ExclusiveA Medical Doctor Reveals Divine Design in the Human Brain

I sort of rounded out the blueprints of the universe, and I began to see each one of them as a piece of art. I had this emotional moment. Where did this come from? Look at these incredible interactive pieces. And the idea that they're happenstance or man-made, there's only one explanation, and that is God is real. That's why I encourage all young people, study the science, study literature. Also, keep your mind open to what is said by the great faiths, and develop your own faith. It's important. Welcome to Bay Area Innovators. Today we continue our discussion with Dr. Bill West, the founder of the West Cancer Center and Research Institute in Memphis, Tennessee. During our last episode, we talked about the connection between faith and science in regards to the creation of the universe and life. Today we'll talk about human consciousness, quantum mechanics, and the relationship with the renaissance of science. This is Bay Area Innovators, and I'm your host, Steve Vispas. Dr. West, welcome back. Thank you. So, last episode we talked about the dialogue that you initiated in your book between science and faith. And we talked about the creation of the universe, creation of life, the different elements that made our universe so unique in a way to enable life, even though it would seem almost impossible. Let's move on to the human consciousness. And this is another chapter in your book, How Human Consciousness Came to Be. Please tell us about that. Well, you brought up the great remaining mystery. Our human consciousness is still a challenge to science. To give you an idea, there were two leading theories of consciousness. I won't go into them because they just had a contest between which one was correct, and they were both proven wrong. So, we still don't know how this... First, you have to realize our brain is the most amazing piece of complex matter in the universe. We have more synapses, those are connections between neurons, the way they send messages, in our brain than there are stars in the Milky Way. We have an enormous, complicated brain. The question is always said, well, we're 98.5% identical to the chimp. Well, that's correct when it comes to the genes for hair and skin and teeth, etc. When it comes to the genes for the neuron, that's the element of the brain, we have tens of thousands more neurons than a chimp. So, we've been given a special, special gift in our brain, and that is search for meaning, the hunger for spirituality, along with the fact, the realization that we're going to die. You know, animals don't realize that death is in the future, we do. And that gives us a special meaning in this life. What is the purpose of this life? What is my purpose? And I think then we begin that consciousness, now we get very close to God, and how he made us in his image. The beginning of human consciousness can be represented by hundreds of genes converting neurons into trillions of networks in the human brain, which only happens for humans. Is this, in your view, another step that has been prepared by an intelligent creation for humans? You know, what fascinates me, and I'm not sure I've heard this talked about very much, but human consciousness happened abruptly all across the globe, all across islands, all across people isolated in jungles, all across people isolated on caves. They began to draw. The first thing we know are their pictures on the walls of caves, and they're drawing hunting and animals. And we see this amazing artistic, the creation of artifacts. And it didn't happen a little bit here and a little bit there. Oh, they're still waiting on it over in some jungle island in the Pacific. It happened worldwide. It was destined to be. God created man and women in his image. And that's how we see it, as a blossoming, an instantaneous blossoming around the world. And that's, of course, before travel was possible between those different locations in the world. You're absolutely right. You write in your book that God is the ultimate mathematician. What do you mean by that? Every single piece of the universe, every single part of biology, everything that has been done, has at its basis a mathematical foundation. God is the ultimate mathematician. I convert, for instance, the blueprints of the universe into blueprints, because I can't master the ten equations that describe space-time. So I just make space-time one of the eight blueprints. Great mathematicians can understand those equations, and they can actually go to that mathematical library and fill in other equations. There have been amazing mathematicians that discover things with their mind, visit that mathematical landscape. But the mathematician built this universe, and then the amazing thing is how did he breathe fire into those equations? I'm getting a quote from Stephen Hawking. I'm not a huge fan of Hawking. He wasn't a believer, but how right he is. How did God take the equation for the Higgs field and blow out a Higgs field that filled the universe? That's the amazing thing that God did, not only is he a mathematician, but he brings those equations to reality. He makes a Higgs field, and that's where we hit the wall when it comes to understanding the incredible power of God. There are a lot of scientists that have faith in a divine being. Stephen Hawking was actually, of course, not one of them. He was an atheist. What is your understanding? Why was he against God in that way? I'll speak more generally to scientists in general. Almost 60% of them are believers. There is a general statement, Now the reason that's