Where is the soul
Science Of The Soul - Full Documentary
what is the soul where is it can you
measure it touch it
recreate it do near-death experiences
reincarnation and unexplained brain
activity indicate the existence of the
soul these are questions that have
intrigued and haunted people since they
first walked the earth today in the 21st
century
experts are closing in on some answers
using new technology and new
understandings to unlock the secrets of
the soul
[Music]
21 grams less than one ounce a weight
attributed to the sole by a Boston
physician in 1907 dr. Duncan MacDougall
conducted a ghoulish experiment he
watched six people die
dr. mcdougal wanted to know whether the
soul existed so he built a delicate
scale to determine whether humans got
lighter at the moment of death in just
one of the deaths MacDougall recorded a
weight change of less than one ounce 21
grams his experiment got a tiny mention
in the New York Times more of a
curiosity the news although no one since
has been able to duplicate MacDougall's
McCobb test it's still remembered today
as the first time that modern science
attempted to quantify the existence of
the soul
cultures since the beginning of
civilization haven't needed nor relied
on scientific evidence of the soul a
core belief for most cultures and
religions is that when our bodies die
there is an immortal part of us that
remains past death our soul all the
world's great major religions talk about
us as being souls as truly being
spiritual beings that are incarnated
here in our bodies and that the death of
our physical body is not the death of us
it's the death of the body that that us
that special spark that is us I call
that the soul it leaves there's a lot of
question right now about how much of the
irrational mysterious supernatural
aspects of life we can explain through
science and many many scientists are
directing their attention toward those
questions and I applaud that but I also
think that religion is a language for
the stuff that we don't understand and
one of the reasons that religion is so
fascinating to me is that it is by
definition paradoxical oxymoronic like
things don't fit rationally together you
want to live forever and you want to
keep changing you want to have an
immortal soul and you want to hug your
grandma you know you want these things
don't fit together they're not rational
to trace the history of the modern
Western view of the soul the trail
begins in the 3rd century BC Alexander
the Great swept across Europe and Asia
and Greek thinking the spread like
wildfire
the Greeks above all others set the
stage for what we believe about the soul
today the Greeks believed that your body
was unimportant in fact even bad it was
the place where all of your most bass
impulses resided so lust greed hunger
childbearing everything that was yucky
about human life resided in the body and
everything that was good and true about
human life resided in the soul which was
in the head so when you died your soul
ascended to God and your body resided in
the ground you didn't need it anymore
the Greeks believed in reincarnation
that the soul can move on to a new body
as Christianity conquered the world the
Greek idea of body and soul being
separate things was eclipsed by the
evolving Christian notion that body and
soul are part of the same whole because
the in the Greek context you had your
soul your soul went up to heaven after
you died and your body was dirt dust the
Christian teaching is that your body and
your soul are one thing you can't have
one without the other together they make
you you Christian ideas of what does my
soul look like raised questions that
people joke about but it remains one of
life's great mysteries where we go and
what we are
we die and which me is my soul am i me
when I was 26 or am i me when I am 80 am
i mean with my wrinkle so remind me
without my wrinkles you know am i me
with my cancer am i me without my cancer
you know those questions start to get
people hung up and then they start to be
kind of funny and silly but the yearning
itself is real and powerful so it's it's
a conundrum like all of these things
Christian beliefs eventually deviated
even further from the Greeks who
considered the soul separate from the
body like an energy force Christian
souls were more like ghosts with shapes
I can Dante's Inferno etc you see all
these Souls they seem like bodies Dante
can recognize them but you know their
souls their souls that are shaped like
bodies so they have taken on a certain
amount of syllogism which I think shows
how hard it is for Christianity to
separate body and souls that even these
souls which were pronounced as
completely immaterial there's no matter
in them nevertheless they can be
perceived that way the West inherited a
combination of Greek and Christian
apocalyptic ideas about what the soul is
which is more confounding today than it
was in its own time if the soul leaves
the body after death where does it go in
the years or even centuries it may have
to wait until the day that Jesus returns
to judge the living and the dead what do
you do in the period between the Last
Judgment and you know when a person dies
well what is the soul just on itself I
mean how do we envisage the soul without
the body it's very very difficult
with the scholars of early Christianity
say for example is that we've made it
into a mush that in those days you know
there was a word for resurrection which
meant resurrection and there was a there
was a combination of words for
immortality of us all which meant
something different and now when we talk
about heaven and afterlife we mush it
all together and we mean heaven and we
mean resurrection and we mean
immortality of the soul and we mean
seeing grandma and we mean seeing Jesus
and we mean hearing harps and and we
don't disentangle these ideas but in the
ancient world they were very distinct
ideas and you were either in the
immortality of the soul camp or you were
in the resurrection camp since
resurrection involves bodies and
immortality involves Souls Rennie
Descartes tried to reconcile the two by
focusing on consciousness in the 17th
century he famously wrote I think
therefore I am since then scientists
believed that if there is a soul it
resides somewhere in the brain but they
haven't found it yet and today we're
still grappling with the problem is the
existence of the soul a question for
science or religion to answer
religion is a way for us to talk about
and think about those aspects of human
life that are beyond us and so let
science keep probing because it must and
yet let us keep acknowledging through
whatever language works for us whether
it's poetry or art or religion that
there are aspects to the human
experience into human yearning that
failed to meet categories and I think
the soul is one of those things we want
to believe that there's something
special about us that lives forever and
we want to believe that we will commune
with those we love at some later point
we don't want to lose those people and
those yearnings are powerful and
important those yearnings require that
consciousness be something separate from
the brain that it is something not
material but magical the spiritual among
us believe one thing I have seen men
women old young all face all gender
orientations atheist believers all
religious traditions I believe it is a
universal human phenomenon it's part of
being human that we are all souls and
that each soul sometimes has the
capacity to have a spiritual experience
in certain circumstances the scientific
among us hold another view I don't think
consciousness is some supernatural soul
that is not measurable scientifically
that somehow associated with our natural
brain I also don't think there's a
mystical world beyond what we can
measure if something actually exists
then it's part of the real world and
ultimately we should be able to detect
it
a Louisiana boy offers incredible
evidence that should satisfy both sides
