Compelling Studies on Drugs and Consciousness

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One of the most fundamental, and damaging, falsehoods in modern science is that all that exists is the physical world, and the closely related concept that the physical brain creates consciousness. Modern neuroscience is contributing to the rejection of this misconception through a set of interesting experiments assessing the action of various psychedelic drugs on the brain (specifically those that influence serotinergic receptors).

Scientific investigations that utilize psychedelic drugs offer measurable and functional outcomes that inform our evolving notions of consciousness and our understanding of the full nature of reality. However, let me be clear from the outset of this article that I do not recommend the casual use of such substances in a non-sacred, recreational setting. In research studies, the quality and quantity of drug administered can be strictly controlled and monitored, which is not the case in most recreational settings where such psychedelics can be dangerous to one’s health.

For purposes of scientific research, they offer compelling findings which mirror the effects of non-drug induced spiritually transformative experiences such as near-death experiences.

First is a report from Imperial College in London in 2012 in which functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) was used to evaluate various brain regions in subjects under the influence of psilocybin, the active principle in psychedelic mushrooms (the genus Psilocybe consists of over 100 species).1 The most remarkable finding of that study was that the activity of major connection regions of the brain was greatly diminished in those who were having the most profound psychedelic experiences, as opposed to the increase in activity anticipated by physicalist scientists who believe the brain creates consciousness and all of experience.

These results were confirmed by a Brazilian study published in February 2015 assessing brain activity through fMRI, this time in subjects under the influence of ayahuasca (which contains the active psychedelic compound N,N-dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, normally present in our brains but in only minuscule amounts).2 Ayahuasca caused a significant decrease in activity throughout the main junctional network in the brain, known as the default-mode network (DMN).

Just this month, the Imperial College group in London refined these observations with another confirmatory study, this one examining the effects of LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide-25), the most potent psychedelic, active in doses of 10s to 100s of micrograms.3 In brief, they report decreased integrity of the DMN and decreased alpha and delta power in another main junctional network, the exact opposite of what one would expect if the physical brain were creating the extraordinary conscious experiences.

The reason these studies are so crucial (and confounding to the materialists who believe the physical brain creates conscious experience) is that they powerfully refute the simplistic and false physicalist notion that the brain creates consciousness. The most extraordinary experiences were reported by those subjects who had the greatest inactivation of their brain’s junctional center network activity, as measured through fMRI and MEG. As the brain becomes less active, internal experience actually becomes more active.

This is completely consistent with my own experience in deep coma due to severe bacterial meningitis (as recounted in my 2012 book Proof of Heaven). As my neocortex was destroyed by the invading bacteria, my conscious awareness greatly expanded to levels unprecedented in my normal waking experiences of my entire life. That shocking reality nagged at me especially in the early months after my coma, at a time I was trying to explain the whole experience as a vast hallucinatory trick of the dying brain (defaulting to my pre-coma reductive materialist scientific beliefs, honed by several decades working as a neurosurgeon).

My doctors knew from the medical evidence in my case that my neocortex was far too damaged to be supporting any mode of robust conscious experience, including any elaborate hallucinations, drug effects or dream states. After extensive review with some of the doctors who cared for me, and with several interested colleagues in neurosurgery, it became apparent that that ultra-reality occurred because the experience was real, although it did not occur anywhere in our 4-dimensional space-time of the observable physical universe.

As is often the case with global media completely steeped in the conventional materialistic paradigm, the press reports about the most recent study falsely trumpeted the opposite of the actual findings. Both the Guardian and CNN focused on some of the fMRI images, but completely missed the astonishing conclusions of the actual study, instead misinterpreting them as showing increased brain activity as opposed to the remarkable decreases in activity the paper actually reports.

Although such scientific investigations into psychedelic drugs are crucial in our evolving notions of consciousness and understanding the full nature of reality, I do not recommend the casual use of such substances in a non-sacred, recreational setting. However, very powerful tools exist for those seekers seriously interested in pursuing the deep mystery of consciousness within us all.