said, it sounds pretty cynical, but that might be used as an excuse to stop exploring. If we're really trying to understand black holes, if we just said God did it, we'd be deprived. We wouldn't know as much as we should know about the glory of God and what he has created and the meaning of the black hole. So great scientists, Roger Penrose is the primary one who was knighted in England for his work on the black hole, continued to fight to understand a black hole has an event horizon where everything is drawn into that black hole. Over time, the information that was drawn into that black hole is radiated back out. But that wasn't good enough for Hawking. He wanted to know, I'm sorry, for Penrose, he wanted to know, could it be stored? And that's a fascinating theory, that those things that end up in that black hole are also stored on an event horizon of the whole universe, something that might be heaven. You know, often the question of miracles come up. Well, God could work at that event horizon of the entire universe and change activity in the bulk of the universe, and those of us that are living in that bulk wouldn't have the slightest idea where those changes are being made. That's pure hypothesis. But I think it's the idea, don't stop exploring. If you just say God did it, that might mean we quit trying to understand this piece of science. That's a fascinating point, how actually curiosity of the human mind can go further and develop thoughts that actually prove the existence of a divine being more than deny it. I want to move next to, again, the next part of your book. It's about the cosmic consciousness, various Asian religions talk about meditation and the path to enlightenment in so many ways. Tell us your thoughts on this topic. You know, it's probably my favorite topic. Our brains are so complex, but they're organized into networks, parts of our brain. And we have one network called the default mode network. That's the network we live in when we're just simply thinking. It's our resting state, the DFM. If you turn off that DFM, and incidentally that DFM keeps us focused on the here and now, it's also called the ego network. And perhaps it promotes survival. Perhaps it's why, hey, be here, be aware. Know if there's a lion out in the next jungle. If we turn that off, and we do know how to do it, one way is through very, very deep meditation. And that's why some of the Eastern religions really emphasize meditation. But that takes years of practice to turn off the DFM, years of practice to become a meaningful meditator. You don't do it in an hour. You do it in years. Interestingly, we have drugs now that will turn off that DFM in an instant. And, of course, one of my favorites is called psilocybin. It's from the magic mushroom. And the way it works is it turns off the default mode network. But what happens when you get that block released? It's almost like a blindfold is taken off. And 6 out of 10 atheists treated with psilocybin drop the atheist label. Why do they do that? Because they believe during their experience with psilocybin, they've encountered a loving, conscious, all-knowing, eternal mind. Now, those of us in the standard faith would call that the Holy Spirit. And it would appear that the Holy Spirit is always there, always pinging us, so to speak. And how often we probably don't hear the ping. But that default network keeps us in the here and now, in the ego. And it's fascinating what happens when that network gets turned off. That is fascinating. I have to ask you this. During the time you write your book, did you have any debates with people who, you know, not believers, who don't believe what you're saying and are against it? How did those turn out? You know, I didn't have this kind of communication. I did a lot of reading. I wanted to understand their perspective. And I tried my very best to take from them what I thought was meaningful and positive. I didn't agree with a lot of them. And so, no, I didn't come to any victorious conclusion. And I'm sure they would feel the same way about some of my thoughts. But, you know, there's a vast literature. This subject to the relationship of science and faith has been very important for a very long time. My conclusion is science is an alternative revelation of God. We have the scriptural revelation. And when I see those nuns go to science, now that I look at the science and maybe I organize it a bit for myself, it's the revelation of God. So we have a scriptural and a scientific revelation of God. And I think that's exciting. And that's the main purpose I wrote the book. I'd like for young people to read the book so they realize when they go to that science, they're looking at an alternate way, an alternate pathway to understand divine action and to interact with God. Now, also in your book, you have a section on quantum mechanics, which, of course, it's a complicated topic. We'll try to keep it in a way that we can relate to it in some way. Let's just talk about the superposition and entanglement. Can you describe a little bit what those are? And this is what I think Einstein called entanglement spooky. He didn't want to believe it. He didn't want to think this is actually possible in the universe, but it was proven that it actually happens. Tell us about that. This Bay Area Innovators episode is sponsored by Peter Cassara Clothiers, an Italian menswear store that brings timeless European style with a modern edge to Sunnyvale and the Bay Area for over 50 years. From top Italian suits and shoes, the exclusive Tami Bahama line, they've got your look covered. Check out their website