The Soul

The Soul                   by  Marinus Jan Marijs

The soul, in many religious, philosophical, and mythological traditions, is the incorporeal essence of a living being. Soul or psyche (Ancient Greek, “to breathe”) comprises the mental abilities of a living being: reason, character, feeling, consciousness, memory, perception, thinking, etc. Depending on the philosophical system, a soul can either be mortal or immortal.

Greek philosophers, such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, understood that the soul (ψυχή psūchê) must have a logical faculty, the exercise of which was the most divine of human actions. At his defense trial, Socrates even summarized his teaching as nothing other than an exhortation for his fellow Athenians to excel in matters of the psyche since all bodily goods are dependent on such excellence (Apology 30a–b). (Wikipedia)

1   Definition
“The Soul, in religion and philosophy, the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being, that which confers individuality and humanity, often considered to be synonymous with the mind or the self. In theology, the soul is further defined as that part of the individual which partakes of divinity and often is considered to survive the death of the body”.
(Encyclopaedia Britannica)

2   Properties of what is called the soul in different cultures
“From comparatively humble Homeric beginnings, the word ‘soul’ undergoes quite remarkable semantic expansion in sixth and fifth century usage. By the end of the fifth century — the time of Socrates’ death — soul is standardly thought and spoken of, for instance, as the distinguishing mark of living things, as something that is the subject of emotional states and that is responsible for planning and practical thinking, and also as the bearer of such virtues as courage and justice. Coming to philosophical theory, we first trace a development towards comprehensive articulation of a very broad conception of soul, according to which the soul is not only responsible for mental or psychological functions like thought, perception and desire, and is the bearer of moral qualities, but in some way or other accounts for all the vital functions that any living organism performs.”
(Ancient Theories of Soul – Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy)

“Many cultures have recognized some incorporeal principle of human life or existence corresponding to the soul, and many have attributed souls to all living things. There is evidence even among prehistoric peoples of a belief in an aspect distinct from the body and residing in it. Despite widespread and longstanding belief in the existence of a soul, however, different religions and philosophers have developed a variety of theories as to its nature, its relationship to the body, and its origin and mortality.

Among ancient peoples, both the Egyptians and the Chinese conceived of a dual soul. The Egyptian ka (breath) survived death but remained near the body, while the spiritual ba proceeded to the region of the dead. The Chinese distinguished between a lower, sensitive soul, which disappears with death, and a rational principle, the hun, which survives the grave and is the object of ancestor worship.

Christian concepts of a body-soul dichotomy originated with the ancient Greeks and were introduced into Christian theology at an early date by St. Gregory of Nyssa and by St. Augustine.”  (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

“Paul the Apostle used ψυχή (psychē) and πνεῦμα (pneuma) specifically to distinguish between the Jewish notions of נפש (nephesh) and רוח ruah (spirit)

The Quran, the holy book of Islam, distinguishes between the immortal Rūḥ (translated as spirit, consciousness, pneuma or “soul”) and the mortal Nafs (translated as self, ego, psyche or “soul”). The immortal Rūḥ “drives” the mortal Nafs, which comprises temporal desires and perceptions necessary for living.^[69] One of the passages in the Quran that mention Rûh occur in chapter 17 (“The Night Journey”),and in Chapter 39 (“The Troops”):
And they ask you, [O Muhammad], about the Rûh. Say, “The Rûh is of the affair of my Lord. And mankind has not been given of knowledge except a little.

Kabbalah and other mystic traditions go into greater detail into the nature of the soul. Kabbalah separates the soul into five elements, corresponding to the five worlds:

1. Nefesh, related to natural instinct.
2. Ruach, related to emotion and morality.
3. Neshamah, related to intellect and the awareness of God.
4. Chayah, considered a part of God, as it were.
5. Yechidah. This aspect is essentially one with God.

Kabbalah also proposed a concept of reincarnation, the gilgul. (See also nefesh habehamit the “animal soul”.)

The Bahá’í Faith affirms that “the soul is a sign of God, a heavenly gem whose reality the most learned of men hath failed to grasp, and whose mystery no mind, however acute, can ever hope to unravel”. Bahá’u’lláh stated that the soul not only continues to live after the physical death of the human body, but is, in fact, immortal. Heaven can be seen partly as the soul’s state of nearness to God; and hell as a state of remoteness from God. Each state follows as a natural consequence of individual efforts, or the lack thereof, to develop spiritually. Bahá’u’lláh taught that the soul’s evolution is always towards God and away from the material world.kipedia)

3   Non-physical
The soul is a separate entity from the body and is non-physical.  

4   Supporting data pointing to the existence of a soul:
(“The Soul, in religion and philosophy, the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being, that which confers individuality and humanity, often considered to be synonymous with the mind”)

Neurological evidence relating to the mind

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqHrpBPdtSI
From Michael Egnor a neurosurgeon and a professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Stony Brook University (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Egnor)  
talks in “The Evidence against  Materialism?“ (from 2 min. and 27 seconds to 5 min. and 54 seconds) as follows:

5   Cerebral localisation
Michael Egnor:
“There are a variety of classic studies in neurosciences that support the viewpoint that some aspects of the mind are not material, and that refute materialism. The first set of experiments, are experiments that show cerebral localisation with certain kinds of neurological functions but not with others
It’s been known since the 19^th century that for motor and sensory functions there are very specific locations in the brain that seem to mediate those functions.
If I move my hand, that is controlled by a specific part of my opposite cerebral hemisphere and the area is quite discrete. Vision is controlled by a discrete area in the occipital lobes.
However higher intellectual functions, abstract thought such as mathematics such as contemplating ethics things involved in personality are not localised like that.
That is that there is no calculus center in my brain, there is no addition center in my brain.
The brain seems to be necessary ordinarily, for doing calculus, for doing addition and thinking about concepts like justice and mercy and so on but it’s not localisable in the same way movement, sensing, cessation is localisable.
The believe that higher abstract thought was going to be localisable was held by materialists in the 19^th century and they developed the theory of phrenology from that, the idea that all of these individual higher intellectual functions have a spot in the brain that controlled them.
And phrenology of course has been discredited, it’s been shown to be wrong and it was to be wrong because only certain things in the brain seemed to be mediated by the brain.
Other aspects of the mind don’t have a spot in the brain, that seems to give rise to them.
The implication is that they’re not really material, that they’re an immaterial power, of being able to reason and use logic and frankly that’s a very old dualist idea. It was an idea proposed by Aristotle, an idea as part of Thomistic philosophy, so for thousands of years dualists have predicted that, and modern neuroscience confirms that.” 

6  Split brain  
Michael Egnor:
“Back in the 1960’s Roger Sperry who is a prominent neuroscientist did a series of studies on patients who had split brain operations and these were patients who had severe epilepsy in which an epileptic focus would begin in one hemisphere of the brain and travelled through the corpus callosum which is a bundle of fibers connecting the two hemispheres and caused a generalised seizure. It was recognised by surgeons in the mid-20^th century that if you cut a fiber bundle that connected the two hemispheres of the brain, that you could prevent the seizures from becoming generalised and you could greatly improve the quality of a patient’s life. So a number of patients had this operation, to call it corpus callosotomy an operation that I performed and that many neurosurgeons it performed and surprisingly after the operation the patient’s, their seizures would get better of course, but they really weren’t much different.
That is that their brains were essentially cut in half but they still seemed to be a unitary person, they seemed to be fairly normal.
Sperry was a neuroscientist who studied these people in detail and he did find that there were some subtle abnormalities as result of the cutting of the brain in half, but the anomality were very subtle, they were so that the experiments he did won him the Nobel Prize.
But they weren’t obvious, they weren’t obvious changes and what that implies is that the human mind is not purely generated by the matter of the brain, otherwise cutting the brain in half would have profound effects on the human mind.
It might make two people, certainly it would create a rather profound difference in a person’s consciousness and it doesn’t.
You can cut the brain in half and the person can’t tell the difference, except he has fewer seizures.
There are some subtle differences, but the differences can only be detected with literally Nobel prize-winning research that shows little differences in perception.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqHrpBPdtSI
(from 4 min. and 58 seconds to 6 min. and 58 seconds)

7   The consciousness is still unitary in a split-brain patient, despite the two separate brains.

8   The split-brain patients have one unified attention.

9   Wilder Penfield
Michael Egnor:
“There are experiments of Wilder Penfield who was the pioneer in epilepsy neurosurgery, from the 1930’s to the 1960’s. Dr. Penfield who worked in Montreal in Canada was the first neurosurgeon to systematically operate on the human brain when people were awake.
The brain doesn’t feel pain, the scalp can feel pain, the skull can, but he would give local anaesthesia so the patients didn’t have any pain and he would work on the brain while they were awake in an effort to identify the focus of their seizures and to remove the focus from the brain, so their seizures would stop. And he operated on upwards of a thousand patients like this and carefully recorded his results, he was a meticulous scientist as well as a neurosurgeon and he began his career as a materialist, he believed that all the mind originated from activity of the brain, but by the end of his career he was a passionate dualist and was a harsh critic of materialism and he was dualist for several reasons:
First is that he repeatedly observed that there were aspects of a patient’s mind, that no matter what he did to the brain, he couldn’t affect. You know he could elicit memories by stimulating a part of the brain, he could make a muscle move or make a patient have a sensation. But he couldn’t change their consciousness, he couldn’t change their intellect, ne couldn’t change their sense of self there was a fundamental core, the person’s soul. That no matter what he did to the brain remain the same, so he said there was something he couldn’t reach using material things.
The other observation that he had, which I think is absolutely fascinating is that he asked the question, why are there no intellectual seizures? And when people have epilepsy, the epilepsy can follow various patterns, commonly a person will have the jerking of a muscle, sometimes so many muscles jerk that they actually go unconscious, sometimes they have a tingling on their skin, or sometimes they have a funny smell or sometimes they can even have a little behavioural tic but they never start doing calculus, they never contemplate justice or mercy, they never think about Shakespeare.
So Penfield says why aren’t there intellectual seizures? If the mind comes from the brain entirely, the mind is material in some sense, well you ought to have seizures that make you do addition when you can’t stop, you ought to have seizures that make you think about politics, and you can’t stop but you don’t. There are no intellectual seizures it says, what that implies is that the intellect is not the brain, because otherwise you would have it, you would have intellectual seizures.
So Penfield was a very profound thinker on this matter, he was a pioneer in the study of the brain and he conclusively showed in my view that there is an immaterial aspect of the mind, particularly the intellect and the ability to reason to use logic.
He started out as a materialist and he finished his career as a passionate dualist.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqHrpBPdtSI
Michael Egnor
(from 7 min. and 2 seconds to 10 min. and 28 seconds)

10   Wilder Penfield concluded that there was a causal factor missing, which could not be explained from brain chemistry alone.

