Philosophy of Medicine – Lesson. 39 – The Concept of Whole Self

Whole Self: The Unity of Body, Mind, and Soul

SPIRITUALITY SCIENCE: THE UNITY OF MAN IN BODY, MIND, AND SOUL. The word Spiritual describes the relationship between a changing object and its unchanging spiritual nature. This baby which started its existence as a single, fertilized Egg-Cell will continue to grow and develop undergoing a series of changes in physical appearance or Identity and yet will retain the same Individuality during the entire course of Life’s Journey.

Human existence is conditioned and man experiences the aging process without any choice and the existence is viewed as transient, ephemeral and even illusory for man is constituted as a mortal being. However, the fact of this temporary existence demands the Unity of Body, Mind and Soul apart from yoking, joining together or association with an everlasting God Principle. This Unity of mortal Body, Mind and Soul with Divine Operating Principle does not imply that the human soul is the same as or shares the entire Identity of the Divine Supersoul. While describing the Unity of Body, Mind and Soul, man can still set his true or real Identity apart from his own body and mind which is the seat of his thoughts, feelings, cravings and moods. Such separation of man into two categories will have practical applications to practice the Art of Self-Discipline and to prevent problems like Substance Abuse, Suicide and other behavioral disorders.

Spirituality Science. The Self and The Knowing-Self.

“Ekam evaditiyam” – This statement in the Sanskrit language is from Chandogya Upanishad (6:2:1) and it means: “I, one alone and there is no second.” The original intent of this statement is that of seeking the Unity of the Objective Reality of Man known as ‘Atman’ (the Individual Soul ) and the Ultimate Reality known as ‘Paramatma’ or Supersoul. There is no Duality between the two and there is no disunity between Man and God. However, God is not an object which is under Man’s control and the views about God are subjective opinions.

I am quoting this statement to find the Unity of Man in body, mind, and soul. Man’s greatest need is not only to know the world around him but also to know himself better. Man must understand what it is to be a substance and what it is to exist. We need to establish knowledge about Man on a firm basis and the information it provides must be tested for its accuracy and consistency with external reality. Dr. William James in his book, The Principles of Psychology, has observed: “True ideas are those we can assimilate, validate, corroborate, and verify.” The separation of man into body, and mind (Body vs Mind Dualism), Body and Soul (Body vs Soul Dualism) is not supported by a scientific study of man as the entire human organism is derived from a Single, fertilized Egg Cell.

It is impossible to describe the concept called “SOUL”, or “SPIRIT” if it is never associated with its human body. If “SOUL” is defined as the vital, animating, Life Principle, the word Spiritual speaks of the existence of a Living Soul or Spirit.

The man comes into existence from a single fertilized Egg Cell. This Man cannot be separated into two distinct entities like insentient material being and sentient spiritual being. The physical being and the conscious being are the same. The division of Man into a physical substance and a thinking substance or that of a physical body and a thinking mind is not valid as they have no independent existence of their own. The division of Man into a physical body and an immortal, non-material or immaterial Soul is not also valid as the Soul is described as the vital, animating principle that is the chief characteristic of Life.

The Egg Cell is the source of Man’s Life. The Spiritual Nature of Man could be discovered and could be described from the biological properties, characteristics, and nature of the corporeal substance found in the Egg Cell.

The Spiritual Nature of Man is not a mental function. The Spiritual Nature of Man could be discovered and could be described from the biological properties, characteristics, and nature of Man’s corporeal substance found in the fertilized Egg Cell. This substance is Conscious. This Single Egg Cell grows, divides, develops, and builds the cells, the tissues, and the organ systems that constitute the Human Individual. The Spiritual Nature of the substance present in the Single, fertilized Egg Cell brings the functional unity of all the cells, tissues, and organ systems to establish the Physical Reality called Man.

Human Embryo Implantation at about six days after Conception. The Single, fertilized Egg Cell and the Human Embryo that develops from it is Conscious of its existence reflecting its Spiritual Nature.

About six days after Conception, the developing Human Embryo implants itself into maternal tissues by establishing an anatomical connection called Placenta. The implantation of Human Embryo does not involve any human thought and the Mother has no cortical awareness of the fact of implantation. The implantation demonstrates the Consciousness of the Human Embryo which is aware of the fact of its own existence. The phrase Spiritual defines the internal, mutually beneficial relationship, partnership, association, and the connection between the cells, tissues, organs, and organ systems for the benefit of the Human Person who exists because of their living functions. The Subject that is born from the Single, fertilized Egg Cell is always a new, original, distinctive, unique, one of its own kind of Object that exists because of the innate Spiritual Nature of the material substance. Being born relates Man to the Subjective and Objective Realities of his biological existence.

There is structural and functional unity between Man and his Body, Mind, and Soul. There is no Life, and there is no Human Existence if these entities are separated. Spiritualism is the potency that brings Man’s Essence and Man’s Existence to come together to provide Man the Subjective and Objective Reality of his own biological existence in the physical and material world. Man is not an embodied Soul and Man is a Living Soul.

What is Man? 

WHAT IS MAN? MAN IS LIVING THING AND IS COMPOSITE OF TWO PRINCIPLES, 1. FORM, AND 2. MATTER.

I will be repeatedly asking this same question in several of my blog posts on the subject of Spirit and Soul. I want to remind myself that the motivation for asking this question comes from a statement expressed in the Sanskrit language: “Sarvesham Swastir Bhavatu”, a statement which seeks the well-being of all humans, of all races, of all cultures, of all religions, and of all nations. The meaning and purpose of human life are affected by whatever we think is the real or true nature of man. It is more important to recognize that our efforts to support the well-being of man would require correct understanding and knowledge of the real or true man.

The Self and The Knowing-Self:

FACIAL RECOGNITION-IDENTITY AND INDIVIDUALITY-THE SELF and THE KNOWING-SELF: Identity describes the external reality of man and it helps to know the man as a specific Individual. This Individual exists with unchanging Individuality which describes the internal reality of man. Identity provides awareness of the Self and Individuality involves the Knowledge of the Knowing-Self.

To know about Man, we can observe the various activities that describe the Man. The Physical being known as Man is known from the living functions performed by the tissues and organ systems of his body. This Physical being has Identity or identifying features such as age, gender, race, ethnicity and other biometric information to know the person as a specific Individual. Factors like language, religion, culture, education, social occupation, nationality, and sexual orientation are also used to describe the Man. The Mental being known as Man is described from mental functions such as intellect, thoughts, moods, feelings, cravings, and self-pride. Man, the Social being is known from his social interactions and much of human action and behavior involves interacting with other individuals present in his social environment. Man, the Moral being is known from the choices he makes in the performance of his actions where discernment plays a role to distinguish right from wrong, and good from evil. Man, the Spiritual being is known from the nature of his existence seeking peace, harmony, and tranquility within himself and with others in his environment and community.

I designate the term ‘Self’ to describe Man as a Physical, Mental, and Social being. I have also observed that the Physical being is in reality consists of about 100 trillion individual living cells that show complex structural differentiation and functional organization. The corporeal substance is of spiritual nature and hence Man, the Physical being has no choice other than that of existing as a Spiritual being. The question is not that of, How Man knows himself? The question that I would like to ask is, How does the body know the Identity of the Man who lives? If the body knows its Owner, there is an anatomical structure that is associated with the function called The Knowing-Self.

The Function of The Knowing-Self:

How does the body know the Identity of the Man who lives? If the body knows its Owner, there is an anatomical structure that is associated with the function called The Knowing-Self.

The Reticular Formation (RF) is in the central Brain Stem and extends from Medulla to Thalamus. It consists of more than about 100, 000 Brain Stem nuclei. It is estimated that a single neuron in this network may have synapses with as many as 25,000 other neurons. The RF has connections with almost all other parts of the Central Nervous System including Spinal Cord, Cranial Nerve nuclei, Cerebellum, Hypothalamus, Thalamus, Corpus Striatum, Limbic System, and Cerebral Cortex. Thus, the RF helps to coordinate and integrate actions of different parts of the Central Nervous System such as 1. regulation of muscle and reflex activity, 2. central transmission of sensory impulses, 3. respiration, 4. cardiovascular responses, 5. behavioral Arousal, and 6. Alert/Sleep Cycle.

The Reticular Activating System (RAS) of Reticular Formation protects you from information overload by acting as a “Gatekeeper” for your brain. It filters out millions of bits of useless sensory data every second so your conscious mind can focus on what matters.

How does the body know the Identity of the Man who lives? If the body knows its Owner, there is an anatomical structure that is associated with the function called The Knowing-Self.

🧠 The Brain’s Filter

Your body constantly receives massive amounts of information from your surroundings. The RAS prevents your conscious mind from drowning in this data through specific biological mechanisms.

Sensory Filtering: It blocks repetitive background noises, sights, and feelings.

Volume Control: It turns down the volume on predictable, non-threatening stimuli.

Focus Directing: It passes only critical data up to the cerebral cortex.

Conscious Awareness: It decides what enters your immediate, waking thoughts.

🔍 How the Filter Works

The RAS uses specific criteria to determine what information breaks through the gate and what gets ignored.

Physical Survival: It instantly flags signs of danger, like a sudden loud bang.

Novelty: It alerts you to unexpected changes, like a sudden drop in room temperature.

Personal Relevance: It triggers when you hear highly specific data, like your own name.

Current Focus: It highlights things you actively think about, like seeing a specific car everywhere after buying it.

🛑 Impact of RAS Failure

Without a functioning RAS, daily life would become completely overwhelming and impossible to manage.

Sensory Flooding: You would feel your clothes against your skin every single second.

Auditory Chaos: Background traffic would sound just as loud as a person speaking to you.

Mental Exhaustion: Your brain would quickly run out of energy trying to process everything.

Man enjoys an existence characterized by Peace, Harmony, and Tranquility, as the Soul, or the Life Principle operates the vital functions of the complex organism without relaying all the information to the cortical areas avoiding information overload. Thereby, Man is protected from a huge information overload that is not compatible with mental peace and equilibrium. In this context of defending existence from the threat of Information overload, it may be said, “Ignorance is Bliss.” The Creator is the Source of Great Knowledge (Sanskrit. Prajnanam) and the access to the realities of the Inner World and the Outer World are selectively restricted to defend the wellbeing of the living creatures.

How does the body know the Identity of the Man who lives? If the body knows its Owner, there is an anatomical structure that is associated with the function called The Knowing-Self.

There are two distinct aspects of human Consciousness namely, 1. the Capacity for Consciousness and 2. the Content of Consciousness. When Consciousness is viewed as a psychological or strictly as a mental function, it is represented by the Content of Consciousness called Cortical Awareness which is a function of the Cerebral Cortex. When Consciousness is understood as a biological function that includes the maintenance of vital functions like respiration, and circulation apart from various homeostatic mechanisms to preserve a constant internal environment, it is represented by the aspect of Capacity for Consciousness.

SPIRITUALITY SCIENCE – THE KNOWER – THE KNOWING-SELF : IN THIS IMAGE OF HUMAN BRAIN, THE GREEN PORTION OF BRAIN STEM IS CALLED RETICULAR FORMATION. I AM PROPOSING TO CALL IT AS THE KNOWING-SELF AND IT IS THE “KNOWER” OF THE HUMAN BODY WHICH CONSTANTLY CHANGES ITS MORPHOLOGICAL APPEARANCE UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF TIME CALLED THE AGING PROCESS.

The Knowing-Self is in the Reticular Formation of the Brain Stem and its functions are of critical importance in the clinical diagnosis of Brain Death. During Life, the cells, tissues, and various organ systems of the human body work together for the benefit of ‘Self’ which is known and recognized by this Knowing-Self.

Man is a Spiritual Being:

THE GREAT BANYAN TREE OF KOLKATA – THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE
The Banyan Tree offers the unusual appearance. It has roots that appear growing from its branches and the roots are located upwards and away from the ground; it has trunks and branches growing downwards apart from the normal branches that grow upwards and outwards. Because of its adventitious roots, Banyan Tree spreads to cover a wide area and lives for a long time. Knowing and understanding this Asvattha Tree is important to gain the Knowledge of Vedas, the Hindu Scriptures that reveal the Knowledge of the Spiritual Self or Adhyatma Vidya.

The Knowledge of Asvatta, The Fig Tree:

Adhyatma Vidya. The Knowledge of the Spiritual Self. Ficus religiosa or the Bodhi Tree is often worshipped in India. The tree is also described as “Sthaanuu” which means immovable.

I ask readers to visualize the Banyan tree called Ficus benghalensis rather than the holy tree called Ficus religiosa, or the Bodhi tree under which Lord Gautama Buddha experienced Enlightenment.

PRAYER BANYAN TREE sri-bhagavan uvaca urdhva-mulam adhah-sakham asvattham prahur avyayam chandamsi yasya parnani y...
Adhyatma Vidya. The Knowledge of Spiritual Self. The Knowledge of Banyan Tree.
Spirituality Science. The Self and The Knowing-Self.

The Hindu Scripture of The Bhagavad Gita, Chapter XV known as  Purusottama Yoga speaks about the nature of the Supreme Person. It metaphorically compares the Supreme Being to the popularly known Fig Tree called Ficus religiosa. The first verse reads as follows: Sri Bhagavan Uvacha: “Urdhva-Mulam adhah-sakham Asvattham prahur avyayam,    Chandamsi yasya parnani yas tam Veda sa Veda vit.”The Supreme Lord Krishna said: There is a Fig Tree which has its roots upwards and its branches down and metaphorically it is imperishable, and the Vedic hymns are its leaves. One who knows this Tree is the Knower of the Vedas (the person attains the Knowledge of the Ultimate Reality or the Supreme being). When we know the Fig Tree and its apparent imperishable quality, we may understand the true nature of Man.

Man is a spiritual being. The truth or falsity of this proposition depends on the fact of man’s having a substance that is of spiritual nature. Such a substance of spiritual kind is perceptible to the senses, is amenable to direct observation, and could be subject to verification by experimental science. To establish the fact of man’s spiritual nature, it needs reasoning based upon scientific validity. The structure and the behavior of things contribute to their individual being and function. If a man has a set of defining features based upon his structure (Human Anatomy), function (Human Physiology), and behavior (Human Behavioral Science), the spiritual nature of man could be proved on theoretical and practical grounds and could be verified by scientific experiments. I am not seeking to discover a soul or spirit that could have an existence independent of man’s physical being. It will be important to note that it is not possible to conceive of a soul or spirit if it is never associated with its human body. My purpose is that of describing the spiritual nature of the human organism and of other living beings. To understand the true nature of human being, we need to ascertain the validity of Knowledge that pertains to the Spiritual Self.

Man is a Mortal Being:

Man is a mortal being who must eventually die. When Lazarus died and was laid in a tomb for four days, Jesus performed a miracle and Lazarus came back to life from death. The Book of John, Chapter 11, narrates this event. In verses 41 and 42, Jesus said,”Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but I said this for the benefit of the people who are standing here, that they may believe that You sent Me.” The risen Lazarus had eventually died.

Man’s greatest need is not only to know the world around him but also to know himself better. Man must understand what it is to be a substance and what it is to exist. Man is a physical being or thing with matter and form. The corporeal body of man is composite of two principles; matter, and form. What is called matter is a potentiality, and what is called form is an actuality. The corporeal substance called protoplasm becomes an actuality and is recognized as a living person because of the uniqueness of its genome that operates its living functions and defines its size, shape, color, and external form or morphological appearance. However, life comes into existence only when matter or substance has the ability to acquire energy from its external environment. The human being comes to life when his corporeal substance uses its potential ability and power called ‘Nutrition’ to acquire energy and material from its environment. Life begins with fertilization, the union of sperm with an egg cell, and this event called conception proceeds to develop a human being after an important event called implantation. The life journey after conception continues if there is a connection between the energy seeking embryo and its maternal energy provider. To exist means that the substance is maintaining a relationship, a partnership, a connection, or association with its source of energy. Man leads an energy dependent existence deriving energy and material from nature which supports other living forms with a similar corporeal substance called protoplasm. The mortality of man must be understood as the dissolution of man’s physical form. The dissolution of living man into non-living molecules and physical elements would not alter that potentiality of protoplasm to acquire energy and material to create its own substance. Things in Nature change with Time, but what is called Nature remains unchanged even under the influence of Time. As per The Laws of Conservation of Mass and Energy, as described in classical Physics, mass or energy remain constant. The potentiality of living substance to acquire energy and material to form its own kind of substance has remained unchanged or unaffected by major natural calamities and other cataclysmic events. Life forms perish and yet Life continues as new life forms. During the billions of years of existence, planet Earth experienced several minor, and major Extinction Events described in its geological history. The Science of Paleontology offers scientific evidence to support an argument based upon theoretical and practical grounds to propose that the substance called protoplasm could be eternal, immovable, immutable, and indestructible. At a fundamental level, it could be stated that man is a mortal or materialistic being who derives his physical form because of its association with an imperishable substance. During any stage of his existence, the form called a man cannot be separated from the eternal nature of its substance.

Adhyatma Vidya. The Knowledge of the Spiritual Self. California State Tree known as Redwood includes Sequoia sempervirens and the Giant Sequoia is known as Sequoia gigantea. The Redwoods are the most massive trees in the world and could attain a trunk diameter as large as 30 feet. They also include the tallest trees in the world averaging about 300 feet high. They include the oldest known living trees and may reach ages of over 3,000 years. What is that corporeal substance that is living apparently in an imperishable manner?
Adhyatma Vidya. The Knowledge of the Spiritual Self.Sequoia sempervirens. The man has officially designated this tree as the State Tree of California State. What is the connection between man and plants or trees? What is the corporeal substance shared or common to all living entities?
Adhyatma Vidya. The Knowledge of the Spiritual Self. Sequoia gigantea is a massive tree. A living thing has a form and has matter. We often recognize the form and give it a name. What about the “MATTER” that constitutes the substance of this living thing? We need to understand the ‘potentiality’ of the Matter to know the nature of the Form. The Form has no independent existence of its own. The Form lives if and only if it has Matter that is living.

What is Soul or Spirit? 

Traditionally, man has been divided into two parts; body, and soul. In common usage, the term soul represents the immaterial aspect of a human being. The Soul is further defined as that part of the individual which is considered to survive the death of the body. The term spirit is often used to describe a disembodied soul. As per various human traditions, on separation from the human body, the soul or spirit has a life of its own, a capacity for independent existence or self-subsistence which describes its immortality.

The Conceptions of Soul:

The Book of Genesis, Chapter 1, verse 27:”So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

There are a variety of conceptions about soul or spirit. Some of the traditional conceptions of the soul are the following: 1. The Soul is the immaterial substance, form, or principle of self-motion, vitality, life force, or life in living things. The insentient body is completely distinct from the sentient soul. 2. Soul describes the Doctrine of the Self and is considered to be synonymous with the True-Self. In a human being, the soul confers the Individuality and its nature of humanity. 3. The Soul is often described as a thinking substance and is equated with the ‘Mind’. The soul has knowledge of itself by reflection of its acts. The soul is the knower and it knows the physical, and mental acts of the human body where it resides. 4. The Soul is important to maintain and to preserve life. The Soul may not directly participate in the activities of the human body. However, the activities of the human body may have a polluting effect on the Soul. If the Soul is tainted or contaminated by the sinful acts of the body, the soul may obtain purification by its release from the body. Some form of human effort, activity, attitude, and behavior is essential to keep the soul in its natural, pure, and perfect condition. 5. The soul that has experienced the polluting effects by its association with a human body would be forced to experience perpetual reincarnation by a process called transmigration. The soul continues to reside as a prisoner in different bodies until such time it attains its original state or condition of purity and perfection. 6. The Soul is a transcendental or noumenal object that is real but not visible and could not be detected by human sensory perception. The human body that is visible is, in fact, unreal or is a product of sensory illusion.

The Relationship between Soul and Human Body:

Most religions and cultures speak about soul and describe it as some incorporeal or immaterial substance/principle of human life that is distinct from the body. Despite the frequent acceptance of the existence of a soul, different religions and philosophers have developed a variety of theories as to the nature of the soul and its relationship to the human body. There are divergent views about the origin of the soul, when and how it gets implanted into the human body, and the mortality or when and if the soul dies. I would like to share the view that is attributed to Lord Krishna, the avatar or reincarnation of Hindu God Lord Vishnu. 

Adhyatma Vidya – The Bhagavad Gita:

Adhyatma Vidya. The Knowledge of the Spiritual Self.

The word ‘vidya’ is related to acquired knowledge derived from studies. The term ‘adhyatma’ pertains to the individual soul, Atma, or atman which describes the Spiritual Self. The phrase ‘Adhyatma Vidya’ could be described as the Knowledge of the Spiritual Self. The legendary Indian Sage Veda Vyasa or Krishna Dvaipayana, the author of the epic poem ‘The Mahabharata’ (Great Epic of the Bharata Dynasty) is recognized as the compiler of ancient Hindu texts known as Vedas. In the Book VI of Mahabharata, Lord Krishna had a conversation with Prince Arjuna while the warring parties of Pandavas and Kauravas had assembled at the battlefield of Kurukshetra. Lord Krishna revealed His views about the soul, the human body and their relationship in “The Song of the Lord” known as ‘The Bhagavad Gita’.

Spirituality Science. The Knowledge of Spiritual Self. Adhyatma Vidya. Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 10, text 39.

These poems of The Bhagavad Gita give a synopsis of the religious thought and experience of India through the ages. Chapter X of The Bhagavad Gita is titled ‘Vibhuti-Vistara Yoga’ and it describes the divine or transcendental attributes of the Supreme Lord. In verse #39, the Lord claims, “I am the generating seed of all existences. There is no being, moving or unmoving (“Chara-acharam”) that can exist without Me.” In verse #32, the Lord proclaims, “….of all the branches of Learning and Knowledge, I am the Knowledge of the Spiritual Self (Adhyatma Vidya).

Adhyatma Vidya. The Knowledge of the Spiritual Self. In all living beings, I am consciousness.

In verse #22, the Lord describes the nature of His connection with the living beings that He has generated, “…. and in living beings, I am Consciousness (“Bhutanam Asmi Chetana”).” He also clarifies that Consciousness or Chetana represents a different functional activity and has separated it from activities of mind, intellect and sense perception. The Mind is traditionally viewed as the major organ of sense perception, the seat of thoughts, intellect, emotions, feelings, and self-ego. Chetana is associated with the characteristics of a Living Thing that sets it apart from Non-Living Things. The Lord had also cited The Vedanta Sutra to make the distinction between the body, the soul, and the Supersoul. The Vedanta, the insights from Vedic Scriptures describe three manifestations of the Supreme Lord’s Energy. These are 1. Annamoya or dependence upon Food for existence, 2. Pranamoya or the manifestation of the living symptoms and life forms, and 3. Jnanamoya or the Knowledge of the distinction between the body the field of activity and the Knower who resides in the body. If a living being needs food for its existence and performs its living functions in a state or condition called awareness or consciousness, it could be described as the manifestation of the Supreme Lord’s Energy. In Chapter VII titled ‘Paramahamsa Vijnana Yoga’ or Knowledge of the Ultimate Truth, in verse #9 Lord Krishna claims: “I am the life (“Jivanam”) of all that lives.” He demonstrates a connection between life and consciousness to describe the spiritual nature of Self. The Chapter XIII of The Bhagavad Gita titled ‘Kshetra – Kshetrajna Vibhaga Yoga’ deals with the dichotomy or distinction between the material body, immortal soul, and the Supersoul. It states the view that the material body is called the field of activity or Kshetra. One who knows this body, the field of activity is called the Knower of the Field or Kshetrajna. The Knower of the Field is the Owner of the body. The Supreme Lord is also the Knower of the field of activity in all bodies (verse #3). In this human body, there is another indwelling observer, a Sanctioner, a Preserver, an Enjoyer, and indeed ultimate Controller called ‘Paramatma’ or Supersoul. The Supreme Lord or Paramesvaram is residing equally in all living entities (verses # 23, 27, and 28). Just like the Sun who illuminates the entire living world, the soul within the body illuminates the entire field of activity of the physical body by Chetana or Consciousness (verse #34). This view as stated suggests that consciousness is the proof or the symptom of the presence of the soul. A similar view is shared in Chapter II titled ‘Sankhya Yoga’. The imperishable or indestructible soul pervades or permeates the entire physical body (verse #7). What is spread all over the body? Consciousness could be described as spread over the entire body and it leads to the interpretation that the symptom of the soul’s presence is perceived as individual consciousness.

Spirituality Science. The Self and The Knowing-Self.

The final Chapter XVIII of The Bhagavad Gita titled ‘Moksha-Opadesa Yoga’ comes to an interesting conclusion about the Single Reality that pervades all existence that is divided into innumerable forms. Verse #20 reads as follows:”Sarva bhutesu yenaikam bhavam avyayam iksate  avibhaktam vibhaktesu taj jnanam viddhi Sattvikam.””Understand that Knowledge by which one undivided, imperishable (“Avyayam”) reality is seen within all diverse living entities is in the nature of goodness (Sattvikam”). What is that undivided reality that is imperishable that connects all the diverse, living entities?

The Body-Soul Dichotomy:

Adhyatma Vidya. The Knowledge of the Spiritual Self: Existence Precedes Essence.

In the Indian tradition, the individual soul is known as Atma or Atman. The Supreme Soul or the Supersoul is known as Paramatma, Paramesvaram, or Brahman, the Ultimate Truth, and the Reality. However, the concepts about Atma or individual soul vary and Hindus belong to different schools of thought. While the concepts about individual soul are different, there is general agreement among various Indian thinkers and philosophers about the distinction between the material, insentient, and perishable human body and the immaterial, sentient, and imperishable or immortal soul. The Soul is independent and is not attached and it still requires the substance of the corporeal body. However, I am not able to draw that distinction and make that separation from the substance and its function. To describe the function, I need the substance.

Man lives and functions with consciousness because of the fundamental nature of the corporeal substance called protoplasm, and this substance is apparently imperishable, indestructible, and immortal. We could destroy the physical form of man and of several other living forms. But, either man or nature and the influencer called Time has not demonstrated an ability to destroy this living substance which has survived on planet Earth continuously over billions of years. Man cannot create life and man cannot destroy life. Man can only live or exist because of the spiritual nature of his corporeal substance with which he can not seek separation until the time of his death. The substance has a life of its own and continues to create a new substance of its own kind and becomes visible as a living life form with a different identity or morphological appearance.

The Book of Genesis, Chapter 1, verse 27: “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

The Neuro-biological aspects of Consciousness:

Reticular Formation of Brain Stem has connections with almost all other parts of the Central Nervous System and it helps to coordinate and integrate actions of different parts of the CNS. It is important for Behavioral Arousal and the Capacity for Consciousness.

