Aspects of Consciousness

Aspects of
Consciousness
Essays on Physics, Death
and the Mind
Edited by INGRID FREDRIKSSON

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers

Jefferson, North Carolina, and London
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Aspects of consciousness : essays on physics,
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 Table of Contents

Introduction 1

PART I. CONSCIOUSNESS
Investigation of a Complex Space-Time Metric to Describe Precognition of
the Future (Elizabeth A. Rauscher and Russell Targ) 5
Physics and Consciousness (Jens A. Tellefsen, Jr.) 27
Consciousness and Consequences: The Physical Nature of Mind (James E. Beichler) 49
At the Speed of Light (Dag Landvik) 76

PART II. NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES/THEORETICAL POSSIBILITIES

Near-Death Experiences: The Ins and Outs of NDE Perception (Göran Grip) 93
Near-Death Experiences: In or Out of the Body? (Susan Blackmore) 104
The Beyond That Is Within: Recognizing Larger Realities (William Braud) 119
Open-Minded or Empty-Headed? The Editor’s Dilemma (Anthony Freeman) 136

PART III. THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF

DUALISM-INTERACTIONISM, ECONOMICS, AND MIND
Through the Looking Glass: Discovering the Cosmology of Mind with
Implications for Medicine, Psychology and Spirituality (Richard L. Amoroso) 147
Conscious Economics (Amit Goswami) 178
The Action of the Mind (Jean E. Burns) 204

About the Contributors 217

Index 219

v
 Introduction

This is a book about consciousness. My goal was to publish a book on this topic, as
well as quantum mechanics, string theory, dimensions, space and time, non-local space, the
hologram, and what happens to consciousness when we die. I wanted a selection of famous
scientists and authors to take part in the creation of the book, writing a chapter each. Now
my dream has become reality thanks to the contributors who offer their knowledge and
expertise to the general public.
This collection describes the field of consciousness from a variety of perspectives. Many
of the contributors make reference to Nobel Prize winners, a statement about both the
scholarly value of this book as well as the popularity and interest surrounding the areas of
physics, death and the mind. The book is interdisciplinary in its coverage of different aspects
of physics, theoretical physics, quantum physics, psychology, philosophy of mind, and
parapsychology — as varied as the field of consciousness itself. It posits the theory that the-
ology and science are not mutually exclusive, but rather opposite ends of the broad spectrum
of human intellectual endeavors.
Elizabeth A. Rauscher and Russell Targ begin Part I with their “Investigation of a Com-
plex Space-Time Metric to Describe Precognition of the Future.” They present a geometrical
model of space-time known as a “complex Minkowski space” shown to be consistent with
our present understanding of the equations of Newton, Maxwell, Einstein and Schrödinger.
The product of 25 years of research, this model utilizes elements of experimental parapsy-
chology, while remaining consistent with the structure of modern physics.
In his essay, “Physics and Consciousness,” Jens A. Tellefsen, Jr. writes: “Our brains are
computers that are programmed, and every thought is a program. The brain does not dis-
tinguish between fantasy and reality.” At a 1977 New York conference, Edgar Mitchell dis-
cussed the question of whether we all use our thoughts everyday to influence our
surroundings, our reality and our universe subconsciously. Tellefsen, Jr. examines Mitchell’s
ideas as well as the subjects of Bell’s theorem, the EPR–paradox, the holographic model
and Nobel laureate Dennis Gabor.
James E. Beichler writes about “Consciousness and Consequences”; specifically, the
physical nature of consciousness. He discusses recent scientific developments pointing to
the need for distinguishing between matter itself and a perceiving, interpreting conscious-
ness. Beichler argues for a definition of “mind and matter,” transforming the subjectivity
of consciousness into an object model.
In his “At the Speed of Light,” Dag Landvik explains that at the speed of light, time

1
2 Introduction

stands still. Relying on Einstein’s theory of relativity. Landvik discusses a “natural timeless
state,” building on the idea of timeless communication or “nonlocality.” Quantum mechan-
ics has proven nonlocality to exist in nature through experiments splitting a single particle
into two. Results show that, even when the particles are separated in space, the manipulation
of one instantaneously appears in the copies. From here, it is a small step to the theory of
a timeless, spaceless state in which all forms of life are connected at fundamental levels.
In Part II, Göran Grip and Susan Blackmore both analyze the Near-Death Experience
(NDE), albeit from different points of view. Dr. Grip, an M.D., takes a personal approach,
writing of his own NDEs, the Out of Body Experience (OBE) in general, and the importance
of perception to both. The essay focuses on differing qualities of perception in both expe-
riences: “local” for the NDE, “nonlocal” for the OBE.
In an updated introduction to her 1991 article, “Near-Death Experiences: In or Out of
the Body?” Susan Blackmore surveys recent developments to her initial questions on “minds,
selves, and the nature of consciousness.” Although the study of death has traditionally been
considered a subject for theology or philosophy, recent advances in medicine have finally
enabled a scientific approach toward understanding the ultimate mystery facing humankind.
Blackmore concludes that science only reinforces her original position, that physical death
puts an end to all questions of mind and self.
William Braud, in his “The Beyond That Is Within: Recognizing Larger Realities,” also
writes about near death experiences and out of body experiences. He explores progressively
larger and more inclusive realms of experience that individuals and researchers, in areas
of psychology and consciousness studies, have discovered or rediscovered. Braud argues
that such discoveries may enhance our ways of knowing and being and foster increased
consciousness, knowledge, and wisdom.
Anthony Freeman writes a personal reflection on his fifteen years as editor of the
Journal of Consciousness Studies. In “Open-Minded or Empty-Headed? The Editor’s
Dilemma,” Freeman details two particular opposing articles published in the Journal, one
arguing for a purely physicalist approach to scientific study, the other for the need to look
beyond the merely physical. Efforts to provide an open forum for proponents of the two
sides have helped shape Freeman’s time as editor.
Richard L. Amoroso begins Part III with a look at life force, or élan vital, and dualism-
interactionism. His “Through the Looking Glass: Discovering the Cosmology of Mind with
Implications for Medicine, Psychology and Spirituality” explores the new noetic action
principle — the physicists’ unfield field, “tantamount to the spirit of God.” Researchers her-
ald the principle’s implications for medicine and transpersonal psychology. Among the pos-
sibilities are the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease and consciousness-based technologies
capable of healing wounds within seconds.
Amit Goswami, in his “Conscious Economics,” seeks to bring the qualities of a new
scientific paradigm — based on quantum physics and the primacy of consciousness— to the
traditional study of economics. Following a 1999 conference attended by the Dalai Lama,
Goswami was inspired to imagine economics as much more than Adam Smith’s capitalism:
a field enriched by intuition, thinking, and emotion, all the “subtle and creative dimensions
of the human being.” Such a paradigm shift is necessary, Goswami argues, to help prevent
economic meltdowns such as that witnessed in 2008.
Finally, in “The Action of the Mind,” Jean E. Burns examines the idea of free will as a
“mental action” and its relationship to the brain, physical laws, and evolutionary selection.
Holding to the assumption that all conscious experience is encoded in the brain, Burns the-
 Introduction 3

orizes that free will acts as process only, acting by selecting between alternatives provided
by the brain.
Although the authors have all written articles from the perspectives of their particular
specialties, a number of references are surprisingly similar. Even if the phenomenon of con-
sciousness is not explainable from within the boundaries set by present day science, this
collection makes significant progress in that direction. The physical basis of mind continues
to inspire profound new medical and psychosocial technologies, making this book a timely
volume at the vanguard of a revolution.

Bibliography
Blackmore, S. Near-Death Experiences. In G. Stein (ed.) The Encyclopedia of the Paranormal (pp. 425 –
441). Amherst, NY: Prometheus, 1996.
Goswami, A. How Quantum Activism Can Save Civilization. Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads, 2011.
Grip, G. Allting Finns (Everything exist). Stockholm: Forum, 1994.
Talbot, M. The Holographic Universe. New York: HarperCollins, 1992.
 PART I. CONSCIOUSNESS

Investigation of a Complex
Space-Time Metric to Describe
Precognition of the Future
ELIZABETH A. RAUSCHER and RUSSELL TARG

For more than 100 years scientists have attempted to determine the truth or falsity of
claims that some people are able to describe and experience events or information blocked
from ordinary perception. For the past 25 years, the authors of this paper — together with
researchers in laboratories around the world — have carried out experiments in remote
viewing. The evidence for this mode of perception, or direct knowing of distant events and
objects, has convinced us of the validity of these claims. It has been widely observed that
the accuracy and reliability of this sensory awareness does not diminish with either elec-
tromagnetic shielding, nor with increases in temporal or spatial separation between the
percipient and the target to be described. Modern physics describes such a time-and-space
independent connection between percipient and target as nonlocal. Here we present a geo-
metrical model of space-time, which has already been extensively studied in the technical
literature of mathematics and physics. This eight- dimensional metric is known as “complex
Minkowski space,” and has been shown to be consistent with our present understanding
of the equations of Newton, Maxwell, Einstein, and Schrödinger. It also has the interesting
property of allowing a connection of zero distance between points in the complex manifold,
which appear to be separate from one another in ordinary observation. We propose a model
that describes the major elements of experimental parapsychology, and at the same time is
consistent with the present highly successful structure of modern physics.

Introduction
Scientific research into extrasensory perception (ESP) has made enormous progress
since the founding of The Society for Psychical Research in 1882 by a distinguished group
of Cambridge University scholars. The society’s purpose was to examine allegedly para-
normal phenomena in a scientific and unbiased manner — the first organization of its kind
in the world. Now in the twenty-first century, the evidence has become overwhelming that
our thoughts and bodies can be directly affected and influenced by the thoughts of another
person, or by events and activities at a distant location blocked from ordinary perception.

