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The first written account of the Loch Ness Monster, or Nessie, was made in 565 AD. |
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Does the Soul Exist?
Posted on Sunday, December 10, 2006 (CST) by Thoth
 On 28th of July, 1976, at 3:42 in the early hours of the morning (local time), the deadliest earthquake of the 20th century, and the third greatest recorded in history, took place in Tangshan, China. Approximately one fifth of the city perished in the calamity, and thousands of others were rescued from the arms of the death.
A special sociological survey of these people was made, to find out what they felt at the most critical moment of their lives—that of their death.
Surprisingly, many responded that, being face-to-face with death, they did not feel any pain or regret, but that on the contrary they experienced a kind of latent excitement, as if they had been liberated from their physical bodies. Some even said that they had seen other dimensions, special beings, a tunnel of light, and things of this sort.
It is likely that most people are familiar with these kinds of stories, known by experts as NDEs (Near Death Experiences).
The existence of NDEs
raises a dilemma for science, which holds that the mind is merely a
product of neuro-chemical reactions, not an entity independent of the
brain, able to separate at certain times like, for example, at death.
As it is expected, scientists have diverse positions with regard to the
existence of the soul as an individual entity.
One study, the results of
which many are probably familiar with, was made in 1907 by a Doctor of
Medicine, Duncan MacDougall of Haverhill, Massachussets. MacDougall
worked with 6 patients in a critical state, which he weighed at the
moment immediately prior to death, and then directly after.
The strange result,
published in the contemporary medical journals, was that the patients
lost an average of 21 grams at the exact moment of death. Dr MacDougall
reached the conclusion that this was the weight of the human soul.
Nowadays this test counts
as nothing more than an anecdote in scientific circles, since many
detractors declare that many measurement errors, caused by one factor
or another, could have been committed. However, up to this moment,
nobody seems to have had the will to repeat this experiment, either to
confirm or refute it.
The reductionist point of
view, however, is skeptical to the existence of independent
consciousness. The scientist Francis Crick—awarded the Nobel prize
along American James Watson in 1962 for discovering the double-helix
structure of DNA—is probably the most well-known contemporary
representative for this way of thinking.
Crick affirms in a
controversial study carried out over several years that "our minds—the
behavior of our brains—can be explained by the interactions of nerve
cells (and other cells) and the molecules associated with them".
Many investigators accuse
Crick of clinging to an extreme reductionist view, which leaves many
scientists in a difficult position. "It is like saying that the
cathedral is a pile of stones and glass… It is true, but too simplistic
and it misses the point," states Michael Reiss, professor at the
University of London who is both a priest and scientist.
Put another way, the brain
could well appear to be a festival of neurotransmitters coming and
going here and there, but this would not necessarily deny the existence
of the soul. In fact, many see the electrical impulses of this confused
crossing of routes called the brain, as a manifestation of the messages
of consciousness, and not the other way around.
From the opposite
perspective to Crick, investigations made at about the same time by a
team of Dutch doctors on a total 344 patients who underwent cardiac
failures, revealed that 18% of these people had near death experiences.
The leader of the team, Pim
Van Lommel, thinks that it puts to question, "the concept thus far
assumed but never scientifically proven, that consciousness and
memories are localized in the brain…"
Lommel asks how these
patients, with a flat electroencephalogram (EEG), could have had such
lucid experiences without a consciousness independent of cerebral
function. This study, which would support another made in the previous
year in the Hospital of Southampton, was finished in two years, and was
published by The Lancet, a prestigious medical publication. Up to this
moment it is the most complete study of near death experiences.
Copyright: The Epoch Times
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Re: Does the Soul Exist?
by Kaya on Sunday, December 10, 2006 (CST)
(User Info | Send a Message) | It's interesting that while scientists continue to postulate about our demise, and the lack of activity afterwards, society continues to have more and more incredible experiences that disprove their attempts to explain NDE's as a chemical reaction.
Recently, the absolutely incredible story of Danion Brinkley is making waves because the description of his post-death experience includes details that could not have been known to anyone excpet the attending physicians and Danion himself, whom happened to be 'dead' at the time. The whole things gets more humorous all the time, instead of frustrating, because eventually their continued denial looks more and more foolish and desparate in the face of mounting testimony bordering on solid eveidence. I believe we've reached a point where solid evidence becomes a leap of faith where one must accept a new reality or be mired in the scientific dogma of late. Sink or swim, as it were. |
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