I have referred to my blog, “Waves in Our Brains,” Part Two, several times since it was posted on October 3, 2020. I invite your review of it to refresh your understanding of dualist interactionism between the immaterial mind and the material synaptic networks of the human brain. In that blog I referenced an important and exciting study that provides compelling confirmation of this interaction. I am copying the work of the authors of that study here that I summarized in that blog. It will serve as the basis for my subsequent blogs that will expand on their findings. My research continues investigating how the mind exerts an energy expressed as wave forms that transmit information through synaptic networks of the brain within linguistic neural codes.
THE NEURAL CODES OF OVERT AND COVERT SPEECH
THROUGH PART TWO OF THIS BLOG REFERENCES HAVE BEEN MADE TO COGNITION, ATTENTION AND INTENT, AND WE HAVE SEEN THAT WAVES ARE TRANSMITTED INTRINSICALLY THROUGH NEURAL NETWORKS TO BRING ABOUT SPECIFIC FUNCTIONS SUCH AS TO MOVE AN EXTREMITY. WHAT IS LEFT IS TO ADDRESS THE QUESTION RAISED ABOVE, HOW DOES THE IMMATERIAL MIND RELATE TO THESE PROCESSES IN A DUALIST INTERACTION? DOES THE HUMAN MIND GENERATE WAVES EXTRINSIC TO THE BRAIN ITSELF THAT CAN ACT CAUSALLY ON IT? STEPHANIE MARTIN AND EIGHT COWORKERS PUBLISHED AN ARTICLE IN FRONTIERS IN NEUROENGINEERING THAT ADDRESSES THIS QUESTION WITH EXCITING FINDINGS. (17) I CONCLUDE THIS BLOG WITH A DISCUSSION OF THEIR FINDINGS.
THE MODEL USED WAS ECOG IN SEVEN EPILEPTIC PATIENTS WHO PERFORMED AN OUT LOUD AND SILENT READING TASK. SUBJECTS READ SHORT STORIES THAT WERE PRESENTED TO THEM BOTH ALOUD AND SILENTLY. A HIGH GAMMA (70-150 HZ) NEURAL DECODING MODEL WAS BUILT “TO RECONSTRUCT SPECTROTEMPORAL AUDITORY FEATURES OF SELF-GENERATED OVERT SPEECH.” THE DECODING MODEL TRAINED FROM OVERT, SPOKEN SPEECH WAS USED TO DECODE THE NEURAL ACTIVITY OF COVERT, SILENTLY READ SPEECH (WHICH DID NOT INVOLVE AUDITORY SENSORY INPUT, ONLY INPUT FROM MENTATION!). SPECTROGRAMS WERE GENERATED IN CONTROLS AND IN SUBJECTS WHO USED OVERT AND COVERT SPEECH TO RECONSTRUCT NEURAL RESPONSES WITH A HIGH STATISTICAL ACCURACY. EVIDENCE WAS PROVIDED THAT SHOWED THAT REPRESENTATIONS OF OVERT AND COVERT SPEECH COULD BE RECONSTRUCTED SHARING A NEURAL SUBSTRATE. IN OTHER WORDS, OUT LOUD SPEECH AND READ TEXT COULD BE RECONSTRUCTED IN NEURAL NETWORKS MONITORED VIA ECOG. NO WIRES CONNECTED THE TEST SUBJECTS TO THE CORTICAL MONITORS, INDICATING THAT THE CEREBRAL NETWORK RESPONDED TO WAVES GENERATED BY THE MIND OF THE TEST SUBJECTS. THE HIGH GAMMA BAND RELIABLY TRACKED NEURONAL ACTIVITY AND CORRELATED WITH THE SPIKE RATE OF THE UNDERLYING NEURAL POPULATION. THE KEY TEST OF RECONSTRUCTIVE ACCURACY, ACCORDING TO THE AUTHORS, WAS THE ABILITY TO USE THE RECONSTRUCTION TO IDENTIFY SPECIFIC SPEECH UTTERANCES. THIS WAS POSSIBLE ESPECIALLY FOR OVERT SPEECH.
Is wave function reality?
