Do you feel spirit energies when meditating?

Are the enlightened simply those few individuals at the extreme forward edge of the bell curve, with the masses of the world population stuck near the middle? If there are child prodigy pianists, artists, and even child prodigy golfers, then why not child prodigy meditators as well? The Asian cultures may have simply mistaken naturally occurring genetic variations in the human brain for evidence of a romanticized past life history that does not exist in fact. The group conditioning became so strong that the myths of reincarnation fooled even the enlightened ones. History shows that the easiest explanation for a phenomena that has the most supporting evidence is usually correct. Grand claims require grand evidence to justify a belief in them, and there is currently no scientifically valid evidence of reincarnation or a magical transference of personal karma.

If the spiritual bell curve theory is true, it could help explain the obvious corruption of gurus. Rajneesh was a convicted felon and a proven liar of historic proportions. George Gurdjieff was also a chronic liar and a loud and often rude alcoholic. The genetics based view of enlightenment helps explain why there are so few enlightened ones at any given time. If every soul has multiple chances to improve its meditation skills over lifetimes of effort, then surely the world would produce more than the meager handful of enlightened sages that are born each century. Since at least the dawn of Hinduism (about 1500 BC), long before the historic Buddha was born (about 563 BC), millions of human beings have been making sincere effort at meditation, so where are the results of these lifetimes of effort? The mathematical logistics of the soul-karma theory just do not add up.

The argument for souls and/or immortal karma is that enlightenment is a process that takes many lifetimes of effort, and the fruition of our long journey through time is the eventual payoff of "moksha" (final spiritual freedom), infinite ecstasy, and liberation from all suffering. This highly romantic idea appeals because it brings a sense of warmth and justice into a cold and often pointlessly cruel world. It intuitively seems fair that right action is eventually rewarded with positive results, but this belief in inevitable karma has also caused negative results. In Tibet it produced a kind of fatalistic inaction which aided the Communist Chinese in their military takeover in 1950. To quote Drupon Samten Rinpoche, "They can be taking this life, but they cannot take the next life." This feeling of immortality has brought Tibetan Buddhists a great sense of peace and compassion in the face of invasion and genocide, but is it based or real-world fact or just wishful thinking?

Belief in souls and immortal karma has had many negative effects in India, where the theory of reincarnation helped establish the ancient Hindu caste system. The caste system was abolished by law in 1949, but lives on as an unfair social class structure which is considerably worse than the traditional class snobbery practiced in Europe. The lower caste, the Shudras, are considered inferior to the higher castes of Brahmins, Kshatriyas, and Vaishyas. Even below the Shudras are the outcasts, known as the "untouchables," who have no caste at all. The untouchables are looked down upon as being spiritually unworthy due to past life sins, and are limited to performing the most unpleasant jobs, such as disposing of dead bodies and cleaning toilets. The theory of reincarnation has been used in India as a convenient rationalization to exploit those who are poor and uneducated. Skin diseases, such as leprosy, are considered signs of punishment for evil deeds committed in past lives. Medical science has proven that leprosy is just an ordinary bacterial infection that anyone can contract given sufficient exposure to the bacillus: Mycobacterium leprae. Even the great Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh promoted the inhumane karmic explanation for leprosy.

Reincarnation and immortal karma were a way ancient peoples could explain and rationalize the inherent inequities of life, death, disease, riches, and poverty in religious terms that had no basis in fact. All of the major world religions are relics of the prescientific era, and all have negative biases woven into their teachings. I therefore suggest that it is time to embrace a pro-science meditative attitude that does not promote irrational belief in magic and the supernatural, things which exist in our imagination, but which have no real existence in fact.

