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Presented at the 88th Indian Philosophical Congress held at SV
University Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India, October 17-19, 2014
A Scientific Look at the Concept of Soul: An Attempted
Synthesis
Anil Vishnu Moharir**
A-408, Vasundhara Apartments, Sector-6, Plot-16,
Dwarka, New Delhi-110075, e-mail : amoharir@rediffmail.com
ABSTRACT
This paper traces the historical developments in efforts to recognize and difficulties
encountered in understanding the phenomenon of life after death and reincarnation
discussed through human history for over 5,000 years and yet being far away from a
global consensus on the subject of Soul. The reasons are more of religious dogma,
religious divide, blind faith and perhaps fear and lack of courage on the part of people
to cross religious and social barriers and rebel in favour of scientific truth. Despite
tremendous developments in elementary particle physics, space science and
technology and biology in relation to our understanding of the enigmatic concept of
Soul, its meaning, nature, constitution, structure, function and physical location within
body in relation to physiology, psychology, biochemistry, thought process and
physical behavior are still not comprehensively known to us in a holistic way. The
author argues against the old concept of ‘soul’ taking its permanent residence within
the body of an organism from the moment of birth till death. It has been logically
argued that instead of taking a permanent residence inside a body, the so called Soul
actually remains in continual connection with the universal consciousness from birth
to death by the ‘electric charge’ mediated through ion channels. Whenever the
physical body is incapacitated for the flow of universal consciousness (electric
charge) within itself to drive ionic currents through specific ion-channels in
motivating the body to exhibit consciousness, death occurs. Death in a multi-cellular
organism is never an instantaneous process but a gradual withdrawal of consciousness
as a result of progressive closing of ion-channels from various organs in a sequential
order. The Vedic concept and structural model for the soul, described about 8,000
years BC, has been briefly described and logically discussed in relation to the
developments in modern science and known facts about life to assert that it still stands
tall, unsurpassed and provides a logically scientific explanation for satisfying human
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curiosity. The task of compiling a comprehensive review article on purely scientific
look at such a complex subject as Soul from a multidisciplinary point of view was
both challenging and daunting. Still it is believed that the author has made an honest
effort and readers would appreciate it with open unbiased mind and courage to read
some unconventional thoughts because it is extremely difficult to break away from
our dogmatic view point and prejudice.
(**) Author retired as Professor and Head, Division of Agricultural Physics, Indian
Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi
2
Presented at the 88th Indian Philosophical Congress held at SV
University Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India, October 17-19, 2014
A Scientific Look at the Concept of Soul: An Attempted
Synthesis
Anil Vishnu Moharir**
A-408, Vasundhara Apartments, Sector-6, Plot-16,
Dwarka, New Delhi-110075, e-mail : amoharir@rediffmail.com
Introduction and Background Information
Scientific explorations at mental and spiritual levels had begun ever since human
being learnt to observe, think and analytically interact with his surroundings. And this
period, on the basis of authentic recorded history, dates back to at least 25,000 years
BC in India and the Vedic civilization that followed (1-3). This also initiated in
human beings, a quest for an understanding on his own position and purpose, within
the scheme of natural material creation. Man began to explore; who he actually is?
What is his constitution and composition? Where from and how he has come into
being? What is the purpose of his existence? What is his final destination? Where is
that destination located? And out of several apparently deceptive self-images, what is
his real identity? What is materially common between him and surrounding life forms
and other life-less objects? From birth to the death-bed, he observed several
irreversibly changing phases in his own life? But the so called ‘I’ or ‘Me’ within the
frame of his body, from birth to death is believed to remain the same despite drastic
changes in external appearance with time and age. Who is this ‘I’ or ‘Me’ inside the
body? Why is there the death and why is there birth? What is the meaning of ‘death’
and that of the ‘birth’? Modern developments in physical science tell us that
everything in the universe is made up of atoms, the smallest particles of matter which
are available in only 117 different specific kinds. The atoms are built up from sub-
atomic particles the protons, neutrons and electrons which in turn from the elementary
particles and these from energy of the magnetic monopoles. Two or more than two of
these, similar or dissimilar atoms combine to form structures of various kind, nature
and characteristic properties and they include both the animate and the inanimate
types. After specific period of time, or under specific conditions, all these animate and
the inanimate structures naturally disintegrate into their individual component atoms
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or groups of atoms to nature and are reused to form new structures. This cycle of
formation of structures and their disintegration is continuing in a perpetual way ever
since the atoms and material universe came into being. The concept of a definite life-
span and destiny must have emerged from the varying intervals of time observed for
different materials from the moment of their creation to disintegration. Everything in
the universe from movement of stellar constellations to galaxies, planets, and
planetary motions, rotation of earth and its moon around the Sun, to occurrence of day
and night periods and seasons on earth is thus observed to be cyclic and periodic. And
like every other phenomena in nature, it was but natural to think if events like ‘death’
and ‘birth’ in animate objects are also cyclic in nature? Further, if man is really
destined to return back to birth in a cyclic phase after his death, then obviously a
series of other questions come to mind. How? When? Where? Which form and sex of
a living being? And in what interval of time gap is this return possible? What
conditions determine his return in re-birth? And most obviously whether those
conditions are self-organized, and if not, then by whom or under what physical
conditions and circumstances? What happens to the ‘I’ or the ‘Me’ in the body?
Whether this identity ‘I’ or ‘Me’ is carried forward to the next birth? Whereas, in a
majority of cases children forget and do not remember the identity of their past life
after birth, thousands of case studies have been recorded from all over the world
wherein children, predominantly in the age group of 2-6 years, distinctly remember
their past births (4-7). Where, does this ‘I’ or ‘Me’ stay after death and in what form
and conditions? What is conscious memory about the ‘I’ or the ‘Me’ and its vehicle?
How and where this memory is located, gets recorded and recalled? Who keeps record
of this memory? Is it recorded by the ‘I’ or ‘Me’ that lives within the body or by any
of the several organ parts of the body? When bodies of the past lives are physically
burned or destroyed, how then does the memory get transported and recalled after
rebirth as has been displayed by many individuals who have been discovered from all
parts of the world? Obviously therefore, memory cannot be something materially
physical. And for that matter, the possibility of genes (DNA) carrying the memory is
scientifically impossible because genetic memory essentially requires an unbroken
physical transfer of genetic material from one life to the other of the same individual.
Practical evidence of past-birth memory indicates that genetic explanation for transfer
of memory from one life to the next is not acceptable. Obviously, it implies that it
must be the non-destructible ‘I’ or the ‘Me’ within bodies that must be carrying
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memories of past births with it. And if this is so; then it is curious to know the
structure, form and make-up of this so called ‘I’ or the ‘Me’ and where and how
within it the memories of life are stored, recorded and transported to the next births?
These questions have been repeatedly raised by philosophers, thinkers, religious
leaders and research scientists through thousands of years of human history without
coming to a definite, unanimous and universally accepted answer. However, if we still
claim or intuitively feel that some form of soul persists beyond death, it is imperative
to know what material-stuff or particles is that soul made of? Is that materialistic or
non-material in nature? What forces hold it together and within the body? And how
does it interact with ordinary matter? These are some of the questions that need to be
explained on the basis of scientific reason and logic.
At every instant we are not the same,
All changes, changes not the name.
Necessity of a scientific theory for life after-death / reincarnation
Since time immemorial, several theories have been proposed and explanations given
by many persons from all over the world but surprisingly, not a single theory enjoys
universal acceptance, more for stray considerations and reasons than for logical
scientific credibility. Natural laws of creation of living material world and process for
birth and death in humans are universally common irrespective of physical location on
earth, environmental and climatic conditions at the place of birth on earth, colour of
the skin, race, blood-group type, level of education or literacy and such other
considerations. In this respect, therefore, there are no separate natural laws for
different nationalities, communities or races. Science of human birth and death does
not recognize differences between religious faiths because, structural make-up and
kind of various organs, physical appearance and forms, physiological, biochemical,
metabolic, mental, emotional and psychological thought processes are identical
irrespective of location, colour of skins and external features. Not a single case of
sexual infertility has ever been reported from marriages between individuals
observing different religious faiths. If there are natural scientific laws which can be
logically and adequately used, within statistical limits of accuracy and probability, to
understand and explain the entire process of creation, properties, functions,
differences, corrective measures and sustainability of the living and non-living
material world then there is no reason why a universally acceptable theory or
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explanation cannot be sought or arrived at, on the questions regarding life, its origin,
death, birth and rebirth as described earlier because the entire humanity shares a
common planet for heritage, dwelling and destiny. Such a theory should however be
purely based on merits of scientific truth, logic and reason and free from mentally
dogmatic personal or social bias towards religious opinions, blind-faiths, allegiance,
influences, prejudices or any other commercial or social vested interests. Even Albert
Einstein admitted that- “We believe that science serves humanity best when it is
all free of influence by any dogma and reserves the right to question all
assumptions, including their own” and “It is more difficult to break a prejudice
than an atom”.
