Seat of the Soul?

I believe in a soul. I believe there is more to “me” than a body. Neurons, blood cells, respiratory gases; physical matter – certainly I rely on these to function, but they do not control me. I am not merely physical, a puppet to the unyielding forces of physics and chemistry.

Which leads me to the interesting, and unavoidable question: where is the interface between body and soul?

Human cultures have long asked this question. The Ancient Egyptians believed that the bodily residence of the soul is in the heart. Emotions, thoughts, and choices all take place within the heart, they thought. Although we’ve since discovered that these are actually functions of the brain, even today we still carry some vague association between the physical heart and the emotions of passion.

Also in the running for seat of the soul, historically, is the pineal gland. Its heavily-protected, highly vascularized location deep within the centre of the brain has led many new-agers, and occultists to wonder about whether it has a metaphysical role.

In the US at the beginning of last century, there were physicians who would weigh bodies shortly before death, and then immediately afterwards. The idea was that the difference between the two readings could give an approximate value for the weight of a human soul. The idea strikes me as strange, since my bias is to consider the soul immaterial (and hence weightless) by definition.

With the advent of modern psychology/psychiatry/neurology, I think we’ve since narrowed down the quest for the soul’s resting place to the brain. The brain is where decisions are made, emotions are experienced, and consciousness is maintained. Of course, the brain is an awe-inspiringly big place, with a lot of complicated activity. Where exactly is does the soul have its influence? And what form does that influence take?

Let’s say I that I make a conscious decision (any decision – the content doesn’t matter). As a proponent of free will, I would suggest that my decision is not simply the net result of neurons firing in my brain. Rather, in some place, and at some point in time, my immaterial soul must initiate a material effect on the stuff of my brain to exert its willpower.

What does this event look like? Does a particular neuron fire without stimulus? Are new neurotransmitters created from nowhere to initiate a decision-cascade? You may protest that these events break the laws of electrochemistry, and the conservation of matter (the laws of nature). But that’s precisely the point. Any decision-making mechanism that is bound by the laws of nature, would be incapable of making free decisions.

Yet more unanswerable questions distracting me from what I should be doing: studying neurology. Sigh.