5
6 Part I. Consciousness

Although we do not presently understand the detailed mechanisms underlying psychical

abilities, thousands of experiments have been carried out successfully in dozens of labora-
tories around the world establishing the existence of some form of ESP. We present here a
theoretical model to elucidate some of the phenomena underlying the remote perception
ability, while remaining consistent with modern physics. For example, our model is in good
agreement with the ideas presented in the recent physics book The Nonlocal Universe, where
we read, “The universe on a very basic level could be a vast web of particles, which remain
in contact with one another over any distance, [and] in no time.”1
This essay is about connecting our awareness to the universe and to each other through
the use of our psychic abilities. These abilities, known collectively as psi, from the Greek
word for spirit (or soul), reveal numerous kinds of connections— mind to mind (telepathy),
mind to body (distant healing), mind to the world (clairvoyance), precognition of future
events, and what some mystics have called one-mindedness. Even though we lack an under-
standing of ESP, we have learned a great deal about its psychology, and procedures to make
this elusive phenomena appear with ever increasing reliability in laboratory experiments.
For example, today’s remote viewing experiments, in which we can often describe and
experience places thousands of miles away, have demonstrated ten times more statistical
reliability, or effect size, than those of J. B. Rhine’s original ESP card-guessing experiments
seventy years ago at Duke University.2 These new perception results have been published
in Nature by R. Targ and H. Puthoff,3 The Proceedings of the Institute of Electrical and Elec-
tronics Engineers, H. Puthoff and R. Targ,4 The Psychological Bulletin, D. Bem and C. Hon-
orton,5 The Journal of Scientific Exploration, J. Utts,6 and the Proceedings of the AAAS, H.
Puthoff, R. Targ, and E. May.7 In addition, highly significant double-blind clinical studies
in distant healing have been published in The Western Journal of Medicine and The Annals
of Internal Medicine, F. Sicher and E. Targ,8 and W. Harris.9
The laboratory evidence from more than 100 years of parapsychological research makes
it clear that we sometimes obtain information about the future, the past, and distant loca-
tions, which is not available to us by ordinary means, or through logical inference. This
observation of precognition or paranormal foreknowledge has puzzled thinkers since the
time of the Oracle at Delphi. However, mystics have known from the earliest Hindu Vedas
of 2000 B.C. in India that “separation is an illusion,” and that our consciousness transcends
our ordinary understanding of both space and time. In The Sutras of Patanjali,10 from 400
B.C., we are given detailed instructions for looking into the distance and the future, in a
manner strikingly similar to recent decades of ESP research practice at laboratories such
as Stanford Research Institute (SRI International) and Princeton University’s Engineering
Anomalies Research Laboratory, R. Targ and J. Katra11, 12 and R. Jahn.13
With practice, people become increasingly able to separate out the psychic signal from
the mental noise of memory, analysis, and imagination. Targets and target details as small
as 1 mm can be sensed. Moreover, again and again we have seen that accuracy and resolution
of remote viewing targets are not sensitive to variations in distance. In 1984 Targ organized
a pair of successful 10,000 mile remote viewing experiments between Moscow and San Fran-
cisco with famed Russian healer, Djuna Davitashvili. Djuna’s task was to describe where
an SRI colleague would be hiding in San Francisco at a specific time. She had to focus her
attention 6,000 miles to the west, and two hours into the future, to correctly describe his
location. These successful experiments were performed under the auspices and control of
the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Ten years earlier, in 1974, Targ and SRI colleague Hal Puthoff carried out a demon-
 Investigation of a Complex Space-Time Metric (Rauscher and Targ) 7

stration of psychic abilities for the CIA in which Pat Price, a retired police commissioner,
described the contents and activities inside and outside of a secret Soviet weapons laboratory
in the far reaches of Siberia ñ given only the geographical coordinates of latitude and lon-
gitude for a reference. (That is, with no on-site cooperation from a person at the target.)
This experiment was such a stunning success that physicists Targ and Puthoff were forced
to undergo a formal congressional investigation to determine if there had been a breach in
National Security. Of course, none was ever found, and our research into psychic function-
ing was supported by the government for another fifteen years. During these experiments
at SRI, Pat Price made the sketch shown below left, to illustrate his mental impressions of
a giant gantry crane that he psychically “saw” rolling back and forth over a building at the
target site.
Data from formal and controlled SRI investigations were highly statistically significant
(thousands of times greater than chance expectation) for each series of trials, and have been
published in the world’s most prestigious journals, such as Nature, The Proceedings of the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and The Proceedings of the American Academy
of Sciences, as cited above.
During one experiment, while one of us (R. Targ) was working with Pat Price at SRI
International, the highly psychic retired police commissioner did not arrive for the scheduled
trial. So, in the spirit of “the show must go on,” I spontaneously decided to undertake the
remote viewing myself. Prior to that, I had been only an interviewer and facilitator for such
trials. In this series we were trying to describe the day-to-day activities of Hal Puthoff as
he traveled through Colombia, in South America. We would not receive any feedback until
he returned, and I, therefore, had no clues at all as to what he was doing. I closed my eyes
and immediately had an image of an island airport. The surprisingly accurate sketch I drew
is shown below. What we learned from this trial, is that even a scientist can be psychic,
when the necessity level is high enough.
The purpose of our present investigation is to make use of the remote perception and
precognitive data base in order to deduce the relevant physical principles and laws governing
paranormal functioning. One of the most common objections to the existence of psi is that
it appears to be in conflict with the laws of physics, because we have not yet found the
mechanism for such information transfer. In our investigation we attempt first to demon-
strate the compatibility of psi phenomena with the laws and content of physics, and then
to develop a theoretical model, which is descriptive of the nonlocal properties of psi. In
this paper we present a detailed theoretical model describing the properties of psychic phe-
nomena, which we have demonstrated to be in agreement with the main body of physics.
Specifically, we have examined a complex eight-dimensional Minkowski space which
is consistent with the foundations of quantum mechanics, Maxwell’s formalism, and the
theory of relativity. This is a purely geometrical model formulated in terms of space and
time coordinates, in which each of the familiar three spatial and one temporal coordinates
is expanded into its real and imaginary parts— making a total of six spatial, and two tem-
poral coordinates, E. Rauscher,14 C.W. Kozameh and E.T. Newman,15 and E.T. Newman et
al.16, 17
The metric of this complex eight-space is a measure of the manner in which one phys-
ically or psychically moves along a world line in space and time. This movement can be as
mundane as meeting a friend tomorrow at 4:00 P.M. on the corner of 42nd Street and Broad-
way, or as cosmic as experiencing oceanic oneness with the universe. Essentially, real-time
remote viewing demands the ability for the awareness of the individual to be contiguous
8 Part I. Consciousness

CIA artist tracing of a satellite photograph of the Semipalatinsk target site. Such tracings were made
by the CIA to conceal the accuracy of detail of satellite photography.

with a specific target at a distant location. This ability to nonlocally access information or
produce an effect, requires that the experienced distance between the subject and the target
can be zero. Similarly, for precognition one is contiguous in awareness with the future event
that is sensed. The complex eight-space described here can always provide a path, or world
line in space and time, which connects the viewer to a remote target, so that his awareness
experiences zero spatial and/or temporal distance in the metric. It appears that for con-
sciousness there may, or may not, be any separation, depending on one’s intention. Although
this paper deals principally with the physics underlying psychic abilities, we think it is evi-
dent that these abilities are fundamental to our understanding of consciousness itself. In
fact, psi functioning may be the means that consciousness uses to make itself known in the
internal and external physical world, and to our own awareness.

Experimental Foundation
The fact that the future can come into our awareness at an earlier time indicates that
we misapprehend both everyday causality and the nature of the very space and time which
we take so much for granted. The existence of precognition is a serious problem for con-
temporary science, as well as those who interpret their experience in terms of linear time,
but we consider the data to be overwhelming.
Precognitive dreams are the most common psychic event to appear in the life of the
average person. These dreams give us a glimpse of events that we will experience in the
future. In fact, it can be said that precognitive dreams are often caused by the experience
that we actually will have at a later time. If one has a dream of a hearse passing in front of
one’s window, and then wakes up the next morning and observes a funeral procession led
by an hearse going down the street, we could say that last night’s dream of a hearse was
caused by the experience of seeing the hearse the next morning. This is an example of the
future affecting the past. There is an enormous body of evidence for this kind of occurrence,
which we cite below.
What cannot happen, we believe, is a future event changing the past. It appears that
nothing in the future can cause something that has already happened and is known and
agreed upon, to have not occurred. This is the so-called intervention paradox, illustrated
 Investigation of a Complex Space-Time Metric (Rauscher and Targ) 9

by the theoretical example in which one, in the present, kills his grandmother when she
was a child, and therefore he ceases to exist. That kind of paradox is interesting to think
about, but there is no evidence of its occurrence. The data strongly suggest that, although
one can see his grandmother in the past, and obtain information about the past, there is
no possibility for physical intervention. Relativity theory calls this a closed time-like loop,
and it is strictly forbidden. These issues are discussed at length in Robert Brier’s monograph,
Precognition and the Philosophy of Science: An Essay on Backward Causation.18
From our research, we have found that in order to know that a dream is precognitive,
one has to recognize that it is not caused by the previous day’s mental residue, one’s wishes,
or anxieties. We find rather, that precognitive dreams have an unusual clarity, but also
often contain bizarre and unfamiliar material. Dream experts like to speak of “preternatural
clarity.” Again, these are not wish fulfillment or anxiety dreams. For example, if one is
unprepared for an exam, and dreams about failing it, we would not consider this to be pre-
cognition. On the other hand, if one has had hundreds of uneventful plane flights, and then
has a frightening dream about a crash, one might like to re-consider his travel plans. One
might ask, “How can I dream about being in a plane crash, if I don’t actually get to expe-
rience it?” The answer is that one dreams about the real crash, and then dramatizes the
events to include oneself in it.
For example, a government contract monitor of the SRI work had a vivid dream about
being in a plane crash, and then after canceling his flight, saw a plane crash at quite close
range the next day. Since he was supposed to have been on that very plane, he had no trouble
putting himself on the plane in his dream the previous night. We would say that the fright-
ening crash that he experienced in the afternoon was the cause of his earlier dream. This
is called retro-causality, and it may be the basis of most precognition. It is evident that pre-
cognition occurs, and from the laboratory data we consider it important to note that it is
just as successful and reliable as real time ESP (R. Jahn and B. Dunne).19 These experimental
data from Princeton demonstrate that psi performance is not a function of temporal dis-
tance.
A well-conducted experiment involving remote viewing over intercontinental distances
demonstrated that the quality of psychic functioning is the same across the street, or half
a world away — independent of spatial distance. In one such series, experienced viewer and
anthropologist Marilyn Schlitz planned to replicate the then new SRI remote viewing exper-
iments. She wanted to conduct remote viewing experiments at much greater distances than
had been published in any of the SRI papers. To carry out this experiment she enlisted the
aid of her friend Elmar Gruber, a European parapsychologist who was traveling in Italy.20
Each day for ten days in November of 1979, Schlitz, at home in Detroit, Michigan, would
attempt to experience and describe the place in Rome where Gruber would be located at
11:00 A.M. Michigan time. Gruber, for his part, had made a list of 40 different target locations
in Rome. These included both indoor and outdoor sites at parks, churches, the airport,
museums, the sports arena, the Spanish Steps, etc. Could Schlitz, 3000 miles away, describe
each day’s target place with enough accuracy to allow a future judge to match each day’s
description with that day’s target? In addition, could she do it without receiving any feedback
for each day’s target as she attempted this psychic investigation?
An example taken from one of Schlitz’s successfully matched remote viewing transcripts
is as follows:
Flight path? Red lights. Strong depth of field. Elmar seems detached, cold ... outdoors. See sky
dark. Windy and cold. Something shooting upward....Not a private home or anything like that —
10 Part I. Consciousness

something — a public facility....He was standing away from the main structure, although he could
see it. He might have been in a parking lot or field connected to the structure, that identifies the
place. I want to say an airport, but, that just seems too specific. There was activity and people, but
no one real close to Elmar.

