In my two books and many blog posts i have shared what i trust is compelling evidence acquired over a span of more than 20 years of my research for dualist interaction between the immaterial mind of man (and of god) and the material components of the human brain, the neural synaptic networks. i am sharing an article composed by Dr. Michael Egnor that was featured in “mind matters.” i have chosen to post the entire article which provides strong confirmation of dualist interaction by Dr. Egnor, a neurosurgeon, who cites the pioneering findings of another neurosurgeon, Dr. Wilder Penfield. the article provides support for my findings:

“What, Exactly, Does Your Brain Do? What Can’t It Do?”

A surprising result of pioneering neurosurgery was the discovery that some mental processes could be stimulated in the brain but others could not be

Michael Egnor

Mind Matters December 16, 2024

Your organs have jobs to do. Your heart pumps blood. Your lungs exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide. Your kidneys make urine. Your skin keeps you inside and your environment outside.

So what does your brain do? We naturally answer: “It makes me think, use my mind, stuff like that.” But that’s not exactly true. The brain does have a job, of course, but it’s a more limited job than producing all that is in our mind. Neuroscience tells a very different story about what the brain does. And it’s a fascinating one.

Brain surgery while the patient is awake

Neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield (1891‒1976), who pioneered epilepsy surgery at the Montreal Neurological Institute in the mid-20th century, asked this very question: What does the brain do? He explored the question during eleven hundred “awake” brain operations over four decades. He needed patients to be awake so that he could communicate with them, to be sure that he was not damaging vital tissue while removing the tissue that was prone to epileptic seizures.

Penfield could do brain surgery while a patient is awake because the brain has no pain sensors. A local anesthetic (similar to the novocaine used in dentists’ offices) ensures that there is no pain in the scalp either during the surgery. Neurosurgeons still do this type of surgery today.

While epilepsy patients were awake and their responses to brain stimulation could be observed, he mapped their brains using electrical probes to find and remove seizure foci but also to determine which parts of the patients’ brains did what. He could answer questions like “What part of the brain makes us move our muscles?”, “What part of the brain enables us to see?” and “What part of the brain enables us to have memories and emotions?”

What fascinated Penfield is not so much what he found—i.e., which parts of the brain caused movement, perception, memory and emotions—but what he didn’t find.

What Penfield could not find in the brain

Penfield could find no part of the brain that, when stimulated, caused patients to think abstractly—to reason, think logically, do mathematics or philosophy or exercise free will.

He noticed the same thing about epileptic seizures as about stimulation during surgery. Patients who were having seizures did all sorts of things—they jerked their muscles, they saw flashes of light or had unusual sensations on their skin. They even occasionally had specific memories and emotions. Then they fell unconscious.

But patients never had intellectual seizures. That is, they never had seizures that caused them to reason, think logically, or do mathematics or philosophy. There are no “calculus seizures” that cause them to uncontrollably take first derivatives. There are no philosophical seizures that cause them to uncontrollably contemplate Plato’s Republic.

Penfield asked the obvious question: why did brain stimulation only cause certain mental operations, like movement, perception, memory and emotion to happen, but not other ones, like abstract thought and free will? As Denyse O’Leary and I discuss in The Immortal Mind (Worthy June 3, 2025), he eventually came to the obvious conclusion: he couldn’t evoke abstract thought or free will by stimulating the brain because abstract thought and free will don’t come from the brain.

Penfield started out as a materialist, like most scientists do, but, as he learned more about the mind and the brain he became a dualist. He concluded in his book Mystery of the Mind (1975) that the mind is something separate from the brain, and that there are aspects of the mind that don’t come from the brain but are spiritual in nature. As he put it, “The mind must be viewed as a basic element in itself . . . That is to say, it has a continuing existence.” (p. xxi.)

Many other neuroscientists have followed in Penfield’s footsteps and their research points to the very same conclusion. That said, within the neuroscience community materialism reigns so it is unfashionable (and dangerous to a scientists’ career) to admit the truth about dualism. Neuroscience shows us that the brain is an organ, like the heart or the liver, that has specific jobs to do. The brain orchestrates our bodily processes (sometimes called vegetative functions)—our heart rate, our blood pressure, our hormone levels and so on. The brain is the source of our ability to move, to perceive, to remember and to have emotions. 

