The Universe Revealed

How spirits work: Part 4

How spirits work: Part 4

Now, I want to put forth a theory about why quantum physics might explain the need for a soul. Admittedly, this is a stretch, but it is just interesting enough to require a consideration.

It goes back to the Schrodinger's Cat thought exercise. This thought problem considers that a cat could be both dead and alive at the same time by a principle of quantum physics known as 'quantum superposition'. Basically, atoms and particles can exist in different possible states at the same time. A cat locked in a metal container with a radioactive source could be either dead or alive and one of these states will happen when the metal container is opened.
There are many ways to interpret this thought experiment, but one thing is certain, and that is quantum uncertainty exists until an observation is made. It's the idea of quantum indeterminism. Basically, a wave function collapse occurs with brain activity. In other words, it requires brain activity, which produces energy waves, to cause a quantum wave function collapse.

This concept has driven some physicists to propose the idea of a 'quantum mind'. This means that quantum entanglement and superposition play a part in the brain's functioning. In fact, they claim it's necessary to explain consciousness. The reason why they say this is because of the idea that a quantum state can be influenced by observation, which requires the activity of the brain. If this is the case then we have a connection between consciousness and quantum physics.

To carry this idea one step further, we could say that consciousness is a part of the soul in the sense that awareness-of-self and thought processes are the essence of a person. Therefore, quantum physics plays a role in how the soul interacts with the brain. It's the missing link between the natural world and the spiritual world. Parapsychologists did experiments to prove this idea, but they were not valid, again demonstrating that it's impossible to experiment on the spiritual realm.

Now, one thing this idea does not lead to is the idea that the soul has physical properties like mass and size. This would imply that it behaves like ordinary matter. That's not possible because if it were the case, then the soul would be subject to the scourges of entropy, and that's not possible if it's immortal. Someone tried to measure the weight of a soul by measuring a body before and after death, but the experiment was not valid because death often releases gases.

The other idea that I don't think is valid is the concept that biological processes generate the soul or that it emerges from biological organizations of matter. This would imply spontaneous creation, which would be very difficult to explain.

Dualism says that mental phenomena are non-physical and that the mind and body are not identical. In other words thoughts are outside the physical realm. Descartes proposed this idea back in 1641. Substance dualism is compatible with the idea that the soul exists in a different plane than the body. It is one solution for the mind-body problem that has vexed philosophers for centuries.

Another solution is to say that the soul exists in another universe, and that's where it goes after death. This would be consistent with the multiverse theory.

Maybe quantum physics could resolve this problem and show how the soul really works.

Thanks for reading.