In fact, the target site was the Rome International Airport, where Gruber had been
standing on a hill to the side of the terminal building. Schlitz’s transcripts and Gruber’s
descriptions of his hiding places were sent to Hans Bender, a German researcher who under-
took to arrange the judging for the experiment. Five judges examined the material, and
their job was to go to each of the ten target sites. At each site they read Gruber’s comments
about what his activities were at the site. While there, the judges were to decide which of
Schlitz’s ten transcripts was the best match for that particular site, which one was the second
best, etc. The results revealed that out of Schlitz’s ten transcripts, six were matched correctly
in first place to the target that Gruber visited on the day the transcript was created. The
probability of that happening by chance is less than 6 in 10,000.
This experiment was included in K. Ramakrishna Rao’s book, The Basic Experiments
in Parapsychology,21 which is like the “Hall of Fame” for parapsychology experiments. Since
the first 1974 publication of the remote viewing protocol22 there have been at least twenty-
three successful replications of this work, from laboratories throughout the world.23
In a summary of research data from 1935 to 1989, for what we call paranormal fore-
knowledge, Charles Honorton and Diane Ferari studied 309 precognition experiments that
had been carried out by 62 investigators.24 More than 50,000 participants were involved in
more than 2 million trials. Thirty percent of these studies were statistically significant in
demonstrating that people can describe future events, where only five percent would be
expected by chance. This gave overall significance of greater than 1020 to one. This body
of data offers very strong evidence for confirming the existence of knowledge of the future.
A very comprehensive laboratory examination of precognition was conducted by Robert
Jahn, Brenda Dunne, and Roger Nelson at Princeton University in the 1980s.25 They con-
ducted 227 formal remote viewing experiments in which a viewer was asked to describe
their impressions of where one of the researchers would be hiding at some pre-selected
later time. They discovered, much to their surprise, that the accuracy of the description
was the same whether the viewer had to look hours, days, or weeks into the future. The
overall statistical significance of the combined experiments departed from chance expecta-
tion by 1 in 1011! The Princeton group’s research findings are among the best evidence for
the reality of precognition.
In the laboratory, we know that if we show a frightening picture to a person, there will
be a significant change in his or her physiology. Their blood pressure, heart rate, and skin
resistance will all change. This fight or flight reaction is called an “orienting response.” At
the University of Nevada, researcher Dean Radin has demonstrated that this orienting
response is also observed in a person’s physiology, a few seconds before they directly observe
the scary picture. In Radin’s comprehensive book The Conscious Universe, he describes bal-
anced, double-blind experiments, which show that if one is about to see scenes of violence
and mayhem, one’s body will steel itself against the insult, but if one is about to see a picture
of a flower garden, then there is rarely such strong anticipatory reaction.26 Fear is much
easier to measure physiologically than bliss. We could say that this is a case in which one’s
direct physical perception of the picture, when it occurs, causes one to have a unique
physical response at an earlier time. Again, in this research protocol, one’s future is affecting
his past. We are all familiar with the idea of a premonition, in which one has inner knowl-
 Investigation of a Complex Space-Time Metric (Rauscher and Targ) 11

edge of something that is going to happen in the future — usually something of emotional
significance. There is also an experience called presentiment, where one has an inner sen-
sation, a gut feeling that something strange is about to occur. An example would be for one
to suddenly stop on a walk down the street, because he felt “uneasy,” only to have a flower
pot then fall off a window ledge and land at his feet — instead of on his head. That would
be a useful presentiment.
A study of much longer time-span presentiment was carried out by parapsychologist
William Cox in the 1950s. He wanted to know whether people used their precognitive abil-
ities to avoid accidents.27 W. E. Cox conducted an investigation of twenty-eight documented
train wrecks between 1950 and 1955. He found that in every case fewer people rode the
trains that crashed or were wrecked than rode similar trains which did not crash. These
data were analyzed for weather conditions and ridership on the previous and following day,
week, and month. At odds of greater than 100 to 1, it appears that hundreds of people awak-
ened in the morning, and for some reason, known or unknown, decided not to take their
usual train. Thus, it would seem that one does not have to experience a future that appears
to be unattractive or hazardous, to have it appear in one’s subconscious processes.
It is far more probable to recognize a possible future than to produce a major change
in the precognized outcome. Consider an analogy to the river of time: If Huckleberry Finn
is drifting down the Mississippi River, he might determine whether he goes to Arkansas or
New Orleans, just by dipping his little finger into the swirling water, if he is far enough up
stream. What is required here is intention or information — not necessarily energy. If he is
already in the delta leading to New Orleans, it would require a miracle for him to wind up
in Arkansas.
It is as though we live in an interconnected spider web of space-time, in which the
future is an attractor pulling the present toward itself. Since our awareness is nonlocal, the
past may also act as such an attractor. It appears that the universe cannot be causal in the
usual sense. That is, the likely future is already determined, to the extent that our precog-
nition is successful. What this may indicate is that we do not lose our free will. But rather,
we may use our premonitory information to make even more informed decisions about
what we should be doing. We propose that the utilization of our ability to “toggle’ our
awareness between local four-space and nonlocal eight-space is what leads to our concept
of free will. Additional precognitive and psi information allows us to choose and experience
a different world line. The existence of psi creates for us a world of dynamic consequences
which depend on our state of awareness, i.e., in either four or eight-space.

Some Theoretical Models and Their Shortcomings

In recent years physical models have been proposed to describe psychic abilities, in
order to reconcile the psi data base with the current understanding and interpretation of
modern physics. Douglas Stokes has summarized and examined more than forty theoretical
models of psi phenomena. He categorizes these models, and discusses the physics objections
and psi inadequacies of each of the models presented.28 We briefly address here the more
compelling ones that have been proposed, such as extremely low-frequency waves (ELF),
advanced electromagnetic waves, and faster than light particles called tachyons.
Beginning in the 1920s there was a prevailing view that psychic abilities were a kind
of radio communication between minds. This was stimulated by the widely read book,
Mental Radio, by the visionary author Upton Sinclair.29 In his book (which includes a favor-
12 Part I. Consciousness

able preface by Albert Einstein) Sinclair describes the highly successful experiments in
mind-to-mind communication that he carried out in cooperation with his psychic and dis-
cerning wife, Mary Craig, showing the self-evident strength of hundreds of psychic matches
between Sinclair’s target pictures and his wife’s drawn responses. The mental radio metaphor
is still with us today, more than seventy years after the publication of Sinclair’s book, even
though it is well understood that radio waves lose their intensity as the square of the distance
from the source, and no such fall off is seen in experimental psi data. Furthermore, our
data from SRI show clearly that accuracy and reliability of remote viewing are equally sig-
nificant from inside or outside an electrically shielded Faraday cage.
In the 1960s and 1970s there was intense interest in psi phenomena in the USSR. The
distinguished Russian physicist I. M. Kogan put forward the concept that information trans-
mission under conditions of sensory shielding was mediated by extremely low-frequency
electromagnetic waves (ELF) in the wavelength region of 300 to 1000 km. The idea is that
for separation distances of less than 1000 km, the percipient would still be in the induction
field (near field) of the source, and would therefore experience less than inverse square fall
off in signal strength.30 Although this model has received repeated investigation — with
regard to permissible bit rates and signal propagation — it fails to provide any explanation
for precognitive psi, which as we have stated has the same reliability and efficacy as realtime
psychic perception.
This apparent time reversal, in which the event of perception seems to precede the
cause or stimulus is often viewed as paradoxical. However, in ordinary electromagnetic
theory, one is cautioned not to automatically discard the mathematical solutions that suggest
time reversibility. For example, in the graduate text in electromagnetic theory written by
J. A. Stratton, he discusses so-called advanced waves and their surprising consequences.
Stratton writes:
The reader has doubtless noticed that the choice of the function f(t — r/c) is highly arbitrary, since
the field equation also admits the solution f(t + r/c). This function obviously leads to an advanced
time, implying that the field can be detected before it is generated by the source. The familiar chain
of cause and effect is thus reversed, and this alternative solution might be discarded as logically
inconceivable. However, the application of “logical causality” principles offer a very insecure foot-
ing in matters such as these. And we shall do better to restrict to the theory of retarded action,
solely on grounds that this solution alone conforms to present physical data.31

Such caution is justified, by the example, in the early 1920s, of Dirac’s development of
a mathematical description of the relativistic electron. That also yielded a pair of solutions,
one of which was discarded as inapplicable until the discovery of the positron by Carl
Anderson in cloud chamber photographs in 1932.
The advanced wave, like the tachyon particle proposed by physicist Gerald Feinberg,
is an information carrier that appears to travel faster than the speed of light.32 This could
allow one to experience a distant event before the corresponding light signal reached him,
appearing to provide paranormal foreknowledge. However, the gain in temporal advantage
would be only one nanosecond per foot of distance, whereas the data for precognition show
that events are frequently described and experienced hours or days before the occurrence
of an event. The advanced wave or tachyon would provide an hour’s warning, only for
events at a distance of 109 miles or greater. All electromagnetic or radio wave descriptions
of psi suffer from these same limitations.
Based on the shortcomings of the above models, we have investigated a geometrical
model of psi functioning, which is outlined in the following section. The geometric approach
 Investigation of a Complex Space-Time Metric (Rauscher and Targ) 13

is very consistent with physicist John Archibald Wheeler’s statement that our understanding
of physics will “come from the geometry, and not from the fields.”

