“If a non-physical mind exists, the research project for the next century should be to explore the impact of such non-physical influences – where in the brain does such influence occur and what laws are broken.”

In the above statement, David L. Wilson, a researcher in mind-brain interactions, is aware of the impact a separate non-physical mind can have on neuroscientific research. This scientific conclusion supports and emphasizes the need for rethinking dualism because there is scientific evidence that such a mind does exist.

The evidence of a soul’s reality, with a non-physical mind, presented in this book affirms that such a century of exploration can and should begin now.

Thousands of books written by neuroscientists and cognitive scientists try to explain human mental states as properties of the physical brain on the assumption that the soul, therefore the mind, does not exist. Science has based its neurophysical and neurobiological research on this baseless, but convenient, assumption. It has wasted intellectual and financial resources on a naïve assumption without even attempting an analysis of the possible effects of a non-physical entity on the functioning of the physical brain and nervous system. This omission is unscientific, an analytic departure from the normal procedure of assessing other possibilities since a soul’s reality has always been a philosophic position. Now with the evidence of the soul, there is a major gap to be filled with no past studies to rely on as the jump start for that research project that David Wilson claims is conditionally imminent.

The evidence of the soul’s reality is documented in scientific reports of investigations and verifications. This evidence proves several issues that affect not only the scientific and philosophic communities but every human being. These issues are:

1. Reincarnation, demonstrating spiritual continuity, is shown to be real through physical first person spontaneous accounts by the reincarnated soul of past lives, accounts that are subsequently verified.
2. Therefore, the soul, as the link between the old and new physical bodies with its memory and other non-physical functional properties, is a reality. Every human being has a soul.
3. The existence of the soul confirms a spiritual life after earthly death. Therefore, every human being is committed to an eternal existence regardless of contradictory beliefs.
4. Scientists try to explain mental activity and behavior as properties of the physical brain initiated solely by body sensor physical stimuli. The basic assumption for this approach is a denial of the soul’s existence. The soul’s reality negates this conceptual approach.
5. The mind is part of the soul, not of the physical brain. Each is a distinct entity.
6. The mind controls the brain for physical activity. Some experimental evidence of this has been documented.
7. Thinking, free will, emotion, and memory are properties of the soul, not the brain. Scientists try to explain memory as a physical function with a physical storage location. But reincarnation evidence demonstrates that memory of past life experiences resides in the soul, not in the body, because the soul retains it whereas it would be non-existent if it were part of the dead body.
8. Skills learned in a previous life, physical and linguistic, are retained in the reincarnated soul-mind because they are demonstrated in some reincarnated bodies without any instructions.
9. It is possible the soul is consciousness.
10. Dualism replaces monism, confirming the philosophy of René Descartes.
11. There is a logical approach to analyzing the duality realism in a transition from a soulless concept to the realism of a body controlled by a soul.

These are the main issues addressed in this book. What makes the reincarnation evidence so compelling is that it is physical evidence of a non-physical entity. It is what science has asserted to be impossible, an assumption that has been exploited by science as a convenient base for substituting materialist concepts for immaterial properties. However, the scientific reports of the soul’s reality, implemented by deconfirming exposure of naive conceptual claims of physical causality, challenge this exploitation.
The challenge is a logical and factual, not idealistic, confrontation with the scientific attempt to eliminate the soul, and consequently the mind, as real non-physical entities of the human being. A likely reaction to this dismantling of the materialistic viewpoint and its claimed scientific support will be a violent attack on the credibility of the evidence. But the evidence is physical evidence, which the scientific community is obliged to review objectively as being in its domain even though the evidence negates part of the ongoing research. Science’s dedication to materialism may make acknowledgment of its errors in denying the non-physical part of the human being extremely difficult. However, there are neuroscientists who are espousing negative views about the ongoing neuroscientific and cognitive research. What is lacking in their viewpoints that would support and make their cases complete is the physical evidence and contradicting analyses that are revealed in this book.
What effects will the disclosure of the soul’s reality produce? They will be widespread, not restricted to scientific research but encompassing all of humanity. The following list is representative of these effects:

1. The worldview of man’s destiny must change with the certainty of an afterlife.
2. The definition of human nature and behavior must incorporate the new reality.
3. The concept of human behavior through physical causality will no longer be credible.
4. Monism is replaced by dualism.
5. Personhood must be redefined for social and legal reasons.
6. Philosophers can better define metaphysical effects with factual certainty.
7. The theological negation of reincarnation must be reversed.
8. A resurgence of religious fervor is possible due to the certainty of an afterlife.
9. The mindsets of neural researchers must accept non-physical reality.
10. Secular acceptance of scientific positivism will be curtailed due to science’s deliberate misleading explanations of the nature of Homo Sapiens.
11. New research about the effects of dualism on the mind-brain problem must begin.
12. A holistic approach for the new research must be defined.
13. A leader, either individual, academic, or corporate, must emerge to organize the new neurorealistic research effort.

The bottom line of my challenge to rethink dualism is that the confirmation of the soul as part of the human being validates dualism and negates monism. To continue the research of human nature and human behavior demands a new discipline in which the guidelines for the study must be defined by the unique problems of dualistic integration, not by unsupported idealistic concepts. Such unsupported idealism has caused confusion about human behavior and the meaning of life because it is viewed in terms of invalid conceptual explanations and optimistic scientific promises of eventual vindication. The introduction of the soul into cognitive scientific research should unveil a broader, more positive, and exciting approach for final resolution of the true nature of Homo Sapiens.
What will you find in this book to support the above statements? After a historical and defining background of the nature of dualism (Chapter 1) and some precautionary advice on objective appraisal of philosophical and scientific claims (Chapter 2), the evidence is presented in Chapter 3. Both physical and non-physical evidences are included. With this information you will be the judge of the validity of the material in the subsequent chapters which include philosophy, argument, contradictions, explanations, analogies, and finally a suggested framework for rethinking dualism. It is a progressive venture into the reasons why the challenge to rethink dualism is necessary.
DESCARTES WAS RIGHT! You do have a soul! It doesn’t matter whether you know it or not; whether you believe it or not; whether you care or not; or whether you argue against it. The evidence in this book will convince you or, at least, make you doubt about your disbelief. Since the seventeenth century when René Descartes, a French philosopher (1596-1650), introduced the philosophy that a spiritual soul is part of the human being, an ongoing debate has been unable to resolve the allegation. Although there are also other related issues, the principal contention between the advocates of materialistic monism and metaphysical dualism is the existence of a soul. This is the basic issue regardless of various concepts of either ism. If Descartes had the evidence that now exists, the debate would never have started.