Consciousness and Soul Our basic survival needs give rise to
urges. The brain performs thinking or analysis to fulfill these urges and
desires, resulting in action to drive our everyday activities. The brain analysis
is based on our physical,
mental, and spiritual buildup. The physical makeup is mainly determined by the
cellular composition of our body, where DNA plays a dominant role. Also, the
origin of essential constituents of consciousness lies in the cellular
structures. By making use of consciousness, the brain builds the mental
framework that refers to a wide range of mental states and processes of the brain.
The brain controls all physical, mental, and spiritual activities. Thus, we can
trace the origin of all physical, mental, and spiritual functions to
consciousness. Also, all these brain functions are believed to be controlled
and influenced by the soul. Therefore, the soul is sometimes interpreted as
consciousness. Here, we will clarify the concepts of soul and consciousness in
more detail. When we talk about consciousness, almost
everybody understands what it means. However, it is not easy to define.
Consciousness is known to be related to the perception of things in the
vicinity. The dictionary meaning of consciousness is awareness. Awareness makes
us perceive an item and make sense of it through a mental process known as
cognition. Perception and cognition are studied in the neurosciences,
especially in neurophysiology. To understand the physical basis for
consciousness, we will focus on the neurophysiological model of consciousness
as it is based on scientific principles. Several experiments have been performed on
humans to understand the relationship between an action and consciousness.
However, the exact mechanism of consciousness leading to action is still under
investigation, as subconscious brain activity is observed before any action. Thus,
we can identify several levels among various sentient entities, from the subconscious
to conscious states. For human beings, we will describe the different levels of
consciousness. However, before that, we need to be more specific about what we
mean by consciousness. Here, we define consciousness as the
awareness of the self within the existing environment at any moment. Thus, awareness
implies responsiveness to a stimulus as indicated by brain activity. Depending
on the brain's responsiveness, we can identify the different levels of
consciousness for a typical adult person. At the lowest level of awareness, a
brain-dead person shows no response to any stimulus. In the next state of
awareness, a person in a coma has a steady low level of brain activity but does
not respond to any stimulus. A person emerging from a coma is said to be in a
vegetative state with limited responsiveness to painful stimuli. The next level of awareness is the
minimally conscious state when a person starts comprehending speech and can
perform meaningful actions for a brief period. In a similar condition, a person
suffering from a stroke may neglect things on one side of the body and space.
Only a fully aware person can perform all the usual activities. We can conclude that a person's
consciousness level varies depending on the existing state. It is none in the
case of a brain-dead person, with the level increasing progressively in the
coma and the vegetative state. The level continues to grow in the minimally
conscious state and still more in the spatial neglect state. Finally, it
attains a nominal level in the form of complete awareness. Even a fully aware
person has different levels of awareness as the level of consciousness varies
with our circadian rhythm that regulates the sleep and wake cycle, which is
synchronized by the rising and setting of the Sun. Also, meditation and
hypnosis can alter our state of consciousness. As mentioned earlier, the action potential
pulses are responsible for the transfer of information. In the brain, all the
brain activities are performed by the action potential pulses. Thus, the action
potential pulses are the basis of consciousness. All sentient beings carry out
all the moves by the action potential pulses. Therefore, it is a fundamental
cause leading to consciousness. Thus, the brain analysis based on acquired memories
is usually called the mind. The brain and mind are explained in more detail to
clarify these two words' connotations. Brain and Mind A baby is born with a brain and all the
sensory organs. At birth, a baby gets the first opportunity to interact with
the external environment. As soon as a baby takes the first breath, all the
sensory organs and the brain start working independently of the mother. The
inherent consciousness at birth originates in the body cells. It is known as
pure consciousness. After birth, the sensory information is conveyed to the baby's
brain. The information received by the brain starts to change the brain itself.
Initially, the brain is incapable of making sense of the received data. However,
the information leaves an impression on the brain. These impressions are turned
into memory with repeated exposure to the same information. The brain also
starts linking information, and the neurons establish connections accordingly. Thus, a thought process of the brain
consists of the currently sensed data via action potential pulses operating on
the previously stored pulses leading to the generation of a response. The stored impressions with interlinking
are known as experiences. We call a brain with accumulated experiences a mind.