Introduction to the Physics of Nonlocality

The physics of nonlocality is fundamental to quantum theory. The most exciting
research in current quantum physics is the investigation of what physicist David Bohm
calls quantum-interconnectedness or nonlocal correlations. First proposed by Einstein,
Podolsky, and Rosen (EPR) in 1935, as evidence of a defect in quantum theory, and later
formulated as a mathematical proof by J. S. Bell, it has now been repeatedly experimentally
demonstrated that two quanta of light given off from a single source, and traveling at the
speed of light, in opposite directions maintain their connection to one another, so that each
photon is affected by what happens to its twin, many kilometers away. (A. Einstein, B.
Podolsky, and N. Rosen,33 J. S. Bell,34 S. Freedman and Clauser,35 A. Aspect, P. Grangier,
and G. Roger.36
John Clauser recently described his impressions of these nonlocality experiments to
the authors. He said that quantum experiments have been carried out with photons, elec-
trons, atoms, and even 60-carbon-atom Bucky balls. He said that it may be impossible to
keep anything in a box. Bell emphasizes, “No theory of reality compatible with quantum
theory can require spatially separate events to be independent.” That is to say, the meas-
urement of the polarization of one photon determines the polarization of the other photon
at their respective measurement sites. This surprising coherence between distant entities is
called nonlocality. In writing on the philosophical implications of nonlocality, physicist
Henry Stapp of the University of California at Berkeley states that these quantum connec-
tions could be the “most profound discovery in all of science.”37 Nonlocality is a property
of both time and space. The concept of nonlocality is very reminiscent of the data dealing
with identical twins, separated at birth and reared apart, who nonetheless show striking
similarities in their tastes, interests, spouses, experiences, and professions, beyond what
one could reasonably ascribe to their common DNA.
The data from dream research such as J. W. Dunne’s Experiments with Time,38 and
from the SRI and Princeton remote viewing research, provide evidence that our minds have
access to events occurring in distant places— and into the future or past. Immanuel Kant
states that space and time are but modes of human perception, and not attributes of the
physical world. These modes are powerful filters of our own invention, and often serve to
limit our experience.
We know from the experimental data of psi research in our own laboratory at SRI,
that a viewer can focus his or her attention at a specific location anywhere on the planet
(or off of it) and reliably describe what is there.39 We know, also, that the viewer is not
bound by present time. In contemporary physics we call this ability to focus attention on
distant points in space-time, nonlocal awareness. From data of the past twenty-five years,
we believe that an experienced remote viewer can often answer any question that has an
answer about events anywhere in the past, present, or future.
David Bohm argues that we greatly misunderstand the illusion of separation in space
and time. In his physics text book, The Undivided Universe, he defuses this illusion as he
writes about the quantum-interconnectedness of all things.40 Bohm says: “The essential
features of the implicate order are, that the whole universe is in some way enfolded in
everything, and that each thing is enfolded in the whole.”
14 Part I. Consciousness

This is the fundamental statement of the metaphor of the holographic ordering of the
universe. It says that, like a hologram, each region of space-time contains information
about every other point in space-time. This metaphor was inspired by the indications of
nonlocality in Bell’s theorem. And our data indicate that this information is available to
our awareness. Bohm continues:
...all of this implies a thoroughgoing wholeness, in which mental and physical sides participate
very closely in each other. Likewise, intellect, emotion, and the whole state of the body are in a
similar flux of fundamental participation. Thus, there is no real division between mind and matter,
psyche and soma. The common term psychosomatic is in this way seen to be misleading, as it sug-
gests the Cartesian notion of two distinct substances in some kind of interaction.

In the holographic universe of David Bohm, there is a unity of consciousness, a “greater

collective mind,” with no boundaries of space or time. In the next section of this paper we
present a mathematical model that describes such an interconnected universe.
Bohm goes on to describe the famous “Wheeler delayed choice experiment.” He writes
that experiments “can be designed to show that, according to quantum theory, the choice
to measure one or another of a pair of complementary variables at a given time can appar-
ently affect the physical state of things for considerable periods of time before such a decision
is made.” Such complementary variables are typically momentum and distance, or in
Wheeler’s experiment they refer to the dual wave and particle nature of light, as observed
in a two slit interference apparatus.

Description of the Eight-Space Metric

The purpose of our investigation is to make use of the current data base of remote
perception experiments, and to deduce the relevant principles and laws governing paranor-
mal functioning. One of the common objections to the existence of psychic abilities is that
they appear to be in conflict with the laws of physics. In what follows, we demonstrate the
compatibility of psychic phenomena with the laws and content of physics, and develop a
model which well describes the properties of psi. In physics, we call this a “correspondence
principle,” so that in modeling psi, we do not create a model which is in conflict with
observed physical law. We hypothesize that the data of parapsychology may even usefully
inform us about some of the current questions in modern in physics.
We have specifically dealt with the following areas of physics: First the major principles
of physics and their relationship to, and reconciliation with psychic phenomena; second,
examination of higher-dimensional complex coordinate geometries with regard to the res-
olution of the questions of precognition and causality, and third we have developed a com-
prehensive physical model of the properties of the nonlocality exhibited in psi functioning.
It is determined that the complex eight-space model not only demonstrates the consistency
of precognition with causality, but also shows a fundamental relationship between Maxwell’s
equations, quantum theory and general relativity (E. A. Rauscher41, 42; E. T. Newman43).
The so-called EPR paradox appears to also be fundamentally related to our space-time pic-
ture, and is certainly an example of nonlocality in physics. The complete success of Newton’s
laws and Coulomb’s laws occurs only in the case of two body interactions. Three body prob-
lems are solved primarily through approximations. Similarly laws of cause and effect are
imprecisely defined except in the simplest cases. It is much more appropriate to describe
the effect that one event has on another event, independent of which event appeared to
come first in time. The rising of the sun has great explanatory power with regard to the
 Investigation of a Complex Space-Time Metric (Rauscher and Targ) 15

increase in traffic across the bridge, but it would be obviously incorrect to say that the sun
was the cause of the traffic.
Three major universal principles are used to determine the structure and nature of
physical laws, and act as constraints on physical phenomena. These are Poincaré invariance,
and its corollary, Lorentz invariance, (which expresses the space-time independence of sci-
entific laws in different frames of reference), analyticity, (which is a general statement of
causality conditions in the complex space), and unitarity (which can be related to the con-
servation of physical quantities such as energy or momentum). Since it is not evident that
energy occupies any role in the nonlocality of psi phenomena, unitarity is not dealt with
in this paper. These principles apply to microscopic as well as to macroscopic phenomena.
The quantum description of elementary particles has led to the formulation of the analyticity
principle in the complex momentum plane, G. Chew.44 Complex geometries occupy a vital
role in many areas of physics and engineering. Analyticity relates to the manner in which
events are correlated with each other in the space-time metric — that is, causality. When
we apply this critical principle to the complex eight-dimensional space we can reconcile
psi — in particular precognition — with physics, without violating causality. It has been
mathematically demonstrated that the equations of Newton, Maxwell, Einstein and
Schrödinger are consistent with the eight dimensional complex space described here E. T.
Newman,45 Rauscher.46
Quantum causality, unlike classical certainty, is limited by the well known Heisenberg
uncertainty principle. Quantum systems must obey linear superposition for both actualized
and non-actualized states. This probabilistic feature, y*y, leads to the fundamental sto-
chastic, or statistical nature of quantum measurement. J. S. Bell asserts that this stochastic
nature holds whenever quantum theory applies experimentally, and nonlocality exists as
expressed in his theorem. The universality of this principle is termed the completeness the-
orem of quantum mechanics, and leads to the universality of nonlocality. The measure of
the success in a psi experiment is also determined in terms of stochastic criteria. Statistical
methods are rigorously applied in order to analyze the success rate in any psi research.
The principle of nonlocal connections in quantum theory has been applied over kilo-
meter distances, as we described, N. Gisin et al.47, 48 Eugene Wigner stated that there may
be a macroscopic nonlocality that comes out of the complex Minkowski space that could
yield a metrical description of the quantum theory, which does not presently have such a
description (Wigner, 1981, private communication). We term this fundamental stochastic
nature and universal nonlocality stochastic causality. That is, events are statistical aggregates
of their many causes, rather than the direct effect of a single cause or linear causal chain.
This principle may explain why psi is not always successful, and also why quantum processes
are only predictable statistically. However, in spite of its statistical nature, quantum mechan-
ics is able to successfully predict the optical wavelength of light emitted in spectra of atomic
transitions, accurate to eight significant figures.
Here, we present a brief description of our eight-space model. The complex metrical
space includes the three real dimensions of space, and the usual dimension of time, and
also includes three imaginary dimensions of space, and one imaginary dimension of time.
These imaginary components of space and time are real quantities multiplied by the imag-
inary number i = (-1)∂. The interesting property of i is that i2 = -1, a real number. Thus in
a complex space, the square of an imaginary distance becomes a negative distance squared.
In the eight-space, the real components comprise the elements of the space defined by Ein-
stein and Minkowski. This is actually a four-dimensional representation of what we have
16 Part I. Consciousness