Wilder Penfield in his book : “The mystery of the mind”  

11   Persistent vegetative states
Michael Egnor:
“In 2006 a neuroscientist named Owen published a landmark study in the journal of science, looking at brain function in people who were in a persistent vegetative state.
Persistent vegetative state is a condition were a person has such severe brain damage that they show no sign of consciousness.
At all it’s basically a persistent deep coma and it can go on for years and many times people who are diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state, for example a car accident or from lack of oxygen to the brain.
Many times they’re family, and sometimes they’re their caretakers will say but I got the sense that the person is there, that they understand things.
But there is no clinical for It, you examine them, there’s no sign of any reaction at all and on scan their brains are shrunken and obviously severely damaged.
So Owen did a fascinating experiment he used a technique called MRI imaging, which is an MRI machine that images changes in de blood flow in the brain that seems to correlate with brain function. So if you’re moving your arm, the part of your brain that involves moving your arm lights up on the functional MRI.
If you’re thinking about stuff your frontal lobes light up, things like that.
So what Owen did is that he took a woman who had been diagnosed for several years in a persistent vegetative state from a car accident who showed no sign at all of any awareness, deep coma, put her in the MRI machine and asked her questions through a little microphone with a headset, and he said: pretend that you’re playing tennis or imagine that you’re walking across the room he asked her to imagine all these things and her brain kind of lit up in places, but you could say well the brain lightning up doesn’t mean she was understanding anything, it just meant maybe the sound coming to her ears was causing a reflex or something.
So wat he did was, he took 15 normal people and he did the same thing with them, stuck them in the same machine and asked the same questions and then he asked neuroradiologists to look at the functional MRI images of this woman and the 15 normal people and see if you could tell the difference between the two, and they couldn’t. Her pattern of reaction was identical to the normal people.
That seems to imply that she could understand what he was asking, even though medically she was diagnosed as having no mind at all. And he did something that was very clever, that absolute fascinates me and he said maybe the lightning up in areas in normal people’s brains, was not because of understanding, but was it just because of the reception of the sound and it didn’t really mean she understood. So what he then did is he took the same words that he had asked her before, and he asked them again but he mixed them but he mixed the sequence of the words so they didn’t make any sense: “walking, understand pretend room across.”
So he took away the semantics and just left some syntax and her brain stopped reacting, as did the normal control, her brain only reacted when what he said to her made sense, they didn’t react from just sound.
So Owens work was a landmark study and it made people begin to question these folks who were in a persistent vegetative state, are they really unaware?
And so his study has been repeated by a number of different investigators, and there are probably last I looked there were 40 or 50 patients who had been studied by other investigators and at least half of them showed the same thing he found that even when your brain is so massively destroyed that there’s no clinical evidence for any mental activity at all, functional MRI can find that these patients are capable of thinking in quit clear ways and there are some patients who can do mathematics, that is wat some researches have done, is they will ask a person in persistent vegetative state to do simple math what’s 8 plus 6 and then they give them different answers and when you hit the right answer the brain lights up.
So very clearly there are aspects of the mind that cannot be destroyed by severe brain damage, that what Owen’s work is showing us. It’s showing us that aspects of the mind that aren’t connected tightly to the brain that are immaterial.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqHrpBPdtSI   
(from 10 min. and 32 seconds to 15 min. and 14 seconds)
Michael Egnor

12  There is the unexplained recovery of consciousness among people who have been unconscious for a prolonged periods of time in the moments or days before their death.    

13  Benjamin Libet: Readiness potential and freewill
Michael Egnor:
“Some of the most fascinating work in neuroscience has been the work of Benjamin Libet, who was a neuroscientist in California back in the mid-20^th century.
Libet was fascinated by the correlation in time between thought and brain activity, and he did a whole series of experiments in which he would place electrodes on the scalp of patients or people and he would ask them to make decisions or think about things, and he would attempt to time the moment when they made a decision when they thought about something and correlate the moment they thought about something and correlate the moment they thought about something with the moment there was a change in the brainwave activity.
And he did a number of brainwave experiments. One experiment has become very famous and ironically has been used by materialists to support materialism although an understanding what Libet had actually found is quite the opposite, it refutes materialism.
The experiment that Libet did was to ask a person to push a button, when they decided to do so, he put a button in front of them, and he had a clock in his hand and the person would just sit there and whenever they would decide I’ll think I press the button, and push the button.
He ask them when they made the decision to press the button not when they pushed it, but when they decided to push it. Just know the fraction of a second that was on the clock at the same time he was recording brainwaves and he wanted to find out the moment you decide what happens in your brain. And what he found was quite consistently was that about perhaps half a second before you decide to do something there’s a spike in your brain, a spike in your brainwave, that he called the readiness potential. And it was before you were aware of the decision to do anything there’s almost like an unconscious motive, and then you would decide a half second later and do it.
So he found this quite consistently that there would be a spike in brain activity then the conscious awareness of a decision and then you go ahead and do what you decided.
Materialists have used this to suggest that we misled that we are misled by thinking that we have free will. That what actually happens is that our material brain just makes the decision, and then we kind of think that we decided but we didn’t, it was our neurotransmitters and neural chemicals. But Libet didn’t agree with that, Libet pointed out, that he asked these subjects to do something more, he said when you decide to do something then decide not to so you decide I’m gonna push the button, no I’m not gonna push the button. When they did that he found that there was a readiness potential for deciding to push the button, but there wasn’t a readiness potential to decide not to push it. And he said he didn’t prove the existence of free will, but he proved the existence of free won’t. That’s what he called it, he said what he sees is going on in the brain with his experiments is that we are bombarded with are probably preconscious or unconscious motives and that we are freely capable of deciding to comply with them or not. And the decision to comply with them is not material, there is no sign of any brain activity when you decide not to comply and he pointed out kind of interestingly that free won’t is a parallel concept to traditional ideas of original sin, that in a sense we have motives that are beyond our control, we can’t stop the motives but we can stop from doing it.
And the free will and the free won’t is scientifically demonstrable and he demonstrated and his experiments were brilliant, he was a dualist, he was a property dualist.
And he rejected the idea that his experiment approved materialism, he felt just the opposite, that approved that free will is real.”     
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqHrpBPdtSI  
(from 15 min. and 18 seconds to 19 min. and 37 seconds)
Michael Egnor   

Intentionality- or directed attention
 
14   Purpose, Intentionality
Michael Egnor:
“The natural world can be much better understood, if you assume that it has purposes, if you assume that it has design. It helps you to understand how things work, and I believe that the human mind properly understood it will give us a much deeper understanding of nature and not just of the mind. In the 19^th century a German philosopher named Franz Brentano asked a very important question and I think answered it very well, he asked the question: what is it that is unique about the mind that makes it different from matter?
We tend to think of mind and matter as different things, but what is though is there’s one thing that makes something mental as opposed to physical. He said actually there is, he said it’s intentionality and intentionality is an ancient term, it was a term that dates back to Aristotle and was used by scholastic philosophers and what intentionality means that it is the ability for something to be about something else.
For example if I’m thinking now about Washington DC, my thought is intentional in a sense that I’m thinking about something that’s not me, I’m thinking about a city, or I’m thinking about a doorway, or I’m thinking about my wife.
So the ability for a thought to be about something in unique to the mind, because no physical object is about anything in the absence of a mind.
All right there is a rock sitting on a beach, isn’t about anything, a tree isn’t about anything, only a thought can be about something.
So Brentano said if we are to understand the mind, we have to understand intentionality we have to understand now a thought can be about something and of course you can’t explain intentionality using materialistic beliefs and precepts, because matter is never about anything intrinsically and materialist have tried in the 20^th century, they’ve have taken up Brentano’s challenge, there been many difference efforts for example by Daniel Dennett who is a materialist philosopher to explain intentionality as some kind of material thing, but it can’t be explained that way.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqHrpBPdtSI 
(from 22 min. and 24 seconds to 24 min. and 45 seconds)
Michael Egnor

15  Teleology
Michael Egnor:
“What’s remarkable about intentionality and what the scholastic philosophers understood, it’s that intentionality is in some sense a reflection of a grander aboutness in nature, and that grander aboutness is called teleology and teleology is the tendency for processes in nature to go somewhere to become something.
For example, the classic example is an acorn, growing into an oak tree theologically it seems to be what the acorn is designed to do, to become an oak tree, the acorn doesn’t become an ocean or a Corvette or a flower, it becomes an oak tree.
It has a very specific direction and a goal, and it’s a kind of aboutness in things, that they’re all directed and the scholastic philosophers realised that intentionality in the human mind is a kind of a reflection of this aboutness in the whole of nature and essentially it is a reflection of nature and that you can’t understand the mind or you can’t understand nature unless you understand purpose, and in fact biologists have tried, because they are allergic if they’re Darwinists biologists they’re allergic to teleology, they’re allergic to the notion of purpose. They’ve try to explain biology without explaining without invoking purpose.
And you can’t do it, you can’t explain a living thing without explaining what the purpose of the parts of that living thing are. You can’t explain the heart unless you explain that the purpose is to pump blood.
You can’t explain the eye unless you understand the purpose is to see. Where are these purposes come from? Well these purposes are a kind of like intentionality, they’re kind of like a mind, and the implication is that behind the universe there’s a grand mind, a mind that is reflected in the way the universe works, and as St. Thomas would say , that is what all men call God. So what really helped me in my personal understanding and in my faith is that everything I see in nature, that shows purpose, that shows goal directedness that shows teleology and intentionality is a reflection of a much higher mind, it’s a reflection of God.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqHrpBPdtSI   
(from 24 min. and 45 seconds to 27 min. and 15 seconds)
Michael Egnor

16   Materialism
Michael Egnor:
Materialism in my viewpoint is not even really a philosophical perspective, it’s just a mistake, it’s just like claiming  that 2+2=5 as mathematics, it’s not really mathematics, it’s just an error and materialism is not even sufficiently coherent, to qualify as a philosophical perspective.
The best philosophy originated with the ancient Greeks especially with Aristotle, and what Aristotle proposed and what became mainstream metaphysics for such philosopher as St. Thomas Aquinas the scholastic philosophers is that things that exist in the world are composites of form and matter, and that form is the intelligible aspect of things and that matter is what makes something an individual thing, and not just a theoretical thing.
But that the actuality the intelligibility of something is in the form, it’s not in the matter.
Form is what makes things real and what I believe materialism does in modern science, it denies that the form of things is the most important aspect of them.
That we need to, for example in biology. we need to focus on the purposes of biological structures, not just on the details of the biological structure itself, we need to know why they’re doing what they’re doing.
And once you start looking for purposes, you start looking for material aspects at form and that leaves you out of materialism.
The reality is that if you are a consistent materialist, you can’t even do good science, let’s face it, if you think that the only thing that exists is matter extended in space, then why would you pay any attention to physical laws, like Newton’s law are they matter extended in space, Einstein’s equations of gravitation, are they matter extended in space? No.
The best science is science that looks for conceptual principles that underlie the natural world and that’s inherently not a materialistic perspective.”

Michael Egnor: The Evidence against Materialism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqHrpBPdtSI

17  Materialism declares the soul non-existent.
Michael Egnor; “…….the salient characteristics of the mind, such as intentionality, qualia, free will, incorrigibility, restricted access, continuity of self through time, and unity of consciousness (the ‘binding problem’) seem to be impossible to explain materialistically. Materialistic explanations for subjective mental states are not impossible merely because we lack experiments or evidence. Materialistic explanations for the mind are impossible within the framework of materialism itself, because mental properties are not physical properties. Nothing about matter as understood in our current scientific paradigm invokes subjective mental experience. The essential qualities on the mind are immaterial. Invocation of immaterial causation that incorporates subjectivity seems necessary for a satisfactory explanation of the mind.
Yet the 20th century has not been kind to materialist complacency. Quantum mechanics, in many of its interpretations, invokes an observer in order to collapse a waveform. Relativistic cosmology invokes creation ex-nihilo ……
But the 20th century has been very hard on materialism — creation of the universe ex-nihilo, the observer effect in quantum mechanics, the origin of life, the origin of biological information, the cause of the immaterial mind — all seem to belie materialist reduction”

Michael Egnor: The Evidence against Materialism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqHrpBPdtSI

18   Naturalistic  worldviews don’t have a mathematical, logical consistency

19  Reductionism: seeking an explanation for the mind in terms of brain activity
Michael Egnor:
“Materialism is the viewpoint that everything including the human mind is reducible to atoms….and in the 20^th century the materialist have been extended a bit the behaviourists in the early 20^th century believed that the mind was at best irrelevant and possible didn’t even really exist at all. The only thing that actually mattered was the behaviour of a human being or the behaviour of an organism. That philosophical viewpoint turned to be untenable so the viewpoint that the mind was identical to the brain became widely accepted among materialists in the 1960.s and 70.s, it was called identity theory and that viewpoint has become untenable pretty obviously the mind is not the same thing as the brain and other theories as functionalism which views the mind brain relationship somewhat akin to the relationship between software and the hardware of a computer has become quite popular, but the mind is not computation in fact the mind is the opposite of computation although the brain itself could be described as a computer, the mind is no form of computation and a theory is currently very popular among materialists is called eliminative materialism and eliminative materialism is the viewpoint that there is no such thing as the mind, it’s not that the mind is explainable by matter, it’s just that the mind doesn’t exist at all and the only thing that exist is matter and that we are deluded into thinking that we have minds. That’s a radical strange way to look at things, but it is actually rather popular nowadays among materialists.
None of these philosophical materialist viewpoints have any particular support in science. The scientific evidence strongly suggests that these viewpoints are wrong.”

