pg14 Virtual Reality as a Close Analogy to Spirit-Body Relationship. (part 1 of 2)

Assume we have a 3-dimensional video game with a puppy in it.  Suppose somehow we can connect every point of the 3-d puppy with the corresponding point in the brain of the game player (the controller).  If the puppy hits something hard in the 3-d video game by his right hand, the player would also feel hitting something hard with his right hand.  If the puppy sees a blue bird in the game, he sees a blue bird in his brain too (even though there isn’t any blue bird in the real world of the player).  If the puppy is flying, the player would “feel” flying as well, despite the fact that he is not flying in his real world.  His feeling is exactly the same as the 3-d puppy's.  He feels the same world as the puppy does. 

- If, in addition to his puppy eyes in the game, he also keeps his own eyes in the real world, then he knows his feeling of the world in the game is only a simulation rather than real. 

- However, if he cannot keep his own eyes in the real world, then he would not know his feeling of the game world is unreal, rather he would consider the game world as the only world that exists, and he wouldn’t realize that he is actually blind to an outside real world. 

- He might remember there was an outside real world before he got connected to the puppy.  But if he was born to be connected to the puppy and had never seen the outside real world, then he would believe the game world is the only real world and would never realize there is an outside real world which he is actually blinded to. 

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pg13 What is "I"? (part 2 of 2)

2. Identity of “I” is not my brain but my mind.  When someone says "I", what does the "I" mean?  For example, if I hurt my finger, I feel my finger is painful.  Who is feeling the pain?  It doesn't seem to be the finger, because with anesthesia in the brain the painful feeling goes away.  Then, can we identify “I” with the brain?  As we know, at the time of brain pain, there is still “someone” who is feeling the pain but who is “not” the brain itself.  On the other hand, “I” feel pain when I am under verbal attack.  “I” feel sad when a close friend died.  Brain pain is different from “I feel painful”.  It is the psychological pain which is in “me”.  This pain is in “mind”, but not in the “physical” body.  In other words, the real identity of “I” is the mind, which is outside my physical body and is not matter.  But this identity of “I” is feeling all physical and psychological pain/happiness of a human being.  

3. “I” am my spirit/mind.  These days, as technology advances, many body parts can be substituted by artificial ones, such as false teeth.  Suppose one day everything, including brain (because the brain is not myself, nor my mind), in the body can be substituted, and the “artificial body” can act just like a normal man.  In this case, the man is still living and its identity still exists.  Then what is the identity of the man?  Wouldn’t it be the mind/spirit which controls the material body whether it’s natural or artificial?  Also it’s interesting to ask whether this man with artificial body is a living man or a ghost.  Yes, it’s a man as it is changed gradually from a natural man to an artificial man.  But since there is no natural material in the body, the mind acts directly on artificial matter, it is no different from a ghost acting on and moving a desk. 

All three considerations point to the same answer: the identity, “I”, is the mind/spirit rather than the material body. 

We will show “I” is my mind rather than my body using video game as an example next time.

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pg12 What is "I"? (part 1 of 2)

What is the identity “I”?  This question may be tackled in four different ways. 

1. “I” am not my body.  When asked, “What is a man?”  Many may answer, “A man is just the material body of a human being.  There is nothing other than the material body in a human being.”  If that is the case, then why do we say a man is dead when the body still exists and is lying there?  If material body is all there is to a human being, there is no reason to claim he is dead since the matter, the material body, is still there.  How can one differentiate a living body from a dead body?  Obviously there is some difference.  The only way we can properly describe the difference is to say, “A living body is a man with mind/spirit intact, while a dead body is a man whose mind/spirit has given up control of his body.  The identity of a man is actually the mind/spirit, rather than the body.” 

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pg11 Mind is outside the body.

Topic 2 - The Relation Between Mind and Body

Mind is outside the body. 

When someone shouts “fire”, all people would run over to help putting out the fire.  If instead he shouts “Huo” (the Chinese pronounciation of fire) or the “fire” in other languages, people would also run to help.  Obviously, if people’s reactions are due to interactions of physical particles in the body like billiards on a table, then different physical voices of different languages should cause different reactions.  The fact that they all cause the same reactions tells that the reactions are not due to physical interactions of particles in the body (like billiards on a table), but due to certain interpretation by a conscious mind which is outside of our physical bodies.  Similarly, the fact that baby cries when not seeing his or her mother indicates certain activities are triggered not by physical activities, but by inactivity.  This also indicates an interpretation by a conscious mind.  

Like momentum and energy, spirit is not matter, hence does not occupy a spatial dimension and we cannot say it resides in the body.  It is outside the body and outside the spatial world, but it affects matter.  It is in the spirit space.  It affects material world from spirit space in the same way momentum affects matter from momentum space. 

Then is “I” my body or my mind?  We will talk about it next time.

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pg10 Spirit space

While momentum is not visible and cannot be drawn in ordinary space, it can be drawn graphically in a space called momentum space.  Similarly spirits are not visible in ordinary space but also should be represented in a space called spirit space.  (Actually, the analogy between spirit and momentum makes sense as materialism simply considers the act of spirit/mind as the accumulated act of the momenta of numerous particles.)  The characteristics and rules governing spirit operations in spirit space is a scientific subject.  When being studied, it should be under rigorous scientific rules, rather than under the doctrine of morality, belief or religion.  Nevertheless, it is also unscientific to deny involvement of morality, belief or religion if it is in fact a result of scientific conclusion. 

We will talk about the relations between mind and body next time.

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