But the brain is not the source of our intellect or our free will

Neuroscience shows that intellect and free will are spiritual powers of the human soul. Our spiritual powers depend on the brain and body for our normal functioning—e.g., we can’t reason well after being hit on the head with a baseball bat and we don’t always exercise our free will wisely when we’ve had too much alcohol. The brain, that is, is necessary and sufficient for our embodied powers—vegetative, locomotor, perceptual, mnemonic, and emotional—and the brain is necessary but not sufficient for the normal exercise of our intellect and our free will.

The human soul is an embodied spirit, a composite of bodily and spiritual powers. We are created by God with some abilities that are physical and some abilities that are not strictly physical—i.e., that are spiritual, created in His Image. This insight is actually quite ancient. It was an insight of many great classical philosophers and theologians, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, and countless others. What is remarkable in our day is that this profound and true understanding of the human soul—our spiritual soul—is now being confirmed by modern neuroscience.

in my writings i have endeavored to highlight the love of god for the crown of his creation, mankind, who was created in his image, including our mind. god created our capacity to commune with him, both by prayer and by receiving communion via our neural synaptic networks in multiple ways. it has always been the plan of god for man to be in a personal, intimate communion with him, made possible by his holy spirit and the sin sacrifice of jesus, who lives.

today i received an e-mail from one of my best friends, in which was a scripture from the book of psalms I want to share. it applies to the objective of my writings, derived from well over 20 years of research into the means by which the holy spirit communes with us.

Psalm 33:8
Father, you inspire me. My being is filled to overflowing with declarations of praise. Melodies flow unceasingly from my lips. With words of life, you breathe clarity into the most obscure places, and I’m reminded over and over again how majestic you are.
You breathe light into the galaxies with stars too vast to number and illuminate my body with your Spirit. The same hands that are big enough to measure the oceans are careful enough to cradle me with love. You began the earth with words of promise and each one will come to pass.
You’re forever faithful, unfailing in love; the Master Creator who gazes upon all he has made and declares it good. Yet nothing holds your heart the way we do. Even our weakest worship captures your attention. I feel you gazing at me from heaven, overshadowing me with the radiance of your presence and smiling at me with kindness and compassion. Never stop, Lord, for I am awestruck by your love.

I am referring the reader to a highly technical article entitled “Common neural choice signals emerge artifactually amidst multiple distinct value signals,” authored by R. Fromer et al, October 2022. In their significance statement the authors state that “these findings call for a significant reexamination of established links between neural and computational mechanisms of choice, while inviting deeper consideration of the array of cognitive and affective processes that occur in parallel.” they go on to conclude their article with the comment, “our work shows that evidence of accumulation is not sufficient to argue for an evidence accumulation account, and that to better understand the array of signals that appear over the course of a decision, we need to incorporate insights from affective science, metacognition and cognitive control [Italics added].”

i suggest that neuroscientists are acknowledging that there is more to cognition than what is considered by the perspective of materialist reductionism that maintains that the mind is the brain. i refer you to my last blog post that deals with metacognition.

I am referring IN THIS WRITING to a blog dated july 30, 2015, by arthur l. costa, professor emeritus, california state university, sacramento. it is entitled “metacognition: what makes humans unique?” recall that i have endeavored to provide A compelling ACCUMULATION OF evidence FOR bidirectional, dual interaction between the immaterial mind and the material components of the neural synaptic networks of the brain in my writings. this perspective is in contrast to that of materialist reductionism that posits that the brain is the mind. I will post several excerpts from this blog by costa and suggest that it is not possible to reduce metacognition solely to the physiological activities of the brain’s synaptic networks. I AM ADDING A FEW COMMENTS IN BRACKETS FROM MY OWN WORK.