Throughout my writings I have referred to quantum wave functions and to wave forms that vary in frequency, amplitude and shape. In “Waves in Our Brains,” Part Two (to which I referred in a very recent blog on March 1, 2021) I have shared that wave forms now appear to be generated by the immaterial mind of Man (and by the Mind of God, I would add) that transmit specified information to and through neural synaptic networks. The term wave function consists of all the information wave forms can assume in a probabilistic manner. W. A. Dembski has referred to the “small probabilities” that describe the specification of information that can be transmitted between a sender and recipient. Wave forms, if you will, are expressions of “small probabilities” by which wave functions can be specifically manifested, for example within linguistic neural codes.
But are quantum wave functions real? Colbeck and Renner have addressed this question and have found that they are elements of reality in a one-to-one correspondence. (https://cqi.inf.usi.ch/qic/ColbeckRenner2012_2.pdf) The authors maintain that the wave function corresponds to an element of reality that objectively exists, and it does not depend on whether it is measured or not. Colbeck and Renner’s claim is that “…the wave function includes all information that is in principle available about the system….” So we can justifiably assume that wave forms correspond to specified elements of reality.
Is mind an immortal reality?
It is important to explain the relationship between the mind and the soul. In my writings I have defined the soul as consisting of the mind, the will and the emotion expressed by the living human being. Yes, there are “soulish” animals, such as dogs and horses. If you have ever ridden a horse (as I have on many occasions over 35 plus years) you have been exposed to its emotions and its will, such as when it has tried to rub you off its back against a fence or beneath a low limb! It is with its mind that it expresses its will or intention to get you off of its back! But, to the best of our theological knowledge “soulish” animals have no spirit, as does Man, and it is not known if “soulish” animals have immortal souls. But how about Man? Is the soul of Man immortal? Scripturally we have reason to believe that indeed the soul of Man IS immortal, as is his spirit.
Michael Egnor wrote an article on January 31, 2021 that speaks to this issue. It appeared in “Mind Matters.” (https://mindmatters.ai/2021/01/your-soul-has-no-off-switch/) Egnor states that “Man has a soul, and the mind is several powers of the soul - sensation, perception, sensus communis, imagination, memory, sensitive appetite, reason, and will.” He continues saying, “But there is no evidence - either philosophical or scientific - that the mind or the soul (of which the mind is an aspect) has an “on switch” or an “off switch.” The most reasonable scientific inference is that we are never “unconscious,” nor are we “conscious” in any meaningful sense. Our mental life is a composite of abilities - arousal, sensation, perception, locomotion, reason, etc., and these abilities appear to subsist in modified form despite dramatic changes in the body and brain….Even after death, we often seem to retain awareness that can be verified, and even have heightened awareness, as the massive literature on near death experiences demonstrates….Our minds are never off; we just have states in which one or more powers of the mind - sensation or perception or memory etc. - are temporarily inactive….Most egregiously, the concept of “consciousness” perpetuates the lie that we are extinguished at death. There is every reason - philosophical and scientific - to infer that man has an immortal soul.” Our mind is an immortal reality.
Information flow and brain waves
Researchers from The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology published an article in 2020 that addresses information flow through the brain. The title is “Preservation and Changes in Oscillatory Dynamics across the Cortical Hierarchy.” and the authors are Mikael Lundqvist, Andre M. Bastos and Earl K. Miller. An excellent review of the article appeared in Science Daily on September 8, 2020 to which I now refer. To produce … thoughts and actions, [the] brain processes information in a hierarchy of regions along its surface, or cortex. … many studies have looked at how synchronized the phases of a particular frequency are between cortical regions. … [The authors found] a systematic shift in preferred frequencies across regions. [In their animal studies three regions were studied, the visual cortex, the parietal cortex and the prefrontal cortex, and the animals were given the task of correctly identifying an image they had just seen. The authors tracked the waves produced by this activity in the three regions.] In each region they found that when an image was either being encoded (when it was first presented) or recalled (when working memory was tested), the power of theta and gamma frequency bands of brain waves would increase in bursts and power in alpha and beta bands would decrease. When the information had to be held in mind, … theta and gamma power went down and alpha and beta power went up in bursts. … the bursts of theta and gamma power were closely associated with neural spikes that encoded information about the images. Alpha and beta power bursts … were anti-correlated with that same spiking activity. … As you move from the back of the brain to the front, all the frequencies get a little higher. … the inverse relationships between frequency bands … are consistent with a model in which alpha and beta alternatively inhibit, or release, gamma to control the encoding of information - a form of top-down control of sensory activity. … The increased frequency in the oscillatory rhythms may help sculpt information flow in the cortex.”
