Part One

In the fifth chapter of my book, The Boundless Love of God: A Holy Spirit Story, I cited Mortimer Adler’s discussion of the mind’s relation to the material brain.  He stated that the intellectual mind is superior to matter and cannot be reduced to it.  It is an immaterial component of human nature.  He said, “The intellect cannot normally function without dependence on the activity of the brain, but the brain is not the physical organ of intellectual thought.” (1)  According to Adler human behavior consists of two substances, mind and physical brain, and the two interact with one another. 

Neural impulses are the same in electrochemical character.  They consist of action potentials transmitted across and through neural synaptic networks as spike trains with distinctive frequencies and amplitudes, as we shall see.  Neural structures are histologically and anatomically similar, or even identical.  Distinguishable concepts that reflect intellectual and cognitive processes cannot be embodied in matter that is so similar or identical!  The power of conceptual thought must be an immaterial energy,  and energy is expressed as waves.  We are aware that light and sound are transmitted by waves.  Likewise, waves are transmitted across synaptic clefts by quantum tunneling with specified frequencies,  amplitudes and trajectories.  Going further, it is now recognized that elementary particles at the atomic level, electromagnetism, gravity and the strong and weak nuclear forces are . . . waves.  Even space consists of unique vibrational signatures!  In this and my subsequent blog I will discuss the flow of waves within and across our brains. 

One more point merits emphasis.  John C. Eccles maintained that the human mind is not causally closed to nonmaterial stimuli as claimed by materialists. The neural synapse is considered to be a frontier across which information flows in both directions. (2) The billions of interconnections between neurons and trillions of synapses in neural networks constitute an information processing system.  William A. Dembski has stated that matter itself is reducible to the information instantiated within its design, construction and function.  It is energy that causes information to undergo such dynamic transformations.  Energy is inferred from information and is called by Dembski the “causal glue.” (3)  Werner Gitt stated that information is a fundamental entity on equal footing with matter and energy. It is required for the start of any controlled process whether energy or matter.  Gitt identified the one prerequisite of information, that it must be in coded form. (4)  Information itself is preceded by the prime source of all information, a mind.  In John 1:1-3 it is said, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.”

The electrochemical activity of neural networks translates into the riches of the human mind.  James Le Fanu presumed that there has to be a code within the patterns of the activity, ensuring that the firing of the visual cortex, for example, gives rise to the perception of trees and birds seen from one’s window. (5)  The neural code requires an intelligence to establish the rules of syntax, meaning and purpose, human or divine.  Anything with high information content must be interpreted by the intellect of a mind.  It is the immaterial mind that interacts cognitively with encoded information within the spike trains of neural synaptic networks.  It is a perceptual process by which linguistic neural codes are interpreted by a human mind with the unique capacity for expressing and understanding advanced language.

The application of increasingly sophisticated technologies to the study of the human mind has generated more understanding of waves that are transmitted through the brain.  Initial observation of brain waves was by electroencephalography which recorded waves transmitted across the skull with relatively poor resolution and no directional components.  Human brains can now be studied by electrocorticography (ECoG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging.  ECoG applies to direct studies of live neural tissues in responsive patients such as those undergoing neurosurgery for epilepsy.  Multiple monitors can be placed over larger surfaces of the brain itself to study the characteristics and routes of neural transmission.  In Part Two of this blog I will share what I have learned from more current neuroscience literature.  There is yet a dominant perspective that the human mind is not immaterial and can be reduced to the functional activities of the physical brain.  Much of the literature of neuroscience does not acknowledge the human mind with causal and cognitive power but equates the function of the brain to computation.  The mind is considered to be an epiphenomenon by some.  By reviewing points I make in my books in the paragraphs above I have provided an introduction that shows the merit of dualist interaction between the immaterial mind and the material brain and its neural networks.  I will soon post Part Two of this blog.  In the blog that follows, “Minds in Communion,” I will focus on the dualist interaction between the mind of Man and the Mind of God.

