Letters From Grandpa #559

• LETTERS FROM GRANDPA
• 559

Dearest grandchild,

The Scriptures teach that wisdom is more precious than rubies and that nothing you desire can compare to her (Proverbs 3:13-15). Today’s letter will be about wisdom that enables you to discover your own soul! The book The Immortal Mind (A Neurosurgeon’s Case for the Existence of the Soul) by Dr. Michael Egnor has prompted this letter. I am indebted to Carol Crow for loaning me her copy of this remarkable book. Dr. Egnor began his pilgrimage in science and surgery as an atheist, but after over 40 years of medical practice, and over 7,000 brain surgeries, he has discovered evidence that convinced him of the reality of the soul. He considers it irrational to assume that the universe created itself and concludes that our Creator has created us in His image with unique powers of reason and free will. Dr. Egnor concludes that man is unique in creation for only he is made in the image of God!

Neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield (1891-1976) was a kindred spirit. He began as a philosophical materialist believing that every thing was material, and that the mind and the brain were one in the same. Penfield began his medical career by studying the greatest neuroscientists of the twentieth century. This included Sir Charles Sherrington (1857-1952) who was the first surgeon to operate on the brain while the patient was awake. The patient, during such surgery, correctly distinguished what “he” did from reflexes generated by the surgeon stimulating a part of his brain. Penfield concluded that the mind is not material and that “The mind must be viewed as a basic element in itself . . . that is to say, it has a continuing existence.” In other words, physical things are temporal, but the mind is not!

Early in his neurosurgical career Dr. Egnor operated on a four year old boy named Charles. He had ruptured the vertebral artery which provided essential blood flow to critical parts of his brain. In order to save his life Dr. Egnor was forced to remove half of his cerebellum. Sadly, he informed the family that Charles might be handicapped for the rest of his life. Quite to the contrary! Even after a large part of his brain was removed, Charles suffered no neurological deficit at all. He graduated from college, not only as a scholar, but also as a superb athlete who excelled in a wide variety of sports. This was a teachable moment for Dr. Egnor! Obviously the mind and the brain are not the same!

In 1991, 35 year old Pam Reynolds suffered a brain aneurysm that made her dizzy and impaired her speech. She was a singer and songwriter from Atlanta. Her brain was operated on by Dr. Robert Spetzler in Phoenix. This life saving surgery required that her body be chilled to 60 F. and her brain drained of all blood. The surgery began at 7:15 a.m. and her body was tied down securely. Her eyes were even lubricated to prevent desiccation and then sealed shut. It took 1 hour and 25 minutes to merely connect all the necessary instruments to monitor her vital signs. EEG electrodes were taped to her scalp to confirm when her brain was clinically dead. More than twenty doctors, nurses, and technicians were on the surgical team. When the surgery was over, her body and brain were once again warmed and filled with blood. Remarkably, Pam, even though she was clinically brain dead, described in detail what had taken place in the operating room during her surgery, This even included a conversation she had with her grandmother who died some time before. Pam Reynolds later died of heart failure in 2010 at the age of 53. Her case is significant because by every medical measure her brain was literally dead. Her brain was drained of all blood, her EEG was silent, and her brain stem responses were absent. Yet her mind was plainly aware of what was going on in the operating room.

Near death experiences are but one of many lines of evidence that prove spiritual reality. NDEs have been subjected to extensive scientific analysis over the past half century. In 2009 107 cases were studied by scientists corroborating out of the body experiences with reality. For example, a nine year

old boy named Eddie, after a NDE, claimed he had died and gone to heaven. He said he had seen his grandfather, aunt, and uncle in heaven, and also his 19 year old sister Teresa who was away in college. When the father hurriedly called the college he was amazed to learn that Teresa had just been killed in a car wreck the day before. Obviously our mind is not material or limited by physical barriers!

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) beautifully expressed his thoughts on God in his Critique of Pure Reason (1781). “Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the more often and steadily we reflect upon them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me. The moral law is, in this sense, written in human hearts and is powerful evidence within us of God’s existence and sovereignty.” While reflecting on this a stark truth emerges. The presumption that atheism is the official position of science is not based on evidence, but is a mere assumption. Oxford chemist, Peter Atkins concurs: “A scientific atheist holds that the domain of science is the physical world, but considers there is no other variety of world, and that the ‘spiritual’ is an illusion generated by the physical brain.” Dr. Egnor observes that “His approach is becoming less and less plausible in the light of the evidence . . . as the classical philosophers understood, a divine Mind underlying the universe is the best explanation for the existence of the human soul. A science establishment that cannot tolerate that idea is poorly adapted to the reality it attempts to explore and hopes to explain.”

Jesus said it like this: “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matt. 16:26) It is sad to see someone lose their job, their home, their health, their family, and their reputation! But the saddest thing of all is to see someone that we love lose their soul! Possessing such wisdom is more precious than rubies!

Please: “Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 2:5)

I love you,

Grandpa Boyce