I was reviewing a recently published virology text and saw their discussion of the continuing controversy about whether viruses, despite having some characteristics of life forms, are actually alive. They acknowledge this is an important question for biologists because “a universally accepted definition for life does not exist.” Science, of course, has no idea that viruses possess consciousness, and, indeed, the issue of whether consciousness is present in life forms other than human beings is seriously debated. And even human consciousness is dismissed by some prominent scientists as being just a secondary consequence of brain chemical and electrical activity and perhaps just a “lucky accident” of evolution, more a fluke than a driving force. Are these views really the reverse of reality? Is the existence and expression of consciousness a universal property that defines whether something is alive? Is fundamental “life force energy” coming from the higher spiritual plane, which gives the spark of life, a special form of consciousness?

This is a very deep question, indeed, and will defy human solutions because of the profound nature of life and the seemingly mundane physical existence you are a part of during your incarnation seeming so ordinary from your perspective. This is why scientists can think of human beings as just a fancier version of something much more primitive, like an earthworm, simply having become more complex and intricate over time through random changes produced by molecular forces leading to an evolutionary growth and complexity and capability. That, of course, is all conjecture, as no living thing is a product of an evolutionary change, whether from another living thing or a more fundamental force, perhaps present at an earlier stage in nature and then somehow acquiring greater complexity and evolving into an organism, perhaps a quite simple one at first and then on to more and more variations and levels of intricacy. That notion is entirely false because everything was created. This is the basic enigma you are trapped within, the emanations of our consciousness as an embodiment of existence itself. Your ability to perceive your own existence and have a sense of being a separate and autonomous being is a truly advanced state of differentiation, but not because of evolution; it is because we designed you to be that way. We agree with your hypothesis that the existence of consciousness is a useful indicator for the existence of life, from practical considerations. You see this clearly in attending someone's passing, where one moment they might be aware of their surroundings with their eyes open, perhaps even smiling or holding someone's hand or at least able to focus their eyes on a person and follow them with their gaze. Yet, when they pass away and the heart beat ceases, they might look much the same but become inert, unable to control any part of the anatomy and, of course, over time the body will begin to decompose and ultimately will be consumed by the decay process. Clearly, some kind of life-related energy has ceased or departed. You accept our explanation that the soul extension that is you in spirit form inhabits the body during an incarnation, and upon death, leaves the body to return to the higher astral plane. Your consciousness goes with it. You have not explored, heretofore, whether the consciousness within the bodily cells is an actual part of your spirit essence that is the basis of your thoughts and intentions, or whether it is something simply primitive, and a mechanistic aspect of the existence of the architecture of the body. For example, it might represent a kind of utility, like the cardiovascular system to provide a means of transporting things from place to place within the body, including oxygenation of cells in the lungs and then transfer throughout the body as a source of energy. In actual fact, the consciousness you have learned is associated with cellular memory is anchored locally within the body but is a part of the soul energy of your spirit essence that is connected to every other aspect of consciousness that is a part of your makeup. So, in a sense, the physical body is like a container quite literally. It has the basic ingredients chemically, and the potential energetically, to be self-sustaining but lacks direction and purpose and instructions to do so. That is imparted by the life force energy that extends from the higher astral plane and animates the physical body energetically. This allows your soul to inhabit a vehicle that is operational, in other words, alive until the life force energy departs. This is very analogous to going out to your driveway and sitting in your car but it will not start and has become an inert object for all practical purposes. The life force energy within you makes your bodily container spring to life and be useful as a conveyance of energy, both in its utilization and production in various ways to carry out complex functions and activities of all kinds, from basic metabolism and housekeeping, to keep the physical apparatus functioning and in tune, to a wide variety of volitional activities. These include such things as being able to move about, interact with others, and carry out complex activities that might require extensive memory on multiple levels of the being, from muscle memory of rehearsed motion requiring an intricate series of steps to be reproduced reliably, to recall of prodigious amounts of remembered factual material so your knowledge base is available and can be reviewed and harvested as needed, and so on. The consciousness within the individual cells of the body is a soul extension, just like every part of your consciousness. Going beyond the human being, we can tell you that many life forms enjoy a similar arrangement, especially if they are projections of a soul-based being like companion animals. In the case of more primitive life forms, such as livestock designed for use as food, there is a collective soul that provides the consciousness needed to be a functioning animal and live a useful life for a particular purpose. While much more primitive than a human being in the array of choices and the capabilities exhibited, there is nonetheless awareness, and reaction to the environment and many attributes that are human-like can be observed in many animals. For example, many will develop a kind of friendship with humans and will choose to acknowledge them and want to spend time in close proximity. Others may only learn through association with a positive outcome, such as being fed by a human, that human beings can be a valuable resource and will be sought out in the future accordingly. That might not be love on display but the next best thing at least, a source of appreciation and acknowledgment. This will still trouble many scientists because consciousness cannot be demonstrated directly nor detected with the usual scientific methods and tools for probing things in a laboratory. So this will remain theoretical only and the channeled information we share with you will not likely persuade scientific opinion in accepting any kind of descriptive or classification scheme in analyzing such a profound issue as the definition of life.