“I believe there is something going on in a conscious being, which includes many animals, as well as ourselves, that is not a computational activity. And to be conscious at all is not a quality that a computer as such will ever possess – no matter how complicated, no matter how well it plays chess or any of these things.”       Roger Penrose

20   The reductionist claim that one can explain all mental experiences in terms of neurons, isn’t a scientific claim, it is a metaphysical speculation.

21   The visual binding problem, The Unity of the visual field

Different parts of the brain store visual information about: colour, shape, orientation, movement and so on.
In total about 30 different locations in the brain.
There is no place where the brain combines this information in a unified perception.
This is called the visual binding problem.
So the question is: Where do brains combine information to form one unified visual field as we normally perceive?
There is now overwhelming evidence that the brain contains no stable, high-resolution, total field representation of a visual landscape, even though that is what we experience.

22   Mental projections in an ontological higher ideoplastic world could influence and structure normal visual perception  (The visual binding problem)

23   Jacob Feldman Professor Dept. of Psychology Center for Cognitive Science
Rutgers University – New Brunswick:
“The is now overwhelming evidence biological and behavioural evidence that the brain contains no stable, high resolution full field representation of a visual scene, even though that is what we subjective experience (Martinez, Conde et al. 2008).
The structure of the primate visual system has been mapped in detail (Kaas and Collins, 2003) and there is no area that could encode this detailed information. The subjective experience is thus inconsistent with the neural circuitry.”
Feldman J. The neural binding problem(s). Cogn. Neurodyn. 2013

24   Hydrocephalus is a condition where there is an excessive amount of cerebrospinal fluid in the skull which hinders normal brain development.

25   Hydrocephalus,
The complex consciousness among people who have minimal brain tissue

“Another challenging phenomenon is the presence of normal or even high intelligence in people who have very little brain tissue. There are again rare but surprising cases who seem to function normally in life with normal intelligence and normal social function despite having virtually no brain at all. In one case published in 2007 a high-school honor student, who had been accepted into Smith college underwent  surgery after she was injured and knocked unconscious in an automobile accident. An X-ray of her head just before surgery revelled that she had no cerebral cortex at all. She had just a brainstem inside her skull and when the surgeon opened her skull to operate, that is exactly wat he found just a brainstem with no cerebral cortex. Now our best understanding of the normal brain is that the brainstem relays motor and sensory signals to the cerebellum and the spinal cord and integrates heart function breathing level of wakefulness and other animal functions, but the brainstem does not have the connections to perform higher cognitive  functions like thinking perceiving making decisions and so on. That can only happen in the cerebral cortex which this young girl did not have. So this young bound honor student according to our best understanding of the brain should have been completely unable to formulate any thought of any kind, let alone function on a high intellectual level.
John Lorber a British neurologist, specialised in children who have Hydrocephalus or water on the brain. Children who have this condition have an abnormal amount of cerebrospinal fluid build-up in the cavities insight their brain, compressing the brain tissue and usually leading to blindness,  seizures mental retardation, paralysis and if it’s not treated to death.
However Lorber described dozens of children and eventually some adults who had severe Hydrocephalus but seemed to lead normal lives, in fact in a sample of children whom the cerebrospinal fluid filled up 95% of their brain, leaving virtually no space for any brain tissue.  Half of them had IQs greater than a hundred. Thirty years ago Lorber published an article in the prestigious journal science entitled: Is you’re brain really necessary?
…. With very severe Hydrocephalus (by which) the vast majority of the head is filled with cerebrospinal fluid, with only a very thin edge of brain tissue pressed against the skull, hardly enough to allow this person to live let alone function normally according to modern medical neuroscience.
However (with this person who had only 5% of the normal brain tissue) this person with Hydrocephalus was actually a graduate student in mathematics at Cambridge University with an IQ of 126.
“Is Consciousness Produced by the Brain?” by Bruce Greyson, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPGZSC8odIU&t=3811s
(from 23 min. and 50 seconds to 28 min. and 25 seconds)
For more information click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPGZSC8odIU&t=3801s

26   The brain
Brain areas associated with different mental functions, show only correlations, not causation.

27   Sir John Eccles the Nobel prize winner for his work on the brain synapse:  
“The unity of conscious experience is provided by the mind, not by the brain.”

28   Karl R. Popper and John C. Eccles  did give an account of how the non-physical mind can affect the physical brain
For more information click here: https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/evidence-based-approach/the-mind-body-problem/

29   The mental is not identical with brain-activity

30   There are different areas of the brain that mediate different aspects of our consciousness but identifying those areas of the cells of the brain that become active doesn’t tell us anything about how thoughts come into being.
This activity of the brain correlates with our thoughts, but that doesn’t tell us about how it causes it at all.
There is currently no scientific explanation for how thoughts and consciousness could arise, that has been tested and validated through any experimental study. 
The conventional theories do not account for how the mind could arise.

‘A computational device is incapable of developing a mind. We got consciousness not just by being clever.”                 Roger Penrose

31   There is an influx of energy from the soul to the brain

32  There is a deep integration and causal connection of the soul with the brain

 

Correlations  vs. causation  

33   The brain
To study the mind in terms of the brain several methods of functional neuroimaging are used to study the neuroanatomical correlates of various cognitive processes that constitute the mind. The evidence from brain imaging indicates that all processes of the mind have physical correlates in brain function.However, such correlational studies cannot determine whether neural activity plays a causal role in the occurrence of these cognitive processes (correlation does not imply causation)  (Wikipedia)

34  Proof
Many of the statements relating to identity of mental and brain processes are what one could call promissory proof, without testable predictions

35  Identity theory is the black box theory of the brain.
In science and engineering, the term black box refers to any complex device for which we know the inputs and outputs, but not the inner workings.

36  Agency
The brain mediates agency, but doesn’t give rise to it.

37   From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
In social science, agency is defined as the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices. By contrast, structure are those factors of influence (such as social class, religion, gender, ethnicity, ability, customs, etc.) that determine or limit an agent and their decisions.  The influences from structure and agency are debated—it is unclear to what extent a person’s actions are constrained by social systems.

One’s agency is one’s independent capability or ability to act on one’s will.

Parapsychological data  

38  Near death Experiences (NDE ‘s)

Bruce Greyson , Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia:
“Some of the best evidence of  consciousness functioning independently from the brain comes from near death experiences.
Profound experiences that some people report when they have been on the threshold of death.
Off course there was the Tibetan tradition of people called delogs who have returned from death, to describe what they’ve experienced.
Their experiences are in some ways similar to near death experiences that I am talking about, but the typical delogs leave their bodies for many days rather than just a few minutes and their experiences usually include extensive travels to a realm beyond death.
The near death experiences I am talking about are very brief accounts of people who are clinically death but are then resuscitated or revived spontaneously after a brief interval with memories of what they experienced during that period.
They typically report exceptional mental clarity, vivid sensory imagery, a clear memory of the experience and an experience that is more real than their everyday life all of this occurring under conditions of drastically altered brain function under which the materialistic model would say that consciousness is impossible.
These near death experiences are reported by between 10 and 20% of people who are revived from clinical death. I have investigated almost 1000 of these cases at the time of the near death experiences was 31 years, but there was a very wide range, 
One young girl reported an experience she had had when she was 8 mounts old when she was undergoing a kidney surgery. The oldest near death experiencer I have studied was 81 at the time of his heart attack.
About one third of these near death experiences occur during surgical operations, one quarter during serious illness and one quarter happened during life-threatening accidents.
The common features of near death experiences can be categorized as changes in thinking, changes in emotional state, paranormal features and otherworldly features.
Changes in thinking during the near death experiences include a sense of time being altered, often people report that time stopped or ceased to exist during the experience it also includes a sense of revelation or sudden understanding in which everything in the universe suddenly becomes crystal clear. There is a sense of a persons thoughts going much faster than usual and being much clearer than usual. And finally there is a life review or panoramic memory in which a person’s entire life seems to flash before them.
Typical emotions reported during the near death experiences include an overwhelming sense of peace and well-being a sense of cosmic unity or being or being one with everything a feeling of complete joy and a sense of being loved unconditionally.
The paranormal features often reported in near death experiences include a sense of leaving the physical body, sometimes called an out of the body experience, an experience of the person’s physical senses such as vision and hearing becoming more vivid than ever before. Sometimes people report seeing colours and hearing sounds that do not exist in this life and a sense of extrasensory perception knowing things beyond the range of the physical senses such as things that are happening at a remote location and finally visions of the future.
Finally many people report in their near death experiences they entered some other unearthly world or realm of existence. Many report that they came to a border they could not cross or a point of no return, that if they has crossed, they would not be allowed to return to life.
Many would report encountering some kind of mystical or divine being and some report seeing deceased spirits often loved ones who had died previously who seemed to be welcoming into another realm or in some cases sending them back to life.
One of the things about near death experiences that interest me most as a psychiatrist is the profound after effects, people reliable report a consistent pattern of changes, attitudes, believes and values that do not seem to fade over time.
Near death experiencers report overwhelmingly that they are more spiritual after the experience that they have more compassion for others and a greater desire to help others, a greater appreciation for life, and a stronger sense of meaning or purpose in life.
An overwhelming majority of near death experiencers report that they have a stronger believe that we survive death of the body.
And just as many report that they have no longer any fear of death, about have report that they have completely lost interest in material possessions and many report that they no longer any interest any interest in personal prestige or in status or in competition
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPGZSC8odIU&t=1126s
(from 28 min. and 29 seconds to 35 min. and 46 seconds)  

39   NDE: Enhanced mental functioning in a NDE : Thinking clearer than ever, forming more detailed memories

40   NDE : Thinking is faster and clearer than usual

41   NDE’s provide the strongest evidence for survival after death

42   NDE
Complex consciousness is present in near-death experiences when the brain is not functioning or functioning at a greatly diminished level

43   The advent of resuscitation technology
Roger Walsh – Is There Life After Death? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBpGoURcRXg

44   The transformational effect of a NDE
A very high percentage of people seem to go to a dramatic shift in their values, in their orientation after an NDE

45   There is a radical reorganisation of personality after an NDE

 

Out of the body experiences (OBE ‘s)   

46   International Academy of Consciousness – Global Survey
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
´In 1999, at the 1st International Forum of Consciousness Research in Barcelona, research-practitioners Wagner Alegretti and Nanci Trivellato presented preliminary findings of an online survey on the out-of-body experience answered by internet users interested in the subject; therefore, not a sample representative of the general population.

1,007 (85%) of the first 1,185 respondents reported having had an OBE. 37% claimed to have had between two and ten OBEs. 5.5% claimed more than 100 such experiences. 45% of those who reported an OBE said they successfully induced at least one OBE by using a specific technique. 62% of participants claiming to have had an OBE also reported having enjoyed nonphysical flight; 40% reported experiencing the phenomenon of self-bilocation (i.e. seeing one’s own physical body whilst outside the body); and 38% claimed having experienced self-permeability (passing through physical objects such as walls).

