Why Humanity Needs a Science of the Soul

Look at the world today.

In many African countries, people live amid hunger, poverty, and war. Sweden is one of the richest countries in the world and has one of the best welfare systems, yet people there still struggle with anxiety, depression, and loneliness. The United States is one of the most democratic countries in the world, yet drugs, shootings, divorce, and mental illness are still widespread. North Korea is one of the most authoritarian countries in the world, where people do not even have the freedom to speak the truth openly.

Poor countries, rich countries, democratic countries, authoritarian countries—we have tried them all, yet none has created a society in which people truly live in peace, ease, and stability. Money cannot solve it. Political systems cannot solve it either.

If all four kinds of countries share the same problems, then the cause must lie in something all four also share: human beings themselves.

The greatest problem facing human civilization today is not a lack of money or institutions. It is that among billions of people, no one truly knows what a human being is, and no one truly knows how a person should live this life.

If the foundation of civilization is wrong, everything built on top of it will be crooked.

I. What Is a Human Being?

To know how a person should live, we must first know what a person is.

Today, there are three common answers. Science says that a human being is a body made of cells, proteins, and chemicals. Religion says that a human being is a soul moving through past lives, this life, and future lives. Philosophy says that a human being is a thinking being.

Each answer captures one part, but none describes the whole human being.

A human being is actually a threefold whole.

The first dimension is the body. It is a physical body, and if you continue breaking it down, you eventually reach individual protein molecules.

The second dimension is the nervous system. It must be treated separately because all the protein molecules in the body are organized into a living whole under the regulation of the nervous system. Growing a hair, moving a finger, taking a breath—all of these involve the operation of the nervous system.

The third dimension is the soul. The soul is the controller and user of the nervous system.

You do not need a magnifying glass to find the soul. Everything you see, every sound you hear, every memory you recall, every joy and pain you feel—all of it comes together in the same “I.” There is not one “I” for the eyes and another “I” for the ears. The body you had at age ten and the body you have today have changed again and again, yet you know you are still the same person. A teenager who seriously thinks about these two facts can understand that there is a unified and continuously existing subject within him or her. It is like one plus one equals two. No instrument is needed to prove it.

From the moment a person is born, everything the body sees, hears, and touches is transmitted through the nervous system to the soul. Through this process, the soul begins to learn and to understand the world. At the same time, the soul sends its thoughts and decisions back through the nervous system to the body, and the body moves and acts.

The body and nervous system operate in sync. The nervous system and soul operate in sync. When the soul forms a thought, the nervous system immediately responds; when the nervous system changes, the body responds. The reverse process also occurs. Only when all three dimensions operate together in real time do we have a complete living human being.

This is the core of the science of the soul: a human being is a threefold whole, and the soul is the master of that whole.

II. The Arrogance of Three Fields of Knowledge

What is arrogance? Treating what you cannot see as nonexistent, and treating what you do not care about as unimportant. That is arrogance.

The arrogance of science is this: because its instruments cannot measure the soul, it concludes that human beings have no soul. It keeps cutting the brain into smaller and smaller parts, studying neurons and chemicals, yet it refuses to discuss the “I” that every person directly experiences. If something cannot be measured, science treats it as though it does not exist. That is like a doctor who owns only a ruler. Because the ruler cannot measure body temperature, he declares that the patient has no fever. The patient is burning hot, yet the doctor continues carefully measuring height.

To deny a fact that everyone directly experiences simply because your tools are inadequate—that is stupidity.

The arrogance of religion goes in another direction. Religion accepts the existence of the soul, but what it cares about most is where the soul goes after death.

Buddhism teaches people to do good and accumulate good karma so that they may have a better rebirth and eventually escape the cycle of reincarnation. Christianity teaches people to trust in Christ, endure, love others, and enter heaven after death to receive eternal life. Islam teaches submission to Allah, obedience to religious law, and entrance into paradise after the final judgment.

All three major religions focus on the future of the soul. But why is a person anxious and troubled in this life? Why can someone not stop watching pornography? Why is someone greedy for money? Why does a person keep doing something even while knowing it is wrong? These religions cannot solve such problems. What they can offer is essentially one message: endure, do good, and hope for what comes after this life.

That is why religious people, no matter how devout they are, how high their status is, or how much power they possess, can still remain anxious, greedy, and trapped in the same struggles. Religion places too little weight on the few decades that people actually live in this world.

