Does your spirit knows things that your head does not know?

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Not sure if Philosophy is the right forum for this topic but here goes:

Yes, I’ve known things about people-having a strong, unrelenting sense that such and such was true- without having a logical reason for knowing it. For example, I once “knew” that a person had been molested as a child but had to persist in my attempts at drawing that fact out until they finally broke down and revealed a secret they’d carried around for years. The person wouldn’t admit it at first and I was starting to think I was crazy but when they finally let it out, a process of healing began.

Another example would be falling in love. My brain had absolutely no idea I loved a certain person-and I had no wherewithal to do so really- until the “symptoms” were so overwhelming I finally had to admit it to myself.

One last example would be prayer. I’ve experienced praying for something I had no reason to think needed praying for only to find out later the reason was valid indeed. My spirit had to sort of by-pass my brain.
 
Man formally and properly understands; therefore the intellective soul is the proper form of man.

It is impossible to know things “spiritually” that are not rationally formative or conceivable. So the answer is no. However, intuitions or experiences that are vocally incommunicable are not proof against the first conclusion; and only an evidence that the vocal formation is not a perfect medium of logic.

👍
 
JohnDamian said:
Man formally and properly understands; therefore the intellective soul is the proper form of man.

It is impossible to know things “spiritually” that are not rationally formative or conceivable. So the answer is no. However, intuitions or experiences that are vocally incommunicable are not proof against the first conclusion; and only an evidence that the vocal formation is not a perfect medium of logic.

👍
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Didn’t you believe that the Holy Spirit attempts to convey many things to us that we reject because we operate so much in the soulish realms?
 
sinnerdexter said:
If not, why not? If yes, how? why? or give example.
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It is not clear what you mean by “head”. It could mean:
  1. What is occurring in your brain. Obviously you know more than that because the brain is not aware of itself.
  2. Your conscious mental activity. You know something about your unconscious mental activity if you practise psychoanalysis and interpret your dreams.
  3. All your mental activity. This is the closest to the truth but it depends on how we define the mind. Animals have minds but do they have souls or spirits? They do not have the power of reason or free will or a conscience but they do have intelligence, feelings and “vitality” - which is lacking in inanimate objects. The famous scientist Sir Charles Sherrington who won the Nobel Prize in 1932 for his discoveries regarding the functions of neurons wrote in his book Man on his Nature that it is impossible to know at what level biological development entails a spiritual dimension. He rejected the mechanistic view of life and shortly before his death said:
“For me now, the only reality is the human soul.”

The father of modern neurosurgery, Wilder Penfield, struggled to prove that the brain accounts for the mind but had to change his mind after performing surgery on more than a thousand epileptic patients. In the course of this, he encountered concrete evidence that the brain and mind are actually distinct from each other, though they clearly interact.

“Penfield would stimulate electrically the proper motor cortex of conscious patients and challenge them to keep one hand from moving when the current was applied. The patient would seize this hand with the other hand and struggle to hold it still. Thus one hand under the control of the electric current and the other hand under the control of the patient’s mind fought against each other. Penfield risked the explanation that the patient had not only a physical brain that was stimulated to action but also a non-physical reality that interacted with the brain.”

Penfield himself wrote:

“To expect the highest brain mechanism or any set of reflexes, however complicated, to carry out what the mind does, and thus perform all the functions of the mind, is quite absurd…What a thrill it is, then, to discover that the scientist, too, can legitimately believe in the existence of the spirit.”
(The Mystery of the Mind, Princeton University Press, 1975, pp.79 & 85).

examiner.com/x-35125-Calvinism-Examiner~y2010m3d3-The-evidence-for-the-soul-and-its-link-to-God

None of this comes as a surprise for those who are aware of spiritual insight and inspiration as the result of prayer, meditation and contemplation. There is far more in life than meets the eye, the ear, the nose, the tongue and the skin… 🙂
 
@Tonyrey - This is not in response to your earlier post. But let me ask you few key questions.

