I realize I lost much of ‘who I am’ in the past year. My social skills, with people other than my family, have diminished. I am not as optimistic as I once was. I am angrier - at both political parties, at the media and at feeling as if I was under house arrest for a year. COVID has even made me lazier. And these are NOT attitudes and emotions that I want to take with me when I pass away. They are poisonous to my spirit and I need to be rid of them. Physically, you have brain synapses that have certain chemical makeups that represent your personality and memories. We know this because if someone experiences a brain injury, the memories stored in that part of the brain are lost. Now imagine that your spirit is superimposed upon your physical brain. Your personality, emotions, and memories are constantly being copied from your physical brain to your spirit. Today we will discuss how to assure your spirit is copying the best of you.
email at scottrfrazer@gmail.com
website at www.scottrfrazer.com
S1E26 – Restoring Your Spirit after COVID-19
This is the podcast Science and Scriptures, Season 1, Episode 26, or “Restoring Your Spirit after COVID-19”.
Hello again. This Scott Frazer of the podcast Science and Scriptures. In the last episode, we discussed being a part of a diverse and inclusive church. Today, I would like to dedicate this episode to getting back to our pre-COVID selves.
I just got my first COVID-19 vaccination and I am looking forward to my second. New cases of COVID-19 are going down and Facemask mandates by the government are easing. It looks like life may actually be returning to normal. Thank goodness. It has been just over a year since this all started. In the past couple of weeks, I have been doing a self-assessment to see how I changed in the past year. COVID-19 and 2020 in general has changed me – and the results are not pretty.
I realize I lost much of ‘who I am’ in the past year. My social skills, with people other than my family, have diminished. I am not as optimistic as I once was. I am angrier - at both political parties, at the media and at feeling as if I was under house arrest for a year. COVID has even made me lazier, perhaps because government officials told to stay home and watch Netflix the whole year. As COVID restrictions start to ease, I have been thinking a lot about what I want to do next. I am concerned with the negative emotions I have experienced in my mind and spirit during the past year.
And these are NOT attitudes and emotions that I want to take with me when I pass away. They are poisonous to my spirit and I need to be rid of them.I would rather fix these issues here on Earth rather than deal with them after the Resurrection. I have recognized my problems and I am working to fix them. “How?” You may ask. By Meditation.
Now, please don’t reach for your cell phone to click the “Next Podcast” button. I NEVER thought I would reach a point in my life when I would be recommending meditation to anyone. I mocked the whole idea of meditation for years. I related it to the hippy culture of the 1960’s, repetitive mantras, hallucinogenic drugs, and to people who shave their heads and dress up in Chinese robes. But the nature of how meditation is taught has changed. Its requirements have gotten easier. You don’t have to sit cross-legged on the floor to meditate.
From the book Just Sit, authors Sukey and Elizabeth Novogratz explain,
“Meditation isn’t a way to stop your thoughts or empty your mind. Unless you’re dead, the mind doesn’t empty and thoughts don’t stop. Meditation is a way to slow down and observe your mind, not kill it.
Meditation is a way of training the mind to slow down, to be responsive, not reactive, to bring you into your life and out of the constant chatter that’s going on in your head. It is a workout for the mind, which means it takes work, practice, and discipline. And, like working out, results do not come overnight. . . Just like a new exercise program, you have to start, jump in, just do it.”
Meditation allows you to take an assessment of how angry, or frustrated, or depressed you are after this past year. We have to get over these negative emotions – both for you and your spirit’s sake. In fact, let’s digress here a moment and talk about your spirit.
Your Spirit Self
Generally, our physical selves take so much effort to care for that we often forget our spirits. This physical body requires that you feed it, wash it, clothe it and allow it to sleep. When the physical body is broken or sick, it requires visits to the doctor for maintenance. For a brief moment then, let’s talk about your spirit self. Note that I am not talking about being in touch with the Holy Ghost. That is important too, but I want you to become more aware of your own spirit (written with a small case “s”) rather than the Holy Spirit, (written with a Capital “S”).