at petercassaraclothiers.com to find out more. And now, back to our interview. Well, you know, the universe is made of these particles. And what's important to know about them, because one of the fundamentals of quantum is they can interact with this other particle, that other particle, trillions of other particles, and each of those particles can be in multiple locations at once. They can exist in a trillion places at once, which really means that we're in an entangled universe where almost everything in the universe is connected to everything else. Einstein did not like spooky action in the distance. It defied all of his fundamental rules of space-time and space-time warping and gravitation and so forth. But there have been some beautiful, undeniable experiments who've looked at entanglement and proven that it's the case that those fundamental particles are entangled in many, many different ways. Even experiments run out of satellites projecting entangled particles to receivers 700 miles apart. And if one particle is rotating one way, the other particle is going to rotate the other. They are partners. And that's how this universe – I see it as creativity. It makes those particles maximally creative. God sent them out to be creative. And one of the ways they are creative is by interacting and being in partnerships with many other particles. It's almost like a message to humankind, right? Like, once you think you understand it all, like Newton totally understands how physics works, and then there's Einstein. So, once you understand, you think, okay, this is the laws, the theories of the universe, and a new thing comes about that completely changes everything. That's a good metaphor. Yes. Now, I read a book by Carl Sagan called Contact. And this is fiction, of course. At the end of the book, at the very end of the book, he has this kind of explanation or something that happens when they search for an enormous amount of digits of pi, the one that defines the radius of a circle. And then, in his book, he brings us this idea how if you get to this huge amount of digits, the digits become zeros and ones instead of random. And not only become zeros and ones, but if you put them on a graph, on a specific binary form, they actually show a circle. And, you know, it's almost like a joke because how can the digits of the pi actually physically show a circle in the infinite number of digits? But I think in his mind, he was also thinking how these elements are built in the fabric of the universe in a way that blows someone's mind away. So we are at a point that we can see these things happening for real in some way. That's a wonderful example of how prolific his mind is. He said one thing that I disagreed with, though. He said, in this universe, if there's not another planet, then there's an awful lot of wasted space. And I said, no. It took that huge, I'll call it, what do you call it, scaffolding to support this precious planet and to put it at a perfect distance from the sun. So I'm not so cynical as to say if there's not another planet, there's a lot of wasted space because we need all that space for us to exist. We've had a long time for life to do its journey of five million species. So, yes, I have no idea where there are other planets. I have no idea where there's other life. But I don't think there's much wasted space. That's just one point he made. He made a lot of wonderful points. Dr. West, can you tell us about any turning points in your life that defined your career? You've been an oncologist for many years. But any turning points that changed or defined your thinking as you move forward? Well, let me just say my mother was the best she could be. And it was very important for her to introduce me to the concept of God, and in our particular family's case, Jesus. And so as a little 2-year-old, 3-year-old, I was taken to church and introduced to the concept. And I think that's an important gift for a parent to give a child. I'm not saying any particular belief system, but an opening to faith in things larger than we are. And, of course, in my life and my journey, I've been very comfortable with Jesus. I think he's the son of God and walked the earth and brought us a message nobody else could bring us. But I think that's one gift from parent to child, whatever the culture, whatever the religion, to give an opening to that creator possibility. So that's really what began things. And then I lost my mother to breast cancer when I was 21. And here's a point, and this may be irrelevant, but she developed a nodule in a lung. And this was in 1979. I want you to understand how far we've come. So what was a treatment in 1979 for a breast cancer recurring in the lung? It was surgery. It was remove the lung. Now, you think about that. Anybody listening to me, does that make sense? You think it's only there? You think you're going to do this awful, tough surgery and cure somebody? No, you're not. That cancer has been spread far and wide. And it's only a matter of time, and it was in my mother's case, before it showed up in another place. And so then I lost her to breast cancer, in which case then breast cancer became something I wanted to be involved with the rest of my life. And so I have been, and we've made a lot of progress. We've understood the staging of breast cancer, developed a mammogram, actually, about a year after she died, gone to earlier and earlier discovery, less and less to figuring surgery. I used to do a radical mastectomy all the way down to the ribs. Now it's most commonly a lumpectomy, selective lymph node sampling so we know if it has