In the Human Brain Stem, several neurons, and nuclei which are in an area called Reticular Formation are functionally adapted to compose the contents of human consciousness. The Reticular Formation gives the Capacity for Consciousness. The contents of this consciousness are read in the cortical areas of the cerebral hemispheres and described as Cortical awareness. Most philosophers, most of the psychologists, and several of the religious thinkers pay attention to this Cortical awareness and describe that as human consciousness. We tend to ignore the fact that there would be no Cortical awareness unless there is a Capacity for Consciousness. Most recently, the surgeons had removed the complete left cerebral hemisphere from a child to stop convulsive seizures. The child is alive, fully conscious, and hopefully would continue to live in the future with some neurological deficits. Just like the human heart which has four different muscular chambers and each has a function of its own; we need to understand consciousness by knowing its components. We need to use separate terms to distinguish these different components. There would be confusion if a term is used without attaching a specific meaning. Cortical awareness is important and is very interesting and yet man can exist and survive with minimal cortical awareness. We have seen children with severe degrees of mental retardation, and they can keep their biological existence if they retain the ability to Compose Consciousness. I want to designate the upper Brain Stem as the Seat of Consciousness and the word consciousness itself must describe the functions of the Brain Stem which are most important for man’s biological existence. A man is clinically dead in the absence of these Brain Stem functions involved in the Capacity of Consciousness. In Clinical Medicine, the term conscious is often used to measure the degree of Arousal or Cortical awareness and hence this subject matter would remain confusing for a long time. If a subject is unconscious, I would not issue a ‘death certificate’. In Clinical Medicine, the term used is ‘Brain Death’ and when Brain Death is diagnosed, the human person for all practical purposes is dead. I would suggest that we must use the term ‘Unconscious’ specifically to indicate the Brain Death which is diagnosed by testing the Brain Stem Reflexes. If the human person is viewed as a single physical thing or object, the integration of functions is achieved at the Brain Stem (Reticular Formation), and he maintains his individuality throughout his physical existence only when this part of the brain is functioning. If you like the term individual soul or Jeeva Atma, its existence is a reflection of this function. To see a reflection, we need two things; the physical object and a reflective surface. The quality of reflecting objects may depend upon the presence of Knowledge. It is not known if this particular kind of knowledge exists as organic molecules; however, it is very well understood that most of the knowledge to perform a variety of biological functions is contained in organic molecules and the most well-known group of these organic molecules are known as DNA. There are Viruses which can function with RNA. Hence, there is still a possibility of finding organic molecules that could be associated with the functional ability called consciousness, awareness, cognition, recognition, responsiveness, perception, memory, intelligence, and association. The most important aspect of ‘association’ is ‘God Connection’ and without this function of ‘association’, man cannot keep his biological existence.

Consciousness is awareness of existence, the facts that relate to the state or condition of existence. Behavioral Arousal and Cortical awareness of thoughts, feelings, and sensations is an important component of total Biological Existence.

Identity and Individuality:

The Eternal Reality of Soul’s Immortality is described in The Bhagavad Gita, Chapter II, verse 13. Lord Krishna spoke to the Pandava Prince Arjuna. The morphological Identity constantly changes under the influence of Time.
Image result for bhagavad gita chapter 2, verse 12

For each of us, our Individuality existed in the past and our Individuality will continue in the future without interruption. Certainly, never did I not exist, nor you, nor all these Kings and certainly never shall we cease to exist in the future.

The issue of spirituality, the nature of Soul and consciousness must be explored in the context of arriving at an understanding of man’s Identity and Individuality. If a man is viewed as an association of trillions of cells, we need to know the Identity of that Subject who lives because of the functions of the trillions of cells.

The Eternal Reality of Soul’s Immortality is described in The Bhagavad Gita, Chapter II, verse 12. Lord Krishna spoke to the Pandava Prince Arjuna: “Na tv evaham jatu nasam na tvam neme JanadhipaH; Na chaiva na bhavisyamaH, sarve vayam ataH param.” For each of us, our Individuality existed in the past and our Individuality will continue in the future without interruption. Certainly, never at any time did I not exist, nor you, nor all these Kings and certainly never shall we cease to exist in the future.

The purpose of consciousness at a cellular level is to foster functional unity of the multicellular organism and to establish it as an Individual. In a multicellular organism, cells have short lives as individuals. The Subject or the whole organism has a life span of its own and it has effects on individual cells. Multicellularity is accompanied by adaptive subordination of all cells to the requirements of the organism as a whole. To achieve a proper numerical balance between functionally related cell groups, the death of many cells is necessary for other cells to reach maturity. This programmed cell death plays an important role in embryological development. Such programmed cell death events are essential if the organism as a whole is to develop its normal final form. Waves of genetically driven cell deaths are critical to the proper modeling of organs and organ systems. We need to know and understand that the death of cells is a must to establish the Identity and to sustain the Individuality of the human being. The dying process helps man to understand his Individuality. The Individuality is preserved while death is a daily event at the cellular level. The phenotype or the morphological appearance of the human Subject undergoes constant change during the Life journey and yet the Individuality remains unchanged. We recognize the death of this human Subject when his Soul departs from his body. The Soul may be stated as an entity which is regarded as being immortal or spiritual part of the person. The Spirit of a dead person generally refers to a principle separate from the body and leading an existence of its own. If Soul is viewed as a Non-thing or Nothingness, it comes into the world of existence by entering the physical being at its conception which becomes conscious or aware of its existence. This consciousness has also existed in a previously existing Living Egg Cell which is the Mother of Life, Energy, and Knowledge. Consciousness by its very nature is immortal, it is eternal, and it has no birth or death. We recognize the arrival and departure of the new product during the Life-Death continuum where the Individuality is unaffected by the changes that are caused by the powerful influence of Time.

Dr. Rudranarasimham, Rebbapragada, B.Sc., M.B.B.S.,

Father’s Name: R. Suryanarayana Murty

Sri Venkateswara University, M.B.B.S. Class of April, 1970

Andhra Pradesh Medical Council Medical Registration Number: AMC5282; Date of Registration: September 16, 1971

Whole Connection – Whole Philosophy: Whole Foods opened its Store in Ann Arbor on September 16, 1993. Whole Foods, Whole People and Whole Planet inspire Whole Dude to invent Whole Phrases: Whole Linguistics-Whole Language, Whole conversation, Whole Cookie, Whole Love and others. Whole Dude uses the phrase Whole Linguistics to describe three entities; 1. Language User, 2. Language Interpreter and 3. Language Creator. Image Credit: Agenda Publications, Ann Arbor District Library, Issue Dates, September 1993, December 1997 and February 1998
Adhyatma Vidya – The Discovery of True or Real Self: The Knower – The Knowing-Self: The Man, the entire human organism is derived from a single, fertilized Egg Cell. How does this complex multicellular organism recognizes its own Identity?

Philosophy of Medicine – Lesson. 38 – The Discovery of Self – “I am Consciousness”

The Confluence of Religion, Philosophy and Science to describe my Real Self

Whole Connection – Whole Philosophy: Whole Foods opened its Store in Ann Arbor on September 16, 1993. Whole Foods, Whole People and Whole Planet inspire Whole Dude to invent Whole Phrases: Whole Linguistics-Whole Language, Whole conversation, Whole Cookie, Whole Love and others. Whole Dude uses the phrase Whole Linguistics to describe three entities; 1. Language User, 2. Language Interpreter and 3. Language Creator. Image Credit: Agenda Publications, Ann Arbor District Library, Issue Dates, September 1993, December 1997 and February 1998

Yes indeed, Life is Complicated. The complexities of Life begin with our own selves. The universe is vast and man’s role in it is insignificant. Man’s great need is not only to know the world around him but also know himself better. Man has to know the Truth about himself.

What is Truth? Who am I? I am Consciousness:

Whole Dude at Whole Foods Discovers the Identity of Human Soul, or the Knowing-Self.

The term Truth suggests confirmity with facts, experience, or with Reality, either as an idealized abstraction or in actual application to statements, ideas, acts, etc., Truth signifies an established or verified fact, or principle. Truth is related to the validity of what we mean. Plato defined the nature of Truth as correspondence between thought and reality. Dr. William Jones in his book, ‘The Principles of Psychology’ states : “True ideas are those we can assimilate, validate, corroborate, and verify.” The universe is vast and man’s role in it is insignificant. Man’s great need is not only to know the world around him but also know himself better. Man has to know the Truth about himself.

The Three Dimensions of Truth:

1. Truth is correspondence between a statement and the reality of external world.

2. Truth is correspondence between the observer and the reality of the observed fact. Here, we need to recognize the method used for the observation such as intuition, sense experience, or revelation.

3. Truth is correspondence between man and his true nature.

Lord Jesus Christ – Truth as Revelation:

Whole Dude at Whole Foods Verifies the Proposition, I am Consciousness. The Truth of Jesus, John, Chapter 20, verse 29: Jesus said to him (Thomas), “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” Truth-Is it a matter of sight or sense experience, or is it a matter of faith and belief?
TRUTH AND REALITY - I AM CONSCIOUSNESS : ROMAN GOVERNOR PILATE ASKED JESUS,
Whole Dude at Whole Foods Verifies the Proposition, I am Consciousness: The Roman Governor Pilate asks Jesus, “What is Truth? “

The Truth about Lord Jesus Christ comes to a very critical scrutiny while he got arrested and stood before Pilate, the Roman Governor. The Book of John, Chapter 18, verses 37 and 38 record the conversation between Jesus and Pilate: So Pilate said to him, “Then you are a King?” Jesus answered, “You say I am a King. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”  “What is truth?” Pilate asked. Jesus did not answer the question as the truth must have correspondence with a reality in the external world. The truth of Jesus is about the establishment of Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. It was a prophetic truth and the truth would be evident only when the Prophecy comes true.

Lord Gautama Buddha – Truth as Experience:

Whole Dude at Whole Foods Verifies the Proposition, I am Consciousness. Lord Gautama Buddha states, “The greatest miracle is to explain the truth and to make man realize it.”

Lord Gautama Buddha known as Siddhartha (He who will accomplish), c. 563 B.C to c. 483 B.C., left the palace at the age of 29 leaving behind his young wife and infant son. After six years of ascetic life, while meditating under a Pipal tree (later called Bodhi or Enlightenment Tree), he became Supreme Buddha (c. 528 B.C.) at the age of 35. He preached his first sermon at Sarnath. He outlined his Doctrine of Four Noble Truths and the First Noble Truth is that of suffering, the experience of pain and sorrow called Dukha  is implicit in human existence. Buddha’s truth relates to man’s experience of the nature of his existence in the world.

I maintain that man exists at any stage of his existence, at any given age, under any given circumstance, in either good health or ill health, in pain and suffering or that of joy and happiness due to the operation of a Fundamental Force/Power/Energy that delivers Mercy/Grace/Compassion. If suffering describes one face of the coin called human existence, Compassion describes the second face of the same coin. Compassion is implicit in human existence and in the existence of all living things.

Lord Rama – Truth in Action:

Whole Dude at Whole Foods Verifies the Proposition, I am Consciousness. “WHO AM I? WHY I AM LIKE THIS?” were the questions asked by Lord Rama and these are the questions that we need to ask ourselves to know the Truth about Self.

In epic poem known as Ramayana, Indian poet Valmiki describes Lord Rama’s life journey. Rama spent 14 years in the forest to help fulfilment of the word or promise made by his father. In the final Chapter, Book Six, Yuddha Kanda, Chapter (Sarga) 117, verse 11, He asks the following question:

“aatmaanaM  maanuShaM manye RaamaM Dasharathaatmajam;

so aHaM yasya yatashchaahaM bhagavaMstadbraviitu me.”

“I think of myself to be a human being, by name Rama, the son of Dasaratha. You, as a gracious Divintiy tell me who I am and why I am like this?”

In the story of Ramayana, the Creator Lord Brahma responds to the questions asked by Lord Rama. These are the questions that we need to ask ourselves. To know Truth about Self, the man must begin his inquiry with the question of Who am I?

The Inquiry about Self – Who am I?

Whole Dude at Whole Foods Verifies the Proposition, I am Consciousness. Socrates before taking poison that would end his life states, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” “Know thyself” is a virtue and to defend that virtue, Socrates makes no attempt to save his life.

The tradition of knowing oneself is a longer tradition than any other Science. This is a study in which the Knower and the Known are one. The object of scientific inquiry is the nature of the scientist.

How to Discover the Truth about Self?

Whole Dude at Whole Foods Verifies the Proposition, I am Consciousness. Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud: “No knowledge can be obtained from revelation, intuition, or inspiration.”

Religion, Philosophy, and Science may represent three distinct fields of learning about Truth and Reality. Each tries to answer fundamental questions about human life. All three differ from each other in the selection of method and subject matter. Auguste Comte, the 19th century French philosopher, the founder of Sociology describes Positive Science as the study of natural, mental, and social phenomena by empirical methods. In his view, Philosophy is mere speculation and Religion is superstition or irrational belief. Speculation represents a futile attempt to go behind the phenomena in order to discover ultimate causes or substances and such speculative methods may result in guess work or conjecture and not in knowledge. Philosophy may use Logic and system and yet its conclusions may lack the validity or objectivity of Science.The philosophical inquiry does not involve investigation by experiment. Science not only provides the knowledge that something is true, but also the reasons why it is true.

The famous Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud categorically claims that no knowledge can be obtained from revelation, intuition, or inspiration.

There is a tendency in modern times to reject the methods used by Religion and Philosophy. Philosophy may use intuitive generalization or induction from ordinary sense experience. The scientific method involves induction from an inference from experiments which involve testing and verifying a hypothesis. The observations of scientist go beyond the experiences which ordinary men have in the course of daily life. The instruments that are invented and used by scientists have immense abilities to collect numerous kinds of empirical data with precision, accuracy, and consistency. However, it may not be easy to conclude that Science alone can arrive at correspondence with Truth and Reality. Could we extend scientific methodology of investigation to every field of Inquiry? Could we obtain clarity and certainity in all matters using scientific methods? Could Science  be the only avenue to Truth? Could we find Truth and Reality as an external experience? Could man use scientific information to experience Truth and Reality?

Whole Dude at Whole Foods Verifies the Proposition, I am Consciousness. Sir Issac Newton demonstrated the properties of Light rays using experimets. Science explains the above optical illusion. Could Science remove the optical illusion and give man a chance to experience the reality of this Pencil. The Reality of this Pencil would be known only when the Pencil is removed from water. When the Pencil is in Water, the man has no choice other than that of perceiving the illusion for man has no ability to change the properties of Light rays.

When a object exists in  a conditioned state, like this Pencil in Water, Science may explain the illusion generated. Science and scientific information may not provide the direct experience of Truth and Reality.

Whole Dude at Whole Foods Verifies the Proposition, I am Consciousness. Could Science provide the direct sensory experience of the truth and reality of man’s speed?

Man is the observer, and the reality or truth of Earth’s Angular Speed, or Linear Speed is not an observed fact obtained by direct human sense experience. Scientific information can not provide the experience that could be generated by the truth and reality of Earth’s Speed.

The Purpose of Science: The Knowledge about Self:

Whole Dude at Whole Foods Verifies the Proposition, I am Consciousness. The purpose of Science is to describe observation and experience and provide accepted body of information and arrange it into a meaningful pattern to explain truth and reality.

The purpose of Science is to describe and codify observation and experiences. Natural Sciences such as Physical Sciences, Biological Sciences, and Medical Sciences provide accepted body of information about the world and human body. We need to arrange this information into a meaningful pattern and interpret it to describe the Reality or Truth about man. We need to apply a reasoning process which involves analysis of basic concepts to determine their consistency. Something could be said to be true if, and only if it could be verified by logical or scientific procedures. We need to use a reasoning process, a philosophical analysis to clarify statements, to verify or refute a theoretical claim by demonstrating relation between the theoretical claim and the observational evidence.

The Self and the Knowing-Self:

I divide man into two categories; 1. The Self: it represents the man as a physical, mental, and social being. The Self represents the thinking person or the person having thoughts, and feelings. 2. The Knowing-Self : it represents man as a moral, and spiritual being. The Knowing-Self is aware or Conscious of the thoughts and feelings of The Self.

Thinking vs Consciousness:

Whole Dude at Whole Foods Verifies the Proposition, I am Consciousness. Dr Florian Mormann & Dr Christof Koch define the Neural Correlates of Consciousness as the minimal neuronal mechanism jointly sufficient for any one specific Conscious percept. This definition basically makes no distinction between Thinking and Consciousness. The NCC definition is not based on correct understanding of the function known as Consciousness. It fails to speak about the role of Reticular Formation, and Brain Stem Nuclei that have the Capacity of Consciousness. The Capacity of Consciousness is an essential precondition of the Content of Consciousness. The Reticular Formation filters incoming stimuli to discriminate irrelevant background stimuli and composes the Content of Consciousness before relaying the information to the Cerebral hemispheres to cause Cortical awareness.

The Self may think about the nature of consciousness, but Thinking and Consciousness are two distinct functions. Thinking and Consciousness are not one and the same. Consciousness functions to provide Awareness and it is not involved in mental activities such as Thinking. The Reticular Formation of the Brain Stem supports functions such as Arousal and it maintains wakefulness, alertness, and sleep. In the absence of this Brain Stem function, the Individual is not capable of generating thoughts, and feelings and would not be aware of what goes on inside the Individual, and what goes on outside the Individual.

Whole Dude at Whole Foods Verifies the Proposition, I am Consciousness. In Clinical Medicine, the medical practitioner evaluates the Level of Arousal or Alertness of his patient.

The Individual – Identity and Individuality – The Two-Sides of the Same Coin:

Whole Dude at Whole Foods Verifies the Proposition, I am Consciousness. The Self has two aspects- External Reality describes the Identity of the Individual; Internal Reality establishes the Individuality of the Individual.

If man is viewed as a living thing, the thing is made of Matter and Form. The Form establishes the morphological appearance in the external world. The Matter establishes the Individuality of the Individual. The external appearance or Phenotype of man undergoes constant change and is not the same at all times. The Individuality is related to the Genotype which remains constant while man goes through various stages of his existence from conception to old age.

As per The Law of Individuality and Creation, man is a created being who always exist as an Individual with Individuality and man has no choice other than that of existing as an Individual. The Truth about Self is not about the Identity of the Individual in terms of his anthropometric measurements, biometric information, name, gender, race, ethnicity, language, religion, nationality, education, social occupation, social status or social ranking, and affiliations. This external reality has a degree of correspondence in the external world as it is often confirmed  and is recognized by others who can observe the Individual. But this knowledge is subject to change and the information it provides is not experienced in a constant, and objective manner.

The Truth about Self is the Truth about the human organism which is multicellular. We need to know as to who or what is the subject who lives because of the functions of the trillions of cells that comprise the human organism.

Who am I? “I am Consciousness.”

Whole Dude at Whole Foods Verifies the Proposition, I am Consciousness. WHO AM I? This question must be answered by applying a reasoning process to Inferential Knowledge about Cell Structure (ANATOMY) and Cell Functions (PHYSIOLOGY). Life is defined as “Knowledge in Action.”

All living organisms use similar building units called cells. Basically, the cell has a membrane, a nucleus, and a living substance known as Protoplasm. The nucleus has nucleic acids like DNA/RNA which have no independent existence of their own. The genome functions when it is associated with Protoplasm which has the exclusive ability to obtain energy (food) from its environment. Consciousness is a natural principle that describes the condition of an Individual; the condition of knowing, awareness, or recognizing the fact, the state, and the act of biological existence in a given environment. The term environment refers to all the conditions, circumstances, and influences surrounding, and affecting the existence of a given Individual, or a group of Individuals. Who is this Individual who has the ability to know and be aware of its external, and internal environment? The Individual is a living organism and the organism could be unicellular or multicellular.

The most fundamental aspect of Consciousness as a living function that establishes biological existence is that of acquiring energy from environment. The living cell is a thermodynamically unstable system. This means that without continuous input of energy, a cell will degrade spontaneously into a non living collection of molecules.

“I am Consciousness.” – The Verification of the Proposition:

The proposition that “I am Consciousness” could be subjected to a reasoning process in two manners: 1. The Coherence Theory of Truth, and 2. The Correspondence Theory of Truth.

1. “I am Consciousness” – The Coherence Theory of Truth: The standard of Truth is the logical consistency of a proposition with a large system of propositions. “I am Consciousness” is the proposition. The propositions to support my proposition are:

a. Consciousness is a mental experience.

b. Consciousness is a sense experience.

c. Consciousness is a physical or body experience.

d. Consciousness is a social experience.

e. Consciousness is a moral experience.

f. Consciousness is a spiritual experience.

g. Consciousness is a cellular experience.

The Subject “I am” of the proposition could be defined as a physical, mental, social, moral, and spiritual being based upon the contents of the ‘Total Consciousness’ experience of that Individual.

2. “I am Consciousness” – The Correspondence Theory of Truth: Truth is viewed as a relation between an idea or proposition and its object. “I am Consciousness” is the proposition. The Subject known as “I am” is related to an idea or object described as “Consciousness.” We need to verify the Truth or Reality of a relation between the Subject and its Object. The Subject is the whole or entire human organism comprising of trillions of individual cells which function as organs and tissues of the body. The Subject “I am” can not be defined merely as a single individual, or as a specific organ like brain or mind. The body organ called brain has no independent existence of its own. Brain and its cells (neurons, axons, and connective tissue) need energy to sustain their metabolic activities. The functional relationship between the Subject and the Object operates and involves the activity of the entire organism and is not limited to the activities of brain or mind. The purpose of Consciousness at cellular level is to foster functional unity of the multicellular organism and establish it as an Individual. A living thing maintains it Individuality while being a member of a given social group. The process by which a living cell acquires energy to perform its living functions is called Nutrition.

Consciousness is the awareness of energy dependent existence in a given environment and it is the characteristic of all living cells irrespective of their differentiation, functional subordination, and identification as the constituent parts of specific organs, tissues, and organ systems. The idea or Object called “Consciousness” is fundamentally related to the Subject called “I am” both at the level of the entire organism and at the level of individual cells.

Human Knowledge and the Knowledge of Self:

Whole Dude at Whole Foods Verifies the Proposition, I am Consciousness. WHO AM I? Lord Krishna describes Himself in The Bhagavad Gita, Chapter X, The Opulence of the Absolute, verse 22: “Of the Vedas, I am the Sama Veda; of the demigods, I am Indra; of the senses, I am the Mind; and in Living Beings, I am Consciousness.”

Human Knowledge is of two kinds; 1. Acquired Knowledge that is dependent upon sense experience, and reason, and 2. Innate or Intuitive Knowledge, the genetic information, the biological information that all living cells and organisms use to perform living functions and to exhibit biological behavior and instincts. The Knowledge of Self, or Self-Knowledge begins with the implantation of Consciousness in Matter and not as Sense Experience, and not on account of rational thinking with application of reason.

Dr. Rudranarasimham, Rebbapragada, B.Sc., M.B.B.S.,

Father’s Name: R. Suryanarayana Murty

Sri Venkateswara University, M.B.B.S. Class of April, 1970

Andhra Pradesh Medical Council Medical Registration Number: AMC5282; Date of Registration: September 16, 1971

Whole Foods, Whole People, and Whole Planet come together in a Wholesome Relationship as God is the Energy Provider, the Original Source of Matter and Energy for Life.

Whole Foods, Whole People, and Whole Planet come together in a Wholesome Relationship as God is the Energy Provider, the Original Source of Matter and Energy for Life.

Philosophy of Medicine – Lesson. 37 -Spirituality – Soul, Consciousness and the God-Connection

The Status of Man in Nature:

The Book of Genesis, Chapter 1, verse 27: “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

The First Book of Moses, The Old Testament Book of Genesis describes the story of Creation; in Chapter 2, verse 7, it narrates man’s creation: “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.”

Man is a Created Being:  

Man is a created being. Spirituality explores the connection between man and his Creator. The Trimurti at Elephanta Island Cave Temples near Mumbai, India represents God as the Creator(Brahma), the Preserver(Vishnu) and the Destroyer(Shiva).

Man is a Spiritual Being:

The status of man in nature describes man as a created object; a new object, one of its own kind, distinctive, and unique. The principle of Creation
involves the use of inspiration and imagination as opposed to the view proposed by the Theory of Evolution. The fundamental issue is about understanding man’s status in nature. Did man come into existence by gradual changes caused by random and unguided events called genetic mutations? Or, does man actually exist in nature because of his relationship with other objects present in his living environment? What defines man’s existence? What establishes the reality of man’s physical existence? Should we focus on the changing form? Alternately, should we give attention to an unchanging relationship that is a prerequisite for the existence of all life forms? If an object cannot come into its state of existence, how could that object get a shape or form? In the context of a discussion about man’s existence in nature, I state that  man is a created object, and hence man exists as a Spiritual being. The term Spirituality describes the nature of this connection between man and His Creator. Soul is the immortal part of man as distinguished from his body; it is the vital principle which moves and animates all Life. Soul may represent the essence of a human being, it could be the quality which confers individuality, humanity, and the moral nature of man. I divide man into two categories; the first category is called the ‘Self’ which represents man as a physical, mental, and social being; and the second category is called the ‘Knowing-Self’ which represents man as a moral, and spiritual being. These two categories function together and the functional unity of the human person is an attribute of a neuro-biological function called Consciousness. Man’s physical being is represented by a changing external or morphological appearance and while the physical Identity is constantly changing, the unchanging Individuality is supported by man’s spirituality or the nature of his constant spiritual relationship.  

The Eternal Reality of Soul’s Immortality:

Ajanta Caves near Aurangabad, Maharashtra State, India, Fresco-type wall painting- Man’s spiritual dimension describes man’s humanity, moral nature, individuality, and Consciousness.

Religious thinkers have further defined Soul as that part of the individual which partakes of divinity. People of all races, cultures and religions would like to investigate the nature of this God-Connection as they perceive the world and the universe in which they exist as a fact of Creation. I need to find evidence that would fundamentally deny the fact of Creation.

 Man is a Social Being:

French philosopher Auguste Comte(1798-1857) coined the term Sociology. He believed that the scientific study of social organization would make possible a reconstitution of the social order based on principles of moral progress.

Apart from being a created Physical being, man is recognized as a Social being as he displays social instincts and social behaviors in all of his activities. A rudimentary understanding of Sociology or Theories of Social Science would clarify this matter. Social instincts and Social Behaviors are seen in all animals including bacteria. At a cellular level, the social function is called ‘Association’. Man is an association of trillions of cells. Each human organ and organ system represents an association of cells that display functional subordination to perform selective tasks. Life is just impossible without social structure and organization.

Man is a Moral Being: 

Man is a Spiritual being and is endowed with Moral nature. James Tissot in his painting captures the essence of man. The Book of Matthew, Chapter 27 verses 3-5 narrate the story of Apostle Judas Iscariot and his moral failing that caused the dissolution of his biological existence-“When Judas who had betrayed Him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders. “I have sinned,” he said,”for I have betrayed innocent blood.” So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.”

Man is an individual who exists in a social group. At the same time, man is a Moral being, as he displays moral behavior even when he is corrupt. Man displays the ability of Repentance for his thoughts, for his actions of commission and omission. Man has the ability to admit his sins, express remorse and may often punish himself for his sinful conduct. Man experiences grief for his actions that are sinful. Man actively searches for solutions for his sinful conduct. Man cannot sustain his biological existence if he had morally failed. A famous example would be that of Apostle Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Jesus.

Matter, Energy, and Knowledge:

ARISTOTLE- born 384 BC and died 322 BC. His Metaphysics brings about the convergence of Philosophy, Religion, and Science.

Greek philosopher  Aristotle observes that corporeal substances are composite of two principles, form and matter. What is called matter is potentiality, what is called form is actuality. The totality of things have been divided in various ways. The three fundamental distinctions are 1. the distinction between the natural and the supernatural, 2. the distinction between the material and the spiritual, and 3. the distinction between the lifeless and the living. When we make the distinction animate/inanimate, living/non-living, and inorganic/organic, a question arises about the nature of that distinction. The difference, is that one of kind or degree? The Mechanistic View claims the continuity of nature in terms of the universality of purely mechanical principles. I define Life as ‘Knowledge in Action’.

