The ghost is the machine

The physical world has been getting a bad rap ever since civilizations began. From ancient Egypt to Greece, from India to Europe, it's been pretty much the same story: this reality we live in is supposed to be just an 'illusion'; a mere veil over the far more real spiritual world; a temporary prison for the immortal soul; a truck stop on the way to eternity.

Why? Well, from our point of view, the physical world has this one tiny problem: We die.

If we all lived forever, the world would be constantly praised to the rafters for its intricacy, beauty and mystery. All those immortal philosophers would still be banging on about the wonders of atoms, cells, suns and galaxies – and our own human bodies. But unfortunately, after too short a time, all of us keel over and don’t appear to rise again. So instead we hear:

 "Do not believe yourself healthy. Immortality is health; this life is a long sickness." St. Augustine (354-430)

This is like picking up your spiritual bat and ball and quitting, just because you don't like the rules of the game: "This game sucks, because I lose in the end, so it can't be the real game. The real game must come later, somewhere else."

Well… does it?

Divide and conquer

"The world is divided between two kinds of people--those who divide the world into two kinds of people, and those who do not." Robert Benchley, US actor, author and humorist  (1889-1945)

St. Augustine’s singularly grim view of his temporal life is really only one example of the more general mind-set we call dualism. Dualism sees existence in terms of two basic forces which seem to be eternally opposed, irreconcilable, even paradoxical. We've managed to create quite a few dualities since we've been walking around wearing pants: Creator/Creation, Heaven/Hell, Good/Evil, Spirit/Matter, God/Satan, Soul/Body, Mortality/Immortality, to name a few.

Even science tried getting in on the act with Mind/Body and Wave/Particle, but these don't seem to carry quite the same gravitas. If light behaves like a wave or a particle, it doesn't seem to impinge on your immortal soul much does it?.  No, the ‘big idea’ dualism is chiefly the property of religion. Ancient Egyptian beliefs, Indian Vedanta, Babylonian mythology, Paganism, Zoroastrianism, Gnosticism, Manicheism, Taoism, Judaism and Christianity… all of them just couldn’t get enough of dualism.

Are two heads better than one?

But let’s forget about heaven and hell, god and satan and all that cosmic special effects stuff for a moment. Let’s just start with us. The central dualism that has plagued us all our lives is the idea that somehow there’s two parts to us. On the one hand, there’s our mortal, material, corruptible body with all its desires and weaknesses and, on the other, our pure, immortal soul (spirit, essence, vital force, divine spark, vibe, you-name-it).

Each of us is not one but two.

What’s so extraordinary, is that almost everyone tends to believe this in some form or other. Even the most materialistic ‘go-getter’ (after a few drinks!) will tell you much the same. They are more than just their physical body. The 17th century philosopher Rene Descartes, although a champion of rationalism, still clung to the inherant dualism of his religious upbringing, believing that the mind was the essence of an individual, which existed independantly of the body.

In 1949, the British philosopher Gilbert Ryle coined the derogatory phrase 'the ghost in the machine' to describe the mind(soul)-body dualism espoused by Descartes and others.

Ghosts, machines and madness

So here we are – supposedly an ethereal being who’s sort of floating around inside this incredibly complex, but essentially dead machine. A machine made from nothing, that one day will go back to nothing. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

We feel almost trapped in this machine. We don’t belong here. We’re so much more than this. We yearn to go back to our true home. If we believe and do the right things, we will someday return to that true home. This pale world is merely eternity’s waiting room.

The word schizophrenia is derived from the Greek 'schizo' (to split or divide) and 'phren' (mind). Dualism is a thought process that splits our minds. It divides our view of us and everything around us into two: the temporary ‘illusion’ and the eternal ‘reality’ behind it all. This view can really only be described as schizophrenic. The characteristic clinical symptoms of schizophrenia include: loss of contact with surroundings, delusions, hallucinations, incoherence, speaking in abstract concepts, dressing inappropriately, crying frequently, and a lack or decline in emotional response. There isn’t much difference between believing that you are receiving messages from aliens via advertising billboards and believing that an invisible being is operating – in ways that defy any logic – behind observable reality. A reality which, in itself, is not actually real!

The medieval meme

Meme, a loosely defined term originally coined by Richard Dawkins, is used to describe ideas or groups of ideas that successfully spread from one mind to another. Memes compete for our attention. Very successful ones can take root and spread widely throughout societies for many generations. Accuracy is not a prerequisite for a successful meme, just our mind’s attraction to it. Urban myths are a contemporary example of successful (and inaccurate) memes.

