The specific content of the concept of soul of different nationalities in the world is different, and this concept has undergone many changes in the long historical evolution. However, no matter how different and how to change, the human definition of soul is still consistent in essence, that is, it refers to a living body that exists in human body, but is different from human material body and can survive independently after physical death.
Although there has been a debate about the existence of soul since ancient times, before the emergence of modern science, due to the great influence of religion, the concept of believing in the existence of soul can be said to have penetrated into the thoughts of people of all nationalities in the world. After the emergence of modern science, this concept has been challenged by science as never before. Because according to the standard of empirical science, only what is visible and tangible is true, while the soul is invisible and intangible, and unprovable is one of its most prominent characteristics. Therefore, with the increasing prosperity of science, fewer and fewer people believe in the existence of souls.
But the problem is that although empirical science can't prove the existence of soul, it can't prove the non-existence of soul. Since we can't prove this, how can we conclude that the soul doesn't exist?
Fortunately, with the development of science and the deepening of scientific exploration, the opposition between science and soul in the past has not gradually dissolved. Today, there are still many scientists in the world who don't believe in the existence of the soul, but there are also many scientists, including cutting-edge scientists who are at the forefront of the world's science and technology, who agree with the view that the soul exists. Through their own scientific experiments, they have made a lot of explorations into the mysteries of the soul and achieved many obvious results.
1963 Professor John Ackerley, a British scientist who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine, said in his winning paper: "Nerve cells have invisible communication substances with each other, which is the composition of the soul. There is an immaterial' I' in the human body, which controls the brain, just like the human brain commands the computer, and it makes the brain nerve cells in the brain work. This intangible' knowing me' still exists after the death of the physical brain, and it can still have the form of life activities and can be immortal. "
Dr. Popper, another famous British scientist, completely agreed with Professor Acre's conclusion after experimental research. Bai Pu is one of the most outstanding scientists in the 20th century. His original theory of "dialectical system of scientific orthodoxy" is still adopted by scientists all over the world. Both he and Acre were knighted by the Queen of England for their special scientific achievements. Dr. MacKay of Keeler College in England said: "So far, there are no known theories and experiments that can overthrow the biological soul theory of Dr. Acre and Dr. Pope."
Dr. Sperry, a famous neurobiologist at California Institute of Technology, won the 198 1 year Nobel Prize in Medicine for his detailed functional theory of decomposing the two hemispheres of the human brain. He said: "The human ego is a brand-new and necessary immaterial, which only appears in the material brain with complex hierarchical structure, controls every part of the brain, and restricts the instinctive activity of the mechanical function of/kloc-0.00 billion brain cells."
Dr. John von Newman, a world-famous mathematician, once invented precise mathematical theorems, which laid the foundation for the emerging "quantum science". He also put forward an amazing new theory: "The human body may have an immaterial' Know Me' to control the body's brain and remote control substances."
According to this scientist's immortal theory, Dr. Stevenson, the head of the Department of Neurology and Psychology at the University of Virginia in the United States, spent more than 20 years on a large number of practical investigations, studies and demonstrations on the immortality and reincarnation of the soul, and published a book on this issue. He said: "There are conclusive scientific experiments and evidence of real cases, which confirm that the ancient theory of reincarnation of the Eastern soul is true."
From 65438 to 0978, Eickel, a neurophysiologist who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine, summed up his years of research experience and put forward a surprising new viewpoint: the excitement of the brain is not equal to spirit and consciousness. He believes that people have a "conscious spirit" independent of the brain, and the brain is only its material tool. He said: "Every one of us has immaterial thinking and self-understanding ability at some stage of embryonic development or infancy. This kind of person's' soul' gives us human characteristics: consciousness, thinking and love. Hatred, fear, etc. " He speculated that the immaterial "self" was still alive after the death of the material brain.
Study on China's Near-Death Experience
After decades of research on near-death experience by foreign scientists, books introducing near-death experience finally appeared in China. At the same time, more and more researchers in China began to study the near-death experience.
The following contents are excerpted from the paper published by Feng Zhiying, dean of Tianjin Anding Hospital and expert in psychiatry, in the fifth issue of Popular Medicine by Shanghai Science and Technology Publishing House (1993).
1On July 28th, 976, a major earthquake struck Tangshan, China, killing more than 240,000 people and seriously injuring more than 60,000 people/kloc-0. Medical workers in China investigated some people who escaped from the 1976 Tangshan earthquake. Most of them are survivors who were injured by collapsed houses and buried under the rubble. More than half of the survivors recalled that they were not afraid when they were in distress, but their thinking was particularly clear, their mood was particularly calm and relieved, and there was no sense of panic; Even some people have a certain feeling of joy or pleasure in this crisis, feeling that the thinking process is extremely rapid and the imagination is rich. At this time, the past events of life are like movies and TV series, and scenes quickly turn over in my mind and fly by, and the content is mostly pleasant plots, such as childhood fun, marriage scenes, work achievements, awards and so on. This phenomenon is called life review or "panoramic memory".
A girl surnamed Liu, who was only 23 years old at the time of the Tangshan earthquake, was injured by a collapsed house and never stood up again. Describing her near-death experience before being rescued, she said: My thinking is particularly clear and my thinking is obviously accelerated. Some pleasant life scenes flashed through my mind like movies. My childhood friends and I laughed and teased, and the joy of falling in love and being commended by the factory ... were mostly happy life scenes. "She said that just a few minutes before she was rescued, she experienced a kind of happiness and joy in life, and for the first time in her life, she felt the value of life so deeply. Therefore, although she has a disabled waist and will be in a wheelchair all her life, every time she recalls this feeling at that time, her confidence in living and living well is strengthened.
