The Soul

Introduction

Definition of the soul, also known as mind, self or consciousness, is still debated. However, here is one definition, based on Britannica: “Soul is the immaterial essence of a human being, which confers individuality and humanity,”

The study of the soul started with theology, broadened into philosophy, became a scientific pursuit with psychology, and recently has attracted cognitive science. The interest groups expanded, from religious leaders, to philosophers, to universities.

A pragmatic meaning of the soul, used in this article, is about the role of soul in the body, based on the three layer model of the mind. The bottom layer is sensorial, related to the five senses of hearing, smell, taste, touch and vision. The middle layer is intellectual, which interprets the information gathered by senses. The top layer, the soul, is transcendental, sees the big picture, has foresight, and has the power to see beyond reason.

Philosophy of the Soul

The religious view is direct: the soul is immortal, it comes from God, leads a life on earth and goes back to God. Religion confers immortality on the soul. Soul is considered pure and divine and is elevated to the level of God. Some religions even say God resides in the soul.

According to Christianity, after life on the earth, the soul has to pass through judgment. If soul leads a bad life on Earth it is assigned to hell. Good souls reach heaven and live with God.

According to Vedanta bad deeds, known as karma, by the soul leads to rebirth. Good deeds end the birth cycle and the soul will not suffer again.

Vedanta holds that self-realization results in the union between the soul and the universal soul, God. Dualist schools of Vedanta reject the notion of union with God.

European philosophy of the soul, disposed to physicalism, revolved around the soul-body conundrum. Plato took an extreme view of dualism and insisted the ‘ethereal’ soul and the ‘corporeal’ body were fundamentally different and unconnected, a view echoed by Descartes and Cartesian dualists. Aristotle famously stayed clear of extreme views, stood on a middle path, and took an inclusive, integrated approach and saw the soul and body inextricably interdependent, a view echoed by empiricist philosophers.

A Topsy-turvy Search for the Location of the Soul

In the absence of clear information on human anatomy and psychology, metaphorical models were proposed by early philosophers, for the location of the soul. Their dispositions were disjointed and are merely of historic value but offer no coherent theory.

Ancient philosophers thought that the soul was in the heart, alleged seat of deep emotions, giving credence to the expression ‘from the bottom of my heart.’ 

In the next stage, philosophers believed the soul was in the breath. The soul was connected with life and life was ion the breath. The expression ‘breathing one’s last’ meant departure of the soul from the body. Hence the soul was thought to be in the lungs.

A metaphor common to both the West and the East was that the soul was the rider and the five senses were the horses of the Chariot. The primary function of the soul was to control the senses. Hence the soul pervaded the body.

Galen, a medical doctor with interest in philosophy, applied Plato’s model of three part soul - rational, spirited and appetitive – and located the soul parts respectively in the brain, heart and liver.

Descartes, a philosopher with deep interests in anatomy, believed the soul resided in the Pineal Gland, situated in the brain, which we know now as an endocrine gland responsible for the secretion of the hormone melatonin, which maintains the body’s internal clock that affects such actions as when we wake and sleep. Descartes made an unwitting step towards finding the seat of the soul in endocrine glands.

Soul Purification

The soul is divine and pure in the child, but collects impurities as the child grows. Purification of the soul restores the divinity. Religions propose different paths for purification, as mentioned below.

Vedanta claims that the soul is buried in ignorance and does not know its own divine nature till the ignorance is dispelled by prayer and meditation.

According to Saiva Siddhanta there are three impurities, namely, egotism, karma and illusion, which mislead the soul. These impurities can be washed away only with God’s blessing, invoked by prayer.

Jainisim suggests Three Jewels, namely the Right Faith, Right Knowledge, and the Right Conduct.

Buddhism expands the list to the Eightfold Path that comprises Right Understanding, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration.

Bhaghavad Gita offers four alternative solutions, namely, Devotion, Selfless Action, Pursuit of Knowledge and Meditation. Vedanta suggests meditation and prayer.

Christianity, leans heavily on God’s mercy for soul awakening.

Purification of the soul means, on the ground, ethical living and wiser decisions. To those spiritually inclined, it means union with God.

Neurobiological Model

By the eighteenth century the anatomy of the brain was better understood. Brain areas for cognitive functions were identified and mapped, leading to the creation of a brain atlas. The role of the limbic brain in controlling emotions and memory was understood. It was understood how the brain stem, the reptile brain, bypassed reason in an emergency. Pathways and circuits in the brain that were activated during meditation and brain exercises were studied with the help of brain imaging. Neuroscience was born and spewed scores of ‘neuro’ disciplines, notably neuro-philosophy. Patricia  Churchland, a neuro-philosopher, who represents the new wave, asserts that the brain is the self (soul) and has declared “we are our brains”.

