Might the nonphysical mind provide life a mechanism of intelligence that no machine will ever possess?
Many scientists view speculation on the nonphysical nature of life and the mind as “unscientific” and conceptually useless (1). They explain that each of us only knows our own internal experience of reality. Nevertheless, most of us readily accept that other humans posses a conscious mind. Why? Because we see that their behaviors are similar to our own. And many of us readily accept that dogs and cats are also conscious for we relate to them. From their behaviors one can conclude that these animals also experience fears, desires, and joys. But what about birds, fish, worm, or insects? And what about single-celled paramecium and amoebas? Are they conscious? Few, if any, respected biologists would dare ask such questions today. But at the beginning of the last century, the eminent biologist of Johns Hopkins University, Herbert Jennings, posed the radical question in his well-respected book, The Behaviors of Lower Organisms. Peering through his microscope with the diligence of a field bio