been taught about right triangles in high school, which is the well know Pythagorean the-
orem. That is, the square of the distance between the corners of the right triangle opposite
the ninety degree angle (the hypotenuse) is equal to the sum of the squares of the other
two sides. This distance when measured in the complex Minkowski space is still represented
by the squares of the sides of the now complex hyper-dimensional triangle. This expanded
space is constructed, so that each real dimension is paired with its imaginary counterpart.
In the complex space, for any hypotenuse defining the space-time distance between two
points we can always find an apex angle of the triangle, such that the sum of the squares of
the sides, x2 + (iy)2 can be zero. That is, in the complex Minkowski space-time, there can
always be found a path of zero distance connecting any two points on the real plane.
The standard Minkowski metrical space is constructed so that all spatial components
are real. But, the square of the temporal component differs by a -c2, which is formulated
from ictRe, yielding a component —c2 tRe2. In constructing the “mirror” imaginary four-
space, each spatial component has an ixIm component, yielding the square component -
xIm2. The corresponding temporal component is +c2 tIm2. This is the basis upon which the
eight-space allows apparent zero spatial and temporal separation.
The lowest number of dimensions that have the property of nonlocality and which is
consistent with Poincaré invariance or Lorentz invariance is eight dimensions. In this space,
each physical spatial distance has an imaginary temporal counterpart, such that there is a
zero spatial separation in the higher-dimensional space. We hypothesize that this path is
what awareness accesses in realtime remote viewing. Likewise for every real physically tem-
poral separation, there is a counterpart imaginary spatial separation that subtracts to zero
on the metric, allowing awareness to access precognitive information.
Obviously nonlocality does not require the sun and the earth to be congruent or coin-
cident with each other. This is because physical space has the attribute of force fields and
the impenetrability of matter, which dominates most physical processes. This property
yields the locality aspect of the physical world with which we are familiar. But, as we have
described above, not all aspects of the physical world obey this locality, such as in the case
of Bell’s theorem nonlocality experiment. Hence, both nonlocality and locality are coexisting
properties of the physical world. The physical universe is neither completely local or non-
local, but has attributes of both, depending on the phenomena being observed. This is a
manifestation of four-logic, which we describe in the next section.
How does consciousness access this higher-dimensional space? We believe it does so
through the process of intentionality, which is fundamental to any goal-oriented process,
including retrieval of memory. In fact, the universality of nonlocality is just there, filling
all of space and time. That is, it is available to be accessed at will. With regard to causality,
events that appear to be determined in ordinary four space, may be more amenable to the
operation of our free will in the complex eight-space. In the complex space, the causal chain
is multi-valued rather than linear, offering us access to a greater number of possibilities.

Four-Logic and Nonlocality

Certain apparent paradoxes may not be solvable within the framework of Aristotelian
two-values logic. This logic system is basic to Western analytical thought. Other logic sys-
tems have been suggested in Buddhist writings such as The Prajnaparamita.49 In the second
century A.D., the Buddhist master teacher Nagarjuna introduced a four-logic system (R. P.
Hayes,50 J. L. Garfield,51 and R. Targ52) in which statements about the world can be (1) true,
 Investigation of a Complex Space-Time Metric (Rauscher and Targ) 17

(2) not true, (3) both true and not true, and (4) neither true or not true (which Nagarjuna
believed was the usual case). The four-logic system appears quite outside Western consid-
eration and thought. A seeming paradox in physics that may well find its resolution in four
logic, or at least an expansion of the restrictions of two logic is the so-called wave/particle
paradox. This may be resolved or better understand in the context of four logic principles.
It is well known that, under the conditions of various experimental arrangements, light
displays either wave-like or particle-like properties. But, what then, is the essential nature
of light? This question may not be amenable to the usual two logic, and may be better
addressed by four logic or some form of expanded logic system. We might say, for example,
that light is: (1) a wave, (2) not a wave, (3) both a wave and not a wave, or most correctly,
(4) neither a wave, nor, not a wave.
Another example that is very interesting to consider is the famous “Schrödinger cat
paradox.” The key to this paradox is linear superposition in quantum mechanics, which
states that the unobserved cat in the box is the sum of two wave functions, (alive + dead),
which represent both alive and dead conditions. Clearly this statement is not consistent
with two-logic, but appears formulated in terms of the third and fourth of four logic.
We hypothesize that higher-dimensional spaces, such as complex eight-space may
require four logic at least for certain circumstances. Specifically, in treating causality con-
ditions, we find that certain cause and effect relations may be amenable to Aristotelian logic
in ordinary four space, but phenomena such as precognition, might appear paradoxical
when they occur in eight-space.
For example, it appears that one’s future is neither determined, nor not determined,
depending on whether or not one’s awareness has access to eight-space. We could state that
a possible future, which has been precognized, is neither true or not true in the four logic
of eight-space. In ordinary four space, the precognized event must be either true or false,
as described in two logic, creating a seeming paradox. Time passage determines the truth
or falsity of a future precognized event, and this appears as standard statistical analysis that
weights the possible future outcomes. What we termed “stocastic causality” is observed as
such in two logic in ordinary four space. The eight-space model, which involves greater
degrees of freedom, than four space, may allow for what is usually termed “free will” in this
space, which may appear as “deterministic” accurate precognition in ordinary four space.
The additional perceived information acquired through the sense’s awareness of eight-space,
allows greater degrees of freedom of choice, so that what may appear deterministic because
of precognitive phenomena, may not be deterministic in the higher-dimensional eight-
space. Additional “degrees of freedom” may allow for a broader or more global concept of
free will; one in which greater information and awareness allows greater choice.
That is to say, what appears to be deterministic as an either/or condition, may have
greater “degrees of freedom” or choices in eight-space. Precognitive awareness may allow
additional choices so that either and/or conditions can exist for temporal periods in eight-
space before they become fixed as either this or that in four space, i.e., appeared determined
in this space. If one has access to psi through the existence of a higher-dimensional spaces,
one has greater opportunities to increase awareness and increase one’s options and hence
more free will choices. Metaphysically, instead of crawling along the four-space timeline at
1 sec/sec, one can expand one’s awareness, and learn to reside off the timeline.
For us to have access to nonlocal events in the eight-space manifold, the familiar world
line of four-space becomes a point for awareness, by utilizing the additional imaginary
components. Therefore, we can see that causality will manifest through the apparent past
18 Part I. Consciousness

and the apparent future, which are both pulling on the apparent present. Living in eight-
space guarantees that our awareness is governed by four-logic — the two appear to be insep-
arable. Four-logic would say that we are neither free, nor not free. Intentionality and purpose
allow us to manifest our free will, and overcome the apparent deterministic limitations of
four-space. We will experience free will or determinism in our lives, depending on our
intentions and awareness. Our orientation and perspective in eight-space always allows us
to find a path of zero distance, and often inform us usefully of the future.

Formalism of the Complex Eight-Space

We will now present our formalism, which follows along lines of the detailed formalism
of R. O. Hansen and E. T. Newman53 expressed in general relativistic terms, but we express
our generalized complex eight-dimensional metric in special relativistic terms because grav-
ity appears not to occupy a role in psi phenomena. The general relativistic formalism is rel-
evant in astrophysics and where strong gravitational fields are present. In that case, we
must utilize Reimannian (curved) geometry. For our purposes here, we will utilize the line
invariant element expressed in Einstein’s special relativity theory. Hansen and Newman54
demonstrate, in their extensive paper, that the complex eight-space metric yields the proper
solutions to Einstein’s field equations only in the condition asymmetrically flat Euclidean
geometries for the case of low gravitational fields. Thus, this formalism approximates, in
very general terms the conditions described by special relativity.
Einstein used a three-dimensional geometric figure termed the light cone to represent
the usual four space metric or Minkowski metric in a two-dimensional plane, based on the
conic sections diagrams developed by the ancient Greeks. This geometric picture is formed
from a figure with two axes, the ordinate is time, t and the abscissa is formed from the three
dimensions of space as one axis X = x, y, z. The speed of light forms the sides of the two
cones apex to apex (which represents “now” time) with the t axis in the vertical direction.
The purpose of this picture is to define the relationship between events in four-space. For
events connected by signals of , where c is the velocity of light, events occur within the top
of the light cone (forward time) or bottom (past time). These are termed time-like signals.
Event connections outside the light cone surface c = c, are connected by and are called
space-like signals and are not addressed in standard physics. As we demonstrated before,
even this “elsewhere” does not give us precognition.
In defining the conditions for causality in the usual four space, distance ds2 is invariant
and given as ds2=gahdxadxh where the indices a and b run 1 to 4. We use the metrical signature
(+, +, +, -) for the three spatial and one temporal component in the metric gab. This metric
is expressed as a sixteen element four by four matrix which represents a measure of the
form and shape of space. This is the metric defined on (within) the light cone, connecting
time-like events. This is to insure Einstein’s postulate that v<_c for any given velocity of
event connection. It is clear that precognition demands more that the relaxation of the
time-like event connection for v>c, that is, no space-like signal will yield the observed pre-
cognitive advantage in any four space.
E. A. Rauscher55 and E. T. Newman56 construct a second intersecting light cone iden-
tifiable with the four imaginary dimensions. We express the complex eight-space metric as
M4 because it represents the complexification of four space-time dimensions. The complex
space is expressed in terms of the complex eight-space variable Zu, where Zu=XuRe+iXlm u
and
*v u v v v
Z is the complex conjugate of Z so that Z =X Re-iX lm. We now form the complex eight-
 Investigation of a Complex Space-Time Metric (Rauscher and Targ) 19

space differential line element dS2=nuvdZudZ*v where the indices run 1 to 8. The generalized
complex metric in the previous equation is analogous to the usual Einsteinian four-space
metric in the above paragraph. In our formalism, we proceed by extending the usual four
dimensional Minkowski space into a four complex dimensional space-time. This new man-
ifold (or space-time structure) is analytically expressed in the complexified eight-space.
Here XRe is represented by xRe, yRe, zRe and tRe i.e. the dimensions of our usual four
space. Likewise, XIm represent the four additional imaginary dimensions of xIm, yIm, zIm, and
tIm. Hence, we represent the dimensions of our complex space as Zu or xRe, yRe, zRe, tRe, xIm,
yIm, zIm, and tIm. These are all real quantities. It is the i before the xIm, etc., that complexifies
the space.
Now we write the expression showing the separation of the real and imaginary parts
of the differential form of the metric: dZudZ*u=(dXuRe)2+(dXulm)2 . We can write in general
for real and imaginary space and time components in the special relativistic formalism.
ds2=(dx2Re+dx2lm)+(dy2Re+dy2lm)
(1)
+(dZ2Re+dZ2lm)-c2(dt2Re+dt2lm).
Note from now on we use lower case x and t for the three dimensions of space and on
of time. Now let us represent the three real spatial components dxRe, dyRe, dzRe as dxRe and
the three imaginary spatial components dxIm, dyIm, dzIm as dxIm and similarly for the real
time component dtRe = dt, the ordinary time and imaginary time component dtIm remains
dtIm. We then introduce complex space-time coordinates as a space-like part xIm and time-
like part tIm as imaginary parts of x and t. Now we have the invariant line elements as,
s2=Áx'Á2-c2Át'Á2=Áx'Á2-Át'Á2 (2)
again where we choose units where c2 = c = 1 which is usually made for convenience
= x'=xRe + ixIm
and (3)
= t'=tRe + itIm
as our complex dimensional components (Feinberg, private communication, 1976). Then
x'2=Áx'Á2=x2Re+x2lm
and (4)
t =ÁtÁ =t +t2tm
2 2 2
Re