spread. If it has, then we come to tailored medication to treat it as an infection. So we've come a long way, if you imagine, from a mother having her lung removed to the day, us trying to get, has it spread to a node? What are its mutations? What hormones does it need? How can we treat it as an infection? And cure increasing numbers of women with breast cancer. And that's been the story of my life. It's not over. There's too many women still dying of breast cancer. It will continue for the foreseeable future, but we're making progress and we're on the right way and I think we're thinking properly about it. Do you feel like you're in the minority as a scientist who also is able to combine faith as well with science as you do? Do you think you're in a minority or there's many others who have the same? I think there are many others. Trying to think of the recently retired head of the National Institute of Health who wrote The Language of God. And wonderful job. The Language of God written by a great scientist. 60% of scientists are believers. But again, there's this rule in the field. Don't give God a foot in the door. Don't leave the science for God. Keep pursuing the science so that you understand it thoroughly. And if you think you understand it thoroughly, well, then you need to keep trying because you may not. Good science is falsifiable. That's a fundamental rule. A real, true, robust science sets itself up and says prove me wrong. And sometimes it is proven wrong. But if it continues to resist and stay strong and to face the challenge, well, then that's the kind of science we can believe in. That's the process that's ongoing. So I don't particularly see a challenge any further between science and faith. We now know enough science, I think, to say, oh, I think we've got another revelation of God here. Where do these things come from? Who gave us the Higgs field? It just happened? So I find it as reinforcing of the scriptural story. Again, I don't try to read the Bible as a scientific textbook, but it's always exciting to me in the beginning, God said let there be light. That's a pretty good facsimile of the Big Bang. Dr. West, any stories behind writing your book that you can tell us about? You know, it was a journey. I gave it first as a lecture series at my church and realized that people really were interested in the topic. And it took three years. It was four or five days a week, four or five hours a day to write it. No particular revelation. I had thought about it so much that it was more a matter of organization than new ideas appearing at a late stage. And, again, I read an awful lot of the other books written on the topic. I've got a whole library behind me here of almost every book I know of that's actually written on science today. And I'm sure they'll continue to be written. As much as I love sacred science, you see over my shoulder, there'll be other books, and the goodness of those might be better. I sort of rounded out the blueprints of the universe, and I began to see each one of them as a piece of art, as Michelangelo. And I had this emotional moment. Where'd these come from? Look at these incredible interactive pieces. And the idea that they're happenstance or man-made, there's only one explanation, and that is God is real. He exists. He is our creator. And that's why I encourage all young people, study the science, study literature. Also, keep your mind open to what is said by the great faiths and develop your own faith. It's important. Now, one last question I want to ask you is, there was a Renaissance period in which all the painters, the artists, would celebrate God, would praise God, and their work was towards faith. Do you see a Renaissance in science happening in the future? What a wonderful question. I perhaps think so. Maybe we're happening right now. Maybe this conversation we're having reflects that. I think I'm reading more and more. Francis Collins is a name I couldn't remember, who wrote The Language of God. I think there are certain components of the Catholic Church that are making a big push to study the relationship between science and faith. Bishop Barron is a name that comes to mind, who held a national conference on that topic. So I think there's a regrowth now in the interest. I don't know how Pope Leo feels about it. We have a new pope, the first American pope. It'll be interesting to hear from him how he feels about the relationship. But no, I think we've kind of gone through the hard times, Darwin's hard times, where we had to deal with that. That was a hard time. Everything's random and purposeless. I think we're past that. I think we see that as a necessary component of the rollout of life, of life's travels. But I think now that we are created in the image of God and we can contemplate at a higher level, thank you for what an amazing blessing that is, I think we're seeing a resolution and more people being comfortable with both. And that's what we should have is both. We need both a good knowledge of whatever our scripture is, whatever our faith is, whether we're Jewish or Christian or other great faiths, and what science is telling us about how we got here. Dr. West, thank you so much for your time. We appreciate your insight into an amazing dialogue between science and faith. Thank you. Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure to be here. Thank you for watching another episode of Bay Area Innovators. If you enjoyed this episode and you know someone who should be on our show, please send us an email at sfbay.epochtimes.com. We would love to hear from you. Thank you and see you next week.