One of the continuing great mysteries of science is the binding problem of animal consciousness including that of humans. And one of the great mysteries of our Christian religion is, "What is soul or spirit?", because then we are not only talking about both the nature of God and his race of angels but also what we humans apparently can be changed into after our fleshly organic death. Although science has created incredibly complex electronic devices to control electromagnetic phenomenon and are rapidly developing artificial intelligence, we still do not clearly understand how animal nervous systems (including we humans) actually are aware in their bodies.
Likewise the religious mystery over spirit is so profound that it is obviously a primary reason why many people do not believe in God as there has never been an explanation for how we humans might be saved into the afterlife. Even today many atheists scoff at any notion a dead organic animal, much less a complex human can be brought back into sentient existence as though it is and will always be impossible. What I present below is very speculative, however it should illuminate at least some hope in those that cannot see any logical and science based way spirit, soul, afterlife might be possible.
There are a few theories that addresses the binding problem that I've personally embraced over decades that suggest what we are is actually the field of electromagnetic waves within our nervous systems. One called the Conscious Electromagnetic (cemi) Field Theory is summarized at this link:
EM Field Theories of Consciousness | Johnjoe Mcfadden
What this suggests is what we actually are as intelligent entities is not the fleshly organic body we are within but rather the complex EM field within the nervous system containers of axons, dendrites, synapses and all.
If one looks at a still pan of water and then momentarily raises one end up a half inch, a wave of water will propagate to the other end, rise up on the opposite pan side, then return in like matter to the near end that was raised up. And will continue to do so sloshing waves back and forth as resistances to the water against the pan sides and within water itself cause each consequent wave to be smaller until the wave deadens out leaving calm. If on the other hand at either end a very small up and down raise occurs coincident with the arrival of each wave, then if of sufficient strength, may result in the wave never dying out while continuing to bounce water back and forth. The key here is an oscillator has been created that maintains waves within a container it exists within.
One might use this analogy for what is going on within our nervous systems that is however vastly more complex with feedback loops, oscillations, and interconnects. All animal life that contains a chordate neural tube has such wave phenomenon that is very much different than in the plant kingdom of species. Thus even creatures like an ant have these waves that allow their tiny brains to simultaneously have awareness to much of their brains. So when an ant sees you trying to grab them while crawling on the ground, the ant's eyes see, and then their brain controls their legs muscles to quickly escape away. In that sense all chordate animals may have awareness via a field of electromagnetic waves within their nervous systems. There is a key difference between organic brains with nervous systems and our modern electronic devices. Our silicon devices are all compartmentalized into myriad totally isolated sections that pass EM signals through barriers often called gates. Organic chordate brains pass EM fields through synaptic gaps that do not fully isolate signals into compartments and are further sustained by synchronized feedback thus creating a simultaneous awareness of all parts that can focus in different areas. Importantly it is not only the physical structures in such a nervous system that affect EM waves and signals but also the EM phenomenon itself may directly affect waves and signals independently of physical structure.
So what does this have to do with spirit and soul? Well there may come a day when scientist can exactly duplicate the nervous system of an ant by creating an non-organic container that results in an identical pattern of waves and signals as was within the ant. When that happens the non-organic ant with EM waves propagating about would not be able to tell whether it had an ant's organic body or was something else. And this is what I propose God and his angels have done but at a vastly more complex level.
Exodus 25:17>22 indicates an intelligent cloud nature of God. Likewise in the Samaritan Woman story at JHN 3:5>14, Jesus talks about a special water:
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God...Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again;
but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
The water molecule with its tiny bipolar chemical properties is unique among all molecules. What we experience as space/time/energy/matter is incredibly empty space. Every moment trillions of solar neutrinos pass through every square centimeter of our bodies and then continue on through our whole planet Earth without ever running into anything. That shows how incredibly small things are down at the quantum Planck level. Ultimate intelligent entities may use other forms of matter with orders of magnitude smaller size to create micro machines that fit within these emptinesses and act to control water molecules in structured ways. Even today scientist grapple with answers to dark matter and dark energy as though they may be invisible to our normal matter in most ways except gravity. Each molecule of water with a controlling machine that communicates at some non electromagnetic energy level might exist as a cloud of special "water". And if so there may also be created structures that represent the structure of the human nervous system, that God might then be able to transfer what was within an individual human EM field into a container that can then exist for eternity in. It would be the greatest possible gift to give to an otherwise fleshly mortal organic intelligent being.
