While we can speak of the mind and the soul as distinct entities, we are often talking about the same thing. It is the opposite of what we mean by the brain, or the physical processes of intelligence. The nonmaterial aspect of who we are seems to defy reduction to physical processes. A case could be made that consciousness resides within the soul and that the soul itself is really the “I” or “ego” of what I am. But there is a slight distinction between mind and soul.

MIT-trained scientist Gerald Schroeder writes of this distinction. “Consciousness has all the trappings of another nonreducible element of our universe. The conscious mind is not mystical, but it may be metaphysical–meaning out of the physical.”¹ In other words, consciousness is not explainable in natural terms and has the transcendent characteristics of a totally different dimension. Perhaps this is why materialists are so baffled by the enigma of consciousness. [Read more…]