of the soul debate his case offers proof
of the soul is real that it can be
reincarnated and that science can study
it according to a 2007 Pew Research
Center poll eighty-one percent of
Americans say they believe in an
afterlife forty-five percent believe in
ghosts I personally had an experience
where I saw the spirit of my grandfather
after he died and I haven't gone to the
place where I believed it was true and
yet it felt true to me it felt real to
me and I am very sympathetic with those
feelings that people have you know they
see the ghosts or the spirits of people
they've lost they have a traumatic
physical experience and they see things
and I actually think that soul is more a
matter of faith and proof today
scientists are studying people who make
a compelling case that they used to be
someone else at the University of
Virginia a group of psychiatrists use
science to unlock the secrets of
reincarnation
since the 1960s the division of
perceptual studies has been collecting
cases of children who claim past life
memories they now have files on 2500
children well I think what the research
shows is that for people who are open to
considering the possibility that there
is evidence that consciousness at times
can exist separately from a functioning
brain so in the cases that these
children's reports as you look at the
the best cases they provide evidence
that at times there can be this
carryover of memories and emotions that
seem carried over from one life and and
continue on and another may 2000 life is
Louisiana a mother awakens to hear the
screams of her two-year-old son was
laying on his back and he was kicking
his feet up like this and pounding his
fists like this just kicking and kicking
and screaming at the top of his lungs
and realign anger cannot soothe her baby
James
eventually he falls back to sleep she
thinks the nightmare is over but really
it is just beginning
then the next night he had another one
it was the exact same thing that the
same exact kicking motion and the more
he had it the more bizarre it became
because it was so so specific and so
repetitive this marked the start of one
of the best documented cases of possible
reincarnation in history today James
Leininger is 12 I play sports baseball
soccer go to ascension Episcopal School
I have a lot of friends there other kids
when they were younger say I want to be
a fireman I want to be an astronaut but
I was always I want to be a fighter
pilot I want to be in the Marines
pictures yeah well they came out nice
from the age of 3 James's parents began
to hear stories from their son that
shocked them that their son was
recalling things that connected him to a
Navy pilot who died in 1945 they were
skeptical Bruce is an HR manager in the
oil industry andrea is a former
ballerina turned instructor as
Christians they never believed in
reincarnation but they began to piece
together an amazing story
the first clue came from the terrifying
non-stop nightmares that James began
having at the age of 2 he was saying
airplane crash on fire little man can't
get out airplane crash on fire little
man can't get out that's why I was like
oh my god is that what he's been
dreaming this entire time what he was
saying wasn't registering as much on me
and what he was what he was doing he was
flailing around in bed and I remember
the very specific thought I had at that
point this looks like The Exorcist he
was freaking out I had this thought he
possessed what is going on here within a
year the visions that greeted James in
his nightmares began taking shape when
he was wide awake
I was reading to James and then he sat
up he goes mama the little man's going
like this and he laid down and he goes
and he did the same thing he did in this
dream he's he's kicking his feet up and
he goes little man's going like this who
can't get out can't get out and they sat
him back up and I said who's the little
man he goes me it still makes my hair
stand up and Bruce says what happens
you're playing he said it crashed on
fire and he said why did your airplane
crash and he said it got shot Bruce said
who shot your plane he went oh the
Japanese James then gave his parents the
next uncanny clue one that was very
specific the name of a ship from which
he says his aircraft took off so I said
well did you boat have a name and he
said Natoma and I I've never heard the
word before and I went down the hall and
got onto the computer and googled it and
down around hit 300 all there was this
thing at the tomah baek's CVE 62 clicked
on it and up comes this history of a
World War two aircraft carrier and so
that was the beginning of what the heck
is going on here standing there staring
at this picture of this little it was
like an aerial photo of this little
aircraft carrier in the water I'm just
stood there staring at it for a long
time I had no answers you know how could
he know this how could he know a person
how could he know ship and what did all
this means so that was where I really
just said I'm gonna get to the bottom of
this I don't know how I'm gonna do it I
don't know what I'm gonna find but I'm
not gonna stop looking until I get as
many answers as I can get this was
enough to send Bruce on an investigation
doing his own research over the next two
years he learned about the men from a
Natoma Bay both living and
and James kept giving his parents
additional tantalizing eerie clues well
I kept asking him do you remember what
your name was do you remember what your
name was and he always said James and
that thought well he's too he's confused
he thinks I'm asking him what his name
is
then James started drawing that was one
of my mission things mission thing you
remember that yeah that's one of my
favorite ones the same thing over and
over like a movie compressed all into
one frame an air battle flak a plane on
fire
[Music]
and his signature James three so one day
I was in the kitchen I was washing
dishes James had breakfast and and hit
the airplane he was just flying around
like this and he goes mama before I was
born I was a pilot my airplane got shot
in the engine and crashed in the water
and that's how I died and I was just
froze it was such a bizarre thing to say
but it was it was just that matter of
fact there was no drama
there was no emotion to it at 3 James
started pretending to be a pilot with an
attention to detail that astonished his
father one day he dragged a car seat
into the closet in my office and he set
up a little cockpit in there he had a
little play school console and like it
was gonna be a cockpit yo and he's going
back and forth all sudden the door comes
flying open and he comes rolling out of
it I said James what happened to you he
says I said you'd folly his no he says
my plane got shot and I bailed out the
next breakthrough came when Bruce was
invited to the Natoma Bay Veterans
reunion he asked about the names of men
killed in battle and this led him to
finally solving the mystery of James 3
he called me on the phone he said you
won't believe this there's only one guy
from the tomah Bay who was killed during
a bat battle for Iwo Jima and his name
was it was James M Houston jr. and I
said wait that would make our James
James 3 I was so excited I'm like that's
it I'm like it that's him
it's James M Houston his name is James
James 3 James Houston jr. World War 2
Navy pilot at age 21 on March 3rd 1945
his plane was shot down over chichi Jima
now the skeptical parents were sitting
on compelling proof that their little
boy really was reincarnated
[Music]
Louisiana boy James Leininger spent his
childhood recounting memories of being a
world war two Navy pilot memories of a
past life his parents could no longer
ignore from the age of two to six James
continued to provide pieces of evidence
of the incredible possibility that he
was James Houston reincarnated
displaying the Wildcat is the plane that
James in Houston crashed in and he was a
test pilot for Corsair and he would test