Human beings observe and follow particular faiths or religion mainly because of
parental nurture and grooming in childhood and family or social structure rather than
an independently chosen personal option. Once adapted to a particular thought, it
stays as a habit with the person all his / her life. More particularly, faiths in general
are being mechanically followed as unconscious victims of mob-psychology or more
particularly due to morphic resonance of social morphic fields as described by Rupert
Sheldrake, because of strong community feelings and identity, sense of insecurity, a
constant fear of something unknown, lack of self-confidence, lack of freedom and
courage to cross social structural and ideological boundaries and incapacity for
independent thinking to reason outside the frame of grooming since birth. These fields
interact with each other among different individual members of the same species and
are reasons for collective coordinated behavior of individual members e.g.
coordinated formation of birds during flights, swimming of fishes in schools etc
without colliding with each others. Sheldrake theorizes that living morphic fields
simultaneously exist in the past, present and future and govern both human and
animal behavior, forming a living matrix upon which the physical bodies are formed.
Therefore, such conscious or unconscious victimization and submission to mechanical
ritualistic following of any religion is visible in all communities spread across the
world and has been very well documented by Dawkins and Robert Hinde (8, 9) as
results from his Gallup poll in the United States in that three quarters of staunch
Catholics and Protestants could not name a single Old Testament prophet, more than
two-thirds did not know who preached the sermon on the mount and an equal number
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thought that Mosses was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. A similar situation exists
amongst the followers of all other faiths or religions.
Many faiths such as Christianity and Islam (with a common origin) deny possibility of
human life after-death / rebirth more as a religious dogma than conviction or on any
sound scientific logic, despite the holy book being known to be an axiom and not the
end product of a process of scientific reasoning, yet the book was always vehemently
upheld to be true. And in some cases where the evidence seemed to contradict it, it is
the evidence that was preferred to be thoughtlessly thrown out without question or
introspection and not the book. It is a historical fact that reincarnation was an
accepted part of Judaism into which Jesus himself was born. The original texts of both
the Old and the New Testaments indeed contained references to life after-death and
reincarnation but they were consciously, deliberately and purposefully removed in
A.D. 325 by the Roman emperor Constantine the Great and his mother Helena. The
Second Ecumenical Council of Constantinople meeting in A.D. 553 confirmed and
endorsed their action declaring the concept of reincarnation as a heresy but more
objectively as a possible ulterior threat to the growing power and hegemony of the
Church (10) if people were allowed to logically think and keep independent opinions.
Scientific truth of planet Earth not being the center of the universe was opposed for
hundreds of years by the dogmatic Christian Church, purely on blind faith. Eminent
independent thinkers, who opposed the view of the Church were forced to abandon
their views and opinion, persecuted or forced to drink poison and accept death. No
wonder, universal, unanimous acceptability for any scientifically logical theory on
Soul, re-birth or life after-death has always been made difficult, not because there is
no such theory in existence which satisfactorily explains all the phenomenon
mentioned above but only because, our social, political and religious leaders since
time immemorial from all nationalities, consciously or unconsciously, purposefully or
otherwise have been only dividing humanity into factions of races, groups of religious
faiths, in the name of supremacy of one faith over others, narrow boundaries of
nationalities and thereby setting individuals against accepting such a theory in the
name of faith or allegiance or loyalty to a religion, that does not subscribe to such
ideas or for fear of inviting wrath of the mighty powerful ruler or the unknown GOD
as a creator. There is therefore no scientific reason for not accepting reincarnation but
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purely a question of blind dogmatic faith, a mental block, vested interest or lack of
convictions and courage to independently uphold a logical scientific truth.
As an example, Christianity did not subscribe to earth being an ordinary planet that
revolves around the Sun but had to abandon its dogma to accept practical reality
because they could no longer hold people bound to their views against scientific truth
and common sense logic. The sole purpose in doing all this being to sow seeds of
confusion, kill the capacity and initiatives of individuals for independent thinking and
judicious evaluation based on scientific reason and logic besides imposing curbs on
intellectual freedom by way of polarizing the mindset. No wonder, there have been
innumerable cases of coercion, regimentation, threatening, detentions, engineered
riots, physical killing and eliminations of those who rebelled against such orthodox
systems put in place by vested socio-economic-religious power groups. The very fact
that because both Christianity and later Islam right from the time they attempted to
propagate professional religion, did not advocate belief in re-birth as a basic tenet of
their philosophy, not much thinking was obviously allowed to be done, curbed or
even possibly destroyed in this direction by the followers of both these faiths. It is also
a well known historical fact that both Christianity and Islam have been propagated
more on the might of the sword, dogmatism or fear. This is exemplified by Edgar
Cayce (11), a psychic clairvoyant, who would place himself into a self-hypnotic
trance to give healing relief to mentally and psychologically disturbed people, was
convinced that the reasons for certain specific condition of a person was due mainly to
memories of his / her past life influences. Despite this self-realization, Edgar Cayce
who was a devout Christian by faith, did not dare to honestly profess or
conscientiously share his self-realized truth in public but merely confined himself to
silently practicing ‘Life Readings’ of affected people. Today, more and more people
from the Western world and about 30% people in the United States despite their faith
in Christianity, are believing in ‘life-after-death’ and reincarnation. Sufis, the esoteric
branch of Islam and Hasidic Judaism support reincarnation and so also the Gnostic
and mystical traditions of Christianity. Outside the religion, Pythagoras, Plato, David
Hume, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Thoreau, Benjamin Franklin, J.W. von Goethe
and Sir Isaac Newton all were known to have believed in reincarnation. Hypnotic
regression into past lives is being increasingly used these days by psychologists and
psychotherapists as a regular therapy to cure patients ridden with perpetual mental
8
depression, hallucination, fear and traumatic phobia of knives, rivers, oceans and
water bodies, mountain heights, vehicles, trains, aero-planes and such other problems
with positive return of their patients to live their normal lives after removing the
memory of fear and phobia linked to past lives (4). Not only this, when regressed into
their past lives, people often speak in languages they knew in their past lives and
completely unknown to them in the present lives. Marcus Tillius Cicero (106-43 BC),
the Roman philosopher maintained that the fact our children grasp certain abilities and
skills at surprising speed is a strong proof of their knowing those skills before birth
and that genius is nothing but only flowering of experience from the previous life.
Such abilities in picking knowledge and learning can only be explained on the basis of
the theory of life-after-death. So also the reasons for differences in aptitude and
abilities between children (including twins) born to same parents with identical
genetic heritage can only be explained on the basis of the theory of life-after-death
and theory of Karma (12).