I cite this article because it shows how brain waves in different frequencies work in synchrony to provide the flow of information through different regions of the brain. As I stated in “Waves in Our Brains,” Part Two, energy in wave forms is transmitted through the brain’s synaptic networks linguistically encoded to convey semantic information, and this article elaborates on that point. My objective is to identify work that supports dualist interaction between the immaterial mind and the material neural networks of the brain involving wave forms generated by the intention or attention of the immaterial mind.
Neural encoding of imagined touch
I have come across an interesting article that is relevant to research that supports dualist interaction between the immaterial mind and the material brain. It is entitled “Neural Encoding of Actual and Imagined Touch within Human Posterior Parietal Cortex,” authored by Srinivas Chivukula et al in eLife and published on March 1, 2021 (https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.61646) I am posting excerpts from that article along with my comments:
“Recent human neuroimaging studies suggest that the PPC [posterior parietal cortex] is also recruited during touch cognition in the absence of actual tactile input (e.g., seen touch or imagined touch), supporting a notion that both higher-level touch processing and tactile cognition share a neural substrate. . . . we found that a shared PPC neuronal population coded for overt movements as well as cognitive motor variables including imagery, observed actions, and action verbs. . . . The tactile imagery task evoked body part-specific responses that shared a neural substrate with actual touch. Our results demonstrate that PPC neurons that discriminate touch are partially reactivated during a tactile imagery task in a body part-specific manner. The latter represents a novel finding . . . and suggests PPC involvement in the cognitive processing of touch. . . . Recordings were made from a chronic implanted array, and thus neuronal waveform sorting resulted in both well-isolated neuronal waveforms and multi-neuron groupings.”
The authors asked the important question, “Are neurons that encode tactile sensations also recruited during tactile imagery?” Recall the comment above, “. . . and thus neuronal waveform sorting resulted in both well-isolated neuronal waveforms . . . .” Previous blog posts have identified the compelling possibility that the cognitive mind has the capacity to generate waveforms that interact with neural synaptic networks to transmit specified information through neural networks in the form of linguistic neural codes within spike trains of action potentials. It is important to note that “. . . during the imagery task, no stimulus was delivered to the participant.“
In previous blogs and as discussed in my books a nonclassical, immaterial energy generated by the immaterial mind may interact with material neural networks as waveforms with amplitude and frequency that are transmitted through neural synapses by quantum tunneling. Are we getting closer to at least a partial understanding of how the Mind of God communes with the mind of Man?
Imagining touch
An article was published on April 3, 2014 entitled “Dissociating the Neural Correlates of Experiencing and Imagining Affective Touch.” The authors are Molly V. Lucas, Laura C. Anderson, Danielle A. Bolling, Kevin A. Pelphrey and Martha D. Kaiser. The investigators shared that “both experiencing and viewing affective . . . touch recruit similar neural mechanisms.” An observation from earlier studies suggests that “some components involved in touch perception do not require physical sensation. . . .The anterior insula of the brain is involved in subjective feeling states and affective learning.” The investigators “sought to characterize . . . stimulus-independent activations, which may be coding the affective aspects of gentle [imagined] touch.” Their hypothesis was “that some aspects of brain mechanisms for processing touch may reflect stimulus-independent, cognitive-based, responses, which code for the affective response to touch. . . . While the posterior insula showed activation only during the physical experience of touch, the anterior insula was responsive to both experienced and imagined touch, suggesting that this region plays a role in the interpretation of the affective meaning of the touch.”
I propose from my studies that the mere imagining of touch in the prefrontal cortex generates specific wave forms that stimulate spike trains of action potentials transmitting neural codes with meaning through synaptic networks. The cognitive mind is the interpreter of the codes. That the anterior insula “plays a role in the interpretation of the affective meaning of the touch” is explained by the synaptic transmission of neural codes within specific regions of the brain that the cognitive mind “reads” through a lifelong process of learning archived in memory. It is important for neuroscientists to account for the activity of the cognitive mind in such interpretation.
So what, dualist interactionism?
I have spent close to 30 years in research, written two books and now have a website and over 700 blogs that expand on the contents of my books. One can ask, “So what?” Why have I spent so much time and energy on this task? Let me answer.