fly those off of carriers the f-18 is
the plane I want to fly when I grow up
since he was two James showed an unusual
fascination for military air shows and
an uncanny familiarity with vintage
aircraft his parents cautiously made
contact with James Houston's only
surviving relative his sister and at
first she didn't know what to think
about the little boy who claimed to be
her brother
reincarnated but then James asked her
for a painting that only one person
other than her knew existed she said
this January 16th 2006 says dear James I
do hope that this is the picture you
asked for is the only one of me done by
my mother I am sorry to be so long
sending it to you these past few weeks
have been very busy and hectic I hope
you like it with my love Annie James
believed then as he does now that it was
the dead pilots soul asking for that
picture I had asked her for a painting
that my past mother had done for her and
me this was in her attic for 50 or so
years my parents and she thought it was
crazy that I would know about something
like this
and to became a believer and there were
other more chilling connections
James had three GI Joes he named Billy
Walter and Leon names his Paris thought
were strange for a boy to choose Bruce
is like hey James where do you named
your GI Joe he's just playin he goes
Walter so you're like Walter
Bruce Gus how can be named your GI Joes
Billy Walter and Leon and he goes cuz
that's who met me when I got to heaven
and it was one of the moments were like
the blood drained out there's fate our
face and we just kind of walked
backwards Bruce went in the office I
went in the office we closed the door
he's in there going through papers like
this and like what are you looking for
what are you looking for he finds his
piece of paper and he's like and he says
Billy peeler Walter Devlin Leon Conner
were all in the same squadron as James
Houston I was like when did they die did
they die before throwing papers around
pulls out another sheet and he looked at
the dates of death and they all died
before James Houston died they all flew
with him
although James's dad remains skeptical
that reincarnation might really be
possible what happened next was uncanny
so we're cleaning up the yard he's
playing in the lead I said I just love
you to bits and he goes well he said I
knew you'd be a good daddy when I picked
you and I said what I mean some when I
found you and mommy I knew you would be
good parents
my head was shrinking to the size of a
raisin you know my brain I said what do
you mean when you found it's just why I
found you and mommy I found your mommy
in Hawaii James told his father that he
saw them in a pink hotel which is where
the lining girls were staying when they
decided to have James
Bruce and Andrea were cautious about
asking doctors and psychiatrists for
help they decided to find their own
solution to James's ordeal and their
solution was to go to Japan to the very
expansive
ocean where the pilot James Houston Jr
died
[Music]
the boat was right above where the you
know the wreckage of the plane was and
Bruce did this beautiful memorial
service and so I thought that was a
perfect moment for me to just say you
know I sat down with them and I said you
know Jim Houston's been a part of your
life for as long as we can remember and
he's always going to be important part
of of who you are but you have a life to
live as James Leininger and it's time
for you to say goodbye and to Jim
Houston and he just started small
started bawling and he cried for about
20 minutes he had every was the saddest
thing I ever seen he had everyone on the
boat crying
please
[Music]
good job
[Music]
good boy
there's such a brave soul such a brave
soul and spirit this is weird when we
got back to shore it was something had
changed they left something there he
really did it was palpable you could see
that he were he was he'd mourned that
and everything that had happened it was
ready to move on and he really did at
that point that's kind of when
everything really changed we're gonna be
the same thing that games in the next
picture that James Leininger drew was
one of peace the nightmares stopped the
memories started to fade I don't want
him to remember anything about his past
life he has a life you know and I don't
want to be bogged down or confused or
he's our son you know it's not he's not
Jim Houston got a life to live today
James Leininger can remember nothing
specific about the soul that used to
torment him
at 12 he is an ordinary boy whose
bedroom says something about who he is
and who he believes he once was I'm
gonna Boy Scouts I'm a first class scout
and the Boy Scouts these are the books I
got from chichi Jima yearbooks BB gun my
money bag my phone I don't know when I
got this but this is a my grandmother's
rosary and my Star Wars stuff and a Blue
Angels he doesn't talk much about his
past life memories with his friends but
he doesn't hide it either
if classmates stumble across a story on
the Internet to James
reincarnation is a fact of his existence
it's part of his soul
I believe that the spirit that I used to
have when I was four or five six has
gone away
I'm just James now it's not
I still have James Houston in me I think
but it's not so much the bad history
it's more of the peaceful history of his
life instead of the crashing of the
plane his death I don't really think
about my story so much I just don't
really talk about it people ask me a
question about it I'll answer it you
know I was skeptical the whole way I
still have a hard time really saying
this really has happened you know but it
did so the issue is you know how does it
happen I don't know why it happens we
can sit here and guess about it but the
fact is that it does happen and so
people should be should listen closer
should not just give it up because of
the two-year old saying something that
might sound meaningless to you from the
point of view of the people that we've
spoken to that are attempting to do
something with it
I can understand rational thinking I'm
pretty rational guy this is not
something rational and I had to struggle
with that spiritually but I came to the
conclusion that it's I now have a three
dimensional belief system instead of two
dimensional at the University of
Virginia's division of perceptual
studies dr. Jim Tucker has examined
James Leininger Tucker has developed
what he calls a strength of case scale
for reincarnation and he gives James a
near-perfect score average age when they
first start speaking is 38 months so
usually two or three years old when it
comes out and some of them will talk
about these things anytime day or night
sometimes the cases can start with
nightmares the way they did in James
langurs case some are intrigued many are
perplexed
some are upset some of the Christian
parents in the United States are kind of
thrown by it but regardless of their
reaction
the children will talk about this for
some time and then usually by the time
they get to be five or six they seem to
forget about and then just go on with
their their current life after four
decades in 2,500 cases the researchers
at the University of Virginia have come
to a startling conclusion reincarnation
is real which certainly suggests that
there is a part of us a consciousness
part that may be able to continue on
after the brain dies which would
indicate that the brain may not be the
creator of at least part of our
consciousness but Moroz serve a portal
that the consciousness flows through
that there may be this other piece of
existence separate from the physical
world that there's this consciousness
piece again that may be independent of
the physical world and the physical
brains that it seems to come through dr.
paul de bell is a psychiatrist who
specializes in what's called past life
regression
using hypnotism he's taken countless
patients on a voyage back in time to
souls their bodies have forgotten and he
provides a recent example we'll call mr.
