Elizabeth Isabelle wrote:
clyde wrote:In the body of the paragraph you argue that “a soul’s continuity is longer†than a single human life. On what basis do you make this statement?
It is going to take me awhile to compile adequate evidence for all that (and I'd rather not compile it as a marathon endeavor), so the short answer is personal knowledge and observed evidence. That sucks as an argument, so please be patient while I compile a response that truly points.
Although the strongest evidence for me is direct contact with the spirit realm, I will not use that in my argument because it is too easily dismissed by those intent on believing that would be my imagination. Other evidence that is strong to me is anecdotal evidence from people who I knew before and after their first contact with ghosts, which I will also not use for the same reason. The only thing that I can submit that would be plain enough for the reader is logic. I do have to draw some pieces from science in order to base the logic on something, but the science needed to actually prove a soul is inadequate to present full proof to my satisfaction. There are many books and other resources that have attempted to prove a soul, and the math in the explanations is beyond the level of math that I have learned - but I believe I can sufficiently show the possibility of a cluster of energy remaining coherent yet separate from the body using logic and basic scientific principles.
Unfortunately, without the inclusion of direct understanding, all I can prove is the possibility. Logically, bodily death not always resulting in reincarnation could not be proven as something that does happen because it does not always happen – so proving the could is as far as logic will go. The rest of it can only be “seen†directly – which can be done through a meditative state, and which some of the experiences can be verified or disproven by another person with enough awareness to access the spirit realm without being deluded by desire to see something. People who can not “see†will not, just as those who are physically blind can not see the physical realm. Some who can see the spirit realm will deny to themselves as well as others – most often out of fear. In even trying to explain this, I feel like I am trying to explain color to a person without eyes who is in denial that there even is such a thing as color. Similarly, one could only go so far as to logically explain how color could occur.
The scientifically based reasoning:
Here is a
30 minute children's show on how neurology works. Although it is probably not worth it for most here to watch, I include it as supporting evidence of the role of electricity in thought.
An
electromagnetic field, which is the more complete term for an
electric field as an electric field is not an entirely separate phenomenon from a magnetic field (reference electric field link), has been shown to only exist between conductors. The fact of the electrical impulse of thought only being evident in the cell itself seems to support this as being the case with thought as well. In an
electrical storm, the energy that makes lightning is formed within the cloud which forms from the water which ultimately provides the charge that is displayed as lightning. The electromagnetic field grows to include not only the cloud, but the earth itself, and the lightning bold streams down.
The
law of conservation of matter and energy states that matter and energy can not be destroyed, they can only change forms. The obvious question becomes the asking of where this thought-energy goes. Like you mentioned with the response of the Buddha saying that it is the same as asking where the fire went when it went out, similarly the life energy can go out of the body. The heat that the fire produced radiated near where the fire was for awhile – if a fire is doused on a cold still night, the heat remains clustered together in the area awhile before it dissipates and the area becomes cold again. I do not have the science that states what happens to the heat once it dissipates, but on the science that energy is not destroyed but only changes forms, neither the heat nor the thought energy is destroyed. Since even the heat of the fire does not dissipate instantly, and lingers longer without a cold wind to blow it away, there is no reason to suppose that the thought energy could not similarly cluster together.
Now if rather than the fire merely burning on its fuel, it also had rocks inside it, the heat from the fire would go into the rocks. If the rocks were removed and then the fire doused, the heat energy of the fire would be reincarnated in the rocks. In this way it would stay clustered together longer than if it were merely released into the air, but again the heat energy would still eventually change forms.
The rock in that example, the cloud, and then the space between the cloud and earth in the example above, show that there are many different potentials for the electromagnetic field. Just as I do not have the science to say where the heat from the rocks dissipates to and what it becomes, I do not have the science to support what constitutes the electromagnetic field that could hold thought energy together. Nevertheless, I can remind the reader of the potentials of directed force, which could occur from the final thoughts of the human being, or the potentials in quantum mechanics, such as
quantum tunneling. Other experiments, such as the successful
quantum teleportation, suggest that a thing can be “destroyed†in one location while simultaneously be recreated in another location – which would be essentially the same thing as reincarnation. Once, however, the energy is removed from the brain of a previous host, one can logically see how the biochemistry of the brain of a subsequent host would remold the energy into new experiences and new memories. If, instead of going straight from one brain to the next, consciousness energy held together in a different kind of electromagnetic field from a brain – one that did not have the overriding biochemical properties of a brain – there is no reason to suppose that the electromagnetic field couldn’t be supportive of the energy bouncing in similar patterns to how it moved through brain cells that stored memory.
As I said, reasoning based on current scientific observations is limited as far as showing us what could be, and direct experience of the spirit realm can only be experienced directly, I can not prove it to you, and I mention only to be truthfully inclusive despite the likelihood that it will subtract from my credibility due to the popular disbelief of such things. This, though, is the evidence I submit for your consideration of what is possible.
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