Recalling that the square of a complex number is given as,

|x'|2 = x' x'* = (xRe + ixIm ) (xRe— ixIm )
(5)
where |x'|2=x2Re+x2lm
where xRe and xIm real numbers. This is a very important point, as we can only measure
events described in terms of real numbers. Therefore, we have the eight-space line element
where spatial and temporal distances are taken from the origin.
s2=x2Re-c2t2Re+x2lm-c2t2lm (6a)
2 2 2 2 2
s =x -t +x -t
Re Re lm lm
(6b)
20 Part I. Consciousness

Causality is defined by remaining on the right cone, in real space-time as,

s2=x2Re-c2t2Re=x2Re-t2Re (7)
using the condition c = 1. Then generalized causality in complex space-time is defined
by
s2=x2Re-t2Re+x2lm-t2lm (8)
where the coordinates in complex eight-space can be represented by xRe,tRe,xlm,tlm on
two generalized light cones eight dimensional space.57, 58 Let us calculate the interval sepa-
ration between two events or occurrences, Z1 and Z2 with real separation DxRe=xRe’2-xRe’1
and imaginary separation Dxlm=xlm,2-xlm,1. Then the distance along the line element is
Ds2=D(x2Re+x2lm-t2Re-t2lm ) and it must be true that the line interval is a real separation. We
now consider spatial and temporal distances that are generalized, that is, are not taken only
from the origin, but from any two points in space and time. Then,
Ds2=(xRe,2-xRe,1)2+(xlm,2-xlm,1)2-(tRe,2-tRe,1)2-(tlm,2-tlm,2) (9a)
Or we can write equation 9a as:
Ds2=(xRe,2-xRe,1)2+(xlm,2-xlm,1)2 (9b)
In eq. 9b, the upper left diagonal term (xRe,2-xRe,1)2 is can be offset or “cancelled” by
the lower right diagonal term -(tlm,2-tlm,1)2 and the lower left diagonal term -(tRe,1-tRe,1)2 is
off set by the upper right diagonal term (xRe,2-xRe,1)2.
Because of the relative signs of the real and imaginary space and time components and
in order to achieve the causality connectedness condition between the two events, or Ds2=0,
we must “mix” space and time. That is, we use the imaginary time component to effect a
zero space separation. We identify (xRe,1,tRe,1) with a subject receiver remotely perceiving
information from an even target (xRe,2,tRe,1).
The remote perception experiments consist of a subject receiver in a laboratory room
with an experimenter monitor who elicits a response about an outbound experimenter’s
location which can be a few thousand kilometers distant from the laboratory. Correlation
of the subject’s response is made to the outbound experimenter’s activities at the remote
site and the nature of that geographical location. The experiment involves a real physical
separation DxRe=xRe,2-xRe,1≠0 and can either involve a current time observation such that
DtRe=tRe,2-tRe,1=0 or a precognitive time interval DtRe=tRe,2-tRe,1>0. The case where there is
no precognitive time element DtRe=0. The simplest causal connection then is one in which
Dxlm=0, and we have,
Ds2=0=(xRe,2-xRe,1)2-(tIm,2-tIm,1)2 (10)
These conditions are illustrated in figure 1. In figure 1a we represent a generalized
point P(xRe,tRe,tIm), displaced from the origin which is denoted as P1. This point can be pro-
jected on each dimension xRe, tRe and tIm as points P2, P3, and P4 respectively. In Figure 1b,
we denote the case where a realtime spatial separation exists between points, P1 and P2 on
the xRe axis, so that DxRe≠0, and there is no precognition, so that tRe=0. Because our awareness
has access to imaginary time tIm, it can access the P1 to P4 interval, so that Dtlm≠0 Then, our
metric gives us Ds2=0, where awareness experiences contiguity between P1 and P2 by its
ability to access the path to P4. By using this complex path, the physical spatial separation
between P1 and P2 becomes equal to zero, allowing direct awareness of distant spatial loca-
tions, as we observe in remote viewing of distant locations. Figure 1c represents the case
where precognition occurs between P1 and a future perceived event, P3 on the tRe axis. In
 Investigation of a Complex Space-Time Metric (Rauscher and Targ) 21

The location of four points in the complex manifold. In figure 1a, point P1 is the origin, and P is a
generalized point, which is spatially and temporally separated from P1. In figure 1b, the Points P1
and P2 are separated in space buy synchronous in time. This could be a representation of realtime
remote viewing. In figure 1c, points P1 and P3 are separated temporally and spatially contiguous.
This represents a precognitive perception.

this case, no physical spatial separation between observer and event is represented in the
figure. Often such separation on the xRe exists. In the case where xRe=0, then access to pre-
cognitive information, along tRe can be achieved by access to the imaginary temporal com-
ponent, tIm.
The light cone metric representation may imply superluminal signal propagation
between subject and event in the real four-space, but the event-receiver connection will
not appear superluminal in some eight-space representations. We can consider that our
ordinary four dimensional Minkowski space is derived as a 4-D cut through the complex
eight-space, Newman.59
We have examined causality conditions in four space with superluminal signals and
the problem of closed time loops posed by G. Feinberg’s classic “Tachyon” paper G. Fein-
berg.60 These problems appear to be resolved by considering a space of higher than four
dimensions such as we describe in this paper.
We believe that remote perception and awareness are manifestations of non- energetic
phenomenon, and arise from our nonlocal nature, rather than as information “sent” from
one location to another.

Additional Consideration of the Complex Eight Space

The complex eight dimensional Minkowski (M4) space metrical formalism is relevant
and fundamental to a number of branches of physics. Hundreds of papers on complex
eight-space by a number of researchers have been published in refereed journals, some of
which are cited above. Some of this research has demonstrated the compatibility of M4
space and standard modern physics; others have utilized complex Minkowski to better
describe the foundations of physics. Some of these theoretical research papers describe the
role of M4 space in unifying the various branches of physics. Some researchers have
22 Part I. Consciousness

expressed the opinion that this M4 space may yield great contributions in unifying field
models. We will briefly describe the utility of several approaches, utilizing complex eight-
space models, in various branches of physics. Using general relativistic formations of
Maxwell’s equation, Newman has formulated Maxwell’s equations in complex eight-space.61
He demonstrates that the principle of Poncaré invariance holds and that the useful Kerr
metric comes out of this formalism, and is basic to the Einstein-Maxwell field equations.
Solving the non- relativistic and relativistic forms Maxwell’s equations in complex eight-
space, yields some new and testable predictions. These predictions are detailed in Rauscher.62
Some of the predictions of the complexification of Maxwell’s equation are (1) the need
for modified gauge invariant conditions (2) short range non-Abelian force as well as the
usual abelian long range forces, (3) finite but very small rest mass of the photon (4) a mag-
netic monopole-like term, and (5) longitudinal as well as transverse magnetic and electro-
magnetic field components.
It should be mentioned that the complex eight-space and classical mechanics are self-
consistent. The form (invariance) of Newton’s law of universal gravitation and Newton’s
laws of motion are not modified by the conditions of the complex eight-space. Essentially,
as is usual in Lorentz transformation, a linear shift in axis may occur just as, for example,
for time. Introducing a -t yields an axis shift but no changes of the form of the equations.
For t real +t or -t both yield t2 which produces no changes in t2 in the metric, leaving the
matrix unchanged and Newton’s laws unchanged. The formalism of the complex eight-
space is incorporated into the current Grand Unification Theories or GUT theories, super-
symmetry models, and string theory, that describes particle physics and the current models
of the universe.

Conclusions
It appears then that there is a human perceptual modality in which distant space-time
events can be accessed. The remote perception phenomena may imply, in a certain sense,
that space and time are not primary physical constructs In the words of Albert Einstein,
1941, “Time and space are modes by which we think and not conditions in which we live.”
In a similar vain A. S. Eddington (1923) said, “Time is a mental construct of our private
consciousness ... physicists construct the concept of a world wide time from a string of sub-
jective instances.”
The fundamental nature of nonlocality is expressed in the universe through quantum physics, as
well as psi phenomena, and in the universality of consciousness. We have developed and presented
a theoretical model, the complex Minkowski space, which expresses the nonlocal aspect of our
observed reality. Not only does this model describe the data for psi, but also is consistent with the
main body of physics as we presently understand it. As the data for psi becomes stronger and more
coherent, we have the opportunity to construct physical models which can increasingly well
describe these observations.