I find that many people who consider themselves Christians, and this includes pastors, cannot differentiate between the spirit and the soul and their relation to the body and fail to give full explanation to the human spirit and its relation to the Holy Spirit. Reference is made to the “heart,” but no explanation is given to what constitutes the “heart.” Yes, the Bible refers to the heart, but what IS the heart in this context? And what does it mean when it is taught that the Holy Spirit indwells the body, the “heart?” OR, did the indwelling of the Holy Spirit cease at the closure of the Canon? Does the Holy Spirit indwell repentant mankind in our time? What exactly does it mean to be indwelled by the Holy Spirit? Can we only pray TO God, or can we yet hear FROM and receive Counsel FROM God through His indwelling Holy Spirit, sent as promised by Jesus Christ upon His resurrection, as documented in the Book of Acts? And how do we hear from God, or can we only pray TO Him? Is being “spiritual” merely signified by the raising of hands in song or by other physical actions? What IS worship anyway? Is it expressed only in song and when we “feel” the “moving of the Holy Spirit,” however that is expressed in an emotion?
In a very recent communication with a dear friend I made the following statement: “My research really does not deal with consciousness but rather with the cognitive, immaterial mind/soul of humanity and how it relates to the spirit both of Man and of God in dualist interaction with the material neural synaptic networks of the brain.” But the fair question is, “So what?” So many questions! IT HAS BEEN THE PURPOSE OF MY WRITING IN MY BOOKS AND IN MY BLOGS TO ADDRESS THESE VERY CRITICAL QUESTIONS. We are now living in an era when science is “king,” and we must ask if there is concordance between properly conducted and interpreted science, including of course, neuroscience, and properly interpreted Scripture in context. In my next blogs I will endeavor to succinctly address these questions. It is important to the Great Commission given to all mankind by Jesus Christ.
Tripartite Man
I now address the question if Man is a tripartite being. Spirit and soul can be confusing concepts since the words appear to be used interchangeably in Scripture. And where does spirit fit in?
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. Hebrews 4:12
From my first book, Nerve Endings of the Soul: Interaction Between the Mind of God and the Mind of Man Through Neural Synaptic Networks, I addressed this issue with comments that give support to Hebrews 4:12:
Then God said, “Let Us make man in our image, in my likeness” . . . . So God created man in his own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Genesis 1:26-27
God is a triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Only the Spirit knows the Mind of God. (1 Corinthians 2:11) Since man was created in the image of God (imago Dei) it is biblical that man is tripartite with body, soul and spirit. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 states, “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” When God formed man from the dust of the ground, He breathed “the breath of life” into him. (Genesis 2:7) It is this life from God that constitutes the human spirit, and as it is with God only the human spirit truly knows the mind of man. It is the soul of man that is the vehicle through which the mind’s will operates, and if a repentant man’s soul wills to obey God, it will allow the spirit to rule over the man as ordered by the indwelling Holy Spirit. As spirit acts upon the soul of man, the soul in turn expresses itself through the brain and body.
With the Fall of man (Genesis 3) the image of God in humans was corrupted with the loss of intimate communion between the soul of man and the Holy Spirit since Man in sin experienced spiritual death, losing [the indwelling personal] communion between the Holy Spirit and his human spirit. Man’s mind became governed by his soul, the will of his own self-centered focus. The relationship between God and Man was and is designed to be a bidirectional, interactive one. Man’s capacity is to use all the communicable attributes of his Creator God, his mind being created in the image of the Mind of God. The restoration of this interaction depends upon Man’s repentance and the soul’s choice to follow the Counsel of the Holy Spirit through his human spirit.
Indwelling of the Holy Spirit
What does it mean to be indwelled, or anointed, by the Holy Spirit? In The Boundless Love of God: A Holy Spirit Story, I address this action. In the next blogs I will share my comments from this book, beginning with the indwelling of Jesus Christ, the God-Man, by the Holy Spirit of his Father. Recall that I refer to the soul as consisting of mind, will, emotion and conscience and heart as the soul.
Throughout his life Jesus lived and spoke in complete obedience to God’s counsel through his indwelling Holy Spirit. In John 15:9-15 Jesus teaches that he has obeyed his Father’s commands and that everything he has learned from his Father he has made known to his disciples. In the synagogue in Nazareth Jesus opened the scroll of Isaiah and read, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach the good news…,” confirming his identity with God the Father and fulfilling Scripture that identified him as the promised Messiah. To Thomas he said, “If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” Responding to a question from Phillip Jesus stated, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” These passages confirm Jesus’ indwelling by his Father through his Holy Spirit who descended to dwell in the human spirit of Jesus just after he was baptized by John the Baptist. He willfully lived in complete obedience to the Father all his life, even to his death. As Jesus was dying on the cross he cried out, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” That Jesus possessed a human spirit is indicated by these words he spoke on the cross. His very last words were, “‘It is finished.’ With that he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” These verses confirm that Jesus the Man possessed a spirit and submitted it in full obedience to the Spirit of the Father.
