SOULS HAUNT THE LIBYAN DESERT FROM ROME TO ROMMEL

For the young among us, the Libyan cities of Benghazi, Tobruk and Tripoli are new. Faraway, first-time headlines which our president is currently striving to turn into good news for both America and for a dangerous region of the world with which we must somehow learn to live.

And yet, these same sands have been fought and bled over from Rome to Rommel. From ancient days when Rome and the Carthaginians vied for supremacy here; to WWII days when Churchill's General Montgomery and Hitler's General Rommel met in one of the war's great turning points. So no, there's little that's new here. Hundreds of thousands of souls have perished across these same wastelands, dreaming of the same great victories.

It wouldn't be too presumptuous to speculate many of these souls died in the expectation there would be a life beyond this one. An intuition most anthropologists find in virtually every society throughout the history of our species. But until recently, the matter of soul was left to theologians, their fellow academics like neuroscientists considering souls outside their purview of study or interest.

Lately, though, serious scientists are taking a second look. To them, the possibility of a soul in and beyond human consciousness is "more than curiosity in the paranormal." Prize-winning researchers like Professor Peter Fenwick of the University of London call this: The Science of the Soul. Gathering the tools of science -- from EKG's to MRI's -- Fenwick and others around the world are investigating what happens during the thousands of reported near-death-experiences (NDE's).

Fenwick reports: "We need some new theories about the causation of NDE's. You can't say these are transcendent experiences, because the people are unconscious. You can't say they are psychological, because the brain isn't working. But you can look at physiological models as to what state the brain is in; and if the brain function won't support the experience, then you have to argue that mind and brain are separate..."

Such hypotheses suggest to some that what theologians call "soul" has something to do with this mind-separate-from-brain state. It is a state which has been reached in various ways throughout history from monks in meditation to shamans with psychedelic herbs. The multi-million-dollar Blue Brain Project (constructing an artificial man-made brain) may in time get its own crack at the mysteries of consciousness and out-of-body-experiences.

There is this old prediction: "When the last scientist reaches the ultimate truth about the human soul, he'll find the first theologian is already there." Who is to say for sure. Although we can say for sure that these very same African sands hold the mummified remains of pharaohs who -- along with their people -- passionately believed their remains included a soul that was now destined to live forever.

Long after these current desert struggles slip into history, these desert beliefs will continue to haunt presidents and generals, believers and non-believers alike...