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From: mwg@mouton.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.philosophy,net.sci,net.misc
Subject: Re: Mind and Brain
Message-ID: <93@mouton.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 27-Jun-84 10:10:07 EDT
Article-I.D.: mouton.93
Posted: Wed Jun 27 10:10:07 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 28-Jun-84 05:26:11 EDT
References: <569@ihuxj.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
Lines: 54

++
OK, gang, let me bounce this one off y'all:
Shirley MacLaine's latest autobiography deals with a lot of this
reincarnation/mind/soul/God stuff.  I'm not sure I swallow it
whole but, she has some very interesting ideas, and her theories
are pretty much self-consistent.

First, on the clash of science and religion:

	"...why is there such a gap between science and the Church?"
		"Well," said Tom, "because science just lately (in
	cosmic terms, of course) feels it has rid itself of the
	shackels of religious superstition and is now enjoying its freedom
	and golden age.  The attitude is understandable.  To research those
	domains of the Church which was its former jailer would only rebuild
	the power base of that old traditional persecutor.
		"...science feels there is no basis on which to inquire about
	the existence of the soul.  Also there isn't much money in that kind
	of research." [p. 194-5]


Second, on the existence of the mind or soul, independent of the
brain.  (This, again, is not MacLaine, but another character speaking.)

	Some of our scientists suspect this energy is there but
	they can't measure it because it is not molecular.  They say
	there's an energy that fills interatomic space, but they don't
	know what it is.  Even they call it the cohesive element of the atom,
	which they term 'gluon'.  They know it is not matter, but rather
	units of energy.
	...it is this subatomic energy that makes up the Source.  Therefore
	the Source, that form of energy, is not molecular.  Now I'm going to
	tell you the hard part to understand, but the part that is the most
	important.  This energy is the energy that makes up the soul.  Our
	bodies 	are made out of atoms; our souls are made of this Source
	energy.  [p. 325]


This is interesting because it is a synthesis of religious and
scientific ideas which reconciles the conflict without contradicting
either.  She says the mind or soul may be within the realm of science
but, they just havn't gotten there yet.

Anybody from net.phsics know anything about gluons?

			respectfully submitted,

			Mark Garrett
			Bell Communications Research
			...allegra!mouton!mwg

				     ^--(sheep? My computer's a sheep?)

"Feeeel the Force, Luke"