Dawn of the scientific and industrial revolution and implication
The dawn of modern scientific and industrial revolution in the closing years of the
nineteenth century, initiated a process of definition, evaluation, calibration,
measurement and universal standardization for material characterization, applications
and mass industrial production with consequent improvement in the quality of human
life. These developments have lead to accepting science and technology as the
vehicles of change for economic prosperity and global socialization. The scientific
thought process founded on the basis of Rene Descartes’ philosophy, Lord Francis
Bacon’s methodology and Sir Isaac Newton’s mathematics supported by experimental
verification on the basis of logically built theories for explanation of a natural
phenomena have become the matter of state policies, besides ensuring quality of
governance and minimum livelihood support to citizens at affordable costs. These
efforts have not only gone in organizing material natural resources but also in
harnessing the seemingly invisible resources in the form of nuclear, space,
communication, digital and nano-science technologies. Today, no one questions or
doubts the potential, power, utility and practical application value of physical gadgets
that are spinning out from these sciences concerning the realistic invisible sub-atomic
world. A new era of scientific awareness, willingness to change with open mind for
accepting new thoughts, new sciences, new possibilities with consideration and
9
respect for plausible alternate explanations for already known phenomena has
dawned. Subjects like consciousness, mind, mind-matter interface and interactions,
thoughts and thought waves and their transportation at a distant location, telepathy,
distant-vision, clairvoyance, precognition, psycho-kinesis, near-death experiences and
after-death reincarnation etc, which were contemptuously held unscientific are no
longer forbidden for scientific exploration and enquiry. Because of developments in
science done in the 20 th century, scientists are increasingly getting aware of the
universal continuum of knowledge, inter-connectivity of sciences and innumerable
possibilities of energy-matter interactions and their manifestation as realities. Thanks
to the scientific re-confirmation of the fact, known since antiquity that man is a part
and parcel of nature and the entire universe contributes to our life and to what we are,
coming through the developments in space-science and information gathered with the
help of inter-planetary and galactic probes. Scientists are far more willing without
prejudice now to experimentally explore these areas and even conservative agencies
are increasingly encouraging research with lavish funding. There is therefore no
reason or justification for Religious leaders to remain themselves ignorant, aloof,
isolated or blind-folded from these developments and also to keep their followers
scientifically unaware, ignorant, illiterates and continue to dogmatically opposing new
thinking. They first need to open-up themselves, develop capacity to understand the
new science, evolve with changing time, accept reality and help in providing a
scientific basis to preaching their faiths to newer generations because, the only
purpose of any religion is to collectively and individually educate their followers to
live mentally, emotionally, thoughtfully, intellectually, physiologically, nutritionally,
physically and academically in sound good health in harmony with the laws of nature.
Depending upon geographical location on earth, our food intake, its nature and
effective digestion, the body’s metabolism are mediated to a great extent by the
external environmental conditions and religions must help their followers in
developing the necessary mental strategies to combat them for healthy survival. This
is the only meaning, essence and purpose of all religions, past or present that have
flourished on earth. Perhaps, this may have been the reason why Sir Isaac Newton
took to preaching (scientific) religion at the fag-end of his career and contribution to
science and mathematics. And he (Newton) was reported to have been only appealing
for drastic reformation of religion in the practice of the most essential common
activity, the human worship of GOD. There is therefore, no scope, logic, reason and
10
purpose to pitch one religion or faith against another as rivals. No wonder, there
appears some truth in the statement of Acharya Rajneesh ‘Osho’ when he said that-
“If religions do not progressively evolve with modern scientific thought they will
have no option but to die”.
Everything in the universe is made of atoms: Recycling is the fundamental law of
nature
Hydrogen as the basic element in nature constitutes about 80% of our universe. With
only one proton and one electron, nuclei of Hydrogen atoms fuse together to produce
all other heavier elements found in nature. As the basic element from which all other
117 different kinds of elements are derived, Hydrogen, expresses the oneness and
universal continuum in the universe and all other expressions can be reduced to that
oneness. However, the exceptional moment that marked the starting point of the
development, formation and proliferation of Hydrogen in the universe from
something that did not materially existed and what conditions triggered this, continues
to remain baffling. Hydrogen (proton with unit positive electric charge) corresponds
exactly with the cosmic energy of that very moment when the ‘Hydrogen proton’ as
first material came into being. In other words, Hydrogen is the connecting link in the
process of unification with the cosmic center and the Soul within living material, the
biological cell. It also implies a recognition and awareness of the fact that we are all
one with the integration of this cosmic energy at the cellular plane. Perhaps the
mystery of local and universal consciousness is hidden in the way hydrogen fosters,
sustains, maintains and of course mediates the formation of structures through
chemical covalent bonds with itself or with any other kinds of element atoms,
obviously through its negative equivalent of electric charge, the electron.
Everything in the animate and inanimate material world is made up of ‘Atoms’ the
basic units as ‘energy condensates’ and building blocks of matter that were created in
nuclear furnaces of developing stars about 14.5 billion years ago and are universally
available in very limited number of kinds and quantity. Ever since then, the atoms
have maintained their individual identities as ‘particulate’ matter and characteristic
properties (13). Perhaps the invariable and incorruptible values of the 200+ odd
‘physical constants’ in nature have maintained the individual identities of these
element atoms. Why and how the values of these ‘physical constants’ are so finely
and precisely tuned that makes the existence of the material universe and conscious
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life-forms on the earth possible is a perpetual unsolved mystery. We have no means,
nor capacity to alter their values and certainly no option but to accept them as they
are. The bizarre complementary precise tuning of the values of 200+ physical
constants is believed by some to be the handy-work of super-intelligence inherent in
the creation. It is difficult to believe that such precise tuning could have happened at
random and without any purpose. Even minutest change in the value of any one of
these physical constants would have made the existence of the universe and
conscious matter impossible. Under the scheme of such universal material
creation at the moment the ‘Big-Bang’ occurred, is there also a speculative
possibility to assume that highly energetic, mysteriously compounded ‘conscious-
quantum-entity’ called the soul / self / spiriton were also simultaneously created
from the primordial cosmic energy at the same time but manifested as living
organisms only after favourable conditions such as those on the earth were
found? If true, then it does not rule out the presence of such quantized souls
everywhere in the universe and certainly their transportation on the earth from outer
space a possibility. Coupling and connecting with them from earth is therefore a
matter of only tuning and matching our inherent energy frequency and establishing a
harmonic resonance. And such a possibility and capacity within human body indeed
exists and has been demonstrated by several Saints and ‘Rishis’ (14,15). However, as
long as the mystery about the ‘primordial cosmic energy’ remains scientifically
unresolved so long as the mystery about the ‘Souls’ will remain shrouded in the realm
of spiritual reality.
The elemental atoms in specific combinations come together under specific
circumstances and conditions to form structures of various innumerable kinds only to
disintegrate after specific interval of time or under specific conditions into their
component atoms to be again freely available to form new structures of similar or
dissimilar kinds. Recycling of these basic atomic material units is therefore the
fundamental law and characteristic of the material world in nature. Living organisms
are often described as lumps of conscious matter and it remains to be seen if such
recycling of all living material beings in the form of their birth, death and rebirth also
form an integral part of the recycling Nature? Modern science has so far no answers
and even if there are answers, the question is only open to debate without freedom
from bondages of religious dogmatisms, prejudices and blind beliefs. Moreover, just
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because something is difficult to prove for the time being does not make it impossible.
We are aware of the history, that even celebrated scientists as Lord Kelvin and A. A.
Michelson, by the end of the 19 th century had emphatically declared- “all that was to
be discovered has already been done so, and no further developments in physical
science is possible”. And yet, the spectacular discoveries of radio-activity, X-Rays,
electrons, protons, neutrons, relativity, uncertainty principle, De Broglie Hypothesis
and wave-particle duality, planetary model for atom, concepts of electron jumps into
higher electron orbits around central nucleus of atoms, multi-universes (multiverse)
and quantum physics have pushed the frontiers of knowledge beyond imagination and
perception of even the most celebrated scientists of the 19 th century. However,
Consciousness is essential for any understanding and comprehension. Material
creation, its beauty and grandeur has no value without the presence of a conscious
observer. Consciousness is therefore at the centre of all creation and the universe is
essentially ‘Biocentric’ and not ‘material-centric’ as is generally believed. Today, new
thinking, interpretations and paradigm changes on related concepts as possible
explanations are emerging in the form of ‘theory of morphogenetic fields, morphic
resonance and morphogenesis’ proposed and pioneered by Rupert Sheldrake (16-20),
‘theory of Epigenetics’ by Bruce H. Lipton (21) and ‘theory of Biocentrism’ proposed
by Robert Lanza (22, 23). Sir William Lawrence Bragg (NL) had once very rightly
said- “The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover
new ways of thinking about them, because the sole purpose and aim of science is to
do honour to the human spirit”.