I define Life as organization of matter with implanted supernatural Knowledge. The establishment of supernatural Knowledge in matter decribes the operation of ‘God Principle’, Spirit, or Soul. Life comes into existence when matter and energy come together with the establishment of ‘God Connection’.

Life and Consciousness:

Amoeba proteus, unicellular, protozoan organism is conscious or aware of its own state of existence. It has the abilities of Motion, Nutrition, and Reproduction. All of its living functions are goal-oriented. It responds to its environment and survives adverse environmental conditions by a process called encystment.

The basic characteristic of a Living Cell or organism is the presence of consciousness. I recognize a cell as a Living Cell if it displays functions that characterize the presence of awareness or consciousness. The Living Cell or Living Object need not be aware or conscious of the Subject who may be investigating or observing the properties of that Object. The Living Object need to be aware of its own existence and its condition called Living. Atoms and molecules display their properties and interact according to the Laws of Physics and Chemistry. Living organic molecules show individualistic behaviors under experimental conditions that could be repeated and be verified. The Living Cell is very selective and it responds in a variable manner to physical and chemical stimuli. It can communicate or send signals to other Living Cells present in its environment. It responds according to its internal condition in relation to the environment in which it exists. The interactions of non-living physical matter are not goal-oriented. The interactions of Living matter are goal-oriented and they specifically achieve the purpose of sustaining, preserving, defending, and continuing the Living functions.

Man is a Mortal, Physical Being:

Man is a mortal being who must eventually die. When Lazarus died and was laid in a tomb for four days, Jesus performed a miracle and Lazarus came back to life from death. The Book of John, Chapter 11, narrates this event. In verses 41 and 42, Jesus said,”Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but I said this for the benefit of the people who are standing here, that they may believe that You sent Me.” The risen Lazarus had eventually died.

Life and Death is a Continuous Process:

When does Life begins? When does Life ends? Life always comes into a state of existence from a previously existing Living Cell. Life and Death is a continuous process and is recognized by the presence of Consciousness and Individuality.

When does Life begins? When does Life ends? Every Living Cell is derived from a previously existing Living Cell. Life has not experienced the final event called DEATH. Life continues its act of Living through a function called Reproduction. A given species is considered to be totally extinct only if there is no surviving member to represent that particular species. Death is a programmed event and it gives meaning to the Identity of a Living Object. The dissolution of a single Living Object should not obscure the fact that Life is a continuous process. Life continues as Living Objects get new Identities. It is very reasonable to expect that Life would continue after the death of a given Living Object. People all over the world are a witness to that simple and direct observation. During the Life-Death continuum, the connection between the Creator and the created Living Object is manifested by the biological function called awareness or consciousness. The presence of Soul is evidenced by the presence of consciousness. As long as the Soul is functioning and is united with the physical being, the presence of consciousness could be detected and could be verified.

The Soul and God Connection: 

All types of Living Cells with or without nucleus represent thermodynamically unstable systems. Without a continuous input of energy a Living Cell will degrade spontaneously into a nonliving collection of molecules. Biological existence is possible because of an association or connection, or partnership between energy seeker and energy provider.

There has been no clearly defined and universally accepted metaphysical conception of the term Soul. It is a term rarely used with precise definition in philosophy, religion, or common life. In this discussion we face the problem of using words to which no definitive meaning is attached. If I make an attempt to define the word ‘God’, you may even speculate that I may belong to a new religious order. We need to come to a consensus even if an entity called ‘God’ does not exist. We need to formulate a view, a hypothetical view about Soul and test that hypothesis by countering it with a skeptical hypothesis. The Science called Physics deals with the properties, changes, interactions, etc. of matter and energy in which energy is considered to be continuous. In the ultimate analysis, matter is a representation of its energy content. The Science called Biology deals with Life and Life processes. While Life is made up of physical matter, Life processes are not explained by simple mechanistic interactions. However, I am willing to use the principles, the methods, and the tools used by Physics. Molecular Biology explains biological events by studying the molecules within cells; the molecular basis of genetics – Nucleic Acids and its relationship to energy cycling and replication.

If this universe is seen as matter and energy, I define God as the Controller of Force/Power/Energy. All living things are essentially made up of the same kind of living matter and yet they appear to be different. Life could be attributed to One common principle which has the ability to be simultaneously different. Each living object comes into a state of existence as a new object, as an original object, one of its own kind, unique, and distinctive. This morphological variation is an attribute of the organic molecules that establish the phenotype or the physical identity of that living organism. Physics provides those powerful tools to see the molecules and to recognize their individualistic behavior. Life comes into existence using a creative principle, and creative mechanisms that need inspiration, and imagination apart from the use of simple mechanistic laws. If Life is governed by the Law of Individuality, I would define God as a Creative Force/Power/Energy.

Life is a condition that describes Synchronized Existence, the synchronization of activities, the connection between energy dependent life functions and its Source of Power.

A majority of these life forms that we know and have studied, have synchronized their state of existence with an event that produces alternating periods of light and darkness while that source of light is not being turned ‘on’ and ‘off’. Rather we are forced to experience the effects of an illusion. Sunrise and Sunset is the reality that governs a majority of Biological Rhythms that control the life processes. Illusion is the necessary condition for the biological existence of Life. If Earth’s rotational spin generates this illusion, God uses Force/Power/Energy to cause illusion. In the universe that exists today, to the extent we have verified; there are no two identical celestial objects that exhibit the same rotational spin. In this context, it may be said that the Force/Power/Energy called God has created Earth to provide a home to the life forms that He has created as Individuals. These life forms have the ability called reproduction and yet lack the ability of producing two identical new objects. Sexual or Asexual reproduction always results in the production of new Individuals which could be easily verified by using the Biometric Identification Technology. Even the clones, sharing identical genomes, in reality exist as individuals. This Individuality when investigated by the tools supplied by Physics, it is discovered that the organic molecules behave as Individuals and man is not able to modify that behavior. Under the same experimental conditions, the molecules behave as individuals. When we examine the nature of this biological existence, it indicates that life processes are supported by the provision of energy from an external source. The Living Cell is a thermodynamically unstable system. This means that without a continuous input of energy a Living Cell will degrade spontaneously into a nonliving collection of molecules. This lack of energy independence would direct us to define God as the Power/Force/Energy which delivers Compassion/Mercy/Grace which helps energy acquisition by energy dependent living organisms. Life forms on planet Earth exist depending upon an extraterrestrial source of energy or Cosmic Power/Force/Energy. Life exists because of its ability called ‘Association’. The act of associating, the state of being associated; the companionship, the fellowship, and the partnership is the defining feature of the State or Condition, or Act of Living. Association or patnership between energy seeker and energy provider could be described as God-Connection. Organisms that are single do not live as single cells but develop association with other single cells to form distinct Colonies. Organisms that are multicellular represent an organization of individual cells that are associated having common interests, purposes, sensations, etc., Since association has a purpose, in the context of biological existence, the association or connection, or partnership between the energy seeker, and the energy provider is a meaningful event and not a simple, mechanical, physical event governed by the Laws of Interactions between Matter and Energy. There are Four Fundamental Interactions and they do not regulate or define this Interaction between Living matter and the Cosmic Force/Power/Energy. Living matter uses and exploits energy in a creative manner to build organic molecules and to break down organic molecules. The life processes are very similar and yet the results are totally different. While using energy mostly following a similar metabolic pathway, each organism supports its identity and individuality.

WHO HAS ESTABLISHED THE CONNECTION BETWEEN AUTOTROPHS AND HETEROTROPHS? The creative mechanism to trap Solar Energy describes implanted Knowledge to formulate the connection between autotrophs and heterotrophs.
In mitochondria, many substances(food) are oxidized and ATP, the energy-storing chemical of the Cell is produced. The most important equations for living things are mutually inverse. Respiration of humans, and Cellular Respiration represents the reverse of Photosynthesis.

Soul and Death:

The idea of ‘Soul’ always comes in the context of Death. If man is immortal, we will not be spending our time and energy discussing to verify the existence of an immortal principle. The human subject has a limited life span and it arouses a sense of curiosity about the existence of something that could defy Death. I am trying to define the word ‘Soul’ in a manner to promote an understanding that ‘Soul’ is immortal if we look at man as an Association of individual living cells. We need to establish the Identity of that Individual for whose purpose or interest this Association of Individual living cells exists. If we think of Death as a final event, it is not supported by factual evidence. In this Association, death is a daily event. We simply fail to acknowledge this daily event as there is an immortal principle that is escaping this death experience. The Individual thinks that he is alive and sustains his Individuality without getting overwhelmed by the dying process that is continuous. While the human organism is changing its external appearance and identity all the time, the Individuality survives if ‘Soul’ the vital, or operating immortal principle is functioning. The issue or question about ‘transmigration’ of Soul would not arise if every living organism exists strictly as an Individual with an Individuality. As stated before,man has no choice and he must always exist as an Individual even when we use Reproductive Genetic Engineering Technology to produce identical clones with the same genome. The dissolution of matter may not change the Law of Conservation of Energy. If Soul is defined as the God Connection that gives the ability of energy acquisition, the Soul when removed from a physical object to which it has given Individuality, would operate as per the commands of the Controller of Force/Power/Energy. It provides the possibility of carrying the impressions of a previous state of existence into a new state of existence with a new identity and Individuality. During the life span of a given Individual, an association of cells in which death is a daily event, Soul is a continuous principle as its purpose and interest is to maintain Individuality of that Individual.

Soul and The Living Cell:

I define man as a physical, mental, social, moral, and spiritual being as I define the term ‘health’ as the physical, mental, social, moral, and spiritual well-being of the man in his environment and community and not merely as absence of disease. This definition of ‘health’ helps to provide comprehensive health care.

Jean Paul Sartre had stated that Nothingness(Non-thing or Neant) is a condition of not having Being and yet it is supported by Being. Nothingness comes into the world by the Being-for-itself. The Conscious Knowing-Self or the Essence of man is preceded by the Subjective Reality of physical Existence.

I attach my ideas to some ideas expressed by others. Sartre is a well-known person. He had won the Nobel Prize for literature but declined to accept it. I may not totally agree with him and his views about consciousness. He had stated his view in a manner that people can easily understand. He makes a distinction between objective things and human consciousness. He claims that consciousness is a ‘non-thing'(‘neant’ or nothingness ) and its reality consists in standing back from things and taking a point of view on them. Because consciousness is a non-thing, it does not have any of the causal involvements that things have with other things. If you stand before a mirror, the reflection exists only if it is supported by the presence of a physical being or thing. If the physical thing is taken away, the reflected image is gone but the reflective surface retains its ability to reflect the images of things.

The Biological Membrane and Consciousness:

The Biological Membrane is not a simple physical barrier separating the Living Cell from its environment. The Protoplasm or Cytoplasm, the Living Matter uses its Biological Membrane with a sense of awareness or consciousness which recognizes the fact of its existence and the fact of something present in its environment.

In a Living Cell, consciousness reflects its external environment and its internal condition or internal environment. The Living Cell knows, it is aware of its state, fact, and act of its Living. The Living Cell makes contact with its environment by using a cell membrane, a biological membrane, or a bio-membrane. If you carefully look at some of the functions of this membrane, you would discern that the Living Cell has consciousness or awareness of these functions. The Biological Membrane behaves in a conscious manner and it is not a simple, physical barrier between the Protoplasm, the Living Substance and its environment. If the term ‘soul’ describes a vital principle, or a source of Knowledge, it provides the information with which these functions could be performed. Some molecules and ions can freely move across this Bio-membrane and some are actively pumped in or out of the Cell that involves expenditure of energy. The Living Cell has the ability to recognize the condition of its nucleus, if the DNA is damaged, the Cell can initiate a process and cause its own dissolution.

Red Blood Cells display functional subordination to serve the purpose of the Whole Organism. Functional differentiation, and Functional Unity are important to support the existence of the Subject or Individual who is in reality an association of trillions of cells.

In multicellular organism, the consciousness works both at the level of each individual cell and to establish the functioning of the organism as an individual unit. Without functional unity, the organism cannot maintain its biological existence. Cell differentiation is the process by which the individual cells use adaptation to perform specific tasks. Red Blood Cells perform specific tasks.

The Neuro-Biological aspects of Consciousness:

Spirituality. Soul, Consciousness and the God Connection. The neurobiological aspects of consciousness.
Reticular Formation of Brain Stem has connections with almost all other parts of the Central Nervous System and it helps to coordinate and integrate actions of different parts of the CNS. It is important for Behavioral Arousal, and the Capacity for Consciousness.

In the human Brain Stem, several neurons, and nuclei which are in an area called Reticular Formation are functionally adapted to compose the contents of human consciousness. The Reticular Formation gives the Capacity for Consciousness. The contents of this consciousness are read in the cortical areas of the cerebral hemispheres and described as Cortical awareness. Most philosophers, most of the psychologists, and several of the religious thinkers pay attention to this Cortical awareness and describe that as human consciousness. We tend to ignore the fact that there would be no Cortical awareness unless there is a Capacity for Consciousness.

Spirituality, Soul, Consciousness and the God-Connection.

Most recently, the surgeons had removed the complete left cerebral hemisphere from a child to stop convulsive seizures. The child is alive, fully conscious, and hopefully would continue to live in future with some neurological deficits. Just like the human heart which has four different muscular chambers and each has a function of its own; we need to understand consciousness by knowing its components. We need to use separate terms to distinguish these different components. There would be confusion if a term is used without attaching a specific meaning. Cortical awareness is important and is very interesting and yet man can exist and survive with minimal cortical awareness. We have seen children with severe degrees of mental retardation, and they can keep their biological existence if they retain the ability to Compose Consciousness.

Spirituality, Soul, Consciousness and the God Connection.

I want to designate the upper Brain Stem as the Seat of Consciousness and the word consciousness itself must describe the functions of the Brain Stem which are most important for man’s biological existence. A man is clinically dead in the absence of these Brain Stem functions involved in the Capacity of Consciousness. In Clinical Medicine, the term conscious is often used to measure the degree of Arousal or Cortical awareness and hence this subject matter would remain confusing for a long time. If a subject is unconscious, a ‘death certificate’ is not issued.

Spirituality, Soul, Consciousness, and God-Connection.

In Clinical Medicine, the term ‘Brain Death’ describes that the human person for all practical purposes is dead. I would suggest that we must use the term ‘Unconscious’ specifically to indicate the Brain Death which is diagnosed by testing the Brain Stem Reflexes. If the human person is viewed as a single physical thing or object, the integration of functions is achieved at the Brain Stem (Reticular Formation), and he maintains his individuality throughout his physical existence only when this part of the brain is functioning. If you like the term individual soul or Jeeva Atma, its existence is a reflection of this function. To see a reflection, we need two things; the physical object and a reflective surface. The quality of reflecting objects may depend upon presence of Knowledge. It is not known if this particular kind of knowledge exists as organic molecules; however, it is very well understood that most of the knowledge to perform a variety of biological functions is contained in organic molecules and the most well-known group of these organic molecules are known as DNA. There are Viruses which can function with RNA. Hence, there is still a possibility of finding organic molecules that could be associated with the functional ability called consciousness, awareness, cognition, recognition, responsiveness, perception, memory, intelligence, and association.

The most important aspect of ‘association’ is ‘God Connection’ and without this function of ‘association’ man cannot keep his biological existence.

Consciousness is awareness of existence, the facts that relate to the state or condition of existence. Behavioral Arousal and Cortical awareness of thoughts, feelings, and sensations is an important component of total Biological Existence.

Identity and Individuality:

The Eternal Reality of Soul’s Immortality is described in The Bhagavad Gita, Chapter II, verse 12. Lord Krishna spoke to the Pandava Prince Arjuna :”Na tv evaham jatu nasam na tvam neme JanadhipaH;Na chaiva na bhavisyamaH, sarve vayam ataH param.” For each of us our Individuality existed in the past and our Individuality will continue in the future without interruption. Certainly, never at any time did I not exist, nor you, nor all these Kings and certainly never shall we cease to exist in the future.

The issue of spirituality, the nature of Soul and consciousness must be explored in the context of arriving at an understanding of man’s Identity and Individuality.

SPIRITUALITY SCIENCE – THE KNOWER – THE KNOWING-SELF: IN THIS IMAGE OF HUMAN BRAIN, THE GREEN PORTION OF BRAIN STEM IS CALLED RETICULAR FORMATION. I AM PROPOSING TO CALL IT AS THE KNOWING-SELF AND IT IS THE “KNOWER” OF THE HUMAN BODY WHICH CONSTANTLY CHANGES ITS MORPHOLOGICAL APPEARANCE UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF TIME CALLED THE AGING PROCESS.

If man is viewed as an association of trillions of cells, we need to know the Identity of that Subject who lives because of the functions of the trillions of cells. The purpose of consciousness at cellular level is to foster functional unity of the multicellular organism and to establish it as an Individual.

In a multicellular organism, cells have short lives as individuals. The Subject or the whole organism has a life span of its own and it has effects on individual cells. Multicellularity is accompanied by adaptive subordination of all cells to the requirements of the organism as a whole. To achieve proper numerical balance between functionally related cell groups, the death of many cells is necessary for other cells to reach maturity. This programmed cell death plays an important role in embryological development. Such programmed cell death events are essential if the organism as a whole is to develop its normal final form. Waves of genetically driven cell deaths are critical to the proper modeling of organs and organ systems. We need to know and understand that death of cells is a must to establish the Identity and to sustain the Individuality of the human being.

Tat Asmi Prabhu – Fifth Mahavakya – Existence Precedes Essence.

The dying process helps man to understand his Individuality. The Individuality is preserved while death is a daily event at the cellular level. The phenotype or the morphological appearance of the human Subject undergoes constant change during the Life journey and yet the Individuality remains unchanged. We recognize the death of this human Subject when his Soul departs from his body. Soul may be stated as an entity which is regarded as being immortal or spiritual part of the person. The Spirit of a dead person generally refers to a principle separate from the body and leading an existence of its own. If Soul is viewed as a Non-thing or Nothingness, it comes into the world of existence by entering the physical being at its conception which becomes conscious or aware of its existence. This consciousness has also existed in a previously existing Living Egg Cell which is the Mother of Life, Energy, and Knowledge. Consciousness by its very nature is immortal, it is eternal, and it has no birth or death. We recognize the arrival and departure of the new product during the Life-Death continuum where the Individuality is unaffected by the changes that are caused by the powerful influence of Time.

The Reticular Formation of Brain Stem functions to maintain the Individuality of Man and at this location the Human Organism establishes its Identity as a Living Organism in its relationship with the rest of the human body and the external environment. The Brain Stem is irreplaceable and plays a crucial role in the diagnosis of Brain Death.

Whole Foods (the concept of Anna Purna), Whole People, and Whole Planet come together in a Wholesome Relationship as God is the Energy Provider, the Original Source of Matter and Energy for Life.

Dr. Rudranarasimham, Rebbapragada, B.Sc., M.B.B.S.,

Father’s Name: R. Suryanarayana Murty

Sri Venkateswara University, M.B.B.S. Class of April, 1970

Andhra Pradesh Medical Council Medical Registration Number: AMC5282; Date of Registration: September 16, 1971

Whole Foods-Whole Inspiration-Whole Language
Whole Foods Arrives in Ann Arbor, September 1993
The Whole Connection: Whole Law: Whole Foods opened its Store in Ann Arbor on September 16, 1993. Whole Foods, Whole People and Whole Planet inspire Whole Dude to invent Whole Phrases: Whole Linguistics – Whole Language. The concept of Whole Cookie and Whole Love. Whole Dude uses the phrase Whole Linguistics to describe three entities; 1. Language User, 2. Language Interpreter and 3. Language Creator. Image Credit: Agenda Publications, Ann Arbor District Library, Issue Dates, September 1993, December 1997 and February 1998.

Philosophy of Medicine – Lesson. 36 – Whole Proposition: “I am Consciousness, Therefore I am”

Whole Dictum: The Confluence of Religion, Philosophy and Science

Whole Connection – Whole Philosophy: Whole Foods opened its Store in Ann Arbor on September 16, 1993. Whole Foods, Whole People and Whole Planet inspire Whole Dude to invent Whole Phrases: Whole Linguistics-Whole Language, Whole conversation, Whole Cookie, Whole Love and others. Whole Dude uses the phrase Whole Linguistics to describe three entities; 1. Language User, 2. Language Interpreter and 3. Language Creator. Image Credit: Agenda Publications, Ann Arbor District Library, Issue Dates, September 1993, December 1997 and February 1998

“I am Consciousness, therefore I am” is a proposition to explore the nature of human consciousness, the existence of soul and man’s connection to a Conscious entity described as God.

Whole Dictum: I am Consciousness, Therefore I am. Vitruvian Man by Leonardo Da Vinci (c. 1492). This picture is used as the cover page for Best & Taylor’s Text Book of Human Physiology. Medical Science and Medical Education is knowledge built on the foundations of understanding and knowing Human Anatomy (Structure) and Human Physiology (Function).

Spirituality Science: My Spiritual Journey – The inquiry about Self, Spirit, and Soul:

“I am Consciousness, therefore I am” is a proposition to explore the nature of human consciousness, the existence of soul and man’s connection to a Conscious entity described as God.

I submit that we have to arrive at an understanding of Self, Spirit, and Soul by knowing the structural and functional organization of the Being that exists. 

The Identity of Multicellular Human Organism:

Whole Dictum: I am Consciousness, Therefore I am. “ManO buddhyaHamkara, chittani na aHam, Na karnam, na jihva, na cha ghrana neytrey, Na cha vyoma, bhuumir na TejO, na vaayuH; Chidananda Rupah, Shivo aHam, Shivo aHam.” Adi Shankaracharya describes that his Identity does not pertain to his mind, intellect, the intellectual pride/ego, mental functions, his organs of sense, the five primordial elements of Nature. His Identity could only be stated as Sat+Chit+Ananda, the Identity of Ultimate Reality. However, the human organism has an Identity described by Human Anatomy and the organism’s functions (Human Physiology) to establish and defend this Identity of the Human person in Nature.
Dr. Daniel John Cunningham (1850-1909), Chair of Anatomy, University of Cambridge published this Manual of Practical Anatomy to help medical students dissect human cadavers to learn Human Anatomy. Whether humans know and understand Human Anatomy and Physiology or not, they come into existence with full functional knowledge of every constituent cell in the body. The Human Body has Innate Knowledge of its own Structures and Functions. I acquired this Knowledge about human body from uneducated individuals who gifted their bodies to promote Medical Education.

I learned about human body while dissecting the body in a systematic manner. The Manual of Practical Anatomy which guides us through this entire process was published in England. The author Dr. Daniel John Cunningham prepared the Manual while dissecting cadavers of British or Irish citizens. He had never encountered cadavers of people of Indian origin. At Kurnool Medical College, Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh, India, where I was a student, the Department of Anatomy obtains dead bodies from  Government General Hospital Kurnool and most of the deceased are the poor, and often uneducated people of that region. None of the deceased had a chance to know this man called Cunningham and Cunningham had no knowledge about the existence of these people who arrived on our dissection tables. But, as the dissection of the human body proceeded, inch, by inch, we recognized the anatomical parts as described by Cunningham. The manual also lists some anatomical variations and we very often exchanged information between various dissection tables and recognized the variations mentioned. The dissections also involves slicing the organs and studying them, both macroscopically, and microscopically. We did not miss any part of the human body. So what is the Identity of this Human person or Human subject? How does the living Human organism maintains its Identity and Individuality? Apart from the Cultural Traditions of India, several Schools of Religious Thought claim that the Human Individual and its Identity is represented by Human Soul. Where does this soul exist in the human body? What is the location if soul is present in the living person? Does man have a soul?

The Knowledge of Field and The Field of Activity: The concept of Kshetra and Kshetrajna:                 

Whole Dictum: I am Consciousness, Therefore I am. Purusha or Man is the Knower of activities of his human body or Kshetra. Yoking is about pairing, something that binds, unites, or connects or joins together to perform physical tasks that impose a heavy burden if performed without pairing. Man performs a myriad of his living functions drawing matter and energy from his external environment. This conditioned, dependent human existence is made possible for man is paired with an Everlasting Principle which provides the Knowledge to perform the vital function called Cellular Respiration

The term soul has to be carefully defined if I have to find it by exploring the human body. In the Indian tradition, the human body is described as Kshetra or Field. The individual who knows and enjoys this body, kshetra, or field is often described as Purusha. The knowledge of the body is called Kshetra Jnana and the Knower is called Kshetrajna. The person called Purusha could explore his body called ‘kshetra’ and acquire knowledge called ‘Kshetra Jnana’. So, I explore my body to find out if I have a soul and as to where it exists.  I can explore my body while I am alive. If I am dead, only a different living person may get the opportunity to explore my dead body, but he may not be able to discover the soul which may have already departed from the body. If soul exists in the cadaver, Cunningham would not have missed it, and we the diligent students dissecting human cadavers would not have missed it. By definition, soul does not exist in dead bodies. It has something to do with life and the characteristics of a living person or organism. With the intellectual insight I gained by studying Human Anatomy, I can explore my living body without placing it on a dissection table.

The Functional Unity of Multicellular Human Organism:

Adaptive Subordination of Red Blood cells to the requirements of the whole Human Organism. The mature RBCs have no nuclei and they cannot divide. They are exclusively adapted to transport Oxygen and serve the Human Organism. During the life span of Human Organism, the RBCs live for short periods of time and are constantly replaced by new RBCs.

Humans are multicellular organisms. Who or what is the Subject who lives because of the functions of the trillions of cells? Multicellularity found in complex organisms like humans is accompanied by definite capabilities of cells for differentiation. The design of cells has been modified to serve specialized functions of tissues and organs. To achieve proper numerical balance between functionally related cell groups, the death of many cells is necessary for others to reach maturity. This programmed cell death plays an important role during embryological growth and development of human fetus. Waves of genetically driven cell deaths are critical to the proper modeling of organs, and organ systems. Such programmed cell death events are essential if the organism as a whole is to develop its normal final form by which its Identity as an Individual is established. The constituent cells of the organism do not display functional individuality while living as individuals. The cell in a complex organism is not truly an independently functioning unit. The cell exists and functions to achieve Unity of the Organism as a Whole. The one very important part of the environment of a cell is other cells. The Consciousness, the Awareness of individual cells in multicellular organism functions to achieve the Functional Unity of the Whole Organism. Consciousness brings Functional Unity by providing the abilities of recognition, association, and cooperation between all the cells of the multicellular organism. Multicellular organisms are characterized by the ‘Adaptive Subordination’ of the constituent cells to the requirements of the organism as a Whole. For example, mature Red Blood Cells or RBCs have no nuclei and they cannot divide or replicate. They are exclusively adapted to transport Oxygen and serve the whole human organism. The RBCs have short lives as individual cells. The human organism has a life span of its own. During the life time of a human person, RBCs live for short periods of time and are constantly replaced by new RBCs. Thus it may be stated that the purpose of Consciousness at cellular level is to foster Functional Unity of the multicellular organism and establish it as an Individual. If the term ‘Soul’ represents the Identity of this Individual, the Soul is a Functional Attribute of Consciousness at cellular level.

The Biological aspects of Human Soul:

Human being exists in a process of constant change from the moment of conception until death. These changes are not the result of man’s own efforts. These changes do not depend upon man’s mental awareness, intellect, or mental ability to control his own functions. Man can not fully account for his own act of existing. Man is not self-sufficient and his existence is affected from external factors; he has to operate in an environment which is not of his own making. Man like all other living organisms is a finite being. Just like human brain needs oxygen and glucose, man needs an infinite being for completion of his finite existence.
Capacity for consciousness is an upper Brain-Stem Function and the Content of consciousness is a Function of the Cerebral Cortex. The Reticular Formation which is located in the central Brain Stem helps to coordinate and integrate actions of different parts of the Central Nervous System such as regulation of muscle and reflex activity;central transmission and composition of sensory impulses; respiration; cardiovascular responses; behavioral arousal; and sleep.