Rejecting the soul theory negates any need to answer such impossible questions as where do souls come from and why do they exist. The rebellious sage U.G. Krishnamurti stated "There is no such thing as enlightenment," and that his state of continuous cosmic consciousness was without cause, or "acausal." Could it be that the real cause of enlightenment is rarefied DNA combined with modest effort? Perhaps the ancient Hindus and Buddhists invented myths of souls and immortal karma simply because they were uneducated observers of the natural phenomena around them and inside them. Siddhartha Gautama never knew about neurons or DNA, so how could he be expected come up with any explanations for life that were not based on inherited cultural myths of the supernatural?

I dismiss claims of past life memories because of the projective nature of the human brain. The brain can project any image or feeling, and it is exactly the same neurological mechanism that projects fantasies of the subconscious that also projects authentic memories stored in brain cells. What comes out of that one singular projector may be real memory or real fantasy, but no one can tell the difference with certainty, not even the late J. Krishnamurti or the Dalai Lama.

False memories are a common occurrence in courtrooms and have sent many innocent men to their deaths for crimes they never committed. Just imagine a monk walking into a courtroom claiming to remember all of his past lives. Then imagine the monk being grilled under cross-examination and he cannot even remember what he had for lunch just a few days before. Even the enlightened sages have memory problems and need to write down important dates and facts so they won't forget.

If a high Tibetan lama or Hindu yogi enters a medical laboratory full of skeptical scientists and proves through testing that he can transfer his consciousness out of his body, then belief in souls and reincarnation would be easier for everyone. To date that has not happened, and hospital tests designed to prove out-of-body episodes during near death experiences have yielded no positive results. As far as scientifically valid evidence of soul is concerned, the well is completely dry. Human beings exist as footprints in the sand. One day the footprints will be erased and only the sand will be left behind. There is no reincarnation and there is no personal continuity of karma.

I use to dismiss U.G. Krishnamurti's claim that there is no enlightenment, no soul, and no reincarnation as just his negative way of teaching. Perhaps, however, he was just trying to tell us the truth no matter how shocking that truth may be. Instead of becoming attached to the small personal identity of a mythical human soul, or to the very real human body, it is apparent that we must identify with nothing less than infinity itself to find authentic immortality. That is a pretty tall order for a human brain that only weighs about 3 pounds (1,300 to 1,400 grams). All of the great religions of the world may be wrong and just a product of our own fear of dying. That possibility is electrically shocking to me, but it may well be true.

A summary of the main issues

1) There is no positive proof for the existence of souls, immortal karma, reincarnation, or any spiritual afterlife. It is interesting to note that in their last years even Rajneesh/Osho and J. Krishnamurti reversed themselves and stated that there was no reincarnation and thus, presumably, no soul. If there is no reincarnation and no heaven or hell, then the question of soul is moot.

2) There are legitimate science based alternate explanations for phenomena attributed to souls and immortal karma. The enlightened teachers seem to confuse the effects of DNA for the effects of soul. For example, people with higher intelligence and a more finely articulated DNA code are perceived by them as being older and higher souls.

3) There are obvious profit and political power motives for those who promote belief in the supernatural. How many gurus have made fortunes off the idea of souls and reincarnation? How many monasteries, ashrams, churches, mosques, and synagogues would go out of business if people found out there is no soul or immortal karma? How can governments and the religious hierarchies control the masses if word leaks out that we all end up in the same state of eternal unconsciousness after we die, no matter how we behave while we are alive? Would there be a Vatican City or Tibetan Portola Palace without a belief in souls and/or immortal karma? The idea of soul has historically been as much a matter of politics as it has been an issue of personal religious belief.

4) It is highly probable that human animals have a built-in genetic predisposition to avoid the inevitable fact of our future death in order to reduce fear and stress. Our brains create myths of God, soul, immortal karma, reincarnation, and afterlife as a buffer against the hurtful knowledge of the inevitable demise of ourselves and everyone we love. By inventing myths of afterlife and/or reincarnation, the brain can exist comfortably without the highly charged survival instinct electrically connecting to the newfound knowledge of the inevitability of our own death. The supernatural myths thus act as resistive electrical insulation, blocking a dangerous short circuit between two parts of the brain.