Practical evidence of reincarnation / life after-death
Considerable evidence has now been gathered on modern scientific logic,
experimental verification, and enormous amount of observations and experiences
collected from thousands of case studies of rebirths of individuals, cutting across
continents, nationalities, cultures, religious faiths and physical conditions of existence
on the earth. All these modern studies (4-8), rigorously tested on the strength of
statistical and regression analysis, are indicating to the possibility of a common cause,
purpose, process, reason and science for our repeated cyclic births, spanning several
centuries in between each births. There is obviously a common denominator in
observations recorded by these individuals of case studies about experiences felt and
memorized between earlier death and rebirth. Therefore, whether we understand or
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do not understand, willingly accept or unwillingly ignore, consciously subscribe
or thoughtlessly discard, be magnanimously open to accept the fact as scientific
truth or obstinately or arrogantly refuse with a pre-conditioned mind, there has
to be but only one universal common theory, law, rules and conditions that
govern the existence of entire human race and other forms of living beings on the
earth and for cycles of their births and rebirths. If in case we assume that some
form of soul persists beyond death, it remains to be explained what particles is that
soul made of, what kind and nature of known or unknown forces hold it together and
how does it interact with ordinary matter? Unfortunately, nobody from the advocates
for life-after-death, has tried to sit down and do the hard work of explaining how the
basic physics of atoms and electrons beyond rules laid down by the Standard Model
of particle physics would have to be altered or interpreted in order for this to be true
or explained. Continued belief in life-after-death either requires entirely new physics
and understanding on how that interacts with the familiar matter or otherwise an
entirely new but innovative explanation and interpretation on the basis of the existing
laws of physics. We need to arrive at some satisfactory scientific explanation than to
remain perpetually ignorant and clouded in blind faith.
Vedic philosophy about birth, death and reincarnation/ life-after-death
The earliest references to the concept and practical truth about birth, death and rebirth
in human beings comes from the Vedic scriptures and Vedic civilization that
flourished in ancient India some 25,000 years BC (1-3, 24, 25). The civilization at that
time was homogenously apolitical and not divided between multitude of religious
factions and faiths as it is now in the twenty first century. The emphatic statement on
the truth about rebirth is found in the words of Shrikrishna, delivered on the
battlefield of Kurukshetra on 16 th October 5561 BC (1) (Date corresponding to
Indian calendar system prevalent, practiced and recorded in verses in the ‘Bhagwad
Gita’ and interpolated back in Gregorian Calendar for easy comprehension of the
elapsed time span by Dr. P. V. Vartak). Here, Shrikrishna clearly states about
hundreds of cycles of death and rebirth lived by everyone present on the battle field,
with the only difference that whereas everyone else has forgotten about their repeated
past lives between deaths and rebirths, Shrikrishna distinctly remembers his own
births. Thousands of years after Shrikrishna, it was Gautam Buddha who has been
known to have distinctly remembered all his past births and deaths which include 357
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lives as a human beings, 66 as Gods and 123 as animals, indicating thereby the factual
possibility of trans-migration of soul from human to ‘godly angelic’ individuals to the
animal life forms in between successive births. The very fact that psychic, intuitive,
spiritual or telepathic communication over long distances can be established with
even pet or wild animals by animal-communicators today, suggests that there exists a
common subtle bond between all life forms. Both Shrikrishna and Gautam Buddha
clearly stand out as the only human beings who understood the true nature of the
cyclic universe. No wonder, they both are considered by the Hindus as the re-
incarnations of Lord Vishnu, the Omni-present-potential cosmic energy or force of
nature that sustains material creation. There is therefore no mystery about the truth of
birth and rebirth except that in most ordinary cases, the memory of past birth is
confined to only one or few births of the recent past and not about all the earlier
births. Therefore, there has to be a logical scientific reason for the loss or retention of
memory about past life in general. Modern medical science has no answer for this but
the Sages (Rishis) of the Vedic times in India not only pondered over this problem
but provided a satisfactory scientific explanation that stands well in accordance with
the modern medical science and will be described later in this article at appropriate
place.
Modern concept of atoms and molecules: Their structures, combinations and
functions
The earliest references to the concepts of atoms and molecules can be found in the
Mahabharata (5561 BC) with mention of the use of possibly the atomic weapon like
devices called as the ‘Bramhastra’ in this war. The factual description of the situation
that arose after the detonation of ‘Bramhastra’ corresponds ditto parallel with the
description recorded in the modern history after the first two atomic nuclear fission
bombs were dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan during the
World War-II. There is no description about how the Sages and ‘Rishis’ of the Vedic
times came to arrive at the concepts of atom and molecules described in Sanskrit as
‘Anuu’ and ‘Parmanuu’ respectively but they were certainly aware of their reality.
They were even widely using the atomic or molecular processes of electroplating for
depositing silver and gold over base metals (24, 25). Science, technology and industry
was a part of the Vedic culture (26).
15
The idea of atoms constituting the material world originated in antiquity. Leucippus
and Epicurus the Greek philosophers were already talking about all matter being made
of infinity of infinitely small particles in eternal motion. Democritus Abdera, another
Greek philosopher (about 500 B.C.) in an eloquent statement on atomic hypothesis
wrote: “By convention sour, by convention sweet, by convention coloured; in reality,
nothing but Atoms and the void.” It was the great English chemist John Dalton who
not only reiterated the atomic concept in 1808 but also showed that atoms of
dissimilar elements combine in some fixed proportions. The atoms of about 117 kinds
of similar or dissimilar elements present in nature, in combinations enter into the
composition of all known composite substances. The atoms or molecules can only
vibrate, without displacement like the stems of wheat or maize crop plants bending
before the wind but without changing their places. Further developments in the
modern theory of atomic structure of matter had made it very clear that the size of the
atoms, if they existed, would be extremely small to be perceived directly by our
senses or even seen under the most powerful microscope. To confirm the physical
reality of the existence of atoms, an ingenious idea was adopted to assume or theorize
that atoms indeed existed and then develop some logical experiments based on this
assumption in anticipation of some perceptible consequences. Any matching of
observed consequences in accordance with assumptions would mean an indirect
confirmation for the existence of atoms. Several experiments conducted by Bernoulli,
James Clark Maxwell, Ludwig Boltzmann, Robert Boyle, Jacques Cesar Charles and
finally Albert Einstein unequivocally demonstrated that atoms indeed exist. Robert
Brown demonstrated and recognized the perpetual motion of pollen grains suspended
in water, the ‘Brownian Motion’ to be caused by the pushing thrusts exerted on the
pollen grains by continually dynamic molecules of water made of two hydrogen
atoms joined together to one oxygen atom. Albert Einstein developed a mathematical
theory to explain the Brownian motion and its theoretical predictions were not only
confirmed by Jean-Baptiste Perrin but he even calculated the size of atoms to be of
the order of a billionth part of a metre in diameter. It was however left to Sir J. J.
Thomson, Ernest Rutherford, Niels Bohr and several others to fully describe how an
atom looks like and functions. Perhaps the best possible examples of the power of
formulation of logical conceptual theories are the law of periodic table of elements
discovered by Dmitri I. Mendeleev, who predicted existence and properties of new
elements long before they were physically discovered in nature and more recently, the
16
theoretical prediction of the existence of an elementary particle- ‘The Higgs Boson’
also nicknamed as ‘The GOD Particle’ that provides mass to energy by Peter Higgs
almost fifty years before it was experimentally discovered at the CERN (European
Centre for Nuclear Research, Geneva) in 2012-2013. The mechanisms involved in
these theoretical models do not make it a precondition to physically experience
observations through our five senses before we understand and accept them as has
been imprinted in our minds by the classical Newtonian physics. For example, look at
the new concept of an electron jumping instantaneously from one orbit shell around
nucleus to another without physically moving across the space between the
consecutive shells. Here, electrons just disappear from one orbit shell and reappear in
the other. This disappearance and re-appearance of electron is akin to its death in one
orbit shell and rebirth in the other. Alternately, disappearing from one universe and
reappearing into another. Mechanisms and explanation of such bizarre phenomena are
not only beyond our imagination but can only be explained on the basis of quantum
mechanics and not by classical physics. Whereas classical Newtonian physics stood
for absolute physical quantities and their absolute measurements, modern physics
believes in the impossibility of absolute quantities and their measurements which are
not only relative but represent only the probabilities of their being a reality.