Philosophy has thought about the soul for thousands of years. Its thinking can be deep and highly abstract, but it does not reach everyday life. It can discuss freedom, yet it cannot clearly explain why you pick up your phone and cannot put it down for two hours. It can discuss happiness, yet it cannot clearly explain why a person can have more and more and still become less satisfied. A field that talks about human beings but cannot manage human life is, for the most part, turning in circles.

Three fields of knowledge: one does not acknowledge the soul, one does not care enough about this life, and one cannot come down to practical life. Billions of people are left standing in the empty space between these three, trying to figure things out on their own.

III. What Happens When We Have a Science of the Soul?

A gardener must truly understand how roses grow before being able to grow the best roses. A dog trainer must truly understand a dog’s instincts and behavior before being able to train a good dog.

If human beings do not even know what they themselves are, how could they possibly manage their own lives well?

Without understanding the soul, human beings are left judging good and bad mainly through the body and the senses: what tastes good, looks good, sounds good, feels comfortable, feels exciting, or gives us more possessions. A civilization becomes better and better at satisfying the eyes, ears, tongue, and skin, yet knows less and less about how to satisfy a soul.

This is where the problem begins:

What makes you feel good right now and what is truly beneficial for your whole life are not the same thing.

The body likes stimulation. The more the nervous system repeats the same stimulation, the more familiar that pathway becomes, and the easier it becomes to repeat again. But what the soul truly needs is freedom, purpose, growth, dignity, peace, and lasting fulfillment.

Watching short videos feels better than studying because the pleasure comes quickly and requires little effort. Pornography is more stimulating than reading. A smoker keeps smoking even while knowing it is harmful. A person may love his family and yet repeatedly use his own behavior to damage his marriage. The same principle lies beneath all of these: sensory pleasure overwhelms the deeper needs of the soul. Some people become successful and wealthy yet remain anxious and empty for years because the body is full while the soul is still starving.

Today, when someone becomes depressed, people say, “Think positively.” When someone becomes addicted, people say, “You lack willpower.” When a marriage collapses after years of conflict, people say, “Their personalities were incompatible.” These explanations are like watching someone cough and watching his nose run without ever examining what is happening inside.

With a science of the soul, we finally know where to look.

You begin asking yourself: Am I getting temporary stimulation or lasting fulfillment? This feels good—but is it taking away my freedom? Is the goal I am pursuing what my soul truly wants, or is it something society has placed inside me?

Only when a person can ask these questions does he truly begin to take control of his life.

IV. The Science of the Soul and Human Civilization

A civilization that does not know what the soul needs can only keep producing sensory stimulation, because stimulation is the easiest thing to sell and the easiest way to hook people immediately. So food becomes more stimulating, entertainment becomes more stimulating, pornography becomes more stimulating, and the algorithms inside our phones become better and better at capturing our eyes. Humanity is now creating increasingly powerful artificial intelligence as well. If human beings do not understand themselves, the greater their power becomes, the more strongly their mistaken desires will be amplified.

A child, whether born in Africa, Sweden, the United States, or North Korea, can already read by the third grade and has begun forming his own ideas about what is good, what is bad, and what a person should pursue in life. Yet in all the textbooks he studies, there is not a single lesson telling him: What are you? What does your soul need?

He can only pick up answers from the world around him: money is best, power is best, fame is best. But every soul is different, and every soul has different needs. For some people, the greatest joy is creation. For others, it is companionship. For others, it is being needed. Civilization begins to go wrong right here.

Today, many people are already drowning. They struggle desperately in the water while people on the shore shout, “Be strong. Think positively.” But no one throws them a life preserver.

The science of the soul is that life preserver.

Only when civilization first builds a correct foundation can billions of people begin to understand what the best way to live this life actually is. Whether each person can truly live that way is another matter. The life preserver has been thrown to you. Whether you grab it, whether you swim toward shore, is your own choice. But if there is no life preserver at all, no matter how desperately a person struggles, he may remain trapped in the water.

What is true for one person is also true for a civilization.

Human beings have spent thousands of years studying the stars, the earth, and the body. Now it is time to study the “I” that has been studying all of these things.

Only when humanity begins by understanding itself can civilization finally have a truly sound starting point.