X he had been sexually abused as a child
I NT was really angry about that and so
he came in for a regression so he
suddenly found himself above a castle in
Austria in 1630 he was actually a she
just washing the floors of this castle
de Belle firmly believes that what he is
doing is about finding the soul through
science I think that spirituality today
is in the same point that psychology was
a hundred years ago when nobody thought
that the mind could be understood
nobody's thought dreams could be
understood nobody thought ill mental
illness could be understood because it
was too complex but if we use those same
tools which is methodical systematic
investigation with hypotheses and
experimental proofs that then we'll
begin to gradually make progress
meanwhile skeptics of reincarnation
would say that James Leininger x' case
is circumstantial at best in America
belief in reincarnation is growing part
of this is driven by celebrities who you
know say they believe in reincarnation
Julia Roberts recently told Elle
magazine that she believed she thought
of herself as very Hindu and she talked
about her daughter and how her daughter
clearly embodied somebody else my
personal opinion is that Americans like
reincarnation because comparatively
speaking life here is good and it's one
thing to want heaven which is an eternal
destination somewhere else when life is
bad on earth and you want to get out
skeptics aside to the lining Gers the
existence of the soul does not require
the validation of scientists or
psychiatrists
James's experience is proof to them of
the afterlife but the question remains
if the soul exists in every human can it
be found and measured by science one
neuroscientist is blazing new trails
into how the brain works he's looking
for evidence of consciousness in people
who show no signs of consciousness at
all the ancient Egyptians were obsessed
with the afterlife and they maintained
that belief across thousands of years
they believed that our souls and bodies
were so entangled that he needed one
another even in the afterlife
so they perfected mummification they
even stored the mummies internal organs
to keep them safe
they believe the soul was located in the
heart as for the brain they declared it
had no function so they removed it
through the nose and threw it away the
ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus
believed that the soul was made up of
atoms dispersed into the cosmos after
death
in the 17th century philosopher Rene
Descartes made a revolutionary
declaration when he equated the soul
with consciousness I think therefore I
am if the Egyptians believed that the
soul was in the heart Descartes was
certain that it resided somewhere in the
brain
the field of neuroscience was born
scientists started to poke around
looking inside the human brain searching
for the soul but they never found it no
one is even sure where to look within
the brains 100 billion neurons some
scientists even say it's an impossible
mystery to solve
given the brains complexity but others
are determined to prove that the brain
is the key to unlocking the secrets of
the soul in medical school we were given
a brain to dissect as part of our
anatomy class and they brought out this
preserved brain and formaldehyde it was
my opportunity to do a brain dissection
and you have a manual so I put the
manual next to me and they give you a
little pro but ice they tell you okay
first thing to do is start to probe away
from the cortex and gently remove this
layer of cells and I thought to myself
did I just you know peel away what would
have been this patient's recollection of
a summer during a childhood picnic or a
relationship with a particularly
significant person in their lives what
did I just remove from this piece of
brain that was once something what I
think soul and mind are interchangeable
I think as a neuroscientist mind and
brain are interchangeable for 20 years
dr. Adrian Owen has been studying which
parts of the brain are active for
different specific activities but our
mind is a product of the complex brain
that we have I think the reason we feel
that we all have a soul and my soul is
different to your soul is because my
brain is different to your brain
for dr. Owen the brain is the key to
solving the mystery of who we are and
he's trying to prove that by working
with patients in vegetative states have
you looked at some pictures kritz I want
you to try and look all right here's you
and Randy and Walt you're all in your
uniforms chris was an officer and
training at West Point Military Academy
in 2007 his car was rear-ended he nearly
died instead he survived with permanent
brain damage but the Chris that was
there a young bright cadet with his life
ahead of him was gone first you see the
picture of you and your friends and you
can't imagine and your worst nightmares
I've seen families go through this but
until it happens to you you have no
concept asked how heartbreaking it is
there are times when you feel like you
know they're not there other times that
you feel like very strongly that he's
there he's listening making eye contact
with me and it's so hard to pinpoint
where is he is he here is he locked in
you know we don't really have any
answers I don't believe that Chris
doesn't have a soul I think there's that
spark of life that leaves you at the
moment of death is basically what the
soul is and Chris might not have full
conscious be conscious but he's still
here I definitely feel like soul is more
than just consciousness Chris I have a
hammer and a ball I want you to look at
the ball what dr. Owens research is
trying to prove is whether chris is
clinically speaking as conscious now as
he was before his accident
you know his consciousness you have a
big problem lately the only way I can
tell you that I am conscious is through
some sort of action either by
you know telling you or by demonstrating
you know if you take something like
so-called disorders of consciousness
vegetative state minimally conscious
state you don't have those things with
some of these patients that they are by
definition unable to produce the source
of responses that the rest of us would
use to demonstrate them we were
conscious
[Music]
for dr. Owen what began as a simple
study of consciousness turned into an
unprecedented discovery
he conducted tests on a 23 year old
woman in a vegetative state the results
have revolutionized Sciences
understanding of the brain she was the
victim of a road traffic accident and
have been examined periodically for five
months and on each examination had all
of the necessary criteria for a
diagnosis of vegetative state so we put
an fMRI scanner and we asked her to
imagine playing a game of tennis in this
scan when you hit the word tennis I want
you to imagine standing on a tennis
court playing a game of tennis we pick
this task because it's something that we
tried many times in healthy volunteers
and we know this produces quite a
specific activation in an area in the
middle of the front of the brain called
the supplementary motor area and this
area controls upper body movements and
if you lie in the scanner and imagine
moving your body around as you would if
you were playing a game of tennis you
get very strong activation in this area
of the brain so while she was in the
scanner we instructed her that when she
heard the word tennis would like her to
start imagining this task and carry on
until we said rest and when we did this
her brain activated just like a healthy
volunteer so on this basis we concluded
that she wasn't vegetative at all she
was entirely consciously aware that was
pretty exciting and we had another task
that we used it was it was important to
show that this wasn't just an automatic
reaction but if we changed the task the
brain activation would change so we used
a type of spatial navigation task where
we asked her to imagine moving from room
to room in her house and this pretty
much always activates an area deep
inside the brain called the
parahippocampal gyrus in healthy
volunteers never seen it before in a
vegetative patient but
nonetheless when we asked her to imagine
moving from room to room in her house
the parahippocampal gyrus activated just
as it would in a healthy volunteer Owens
groundbreaking work opens new questions
about where consciousness begins and
ends Scotty was a New York City police
officer who was hit by a car in 2002 I
feel he's here when I speak to him I'm I
don't know how to put this and I think
he's still there
oftentimes I sit aside and they say to
myself what is he thinking because he
can't speak to us you know what is he
thinking but I'll give you an example we
have this ball at home he actually kicks
the ball I become the target he will hit
me with it
in the Oh laughs you'll laugh at me and
I feel it's me that is target yes the
same Scotty he just can't get out
is your name Scotty yes or no look at
the card that has your answer
Owen has proven that despite no signs of
outward awareness for some an inner
spark remains and within that
undiscovered brain may be where we find
the soul and for the indigenous peoples
of the Americas humans are the minority
in a world inhabited primarily by
spirits a common thread through these
