Our Duality Existence
Our Duality Existence, or our body and soul has been discussed since man began thinking about his existence. Even as far back as when Aristotle lived, he was asked the question about the relationship of the body and soul. For Aristotle, the body and soul are one inseparable entity, not two distinct entities. The body and the soul are not, as Plato would have it, two distinct entities, but are different parts or aspects of the same thing. Much like the Holy Trinity is a trilogy existence as one God with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit each existing as distinct entities in the one God. With interest in defining the body and soul going that far back, it is clear there will be different opinions about the spirit, the soul, and the body. And of course, if you further include the mind (brain) to the mix, definitions of each defined part and relationships may change. I believe, like Aristotle, that the body and soul are one inseparable thing. This was the same conclusion that Selbie came to in his book, The Physics of God. For the purpose of this blog, I am defining the body and soul as one entity representing our Duality Existence.
When trying to understand the relationship between the body and soul, it is good to review the body of knowledge that has gone before that touches on this subject. In my book, Yes Virginia there is a God and He Created the Universe, it was about science and religion and I suggested if you could only read one reference book on that subject, I suggested it should be The Science of God by Gerald Schroeder. There has also been in recent years many books on near death experiences (NDEs). A discussion of NDEs is closely related to the subject of the body and soul. One of the best books by an individual on a near death experience is Proof of Heaven by a famous neurosurgeon, Dr. Eben Alexander. However, one of the best books on NDEs which covers hundreds of individual cases and compares the similarities is called Imagine Heaven by John Blake. I highly recommend both books. I have already mentioned the book, The Physics of God by Selbie which also concluded that the body and soul were a single entity. Of course, the primary reference for studying divine subjects and beings is Holy Scriptures written down in what Christians call the Holy Bible. I will return to that later.
If today you search the internet for information on mind, body, and soul you will get a lot of information on the relationship between the mind and the body, particularly how a positive out-look on life will have a positive effect on the body and the immune system. This is valuable information and it is the reason there are so many books on mindfulness and other positive thinking techniques, they are indeed important to our health and happiness. But this secular approach is not the purpose of this blog, I am interested in the spiritual side rather than the secular side and in particular the spiritual relationship between the body and soul.
In my recent search of the internet on the body and soul, I did discover a new resource which I will mention called the Magis Center. I was not familiar with it and it is apparently a new Catholic Center directed by a Jesuit Priest which has articles and blogs that closely parallel things mentioned in the previous references, such as NDEs, evidence of the existence of the soul, Quantum Physics and much more. I plan to examine it more closely in the future and perhaps others may want to do it also and I will return to that reference briefly at the end of this blog.
But let me begin with the question, what do we mean when we say we were created in the image of God? Most of us think this means a physical image. This concept is fortified by the belief that God (Jesus) became man in order to convey to us that God was a loving Father and not the stern taskmaster of the Bible as depicted in the Old Testament. More importantly, Jesus came to show us the way to salvation. Since God (Jesus) came to earth and lived among us as a man, we often think of God in a human form like the way Jesus looked. However, when God created us in his image it was his spiritual image, not a physical image in which we were created. We find this in Genesis 1:27 which states; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them. Notice it says that in the divine image he created him. That was clear that it was His spiritual image, but the writers of Genesis added in the same sentence that male and female he created them, indicating these ancient writers also knew of man’s duality existence. Which is one of the reasons I say we should constantly search Holy Scripture because it contains hidden gems that help to explain God and our world and His.
But to go on, how do we know that the inseparable body and soul actually exists. My son, Kenneth, who often listens to religious programs on the radio, one day he called and said if you have time you might want to listen to this program that was presently on the air. So, I tuned in, it was about proving the existence of the body and soul. On the program they were discussing near death experiences, NDEs, which I have always believed proved that Heaven exists just as was promised by Jesus and the Prophets. But I never thought about it proving the existence of the body and soul. But recall the most common experience of persons that had near death experiences was that they were floating in the air looking at people trying to save their physical body. Apparently the only time the soul can be separated from the physical body is when the body dies (or is dying)! This is why NDEs are so important.
