I was asked when I visited some relatives almost a year and a half ago about my opinion on the soul as well as on reincarnation. Even though I was able to share most of my beliefs on that occasion, as I answered the questions of my cousin based on my own experience of life (itself shaped by what I had read, heard or even experienced myself up to that point), I have felt since a very strong urge deep in me to explore this subject further through research of what others have said about it (as recorded in writing or either in audio or filmed interviews, etc.) whilst sharing at the same time on this blog my own views. However, as the soul is one of the greatest mysteries we humans are confronted with, I recoiled many a time from moving to the next stage – which is to gather my own thoughts in the form of an entry to be published here.
So here I am, in the early hours of Saturday (having being roused from my sleep by my neighbours’ noisy conversation – maybe they were arguing over the existence of the soul), trying to figure out how to start an entry about the soul. Hhhm, maybe my brain is still asleep or maybe my inspiration is constrained by fear of the social consequences that could arise from expressing my views about a subject which our materialistic society tends to dismiss as un-scientific – I could have used a harsher adjective if I had followed the materialistic perspective, but I did not simply because I do not adhere to it.
A good way out in such circumstances [I went back to bed at this point maybe because as we say in French (‘la nuit porte conseil’) night-time is propitious to finding inspiration or answers] is to use quotes. First, inserting a quotation adds a few lines of text; second, depending on who wrote the quote, it may confer some authority to one’s own words; third, it may allow to voice some points which are controversial in nature without taking full responsibility for them. Now, I am sure I could find a few more items to add to this list if decided to devote more time to this little endeavour, but I shall stop here because it would lead us astray from our topic for this entry, which is the soul. ;-)
For my first quote, I am going to refer to an article which was published in the New York Times more than a century ago and which I came across in a French magazine on paranormal topics in its 331st issue (the magazine was called ‘L’Écho du Merveilleux’) on 1st September 2020. To me, the article is characteristic of the materialistic and scientific approach to the soul. The title of this article, published on 4th September 1910 , was ‘Dr. Max Baff of Clark University Tells of the Remarkable Invention of a Scientist at Buenos Ayres Which May Pry Into the Soul’s Secrets’. The excerpt I am providing appeared about mid-way into the article. It is as follows:
Even the activities of the so-called soul may be projected on the screen; this indirectly. Photographs might be taken at the moment of death and immediately after. It is the belief that when the heart stops beating the soul leaves the body. Something may be learned of the soul by observing the changes in its habitat, the marrowlike [sic] brain, at the moment when life ceases. I myself do not believe the soul to be a thing without the brain, though I am neither an atheist nor an agnostic. However much people may believe that the soul is a separate thing, it must be borne in mind that its activities, thought and action, are confined within the limitations of the brain.
More on this article in a future entry, whose title is likely to be something like ‘Wanting to capture our thoughts on film 110 years ago’. In the meantime, there is this very powerful painting by the American Buddhist artist Alex Grey entitled ‘Dying’ which you may want to check on his website, at https://www.alexgrey.com/press-media/interviews/entheogen-review-1998/alex_grey_dying-3.
This dramatic painting shows the soul leaving the body via the crown aperture at the time of death against the backdrop of a Pantheon-looking dome repeating the motive of an all-seeing eye.
More on pictorial representations of the soul also in a future entry. In the meantime, you might want to read http://paulzanotelli.ch/blog/spirituality/soul/what-is-the-soul.html.