Does a Sand Castle Have a Soul?

 

 

Where does the soul go when we die? Not it's final destination of Heaven or Hell, but where has it gone from the human body? Assuming any small changes in weight of a dead body from a live being are accurately described by the out-gassing of a body no longer engaging in live biological activities (such as breathing) a dead body seems to be the exact same thing as a sleeping being.

Of course there have been many explanations of what and where the "animating force" of a living being goes when we die, but none have any scientific basis. Many religious dreamers and philosophical thinkers say there is no scientific explanation, but this is not correct.

Think of the model of a sand castle on the beach. Before you built it with your sand pail and molds, and shaped it with your shovel and sticks, the sand was part of the beach. After you take your photo for family and instagram, if a stray dog or child runs through your castle, destroying it's walls you may abandon it to the elements, or you may decide to tear the whole thing down yourself. Either way, eventually the sand castle returns to the beach. However, the sand making the castle is still there, but where did the castle go?

Of course we don't think if this process as the loss of the "essence" of a castle from the sand. There is no "spiritual castle" which floats up to heaven after it's sandy ramparts are leveled to the ground. It is simply that the sand is no longer organized into the pattern it was in. It is this pattern where the answer lies.

While it may like the human mind is nothing like a sand castle, it IS also a pattern, albeit a much more complex one closer to an intricate tapestry or computer program. It is in the dissolution of the patterns in our brains when we die where the mind and soul is lost. The brains in our skulls may still there, but without oxygen to keep the cells alive, they quickly loose their cohesion and the delicate and complex pattern of our brain is lost to time. 

Someday science may find a way to fully capture the intricate patterns in our minds, or perhaps simply a reasonable facsimile of it, like a photograph captures a moment in time. We may be able to save the essence of what makes us unique humans into a synthetic virtual world, or even a fully artificial robotic body. 

In the meantime, we live on in the impressions the patterns in our head leave on the world around us. In our correspondence, our collections, our art, our careers, and our friends and family we leave behind. At the moment of death the memories and emotions our fellow humans hold for us are more closely related to the pattern of our minds than the disordered decomposing cells in our skulls. Though we may not have any further thoughts, the thoughts and deeds we leave behind have can attain a modicum of immortality. 

The time for the uniquely complex patterns that are our minds is fleeting, so use it well; and may we all find much happiness and at least a small quantum of immortality.