As I often say in my blogs when we discover something that almost overwhelms us, it is time to take a deep breath and reflect on what we just discovered, that is the soul and body are inseparable and the only time the soul can be separated from the physical body is when the body dies (or is dying). Recall this is not an original thought with me, I was introduced to it by the radio program recommended by my son. And I recently discovered that the commentator on the radio program is the same Priest that is in charge of the Midis Center! But I ask, have you heard this before? Probably not. We need to introduce this concept to more people. Let’s pause to take time to reflect on this discovery before we go further.
This means that during an NDE, the soul, which is a spirit, is free to roam in the realm of Heaven with the angels and with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit while others are trying to save his physical body. In the Physics of God this realm is the nonlocal realm. This raises another question, is the Soul now that the body is dead (or dying) one of the angels? Which I will follow with another question, have you ever seen a soul, or an angel? The Physics of God states that the soul exists simultaneously with the body only we do not see it because it exists as a higher energy level and a higher frequency (the nonlocal realm) than we can discern. It is said that Saints and Sages can achieve the ability to see the soul because of their transcendent ability, also some children seem to also have this ability, but most of us cannot see the soul.
Recall in John 14:6 it states that I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the father except through me. This means that when we die, we will all appear before the Son of God (Jesus) who sits at the right hand of the Father and makes the final determination before we can permanently enter Heaven, this applies to all souls not just Christians. What this means is that once our physical body dies, it is our soul that stands in final judgement for us! This certainly caught me by surprise and raises some additional questions, including that important concept of free fill. Is it the soul or the body that has free will?
Again, I will suggest that we take another deep breath and pause to reflect on what we have just concluded (that the soul is our stand-in for final judgement). I am still trying to get my head around the fact that my soul can roam freely while in a NDE experience. Probably because we have always thought about each of us standing in judgement with Jesus, the Son of the Father and never once thought it would be our soul standing before Jesus for us. But that makes sense since the final meeting with Jesus, who sits at the right hand of the Father, will take place in heaven where all are spirits.
So, what information do we receive on which we must exercise our free will and make decisions? I believe that the Holy Spirit is one spirit that communicates with my soul. Since the Holy Spirit is divine, we must assume that the Holy Spirit communicates only divine and good thoughts. Recall also that we were not only created in God’s divine image but we were created with free will. Clearly God created a marvelous human being! So, if the soul now possesses a truly virtuous thought brought to it by the Holy Spirit, does the soul act merely as our conscience or is the soul required to seek action on this thought? And who exercises the free will and makes the decision? The body or the soul? Since the body and soul are inseparable, I believe it is done jointly. This also makes sense since we have just discovered that our soul will be our stand-in for the final judgement. This is another thought that we must get our heads around. This is of course, conjecture on my part and that is the benefit of these blogs because each can insert his/her opinion as to whether deciding jointly makes sense. Let me know what you think.
I have thrown a lot at the reader to try to understand. Remember that not only does the Holy Spirit communicate with our duality existence (body and soul) but secular and many other entities (good and bad) communicate constantly with our duality existence while we reside on earth. Each time we use our free will to make decisions, if we make the decision such that it coincides with the will of God we become more God-like and can begin to experience Heaven even while still on earth. On the other hand, if our decisions are in opposition to God, we become more removed from God and run the real risk of not being welcomed in Heaven. Just as NDEs proved there is a Heaven, while not as many cases were experienced, some who experienced NDEs actually visited a place that can only be described as Hell (a state of being separated from God). So, both Heaven and Hell exist!
I began this blog by saying that we have a duality experience and that the body and soul exist as a single entity. This is a new thought for many of us and it does seem to be backed up by Holy Scripture (Genesis 1:27). I also like the fact that the existence of the duality experience of body and soul is like the Holy Trinity as a trilogy existence as one God with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit each existing as distinct entities in the one God. The similarity helps me to understand how the duality of the body and soul could exist and helps me to better understand the Holy Trinity as one God with three distinct entities. I did do a blog on the Holy Trinity on this website but it was simply to show that the Holy Trinity did not have its beginning when Jesus (the Son of the Father) came to earth but existed since the beginning of time. I also did a blog about free will but it was simply to state that we needed to take responsibility for our decisions, I did not address who made the decision, the body or the soul.