References

1.        Mortimer J. Adler, Intellect: Mind over Matter (New York: Collier Books, MacMillan Publishing Company, 1990)

2.       John C. Eccles, How the Self Controls Its Brain (Berlin, New York, London: Springer-Verlag, 1994)

3.       William A. Dembski, Being As Communion: A Metaphysics of Information (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2014)

4.       Werner Gitt, In the Beginning Was Information: A Scientist Explains the Incredible Design in Nature (Green Forest, Arizona: Master Books, 2007)

5.       James Le Fanu, Why Us? How the Self Controls Its Brain (New York: Pantheon Books, 2009)

In my second book, The Boundless Love of God: A Holy Spirit Story, I cited Christoph Lameter who stated in his doctoral dissertation, “God can effectively communicate with humans by direct stimulation of neurons in the human brain generating images and memories.  God is able to communicate with humans in a direct way.” (1) In his book, Being As Communion, William A. Dembski presented a scheme adapted from Claude Shannon that serves as a template for information transmission between the Mind of God and the mind of Man by means of the indwelling of the human spirit by the personal Holy Spirit. (2)  I am presenting the scheme in this blog as a foundation for subsequent blogs that will address how this interaction may occur drawing from current studies from the neurosciences.  In this scheme the identification of the Sender, or Information Source, is the Mind of God, and the Recipient, or Receiver, is the mind of Man.  God intended it as an intimate, personal communion of love.            

Information Source (Mind of God) generates a            

Message (the Word – specified information, the Word also being Jesus Christ) that is given to a            

Transmitter (Holy Spirit) that directs a            

Signal with meaning and purpose to the            

Receiver (mind of Man) in the form of            

Spike patterns of action potentials transmitted through the  

Destination, the neural synaptic networks as            

Linguistic codes in various manifestations (dreams, visions, perceived words, intuition, discernment) interpreted by the

Receiver, or recipient, the immaterial, cognitive mind of Man

Noise in the communication channel reflects the distorting or blocking effects by evil, sin or focus on self on the            

Message of the Information Source            

Effective error correction of the distorted or blocked Message is provided by the            

Word, the life and teachings of Jesus Christ through the Bible and through the conscience given by the Transmitter, the indwelling Holy Spirit, who gives discernment of God’s general revelation            

It is my hope that the evidence presented in my two books that is derived from Scripture, neuroscience, quantum mechanics and information theory for dualist interaction between the Holy Spirit and the soul of Man through the human spirit and neural synaptic networks is compelling.  In subsequent blogs I will explain how the interaction may occur drawing upon concordance between science and theology..  

References

1.     Christoph Lameter, Divine Action in the Framework of Scientific Knowledge: from Quantum Behavior to Divine Action, A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the School of Theology at Fuller Seminary in candidacy for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Apologetics and Philosophy, Newark, CA. (October 20, 2000)

2.    William A. Dembski, Being As Communion: A Metaphysics of Information (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2014)                                                      

I am posting blogs from across the span of the blog pages on my website that establish the foundation for my apologetics research. they will reflect how the immaterial mind of god interacts causally and bidirectionally with the immaterial mind of man through the material synaptic networks of the human brain.

the human self

Sir Karl Popper and Sir John C. Eccles defined “self” in their work published in 1977, The Self and Its Brain (1). 

“…the self is not a ‘pure ego,’ that is, a mere subject.  Rather, it is incredibly rich. …it observes and takes action at the same time.  It is acting and suffering, recalling the past and planning and programming the future, expecting and disposing.  It contains…wishes, plans, hopes, decisions to act, and a vivid consciousness of being an acting self, a center of action.  And it owes this selfhood largely to interaction with other persons….”

