Joshua Farris, Ph.D, CSM, CSPO

Ever wonder if the ancient notion of the soul is still valid? I explore with you reasons why you are a soul and why you are uniquely and wonderfully created.

Contra what many think, dementia actually teaches us a lot about the soul and what it means to be a person. I am reminded of interactions with my grandmother. Throughout her life, she would often sing at random times while she was cooking, cleaning, or simply walking about the house. She would sing songs—songs of faith. She would often sing songs like Amazing Grace, I’ll Fly Away, and other great hymns she was raised with. What is interesting is that when she was old and her memories were fading, her body was frail, and she was going blind, she persisted in her habits of singing. While she did not have dementia, observing her revealed much about the nature of the soul of which several studies are confirming: there is more to the soul than we originally thought and these cause us to reflect afresh on some of the most important questions in life of which recent dementia studies make particularly acute. I explore with you why it is that we should think differently about dementia.

Ever wonder what the study of the brain might tell us about persons? Well, there is a great deal in neuroscience that suggests, in fact, that you are a soul rather than your brain. Several recent neuroscientific studies actually show that there is a you that is not your brain, a you that will live on, and that the afterlife might just be a hopeful one.