beliefs from the cherokee to the Haida
is that transformation takes place when
a child is about to harmonize his soul
with the spirit world around him
at this critical moment spirit guides
need an adolescent into adulthood and
the human soul is unleashed in today's
Western society children are born with
souls
the soul and body are linked one of the
central tenets of a Christian faith is
that Christ rose from the dead right and
I think it's very reassuring for people
because they do associate body with
identity to have both the body and soul
and in fact you know in Christianity
it's a very very hard to separate body
soul because you know they're described
as kind of a marriage to each other
professor Alison Gopnik doesn't believe
in the eternal soul but her research
into the uncharted areas of children's
brains has led her to the conclusion
that what some would call the spirit is
closest to us when we are children I'm a
scientist an atheist and materialist I
think everything that's here is
everything that's here but I also think
that many of the feelings and
experiences and intuitions and knowledge
and truth that people have talked about
when they've talked about the soul or
the spiritual or the transcendent those
experiences where we recognize the
meaning and beauty and significance of
everything that's going on around us I
think those are the moments when we're
most like children this is my mission
and I want you to figure out how the
machine works okay gopnik's set out to
solve the problem at what age does
identity switch on when does I think
therefore I am begin wanted to study
infants her colleagues told her she was
wasting her time when I was going to
Oxford when I was a graduate student one
of the people there told me when I first
arrived that this entire research
program I had was useless because babies
didn't have a higher cortex they didn't
have any of the higher brain areas that
we had as adults after 20 years of
research Gopnik has helped prove that
the neurons and children's brains
display more activity than those in
adults where the adult brain is a
spotlight the child is more like a
lantern illuminating in all directions
so there's been a big big change from
this view of babies is what I think of
as being sort of crying carrots sort of
see me vegetables too the ones who were
doing the most learning solving the
hardest problems and doing it incredibly
quickly
gopnik believes that preschool children
represent human R&D first studies
indicate that they play and learn with
the same intent
she believes that we learn to survive in
the world as grown-ups and we play to
try and imagine ways to change it it's
as if instead of just looking at one
little part of the world they are
conscious of the entire manifold
everything that's going on around them
at once I think a good way of
appreciating this as an adult is think
about what happens when for instance you
go and travel to a strange place
everything around you is something
that's captivating and engaging and
different and new and you get this very
vivid very wide-ranging awareness of
everything that's going on
once I think that's what it's like to
actually be a baby gopnik's studies have
shown that adult brains only light up
when we are trying to learn something
new and even then only in certain areas
in fact I think one of the interesting
things about us as adults is that we run
unconscious as it were so much of the
time tests have shown that a baby's
brain is lit up most of the time one way
I've put this is to say you know for
children every day is first love in
Paris every step is skydiving every
peekaboo game is Einstein discovering
the theory
I think babies and young children are
genuinely perceiving that aspect of of
the way the world in the universe works
that means that they're the kind of
exemplars of what it means to have a
soul but gopnik's research shows that
when a child becomes self-aware the
brain activity slows down and the
connection with what some call the soul
begins to weaken so between about three
and five you start seeing children
having what we call autobiographical
memory not just remembering information
from the past even newborns can do that
but constructing a narrative that says I
am the same person that I was in the
past and I am the same person I'm going
to be in the future
does the identity that we develop as we
grow eclipse our infant consciousness
where we once closer to our souls
surprisingly anesthesia may hold the
answer to those questions until
relatively recently babies weren't
administered anesthesia now it turns out
that babies actually need more
anesthesia than
relatively speaking than adults do why
what is anesthesia do we really know it
seems that anaesthesia poses its own
mysteries about consciousness and the
soul
an Arizona anesthesiologist stumbled
upon a theory of where his patients go
when they're under anesthesia proving to
him the existence of the soul
I've been practicing anesthesiology for
35 years now and it's still a kick it's
still amazing every time patients lose
their consciousness at the end we wake
them back up and I wonder where did they
go
but the real question is why are they
conscious in the first place so
anesthesia is a really good tool to try
to figure out what is missing in the
anesthetized patient there we go you
come with us
anesthesia is a mystery it's been around
since 1846 but no one is quite sure
exactly how it works or where we go when
we're put under in the 19th century
people started experimenting with
laughing gas nitrous oxide and they used
it for parties that everybody had a good
time they literally were laughing
constantly and also another gas called
ether diethyl ether leading to ether
frolics when inhaled in low amounts
people got disinhibited and abelian
tanned had a great time and somebody
realized that they have too much they
would become unconscious and actually
insensitive to pain and so a number of
people began to attempt to use these
gases for surgical anesthesia
after years of risky trial-and-error
doctors perfected the drugs but they
didn't understand the science in fact no
one understands what happens to the mind
under anesthesia generally one does not
dream under anesthesia there's no
consciousness you're just gone for the
duration of the anaesthetic you tell me
when you're asleep okay that's a trick
question you can't do one interesting
thing about anesthesia is that patients
who are under anesthesia after they wake
up have no conception of elapsed time
whatsoever and I think the passage of
time is a is a key feature of subjective
consciousness so a consciousness is just
absent it's gone a brain scanner
connected to the patient reveals the
startling clue to how anesthesia works
during the surgery a bright flashing
halogen light is used to help stimulate
brain response the bright light pierces
her taped shut eyelids the EEG monitor
shows that the patient's brain is
responding just as if she were awake you
see that the brain is quite active going
under is not like sleep and this
fascinates Hameroff
I first got interested in consciousness
how the brain produces experience in
college in medical school I was doing a
research elective in a lab studying
cancer and I was looking at how cells
divide power off then learned about
microtubules microtubules are hollow
tubes that can be found in all living
cells thirty years ago he had his Eureka
moment and since then he has formed a
complex theory that microtubules are the
location of what some would call the
soul in my opinion microtubules are the
origin of consciousness specifically
quantum computation synchronized to gama
EEG inside neurons in the brain is the
origin of consciousness Hameroff theory
has shocked the world of neuroscience
he's basically saying that consciousness
may be found and quantified that it has
substance and that it survives the body
I'll stand by this even though it's a
bit controversial it's conceivable that
when a patient has a cardiac arrest or
dies the quantum information that
involves consciousness isn't necessarily
destroyed it may actually just sort of
leak out and remain in the universe and
remain entangled if the patient's
revived then it can go it can go back in
and and patient had a near-death and
out-of-body experience if the patient
dies it's conceivable to me that that
entity which could call the soul remains
entangled indefinitely and so it's
conceivable that the soul is a real
entity in terms of quantum information
embedded in the fundamental level of the
universe
what Hameroff is saying is that the 21
grams myth is basically true the soul
has substance though it can't be weighed
the information can be measured Hameroff
shocking theory has caught the attention
of the world's top physicists who think
that he may have stumbled on to
understanding how the mind and soul
separate complex quantum physics may
hold the key quantum theory is pretty
intriguing and it's not necessarily
consistent with an a simple materialist
understanding of the universe the things
are more complicated than we're aware
but I think people who just immediately
discounted as being sort of mystic mumbo
jumbo I think they're being too quick
