Speculation

I believe that the mind and the brain are distinct things, while the mind and the soul are the same. However, memory is pretty clearly located inside the brain... which means that we lose our memory when we die. That would imply that the purpose of our life here is only to educate our soul... to transform us into better people. It also means that we do not know who we were or what we did - which would be good, because otherwise a lot (most? all?) of us would have to somehow come to terms with the shame of what we did. Not really compatible with heavenly bliss.

No basis in anything, really, just some idle speculation.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Very thought-provoking, Marcel. Have you read THE MIND AND THE BRAIN by Jeffrey Schwartz? Curious to know what you think of it.
7:30 PM
Marcel said…
No... but I'll check it out. I'm flattered to see someone much more educated in the field comment on my ramblings. (I do believe what I wrote, but I admit to not having any reason besides "it makes sense".)
8:48 PM
Anonymous said…
is quite obvious that mind is different from brain, as the brain is the hardware that supports the software.

read patanjali - yoga sutra (or the comments on that) for some really thought provoking.
4:58 PM
Marcel said…
I do not necessarily disagree with this position; in fact, I had the same opinion for quite a long while. However, what I believe right now is a bit different: the brain contains an antenna that is tuned to a particular soul. In other words, the soul is completely independent - it can exist very well without the brain, but it cannot affect the body without it.
5:43 PM
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