Indwelling of the Holy Spirit, restored
The Book of Acts could be called The Acts of the Holy Spirit since there are fifty-six references to the Holy Spirit in the twenty-eight chapters of the book, more than in any other single book of the Bible. Huber L. Drumwright, Jr. stated that Jesus Christ continued his work through the lives and ministries of his disciples. In John 12:24 Jesus told his disciples, “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies it produces many seeds.” Walter Thomas Conner said, “The Holy Spirit is the presence of the living Lord Jesus in spiritual power in the lives of men.”
This work was begun at Pentecost as recorded in Acts 2:14-36 when the Holy Spirit was given as an indwelling as Jesus had promised before his death on the cross. The Spirit was given to dwell permanently once again inside all repentant believers, making regeneration possible for all mankind. Regeneration refers to the restoration of the intimate, direct, personal interaction between the Holy Spirit and the human spirit and soul that was lost at the Fall. Though yet fallen in our time humanity in repentance has been granted salvation by the grace and love of God through the sacrifice of his Son, Jesus Christ, resurrected by the power of the Holy Spirit. The price for sin has been paid. Life is restored in the living Jesus Christ. Spirit-indwelled individuals are spokespersons for God, and their testimony is Spirit-originated and Spirit-empowered. The first Christian sermon was given by Peter at Pentecost, and the events demonstrated that Jesus who was raised from the dead had his authority extended beyond our time into eternity and beyond Earth into heaven. Jesus reigns by virtue of his resurrection. The presence and power of the Holy Spirit is the proof.
Effects of the indwelling Holy Spirit
I conclude this series of blog posts by commenting on how the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in repentant believers is manifested. The Apostle Paul admonished believers to walk by the leading of the Holy Spirit, as did the God-Man Jesus Christ. In doing so they manifest the fruits of the Holy Spirit. These include love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. The Source of these effects is the character and living presence of Jesus Christ. Desires of the flesh reflect an attitude of defiance to God. Believers who live in obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit are “sealed,” signifying that God has ownership of them.
Paul also taught that spiritual gifts are given to believers for the benefit of the whole Church. The gifts are supernatural, Spirit-given abilities that are addressed in 1 Corinthians 12:1-11. The gifts are given by one Spirit for the common good, the Spirit of Jesus Christ. These include wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy. the discernment of spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues, service, teaching, encouragement, sharing, leadership and showing mercy. We are designed to need each other and to serve one another. Communion and companionship vertically between the Christian and the Father will always include a horizontal relationship in love among the saints.
It is my hope that what I have shared in this series of blogs is helpful for an understanding of what it means to be indwelled by the Holy Spirit. How does the indwelling relate to the human spirit and soul, and how does communion occur in our time between the Holy Spirit and the human spirit and soul? It is a communion actualized by the transmission of meaning in neural codes through God’s created synaptic networks. It is a bidirectional dualist interaction between the immaterial Mind of God and mind of Man and the exquisite material mechanisms of the human brain.
Jesus knew what they were thinking
The first verses I shall share are in Luke 5:21-23:
The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk?’”
Another instance of Jesus’ knowing the thoughts of other people is recorded in Luke 6:7-8:
The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Get up and stand in front of everyone.” So he got up and stood there.
I refer to the scheme for communication discussed in my books as a template for information transmission between the Mind of God and the mind of Man via the indwelling of the human spirit by the personal Holy Spirit. It also applies to the communication between God the Father and his Son, the God-Man Jesus Christ, who was indwelled by the Holy Spirit at his baptism. In this scheme the identification of the Sender, or information Source, is the Mind of God the Father, and the recipient, or receiver, is the mind of Man, applicable in this case to the Mind of Jesus Christ the God-Man. The transmitter of specified information in this scheme is the Holy Spirit who directs a signal with meaning and purpose to the receiver, in this case the cognitive Mind of Jesus. The signal is in the form of spike patterns of action potentials transmitted through the neural synaptic networks as linguistic codes in various manifestations, including perceived words and discernment. I suggest a parallel between this scheme and the cited Scriptures wherein Jesus “knew what they were thinking.” It is a dualist interaction between immaterial and material entities created by God.