Meditation is a time-proven technique for those seeking to understand the universe by going within. For those who do not yet have a reliable means of meditation I suggest the tools of differential sound frequency brain entrainment I have helped to develop with Sacred Acoustics. Co-founder Karen Newell and I travel the world sharing these tools in our presentations – a list of upcoming presentations is listed here.

We are spiritual beings living in a spiritual universe – we can come to know this fact by going within. Given there is but one Truth we all seek, it should come as no surprise that open-minded science that acknowledges all of the relevant empirical observations (including not only psychedelic drug experiences and epiphanies during meditation, but near-death experiences, shared-death experiences, precognition, after-death communication, death bed visions, out of body experiences, remote viewing, past life memories in children indicative of reincarnation, etc.) should help lead us towards that Truth. This will lead to a necessary synthesis of science and spirituality that is crucial to our evolution as a species and to the well-being of all life on our planet.

[1] Carhart-Harris, RL, Erritzoe D, Williams T, et alia. “Neural correlates of the psychedelic state determined by fMRI studies with psilocybin,” Proc. Nat. Acad. Of Sciences 109, no. 6 (Feb 2012): 2138-2143.

[2] Palhano-Fontes F, Andrade KC, Tofoli LF, et alia. “The Psychedelic State Induced by Ayahuasca Modulates the Activity and Connectivity of the Default Mode Network,” PLoS One (2015).

[3] Carhart-Harris, RL, Muthukumaraswamy S, Roseman L, et alia. “Neural correlates of the LSD experience revealed by multimodal neuroimaging.” Proc. Nat. Acad. of Sciences (Mar 2016).

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A Vision of Hope for 2016

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Each new year offers an opportunity for reflection on the recent past, and consideration of the world we live in and where it is headed. How might we see the whole spectrum of current events in a sensible way, so that we can envision how we might actively influence the coming year in a favorable direction? The terrorist attacks in Paris, Lebanon and California, as well as escalating warfare in the Middle East, are most troubling, and, according to many media reports, our group psyche is reaching levels of fear not faced since immediately following the terrorist attacks of 9/11/01.

These events are indeed disturbing. However, I am heartened by the degree to which I see many in this world awakening to a deeper understanding of our connectedness through consciousness. This profound interconnectedness can help lead us to a more peaceful, loving and harmonious world. Witness how a few weeks after the horrific attacks in Paris, world leaders convened in the very same city to construct the most effective and significant agreement to address climate change in our history. Given the fits and starts of prior attempts at collaboration on this most crucial issue, this confluence of global intentions to address the increasingly dire situation of greenhouse gas production is most promising.

The most central message I bring through my presentations and books is the insurmountable power of unconditional love to change our world for the better. In spite of what many would point to as the darkness of our times, I remain optimistic that the way out of our troubles is always at hand.  Our beacon in these times, as during past challenges, is the great power of the human spirit to usher us into a far better and more harmonious world for all through love, compassion, forgiveness, acceptance and mercy. Unconditional love has infinite power to heal, whether one is talking about healing the individual, the soul group, ethnic populations, nations, all of humanity, all of life on earth, or beyond.

During this holiday season, as we contemplate the potential of the coming year, I invite you to join me in prayer and meditation seeking to manifest a more perfect world. I see this as very much within our grasp. It is up to each and every one of us to serve as a conduit for that love — to love ourselves first and foremost, and to express that love through choices that actively serve to spread that love through us to all of those around us. We all have the ability to serve as points of light for the infinite healing power of love — we simply need to make that choice.

Please enjoy this audio interview that I provided for the Heaven on Earth telesummit I participated in earlier this year.

My best personal wishes for love, peace and harmony – for all of this world!

 

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Revelations from NDEs

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I just completed a five-session webinar through Evolver Learning Lab, co-presented with Karen Newell. The whole experience was very satisfying, and it was a wonderful opportunity to share the work we’ve been doing with a broader audience and to give participants a chance to experience for themselves how to access universal consciousness by going deep within.