5) The wild and colorful supernatural myths of Hinduism and Buddhism were created by the human brain mixing up the very real phenomena of cosmic consciousness with the romantic, fiction producing part of the brain that makes us fall in love. Humans have an inbuilt biological need for love so we can sexually reproduce the species. This urge for romance becomes embedded in our DNA code through the evolutionary process, just as our need for strong bones and sharp teeth. Love is a survival requirement for the human species, and it is the very same internal brain wiring and euphoric brain chemistry which also creates fantastic myths of reincarnated religious superheroes. The flawless Godly guru becomes our non-sexual, fantasy spiritual lover. Many Asian and Western gurus have taken advantage of this brain phenomena, and used their own females disciples as a personal harem. Sexual scandals follow gurus almost as regularly as summer follows spring.

6) The soul-karma-reincarnation theory has no reasonable explanation as to how disincarnate souls enter a mother's womb and merge with a newly formed fetus. The traditional Asian myths state that low souls get less auspicious bodies, and higher souls get better looking, healthier bodies with more intelligent brains. Few true believers of reincarnation have ever asked themselves how low souls are rejected from better quality fetuses, and how high souls avoid the trap of getting attached to poor quality fetuses. The theory implies that souls have consciousness that lets them figure out which wombs to enter and which to avoid, and fetuses and/or wombs have built-in restrictions as to what type of soul may apply to enter. Certainly, even low souls would like to enter better quality fetuses, because everyone wants to be good looking, healthy, and wise. There are a thousand and one Hindu and Buddhist explanations for this process, which sounds allot like house shopping and applying for a home mortgage. None of the traditional theories meet even marginal standards of believability in explaining such an impossibly complex theoretical process.

7) Life on earth was created through the nonhuman laws of chemistry, physics, and probability. Strands of chemicals (DNA) were created by sheer accident and replicated themselves faster than they could be destroyed. By further accident, some DNA strands became encased in protective shells which increased their survivability dramatically, creating the first bacteria. From simple bacteria more complexity was added until a myriad of multi celled creatures were produced. Through this slow process of evolution over billions of years, there was never any need for soul except as a myth to help human animals deal with their growing consciousness of the inevitable time-death equation. Scientists have produced the genetic heart of active bacteria from their base chemical components, and they did so without concocting any "soul."

The logistical mathematics of the soul theory do not add up. Does every new bacteria, seed, egg, spider, minnow, or cockroach that appears in the world demand a soul to go along with its already sufficient DNA code? We know that humans evolved from bacteria. When did soul come into the picture and why? Is there a printing press somewhere stamping out trillions of new souls every second to keep up with the demand? The soul theory lacks logical credibility, and science has shown that the universe is extremely logical in its structure, formation, and evolution.

8) The famous film director, Alfred Hitchcock, often added a theatrical ploy to his movies called a "MacGuffin." The MacGuffin distracted the audience long enough so that suspense could be created and the plot could develop without giving away the true course of the story. In the end, the MacGuffin has no meaning in itself. Likewise, Hindus and Buddhists have invented complicated myths of reincarnation and/or immortal karma, declaring that we are all trapped in a cycle of birth and death and only our eventual enlightenment can set us free. The Eastern traditions have created a highly sophisticated myth structure, but the underlying function of their myths is identical to the more childlike myths of Christianity, with its almighty God, angels, and heaven. The belief in karma and reincarnation is the MacGuffin that keeps our minds diverted from the inevitability and finality of our own death.

No one can honestly say that it is impossible that human beings have souls or immortal karma. You cannot prove an absolute negative against such a big and complex issue. One can only say that given the proven facts of life and nature, the possibility of soul is unlikely. On one side of the scale you have an almost infinite preponderance of evidence that the supernatural does not exist, and on the other side of the scale you have rumors, myths, and wishful thinking.

(This article is written by Christopher Calder )