What causes confussion?
Who do you think is the author of confussion?
 
Guys, I think maybe you’re making this too complicated.
Like I said, sd, Philosophy might not be the right forum here-Spirituality could be a better choice. 🙂
 
tonyrey said:
It is not clear what you mean by “head”. It could mean:
  1. What is occurring in your brain. Obviously you know more than that because the brain is not aware of itself.
  2. Your conscious mental activity. You know something about your unconscious mental activity if you practise psychoanalysis and interpret your dreams.
  3. All your mental activity. This is the closest to the truth but it depends on how we define the mind.
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I’d say the answer to the question is no, because “spirit” and mind are 2 different faculties.

Spirit is the English translation of the biblical words used for life, literally, breath. You need to breathe before you know anything, but you can breathe without knowing. They are not the same.

Of course, there is also a “spiritual sense of smell,” so to speak. But we won’t know anything by this means until the knowledge is “in our heads,” because our head is what we use to know. If we know something, it is in our head at the moment we know it, even if it is supernatural.

So again, I’d say the answer is no.
There is far more in life than meets the eye, the ear, the nose, the tongue and the skin… 🙂
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But let’s not forget, all of our life’s experiences are given us by these pathways…👍

ICXC NIKA.
 
I kind of think intuition comes FROM the spirit… so I say yes.
 
sinnerdexter said:
If not, why not? If yes, how? why? or give example.
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Nothing is in the intellect that is not first in the senses: Nihil est in intellectu quod non prius in sensu. ( Iª q. 84 a. 6Summa Theologica). Yet, according to St. Thomas ( IIª-IIae q. 173 a. 3Summa Theologica co.), there are 4 means by which God can privately reveal knowledge, all of which do not disrupt the natural order:


  1. *]“the infusion of an intelligible light”
    *]“the infusion of intelligible species”
    *]the “impression or coordination of pictures in the imagination” (abstraction from the senses only occurs in this case)
    *]“the outward presentation of sensible images”

    Only in case 3 “abstraction from the senses is necessary”. This means that the origin of the knowledge is not the senses, but God directly. So, one’s soul can know things directly from God apart from what the senses, of which the brain is one (It’s an organ of internal sense.), inform it.
 
sinnerdexter said:
What causes confusion?
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Confusion is mainly caused by our limited insight and intelligence but it may also result from our failure to use our intelligence and knowledge or to ask for advice.
Who do you think is the author of confusion?
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Sometimes we are responsible for being confused as a result of own carelessness but usually no one is responsible. Confusion is usually due to the complexity of life’s situations - although we cannot rule out the possibility that Satan may have a hand in it!
 
tonyrey said:
If that is the case we have no spiritual experiences…
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Even “spiritual experiences” involve an apparently new form of seeing, hearing, etc.

And, if the experience is not the “experience” of death, no doubt it is recorded to our mind using the same neuro pathways used for our human sight, sound, etc.

ICXC NIKA.
 
The rational mind does not contain everything that we know. We also know things with our bodies, and with our instincts, and with the non-rational part of our brain, that we either can’t put into words, or that our rational mind has simply not been made aware of, yet.

These are still elements of our corporeal self that contain this other information, however - it’s not our “spirit.” 🙂
 
tonyrey said:
Confusion is mainly caused by our limited insight and intelligence but it may also result from our failure to use our intelligence and knowledge or to ask for advice.
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The mind is the battlefield where our war with Satan is either won or lost.
tonyrey said:
Sometimes we are responsible for being confused as a result of own carelessness but usually no one is responsible. Confusion is usually due to the complexity of life’s situations - although we cannot rule out the possibility that Satan may have a hand in it!
Click to expand...
👍 (bolded)
 
fhansen said:
Guys, I think maybe you’re making this too complicated.
Like I said, sd, Philosophy might not be the right forum here-Spirituality could be a better choice. 🙂
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Agree. I hope you can help move this thread to “Spirituality” forum.
 
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