The human mind is developed within the brain from a combination of experiences and reflection on them: it is ‘the seething morass of cell circuitry that has been configured by personal experiences and is constantly being updated as we live out each moment’ (S Greenfield, 2000). And where does this mind ‘happen’? Quite largely in what we think of as our memory which depends upon a combination of inputs from various associative centres in the brain, particularly in the prefrontal cortex ‘where incoming information and ongoing behaviour are influenced by certain internalized and individual ideas, perceptions, or rules, the inner resources accrued over a lifetime that constitute an idiosyncratic mind’ (S. Greenfield, 1997). This then, is what we think with and within. When we read different books we do so with different expectations: information, understanding, pleasure, thrills, hope, etc. These different expectations arise from what has been learned from previous experiences of reading as we developed and matured. A favourite author, or even revisiting a favourite book conjures up different expectations as we approach the reading experience. As we read literature, our minds recognise the ‘meaning’ of the characters’ life events and develops sympathy and empathy for them, experiences their joys and sorrows vicariously and, even, feels catharsis from their tragedies. Many readers read the Bible in this manner but there is a further expectation when it is read from a faith perspective; something beyond the above is expected and oftentimes received - a meaning relating to the deepest existential understanding of those readers. But how is that engendered? Again, it is dependent of the previous experiences of those readers. For, to many, the reading and singing of the 23rd Psalm is an experience shared only at funeral services, where the hymnal readily falls open at that page, and nothing more. But in the mind of the religious believer an ‘extra’ experience, recognition, and sense of connection develops. This happens within the collection of remembered emotions and experiences learned and retained because of value to the individual. To paraphrase Greenfield (2000): while ‘emotion is the most basic form of consciousness, minds develop as brains d… as an individual starts to escape genetic programming in favor of personal, experience-based learning … the more you have’ solely emotion ‘at any particular moment, then the less you have’ your idiosyncratic mind (Greenfield, 2000). Thus, all personally valued insights and understanding arise out of a balanced adjustment of the two processes, an ongoing experience for everyone.