47   There is an ultra-reality in the OBE which is non-reducible to the physical

48   A sense of peace and wellbeing, feelings of joy, a sense of oneness

49   A greater intensity of feelings

50   The Seeing of a light being
People reported after an Out of the Body Experience that they communicated with a light-being or observed fields of colours. This is the perception of the energy aspect of the spirit body of a person.
“A central theme of the NDE narrative is a meeting with a ‘being of light’,
Here is a typical example:

“…I floated…up into this pure crystal light…it was beautiful, and so bright, so radiant, but it didn’t hurt my eyes. It’s not  any kind of light you can describe on earth. I didn’t actually see a person in this light, and yet it has a special identity, it definitely does. It is a light of perfect understanding and perfect love”

51   A being of light
The perception of the subtle energy field of a person

According to Raymond Moody:
“Most people say they are not just some spot of consciousness when this [the OBE] happens. They still seem to be in some kind of body even though they are out of their physical bodies. They say the spiritual body has shape and form unlike our physical bodies. It has arms and a shape although most are at a loss to describe what it looks like. Some people describe it as a cloud of colors, or an energy field. One NDEer I spoke to several years ago said he studied his hands while he was in this state and saw them to be composed of light with tiny structures in them. He could see the delicate whorls of his fingerprints and tubes of light up his arms”

52   Out of the body experiences / near death experiences.
A soul, spirit or subtle body can detach itself from the physical body and visit distant locations.  

53   The most commonly reported sensation experienced in connection with the OBE was serenity.

54   The out-of-body experiences that suggest the existence of one or more non-physical planes of existence and an associated body beyond the physical.

55   OBE’s are reported to be a state of extraordinarily brilliance and luminosity

56   Surrounded by unconditional love
The perception of subtle energies on a higher ontological has a highly aesthetic quality which is most often associated with love

57   The Out of the Body Experiences have an intrinsic reality in contrast with dreams

58   There seems to be a strong degree of cross-cultural consistency in the descriptions of OBE’s

59  The books Robert Monroe give detailed phenomenological descriptions of  out of body states.

60  During the Out of the Body Experience there are lucid and well-structured thought processes with reasoning and clear memory formation and a state of heightened consciousness

For more information click here: https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/evidence-based-approach/14-research-areas/out-of-the-body-experiences-and-near-death-experiences/out-of-the-body-experience/

 

Memories 

61   Relevant to the question of whether there is life after death, is do non-physical memories exist?

62   Memories can be stored without any physical material embodiment around, as is shown by Ian Stephenson’s  research
For more information click here:  https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/evidence-based-approach/14-research-areas/reincarnation/research-on-non-physical-memory/ 

63   There are memories of previous lives that people couldn’t possibly remember from normal data processing

64   A non-physical memory.
Information isn’t lost or destroyed, it is only transformed. This is an essential element if one wants to understand how it is possible for someone to retain their identity after death.

65   There is a continuity of memory after death

Consciousness 

66   Consciousness is not the result of brain activity
Although “normal” consciousness in daily life is mediated by the brain

67   Sir John Carew Eccles AC FRS FRACP FRSNZ FAA (27 January 1903 – 2 May 1997) was an Australian neurophysiologist and philosopher who won the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the synapse about consciousness and the mind:
“Nowhere in the laws of physics or in the derivative sciences, chemistry and biology, is there any reference to consciousness or mind.”

68   Does any system that has a high level of complexity, will that be conscious?
No, while higher levels of consciousness are connected with highly complex brains, complex systems on itself do not produce consciousness.
Highly complex systems such as supercomputers, the immunity system, DNA and so on do not have consciousness, furthermore consciousness is unitary and as such extremely simple.

69   Complexity doesn’t create consciousness.

70  Biological systems depend on the subtle energies of the soul to become conscious.

71   There is a direct correlation between consciousness and subtle energies. To develop consciousness on a certain level one has to develop a certain amount of subtle energy on that level, and if one wants to develop consciousness on a still higher level, than one has to develop subtle energies on that higher level. These subtle energies are not the same as consciousness. The expansions of consciousness are related to the activation of subtle energies at different ontological levels, which generate different levels of consciousness.

72   Consciousness is fundamental. It cannot be reduced to smaller parts.

73   “Gravitational” point of consciousness
There are different levels of consciousness, but the focal point of consciousness can shift between these different levels

74   There are higher levels of consciousness beyond the normal levels of consciousness.

75   The unity of personal consciousness stays intact after death, as NDE’s and OBE’s show.

76   The first-person consciousness stays intact and doesn’t devolve after reaching a state of Kosmic consciousness.

77   Consciousness has a subjective or first-person ontology, Its mode of existence is generated by higher ontological subtle energy fields which make contact with the ground of existence, which is consciousness.

78  Consciousness is a fundamental aspect of existence, independent of matter.
Consciousness is an irreducible component in the universe.

79   Unity of consciousness
Schrödinger had strong interests in Eastern religions, pantheism and used religious symbolism in his works. He also believed his scientific work was an approach to the godhead. He also wrote about the nature of consciousness:
Erwin Schrodinger: “The multiplicity (of consciousness) is only apparent. This is the doctrine of the Upanishads. And not of the Upanishads only. The mystical experience of the union with God regularly leads to this view, unless strong prejudices stand in the way”. As quoted in ‘The Eye of Shiva: Eastern Mysticism and Science’ (1981) by Amaury de Riencourt.

80   Erwin Schrodinger: “Multiplicity is only apparent, in truth, there is only one mind… “The Oneness of Mind”, as translated in ‘Quantum Questions: Mystical Writings of the World’s Great Physicists’ (1984) edited by Ken Wilber.

81   Erwin Schrodinger: ”Consciousness is never experienced in the plural, only in the singular. Not only has none of us ever experienced more than one consciousness, but there is also no trace of circumstantial evidence of this ever happening anywhere in the world. If I say that there cannot be more than one consciousness in the same mind, this seems a blunt tautology — we are quite unable to imagine the contrary…“ “The Oneness of Mind”, as translated in ‘Quantum Questions: Mystical Writings of the World’s Great Physicists’ (1984) edited by Ken Wilber.

82   Free will is related to conscious choices, they are not algorithmic processes in the brain but processes in the non-physical mind / soul who are acting upon the brain 

83   Consciousness should not be confused with its content. It is pure awareness like a mirror

84   Levels of consciousness
Despite the fact that consciousness transcends space and time, there are different levels of consciousness

85   Without consciousness, there is no capacity for understanding, one cannot understand something  one isn’t aware of.

86   Without consciousness, there are no higher mental functions
See:   https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/lists/list-of-aspects-of-consciousness/

87  Consciousness is fundamental and not derivative.

For more information click here: https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/evidence-based-approach/14-research-areas/mystical-experiences/unity-of-consciousness/      

 

Transformations  

88   How transformations of consciousness do occur see: https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/methods-of-transformation/process-of-transformation/

89   Transformations of consciousness come in a sequential way.
These are successive transformations.

90   Transformations of consciousness  are related to fields of subtle energy at different levels. As these fields of subtle energy at different levels are directly related to the levels themselves. One could say about these levels, using Jean Gebser’s terminology: “These transitions are structured jumps and not continuous” [Jean Gebser; “The Ever-Present Origin”. Ohio University Press, 1986.] (not a linear development). It means that these levels do not gradually flow over from one to the next.

91   With the transformation to, and activation of higher levels, new capacities become available. Every level has its own competences which are level specific.

 

Mind

92   The mind 
For many Western philosophers the term soul is synonymous with mind (e.g., René Descartes).

93   Dr Parnia: “We don’t know scientifically how the human mind, thought and consciousness arises from brain activity. Traditional views have of course been that somehow brain activity leads to thoughts and  consciousness and awareness……but there is no evidence to support this.”
Sam Parnia M.D., Ph.D, is a British associate professor of Medicine at the NYU Langone Medical Center where he is also director of research into cardiopulmonary resuscitation. In the United Kingdom, he is director of the Human Consciousness Project at the University of Southampton. Parnia is known for his work on near-death experiences and cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

94   To study the mind in terms of the brain several methods of functional neuroimaging are used to study the neuroanatomical correlates of various cognitive processes that constitute the mind. The evidence from brain imaging indicates that all processes of the mind have physical correlates in brain function. However, such correlational studies cannot determine whether neural activity plays a causal role in the occurrence of these cognitive processes (correlation does not imply causation) and they cannot determine if the neural activity is either necessary or sufficient for such processes to occur.  (Wikipedia)

95   No explanation exists for how consciousness and the sense of the self could arise from physical properties.

96   The mind is not reducible to matter, or an emergent property of matter.

97   The ability to cognitively regulate emotional responses to aversive events is important for mental and physical health. Little is known, however, about neural bases of the cognitive control of emotion.

98   As Near Death Experiences demonstrate, the mind is a separate entity that can separate from the brain and body, and can continue to function when there is no brain activity

99   Extended mind
One can differentiate into four different forms of Extended mind:
1   The technological
2   The subtle energetic
3   The ideoplastic
4   The non-local

1   The technological:
“The extended mind thesis (EMT) claims that the cognitive processes that make up the human mind can reach beyond the boundaries of individual to include as proper parts aspects of the individual’s physical and sociocultural environment. Proponents of the extended mind story thus hold that even quite familiar human mental states (such as states of believing that so-and-so) can be realized, in part, by structures and processes located outside the human head. Such claims go far beyond the important, but less challenging, assertion that human cognizing leans heavily on various forms of external scaffolding and support. Instead, they paint mind itself (or better, the physical machinery that realizes some of our cognitive processes and mental states) as, under humanly attainable conditions, extending beyond the bounds of skin and skull. Extended cognition in its most general form occurs when internal and external resources become fluently tuned and deeply integrated in such a way as to enable a cognitive agent to solve problems and accomplish their projects, goals, and interests. Consider, for instance, how technological resources such as pens, paper, and personal computers are now so deeply integrated into our everyday lives that we couldn’t accomplish many of our cognitive goals and purposes without them. The extended mind thesis claims that technological resources have become so thoroughly enmeshed with our internal cognitive machinery that they now count as part of the machinery of thought itself. Underlying (but distinct from) the extended mind thesis is a commonplace observation thatintelligent problem solving of the kind we find in adult humans isn’t something the naked brain can achieve all on its own, but is instead the outcome of the brain and body operating together in an environmental and often technologically loaded setting. As humans, we possess the kinds of high-level cognitive skills and abilities we do in no small part because of the many tools we use for thinking. The extended mind thesis goes further, however, by claiming that it is mere prejudice to suppose that all cognition must take place within the confines of the organism’s skin and skull. Cognitive science, it is then claimed, shouldn’t only concern itself with the more or less enduring processes taking place inside the heads of cognitive agents. Cognitive scientists should also investigate, on a kind of equal footing, temporary, soft-assembled wholes that mesh the problem-solving contributions of the brain and nervous system with the body and physical and sociocultural environment.”
From: The Extended Mind Thesis, Julian Kiverstein, Mirko Farina, Andy Clark

2   The subtle energetic,
The mind is a system of subtle energetic fields which are extended for about half a meter beyond the physical body in all directions

3   The ideoplastic:
That part of the mind that generates spatial structures on a higher ontological level.

4   The non-local
That aspect of the mind that transcends space and time

100   Visible aspects of mind
The mind is a system of subtle energetic fields which are extended for about half a meter beyond the physical body in all directions and its activity is visible as structures, colours and movement patterns

 

The concept of rebirth or reincarnation
  
101   Research that has been conducted at the University of Virginia does seem to be proof that some people are reborn.
For more data click here:  https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/evidence-based-approach/14-research-areas/reincarnation/reincarnation-research/

102   Pre-existence 
Next to the question whether there is life after death, there is the question whether what survives death, also existed before its physical existence. The Greek philosopher Plato had the opinion that if the spirit lived on after death, it should also exist before its physical existence.

103   The origin of the soul has been a controversial question in Christian history. Two points of view may be distinguished: creationism, which posits that God creates each individual soul in a special act of creation (at the time of conception according to some or that of birth according to others), and traducianism, which suggests that the parents in begetting the child beget the soul too. The creationist principle has been generally held sway in Christianity.

104   Reincarnation implies a pre-existence of the soul

105   Do human souls decide to reincarnate?
While traditional Hindu, Buddhist and classical Greek sources indicate that there is some driving force behind the reincarnation process, there is still a great amount of individual freedom in whether, when and how a person reincarnates, as phenomenological descriptions of a pre-incarnated state indicate.

