Chapter 99: Where is the Soul Hidden?

Many experts and audience members were familiar with the case Jiang Zhe mentioned.

In fact, over a decade ago, many people had even purchased and read that book.

It was indeed as Jiang Zhe said; the near-death patient had seen his deceased sister, whom he had never met before.

In the live stream chat, the audience's comments were flying by.

"Holy crap, Dr. Eben really saw his sister whom he had never met!"

"Yeah, it's so eerie. They never met while alive, so why would he see his sister whom he'd never met while near death?"

"No idea, absolutely no clue!"

"..."

Inside the lecture hall.

Many medical experts were discussing it with great interest.

"I still have that book on my desk at home!"

"I have it too, and I've read it all. Dr. Eben is still alive today; during his illness, he went through three shifts of worlds."

"Exactly, exactly. The first two times were just as Jiang Zhe said: a black tunnel and a white opening. The third time, Dr. Eben passed through clouds and saw his deceased sister, whom he had never met, in a warm place."

"Could it be this possibility?"

A young doctor asked a question with a serious expression.

This question drew the curious gazes of all the doctors toward the doctor in the suit.

Professor Hua Yunfeng raised his hand and asked, "What possibility? Can you tell us about it?"

The young doctor scanned the crowd and said solemnly:

"Just to clarify, I have no evidence; I'm just guessing. If I'm wrong anywhere, please forgive me!"

Professor Feng said, "Young man, be diligent. No one will blame you for being wrong."

The doctor nodded and said, "Alright then!"

"Dr. Eben did indeed see his deceased sister whom he had never met."

"And the sequence of Dr. Eben's experience was—"

"He got sick, was resuscitated, and then fell into a near-death state."

"First, he felt it was very dark all around, and then he could see nearby blood vessels pulsating."

"Regarding these pulsating blood vessels, I've thought before that it might be the skull."

"After all, our consciousness resides within the skull. The skull is bone, which obstructs consciousness from observing itself. So the darkness he saw was most likely the walls of his skull. After all, humans are indeed capable of 'internal vision,' and what Dr. Eben saw might have been his skull."

As soon as he said this, some of the doctors and biologists' eyes lit up.

Jiang Zhe would absolutely never state these speculations on television.

After all, the host needs to be fair and impartial, and unverified speculations would damage Jiang Zhe's reputation.

While Jiang Zhe was saying something trivial, all the experts' gazes remained fixed on the young doctor.

The young doctor continued:

"Of course, besides the skull, this dark wall plus pulsating blood vessels could also be inside the mother's womb."

"Inside the mother's womb, for a child, it is also pitch black, and the inner walls of the abdomen also have pulsating blood vessels."

As soon as he said this, all the experts nodded in agreement.

"If Dr. Eben, while in a near-death state, was accidentally guided back to the moment in the womb, which is what Jiang Zhe mentioned earlier."

"Then Dr. Eben was born from his mother's womb, and his half-sister, whom he had never met, also came from the mother's womb."

"Oh right, as far as I know, when Dr. Eben was in the near-death state, besides meeting his sister whom he'd never met, he also met his biological father whom he'd never seen."

"The sequence was: Dr. Eben first saw his deceased father, then passed through the clouds, entered the next world, and only then saw his deceased sister. The only one he didn't see was his mother, because she was still alive as of 2024."

At this point, the young doctor frowned.

"So I suspect—"

"The human brain might start recording information from the moment of the fertilized egg."

"Dr. Eben recorded the information from his time in the womb while he was still a fertilized egg, it was just that he couldn't express it."

"Later, as Dr. Eben grew up, that underlying information was sealed deep within his mind."

"Only when he fell into a near-death state could he retrieve some information from the fertilized egg stage, making him mistakenly believe he had 'traveled'."

"And in our modern medicine, when a person is near death, they enter a 'life flashing before their eyes' state."

"The 'life flashing before their eyes,' scientific name: memory flash-back."

"It refers to the moment of death, where the parts responsible for memory—the hippocampus in the medial temporal lobe, the striatum, and the cerebellum—go into full gear and are completely activated."

"At that time, those people will encounter many, many past memories they had already forgotten before dying."

