The expression "let's get to the heart of the matter" is well ingrained in the English language. When it comes to the heart itself, what is the heart of the matter? The question arose while thinking about open-heart surgery. Recently, two close relatives underwent the operation. One needed his aortic valve replaced. The other "only" needed her mitral valve repaired.
The idea that a highly trained stranger can literally hold a loved one's stopped heart in his hands, fix it and then restart it, struck me as something so wondrous that it is difficult to capture the feeling in words. It brought me face-to-face with the miracle of medical science and the Source of life Who makes miracles possible.
If you think about it, it is beyond remarkable that it is possible to sedate someone, cut through the breastbone, hook up a machine to take over the function of the heart and lungs, then repair a stopped heart (it is typically stopped for three hours during the five to six hour surgery). Then, the person is sewn back up, the heart and lungs kick back in, walking starts within days and the patient is usually home in less than a week. Even though physical activity is minimized in many ways, according to the discharge instructions from the Mitral Value Repair Center at The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, if the patient is interested, it is fine to resume sexual activity!
Where does the patient go when the heart stops?
Sleep is part of the spectrum of consciousness. If you have dreams, it is possible to remember them (meaning you are conscious of them). If someone tries to cut your chest open while you sleep, chances are excellent you will wake up from the pain and try to stop them. But under anesthesia, something else happens: You are gone. It is as if the patient has left her body and taken a vacation while the heart is reduced to a mechanical object in need of repair. The "you" that is your identity, including awareness of yourself and the world, has disappeared (or has it?). Moreover in open-heart surgery, the stopped heart implies a level of disconnection from the patient's essential self that is mystifying. How is possible to come back from such an invasion of you who are?
Kabbalah, Heart and Soul
Judaism and Kabbalah provide one answer as to how the essence of an open-heart surgery patient (as well as the rest of us) stays connected to the body: each of us has a soul that is transcendent to the physical body and is connected to the Divine. The soul has five levels intertwined with the human body in varying degrees. Nefesh, or vital soul, is the densest level and is most connected to physicality. It can be thought of as the life force, or chi, in the Taoist tradition. Ruach, wind or spirit, is related to the breath and is identified with emotional awareness. Neshamah, also related to breath, can be thought of as a defining quality of consciousness. Chaya, living essence, is a more refined level of soul connected to a transcendent level of consciousness. Yechidah, unity, is the soul in its essence; a spark of God beyond the plane of duality and in some sense is beyond the body.
This perspective of levels of soul implies that even as an indispensable part of the physical body and one's consciousness is out of commission, there is a level of connection to the body that is maintained on planes beyond normal consciousness.
Science, Heart and Soul
From a science perspective, there is an assumption that the brain produces consciousness, yet science has no explanation for how it works. New York Times bestselling author Dr. Larry Dossey asserts, "...consciousness can operate beyond the brain, body and the present, as hundreds of experiments and millions of testimonials affirm. Consciousness cannot, therefore, be identified with the brain."
Dr. Allan Hamilton, Harvard-trained neurosurgeon and author of The Scalpel and the Soul, relates an experience with a patient who was temporarily rendered brain dead during surgery. After she recovery, this woman could reiterate entire conversations conducted during her surgery. According to science, this is impossible. As Stephen Stills wrote, "There's something happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear..."
A Spectacular Success Story
The fact that thousands of people a day go through open-heart surgery with a stunning success rate implies a connection between mind/body/spirit beyond any mechanical/chemical explanation of how people work. There is an intelligent life force flowing through us that accepts and allows the miracle of open-heart surgery. As marvelous as the technology and skill set of a medical team are, there is an even more fantastic Force within us so vibrant and powerful that a person can withstand open-heart surgery and thrive.
I am very grateful for both science and the Source of it. Without them, my loved ones would not have the chance for many more years of healthy and productive living. To life!
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Karl Giberson, Ph.D: Mathematics and the Religious Impulse
Relationship between religion and science - Wikipedia, the free ...
Religion and Science (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
'Miracle' girl's heart heals itself - Health - Heart health ...
It’s a marvellous discovery; our own neurotransmitters can be temporarily interrupted by chemicals that shut down our ever-busy mind. It’s toying with death; it’s an interval of bracketed oblivion; it just won’t be interrupted when death does come. It’s really not that frightening.
That is, apparently, precisely what Herbert and Catherine Schaible did.
