Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia;  Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.

Mind Body & Spirit are different functions of the same fundamental substance : Information

Post 12. January 29, 2018

Form & Function : Body & Soul

  Physical & Spiritual

When asked about the disappearance of jaguars from the jungles around his shamanic healing center in Peru, Maestro Juan Flores replied that his totem animal now existed only in the spirit world, yet retained its magical powers to influence real world human problems. "You can't erase a spirit" he said, "The body may have died, but the spirit is still here." Such confident sentiment seems to be in accordance with a common notion worldwide, that the world of physical appearances is underlain by an invisible realm of beings & powers that sometimes intervene in the physical world, but that are perceptible only to those who are tuned-in to the spirit world. Now, I don't think that jaguar gods are actually prowling the camps of Amazonian witch doctors. But such symbols of power do seem to have both emotional and physical effects on the human psyche1.

Therefore, my conclusion is that Spirit exists only in minds, which in turn exist in physical bodies. Consequently, the emotional symbolism of spiritual beliefs can have indirect consequences on the anatomy via the immune system. For example, by associating the observable physical power of a jaguar with the healing power of a shaman, a person with an aggravating illness may be able to convince his immune cells to attack a tumor with the ferocity of a predatory cat. Yet, the less impressive powers of a fidgety squirrel may not have the same effect *. Moreover, the entheogenic2 powers of drugs, such as ayahuasca may provide a hazy"spiritual" feeling that fosters belief and lowers inhibitions & skepticism. Nevertheless, despite the fraud & fakery surrounding spiritualistic practices, it is widely believed that the immaterial mind can subconsciously cause positive or negative changes in the physical body.

Mind/Body healers typically describe the success of their work as a spiritual effect. But the typical scientific explanation for spiritual healing is summed up in the well-attested Placebo Effect. Yet for many years, medical science dismissed shamanic or faith-healing as feckless mumbo-jumbo. More recently, closer examination of the evidence has confirmed that people can sometimes be healed without medical intervention1. Now that we know that faith (strong belief & imagination) in the mind can affect the body, the scientific question remains : how does it work? But first, it should be noted that, while faith can sometimes be as effective as medicine for psychogenic3 ailments, it has not been proven to be a replacement for surgery. So-called psychic surgeons4 have been found to be using methods common among stage magicians to give the appearance of removing tumors from their patients. Despite the patient's psychological belief that they have been healed, when examined objectively their actual physical health remains unchanged.

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*<< So many people from Europe and North America come to Mayantuyacu and other ayahuasca centers in Peru hoping to find some approximation of a "jaguar spirit" in themselves. (For some reason nobody covets an association with a Pucallpa squirrel.) >>

Chip Brown, National Geographic, Dec 2017

1. Placebo Effect :
Your mind can be a powerful healing tool when given the chance. The idea that your brain can convince your body a fake treatment is the real thing — the so-called placebo effect — and thus stimulate healing has been around for millennia. Now science has found that under the right circumstances, a placebo can be just as effective as traditional treatments.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/mental-health/the-power-of-the-placebo-effect

2. Entheogenic :
literally meaning "generating God within", is any psychoactive substance that induces a spiritual experience and is aimed at spiritual development.

3. Psychogenic :
An illness with an emotional or psychological origin rather than a physical cause. People can be deceived into believing in the efficacy of an inert substance or useless device.  

4. Psychic Surgery :
Sham practices among spiritualist communities in mid-20th century. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychic_surgery

Humanity did not rise up after billions of years in raw defiance of the laws of nature. We’re the current natural expression of principles that have been there all along. . . .

 So things like “life”, “Intelligence”, and “Self Awareness” are properties of the Universe, not some anomaly on the Earth that just came up during the history of homo sapiens.

David L,
Quora Forum

 Note :
 << . . . the placebo effect, through which a person may experience genuine pain relief and other symptomatic alleviation. In this case, the patient genuinely has been helped by the faith healer or faith-based remedy, not through any mysterious or numinous function, but by the power of their own belief that they would be healed.>>
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith_healing

Note :
I don't claim to know how spiritual effects (faith healing) differ from physicial effects (immune response). But the Enformationism theory views Spirit, Soul, Mind as merely emergent functions of Body, Self, Brain.