In my books and blogs I have discussed linguistic neural codes that make the transmission of specified information possible person to person, including between the Holy Spirit and the human cognitive mind through synaptic networks. Alexandre Hyafil and coworkers published an article in eLife in 2015 entitled “Speech Encoding by Coupled Cortical Theta and Gamma Oscillations” that addresses this process.

“Sensory signals are often made of different rhythmic streams organized at multiple timescales, which require to be processed in parallel and recombined to achieve unified perception. Speech constitutes an example of such a physical complexity, in which different rhythms index linguistic representations of different granularities, from phoneme to syllables and words. . . . We show that, in continuous speech, theta oscillations can flexibly track the syllabic rhythm and temporally organize the phoneme-level response of gamma neurons into a code that enables syllable identification. The tracking of slow speech fluctuations by theta oscillations, and its coupling to gamma-spiking activity both appeared as critical features for accurate speech encoding. . . . The auditory cortex . . . produces various ‘waves’ of electrical activity, and these waves also have a characteristic frequency . . . . One type of brain wave, called the theta rhythm, has a frequency of three to eight bursts per second, which is similar to the typical frequency of syllables in speech, and the frequency of another brain wave, the gamma rhythm, is similar to the frequency of phonemes. It has been suggested that these two brain waves may have a central role in our ability to follow speech, a process investigated by these coworkers. . . . Our network is purely bottom-up and does not include high level linguistic processes and representations, which in all likelihood plays an important role in speech perception. . . . top-down predictions play a significant role in guiding speech perception.”

Although the authors do not identify how “top-down predictions” are made that guide speech perception, it is my suggestion that the immaterial cognitive mind plays this role. Not only would the mind generate the waves identified by the authors that encode speech but also function in speech perception. It is exciting to see how neuroscience investigators are getting close to understanding dualist interaction!

Moreland addresses free will in his article:

“To say that a human is a free will being is to say that humans exercise what is called libertarian freedom. . . . A person’s choice is up to the individual . . . . [One] acts as an agent who is the first cause or ultimate originator of [their] own actions. Moreover, [one’s] reasons for acting do not partially or fully cause [their] actions. . . . Rather, [one’s] reasons are the teleological goals - the purposes or the ends - for the sake of which [one] acts.

Moreland states that “If physicalism is true, then human free will does not exist. Instead, determinism is true. . . . Further, since free acts seem to be for the sake of goals or ends, if physicalism . . . is true, there is no ultimate purpose and thus, there can be no libertarian free acts.”

I have pointed out in past blogs and in my books that it has been the intent of the Spirit of our Creator God to have a personal relationship with us. That has been, and is, His “ultimate purpose.” Jesus Christ’s atoning sacrifice for us has renewed our ability in repentance to have a dualist interaction, a bidirectional relationship, with the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Moreland addresses the concept of self awareness, of the “I:”

“. . . through self-awareness, one gains an awareness of the fact that “I” who was and is (and will be) present as the owner of all the [life] experiences. . . . These two facts - “I” am the owner of self-experience, and “I” am an enduring self who exists as the same possessor of all self-experience through time - show that a person is not identical to his experiences. Self (or “I”) is the thing that has them. In short, “I” is a mental substance. Only a single enduring self can relate and unify experiences, a fact that property dualists and physicalists cannot adequately account for or explain away.”

Moreland’s statements give compelling support to the immateriality of the human soul, the mind, the self, the “I.”

Dr. J. P. Moreland composed an article for the ministry Reasons To Believe (www.reasons.org) addressing the immateriality of the human soul. It was entitled “Body and Soul Part 2: Why the Soul Is Immaterial.” I will post several excerpts from his informative article which provides support for dualist interaction between the immaterial human spirit and soul (and the Holy Spirit) and the material synaptic networks of the human brain. He begins his article with the following:

“. . . a human being’s soul or self . . . is immaterial (or non-material).” Moreland states that the soul is a substance. “Substances are basic fundamental things. They are not in other things or aspects of other things. . . . Substance dualists assert that as a human, [a person] consists of an immaterial substantial soul with a physical body that is not identical to the soul. . . . substance dualists believe that the brain is a physical thing with physical properties and the mind or soul is a mental substance that has mental properties. . . . a human being’s self or ego [is] an immaterial substance that bears consciousness.”