The highest mental experience is “knowing that one knows,” self-awareness or self-consciousness. (2)  It is the most fundamental characteristic of the human species (3) and emerges from levels of linguistic communication not shared by non-human animals. (4)  Mind and language are more than physical entities.  Distinctively human language enables Man to bridge the gulf between mind and matter, the immaterial and the material.  Human language reflects a spiritual component in humans that does not exist in other creatures and lifts them to a unique eminence in the cosmos, made in the triune image of God with spirit, soul and body. (5)  Bruce M. Miller stated that “…it may be deflating to some people that the very essence of who they are – including their beliefs and values – is merely another anatomical process.”  This statement reflects the common reduction made of the mind to the physical brain.  The sense of self according to his studies could be localized to one area of the brain. (6) 

            William A. Dembski (7) points out that a full material account of mind needs to understand localized brain excitations in terms of other localized brain excitations.  Anger, for example, has to be explained in terms of semantic contents, such as insults.  The admixture of brain excitations and semantic contents hardly constitutes a materialist accounting of mind or intelligent agency.  The human soul mediates between the spirit and body and correlates with the self, or self-consciousness, our “I.”  The self remains in continuity with the past and into the future.  No matter how extreme the circumstances of our experiences one remains the same self, durable through a lifetime. (8,9) The self makes Man distinctively human.  We are spiritual beings with souls existing in a spiritual world as well as material beings with bodies and brains existing in a material world. (10)

            Fundamental to the Gospel is the teaching from Jesus Christ that Christians need to die to self.  What does this mean?  The human self is durable and defines our unique human identity.  Dying to self as a term can generate confusion and angst among Christians.  Jan Johnson has addressed the issue of “dying to self” by explaining the term based on Scripture. 

“Jesus described the dying-to-self process (to ‘deny self’ is the exact scriptural phrase) as part of following Him: ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me’ (Matthew 16:24, NASB). Sometimes people mistake dying to self for death of self. But self-denial is not self-rejection. God treasures your divinely created self. He doesn’t want to obliterate the part of you that makes you uniquely you. God works within you and reshapes you into the person your renewed-in-Christ self is meant to be.” (11)

The following teachings of the Apostles Peter and Paul are representative “scriptural phrases” alluded to by Johnson:

1 Peter 2:24 …and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.

Galatians 5:24-25 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. 

Ephesians 4:22-24 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

            It is of unique importance that human beings can communicate with their Creator God through the human spirit and receive Counsel from the Holy Spirit restored to repentant mankind by the sin sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  We remain distinct human selves in interactive harmony with God’s Spirit by His grace through the death and resurrection of Jesus, His Son.

References

1.      Karl R. Popper and John C. Eccles. The Self and Its Brain (Berlin, Heidelberg, London, New York: Springer-Verlag International, 1977), 120.

2.      John C. Eccles. Evolution of the Brain: Creation of the Soul (London and New York: Routledge, 1989), 224.

3.      T. Dobzhansky. The Biology of Ultimate Concern (New York: The New American Library, 1967).

4.      Eccles, Ibid, 71.

5.      Joseph W. Poulshock, “Language-Wonder: Theory, Pedagogy, and Research,” Christ and the World, the Journal of Tokyo Christian University, 8 (1998).

6.      Bruce L. Miller, “Finding One’s Self,” Presented at the American Academy of Neurology, 53rd Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, P/a, May 5-11, 2001.

7.      William A. Dembski, “Are We Spiritual Machines?” First Things, 96 (1999), 25-31.

8.      Henry Margenau, The Miracle of Existence. Woodbridge, Connecticutt: Ox Bow Press, 1984).

9.      John C. Eccles, “Do Mental Events Cause Neural Events Analogously to the Probability Fields of Quantum Mechanics?” Proc. Royal Soc. London (Biol), 227 (1986), 411-428.

