The immaterial mind does effect physical and functional changes in neural synaptic networks. Action potentials are transmitted along the axons of neuronal pathways as spike trains that transmit instructions. We are learning that the instructions are codified within the spike trains of action potentials with both syntax and semantics, or meaning. The cognitive mind interprets the neural codes through a lifetime of learning archived in memory.

The studies of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) reported by Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz and Sharon Begley have provided compelling evidence that the human mind is an independent entity that can shape and control the functioning of the physical human brain by the process of synaptic plasticity that occurs throughout life. Dr. Schwartz’ four-step process for treatment of OCD resulted in significant and lasting corrective changes in their brain’s neural pathways with significant improvement of their symptoms. The changes were induced by the active focusing of attention away from negative behaviors and toward more positive ones without the administration of drugs. Patients learned to reassess the significance of their OCD feelings with the result that the activity of the brain regions underlying their OCD was changed both physically and functionally. The physical changes were documented by positron emission tomography. Dr. Schwartz postulated that the human will generates a force that effects the physical changes he observed in the brain. Mind and matter interact, and the force involved is most likely explained by application of quantum mechanics from his collaboration with Dr. Henry Stapp. More will be posted about the role of quantum mechanics and wave functions in this regard.

Before the “how” of neuronal transmission can be further considered . . . it must be determined if the cognitive action of an immaterial mind can effect changes in the physical brain, specifically the structure and function of neural synaptic networks. Obsessive-compulsive disorder opens the door!

Penfield suggested that a transmitting energy from the mind of an external source, whether another person or God, can reach a man’s mind. He further suggested that energy in some form must pass from the Holy Spirit to the human spirit to interact with the mind through patterned, [semantic, with meaning] neuronal potentials transmitted through synaptic networks.

What a thrill it is, then, to discover that the scientist, too, can legitimately believe in the existence of the spirit! (Wilder Penfield)

It is noted in Chapter Five that Wilder Penfield studied the human mind and acknowledged a spiritual element in Man when he accepted the dualist hypothesis. . . . He ultimately proposed a form of energy within the mind that enables its action on the brain. . . . He . . . asked if there is a force available to the mind which does not depend on such electrochemical circuits but is interactive with it. He posited that the mind has energy, the form of which is different from that of electrochemical action potentials that traverse the axonal and dendritic pathways of neural networks.

In Chapter Five I paraphrase comments by Mortimer Adler who pointed out that humans need their brains to think but that they do not think with their brains.

Adler emphasized the following points:

(1) Intellectual powers and operations of the human mind are immaterial, and the intellect functions with an entirely independent reality;

(2) Human beings can think about what is totally unperceived by the senses;

(3) Mind and matter, mental and physical, constitute two distinct realms, the one irreducible to the other;

(4) An intellectual, rational mind is associated with having a soul that can be immortal, capable of existing apart from the perishable body.

The next series of blogs will address the immaterial and material interaction and its mechanism as presented in Chapter Five.

Carl F. H. Henry stated that Man was created in the divine image for an intelligible, interactive communication with God. . . .God created Man as a rational creature whose forms of thought correspond to the laws of logic subsisting in the Mind of God. That God endowed humans with His image includes a structure of reason that reflects God’s own reason. . . . human beings as rational creatures possess innately and uniquely the capacity to think creatively and to use advanced language. Language is a gift that facilitates the personal and cognitive communion between God and humans. We shall see that communion between individuals and with the Holy Spirit is enabled by the semantic transmission of linguistic neural codes learned during a lifetime and archived in memory.

Accepting that Man was created in the image of God it is biblically supported that man is tripartite with body, soul and spirit. In 1 Thessalonians 5:23 it 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.”

To understand dualist interaction it is important to accept that the spirit and soul (mind, will and emotion and conscience) are immaterial and cannot be reduced to the function of the material brain. Dualism refers to the interaction between what is immaterial and what is material, or physical. Jesus’ spirit as a human being, was indwelled at His baptism by the Holy Spirit. He was also divine and was in intimate communion with God the Father throughout His life and teaching, obedient to the counsel of the Holy Spirit even to His death on the cross as a sin sacrifice for fallen mankind. We shall soon consider the mechanism for this interaction derived from current findings of neuroscience and addressed in my second book, Chapter Five. The first part of that chapter explains the immaterial spirit and mind.

Dualist interaction accounts for Jesus’ willful and full obedience to the counsel of the indwelling Holy Spirit of the Father during His life and teachings on Earth. The God-Man Jesus Christ was in hypostatic union with a sinless human nature with spirit and soul and a divine nature. His spirit was indwelled by the Spirit of the Father at his baptism. It identified Him as the perfect, spotless sacrifice for all the sins of mankind through history.

These are the reasons why we confess him to be true God and truly human - true God in order to conquer death by His power, and truly human that He might die for us in the weakness of His flesh. (Belgic Confession, Article 19, The Two Natures of Christ)

I include [in] this chapter [of my book, The Boundless Love of God: A Holy Spirit Story], . . . what has been learned through neuroscientific studies that are in concordance with Scripture and the creeds and confessions cited. . . . the Holy Spirit does communicate with the soul and mind of believers through the human spirit in our time as recorded in the Old and New Testaments and the history of the Church. Direct, personal communion lost at the Fall of Adam through sin has been restored to those in repentance through the sin sacrifice of God’s Son. Living in our time by the counsel of the Holy Spirit gives assurance of eternal life in the New Creation to come. Then we will be in the presence of the glorified Jesus Christ and will be like Him.