#touchmysoul

Shia Labeouf’s latest performance art piece is called #touchmysoul and has people talking about the soul. Labeouf invited people to call him at a special telephone number set up for this performance and “touch his soul.” No further information was given. It is an interesting concept. From the perspective of the collective that put together this performance piece, the soul seems to be the seat of emotions. What they are asking for is someone who will make them smile, give them goosebumps, or affect their emotions in some way. So, how does one touch another person’s soul? What is a soul? How do we touch the soul? Dallas Willard had this to say about the soul.

“While the brain has its role in emotions, intellect, and will, and while people’s bodies are essential, we must always remember that the person is the ultimate unit of analysis: you, me. Thought, feeling, action (involving the body, as well as relations to others) are ultimately dimensions of the person. And it is the soul that combines all the dimensions of the person to form one life. It is like a computer system, which runs an entire commercial operation.”[1]

“The soul is one non-physical dimension of the person. A human person is a non-physical (spiritual) entity that has an essential involvement with a particular physical body. The brain, then—a piece of meat that is of more than usual interest—is one part of the embodied dimension of the human person. It too is integrated by the soul into one life, along with all of the dimensions of the person (at least when all is well).”[2]

Augustine, described the soul as "a special substance, endowed with reason, adapted to rule the body."[3] 

In contemporary thinking, perhaps a helpful metaphor is to think of the soul as the operating system (OS) that organizes the actions and thoughts of a person. Many things will touch or affect the soul but some will affect more than others. We may experience a beautiful piece of music that affects the soul. Poetry, paintings, photography, a well-told story or movie may also touch the soul. Theoretically, if we touch a soul, that soul will be changed forever and will affect the operating system of the person. If the OS is changed, the whole being is changed.

This leads me to want to touch the soul of others. It causes me to ask questions about how I affect others (for good or bad) and causes me to want to have a positive influence on the souls of those around me. If I can “touch a soul” in a good way, I can make that person a better person and ultimately affect the world. What could be grander than that?

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[1] http://www.dwillard.org/articles/artview.asp?artID=82

[2] http://www.dwillard.org/articles/artview.asp?artID=82

[3] The Greatness of the Soul, Augustine.

Automatic

I have come to appreciate that life is not easy. I know that God has created a world that is hard work, challenging, full of temptation, and sometimes painful. I understand that this is how He prepares us for living in heaven. I know that He is concerned with "soul-building." I do not want an easy life. I see how easy it is to be reckless and inattentive when things are going well. Just yesterday, I'd had a wonderful week at a conference and church meetings and preached a challenging sermon at our church about avoiding anger, arrogance, and dishonesty (Titus 1:5-9); then, I confess, to the Body of Christ on the internet, I promptly got into an argument with my wife in which I was angry, arrogant, and loud. What an awakening from complacency! I need difficulty and challenge in my life to keep me alert to the actions of the Enemy.

Much of life, for many of us in Canada, is relatively easy. If we have a decent job, with decent pay, good relationships with people, and a home to keep us warm, life really goes along pretty well; almost automatic. Therein lies the problem. Life can get too easy because

when everything is handed to you
It's only worth as much as the time put in

Those are some of the words to a song, written by Miranda Lambert, Nicolle Galyon & Natalie Hemby, in which they lament the days when things took a little more work. The song suggests that life really was better before so many things became automatic. The song-writers are correct. God wants life to be less than automatic and wants us to put time into our achievements. Here are the rest of the words to the song.

Automatic by Miranda Lambert, Nicolle Galyon & Natalie Hemby 

 (Listen to the song here.)

Quarter in a payphone
Drying laundry on the line
Watching sun tea in the window
Pocket watch, tellin' time
Seems like only yesterday, I'd get a blank cassette
Record the country countdown, 'cause I couldn't buy it yet 

If we drove all the way to Dallas
Just to buy an Easter dress
We'd take along a Rand McNally, stand in line to pay for gas
God knows that shifting gears ain't what it used to be
I learned to drive that 55, just like a queen three on a tree 

Hey what ever happened to waiting your turn
Doing it all by hand, cause when everything is handed to you
It's only worth as much as the time put in
It all just seems so good the way we had it
Back before everything became automatic 

If you had something to say
You'd write it on a piece of paper
Then you put a stamp on it
And they'd get it three days later
Boys would call the girls
And girls would turn them down
Staying married was the only way to work your problems out 

Hey what ever happened to waiting your turn
Doing it all by hand, cause when everything is handed to you
It's only worth as much as the time put in
It all just seems so good the way we had it
Back before everything became automatic
Automatic 

Let's put the windows down
Windows with the crank
Come on let's take a picture
The kind you gotta shake 

Hey what ever happened to waiting your turn
Doing it all by hand, cause when everything is handed to you
It's only worth as much as the time put in
It all just seems so good the way we had it
Back before everything became automatic

So today, I confess my sins before God and before others and commit myself to once again seeking to live a life faithful to the Lord whom I serve. I embrace the difficulties and the hard-work; I am alert to the temptations and easy paths of life; and I rejoice in the life that God has given me. I will seek to put effort into this life and in this way appreciate the good life I have been given.

Follow-Up to Ghost in the Machine

Two quotes from David Chalmers express the importance of studying the concept of consciousness.

