Soul n’ Brain

I am particularly perturbed by experts who proclaim that there is no need for a soul to explain the psychological aspects of life. They feel that because they can concretely point to a neurological process, the whole human mind can be explained exclusively on biological terms. This is a very superficial perspective.

The biological brain is merely a very complex vessel to receive the spiritual influx of a soul. Of course, tweaking any vessel will affect its capacity to hold. Just try passing a pin through a plastic cup containing water and see what happens.

So too, tweaking the biological brain will affect its capacity to grasp, carry and convey the influx of the soul. That does not mean that biological life is soulless. It just means that the precise and complex vehicle to convey the soul has been compromised. A brain damaged person is by no means a soul damaged person.

I remember reading an account of a neuroscientists who boasted that there's really nothing meaningful to an out of body experience because he induced one by tinkering with a certain nerve. Reading this account, I wondered at the amount of bias this scientist brought to his work. Why didn't it occur to him that he discovered a way to expel the soul from the body? Don't worry; a week later, the same magazine featured another scientific personality who was making a case for near death experiences.  LOL!

But, my point is that it should occur to thought leaders in the neuroscientific world that just because you tinkered with the radio does not mean that you tinkered with the broadcast. The brain is like a radio picking up the broadcast of the soul (which is not in physically defined space).

Actually, a computer would be a better analogy than a radio. The wireless internet flow can be compared to the soul and the electrical juice to the biological food. Diminishing or enhancing a computer’s functioning has no impact on the wireless stream of information flowing from the internet, only to the computer’s capacity to process and convey it. Imagine a computer technician boldly declaring that there's no such a thing as internet because he can fiddle with a few wires and internet capacity is suddenly turned off. Furthermore, he concludes that the internet is really something generated from within the computer itself. It has no external source! I He’d be declared an instant laughingstock!

However, this is equivalent to what neuroscientists do when they suggest subtly or more openly that a human has no soul just because they successfully tinkered with the organ which receives flow of the soul, processes it and then conveys it. How sad!

Studying the soul itself is really outside the scope of the field of neuroscience. They shouldn't be the one's purporting to inform the public on such matters. That would be like an lawyer posing as a physician. They’re two separate fields. It just doesn't work!

I cannot say for sure who is qualified to responsibly share such notions with the wider public, in a way that makes it across religious and cultural lines. However, honest silence is better than misinformation. Also, there's a body of responsible research done on large pools of people who had near death experiences and underwent past life regression. I am sure that much information about the human soul can be gleaned from there in a way that can be accepted across the wider sweep of religious and cultural boundaries.

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Reflections on Einstein’s Relativity

In consideration of the issue of what moves around what in space, Einstein’s Relativity, I wonder about the following. Couldn’t the problem be solved by a method to detect and delineate the shape of the displaced of space fabric?

The whole theory of gravity from a relativity perspective is explained by displacement of the fabric of space. The larger the object the greater the displacement. In turn, this causes other objects to alter their course. As an object moves, it should also displace the fabric of space. So, if a large body leaves its displacement in a relatively stable area and a smaller body is constantly changing its spot of displacement relative to the large body, wouldn’t then we then say that in this scenario it was the smaller body which has moved?

I am aware of the challenges to making such discoveries. Firstly, the scientific community doesn’t even yet know what the fabric of space is, let alone how to measure it or it’s displacement (though they can now detect gravity waves, which is part of this puzzle). From a Kabbalistic perspective, I suspect that the fabric of space is an afterglow of pre-big bang energy has lingered and coarsened, so it can participate in the physical universe, as the fabric of space. This follows the pattern of the reshimu after the tzimtzum. The big bang seems to me to be the physical realm’s echo of the tzimtzum, which would make the fabric of space it’s relative reshimu.

However, regardless of the Kabbalistic possibilities, the fact remains that scientifically the fabric of space is uncharted territory that can really answer a lot of questions.

