The human brain is the focal point of the mind-body problem. Its the primary transmission and transformation organ of information.
This chapter connects the dots between neshama, ruach, and the human brain. This is the continuity of the understanding of neshama (Genesis 2:7) and ruach (Zechariah 12:1). For details, the index for Mind-Body Problem Solved is at this link.
(Mind-Body Problem Solved, Chapter 28 – Table of Contents)
God formed the first human from the material dust of the ground and the immaterial breath of life, neshama, consciousness, the seat of the mind. The human brain is a physical organ; it is dust, a part of the human body that is involved in two key functions. The first is transmission which I’ll illustrate with the drilling of the Channel Tunnel. The second transformation is demonstrated by a phone. These two analogies reveal how to understand the mind-body issue.
Breakthrough and Transmission in the Channel Tunnel
The 50.45 km Channel Tunnel was drilled deep in the English Channel seabed between Folkstone, (Dover) UK and Coquelles, (Calais) France. Drilling started simultaneously at both ends and met near the middle. This video shows the breakthrough with the French climbing through to the English side and the English climbing through to the French side. Of course, once they enlarged the hole, there were no sides. It was all one conduit for transmission.
Here’s the analogy. The tunnel breakthrough allows for a free flow transmission of two different nations, French and English, exchange of different flags, and different languages. Of course, all other nations can travel BOTH ways through the Chunnel. With mind and body, there’s a free flow transmission of information between different entities; neshama/ruach (immaterial) and dust (material).
Genesis 2:7 is the junction of mind and body. It is the point where God made the breakthrough and launched the free flow transmission of information between spirit neshama and physical dust.
These two different essences or substances work seamlessly together. Billions of physical cells of the dust-body work intricately with the complexity of human thought. There is the transmission of information from mind to body. An author can imagine a story in their mind and write ii down with their body (fingers with a pen or keyboard). The ideas transit smoothly from the neshama/ruach via the body to paper.
The inverse itinerary is just as effortless. You read a literary description with your physical eyes, and then you can picture the scene in your mind. We transport physical sensory information to our immaterial mind. The diagram below enumerates this neshama/ruach-dust two-way transmission of information between mind and body.
The Channel tunnel connection is baby stuff compared to the junction between the invisible and the visible. There are two separate tunnels, each for one-way only traffic. The train schedule leaves enough space between the trains for safety reasons. There are two control centers; in France and the UK. Each can take control of the entire system.
The human brain is the intersection where information transits. It’s a multi-directional thoroughfare between mind and body, thoughts and actions. The human brain is the conduit through which the spiritual and the material freely flow. The neshama-consciousness, and the ruach-mind transit from the spiritual to the physical—the corporeal chemical and electrical impulses transit from the sensory body organs to the spirit mind. There’s an intricate meshing and working together to accomplish each individual’s goals. That’s where the dissimilar essences, the spiritual and the physical, meet.
The first step is this instantaneous multi-directional Junction and transmission of information between the mind and the body. transport of two distinct substances (spirit ruach and material chemical and electrical impulses). Secondly, there’s the instant transformation of each substance into the other.
Transformation of Images and Sound in a Phone
Modem
A newscast takes place in a studio. The camera and microphone are transducers that transform,
MODULATE the scene into waves and transport them to your television or smartphone where transducers transform, DEMODULATE the waves into electrical pulses that activate your screen and speakers. Objects and voices convert into Invisible waves that reconvert to visible images and sounds.
For a video call, each party has a MODEM, from modulator, demodulator; there’s an instantaneous transformation and transmission of images and sound to electromagnetic waves and vice versa so you can talk and listen, see, and be seen.
Codec
There is also another type of remarkable transformation taking place in your TV, smartphone, and computer. How do images and text get faithfully transported via electricity? Each color spot of an image and each letter transforms into binary code. Read this for details; each item translates into a corresponding series of 0s and 1s. To do this translation, you need a codec (coder-decoder); this is a device or computer program for encoding and decoding digital signals.
Physical, visible information (images, sound, text) has to be transformed (coded) into identifiable immaterial electromagnetic waves to transport it from its source to its destination. There, it is once again transformed (decoded) into physical information that our human body sensors can capture.
The coding, decoding, modulation, and demodulation from information to energy and back again in your electronic devices have to function as an automatic, instantaneous combination.
