What Happens to the Soul When the Mind Leaves?
The picture shows an Alzheimer's patient holding a young dachshund in
a "pet animal boost" visit at a nursing home. The contentment of the scene
is for many families of Alzheimer's patients the antithesis of what really
has happened in their world as their loved one has lost the ability to
care for themselves and ultimately lost the ability to even know who they
are. I am writing this article in March 2002 in a chair beside the bed
of my 90-year-old mother who has suffered a stroke and floats from a coma-like
condition to periods of reasonable lucidness, with journeys into fantasy
and hallucinations in between. Why do such things happen, and what is the
spiritual state of people who no longer recognize reality or even sons and
daughters?
Brain
|
|
Soul
|
The symbol is a universal symbol that means "does not equal." The
most common mistake people make in dealing with man's soul is to confuse
spiritual things with mental things. This is easy to do because there is
considerable overlap, just like mental and physical things overlap. Sexuality,
artistic beauty, musical beauty, etc., will have physical connections.
We see because light is there as a physical quantity but our mental appreciation
of art or music are mental manipulations of the physical things we have
been exposed to. So, too, are spiritual things connected to mental and
physical processes. Creativity, worship, guilt, and sympathy are all qualities
unique to man, but obviously physical and mental things are involved.
The major point we are after in this discussion is that the brain is not
the soul and is only indirectly connected to the soul. Retarded human beings
do all the spiritual things we have been discussing, but highly intelligent
animals do not. Raising animals in human homes does not change them into
human beings. All animals have brains, and the functioning of the brain
has been an increasing subject of study by scientists. Since the brain
is a part of the physical body, it is subject to physical laws. Eyes develop
cataracts, joints wear out, skin wrinkles, and the brain ages. Man-made
pollution can injure the brain just as it can the eyes. We still do not
know what causes Alzheimer's, but we are sure there is a physical cause and
several suspects are being studied.
I have friends who have had polio and other friends who have had injuries
that have left them totally or partially disabled. These things are tragedies,
but they do not directly affect the souls of those battling them. Mental
problems also do not directly affect the souls of those afflicted with
them even though huge hardship and pain may be involved. The problem is
that, in the case of the brain, we do not always know as humans what we
are dealing with. Thinking my mother was totally out of it, I asked her
several times in a row if she knew who I was. She finally turned to me
and gave me one of those "put-out" looks that I remember so well as a child
and said, "You are John Noyes Clayton. Now get that dog out of here."
(There was no dog in the Bloomington Hospital at that time, much less
in her room.) We have no trouble detecting blindness or deafness, but
brain disorders are much more difficult for us to comprehend.
Soul
|
|
Robotness
|
As an atheist, I had no notion of what Christians were talking about when
they talked about the indwelling of the Holy Spirit or being spiritual.
The Bible even tells us that this concept is one that believers and nonbelievers
will not be able to communicate on (see
1 Corinthians
2:14). Pentecostalism has perhaps tainted us with a view that suggests
that being spirit-filled is just the opposite of the demon possession of
Matthew 8:28-34
where the demons had to control either the man or the herd of pigs.
Being spiritual, or having the spirit of God dwelling in us, does not
mean that our free will has been taken away and that we are no longer responsible
for what we do. We are not puppets as Christians, and we are no less prone
to misunderstandings or weaknesses than we were before we became Christians.
What is different about us as Christians compared to before God's Spirit
came into us is that we have a resource or power to draw upon that enables
us to do things we could not do before. Like any guide, the Spirit leads
the way, but does not force it. If you are being guided through a place
you have never been, the guide will show you how to go. The right doors
will be opened, and the best path to your destination will be given. You
do not have to follow the guide. You can strike out on your own and try
to do it without help. If you do so, you will miss the doors the guide opens,
and you will suffer the consequences of the bad choices you make. This analogy
is very close to how the soul is guided by the Holy Spirit and how the
soul works. We have the guide available to guide us in life and in things
we could not do or understand without that guidance. We can also do things
because of the guide's activity that we could not do if we were functioning
totally on our own.
If we carry our guide analogy one step further, we can see the connection
to the Alzheimer's question. One option always available to all of us
is to do nothing. If you were being guided through a new place as we just
described, one thing you could do is to stay right where you are and refuse
to follow the guide or move yourself. You could simply sit down in the
lobby of the hotel you were staying in and refuse to move. Many people
who claim to be Christians have done just exactly that--they have opposed
the Spirit of God by refusing to do anything. This lukewarmness is condemned
in no uncertain terms by Jesus when He tells those who are in that position
that "you make me sick" (Revelation 3:16). Just as the traveler who sits in the
hotel lobby never gets to his destination, so does the lukewarm Christian
never get to his. I was on a trip on the Columbia River in November 2001
when a man on the trip injured himself, and it appeared that he would not
be able to continue. The guide picked up the man and wheeled him on to
the destination so the trip was completed. So, too, does the Alzheimer's
patient find himself or herself unable to complete the journey of life to
its destination on their own. The mind may even die, but Jesus carries the
soul on to its final destination. In reality, this happens to all of us,
but with people whose minds have become inoperative, it occurs before the
body has returned to dust.
Death Method
|
|
Reward
|
When the Lord takes the soul on to its ultimate reunion with God does
not have any relationship to its ultimate reward. A baby who dies at birth
is no less human or less valuable than a 100-year-old preacher of the Gospel.
The tragedy of the baby is that it has not had an opportunity to reach
for the goals intended for it and the glory that reach would bring to God,
but its reunion with the Creator will be joyous none-the-less. So, too,
is the 50-year-old "baby" whose mind does not allow it to do all it would
like to do to make its existence sing praises to the Creator. The Lord
reaches out to all of us and does what we are unable to do for ourselves
(Romans 8:26-27).
The parable of the talents lays down a basic principle of how God handles
the vicissitudes and oddities of life. In addition to teaching us that
we cannot "sit down in the hotel lobby and refuse to move," we are also
shown that whether we have been given five talents or ten, our reward is
based on what we did with what we had opportunities to do--not some quota
given to us regardless of our abilities or lack of abilities.
So what happens to the soul when the mind leaves? It is no different
than if the mind was clear and functional. The soul leaves the body at
God's decree, and that may be years after the person no longer has control
over what they do. A body with a soul and no mind is like a parked car
with the engine running and no driver. It has to be contained and cared
for, but it is not at risk itself.
--John N. Clayton
Back to Contents Does God Exist?, JulAug02.