“if you caUGHT YOURSELF HAVING AN ‘INNER’DIALOGUE INSIDE YOUR BRAIN, AND IF YOU HAD TO STOP TO EVALUATE YOUR OWN DECISION MAKING/PROBLEM-SOLVING PROCESSES, YOU WERE EXPERIENCING METACOGNITION. . . . HOMO SAPIENS, SAPIENS, [IS] A BEING THAT KNOWS THEIR KNOWING (OR MAYBE IT IS ‘KNOWS THEY ARE KNOWING’) . . . . METACOGNITION - THE ABILITY TO BE A SPECTATOR OF OWN THOUGHTS WHILE WE ENGAGE IN THEM. . . . OCCURRING IN THE NEOCORTEX AND THEREFORE THOUGHT BY SOME NEUROLOGISTS TO BE UNIQUELY HUMAN, METACOGNITION IS OUR ABILITY TO KNOW WHAT WE KNOW [ARCHIVED IN MEMORY] AND WHAT WE DON’T KNOW. IT IS OUR ABILITY TO PLAN A STRATEGY FOR PRODUCING [BY THE IMMATERIAL MIND] WHAT INFORMATION [THE SOURCE BEING ONLY A/THE MIND] IS NEEDED, TO BE CONSCIOUS OF OUR OWN STEPS AND STRATEGIES DURING THE ACT OF PROBLEM SOLVING, AND TO REFLECT ON AND EVALUATE THE PRODUCTIVENESS OF OUR OWN THINKING.”

THE AUTHOR STATES THAT PEOPLE WITH WELL-DEVELOPED METACOGNITIVE ABILITIES ARE “THOSE WHO ‘MANAGE’ THEIR INTELLECTUAL RESOURCES WELL: 1) THEIR BASIC PERCEPTUAL-MOTOR SKILLS; 2) THEIR LANGUAGE, BELIEFS, KNOWLEDGE OF CONTENT, AND MEMORY PROCESSES; AND 3) THEIR PURPOSEFUL AND VOLUNTARY STRATEGIES INTENDED TO ACHIEVE A DESIRED OUTCOME; 4) SELF-KNOWLEDGE ABOUT ONE’S OWN LEARNING STYLES AND HOW TO ALLOCATE RESOURCES ACCORDINGLY.”

COGNITION: THE MENTAL ACTION OR PROCESS OF ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING THROUGH THOUGHT, EXPERIENCE, AND THE SENSES. (wIKIPEDIA)

I refer you to an article by joni d. Wallis entitled “Decoding Cognitive processes from neural ensembles.” it appeared in trends in cognitive science, 2018, dec; 22(12): 1091-1102. i am identifying this work since it shows how neuroscientists are endeavoring to decode cognitive processes, called “unobservable states that exist in between observable responses to the sensory environment. cognitive states must be inferred from indirect behavioral measures.” the author does not reduce cognition soley to the activities of the physical brain; hence my interest in this work.

the author identifies a central tenet of neuroscience, that neurons represent information as codes. tHEY ARE instantiated within action potentials at various frequencies, amplitudes, phases and shapes, discussed at length in my writings. it is stated that “the experimenter has little control over the cognitive process. . . [the approach is] to record the activity of many single neurons simultaneously and then project the pattern of neural ACTIVITY INTO A HIGH DIMENSIONAL SPACE THAT CAN BE USED TO CLASSIFY THE INFORMATION REPRESENTED BY THE NEURONS.”

NEUROSCIENTISTS ARE WORKING TO APPLY “DECODING ANALYSES TO UNCOVER OTHERWISE UNOBSERVABLE STates. . . . it has been possible to decode speech from neural activity in the superior temporal cortex evoked by speech,” but immaterial, unobservable cognition, such as choice, cannot be directly interpreted from codes within neural activity. but neuroscientists are getting close!

