RE: mind/brain, the soul and immortality

Evidence exists because the person returned. If the soul was lost, the
person would not be able to recover. Unless one believes that we can exist
without a soul. Atheists wouldn't have a problem with that. However, if as
you state below, the neural pathways recover, how is this possible. A
computer's hard-drive can be removed and placed in another machine, so long
as the recorded data is not degraded or lost due to physical or
electromagnetic damage. The brain too can sustain physical or chemical
damage and in either case restoration to it's original state is most likely
not going to occur without some guidance or intended repair. Are there any
cases where direct physical damage has occurred, or specific neural pathways
have been altered as a result of drugs, accidents, etc? If so, then are
there any cases of the person having a complete recovery to their original
state (physically and mentally)? If so, then would this not require
something or someone to have repaired this? Is there any part of the human
body which can heal itself completely? Why then is the mind able to return
to its normal operation even when a portion is damaged or even missing? I
have yet to hear a scientific cause for this. But my expertise is limited.
IMHO I believe that the spirit is the factor which can when wanted or
needed, will make the adjustments or repairs needed to return to its
original state.

As for awareness of events during a time where someone is out it:
Of the people that have died and came back again, near death experiences,
some have remembered dreams, others not. Even those, like my wife who died
during our 5th child birth, was dead, no heart, no brain, no breathing
activities whatsoever for 10 minutes, but returned. She had no recollection
of it. One, she was under general anesthesia before this occurred. Perhaps
this is why she does not remember. Nothing to record as you put it. Others
may also have no brain activity but have dreams during this same event. To
speculate, it may be a case of where the person is during this event. Has
the soul remained in the body? Then what experience would they have? None.
If they have left the body, then perhaps they are able then to experience
other things outside of the confines of the physical world.

Either way, how we experience things physically are not the same as how we
perceive them mentally. One person feels pain differently, and to a
different degree, than someone else with the exact same injury. Injuries
same, mental perception different. If two people sustain the same injury
and their EEG shows the same level of mental response and in the same part
of the brain, then how or why would they perceive it different? Even if
they perceive it to be the same, how then would they have a different effect
years later, from the same event? Just as we experience things differently
physically and mentally, so too do we experience things different
spiritually. One person remembers an event the other does not. Why then
would it be hard to conceive that the spirit may remember in one instance
and not another? If you do not recall being at a certain place, at a
certain time, does this mean that you were not there, even if there was a
camera showing that you were? If the spirit is present when you are
mentally aware, does it mean that it is not when you are not aware?
Existence is not dependent of self awareness. Rocks exist but we have no
evidence to suggest that they are aware.

Summary:
Our mental capabilities and self awareness have nothing to do with the
existence of our soul/spirit.
Our souls experience things differently than our minds and bodies do.
Proof of such things must come from somewhere else.
While we may have evidence that the mind has a function of memory, we have
nothing to show that the soul does. If not then what memories would there
be to be remembered? And if so, what makes us believe that the memories
that our soul has translates directly into mental memories?

Don Perrett

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-----Original Message-----
From: jack syme [mailto:drsyme@cablespeed.com]
Sent: Sunday, March 20, 2005 8:14 PM
To: Don Perrett; Dawsonzhu@aol. Com (E-mail)
Cc: ASA Discussions (E-mail)
Subject: Re: mind/brain, the soul and immortality

Why is it evident that the soul must remain alive elsewhere?

If the souls are just unable to connect to us because the machinery is down,
why are they not able to tell us that they were there, that they knew what
was going on? Why dont they remember it? For the most part, the time that
they are in a vegetative state, is a blank.. I am talking about people
that are awake, but unaware.

Remember, people can be in a vegetative state, and recover. But, somone
like Terri Schiavo that has been in a vegetative state for 15 years, is not
going to. But that is another issue. ;)

Now getting back to the memory thing. I guess it is possible that the soul
is there and aware, but because the brain is not functioning, they are not
able to store experiences in memory so are not able to discuss it when the
brain function returns. This kind of reminds me of the aim of "twilight
anesthesia". When one undergoes a minor procedure that requires sedation,
but not general anesthesia, often twilight anesthesia is used. This
involves pain killers, but predominately involves high doses of
benzodiazepines. The result of this is that you are awake, but drowsy, with
suppressed pain response, but aware of what is going on. But afterwards you
have no recollection of the events because of the benzodiazepines, so as far
as you are concerned the events never happened, even though you were aware
of them at the time.

Still, it seems reasonable to suppose that personhood, is merely a function
of neuronal connections, and when they neurons are not working correctly the
person is not apparent, and when the brain recovers and neuronal function
returns, all of the same old connections are there so the personality
returns intact.
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Received on Sun Mar 20 22:47:32 2005