| Stanley was my best friend. The last time I saw him, | | | | regard matter as being composed of billiard ball-like |
| we both wore our new Cub Scout uniforms. Stanley, | | | | component atoms. This materialistic perspective leads |
| however, occupied a coffin. | | | | to several conclusions which are incompatible with |
| The church's silence, the images before me, and the | | | | spiritual beliefs. The first conclusion by materialists is |
| sweet floral fragrance contributed to my trancelike | | | | that reality is simply physical and that spirit, or |
| state. The minister spoke softly as he said, | | | | immaterial essence, is myth. The second is that the |
| "Sometimes, we cannot understand God's will. Stanley | | | | mind and consciousness are merely the result of brain |
| is in heaven." | | | | activities. These assumptions logically eliminate free will, |
| I was too shocked by my friend's death to | | | | since if all the workings of the universe and humans |
| contemplate this notion, although I could see Stanley's | | | | are mechanical, as many scientists posit, humans |
| body in his casket. | | | | cannot influence the future. Finally, the third is that since |
| I hid my grief and trauma. Just as each Cub Scout | | | | we are but matter, when we die nothing |
| badge I earned was put away in a cigar box, nearly all | | | | survives-neither mind nor spirit. |
| of my childhood memories, along with my sense of | | | | But what is life? And what really happens after death? |
| loss over Stanley, were placed in a mental cigar box. I | | | | Whether a person lives seven years or 70, is life |
| focused on my dream of becoming a scientist. | | | | merely a succession of vignettes of memories, |
| Ultimately, I became a physical organic chemist, and I | | | | feelings, and experiences that vanish when we die? Is |
| had no occasion to ponder death or spiritual matters | | | | that it-like they never happened at all? Seeking |
| until decades later when another death occurred. | | | | alternatives to the materialistic perspective, I searched |
| The Journey | | | | for scientific evidence for existence after death. |
| When death again grabbed my attention, I questioned | | | | Perhaps, I reasoned, many people embrace spirituality |
| what had happened to Stanley and to all those who | | | | in the hope of an afterlife. |
| die. I reopened the box that hid my childhood | | | | Healing the Rift |
| memories, thus beginning a 25-year process of | | | | I pondered these questions, and spirituality began to |
| questioning the nature of our existence. My work | | | | inch back into my life. Beginning as a distant whisper, |
| involved biology and chemistry, but my quest to | | | | the voice grew nearer. The image of spirituality |
| understand human existence also led to an expanded | | | | changed into a welcome friend who cherished our |
| study of cosmology and physics. I tackled the big | | | | world. I found a fascinating contrast between science |
| questions: Where did we come from? How did life | | | | and spirituality and, in the contrast, I also found |
| originate? What is reality? How can mind and | | | | unexpected harmony. |
| consciousness emerge from brain and body? I realized | | | | My journey took me on a tour of the mind-boggling |
| that science doesn't have the answers to these | | | | scientific concepts of the creation of the universe, life, |
| questions-only suppositions. | | | | and humankind. New theories reveal a startling view of |
| Are we simply a collection of cells in a human body | | | | reality. Recent breakthroughs explain how mind and |
| that eventually becomes ill and perishes when it fails? | | | | consciousness emerge from body and brain, |
| Many scientists support this theory, while spiritual | | | | overturning previous dogmas and offering new healing |
| beliefs contradict it. Is there a plan for us? Science | | | | methods. New studies provide fascinating insights into |
| explains our bodies as mechanisms of the material | | | | the possibility of an afterlife. Comparing 21st-century |
| realm, ignoring the issue of any possible plan or design. | | | | science with spiritual beliefs, I found that a new truth |
| Spirituality, on the other hand, views our bodies as both | | | | was emerging. I discovered how the rift between |
| material and immaterial, asserting that there is a "plan." | | | | science and spirituality can be healed. |
| With the exception of physicists, scientists typically | | | | |