I am posting several quotations taken from an article by Scott Youngren and published by The Think Institute. It is entitled “Metaphysics, the Matrix, and the Mind of God.” They speak to the immateriality and primacy of the Mind of God.

Since the time of the ancient Greeks, there have been two basic pictures of ultimate reality among Western intellectuals, what the Germans call a Weltanschauung, or worldview. According to one worldview, mind is the primary or ultimate reality. On this view, material reality either issues from a preexisting mind, or it is shaped by a preexistent intelligence, or both . . . This view of reality is often called idealism to indicate that ideas come first and matter comes later. Theism is the version of idealism that holds that God is the source of the ideas that gave rise to and shaped the material world.

The opposite view holds that the physical universe or nature is the ultimate reality. In this view, either matter or energy (or both) are the things from which everything else comes. They are self-existent and do not need to be created or shaped by mind . . . . In this view matter comes first, and conscious mind arrives on the scene much later and only then as a by-product of material processes and undirected evolutionary change. This worldview is called naturalism or materialism.

Stephen C. Meyer

For myself, faith begins with a realization that a supreme intelligence brought the universe into being and created man. It is not difficult for me to have this faith, for it is incontrovertible that where there is a plan there is intelligence - an orderly, unfolding universe testifies to the truth of the most majestic statement ever uttered - “In the beginning God.”

James Clerk Maxwell

God is a mathematician of a very high order and He used advanced mathematics in constructing the universe.

Max Planck

It is evident that an acquaintance with natural laws means no less than an acquaintance with the mind of God therein expressed.

Albert Einstein

An equation for me has no meaning unless it expresses a thought of God.

James Joule

Is intelligent mind an ultimate and irreducible feature of reality? Indeed, is it the ultimate nature of reality? Or is mind and consciousness an unforeseen and unintended product of basically material processes of evolution? If you look at the history of philosophy, it soon becomes clear that almost all the great classical philosophers took the first of these views. Plato, Aristotle, Anselm, Aquinas, Descartes, Leibniz, Spinoza, Locke, Berkeley, Kant, Hegel - they all argued that the ultimate reality, often hidden under the appearances of the material world or time and space, is mind or spirit.

Srinivasa Ramanujam

In the New Story of science the whole universe - including matter, energy, space, and time - is a one-time event and had a definite beginning. But something must have always existed; for if ever absolutely nothing existed, then nothing would exist now, since nothing comes from nothing. The material universe cannot be the thing that always existed because matter had a beginning. It is 12 to 20 billion years old. This means that whatever has always existed is non-material. The only non-material reality seems to be mind. If mind is what has always existed, then matter must have been brought into existence by a mind that always was. This points to an intelligent, eternal being who created all things. Such a being is what we mean by the term God.

Sir Isaac Newton

In my recent blog post I discussed cortical activity waves that are the physical carriers of memory and thought. I have also discussed traveling waves in earlier blogs, and today I wish to post excerpts from a very recent article entitled “Traveling Waves in the Prefrontal Cortex during Working Memory.” Authors are Sayak Bhattacharya, Scott L. Brincat et al. It is published in PLOS Computational Biology, January 28, 2022.

From this article we see that traveling waves are becoming more understood as “spatially organized patterns whose peaks and troughs move sequentially across cortex. . . . waves were modulated during performance of a working memory task [and we know that cognitive tasks are actualized through neural codes learned over a lifetime and archived in memory]. During baseline conditions, waves flowed bidirectionally along a specific axis of orientation. Waves in different frequency bands could travel in different directions. During task performance, there was an increase in waves in one direction over the other, especially in the beta band. . . . Traveling waves can serve specific functions. . . . Traveling waves are of interest because they have a variety of useful properties for cognition, development and behavior. They can create timing relationships that foster spike-timing dependent plasticity and memory encoding. . . . Their functional relevance in the adult brain is suggested by observations that traveling wave characteristics can be task-dependent and that they impact behavior [I would add that these waves reflect cognitive behavior] . . . Oscillatory activity in the prefrontal cortex has been linked with cognitive functions like working memory and attention. . . . The waves did not travel in random directions. . . . Traveling waves have multiple characteristics - such as direction, phase organization, speed - all of which can serve specific functions, making these waves a potentially powerful computational tool.”