The psi data base, and the fundamental properties of nonlocality in physics, lead us
inexorably to the conclusion that the speed of thought is transcendent of any finite velocity.
Because precognition occurs with the event experienced prior to its apparent cause, the
speed of thought appears to be instantaneous, or any other velocity one chooses. The speed
of thought is therefore undefined in meters per second. Since consciousness can access the
complex eight-space as though it is contiguous, space-time distances are non-existent for
mind-to-mind, or mind-to-target awareness— separation of consciousness is an illusion.
 Investigation of a Complex Space-Time Metric (Rauscher and Targ) 23

The compelling data for precognition make it appear that the future is unalterably deter-
mined. This fatalist point of view maintains that our awareness moves inexorably along
the timeline at a rate of one second per second. But, this seeming limitation of our free will
is only a four-space perception. We believe that the higher dimensional space described
here gives additional degrees of freedom, which are available to our awareness, allowing us
to have greater access to possible futures. We recognize that every ontology is perishable,
and that one day it may be found that complex Minkowski space is not the best model for
psi. However, we are confident that two factors will remain: namely that these phenomena
are not a result of an energetic transmission, but rather they are an interaction of our awareness
with a nonlocal hyper-dimensional space-time in which we live.
We must re-examine our concepts of time and causality, as well as determinism. Partial
time symmetry and retro-causality appear to be necessary to explain precognition and our
ability to move forward and backward in time. In out complex eight-dimensional space we
are able to avoid the problems of closed time-like loops and multivalued nows.
Certainly, the nature of psi is about our mental access and our awareness of the truth.
Ethical issues about truth also arise from the experimental and theoretical research presented
here, and in many other teachings. If there is, in fact, only one of us here in awareness, we
should always choose compassion over “justice,” since we can always recognize compassion,
but it is often difficult to discern justice from injustice. This is why the practice of com-
passion, and the teaching that separation is an illusion (nonlocality) are always found
together in Buddhist writings. Compassion follows logically from life in a nonlocal uni-
verse.

Notes
1. H. Stapp, in R. Nadeau and M. Kafatos, 1999, The Nonlocal Universe: The New Physics and Matters of the Mind
(New York: Oxford University Press).
2. J. B. Rhine, et al., 1966, Extrasensory Perception After Sixty Years (1940; Boston: Bruce Humphries Publishers).
3. R. Targ and H. E. Puthoff, 1974, “Information Transfer Under Conditions of Sensory Shielding,” Nature: 251,
602–607.
4. H. E. Puthoff and R. Targ, 1976, “A Perceptual Channel for Information Transfer Over Kilometer Distances:
Historical Perspective and Recent Research,” Proc. IEEE 64, no. 3, 329 –254.
5. D. Bem and C. Honorton (January 1964), “Does Psi Exist? Replicable Evidence for an Anomalous Process of
Information Transfer,” Psychological Bulletin.
6. J. Utts, 1996, “An Assessment of the Evidence for Psychic Functioning,” J. Sci. Exploration 10, no. 2, 3 –30.
7. H. E. Puthoff, R. Targ, and E. C. May, 1981, “Experimental Psi Research: Implications for Physics,” in The
Role of Consciousness in the Physical World, AAAS Selected Symposium #57, ed. R. G. Jahn (Boulder, CO: Westview
Press), 37–86.
8. F. Sicher, E. Targ, D. Moore, and H. Smith, December 1998, “A Randomized Double-Blind Study of the Effect
of Distant Healing in a Population With Advanced AIDS,” Western Journal of Medicine 169, 356 –363.
9. W. S. Harris, et al., 1999, “A Randomized, Controlled Trial of the Effects of Remote Intercessory Prayer on
Outcomes in Patients Admitted to the Coronary Care Unit,” Archives of Internal Medicine, 159, 2273.
10. Patanjali, 1983, Sutras, in How to Know God, Prabhavananda, Swami, and Christopher Isherwood, trans. (Hol-
lywood, CA: Vedanta Press).
11. R. Targ and J. Katra, 1998, Miracles of Mind: Exploring Nonlocal Consciousness and Spiritual Healing (Novato,
CA: New World Library).
12. J. Katra and R. Targ, 1999, The Heart of the Mind: How to Experience God Without Belief (Novato, CA: New
World Library).
13. R. G. Jahn, 1982, “The Persistent Paradox of Psychic Phenomena: An Engineering Perspective,” Proc. IEEE 70,
no. 2, 136 –170.
14. E. A. Rauscher, 1979, “Some Physical Models Potentially Applicable to Remote Perception,” The Iceland Papers:
Frontiers of Physics Conference (Amherst, WI: Essentia Research Assocs.), 50 –93; E. A. Rauscher and R. Targ, 2003,
“The Speed of Thought: Investigation of a Complex Spacetime Metric to Describe Psychic Phenomena,” Journal of
Scientific Investigation 15, 331; C. Ramon and E. A. Rauscher, 1980, “Super-Luminal Transformations in Complex
Minkowski Space,” Found. of Physics 10, 661.
15. E. T. Newman, 1976, “H-Space and Its Properties,” Gen. Rel. and Grav. 7, 107–111.
24 Part I. Consciousness

16. E. T. Newman, R. O. Hansen, R. Penrose, and K. P. Ton, 1978, “The Metric and Curvature Properties of H-
Space,” Proc. Royal Soc. Lond. A363, 445 –468.
17. C. N. Kozamah and E. T. Newman, 1983, “A Non-Local Variable for General Relativity,” in Proc. Third Marcel
Grossman Meeting on General Relativity, H. Ning, ed. (Amsterdam: Science Press and North Holland Publishing),
51–55.
18. R. Brier, 1974, Precognition and the Philosophy of Science: An Essay on Backward Causation (New York: Human-
ities Press).
19. R. G. Jahn and B. Dunne, 1987, Margins of Reality: The Role of Consciousness in the Physical World (New York:
Harcourt, Brace).
20. M. Schlitz and E. Gruber, 1980, “Transcontinental Remote Viewing,” Journal of Para-psychology 44, 305 –317.
This experiment received a great deal of examination by the critical community. It was suggested that because Schlitz
and Gruber were friends, they may have been similarly affected by world events, even though they did not commu-
nicate during the experiment. It was proposed that Gruber’s comments about each place he visited might contain
words or ideas similar to those which might have contaminated Schlitz’s transcripts. As a result of this farfetched
but not totally invalid criticism, the entire judging process was repeated, omitting Elmar’s comments about what he
had done at each site. The overall significance of the experiment was calculated, and the significance from this
approach was 16 in 10,000, which is still remarkable for an experiment with only ten trials.
21. K. Ramakrishna Rao, 1984, The Basic Experiments in Parapsychology (Jefferson, NC: McFarland).
22. Targ and Puthoff, “Information Transfer.”
23. R. Targ and K. Harary, 1984, The Mind Race, Understanding and Using Psychic Abilities (New York: Villard).
24. C. Honorton, D. Ferari, 1989, “Future-telling: A Meta-Analysis of Forced-Choice Recognition Experiments,”
Journal of Parapsychology 53, 281–209.
25. R. G. Jahn, B. J. Dunne, and R. D. Nelson, 1987, “Engineering Anomalies Research,” Journal of Scientific Explo-
ration 1, no. 21; B. J. Dunne, R. G. Jahn, and R. D. Nelson, 1983, “Precognitive Remote Perception,” (Report: Princeton
Engineering Anomalies Research Laboratory).
26. D. Radin, 1997, The Conscious Universe (New York: HarperCollins).
27. W. E. Cox 1956, “Precognition: An Analysis II,” J. ASPR 30, 99 –109. 28. D. M. Stokes, 1987, “Theoretical Para-
psychology,” in Advances in Parapsychology-5, S. Krippner, ed. (Jefferson, NC: McFarland), 77–189.
29. U. Sinclair, 2000, Mental Radio (1930; reprint Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads).
30. I. M. Kogan, 1963, “The Information Theory Analysis of Telepathic Communication Experiments,” Radio
Eng. 23, 121.
31. J. A. Stratton, 1941, Electromagnetic Theory (New York: McGraw Hill).
32. G. Feinberg, 1967, “Possibility of Faster-Than-Light Particles,” Phys. Rev. 159, 1089.
33. A. Einstein, B. Podolsky, and N. Rosen, 1935, “Can a Quantum Mechanical Description of Physical Reality
Be Considered Complete?” Physical Review 47, 777–780.
34. J. S. Bell, 1964, “On the Problem of Hidden Variables in Quantum Theory,” Rev. Mod. Phys. 38, no. 3 (1966):
447; J. S. Bell. “On the Einstein, Podolsky, Rosen Paradox,” Physics 1, 195 –200.
35. S. Freedman and J. Clauser, 1972, “Experimental Test of Local Hidden Variable Theories,” Physical Review
Letters 28, 934 –941.
36. A. Aspect, P. Grangier, and G. Roger, 1992, “Experimental Tests of Bell’s Inequalities Using Timevarying Ana-
lyzers,” Physical Review Letters 49, 1804 –1907.
37. H. Stapp, The Nonlocal Universe.
38. J. W. Dunne, 1927, An Experiment with Time (reprint Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads, 2001).
39. Targ and Puthoff, “Information Transfer.”
40. D. Bohm and B. Hiley, 1995, The Undivided Universe (New York: Routledge), 382–386.
41. E. A. Rauscher, 1981, “Coherent Solutions of the Schrödinger Equation in Complex Eight Space,” Proceedings
of the Tenth International Conference on the Science , Vol. II (New York, ICF Press), 1407–1731.
42. E. A. Rauscher, 1983, Electromagnetic Phenomena in Complex Geometries and Hertzian Waves (Millbrae, CA:
Tesla).
43. E. T. Newman, 1973, “Maxwell’s Equations in Complex Minkowski Space,” J. Math Phys. 14, 202–203.
44. G. Chew, 1964, The Analytic S-Matrix, Frontiers of Physics (San Francisco: Benjamin) and private communi-
cation.
45. Newman, “H-Space and Its Properties.”
46. E. A. Rauscher, 2001, “Non-Abelian Gauge Groups for Real and Complex Amended Maxwell’s Equations,” in
Vigier 2000 Symposium, Vigier III (Berkeley: Klower Press).
47. N. Gisin, W. Tittel, J. Brendel, and H. Zbinden, 1998, “I. Violation of Bell Inequalities by Photons More Than
10 Km Apart,” Physical Review Letters 81, 3563 –3566.
48. N. Gisin, J. Brendel, H. Tittel, and H. Zbinden, II, December 1998, “II. Quantum Correlation Over More Than
10 Km,” Optics and Photonics News Highlights.
49. L. Hixon, 1993, Mother of the Buddhas: Meditation on the Prajnaparmita (Wheaton, IL: Quest).
50. R. P. Hayes, 1994, “The Philosophy of Nagarjuna, Nagarjuna’s Appeal,”Journal of Indian Philosophy, 299–378.
51. J. L. Garfield, 1995, The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way: Nagarjuna’s Mulamadhyamakakarika (New
York: Oxford University Press).
52. R. Targ and J. J. Hurtak, 2006. The End of Suffering: Fearless Living in Troubled Times, (Charlottesville, VA:
Hampton Roads).
 Investigation of a Complex Space-Time Metric (Rauscher and Targ) 25

53. Newman et al., “Metric and Curvature Properties of H-Space.”

54. R. O. Hansen and E. T. Newman, 1995, “A Complex Minkowski Space Approach to Twisters,” Gen. Rel. and
Grav. 6, 361–385.
55. Rauscher, “Physical Models Potentially Applicable.”
56. Newman, “H-Space and Its Properties.”
57. Rauscher, Electromagnetic Phenomena.
58. Newman. “Maxwell’s Equations.”
59. Newman et al., “Metric and Curvature Properties of H-Space.”
60. Feinberg, “Possibility of Faster-Than-Light Particles.”
61. Hansen and Newman, “A Complex Minkowski Space Approach to Twisters,” 62 and Rauscher, “Non-Abelian
Gauge Groups.”

