Is mind a spiritual (non-material) entity?

Idealism has many definitions but all focus on the assumption that consciousness is detached from its concrete socially situated subjects. Such an assumption leads to the isolation of ideas from the concrete body. Theories, beliefs, human conduct and other products can be understood and analyzed in isolation from the historical subject. A giant unbridgeable gap develops between mind and body.

Consciousness is the property of the spirit and because spirit transcends the world of matter then philosophers surmise consciousness is autonomous and independent, governed by non-material principles.

This tradition of an autonomous reason began long before evolutionary theory and has held strongly since then without consideration, it seems to me, of the theories of Darwin and of biological science. Cognitive science has in the last three decades developed considerable empirical evidence supporting Darwin and not supporting the traditional theories of philosophy and psychology regarding the autonomy of reason. Cognitive science has focused a great deal of empirical science toward discovering the nature of the embodied mind.

The three major findings of cognitive science are:
The mind is inherently embodied.
Thought is mostly unconscious.
Abstract concepts are largely metaphorical.

These findings of cognitive science are profoundly disquieting for traditional thinking in two respects. "First, they tell us that human reason is a form of animal reason, a reason inextricably tied to our bodies and the peculiarities of our brains. Second, these results tell us that our bodies, brains, and interactions with our environment provide the mostly unconscious basis for our everyday metaphysics, that is, our sense of what is real."

I hold the view that there is no body/mind dichotomy (division into two mutually exclusive or contradictory groups or entities).

It seems to me that one must be an idealist to believe that a person has a soul.

Do you have a different view and does that view agree with Darwin's view of natural selection?

I havn't read the statements yet--later--but I must say that I consider all dualistic debates--mentalism vs. positivism, mind vs. brain, idealism vs. materialism, absolutism vs. relativism, subjectivism vs. objectivism. etc., etc.--to be founded on false dichtomies. All yings require for their very existence their yangs and vice versa.

Dualism is epistemologically useful albeit ontologically delusional.

As the old retort goes, "No matter, never mind".

Bawb - are you being serious or silly? I'd really love some specific answers sometime. I don't really sit around thinking about these things, but when they're brought up - it raises interesting questions.

Honestly - I think the only accurate answer is probably - "Noone really knows." So few people are capable of admitting that though.

Bawb - You should live in Glastonbury. You'd get into it and fit right in. I work part time there in a crystal shop - I call them rocks and stones- and the other woman who works the days opposite me - gets kind of upset at me that I don't take the healing principals of the stones seriously.

I think I'm just too literal minded. I love the stones because I think they're beautiful - but honestly I'm more interested in the facts behind how they're produced within the earth - the geological facts about how cooling slowly and cooling quickly produces different size crystals - the facts about how the different minerals in the earth at different depths produce more vivid colors, etc., than I am in any healing properties they might have.

In terms of the chakra - I think anything you believe that has a calming effect on you is healing in itself. So if you believe in the chakra - and it gives you confidence and peace of mind - it will have a healing effect on you. Same with meditation.

I'm totally open to other people believing in what they want or need to believe to make it through - I just am not able to adopt a lot of these concepts for my own life.

I have my own healers - music, laughter, literature, nature, family, friends, etc. And a residual belief in a god who I believe cares for me-

and although logically, I have to admit the concept doesn't make sense to me - I can't quite stand to give it up yet. So it's not that I'm not open to other methods of healing or consciousness - it's more that I haven't felt the need to explore other methods as I've found the ones I've been taught sufficient for me.

*In terms of intuiting that people are dangerous, or that there's something wrong with someone immediately - I seldom experience that. It's usually the opposite - I'm way too accepting and trusting in general. But again, I think that's residual from my conditioning as a child, along with my religious upbringing that taught me to view all people as children of God, and actual experience which has been pretty kind to me in general.

I bet I would. I've NEVER seen a shop here that sells crystals. Even though I don't believe they have any type of effect on anything, it's still pretty cool.

I don't think anything in the physical helps us in the mental.

Aahh, that is the type of stuff that is boring to me.

It's not that you trust a stranger or do something about what you feel, it's just the feeling that something is wrong. When you walk into an old building and your hair stands on end, etc..

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I bet I would. I've NEVER seen a shop here that sells crystals. Even though I don't believe they have any type of effect on anything, it's still pretty cool.

I think you'd love Glastonbury.
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This is looking from across the levels - the thing sticking up on that hill way far in the distance is Glastonbury Tor.

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Close up - Glastonbury Tor and the ruins of St. Michael's.

These are images of Glastonbury Tor. It's where the last abbot of Glastonbury, who refused to denounce Catholocism and give the riches of his church and abbey to Henry Vlll, was hung and drawn and quartered. He was dragged up the tor (the hill) and executed in St. Michael's church which was built at the top of the tor, as the levels all around it tended to flood. Anyway - his head was displayed outside of the abbey in Glastonbury, and they took each quarter of his body to display at the four corners of the country, so that any other priests deciding not to acquiesce to Henry's edicts could see what would happen to them.

People make pilgrimages there. But most of them aren't Catholic. They're new agers - I once saw a druid wedding ceremony take place up there. That was pretty cool. I received a druid blessing - and this guy just gave me a heart-shaped piece of pink quartz out of the blue "in the spirit of love" he said, "that he could feel permeating the proceedings".
My friend Antony says that "dark forces" emanate from the Tor - because of the violence that happened there - but I always feel free up there- mostly because it's always very windy and on a clear day you can see five counties from the top (counties in England are like states in US)- so it'd be like standing in New Hampshire and seeing into Maine, Vermont, and Massachusettes.

Where do you live that they don't have crystals? They don't even have geode shops? The shop that I worked in had the cornerstone from the bakery of the abbey from the l4th century. It's pretty amazing to see.

How about our brains? Eyes, ears, etc., etc.

Interesting...now that you mention it, I get that feeling sometimes- especially on the internet. Not that it makes my hair stand on end or anything - just that there's something just a little bit off- like maybe people aren't entirely credible sometimes or something. You know what I mean? It's not a big deal though.

In Mississippi their are no geode shops. Everyone here is a die-hard Christian. And that's fine with me, but that means no geode shops.

Egh I'm sorry, I should have specified.. I meant things like crystals and ancient relics and whatnot.. I don't think they do anything to help the mental.

Interesting...now that you mention it, I get that feeling sometimes- especially on the internet. Not that it makes my hair stand on end or anything - just that there's something just a little bit off- like maybe people aren't entirely credible sometimes or something. You know what I mean? It's not a big deal though.

Yea I get that sometimes too. Not with you, of course.