Soul through the eyes of science

Quotes from famous scientists

After studying the Jain point of view regarding soul, let us now consider the views of the modern science through quotes of famous scientist.

Albert Einstein, as quoted in The Modern Review of Calcutta, July 1936, observes:

Albert Einstein

“I believe that intelligence is manifested throughout all nature.”

Sir A. S. Eddington, as quoted by the same magazine in the article, has said:

A S Eddington

“Something unknown is doing, we do not know what I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. The old atheism is gone. Religion belongs to the realm of the spirit and mind and it cannot be shaken.”

Sir James Jeans in his ‘Mysterious Universe’ has observed:

Sir James Jeans

“Today there is a wide measure of agreement that the stream of knowledge is heading towards a non-mechanical reality. The Universe begins to look more like a thought than like a great machine. Mind no longer appears as an accidental intruder into the realm of matter.” (Page 137)

Sir Oliver Lodge has added elsewhere:

Sir Oliver Lodge

“The soul of man passes between death and rebirth in this world as he passes through dreams in the night between day and day.”

Psychical Research

A wealthy owner, Mr. James Kidd, in the State of Arizona in the United States died in 1951. He had drafted a will before death in which he had stated “The sum of two lakhs of dollars should be awarded to the person who will scientifically prove the fact that the soul which is understood to be distinct from the body and is independent of it, actually leaves the body at the moment of death.”

Eighteen American institutions registered their names to participate in the race for this prize. The Supreme Court of the State of Arizona allotted eighteen days from the sixth of March 1967 to each competing institution to come out with evidence in favour of the independent and immortal existence of the soul.

The legal custodian and executor of this will had announced that if the competing institutes fail to produce the genuine evidence as required by the conditions of the donor, then the amount of two lakhs of dollars will be delivered to any research institute which would take up the challenge to prove the immortality and independence of the soul.

The Indian professor Dr. H. N. Banerjee, who apart from Professor Stevenson and Professor Haraldsson is probably the most well-known research scientist on the subject of reincarnation, became famous in the USA by bringing the case of Joe Wilke to the attention of the public. He has compiled about 500 cases of individuals from all over the world who claim to possess memories of their past lives.

The present age has by now been better-informed than the past few ages about the different facts of truth about the soul through various scientific angles or points of view. Several scientists have confirmed their faith in the eternity of the soul.

Evidences Through Hypnotism

James Alexander Cannon (4 August 1896–18 March 1963) was a British psychiatrist. In his work titled ‘The Power Within’, the author has vindicated the truth of reincarnation through experiments of hypnotism on his subjects. He carried out 1,383 experiments in total and succeeded in reviving the memories of the past lives.

Two amazing instances are worth mentioning here:

A man could never use the elevator for an unexplainable fear of falling down.

Acrophobia

So he met the hypnotist who put him under the sixth type of the deepest hypnotism. After this he introduced himself as a Chinese General and said: “I fell from a tall building, cracking my skull and causing my death”. The accident he had suffered was the subconscious cause of his fear.

2. A woman had a terrible fear of drowning in the water

Hydrophobia

Through hypnotic trance it was revealed this woman was a man and a slave in the country of Rome. (This reinforces the truth of the Jain theory that the departed male soul may reincarnate as a female and vice versa.). This slave was given the death penalty for some crime of his by drowning him under water with his feet tied with strong chains so as to make him incapable of any movement or effort to swim. Hence this female subject continued to suffer from hydrophobia.