with that that quantum theory does
challenge us to try to really understand
the world the physical world at its core
and it may well be more complicated or
or wondrous than than what a lot of
people realize this comes as no surprise
to those who have died and come back to
tell the tale most cultures throughout
time have held that there is something
that survives the body after death 21st
century science is seeking to prove it
science says that consciousness is
limited to and generated by the brain
very clear very straightforward after 10
seconds without oxygen the brain starts
to die after five minutes it's
completely gone but what happens to
consciousness in that precious five
minutes
new research suggests that consciousness
might actually leave the brain the
near-death experience in cardiac arrest
says something different it says when
the brain is not functioning then
consciousness can separate from the
brain and is able to gain information
which becomes accessible when you regain
consciousness and that is an astonishing
statement
Yvan casein is a family doctor in
Toronto 30 years ago she nearly died in
a small plane crash in which someone was
killed it changed her life forever we
flew into really bad weather and the
engine stopped working so the plane
started crashing so we were plummeting
down to the ground though there was
terrible turbulence in the air was
shaking and my immediate reaction was
intense terror I was terrified I was
frightened the plane was crashing I was
going to die and what happened was I had
this feeling like my fear was being
pushed out and this calm and peace was
descending upon me and I entered sort of
a paranormal
peaceful state the plane crashed into an
icy lake in a wilderness area hundreds
of miles from the nearest town then what
happened is my near-death experience
deepened suddenly as I was swimming to
shore and starting to freeze I heard
this noise and it was like my
consciousness got whisked out of my body
and I was no longer in my body that was
swimming to shore suddenly I was like
twenty or thirty feet above my body
looking down and it was me still trying
to swim to shore miraculously a
helicopter pilot hearing of a downed
plane came to her rescue she was rushed
to hospital nearly dead from hypothermia
she was immersed in hot water but there
was little hope and it was in that hot
water that my consciousness reentered my
body and what I experienced was
something like this it was like what I
imagined if a genie were sucked into a
bottle that with a loud whoosh I was
sucked in from this expanded place up
there and abruptly sucked into the small
confines of my body
Kayson now combines her medical practice
with helping others who have had
near-death experiences she is convinced
after studying hundreds of cases but the
soul is not merely consciousness it is
an energy force all on its own
every world religion holds the belief
that there is something that survives
the body after death but modern Western
society still rejects near-death
experiences calling them paranormal this
despite the fact that every year
hundreds of thousands of people die and
report the experience
at the time casein did not know whether
she was alone had anyone else had an
experience like this and what is it
called what is this that happened to me
dr. Peter Fenwick has studied the
phenomena of near-death experience for
years initially a skeptic he is now a
believer as far as near-death
experiences are concerned I didn't
believe them they happened in America
they happened in California they
certainly wouldn't happen in London what
we found out was that near-death
experiences are very common so I think
we have to see consciousness no longer
as just a point source generated by the
brain ends at death it may do but I
think the evidence stars beginning to be
against this it looks as if it may split
from the brain at the time of death
Fenwick is doing a study of 1,500 heart
attack patients who have had near-death
experiences he's placed objects in the
ER room that the patient cannot see
unless the patient's consciousness
somehow leaves his or her body according
to his study the mind and the brain are
not the same thing they are separate
although near-death experiences have
been reported for decades it's only
recently that science has been willing
to consider them as evidence of the soul
thirteen million Americans have reported
a near-death experience
the statistics are as high in other
countries and the stories have striking
similarities it was 1972 and what car
was sideswiped by its Hank or a car that
was as big as it sank I to small
fiberglass sports Conners virtually run
over in my own car horribly injured
comatose and near death Howard Tibble
lay in the critical care ward of a
hospital evidently for the next three
days an intense pain er unable to talk
to anybody or correspond in any way I
didn't know where I was and I had no I
don't know what was going on suddenly it
was nighttime I knew it was night
because the lights are on in the ward
and I felt no fear or pain or worry I
heard so many stories of people who came
to me and said that when they tried to
tell somebody about their experience
let's take for example a near-death
experience that perhaps they spoke to
their doctor and their doctor
pathologized it and said that it was a
hallucination or maybe they'd had a
brief psychotic break or maybe that was
some unconscious unresolved neurotic
issues always a negative label which
people who'd had such a positive
experience the label didn't fit they
were not getting validation
this feeling of safety and peace has
been reported in almost all near-death
experiences the next step is also almost
universal and out-of-body experience
fully conscious
the dead person floats around the room
seeing objects that could not be seen
face up on the bed I took myself a
little tour of the ward just floating
around and this wasn't hostile with a
high ceiling and we had they had strip
lights and I floated up to the side of
this strip lamp and he had the word
Osram and I was one foot from it I could
have touched it but I had no hands to
touch it I didn't find it odd or
anything well there you go
Oscar I make lamps you know it's fine
with me the next step for most people is
the souls return to the body bringing a
memory of the experience that is not
like a dream it seems real we use the
word soul as as if it were a sort of
thing that flies away to heaven and it
could be consciousness it could be a
mind it could be a number of things I
actually believe it's the way out from
here to start the journey to wherever we
go but I don't think we have to be
religious to make that journey I've not
been that good in my life you know rock
and roll
clinical studies on near-death
experiences indicate that something
untangles itself from a dying body but
research has a long way to go before
proving that a spirit like something
truly exists whether or not we'll be
able to validate the idea that there is
a soul is always going to be an open
question because of course we never know
for what we do do is we take information
from some of the widest appearances
which we can have and if you take all
those together then you would argue
that's in some way the old idea of there
being different levels within the body
and some of these are able to continue
after death it's a very good hypothesis
yeah 81% of Americans believe in the
soul and yet out-of-body experiences are
marginalized with UFO sightings and
seeing ghosts Fenwick's research aims to
change that he even believes science
will soon be able to prove the existence
of telepathy linked Souls speaking
across space and time do I think the
consciousness can exist outside the
brain well there's lots of evidence to
show that they're all the telepathy
experiments in my field there is what
happens as you approach death and there
was something called deathbed
coincidences the dying person seems to
make a visit to other people but it's
other people with whom they're closely
emotionally attached it's usually a
strong emotional feeling that something
has happened to somebody and the
evidence for this is getting very good
and I suspect in the course of the next
few years will become much more into the
mainstream while some scientists grapple
with the survival of consciousness after
the death of the body others are trying
to touch the soul with the help of a
Shaymin dr. Frank Aiken Hoffer has
traveled to the jungles of Peru to take
a powerful drug that he thinks can help
him measure his soul and he's going to
use 21st century EEG technology to help
him do it my topic is is awakening of
the mind and it's really very dangerous
to say that in scientific form because
it that doesn't seem like a legitimate
scientific topic it's a religious topic
it's field of consciousness the reason
it's somewhat conservative it's touching
this dangerous third rail of science we
are getting very close to what's called
religion so I think there's a resistance
there are not being sure how to bring
scientific methods into this edge where
science studies consciousness but not
just the consciousness that's something
that that really is religion it's
religious experience in recent years dr.
