What Is Soul? Where Does It Exist?

By Sumudu Guruge

This work is scientifically investigate the concept of Soul and Afterlife with using brain science,human biochemistry and attachment theory of John Bolwby.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Dec 18, 2015
• ISBN: 9781483443430

Book preview

GURUGE

Copyright © 2015 Sumudu Guruge.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of both publisher and author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

ISBN: 978-1-4834-4343-0 (e)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 12/08/2015

CONTENTS

Foreword

Preface

Introduction

Australian Aboriginal Beliefs

Native North American Beliefs

African Traditional Beliefs

Asatru Beliefs

Wiccan Beliefs

Inuit Beliefs

Native Norwegian Sami Beliefs

Hindu Beliefs

Judaic Beliefs

Jain Beliefs

Theravada Buddhist Beliefs

Zoroastrian Beliefs

Christian Beliefs

Islamic Beliefs

Tibetan Buddhist Beliefs

Shinto Beliefs

Sikh Beliefs

Baha’i Beliefs

Cao Đài Beliefs

Rastafarian Beliefs

Satanistic Beliefs

What Is Soul? Where Does It Exist?

About The Author

FOREWORD

Since ancient times mankind has believed in a soul (atman) while clinging to the concept of rebirth or reincarnation concurrently. As language evolved sufficiently to be expressed in a written form, many of these beliefs were recorded throughout history, being inscribed on various materials such as palm or ‘ola’ leaves and clay tablets etc. Consequently, belief in the independent existence of body and soul took root and was propagated throughout the Eastern and Western parts of the globe. Rene Descartes, the French philosopher of the 17th century argued that the nature of the mind was completely distinct from that of the body (i.e. essentially matter) and both were interconnected only via interaction. Despite the development of neuroscience, neuropsychology, cognitive science, cognitive neuroscience and brain-studies etc. over the past fifty years or so, the people continued to demonstrate their strict (blind?) adherence to the soul and rebirth ideology, by refusing to abandon their faith in the soul and their belief in rebirth. However, modern science is now in the process of formulating successfully a model that describes clearly not only the nature of soul and the phenomenon of rebirth but also the other cognitive processes that man is occupied with on a daily basis.

Freelance Sri Lankan writer Sumudu Guruge has contributed to the global research and dialogue on the subject through his work What is Soul? Where does it exist?. He outlines the whys and wherefores by which mankind arrived at concepts such as soul and rebirth from early history and declares that psychological factors together with the rise of associative ideology were at the root of these beliefs. They could be identified as hallucinations - sensations that appear to be real but are actually created by the mind - rather than as objective material phenomena. Guruge reveals that it is essentially physical phenomena such as the functioning of the limbic system of the brain and the biochemical activity which accompanies it that urge human beings to adhere to such beliefs. He further demonstrates that these are simply the mental constructs of human beings and hence bear no relevance to reality.

Guruge, basing his arguments primarily on biochemistry and brain studies has attempted to dismiss the age old dualism of materiality and spirituality as an artificial construct. It is my belief that his work can provide important insights to those who wish to explore the idea of soul-ideology both in content and in its historical practice. The main thrust of the book is to remove unfounded and illogical spiritualism such as treating body and soul as distinct entities so as to enable one to view the whole matter with a profound materialism as this is the more objective approach to scientific inquiry. I believe that by proposing his ideas Guruge has succeeded in this task to an appreciable extent. What is soul? Where does it exist? makes a commendable contribution to the contemporary discourse on soul-brain studies.

Desmond Mallikarachchi

Former Professor,

Department of Philosophy and Psychology,

University of Peradeniya,

Sri Lanka.

PREFACE

On a request from Mr. John Hipell, an Australian television and film director/ writer/ producer and the reasoning of Sri Lankan aeronautical engineer Mr. Vidhura Amarasinghe, I commenced this exercise as the writer and director for a 26 episode documentary to be called Journey to Soul.

While we are still searching for an international broadcaster for this epic series that is slated to be shot in 20 different countries, I decided to publish this work as a user friendly ebook at the urging of my great friend, film maker Prasanna Jayakody.

While this explores the ideas of life after death in 21 of the over 4000 beliefs and religions that exist currently in the world, in the end, it proposes to scientifically answer the following:

a) What is this instinctive vacuum for a religion or a faith which is inherent to human kind?

b) What is this phenomenon of soul that 90% of the world believes in? and

c) Where does it exist?

I have attempted to answer these questions that have remained unresolved since recorded history using brain science, human biochemistry and some psychological theory.

I thank Egyptian Ms. Shima Hawas for triggering my interest in taking on this task, dentist Dr. Wasantha Dhammika Jayasundra my classmate for providing me with sound intellectual feedback, Ms. Savithri Vithanage and Ms. Lasanthi Daskon for assisting me in my research work, Mr. Arjuna Seneviratne for using his valuable time in translating this work into English, Dulanka Devendra for designing the cover, Prof. Desmond Mallikarachchi for reading my research papers and spending his valuable time to write the forward for this work, and once again to Mr. Vidhura Amarasinghe for using his personal funds to assist in this exploration.

Sumudu Guruge,

170/02/A,

3rd Lane,

Church road,

Aluthgama Bogamuwa,

Yakkala,

Sri Lanka.

[e-mail]

INTRODUCTION

The phenomena of culture cannot be studied in isolation from that of religion/religious beliefs by anyone exploring the chronicles of mankind from prehistory to the present day.

These concepts of religion and beliefs are intrinsically entwined into the social structures of the most primitive tribes still in existence to the so called civilized societies of today.

All these spiritual and theological foundations of religions, be it monotheist, polytheist or agnostic, lies in the belief