The Perennialist Perspective
If consciousness exists, it exists as an effect of a cause.
Consciousness exists.
Therefore, it exists as an effect of a cause.
Many of you will likely have already explored a few metaphysical questions regarding the soul, such as: What is the cause of consciousness, and what is consciousness? Who is the “I” that is aware? Is this “I” just the effect of matter, complex electrical impulses in the brain? When you experience good food, a beautiful sunset, or pleasant music, is it just the body that is experiencing? Is it just the tongue, the eye and the ear? Is this “I” at all distinct from the body? I want to help you understand why the Materialist perspective is wrong, even from the point of science. While I will limit myself to one scientific study here, there are a plethora that could be cited, and we will explore more as we progress.
Science Weighs In
Philosophers and religious teachers throughout the ages have grappled with these questions. Neuroscience has weighed in on the topic in recent years, offering a purely Naturalistic answer to the question of consciousness based on evolutionary presuppositions. Through such respected neuroscientists as Gerald Edelman and Antonio Damasio, Materialism (consciousness is simply complex electrical impulses working in the brain) has gained a wide acceptance. The question arises, if indeed consciousness is just an effect of matter, then why is consciousness not present in the body of the deceased? After all, the material from which the Materialist claims consciousness comes from is still present. Under normal circumstances, all the constituent parts of the brain and body are there, so consciousness should be present as well if Materialism is true. If one responds by saying the matter must be living, then we have to ask what makes matter living? What animates the material body? This brings us back to the question of consciousness and the soul.
Again, if consciousness is just the effect of the material body, why do we not experience ourselves as purely a material being? For example, we instinctively refer to our body and its parts as “my body”, “my arms”, “my legs”, etc. If indeed consciousness were just the product of matter, we should instead refer to these as “I body”, “I arms”, “I legs”. We instinctively understand that the body and its parts are the object of something that transcends matter. Something distinct from the body controls it and experiences life through it.
Another good example of the misguided conclusions of neuroscience is the case studies of Dr. John Lorber, former Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Sheffield. In 1980, he wrote an article titled Is Your Brain Really Necessary?, which appeared in Science Magazine, a peer reviewed academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He found that in cases where the cranial cavity was 95% filled with Cerebro-spinal fluid (in other words, only 5% brain matter), half of the subjects demonstrated IQs greater than 100. One university student, who had barely any discernible brain matter, had a measured IQ of 126 and lived a very normal life with no signs of mental or physical impairment. If indeed consciousness is only a function of the brain, these case study subjects should be severely impaired and not conscious of themselves. And yet this was not the case. Scientific facts such as these stand in defiance of the Materialist theory. We are not just this body. This perennial truth is considered the beginning of wisdom in all authentic spiritual traditions.
The Soul as Self
The Christian tradition teaches this principle of the soul as the true Self that gives life to the material body. Genesis 2:7 tells us that God created humanity and “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living soul.”
Islam too teaches this principle.
“When your Lord said to the angels; Surely I am going to create a mortal from dust: so when I have made him complete and breathed into him of My spirit, then fall down making obeisance to him.”-Qur’an 38:71-72
Jesus taught that humans are comprised of two “parts”: the outer (physical), and the inner (the soul).
“You fools, did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also?”
–Luke 11:40
“And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”- Matthew 10:28
This dual nature of human existence taught by Jesus is perfectly in accord with the spiritual traditions of the East, which recognize the dualistic nature of everything in existence, most commonly known as Yin & Yang, In & Yo, etc. This dual nature of existence is also called the Tao.
“So the sage lives openly with apparent duality and paradoxical unity.”
-Lao Tzu, The Tao Te Ching
The Vedic tradition recognizes this truth as well, under the term “achintya bedha bedha tattva” (dualistic non-dualism). This is the metaphysical principle that explains how we can be both one with the body, for example, and different from the body simultaneously.
The Soul is the “I”
If you think carefully about your experiences of growth throughout life, from fetus to infant, infant to adolescent, adolescent to young man/woman, and on to old age, you will note that your inner Self, the soul, never changes. You may grow in wisdom and experience, but the Soul never grows old. It is always the same life of the material body. The “I” that experiences material life through the medium of the brain, senses and body is who you really are- the soul or atman.
The reason consciousness does not exist in the body of the deceased is precisely because the living soul is no longer present therein.
“He gives life and causes death, and to Him you shall be brought back.”-Qur’an 10:56
“For as the body without the spirit is dead..”- James 2:26
Do not allow yourself to be misled by the false answers of Scientism, based as it is on some very faulty evolutionary presuppositions. You are much more than a mere animal. You have a purpose, meaning and great potential. The wisdom traditions of the world hold the key to understanding the science of the soul, of which we have just barely scratched the surface. Consciousness exists as an effect of the soul, which in turn exists as the creation of the Paramātmā -the Necessary, Absolute Soul. This Necessary Being we call God.
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