JOEL - Our mind is not the same as our spirit. They are completely separate entities, but are inseparably connected to each other. What happens to our mind can have both a good or bad effect on our spirit. Our mind is responsible for the learning process as it developes and accululates and stores knowledge and experience, all of which our spirit takes with us into the next life when we die. The scriptures teach that when our spirits were in the pre-existance they were capable of all the emotions, passions, and intellectual experiences exhibited by our mortal bodies. Our basic mortal personality is probably similar to that of our spirit. But unfortunately we live in a terrestrial environment experiencing a mortal life where the defects of our mind can not be easily changed or over-ridden by the true personality of our spirits. Our body is the vehicle for our spirit. If the steering wheel in a car breaks down the people inside the car can not go in the right direction until it is repaired. So it is also with the relationship between our spirits and minds. The spirit is dependent on the mind and body to stay healthy so it can accumulate knowledge and earthly experience. This is why it is so important that we keep our bodies as healthy as we can(D&C 88:124) and not take in any unclean thing that could have a detrimental effect on our minds(D&C 89). This includes drugs, alcohol, and unrighteous or immoral thoughts and actions. Of course in the eternal sense, any physical damage done to our brains is only temporary. Spirits which are beautiful and innocent may be temporally restrained by physical impediments. If healing does not come in mortal life, it will come thereafter.