God’s Brain

Michelangelo’s depiction of the human brain and brain stem appears to be drawn on the neck of God in a panel high on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

The reason why the Sistine Chapel was commissioned by the Vatican to be painted by Michelangelo was because the people were ignorant and could not read; an illustration was substituted though it clearly states in the beginning of the Ten Commandments: do not make an image of God from the forms of heaven or earth.

This atrocious act of hubris perpetrated by the Church has inspired many by the pure artistry, but to think there is some kind of message embedded within the art is alluring. What did Michelangelo mean by depicting the brain of God in the neck?

The Cabala uses the human anatomy as a guidepost through creation separated in four sections like the human body; the head, torso, limbs plus soul provide the format for spiritual understanding known as the Four Worlds–three of body and one of soul. Matter and spirit have form, but God has no form.

The Cabala explains how cognition is an extreme contractive form of the light; the neck is the most contractive part of the body called Mitzar/Confinement. The brain of the emotions arise in the neck in the form of external cognition through which the heart is inspired.