Likewise the religious mystery over spirit is so profound that it is obviously a primary reason why many people do not believe in God as there has never been an explanation for how we humans might be saved into the afterlife. Even today many atheists scoff at any notion a dead organic animal, much less a complex human can be brought back into sentient existence as though it is and will always be impossible. What I present below is very speculative, however it should illuminate at least some hope in those that cannot see any logical and science based way spirit, soul, afterlife might be possible.
There are a few theories that addresses the binding problem that I've personally embraced over decades that suggest what we are is actually the field of electromagnetic waves within our nervous systems. One called the Conscious Electromagnetic (cemi) Field Theory is summarized at this link:
EM Field Theories of Consciousness | Johnjoe Mcfadden
What this suggests is what we actually are as intelligent entities is not the fleshly organic body we are within but rather the complex EM field within the nervous system containers of axons, dendrites, synapses and all.
If one looks at a still pan of water and then momentarily raises one end up a half inch, a wave of water will propagate to the other end, rise up on the opposite pan side, then return in like matter to the near end that was raised up. And will continue to do so sloshing waves back and forth as resistances to the water against the pan sides and within water itself cause each consequent wave to be smaller until the wave deadens out leaving calm. If on the other hand at either end a very small up and down raise occurs coincident with the arrival of each wave, then if of sufficient strength, may result in the wave never dying out while continuing to bounce water back and forth. The key here is an oscillator has been created that maintains waves within a container it exists within.
One might use this analogy for what is going on within our nervous systems that is however vastly more complex with feedback loops, oscillations, and interconnects. All animal life that contains a chordate neural tube has such wave phenomenon that is very much different than in the plant kingdom of species. Thus even creatures like an ant have these waves that allow their tiny brains to simultaneously have awareness to much of their brains. So when an ant sees you trying to grab them while crawling on the ground, the ant's eyes see, and then their brain controls their legs muscles to quickly escape away. In that sense all chordate animals may have awareness via a field of electromagnetic waves within their nervous systems. There is a key difference between organic brains with nervous systems and our modern electronic devices. Our silicon devices are all compartmentalized into myriad totally isolated sections that pass EM signals through barriers often called gates. Organic chordate brains pass EM fields through synaptic gaps that do not fully isolate signals into compartments and are further sustained by synchronized feedback thus creating a simultaneous awareness of all parts that can focus in different areas. Importantly it is not only the physical structures in such a nervous system that affect EM waves and signals but also the EM phenomenon itself may directly affect waves and signals independently of physical structure.
So what does this have to do with spirit and soul? Well there may come a day when scientist can exactly duplicate the nervous system of an ant by creating an non-organic container that results in an identical pattern of waves and signals as was within the ant. When that happens the non-organic ant with EM waves propagating about would not be able to tell whether it had an ant's organic body or was something else. And this is what I propose God and his angels have done but at a vastly more complex level.
Exodus 25:17>22 indicates an intelligent cloud nature of God. Likewise in the Samaritan Woman story at JHN 3:5>14, Jesus talks about a special water:
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God...Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again;
but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
The water molecule with its tiny bipolar chemical properties is unique among all molecules. What we experience as space/time/energy/matter is incredibly empty space. Every moment trillions of solar neutrinos pass through every square centimeter of our bodies and then continue on through our whole planet Earth without ever running into anything. That shows how incredibly small things are down at the quantum Planck level. Ultimate intelligent entities may use other forms of matter with orders of magnitude smaller size to create micro machines that fit within these emptinesses and act to control water molecules in structured ways. Even today scientist grapple with answers to dark matter and dark energy as though they may be invisible to our normal matter in most ways except gravity. Each molecule of water with a controlling machine that communicates at some non electromagnetic energy level might exist as a cloud of special "water". And if so there may also be created structures that represent the structure of the human nervous system, that God might then be able to transfer what was within an individual human EM field into a container that can then exist for eternity in. It would be the greatest possible gift to give to an otherwise fleshly mortal organic intelligent being.