"...the brain may merely be a transmitter and receiver for information..."
What physical interaction mediates this transmission and reception? Where's the evidence for such an interaction? Where are the specific transmission and reception sites in the brain? Why haven't brain anatomists seen such sites?
Sheesh...
neutrinos.
Have they figured out where dreams occur?
Since next to nothing is known about the human body- it's as good a theory as any other. Doctors are glorified butchers when it comes to the brain. Sure- they can cut out a tumor, but big whoop. Recreate a brain in the lab. The fastest super computer is a toy compared to a single nerve cell.
I don't have an axe to grind one way or another on this subject, but I did see an interesting experiment done about 15 years ago.
There is a common optical illusion that looks like black and white cowhide. If you look at just the right way - you see a bearded face (looks like Jesus). When people are tested on this, the percentage of people who see the face is fairly consistent - 15%. The other 85% only see the cow hide pattern.
They tested several thousand people in Australia, and got the same 15% result.
Then the optical illusion was printed on milk cartons in Denmark for a month with instructions on how to see the face.
The researchers then went back to Australia and tested several thousand different people. This time the face recognition was up to 40%.
The researchers were trying to prove that there is a "universal consciousness" that humans tap into. They say that more people in Australia could see the face because of what happened in Denmark -proving to them that the Australians somehow "picked up" what the Danes were taught.
These proponents say this Universal Consciousness is the reason that humans seem to pick up and learn things all over the world at the same time and its the reason we are so adaptable to new ideas.
They say that thinking that all our consciousness does not take place in our brains - but "somewhere else". They say a perfect example is a primitive seeing and hearing a radio for the first time. The primitive would have trouble grasping that the music was not originating from inside the radio - but the radio was only picking up the sound. They say that when we are looking at the human brain, we are making the same assumption.
Please don't flame me on this - I'm not saying I buy any of this, I'm only relaying what some researchers believe.
If everything happens in the brain, where are the memories? Why can't we decode them?
You are begging the question. If the soul exists, it would be, as traditionally stated, the substantial form of the body. He is not really proving immortality but existence "outside" the body. Apart from the body, the soul would "fade away" as dissolution takes place. This is Aristotle's view. Plato's view is that the soul is something that exists before the body takes shape and will survive it.