Neuroscience shows that the soul is the activity of the brain.
Every evening our eyes tell us that the sun sets, while we know that, in fact, the Earth is turning us away from it. Astronomy taught us centuries ago that common sense is not a reliable guide to reality. Today it is neuroscience that is forcing us to readjust our intuitions. People naturally believe in the Ghost in the Machine: that we have bodies made of matter and spirits made of an ethereal thing. Yes, people acknowledge that the brain is involved in mental life. But they still think of it as a pocket PC for the soul, managing information at the behest of a ghostly user.
Modem neuroscience has shown that there is no user. "The soul" is, in fact, the information-processing activity of the brain. New imaging techniques have tied every thought and emotion to neural activity. And any change to the brain - from strokes, drugs, electricity or surgery - will literally change your mind. But this understanding hasn't penetrated the conventional wisdom. We tell people to "use their brains," we speculate about brain transplants (which really should be called body transplants) and we express astonishment that meditation, education and psychotherapy can actually change the brain, How else could they work?
This resistance is not surprising. In "Descartes' Baby," psychologist Paul Bloom argues that a mind-body distinction is built into the very way we think. Children easily accept stories in which a person changes from a frog to a prince, or leaves the body to go where the wild things are. And though kids know the brain is useful for thinking, they deny that it makes them feel sad or love their siblings.
The disconnect between our common sense and our best science is not an academic curiosity. Neuroscience is putting us in unfamiliar predicaments, and if we continue to think of ourselves as shadowy users of our brains we will be needlessly befuddled. The Prozac revolution provides an example. With antidepressant and anti-anxiety drugs so common, critics wonder whether we're losing the ability to overcome problems through force of will. Many an uncomprehending spouse has asked, "Why don't you just snap out of it?" But depressed people don't have lazy souls. The parts of their brains that could "snap out of it" are not working properly. To depressed people it is objectively obvious that their prospects are hopeless. Tweaking the brain with drugs may sometimes be the best way to jumpstart the machinery that we call the will.
Prozac shouldn't be dispensed like mints, of course, but the reason is not that it undermines the will. The reason is that emotional pain, like physical pain, is not always pathological. Anxiety is an impetus to avoid invisible threats, and most of us would never meet a deadline without it. Low mood may help us recalibrate our prospects after a damaging loss. But just as surgeons don't force patients to endure agony to improve their characters, people shouldn't be forced to endure anxiety or depression beyond what's needed to prompt self-examination.
To many, the scariest prospect is medication that can make us better than well by enhancing mood, memory and attention. Such drugs, they say, will undermine striving and sacrifice; they are a kind of cheating, like giving the soul a corked bat. But anything that improves our functioning - from practice and education to a good night' s sleep and a double espresso - changes the brain. As long as people are not coerced, it' s unclear why we should tolerate every method of brain enrichment but one.
In Galileo's time, the counter-intuitive discovery that the Earth moved around the sun was laden with moral danger. Now it seems obvious that the motion of rock and gas in space has nothing to do with right and wrong. Yet to many people, the discovery that the soul is the activity of the brain is just as fraught, with pernicious implications for everything from criminal responsibility to our image of ourselves as a species. Turning back the clock on the ultimate form of self-knowledge is neither possible nor desirable. We can live with the new challenges from brain science. But it will require setting aside childlike intuitions and traditional dogmas, and thinking afresh about what makes people better off and worse off.
The United Nations Conference on Drug Abuse that took place earlier this year in Vienna, was a very productive meeting. As never before, the nations of the world demonstrated a willingness to put aside ideological and individual differences to confront a common threat.
Most previous international gatherings on this subject have not seen the same intensity of delegate interest. Many nations have gone through a shock of recognition. A decade ago, only those nations identified as "consuming countries" were thought to have a serious drug problem. Today, not only have many "producing countries" also become "consuming countries", but many have witnessed the growth within their borders of drug trafficking gangs, often allied with leftist guerrillas (not members of a regular army) and terrorists, so powerful they present a danger to the state's stability. Many developing countries now have the worst of both worlds, in that they grow their own narcotics (drugs) and addict large numbers of their own people. There is a growing sense of fright in many governments that matters arc out of control and the single way to recover is through cooperation with other countries.
The high points of the conference were the drafting of two documents, both of which were adopted without a dissenting vote. One was a joint declaration of intent to combat drug abuse and trafficking. The other consisted of many detailed suggestions for particular regional and national policies.
Overall, the conference developed a two-level action plan. The focus was on ways to curb (control) the demand for dangerous drugs and on methods of destroying or at least interrupting the distribu tion process.
On the demand side, the delegates recommended the establishment of a system for collecting information on the nature and scope of narcotics use. In addition, they concluded that drug education should be taught in schools and that governments and labor organizations should act together in the anti-drug campaign in the workplace. The delegates also recommended strict adherence to international agreements to curb the supply of narcotics.
President Ronald Reagan, in his statement to the conference, reflected a somber but hopeful view. Nothing the magnitude of the effort necessary, the President remarked, "That's why this confer ence is so encouraging and so important - it presents an excellent opportunity for the nations of the world to build cooperation an plan effective strategies and tactics. It won't be easy. The alternative, however, is the continued internal decay of our societies."
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