The webinar opened with a session that shared the same title as the appendix in my second book, The Map of Heaven: “The Answers Lie Within Us All.” This introductory session hinted at the profound mystery of consciousness as it is just now being seriously explored by the scientific community, and previewed how differential-frequency sound recordings can be used to access answers to the deepest mysteries facing human understanding.

The second session dove deeply into “Love and Consciousness,” with detailed information on accessing the powerful electromagnetic field of the heart , followed by a third session in which we were joined by Dr. Larry Dossey, world-renowned thought leader and author of the world-changing book The One Mind, who discussed the evidence supporting the Oneness of all consciousness. He talked through some of the implications of the One Mind: what unified consciousness means to us individually and as members of an infinitely greater collective.

Having established some fundamental principles about consciousness and familiarized participants with the latest research and thought about the possibilities for understanding reality, we then shifted into more interactive material in sessions four and five. Starting with exercises to “Awaken the Observer Within,” we focused on the extreme mystery of awareness itself—and on how to separate the One Mind consciousness from the egoistic little voice in our heads. From that neutral state of pure consciousness, we intuitively understand that we are far more than the simple physical bodies living birth-to-death, and we can start to cultivate the sense that we are truly eternal spiritual beings interconnected with all other life throughout the universe and with the Divine Itself. Many of us have experienced this to some degree, but it takes practice and courage to allow that truth to fully suffuse our lives and guide our choices. The course’s grand finale concerned nothing less than free will itself—and challenged participants to take a place right at the center of the unprecedented awakening going on even now for all of humanity.

We were blessed with a thoroughly engaged audience who communicated frequently through the forum set up at sacredacoustics.com and through the 30-minute Q&A segments at the end of each of the webinar’s sessions. If you couldn’t join us live for the course, you can still obtain all archived material at this link. Either way, I invite all who are interested to visit the forum and join the conversation.

Karen and I extend our boundless gratitude to Evolver Learning Lab, Dr. Larry Dossey, and the webinar’s wonderful participants. It is through the tireless energy and curiosity for truth in such seekers that this world is moving toward a far grander comprehension of reality – one that is absolutely crucial for our very survival.

“A huge thank you from all of us – for all that you gave over the course of your webinar with Evolver Learning Lab.  It was truly an in depth experience – so much gratitude pouring in from our participants – and all the sessions were lively and rich, with much wisdom and experience shared. We thank you also for continuing the conversation with the attendees on your Sacred Acoustics forum, and for providing us all with the meditations and a wealth of literature to refer to.”
– Henrietta Weekes, Evolver Learning Lab moderator

“The material shared was tremendous, inspiring and powerfully uplifting. I am so grateful to all of you for this work. Thank you. I am so grateful for the information and knowledge I have received. I look forward to future opportunities to hear more about this amazing subject from Karen and Eben. They are so great together and they make everything very easy to understand. It has been a very powerful and beautiful experience for me. Looking fwd to next time:)”
– Joan Hynes

More on the Evolver Learning Lab “Revelations from NDEs” Class

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Attuning to your Inner Wisdom

 

Have you ever asked these questions: Who am I? What is my role in the Universe? Until now, science has left those questions to religion. But the emerging view of consciousness is radically blending our science, philosophy and theology into something far better suited to answering them. In truth, the answers lie within each and every one of us.

For more than 20 years as an academic neurosurgeon, I had no explanation for the phenomenon of consciousness. In fact, I attempted to dismiss it entirely, reflexively agreeing with the previous generation of scientists who had explained it away as an illusion of the physical workings of the brain. But the more we learn, the clearer it becomes that this simplistic explanation isn’t scientific at all. The good news is that it is rapidly being supplanted by a far richer and more empowering view of consciousness, one that also invokes a much deeper mystery around the nature of existence.