10.  Eccles, Ibid, 241.

11.  Jan Johnson, Dying to Self and Discovering So Much More, August 25, 2011       (https://decisionmagazine.com/dying-self-discovering-much-more/)

i have endeavored through the years to share ways that the holy spirit causes activities to occur by god’s direction. by posting blogs addressing the fertilization of an egg/ovum i have provided information that highlights the power and purpose of the holy spirit. The virgin birth of jesus christ did occur, though we cannot know the precise means by which it happened. but our faith should grow in the reality of the event by which our lord and savior, jesus christ, was born.

i return now to my findings concerning mind-to-mind communion, between people and between the mind of god and the mind of man. i thank you for your interest in growing knowledge along with me.

i am posting information found online that speaks to egg fertilization without a sperm. at the end of the post i shall ask a question that could suggest the role served by the POWER OF THE holy spirit for the virgin mary.

Based on current scientific research, a waveform—specifically in the form of calcium oscillations or localized electrical/mechanical stimulation—can indeed trigger the initial stages of egg activation (the "on switch") without a sperm. However, this is distinct from full, natural fertilization that produces a genetically viable embryo. 

Here is the scientific breakdown:

• Egg Activation Waves: When a sperm fuses with an egg, it releases a sperm-specific protein (PLC) that triggers a series of calcium waves across the egg’s surface, signaling it to start dividing.

• Artificial Activation (No Sperm): Scientists can mimic this "spark of life" by using physical or chemical means to induce these waves, such as:

• Electric pulses or pricking with a needle.

• Calcium ionophores (chemicals that allow calcium influx).

• Mechanical pressure (shown to elicit a calcium wave in certain eggs).

• Limitations: While these methods can initiate egg activation (the start of cell division), they generally do not provide the paternal DNA, nor do they perfectly replicate the complex, long-lasting calcium oscillations required for complete, healthy development into an embryo. These techniques are primarily researched for and used in in vitro fertilization (IVF) to overcome fertilization failure.

• Alternative Methods: Research into somatic cell nuclear transfer (cloning) and using stem cells to create embryos are separate, more advanced techniques for creating organisms without conventional fertilization. 

National Institutes of Health (.gov)

In summary, a "wave" of physical or chemical stimulation can initiate the activation cascade of an egg in the absence of sperm, but it is currently not a method for complete, natural fertilization. 

now i post luke1: 26-37

in the sixth month, god sent the angel gabriel to nazareth, a town in galilee, to a virgin pledged to be mARRIED TO A MAN NAMED JOSEPH, A DESCENDANT OF DAVID. THE VIRGIN’S NAME WAS MARY. THE ANGEL WENT TO HER AND SAID, “GREETINGS, YOU ARE HIGHLY FAVORED! THE LORD IS WITH YOU.” MARY WAS GREATLY TROUBLED AT HIS WORDS AND WONDERED WHAT KIND OF GREETING THIS MIGHT BE. BUT THE ANGEL SAID TO HER, “DO NOT BE AFRAID, MARY, YOU HAVE FOUND FAVOR WITH GOD. YOU WILL BE WITH CHILD AND GIVE BIRTH TO A SON, AND YOU ARE TO GIVE HIM THE NAME JESUS. HE WILL BE GREAT AND WILL BE Called the son of the most high. the lord will give him the throne of his father david, and he will reign over the house of jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”

"how will this be,” mary asked the angel, “since i am a virgin?” the angel answered, “the holy spirit will come upon you, and the power of the most high will overshadow you. so the holy one to be born will be called the son of god. even elizabeth youR relative is going to have a child in her old age, AND SHE WHO WAS SAID TO BE BARREN IS IN HER SIXTH MONTH. FOR NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD.”

IS GOD ALLOWING MANKIND TO LEARN HOW, PERHAPS, THE VIRGIN BIRTH WAS INITIATED BY THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT? GOD DOES GIVE MAN PROGRESSIVE REVELation as the capacity for understanding grows. the point made in this post is that indeed, the virgin birth happened according to the process of god by his power through his holy spirit. science and scripture are becoming more consistent in interpretation to the glory of god to grow our faith.

i found this post on linkedin and share it since it augments much of what i have posted in my most recent blogs. it is not from a peer reviewed journal, but its contents conform to what i have read in such resources. IT IS AUTHORED BY NICOLAS HUBACZ, M.S.