More interestingly, nearly half of the people feel that their consciousness or soul is separated from themselves, and that their image is separated from their body. Some people compare it to "the soul comes out of the shell". They emphasize that their sense of function is somewhere outside the body, not in the brain, and think that their bodies are lifeless and mindless. Some journalists even claim to "see" their own images in the air outside their bodies or on the ceiling. This external self-image also has some vital signs, such as pulse and breathing. And sometimes it can return to its physical body or be connected with it in some way. Compared with its physical body, it is light in weight, but the height and age are the same. Some people say that his physical body was not perfect at that time, such as hearing loss or missing a limb, but the real body did not have such defects. One interviewee described it this way: "At that time, I felt that my body was divided into two parts. One is lying in bed, just an empty shell, and the other is my own body. It is lighter than air, swinging in the air and feeling extremely comfortable. "
About13 people have a strange feeling that they are passing through a tunnel or a space similar to a tunnel, sometimes accompanied by some strange noise and feeling of being pulled or squeezed. This feeling is called "tunnel experience". Some people still feel that the journey in this dark tunnel is coming to an end. They see the light, "Here comes the light." One interviewee said that at that time, "it was like a strong wind, flying sand and stones, and no one was there." Where have you been? " Just when I was in a hurry, a big black hole appeared. I didn't feel scared when I walked in. Several layers of water were splashed in the hole. I walk and walk. When I seemed to see the light, I quickly ran out of the hole and saw the light again. "
About 65,438+0/4 respondents have experienced "meeting" unreal images of people or souls. Most of these non-real people are deceased relatives, and some of them have entered the non-earthly field to live together; Or living acquaintances or strangers, seems to be reunited with them. Its "soul" image is often described by some people as a kind of "glory", while others regard it as the "incarnation" of religion.
Li, a survivor of the Tangshan earthquake, recalled his near-death experience like this: "The body seems to be no longer his own, the lower limbs seem to be missing, all parts of the body are scattered in space, and then it seems to sink into the abyss, and it is dark all around. I hear indescribable and inexplicable sounds. This feeling lasted about half an hour. At this time, I began to look back on my short life, but these memories are purely streams of consciousness and are not dominated by the brain at all. "
Wang, a survivor of the same earthquake, said, "I drifted into another world and saw a man in a robe and jacket standing in front of me." He limped towards me. Although it is very close, I can't see my face clearly, and my face is very blurred. He took me into an unfathomable black hole, and my eyes were dark, and I only felt that my body was following him involuntarily. At the end of the black hole, I found an underground palace with golden walls. The man went in to report, and soon he heard someone say, let him go home first! At this time, I opened my eyes and found myself lying in a hospital bed, and doctors and nurses were nervously rescuing me. "
"The researchers who did the survey got 8 1 valid survey data from the survivors of the Tangshan earthquake. They divided these data into 40 types: reviewing their life, separation of consciousness and body, weightlessness, physical strangeness, physical abnormality, sense of world destruction, sense of integration with the universe, sense of time stop, and so on. For most people, they can experience the coexistence of two or more senses.
Although only 8 1 valid survey data were obtained in the near-death experience survey of Tangshan earthquake survivors, it is indeed the largest sample collected in the history of near-death experience research in the world. In 8 1 subjects, 47 people had personality changes before and after the near-death experience. People who have a clear thinking about near-death experience are changeable and docile; It is blindly optimistic or anxious to "meet" people who are not secular or whose souls, thoughts or actions are not controlled by consciousness but are subject to judgment. After "coming back from the dead", most people still remember the near-death experience at that time, and it is still unforgettable after ten or twenty years.
Obviously, these findings from China are strikingly similar to those of scholars from other countries in the world.
The first scientific experiment in the world to prove the existence of soul
Sam Panyr, a British doctor, was the first person in the world to prove the existence of "soul" by scientific experiments. His experimental design is as follows: If the patient's "soul" can float and see his own body after death, and the doctor is rescuing his body and the lamp on the ceiling, then if a board is placed under the ceiling and some small objects are placed on the board (only Sam knows what objects are, others don't know), then the "soul" should be able to see these small objects. If the patient can be rescued and can tell what the small objects on the chessboard are, then we can tell whether the "soul" is an illusory imagination or an objective entity.
Sam studied more than 65,438+000 patients, and found that 7 of them could tell what their "souls" saw when they woke up, especially the small objects on the chessboard, which were all right. Sam's experiment was a success.
Sam's experiment is groundbreaking. He proved the objective existence of "soul" with scientific experiments for the first time in the world. "Soul" is an objective entity with a certain size, which can float and move. It is another form of human life, not an illusory imagination.
On June 20th, 20001,Sam was invited to give a lecture at Rice University in Houston entitled "Near-death experience: the perspective of brain death or the perspective of new science of consciousness?" This report has attracted many people who are interested in life research. Finally, Sam showed a typical conversation video of people who had a "near-death experience" and answered questions raised by the audience. Researchers at Houston Texas Medical Center expressed great interest in Sam's research, believing that it is of great significance to explore the nature of life, and proposed to cooperate with Sam to study this new field of life.