the author states “that hippocampal neural activity may provide an insight into the decision-making process. the experimenters [cited by the author] used decoders trained on established ground truths (hippocampal place fields during actual navigation) to measure hidden cognitive states (navigational decisions). however, they lack a critical piece of the decision: what makes one option preferable to another?” the selection of an option is a cognitive act of an immaterial mind. the author goes on to state the following, “unlike sensory stimuli, value judgments are frequently hidden states [of a mind] that must be inferred. . . . because value is a hidden state and inherently subjective, studying the mechanisms underpinning value-based decision-making is particularly difficult. decoding provides a potential solution. . . . what is noticeably absent from the above discussion is how the choice is implemented. . . . one of the posited reasons that we have working memory is so that we are not ‘stimulus-bound’: we can think about things we are not necessarily looking at.” the author asks “how do we access the contents of working memory, which is an unobservable, covert process?”

i highly value this article. it strongly suggests the reality of the immateriality of the human mind (the “unobservable”) that causally interacts with the material components of the synaptic networks of the brain.

the author makes the following statement toward the end of the article: “decoding enables neuroscientists to measure cognitive processes as they unfold. however, there are some caveats to keep in mind in interpreting the results of a decoding analysis. most importantly, just because we can decode information from the activity of a neural ensemble, this does not mean that individual neurons are encoding that information.”

I trust that i have been able to provide compelling evidence that the immaterial mind is the source of the power, perhaps as wave forms, to instantiate specified information into neural codes.

in my blogs and books i have endeavored to provide compelling evidence for what is called interactive dualism. This is a concept that refers to a personal interaction between the immaterial mind of god and His holy spirit, sent as promised by the living jesus christ, and the immaterial mind of man, working in large part through the material neural synaptic networks of the human brain. it is a bidirectional process. for those who have been following the content of my posts, i am sharing two scriptures that should now be understood as to reality. these are:

john 10:27 my sheep listen to my voice; i know them, and they follow me.

hebrews 10:16 this is the covenant i will make with them after that time, says the lord. i will put my laws in their hearts, and i will write them on their minds.

synaptic transmission involves the linguistic features of neural codes “written” within action potentials that are interpreted by the human immaterial mind and archived in memory. i address this process extensively in my posts and books.

it is my hope that we are seeing the harmony and concordance between what is being learned in the neurosciences and properly interpreted scripture.

thank you.

As my research continues, I seek articles that give testimony to the workings of the mind and the material components of the brain. Material reductionism posits that the mind is the brain, its neurophysiological, electrochemical activities. the role of a mind that is immaterial and separate from the material synaptic networks but interactive with them in causal fashion is discounted.

i have discussed this issue extensively in my books and blog posts over time. I am finding more acceptance of dualism within neuroscience, especially in my more recent posts dealing with near death and out of body experiences. Along the way i have cited numerous authors and their literary works, to which one can refer if interested.

recall that the human mind has been created in the image of the mind of god. as we see validation of the activities of an immaterial mind and its interaction with the synaptic components of the material brain of man, we should derive a degree of understanding of how the mind of god, his holy spirit, interacts personally with mankind.

in the writings of my books and blog posts I have addressed how specified information with meaning is transmitted along synchronous synaptic networks within encoded wave forms of action potentials. it is a complex mechanism which is becoming better understood with advancing technological capabilities. that the process has more than a material basis within the brain is frequently discounted from discussion since dualist interaction between the immaterial mind and the synaptic networks of the physical brain is not considered when there is a commitment to materialist reductionism. However, dualist interaction is becoming increasingly accepted and addressed in more current neurological postings.

memory is increasingly explained by encoded neural activity within specific parts of the brain that is accessed in an associative manner. Though dualism is not mentioned, i am referring to an article by lukas kunz et al in nature neuroscience, vol. 27, march 2024. the authors show how multiple regions of the brain are active in retrieving selected memories. it is a process referred to as associative memory that “enables the encoding and retrieval of relations beween different stimuli.” the authors “investigated whether associative memory involves temporally correlated spiking of medial temporal lobe neurons that exhibit stimulus-specific tuning. . . . the individual stimuli contributing to particular associative memories are encoded by separate sets of functionally specialized neurons and . . . these neurons interact transiently when individuals encode and retrieve the memories.”