It seems hard to comprehend but, today, despite all the advances in science, technology and social systems, we still labour under a dualistic view of existence which has remained essentially unchanged since medieval times. This is the medieval meme. It deeply affects and infects us, because the medieval meme is very powerful. It was born over a millenium ago out  of a time of suffering, scientific ignorance, pandemic disease, fear, superstition and brutal political and religious oppression. All these are powerful facilitators for a meme to impress itself on the collective psyche. The medieval meme is not the sort of thing you can shake off with a few medical breakthroughs and a plasma screen in the lounge room. It is still buried deep within our basic beliefs; undermining our view of where we fit into the scheme of things; tainting our attitudes to each other and the world; and lowering the value we place on our very own physical body.

The resurrection of the sacred body

Let’s consider that physical body for just a moment.

Anyone who did high school biology knows how intricate the systems within our bodies are. This may have been merely cause for dismay at exam time but, now we’re adults, the only sensible response can be one of awe.

Our body is a heirarchy of heirarchies, a network of networks – sizzling with life at every level – a very complex boat indeed that has been merely designed to carry us across to that final shore, suffering the ‘long sickness’ of life! We now know ourselves to be far more than the physical body that St Augustine imagined for us, yet do we really give it the credit it deserves?

Still we ask: is that all there is? Is there an invisible ‘life force’ that’s separate from this vast micrometropolis teaming with life? Something else that leaves the body at the instant of death – when we take our last breath. Once again, our ideas on this owe more to medieval ignorance of biological processes than to an appreciation of what we actually now know to be true.

Take death.

Medically, death is a complex topic.

• You can be alive but one of your organs can die completely
• Your heart can stop but you can come back to life
• You can stop breathing but you can come back to life
• You can be pronounced ‘clinically dead’ and come back to life
• You can be as dead as a doornail and have your heart surgically removed and placed into a recipient to give them a second chance at life. The cells in your heart all very much alive – still going about their wonderful little heart cell stuff.
• You can be breathing and have no brain function whatsoever. No-one there. Alive but not.

Life is very fluid.

In other words, when you die, you don’t die all at once. Bits of you die here and there until the scales eventually tip. Life leaves you like water trickling down the side of a mountain. Sometimes slowly, sometimes in a rapid torrent. Not easy to reconcile with the medieval idea of an immortal soul flying off to heaven but, there it is.

The ghost is the machine

There is such a simple understanding of all this, but it takes a leap – not of faith – but of clarity. One that’s not blindly following the medieval meme. But one that's not just based on empty rationalism either. This is an understanding that’s neither theistic nor atheistic. One that doesn’t have to invent an imaginary magician to appreciate the magic. One that doesn’t see ghosts and machines where there is only life.

Let’s simply merge these two parts of ourselves into one. They always have been one, but fear has prevented us from seeing it. Fear of our death.

Our inevitable death should not be a cause for fear, disgust or religious delusion, but something to be treasured. Because our death makes our life so precious. Immortality just makes us worthless.

The human body is not a machine built with an ulterior motive – it’s just us evolving. No soul lurks in the dead man walking. Life is not a ‘long sickness’ but a brief miracle. No creator created the creation – there’s just creation.This is not reality plus one – just reality. There is no ghost in the machine.

The ghost is the machine.

The ecumenical council of infidels

The interfaith ecumenical movement (see, for example, the World Council of Churches interreligious relations) is dedicated towards promoting unity amongst all faiths. It is based on the idea that all religions have some truth to offer, and that every effort should be made to break down the barriers between different faiths in the interests of world peace. Optimisim indeed.

But what about those who don’t believe? Who will unite them? Far more importantly, who will unite the believers with the unbelievers. The faithful with the infidels. Because, we’re not going to get much further until that’s exactly what happens.

The great fictional detective, Ellery Queen, would always stop proceedings at a certain point towards the end of the book and dramatically announce to the reader: "you now have all the clues necessary to solve the mystery".

Well, we now have all the clues necessary to solve our own mystery. The question is: do we really want to?

What unites us all is life. We all have it, we all appreciate it. What divides us is failing to appreciate that life – putting everything else before life. Beliefs, religion, ideology, politics, morality – the whole ridiculous domain of duality. There’s a limitless supply of duality, but there’s only one life.

We’re not robots, not angels, not demons, not animated clay, not word made flesh, not spirit trapped in matter, not God’s children, not spawn of Satan, not reincarnations of those gone before us, not aliens, not multi-dimensional beings …

Just human life.

The ghost is the machine.