Pioneer Neuroscientists Believed the Mind Is More Than the Brain

Pioneer Neuroscientists Believed the Mind Is More Than the Brain

A number of them were Nobel Laureates and their views were informed by their work

In a podcast discussion with Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks, neurosurgeon Michael Egnor talks about how many famous neuroscientist became dualists—that is, they concluded that there is something about human beings that goes beyond matter—based on observations they made during their work [4:24 min].

Show Notes
00:46 | Introducing Dr. Michael Egnor, Professor of Neurosurgery and Pediatrics at State University of New York, Stony Brook
01:18 | Non-overlapping magisteria (NOMA)
01:58 | Is there a soul?
02:42 | The soul vs. the spirit
04:24 | Wilder Penfield on the soul and the spirit
04:47 | What is a dualist?
06:47 | Open brain operations
08:25 | Penfield’s first line of reasoning for dualism
09:56 | Penfield’s second line of reasoning
11:14 | Penfield’s third line of reasoning

04:24 | Wilder Penfield on the soul and the spirit

Robert J. Marks: What did the research of one of your fellow neurosurgeons, in history, Wilder Penfield, tell us about the soul and the spirit?

Michael Egnor: Wilder Penfield (1891–1976) was one of many neuroscientists who was a dualist. In fact, many of the greatest neuroscientist in history have been dualists…

04:47 | What is a dualist?

Robert J. Marks: Could you just briefly, in a sentence, explain what a dualist is again?

Michael Egnor: Sure. A dualist is someone who believes that some aspect of the mind is not material. That is, that there is something above and beyond brain matter that constitutes the human mind.

Sherrington (right), who was really the original pioneer of neuroscience, worked back near the beginning of the twentieth century was a dualist, as was Dr. Penfield, whom I will talk about momentarily.

Note: Charles Scott Sherrington (1857–1952) won the Nobel Prize, along with Edgar Adrian, for Physiology or Medicine in 1932. “His investigations of nearly every aspect of mammalian nervous function directly influenced the development of brain surgery and the treatment of such nervous disorders as paralysis and atrophy. Sherrington coined the term synapse to denote the point at which the nervous impulse is transmitted from one nerve cell to another.” – Britannica

Michael Egnor: And there was John Eccles in the 1960s, a Nobel Laureate who was a passionate dualist. (John Eccles, below, in 1963, CC by 3.0)