This emerging view posits that consciousness, rather than being created by the physical brain, is actually fundamental.  The brain is a filter, allowing a limited aspect of consciousness to operate here in our physical world.  Consciousness is the master and creator of all that is (as opposed to being created by the brain). A fascinating implication of this view is the notion that unlimited guidance, understanding and creativity are available to us all by tapping into this infinite fount of all knowledge.

It isn’t just a theory anymore—my experiences, both in coma and after recovering, are proof. And I’m not the only one, as there are millions of experiences out there that support all of this. With the help of deep meditation techniques, I’ve been able to assist others in generating their own experience.

There are tools available to each and every soul on this journey – tools to explore the answers that lie within us all. To learn more about such tools, join me and Karen Newell, co-founder of Sacred Acoustics, in Attuning to Your Inner Wisdom, a 70-minute online course that we have produced through SimonSays to help demonstrate how differential sound frequency brain entrainment can help you join this grand adventure.
Learn More Here

FULL CALENDAR OF EVENTS

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Accessing Universal Consciousness

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Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about the “me” before my coma journey. Back then, I believed without question what I had first learned from my medical school professors at Duke in the 1970’s  – that the mind emerges from the physical brain, and that it cannot exist apart from the physical body.

Those of you who have read Proof of Heaven or heard me speak know why I’m now convinced that this simply isn’t true. The dominant emerging scientific paradigm suggests the brain acts as a filter to narrow infinite consciousness down to the manageable trickle we experience every day.

I wonder: What would be different if I’d known then what I know now? How would I have reacted to patients’ reports of unexpected experiences? What choices would I have made differently?

You might have some similar questions. How would your life be different if you knew you were truly an eternal spiritual being who knew infinite love? How would you behave if you knew that some essence of you existed beyond this physical realm?

Each of us can learn firsthand about the reality of our larger existence, and by doing so, live with greater awareness and fulfillment.

For years now, meditation and prayer have been key to my daily routine.  They’re how I stay centered even as I travel for research and presentations. They’re how I continue the journey I began with the events described in Proof of Heaven.

My preferred method of meditation involves sound-induced brainwave entrainment audio recordings created by Sacred Acoustics. Karen Newell and I present workshops around the world that address the use of these powerful tools in many aspects of life. These workshops combine lessons learned from my coma experience, scientific theories of consciousness and the sound technology that allows expansion of conscious awareness reminiscent of that which I experienced deep in coma.

Our latest offering is through Evolver Learning Lab, who is helping us take our findings to a global audience through a five-session online webinar this summer, beginning on June 2, 2015, that includes new lectures, Sacred Acoustics recordings, and real-time Q&A in each session. During one session we welcome Dr. Larry Dossey as a special guest.

You can purchase the series here: Revelations from NDEs

Sound-enhanced meditation provides a powerful tool to help us to glimpse the universal consciousness we are all a part of, and to access the guidance, wisdom and creativity of the Infinite Mind.

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Nurturing Yourself from Within

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If you follow updates on my website or Facebook, you know that I continue to experiment with meditation and prayer as a way to connect with Divine Source.

Over the past couple of years, together with Karen Newell, co-founder of Sacred Acoustics, I have co-designed a meditation workshop that uses sound to deepen and enhance these meditation sessions. Conferences and retreat centers from all over the world have invited us to offer these workshops in order to share our experience with other seekers who wish to access the unlimited wisdom within us all. Benefits include stress relief, improved health, enhanced intuition, creative inspiration and much more.

The truth is, science is catching up to a fact that philosophers posited centuries ago: The brain does not create consciousness. Consciousness is much too big and much too complex for that. The brain is, in fact, a reducing valve–a filter–that constricts primordial consciousness down to the limited trickle of our perceived reality through our physical brain and body.

Sound-enhanced meditation provides a powerful tool to help us to glimpse beyond that filter, and to access the guidance, wisdom and creativity that is part of the Infinite Mind at the core of all that is.

