Phantoms and Physics

I've been reading a lot about both religion and the scientific schools of thought that refute religion. There's still something missing. And that's what I was referring to in my last post. The subject of the spirit is rarely addressed. If it is, it is usually "lumped in" with either organized religion, or disregarded by scientists as a byproduct of the mind and body. My question is, what is the spirit?

To determine what something is, we must first agree on what it's not. When I speak of the spirit I'm not referring to emotions. I'm even willing to consider the idea that emotions are an evolutionary trait that manifest themselves to warn our bodies, and keep them out of harms way. I'm not referring to ghosts, or the dualistic view that our bodies and spirits can be separated after death. I'm speaking of that barely perceivable side of us that is tapped into other living things. It's the thing that some people may refer to as "animal instinct". It's a part of us that most people don't regard, and spend their lives ignoring. I think that most people ignore it out of fear that they'll be categorized as pagan, religious, or crazy. But if you're one of the few that pay attention to it, it's hard to deny it's existence.

In August of 2003 I had the first of many experiences that led to my complete belief in the existence of the spirit. I was in an elevator reading a book. The door opened and someone entered. I was immersed in my book and didn't look up. But as I was reading, I became suddenly aware that the elevator had become full of an oppressive feeling that felt like anger. I perceived all of this as I was reading, and it was more of a passing observation because I was really enjoying my book and didn't want to be distracted from it. But in between chapters, I made a point of looking up just before the doors opened and the man exited the elevator. His facial expressions revealed that he was seething in anger. His jaw was clenched and his face was red. But he walked out of the elevator with the same calm stride that he had entered it in.

After that point, I began to become increasingly aware of these occurrences. At that time, I was also friends with a couple other people that were willing to talk about things of this nature without passing judgment on me. Since that time in my life, I don't think that I've become more sensitive to these things, just more aware of them. And because I'm a very rational person who is interested in science and evolution, these "feelings" or "sensations" tend to be simultaneously disturbing (because they're unexplainable) and interesting at the same time. So far, the scientific community has been able to explain a great deal, but the subject of the spirit is still unexplored because of the stigmas that have been forced on the subject by various institutions.

I was a Christian from ages 8-13 (or I should say the child of Christian parents). Before that, I lived with my mother who dabbled in witchcraft, tarot, and basically anything pagan. So I'd like to think I'm uniquely qualified to express an opinion on the subject of religion and spirituality. BTW, I think that both ends of the theological spectrum are equally misguided. Neither pagans nor Christians are really searching for the truth. Pagan rituals and most claims of experiences with the paranormal are equally unnecessarily grandiose to me. And it's my experiences with both radical schools of thought and my discovery of science that, up until that point in my life in 2003, had made me wary of anything having to do with spirituality. I think that most rational people probably feel the same way that I felt about the subject of spirituality.

But both the scientific and religious communities are so busy fighting with each other that they can't see the "gray area" in between. I can't wait for the day when controlled scientific experiments reveal the workings of simple day-to-day things like the maternal instinct, or true love. Until then, I guess people will have to hold on to their stories of gods, and their curious rituals to explain and categorize the human spirit.