Quanta and Quantum Particles
The discovery of the atom (irrespective of its 117 different elemental kinds) marks the
landmark departure from the classical physical science. Atoms consist of over 99.9%
empty space with over 99.9% of their masses being concentrated within a minutest
region at the centre, called the nucleus, compared to the size of the atoms. The nuclei
of atoms were discovered to be charged electrically positive and nuclear physicists
pictured the atom as a miniature solar system with distribution of negatively charged
electrons around the nucleus to make the atom as electrically neutral. This theoretical
picture defied classical Newtonian laws of motion and new laws had to be discovered
to explain the perpetual motion of electrons without gradually losing their energy and
spirally colliding into the nucleus leading to its annihilation or something of this kind.
Nothing like this happens in reality and to explain the motion of electrons around the
nuclei of atoms, Niels Bohr adopted the concept described by Max Planck in that a
body absorbs or emits energy in the form of radiation, not continuously but
discontinuously in integral multiples of a definite amount of packets called quantum.
17
The magnitude of quantum depends on the vibration frequency of the oscillator i.e.
electron. If ν is the frequency of vibration the quantum Q of energy is given by Q=
ђ.υ where ђ is the Planck’s universal constant. Energy can be taken up or given out
in such quanta only. The role of electrons is primordial in that it is electrons which
give a substance most of its physical and chemical properties and it is their number
which determines the physical identity of the element atom i.e. whether it is hydrogen,
iron or uranium. Chemical combinations are always brought about when electrons are
either shared or exchanged between two or more interacting atoms to form structures.
Both atoms and molecules (depending on the number of atoms involved in
combination to form a molecule) constitute quantum particles in perpetual state of
vibration with characteristic frequencies and wavelengths. The diameters of the atoms
are of the order of a ten millionth of a millimeter and that of the least voluminous
molecules measure 2-3 times as much. The individual molecules routinely
encountered in organic and biological chemistry assume much large sizes and can be
easily visualized under powerful electron or atomic force microscopes. In molecules
of similar and dissimilar atoms, regions of varying electron density are usually found
around atoms and their bonds. The electron density distribution is therefore a measure
of the probability of an electron being present at a specific location along the
molecular length. A look at the electron density map or the structural formula of a
molecule is enough to suggest to a chemist, which regions are electron-rich and so
vulnerable to electrophilic attack and which are more likely to attract nucleophilic
reagents, thereby permitting calculation of the external electrostatic potential and the
interaction energy between molecules or between parts of the same molecule. The
three great themes which emerged in the 20 th Century- the atom, the computer and
the gene, have revolutionized science and changed the human mindset. Further,
Werner Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity and
Erwin Schrodinger’s wave mechanics (Quantum Mechanics) laid the foundations of
quantum physics and elucidation of the structure and function of the DNA (gene) by
James D. Watson and F. H. C. Crick, that of the molecular biology.
What is Life?
‘Functional emergence with evolution’ and ‘vitalism’, are the two main-stream
concepts which have dominated scientific thoughts about characterization and nature
of all living systems. Whereas, functionalism characterizes life by its self-
18
organizational and self-replicating arrangements leading to purposeful functions and
behaviour, the proponents of ‘artificial life’ consider many non-biological systems
such as, self-organizing computer programs with life-like functions to be also alive. If
flow of controlled amount of quantized electric charge on electrons, in the form of a
sequential computer program can replicate life-like functions and behavior, why not
the actual flow of electric charge through body systems (which are essentially
electrical in nature, mediated by the flow of atomic ions) of living organisms and their
control over the operational function and behavior of the organisms be primarily
attributed to electric charge rather than to the illusive and enigmatic concept of the
Soul? Electrical activity in our body is initiated by our ion channels. These little
known but crucially important proteins are found in every cell of our body and in
those of all living organisms on earth and they regulate our lives from the moment of
conception to our last breath. Ion channels are truly the ‘spark of life’ for they govern
every aspect of our behaviour. From the lashing of the sperm’s tail to the sexual
attraction, the beating of our hearts, the craving for coffee, ice cream or chocolate, and
the feel of the warmth from sun on our skin- everything is underpinned by ion channel
activity. No surprise, any impaired functioning of ion channels is responsible for
many human and animal diseases. Ion channels are the gate-keepers of the cells and
their opening and closing is controlled by intra- and extra- cellular chemicals,
mechanical stress or changes in the voltage difference across cell membranes. Farm
animals such as pigs that suddenly shiver themselves to death, a herd of goats that
falls over when suddenly startled or threatened, people with cystic fibrosis, epilepsy,
heart arrhythmias and migraine- are all the victims of factual dysfunction of their ion
channels (27). In a way, perhaps we may be failing to recognize electric charge to
be the de-facto ‘Soul’ responsible for the function and behaviour of all living
organisms. Therefore, it is pertinent to reason- If our ‘concept of Soul’ may
appear to be a religious dogma or an obsession descended down to us through
thousands of years of human civilizations? Has this dogmatic concept by any
chance prevented us from thinking differently and taking a truly scientific look
at the ‘Soul’ beyond reasons already given out?
‘Emergence’ implies a hierarchical organization, built from simple components at
lower levels with life arising from complex interactions within and between the
constituent component parts. ‘Life’, therefore is believed to emerge from complex
19
interactions between atoms, ions and polar or non-polar bio-molecules made-up of
atoms. The bio-molecules on the other hand are not so simple. Their organization into
structures of biological systems, interactions, properties, functions and behavior are
governed by the nature, position and properties of various types of atoms or group of
atoms and their movements within and across biological systems, mediated through
the specific and specialized ion channels. Such functional and emergent approaches,
based on reductionism are being frequently used these days in molecular biology. On
the other hand, ‘Vitalism’ the other main-stream, based on electromagnetism or
essentially on imaginary forces from outside the known realm of science, stands
discarded for good with the advent of quantum mechanics. Erwin Schrodinger, the
founder of quantum mechanics suggested in 1944, that the essential framework
of life is engrained in ‘aperiodic lattices’ and all living systems are fundamentally
quantized. This description is relevant for both DNA and RNA, the cytoskeletal
protein assemblies, microtubules and actin-gels that criss-cross the entire cell matrix.
With a recent evidence of bio-molecules being also capable of harnessing ambient
heat and energy to promote their functional quantum states instead of causing de-
coherence, the non-local quantum correlations amongst the bio-molecules are
considered to be responsible for unified inherent behaviours of living systems (Roger
Penrose). It is a considered general opinion of all celebrated scientists since Erwin
Schrodinger that life is related to organized quantum processes in π electron
resonance clouds within bio-molecules. And biology perhaps evolved initially from
simple oil-water interfaces and adopted to utilize cooperative quantum processes to its
best advantage with minimum expenditure of energy. Three theories are currently in
vogue regarding the origin of life. One assumes an involvement of a ‘Creator’, the
second involves a sudden spontaneous chemical activity leading to formation of self
replicating bio-molecules and the third assumes seeding of the earth from extra-
terrestrial (Exobiology) sources such as meteorites, comets and asteroids. However,
even such explanations still need to explain the origin of life in conditions of extra-
terrestrial space before transportation to earth for manifestation and proliferation.
Further, bio-molecules such as simple peptides, sugars, lipids and nucleic acids have
been observed to be formed spontaneously in marine salt water or near geo-thermal
vents (Geysers), volcanoes and in clay minerals. What is mysterious being their
incorporation, culmination, evolution and adaptation into structural organelles and
coalescence to become the cooperating parts of an integrated biological cell as the
20
basic units of all life-forms, irrespective of origin from soil, plant, animal or aquatic
source. All these appear to suggest ‘intelligent design’ and obviously to
‘Creationism’. But according to Roger Penrose, intelligent design simply reflects the
type of Platonic (harmless or ineffectual) information embedded in the Planck scale.
And if this is true; then it implies that all living systems are perpetually in
constant touch with some deeper reality of the universe through quantum states.