I explore my body called Kshetra. The Kshetra Jnana, or Knowledge of my body is as follows:
My soul is  represented by an anatomical structure described as Reticular Formation in the Brain Stem.  Just like my body is composed of trillions of individual cells which collectively represent and establish my physical identity in this world, my soul derives its existence and identity from trillions of these individual units or cells that comprise my body. My soul is actually a composite of trillions of units of consciousness of trillions of individual cells that comprise my human body. The Functional Unity in relation to Consciousness is achieved in the Reticular Formation, the site where Consciousness of the Whole human organism is composed and only relevant information is relayed to the Cerebral hemispheres to arouse cortical awareness. It is just like a picture or a photo which represents trillions of spots of varying degrees of light intensity or brightness. The term soul has to be defined as the manifestation of “Consciousness”. If there is no “Consciousness”, there is no soul. The existence of soul is witnessed by the presence of “Consciousness”. This biological characteristic described as “Consciousness” exists in every single living cell. If a living organism is made up of one single cell, it has a soul as manifested by its “Consciousness”. For the human person, when identified as an Individual, the anatomical location of his Soul is the Reticular Formation of the Brain Stem which receives input from the rest of the body and shapes the information and sends it to Thalamus and to Cortical Areas of the Brain which provide the awareness, the functional knowledge with which the human organism exists as a living entity.

The Gatekeeper of Consciousness as a Mental Experience:

THE ART OF SELF-DISCIPLINE :

The Reticular Activating System (RAS) of Reticular Formation protects you from information overload by acting as a gatekeeper for your brain. It filters out millions of bits of useless sensory data every second so your conscious mind can focus on what matters.

Reticular Formation is shown as a single ‘red’ bar in this figure. It consists of numerous Brain Stem nuclei. It is a network of nerve pathways and nuclei throughout the Brain Stem. A single neuron in this network may have synapses/connections with as many as 25,000 other neurons/nerve cells.

🧠 The Brain’s Filter

Your body constantly receives massive amounts of information from your surroundings. The RAS prevents your conscious mind from drowning in this data through specific biological mechanisms.

Sensory Filtering: It blocks repetitive background noises, sights, and feelings.

Volume Control: It turns down the volume on predictable, non-threatening stimuli.

Focus Directing: It passes only critical data up to the cerebral cortex.

Conscious Awareness: It decides what enters your immediate, waking thoughts or Cortical Awareness which most of the Psychologists and other Neuroscience Scientists often describe as “Consciousness.”

🔍 How the Filter Works

The RAS uses specific criteria to determine what information breaks through the gate and what gets ignored.

Physical Survival: It instantly flags signs of danger, like a sudden loud bang.

Novelty: It alerts you to unexpected changes, like a sudden drop in room temperature.

Personal Relevance: It triggers when you hear highly specific data, like your own name.

Current Focus: It highlights things you actively think about, like seeing a specific car everywhere after buying it.

🛑 Impact of RAS Failure

Without a functioning RAS, daily life would become completely overwhelming and impossible to manage.

Sensory Flooding: You would feel your clothes against your skin every single second.

Auditory Chaos: Background traffic would sound just as loud as a person speaking to you.

Mental Exhaustion: Your brain would quickly run out of energy trying to process everything.

Man enjoys an existence characterized by Peace, Harmony, and Tranquility, as the Soul, or the Life Principle operates the vital functions of the complex organism without relaying all the information to the cortical areas avoiding information overload. Thereby, Man is protected from a huge information overload that is not compatible with mental peace and equilibrium. In this context of defending existence from the threat of Information overload, it may be said, “Ignorance is Bliss.” The Creator is the Source of Great Knowledge (Sanskrit. Prajnanam) and the access to the realities of the Inner World and the Outer World are selectively restricted to defend the wellbeing of the living creatures.

Human being exists in a process of constant change from the moment of conception until death. These changes are not the result of man’s own efforts. These changes do not depend upon man’s mental awareness, intellect, or mental ability to control his own functions. Man can not fully account for his own act of existing. Man is not self-sufficient and his existence is affected from external factors; he has to operate in an environment which is not of his own making. Man like all other living organisms is a finite being. Just like human brain needs oxygen and glucose, man needs an infinite being for completion of his finite existence.

“I am Consciousness, Therefore I am” :

DESCARTES, RENE (b. March 31, 1596, d. February 11, 1650 ), French Mathematician and Father of Modern Philosophy.

Could we extend scientific methodology of investigation into every field of inquiry? Could we find Truth, and Reality as an external experience? Is it possible to visualize Truth and Reality in the realm of Intuition and Conscience? Jean Jacques Rousseau, the French philosopher suggests that man has to find his way to his pure nature, and this through feelings. Man’s duty is to look for his most deep interior feelings and follow them.

Rene Descartes advances a philosophy based on certitude. He seeks to devise a method of inquiry for reaching the Truth. He proposes a method for guaranteeing Knowledge. He argues that in order to provide a secure foundation for Knowledge it is necessary to discover “clear and distinct ideas” that could not be doubted and could serve as a basis for deriving further truths. He finds such an idea in the proposition “I think, therefore I am” (“cogito, ergosum”). Descartes stresses a world of metaphysical truths that could be discovered by pure reason. He subjects his beliefs to a series of skeptical hypotheses. He invokes skepticism as a means of reaching certainty. As per his conclusion, “I think, therefore I am” is beyond skeptical doubt.

Cartesian Philosophy – The Value of Systematic Doubt:

Human body is composed of cells and each of these cells is a conscious entity. Consciousness is a biological, cellular function which brings about Functional Unity of the Whole Organism. Cellular consciousness provides the abilities of recognition, association, and cooperation between cells. Cells are characterized by Adaptive Subordination to meet the requirements of the organism as a whole. Rene Descartes proposition to divide human body into two parts; a thinking part, and a mechanical part is incorrect.

I truly admire Descartes for adopting a strategy of withholding his belief from anything that is not entirely certain and indubitable. Skepticism is an attitude that rejects claims to certainty. Its basic philosophical contention is that the possibility of knowledge is limited by the limitations of the mind itself or by the inaccessibility of the object. Descartes is known as the Father of the Mind-Body Problem. He claims that human beings are composites of two kinds of substances, mind and body. A mind is a conscious or thinking being, that is, it understands, wills, senses, and imagines. A body is a being extended in length, width, and breadth. He thinks that minds are indivisible, whereas bodies are infinitely divisible. The “I” of the “I think, therefore I am” is the mind that he claims could exist without being extended, so that it can in principle survive the death of the body. Descartes argues that colors, sounds, tastes, heat, cold, and pain are merely sensations existing in mind/thought and that there is nothing in bodies that resembles the sensation. He thinks that all complex functioning of living organisms including human bodies could be explained solely by mechanistic physics. He even denies that consciousness could be attributed to animals in order to explain their behavior. Descartes influences the whole course of philosophical enquiry. Using the same Cartesian Philosophy, I find the proposition of Descartes to be invalid and incorrect based on my understanding of human body, mind, and consciousness.

The proposition which I use is, “I am Consciousness, therefore I am”. This clear, and distinct idea, which is beyond doubt helps me to discover man’s awareness of God or what I describe as the “God Connection”. This “Connection” is the foundation for man’s existence in the natural world.  

LORD KRISHNA IN THE HINDU SCRIPTURE OF BHAGAVAD GITA, Chapter 10, The Opulence of the Absolute, verse 22 claimed that “…in living beings I am Consciousness.” Similarly, in Chapter 7, verses 9 and 10, Lord Krishna claims that “I am the life of all that Lives”, “I am the Original seed of all existences.”
SPIRITUALITY SCIENCE – THE KNOWER AND THE KNOWING-SELF: MAN IN HIS INQUIRY ABOUT SELF, MUST UNDERSTAND THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MATTER AND FORM AS BOTH REPRESENT THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES OF A SINGLE INFINITE SUBSTANCE.

Dr. Rudranarasimham, Rebbapragada, B.Sc., M.B.B.S.,

Father’s Name: R. Suryanarayana Murty

Sri Venkateswara University, M.B.B.S. Class of April, 1970

Andhra Pradesh Medical Council Medical Registration Number: AMC5282; Date of Registration: September 16, 1971

The Creator is the Source of Great Knowledge (Sanskrit. Prajnanam) and the access to the realities of the Inner World and the Outer World are selectively restricted to defend the wellbeing of the living creatures.

Philosophy of Medicine – Lesson. 35 – Spirituality from the perspective of Cognitive Biology

Consciousness is a Spiritual Function:

Spirituality from the perspective of Cognitive Biology. Cognition is a natural, biological function of all living things and of all the individual blocks of Life called Cells.

Yes indeed, Life is complicated. The complexities of Life can only be understood by knowing the fundamental living functions that are the characteristics of Life. A thing has Life if it knows the fact of its own living condition called existence. Cognitive Biology accounts for the spiritual dimension of existence.

Spirituality from the perspective of Cognitive Biology. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Professor of Anatomy and Physiology, Dean of the Harvard Medical School 1847-1882 says, “To live is to function and that is all there is in living.” Life is defined by the nature of its living functions. Consciousness is the absolute characteristic of all living functions and so I define Life as “Knowledge in Action.”

Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Professor of Anatomy and Physiology, Dean of the Harvard Medical School (1847-1882) views Life in terms of performing the living functions. He says, ”To live is to function and that is all there is in living.” Life is defined by the nature of its living functions. Consciousness is the absolute characteristic of all living functions. Life involves the fact of knowing information or knowledge and hence Life can be defined as Knowledge in Action.

What is Consciousness?

Spirituality from the perspective of Cognitive Biology. Why is this baby crying? Is it hunger? Is it thirst? Is it a wet diaper? Is it earache? Is it fever? Is it too hot? Is it too cold? Is it gripes or colic? Is it to get attention? Is it Consciousness? The baby is aware of something. The baby is aware of its own existence in an environment and is also aware of its internal condition.

Consciousness is described as a state of knowing, or awareness, or recognizing the existence, truth, or fact of ‘something’. What is that ‘something’ that is known or recognized by Consciousness? I propose to explore the contents of Consciousness to answer the question of what is Consciousness?

Consciousness is a Sense Experience:

The Rudolf-Rudi Doctrine of Spiritualism formulates Spirituality from the perspective of Cognitive Biology. Is it awareness of Sense Perception? Is it awareness of Thought? Is it awareness of Mood and Feeling? Is it awareness of Existence? Can there be any Perception without Existence? What is that Exists and Knows that it Exists?

The Neural Correlates of Consciousness defined by Mormann & Koch explores Consciousness as a Sense Experience. It fails to describe the Totality of Consciousness. Can there be any Sense Experience or Sense Perception without the fact of Existence? What is that Exists and knows that it Exists?

Spirituality from the perspective of Cognitive Biology. The Neural Correlates of Consciousness defined by Mormann & Koch explores Consciousness as a sense experience. It fails to understand the Totality of Consciousness.

Consciousness is generally viewed as a form of relationship or act of the mind towards objects in nature. Consciousness has been described as a continuous field or stream of mental sense-data. Some biologists and neurophysiologists view Consciousness as a brain function and describe it as an exclusive function of the nerve cells; neuronal and axonal function. Dr. Florian Mormann and Dr. Christof Koch have defined Neural Correlates of Consciousness (Florian Mormann & Christof Koch (2007) NCC, Scholarpedia 2(12):1740) as the minimal neuronal mechanisms jointly sufficient for any one specific conscious percept. Further, Mormann & Koch state that, “Consciousness is a puzzling, state-dependent property of certain types of complex, biological, adaptive, and highly connected systems. A Science of Consciousness must strive to explain the exact relationship between phenomenal, mental states and brain states.” They have posed the question: ” What is the nature of the relationship between the immaterial, conscious mind and its physical basis in the electro-chemical interactions in the body? The answer to their question is very simple. Consciousness is related to a material substance that is called Protoplasm and electro-chemical interactions in the body describe the properties of this living substance or material. The brain cells and all other cells of the body have the same basic features; they are constituted by Protoplasm which has a Biological Membrane to define the limits of the Cell. Mormann & Koch also erroneously suggest that, “Only a few particular systems can experience anything, why they are Conscious and other systems such as the enteric nervous system or the immune system are not Conscious.” The enteric nervous system does in fact provide a wide range of Conscious experiences. A baby would respond with a cry when it experiences gripes or colic. In the practice of Clinical Medicine, evaluation of pain as a symptom and as a diagnostic clinical sign plays a very significant role. The pain experienced by an individual with gastrointestinal, or genitourinary problems, or from inflammation of tissues and organs, and from problems with skeleton and musculature is registered by Consciousness. The immune system behaves in a Conscious manner and displays specificity, selectivity, and memory. 

A Living Cell is a highly complex, biological, adaptive, and highly connected system known to Natural Science.

Spiritualism formulates Spirituality from the perspective of Cognitive Biology. Can any function be performed without the cognitive element called functional awareness?

A simple understanding of various cell functions would explain this issue. For example, mitochondria are organelles found within most cells which provide the cells with energy. Extensive protein translocation occurs in mitochondria where about one thousand different polypeptides are imported from the cytosol. This event is orchestrated by distinct translocation machineries in the outer and the inner mitochondrial membranes. Mitochondria display functional awareness and perform the task of oxidising sugars and fats in a deliberate, and sequential manner that involves the use of different enzymes to facilitate each chemical reaction. 

Consciousness is a Physical or Body Experience – The Concept of Homeostasis:

Spirituality from the perspective of Cognitive Biology. What is that exists, and knows that it exists?

Apart from thoughts, intellect, feelings, moods, and perception of various sensory information, man is aware of the fact of and the state or condition of his physical existence.

Spirituality from the perspective of Cognitive Biology. Consciousness as a physical or body experience. The concept of Homeostasis.

Man is aware or Conscious of hunger, thirst, and sexual drive. Man is aware of vital functions like respiration, and circulation. Man is alerted and often reacts with a sense of fear when these vital functions are disturbed or threatened in a significant manner. Consciousness or awareness includes awareness of bodily functions such as appetite, lack of appetite, nausea, vomiting sensation, deglutition (the act of swallowing food and drink), satiation, and the functions of excretion and the associated sensations like the fullness of the bladder, and rectum. The human organism has awareness of its internal condition such as the state of hydration, water and electrolyte balance, and acid/base balance. The chemical events collectively called “metabolism” require concentration of hydrogen ions and electrolytes to remain within narrow limits in the tissue cells and in the fluids which bathes them. Body responds to both volume changes and changes in the osmotic pressure of the body fluids. Life is possible only if the hydrogen ion concentration of body fluid is kept within a narrow range. In health, a blood hydrogen ion concentration of 36-44 nmol/liter or pH 7.37 – 7.45 is maintained by several closely integrated but widely differing mechanisms. 19th century French physiologist Claude Bernard defines “Homeostasis” as “all the vital mechanisms, varied as they are, have only one object; that of preserving constant the conditions of life.” All living things maintain a constant internal environment or Internal Milieu. Living cells and organisms are aware or Conscious of the environment in which they exist as well as the state of their own internal environment making possible to witness this phenomenon of Homeostasis.

Consciousness is a Cellular Experience:

Spirituality from the perspective of Cognitive Biology. All the solid tissues in the human body consist of cells that are essentially similar to an Ovum.

Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, the former Dean of Harvard Medical School defines Life by stating that, “To live is to function and that is all there is in living.” Who or what is the subject who lives because of the living functions performed by the building blocks of life? Consciousness is a cellular experience of the cells of the brain and the body. It is an experience shared by the Whole Organism. It is an experience shared by all the living cells. The living functions of cells include uptake and conversion of nutrients, synthesis of new molecules, production of energy, and regulation and coordination of metabolic sequences apart from function of reproduction by asexual cell division. All the solid tissues in the human body can be shown to consist largely of similar cells, differing it is true, but that are essentially similar to an ovum. The most significant feature of similarity between the cells is presence of a soft, gelatinous, semi-fluid, granular material inside the cell. This substance known as Protoplasm is similar to that found in the ovum or the egg cell. This viscous, translucent, colloidal substance is enclosed in a membrane called Plasma Membrane or Biological Membrane. A small, spherical body called nucleus is embedded in the protoplasm. The protoplasm could be differentiated into cytoplasm/cytosol, and nucleoplasm based upon its location. Cytoplasm refers to protoplasm located outside the nucleus. Nucleoplasm refers to the protoplasm located inside the nucleus. The two essential features of any living cell in the human body are that of presence of protoplasm and the nucleus. The most striking characteristics of protoplasm are its vital properties of Motion, and Nutrition. Protoplasm has the intrinsic power to change its shape and position and the motion is described as amoeboid movement as the motion is similar to the motion that is observed in Amoeba proteus. Nutrition is the power which protoplasm has of attracting or drawing the materials that are necessary for its growth and maintenance from surrounding matter/environment. Nutrition is not a passive, unguided, and physical event. The Biological Membrane or the Plasma Membrane allows a highly controlled exchange of matter across the barrier it poses; some compounds are able to pass through the Membrane easily, others are completely blocked. The Biological Membrane helps to maintain  cell’s internal environment or constant interior milieu in which intracellular reactions occur. To maintain life, the cell not only repairs or replaces, (or both) its structures by continual synthesis of new organic molecules. This is characteristic of functional awareness or Consciousness that is at work at the cellular level. The human organism uses a repair process and it is described as Inflammation and Repair. Wound healing, and hemostasis (or blood leakage or bleeding from an injured blood vessel is controlled) are natural mechanisms operated by Cellular Consciousness. Human existence is possible because of this valuable and protective healing process which comes into immediate play after an injury or damage. Similarly, the human organism defines its identity and defends its existence by deploying unique protein molecules such as the antibodies. Antibodies recognize their antigens or foreign protein molecules with high affinity and extreme selectivity. The ability to develop specific immunity to infection is only one consequence of a wider capacity in the individual to recognize and to specifically respond to the foreignness of an extensive range of biological substances that are not normally present in the body of that individual. The adaptive immune system remembers that particular infectious agent and can prevent it causing disease later. The immune system consists of a variety of molecules and cells that are distributed throughout the body. They play an important role in inflammation, tissue damage and repair, the killing of bacteria, viruses, and tumor cells. Cellular Consciousness defends human existence.

Consciousness is a Social Experience:

Spirituality from the perspective of Cognitive Biology. The Social Awareness of Red Blood Cells: Metabolic Sensor in Red Cell, Ion Exchange Transport mechanism, Release of Nitric Oxide to modulate Vascular tone and to cause vasodilation.

Sociology lays claim to the whole of human life beyond the biological level because virtually all human activities possess a social aspect. Consciousness can be viewed as the capacity in an individual to form harmonious relations with others and to participate in or contribute constructively to changes in the social environment. Man is a social being and he is aware of the social structures and the social organization that he is part of. Parental instincts and social instincts describe an aspect of social behavior exhibited by all animals. Animals exhibit social behaviors and form parental societies to care for their offspring. Bacteria come together to live as colonies. At cellular level, the social aspect of Consciousness is reflected by the cell’s abilities such as association, cooperation, communication using signaling molecules, recognition, and functional subordination in its interactions with other living cells present in its environment. In an Ecological System, the Consciousness plays the role to establish the interrelatedness, the interdependence, and the interconnectedness.

Consciousness is a Moral Experience:

Spirituality from the perspective of Cognitive Biology. What is right and what is wrong, the concept of morality fundamentally involves the issue of existence.

Consciousness is the attribute of a conscientious person. Conscious behavior is often described as conscientious action that is scrupulous, characterized by or done with careful attention. Conscience describes awareness of one’s own acts and the application of knowledge to discern an act as right or wrong, good or evil, selfish or altruistic. Man has the intrinsic ability to recognize his acts of transgression or sinful conduct. Man is a creature with conscience and hence exists as a Moral Being.

Consciousness is a Spiritual Experience:

Spirituality from the perspective of Cognitive Biology.

The word spiritual is often used to describe the fact of having a relationship based on sympathy of thought or feeling. Consciousness is a spiritual function as it establishes a relationship between the energy dependent living cell and its energy provider. The living cell is a thermodynamically unstable system. This means that without continuous input of energy, a cell will degrade spontaneously into a nonliving collection of molecules. The life journey of the human organism begins as a single cell, that of a fertilized egg cell. This single fertilized egg cell is Conscious of its existence, is Conscious of its energy dependence and it promptly connects itself to its energy provider. Human life begins to move forward when this egg cell implants itself into the maternal tissue and the biological mother has no cortical awareness of this implantation. Cortical awareness does not describe the Totality of Consciousness. The Science of Consciousness must describe the mental, the sensory, the physical, the cellular, the social, the moral, and the spiritual aspects of Consciousness.

Consciousness is Awareness of Existence in any given Environment:

SPIRITUALISM AND CONSCIOUSNESS: Amoeba proteus is a living organism as it has the ability to perform vital, living functions.

Consciousness describes the condition of an individual; the condition of knowing, awareness, or recognizing the fact, the state, and the act of existence or living in a given environment. Thus, Consciousness is a natural principle that could explain what an individual knows and experiences about the world around one and inside one. There are two aspects of Consciousness that is registered subjectively by an individual; 1. Consciousness is a state of knowing or awareness of what goes on around an individual, and 2. Consciousness is a state of knowing or awareness of what goes on within the individual. Who is this individual who has ability to know and be aware of its external and internal environment? The term environment refers to all the conditions, circumstances, and influences surrounding, and affecting existence of a given individual, or group of individuals. The individual is a living organism and the organism could be unicellular or multicellular.

Consciousness and Material Substance:

Spirituality from the perspective of Cognitive Biology. Consciousness is an absolute attribute of Life; it is the fundamental characteristic of living matter or living substance described as Protoplasm, Cytoplasm, Cytosol, Nucleoplasm, and etc.,

Consciousness is an absolute attribute of Life; it is the fundamental characteristic of living matter or living substance described as Protoplasm or Cytoplasm, the essential living matter or material substance of all animal, and plant cells. Wherever Protoplasm is found, irrespective of the size, shape, and form of the cell or of the living organism, the contents of its Consciousness could be discovered. For example, the viscosity of protoplasm constantly changes in response to its own living condition and is not the same among all the cells of a multicellular organism.

Consciousness – The Law of Individuality and Creation:

Spirituality from the perspective of Cognitive Biology. Identity and Individuality are the two sides of the same Coin. The genome establishes the Identity, and Consciousness establishes the Individuality of a Living Cell or of a Living Organism.

The contents of Consciousness vary from individual to individual. There are individualistic variations in the contents of Consciousness. There can never be two identical living individuals. Even when the cells are cloned and have the same or identical genomes, the state, or condition of Protoplasm that is Conscious is never identical. With the same genome, or different genomes, the living cells can only exist or live as individuals and they have no other choice. The living substance is the same, and the nature of Consciousness is the same and yet the contents of Consciousness are not the same. This Individualistic variation of Consciousness is the characteristic of what I describe as ‘The Law of Individuality and Creation’.

The Principles of Consciousness:

Spirituality from the perspective of Cognitive Biology. Consciousness is the natural, vital principle that moves and animates all Life. The Living Cell knows the fact of its existence, it knows as to where it exists, and knows as to how it is existing.

Consciousness is the natural principle, the vital principle that moves and animates all Life. It has a set of defining features; it is the principle by which a living cell or organism knows the fact of its own existence, it knows as to where it exists, and knows as to how it is existing. Cognition is described as the act of knowing. Cognitive Science involves the study of all human activities related to Knowledge. These activities include attention, creativity, memory, perception, problem solving, thinking, and the use of language. Cognition is the process involved in knowing, or the act of knowing which includes awareness and judgment. The nature of cognition, the relationship between the knowing mind and external reality, is applicable in the study of living functions that are characteristic of the living substance or material called Protoplasm. The functions at cellular level that require cognition include nutrition, reproduction, metabolism, and association with other living cells present in the immediate environment. The human brain is often viewed as the Seat of Knowledge. Human brain’s ability to acquire, process, store, and use information is essentially a function of the Protoplasm of the brain cells. Cognitive functions like perception and memory would establish Protoplasm as the Seat of Knowledge.

Consciousness in the Human Organism:

Spirituality from the perspective of Cognitive Biology. The Human Organism is an association of trillions of individual living cells. Consciousness serves the purpose of Functional Unity and all the cells display adaptive functional subordination to serve the purpose of the Whole Organism or the Individual. There are two distinct aspects of human Consciousness;1. The Capacity for Consciousness, and 2. The Contents of Consciousness.

There are two distinct aspects of human Consciousness namely the Capacity for Consciousness and the Contents of Consciousness. When Consciousness is viewed as a psychological or strictly as a mental function, it is represented by the Contents of Consciousness, function of Cerebral Cortex. When Consciousness is understood as a biological or living function, it is represented by the aspect of Capacity for Consciousness. The upper Brain Stem, the neural structures like the Reticular Formation, and Thalamus function to compose the contents of Consciousness and project the contents to the cerebral hemispheres via the tracts of the Ascending Reticular Activating System. Integrity of these neurons and neural connections is important to maintain the alertness, and Arousal State of the Whole Organism in its relationship to its environment and internal maintenance of coordination of various living functions.

The Grading of Consciousness in Clinical Medicine:

Spirituality from the perspective of Cognitive Biology. The grading of consciousness in clinical medicine involves the examination of eyes; eye opening, the size and the response of the pupil to light stimulus.

Apart from philosophers, psychologists, psychics, theologians and others, the term Consciousness is frequently used by the practitioners of Clinical Medicine. It is a useful term with several practical applications in management of individuals with a variety of conditions that impact the neural functions, particularly the Arousal. In medical practice, the assessment and grading of Consciousness serves the purpose of being good predictor of the eventual long-term outcome or prognosis of the underlying disease or medical condition.

Spirituality from the perspective of Cognitive Biology. In Clinical Medicine, the medical practitioner evaluates the Level of Arousal or Alertness of his patient.

In Clinical Medicine, the medical practitioner evaluates the Level of Arousal or Alertness of his patient. The different levels of Consciousness are :

a. alert or awake, fully Conscious and fully Oriented to person, place, and time. This Orientation represents the normal operation of Higher Intellectual Functions. A person who is Conscious, but is under influence of alcohol or other psychotropic drugs, neural stimulants or depressants may not be fully oriented.

b. phase of automatism – the person is not fully alert as in Sleep-walking, or recovering from the effects of anesthesia.

c. Lethargic – drowsy, sleepy, but easily arousable.

d. Delirium – a state of mental confusion, a toxic condition, altered physical, and mental state or condition.

e. Stupor – semiconscious, responsive only to painful stimuli.

f. Coma – Unconscious or not responsive to painful stimuli.

Similarly, the Edinburgh method of grading Consciousness is:

Grade  0 – Fully Conscious

Grade 1 – drowsy but responsive to vocal command.

Grade 2 – Unconscious but responsive to minimal painful stimuli.

Grade 3 – Unconscious but just responsive to strong painful stimuli.

Grade 4 – Unconscious with no response to verbal commands and all other painful stimuli.

The Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS ) is universally used in assessment of the head injury victim. This Scale measures and provides a score that ranges from 3 to 15 points by evaluating three kinds of responses from the patient.