Even when I was studying mathematics, physics, and computer science, it always seemed that the problem of consciousness was about the most interesting problem out there for science to come to grips with.1

I think [consciousness] provides plenty of grounds for reorientating our view of how the world might be. We think 'OK it's nice and simple' - there's biology, there's chemistry, there's physics and so on but one thing we learn from studying science is that the more and more you study science, the more and more you realise just how strange the world is. Quantum mechanics is fundamentally strange, what it tells us about the basic nature of reality. Studying consciousness tells us more about how the world is fundamentally strange. I think we have a few revolutions to go yet before we get to the bottom of it.2

1 David Chalmers, http://machineslikeus.com/biographies/david-chalmers
2 David Chalmers, http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/allinthemind/david-chalmers-on-the-big-conundrum-consciousness/3546288

Ghost in the Machine

For some time I have been a fan of Kyler England. I love her solo work but she has also written and performed with "The Rescues" and most recently has teamed up with former "Rescues" member, Adrianne Gonzalez, to create the duo: "The Fire and the Sea." Their lyric video, The Ghost in the Machine, can be seen and heard here.

Ghost in the Machine
(from the lyric video by "The Fire and The Sea") 

You are the ghost in the machine
Flickering
And I don't know what it means
You trouble me 

Behind the smoke
And the screen
I'm hiding, I'm hiding
But when the secret's out
And the wounded sing
What's lost is found
You trouble me
And it's troubling 

In the light you follow me
Shadowing
In the dark you're all I see
Surrounding
In a sweet unwanted dream
Trouble needs a place to sleep
But when the secret's out
And the wounded sing
What's lost is found
You trouble me
And it's troubling 

When the secret's out
You are the ghost in the machine
Flickering
When the secret's out
And the wounded sing
What's lost is found
You trouble me
And it's troubling

The concept of "the ghost in the machine" is a well-known philosophical term which refers to the separation of mind and body. Some, like British philosopher Gilbert Ryle1, suggest that it is a false concept while others would suggest that the difficulty we have in explaining "consciousness" indicates that there is a "ghost in the machine" or perhaps a "soul in the body." Consciousness may be a candidate for a distinction between the pure chemistry of the mind and perception; but, is consciousness sufficient to suggest a ghost in the machine?

Regarding consciousness and perception, Alva Noë has said,

Consider this; we are conscious of both more and less than affects our nervous system. Let me give you an example. I look at a tomato. It’s sitting there on the counter in front of me. It’s red and bulgy and three dimensional and I experience all that visually. I have a sense even visually of the back of the tomato, but I can't see the back of the tomato. It’s out of view and yet it’s part of my experience of the tomato that it has a back. It’s present in that sense to me, but note it doesn’t strike my retina. It’s present. It informs. It structures my visual experience without actually being an element that stimulates my nervous system.2

N.T. Wright points out that Neo-Platonic concepts of dualism have influenced our concepts of body and soul, brain and mind, and heaven and earth.3 He suggests that the Bible is much more holistic in its presentation and argues for a holistic view of body and being. David Chalmers suggests that a machine could indeed be "all machine and no ghost."4 Others speak of the Holy Spirit of God and how it interacts with humans as the "ghost in the machine." What is the truth? This question is certainly troubling.


1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_machine
2 http://bigthink.com/think-tank/the-ghost-in-the-machine-unraveling-the-mystery-of-consciousness
3 http://ntwrightpage.com/Wright_SCP_MindSpiritSoulBody.htm
4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_problem_of_consciousness

Flowers and Souls

Jesus set the book of nature before me and I saw that all the flowers he has created are lovely. The splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not rob the little violet of its scent nor the daisy of its simple charm. I realized that if every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its loveliness and there would be no wildflowers to make the meadows gay.

It is just the same in the world of souls which is the garden of Jesus. He has created the great saints who are like the lilies and the roses, but he has also created much lesser saints and they must be content to be the daisies or the violets which rejoice his eyes whenever he glances down. Perfection consists in doing his will, in being that which he wants us to be.

Jesus, help me to simplify my life by learning what you want me to be - and becoming that person.

Saint Therese of Lisieux, from Story of a Soul

Skyscraper Soul

I had a surreal experience tonight. I had just finished a day of work and I was waiting on Maureen as she was walking home from her job. I was sitting in our condo on the 14th floor of a 27 storey skyscraper watching the sun go down and the people bustling home from work. I turned on a previously recorded television show of Jim Cuddy performing his Set List in Studio One at Corus Quay in Toronto. He was singing Skyscraper Soul and the words flowed over my consciousness. It was like he was in the room with me describing the sights and feelings of my day. Oh yes, I've got a skyscraper soul and I'm scraping up against the sky!

Skyscraper Soul (words and music by Jim Cuddy)
© JimCuddy.com 2006 - 2011

Everyone knows it, try not to show it,
This city can bring you down
I’m a believer some days are hard, but
I couldn’t leave this town

I got a skyscraper soul
Like a flower that comes where the sun never goes
Skyscraper soul
Filling my heart where there once was a hole

Look out my window
Watching the sun go down
On the crowds below
I know the struggle,
Weaving through trouble
Life can be hard, I know

I got a skyscraper soul
There’s mud in my veins and there’s steel in my bones
Skyscraper soul
Building it all up from water and stones

Look through the market stalls
Over broken walls
To this hollowed ground
Looks are deceiving
There’s a heart beating
Here in this battered town

Cause I got a skyscraper soul
Like a flower that comes where the sun never goes
Skyscraper soul
Filling it all up with water and stones

I’ve got a skyscraper soul
There's mud in my veins and there’s steel in my bones
Skyscraper soul
Brushing the rust off and losing control

http://www.jimcuddy.com/Music/Songography/default.aspx?songid=12cce866-fd61-4653-86d0-17f5e8d9c129