Science! The Soul As Quantum Information

“Come, said my soul,
Such verses for my body let us write, (For we are One),
That should I after death invisibly return,
Or, long, long hence, in other spheres,
There to some group of mates the chants resuming,
(Tallying Earth's soil, trees, winds, tumultous waves,)
Ever with pleas'd smile I may keep on
Ever and ever to the verses owning - as, first, I here and now,
Signing for soul and body, set them to my name,
Walt Whitman.”

The poet listens to his own soul – a muse from within that causes him to consider an other-worldly existence as an eternal scribe composing verses about his time on Earth. Just what is the soul, the principle of life that serves as an elan vital or vital impetus of each human being? What is this evolutionary, unique spirit so often referenced yet seldom considered?

Is the soul material? Duncan MacDougall (1866-1920) was a medical doctor in Haverhill, Massachusetts, who in 1907 attempted to prove the existence of the human soul in a scientific manner. His reasoning was that the soul has a certain physical weight, which would leave a person at the moment of death (or up to a minute later, if the person had had a "sluggish temperament"), causing him or her to become lighter.

MacDougall conducted experiments using a bed fitted with a sensitive set of beam scales, and he convinced a series of terminally ill patients to lie on it during the final moments of their lives. (A very small sample, as you may have guessed.)

MacDougall recorded not only each patient’s exact time of death, but also his or her total time on the bed, as well as any changes in weight that occurred around the moment of expiration. He even factored losses of bodily fluids like sweat and urine, and gases like oxygen and nitrogen, into his calculations. His conclusion was that the human soul weighed three-fourths of an ounce, or 21 grams.

Since then, science has ruled out such a view of soul substance. Nobody has been able to reproduce the results of MacDougall's experiment. Nevertheless, 21 grams of soul remains as a mysterious myth, the stuff of fantastical films and speculation. 

Traditionally, science has dismissed the soul as an object of human belief, or reduced it to a psychological concept that shapes a person's cognition of the observable natural world. The terms "life" and "death" are thus nothing more than the common concepts of "biological life" and "biological death."

And, to this point, a soul has never been seen under an electron microscope, nor spun in the laboratory in a test tube or ultra-centrifuge. According to this view, nothing appears to survive the human body after death.

But …

Recently, biocentrism and other scientific theories have also started to challenge old beliefs. One British scientist in particular, world-renowned physicist Sir Roger Penrose, is at the forefront of a theory that claims humans have souls which don't die along with the body. Penrose believes that it's just a packet of information stored at a quantum – or sub-atomic – level.

“The beyond is an infinite reality that is much bigger… which this world

is rooted in. In this way, our lives in this plane of existence are encompassed, surrounded, by the afterworld already… The body dies but the

spiritual quantum field continues. In this way, I am immortal.”

Penrose argues that if a person temporarily dies, this quantum information is released from the microtubules and into the universe. However, if they are resuscitated the quantum information is channeled back into the microtubules and that is what sparks a near death experience. “If they’re not revived, and the patient dies, it’s possible that this quantum information can exist outside the body, perhaps indefinitely, as a soul.”

So, some new science believes that after someone passes away, “their soul does not die but goes back to the universe.” The understanding is that a 20-watt fountain of energy operating in the brain doesn’t go away at death. One of the surest axioms of science is that energy never dies; it can neither be created nor destroyed.

A 2013 study by Japanese scientists added some proof to the theory by Penrose. Researchers detected vibrations in the microtubules. Penrose and noted anesthesiologist Stuart Hammeroff then proposed that by focusing brain stimulation on these vibrations one could conceivably “benefit a host of mental, neurological, and cognitive conditions."

Ideas about quantum effects in the brain are viewed with great skepticism. Yet, although quantum consciousness is widely derided as mystical woo, it just will not go away. No one quite knows what to make of this theory, but conventional wisdom goes something like this: Their theory is almost certainly wrong, but since Penrose is so brilliant (“One of the very few people I’ve met in my life who, without reservation, I call a genius,” physicist Lee Smolin has said), we’d be foolish to dismiss the theory out of hand.

Now, I'm not a physicist, and my extremely finite 68 year-old mind has trouble just remembering my upcoming doctor's appointment, so I read new scientific theories and come away with little more than fantastic designs. In other words, I love to speculate on concepts like the soul, but I tend to remain in the shallows when considering things like microtubules and quantum effects.

I sincerely believe I have a soul. Where does it go? I don't know. My concept of heaven is not golden streets and pearly gates. I guess I am not much for rich surroundings and harp music. My most comforting speculation? Perhaps the human soul spends eternity exploring the never-ending universe while having new adventures and making new memories.

My brother, a computer engineer who just turned 80, imagines his eternal soul as a replacement for Starman, the mannequin passenger of the cherry-red Tesla Roadster that SpaceX sent to outer space last year. It was Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s personal vehicle and was blasting David Bowie’s 1969 classic Space Oddity as the rocket blasted off.

The current location of the roadster is 186,802,86 miles from Earth, moving away from Earth at a speed of 5,063 mph. That is a reality … a beautiful one at that.

Brother Phil envisions his spirit behind the wheel on an infinite journey to the far reaches of the universe and beyond. Now, that's soul travel with style – easy to comprehend and stylishly fantastic. Maybe that's what Walt Whitman would consider traveling first class – “Ever with pleas'd smile I may keep on.” Just a theory, mind you, but so fitting a conclusion in support of eternal satisfaction.

Into the Mystic

Van Morrison

We were born before the wind
Also younger than the sun
Ere the bonnie boat was won
As we sailed into the mystic

Hark, now hear the sailors cry
Smell the sea and feel the sky
Let your soul and spirit fly
Into the mystic