106   Reason for incarnation
The soul, by temporally inhabiting a physical body can develop capacities it otherwise could not develop.   (Such as mental resilience, willpower, subtle energy field compactification)
And perhaps many other traits who are not easy to develop on a higher ontological level, in a mental world that doesn’t give any resistance, the positive character traits such as:
Persistence, responsibility, courageousness, generosity, reliability, conscientiousness, committed to values, dedicated, self-disciplined, confident, efficient, innovative, methodical, meticulous, organised, purposeful, systematic, tolerant, accountable, ethical, sincere, adaptable, punctual, trustworthy and wise.

107  Does a soul chose a particular gender to be incarnated?
The data on reincarnation research shows that the number of those who had a different sex / gender in their previous incarnation is about 6% (be it with some cultural differences)
This seems to indicate that a soul choses a particular gender to be incarnated, because if it was a random process it would be about 50%.

108   Memories of a past life
There are young children who recall accurate details of a past life
According to Ian Stephenson one in about 200 children has memories about a former live

109  How and when is the soul connected to the physical body?
St. Thomas’s doctrine is briefly as follows:

• the rational soul, which is one with the sensitive and vegetative principle, is the form of the body. This was defined as of faith by the Council of Vienne of 1311;
• the soul is a substance, but an incomplete substance, i.e. it has a natural aptitude and exigency for existence in the body, in conjunction with which it makes up the substantial unity of human nature;
• though connaturally related to the body, it is itself absolutely simple, i.e. of an unextended and spiritual nature. It is not wholly immersed in matter, its higher operations being intrinsically independent of the organism;
• the rational soul is produced by special creation at the moment when the organism is sufficiently developed to receive it. In the first stage of embryonic development, the vital principle has merely vegetative powers; then a sensitive soul comes into being, educed from the evolving potencies of the organism — later yet, this is replaced by the perfect rational soul, which is essentially immaterial and so postulates a special creative act. Many modern theologians have abandoned this last point of St. Thomas’s teaching, and maintain that a fully rational soul is infused into the embryo at the first moment of its existence. (Wikipedia)

110   The connection of the soul with the physical body implies an interaction with the central nervous system, as the statement of St. Thomas van Aquinas: “at the moment when the organism is sufficiently developed to receive it” implies that the soul can only connect itself to a physical organism, late in the pregnancy, when the central nervous system is sufficiently developed.

111   Does a soul chose a particular physical body / parents to be incarnated?
Ian Stephenson’s research seems to indicate that that is the case. 

112  The soul can if sufficient developed, scan the end result of a physical incarnation before this incarnation takes place.

113   Sexual orientation and reincarnation
Genetically- biological explanations of the cause of sexual orientation towards the same gender are in conflict with hereditary laws and there is no evidence that psychological and social factors play a role.
So there is the question what could be an alternative explanation. In several cultures it has been suggested that sexual orientation towards the same gender, finds its origin in reincarnation. This would mean that if a man in his last previous life was a woman, he still would have the sexual orientation of his former incarnation towards man. (And has in his current incarnation a homosexual orientation, meaning a sexual interest in and attraction to members of his own sex.)
And this would mean that if a woman in her last previous life was a man, she still would have the sexual orientation of her former incarnation towards woman, meaning a sexual interest in and attraction to members of her own sex.
(Has in her current life a lesbian orientation)

See further: https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/evidence-based-approach/14-research-areas/reincarnation/sexual-orientation/

Bisexuality could possibly mean that this gender shift was two incarnations ago

There are people who are called transsexual, meaning: people that experience a gender identity that is inconsistent with their assigned sex, and desire to permanently transition to the sex or gender with which they identify, usually seeking medical assistance.
This could find its origin within the same situation as mentioned here above, with the additional factor that when people reincarnate, they do that normally several decennia or centuries after the last previous incarnation. Possibly in the case of a trans-person the new reincarnation than would be almost immediately after the previous incarnation and with a shift in gender.

113   See Behavioural Memories in Reincarnation Cases:

The story of Ma Tin Aung Myo
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/ma-tin-aung-myo
and the story of Paulo Lorenz, click on:
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/behavioural-memories-reincarnation-cases

For a more elaborate description click here   https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/evidence-based-approach/14-research-areas/reincarnation/reincarnation-research/ 

 

Resurrection 

114   Different forms of resurrection:

Resurrection
Traditionally resurrection is the concept of coming back to life after death.
As a religious concept, it is used in several distinct respects:

—-As in Near Death Experiences (non-physical): the soul is the actual vehicle by which people are resurrected, an afterlife that occurs immediately after the death on a higher ontological plane
—-In reincarnation (physical)  Generally after some decennia or after some centuries
—-Re-embodied (whether in their former but now transfigured earthly bodies or in new resurrection bodies)
—-A future resurrection of the death, that bodies would come back alive but souls don’t live separately without a physical body.
—-Belief in a singular resurrection of the dead at the end of the world. (physical) Collectively at a singular point in time at some time unknown time in the future  Generally after some centuries or after some millennia (the data from NDE’s and OBE’s show that this is incorrect)
—-In the belief of a trans physical resurrection at the Omega point (non-physical) at the highest ontological level. The resurrection in this higher sense doesn’t just mean life after death, but deliverance, salvation.

115   Eternal or interim state
One could call the post-mortem state eternal, but in case of reincarnation it is an interim state and in case of a total kosmic transformation it is also an interim state.

116   The soul is a spatial field

117   The soul is a system of subtle non-physical energy fields
These are active spatial fields which are extended in space, not abstract fields.
These subtle energy fields can be perceived visually under some circumstances such as high levels of meditation, or Out of the Body Experiences.  

118   These fields are the carrier of consciousness after death.

119   Meaning of the colours
The soul has different coloured spatial layers on the same ontological level, all of which have a meaning. For example, if a certain kind of emotion is present, like a feeling of friendship, then a green colour will be visible in the field. Affection shows as pink, and so on. Each specific emotion has an associated colour.

120   Composition
The soul has a number of characteristics that can be divided into the following categories:

1   Shape
2   Composition
3   Structures (vertical stratification)
4   Substructures (temporarily generated forms)
5   Movement patterns.
6   Multidimensional (ontological stratification)

121   Shape
The soul can be visually observed as a number of transparent colored subtle energy fields.

The soul has the following spatial dimensions and form properties:

1   The soul surrounds and penetrates the physical body
2   The soul’s shape is oval / ovoid
3   The soul’s fields penetrates the physical body and stretches out to about half a meter
     outside, beyond the physical body in all directions
4   The soul’s fields are three-dimensional
5   The soul’s energies are not physical but they have substance
6   The soul’s fields are on different ontological levels

122   Structures (vertical stratification)
Inside the soul’s total field it is possible to distinguish different colours. These colours are placed in horizontal layers, which are placed vertically one above the other. The lower emotions such as selfishness which is brown in colour, and jealousy which is olive green in colour, is located in the lower part of the field, and the higher emotions like affection which is pink in colour and idealism which is blue light in colour, is located in the upper part of the field.

123   Structures (ontological stratification)
The soul consists of several subtle energy fields on different levels of existence, all of them interpenetrating each other. All the levels, from the emotional to the high-causal, have their own multi-coloured fields.

124   Substructures (temporarily generated forms)
There are sub-structures within the total field which are temporarily generated  and who dissolve after a short time

125   Movement patterns.
Within  the soul’s subtle energy field there are universal movement patterns, pulsating, moving.
For more information click here  https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/life-after-death/characteristics/movement/ 

126   For the abilities for movement of the soul in respect of place
Click here: https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/life-after-death/characteristics/movement/

127   For the abilities for movement of the soul in respect of time
Click here:  https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/life-after-death/characteristics/time/

128   Shift in time
The atman, the monad which is or focal point of consciousness can shift in time
See further:  https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/life-after-death/characteristics/time/

129    A time constant
The substructures which are at level 4 or higher are pulsing constantly, with an interval of 4.7 seconds

 

Mind-Body problem
  
130   The mind is composed of subtle energies which circulate in the chakras and subsequently drawn into the big nadi’s (subtle energy channels), these subtle energies are then transported and distributed throughout the brain by the small nadi’s. These subtle energies interact with the synaptic units in the brain.
For more information click here  ehttps://marinusjanmarijs.nl/evidence-based-approach/th-mind-body-problem/

131   Chakras
The idea that there are non-physical energy centers called chakras is a central theme in the philosophy of yoga. With a certain degree of mystical development, one becomes aware of the presence of a number of concentrations of energy located at certain points just outside the body, where one feels a circulating movement. These are the locations of the chakras. Some mystics have visually perceived these chakras and written down their observations.
The chakras connect the subtle energy fields of the soul to the physical body
See further:  https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/subtle-energies/chakras/

 132   The location of emotions
There is the remarkable fact that the emotions are localized near the stomach and in the heart area.
The Dutch philosopher J.J. Poortman wrote that this location of emotions could be related to the chakras [J.J. Poortman; “Vehicles of consciousness”, Theosofische Uitgeverij, Utrecht 1978.]
See further:  https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/subtle-energies/chakras/

133   Nadi’s, subtle energy systems,
Within the physical body, there are energy channels that connect the different chakras and transport the subtle energies that enter through chakras into the physical body. There are more than twenty major energy channels, which are nine millimetres in diameter, as well as several hundreds of thousands of small channels, which are less than a millimeter in diameter. These channels are called nadis

134   Silver cord
The ‘silver cord’ is the connection between the physical body and the mental body.
Sometimes, when people had an out of the body experience, they describe a connection between the physical body and the mental body, a ‘silver cord’
For more information click here  https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/evidence-based-approach/14-research-areas/non-physical-matter-subtle-energies/silver-cord/

135   Socrates and Plato  

Drawing on the words of his teacher Socrates, Plato considered the psyche to be the essence of a person, being that which decides how we behave. He considered this essence to be an incorporeal, eternal occupant of our being. Plato said that even after death, the soul exists and is able to think. He believed that as bodies die, the soul is continually reborn (metempsychosis) in subsequent bodies. However, Aristotle believed that only one part of the soul was immortal namely the intellect (logos). The Platonic soul consists of three parts:

1. the logos, or logistikon (mind, nous, or reason)
2. the thymos, or thumetikon (emotion, spiritedness, or masculine)
3. the eros, or epithumetikon (appetitive, desire, or feminine)

The parts are located in different regions of the body:

1. logos is located in the head, is related to reason and regulates the other part.
2. thymos is located near the chest region and is related to anger.
3. eros is located in the stomach and is related to one’s desires.
   (Wikipedia)

 

Eschatology 

136   Eschatology
“According to a common Christian eschatology, when people die, their souls will be judged by God and determined to go to Heaven or to Hell. Other Christians understand the soul as the life, and believe that the dead are sleeping (Christian conditionalism). This belief is traditionally accompanied by the belief that the unrighteous soul will cease to exist instead of suffering eternally (annihilationism). Believers will inherit eternal life either in Heaven, or in a Kingdom of God on earth, and enjoy eternal fellowship with God.” (Wikipedia)

137   In many mystical traditions there are concepts relating to the Ultimate destiny of humanity and the kosmos. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a French Jesuit, did describe what he called “Omega point”. With this concept he expressed a process in which consciousness and existence evolves towards an ultimate convergence point, a final unity that he called the Omega point.

138   Universal salvation.
In Christian theology, the history of Christian universalism (also called universal salvation, Christian universalism, or in context simply universalism) is the history of the proposed doctrine that all sinful and alienated human souls—because of divine love and mercy—will ultimately be reconciled to God. (Wikipedia)

139   Humans have a stratification of subtle energies on different ontological levels.
While the lower levels are easier to activate, the higher levels are more energetic and when activated more permanent. This means that the focal point of a person’s consciousness will inevitably shift to the higher levels and because of that, without exception reach a state of universal salvation,     

140   What is the ultimate destiny of humanity
Eschatological concepts cover future and final events and are concerned with the ultimate purpose and the destiny of all things.

