Arthur Koestler had described in one of his books a brain surgery, he had watched, while a small experiment was taken place at the time. When the doctor touched a specific area in the patient’s brain, the patient held up his hand. He was asked not to do so, but that was impossible. Every time the doctor touched that spot, the patient raised his hand. In the doctor’s insistence, the patient made the following movement: He grabbed the hand that was about to be raised with his other hand, in an attempt to stop it.
The writer then wondered: Who gave this command? And he replied: The ghost that resides in the human-machine.
The same ghost replies when you ask someone how he feels and tells you ninety-five out of a hundred times: MY head hurts, MY hand hurts. He does not say: I feel hurt in the head, I feel hurt in hand. So there is a possessive answer rather than only the identification of the point of pain. Who, then, is outside the hand, outside the head, and considers them to be his own? None. These are stupid thoughts, you might tell me. We learned to say so. But it could also be the ghost in the human-machine that speaks through our mouth.
However, one way to begin to understand what is going on is to think for a moment what happens to those who, for some reason, lose an organ or a body part. Or what happens to those who get a body part from a downer to survive. However, I do not think there is the slightest doubt about not being a unified set of particles. People live without some of their organs or body members. This alone implies that the “ensemble” we call “human being” doesn’t have a strict definition.
Whether we like it or not, we are symbiotic creatures. That is? To understand at least what I mean, let’s take the general notion of the broad set of ‘families.’ To constitute a gathering of people, a “family” -I refer to the exact meaning of the word- the members must be associated with a specific relationship. This relationship is characterized by a new consciousness, a consciousness that is above the consciousness of the members as independent units and is the one that integrates them into the new unity.
In this way, various sets have created that combine with each other to create larger ensembles of a higher form of consciousness. The cells generate cell groups – the first level of consciousness-, those groups create organs -the second level of consciousness – and the organs, in turn, create individualized human units. Therefore as humans, we are a couple of consciousnesses above that of our cells.
The level of operation on the first level is known as “fight or flight.” The cells are functioning in this way. In the second level of consciousness, this principle is modified, and other elements are added, and so on.
In simple terms, we are the epiconsniousness (hyper consciousness) of that third class. And please be careful! These levels of consciousness do not have to do with the subconscious and the unconscious -concepts that are misunderstood. For example, the unconscious, and whatever functions it consists, are not at all “unconscious functions” for their level. They are unconscious for some higher level that simply envisions their role.
Welcome to the concept of the ghost in the human machine, or of one’s “Self” according to many others.
Someone is bound to ask: Are we finally linear or quantum beings? Because if from one point of view we are symbiotic creatures moving in a linear reality, and from another aspect, we want to believe in a quantum continuum, don’t we lose the essence of life?
The answer depends on the angle we sit. One point of view is that life is a game. Under those circumstances, it is not worth giving it more value, so live the best way you can, and when you die, you vanish. The other option says that just because life is the complicated game of a quantum idea into the linear reality of now, it is worth understanding it and change the rules that have been introduced for so many years by ignorant people to win the purpose of existence.
Choose and live with it! One thing I am sure of. We are not matter, we are not a soul; we are not a spirit. These three principles are borrowed from the warehouse of creation, we use them as a combination, and as a set of superior composition, we are conscious of them for as long as we manage to have them gathered under joint action. Now, the consumption of this borrowed time is handled by each one in his way.
What was that? We are not a soul, we are not a spirit… so what are we? Before I go on, I will say it once again: We are not matter, soul or spirit, WE HAVE matter, soul, and spirit – always according to my personal opinion. To the fact that we are not matter, almost no one reacts. The reason is simple. We all see that our material body dies, so we cannot be just matter. We cannot be anything so ephemeral. The good God is said that has created us in his own image! What are you saying now?
To deny our matter, of course, is the easy way to stop thinking. Of course, we are made of matter! Our linear existence needs it. The immaterial man is not real, and even those who speak of ghosts and of… Anyway, claim that their matter is merely different.
Let us concentrate on the essence of existence. Matter, soul, and spirit are the primary elements of creation. There can be no one without the other, and therefore no pure matter or pure soul or spirit can be found anywhere.
Therefore, wherever we look, up, or better yet within us, we will find these three. In what form? It is our body, our feelings, and our sense. But those bodies are not “us.” All three of these – and perhaps some of their individual combinations – are functional elements of our personality. We are just their hyper consciousness, the Self, the Ego.
And because we are not these three, we are allowed to exist when they cease to function as an individualized whole. So the act of death becomes a resurrection.
And that is the way.