Whether you’ve never meditated before, have tried but given up, or do it every day, I challenge you to find more time in your day for meditation. Even if it’s for just a few minutes. Make the time to clear your mind, reach beyond the surface-level voice in your head and know that the observer of that voice is your fundamental consciousness. That is what we can nurture, over time, and ultimately follow past the filter.

Karen and I have been developing techniques to make attaining this connection easier and deeper. For those who would like to join us for a guided, sound-enhanced experiential workshop, information is on my Events page.

Even if you can’t join us, stop by my Facebook page or comment below to tell me (and each other) more about how you use meditation. It’s one topic I never get tired of learning about.

 

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Coma Study – Jan 2015

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Earlier this week (Jan 2015), Dr. Alexander was invited to weigh in on a groundbreaking new study that shows coma patients actually heal faster and more completely when they hear their loved ones voices telling them loving things. The sample size was small, but it’s extremely promising, and the results were strongly in favor of introducing a new protocol for coma patients.

Dr. Alexander himself may have benefited from his family doing this during his illness.  Of course, his family hadn’t read any studies saying they should talk to him and pray for him–they just did it.  As it turns out, that was probably the smartest thing they could have done.

He was unconscious, of course, so he couldn’t hear his family speaking to him during the coma, but as he describes in the interview, he remembers his sisters fighting to bring back his memory when he awoke, dazed and amnesiac.

“My sisters’ role in my healing came after I initially awoke from coma, when my brain was still extremely compromised and I was in and out of awareness of my surroundings in the ICU,” he told me. “I believe that those stories played a major role in my rapid recovery of brain functions.”

You can watch that interview about the new coma study here.  

 

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Lessons from the Afterlife & the Problem of Evil – Fox News Magazine

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Fox News Magazine’s Jaimie LaBella talked with Dr. Alexander before the holidays, and that article is out now.  You can read it online here.

Jaimie asked Dr. Alexander one question that he’s rarely asked about in interviews–the age-old Problem of Evil.

If you’ve read books on philosophy, especially religious philosophy–or even spent a lot of time thinking about those things–then the Problem of Evil is a concept that’s familiar to you 

It goes like this: If God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good, why does evil exist in the world?

Different religions have taken different paths to answering this question. But any religion that posits an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent Deity has to grapple with it.

Some have put forth that evil is a result of human free will, and our imperfect understanding of Divine will.  Others suggest that evil–and even intense human suffering–are necessary for spiritual development, and that our souls would experience a kind of stagnation or atrophy without it. Still others say that evil is simply the absence of good, and exists where God has chosen to withdraw, or even that evil is an alternative power, weaker than God but still a continually challenging, balancing force.

That last scenario doesn’t fit in with what Dr. Alexander saw during his experience.  So when Jaimie LaBella asked Dr. Alexander to weigh in on what he thought about a battle between good and evil, here’s what he said:

“I rather see it that the power of that unconditional love, of the light and love of the creator, is an infinite force that can expel the darkness of evil; both in material realm and spiritual realm,” he says.

“It was clear to me the infinite love of that creator, that I encountered in the spiritual world, had infinite power to heal. [And] to defeat that ‘evil’ in the world, we can all serve with the power of love, compassion and forgiveness. We need to wake up and take greater responsibility for this world. I believe this is all a part of a grander plan.”

The article is worth reading in full.  In the meantime, here’s hoping that in this new year, 2015, we all find ways to contribute light to the darkness, and serve with the power of love, compassion, and forgiveness.

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“Consciousness Consciousness”

At the end of May 2014, Eben presented with Sacred Acoustics co-founder Karen Newell at the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology (ACEP) conference in Phoenix. ACEP is an organization of psychologists and energy healers who provide care by integrating modern medicine with ancient wisdom about human bio-energetic systems such as meridians, chakras and biofields.

