Page 59 - Timelessness and the Reality of Fate

The Secret Beyond Matter 57

The brain is a heap of cells made up of protein and fat molecules. It is formed of
nerve cells called neurons. There is no power in this piece of flesh to observe the
images, to constitute consciousness, or to create the being we call "myself".

about who the perceiver is:
Philosophers since the Greeks have speculated about the "ghost" in the
machine, the "little man inside the little man" and so on. Where is the I -- the
entity that uses the brain? Who does the actual knowing? Or, as Saint Fran-
cis of Assisi once put it, "What we are looking for is what is looking". 51
Now, think of this: The book in your hand, the room you are in, in
brief, all the images in front of you are seen inside your brain. Is it the
atoms that see these images? Blind, deaf, unconscious atoms? Why did
some atoms acquire this quality whereas some did not? Do our acts of
thinking, comprehending, remembering, being delighted, being unhappy,
and everything else consist of the electrochemical reactions between these
atoms?
When we ponder these questions, we see that there is no sense in
looking for will in atoms. It is clear that the being who sees, hears, and feels
is a supra-material being. This being is "alive" and it is neither matter, nor
an image of matter. This being associates with the perceptions in front of it
by using the image of the body.
This being is the "soul".
It is the soul that sees, hears, feels, perceives and interprets the copies
in the brain of the matter existing on the outside. The intelligent beings
that write and read these lines are not each a heap of atoms and molecules-
and the chemical reactions between them-but a "soul".