The Human Soul

 

The Human Soul

P.K. Ghatak, MD

No. 64.

No one knows when humans came to believe a life-force lives inside the body. The life-force continues to live after death. Today, even after all the advances in science, the nature of that life- force, better known as the soul, remains behind a shroud.

Physics:

Physics accepts verifiable findings as facts, otherwise, those remain as theory. Einstein's revolutionary papers on General and Special Relativity still remain as theory.

Modern Physics finds no evidence of non-material soul within the human body. The science says that all human experiences like love- hate, anger and fear, memory, consciousness - all of that are non-materials are also real. But what constitutes the core of those experiences remains unknown.

Quantum Physics:

Quantum Physics places the human soul in between Science and Philosophy. However, the following properties of the quantum can be applied to the soul.

1, The observer effect.

In a double slit experiment of photons. The photons are waves until they are observed; then photons manifest as particles. This is known as the Observer Effect.

If the soul is a local pattern of waves within the vast electromagnetic field, then the observer effect changes this pattern as particles. Because the particles are not detected so far. This does not mean they do not exist. Maybe the instruments are not sophisticated enough to detect it.

2, Quantum Entanglement.

When two entangled particles are separated miles apart, they remain connected. A change in one simultaneously produces the same or reciprocal change in the other particle. So, possibilities exist that the soul may exist outside the Space -Time and at the same time remains as a Universal Connection.

3, Orchestrated Objective Reduction.

Vibrating microtubules of the nerve cells of the brain may be responsible for generating the soul and consciousness which science calls - Spiritual Experience.

Scientific experiments of the human soul at present are seriously being investigated by experts in Quantum physics. Common sense tells the brain is the location where it must be found. However, the soul is not a thing or subatomic particle that could be captured in fMRI or scans. Even the areas of the brain found to be connected with the soul, that does not explain what the soul is. Is soul a local pattern of the Universal electromagnetic field and dissolves after death in that vast universal field or soul recycles after death,like atoms of the body, and reconstitutes as soul in a newborn human.

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Foot note:

Religion:

Sanatan Dharma.

According to Indian Sanatan Dharma, the soul is a divine spark of consciousness. It remains unchanged, immune to passage of time, imperishable and transmigrate from one body to the next till liberation is achieved. Soul is distinct from the body and mind.

Three major modifications of soul - body happened with the passage of time.

1, Advaita Vedanta. Shankaracharya, in the 8th century advocated the soul- the Atman and the ultimate reality - the Brahman are the same.

2, Dvaita or Dualism. Madhvacharya in the 13th century preached dualism, just like the original view of the Sanatan Dharma.

3, Qualified non-dualism. In the 11th century Ramanujacharya advocated that God is the source of all things and the human soul is inseparable but distinct from God.

Buddhist Texts.

It is said that Buddha remained silent when questioned about the human soul. He wanted to avoid useless speculation. After Buddha passed, the subsequent Buddhist texts described the human soul or self, as a combination of five processes. And these were in a continuous state of flux. After death, those processes take another living body, may be a plant or animal or a new human body according to the accumulated Karma until liberation of the soul was achieved.

Taoism:

The human soul is a composite structure. The soul resides in the body and departs the body upon death and returns to the universe.

Shinto:

Maitama (soul) arises from the divine spirit (Kami). Body and soul are one. After death the soul becomes an ancestral spirit and remains close to the family.

Egypt:

Egypt during the time of Pharos believed the human soul was a composite of 9 parts, the body was the home of the components. The body needed to be preserved for uniting with these components for immortality.

Babylon:

When Nebuchadnezzar II ruled Babylon (605-562 BCE), their belief of the soul was in line with Egyptians' view.

Persia:

Darius, I ruled a vast Achaemenid Empire in the Middle East during 522 to 486 BCE. The official religion of Persia was Zoroastrianism. According to Zoroastrianism, the body and soul are separate entities. The soul had to choose between good and evil.

Greece:

During the time of Alexander, the Great the Greek people moved away from their traditional view of religion and were greatly influenced by dualism. They considered the soul was immortal and in it the consciousness and intellect of the person resided.

Abrahamic religions:

Orthodox Judaism. According to Orthodox Jewish view the Neshamah (soul) and body are separate entities. God breathed soul within the body. The soul and body remains united and acts as partners. The soul is the life-force of a person.

The Reformist Jews believe the soul is the purpose of life and the soul is connected to consciousness and morality and the soul returns to God after death.

Christianity:

The soul is a gift of God. Body and soul are separate but interconnected. The soul reunites with the body at the time of resurrection and lives in hell or heaven upon God's judgement.

Various denominations of Christianity maintain this duality of body and soul and God and human. However, there are big and small differences in the interpretations of the Old and New Testaments.

Muslim:

Muslim religion is monolithic and whatever is written in the Quran is infallible. Overall, the duality is maintained as Jewish and Christianity.

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