 

Salvation 

141   Soteriology
In the academic field of religious studies, soteriology is understood by scholars as representing a key theme in a number of different religions and is often studied in a comparative context; that is, comparing various ideas about what salvation is and how it is obtained” (Wikipedia)

142   Universal reconciliation
‘In Christian theology, the history of Christian universalism (also called universal salvation, Christian universalism, or in context simply universalism) is the history of the proposed doctrine that all sinful and alienated human souls—because of divine love and mercy—will ultimately be reconciled to God”   (Wikipedia)

Judgement  

143   Judgement
The idea of divine judgment as it is brought forward traditionally, leads to some strong logical inconsistencies:
First of all some believe that God will reject unremorseful sinners after a given deadline, normally thought of as the moment of physical death, and will punish them forever after. That would mean that the mistakes humans make in one lifetime will have very negative consequences for eternity. This would be so out of proportion that by any standard it would neither be good or just.
Further of those who commit anti-social acts, brain scans have shown that many of them are born with a brain dysfunction which is the origin of their sociopathic behaviour
Another question is, are we really to believe that a transcendent kosmic force of such a great magnitude will micromanage moral judgements on individual persons?

144   Judgement and life review  
There is within an OBE (and presumably after death) a self-evaluation about one’s life, one’s actions and one’s moral decisions.  

145   It is not so much a judgement as well an evaluation

146   There is a very strong feeling the impact of our actions upon others.

147   Review process: One has a review of one’s life, of the key moments of  one’s life, but at the same time one is experiencing it from the other’s point of view.

 

The soul   

148   Interaction with the brain
The soul specifically interacts with the brain when  one is doing something significantly different from the automatic and accustomed functioning.

149   Soul and spirit
Dualism, the concept that there is a physical body and a soul,
Pluralism, the concept that there is a physical body, a soul and a spirit,

150   Trichotomy of the soul
Some Christians take a trichotomic view of humans, which characterizes humans as consisting of a body (soma), soul (psyche), and spirit (pneuma) However, the majority of modern Bible scholars point out how the concepts of “spirit” and of “soul” are used interchangeable in many biblical passages.

151   The soul is in ontological sense multi-layered, The soul has many layers, in ontological sense, much more than three.
The Trichotomy doesn’t take the differentiation far enough

152   Do animals have souls? 
Yes, they have energy fields on one or two higher ontological levels
And they do have very complex emotions, Without these subtle energy fields, animals wouldn’t have very complex emotions.
To quote Leibniz: “Animals have souls, but men have spirits or rational souls.”

153    Immateriality of the soul?
The soul is immaterial for as far as physical matter is concerned. As far as the non-physical is concerned, it is composed of non-physical subtle matter. 

154   Is the soul immortal?
The soul isn’t mortal in the way the physical body is mortal.

155   The soul inherently indestructible. It cannot disintegrate it into its constituent elements.

156  The soul consists of a number of spatial structures / fields, which are located in space and time

 157  Is the soul, as a mental entity, composed of parts
The soul is a system of fields who have subfields each of which is composed of small interacting (non-physical) particles.

158   How is the soul formed?
It is a system of fields which are vertically and ontologically layered.

159   Does the soul have localised “senses”?
While the soul has different modes of perception. The soul has no sensory organs, its capacity for non-sensory perception is within the total field.

160   Is the soul within time or outside time?
The soul is within time, which makes evolution and growth possible.

161  The soul is an element of the higher ontological worlds.

162   Is the soul eternal?
The soul has a continuity throughout time and is eternal in the sense of infinite temporal duration.
The monad / atman is eternal the sense of timelessness.

163   Is the soul immutable?
The soul changes, develops in time.
The monad / atman is immutable, it doesn’t change in time.

164   Is the soul indestructible?
The soul cannot be destroyed like physical matter.

165   Deactivation
Subtle energies cannot be destroyed but at the lower levels subtle energies, when they are not repeatedly activated, they become deactivated.

166   The soul is connected to some teleological process. It has some intrinsic aim.

167   The soul and its further development
This concerns psychological growth, spiritual development, mystical development,
and the development of subtle energies on higher levels.

168   The soul is a system of active fields that  penetrates- and extends beyond the physical body.

169   The soul is concerned with the mental functions of cognition, emotion and desire.

170   The soul is bound up with the idea of a future life and the belief in a continued existence after death.

171   The soul is the ultimate animating principle by which we think and feel.

172   Permanence or an ever-changing entity 1
“Buddhism teaches the principle of impermanence, that all things are in a constant state of flux: all is changing, and no permanent state exists by itself. This applies to human beings as much as to anything else in the cosmos. Thus, a human being has no permanent self. According to this doctrine of anatta (Pāli; Sanskrit: anātman) – “no-self” or “no soul” – the words “I” or “me” do not refer to any fixed thing. They are simply convenient terms that allow us to refer to an ever-changing entity.

The anatta doctrine is not a kind of materialism. Buddhism does not deny the existence of “immaterial” entities, and it (at least traditionally) distinguishes bodily states from mental states. Thus, the conventional translation of anatta as “no-soul”  can be confusing. If the word “soul” simply refers to an incorporeal component in living things that can continue after death, then Buddhism does not deny the existence of the soul Instead, Buddhism denies the existence of a permanent entity that remains constant behind the changing corporeal and incorporeal components of a living being. Just as the body changes from moment to moment, so thoughts come and go, and there is no permanent state underlying the mind that experiences these thoughts, as in Cartesianism. Conscious mental states simply arise and perish with no “thinker” behind them. When the body dies, Buddhists believe the incorporeal mental processes continue and are reborn in a new body. Because the mental processes are constantly changing, the being that is reborn is neither entirely different from, nor exactly the same as, the being that died. However, the new being is continuous with the being that died – in the same way that the “you” of this moment is continuous with the “you” of a moment before, despite the fact that you are constantly changing.” (Wikipedia)

173   Permanence or an ever-changing entity 2
There is, indeed, continuous change in the soul, but there is also some stability, and there are patterns and regularities in the change.

 

The physical world

174   The physical world is an open system
The physical world is structured by platonic instigation and biological systems interact with energies on a higher ontological level.
About platonic instigation click here: https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/evidence-based-approach/14-research-areas/cosmological-planning/platonic-forms/

 

Non-Physical

175   Non-physical
The (higher) self is a separate entity from the body and is non-physical.  

176  The mind is not reducible to a physical state

177   The concept of higher, non-physical worlds, traditionally called heavens is supported by NDE’s and OBE’s.

178   There are realms of reality that are not physical.

 

Dualism 

179   Philosophical dualism implies next to the physical one additional element.
Pluralism implies next to the physical two or more additional elements.

180   Substance dualism
This is based upon the idea that there is an immaterial soul and the material world. They’re equally real and one is not reducible to the other.

181   “Substance dualism is a type of dualism most famously defended by René Descartes, which states that there are two kinds of foundation: mental and physical. This philosophy states that the mental can exist outside of the body, and the body cannot think. Substance dualism is important historically for having given rise to much thought regarding the famous mind–body problem. Substance dualism is a philosophical position compatible with most theologies which claim that immortal souls occupy an independent realm of existence distinct from that of the physical world.” (Wikipedia)

182   Property dualism
“Property dualism asserts that an ontological distinction lies in the differences between properties of mind and matter, and that consciousness is ontologically irreducible to neurobiology and physics. It asserts that when matter is organized in the appropriate way (i.e., in the way that living human bodies are organized), mental properties emerge. Hence, it is a sub-branch of emergent materialism. What views properly fall under the property dualism rubric is itself a matter of dispute. There are different versions of property dualism, some of which claim independent categorisation.” (Wikipedia)

183   Interactionism
“Interactionism or interactionist dualism is the theory in the philosophy of mind which holds that matter and mind are two distinct and independent substances that exert causal effects on one another. It is one type of dualism, traditionally a type of substance dualism though more recently also sometimes a form of property dualism.” (Wikipedia)

Ontological levels 

184 Higher ontological worlds
Immortal souls occupy an independent realm of existence distinct from that of the physical world.

185   OBE’s
The OBE’s show that there different levels of existence.

186 Layers
There is a layered hierarchical structure of reality (ontological levels).

187   Mystical development 
The ability to function on a ontological higher level after death, can also be achieved with mystical development while still within physical existence.

 

Life after death  

188   Immortality 
One of the widespread concepts in religion is that of immortality, which almost always postulates the existence of a soul that lives apart from the body after death.

189   The immortality of the soul is a consequence of its nature, and not a purpose for it to fulfill.

190   Permanency
There is a continued existence after death, like in an OBE, but permanent.
The elements of which the soul is composed stay within an essential relationship to each other.

191   Which part of a person survives death?
Consciousness, personal identity, memory, feelings, thoughts, communication skills (telepathic), perceptual skills (clairvoyance)………   

192   That which survives after death is already present in one’s physical existence.

193   Powers of perceptions after death
Considering that the physical senses with their faculties of perception are lost with the death of the physical body, the question is what are the powers of perception one has in the super sensory worlds.
The answer can come from data obtained from many of out of the body experiences.
For more information click here:  https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/life-after-death/individual-experience/powers-of-perceptions-after-death/

194   Non-physical communication
Extrasensory exchange is the mode of communication after death.

195   Telepathy:
Telepathy is considered to be the normal means of communication in the afterlife.
For more information click here:  https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/evidence-based-approach/14-research-areas/non-physical-perception-and-communication/telepathy/

196   Clairvoyance:
Clairvoyance is considered to be the normal means of visual perception in the afterlife.
For more information click here: https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/evidence-based-approach/14-research-areas/non-physical-perception-and-communication/telepathy/

197   Levels of perception
There are different levels of perception
For more information click here:   https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/life-after-death/characteristics/levels-of-existence/

198   The perceptions of the soul are non-sensory.

199   In the higher worlds it is possible to identify persons at a great distance, far away, out of visual reach.  

200   Perceptual capacities of the soul are for a great part non-local.

201   Capabilities of communication of the soul
the soul is the field of our psychological activity (thinking, emotions, memory, desires, will, and so on) as well as of the so-called paranormal or psychic phenomena (extrasensory perception, out-of-body experiences, etc.).

202   Siddhis (spiritual powers)
Many of what are called siddhis become available after death.

 

Mental abilities after death  

203  After death there is a higher level mental functioning.

204   A higher level of intentionality, the quality of mental states (e.g. thoughts, beliefs, desires, hopes) which consists in their being directed towards some object or state of affairs.

205   Mental powers are more intuitive.

Personal identity 

206   Is there individuality after death?
There is a personal continuity, the identity stays intact.
Personal identity persists through time, there is not only continuity but also unity. There is a persistence of memory, a persistence of mental organisation.

207   Sense of continuity of personality, memories, thoughts, feelings.

208   The internal sense of the self stays intact.

209   The identity as a collection of all the properties stays intact..

210   There is existence in a self-identical way in which one maintains a personal identity.

211   The first-person consciousness stays intact.

212   The soul, the personality, its mental capacities (intelligence) and its memories persists after death
Dr. Pim van Lommel about the NDE: “… a changing state of consciousness (transcendence  or the theory of continuity), in which memories, identity and cognition with emotion, function independently from  the unconscious body and retain the possibility of non-sensory perception. Obviously, consciousness during NDE was experienced independently from the normal body-linked consciousness …. Based upon the aforementioned theoretical aspects of the obviously experienced continuity of our consciousness, we finally should consider the possibility that death like birth may well be a mere passing from one state of consciousness to another.”

213   After death the extrasensory forms of perception which are paranormal and sporadic during physical existence, will be the forms of perception in the afterlife.

214   The soul has changing elements, but the same organisation and the same structure, but in time it develops to higher levels

215   Forms of communication after death
Non-physical communication concerns the transfer of information (for example feelings, thoughts and higher dimensional resonance) between individuals by means other than the physical senses. It is characterized by a (distinctly appreciated) direct connection between two or more individual sentient beings. The experience is characterized by union.
For more information click here:  https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/evidence-based-approach/14-research-areas/non-physical-perception-and-communication/telepathy/

 

Heaven and hell 

216   Of the many objections have against Christianity, one of the biggest is the doctrine of hell.

217   The Greek word Gehenna in the bible which is translated into the English word hell, did refer to a physical location which wasn’t a place of torment, but a valley outside Jerusalem that was understood to be a desecrated place.
The concept that souls are going to be tormented forever after death is a theological fiction which is based upon a misinterpretation of the text.