“life begins as a wave pattern. mit researchers have discovered that when an egg is fertilized, the surface of the cell erupts into spiraling waves of activity that closely resemble patterns seen across nature, . . . to brain activity and even quantum fluids. . . . billions of proteins surge to the egg’s surface after fertilization. these proteins don’t move randomly. instead, they organize into rotating spiral waves that emerge, collide, annihilate, and disappear. . . . these waves are driven by an activated protein called rho-gtp, and they play a critical role in helPing the egg: find its center, decide where to divide, [AND] coordinate the earliest steps of development. without these wave patterns, cell division - and life itself - wouldn’t proceed correctly. when reseARCHERS ANALYZED THE MOTION OF THESE SPIRALS, THEY FOUND SOMETHING REMARKABLE: THE STATISTICS MATCHED WAVE BEHAVIORS IN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT SYSTEMS - INCLUDING . . . ELECTRICAL WAVES IN THE BRAIN . . . [AND] PATTERNS IN QUANTUM MATERIALS. . . . ‘THIS IS A VERY UNIVERSAL WAVE PATTERN,’ SAYS MIT PHYSICIST NIKITA FAKHRI . . . . THESE BIOLOGICAL WAVES CARRY INFORMATION.”

I OFFER FROM MY OWN WRITINGS THAT THE INFORMATION TRANSMITTED BY THESE WAVE PATTERNS IS SPECIFIED FROM LIMITLESS POSSIBILITIES SO THAT CERTAIN MOLECULAR ACTIVITIES ARE ACTUALIZED TOWARD EGG MATURATION INTO A FUNCTIONING LIVING ORGANISM. WE MAY BE SEEING HOW “UNIVERSAL WAVE FUNCTIONS/PATTERNS” ARE INSTRUMENTAL IN THE BEGINNING OF LIFE, SUBSTANTIATING BIBLICAL SCRIPTURE THAT LIFE BEGINS (AND MAY BE SUSTAINED) WITH LIGHT, ITS WAVE FUNCTIONS. cONJECTURE? YES, BUT WITH INCREASINGLY COMPELLING CONFIRMATION FROM PROPER SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS.

i am including exerpts from the article by Emily L. Que et al entitled, “quantitative mapping of zinc fluxes in the mammalian egg reveals the origin of fertilization-induced zinc sparks,” nature chemistry, Vol. 7, february 2015. investigators are learning more about the application of “universal wave forms” in the genesis of life, wave forms i have discussed in my books and in numerous blog posts. according to god’s progressive revelation we are learning at least in part how god has actualizeD LIFE ITSELF IN CERTAIN OF his creations!

“. . . we have defined a new family of discrete zinc-enriched vesicles that participate in the zinc fluxes that are essential in two critical states of formation of a new mammal, oocyte maturation and egg fertilization. . . . intracellular and extracellular components of the zinc spark as the coordinated exocytosis of thousands of zinc-enriched vesicles from the egg cortex. . . . given that vesicle-derived zinc sparks are produced by the egg within the first few hours of activation, we hypothesized that the 10-20% loss of total zinc content observed during this time period probably arose from the quantitiative loss of zinc ions contained in cortical zinc vesicles. precedence for this model comes from a variety of specialized cell types, including certain glutamatergic neurons . . . in which the zinc efflux is associated with zinc-rich secretory vesicles.”

“the zinc spark [of light] gives notice of the process that leads to activation of molecular processes that cause an ovum to develop into a living, dividing embryo, the process that signifies the beginning of a life.”