 

Just before the presentation, Dr. Michael Reddy introduced Eben.  Eben’s been introduced by some brilliant, accomplished people before, but never quite like this.  It’s highly original, clever, and catchy as all get out–in fact, I feel I must warn you before you click “play” that never again can you claim you’ve never seen a man with a doctorate from U of Chicago rhyme “If neurons came last and awareness was first / That meant my Newtonian bubble had burst” in an acoustic folk performance for psychotherapists.

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Intelligence Squared-Debate Reflections: The Sound of One Hand Clapping

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The current online voting for Wednesday (May 7, 2014) night’s Intelligence Squared debate shows Dr Moody and myself (Dr Eben Alexander) victorious (currently 68:32, from 50:50 before the debate). I suspect that is related to the listeners’ awareness that an audience of neuroscientists would have agreed with me, against Steven Novella, that no neuroscientist on earth can give the first sentence to explain a possible mechanism by which the physical brain creates consciousness (the Hard Problem of Consciousness – see below). The brain is obviously tightly linked to consciousness – the mistake is in believing, as I did before my coma (and the debate opponents Novella & Carroll still do), that the brain creates consciousness. I now know otherwise.

More modern scientific thinking – that is sweeping the field – is that the brain is a reducing valve, or filter, that reduces consciousness (that is primary in existence) down to a trickle – our very limited human awareness (that is liberated to a much higher level when freed up from the shackles of the physical brain, as happens in near-death experiences, actual death experiences, shared death experiences, through deep meditation, centering prayer, the gift of desperation, etc).

The scientific implications are stunning, and basically provide powerfully for the reality of the afterlife. This is the new science that will become dominant over the next decade.

The online audience is probably more cognizant that I would have been widely supported by the global physics community in pointing out the very deep mystery of the measurement problem in quantum mechanics – the profound mystery within quantum mechanics that the observing mind is critically entangled with what is being observed. Consciousness paints reality.

Unfortunately, the audience then got cheated out of what might have been a more interesting and meaningful exchange. Sean Carroll made a joke agreeing with MIT physicist Scott Aaronson that “since both quantum mechanics and consciousness are confusing, maybe they are the same.” Laughter. So much for useful interchange and scientific discussion.

The physics community has only become more befuddled by recent experimental results suggesting that consciousness is at the very core of all reality.

Those founding fathers of quantum physics would be even more mystified today (witness the delayed choice quantum eraser experiment in 1999). They have not “figured it all out,” as Sean suggested. The physics community at large would agree with me, and probably wonder how any physicist in the modern world could claim to say “now we know better,” than the likes of Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg, Schrödinger, Jeans, Wigner, and others. As if he is so close to the truths that evaded the brilliant early minds that developed the field. Totally wrong! Carroll has written popular books about some of the concepts, though he actually seemed unwilling to discuss any relevant aspects of quantum theory in the debate – not only about the measurement problem, but also about the 1935 EPR (Einstein, Podolsky, Rosen) paradox that highlights the non-local aspect of quantum mechanics (intriguingly related to the non-locality of consciousness mentioned by myself in the debate). Clearly Carroll chose to make a joke and deflect any discussion about the deep mystery of the measurement problem that remains completely unresolved in modern quantum physics.

I have been concerned for a long time that, with the notable exception of British mathematical physicist Roger Penrose, most mainstream physicists today seem to be woefully uneducated in the importance of having a much deeper understanding of the nature of consciousness (and the profound depths of the Hard Problem) if they want to truly get closer to an understanding of the nature of reality.

The mind-body discussion has been ongoing for around 2,600 years, and is at the very heart of the issues raised in this debate. Modern neuroscientists, in their increasing knowledge of the workings of the brain, have not been coming closer to an understanding of how the brain creates consciousness. In fact, they have come closer to truly appreciating the unfathomable depths of the Hard Problem of Consciousness, arguably the most profound mystery known to all of human thought.