However, this does not mean that all quantum information devices must also be
‘alive’. Only organic molecules and cytoskeletal protein lattices may be endowed with
inherent flexibility to harness ambient energy for quantum coherent states to interact
with Planck scale through quantum gravity processes and use photons as phase-
ordered matter. But since all animate and inanimate material world is built from
atoms, the above argument implies that what we call ‘conscious life’ may be a special
property endowed to only restricted kind of atoms such as Carbon, Hydrogen
(proton), Nitrogen, Calcium, Sodium, Sulphur, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium
and Chlorine and to molecules built from a combination of these atoms. These are the
only few elements particularly, carbon, sodium, potassium and hydrogen that
uniformly and predominantly go into the structural makeup and in functional
operation of various body organs of all living organisms from soil, land, plant, insect,
bird or aquatic origin and each one working under command of its conscious
enigmatic entity called the ‘Soul’. Just as a house under construction does not
spontaneously emerge from a pile of bricks, similarly there is nothing conscious about
an electron required to emerge as consciousness from a pile of atoms put together.
Most of the piles of atoms do not produce anything. They process no information and
do not generate any output. Still, however, some configurations of atoms do indeed
process information and generate output and are labeled as ‘conscious’. And yet, it
does not qualify as an emergent property as does the ‘houseness’ of a house that
emerges from bricks, the basic building block for a house. This appears to set
consciousness differently apart from electric charge on electron, proton or atomic
ions. Whereas, a quantum of electric charge can be measured, a quantum of
consciousness cannot be done so. Alternately, a certain amount of electric charge can
always be expressed as a multiple of the quantum of charge on an electron but
consciousness cannot similarly be divided to the level of an electron. This is because,
whereas electric charge is a physical quantity, consciousness is an attribute, a property
that arises as a result of the combinations and permutations of connecting various
21
building blocks from a huge state space. It is an arbitrary definition and an arbitrary
attribute of a specific association and group of atoms. It would be worthwhile to
examine from such specific angle, the composition and sequential arrangement of
atoms in adenine, thymine, cytosine and guanine (A, T, C and G) groups of molecules
that make the composition of the DNA, program the syntheses of proteins, initiate and
sustain metabolism and activities of various organs at free will to generate
consciousness.
What is a ‘Soul’?
The soul, since antiquity, has been associated with consciousness and freedom of all
life forms that exist on Earth. All religions that have flourished and perished and those
still existing on earth have propounded notions of ‘Soul’. Soul and body together form
one unique combination of nature. Every one speaks about the Soul but rarely has
anyone attempted to dare, ponder and describe what exactly it is and what is its
structure and configuration from the point of modern scientific basis. Despite
tremendous developments in science and technology and increased resolving power of
our instrumental detection techniques, Soul, as a hidden illusive entity continues to
remain the most profound enigma of our life. Our knowledge about Soul continues to
be vague and yet, we blindly admit that our Soul identifies who we are. Each and
every Soul is believed to be an individual and an immortal entity created by
nature. It is still not clear if it is the will of the Soul that propels a body from birth
to the end of its life or it is the capacity and limitation of the developed body-
system that restricts the resident time for the Soul within itself? However,
experience suggests that when a body-system gets incapacitated (short circuited) to
maintain flow of electric charge current to every organ parts in a holistic way, the
immortal Soul exits it. This is why; naturally incapacitated bodies kept on external life-
support remain conscious and alive to some extent or as long as the external support is
continued. In a spectacular incident, reported in the newspapers recently, a premature
but healthy baby was delivered by a fifteen weeks pregnant brain-dead mother who
suffered a stroke and had been maintained on life-support system by the doctors in
Budapest in Hungary to save the life of her baby. The baby was born alive and healthy
through a cesarean operation at 27 week maturity and weighed 1.4 Kg. It is very clear
from this example that the brain of the mother had nothing to do with the
development of the fetus and the baby was either developing independently and
22
guided by its own Soul or by the Soul of its mother that did not reside in the brain
but elsewhere. The external life-support system merely kept ion-channels in the
mother’s body in active functioning condition.
A majority of people, in general, think of Soul to be a blob of immaterial spirit energy
that persists after death, and this sort of substance in their mind, resides near our brain
but drives around our body. The only entity that actually moves around our entire
body-system is the electric charge (Hydrogen proton) and current. Vedas and
Upanishads describe the Soul to be residing in the heart of the human body. This seems
to be logical in that it is indeed the heart that continually distributes and circulates
oxygen, the principal currency for exchange of electric charge and generator of active
ion-channels in the body. This is a function analogous and similar to that of artificial
life-supporting machine. The purpose of both is to supply oxygen to the heart through
lungs. Any limitations in the supply of oxygen lead to insufficient generation of ions
and consequently feeble ionic currents to maintain a multi-cellular body optimally
functional. Here again, it is the essential role of electric charge that is underlined in
generating consciousness. But what is that thing which not only generates but
perpetually sustains the electric charge itself? Halit Eroglu (30) in his recent book
maintains that the universe consists of simple components. An analog clock also
consists of simple components such as gears, screws etc. Only the interaction of these
basic components according to a specific system brings the clock to running state. In
the universe too, it is the interaction of individual components that make the
“clockwork” universe running. The space in the universe, and so also the vacuum in its
smallest dimensions, according to Eroglu (28), consists of unified densely
interconnected spheres with a strictly periodic structure called the “space-balls”. The
“space-balls” are magnetic monopoles and their elementary energy force content shows
off itself in the form of attraction to pull each others. All physical phenomena are the
consequences of the primal magnetism in the magnetic monopoles- the ‘space-balls’.
The electric charge, mass and the basic components of matter, the atoms, stars, etc.
arise from the interactions between these ‘space-balls’ according to the following
scheme;
(Space-Ball) Magnetism > Charge >Mass > Particles > Atoms > Stars
23
i.e. magnetism causes emergence of electric charges and these generate mass, which
then form particles that accumulate into atoms and atoms in turn produce all
macroscopic bodies and celestial objects in the universe.
Magnetism in ‘space-balls’ is a hidden power which forms the elemental force in the
universe and the entire universe is built-up electromagnetically. Therefore,
electrodynamics and electromagnetic interactions have their origin in the quantized
magnetism. The effects of the elemental magnetism become apparent from the transport
of charge. According to Eroglu (28), magnetism is the cause of electrodynamics and it
brings out the charges as an effect and not the other way round. Physical calculations
do not change by this order but provide better understanding of the universe with
different perspective and new insights. So far, magnetic monopoles have not been
detected and it is not possible to directly observe them because they themselves show
no observable physical events. All physical events actually emerge from the
interactions of dipoles which are formed by external influences. Halit Eroglu’s
explanation (28) appears consistent to the discussion developed and given above in this
paper. It therefore appears to suggest that physics and physical laws concerning
creation, accumulation and interactions of magnetic monopoles in the space vacuum
has something to do with the origin or the identity of what we call as the ‘Soul’. And
since magnetic monopoles represent the elementary, primordial, all-pervading form of
energy in the universe from which every other matter is created, it connects very well
as the common thread with the origin and function of all living creatures on the earth.
Whatever may be the truth, the questions that still remain un-answered being: what
form does that soul energy take, what is its ultimate origin, constitution, nature, and
resident place inside the body of the organism and how does it interact with other
ordinary atoms? It is also not clearly known whether it is the same individual ‘soul’ that
takes residence within body from the moment of birth / conception to the last breath at
death with its known identity as ‘self’ or ‘Me’. If it is the same soul that remains
resident in the body from birth to death, how then it loses its identity when ridden with
alzheimer’s disease? Does the root cause for alzheimer’s disease change the very
identity of what we call ‘soul’? Truly speaking, it is the people around us in family, our
parents and society who maintain and keep reminding us about our identity of being Mr
X or Mr Y. Imagine, how a child born in the wild and somehow surviving alone after
his birth will ever know his identity except realizing that he is only a conscious
24
creature. Just as all living creatures on earth remain continually connected to the
Oxygen reservoir of atmosphere from the moment of birth to the last breath, there is
therefore a reason to believe that we (as souls) continually remain in touch with
universal consciousness (energy / force) from the moment of birth to death,
through a subtle unknown mechanism ingrained within our body-system. The
‘Soul’ taking a permanent residence within the body for life-time appears to be a
pleasant myth. Here, the role of subtle electrical conduits existing in our bodies,
identified and known since millenniums as ‘Ida’, ‘Pingala’ and ‘Sushumna’ and the
power grids, called the ‘Chakras’ for maintaining a continually perpetual connection,
functions of various body organs under their control besides regulating the flood of
universal consciousness within body-system appears to be very important. This concept
can be easily understood when I say- “my house has running water for 24 hours”. Here,
it does not mean that the same quantity or amount of water stays in my house for all 24
hours but only that my house is connected to an unlimited source or reservoir, knowing
well that I am using different water every time I open tap in my house. Still however,
the statement also qualifies that water stays in my house for all 24 hours in a day.