Many people no longer believe that anyone has a spirit. But I think that many, if not all, of those people have a small voice in their head that disagrees with their assessment. Because, deep down, I think we can all relate to the feeling that our we are just passengers in this physical body that we live in. Some people may call this a consciousness. But I feel this spirit, or entity, goes a bit deeper than that. Let me give you a few examples to back up my statement.
Have you ever noticed the large number of movies that have been made about people’s spirits switching bodies? Most of these are comedies, of course, because the confusion that results from two spirits switching bodies opens up multiple funny situations. For example, you have…
Freaky Friday, a movie where a mom switches bodies with her daughter.This movie has been made a couple of times – first in 1976 and the later in 2003 with Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan.
It’s a Boy Girl Thing (2006) – a teenage boy and girl switch bodies
In the latest two Jumanji movies starring Dwayne Johnson, four people get sucked into a game and end up with different bodies. One of them becomes a horse…
In the movie All of Me, characters played by Steve Martin and Lilly Tomlin are both present in the same body! This concept was repeated in the movie The Host. This movie follows previous “Body Snatcher” movies where aliens can enter our bodies and control them. In The Host, an alien presence is implanted into a young girls body – but the girls’ spirit refuses to leave or take a back seat to alien control.
Disney has made several movies about body swapping. In The Shaggy Dog, a man’s spirit switches bodies with a dog! Disney also made a movie about a teenage girl and boy swapping bodies in 2016 called, predictably, The Swap. This swap of spirit, personality, and memories is initiated by a simple exchange of phone texts, both wishing they had the other person’s life. But the latest Disney movie about the spirit is a movie called “Soul” which just recently came out on Disney+. In this animated movie, we follow the soul of a man named Joe Gardner as he dies and then goes to various locations in the afterlife (and even the pre-existence) to get his earth life back. It is a great movie that opens up opportunities for good theological discussions.I should do a podcast on it…
The point of this review of body-swapping movies is how easily we accept the premise that our spirit can leave its body and go elsewhere – even into another person’s body. In most of these movies, the producers did not feel the need to provide a powerful sorcerer or strong magic to cause body-swapping to occur. They realized that their audiences would not require it, because we can imagine having our spirit in another body. Your consciousness is a part of your brain and is not mobile. But your spirit is meant to be mobile. Someday, when your body breaks down and can’t be fixed. You will die. I already feel the separation. My body is getting older, but my spirit does not feel old at all.
We accept the stories in the New Testament about possession by evil spirits. In other movies such as Heaven Can Wait or Soul, we accept the idea that a spirit can leave its body, go to heaven, and then return...
Even the way we speak about ourselves indicates our understanding that our bodies and spirits are separate entities.
For example, if I were to step on my wife’s foot, she might tell me, “Ouch, you hurt my foot”. My response of “I’m sorry” will suffice in that case. If my wife ever tells me “You hurt me!”, she doesn’t mean I bumped into her again.The pronoun “me” in this declaration refers to her feelings, her emotions, her spirit. I have offended her – the part of her that is her. It’s going to take more than a simple “I’m sorry” to make it right again.
When you talk about yourself and use the word “me”, you are talking about that blend of your consciousness, your personality and your spirit. When you talk about your physical body, you declare it to be yours – as in “my” body aches or “my” head hurts. Mentally, you know that you are the owner of your body – thus you use the word “my” when you refer to your own body or any part of it. But “you” are not your body, or the term “my body” would not make any sense. Who is the “my” that owns your body? You are not even your brain, or the term “my brain” would not make any sense. What is the essence of you that owns your body, brain, and heart and can rightly declare, “This is MY body.”