The other day, when thinking about the fabric of space, I contemplated how it exerts gravity. It occurred to me that when a large item is inserted into space, the displaced space fabric is bunched up around it - and quite possibly for a huge distance around it, though the bunching may soften up as it gets further and further away from the large body causing the displacement. So, in essence the fabric space is much more concentrated around the body causing the displacement than further out. The concentration of the fabric causes it to push harder against the body than it would in an area of space devoid of stellar or planetary bodies (if such a thing exists). It’s like a displaced piece of rubber trying to push back. This greater the displacement, the thicker (the more concentrated) the stretched rubber and the greater the push back. It’s this push back that we think of as gravity. For example, it’s what’s pushing us up against our planet.

Now if space is a fabric of sorts, it’s difficult to imagine it also as time. Time does seem like it’s stuff. I think each unit of space fabric is assigned its own time reality (for a lack of better term). A unit of space may either contain its own time reality or be contained by its own time reality. Either way, for the purpose of this essay’s focus it amounts to the same thing.

As an organic organism is made up of many cells, so too space fabric can be made up of discrete units of space, with each unit having it’s own assigned time reality. So, it’s not that’s that a unit of space fabric is time itself, rather it has a distinct time reality associated with it. For example, the human body contains millions upon millions of cells. Most cells (except for red blood cells) contain DNA. This fact, does not mean the cells are DNA. They’re discrete units of life, which also happens to contain DNA. If there happen to be a thick concentration of cells, then there will also be a thick concentration of DNA material.   

So, when concentrated space fabric is bunched up around a planet, there’s also a bunching of the time realities associated with these space fabric units. Much like a thick concentration of cells also means a thick concentration of DNA. The encounter with such a huge concentration of time causes time to slow down. This is why the bigger the planet, the slower the time. The universe is older from Jupiter’s perspective than it is from earth’s perspective. I wonder what might be the age the universe from a zero gravity perspective.

Now how does this account for going faster in space means going slower in time? When one zooms through space, one accelerates one’s encounters with units of space fabric and hence, also their associated time realities. So moving into them fast, forces an encounter with huge pools of time realities at once. Like gravity, this too slows down the experience of time; causing one to “time travel”. It’s the same idea as gravity. It’s an encounter with a huge concentration of space fabric causing an encounter with a huge concentration of time realities. Moving through more of these time realities slows time down.

I wonder about the relationship of space fabric and the material (including energy) around us. Since space is a fabric of sorts (using the word loosely), did somehow the material (including energy) around us arise from space fabric? Is space fabric a kind of proto version of the stuff which stars and planets are made of? Right now, I have no clue. These are just questions for further thought.

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Manna Through the Clouds

Succot Reflections 5778:

The Zohar emphasizes what it means that the clouds of glory came as a result of the merit of Aaron. It explores many of its implications. Somehow, this got me thinking about the clouds of glory’s interaction with the manna. In the desert, the 12 tribes were covered by the clouds of glory. But, those outside the camp, like the mixed multitude, weren’t. Their nature was that they were rabble rousers and so, they were antithetical to what Aaron stood for, loving peace and pursuing peace. Therefore, they weren’t covered by the clouds, which were brought about in Aaron’s merit.  However, since Moses prayed for them to be included in the exodus, they still received the manna which was brought in Moses’ merit.

When the manna reached the 12 tribes, it had to pass these clouds of glory and were no doubt affected by them. The clouds, likely, processed the manna further – improving the manna for consumption. However, when the manna reached the surrounding encampment, outside the clouds, it did not get that processing. It just dropped down as it was. This may reconcile two accounts of the manna. One account is that it tasted like anything anyone wanted. Another account is that it was “unsatisfying bread” and was like coriander seed, in need of further processing. It’s possible that for those who received their manna through the clouds, it tasted like anything that they wanted and was perfectly satisfying. For those who received the manna beyond the reach of the clouds, it was like coriander seed, required preparation and had a fixed taste; probably, good, but fixed – one that someone can get bored of.

On Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur we prayed for the manna for the year. Our portion of blessing is a physical expression of the manna. Then on Succot, we eat in a succah, which is a physical expression of the clouds of glory. By doing so, in effect we are asking for our manna to be come through the clouds of glory and be sweetly processed by them; to receive the manna in a way that loves peace, pursues, loves creations and brings them close to Torah.

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