Thus, the brain and mind continue to grow every moment after birth. The physical
growth of the brain slows down, approaching a limiting size in adulthood while
the mind continues to develop. Thus, for a grown person, when we refer to one's
brain analysis, we are talking about the mind. For a normal human being, consciousness provides
awareness of the self and surroundings. Awareness enables us to perceive things
based on the sensory data in the brain. Thus, perception is a function of the mind.
Our mind also makes sense of the perceived things leading to cognition. Thus,
for perception and cognition, the brain is the basic hardware that, along with
the analyzing components, becomes the mind. The mind's capability to use the
accumulated knowledge residing in the brain leads to intelligence. Intelligence
can be defined in several different ways. It is the ability to deal with people
and objects. Also, it enables one to adapt to one's environment and to deal
with novel situations. Moreover, it allows one to reason and think rationally.
Thus, from the sensory data the brain receives, the mind analyzes it for the
information it conveys. Further, based on our experiences, the mind
extracts knowledge from the information. Then, the mind applies this knowledge
in dealing with new situations. The rational application of knowledge is known
as wisdom. Thus, consciousness is the basis for the sensory data (D),
information (I), knowledge (K), and wisdom (W) pyramid that is usually
presented as the DIKW pyramid. From the above discussion, we conclude that
wisdom and intelligence are correlated. Therefore, we propose a more refined
definition of intelligence. For this study, we define intelligence as
the ability to act on the desired objective in a dynamic environment. According
to this definition, every activity we undertake has the dimensions of time and
space. Therefore, we have an explicit or implicit purpose for performing an
action. Furthermore, we are conscious of the constraints imposed by everything
in the surroundings to achieve our objective. Therefore, it means that we are inherently
aware of spatial dimensions. Also, before initiating action, we plan for
possible outcomes based on our previous experiences and future consequences.
Thus, we are implicitly conscious of the time dimension. Consciousness and intelligence are also correlated
with each other. Consciousness provides a snapshot of intelligence in action
analogous to an individual frame of an image in a movie. Similar to a movie
film constituted by a rapid display of a sequence of images, the thinking
process is enabled by a series of awareness states representing the
consciousness, moment by moment. Thus, intelligence is constituted by
consciousness. And consciousness and intelligence supplement each other. A
sentient entity having a high level of consciousness also has a high level of
intelligence, and vice versa. Soul The soul can have a different connotation
for people of various backgrounds. Most people consider it to be the driving force behind all activities of
sentient beings. Thus, the concept of the soul was proposed to explain
sentients' actions. Also, theologists expanded it to explain activities from a
spiritual point of view. Therefore, the soul is interpreted as transcendental
consciousness. The transcendent form of consciousness has been debated
extensively. Understanding the underlying mechanism of consciousness is one of
the complex topics for ontological and philosophical studies. Soul and
consciousness have resulted in several theories of mind encompassing all mental
states. Here, we will begin with the semantic meanings of the soul that can be
interpreted and expanded to different abstraction levels. At the very fundamental level, the concept
of the soul is that it makes a thing sentient. Thus, the idea of the soul is to
differentiate the animate from the inanimate. Hence, it is the soul that
animates the body of living things. It is what makes a body move. It enables
all the processes in a living body. Therefore, we can distinguish a living body
from a corpse when the soul has left the body. The concept of the soul was
further extended to include living things that do not move. Thus, all living
things, including all animals and plants, have a soul. The soul is believed to be incorporated by
a body at birth and leave the body at death. Therefore, most philosophers
consider the body and soul separate. However, a few argued that a soul requires
body parts to perform its functions. Consequently, it is inseparable from the
body. Yet, at another abstraction level, the soul
is described as having three parts. The first part of the soul is located in
the stomach. It is responsible for a person's desires for food, love, etc. The
second part of the soul is in the head, which regulates other body parts and
reasoning. Finally, the third part of the soul is in the heart, which links
desires and reason. It is also described that the soul is the center of control for
processing information for functioning of other parts. It was assumed mind is
located in the heart and controls the soul. Soul performs moral functions through virtues of justice,
wisdom, courage, and temperance. A dry soul serves best with wisdom, while a moist soul has
impaired perceptual abilities. In addition, the soul is the basis of all
the embodied emotional, moral, and spiritual principles. The soul as a moral
force leads to making sense of good and evil. Thus, we find that conscience is an
outcome of the spirituality which the soul controls. Further, the soul is immortal. It is a
belief that only the soul of a wise person survives, while for others, it gets