Aiken Hoffer has been intrigued by a
powerful plant-based substance that
massively alters consciousness the
substance is called ayahuasca Don
Guillermo is the local shaman who has
mastered the art of preparing and
experiencing ayahuasca tenemos aqui
famosa Blanca ayahuasca ayahuasca una
planta BC Oh Nadia no los curanderos OTV
Samos para descubrir the sacred those
cool those just have been through the
lament their ayahuasca comes from an
Indian word that means
vine of the soul it's seen by many as a
direct route to the divine
illegal in many Western countries
ayahuasca sportin see depends on the
skills of the shaman who cultivates
harvests and prepares it a comedy same
plant excessively is plant as
intelligent A's pero dentro SI tiene su
Alma cordoza school channel Traverse no
in muchas veces in sueño or intuitive
Amenti yo envision is no spray the
community car ayahuasca is taken in the
form of a potion sections of ayahuasca
vine are crushed and boiled with
chacruna leaves in 30 liters of water
then boiled down
ayahuasca is the leader of liquid that
remains
over the centuries those who have taken
ayahuasca have reported out-of-body
experiences and encounters with beings
that can only be described as Souls dr.
eken Hoffer is focusing his studies of
ayahuasca on the elevated levels of
certain and usually dormant brain
activities that take place under the
drugs influence he has studied the brain
patterns of Buddhist monks and he thinks
they hold the key
Buddhist monks achieve altered states of
consciousness through meditation
the Buddhists believe they reach a
heightened state of awareness that
brings them closer to what's been called
the universal soul doctor eken Hoffer
will be hooked up to the EEG to find out
after he ingests the drug whether there
are measurable changes in the neuron
activity in his brain the EEG is very
sensitive to these subtle shifts in
consciousness there's major pattern
changes that occur in the EEG and I've
made measurements and I found there's
certain very interesting frequencies and
so these frequencies are indicators of
this of this state change that can offer
drinks the ayahuasca potion it takes
about half an hour before its effect
kicks in
when it does he won't be able to
communicate what he is feeling only the
EEG can capture the data in the very
beginning you'll have a kind of subtle
change in how your body feels and then
slowly the psychedelic experiences will
start you might see floating patterns
and then it merges into imagery that
seems to have more complex forms could
be images of people or faces and then it
becomes like a waking dream then there's
another quality of experience it's
called a journey so the journey is where
I think what's happening is an
out-of-body experience is occurring by
that time it's feeling like you are
somewhere else sometimes when you go to
another world to meet an entity of some
kind it's possible you could be taught
things by entities just like in
Christianity we have stories of how
people have been taught things by
angelic entities that have come
[Music]
it brings Darren Chapman's
[Music]
as he slips into an altered state
I can ha Art's moving his hands as if he
is conducting an unseen Orchestra his
researchers hope the EEG records this
spike in activity supporting economic
theory that ayahuasca can point the way
to touching the soul
eken Hoffer can recall all the
impressions lost in his own
consciousness the next morning he is
firmly back in scientific mode examining
the story that the EEG data is telling
once the ayahuasca took full effect his
brain entered an even more heightened
state of consciousness okay so we're
starting here and we're going and
searching some part of alpha oh that's
the part whatever he saw beckon Hoffer
may have seemed in a near coma but in
fact his brain was on fire I can hafez
EEG tests prove that in an altered
trance-like state the brain behaves much
like it would in an out-of-body
experience or a religious rapture to him
it this is what it means to see the soul
to me the word soul is more of a Western
formulation Western kind of religious
category actually I feel that soul it's
a meeting place between the the formless
dimension of spirituality in the
physical world perhaps that could be
viewed as soulful or a connecting point
as one group seeks to find evidence of
enhanced consciousness inside their own
minds
another is trying to see if they can
create it by building a brain the
Frankenstein's monster a thinking being
created by science more powerful than
its maker ultimately outcast for being
feared and misunderstood Mary Shelley's
famous monster lives on across almost
two centuries of popular culture because
the story of Frankenstein is a story
that scares us to our very souls dr.
Frankenstein was a Swiss scientist who
was obsessed with a spark of human life
is only fitting that another scientist
has chosen Switzerland to launch a 21st
century equivalent project
for 15 years dr. Henry Markram has been
working on a biology modeled machine
that can think just like we do
[Music]
dr. Markham is leader of the Blue Brain
Project blue brain uses one of the
world's most powerful supercomputers to
reverse-engineer the human brain many
people asked why are you doing that I
mean why do you want to build a model
and when there's six billion of us out
and what will it be useful for and can
it really be useful and ultimately what
we are after is trying to understand and
learn about the brain and what is
capable of is it really the same as us
is it the same as as a human being as it
doesn't capture it the project's goal is
to mimic the complex structure of the
human brain
in a computer and see if it has the
ability to reason just like we do I
think that what blue brain is
fundamentally different from most models
is that we're not trying to just build a
model in the simplest way possible we're
trying to build a model in the most
biological way possible if an artificial
brain can be created in a biological
fashion Markram says he can't predict
whether it will or will not become a
conscious brain
my strategy is that if we build it
correctly and we understand it from
first principles that it will emerge and
it will speak and it will have higher
brain functions and I don't know it may
or may not have consciousness like dr.