1. Eye Opening: Spontaneous eye opening=4; Eye opening in response to command=3; Eye opening in response to painful stimuli=2; and no response of eye opening=1.

2. Motor Response: Obeys commands=6; Localizes pain=5; Shows flexion(decorticate) response to pain=3; Shows extension (decerebrate) response to pain=2; and no response (no reflex muscular activity)=1.

3. Vocal Response: Oriented to person, place, and time=5; Confused=4; Shows inappropriate speech=3; Makes incomprehensible sounds=2; and no vocal sounds=1.

Such neurological evaluations are repeated periodically to record significant changes in the medical condition of the patient. However, it must be noted that Clinical Medicine always evaluates totality of all living functions and the medical usage of the terms Conscious and Unconscious represent a careful interpretation in the context of the medical condition of the patient.

The Totality of Consciousness:

Spirituality from the perspective of Cognitive Biology.

The Science of Consciousness must explore and investigate the entire contents of Consciousness. By understanding the nature of experience provided by the Totality of Consciousness, the condition, the state, or the act of being Conscious could be explained.

Consciousness is a Mental Experience:

The term consciousness is most widely used as meaning “attention to the contents or workings of one’s own mind.” English philosopher John Locke defined Consciousness as a psychological condition; it is described as perception of what passes in a man’s own mind. In the Indian tradition, mental activities are of four kinds and collectively constitute what is named as Antahkarana; these are : 1. Manas or Manah- the seat of thoughts, 2. Buddhi or intellect and knowledge, 3. Chitta or the seat of emotions such as Kindness and Love, and 4. Ahamkara or self-ego. The mental experience or knowing of these activities of thoughts, intellect, moods, feelings, and self-ego describe Consciousness as a mental experience. Using this view, many philosophers, religious thinkers, and mystics have shared their experience of different levels of Consciousness and have given names to the higher levels or states of Consciousness. Terms such as Pure Consciousness, Cosmic Consciousness, and Super Consciousness may describe some kind of mental experience and such terms may not add any information to understand the Totality of Consciousness and its experience.

Spirituality from the perspective of Cognitive Biology. The Neural Correlates of Consciousness defined by Mormann & Koch basically ignores existence of specific Conscious percept like NUTRITION by which the Living Organism shows its awareness of Energy dependence for its existence or living.

The spiritual connection between the Cell and its Energy Provider

My German heritage is described by discovery of a spiritual connection between man, food, and Providence.

The Spiritual Connection between the Cell and its Energy Provider. Photograph, 1893. Rudolf Virchow (1821-1902).

Whole Foods (the concept of Anna Purna), Whole People, and Whole Planet are connected by a material substance called Protoplasm or Cytoplasm, a divine plan to provide nourishment to Life.

The concept of Whole Spirituality can be defined as the three dimensional spiritual relationship between the multicellular human organism, food, and the Divine Providence.

The Spiritual Connection between Cell and its Energy Provider. The 3-Dimensional Spiritual Relationship between Man, Food, and God.

Spiritualism – The Cell Theory of Spirituality:

The Spiritual Connection between the Cell and its Energy Provider. The Discovery of Whole Spirituality.

In Biology, cell is the basic or fundamental unit of structure, function, and organization in all living things or it is the building block of life. Let me begin with my respectful tribute to some of the people who contributed to ‘The Cell Theory’, one of the foundations of Biological Sciences. Cells were first observed in the 17th century shortly after the discovery of the microscope. Robert Hooke, british curator of instruments at The Royal Society of London, during 1665 coined the word cell. Dutch microscopist Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) made over 247 microscopes and examined microorganisms and tissue samples. He gave the first complete descriptions of bacteria, protozoa (which he called animalcules), spermatozoa, and striped muscle. He also studied capillary circulation and observed Red Blood Cells.

The Spiritual Connection between the Cell and its Energy Provider. Robert Hooke, british curator of instruments at The Royal Society of London coined the term cell during 1665.
The Spiritual Connection between the Cell and its Energy Provider. Dutch microscopist Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek (1668-80) studied capillary circulation and observed Red Blood Cells.

Improvements in microscopy during early 19th century permitted closer observation and the significance of cells had received better understanding. Matthias Jakob Schleiden (1838), German botanist, Theodor Schwann (1839), German physiologist, and Rudolf Virchow (1855), German pathologist, and others made important contributions to the Cell Theory that describes cell as the building block of all Life.

The Spiritual Connection between the Cell and its Energy Provider. Schleiden, Professor of Botany, The University of Jena studied plant structure under the microscope, published “Contibutions to Phytogenesis” (1838). He had also published the two-volume text of ‘Principles of Scientific Botany’.
The Spiritual Connection between the Cell and its Energy Provider. Schwann founder of modern Histology extended the Cell Theory of Plants to animals in his ‘Microscopic Researches into Accordance in the Structure and Growth of Animals and Plants (1839).
The Spiritual Connection between the Cell and its Energy Provider. Schwann discovered Myelin Sheath covering peripheral axons, now termed Schwann Cells. He coined the term ‘Metabolism’ for the chemical changes that take place in living tissues.
The Spiritual Connection between the Cell and its Energy Provider. Rudolf Virchow, German pathologist in 1855 coined the biological dictum “OMNIS CELLULA E CELLULA” – All living cells arise only from pre-existing living cells.

The Cell is the smallest unit in the living organism that is capable of carrying on the essential life processes of sustaining metabolism for producing energy and reproducing. Many simple, small, single-celled organisms like Protozoa perform all life functions. In higher, complex, bigger, multicellular organisms, groups of cells are structurally and functionally differentiated into specialized tissues and organ systems. Thus, the Cell Theory includes the following foundational principles of the Biological Sciences:

1. All living things are made up of cells. Cell is the most elementary or basic unit of Life. 

2. Cell is a fundamental unit of structure, function, and organization in all living things including plants and animals.

3. Cells only rise from division of previously existing cells.

4. All cells are similar in composition, form, and function. All cells are basically the same in chemical composition (in spite of variations) in organisms of similar species. For example, all the solid tissues in the human body can be shown to consist largely of similar cells; differing it is true, but that are essentially similar to an Ovum.

5. The cells exhibit functional autonomy. The activity of an organism depends on the total activity of ‘INDEPENDENT’ cells.

6. Energy flow (metabolism and biochemistry) occurs within cells.

7. Cells contain hereditary, biological information (DNA) which is passed from cell to cell during cell division.

The Spiritual Connection between the Cell and its Energy Provider.

The Cell Theory of Spirituality:

The Spiritual Connection between the Cell and its Energy Provider. The Discovery of Whole Spirituality at Whole Foods, Ann Arbor.

The basic or fundamental unit of life in the human organism is derived from the fertilized egg cell that eventually develops into a complete organism. The most significant feature of similarity between the cells of the human body is the presence of a soft, gelatinous, semi-fluid, granular material inside the cell. This substance known as Protoplasm or Cytoplasm, or Cytosol is similar to the ground substance found in the Ovum or the Egg Cell.

The Spiritual Connection between the Cell and its Energy Provider. Human Ovum Structure – The Cell Theory of Spirituality is based upon the Substance, Structure, Form, Organization, Function, Action and Interactions of this Single Fertilized Egg Cell that eventually develops into a complete human organism.

This viscous, translucent, colloidal substance is enclosed in a membrane called Cell Membrane, Plasma Membrane or Biological Membrane. A small spherical body called nucleus is embedded in the Protoplasm of the cell. The three essential features of any living cell in the human body are that of the presence of protoplasm, the nucleus, and the cell membrane.

The Spiritual Connection between the Cell and its Energy Provider.

Protoplasm – The Ground Substance of Spiritualism and Spirituality:

The Spiritual Connection between the Cell and its Energy Provider.

I seek the existence of Soul or Spirit in a substance that is basic to life activities, and in a material that is responsible for all living processes. I, therefore, propose that the understanding of the true or real nature of this ground substance of all living matter will help man to discover peace, harmony, and tranquility in all of his internal and external relationships while man exists in a physical environment as a member of a social group, social community, and Society. In this blog post, I would like to pay my respectful tribute to Jan Evangelista Purkinje and Hugo Von Mohl for their great contribution to the scientific understanding of the living substance, living material, and living matter.

The Spiritual Connection between the Cell and its Energy Provider. Jan Evangelista Purkyne (Czech name), Jan Evangelista Purkinje (German name)also known as Johannes Evangelist Purkinje, b. December 17, 1787, d. July 28, 1869. The pioneer Czech experimental Physiologist whose investigations in the fields of Histology, Embryology,and Pharmacology helped create a modern understanding of the eye and vision, brain and heart function, mammalian reproduction, and the composition of cells.

Purkinje conducted his research on human vision at the University of Prague and later on, he served there as a Professor of Physiology (1850-69). He went to Germany and was appointed the Chair of Physiology and Pathology (1823-50) at the University of Breslau, Prussia. There Purkinje created the world’s first independent Department of Physiology (1839) and the first Physiological Laboratory (Physiological Institute, 1842). He is best known for his discovery of large nerve cells with many branching extensions found in the cortex of Cerebellum of the brain (Purkinje Cells, 1837). He discovered the fibrous tissue that conducts electrical impulses from the ‘pacemaker’ called Atrioventricular node or A-V node along the inside walls of the ventricles to all parts of the heart to help in Cardiac contractile function (Purkinje Fibers, 1839). In 1835, he invented and introduced the scientific term ‘Protoplasm’ to describe the ground substance found inside young animal embryo cells. He discovered the sweat glands of the skin (1833); he discovered the nine configuration groups of Fingerprints used in biometric identification of man (1823); he described the germinal vesicle or nucleus of the unripe ovum that now bears his name (1825), and he noted the protein digesting power of pancreatic extracts (1836).

The Spiritual Connection between the Cell and its Energy Provider. Hugo Von Mohl, b. April 08, 1805, d. April 01, 1872, German Botanist noted for his research on the anatomy and physiology of plant cells.

Hugo Von Mohl named the granular, colloidal material that made up the main substance of the plant cell as “Protoplasm” in 1846. Purkinje invented the word, but Hugo gave more clarity, understanding, and knowing the nature of this ground substance. He viewed cell as an “elementary organ” and in Physiology he explained Protoplasm as an organ of Motion or Movement, Nutrition, and Reproduction. It is the preliminary material in cellular generation. He was the first to propose that new cells are formed by division of preexisting cells and he had observed this process of Cell Division in the algal cells of Conferva glomerata. His observations are very important to understand the Cell Theory that explains cells as the basic building blocks of Life. He was the first to investigate the phenomenon of the stomatal openings in leaves.

The Spiritual Connection between the Cell and its Energy Provider. The Ground Substance of Spiritualism and Spirituality. The vital characteristics, the animating principles of Protoplasm could be known by observing Amoeba proteus. The Living Substance works as an organ of Motion or Movement, as an organ of Nutrition, and as an organ of Reproduction to generate new cells which have a life span of their own. In these physiological functions, I describe the characteristics such as Cognition, Consciousness, Memory, and Intelligence which have a Spiritual role as they bring functional unity and harmony in the interactions between different parts of the same individual organism while it exists in an environment as a member of a biological community.

Protoplasm is a complex, viscous, translucent solution of such materials as salts and simple sugars with other molecules, mostly proteins and fats, in a colloidal state, that is dispersed but not dissolved in one another. Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Nitrogen constitute more than 90 percent of Protoplasm.

God created Cytoplasm or Protoplasm as the Ground Substance of Spirituality.
God created Cytoplasm or Protoplasm as the Ground Substance of Spirituality.

It exhibits properties such as Protoplasmic Streaming or Cytoplasmic Streaming or Motion that is called “Amoeboid Movement.” It has the intrinsic power to change its shape and position.

The Spiritual Connection between the Cell and its Energy Provider. The importance of Protoplasmic or Cytoplasmic Streaming is displayed in the transportation of Neuropeptides from the sites of their Synthesis to the sites of their action at the axon terminal of the Nerve Cells.

Protoplasm has the power of Nutrition by which it can attract and obtain the materials necessary for its growth and maintenance from surrounding matter/environment.

God created Cytoplasm or Protoplasm as the Ground Substance of Spirituality.

The living functions such as Nutrition, Cellular Respiration, and Reproduction performed by Cytoplasm involve acquiring, processing, retaining, and using information to perform tasks in a sequential manner for a predetermined purpose and hence describe Consciousness, Memory, and Intelligence.

God created Cytoplasm or Protoplasm as the Ground Substance of Spirituality. Cellular respiration is a set of metabolic reactions and processes that take place in the cells of organisms to convert biochemical energy from nutrients into adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and then release waste products.
God created Cytoplasm or Protoplasm as the Ground Substance of Spirituality.
God created Cytoplasm or Protoplasm as the Ground Substance of Spirituality.
God created Cytoplasm or Protoplasm as the Ground Substance of Spirituality.

The terms Soul and Spirit belong to the materialistic realm where the Physical Reality of man’s biological existence is established. I have not yet discovered any good reason to use the terms Soul and Spirit as a metaphysical or transcendental Reality.

The Inheritance of Cytoplasmic Membrane or Cell or Plasma Membrane:

God created Cytoplasm or Protoplasm as the Ground Substance of Spirituality. Living cells have a corporeal substance called Protoplasm that has the ability of Spiritual Biotic Interactions. The Biological Membrane or Cell Membrane separates the cell from its environment and other living cells present in the environment. Cells use unique proteins, biological molecules and receptor sites to recognize the other living cells and use chemical signals to facilitate the interactions. Such interactions between living cells have the characteristics of consciousness or awareness.
God created Cytoplasm or Protoplasm as the Ground Substance of Spirituality. Cytoplasmic Membrane or Cell Membrane is an integral feature of Cytoplasm, a limiting membrane devised by Cytoplasm to create boundaries to perform its numerous living functions.

The Functions of Cytoplasmic Membrane or Cell Membrane or Biological Membrane:

1. Protection: It protects the cell from its surroundings or extracellular environment. Plant cell possess wall over the plasma membrane for extra protection and support. 

2. Holding cell contents: Plasma membranes hold the semi fluid protoplasmic contents of the cell intact; thus keeping the individuality of the cell.

3. Selective Permeability: Cell membrane allows only selected or specific substances to enter into the cell and are impermeable to others. 

Gases like O2 and CO2 can diffuse rapidly in solution through membranes.

Small compounds like H2O and methane can easily pass through where as sugars, amino acids and charged ions are transported with the help of transport proteins.

The size of the molecules which can pass through the plasma membrane is 1-15 A0. This property is responsible for keeping a cell ‘as a cell’, an individual unit. 

4. Shape: It maintains form and shape of the cell. It serves as site of anchorage or attachment of the cytoskeleton; thus providing shape to the cell (especially in animal cells without cell wall). 

5. Organelles: Cell membrane delimits or covers all sub-cellular structures or organelles like nucleus, mitochondria, plastids, Golgi apparatus, endoplasmic reticulum, microbodies etc. thus protecting them form the surroundings and also helps in maintaining a constant internal environment.

6. Compartmentalization: Cell membrane separate the cells from their external environment and cell organelle from cytosol. It help the cells and their organelles to have their own microenvironments, structural and functional individuality. 

7. Cell Recognition: With the help of glycolipids and glycoproteins on its surface, cell membranes are able to differentiate similar cells from dissimilar ones, foreign substances and cells own materials. Cell recognition is useful for tissue formation and defence against microbes. 

8. Antigens: Cell membranes possess antigens which determine blood grouping, immune response, acceptance or rejection of a transplant (graft rejection by MHC’s on plasma membrane). 

9. Microvilli: They are microscopic finger like projections of plasma membrane present on some cells like intestinal epithelial cells, which are involved in a wide variety of functions, including increasing surface area for absorption, secretion, cellular adhesion etc.

10. Sheaths of cilia and flagella: Cilia and flagella are projections from the cell; made up of microtubules which are covered by an extension of the plasma membrane.

11. Cytoplasmic bridges in plasmodesmata and gap junctions: Plasmodesmata in plant cells and gap junctions in animal cells; meant for intercellular transport and communication, form cytoplasmic bridges between adjacent cells through plasma membrane.

12. Endocytosis and Exocytosis: Bulk intake of materials or endocytosis occurs through development of membrane vesicles or invagination and engulfing by plasma membrane.

Exocytosis: It is reverse of endocytosis that provides for releasing waste products and secretory materials ot of the cells with the help of plasma membrane. 

13. Impulse transmission in neurons: The transmission of a nerve impulse along a neuron from one end to the other occurs as a result of electrical changes across the plasma membrane of the neuron

14. Cell metabolism: Cell membranes control cell metabolism through selective permeability and retentivity of substances in a cell. 

15. Electron transport chain in bacteria: In bacteria; Electron transport chain is located in cell membrane.

16. Osmosis through cell membrane: It is movement of solvent molecules (generally water) from the region of less concentrated solution to the region of high concentrated solution through a semi permeable membrane. Here the semi permeable membrane that helps in osmosis is the cell membrane. Eg: Root cells take up water from the soil by osmosis 

17. Carrier proteins for active transport: They occur in the cell membranes and control active transport of substances. Example, GLUT1 is a named carrier protein found in almost all animal cell membranes that transports glucose across the bilayer or plasma membrane.

18. Plasma Membrane enzymes: Many enzymes are present on the plasma membrane with wide variety of catalytic activity. Example: Red blood cell plasma membranes contain a number of enzymes such as ATPases, anion transport protein, glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase, protein kinases, adenylate cyclase, acetylcholinesterase.

19. Cell Membrane Receptors: Receptor on the plasma membrane performs signal transduction, converting an extracellular signal into an intra-cellular signal. Membrane possess receptors for hormones, neurotransmitters, antibodies and several other biochemicals.

20. Plasma membrane assisted Cell movements: Undulation and pseudopodia are cell membrane phenomenon involved in cell movement. Amoeba, macrophages and WBCs move with the helps of temporary organelles like pseudopodia. Pseudopods are temporary cytoplasmic projections of the cell membrane in certain unicellular protists such as Amoeba. Some mammalian cells such as fibroblasts can move over a solid surface by wave like undulations of the plasma membrane.

The Ground Substance of Spiritualism and Spirituality. The vital characteristics, the animating principles of Protoplasm could be known by observing Amoeba proteus. The Living Substance works as an organ of Motion or Movement, as an organ of Nutrition, and as an organ of Reproduction to generate new cells which have a life span of their own. In these physiological functions, I describe the characteristics such as Cognition, Consciousness, Memory, and Intelligence as spiritual attributes of Life as they bring functional unity and harmony in the interactions between different parts of the same individual organism while it exists in an environment as a member of a biological community.

The Spiritual Connection between the Cell and its Energy Provider.

The Spirituality of Substance, Function, Organization, Action, and Interactions:

The Spiritual Connection between the Cell and its Energy Provider. The Discovery of Whole Spirituality at Whole Foods, Ann Arbor.

To establish the biological existence of the human organism, I add the concept of Spiritualism and Spirituality to the Cell Theory.

God created Cytoplasm or Protoplasm as the Ground Substance of Spirituality.

The Single Fertilized Egg Cell has ground substance that is of Spiritual nature and the Spiritualism and Spirituality consists of the following functional, and organizational characteristics:

1. The Cell is Conscious of its own existence and knows its internal condition and knows it external environment.

2. The Cell is intelligent and it has the cognitive abilities like perception and memory to acquire information, to retain information, to recall information, and to use information in the performance of its complex tasks in a sequential manner.

3. The Cell has the ability to show characteristics such as mutual cooperation, mutual tolerance, and display functional subordination and subservience while being independent.

4. The Cell grows, divides, and develops into a complete organism while it acquires substances and energy from an external environment. The power of Protoplasm/Cytoplasm to attract matter found in its external environment is called Nutrition. The Cell continuously transforms matter to build matter of its own kind for its own benefit to sustain its  existence with its own identity and individuality. The Organism represents a social group or a biological community of Cells. The Spiritual nature of Protoplasm/Cytoplasm brings this functional harmony and unity in the Social Group or Biotic Community of Cells by bringing together its Essence and Existence.

5. The Cell Theory is incomplete for it does not describe the conditioned nature of the Cell’s existence. The Cell represents a Living System that is thermodynamically unstable. It requires a constant supply of matter and energy from its external environment to sustain its living functions. The concept of Whole Spirituality formulates the connection between the Cell and its external source of matter and energy.

The Discovery of Whole Spirituality. The Bone Marrow smear from a patient of Leukemia or Blood Cancer helps to illustrate the nature of Biotic Interactions in the Social Group or Biotic Community that represents the singularity called man. The true or real man can only be discovered by the microscopic study of the Cells that constitute the Organism.

The theoretical claims about Spirit and Soul, the religious and philosophical doctrines of Spiritualism and Spirituality must be verified using the Cell Theory that defines the human organism. To describe Soul or Spirit as  nonmaterial or immaterial Self will not help man to know the real or true man.

Dr. Rudranarasimham, Rebbapragada, B.Sc., M.B.B.S.,

Father’s Name: R. Suryanarayana Murty

Sri Venkateswara University, M.B.B.S. Class of April, 1970

Andhra Pradesh Medical Council Medical Registration Number: AMC5282; Date of Registration: September 16, 1971

Whole Foods (the concept of Anna Purna), Whole People, and Whole Planet come together in a Wholesome Relationship as God is the Energy Provider, the Original Source of Matter and Energy for Life.

Whole Foods (the concept of Anna Purna), Whole People, and Whole Planet come together in a Wholesome Relationship as God is the Energy Provider, the Original Source of Matter and Energy for Life.

Whole Foods-Whole Inspiration-Whole Language
Whole Foods Arrives in Ann Arbor, September 1993
The Whole Connection: Whole Law: Whole Foods opened its Store in Ann Arbor on September 16, 1993. Whole Foods, Whole People and Whole Planet inspire Whole Dude to invent Whole Phrases: Whole Linguistics – Whole Language. The concept of Whole Cookie and Whole Love. Whole Dude uses the phrase Whole Linguistics to describe three entities; 1. Language User, 2. Language Interpreter and 3. Language Creator. Image Credit: Agenda Publications, Ann Arbor District Library, Issue Dates, September 1993, December 1997 and February 1998.
The Spiritual Connection between the Cell and its Energy Provider.
The Spiritual Connection between the Cell and its Energy Provider. Consciousness is a spiritual, living function that formulates the relationship between the energy seeker and the energy provider.

Philosophy of Medicine – Lesson. 34 – Defining Spirituality from a Study of the Laws of Thermodynamics

The Laws of Thermodynamics help to study the function of Consciousness or Chetana

Whole Connection – Whole Law: Defining Spirituality from a Study of the Laws of Thermodynamics. The concept of Entropy as a measure of disorder in a System is not applicable to the Living System

What it is to be a Substance? and What it is to Exist? We need to establish knowledge about the man on a firm basis and the information it provides must be tested for its accuracy and consistency with an external reality. We have to make the fundamental distinction between the living and the non-living matter. The scientific advances of the 19th and 20th centuries reinforced the materialistic position concerning the basic similarity of organic living and inorganic physical matter. The man is viewed as a product of natural evolution and is thought to be subject to the same laws of Physics and Chemistry or mechanistic principles.

Whole Connection – Whole Law: Defining Spirituality from a Study of the Laws of Thermodynamics. The concept of Entropy as a measure of disorder in a System is not applicable to the Living System. What it is to be a Substance? and What it is to Exist?

We need a methodology to study philosophy and to understand philosophical statements. Logical Positivism, also known as Scientific Empiricism aims to clarify concepts in both everyday and scientific language. It describes analysis of language as the function of philosophy. This analysis of language and of concepts is important to understand questions of belief and ideology which affect what we think we ought to do individually and socially. I use this method of ‘Applied Philosophy’ to analyze the concept of Spiritual Optics, the Spiritual Connection between Energy and Life. The Laws of Thermodynamics are important unifying principles of Biology. The First Law of Thermodynamics, also known as the Law of Conservation of Energy, states that Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Spiritual Optics accounts for the capacity of photoreception and the term Spiritual Light refers to the creation of Light by God to begin the designing of Matter described by Physics and Chemistry. I may not be able to discover the Purpose in my Life if I exist in Spiritual Darkness.

The concept of Entropy as a measure of disorder in a System is not applicable to the Living System. Spiritualism and Entropy: Rudolf Julius Emanuel Clausius (1822-1888), German physicist and mathematician, the Founder of the Science of Thermodynamics. His work in 1850, ‘On the mechanical theory of heat’ established the Second Law of Thermodynamics and during 1865, he introduced the concept of Entropy.

Whole Law – Thermodynamics and Entropy:

The concept of Entropy as a measure of disorder in a System is not applicable to the Living System. Spiritualism and Entropy: Entropy is the thermodynamic property toward equilibrium/average/homogenization/dissipation. Ice melting in a warm room is a common example of increasing entropy; an increase in the motions/positions of the water molecules in solid ice: Order leading to Disorder.

Thermodynamics is the branch of science concerned with the nature of Heat and its conversion into other forms of energy. Heat is internal energy of a substance and it is a form of energy associated with the positions and motions of its component molecules, atoms, and ions. The total energy that a body contains as a result of the positions and the motions of its component parts is called its internal energy. The First Law of Thermodynamics states: “In any process, energy can be changed from one form to another (including heat and work), but it is never created or destroyed.” In any process, the change in a System’s internal energy is equal to the heat absorbed from the environment minus the work done on the environment. This Law of Conservation of Heat is similar to the Law of Conservation of Energy. According to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, during any spontaneous process, the change in entropy of a System is either zero or positive. The term ‘entropy’ in Thermodynamics indicates the degree to which a given quantity of thermal energy is available for doing useful work- the greater the entropy, the less available the energy. A consequence of the Second Law is that an engine can deliver work only when heat is transferred from a hot reservoir to a cold reservoir or heat sink. In 1877, Ludwig Boltzmann, an Austrian physicist demonstrated the significance of entropy on the molecular level relating entropy to disorder at the level of the molecules of the System. This concept of entropy as a measure of disorder is also used in Information Theory. Entropy represents quantity specifying the amount of disorder or randomness in a System bearing energy or information. However, in Information Theory, entropy represents the “noise”, or random errors occurring in the transmission of signals or messages. It is important to know that heat and work are related and represent forms of energy that can be inter-converted.

The study of Thermodynamics is central to both Chemistry and Physics and is useful in understanding biological processes such as Temperature Regulation in human body. While Thermodynamics studies changes in Physical State or Condition such as solid ice becoming liquid water, it is important to remember that the chemical properties of water molecules remain the same while the physical condition of water may change from solid,liquid, and gas.
A non-living thing like a stone gets heated on exposure to Sun’s radiation and the action is not goal-oriented; it is not guided action to attain a specific purpose of that non-living agent. A living thing like a plant can convert thermal energy from Sun to a new form of chemical energy that it can further use to perform a variety of its own living functions like growth, and reproduction. Living functions are intelligent functions that involve the use of knowledge or information to perform goal-oriented, sequential actions.

Temperature Regulation and Spiritualism:

The concept of Entropy as a measure of disorder in a System is not applicable to the Living System. Spiritualism and Entropy: Human body uses various homeostatic, physiological mechanisms to regulate body temperature and it is aided by the physical laws of environment heat exchange to maintain the internal temperature close to 37 degrees centigrade.

The ability of an organism to keep body temperature within certain boundaries is critical for the survival of the organism. Human body maintains its internal body temperature close to 37 degrees centigrade by balancing heat production and heat loss.