"That person will experience memory flashbacks, witnessing their own life from childhood to old age and death, and finally be pronounced dead!"

"As for how 'small' this 'small' is—whether it's at 1 year old, 0.5 years old, or even 0.00001 years old, i.e., the 'fertilized egg' stage—I'm not too sure."

"When someone truly enters a near-death state, I strongly suspect that the patient is drawing information from their fertilized egg stage during the 'life flashing before their eyes' state, thus causing the mistaken belief of 'traveling'."

"If anyone really delves into this research topic to solve it, it must be biologists, not us doctors."

As soon as he said this, the whole room went quiet.

All the experts had scrutinizing expressions, immersed in the young man's conjecture.

Upon first hearing it, it was very reasonable and very interesting!

But after thinking about it a little, it was full of holes. Compared to Jiang Zhe's decoding, there were simply too many loopholes!

Soon, the experts' faces revealed helpless smiles.

"Young man, although the conjecture is brilliant and very likely to be close to the truth, please don't guess next time."

"Although it is very persuasive, it is not suitable for application in scientific research."

"This could be written in a novel; you should be a writer, not a doctor."

The young man looked confused, "Why? Isn't it a very good guess?"

Hearing this, Professor Hua Yunfeng couldn't help but say awkwardly, "Young man, a guess is a guess, and nonsense is nonsense; what you're doing now is nonsense."

"I know what you mean—you want to say that we, at the fertilized egg stage, are already recording information, and only when near death can we extract information from the fertilized egg stage, and then mistakenly think our soul has left our body, right?"

The young doctor's eyes widened, and he nodded repeatedly, "Yes, Professor Hua, that's exactly it."

Professor Hua Yunfeng's mouth twitched.

"Still too green!"

"Even I, a physicist, know this information."

"During the development of the fertilized egg in the uterine cavity, the fertilized egg first develops into a cell mass, and then develops into a gestational sac."

"Around this gestational sac, some specificity is produced; these cells that provide nutrition for the development of the fertilized egg are called trophoblast cells."

"And these trophoblast cells secrete some specific hormones..."

"Blah, blah, blah..."

"Young man, your conjecture can actually be traced back to a very old and general topic."

The young man asked curiously, "What topic?"

Professor Hua Yunfeng looked at Old Feng, "You tell him!"

Old Feng rolled his eyes at him helplessly, "Using me as a messenger again."

Old Feng didn't refuse. He looked at the young man and said seriously, "Young man, your research topic can be summarized into one question: 'Do cells have consciousness'!"

As soon as he said this, the young doctor was stunned for a moment. As a professional doctor, he certainly knew about this question.

He thought his conjecture was brilliant, but in the end, it was just one question.

Do cells possess consciousness!

His face instantly turned red.

As a doctor, he certainly knew whether cells had consciousness!

Cells have no consciousness at all; they just perform gene expression based on environmental stimuli.

Only after enough differentiated nerve cells are formed can they form a network that interacts, i.e., neuro-electrochemical signals.

And by that time, that signal network can be called "consciousness."

Or rather...

A single brain nerve cell is just 1/15 billionth of consciousness!

Looking at the strange atmosphere at the scene, the young doctor lowered his head, bowed directly, and then...

Slipped away from the lecture hall.

Too embarrassing!

Ten out of ten, or even nine out of ten, embarrassing!

He had shown off his decoding ideas in front of many experts.

He had thought he would gain the favor of his seniors and amaze everyone, just like Jiang Zhe.

As a result...

He lost miserably!

"I'm never coming back again!"

...

Inside the lecture hall.

The atmosphere at the scene was lively for a moment.

Soon, on the big screen, Jiang Zhe spoke with a serious expression.

"Alright, the first segment: Near-Death Experiments, has ended."

"In the first segment, numerous near-death experiments proved that humans will see strange information when near death."

"But we still cannot know why near-death experiences occur, and why we see deceased relatives we have never met."

This doubt was also something the audience was curious about.

Modern scientists cannot decode the near-death state and seeing deceased relatives one has never met!

"Next, we enter the second segment: Proving the individual storage source of the soul."

"In layman's terms, it is: what exactly allows us to enter an out-of-body experience in a near-death state?"

"You can also understand it as: in which part of the brain is our human soul hidden?"