The God Hypothesis
I have finished reading Stephen C. Meyer’s new book, Return of the God Hypothesis, and I strongly recommend it to you. My next blog posts will address points made in his book and relate them to the points I have made in my books and blogs concerning dualist interactionism. As Meyer stated, too many people, including some leading scientists today, do not accept the reality that properly interpreted Scripture in context and good science can be in concordance without contradiction, a point I have made in my writings. I value his book since the transcendent intelligence that designed the universe and all within and sustains it is identified by inference to the best explanation as the biblical God. I quote from Meyer’s book:
…philosophers or scientists who postulate the existence of God understand God to have certain attributes (e.g., transcendence, intelligence, creativity, omnipresence, and free will) and corresponding causal powers that would allow God to produce certain kinds of effects expected on the basis of those powers….By articulating those attributes, properties, and powers, philosophers can provide a theoretical rationale for affirming the causal adequacy of a God hypothesis…with respect to specific observable phenomena or kinds of events….Since scientists have evidence confirming those expectations in, for example, the discovery of the fine tuning and temporal beginning of the universe and the digital code and information processing systems in living cells, evidence from the world provides confirmation of the theistic hypothesis and positive support for its causal adequacy as an explanation.
God hypothesis response
In the blog I just posted that included Meyer’s comments, I wish to apply his comments to points made in my writings. God’s attributes indeed include His Mind with its intelligence, creativity and free will. He is a personal God who desires a bidirectional communion with Man whom He created. His causal powers that resulted in the creation of the universe and the fine tuning of its constants and laws made human beings possible whose cognitive minds were created in the image of the Mind of God. God is Spirit and immaterial, and we have seen in my writings that the immaterial mind of Man and Mind of God interact with the material synaptic networks of the brain, transmitting specified information within neural codes to achieve goals. Likewise the DNA code is digital and transmits specified information instantiated by the intelligent design of our Creator God for a multitude of purposes. As Meyer has stated so well, the specification of information is improbable, selected by the willful design of God as well as by the design of the will and intention of Man. Information is only generated by a mind, and its immaterial reality is ultimately derived from the Mind of God. These are observed phenomena, events that give testimony to the validity of the God hypothesis by the scientific process clearly explained by Meyer, inference to the best explanation. These phenomena also give testimony to dual interaction between that which is immaterial and is material.
Waves in Our Brains, Part Three
I am posting a new third part of the blog, “Waves in Our Brains,” previously posted in two parts. My research continues, and I find it important to supplement what I shared in that two-part blog in relation to the hypothesis I recorded in my first book, Nerve Endings of the Soul: Interaction between the Mind of God and the Mind of Man through Neural Synaptic Networks. I will continue to expand on this third part in subsequent blogs, drawing from both neuroscientific literature and applicable Scripture.
The Hypothesis
The Mind of the personal God interacts with the immaterial mind of Man by the atoning grace of God through the living Jesus Christ in our time. His Holy Spirit indwells a receptive, repentant human spirit with the power to interact with the chemical neural synaptic network of the cerebral cortex, the predominate site for cognition. Synaptic transmission is stochastic, and it proposed that a nonmaterial energy from the Mind of God induces the synaptic transmission of specified information to the mind of Man by quantum tunneling across presynaptic vesicular grids and synaptic clefts. Information specified in variable expressions is transmitted with a statistically small probability and is distributed through synaptic networks as encoded spike trains of action potentials, a mechanism without violation of the energy conservation law. The human mind has the unique capacity to interpret meaning and purpose within the linguistic neural codes developed through lifelong learning and archived in memory.
Expansion of The Hypothesis
Drawing upon the blog posts composed from my more recent studies, the content of my books and from books by Stephen C. Meyer and William A. Dembski, I am expanding on the hypothesis presented above.
Stephen Meyer discusses a universal wave function that is resident in the Mind of God (Return of the God Hypothesis: Three Scientific Discoveries that Reveal the Mind behind the Universe). It existed before the beginning of time, space, energy and matter and consisted of all possible wave forms of position and momentum, amplitude, frequency and shape in a vast probability distribution. By God’s design He selected specific wave forms from all the possible presentations of the universal wave function to actualize His goals for the design, structure, fine tuning, meaning and purpose of the universe as well as for sustaining it over time. It is the process by which He selected wave forms to transmit specified information content for the creation of human life, including the immaterial, cognitive mind of human beings and its interaction with the physical human brain. It is an outcome that provides for personal communion between mankind and with God.