Further, a new area called cognitive science has appeared on the scene, to study the soul in a scientific manner. It is “a study of mind and intelligence, embracing philosophy, psychology, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, linguistics, and anthropology”

Now we know that mind is what the brain does, a set of functions of the brain. The soul is the highest level function of the mind, in charge of conscience, ethics and truth.

Most of the brain areas responsible for consciousness have been located. Brain areas responsible for ethics are being discovered. For example one study has revealed three areas associated with empathy. The first area understands others, the second area cares for others and the third area decides on action and rewards morality with secretion of brain chemicals such as dopamine. Despite being located in different regions, these three parts function in concert as a neural network. Another study has revealed areas associated with guilt. Such studies and revelations converge towards conscience, the moral and ethical center in the brain, getting as near as possible to the discovery of a neurobiological soul. The good news is, since the brain is plastic, the soul is moldable by mental and physical practices, by thoughts and action.

The scientific view of the soul challenges the immortality of it. In the past, except Buddha, all philosophers had defended immortality of the soul. Medical evidence favors Buddha. First to go is the notion of reincarnation.

Life of a soul before and after birth is a subject presently pursued by parapsychologists and is clearly beyond the scope of this article. And so are the supernatural capabilities of soul such as Extra Sensory Perception, claimed in every century, still awaiting evidence

Neurobiological soul – the conscience network inside the brain - dies when the body dies.

Genetic Model

The role played by genes in controlling human behavior and thoughts, opened up a fresh angle to the study of the soul.

On the one hand, genetic memory, inherited from our forefathers, controls our reactions to environment. Genetically induced thoughts undermine free will and challenge the authority of soul as controller of thoughts. Genetic thought, however, is a reality and invades the brain, adding to the burden of the soul to filter out inherited bias. This only compounds the problem of cleaning up memories dredged by hippocampus according to biased rules. The soul has a unique job to become free from the known. The Vedantic way to achieve this is by observing the mind closely and trace the entry of thoughts and exercise caution and correction before applying them.

On the other hand, genes define how human organs, including the brain, grow and function. Genetic memory is only a very small part of the game played by genes.

Molecular level size for the soul was proposed earlier. Vedas proposed the soul to be of the size of 100000th of hair width that functioned from the heart. Leibitz, a German polymath, suggested a particle he named nomad as the building block of the soul. Today, there is a camp of scientists who propose DNA as the molecular soul while others deny the claim. The very thought that the soul might be a genetic program opens up new possibilities of genetic control of our destiny. D claimed to have discovered the God Gene, a misnomer, which is associated with religious traits. The idea was proposed by geneticist Dean Hamer in the 2004 book called The God Gene: How Faith is Hardwired into our Genes.

At one point the gene was thought to be the seat of the soul, an idea quickly dismissed by experts. A case in point that kindles our interest in genetic engineering is how Aristotle had proposed three types of souls: plant, animal and human souls, which he called as the nutritive soul, the sensible soul, and the rational soul. Aristotle was not to know that plants and humans have many common genes, and animals and humans have even more common genes. At the chemical level, the three species are genetically similar.

Pythagoras and Plato believed in transmigration, transfer of souls between human bodies, and, even between animal and human bodies.  Pythagoras allegedly urged a man to stop beating a puppy saying, “stop, don’t keep hitting him, since it is the soul of a man who is dear to me, which I recognized when I heard it yelping.”

Commonality among the souls of animals, plants and humans, echoes the commonality between their genes, and, if validated, questions the role of soul as a seat of wisdom. Instead it favors the view of the soul as a life bearing substance, DNA.

Conclusions

The soul is an abstraction of the higher level consciousness of the brain. Thus the soul represents truth and ethics and is inherently capable of taking unbiased, flawless decisions. Soul awareness, or, self-realization, restores this original capability of the soul. The soul view of life is fair without prejudices and is the fountainhead of virtues.

As for physical location, we now know that our thoughts and behavior, and hence our souls, are shaped by three systems: Central Nervous System, Endocrine Glands and Genes. These three systems are not located at points, but widely distributed in the human body. Together, they make up the soul, by fulfilling its functions. The soul is not a physical substance but a function of the body, a conclusion that ends the mind-body problem.

To achieve practical benefits from soul in daily life, considerations of immortality of the soul is irrelevant. We are happy with the utilitarian benefits of the notion of the soul during our life cycle.