Aren’t our brains wonderful tools? Unless, of course, like a computer, one becomes infected by bugs, viruses, or other malicious malware. Most scientists and doctors declare with certainty that the being you are is limited to your brain and body and that no soul or spirit exists. They say you are an animal with gray matter that employs electrical charges, synapses, and chemical reactions in response to your emotions, perceptions, sensations, or experiences, real or imagined. Any spiritual experience you might share will be dismissed as some deluded process occurring in your little gray cells.
Even some religions follow the same ideas, except when it comes to any particular occurrences designated by church doctrine. Often, spiritual leaders refer members to secular counselors for a number of human travails, even when those may be spiritual in nature.
There’s a huge distinction between your brain and you, yourself, the spirit. The brain can be likened to a computer CPU. You, the spiritual being, use your mind to access and direct your brain like a keyboard and mouse are used to activate the CPU. Your brain then controls other body parts, like a CPU controls what a computer does. Computers and brains are both only tools that will sit idle unless acted upon.
Anyone can lose sight of their identity as a spiritual being, something distinctly separate from the physical world. Unlike a collection of gray matter or computer parts, the spirit can make independent decisions. This includes the ability to deceive oneself, deciding one is just a brain, not the controller of it. Religions further confuse the issue when they teach that beings have a soul. You (the entity using that mind and brain) are a soul or spirit. You don’t have one; you are one and immortal.
A mind may malfunction, but can only do so with the introduction of misinformation from an outside agent, like a computer with malware or incorrect data. Early in the development of computers, we would say, “Garbage in, garbage out,” meaning that computers only work as well as the quality of data plugged into them. The same is true for our minds. We, the controllers, are capable of decisions, good or bad, and of the creation of beauty and can imagine great things not previously conceived. As spirits, we can experience God and aspects of spiritual existence on a different plane, our true and eternal home.
Those who’ve lost the ability to recognize themselves as spiritual beings scoff and demand proof. In a story from decades ago, a skeptic was sitting alone when a well-known guru, rumored to have magical powers, entered the room. The skeptic insisted the holy man demonstrate his power by moving across the room using only his mind. Amused, the guru walked to the other side of the room. The skeptic was irritated. The guru responded, “I did as you asked. I used my mind to make my body cross the room. You expected me to appear over here without physically crossing? My thinking, mind, and body are of the natural world and obey its laws. In the spiritual world, there are no rooms and chairs.” The story illustrates the difficulty of explaining our underlying nature and capabilities.
So what happens when your body and brain die? There are abundant opinions and speculations. One thing is certain, when your body ceases to live, you will experience the answer. No need to fret; you are immortal.