Week 1 - Shannon Trinh

Near Death Experiences

The article’s definition of “soul” in the cell-soul pathway contrasts with other definitions that I attempted to research and think about. The online dictionary’s meaning of the word “soul” is the “spiritual or immaterial part of a human being or animal regarded as immortal”. It was interesting that the author of the article claims that “Consciousness stays so long as the body stays; this condition is supported by quantum entanglement…Death of the body will release consciousness in the form of energy that will be a gradual process for embodied consciousness as compared to the disembodied functional consciousness”(15), implying the temporary essence of having a soul. The idea is that as long as your body is intact and functional, your consciousness will be alive and well too. When looking at other views of “souls” (whether it be in real life experiences, pop culture, etc.) souls have a more permanent and everlasting connotation, that they are present even when the body is no longer living. For example, when loved ones die, individuals in various religions and cultures will believe and say that these spirits or “souls” will always be watching after them and protecting them until it is time for them to join.

Another thing that stood out to me in this article was the fact that there was a lot of mention about the role of energy in consciousness and in the soul, and how concepts of energy can also be found in spiritual and religious settings. The definition of “soul” in the article itself spoke of energies – “massless energy made of electromagnetic radiations that is confined in the cytoskeletal network of a living cell” (1). There was also mention of the releasing and returning of energies from and to the body during stress. Although this may be the more scientific approach towards the idea of energy, we can also look at the other contexts of this word and how it is used. Often times, people would speak of “good/bad energy” or similarly, “good/bad vibes” that are unexplainable and are just there. I often wonder if these random detections of such energies are due to evolution, our evolved and instinctive abilities to sense danger, discomfort, or novelty, or if there is some force beyond us that sends us such signals.

I found the quantum entanglement theory and hologram theory quite fascinating – who says that those ideas are entirely false? Perhaps some of these miracle recoveries and stories can be explained by a mix of scientific theories and the unknown/unexplainable.

Question: How reliable is self-report when it comes to research? How many individuals must give testimonies to build a solid case?

Works Cited:

Contzen Pereira & J Shashi Kiran Reddy. "Near Death Cases Desegregating Non-Locality/Disembodiment via Quantum Mediated Consciousness: An Extended Version of the Cell-soul Pathway."