I dedicate this post to my best friend Gabi for bringing up this idea to me. Thank you so much for giving me this example!
There are many activities which demonstrate a mind-body connection [1]. One of them I have not examined until now is the act of speaking: the process of using audible language to communicate with another person or oneself. It is a very important and yet, in a sense, mundane thing that affirms what many other activities do--that my mind and body can and do interact.
The simple process of speaking aloud, to myself or another person, uses both faculties of consciousness (thought and volition) and faculties of my body (opening my mouth and forming words). My mind selects the words it wants to communicate my thoughts with, and my mouth and tongue translate those thoughts into sounds that I attach linguistic significance to. Consciousness is necessary to both fashion a message and choose to deliver it via oral means, and without my body words in my mind will only stay in my mind. Speech, although it is an ordinary activity, is an excellent example of mind-body interaction.
The act of forming audible words inescapably demonstrates a functional relationship between my consciousness and my body. It is by no means the only example of this, but it is one on which a great deal of human social interactions hinges, and one without which non-telepathic beings could not convey concepts or thoughts to other non-telepathic beings. Speaking is a very basic--and yet extremely vital--component of my life. Each time I engage in speaking I am relying on a specific relationship between my mind and body to do so.
Even normal things people might take for granted can affirm significant philosophical concepts, if people recognize them as they are. Using verbal speech is just one of many examples that someone could give of mind-body interaction that many of us are so accustomed to we might even overlook the substance dualist nature of it.
[1]. See here:
A. https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-mind-body-problem.html
B. https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2018/03/more-examples-of-mind-body-interaction.html
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