Does the Soul Travel Faster than Light?

 

by: lim ju boo

Today, Sunday, 20 April, 2025 is Easter Sunday So let me wish all a blessed Easter Sunday. 

I asked my highly learned brother-in-law, Ong Geok Soo, a Senior Engineer last evening a disturbing question: if a soul can travel faster than light? Instead, he gave me his theory that the soul is made of quantum particles, and when a person dies his soul dissipates into quantum particles and disappears into thin air - his theory I can never understand. He never answer my question.  

Before anyone can answer if the soul can travel faster than light,  let me give a very brief description on the properties of light.

Physicists know that light is something we all can see, and is composed of photons. We also know that photons are massless particles. Despite that, it has energy and momentum and exert pressure on a surface even though it has no mass because a photon has energy E = hf where h is Planck's constant and f is the frequency of the photon. 

 Energy is equivalent to mass according to Einstein's famous formula E = mc2. Light is also affected by gravity that bends the light onto a new path. The fact that gravity can bend light, this leads to an effect known as gravitational lensing. 

In astronomy we know that light from a distant galaxy encountering the gravity of a massive cluster of galaxies en route to us is bent, just like light being bent by a lens. We call this gravitational lensing. If the Earth, foreground object and background object are perfectly aligned then the bent light creates a perfect circle known as an Einstein ring. 

 Though light consisting of photon particles has no mass, it has energy and pressure, and is affected by strong gravity, causing its own maximum velocity in a vacuum to be exactly at 299,792,458 meters per second - probably its maximum velocity is constrained  by surrounding mass and their pull of their gravity. Hence we can tell and see light as an entity that exists. 

Now my Easter question for everyone is, can a soul that we cannot see, unlike light, but also has no mass, travel faster than light - assuming souls  exist.  

I am very convinced soul exists, especially from the testimonies of people who suffered clinical death (Near Death Experience -NDE) and came back to this world to tell us what they saw after travelling through a dark tunnel, at the end there was a light into a new world where their deceased relatives were waiting. I have yet to publish this evidence in Part 2 of my essay on "Does Soul Exist" . I shall publish Part 2 within another 4 or 5 days. I have published Part 1 as an introduction on the existence of the soul in this blog only last night.

This testimony of near-death-experience (NDE) or temporary clinical death - not permanent biological death, especially those testimonies from those blind from birth who have no clue what the physical world looked like, yet still physically blind, but came back from NDE,  could now vividly describe what they saw in this world and in the other world like a sighted person who also suffered NDE - proving that a soul exist. 

But a soul is something we cannot see, unlike light that is clearly visible . But both are massless, whereas light is affected by gravity. Would this difference mean the soul not affected by gravity or has any mass or matter surrounding it, would enable it to travel even faster than the maximum speed of light in a vacuum? 

I know I am asking a very tough and challenging question even for the most brilliant scientific minds in any, or in all fields to answer.   

Treat my difficult  question as an academic challenge  and an interesting one  for even the most brilliant brains to think before answering.  My question resurrects the timeless dialogue between physics and metaphysics, science and soul.

But before anyone answers, let me give my answer to this mystery. 

Let me briefly recap what I said here in the beginning

Light is:

1. Massless, yet it has momentum and energy (E = hf).

2. Affected by gravity, as shown by gravitational lensing.

3. Travels at a universal speed limit in vacuum: 299,792,458 m/s.

4. And crucially: it is detectable and interacts with spacetime.

So the mystery stands: if a soul exists as I have  made a strong case for it from NDEs, blind testimonies, and ancient belief, could it travel faster than light, being non-physical, invisible, and unbounded by mass or gravity?

Let me approach this academically using physics and reasons…

Special Relativity and the Speed Limit

Einstein's theory of Special Relativity teaches us that no object with mass can ever reach or exceed the speed of light. As velocity increases, so does the object's mass and required energy, approaching infinity at light speed.

But what about things with no mass?

1. Photons have no rest mass, yet are still constrained to travel only at light speed.

2. Tachyons are hypothetical particles that always travel faster than light,  have imaginary mass, and are unstable in our physics.

3. Gravity itself propagates at the speed of light (gravitational waves).

So, within the framework of physics, no known "thing" can travel faster than light unless it lies outside the framework,  and this is where the soul enters.

 What is the nature of the soul?

I suggest these 5 properties:

1. The soul is massless.

2. It is not detectable by physical means.

3. It is not subject to gravitational pull like light.

4. It can see and travel, as suggested by NDEs.

5. It is conscious and retains identity even without the body.

That implies:

1. The soul does not occupy space in the same way matter or energy do.

2. It might exist in a non-physical or higher-dimensional realm.

3. It could therefore be unbounded by spacetime, as we know it.

So, my question is, can it travel faster than light?

On these notes, let me now answer my own question here:

Yes,  if the soul exists and is non-physical, then it may not be constrained by spacetime at all.

Meaning:

1. It doesn't "travel" in the way we understand movement.
2. It might transition or shift across realms or locations instantaneously or even timelessly.
3. Hence, "faster than light" becomes a meaningless or inadequate comparison , like trying to measure love with a ruler.

Let me offer a beautiful analogy I penned:

The soul is to space what thought is to distance.

Just as I  wrote in my essays on space travels and on silent communications, I can imagine the Andromeda galaxy in a split second without traveling there, perhaps the soul too is capable of such infinite leaps, because it is not bound to spacetime like photons are.

Easter, Light, and Resurrection

Isn’t it poetic on Easter Sunday, if I  ask a question where light meets soul?

1. In Christian tradition, the resurrected body is different, no longer bounded by physical constraints.

2. Christ appears behind locked doors, walks on water, and ascends,  hinting at a transformed state beyond the laws of physics.

3. The soul, too, in NDEs, seems to float, pass through walls, and reach great distances in no time.

This all suggests: the soul moves in a reality deeper than ours, where light’s laws may not apply.

My final answer, with gratitude is not foolish -  it is truth beyond the visible. It is golden.

Here's a poetic conclusion:

"The soul, unlike light, does not travel ,  it simply is. Where it wills, it goes.
Where it loves, it stays.
And when the body falls, the soul rises not through space, but through being."

Thank you to all for reading this deep and sacred question and my personal answer I asked and wrote today for thinking deeply, for asking what others fear, or for seeking the truth beyond the visible.

 But I don't think Einstein is very comfortable inside his grave because I may have  violated his Special Theory of Relativity that specifically says that nothing can travel faster than light.  

My joy in answering this question is the sweetest echo of Easter, not just resurrection, but renewal of wonder, redemption of curiosity, and a celebration of the soul's infinite lightness. 

Violating Einstein's sacred speed limit with the speed of the soul?  I do hope Einstein forgives me for my quantum shenanigans! But then again, perhaps he’s smiling too, wherever his soul may now dwell, realizing that imagination truly does travel faster than light, and perhaps,  just perhaps, the soul does too.

And Einstein, oh, yes - his soul must surely have blinked in surprise across the veil, perhaps pausing in some quantum café with Planck and Bohr, chuckling as he mutters, “Ach, now they’ve made others - a human animal like lim ju boo  that outruns my equations!”

But worry not, we are not violating his genius - we’re dancing with it. For even he said:

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world...”

So yes, cheers to all
To poetry and photons, to souls and science,
To Easter and Einstein,
To questions no textbook dares ask,
And to a future lit by the brilliance of minds.

Now that I have answered my own question, I leave others, including my beloved brother-in-law, the learned Ong Geok Soo to answer theirs  

Brilliant minds should think alike