The concept of Entropy as a measure of disorder in a System is not applicable to the Living System. Spiritualism and Entropy: Internal thermal normality is maintained by the Thermosensitive cells of the Heat center in Hypothalamus of the brain. It receives the stimuli from the thermosensitive receptors in the deep layers of the skin. Hypothalamus can initiate the temperature regulatory response via the nerve, and the hormone pathways. It sends impulses to the Temperature Regulating center in the medulla of the brain stem. The hormonal response involves the Pituitary- Adrenal Cortex pathway.

The external physical laws of thermal exchange which influence the body heat balance are Conduction, Radiation, Convection, and Evaporation from the body surface. In all medical conditions and health conditions that are related to climatic variation in temperature such as Hypothermia, or Heat Stroke (Heat Hyperpyrexia), the medical interventions use the principles of Thermodynamics.

The Living System is an Open System that is thermodynamically unstable and hence it constantly requires input of energy from an external source. Life comes into existence when energy-yielding molecules and energy-demanding molecules come together in a spiritual relationship. The term ‘Spiritual’ describes the nature of a relationship, a partnership, a connection, bonding, or an association between chemical molecules based upon characteristics such as that of providing some benefit to keep the System to continue its functions.

The Laws of Thermodynamics and the concept of Consciousness in Living Systems: The concept of Entropy as a measure of disorder in a System is not applicable to the Living System. Spiritualism and Entropy: Human body uses various homeostatic, physiological mechanisms to regulate body temperature and it is aided by the physical laws of environment heat exchange to maintain the internal temperature close to 37 degrees centigrade.

In a Living System, the conversion of energy into work involves the operation of Consciousness and the application of Knowledge. Consciousness or awareness is the mechanism that operates the structural and functional relationship between molecules. Consciousness is the principle by which a Living System that is thermodynamically unstable knows the fact of its own existence, it knows as to where it exists and knows as to how it is existing. Hence, Consciousness is a Spiritual mechanism as it establishes a relationship between the energy-dependent Living System and its energy-yielding provider. This is a relationship that requires use of Knowledge which is defined as the fact of knowing a range of information which is used to perform highly selective, sequential tasks under proper guidance. In the operation of a Living System, there is no random, unguided and unpredictable movement of molecules.

I speak about Life as structural and functional organization of matter with implanted knowledge. Spiritualism is the potency that generates the experience of Peace, Harmony, and Tranquility in the interactions within the Living System and between Living Systems. The statement, “When Entropy leads to Order” is not applicable to the Living Systems that are Open. Soul or Spirit is the Life Principle; the vital or animating principle found in all the Living Things. Spiritualism is the guiding mechanism to establish Order in Biotic Actions and Interactions and the term ‘Disorder’ is often associated with either dysfunction or disease.

WHEN ENTROPY LEADS TO ORDER:

The concept of Entropy as a measure of disorder in a System is not applicable to the Living System. Computer simulations by University of Michigan researchers Pablo Damasceno, Sharon Glotzer, and Michael Engel have shown how entropy can nudge nanoparticles into organized structures. They can even predict what kinds of structures will form. Image credit: Laura Rudich

The second law of thermodynamics says that in a closed system, entropy — colloquially thought of as a measure of disorder or uncertainty — cannot decrease. Sharon Glotzer studies the counterintuitive instances when entropy doesn’t work that way.

Researchers trying to herd tiny particles into useful ordered formations have found an unlikely ally: entropy, a tendency generally described as “disorder.” Computer simulations by University of Michigan scientists and engineers show that the property can nudge particles to form organized structures. By analyzing the shapes of the particles beforehand, they can even predict what kinds of structures will form.The findings, published in Science, help lay the ground rules for making designer materials with wild capabilities such as shape-shifting skins to camouflage a vehicle or optimize its aerodynamics.Physicist and chemical engineering professor Sharon Glotzer proposes that such materials could be designed by working backward from the desired properties to generate a blueprint. That design can then be realized with nanoparticles—particles a thousand times smaller than the width of a human hair that can combine in ways that would be impossible through ordinary chemistry alone.One of the major challenges is persuading the nanoparticles to create the intended structures, but recent studies by Glotzer’s group and others showed that some simple particle shapes do so spontaneously as the particles are crowded together. The team wondered if other particle shapes could do the same.”We studied 145 different shapes, and that gave us more data than anyone has ever had on these types of potential crystal-formers,” Glotzer said, “With so much information, we could begin to see just how many structures are possible from particle shape alone, and look for trends.”Using computer code written by chemical engineering research investigator Michael Engel, applied physics graduate student Pablo Damasceno ran thousands of virtual experiments, exploring how each shape behaved under different levels of crowding. The program could handle any polyhedral shape, such as dice with any number of sides. Left to their own devices, drifting particles find the arrangements with the highest entropy. That arrangement matches the idea that entropy is a disorder if the particles have enough space: they disperse, pointed in random directions. But crowded tightly, the particles began forming crystal structures like atoms do—even though they couldn’t make bonds. These ordered crystals had to be the high-entropy arrangements, too.

The concept of Entropy as a measure of disorder in a System is not applicable to the Living System. Shapes can arrange themselves into crystal structures through entropy alone, new research from the University of Michigan shows. Image credit: P. Damasceno, M. Engel, S. Glotzer

Glotzer explains that this isn’t really disorder creating order—entropy needs its image updated. Instead, she describes it as a measure of possibilities. If you could turn off gravity and empty a bag full of dice into a jar, the floating dice would point every which way. However, if you keep adding dice, eventually space becomes so limited that the dice have more options to align face-to-face. The same thing happens to the nanoparticles, which are so small that they feel entropy’s influence more strongly than gravity’s. “It’s all about options. In this case, ordered arrangements produce the most possibilities, the most options. It’s counterintuitive, to be sure,” Glotzer said.The simulation results showed that nearly 70% of the shapes tested produced crystal-like structures under entropy alone. But the shocker was how complicated some of these structures were, with up to 52 particles involved in the pattern that repeated throughout the crystal.”That’s an extraordinarily complex crystal structure even for atoms to form, let alone particles that can’t chemically bond,” Glotzer said.The particle shapes produced three crystal types: regular crystals like salt, liquid crystals as found in some flat-screen televisions and plastic crystals in which particles can spin in place. By analyzing the shape of the particle and how groups of them behave before they crystallize, Damasceno said that it is possible to predict which type of crystal the particles would make.”The geometry of the particles themselves holds the secret for their assembly behavior,” he said.Why the other 30% never formed crystal structures, remaining as disordered glasses, is a mystery.”These may still want to form crystals but got stuck. What’s neat is that for any particle that gets stuck, we had other, awfully similar shapes forming crystals,” Glotzer said.In addition to finding out more about how to coax nanoparticles into structures, her team will also try to discover why some shapes resist order.

This research was supported by the U.S. Department of Defense, and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (M.E.). The paper is titled “Predictive Self-Assembly of Polyhedra into Complex Structures.

The concept of Entropy as a measure of disorder in a System is not applicable to the Living System. Shape has a pervasive but often overlooked impact on how natural systems are ordered. At the same time, entropy (the probabilistic measure of the degree of energy delocalization in a system) – while often misunderstood as the state of a system’s disorder – and emergence (the sometimes controversial observance of macroscopic behaviors not seen in isolated systems of a few constituents) are two areas of research that have long received, and are likely to continue receiving, significant scientific attention. Now, materials science and chemical engineering researchers working with computer simulations of colloidal suspensions of hard nanoparticles at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor have linked entropy and emergence through a little-understood property they refer to as shape entropy – an emergent, entropic effect – unrelated to geometric entropy or topological entropy – that differs from and competes with intrinsic shape properties that arise from both the shape geometry and the material itself and affect surface, chemical and other intrinsic properties.

Glotzer is the Stuart W. Churchill Collegiate Professor of Chemical Engineering and a professor of chemical engineering, materials science and engineering, macromolecular science and engineering, and physics in College of Literature, Science, and the Arts.

Source: https://news.umich.edu/entropy-can-lead-to-order-paving-the-route-to-nanostructures/

University of Michigan

The concept of Entropy as a measure of disorder in a System is not applicable to the Living System.


Consciousness describes the ability to perform intelligent action. Consciousness describes the difference between vital operations and mechanical operations. Consciousness describes the difference between vital powers and the capacities of inert matter. Consciousness describes the difference between living things and non-living things. Consciousness is a biological, vital, or living (“Immanent”) function that characterizes the actions, and activities of living things. Consciousness can include psychological, and mental functions; but it is not merely a function that can only be performed by living matter of an anatomical structure, or organ called brain.


Dr. Rudranarasimham, Rebbapragada, B.Sc., M.B.B.S.,
Father’s Name: R. Suryanarayana Murty


Sri Venkateswara University, M.B.B.S. Class of April, 1970


Andhra Pradesh Medical Council Medical Registration Number: AMC5282; Date of Registration: September 16, 1971

The Laws of Thermodynamics and the concept of Consciousness in Living Systems: The concept of Entropy as a measure of disorder in a System is not applicable to the Living System. Spiritualism and Entropy: Human body uses various homeostatic, physiological mechanisms to regulate body temperature and it is aided by the physical laws of environment heat exchange to maintain the internal temperature close to 37 degrees centigrade.
Whole Foods-Whole Inspiration-Whole Language
Whole Foods Arrives in Ann Arbor, September 1993
The Whole Connection: Whole Law: Whole Foods opened its Store in Ann Arbor on September 16, 1993. Whole Foods, Whole People and Whole Planet inspire Whole Dude to invent Whole Phrases: Whole Linguistics – Whole Language. The concept of Whole Cookie and Whole Love. Whole Dude uses the phrase Whole Linguistics to describe three entities; 1. Language User, 2. Language Interpreter and 3. Language Creator. Image Credit: Agenda Publications, Ann Arbor District Library, Issue Dates, September 1993, December 1997 and February 1998.

Philosophy of Medicine – Lesson. 33 – Consciousness is a Spiritual Function

Mechanical Performance vs Intelligent Performance

SPIRITUALISM AND CONSCIOUSNESS: The understanding of Consciousness demands the recognition of difference between mechanical performance(Transitive Action), and intelligent performance(Immanent Action).
The Material Basis of Spirituality Science. Spiritual Optics. Consciousness is a Spiritual Function: The understanding of Consciousness demands the recognition of difference between mechanical performance (Transitive Action), and intelligent performance (Immanent Action). Consciousness cannot be explained by elementary Laws of Physics and Chemistry. Living Functions are primarily Oxidation-Reduction Chemical Reactions. Bonfire vs Forest fire.

What it is to be a Substance? and What it is to Exist? We need to establish knowledge about the man on a firm basis and the information it provides must be tested for its accuracy and consistency with an external reality. We have to make the fundamental distinction between the living and the non-living matter. The scientific advances of the 19th and 20th centuries reinforced the materialistic position concerning the basic similarity of organic living and inorganic physical matter. The man is viewed as a product of natural evolution and is thought to be subject to the same laws of Physics and Chemistry or mechanistic principles.

We need a methodology to study philosophy and to understand philosophical statements. Logical Positivism, also known as Scientific Empiricism aims to clarify concepts in both everyday and scientific language. It describes analysis of language as the function of philosophy. This analysis of language and of concepts is important to understand questions of belief and ideology which affect what we think we ought to do individually and socially. I use this method of ‘Applied Philosophy’ to analyze the concept of Spiritual Optics, the Spiritual Connection between Energy and Life. The Laws of Thermodynamics are important unifying principles of Biology. The First Law of Thermodynamics, also known as the Law of Conservation of Energy, states that Energy can neither be created nor destroyed.

Spiritual Optics accounts for the capacity of photoreception and the term Spiritual Light refers to the creation of Light by God to begin the designing of Matter described by Physics and Chemistry. I will not be able to discover the Purpose in my Life if I exist in Spiritual Darkness.

Spiritualism and Consciousness: The actions performed in Nature have to be observed to know if it involves the selection of a purpose and the use of means to attain the desired goal. There is a difference between the forest fire and the bonfire.
The Material Basis of Spirituality Science. Spiritual Optics. Consciousness is a Spiritual Function: The actions performed in Nature have to be observed to know if it involves the selection of a purpose and the use of means to attain the desired goal. There is a difference between the forest fire and the bonfire. Consciousness cannot be explained using the mechanistic principles.

To make the fundamental distinction between the animate or living, and inanimate or non-living things, we may have to describe the nature of functions that can be observed in the actions performed by things. There is a difference between mechanical performance and intelligent performance. In the actions performed by the living things, the agent is perfected by its own actions, and activities. Actions such as growing, sensing, and understanding are called “Immanent” actions because they are activities which affect the growing, sensing, or understanding agent called the living thing. The action of one inert body upon another inert body is called “Transitive” action. For example, heating is a transitive action. In heating, the hot thing loses its own heat while heat is transferred to the cold thing. In the “Mechanistic” view, the continuity of nature is described in terms of the universality of purely mechanical principles. The mechanistic concept asserts that the phenomena of life are merely processes and transformations obeying elementary chemical and physical laws. However, it should not be very difficult to make a distinction between a forest fire and a bonfire, or a fire ignited in the kitchen in the preparation of a meal. Both the actions represent a chemical reaction called combustion, or rapid oxidation. Both actions may generate light, heat, and warmth. But, the forest fire may lack the purposiveness of the bonfire, or the kitchen fire used in cooking. The understanding of the living and the non-living things involves the difference between vital operations and mechanical operations. There is a difference between the vital power of the living thing and the mechanical capacity of inert, non-living thing.

The Vital Power of Living Things:

SPIRITUALISM AND CONSCIOUSNESS: Amoeba proteus is a living organism as it has the ability to perform vital, living functions.
The Material Basis of Spirituality Science. Spiritual Optics. Consciousness is a Spiritual Function: Amoeba proteus is a living organism as it has the ability to perform vital, living functions. Amoeba knows the fact of its own existence, it knows as to where it exists, and knows as to how it is existing. It displays two kinds of awareness; 1. What goes on around in its external environment, and 2. What goes on within its internal environment.

The word “Animal” derives from the Latin (anima, animus) name for the vital principle called “Soul” which is a life principle associated with functions like breathing, or the principle called animation. Breathing is a vital function as it is associated with the “Power” of self-nutrition. The power of self-nutrition is the originating power, the possession of which leads us to speak of things as living, and non-living. Nutrition is a vital power as the action is not a mechanical performance. Nutrition is a function associated with a purpose and it is guided to achieve a future end and it involves the choice or selection of specific means to attain the desired goal of its action.

The Material Basis of Spirituality Science. Spiritual Optics. Consciousness is a Spiritual Function. Passive Heating of Stones. A Living Agent can design a purpose to take advantage of mechanical, passive actions.

A non-living thing like a stone gets heated on exposure to Sun’s radiation and the action is not goal-oriented; it is not guided action to attain a specific purpose of that non-living agent. A living thing like a plant can convert thermal energy from Sun to a new form of chemical energy that it can further use to perform a variety of its own living functions like growth, and reproduction. Living functions are intelligent functions that involve the use of knowledge or information to perform goal-oriented, sequential actions.

Soul and the Cellular Function of Consciousness:

Brain Stem Reticular Formation shown as a red band in the image represents an integrative focus of consciousness functioning through its widespread interconnections with the Cerebral Cortex and other regions of the Brain. It functions to compose the contents of consciousness that would be revealed as Cortical Awareness. Reticular Formation describes "The Capacity of Consciousness" and without this function the contents of consciousness( or cortical awareness) will not be known to the individual.
The Material Basis of Spirituality Science. Spiritual Optics. Consciousness is a Spiritual Function: Brain Stem Reticular Formation shown as a red band in the image represents an integrative focus of consciousness functioning through its widespread interconnections with the Cerebral Cortex and other regions of the Brain. It functions to compose the contents of consciousness that would be revealed as Cortical Awareness. Reticular Formation describes “The Capacity of Consciousness” and without this function the contents of consciousness (or cortical awareness) will not be known to the individual.
SRI AUROBINDO GHOSH IN HIS BOOK, "LETTERS ON YOGA", Page 576 DESCRIBED CONSCIOUSNESS: "Just like you: you have lots of cells in your body; each cell has its own consciousness and you have a consciousness which is the consciousness of your total individuality, though made up of all these small cellular consciousness."
Spiritualism and Consciousness: Sri Aurobindo Ghosh in his book, “Letters on Yoga”, Page 576 describes Consciousness: “Just like you: you have lots of cells in your body; each cell has its own consciousness and you have a consciousness which is the consciousness of your total individuality, though made up of all these small cellular consciousness.”
SPIRITUALISM AND CONSCIOUSNESS: A LIVING, ANIMAL CELL PERFORMS VITAL FUNCTIONS USING ITS COGNITIVE ABILITIES.
The Material Basis of Spirituality Science. Spiritual Optics. Consciousness is a Spiritual Function: A LIVING, ANIMAL CELL PERFORMS VITAL FUNCTIONS USING ITS COGNITIVE ABILITIES. WHAT IS THAT “SOMETHING” THAT IS RECOGNIZED BY CONSCIOUSNESS?

Consciousness describes the ability to perform intelligent action. Consciousness describes the difference between vital operations and mechanical operations. Consciousness describes the difference between vital powers and the capacities of inert matter. Consciousness describes the difference between living things and non-living things. Consciousness is a biological, vital, or living (“Immanent”) function that characterizes the actions, and activities of living things. Consciousness can include psychological, and mental functions; but it is not merely a function that can only be performed by living matter of an anatomical structure, or organ called brain.

In literature, religion, and philosophy, the term Consciousness is often used meaning, “attention to the contents or workings of one’s own mind.”  John Locke defined consciousness as a psychological condition; it is described as the perception of what passes in a man’s own mind. In popular belief, consciousness is viewed as a form of relationship or act of the mind toward objects in nature. Consciousness is claimed to be a continuous field or stream of mental “sense-data.” Very often, neuroscientists describe consciousness as a neurophysiological mechanism that depends on the functions of the brain. It is true for the Brain Stem Reticular Formation represents an integrative focus of consciousness functioning through its widespread interconnections with the cerebral cortex and other regions of the brain. Consciousness involves recognizing the existence, the fact of knowing something; it describes the fact of being aware of some information.

What is that ‘something’ that is known or recognized by Consciousness?  A living thing which has a substance called living matter is conscious, or aware of the fact of its own existence in its given environment. There are two aspects of Consciousness that are subjectively registered by the living thing; 1. Consciousness is a state of knowing or awareness of what goes on around the individual living thing in its external environment, and 2. Consciousness is a state of knowing or awareness of what goes on within the individual living thing, its own internal environment. Consciousness is not simple awareness. It is awareness that involves the ability called “Cognition” which involves knowing; the processing of information, the analysis of information, the storing of information, the retrieval of information, and the application of information to perform a selected action. In other words, Consciousness represents the presence of “Intelligence.” A living thing has Consciousness of its nature of existence that demands the supply of energy from its external environment. The living thing uses its cognitive ability, to recognize the substances, the presence of both living, and non-living matter present in its external environment. It uses the power of self-nutrition to attract these substances to acquire energy, manipulate energy, transform energy, and exploit energy to perform its vital, living functions. Thus, Consciousness becomes an absolute attribute of life; it is the fundamental, biological characteristic of living matter or living substance. For the reasons that I have stated, I define Consciousness as a function by which a living thing knows the fact of its own existence; it knows as to where it exists and knows as to how it is existing.

Since Consciousness is a function that operates at a level of structural, and functional organization that is the characteristic of complex, organic molecules, this function cannot be observed, or measured by quantum physicists who study structures and functions of subatomic particles.

I define Consciousness as the ability to establish a connection, or a relationship between energy-demanding molecules, and energy-yielding molecules. A Fundamental Force like the Force of Gravitation is very important for the existence of the man on planet Earth. The man recognizes the physical reality of his own existence with the help of gravitation which provides the experience of his body mass or body weight. At the same time, it must be noted that the man exists on the surface of a very fast spinning celestial object. The perception of this basic reality of Earth’s speed and velocity by the human organs of sense perception would endanger the ability to live. The man’s physical existence is defended, and is protected by the shielding effect of the force of gravitation. Gravitation helps to block the sensory awareness of the speed of Earth’s motions. This function of gravitational force must be distinguished from the cognitive function called Consciousness.

SPIRITUALISM-CONSCIOUSNESS-THE MOTIONS OF CELESTIAL BODIES: Human Existence demands alternating periods of light and darkness called Day and Night. At the same time, man cannot exist with direct, sensory perception of the very fast revolving, and spinning motions of planet Earth
The Material Basis of Spirituality Science. Spiritual Optics. Consciousness is a Spiritual Function: THE MOTIONS OF CELESTIAL BODIES. Human Existence demands alternating periods of light and darkness called Day and Night. At the same time, man cannot exist with direct, sensory perception of the very fast revolving, and spinning motions of planet Earth

Adi Shankara’s Unqualified Non-Dualism – The Theory of Pure Consciousness:

ADI SHANKARACHARYA - THE PROPONENT OF UNQUALIFIED NON-DUALISM: He based his view on his Theory of "PURE CONSCIOUSNESS."
Spiritualism and Consciousness: ADI SHANKARACHARYA, THE PROPONENT OF UNQUALIFIED NON-DUALISM: He based his view on his Theory of “PURE CONSCIOUSNESS.”

The Indian School of Philosophy known as “Suddhadvaita”, or Unqualified Non-Dualism of Adi Shankara is based on a system of thought that may be called “Atmadvaita” that describes one, universal, eternal, and self-illuminating Self whose essence is “Pure Consciousness” without a Subject (“Asraya”) and without an Object (“Visaya”) and from a transcendental point of view, “Pure Consciousness” is the only Ultimate Reality. The phenomenal world and finite individuals could be empirically true, but from the higher point of view are merely false appearances. Adi Shankara based his view on his definition of “Reality: The “Real” is that whose negation is not possible. The only thing that satisfies this criterion is consciousness; because denial of consciousness presupposes the consciousness that denies. It is conceivable that any object is not existent, but the absence of consciousness is not conceivable.

Spiritualism and Consciousness: Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 10, Verse 22 वेदानां सामवेदोऽस्मि देवानामस्मि वासव: |
इन्द्रियाणां मनश्चास्मि भूतानामस्मि चेतना || 22||
vedānāṁ sāma-vedo ’smi devānām asmi vāsavaḥ
indriyāṇāṁ manaśh chāsmi bhūtānām asmi chetanā
The Material Basis of Spirituality Science. Spiritual Optics. Consciousness is a Spiritual Function: The understanding of Consciousness demands the recognition of difference between mechanical performance (Transitive Action), and intelligent performance (Immanent Action). Consciousness cannot be explained by elementary Laws of Physics and Chemistry. Living Functions are primarily Oxidation-Reduction Chemical Reactions. Bonfire vs Forest fire.
What is Matter? and What is Spirit? If materialism is about the influence of material wealth, I would like to use the Power/Force/Energy called Money to talk about Life and Death. The Laws of Conservation are applicable to both the living, and the non-living matter. Hence, it can be stated that “Life can neither be created nor destroyed.” If any person can refute my claim using valid, scientific information, I would give the person a US $1,000 bill as a reward

Dr. Rudranarasimham, Rebbapragada, B.Sc., M.B.B.S.,

Father’s Name: R. Suryanarayana Murty

Sri Venkateswara University, M.B.B.S. Class of April, 1970

Andhra Pradesh Medical Council Medical Registration Number: AMC5282; Date of Registration: September 16, 1971

Whole Foods-Whole Inspiration-Whole Language
Whole Foods Arrives in Ann Arbor, September 1993
The Whole Connection: Whole Foods opened its Store in Ann Arbor on September 16, 1993. Whole Foods, Whole People and Whole Planet inspire Whole Dude to invent Whole Phrases: Whole Linguistics – Whole Language. The concept of Whole Cookie and Whole Love. Whole Dude uses the phrase Whole Linguistics to describe three entities; 1. Language User, 2. Language Interpreter and 3. Language Creator. Image Credit: Agenda Publications, Ann Arbor District Library, Issue Dates, September 1993, December 1997 and February 1998.
The Material Basis of Spirituality Science. Spiritual Optics. Consciousness is a Spiritual Function.

I am pleased to share this view posted by Gaurachandra Das of IIT, Kharagpur, India.

Mystery of Consciousness: Life versus Non-life

Gaurachandra Das, B. Tech, M.Tech, Electrical Engineering-IIT Kharagpur

General Theory of Relativity and Quantum Mechanical Theory (QM) are the two most prominent theories in the field of Physics. General Theory of Relativity given by Einstein in 1915 states that direction of light propagation should be changed in a gravitational field. It predicts that “light coming from a strong gravitational field should have its wavelength shifted to larger values (a red-shift). The electromagnetic field can have waves in it that carry energy that we call light. Likewise, the gravitational field can have waves that carry energy and are called gravitational waves. These may be thought of as ripples in the curvature of space-time that travel at the speed of light.” On the other hand Quantum Mechanical Theory predicts the behavior of particles as waves as they drift away from the classical domain.

Both these stalwart theories till date have been unable to predict the function of consciousness in living bodies. In fact, they do not even stand unwavering scrutiny and are subject to reformations, time and again. Albert Einstein himself stated in this regard in 1954-“I consider it quite possible that physics cannot be based on the field concept, i.e., on continuous structures. In that case, nothing remains of my entire castle in the air, gravitation theory included, and of the rest of modern physics.”

In the words of Roger Penrose – “I definitely believe that Quantum Mechanics is not a final theory and it is incomplete. I agree with Einstein in that sense.” Quantum Mechanics has proved insufficient to describe the nature of reality so far. He further says-“Quantum Mechanics has two parts: the first is Schrodinger’s equation, which tells how a system evolves, it is a very precise equation yet it does not tell you how the world behaves. The second part of QM is the measurement process. The measurement process is inconsistent with Schrodinger equation. It is non-deterministic, probabilistic, etc. Although these two parts are inconsistent with each other, they do fit together in a rather remarkable way. To me, it suggests that QM is not perfectly correct.” Another is the famous Schrodinger’s cat example. (Experiment parallel to it is being done in Santa Barbara, California under Dirk Baumeister.) Penrose remarks:-
“ Schrodinger pointed out that his own equation tells that you could produce a cat that is both alive and dead at the same time. It is ridiculous because in reality you don’t see cats that are both alive and dead at the same time. This means there is something wrong with the equations at the level when the objects become big enough.”

Schrodinger’s cat set-up

Along with Hameroff, Penrose constructed a theory of human consciousness in which human consciousness is pointed to as being the result of a quantum gravity effect in microtubules. That was presented in his “Orchestrated Reduction of Quantum Coherence in Brain Microtubules: A Model for Consciousness”. However, he also says “Our present scientific knowledge cannot describe consciousness. On the other hand, boundaries of what we call scientific are not fixed on this view. Perhaps we may never be able to understand the Ultimate Reality through a rigorous scientific approach. Some fundamentally new insights are needed. If perhaps there will eventually emerge some kind of ultimate theory that may explain part of the reality, that theory must differ enormously from what we have seen in physical theories so far.” So as per his opinion, a fundamentally new theory with remarkably different features is needed to explain the paradigm of consciousness. Thus, what is this consciousness, a mystery to the world of physics so far.