The Resurrection
There are a number of scriptures about the resurrection, that give us more insight into what our spirits must be.First, these scriptures take great pains to reassure us that the resurrection will restore everything about us to its original condition. In Alma chapter 40 we read,
“The soul shall be restored to the body, and the body to the soul;
yea, and every limb and joint shall be restored to its body; yea, even a
hair of the head shall not be lost; but all things shall be restored to their
proper and perfect frame.” (Alma 40:23)
Later, in Alma chapter 41 we read,
“the meaning of the word restoration is to bring back again evil for evil,
or carnal for carnal, or devilish for devilish—good for that which is
good; righteous for that which is righteous; just for that which is just;
merciful for that which is merciful. (Alma 41:12–13)
These verses rather set a requirement on how our brain and spirit are woven together. Our personality and our memories are woven into our brains. Physically, you have brain synapses that have certain chemical makeups that represent your personality and memories. We know this because if someone experiences a brain injury, the memories stored in that part of the brain are lost. If a brain injury occurs to the part of brain that holds our personalities and traits, our personalities will change or be lost. Physically, we have charted much of the brain and know where different parts of us – our personalities and memories – physically lie.When those parts of the brain are damaged, we lose abilities – such as the ability to talk or understand speech.Or, we lose memories, a condition we call amnesia.
Now imagine that your “spirit” is superimposed upon your physical brain. Your personality, emotions, and memories are constantly being copied from your physical brain to your spirit. If you die today, your physical brain will start to decompose quickly. Without oxygen, brain cells die within a few minutes.You will have used those synapses and brains cells for the last time. Thus, your memories, emotions, and personality must be stored within your spirit. For the perfect restorations discussed in these scriptures, a very accurate record of your righteousness, thoughts, and even your body frame (including limbs, joints, and even hair) will need to be kept. This puts some pretty heavy responsibilities upon our spirits.
As a side note, we believe that somewhere in that spiritual entity of yours, you have your memories of the Preexistence. We talk about a “veil” over that part of our minds, which is very poetic. But, using a computer metaphor instead, I think that our spirit selves can only copy what is sitting in our brains. It cannot download memories of our preexistence into the brain. You can think of it as a one-way data transfer memory core.
When the resurrection occurs, the information stored in your spirit will be downloaded into your resurrected body.I expect that the moments after the download will be very strange indeed as we reaccustom ourselves to having a new (and improved) body.
I greatly hope our beliefs on resurrection are true because it means that the time and effort I spent on my education on earth will continue to be useful. You get to take your education with you. In Doctrine and Covenants Section 130 we learn,
“Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection. And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come” (D&C 130:18—19).
I am very happy when I read that scripture. My education took twenty years of my life – and college tuition was expensive. I hope to be able to use that learning for many more years to come.
How to Get Ready for the Move
I assume everyone listening to this podcast has had to move a few times in their lives. Before the move, you try to get everything organized in the house – throwing out the junk and keeping those things of value. At some unexpected point in the future, your Spirit will be moving your memories and personality out of your brain. Your old body will be broken by an accident, breakdown of a single part, or the general wearing out of old age. With your death, your spirit will be moving out of your physically destroyed brain. It will temporarily take up residence in a place called the Spirit World. Eventually, it will enter your resurrected body.
Your spiritual self is the self you had before you were born. It will be the self you have after you die. It is the eternal, continuous part of you. It is the part of you that you can avoid and ignore if you wish. But you shouldn’t. I believe that, now that COVID restrictions are receding, this is an excellent time for you to do some house cleaning in your head. Thus you see why I recommend some meditation.
As you meditate, realize that you will have multiple voices chiming in from different parts of your brain. You can use that fact to your advantage. For example, as you calmly consider a problem, first examine it with the emotional side of your brain. Emotionally, what do you feel you should do with this problem? Your emotions are important to you. They could have been damaged in the past year and should be given voice during your meditations.
Then, examine the problem with your thinking, rational mind. What is the logical way to approach this problem?
Finally, examine the problem with the spiritual side of your brain. Is there a moral dilemma to this problem? Are any of these choices unacceptable to your conscience? Eventually, you can learn to quiet the voices that don’t represent your priorities. You can learn to reject decisions that your emotional core and your logical mind will eventually regret.