Frankenstein the blue brain team is
using living material to create their
creature not human parts but rats human
neurons are strikingly similar to those
of rats first a rat is decapitated a
thin slice of it's still active brain is
submerged in artificial brain fluid
allowing the brain tissue to keep
functioning for several hours the tissue
is placed under a microscope a single
neuron is extracted then the basic
shapes and reactions of the rat still
living neurons are mapped these graphs
are real images from blue brain showing
the activity of the rats neurons that
the computer has recreated for its own
mind any mechanism we can find in the
own brain we could replicate in a
machine is it conscious some people will
say no it's just a machine it's just a
software a program can't be conscious
other people like myself would say well
we're just a program we have a hundred
billion neurons and we can actually
understand precisely what's going on in
each one the neurons taken from living
rat brains form the template of doctor
Markham's artificial consciousness his
computer maps then imitates the neurons
actions basically Markram is building a
brain one computer-generated neuron at a
time the secret is to look for the rules
and then you don't need to have studied
every single neuron in the brain you
build a model of a hundred of them it's
not a billion and once you build a
hundred you can analyze them and you
analyze their statistics and you analyze
their rules those rules now you can use
to recreate all the diversity villians
so we can actually today create well
over a couple of hundred different types
of mirrors and we can build as many of
them as we want is not limited others
are not so certain that the blue brain
and other artificial intelligence
projects of the future can ever succeed
consciousness some believe is too
complex AI is very interesting you can't
make a horse out of feathers it would be
very tough to make a computer out of
cloth and you can't make a conscious
mind out of silicon chips constructing a
human brain will require a computer
1,000 times more powerful than any
currently in existence it would take at
least three football fields to house
such a computer but Markram says the
goal is within reach to create a
conscious artificial intelligence the
data is there the technology is there to
explore it the computing power has
reached critical mass we have petaflop
supercomputers now 10 to the 15
calculations per second it's the first
time in history that these things are
coming together which is required for
simulation based research when they
converge it's inevitable so this is
going to happen professor Markram hopes
to complete his work on his artificial
brain within the next 10 years
what properties will that brain
ultimately possess will it consider
itself equal to us will it have emotions
or a personality or a Souls when it
comes to thinking about artificial
intelligence of course we all have to
think about that moment when we develop
artificial intelligence it's just a
little bit smarter than we are so maybe
as a consequence once you get the one
that's one step better than we are at
doing all these things it's capable of
producing an AI that's two steps better
than we are and it's then gonna be
capable of producing an AI that's four
steps better than we are and so on and
off you go and you're onto the the kind
of the runaway loop that some people
have called the technological
singularity the singularity is the
moment predicted by futurists when
machines become conscious and more
capable than humanity a dangerous time
when they could conceivably overpower us
even exterminate us though I mean I
think that point of the singularity is
still a number of decades away but as it
approaches I think is gonna do something
we have to really slow down and think
about very carefully if professor
Markram succeeds will blue brain turn
out to be the singularity will it make
human existence better or much much
worse if it is evil will it allow
Markram to turn it off will it be a
soulless Frankenstein that puts its
makers to death
Hiroshi Ishiguro is working on designing
a world where humans and robots are
indistinguishable cañazo
and almost by accident he's challenging
the notion of where people and their
souls begin and end
[Music]
what I wanna throw either congealing
Ishiguro brings the companion along for
his interview himself this is my Android
and this is Co Geminoid if you Goro uses
silicon steel and mold impressions of
his own body to create a life-sized
version of himself one that could take
his place in the classroom professor
ishiguro teaches at Osaka University he
wants to see how students will behave
when forced to interact with his Android
instead of himself issue Goro can
foresee a day when his androids will not
only enable people to be in two places
at the same time but to join the
workforce to perform unpleasant but
necessary jobs
if your girl has thought a lot about
whether his robots could be advanced
enough to be given consciousness but the
Japanese have a unique view that does
not equate consciousness with a soul
everything has Soros and you know
analogs and you know Wow the chairs and
desks and you know everything's has a
soul I think that is in a fundamental
difference between in Japan and other
countries the human is not so special
with Japanese you know human is a part
of nature that's all
Ishiguro is part of an ancient Japanese
tradition of making life like machines
according to tradition the soul of the
Creator is in the object and in Japan
it's believed the creation too must have
a soul so you don't think in it Thomas
Egan night or Saturday I know new home
didn't tell you no I told him this kind
I know Thomas yachts kalidasan Disney
you I do bonsai nice demo given a nice
demo or Chinese demo submitted his name
you are also use my uterus to you
they beaucoup rava corn ingots good of
the me Thomas you routines me the Hari
issue though the snare serega call Akita
Rory
he might accrue obviously what is the
song what is the consciousness what is
intelligence what is emotions my answer
is these things are subjective if we
believe the robot has a soul the robot
has a soul when I never of the humanoid
robot everybody said this robot has
emotion right but I didn't implement any
function of emotion right so obviously
these things are subjective not
objective by giving robots personality
and emotion it can appear to humans as
though they have souls
in Okinawa Japan robots called Paro are
being manufactured by the thousands each
with a unique ability to learn how to
react to human feelings Paro are
companions for Japan's vast population
of elderly people known as robot
assisted therapy the mechanical
companions are equipped with pattern
recognition technology that can read the
mood of their owners and act
appropriately to calm and soothe them
after getting to know its owner
each Paro develops a unique personality
and its own emotional range it's a
computerized simulation of feelings
[Music]
professor Ishiguro's ultimate goal is to
exceed Burroughs emotions to build an
Android that looks blues and talks like
a real human
apart from his Geminoid he's created a
female Android that has advanced
emotional expressions equipped with
facial recognition software it can even
watch another human being on a monitor
and mimic her expression cost $100,000
per robot but there's a challenge the
program is getting more difficult for
example the body movement this is
natural the reaction is also natural
racket is right however you know the
medical doctor says this is a kind of a
brain-damaged person that we need to
work with the brain scientists and we
need to have a deeper knowledge about
the human then we can prove this robust
the brain contains a hundred billion
neurons stretched out across 100,000
miles of dense blood vessels
neuroscience has only begun to figure
out how it all works while some
scientists actively seek to create
consciousness others are stumbling into
it almost by accident encountering the
soul
in the near future one or the other
might have to answer to the question is
there something that survives the body
well consciousness is mysterious and I
believe when we create non-biological
systems that have that same kind of
behavior in the same complexity and
richness of emotional intelligence which
is also a form of intelligence they will
be conscious as well
if you ask somebody do you believe you
have an immortal soul or do you believe
you have a soul I think that people
would be exposing what are their most
heartfelt hopes their worst fears and so
I think it's much easier for us to focus
on what we can apprehend our
intelligence how smart are we Ike use
you know is that a measure of the soul
certainly is a measure of the reasoning
faculty the intellect so it doesn't have
anything to do with the imagination so
it's a very limited view of what the
soul is and also a very temporal view
meanwhile others believe that the more
we seek scientific answers the more
likely we are to accept the fact that
the soul exists I believe science and
religion are coming together and I think
it's just simply going to take more time
and maybe in another hundred years most
people on the planet will know that the
soul is real what does seem certain is
that artificial intelligence will be
able to think like us and robots to look
like us within a generation if the two
combine humans will live side-by-side
with a new synthetic intelligent species
whether they have souls is a matter of
heated debate either way the 21st
century may well be the age when the
existence of the soul is proven beyond
all dispute whatever the answer the
secrets of the soul are now within
Sciences grasp
