For the life after death, the Egyptians saved all of the mummy's organs except for its apparently useless brain which they siphoned out of the mummy's skull. And some Greeks though that the brain's function was only to cool the blood!
Nonetheless, the ancients were aware of the existence of mind. Yet, not knowing the functions of the brain, they thought that mind was an entity separate from the body, and the agent of life which they named soul, spirit, anima, etc.
In fact, the English word `mind` comes from an ancient root shared by all IndoEuropean languages. In the oldest of them, Vedic (some 4,000 years old) and Sanskrit (some 2,400 years old), the related word is manas. Manas means mind, soul, or spirit. Thus showing that at least that far back, mind, soul, and spirit were one and the same.
While soul and spirit seem to be the same, some use soul for the living, and spirit for the dead. When reading an ancient book, such as Bible, replace the word soul (of the living) with mind, and you'll find it to be a perfect fit.
Mind is personified as soul, and given a life after death (spirit, ghost) to satisfy one's need to survive beyond the grave, thus make death acceptable with some ease. This has made the belief in its immortality popular. However, the only way to make your mind immortal is to write it down!
Some aborigines believe that dreams are the adventures of the soul which leaves the body when falling asleep, and returns upon waking up. That death is a sleep in which the soul forgets to return back or fails to find its way back into the body.
The ancients believed that their souls could meet the spirits of the departed during sleep or after death in a place where the souls continue to live. And this helped them to believe their immortality after death.
The war between good and evil is primarily a conflict of interest between our midbrain (the seat of selfish animal drives) and our prefrontal lobe (the seat of rationality in human brain). Often, the prefrontal lobe declares "no contest", and lets the midbrain dictate our behavior.
The midbrain (primarily amygdala) is like a seasoned beast, and our prefrontal lobe like a little kid, new on the scene. We cannot have a lasting peace unless we empower the little kid to overcome the beast, or wait for ages and hope that someday the prefrontal lobe will evolve further, and dominate the midbrain.
Throughtout the history, we have personified the drives and forces of our midbrain and prefrontal lobes into gods; most midbrain drives as evil forces, and the prefrontal lobe power as the supreme good God. Obviously, the good God is weaker than the evil ones.
This is why in Zarathustra's religion, the Supreme God (Ahura Mazda) has appointed mankind to overcome Evil, and has given us three weapons to succeed: good thoughts, good words, and good deeds.
Unlike Zarathustra's Ahura Mazda, the God in the Semitic religions has been fashioned after the father image, a strong benevolent man that we can turn to for help. If God is strong and benevolent, then why so much misery worldwide?
Zarathustra would explain the dominence of the Evil by pointing out that people underuse their three weapons against Evil. The priests of the Semitic religions respond by saying that we are not intelligent enough to understand God's wisdom nor to know that what he gives us is what that is good for us.
"Oh Ignorant Priests," yells Zarathustra on the mountaintop. "You remind me of toilets before they are flushed, thousands of unflushed toilets. Move thyselves, and flush out your burden.
"Oh sisters and brothers," He continues. "Rise above greed, violence, war, pollution, poverty, hunger, and disease so that you can trust one another. It is better to control thyself and rule thyself in the interest of the whole than being controlled and ruled by anyone other than yourself.
"Your lower
nature tempts you to abuse others, abuse nature, and thus
help bring the world into ruin,
but follow your higher nature that tells you not. The future is in your
hands. Help your higher nature to establish the kingdom of peace and prosperity
for all.
"O my kins, look below, and see the inferno you have caused. Then, look above, and see the glorious heaven that awaits you. Hear the noise of the inferno, and compare it to the music ahead.
"Rise above thyselves, and climb your mountain. Moses climbed his so did Christ, so did Mohammed. Now, it's your turn to climb yours to become holy. I demand of you to become a higher being... the next higher species."
DATED: 9 October 2000
NOTE: The article above is from "Thus Speaks Zarathustra", a 4-volume book (presently not available) by Behrooz Bassim, MD. This book is a 21st century sequel to Nietzsche's 19th century masterpiece. Other pages from it on the internet are:
Abortion
Artificial
Color & Flavor
Capitalism
Civility
Darwin
Was Right So Was LaMarck
Democracy
or Isocracy
Etymology
of sacred, etc
God,
Who?
Guns
in USA
Homosexuality
Honesty
Me
Intelligence
Monetary,
A Unique Unit, A unique
Particle
Physics, Grand Spectrum
Plight
of the Mice
Politician,
The American
Race
& Class
Sermon
Sham
Justice
Soul
Is Mind
Unidirectional
Competition
Universal
Army
Universal
Language
Zarathustra
CONTACT: bassim@usadatanet.net