Consciousness, likewise also stays in our bodies through continual connection to its
universal source from the moment of birth or conception to the last breath. A quantum
entity called the ‘Soul’, taking a permanent residence in the body therefore
appears to be an antique deception.
What is Death and its Process?
Death in a multi-cellular organism is never an instantaneous event, but is known to be a
gradual closing down of the process in sequential stages. Brain cells die almost
immediately, heart follows next, then kidneys, then the intestines and in the end skin
and hairs. Eyes retain their life for six hours and must be removed within that period for
use in some other individuals (27). Muscles and nerve cells continue to retain their hold
on cells much longer after the individual is dead and therefore stand chance for a
possible revival with immediate electric shock treatment (27) and for cadaver organ
transplant. The fact, that organ transplant is possible, only because the energy that
drives these organs is the same in all animal forms and transplanted organs start
deriving energy from the ion-channels of the new body in which they are replaced.
Avoiding possible rejection of the transplanted organ in a new body is only a matter of
re-adjustment of the receptor proteins of the transplanted organ from the cadaver with
25
those of the new body. The Hydrogen protons / electric charges therefore gradually
stop flowing through the body as a result of blockage or closure of its essential ion-
channels after death. In reality, death only marks the failure of the body system to
maintain and regulate the flow of electric charge, mediated through circulation of
oxygen in blood vessels and exchange of electric charges through and across cell
membranes, neurons, muscles and organs with the help of ions for continued
operation and functions. ‘Soul’ represents a deeply felt moral and emotional
attribute of a universal consciousness with ability to induce or excite and exhibit
expressions of kindness, love, affection, gratitude, sympathy, beauty, aesthetics,
mood, art, music, anger, rage, hunger and other subtle emotions as consequences
of the syntheses and secretion of specific hormones, enzymes, proteins or other
metabolites initiated or ignited by particular thoughts, food consumed, ailment or
injury as demanded by the coherent body system under dynamic connection with
the universal source of energy (29, 30). This is the reason why it is believed that
Souls of all life-forms in the universe share a common inheritance, bond, identity,
structure, nature, purpose, work and destiny. No wonder, why we observe tremendous
affinity, love, affection, loyalty, concern and complementary purpose for collective
cooperative existence on earth and hold belief in transmigration of Soul between
various life-forms possible (29).
Hydrogen (proton/electron) therefore appears to stand appropriate for the identity of the
common thread that connects the cosmic energy with that flowing through all the living
organisms. Questionably, if this is possible, it is still a mystery, how hydrogen (proton)
or more precisely the magnetic monopoles culminate and get bound into formation of a
complex quasi-quantum particulate consciousness called ‘Soul’ with characteristic
attributes and identity of all living organisms?
Much of the confusion has arisen in literature because various specialists
indiscriminately use different terminologies for describing essentially same thing. Thus,
energy or frequency pattern mentioned by a physicist, a life-force or information by a
biophysicist, GOD by a religious preacher or ‘consciousness’ and ‘soul’ by a meta-
physicist or a quantum physicist, in fact, synonymously refer to the same common
constituent of everything existing in the universe. Therefore, all that has gone into
literature on the subject of consciousness needs to be rationalized on standardized
26
uniform terminology of common human perceptions in general. Energy, Consciousness
/ Information or Life force, when slows down, it comes into being ‘in-formation’ i.e.
Coming into form and materialization. Water vapours condensing into liquid and
further into solid crystalline ice by cooling exemplify such transformations. Similarly
the highly vibrating energy in the universe materializes according to some higher law
or principle (still unknown). This materialization of energy takes place assuming only
five possible crystalline Platonic forms; namely, polyhedron, cube, dodecahedron,
tetrahedron and octahedron.
Platonic Crystal Structural Forms
The geometric form of the crystal formed determines the content of condensed Energy /
Life Force / Consciousness / Soul or Information. This condensed energy is stored in
the grid-structure of the crystal, called as ‘Crystal-Lattice’ by the physicists. The term
“Cryst-Al” in fact means “All Consciousness”. No wonder every kind of matter both
animate (proteins, nucleic acid, cellulose, sugars, carbohydrates) and inanimate (salts)
in the universe are crystalline (Conscious) in nature as evidenced and elucidated by X-
Ray and Electron diffraction techniques. No wonder, ‘amorphous materials’ beyond
limits of detection by X-Ray or Electron diffraction techniques exhibit weird
properties.
Mind as a dynamic responsive attribute and reflection of the body interacting with
continually changing fluxes of universal energy
The earliest description of the individual ‘self’ expressed through mind and its
identification with the ‘universal soul’ came from the Vedas and Upanishads which
declared– ‘aham brahmasmi’ (I am the universal conscious being). The driving force
27
within bodies of conscious organisms and that out in the universe was recognized to be
identically same. If this is so, then Hydrogen protons and electrons and their flow as
electric currents within nerves, muscles and across cell membranes of bodies of
organisms come to mind at the first instant as they are universally all pervading. No
surprise, neurological symptoms as loss of consciousness, confusion, forgetfulness, loss
of memory, muscular dysfunction, partial or total paralysis of lower limbs, loss of
hearing, blindness and sleep disorders are all related and affected by the flow of electric
currents. Dr. Andrew Ure in 1818, demonstrated through his experiments on cadaver
body of an extremely muscular man, sudden revival and commencement of breathing
with application of electric current to the phrenic nerve in the neck (27). The chest
heaved and fell and the belly was protruded and collapsed. The touching of electrode
from the battery to the supra-orbital nerve induced the most extraordinary grimaces
such as- ‘rage, horror, despair, anguish, sober and ghastly smiles’ on the face of the
cadaver. Unfortunately, what we do not naturally recognize being the fact that all
living organisms are electrical machines and that electric currents lie at the heart
of life itself. But this does not imply that electric charge or current itself is life
because electric charges themselves emerge from a still deeper reality in the
universe. There is a fundamental difference between the electricity that powers our
bodies and that which lights our cities. Whereas, the electricity supplied to our homes is
carried by the negatively charged sub-atomic particles called the electrons, almost all
currents in the bodies of living organisms are carried by ions- electrically charged
atoms. Of the five main ions that carry electric currents in our bodies, four of these are
positively charged- sodium, potassium, calcium and hydrogen (protons)- and one,
chloride is negatively charged. Movements of electrically charged ions constitute
electric currents as nerve impulses and into and across membranes that envelop cells.
Electrical impulses travel along the length of our nerve and muscle fibres and the ion
currents that generate them flow at right angles to the direction of their travel. Other
difference between electric current that lights our homes and the one that power our
bodies being in their speeds of transmission. Whereas, electric signal in a wire travels
with the speed of light i.e. 1,86,000 miles per second the electric nerve impulses travel
at the speed of mere 0.07 miles per second. The electrical impulses we generate to carry
beating of our hearts are only a few millionth of an ampere of current (27). We have
come to understand the origin of bioelectricity and how the molecules (the ion
channels) responsible for the electrical activity actually look like since only last two
28
decades. Human being and all other life-forms as part of the nature are being constantly
bathed by the terrestrial and universal cosmic energy and our body epigenetically
remains in perpetual dynamic interaction with this energy (31). These dynamic
interactions are adjustments to ever fluctuating fluxes of universal energy create a
constantly dynamic demand for secretion or synthesis of proteins, enzymes or other
metabolites in our body system as a matter of survival strategies. The nature of
secreted hormones, enzymes, other metabolites together with proteins are
responsible for our reflected thoughts, desires, moods and other forms of
emotional symptoms and are generally characterized and attributed to our
enigmatic mind (29-32). No wonder, since the energy fluxes are perpetually changing
around us so also fluctuate our mind as a part of dynamic adjustments of our body
system to universal energy changes (21-23, 27, 29, 30, 32). These are subtle
phenomena occurring at quantum or sub-quantum levels. However, we can easily feel,
realize, experience and understand them from our reaction, behavior and state of mind
when we are exposed to sudden variations in ambient temperature, pressures, climatic
and weather conditions and other environmental fluctuations and from the emotional
demands generated in our body-mind under those conditions to comfort or ease
ourselves (21, 29, 30, 32).
