I have spent many years in thought about what I write below. I anticipate scoffers. Thus, I must present my credentials. Not as a brag; simply to make it difficult for the scoffers to dismiss me because I provide a view that opposes their bias.
I did ok in high school. I was a chemistry major in college, valedictorian of my graduating class. I was inducted into the national honor society of my medical school. I spent five years becoming a surgical subspecialist. My partner and I took our national surgical specialty certification boards and our combined score made us second in the nation. Yes, ahead of all the Ivy League programs. Also, I was a scientific atheist for more than half my life. It was science that persuaded me to lift the veil.
Most people have retirement funds. In fact, most of us would be perplexed to encounter someone who did not have a financial plan for retirement. There are also many people who have college builder funds for their children or grandchildren.
We do this, along with looking askance at those who do not, despite the fact that retired life ( and college for the children) is by no means certain. Yet we diligently set aside money for it, despite the uncertainty.
However, most people outside of the world’s religions (and some inside) do not address the possibility of life after physical death, the Afterlife. In fact, some of the very people who would sneer at a person for ignoring the possibility of retired life would also sneer at someone who is anticipating AfterLife.
I submit that science supports the probability of an AfterLife.
No, I am not going to wax theological. The universe exists- you may take your pick of Intelligent Design (creation), or of a random eternal universe that arranged itself. Let us examine the scientific reality.
Everything in this universe falls into one of four categories:
1.Time
2. Space
3. Matter
4. Energy
For those of you reading this, you are composed of matter (your physical body) and energy (mind, spirit, soul, use whatever word you want). You, as matter and energy, exist within Space and you are subject to Time. That is the cohesiveness of our universe.
Let us defeat the claim that your consciousness, your mind, is the product of neurochemicals in your brain. We are told that PET scans reflect conscious thought. PET scans depend on radiolabeled sugars being metabolized in the brain. A radiologist, unaware of the person being scanned, can tell, for example, if the person is listening to music, and if they like the music they are hearing. We might conclude that PET scans reflect the neurometabolism that we refer to as consciousness.
Wrong. Even Sam Harris, ( author ‘The End of Faith’) a virulent atheist with neurobiology training, refers to the conscious self as ‘the ghost in the machine.’
Let me give you a metaphor: I bring you into a room where a grand piano is being played. You lift the piano lid and, by seeing the hammers strike the strings, conclude that the hammers are the origin of the music. How absurd. You know that there is a master at the keyboard and the music results from his command of the piano. To assume that consciousness is the product of brain chemistry is equally absurd.
There are far too many ‘near death experiences’ where the survivor relates conversations or activities that occurred when they had flat EEGs. It is the conscious spirit that produces the PET scan changes, I would commend to your attention a book : Proof of Heaven: a neurosurgeon’s journey into the afterlife by Dr. Eben Alexander. He was an atheist, a neurosurgeon who flatlined his EEG due to encephalitis. Even though he was ‘clinically dead’ by EEG criteria, he was kept on life support.
Upon his unexpected recovery, he related conversations that took place at his bedside while he was clinically dead. No, he did not become a wild-eyed Christian. But he was persuaded that there is an AfterLife.
I would submit to you an inescapable fact: there has never been any documentation of a spiritual death, only of physical death.
Bear with me and the science as we recall what we learned in high school Physics. Newton’s Law of the Conservation of Energy. Recite along with me:
Energy can neither be created nor destroyed; it can only be transformed.
That being an established Physics Law, we must conclude that the spirit has a life after physical death has occurred. Let’s enjoy another metaphor: a person’s body (made up of Matter) is the vehicle that they use to drive around this earth. When the vehicle breaks down, beyond repair, does the person stay in the vehicle? No, they open the door and exit, as Shakespeare’s Hamlet said ‘…shuffled off our mortal coil…’ It is odd to think that a dead body could restrain, and imprison, the energy of the human spirit.
The major religions of the world have views on what occurs after physical death. Take your pick. The near-death experiences and ‘out of body’ experiences are so uniform in description that we are left with but one conclusion: your spiritual AfterLife will be one of conscious awareness of your spirit self and your surroundings. I would not presume to predict what YOU will be like as an eternal conscious, spiritual energy. Here are some options to consider:
1. You are alone forever; alert, aware, alone.
2. You join with other energy forces. Again, take your pick:
A.). you could be trapped in a celestial black hole, the gravitational attraction so strong that even light (energy) cannot escape its prison.
B.) you could become part of what is known as ‘dark energy,’ the power that is expanding the universe, increasing the separation; energy for which no science has an explanation as to origin
C.) there is energy in the center of the earth: 4000 miles down, it is a molten core of incredible heat, said to come from radioactive decay. It might be possible for one’s spirit energy to join there, providing spirit heat energy. Long before quantum physics and knowledge of the hot center of the earth, ancient religion described hell in just such a way.
D.) Quantum entanglement is a theory where two energies, emerging from a common beginning, retain a link to each other. In other words, if you originated with the Big Bang, you retain that link. If you originated from ‘Let there be light’ you retain that link with your origin.
You do not need to remain a victim of poor scholarship. I would submit that you give more attention to your AfterLife than you apply to your years of retirement. The AfterLife is much more certain; much more important, by virtue of being eternal.
Choose wisely.
Dennis D. Garvin, MD,
Fellow, American College of Surgeons
Diplomate, American Board of Urology
veteran USAF
Urologist, Salem V-A Medical Center