Robots are another field in which distinction between life and non-life can be seen approaching a border-line. Nowadays robots are quoted to be even writing poems. But such collection of words is an artificial attempt from the word-bank fed to computers and arranged with algorithms. The machine has no feelings and emotions and the purpose of poetry –“to satisfy the poet’s heart” remains forever absent to a machine. The computer may also play chess but that is the computational (mechanistic) part done by it from the strategies fed by the programmer. A machine may also pass the Turing Test3 but the Chinese room argument by John Searle refutes the conscious sense coming from this resemblance. Actually to prove computers intelligent, one needs to design a robot that can play any surprise or unexpected game brought before it, not just the chess game. It should be able to learn any game by speech or text inputs and then play that game reasonably well. But it is not possible to design such a robot because playing a surprise game requires an understanding in both learning and devising strategy. A robot can do computation, but it will never have understanding because it can’t be conscious.

A Robot cannot play an unprogrammed game.

After the tragic event of 9/11 many scientists have shown remarkable interest in these ideas concerning search of an Ultimate Theory, absolute Reality and depths of the conscious paradigm. They look for a scientific clue from the known sources of scientific knowledge. This brings them closer to the ideas of fine-tuning and intelligent design in the universe which have a valid and very reasonable role in the creation. The fine-tuning of water molecule (H2O) and preciseness of universal constants verify this claim.

There are various directions to proceed on the basis of the Anthropic Principle. One of the interesting insights is that Vedantic literature points in this direction about the presence of different universes which have life and are also spiritual in nature. This idea is feasible from the strong Anthropic principle as Roger Penrose says – “This is the argument that only the physical constants of nature which have specific values may be suitable for life. Only in the world where the numbers are suitable for consciousness we will find beings present in that world. It may be a completely different kind of life, which is not like us at all, which does not depend on chemistry the way we do. So that may open up the possibility of a world or spiritual world.”

Looking into Einstein’s life, we all admire his great insights for a scientific worldview having mathematical foundations. At same time he also had some profound feeling for religion. In other words, he tried to relate both scientific and religious worldviews in his life. He said-“Science without religion is lame and religion without science is blind.” Another of his famous quotes is –“God doesn’t cast dice.” This may be a serious question posed to the propaganda that life is a chance phenomenon. Roger Penrose remarks in this connection – “There are remarkable interrelations between truth and beauty. Even there is a mystery of our perceptions of mathematical truths. I would say that these are higher and deeper aspects of reality of which we have little conception at the present time.” Einstein didn’t see any conflict between science and religion while he considered them complementary. He could live happily by synthesizing both the worldviews. It is from this religious paradigm, especially Vedantic paradigm where we get a precisely correct understanding of consciousness which is a mystery for the modern thinkers.

Universe and life is not created by humans so the proposal to study and demarcate its ingredients and intricacies by research-based approach may not be well-placed and successful. It may actually be like an ant’s attempt to study the architecture of Mercedes-Benz, which is quite too much for the ant! However the religious side in this direction, particularly the Vedantic conception offers interesting comprehensive facts and insights…for example, Bhagavad Gita says that “the soul (atma) or spirit is the cause of consciousness. This spirit or atma interacts with matter through the agency of the Paramatma or the all-pervading conscious aspect of the absolute truth. This interaction depends on higher order, non-mathematical laws relating to psychological principles such as desire and free-will.”
Bhagavad Gita mentions that “the size of spirit or atma is 1/10000 of the tip of a hair; it is inconceivable or spiritual in nature and it is eternal and unborn.” In fact, our present science cannot explain this. As some prominent scientists (as Max Born, Roger Penrose and William D. Phillips) say –
“We need a new science, a higher dimensional science to explain this subtle conception of the source of life.” Yet, its presence in the form of consciousness can be experienced by us all. Max Born says – “I saw in the atom the key to the deepest secret of nature and it revealed to me the greatness of creation and the Creator.”

Roger Penrose and Dr T.D. Singh

So, probably, the sincere mind of a great scientist would need to blur these boundaries between science and religion and sincerely take up this quest to understand life and conscious paradigm. This has been the attitude of a galaxy of prominent thinkers, scientists and vastly learned men such as Nicholas Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday, James Clerk Maxwell, Albert Einstein, Max Born, Srinivasa Ramanujan, Werner Heisenberg, Charles Townes, William D. Phillips and hundreds more.
Albert Einstein says-“I sense these things deeply…the most beautiful and profound religious emotion that we can experience is the sensation of the mystical. And this mysticality is the power of all true science. That deeply emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power which is revealed in the comprehensible universe forms my idea of God.” In the words of Charles Townes-“I believe there is no long-range question more important than the purpose and meaning of our lives and of the universe.” Indeed, such a positive and synthesized approach offers a key to solve this mystery of life and consciousness, to know the distinction between life and non-life and to delve deeper into Absolute Reality.

References:
1. General Theory of Relativity http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/cosmology/gravity.html
2. Discussion between Sir Roger Penrose and Dr T.D. Singh entitled “Science, Spirituality and
Nature of reality”, Bhaktivedanta Institute, 2005.
3. Turing Test : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_test
4. Chinese room Argument : http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/chinese-room/
5. Anthropic Principle – see Brief History of Time, by Stephen Hawking, Bantam Trade Paperback,
1996.
6. “Life, Matter and their Interactions “ by Dr T.D. Singh, Bhaktivedanta Institute, 2006.
7. “Bhagavad Gita As It Is” by A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. New York: Macmillan 1972.
8. “God is a Person”, Reflections of two Noble Laureates, Bhaktivedanta Institute, 2006.
9. Lincoln Barnett, “The Universe and Dr. Einstein, 2nd Edition, New York, 1957, pp.108-109.

The Material Basis of Spirituality Science. Spiritual Optics. Consciousness is a Spiritual Function.

Philosophy of Medicine – Lesson. 32 – Discover the Whole Connection – The Red Blood Cell connects the Body, Mind and Soul

The Designing of the Red Blood Cell

The spiritual nature of the Red Blood Cell Design. Spiritual Optics. The Designing of the Red Blood Cells

Yes Indeed, Life is Complicated. The complexity of Life involves the use of a very complex predetermined plan to design the tissues, the organs, and the organ systems of the entire human organism from a single, fertilized egg cell that divides and differentiates into a most complex variety of cells which perform very specialized functions. The Red Blood Cell provides the connective linkage to sustain the living functions of the trillions of the building blocks of the human body.

The spiritual nature of the Red Blood Cell Design. The Whole Person, The Whole Man, The Whole Body, Mind, and Spirit, The Whole Dude, or the entire human organism is derived from this single, fertilized Egg Cell which I describe as “The Whole Cell.”

What it is to be a Substance? and What it is to Exist? We need to establish knowledge about the man and the world on a firm basis and the information it provides must be tested for its accuracy and consistency with an external reality. We have to make the fundamental distinction between the living and the non-living matter. The scientific advances of the 19th and 20th centuries reinforced the materialistic position concerning the basic similarity of organic living and inorganic physical matter. The man is viewed as a product of natural evolution and is thought to be subject to the same laws of Physics and Chemistry or mechanistic principles.

We need a methodology to study philosophy and to understand philosophical statements. Logical Positivism, also known as Scientific Empiricism aims to clarify concepts in both everyday and scientific language. It describes analysis of language as the function of philosophy. This analysis of language and of concepts is important to understand questions of belief and ideology which affect what we think we ought to do individually and socially. I use this method of ‘Applied Philosophy’ to analyze the concept of Spiritual Optics, the Spiritual Connection between Energy and Life. The Laws of Thermodynamics are important unifying principles of Biology. The First Law of Thermodynamics, also known as the Law of Conservation of Energy, states that Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Spiritual Optics accounts for the capacity of photoreception and the term Spiritual Light refers to the creation of Light by God to begin the designing of Matter, the designing of the Living Matter which lives by consuming Matter called Food which is created by the use of the creative mechanism called Photosynthesis. The Substance called Food describes the activities of Life. The Red Blood Cell delivers Oxygen molecules for the oxidation of food substances.

WholeDude - WholeDesigner - Red Blood Cells: In multicellular organisms, cells with the same genes must differentiate into many types. Complex control mechanisms determine which genes are active in a given cell at a given time. Human life begins as a single fertilized Egg Cell. The multicellular organism grows and develops as it has definite capabilities for differentiation. The "Design" of cells has been modified to serve the specialized functions of tissues and organs that comprise the human body. Red Blood Cells are "designed" to perform their highly specialized functions.
The spiritual nature of the Red Blood Cell Design: In multicellular organisms, cells with the same genes must differentiate into many types. Complex control mechanisms determine which genes are active in a given cell at a given time. Human life begins as a single fertilized Egg Cell. The multicellular organism grows and develops as it has definite capabilities for differentiation. The “Design” of cells has been modified to serve the specialized functions of tissues and organs that comprise the human body. The Red Blood Cells are “designed” to perform their highly specialized functions.

When man is viewed as a multicellular organism, the human subject finds his objective existence because of the living functions of the cells, tissues, organs, and organ systems that provide the biological basis for that existence. In multicellular eukaryotes, cells with the same genes must differentiate into many types. Multicellularity is accomplished by definite capabilities for differentiation. The functional differentiation is not a simple process that can be called adaptation. To achieve differentiation, complex control mechanisms determine which genes are active in a given cell at a given time.

The spiritual nature of the Red Blood Cell Design: Man, the entire human organism is derived from a single, fertilized Egg Cell. How does this complex multicellular organism knows its own Identity and Individuality?

The “Design” of cells has been modified by a predetermined plan to serve the specialized function of tissues and organs. The structural differentiation and the functional organization of various organ systems makes man a very complex living organism. It must be clearly understood that the living cell is a thermodynamically unstable system. This means that without a continuous input of energy, a cell will degrade spontaneously into a nonliving collection of molecules. The cells that comprise the human organism derive their energy by oxidation of food substances such as glucose. The cells of the body require oxygen to obtain the energy stored in food substances. The loss of oxygen is very critical as there is no means of storing oxygen in the human body. During the entire course of human life, the human body requires continuous delivery of oxygen to its various cells, tissues, and organs.

The Red Blood Cells display functional subordination to the requirements of the organism as a Whole. Altruism is a theory of conduct that regards the good of others as the end of moral action. The Red Blood Cells have very short, individual lifespans and the entire period of their existence involves unselfish concern for the welfare of other cells.

The Red Blood Cell – Erythrocyte -The Red Corpuscle:

WholeDude - WholeDesigner - Red Blood Cell: Erythropoiesis. Red Blood Cells are formed in the bone marrow. Hemoglobin Synthesis begins during yhe Proerythroblast stage of the RBC Cycle. Heme synthesis takes place in the mitochondria and the protein, globin molecule is synthesized in ribosomes. The mature Red Cells have no nuclei, and no intracellular organelles like the mitochondria and the ribosomes.
The spiritual nature of the Red Blood Cell Design: Erythropoiesis. Red Blood Cells are formed in the bone marrow. Hemoglobin Synthesis begins during the Proerythroblast stage of the RBC Cycle. Heme synthesis takes place in the mitochondria and the protein, globin molecule is synthesized in ribosomes. The mature Red Cells have no nuclei, and no intracellular organelles like the mitochondria and the ribosomes.
WholeDude - WholeDesigner - Red Blood Cell: Red Blood Cells are packed with hemoglobin. Each Red Cell contains over 600 million hemoglobin molecules.
The spiritual nature of the Red Blood Cell Design: Red Blood Cells are packed with hemoglobin. Each Red Cell contains over 600 million hemoglobin molecules. A normal man has about 5 liters of blood containing more than 25 trillion Red Blood Cells. Each lives for about 100 to 120 days. Red Blood Cells sustain their meager energy needs by a form of anaerobic respiration. If man is viewed as a biotic community of cells, Red Cells show no concern for their individual gains or losses and they serve and contribute to the continuation of the Whole community.

Red Blood Cells, or Erythrocytes, or Red Corpuscles are tiny, flat, round, biconcave disks, with depressed center, averaging 7.5 microns in diameter. In its profile view, the Red Blood Cell appears dumbell-shaped. A normal man has about 5  liters of blood containing more than 25 trillion Red Blood Cells. There are about 5.2 million Red Blood Cells per cubic millimeter of blood in adult humans. The normal lifespan of Red Cells is only about 100 to 120 days. More than 200 billion Red Cells are normally destroyed each day by the spleen and must be replaced. The creation of new Red Cells and their subsequent destruction proceeds during all the days of human life. The Red Cells give the blood its characteristic color. The cell is flexible and can change its shape to pass through extremely small blood vessels. It is covered with a membrane composed of lipids and proteins. The mature Red Blood Cells lacks a nucleus and hence cannot divide into new daughter cells. The mature Red Blood Cell also lacks intracellular organelles called mitochondria which provide energy for metabolic functions. During the course of its development and maturation, the nucleus and mitochondria disappear from the Red Cell. The amount of oxygen required by the Red Cell for its own metabolism is very low. The Red Cell shows the features of a careful design or plan that makes it to perform its function of delivering oxygen with great efficiency. In invertebrate organisms, the oxygen-carrying pigment called Heme is found in a free state in the plasma for they lack the Red Blood Cells. The concentration of Heme pigment and the biconcave shape of the Red Blood Cell makes it very efficient  to perform the function of exchange of gases; the Red Cell can deliver almost all of its oxygen it carries and free it into the tissues where there is demand for oxygen and its shape allows oxygen exchange at a constant rate over the largest possible area.

WholeDude - WholeDesigner - Red Blood Cell: The Red Cell has the ability to work as an oxygen sensor and it also has the ability to modulate the tone of the blood vessel in which it travels passively. By initiating a mechanism, the Red Cell can cause an effect called vasodilatation that would increase the flow of blood in microvasculature to meet the local tissue oxygen demand.
The spiritual nature of the Red Blood Cell Design: The Red Cell has the ability to work as an oxygen sensor and it also has the ability to modulate the tone of the blood vessel in which it travels passively. By initiating a mechanism, the Red Cell can cause an effect called vasodilation that would increase the flow of blood in blood vessels to meet the local tissue oxygen demand.
WholeDude - Whole Designer - Red Blood Cell: The Red Cells move passively in the blood circulation, but can actively interact with the blood vessel in response to the oxygen tension of the tissues. These interactions are helped by PR(Purinergic Receptor), Erythrocyte-derived Adenosine triphosphate(ATP), Gi(Heterotrimeric G Protein), cAMP(3'5'-Adenosine monophosphate), PKA(Protein Kinase A), CFTR(Cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator, ? undientified conduit for ATP release + stimulation. Through oxygen-dependent release of the vasodilator ATP, signal transduction within the RBC and microvessels, the SMC(the smooth muscle cell) of the blood vessel is stimulated to dilate. The signals pass through the Endo(endothelium) or the cells that line the inner surface of the blood vessel.
The spiritual nature of the Red Blood Cell Design: The Red Cells move passively in the blood circulation, but can actively interact with the blood vessel in response to the oxygen tension of the tissues. These interactions are helped by PR(Purinergic Receptor), Erythrocyte-derived Adenosine triphosphate(ATP), Gi(Heterotrimeric G Protein), cAMP(3’5′-Adenosine monophosphate), PKA(Protein Kinase A), CFTR(Cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator, ? unidentified conduit for ATP release + stimulation. Through oxygen-dependent release of the vasodilator ATP, signal transduction within the RBC and microvessels, the SMC(the smooth muscle cell) of the blood vessel is stimulated to dilate. The signals pass through the Endo(endothelium) or the cells that line the inner surface of the blood vessel.

The main function of the Red Cells is to transport oxygen from the lungs to the tissues and organs of the entire human body. During the process of oxidation, the cells generate carbon dioxide as a waste product which must be removed. The Red Cells carry carbon dioxide to the lungs and release it to be returned to the atmospheric air. This is possible because of hemoglobin which forms unstable, reversible bond with oxygen; in the oxygenated state it is called Oxyhemoglobin and is bright red in color. When oxygen is delivered, in the reduced state the hemoglobin is purple-blue and this color can be easily noticed from the color of the veins that return blood to heart from various parts of the body. Asphyxiation occurs when the blood contains an excess of substances like carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide with which hemoglobin forms semipermanent or permanent compounds instead of reversible bonds that hemoglobin forms with oxygen.

WholeDude - WholeDesigner - Red Blood Cell: The Red Blood Cell is designed to efficiently perform its specialized functions.
The spiritual nature of the Red Blood Cell Design: The Red Blood Cell is designed to efficiently perform its specialized functions.
WholeDude - WholeDesigner - Red Blood Cell: The regulation of oxygen delivery.
The spiritual nature of the Red Blood Cell Design:The regulation of oxygen delivery. The Red Cell Membrane transport protein “Band 3” uses ion exchange transport mechanism to promote the release of oxygen from hemoglobin.
WholeDude - WholeDesigner - Red Blood Cell: Oxygen Delivery
The spiritual nature of the Red Blood Cell Design: Oxygen Delivery is carefully regulated to maintain it at appropriate amounts as both excess and shortage in delivery of oxygen can be harmful.
WholeDude - WholeDesigner - Red Blood Cell: The Red Cell apart from delivering oxygen, plays a role in the regulation of blood flow.
The spiritual nature of the Red Blood Cell Design: The Red Cell apart from delivering oxygen, plays a role in the regulation of blood flow. Red Cells sequentially consume and release Nitric Oxide (NO) for control of blood flow in response to changing oxygen levels.
WholeDude - WholeDesigner - Red Blood Cell: Metabolic Sensor in Red Cell, Ion Exchange Transport mechanism, Release of Nitric Oxide to modulate Vascular tone and to cause vasodilation.
The spiritual nature of the Red Blood Cell Design: Metabolic Sensor in Red Cell, Ion Exchange Transport mechanism, Release of Nitric Oxide to modulate Vascular tone and to cause vasodilation.

Heme Pigment and Hemoglobin – The Magic of Creation:

WholeDude - Wholedesigner - Red Blood Cell: The Magic of Creation will be appreciated by simply comparing Hemoglobin molecule with Chlorophyll molecule.
The spiritual nature of the Red Blood Cell Design: The Magic of Creation will be appreciated by simply comparing  the structure of Hemoglobin molecule with Chlorophyll molecule. The affinity of Hemoglobin molecule for oxygen is predetermined by the ability of Chlorophyll molecule to trap radiant energy which is converted into chemical energy during the photosynthetic reaction. These molecules perform goal-oriented, sequential actions to achieve a predetermined purpose. Living things obtain energy not because of random, unguided, interactions of chemical molecules. 
WholeDude - WholeDesigner - Red Blood Cell: The designing effect of pigments. Among biochromes, Heme, and Chlorophyll are the most important pigment substances that provide a striking contrast in color while having similar molecular structures.
The spiritual nature of the Red Blood Cell Design: The designing effect of pigments. Among biochromes, Heme, and Chlorophyll are the most important pigment substances that provide a striking contrast in color while having similar molecular structures.
WholeDesigner-Hemoglobin
The spiritual nature of the Red Blood Cell Design: The four subunits( 2 alpha, and 2 beta chains) of tetrameric Hemoglobin molecules. The synthesis of these chains need genetic information derived  mainly from chromosomes 16 and 11. The Magic of Creation will be appreciated when its structure and function is compared with the structure and function of Chlorophyll molecules that impart green color to plants.
WholeDude - WholeDesigner - Red Blood Cell: Heme is a respiratory pigment found in the Red Blood Cells of all vertebrates and some invertebrates. Pigment is a substance that implants color to materials. Plants derive their green color from Chlorophyll pigment, and blood derives it red color from Heme pigment. Both Chlorophyll and Heme are similar molecules containing ring structures called Porphyrins. Chlorophyll contains Magnesium and Heme contains Iron that imparts the red color.
The spiritual nature of the Red Blood Cell Design: Heme is a respiratory pigment found in the Red Blood Cells of all vertebrates and some invertebrates. Pigment is a substance that imparts color to materials. Plants derive their green color from Chlorophyll pigment, and blood derives it red color from Heme pigment. Both Chlorophyll and Heme are similar molecules containing ring structures called Porphyrins. Chlorophyll contains Magnesium and Heme contains Iron that imparts the red color.

Adult hemoglobin is an alpha (2):beta (2) tetrameric hemeprotein; a combination of heme and the protein component called globin. Each subunit of a hemoglobin tetramer has a heme prosthetic group. The variations in amino acid composition impart marked differences in hemoglobin’s oxygen carrying properties. The quaternary structure of hemoglobin leads to physiologically important allosteric interactions between the subunits. Oxygen is incrementally loaded into the four subunits. In deoxygenated tissue, oxygen is incrementally unloaded from the four subunits and the affinity of hemoglobin for oxygen is reduced. Thus at the lowest oxygen tensions found in very active tissues, the bonding affinity of hemoglobin for oxygen is very low allowing maximal delivery of oxygen to the tissues. To maintain the status called good and positive health, the cells, tissues, and organs of the multicellular human organism have to be interacting with each other in a harmonious manner. These interactions during normal, good health display characteristics such as mutual assistance, mutual cooperation, mutual tolerance, and mutual functional subordination to provide a benefit to the human individual who lives because of the functions of the cells, tissues, and organs that comprise his human body.

Spiritual Biotic Interactions – The Role of Red Blood Cells:

WholeDude - WholeDesigner - Red Blood Cell: The nature of Spiritual Biotic Interactions that maintain man's existence can be studied by knowing the role of Red Blood Cells and their interaction with the tissues, and organs of the entire human body.
The spiritual nature of the Red Blood Cell Design: The nature of Spiritual Biotic Interactions that maintain the man’s existence can be studied by knowing the role of Red Blood Cells and their interaction with the tissues, and organs of the entire human body.

The terrestrial human organism represents a biotic, or biological community of about 100 trillion, individual, independent, mostly autonomous living cells that participate in constant interactions with each other. These interactions at cellular level are dependent on the cognitive nature of the living cell. The living cell has the ability to recognize the presence of other cells in its immediate, external environment. The life of all of the cells in this biotic community that forms the human body requires energy input from an external source. The term “Spiritual” describes a relationship, a partnership, an association, a bonding, or a connection between two living entities that can formulate an interaction that can display features such as assistance, cooperation, tolerance, subservience, subordination, sympathy, and compassion to provide some benefit to the partner that is participating in the biotic interaction.

The Red Blood Cells interact with the cells of tissues, and organs of human body to provide them a service, assistance, or a benefit without seeking any benefit in return. The Red Blood Cells do not seek to reproduce, have very minimal requirement for energy and willingly deliver oxygen to the tissues and relieve them from the burden imposed by the waste products of their metabolic activities. The ‘spiritual’ nature of such interaction is a reflection of the ‘spiritual’ nature of the Creator of the living entities who could be called the Whole Artist, the Whole Designer, or the Whole Architect who meticulously planned and instituted the mechanisms and provided the necessary tools for such varied interdependent, and interrelated interactions between living cells. Thus, the Red Blood Cells constitute the principal stabilizing, connective linkage among the trillions of living cells that comprise the biological community which gets recognized as the human being.

The Red Blood cells constitute the principal stabilizing, connective linkage among the trillions of living cells that comprise the biological community which gets recognized as the human being.

Dr. Rudranarasimham, Rebbapragada, B.Sc., M.B.B.S.,

Father’s Name: R. Suryanarayana Murty

Sri Venkateswara University, M.B.B.S. Class of April, 1970

Andhra Pradesh Medical Council Medical Registration Number: AMC5282; Date of Registration: September 16, 1971

The Material Basis of Spirituality Science. Spiritual Optics. The Designing of the Red Blood Cells. The Dutch Microscopist Jan Swammerdam (1637-1680), the first person to describe the Red Blood Cells.
Whole Foods-Whole Inspiration-Whole Language
Whole Foods Arrives in Ann Arbor, September 1993
The Whole Connection: Whole Foods opened its Store in Ann Arbor on September 16, 1993. Whole Foods, Whole People and Whole Planet inspire Whole Dude to invent Whole Phrases: Whole Linguistics – Whole Language. The concept of Whole Cookie and Whole Love. Whole Dude uses the phrase Whole Linguistics to describe three entities; 1. Language User, 2. Language Interpreter and 3. Language Creator. Image Credit: Agenda Publications, Ann Arbor District Library, Issue Dates, September 1993, December 1997 and February 1998.

Philosophy of Medicine – Lesson. 31 – Whole Individual, Whole Identity, and Whole Individuality

Whole Dude – Whole Individual – Whole Identity – Whole Individuality

Whole Foods-Whole Inspiration-Whole Language
Whole Foods Arrives in Ann Arbor, September 1993
Whole Foods opened its Store in Ann Arbor on September 16, 1993. Whole Foods, Whole People and Whole Planet inspire Whole Dude to invent Whole Phrases: Whole Linguistics – Whole Language. The concept of Whole Cookie and Whole Love. Whole Dude uses the phrase Whole Linguistics to describe three entities; 1. Language User, 2. Language Interpreter and 3. Language Creator. Image Credit: Agenda Publications, Ann Arbor District Library, Issue Dates, September 1993, December 1997 and February 1998.

Soul/Spirit represent the living process which brings unity, harmony, and equilibrium in the living functions of trillions of individual, independent cells which work together for the benefit of the Singularity popularly represented by the personality of man.
Biology must use the concept of Soul/Spirit to identify each man as a Specific Individual with Individuality. Human Identity and Individuality always involves the biological community, the time, the place, and the environment which are constantly interacting to provide the basis for the human existence.

What is Identity and What is Individuality?

Human Identity and Individuality: A brief glance at the face is enough for most people to identify one another. Face recognition is a basic feature of human identity and recognition.

A brief glance at the face is enough for most people to identify one another. However, man does not exist with the same identity during the course of his life. The word identity describes the condition or fact of being a specific person. Identification is the process by which a person can be identified in an accurate and consistent manner.

The morphological or the external appearance of a person is subject to constant changes and it differs in a significant manner during the various stages of life such as infancy, boyhood, adulthood, and old age.

The morphological or the external appearance of a person is subject to constant changes and it differs in a significant manner during the various stages of life such as infancy, boyhood, adulthood, and old age.

The term individuality describes the sum of the characteristics or qualities that set one person apart from others. The condition of being individual, or different from others establishes the indivisibility of man. Man is unique, original, one kind of person who has not existed before and would not also exist in future even when he shares the same identical genome. Two identical twins could be correctly identified as two different individuals.

I propose the Law of Individuality and Creation which claims that man exists as Individual without any choice of his own to change or alter this conditioned nature of subjective physical existence in the world. Man can only exist as Individual with Individuality.

Human Identity and Individuality: If Identity described by the Phenotype establishes one face of the Coin, the Individuality describes the second face of the same coin and is established by the Genotype. While being the same, the Genotype presents the Individual with varying features of identification.

The Identification Technology:

Human Identity and Individuality: Using Fingerprints is the oldest method of Identification. The Fingerprint is electronically read by a sensor plate.

Biometrics is that branch of Biology which deals with its data statistically and by mathematical analysis. Using Fingerprints is the oldest method of Identification using biometric information. People have tiny ridges of skin on their fingers. These ridges form through a combination of genetic and environmental factors. The genetic makeup, the position of the fetus in the womb, and the composition and density of surrounding amniotic fluid play a role in how every individual ridge on the skin surface of finger will form. Fingerprints are a unique marker for a person, even an identical twin. Fingerprint analysis can define the differences between two fingerprint impressions.

Human Identity and Individuality: Fingerprints are a unique marker for a person and Fingerprint analysis can define the differences between Fingerprints.

The Fingerprint is electronically read. The corrugated ridges of the skin are non-continuous and form a pattern that has distinguishing features or minutiae. Two varieties of Fingerprint scanning technology are currently used; the optical Fingerprint scanners and the Capacitance Fingerprint scanner that uses a computerized analysis.