And I would add that traveling waves are a powerful functional “tool” of the intent of a cognitive mind. We are seeing in excerpts from this article that the cognitive mind generates traveling waves that are transmitted in specified directions to achieve intended objectives. I propose that the Holy Spirit can generate such waves to communicate specific objectives as well! We are perhaps seeing the process of communion between the Mind of God and the mind of Man enabled via the synaptic networks of the human brain. Yes, the Holy Spirit desires a personal bidirectional communion with us in our time as He has in the past and will going into the eternal future.

I am posting these verses from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, 3:14-19 (NIV), that are in concordance with content I have shared in my books and blogs that speak to dualist interaction between the Holy Spirit and the human spirit and soul, the synaptic network making it possible. It speaks to the boundless love of God for us:

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

I am posting selected verses from the Bible that reflect the dualist interaction I discuss in my books and blogs between the indwelling Holy Spirit and the spirit and soul of repentant Man. Articles cited from the neurosciences reveal the mechanisms of neural synaptic networks through which the immaterial mind of Man and Mind of God commune. It is a concordance between science and theology for which I have hopefully provided compelling evidence.

I now post selections from 1 Corinthians 2:10-16 and 6:17 (NIV). As these verses are read it is my expectation that the reader will find that an understanding of dualist interaction gives a depth of meaning perhaps otherwise missed.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment: For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.

Paul Koch and Gerry Leisman have published an article entitled “Cortical Activity Waves Are the Physical Carriers of Memory and Thought.” Readers of my more recent blogs have noted how coherent waveforms are transmitted through synaptic networks that are encoded with specified information within spike trains of action potentials. The authors offer that “coherent waves are instrumental in the retrieval of memory and random waves embody original thought.”

I am encouraged that these authors are linking cortical waves with thought which I have associated with the activity of an immaterial cognitive mind. They continue, “. . . there are numerous different possible neural firing patterns . . . . If each active subset of individual cortical cells represents a distinct thought, there are about 10^6 billion . . . possibilities for about 20 billion cortical cells. . . . [The authors do not] “describe how these patterns are decoded into a mixture of the semantic content of different wave-memories and memories of previous thoughts. . . . All mammals are subject to cortical activity waves, but only humans can associate language (words, music, fine art, dance, algebra, etc.) with the waves, and thus can have memories of our thoughts.”

In my blogs and books I have provided evidence that wave “patterns” are the neural codes within spike trains of action potentials, and I submit that memory is instantiated within neural codes having meaning, or semantics, and purpose. Are waves generated by “original thought” truly random, or are they the product of cognitive intent? Humans have been uniquely created by God to transmit linguistic neural codes that are actively interpreted by the immaterial mind and are archived in memory. I suggest that this point applies to “words, music, fine art, dance, algebra, etc.” The authors make no direct mention of the cognitive mind, but dualist interaction between an immaterial mind and the neural synaptic network processes can give a more complete analysis of the excellent observations made by these authors in my view.

For more than 20 years I have been studying interaction between the Holy Spirit and the human spirit and soul (mind, will and emotion), the neural synaptic network serving as the model for my investigations. I have shared what I have learned in my books and blogs, posting what I hope is compelling evidence for the dualist interaction that occurs between the immaterial Holy Spirit of God and the spirit and soul of Man through the material components of the neural synaptic networks.

Many posts have been made showing how wave forms interact with the spike trains of action potentials in neural synaptic networks. By this process specified information with meaning and purpose is transmitted via neural codes instantiated within the wave forms. Both electrochemical energy and a proposed non-material energy provide the power for this transmission. Neuroscientists are at work to uncover the mechanisms by which transmission occurs, mechanisms that go unseen except by application of the most current technological tools. It is exciting and challenging work, with promise for people having impaired sensory and motor functions. Might Hebrews 11:1-3 (NIV) apply?

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

I have endeavored to show the concordance that is becoming evident between Scripture and neuroscience in dualist interaction between the Holy Spirit and the human spirit and soul and neural mechanisms. I am reminded of verses in the Book of Romans that apply to the mechanisms being revealed in this interaction. The Apostle Paul spoke to life in the Spirit in Romans 8: 9-11; 15-16 (NIV):

You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. . . . For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.