Science, History, Body, Mind, and Soul

The belief that the body and the mind, or soul, are separate from each other and governed by different laws goes back to Platonic philosophy. It was perpetuated by Descartes in order to appease the church when he introduced the scientific method to medicine in the 1600s. He wanted to be able to look at the body like a machine, with many functioning parts that could be studied and experimented on. However the realm of the soul was considered to be the church's territory and was therefore unable to be subjugated to scientific study. That is why mind-body integration is such a new development for the sciences. Fascinating.