dr. egnor cites the neurosurgeon dr. wilder penfield in the first chapter of his book. dr. penfield’s primary research and work concerned the treatment of epilepsy in awake patients. this he could do since the brain has no pain receptors. patients needed only local anesthesia for the scalp and coverings surrounding it. during the operation he would stimulate foci in the brain to find the region from which seizures arose which would be removed, sparing vital regions that controlled neurophysiological functions.
“penfield observed that the mind has an existence independent of the brain, and that the mind uses the brain to interact with the world, in a way analogous to the way a computer programmer uses a computer to accomplish tasks. . . . penfield was amazed that there were some thoughts he could evoke just by stimulating the patient’s brain (for instance, a memory), and there were other thoughts that he could not evoke by stimulating the patient’s brain (such as the patient’s capacity for reason and reflection). . . . there was a key exception to what penfield could stimulate in the brain. he was never able to stimulate abstract thought - that is, the sense of self, the capacity to reason, and the exercise of free will. . . . neither epilepsy nor neurosurgeons, it seems, could evoke abstract intellectual thought by stimulating the brain. . . . he concluded that abstract thought is a function of something other than or beyond the physical brain. he came to define the mind as the element in an individual ‘that feels, perceives, thinks, wills, and especially reasons.’”
in his book, the mystery of the mind, dr. penfield stated “what a thrill it is, then, to discover that the scientist, too, can legitimately believe in the existence of the spirit. . . . the mind must be viewed as a basic element in itself . . . that is to say, it has a continuing existence. this seems to mean that the mind or human soul does not die with the body.”
dr. egnor states that “the immortal aspect of the human soul - that is, the mind that penfield observed while he was cutting into the brain - is unity. it has no parts, so it cannot be split or multiplied. . . . because the soul is not composed of separate parts, it cannot decompose, as a dead body does. like the abstractions it can uniquely comprehend, it is not mortal.”