The Human Brain
Modem and codec
The brain, via its circuitry, is the body’s codec and modem. As a codec (coder-decoder), it transforms material information (body code) into immaterial code that impacts our mind and vice-versa. As a modem (modulator-demodulator), it converts material energy (electrical or chemical impulses in the body) to immaterial impulses in the mind-ruach/consciousness-neshama and vice-versa.
Think of the human brain managing breathing or blood flow. The body replaces 50-70 BILLION cells every single day. Each operation involves chromosomes, genes, proteins, DNA, four bases, and their chemicals. ALL this information is managed by the cells in conjunction with the brain. As you know, if there are aches and pains, it goes directly to your mind. Brain codec and modem are in action 24/7/365.
Considering the quantity of information that passes through our minds and bodies, you can imagine (that’s an activity of the neshama-ruach) the enormous amount of data that flows and transforms in the conduit.
Don’t get lost in the computer internet jargon. Those are all analogies. They are very sophisticated communication tools that need bona fide software and firmware to function optimally. That’s the neshama operating system and ruach software God uploaded to Adam. That’s the consciousness that endows the five human features on each one of us. Humans are God’s crowning creation. That’s why so much space, indeed the entire Bible, is devoted to that creation.
The neshama does not end there; that’s only the beginning. Your TV and computer have many, many other uses. Let’s discuss interactive gaming. Or rather, Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG). Players congregate worldwide on their devices and compete with each other. We’re talking about tens of thousands of simultaneous electronic devices intricately intertwined via ONE platform. Connections and exchanges of information are real-time.
That’s how the flow, in ALL directions worldwide, has to be. The central computers receive, interpret, and send signals to all the players continuously. The system treats the virtual information and resends it for transformation into high-speed reality images (bullets in war games) and sounds.
Imagine the incoming waves and their changeover to electrical impulses; imagine the transformation of piloting a joystick into moving images; imagine the continuously modifying high-speed scenes on each player’s screen. The codecs and modems are working at maximum capacity to update the game’s parameters in real-time; this is what your brain does precisely. It monitors the massive flow and transformation of information that comes from and leads to instant-by-instant NEW situations. That is the plasticity of the immaterial mind and material brain.
That is the ruach establishing the most efficient pathways for the flow and transformation of information. The human brain is the hardware, but the ruach is the software. Remember, Who breathed the neshama and gave the ruach to humans. Also, remind yourself this is the conduit that allows communication between the spirit world and humans. We shall return to this subject.
On top of the neshama, we can upload further passions, imaginations, inventions, skills, languages, and sports. These programs allow each of us to possess, acquire, and develop whatever skills we want. We have personal likes and dislikes according to our nature and nurture, our culture and experience, our education, and our activities.
One operating system, the neshama. Multiple individual programs are represented by the skills the ruach confers.
Above is a screenshot of part of my computer screen displaying the Apple computer. Along the bottom of both the Mac and my computer are the icons of programs that we’ve uploaded according to our needs and likes. Then, using each of these applications, we create data and information which is stored in memory.
This action is parallel to the ruach, which allows us to add whatever skills, learning, and aptitudes we might want to use and develop. These are akin to software programs our parents upload during child-rearing. Then, at a very early age, we begin, with the help of our parents, to upload our own software; this is the time of critical periods starting with language, geometry (shapes, sizes, relative space), a library of knowledge and games, There are also life values programs like obedience, initiative, sociability, work ethics, and honesty. This is the customized activation of the neshama, consciousness.
Schooling, social environment, social networks, and media play an essential role in this personalization. All influences and influencers that impact the neshama and ruach, the consciousness and mind of human beings play a role in a human being’s development.
There are all-around responsibilities and obligations which we shall discuss. As youngsters progress to adulthood, they go on to sexual identity, gender relationships, sports, a profession and leisure activities, and many other programs that can be uploaded and updated throughout life. That’s human plasticity, which the combination of neshama and ruach confer on humans alone.
Here’s an updated graphic with the human brain, the immaterial, and the material.
The brain is the most complex material device in the universe. Physically, the human brain resembles the most prominent animal brain. Yet, human mental capacity and accomplishments are light-years above any other life form.
As vital and complex as the human brain is, that’s not the answer. It is in Genesis 2:7 when God breathed the neshama into the dust body, the brain. The spirit neshama and ruach confer on humankind their humanity; the brain is the transducer, the junction between the immaterial neshama, ruach, and the material body. This is basic knowledge from God’s Word, the Bible. It is only with this basis that the rest of the story of humankind can be understood.
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