Perhaps modern science will never come to solve the mystery of the soul until and
unless the nature and make-up of the most primordial energy from which all other
forms of matter are formed is finally resolved. And yet, we find most elaborate and
profound descriptions about constitutional makeup of soul in the Vedas and
Upanishads. These descriptions for over 8,000 years have been neither been
scientifically disproved nor even been surpassed with more profound concept, theory or
thought. No surprise, the Vedic / Upanishadic description about the structure and
constitution of the ‘soul’ despite being apparently deceptive as discussed earlier in this
article continues to rule and attempts to satisfy human curiosity even now. T.D. Singh
in presenting vedantic model for the interaction of consciousness with matter (33) very
rightly suggests that the present scientific research and inquiry should be expanded to
include knowledge in search of spiritual truth. What is amazing being that the concepts
and idea about quantized nature of energy and universal existence (31, 34) was
factually known to the Saints- ‘Rishis’ in India and described the constitution of Soul
almost 8,000 years BC.
29
Vedic view of the structure and composition of ‘Soul’: The ‘Panch-Kosh’
Siddhanta
It is clear from the discussion given under various sections of this article above that a
very subtle, highly energetic, quantized form of universal energy is the under-current of
all conscious life-forms. This energy is mediated through ion-channels as ionic electric
currents within bodies of all life-forms to exhibit their conscious functions. The subtle
form of this energy possibly of the kind between pure magnetic (monopoles) and
electro-magnetic type, physical laws for its culmination and organization into a
complex quantum called the ‘soul’ for manifestation into conscious life-forms and
nature of its quantized behavior are still not known to science, except the knowledge
that the whole universe is quantized. But the ‘Rishis’ and Saints of the Vedic and
Upanishadic time in India (8,000 BC) not only pondered over the issue but attempted to
describe the structure and constitution of Soul on the basis of ‘Panch-Kosh Siddhant’
(Five Shell model) an analogue of the modern concept of quantum energy packets. It is
believed that modern science will accept and adopt this as the only logical and
scientific explanation under the present state of knowledge.
According to the Taittireeya Upanishad, our physical material body (and that of any
living organism) is the ‘Annamaiy Kosh’ i.e. a shell / packet or body made up of food
and juicy fluids. From a length of mere one and half foot at birth, this ‘Annamaiy
Kosh’ our body elongates to full five or six feet with accumulation of food and juicy
fluids with increasing cell count and weight. Each and every cell of the body has a
conscious soul (called the Jeev) in them. The 30 billion individual cells constituting a
human body are coherently organized and put to multi-functional (involving integrated
work of eyes, nose, ears and those of several organs) work in a cooperative way by the
universal energy / soul called the ‘Prana’. It is this ‘Prana’ that is believed to stay
within ‘annamaiy kosh’ drives each and every cell and the body as a whole. It
dominates, rules and governs all individual jeev-souls of the cells and goads them to
synthesize proteins, secrete enzymes, hormones and other forms of metabolites as
demanded by the body-known as ‘Annamaiy Kosh’ in its continual attempts to
dynamically adjust itself to ever changing flux of terrestrial and universal flux of
energies as a part of its survival strategies and they include- laughter, tears, thirst,
hunger, rage, anger, love, happiness, satisfaction, bliss and such other emotional
30
responses. The proteins, enzymes, hormones and other biochemicals synthesized within
bodies are stimulated by the ‘Prana-the universal energy and they generate an important
and most enigmatic attribute of the human being called the mind (21, 25, 27, 29, 30).
Since the intensity of the universal conscious energy changes every moment, mind
which arises from dynamic adjustments of body to fluctuations of universal ‘Prana’
energy also remains flickering. We thus see a deep logical connection and integration
of the principles of epigenetics with terrestrial and universal environment and all living
forms as an integral part of nature. Mind is also an energy power and the location of its
generation within each and every cell is called the –Pranamaiy Kosh. Since according
to modern physics entire energy in the universe is quantized, mind also must
necessarily be quantized. Each and every kind of feeling, emotion, desire, lust, urge etc
must be corresponding to differential energy packets of mind quantum (12, 21-26, 29,
30). Mind also creates thoughts but to create thoughts, there must be knowledge.
Taittireeya Upanishad describes and rests this knowledge as the inner body of the mind
and intentionally calls it as the-‘Vidnayanmaya kosh’ to differentiate it from the
universal knowledge- ‘Dnyanmayakosh’. There are two categories of consciousness,
universal and individual. The Supreme Being (the Prana) is conscious of everything in
the universe whereas the living entities (the Jeevas) are conscious of only themselves.
The knowledge existing within the ‘vidnyanmaya kosh’ of mind is only limited and
restricted to the appropriate requirement of the biological species to which the body of
the living organism (the Jeeva) belongs to (33). All knowledge about the series of past
reincarnations undergone by the living organism also remains encoded and stored
within this ‘vidnyanmaya kosh’. There is always a scope and freedom with the living
organism to enlarge, enhance this knowledge and evolve itself into an organism of
higher order within a pool of 84,00,000 kinds of possible living species in nature. And
to help this evolution, the quantum of universal knowledge called the ‘Dnyanmaya
kosh’ lies always within or at the back of the ‘vidnyanmaya kosh’. Quantized packets
of knowledge, information, learning, memory of incidences, instances, trauma,
sufferings of several past rebirths including those of the present birth etc. are encoded
and stored within this ‘vidnyanmaya kosh’(12, 24-26, 29). The last of the quantum
body is called the ‘Anandmaya kosh’ wherein resides the primordial, omni-present,
omni-potent conscious universal energy, supporting and holding all the outer quantum
shells / koshas namely the vidnyanmaya, manomaya, pranamaya and annamaya koshas.
The crux of the riddle being, how these, extremely energetic five quantum shells are
31
sequentially connected to each other and what is the nature of the force that binds them
together for manifestation and exhibition in the form of a conscious living organism.
Perhaps future developments in quantum chromodynamics (QCD) elucidating strong
‘quark-quark’ interactions (interactions between the ultimate form of matter) may
provide some explanation (34). The reference to ‘sequential connection’ mentioned
above also suggests the presence of ‘Time’ ingrained in the manifestation of the
‘Panch-Kosh-Soul’ as a living organism. And as Halit Eroglu (28, pp 49-50)
emphatically suggests and innovatively interprets- “When defining the time as the
period between two events, then the time, or more specifically, a certain timing cycle, is
the actual cause of the events. Without time, physical processes cannot take place,
because there would be no “pulse” which could be addressed by the events. The events
in the smallest dimensions do namely not take place itself, while time is running
alongside, but it is the quantized timing cycle which causes the events with its cycle
sequence. All physical processes (therefore) depend on a universal timing cycle, whose
sum we measure as an ordinary time, as Time Arrow, upon which the Cause-Effect
principle is based. The time occurs in the smallest dimension and develops into higher
dimensions through the summation. Therefore our time interval of a ‘second’ on a
macroscopic scale is the sum of the quantized timing cycles in the Planck dimension. In
the Planck sphere, there is plenty of time for the quantum events. The measured time is
therefore dependent on the size of the scale. While on earth millions of years pass
according to our time measurement, for an observer in the Planck space, quantity of
several million light years would only pass to measure only a few seconds according to
his clock”.
Quite recently, Amit Goswami (35) in his brilliant book has attempted to describe the
relationship between quantum physics and consciousness in describing the constitution
of Soul which he calls as a ‘Quantum monad’ and readers are recommended to refer
this for comprehensive details.
(**) Author retired as Professor and Head, Division of Agricultural Physics, Indian
Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi
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32
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34