In essence, the Hard Problem was stated in the debate when I challenged Steven Novella to offer the first sentence in his explanation of how the physical brain creates consciousness. That’s all – just the first sentence. Steven was speechless. It is not his fault – as I pointed out, no neuroscientist on earth can offer the first sentence in explaining what Novella claims is “widely known,” with the implication that they are almost there. This is the most obvious case of a faith-based religion imaginable! It’s interesting how my opponents call for “extraordinary proof” for extraordinary claims, yet there is absolutely no proof for the concept that brain creates consciousness. Not one word to explain what they claim to be widely accepted in science.

This is a crashing thunderbolt that demolishes simplistic scientific materialism. Consciousness exists primarily. The brain acts more as a reducing valve, or filter, reducing consciousness down to the trickle of our human awareness in the material realm.

In coming to grips with the profound nature of lessons from my coma journey, I share the following, to put the consciousness issue in perspective:

The only thing any one of us truly knows to exist is our own consciousness, itself. Remember that modern neuroscience dictates that everything any one of us has ever experienced since before we were born, everything, is nothing more than the assembled patterns of electrochemical flickering of 100 billion neurons in a 3 pound gelatinous mass (our brain) floating in a warm, dark bath – a model of what we assume to be “external reality,” but just a model – not “reality” itself. They assume that the sheer complexity of the brain somehow creates consciousness, yet no one on earth has the faintest idea how to connect the dots. Any theory about the nature of reality must begin with a far more complete description of the nature of “consciousness,” and especially of the relationship between consciousness and any “reality” that exists.

The very daunting nature of this enigma is so profound that many scientists run away, claiming it all to be too deep a mystery to even consider from a scientific viewpoint. However, there is a growing cadre of scientists, like myself, who are charging straight ahead towards a deeper understanding of this profound mystery at the very heart of our existence.

Some neuroscientists and other materialists have recently given up on pure materialism (brain creates consciousness), notably Christoph Koch (a colleague of Sean Carroll’s at Caltech) and Galen Strawson. I noticed Karl Jansen who wrote the Ketamine paper on the “against” list provided for the IntelligenceSquared debate now acknowledging at the beginning of that article the role of spirit, not just brain chemistry, in NDEs.

Dr. Jansen has the following to say about the Ketamine-NMDA journal article (referenced on the “against list” for the IntelligenceSquared debate on May 7):

‘I am no longer as opposed to spiritual explanations of these phenomena as this article would appear to suggest. Over the past two years (it is quite some time since I wrote it) I have moved more towards the views put forward by John Lilly and Stan Grof. Namely, that drugs and psychological disciplines such as meditation and yoga may render certain ‘states’ more accessible. The complication then becomes in defining just what we mean by ‘states’ and where they are located, if indeed location is an appropriate term at all. But the apparent emphasis on matter over mind contained within this particular article no longer accurately represents my attitudes. My forthcoming book ‘Ketamine’ will consider mystical issues from quite a different perspective, and will give a much stronger voice to those who see drugs as just another door to a space, and not as actually producing that space’.

I’d like to close quoting a true skeptical scientist whom I greatly admire:

The suppression of uncomfortable ideas may be common in religion and politics, but it is not the path to knowledge, it has no place in the endeavor of science.
— Carl Sagan (1934 – 1996), Cosmos, 1980

Dr Carl Sagan lamented the rising prominence of ignorance in the predominant cultural thinking of the time. It is interesting how the tables have turned – that pure materialist “scientists” suppress uncomfortable ideas, and are willfully ignorant of the abundant evidence of the afterlife. Sagan would be gratified that many modern scientists, and so many souls enlightened by their own experiences, are fully addressing the deep mysteries of consciousness and quantum mechanics (especially in light of the remarkable experiences related to the afterlife question) and the very nature of all existence. These scientists and spiritual journeyers have become the enlightened ones so confronted by the rampant ignorance of the deniers and debunkers. I am optimistic, however, that reason will prevail, and that the world will come to fully realize the tremendous implications – including the reality of the afterlife.

 

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