual death, God has given immense powers to human beings. We are not robots and that's why we are not automatically doing things. All our body parts are under the dictations and coordination's of our mind, That's why due to any accident or event that cause the damage of brain would lead to the abnormal activities that you can termed automatic...because of the minds inability to perform well.
You control your mind and your thoughts, you simply choose to see or ';not'; see the other person. If you liked them you would choose to notice them or if you didn't really like or had any interest in them your brain would simply choose not to see them. You create your reality and you choose who you would like to play a part in it. This is why we do not choose to put ourselves in situations unfamiliar to us
I think that some processes are automatic and some chosen. Nature is such a complicated thing...........
To answer your last question first.





If you have tunnel vision, you would not notice your other friend who's standing in the corner. It would also suggest that you are not very observant.





';';





Are we in control of our mind or is it an automatic process?





Yes, we are in control of our mind!





You are the master of your mind and of your thoughts. Therefor you are also responsible for your actions.





Your mind is like a parachute ...


It works best when open. :)





*..*
both i think!