It is the selection of outcomes derived from the universal wave function that defines specification, the process by which information generated via the Mind of God has been actualized within His creations by His will and design. The outcomes chosen have small probabilities, or put another way, are improbable considering the infinite options God has had from within the universal wave function. A nondeterministic universe as given by quantum mechanics is informationally open, and in previous blog posts and in my books we have seen how quantum mechanics applies to the dualist interaction between the immaterial mind and the material synaptic networks of the physical human brain. To quote William A. Dembski, “Such a universe will produce . . . random events [from which are chosen by a mind’s intent] patterns [Italics added] of events that stand out against the backdrop of randomness (as a signal stands out from noise). Such patterns . . . could reasonably be interpreted as constituting novel information inputted from outside the system. Accordingly, in a nondeterministic universe, divine action could impart information into matter without violating any physical laws by which matter operates.” Dembski goes further, stating, “Nondeterminism means that God can substantively affect the structure and dynamics of the physical world by imparting information . . . a nondeterministic universe can be informationally porous and thus open to action by a deity able to impart information without imparting material [Italics added] energy. Quantum mechanics, when interpreted as a fundamentally probabilistic theory, offers such a picture of the universe, allowing God free play at the quantum level” (Being as Communion: A Metaphysics of Information, Ashgate, 2014 and my books). As discussed in “Waves in Our Brains” the most recent research in neuroscience is identifying how waves are transmitted via quantum tunneling through the synaptic networks of the human brain in the form of linguistic neural codes, or patterns. The waves emanate from the immaterial, cognitive mind of humans and from the Mind of God. By causal interaction with the networks of the brain outcomes result with meaning and purpose.
In his book Meyer cited these comments made by Dembski: “Systems, sequences, or events that exhibit two characteristics at the same time – extreme improbability and a special kind of pattern called a ‘specification” – indicate prior intelligent activity. According to Dembski, extremely improbable events that also exhibit ‘an independently recognizable pattern’ or set of functional requirements, what he calls ‘specification,’ invariably result from intelligent causes, not chance or physicochemical laws.” Meyer states that “our uniform experience affirms that specified or functional information . . . always arises from an intelligent source, from a mind [that is immaterial].” And we now understand that the ultimate Source of all information instantiated into the universe and all within it is the immaterial Mind of God, who is Spirit. (John 4:24)
Meyer stated that “In using language the human mind routinely ‘finds’ or generates highly improbable linguistic sequences to convey a preconceived idea. In the process of thought [or cognition], functional objectives precede and constrain the selection of words, sounds, and symbols to generate functional (and meaningful) sequences from a vast ensemble of meaningless alternatives. . . . Intelligent agents can select functional goals before the goals are physically instantiated. . . . They can then actualize those goals in accord with a preconceived design plan or set of functional requirements.” The linguistic patterns are then transmitted by wave forms into neural codes within spike trains of action potentials interpreted by the cognitive mind of humans and archived in memory.
Meyer provided evidence of “the causal adequacy of intelligent agency as a cause of the kind of specified digital information [and fine tuning] needed to produce life [and I would add dualist interaction between mind and brain] . . . including the unique causal adequacy of a transcendent and intelligent agent as the best explanation.”
In his concluding remarks, Meyer stated, “Since theism holds that a benevolent God possessing a rational intellect created our minds, we have good reason to expect the basic reliability of our belief-forming cognitive equipment. Since most versions of theism hold that the same benevolent and rational God who created our minds created them in God’s image and also created a rationally ordered universe, we have good reason to think we can understand and perceive the order built into that universe. . . . Our beautiful, expanding, and finely tuned universe and the exquisite, integrated, and informational complexity of living organisms bear witness to the reality of a transcendent intelligence – a personal God.” And we can have confidence in what neuroscientists are learning about the orderly interaction between the human mind and the synaptic networks of the brain via the application of good, unprejudiced scientific methodology unconstrained by methodological naturalism and materialism. The comments I have shared given by Stephen Meyer and William Dembski provide a foundation for accepting the validity of dualist interactionism between that which is immaterial and material, the mind and the brain.