dispersed. Some theologists believe the soul undergoes the cosmic cycle of
death and re-birth. Most world religions accept the notion of
the soul. However, these religions differ from each other by recognizing only a
subset of features of the soul mentioned above. For example, some believe only
rational and spiritual entities, such as human beings, have souls. Furthermore,
while some believe the soul is immortal, others think it ends with a body's
death. Also, some do not believe in the cosmic recycling of the soul. Existence of Soul We can test the existence of the soul by
investigating its purported attributes. It is said to be something that enters
the body at birth and leaves the body at death. The concept of the soul is
difficult to generalize for all forms of sentient life, as birth or death is
defined differently for animals and plants. Therefore, we will limit our
discussion of the soul to human life. After investigating the soul for human
life, we can generalize the discussion to other living beings. In the past, a person was assumed dead when
his heart stopped beating and he was not breathing. In such a case, there is no
blood circulation in the body and the lungs. The heart and brain are the two most critical organs for the
life of a human body. The
definition of death of a person has become controversial with medical advances,
as it is possible to restart the heart and sustain breathing with artificial
machines or ventilators. In addition, a person can be resuscitated if the heart
is restarted within a certain time if the brain is still working internally. In some cases, it is observed that the brain
has stopped working due to brain injury or some illness. However, the heart and
lungs are still working. Therefore, there may be a temporary loss of
consciousness. Before declaring death, it becomes necessary to ensure whether
the loss of consciousness is irreversible and permanent. The EEG
(Electroencephalography) can be used to test brain activity. It can distinguish
coma from complete death of the brain. However, when the brain is not functional, the heart is still working,
and a person is declared clinically dead. It is a matter of time before the
heart will also stop working. In practice, a person is declared dead
when the heart and brain stop working. Thus, the death of a person occurs when the whole brain shows no
electrical activity. Therefore, we can define the death of a person happens
only when the brain, heart, and lungs stop working irreversibly and permanently. We find that all heart, lungs, and brain
activities stop at the time of death. As explained earlier, the action potential pulses carry out these activities. For
humans, all activities are controlled by the brain. The electrical activity of the
brain results in consciousness. With the death of the brain, consciousness is
also gone. Thus, at the time of death, all electrical activity becomes zero. Therefore,
we can say that the energy responsible for generating the electrical pulses has
left the body. Thus, we can conclude that when we say the soul has left the
body, we refer to the exit of energy enervating the heart, lungs, and brain by
the action potential pulses. To find the soul's entry at birth, we will
investigate what we mean by a person's birth. At conception, the sperm from the
father and ovum cells from the mother combine to form a new cell called a zygote.
The zygote cell starts multiplying to give rise to the embryo. The embryo's
brain, heart, and other body parts start forming. After about 11 weeks of
pregnancy, the embryo is called a fetus, and it takes about six months to
develop all the fetus's body parts. After six months, the fetus inside the
uterus begins to get ready to breathe through the placenta, but not
independently. There is no pulmonary blood circulation through the lungs,
although the heart performs systemic blood circulation for the body. The brain
and heart are also getting prepared for their work but are not ready to work
independently of the mother. At the time of birth, when a baby comes out of the
uterus, it takes the first breath on its own. At this time, blood circulation
in the lungs occurs for the first time. Thus, the heart, brain, and lungs start
working independently of the mother. The electrical activity through action
potential pulses starts the lungs, heart, and brain. Thus, we conclude that the
energy required for creating the electrical activity enters the body with the baby's
first breath. Action potential pulses are generated in
the neuron cell walls. Thus, the energy to generate these pulses is already
stored in the cell walls. However, a trigger is needed to start the generation
of the pulses. Thus, we can conclude that the body receives the trigger energy
required to generate the pulses at birth. We equate this trigger energy to the
soul that enters the body at birth. An analysis of the birth and death of a
person leads us to conclude that the soul is the energy that enters and leaves
the body. Since the energy is indestructible, we find that the soul is
immortal. However, we are still unsure about the form of soul energy and its
association with the body. Therefore, we will present our investigations on a
possible form of this energy and its transport in the later sections. Conclusion We have presented an analysis of
consciousness and soul based on scientific principles. The concept of the soul
and consciousness are similar since both are specified as the moving force for
all the sentient. However, the soul is used more in a spiritual context, leading
to ideas of conscience. On the other hand, consciousness is a more widely used
term for mental functions, leading to concepts such as intelligence and wisdom. Death
Birth