Before I wrap this blog up, I would like to go back to the new reference I discovered, the Magis Center. The title of one of their many articles was Five types of Evidence that the Soul exists. Considering what we were researching I decided to look at that article. Basically, the article stated that the evidence for the soul resides in five important arguments: (1) proof we are transcendent, (2) God’s presence to our consciousness, (3) differentiating human intelligence from animal/artificial intelligence, (4) the procession of free will and original sin, and (5) evidence from near-death experiences.
Notice it includes NDE experiences which as we noted earlier is all we need to know to understand that the soul does exist. But the evidence also includes that we are transcendent. The transcendence of God means that God is outside of humanity’s full experience, perception or grasp. What this essentially says that any effort to understand God and how the Heavens work is a fool’s mission (a mission I frequently find myself on!) This is also supported by Holy Scripture since Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “’For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” This verse is consistent with the biblical theme of the transcendence of God. He is higher, greater, and more than humanity can know. Yet Gpd continues to give us glances into his mind through such things as NDEs and through the minds of great scientists and mathematicians. The evidence also states that the soul is transcendent, which places it in the spiritual world. The Magis Center provides additional content to explain how they can claim that the soul is transcendent but for the moment let’s accept that as true.
In Selbie’s book, the Physics of God, he lays out how man has tried to understand God and how the Universe works (the fool’s mission!). A major contribution Selbie made was that he noted that there were two separate groups that contributed to this effort. One was the scientists and mathematicians who used the energy-mass and quantum mathematics approach which he designated the science of matter. The other group was the saints, sages, and near-death experiencers which he called the science of religion. He made an effort to give as much importance to the science of religion group as to the science of matter group. I believe this is important since not all of us can do higher mathematics but all of us, at least theoretically, have the opportunity to achieve the transcendent approach. But this too takes dedication and training so while this approach may offer an opportunity to many of us, most of us will never become healers or visionaries that can see and understand the nonlocal realm which includes heaven.
But if the soul is transcendent that means the soul can rise to a similar level of the transcendence of God and the soul can see other souls and angels which most of us cannot. All of this is of course a mystery to us. The best way to understand the transcendence of the soul is probably to study the lives of the Saints and sages. Which I hope to do in the future but not part of this present discussion. My friend, who is a leader in our church’s ministries, suggested I get the book, Recalling the Lives of the Saints, which I will look for.
My friend also posed an interesting question which was since our soul is our stand-in for our final judgement will it get a glorified body? This is something that many Christians apparently look forward to after dying and going to heaven. Most of what we know of “glorified bodies’ is in references to Jesus after He arose from the dead and visited his disciples and others back on earth. Much is in reference to his glorified body which appeared to be both physical and spiritual at the same time, or quickly switched back and forth from physical and spiritual. What was notable was that his disciples did not always recognize him in his “new glorified body”. This is another subject which will not be pursued further in this blog but I will leave you with how Thomas Aquinas described the glorified body, in his Summa Contra Gentiles, as that which is raised up to the characteristics of heavenly bodies, it will be lightsome, incapable of suffering, without difficulty and labor in movement, and most perfectly perfected by its form. Perhaps if we referred to it as the glorified soul it would make sense as it pertains to our stand-in for our final judgement.
The good news is that I will not discuss the transcendent nature of the soul or the concept of the glorified body in this blog but clearly it could be good material for future blogs. Which means it is time to summarize the new concepts presented in this blog.
The most important concept of this blog is that the body and soul are one inseparable entity. There is amble evidence that this is true but the reader is encouraged to offer his/her thoughts about this. The next important concept is that the body and soul exist. The proof of this is explained from near death experiences but again the reader is asked to comment on this also. Perhaps the most shocking concept presented is that the soul is our stand-in for our final judgement by Jesus. The evidence may not be as strong so here is ample opportunity for the readers to get heavily involved in the discussion. We also discuss the concept of free will, a concept that causes much consternation for many and once again presents amble opportunity to join the discussion.
Lastly, we discuss what I describe as a “fool’s mission”, that is the task of humans trying to understand the mind of God and how the Universe and the heavens work. Scripture clearly warns us about the difficulty of this task. Yet it has been documented that vast groups of scientists and mathematicians as well as vast groups of Saints and sages have undertaken this task and clearly some progress has been made. The final goal is still illusive.
I too have taken on this mission and this blog is part of that. Clearly this content should have taken you out of your comfort zone, and it is designed to do that. So, will you join me in this illusive goal? Send me your comments.
Will Lannes