Although classical philosophers and theologians affirmed the existence and immortality of the human soul, modern neuroscientists generally deny that the soul exists or that it is a proper object for scientific study. The scientific evidence, however, suggests that the soul does exist and that it may be studied using the methods of science. It is common experience in neurosurgical practice that the correlation between mental states and brain states is not nearly as close as is presumed in neuroscience textbooks. Furthermore, over the past century much seminal research in neuroscience suggests that while homeostasis, arousal, movement, perception, memory and emotion are clearly generated by brain function, reason and free will are not generated by the brain. Reason and free will are never spontaneously evoked by seizures or by direct brain stimulation in awake patients. Research on patients who have undergone split brain surgery shows that the capacity for reason is not altered by separation of the brain hemispheres. Conjoined twins who share brain structures remain separate people with separate capacities for reason and free will. Important research on free will by several investigators shows an immaterial capacity to choose based on reason that does not appear to be generated by the brain. Extensive research on near death experiences supports the conclusion that the mind can function during complete loss of brain function.

The existence and nature of the soul is perhaps the most important thing about us. The best framework to understand the mind-brain relationship in modern neuroscience is that of Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas. Neuroscience clearly points to the existence of the human soul and its survival after death.

Dr. Michael Egnor is Professor of Neurosurgery and Pediatrics and Neurosurgery Residency Director at Renaissance School of Medicine in Stony Brook New York. He attended medical school at the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons and completed residency training in neurosurgery at the University of Miami. He has been on faculty at Stony Brook University since 1991. He does research on brain blood flow and cerebrospinal fluid dynamics and has published and lectured extensively on scientific and philosophical topics. He is a Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence and is co-author with Denyse O’Leary of the new book The Immortal Mind: a Neurosurgeon’s Case for the Existence of the Soul published by Worthy Books.  

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