Meditation seems to be a learned skill. First, you find a comfortable spot, close your eyes, and relax. This relaxation may take longer than you expect. My own mind takes the opportunity to remind me of pending chores, communications, and responsibilities. To silence those thoughts, I have learned to keep a small notebook and pen at my side to write down those reminders my mind is obsessing over.
Meditation allows you time and quiet to consider your mental state and, at the same time, the state of your spirit. The purpose of meditation, no matter how you do it, is to give yourself some quality time to consider your mental and emotional state. At some point in time, your mental and emotional state will be imprinted on your spirit. The better your emotional state, the better off you will be.
I suggest you not meditate when you are exhausted. Many good ideas for improving your life will be summarily dismissed by a brain that is too tired to commit to the required effort. Finally, it goes without saying that this is a good time to confirm that you are doing everything possible for your mental health. Are you eating healthy foods? Are you aware of your use (or over-use) of your computers, tablet, and phone?
As aspects of your life come to mind, I encourage you to examine each one and decide if it is causing you grief, happiness, or stress. Your mind changes each day of your life. Your feelings about your job, spouse, family, ambitions, and goals also change. You should allow each issue its own time on the stage of your mind. What are your present worries, insecurities, and difficulties? Depression is on the rise in all cultures. If you are suffering depression then please see your doctor and tell him about your life. Meditation will only help work out certain issues – not all of them.
Many people, including myself, are “fixers”—we want to fix whatever is broken in our home, family, country, and world. Though we can use the little bit of influence we have to shape it, our world often moves on without heeding us. I have to remind myself that, while I will do my part to help my family, my community and world, there are few problems that I can actually fix. Hopefully, accepting that fact each day will take some of the stress out of life.
Meditation is meant to be a time to gather thoughts and examine your life. Are you at peace with where you are in life and what you are doing? This is never a simple question, and the answer keeps changing.
Meditation Is Not Prayer
Before I leave this topic, please note that meditation is not the same thing as prayer. In prayer, you are actually conversing with your Heavenly Father and there is pressure to pay attention to Him. The expectation of giving attention to a conversation tends to distract from effective meditation. Faithful Church members often cannot resist the urge to tend to their spiritual side and forget that their mental state deserves its own focused attention. Seeking the Spirit is a noteworthy goal—but not during your mental assessment time. Stay focused on sorting out your thoughts. Prayer can wait its turn, and it may be something you want to do right after meditation.
I don’t know what my spirit looks like. Many church members have told me that my spirit will look like I did when I was in my early twenties, at the peak of my adult health. That will be fine, I suppose. But I don’t believe it’s that simple. The premortal spirit with which I was born does not exist anymore. It has been affected by my earth life, made somehow uglier or more unpleasant by negative things I have experienced and made healthier and happier by the good things of my life. We have been assured that our spirit will absorb everything about our personalities and memories that occurred on Earth. We will recognize our families and take our likes and dislikes with us. My goal through meditation is to assess and adjust those likes and dislikes, prejudices, anger, and resentments and clean house. COVID-19 has not been a good influence on me and its ill effects must be stopped. I need to return to being more Christlike, more loving, and LESS influenced by the unrighteous, overly political, and selfish world it has become in the past year.I hope you will consider joining me in this quest.
So I encourage you to find your favorite chair in a quiet place at home, silence your phone, and meditate at least 15 minutes a day. Evaluate if you are the person you want to be. Stop blaming COVID for the disruptions it has caused in your mental, emotional, and spiritual life. Then work to fix them. Resolve to not check the news feed on your phone as often and get your own calm and control back.
After that kind of meditation, you might be surprised at how your spirituality improves. Shedding yourself of anger, frustration, COVID-imposed isolations, and the anxiety of politics can only improve your communication with the Holy Ghost.
So, that is all I have for you today. Thanks for listening. I hope this podcast made sense to you. Meditation – or just taking time to process my own thoughts now that normality seems a possibility - seems to be working for me. I recommend it. In conclusion, if you have any suggestions for future topics, please let me know at my G-mail email. This is Scott Frazer from the podcast “Science and Scriptures”. Have a great week and take care.