218   Text interpretation
A literal description doesn’t seem to be the correct interpretation of many of the spiritual texts
Metaphors, parables and figurative language should not be interpreted literally.

219   Eternal damnation
The theological fiction that some souls suffer eternal damnation is not supported by near death experiences or multiple out of the body experiences. While it can take some time to adapt to the new situation, if there are any negative experiences at all, than they will last just a short time.
Furthermore reincarnation, for which there is substantial supporting evidence, blows the idea of eternal damnation completely out of the water.

220  This leaves us with the question why so many religious traditions such as Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Islam and Jainism postulate the existence of a hell.
The answer is perhaps because of the widespread belief that a moral universe requires judgement and retribution.

221   However the empirical data which are delivered by frequent OBE’s show little support for the existence of a hell.

222  The filter theory of the brain
An explanation why the theme of hell manifests itself so frequent within religious traditions, is perhaps to be found in what is called the filter theory of the brain
(A large part of what’s happening in terms of brain processing is filtering out things that you don’t need to attend to right now, like right here and right now that’s what you need to pay attention to as an organism in order to survive)
Filtering information is one of the brain’s most important functions, but during an out of the body experience, or after death, this filter function is gone.
So everything experienced is much more intense.   
While it is difficult to quantify, everything experienced is tens or hundreds of times more intense, be it positive or negative.
This could explain the heaven and hell concept, without the influence of a kosmic force that judges someone. And if there are negative experiences, they will not last very long,

223   The OBE gives observational proof  by direct experience of the transcendent worlds.  

 

 

Qualia

224   Qualia, are instances of individual subjective, conscious experiences.

225   Subjective experiences are not located in the brain but in the subtle energy fields of the soul.

226   Primary and secondary qualities distinction
The secondary properties like emotion, pleasure, compassion, love, sympathy, aesthetic appreciation, colour, sound and so on, are primary properties in the higher world-spaces.
The subjective  experiencing of those  does not come from the brain, but from the subtle energies. It is for this reason that a neurophysiological explanation is not possible. In these kinds of processes subtle energies are involved.
The secondary properties are not physical properties but properties of subtle energy fields. 
For more information click here:  https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/evidence-based-approach/14-research-areas/non-physical-matter-subtle-energies/primary-and-secondary-qualities/

227   Aesthetic appreciation is centered within the soul.

228   While neuroscience has made tremendous progress illuminating the functioning of the brain, it remains mysterious why we can have a subjective experience

229   Qualia are not physical processes, but mental processes, the perception of activation of non-physical substances, fields.

230   The soul has different energy groups with each a different colour which indicates a different development:

231  Red group: The subtle energies of affective development

232   Yellow group: The subtle energies of cognitive development

234   Green group: The subtle energies of interpersonal development

235   Blue group: The subtle energies of moral development

236   Violet group: The subtle energies of spiritual development

For more information click here: https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/subtle-energies/colours-and-five-energy-groups/

237   The redness of red
The properties with which we characterize the experiences themselves, the subjective experiences which is called qualia, like the redness of red, are totally different from the objective electromagnetic wavelength of 680 nanometres. E.g. the redness of red is totally different from the corresponding wavelength of about 680 nanometers.

238   There is no known means by which physical mechanisms in the brain can produce non-physical things like thoughts and perceptions. 

 

Hylic pluralism

239   Hylic pluralism (multiple materiality),
Some philosophical systems postulate different levels of existence. These levels are supposed to exist of different (subtle) energies. Such a philosophical system is called Hylic pluralism, multiple materiality. This concept is relevant to the existence of the soul

For more information click here:  
https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/life-after-death/philosophical-perspectives/multiple-materiality/

240   Subtle energies
The concept of subtle non-physical energies is to be found all over the world, recognized by many different people, in many different countries and cultures and at different periods of history. The idea is that the world does not only consists of matter which is perceptible to the senses but  also comprises a number of forms of subtler matter.
For more information click here: https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/subtle-energies/subtle%20energies%20introduction/

241   Karma
The concept of karma within Jain philosophy is described as follows: “Karmas are constituted of infinitely small ‘Karma particles’. These particles are made up of non-living particles (pudgals) and are scattered and free floating across the universe. When the soul acts with a passion such as attachment, anger, deceit, greed, etc. it attracts these. These particles on the soul are karma (karmas that do not obscure the true knowledge of the soul are known as Aghati karmas)”.                                                                                                   
This puts the concept of karma clearly in the realm of subtle energies. This makes it possible to replace speculative metaphysics with (visually) observable data. What is called karma is formed by the clusters of subtle energies in the human aura. They can be observed visually as different groups of different colours, their location in the total field, movement patterns and so on.
For more information click here:  https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/encyclopaedia/k-k/

Meaning 

242   Meaning 
Meaning is a conscious perception of significance, of value.

243  Relevance   “…to see the relevance or irrelevance of a statement is primarily an act of perception of a very high order similar to that involved in seeing its truth or falsity. In one sense the question of relevance comes before that of truth, because to ask whether a statement is true or false presupposes that it is relevant (so that to try to assert the truth or falsity of an irrelevant statement is a form of confusion), but in a deeper sense the seeing of relevance or irrelevance is evidently an aspect of the perception of truth in its overall meaning” (David Bohm, 1980)

244   “[…] it is not right, for example, to regard the division between relevance and irrelevance as a form of accumulated knowledge of properties belonging to statements (e.g., by saying that certain statements ‘possess’ relevance while others do not). Rather, in each case, the statement of relevance or irrelevance is communicating a perception taking place at the moment of expression, and is the individual context indicated in that moment. […] when relevance or irrelevance is communicated, one has to understand that this is not a hard and fast division between opposing categories but, rather, an expression of an ever-changing perception, in which it is possible, for the moment, to see a fit or non-fit between the content lifted into attention and the context to which it refers.” (David Bohm, 1980)

245   Two Perceptions  
Logical perception belongs to the yellow subtle energy group
The perception of relevance, meaning belongs to the violet subtle energy group

246   Meaning of life
For the soul the meaning of life is to improve its abilities, to strive for its full actualization.

For more information click here: https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/meaning-of-life/meaning-of-life/

247  The ultimate meaning of life
“What is the meaning of life?”, pertains to the significance of living or existence in general. Many other related questions include: “Why are we here?”, “What is life all about?”, or “What is the purpose of existence?”
The ultimate meaning of life is to transform the involutionary power into an unfolding evolutionary upward process by which increasingly higher/deeper levels of subtle energies are activated. Finally, the subtle energies at the highest levels are activated

For more information click here: https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/meaning-of-life/kosmic-transformation/

248   Computation and thinking
Computation is about algorithms.
Thinking is about meaning   

249   Psychologist James Hillman’s archetypal psychology is an attempt to restore the concept of the soul, which Hillman viewed as the “self-sustaining and imagining substrate” upon which consciousness rests. Hillman described the soul as that “which makes meaning possible, [deepens] events into experiences, is communicated in love, and has a religious concern”, as well as “a special relation with death”. Departing from the Cartesian dualism “between outer tangible reality and inner states of mind”, Hillman takes the Neoplatonic stance that there is a “third, middle position” in which soul resides. Archetypal psychology acknowledges this third position by attuning to, and often accepting, the archetypes, dreams, myths, and even psychopathologies through which, in Hillman’s view, soul expresses itself.   (Wikipedia)

Atman

250   While the soul exist of a system of spatially extended fields, the atman (the divine  spark) has no extension, is non-local

251    Atman   Ātman is a Sanskrit word that means inner self or soul  In Hindu philosophy, especially in the Vedanta school of Hinduism, Ātman is the first principle, the true self of an individual beyond identification with phenomena, the essence of an individual. In order to attain liberation (moksha), a human being must acquire self-knowledge (atma jnana), which is to realize that one’s true self (Ātman) is identical with the transcendent self Brahman

The six orthodox schools of Hinduism believe that there is Ātman (self, essence) in every being

In Hinduism and Jainism, a jiva (Sanskrit: जीव, jīva, alternative spelling jiwa; Hindi: जीव, jīv, alternative spelling jeev) is a living being, or any entity imbued with a life force

In Jainism, jiva is the immortal essence or soul of a living organism (human, animal, fish or plant etc.) which survives physical death. The concept of Ajiva in Jainism means “not soul”, and represents matter (including body), time, space, non-motion and motion. In Jainism, a Jiva is either samsari (mundane, caught in cycle of rebirths) or mukta (liberated).

The concept of jiva in Jainism is similar to atman in Hinduism. However, some Hindu traditions differentiate between the two concepts, with jiva considered as individual self, while atman as that which is universal unchanging self that is present in all living beings and everything else as the metaphysical Brahman. The latter is sometimes referred to as jiva-atman (a soul in a living body). According to Brahma Kumaris, the soul is an eternal point of light. (Wikipedia)

252  Monad / Atman as focal point
The atman, the monad (the divine  spark), is the focal point of consciousness

253   Monad / Atman and its connection
The monad itself transcends space and time, but it connects itself to subtle energy fields, that are within space and time

254   Monad / Atman and space     
Plotinus’ argument (directed in particular against the Stoics) that the soul could not be spatially extended, since no spatially extended item could account for the unity of the subject of sense-perception.
However the soul is spatially extended, it is the atman / monad which is the focal point of consciousness which isn’t spatially extended

255   The small self and the big self
The small self is the ego, one’s self-image,
the big self is the atman

256   The relation of the soul and the Absolute
It is the atman / monad which is one with the Absolute, it is the atman that connects the soul with the Absolute and by that, because the Absolute is identical with consciousness, creates  an individual conscious.

The self in relation to atman   

257   There are different kinds of self or self-related structures:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Individuality (selfhood) – state or quality of being an individual; particularly of being a person separate from other persons and possessing his or her own needs or goals, rights and responsibilities. The exact definition of an individual is important in the fields of biology, law, and philosophy.
• Person – being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of property, or legal responsibility.
• Personhood – status of being a person. Defining personhood is a controversial topic in philosophy and law and is closely tied with legal and political concepts of citizenship, equality, and liberty. According to law, only a natural person or legal personality has rights, protections, privileges, responsibilities, and legal liability.
• Philosophy of self –
• Religious views on the self –

  A character structure is a system of secondary traits that are manifested in the specific ways that an individual relates and reacts to others, to various kinds of stimuli, and to the environment.

Experience is the first-person effects or influence of an event or subject gained through involvement in or exposure to it

Personality is defined as the characteristic sets of behaviors, cognitions, and emotional patterns that evolve from biological and environmental factors. While there is no generally agreed upon definition of personality, most theories focus on motivation and psychological interactions with one’s environment.

One’s self-concept (also called self-construction, self-identity, self-perspective or self-structure) is a collection of beliefs about oneself. Generally, self-concept embodies the answer to “Who am I?”.

One’s self-concept is made up of self-schemas, and their past, present, and future selves.

Self-concept is distinguishable from self-awareness, which refers to the extent to which self-knowledge is defined, consistent, and currently applicable to one’s attitudes and dispositions. Self-concept also differs from self-esteem: self-concept is a cognitive or descriptive component of one’s self (e.g. “I am a fast runner”), while self-esteem is evaluative and opinionated (e.g. “I feel good about being a fast runner”).

Self-concept is made up of one’s self-schemas, and interacts with self-esteem, self-knowledge, and the social self to form the self as a whole. It includes the past, present, and future selves, where future selves (or possible selves) represent individuals’ ideas of what they might become, what they would like to become, or what they are afraid of becoming. Possible selves may function as incentives for certain behaviour.

The self-schema refers to a long lasting and stable set of memories that summarize a person’s beliefs, experiences and generalizations about the self, in specific behavioral domains. A person may have a self-schema based on any aspect of himself or herself as a person, including physical characteristics, personality traits and interests, as long as they consider that aspect of their self important to their own self-definition.