That's the absolute truth you seek...
there are more degrees of freedom it seems in god than in gravity one become saware of the law of gravity when walking to wards the edge of a cliff ; how high a state of consciousness one needs to become aware of the law of God as one approaches a decision
real science, science which is not divorced from the divine guidance, knows that heart health is simply healthy habitts which is the same thing, consciousness of happy healthy habits is, as obeying god or natural law
in vedic science the heart is Lakshmi and Mahalakshmi on a deeper level
You'll find that gravity exists, whereas a god who will intervene to save your sorry superstitious a$$ does not.
A Guru a Christ a Rabbi a teacher is like a laser light which reads the transcendental DVD an dmore importantly each individual needs to be in touch with their information field deep within their personal DVD
and for that more lively an dpeacefull connection , meditation 2x daily 20 minutes is necccessary
in the enlightened vision of Param Pujya maharishi Mahesh Yogi the supercompactified DVD inside of you is VEDA
supercompactified refers also to the higher dimensions in quantum physics 8+1+1 dimensional 24 + 1 + 1 dimensional whatever it is, Hilbert space or superstring field, supersymmetry
the inner DVD or the VEDA exists in the immortal field beyond Planck scale ; real physics will say nothing is beyond planck scale Planck is the smallest time dimension and smallest space dimension
maharishi ,who had a physics degree ,says beyond Planck scale is beyond time space an dcausation ;
what is free of time and space boundaries free of duality trinity and multiplicity but is the source of all ? that is pure unbounded consciousness : "an immaterial field" : John Hagelin
Upanishad :"smaller than the smallest is bigger than the biggest"
another perspective :like miners say, no worries it gets warmer the deeper one goes
That means that we can also be portals of eternity if we confess the truth.
The Bible says that the silly person says there is no God.
And, yes, open-heart surgery is an awesome miracle and act of Grace that scientists, doctors and the Divine have co-created together!
From the beginning of human existence to a few hundred years ago, no real scientists or doctors, only the "divine"; no open heart surgery.
Then scientists and doctors start doing research and developing techniques; in a comparatively very short time, open heart surgery.
Co-created? Or just being given unearned credit?
Tomorrow you'll be able to read:
"Invisible Pink Unicorns, Science and Open-Heart Surgery."
Next week we'll bring you:
"Flying Spaghetti Monsters, Science and Open-Heart Surgery.”
Pasta, by definition, cannot be the maker of all pasta.
Religion is the search for God. Science is the search for what God created. Science is useless at finding God, all it does is show you is God's brilliance in all that exists. And still even in that humans have barely scratched the surface of God's knowledge.
Humans don't know much. Yes, we have imperfect models of how nature works....But isn't a more humble and reasonable position to admit we just don't know rather than plug that void in knowledge with myths and treat those myths as fact?
I mean think of how strongly you believed in Santa Clause, I know I did, it was truth that he existed, and it was that yearly conditioning to believe in Santa Clause that set that belief in me. It wasn't' until my parent though tit was time I put childish beliefs away that I stopped believing.
So it's important to understand that the religious, have been trained and conditioned from birth to believe these things as truth. It's incredibly hard to shake that conditioning.
I've even known some Christians, who become Atheists, and then go back to being Christians, notice they didn't change their religion, they didn't go from Christian to Atheist, to say Hinduism, no they go back to what they were conditioned as children to believe.
Finding ways around science is in a way an tempt at validating beliefs, since religion can't keep up with Science, because we can nor longer be growing so modern and trying to stay so primitive at the same time
Oh, you meant the religion currently lead by Pope Dawkins! Yes, with their outlandish beliefs that science provides real knowledge, like how to build the computer you are currently using. That appealing to "a wizard did it!" or "I know it's true, trust me" does not provide knowledge (yet appealing to god of the gaps or faith do provide knowledge?). Clearly they are denying your justification for believing in god on mere wishful thinking, not the sort of logic and evidence I just described. Clearly these people devoutly wish to become worm food rather than chilling with their loved ones after death.
Yes, they are indeed in for a rude surprise. Rather than getting their long wished for afterlife as worm food, they will instead find... an eternal Disney World theme park where everyone gets free admission (even sinners) and thus the lines are always very, very long (hey, what does time matter in eternity?). Oh, you thought they'd go to heaven or hell. Well, there is as much evidence for that as my Disney World afterlife!
Oh yes, I do pity those atheists!
Thats never going to happen, because science exposes religion for what it is: nonsense.