Dualism vs Materialism or Mind vs Soul

[Raven]

Perhaps it would help were I to elaborate a bit more. Way back when, I was raised in the Roman Catholic Church, which I long ago decided I wanted no more to do with. Other denominations were certainly an improvement, but nothing quite fit. Zen Buddhism made the most sense to me, and a lot of it still does. Even if I've no use for any Christian denomination any longer I still like much of what the man from Nazareth is supposed to have taught. I'm kind of like Gandhi in that respect, I like Christ, I just could do without a lot of those who claim to be good Christians. Eventually it got to the point that the only thing that worked for me is that God either does not exist or if he does he is doing an unconscionably terrible job. Either way, there is no reason for me to believe.

But there is one little detail that has bothered me all along, which is where the OP came from. As a general rule I have always leaned toward wanting to see something concrete, something that can be measured. Personally I would prefer to call it 'spirit' rather than 'soul' but that is just because I'd rather not give it a religious connotation. What's bothersome is that this is not something, that if it does exist,
is able to be measured. If it is, where is it? Or are we nothing more than the sum of our memories and a bunch of neurological discharges inside our brain? I guess that I'd like to think that we're more than that. But wishing does not make it so. I have zero expectation of any existence beyond my time on this earth, so that isn't it. I just wonder if there is indeed any 'spiritual essence' that comprises the real 'you'.

Chad wrote: I do not know. Nobody really does. One idea is that the brain acts more like a radio. Certain brain states tune in to receive non-physical attributes like sensation. A damaged brain would thus not be able to receive or interact effectively with whatever it is that supports mental properties. Dualism is about much more that the 'soul'. It has to do with all mental properties regardless of whether in the form of a soul or something else.

One interesting problem to me is that so much of the brain is NOT conscious. One thing everyone agrees on is that the brain is extremely chaotic, in that slight changes in one area cascade throughout the entire system. It seems to me that if something non-physical acted upon the brain it would not need a very large footprint.

Interesting, but sensation causes neural activity- would it not be physical in that sense?