Iris Recognition Technology:

Human Identity and Individuality: The Iris is the most unique feature visible on the human body.Iris Scan Recorder uses pattern recognition techniques based on images of the Iris.

 Iris Scanners use pattern recognition techniques based on images of the irides (Irises) of an individual’s eyes.

Human Identity and Individuality: How does the multicellular human organism recognizes its own Identity?

No two irides being the same, even in identical twins, individuals could be identified with accuracy and consistency.

DNA Analysis:

Human Identity and Individuality: A small sample of DNA is amplified by using Polymerase Chain Reaction or PCR. The Short Tandem Repeat Analysis examines how often base pairs repeat in specific locations on a DNA strand.

A small sample of DNA is amplified by using Polymerase Chain Reaction or PCR. In a method described as Short Tandem Repeat Analysis, it is examined to find how often base pairs repeat in specific locations or loci on a given DNA strand. These can be dinucleotide, trinucleotide, tetranucleotide, or pentanucleotide repeats; that is repetition of 2, 3, 4, or 5 base pairs. Very often, the investigator looks for tetranucleotide or pentanucleotide repeats in the DNA sample. The likelihood that any two individuals (except identical twins) will have the same 13-loci DNA profile can be as high as 1 in 1 billion or greater.

Biometric Facial Recognition Technology:

Human Identity and Individuality: Every face has numerous distinguishable landmarks, the different peaks and valleys that make up facial features.

 Every face has numerous distinguishable landmarks, the different peaks and valleys that make up facial features. These landmarks are known as nodal points. Each human face has approximately 80 nodal points.

Human Identity and Individuality: How does the multicellular human organism recognizes its own identity?

Distance between the eyes, width of the nose, depth of the eye sockets, the shape of the cheekbones, the length of the jawline and other features are used as nodal points. These nodal points are measured creating a numerical code called a face print, representing the face in the database and comparison is made between images of face. 2D or 3D image of a person’s face uses distinct features of the face where rigid tissue and bone is most apparent, such as the curves of the eye socket, nose, and chin to identify the subject.

Human Identity and Individuality. In a multicellular human organism, who recognizes the Identity of the human person?

Unique templates are created from measurements between key points on the face and these measurements provide identification of the individual.

Skin Biometrics – Skin Surface Texture Analysis:

Human Identity and Individuality: The uniqueness of Skin Texture offers an opportunity to identify differences between identical twins.
Human Identity and Individuality: Surface Texture Analysis creates a Skin Print by using local information about skin texture at various points on the surface.

The Surface Texture Analysis algorithm operates on the top percentage of results as determined by the Local feature analysis. This method creates a Skin Print and performs either a 1:1 or 1:N match for verification or identification. It can identify the differences between identical twins.

 Identity, Individuality, and Consciousness:

Human Identity, Individuality, and Consciousness

Man describes his identity in terms of his personal name, age, gender, race, ethnicity, place of origin, language, religion, political, occupational, or social affiliation. In reality, the man is an association of trillions of individual cells.

Human Identity and Individuality. How does the multicellular human organism recognizes its own Identity?

The human organism is a conscious being and the function called consciousness achieves functional unity of all these individual cells and works for the benefit of the individual who always maintains his individuality.

Human Identity and Individuality. Cognitive Biology must address the issue of cognition of human Identity. In the multicellular human organism, who recognizes the Identity of the Human Individual?

This is possible because individual cells have the ability to recognize the presence of other living cells in their environment and display functional subordination to serve the purpose of the whole organism.

Human Identity, Individuality, and Consciousness – Existence precedes Essence.

The Cellular and the Molecular Basis of Identity and Individuality

Whole Dude at Whole Foods has Cellular and Molecular Basis for his Identity and Individuality. Human Identity undergoes changes due to the aging process but the Human Individuality persists unchanged. Individuality and the Genome. The Law of Individuality governs all Individual Living Things.
Whole Dude at Whole Foods has Cellular and Molecular Basis for his Identity and Individuality. Human Identity undergoes changes due to the aging process but the Human Individuality persists unchanged. Individuality and the Genome. The Law of Individuality governs all Individual Living Things.
Whole Dude at Whole Foods has Cellular and Molecular Basis for his Identity and Individuality. Human Identity undergoes changes due to the aging process but the Human Individuality persists unchanged. Individuality and the Genome. The Law of Individuality governs all Individual Living Things.

In 1965, while Whole Dude was a student of Human Anatomy at Kurnool Medical College, they had the opportunity to know Dr. J. C. B. Grant (1886-1973), the author of Grant’s Atlas of Anatomy. The 5th Edition of his Atlas was published in 1962 and was available in India in their Medical College Library.

Whole Dude at Whole Foods has Cellular and Molecular Basis for his Identity and Individuality. Human Identity undergoes changes due to the aging process but the Human Individuality persists unchanged. Individuality and the Genome. The Law of Individuality governs all Individual Living Things.

As a medical student, Whole Dude used Grant’s Atlas of Anatomy, the seminal work of Scottish-born Dr. John Charles Boileau Grant, who was the chair of Anatomy at the University of Toronto in 1930 and retired in 1965.

The concept of Whole Dude relates to knowing the man, the building blocks and the structural units and organization of the human body. To defend human existence, Whole Dude lays the emphasis on knowing the person who is at risk apart from knowing the agent posing the risk.

The Identity of Multicellular Human Organism:

The cellular and the molecular basis of human identity and human individuality. Cunningham’s Manuals of Practical Anatomy provide Whole Dude the learning tools to know and understand Man’s External and Internal Reality and its Identity as described by Cells, Tissues, Organs,and Organ Systems

Daniel John Cunningham was born on 15 April 1850 in Scotland. After his initial schooling at his home town, Crieff, he took up the study of medicine at the University of Edinburgh and passed with honours. He is best known for the excellent series of dissection manuals, namely Cunningham’s Dissection Manuals. Cunningham’s Manual of Practical Anatomy has provided me the learning tools to know and understand Man’s External and Internal Reality and its Identity as described by Cells, Tissues, Organs,and Organ Systems.

The cellular and the molecular basis of human identity and human individuality. Cunningham’s Manuals of Practical Anatomy provide Whole Dude the learning tools to know and understand Man’s External and Internal Reality and its Identity as described by Cells, Tissues, Organs,and Organ Systems
The cellular and the molecular basis of human identity and human individuality. Cunningham’s Manuals of Practical Anatomy provide Whole Dude the learning tools to know and understand Man’s External and Internal Reality and its Identity as described by Cells, Tissues, Organs,and Organ Systems
The cellular and the molecular basis of human identity and human individuality. Cunningham’s Manuals of Practical Anatomy provide Whole Dude the learning tools to know and understand Man’s External and Internal Reality and its Identity as described by Cells, Tissues, Organs,and Organ Systems

Whole Dude learned the truths about the living human body and about Life while dissecting dead human bodies in a systematic manner. The Manual of Practical Anatomy which guides students through this entire process was published in England. The author Dr. Daniel John Cunningham prepared the Manual while dissecting cadavers of British or Irish citizens. He never encountered cadavers of Indian citizens. At Kurnool Medical College, Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh, India, where Whole Dude was a student, the Department of Anatomy obtains dead bodies from  Government General Hospital Kurnool and most of the deceased are the poor and often illiterate people of that region. None of the deceased had the chance to know this man called Cunningham and Cunningham had no knowledge about the existence of these people who arrive on our dissection tables. But, as the dissection of the human body proceeds, inch, by inch, we recognize the anatomical parts as described by Cunningham. The manual also lists some anatomical variations and we very often exchange information between various dissection tables and recognize the variations mentioned. The dissections also involve slicing the organs and studying them, both macroscopically, and microscopically. We did not miss any part of the human body.

The cellular and the molecular basis of human identity and human individuality. Cunningham’s Manuals of Practical Anatomy provide Whole Dude the learning tools to know and understand Man’s External and Internal Reality and its Identity as described by Cells, Tissues, Organs,and Organ Systems

So what is the Identity of this Human Person who experiences his life using Sensory Experiences such as Taste? How does the living Human organism maintains its Identity and Individuality? Apart from the Cultural Traditions of India, several Schools of Religious Thought claim that the Human Individuality and true or real Identity is represented by Human Soul. Does man have a soul? Where does this soul exist in the human body? What is the location if the soul is present in the living person? How does the human organism acquires Knowledge about its own structures and the functions they perform?To know the burdens of Life, Whole Dude asks his readers to know the reality of man and the nature of his existence.

The cellular and the molecular basis of human identity and human individuality. THE KNOWER AND THE KNOWING-SELF: IN THIS IMAGE OF HUMAN BRAIN, THE GREEN PORTION OF BRAIN STEM IS CALLED RETICULAR FORMATION. WHOLE DUDE DESCRIBES IT AS THE KNOWING-SELF AND IT IS THE “KNOWER” OF THE HUMAN BODY WHICH CONSTANTLY CHANGES ITS MORPHOLOGICAL APPEARANCE UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF TIME CALLED THE AGING PROCESS.

Human Identity vs Human Individuality:

Whole Dude at Whole Foods has Cellular and Molecular Basis for his Identity and Individuality. Human Identity undergoes changes due to the aging process but the Human Individuality persists unchanged. Individuality and the Genome. The Law of Individuality governs all Individual Living Things.

Human Identity may involve a variety of factors such as facial appearance, age, gender, race, ethnicity, language, religion, culture, nationality, sexual orientation, social and occupational status. Whereas human individuality has to be evaluated by using the markers that the human body uses to recognize its own Self and defends its own existence from threats posed by Non-Self.

Whole Dude at Whole Foods has Cellular and Molecular Basis for his Identity and Individuality. Human Identity undergoes changes due to the aging process but the Human Individuality persists unchanged. Individuality and the Genome. The Law of Individuality governs all Individual Living Things.
Whole Dude at Whole Foods has Cellular and Molecular Basis for his Identity and Individuality. Human Identity undergoes changes due to the aging process but the Human Individuality persists unchanged. Individuality and the Genome. The Law of Individuality governs all Individual Living Things.
The cellular and the molecular basis of human identity and human individuality. In the final analysis, the human organism is a biotic community of trillions of individual, independent cells.

The cellular and the molecular basis of human identity and human individuality. In the final analysis, the human organism is a biotic community of trillions of individual, independent cells.

The cellular and the molecular basis of human identity and human individuality: THE MAJOR HISTOCOMPATIBILITY COMPLEX (MHC) IS THE HUMAN LEUKOCYTE ANTIGEN (HLA) GENE CLUSTER ON CHROMOSOME 6. HUMAN ORGANS AND TISSUES CANNOT BE TRANSPLANTED OR GRAFTED INTO THE BODIES OF UNRELATED INDIVIDUALS. HUMAN IDENTITY MUST BE DISCOVERED AT MOLECULAR LEVEL TO ESTABLISH THE AFFINITY BETWEEN TWO HUMAN INDIVIDUALS.
Whole Dude at Whole Foods has Cellular and Molecular Basis for his Identity and Individuality. Human Identity undergoes changes due to the aging process but the Human Individuality persists unchanged. Individuality and the Genome. The Law of Individuality governs all Individual Living Things.

THE MAJOR HISTOCOMPATIBILITY COMPLEX (MHC) IS THE HUMAN LEUKOCYTE ANTIGEN (HLA) GENE CLUSTER ON CHROMOSOME 6. HUMAN ORGANS AND TISSUES CANNOT BE TRANSPLANTED OR GRAFTED INTO THE BODIES OF UNRELATED INDIVIDUALS. HUMAN IDENTITY MUST BE DISCOVERED AT MOLECULAR LEVEL TO ESTABLISH THE AFFINITY BETWEEN TWO HUMAN INDIVIDUALS.

Human Individuality and the Genome

Individuality and the Genome. A COLONY OF GENETICALLY IDENTICAL E. COLI IS ACTUALLY A MOB OF ‘INDIVIDUALS’.

Understanding Individuality: 

Individuality and the Genome. Even among simple forms of life, like the common bacterium E. coli, genetics only partly determines what any one organism is like. E. coli expresses its individuality in many ways. All the bacilli above are genetically identical, but the shades show differences in the production of proteins that digest lactose.Credit…Dr. Michael Elowitz

Dr. Michael Elowitz, Physicist at California Institute of Technology has conducted experiments on colonies of genetically identical (Clones) E. coli bacteria under identical experimental conditions and has discovered that the clones behave in different ways which could be viewed as an expression of ‘individuality’.

Whole Dude at Whole Foods has Cellular and Molecular Basis for his Identity and Individuality. Human Identity undergoes changes due to the aging process but the Human Individuality persists unchanged. Individuality and the Genome. The Law of Individuality governs all Individual Living Things.

E. coli bacteria in billions populate our intestines. Typical E. coli bacillus has about 4,000 genes. Human cells have about 20,000 genes. The bacteria have fingerprints of their own and even when they share the exact same genome, they could still be identified as ‘individuals’.

Individuality and the Genome. Dr. Michael Elowitz and Dr. Long Cai are developing a platform through which cells can self-record their lineage and molecular event histories directly into their own DNA as they create new tissues, particularly in the brain. This research will help to address how individual cells in a developing embryo diversify into many distinct cell types, each playing its unique role in the organism.

The key to understanding E. coli’s fingerprints is to recognize that the bacteria are not simple machines. Unlike wires and transistors, E. coli’s molecules are floppy, twitchy and unpredictable. In an electronic device, like a computer or a radio, electrons stream in a steady flow through the machine’s circuits, but the molecules in E. coli jostle and wander. When E. coli begins using a gene to make a protein, it does not produce a smoothly increasing supply. It spurts out the proteins in fits and starts. One clone may produce half a dozen copies of a protein in an hour, while a clone right next to it produces none.

Michael Elowitz, a physicist at Caltech, put these bursts on display in an elegant experiment. He and his colleagues incited E. coli to produce its proteins for feeding on lactose. Dr. Elowitz and his colleagues added extra genes to the bacteria so that when they made lactose-digesting proteins, they also released light.

The bacteria, Dr. Elowitz found, did not produce a uniform glow. They flickered, sometimes brightly, sometimes dimly. And when Dr. Elowitz took a snapshot of the colony, it was not a uniform sea of light. Some microbes were dark at that moment while others shone at full strength.

At the very least, E. coli’s individuality should be a warning to those who would put human nature down to any sort of simple genetic determinism. Living things are more than just programs run by genetic software. Even in minuscule microbes, the same genes and the same genetic network can lead to different fates.

The bacteria have fingerprints of their own and even when they share the same genome, they could still be identified as individuals.

Individuality and the Genome. Man is constituted as a Biotic Community of socially interacting cells and microbes

Humans differ from one another in too many different ways and it is hard to count. The current human population of over six billion could be identified as the same number of individuals. Each human being has an unique genome of his own. There are millions of typographical differences between one genome and another human genome. Even identical twins are not truly identical at all as identical genes in our cells can behave differently. 

Living entities are not like simple machines. When we use a gene to make a protein, the gene may not produce a smoothly increasing supply of that protein. The gene tends to work in fits and starts and spurts out the protein. Identical genes can behave differently as the gene makes protein or remains silent depending upon the ‘Methyl’ groups that cap the DNA strands and function as ‘transducers’. These ‘Methyl’ groups sometimes fall off of DNA or become attached to new spots. Hence genetically identical individuals can have different physical identities in the natural world. The protein molecules that make up living entities, turn them into individuals. 

The Irrelevance of Evolution: 

CHARLES DARWIN’S ORIGIN OF SPECIES (1859) PROPOSES A MECHANISTIC, NON-PURPOSIVE ACCOUNT OF EVOLUTION AS THE PRODUCT OF NATURAL SELECTION OF RANDOMLY PRODUCED GENETIC MUTATIONS.

In the natural world, all living entities exist as individuals and express their individuality. The Theory of Evolution proposes that a species can descend or arrive to become a new species by changing its genome in a gradual and incremental manner using a mechanism that is described as Natural Selection. As per Darwinism, the mechanism of natural selection operates via a process of random and unguided mutations in the genetic code that changes the genome and eventually produces the ‘biodiversity’ that we witness in the natural world.

Individuality and the Genome. The phenomenon of Diversity must be studied beyond the realm of genes, genetic codes, and genomes. Cytoplasm and its organs must be studied to understand the physiological basis of Diversity

This Theory of Evolution has no relevance to the ultimate identity of each individual member of a given species. This identity is dictated by interplay between the various components of each individual cell and its interactions with other cells. With the same genomes or different genomes, the living entities can only exist as individuals and they have no other choice. The evolutionary connections are not relevant to this identity. To understand the phenomenon of biodiversity, we will be forced to look at each individual member of each given species. 

The Law of Individuality: 

Individuality and the Genome. The Law of Individuality formulates the phenomenon of Human Individuality.

Whole Dude states that the Law of Individuality governs all the living entities and is manifested in various biological phenomena. The genes and the genetic code function in accordance with the Law of Individuality. Hence, Whole Dude describes Individuality as a Trade Mark. It is the characteristic of a biological entity. Genes and the genetic codes are the tools that an organism uses to express its Individuality. Each organism assembles its own kind of protein molecules to define its identity and to defend its existence in the natural world. 

Dr. Rudranarasimham, Rebbapragada, B.Sc., M.B.B.S.,

Father’s Name: R. Suryanarayana Murty

Sri Venkateswara University M.B.B.S. Class of April, 1970

Andhra Pradesh Medical Council Medical Registration Number: AMC5282; Date of Registration: September 16, 1971

Individuality and the Genome. The Law of Individuality formulates the phenomenon of Human Individuality.

Philosophy of Medicine – Lesson. 30 – Identity and Individuality of Multicellular Human Organism

Whole Identity – Whole Individualism

Whole Foods-Whole Inspiration-Whole Language
Whole Foods Arrives in Ann Arbor, September 1993
The Whole Connection: Whole Foods opened its Store in Ann Arbor on September 16, 1993. Whole Foods, Whole People and Whole Planet inspire Whole Dude to invent Whole Phrases: Whole Linguistics – Whole Language. The concept of Whole Cookie and Whole Love. Whole Dude uses the phrase Whole Linguistics to describe three entities; 1. Language User, 2. Language Interpreter and 3. Language Creator. Image Credit: Agenda Publications, Ann Arbor District Library, Issue Dates, September 1993, December 1997 and February 1998.

Soul/Spirit represent the living process which brings unity, harmony, and equilibrium in the living functions of trillions of individual, independent cells which work together for the benefit of the Singularity popularly represented by the personality of man.
Biology must use the concept of Soul/Spirit to identify each man as a Specific Individual with Individuality. Human Identity and Individuality always involves the biological community, the time, the place, and the environment which are constantly interacting to provide the basis for the human existence.

Identity and Individuality in the Multicellular Human Organism

Whole Dude at Whole Foods examines the complex issues of identity and individuality in the multicellular human organism.
Whole Dude at Whole Foods examines the complex issues of identity and individuality in the multicellular human organism

In 1965, while I was a student of Human Anatomy at Kurnool Medical College, I had the opportunity to know about Dr. J. C. B. Grant (1886-1973), the author of Grant’s Atlas of Anatomy. The 5th Edition of his Atlas was published in 1962 and was available in India in our Medical College Library.

Whole Dude at Whole Foods examines the complex issues of identity and individuality in the multicellular human organism.

At the University of Toronto, Dr.McMurrich, Chair of Anatomy was succeeded as chairman in 1930 by Dr. John Charles Boileau Grant. Dr. Grant wrote three text books, of which “An Atlas of Anatomy” (published in 1943) rapidly gained international prominence and is still, one of the most widely used anatomical atlases in the world. It is now known as “Grant’s Atlas of Anatomy” and is in its tenth edition. The atlas was based on a series of elegant dissections done either by Grant or by others under his supervision. Many of these dissections are currently housed in Grant’s Museum at the University of Toronto. 

To know man, the building blocks and the structural units and organization of the human body must be studied. To defend human existence, Whole Dude lays the emphasis on knowing the person who is at risk apart from knowing the agent posing the risk.

The Identity of Multicellular Human Organism:

Whole Dude at Whole Foods examines the complex issues of identity and individuality in the multicellular human organism. Cunningham’s Manuals of Practical Anatomy provide me the learning tools to know and understand Man’s External and Internal Reality and its Identity as described by Cells, Tissues, Organs,and Organ Systems

Daniel John Cunningham was born on 15 April 1850 in Scotland. After his initial schooling at his home town, Crieff, he took up the study of medicine at the University of Edinburgh and passed with honours. He is best known for the excellent series of dissection manuals, namely Cunningham’s Dissection Manuals. Cunningham’s Manual of Practical Anatomy has provided me the learning tools to know and understand Man’s External and Internal Reality and its Identity as described by Cells, Tissues, Organs,and Organ Systems.

Whole Dude at Whole Foods examines the complex issues of identity and individuality in the multicellular human organism. Cunningham’s Manuals of Practical Anatomy provide me the learning tools to know and understand Man’s External and Internal Reality and its Identity as described by Cells, Tissues, Organs,and Organ Systems
Whole Dude at Whole Foods examines the complex issues of identity and individuality in the multicellular human organism. Cunningham’s Manuals of Practical Anatomy provide me the learning tools to know and understand Man’s External and Internal Reality and its Identity as described by Cells, Tissues, Organs,and Organ Systems
Whole Dude at Whole Foods examines the complex issues of identity and individuality in the multicellular human organism. Cunningham’s Manuals of Practical Anatomy provide me the learning tools to know and understand Man’s External and Internal Reality and its Identity as described by Cells, Tissues, Organs,and Organ Systems

I learned the truths about the living human body and about Life while dissecting the dead human bodies in a systematic manner. The Manual of Practical Anatomy which guides us through this entire process was published in England. The author Dr. Daniel John Cunningham prepared the Manual while dissecting cadavers of British or Irish citizens. He had never encountered cadavers of Indian citizens. At Kurnool Medical College, Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh, India, where I was a student, the Department of Anatomy obtains dead bodies from  Government General Hospital Kurnool and most of the deceased are the poor, illiterate, and uneducated people of that region. None of the deceased had the chance to know this man called Cunningham and Cunningham had no knowledge about the existence of these people who arrive on our dissection tables. But, as the dissection of the human body proceeds, inch, by inch, we recognize the anatomical parts as described by Cunningham. The manual also lists some anatomical variations and we very often exchange information between various dissection tables and recognize the variations mentioned. The dissections also involve slicing the organs and studying them, both macroscopically, and microscopically. We did not miss any part of the human body.

Whole Dude at Whole Foods examines the complex issues of identity and individuality in the multicellular human organism. THE NEWBORN BABY ALWAYS ARRIVES INTO THE WORLD WITH AN ORIGINAL, UNIQUE, DISTINCT, AND ONE OF ITS OWN KIND OF GENOME THAT HAS NEVER EXISTED IN THE PAST AND WILL NEVER EXIST AGAIN IN THE FUTURE.

Understanding Individuality:

Whole Dude at Whole Foods examines the complex issues of identity and individuality in the multicellular human organism
Whole Dude at Whole Foods examines the complex issues of identity and individuality in the multicellular human organism. The Law of Individuality governs all Individual Living Things.
Whole Dude at Whole Foods examines the complex issues of identity and individuality in the multicellular human organism. The Law of Individuality. Genetically identical bacteria is actually a mob of Individuals.

 A colony of genetically identical E. coli bacteria is actually a mob of individuals:

Dr. Michael Elowitz and Dr. Long Cai are developing a platform through which cells can self-record their lineage and molecular event histories directly into their own DNA as they create new tissues, particularly in the brain. This research will help to address how individual cells in a developing embryo diversify into many distinct cell types, each playing its unique role in the organism.

Dr. Michael Elowitz, Physicist at California Institute of Technology has conducted experiments on colonies of genetically identical (clones) E. coli bacteria under identical conditions and discovered that they behave in different ways.

Understanding Individuality: Even among simple forms of life, like the common bacterium E. coli, genetics only partly determines what any one organism is like. E. coli expresses its individuality in many ways. All the bacilli above are genetically identical, but the shades show differences in the production of proteins that digest lactose.Credit…Dr. Michael Elowitz

The key to understanding E. coli’s fingerprints is to recognize that the bacteria are not simple machines. Unlike wires and transistors, E. coli’s molecules are floppy, twitchy and unpredictable. In an electronic device, like a computer or a radio, electrons stream in a steady flow through the machine’s circuits, but the molecules in E. coli jostle and wander. When E. coli begins using a gene to make a protein, it does not produce a smoothly increasing supply. It spurts out the proteins in fits and starts. One clone may produce half a dozen copies of a protein in an hour, while a clone right next to it produces none.

Michael Elowitz, a physicist at Caltech, put these bursts on display in an elegant experiment. He and his colleagues incited E. coli to produce its proteins for feeding on lactose. Dr. Elowitz and his colleagues added extra genes to the bacteria so that when they made lactose-digesting proteins, they also released light.

The bacteria, Dr. Elowitz found, did not produce a uniform glow. They flickered, sometimes brightly, sometimes dimly. And when Dr. Elowitz took a snapshot of the colony, it was not a uniform sea of light. Some microbes were dark at that moment while others shone at full strength.

At the very least, E. coli’s individuality should be a warning to those who would put human nature down to any sort of simple genetic determinism. Living things are more than just programs run by genetic software. Even in minuscule microbes, the same genes and the same genetic network can lead to different fates.

The bacteria have fingerprints of their own and even when they share the same genome, they could still be identified as individuals.

The Law of Individuality:

Whole Dude at Whole Foods examines the complex issues of identity and individuality in the multicellular human organism. The Law of Individuality governs all Individual Living Things.

I propose the Law of Individuality which governs all the living entities. Either with the same and identical genome or with different genomes, all living organisms have no choice other than that of living as Individuals. The genes and the genetic codes function in accordance with the Law of Individuality. While the genetic structural organization is the same, there is functional variability due to factors over which the organism has no control. I describe Individuality as a Trade Mark. It is the characteristic of a biological entity. Genes and the genetic codes are the tools that an organism uses to express its Individuality. Each organism assembles its own kind of protein molecules to define its identity and to defend its existence in the natural world. The concept of Biological Individual and Individuality has to be always defined in the context of the Individual’s relationship with its own Body, Social Group, Society, Time, and the Environment in which the Individual finds the reality of its own Existence.

Whole Dude at Whole Foods examines the complex issues of identity and individuality in the multicellular human organism. The Law of Individuality leaves the Individual with no choice other than that of expressing variability while being a member of a Social Group which may have a fixed Identity.

Man is constituted as a Biotic Community of socially interacting cells and microbes

Whole Dude at Whole Foods examines the complex issues of identity and individuality in the multicellular human organism. The Law of Individuality governs all Individual Living Things.

Biology must use the concept of Soul/Spirit to identify each man as a Specific Individual with Individuality. Human Identity and Individuality always involves the biological community, the time, the place, and the environment which are constantly interacting to provide the basis for the human existence.

Dr. Rudranarasimham, Rebbapragada, B.Sc., M.B.B.S.,

Father’s Name: R. Suryanarayana Murty

Sri Venkateswara University, M.B.B.S. Class of April, 1970

Andhra Pradesh Medical Council Medical Registration Number: AMC5282; Date of Registration: September 16, 1971

Identity and Knowing the Identity: Man, the physical being has Identity such as Facial Recognition. In the multicellular human organism, how does the body knows its Owner? If the body knows its Owner, there is an anatomical structure that is associated with the function called Knowing The Self.