This is part of an earlier blog i posted below. i repost it now to suggest that the “universal wave forms,” similar to those transmitted through neural synaptic networks, transmit encoded, specified information that leads to the finely tuned molecular process of embryogenesis, designed by the intelligent mind of the creator god.

I am posting additional information about the process of ovum fertilization by sperm that includes a so-called “zinc spark,” a brief and transient appearance of light occurring immediately after a sperm fertilizes an ovum. i am including exerpts from an early article that summarizes the “zinc fireworks” that are seen when a sperm meets and penetrates an ovum/egg. Megan fillman summarized this process in a press release in the argonne national laboratory in 2014. the zinc spark gives notice of the process that leads to activation of molecular processes that cause an ovum to develop into a living, dividing embryo, the process that signifies the beginning of a life.

“high-energy x-ray imaging techniques were employed [by researchers at] northwestern university [and] the u.s. department of energy’s advanced photon source at argonne national laboratory.”

these studies were “the first to capture images of these molecular fireworks and pinpoint the origin of the zinc sparks: tiny zinc-rich packages just below the egg’s surface. zinc flux plays a central role in regulating the biochemical processes that ensure a healty egg-to-embryo transition. . . . the amount of zinc released by an egg could be a great marker for identifying a high-quality fertilized egg. . . . scientists discovered close to 8000 compartments in the egg, each containing approximately one million zinc atoms. these packages release their zinc cargo simultaneously in a concerted process, akin to neurotransmitter release in the brain. . . . the study establishes how eggs compartmentalize and distribute zinc to control the developmental processes that allow the egg to become a healthy embryo. zinc is part of a master switch that controls the decision to grow and change into a completely new genetic organism. . . . an egg loses 10 billion of its 60 billion zinc atoms upon fertilization in a series of four or five waves called ‘zinc sparks.’ release of zinc sparks from the egg is essential for embryo formation in the two hours following fertilization. the egg first has to stockpile zinc [in vesicles near the cell’s surface] and then must release some of the zinc to successfully navigate maturation, fertilization and the start of embryogenesis. . . . this study lays the groundwork for understanding how zinc fluxes can regulate events in multiple biological systems beyond the egg, including neurotransmission from zinc-enriched neurons.”

francesca e. duncan and coauthors published an article entitled “the zinc spark is an inorganic signature of human egg activation,” scientific reports, april 26, 2016. it was pointed out that “egg activation refers to events required for transition of a gamete into an embryo, including establishment of the polyspermy block, completion of meiosis, entry into mitosis, selective recruitment and degradation of maternal mRNA, and pronuclear development. . . . these egg activation methods . . . induced rises in intracellular calcium levels and also triggered the coordinated release of zinc into the extracellular space in a prominent ‘zinc spark [of light].’

in my fellowship studies i observed an inverse association between serum zinc levels and neutrophil phagocytosis, suggesting that zinc exerts an inhibitory effect on certain cellular activities. it is interesting that these scientists concluded that the release of vesicular zinc into the extracellular space of ova inhibited fertilization of an egg by more than a single sperm, thus controlling genetic transfer.

we see that the release of light accompanies ovum fertilization with the start of molecular and biochemical processes that lead to a living embryo and subsequently a living being. we see that this process is highly coordinated and complex, indicating that it is a process of intelligent design by a mind, the mind of god.

I am posting a verse from the book of Hebrews that reveals a direct interaction between the mind of God and the mind of Man. For those who have followed my blogs over time, they can understand, at least in part, how this interaction could have occurred within the neural synaptic networks, establishing neural codes that transmit specified information, in this instance into the human conscience:

hebrews 10:16 describes god’s promise for the new covenant, quoting jeremiah 31:33, where god says, this is the covenant i will make with them after those days, says the lord: i will put my laws in their hearts [souls], and i will write them on their minds, signifying an internal transformation where his will becomes part of believers, leading to the forgiveness of sins. . . .

it is an internal law, not a law that is just on tablets.