Eccles, "a man of the spirit"

CONTINUING FROM MY PREFACE:

“my neuroanatomy professor in medicAL SCHOOL SERVED AS A RESEARCH FELLOW WITH SIR JOHN CAREW ECCLES WHO WAS AWARDED THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR HIS STUDIES OF NEURAL SYNAPTIC TRANSMISSION. MY PROFESSOR OFTEN REFERRED TO SIR ECCLES DURING HIS LECTURES, AND WHEN I SPOKE WITH HIM BY PHONE YEARS LATER AT THE INCEPTION OF MY RESEARCH INTO THE HOLY SPIRIT HE REFERRED TO ECCLES AS ‘A MAN OF THE SPIRIT.’ THIS DESCRIPTION OF HIM LAUNCHED MY STUDY OF INTERACTION BETWEEN THE IMMATERIAL SPIRIT OF GOD AND THE SPIRIT OF MAN THROUGH WHICH THE HOLY SPIRIT COMMUNES WITH US. I DREW UPON THE INSIGHTS AND RESEARCH FINDINGS OF SIR ECCLES. THE INTERACTION PROVIDES FOR AN INTIMATE AND PERSONAL COMMUNION BETWEEN THE MIND OF GOD AND THE MIND OF MAN, A MIND THAT WAS CREATED IN THE IMAGO DEI. SIR ECCLES’ WORK SHOWED HOW THE IMMATERIAL HUMAN MIND DEPENDS UPON THE SYNAPTIC NETWORKS OF THE MATERIAL BRAIN BUT CANNOT BE REDUCED TO THEM. THE MIND IS A SEPARATE IMMATERIAL ENTITY AS IS THE SPIRIT, AND BOTH ARE DISTINCT FROM THE MATERIAL BRAIN WITH WHICH THEY ARE IN AN INTERACTIVE FUNCTIONAL RELATIONSHIP, A RELATIONSHIP REFERRED TO AS DUALIST INTERACTIONISM. I APPLIED THIS MODEL TO MY STUDIES TO COME TO AN UNDERSTANDING OF GOD’S LOVE.”

Stan Lennard