here i question to whom or what the authors are referring by the word “individuals.” in their study the neural basis of associative memory was “in the setting of object-location associations.” they asked “whether the encoding and retrieval of such object-location memories is correlated with the simultaneous activation of object cells, which represent specific objects, and place cells, which code for particular spatial locations. [they] predicted that these coactivatons would occur in a temporally confined manner during hippocampal high-frequency oscillations, termed ‘ripples,’ which are considered important for synchronizing neural activity across brain regions. such ripple-locked coactivity of object and place cells could potentially underlie the encoding and retrieval of associative object-location memories by inducing and (re)activating synaptic connections between the object and place cells that represent the memory elements.” in both animals and humans “hippocampal ripples are relevant to various cognitive functions. neural recordings in patients with epilepsy revealed that ripples correlate with memory encoding, retrieval and consolidation. . . . ripple-locked coactivity of stimulus-specific neurons provides a neural mechanism for the formation and retrieval of associative memories and, more broadly, consititutes a key property of information processing in the human brain.”

hippocampal ripples are defined by the authors as “neural events with brain-wide effects that are considered beneficial for establishing or strengthening synaptic connections.” the authors reasoned that “hippocampal ripples could support associative memory by triggering brain states in which otherwise separate neural representations become linked.”

that a cognitive process of an immaterial mind was involved in this process is suggested by the following statement: “we hypothesized that coactivations of associative object and place cells during retrieval would indicate that the participant remembered a particular location given a specific object, whereas their coactivations during re-encoding would indicate that the participant aimed at (re)learning or updating the correct location of a given object.” I question how the “participant’s” remembering, (re)learning or updating could be reduced solely to the activity of the material brain of the study patient.

i recommend this article to the interested reader of this blog post. information (which can only be generated by a mind, as has been pointed out in previous blog posts) may, according to the authors, propagate from the hippocampus to extra-hippocampal regions during retrieval along synchronous neural pathways, a process that would involve associative, interpretive coordination by an immaterial, cognitive mind.

I refer you to AN ARTICLE MY jamali et al in nature, vol 631, 18 july 2024, entitled “Semantic Encoding during language comprehension at single-cell resolution.” the authors state the following: “from sequences of speech sounds or letters, humans can extract rich and nuanced meaning through language.”

in my writings i have addressed this capacity at length. the authors state that “the derivation of linguistic meaning in neural tissue at the cellular level and over the timescale of action potentials remains largely unknown.” it is this point which i have addressed over time in my writings. they continue to state that there is “a fine-scale cortical representation of semantic information by individual neurons. . . . we also show how they encoded the hierarchical structure of these meaning representations and how these representations mapped onto the cell population.”

i am identifying this particular article because it shows how the action potentials transmitted by neuronal networks (in this case by single cells) are encoded semantically. According to the authors, their “results therefore together suggested that these cell ensembles encoded richly detailed information about the hierarchical semantic relationship between words. . . . these findings reveal a highly detailed representation of semantic information within prefrontal cortical populations, and a cellular process that could allow the meaning of words to be accurately decoded in real time during speech.”

what i do not see in their article is the role of the immaterial mind in this process, though mention is made of “comprehension” without defining how and where it occurs. i submit that it is the mind which interprets the semantic neural codes, dynamic as they are as the authors point out. no mention of memory archived within neural networks is made which the mind accesses in establishing context to meanings.

I do recommend this article with elaborate methodology and on the forefront of learning how semantic communication occurs. It is my hope that my writings shed some light on this complex topic.

in miller’s conclusion he cites a number of individuals whose examination of nde’s “compelled them to believe that death isn’t the end of life.” he states that “this fascinating field provides remarkable evidence for both life after death and the existence of a loving, brilliant Being who knows us intimately. to me, nde’s are remarkably consistent with a theistic worldview. . . . we have strong evidence to support both life after death and the existence of a personal god.”

i close this series of excerpts from the book by j. steve miller whose writings, based on years of nde research, give strong testimony to a personal, loving and gracious creator god who desires an intimate communion with us. this has been restored by the sin sacrifice of his son, jesus christ, who sent as promised his holy spirit to once again indwell repentant believers so we can experience this bidirectional communion, now and into eternity.