Hello Steve,

To understand the relationship of the brain to the mind and the eternal self, we have to lay out all of the evidence and then accept the most parsimonious conclusion about it. We can't look at one set of data and draw conclusions about it while ignoring the rest. And we can't look at the data and draw conclusions that require convoluted logic to make the data fit them. The conclusions must be the simplest, most direct explanation.

Having said that, you've agreed that the studies I cite in my book and the volumes of accounts about people in the afterlife coming back to communicate with us show that the mind functions independent of the brain. We can't ignore those data when we look at specific phenomena, such as the fact that when the brain is damaged or incapacitated in some way, the person is unable to think, reason, or remember. In other words, we can't draw the conclusion that the mind must be produced by the brain because when the brain is damaged, the mind doesn't function well, because that ignores the other hypothesis: that the mind is whole and functioning perfectly well, but the brain isn't able to allow it to function because it's damaged, just as a television that doesn't work well can't allow a signal to come through and produce sound or a picture, but the signal coming from the television station is perfect and would come through fine on the television if it weren't damaged. Concluding that the television must produce Larry King because when the television is damaged, Larry King appears fuzzy or garbled is, of course, untrue.

So we still have to go back to all of the evidence about the relationship of the mind to the brain to explain why electrical stimulation to the brain has caused your mother to be unable to remember. It's an error to settle on the conclusions that the mind is produced by the brain when we know the mind functions perfectly well without the brain. We have to account for the data showing the mind functioning apart from the brain somehow. We can't simply leave that out.

Then what is the relationship of the mind to the brain. The brain, the body, the environment, and the history of the environment are all the vehicles the mind, our eternal self, uses in the drama the mind plays out that is Earth school. Earth school has certain rules that mind has to follow. To keep the body functioning and healthy, the mind has to choose not to jump off of a cliff. If the mind has the body jump off of a cliff, the body and the brain can be damaged so the mind has a broken down vehicle to use in Earth school. We have free will, and we can choose to jump off of a cliff, but the result will be that we experience the consequences. The mind knows to avoid sniffing paint to get high because that can damage the body and the brain. If the mind has the body sniff paint, the rule is that the brain will become damaged and won't function well. But sniffing paint has no effect on the mind, or eternal self. It functions perfectly well outside of the body--the data show that. It's just that in the confines of Earth school, the rule is if you sniff paint, the brain will be damaged and the mind won't be able to use that vehicle well.

Let me give you just two pieces of data that show this is true--there are dozens of others. The first is blindsight. We have many accounts of people who have been blind from birth who, during a near-death experience, see, recall, and describe the sights, with details about people, objects, and color, when they were out of the body during the near-death experience. The mind was functioning perfectly well, with clear vision, even though the body was blind.

The second example is that we're able to get into contact with the eternal self of people whose brains aren't functioning well, who are in vegetative states or otherwise incapacitated. That's a thrust of research I'm going to be involved in this year. The body and brain may not function, but that just means the mind can't use them. It doesn't mean the mind is secreted by the brain.

Love and peace, Craig