Self-awareness is “an awareness of one’s own personality or individuality”.^[1] It is not to be confused with consciousness in the sense of qualia. While consciousness is being aware of one’s environment and body and lifestyle, self-awareness is the recognition of that awareness.^[2] Self-awareness is how an individual consciously knows and understands their own character, feelings, motives, and desires. There are two broad categories of self-awareness: internal self-awareness and external self-awareness.

Self-consciousness is a heightened sense of self-awareness. It is a preoccupation with oneself, as opposed to the philosophical state of self-awareness, which is the awareness that one exists as an individual being,

Self-knowledge is a term used in psychology to describe the information that an individual draws upon when finding an answer to the question “What am I like?”.
(Wikipedia)

258   The Witnessing Self
Ken Wilber describes the Witnessing (or Observing) Self in the following terms:

“This observing Self is usually called the Self with a capital S, or the Witness, or pure Presence, or pure Awareness, or Consciousness as such, and this Self as transparent Witness is a direct ray of the living Divine. The ultimate “I AM” is Christ, is Buddha, is Emptiness itself: such is the startling testimony of the world’s great mystics and sages.”
Ken Wilber, A Brief History of Everything, ch. 12, p.197-199

259   The witnessing self is what is called the atman, what is pure consciousness, or more precise the focal point of consciousness.
This is the higher self, a self that is not a cognitive construct.

260   The self as a principle of organisation, with many psychological attributes that remain unchanged.
This self has the following aspects:  
The essence of a person
Personality traits
Properties, characteristics
The representation of all aspects we identify with, the high level of integrated synthesis of all information we experience as the sense of the self
The image of what we are is for a great part determined and reinforced over time by psychological factors, habits, by cultural factors, by worldviews, belief systems who produce a sense of identity.
But on a spiritual perspective it is the soul or awareness that is our true self.

261   Higher self
“The higher self is a term associated with multiple belief systems, but its basic premise describes an eternal, omnipotent, conscious, and intelligent being, who is one’s real self 
The Higher Self is generally regarded as a form of being only to be recognized in a union with a divine source.”(Wikipedia)

 

Parapsychology

262   Terminal lucidity cases.
These involve people who are suffering of Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia and how seem to recover their mental faculties shortly before they die
This well-documented phenomenon occurs among individuals who have Alzheimer’s disease or who are otherwise brain damaged.
‘terminal lucidity’ is reported to occur even in victims of severe neural decay or brain damage following accidents, hydrocephalus, meningitis, dementia, hemispherectomy, Alzheimer’s disease, strokes, abscesses, tumours, and so on.
Bedridden patients can sometimes sit up, bright-eyed and alert. They can carry on conversations beyond their earlier abilities. Since a severely compromised brain cannot regenerate suddenly like this while a patient is on their deathbed, the most reasonable interpretation is that consciousness can function independently of the brain. One might even say the brain has deteriorated so much it can no longer act as a filter keeping the larger consciousness (or self or soul) from awareness.
Terminal lucidity usually occurs between two-weeks and shortly before death. The dying person, who may even be in a vegetative state, can suddenly “erupt” into their old personality with full memory. It happens in 5-10% of Alzheimer’s cases

Nahm and Greyson wrote: “In one study of end-of-life experiences, 70% of caregivers in a nursing home reported that during the past 5 years, they had observed patients with dementia becoming lucid a few days before death.

Reports such as this suggest that the mind of the patient is disengaged, or disengaging, from the restrictions of a material brain. This conclusion is nothing new, as Nahm reminds us:

Hippocrates, Plutarch, Cicero, Galen, Avicenna, and other scholars of classical times noted that symptoms of mental disorders decrease as death approaches.

All of them held the view that the soul remains basically intact when the brain is affected by physical malfunction and disturbance of the mind. Therefore, they believed that during and after death, the soul was freed from material constraints, regaining its full potential.

263   Deathbed recovery
“The sudden recovery on the deathbed of mental functions that have long been lost, the unexpected return of mental clarity and memory shortly before death in people who suffer from severe neurologic disorders has been recorded in the medical literature over the past 250 years……there are patients who suffer from brain abscesses, tumors, strokes, meningitis Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, schizophrenia and mood disorders all of whom had long ago lost the ability to think or communicate in many of these patients there was evidence from brain scans or from autopsies that their brains had deteriorated to an irreversible degree and yet in all of these cases mental clarity returned in the last minutes, hours or sometimes days before the patient’s death…. Complete recovery of consciousness just before death is not a common experience in 1844 a German named Julius estimated that it occurred in 13% of patients who had died in his institution. However in a recent investigation of end-of life experiences in the United Kingdom 70% of caregivers in nursing homes reported that they had observed patients with dementia and confusion becoming completely lucid in their last hours before death…… There is no known physiological mechanism for this phenomenon, it is indeed rare, but the fact that it happens at all has no explanation in terms of how the brain functions it suggests that the linkup between consciousness and the brain is more complex than we usually think it is as the damaged brain prevents the person from thinking or communicating, but then as the brain finally begins to die, consciousness is released from yhe grasp of the degenerating brain.”
“Is Consciousness Produced by the Brain?” by Bruce Greyson, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPGZSC8odIU&t=3811s
(from 18 min. and 25 seconds to 23 min. and 50 seconds)

 

Teleology

264   Teleology Definition:
The explanation of phenomena in terms of the purpose they serve rather than of the cause by which they arise.

265   Teleological processes
One of the philosophical arguments addressing the universe’s apparent order is the presence of teleological processes.

266   The soul is connected to some individual teleological process.

267   The soul is connected to some collective Kosmic  teleological process.
Growth – Development

268   Psychological growth
One of the major aims for humans is psychological growth, to develop to higher levels of aesthetic, cognitive, social, ethical and spiritual functioning.

269   Spiritual development
Is related to ultimate meaning.

270   Mystical development
Is related to the development to the highest ontological levels.

271   Ability to growth, upwards mobility relating to higher ontological levels.

272   Central to the growth process is the development of subtle energies on higher levels..

273   Jean Piaget
In: “A conversation with Noam Chomsky and Howard Gardner;
Harvard Education (from 31 min. and 53 seconds to 32 min. and 28 seconds)  as follows:
Chomsky: ….“Piaget’s work was extremely important in recognizing that the children went through stages of conceptual development, and these were not simply the results of training, that they were somehow coming from somewhere else. That’s when you looked at the somewhere else, that it became pretty mystical and there was no mechanism in Piaget for any of these stages to develop or for the transition to take place”.
These transformations occur when subtle energies on a certain level reach a critical point by which they activate a higher level.
For more information click here: https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/methods-of-transformation/process-of-transformation/

274   The developmental processes related to the soul’s growth can be found here:

275  For collective developmental levels click here:  https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/collective-transformations/

276   For individual developmental levels click here:  https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/individual-transformations/

Non-physical world(s)  

277   Movement
In the higher worlds, who have spatial dimensions just as the physical world has, movement is not only possible but also easier. The mental body can move through physical material such as walls. Movement is not by muscle movement but by means of mental concentration, by will-intention. There are several different ways of movement:
For more information see the chapter on movement on this website.

278   The location of higher world spaces.    
We already reside in the non-physical worlds: our consciousness, qualia, feelings are “located“ within those higher world spaces.
These higher world spaces penetrate the physical world.
They co-exist at the same time.

279   Higher worlds
Many cultures have concepts of “higher” worlds. Most of these descriptions find their origin in ‘out of the body’-experiences (OBE) and mystical experiences. They represent ontological, collective levels inhabited by conscious beings composed of subtle energies. Each of these worlds has distinct properties, such as the character of movement (various degrees of displacement across time and space), energetic structures and landscapes (distinct form appearances to more energetic appearances) and variance of time experiences  (from delay to instantaneousness).

280   Visual perception
See: Perceiving the supersensible worlds, click here  https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/life-after-death/individual-experience/perceiving-the-supersensible-world/

281   Ideoplastic
Paranormal produced changes in photographic emulsion: These cannot be explained by normal optical processes, and indicates the ideoplastic capacity of the human spirit, the power to effect subtle energies in an ontological higher world.
For more information click here  https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/evidence-based-approach/14-research-areas/tele-kinetic-phenomena/ideoplastic-phenomena/

282   Field of influence
During an OBE the mind can form ideoplastic surroundings for hundreds of meters or even further.

283   A higher form of reality 
See: Higher worlds, click here: https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/evidence-based-approach/14-research-areas/heavens-higher-worlds/higher-worlds/https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/evidence-based-approach/14-research-areas/heavens-higher-worlds/higher-worlds/

Spirit body

284  Spirits are made of a finer matter that we cannot see in our current state,

285   Incorporeal
The spirit body isn’t physical but it isn’t incorporeal, it is a system of spatial extended subtle energy fields, and it has a ideoplastic generated humanoid form body.  

286   Energy – Shape
The higher worlds have two fundamentally different aspects:
An energy aspect, the subtle energies.
And a form aspect, ideoplastic formed shapes.
In an OBE and after death the spirit body has this dual aspect to, A system of subtle energy fields (The aura, a light body) and a non-physical ideoplastic copy of the physical body.
For more information click here

287   The subtle energy fields are in flux

288   Within these changes / fluctuations there are stable organisational patterns

289   On a deeper level there are complex information patterns.

290   The spirit body has a substance which has a permanence and an endurance of its own.

291  There is a certain “corporeal character” to the soul which represents it as possessing the form of its body.

292   Eternal  
Typically both heaven and hell are said to be eternal, or at least far beyond a typical human concept of lifespan and time.   

293   Purgatory
(in Catholic doctrine) a place or state of suffering inhabited by the souls of sinners who are expiating their sins before going to heaven.
This concept of purgatory is a mythopoetic description.
However, after one has let one’s physical life behind, there are still some residues, some instinctual patterns one has to leave behind.

294   Purification
Subtle energies can be purified, and if done so, it will make a faster transformation from level to level possible.
For more information click here

295   The concept of sin
Sin is lower level instinctual patterns, aspects of unconscious life, which should be replaced with a higher level functioning.
So on one hand these lower level subconscious functions are absolutely necessary, but on the other hand higher conscious functions should transcend the lower.   

296   There is a kind of readjustment of the soul’s faculties by which it regains contact with higher influences under the immediate and perceptible guidance of the divine present and acting in the soul.

297   In an intermediate state
Void
Non-existence
Neither heaven nor hell
Limbo

298   Limbo    (In some Christian beliefs) the supposed abode of the souls of unbaptized infants, and of the just who died before the coming of Christ.

The OBE’s do not support this concept

299   Has the soul parts?
The soul is composed of fields who are on different ontological levels.
These fields have sublevels who are each composed of small particles

300   “The argument that sheds most light on what Plato takes the nature of the soul to be is the affinity argument (78b-80b). This argument confronts head-on the widespread worry that the soul, at or soon after death, is destroyed by being dispersed. It begins by distinguishing between two kinds of things: on the one hand, things that are perceptible, composed of parts, and subject to dissolution and destruction; on the other hand, things that are not perceptible, but intelligible (grasped by thought), not composed of parts, and exempt from dissolution and destruction. These two categories are obviously mutually exclusive. It is not clear whether or not they are meant to be exhaustive.”
Plato: Phaedo  IEP

301  The idea is that souls are not platonic forms, but are nevertheless imperishable.

 

Vitalism  

302   “Life, vital breath”, specifically refers to a mortal, physical aspect of life.

303    Pantheism
Pantheism denies the individuation of human souls.

304   Resonance
There are etheric structures who are localised, but who resonate non-local.

305   Vital functions

The vital, immaterial, life principle generally conceived as existing within humans and sometimes within all living things, inanimate objects and the universe as a whole.

306 Essential role of the physical world
For information click here: https://marinusjanmarijs.nl/meaning-of-life/essential-role-of-the-physical-world/

Soul carried to Heaven by William Bouguereau