References
Aspect, A., P. Grangier, and G. Roger. 1992. “Experimental Tests of Bell’s Inequalities Using Time-
Varying Analyzers.” Physical Review Letters 49: 1804 –1907.
Bell, J. S. 1964. “On the Einstein, Podolsky, Rosen Paradox.” Physics 1: 195 –200.
_____. 1966. “On the Problem of Hidden Variables in Quantum Theory.” Rev. Mod. Phys. 38.3: 447.
Bem, D., and C. Honorton. January 1994. “Does PSI Exist? Replicable Evidence for an Anomalous Process
of Information Transfer.” Psychological Bulletin.
Bohm, D., and B. Hiley. 1993. The Undivided Universe. New York: Routledge.
Brier, R. 1974. Precognition and the Philosophy of Science: An Essay on Backward Causation. New York:
Humanities Press.
Chew, G. 1964. The Analytic S-Matrix, Frontiers of Physics. San Francisco: Benjamin.
Cox, W. E. 1956. “Precognition: an analysis II.” J. ASPR 30: 99 –109.
Dunne, J. W. 1927. An Experiment with Time. Reprint Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads, 2001.
Dunne, B. J., R. G. Jahn, and R. D. Nelson. 1983. “Precognitive Remote Perception,” Princeton Engi-
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Einstein, A., B. Podolsky, and N. Rosen. 1935. “Can a Quantum Mechanical Description of Physical
Reality be Considered Complete?” Physical Review 47: 777–780.
Freedman, S., and J. Clauser. 1972. “Experimental Test of Local Hidden Variable Theories.” Physical
Review Letters 28: 934 –941.
Feinberg, G. 1967. “Possibility of Faster-Than-Light Particles.” Physical Review 159: 1089.
Garfield, J. L. 1995. The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way: Nagarjuna’s Mulamadhyamakakarika.
New York: Oxford University Press.
Gisin, N., J. Brendel, W. Tittel, and H. Zbinden. December 1998. “II. Quantum Correlation Over More
Than 10 Km,” Optics and Photonics News (Highlights): 41.
Gisin, N., W. Tittel, J. Brendel, and H. Zbinden. 1998. “I. Violation of Bell Inequalities by Photons More
Than 10 Km Apart.” Physical Review Letters 81: 3563 –3566.
Hansen, R. O., and E. T. Newman. 1975. “A Complex Minkowski Space Approach to Twisters.” Gen.
Rel. and Grav. 6: 361–385.
Harris, W. S., et al. October 25, 1999. “A Randomized, Controlled Trial of the Effects of Remote Inter-
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Medicine 159: 2273 –2278.
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299 –378.
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Honorton, C., and D. C. Ferari. 1989. “Future-Telling: A Meta-Analysis of Forced-Choice Precognition
Experiments.” Journal of Parapsychology 53: 281–209.
Jahn, R. G. 1982. “The Persistent Paradox of Psychic Phenomena: An Engineering Perspective.” Proc.
IEEE 70.2: 136 –170.
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North Holland Publishing.
Kogan, I. M. 1968. “The Information Theory Analysis of Telepathic Communication Experiments.”
Radio Eng. 23: 121.
26 Part I. Consciousness

Newman, E. T. 1973. “Maxwell’s Equations in Complex Minkowski Space.” J. Math Phys. 14: 202–203.
_____. 1976. “H-Space and Its Properties.” Gen. Rel. and Grav. 7: 107–111.
Newman, E. T., R. O. Hansen, R. Penrose, and K. P. Ton. 1978. “The Metric and Curvature Properties
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tances: Historical Perspective and Recent Research.” Proc. IEEE 64.3: 329 –254.
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86. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
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_____. 1981. “Coherent Solutions of the Schrodinger Equation in Complex Eight-Space.” In Proceedings
of the Tenth International Conference on the Science, Vol. II, 1407–1731. New York: ICF Press.
_____. 1983. Electromagnetic Phenomena in Complex Geometries and Nonlinear, Non-Hertzian Waves.
Millbrae, CA: Tesla.
_____. 2001. “Non-Abelian Gauge Groups for Real and Complex Amended Maxwell’s Equations.” Vigier
2000 Symposium, Vigier III. Berkeley: Klower Press, 2001.
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317.
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the Effect of Distant Healing in a Population with Advanced AIDS.” Western Journal of Medicine 169:
356 –363.
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77–189. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
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 Physics and Consciousness
JENS A. TELLEFSEN, JR .

Consciousness is one of the most important characteristics of the human being. If we

were not conscious creatures, we would not be able to assess either ourselves or the world
we live in. Further, there is a very intimate connection between our consciousness and the
physical world outside of us. It is in our consciousness that we make an image of the world,
i.e., both the one that exists inside us, as feelings and thoughts, and the one that exists out-
side us, in the external world.
Despite this obvious fact, science — hence physics— has had great difficulties placing
consciousness in its proper context. In this essay we will try to weave a fabric in which con-
sciousness and the nature and properties of consciousness will be the central thread. We
will therefore be presenting material and ideas that are not usually included in school
physics books. And as the reader will be able to experience, we will necessarily need to
express ourselves without categorical certainty. One can sometimes only speculate about
various possibilities, various interpretations, and conceivable alternatives. We will also
make use of metaphors, i.e., imagery, when we are dealing with ways that physics perceives
reality. In physics, the concept of the world sometimes diverges very markedly from the
everyday picture of what the world looks like and how it behaves. And this makes the hunt
for the real truth very exciting.

Different Concepts of the World

The centuries immediately preceding our own were characterized by what is called the
classical concept of the world, in which the universe was perceived as mechanical — like a
gigantic clock. But around the turn of the twentieth century, two new revolutionizing the-
ories saw the light of day, changing our view of reality in a very profound way. The first
was Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, which shook our view of space and time and the
role of the observer. The second was quantum mechanics, which describes the microscopic
world that is the foundation of the macroscopic world in which we live.

The Mediaeval Concept of the World

During the Middle Ages in Europe, it was thought that the world had been created in
a highly personal way by God and that people were still protected by the divine Creator.

27
28 Part I. Consciousness

The world was perceived as well organized and well thought out, existence was secure and
certain, and humans and animals fit into the cosmic plan. Dante’s concept of the world,
which consisted of a series of concentric circles, was capable of explaining the place of
heaven, the planets, the king, and the peasant in existence. The metaphor for this age can
be said to have been the womb.

The Classical Concept of the World

The classical, Newtonian concept of the world is very close to our everyday perception
of physical reality, and it is based on what our five ordinary senses tell us and on our con-
sciousness’s manner of processing these sensory impressions. In this concept of the world,
the universe is seen metaphorically as a kind of clockwork, and the human being as more
or less an automaton. The clockwork has well-lubricated cogwheels that form a complex
mechanism in which all the cogs are interlocked. Everything is predetermined, every course
of events has a given cause, and every cause has a determined effect; i.e., determinism and
causality are accepted as fact. There is no free will, and the world is objective. Consciousness
is merely a characteristic that I happen to have and that sorts out my sensory impressions.
It is due mainly to the complex organization and large number of my brain cells.
The universe is highly impersonal and completely under the control of blind mathe-
matical laws and forces of nature. It is very, very large and cold and empty, apart from the
planets and the stars. The world is viewed more as an event than as a meaningful thought,
and the human being appears to be a random detail. The metaphor of the age is mausoleum.

Einstein’s Concept of the World

In the relativistic concept of the world, which is based on Einstein’s thoughts, the
observer — and hence human consciousness— plays a larger role. Absolute space and
absolute time do not exist here. Space and time are relative, elastic qualities. A crucial role
is played by where I am when I make an observation —for example, if I am moving at high
speed or am in a strong gravitational field. But even here, according to Einstein, conscious-
ness is entirely inside me, and I do not influence the external world in any fundamental
way. It is only in quantum mechanics that my consciousness or my actions play a pivotal
role in physics.

The Quantum Mechanical Concept of the World

Quantum mechanics has revealed a great many strange things in the structure of the
universe. It has shown that the law of cause and effect does not prevail in the world of
atoms, but that much depends on chance. That is to say, one cannot, on the basis of deter-
mined causes draw definite conclusions about the effects. Instead, there are always a number
of possibilities. Thus, at its most fundamental level, nature exhibits an all-pervasive ran-
domness.
There are other peculiarities as well in quantum mechanics. If we look deeply into
matter in order to perceive its structure on the atomic level, it is found that the more we
magnify it, the vaguer and more indefinite it becomes, without those concrete properties
which we are accustomed to in the macrocosmos. Upon close examination, the everyday
 Physics and Consciousness (Tellefsen) 29

world, which appears to be so solid, dissolves into a nebulous wave pattern in which there
are no objects at all, but a fabric of probabilities instead.
There is, as it were, a rebellion against the laws of nature in the atomic world. In our
macro-world, if we throw a ball against a solid wall we know it will bounce back. But in
the microscopic world, a particle — an electron, for example —can continue on the other
side of an impenetrable barrier.
Nothing is fixed and determined in the micro-world. The objects— electrons, for exam-
ple — do not move in concrete, observable paths, as our planets do. They do not find them-
selves at a certain determined point at a certain determined time and do not move from
point A to point B in determined paths. When a particle moves from A to B, it appears to
move along several paths simultaneously. Or — one can ask oneself this question — is it actu-
ally in all of these paths? Has it traveled the distance between A and B at all? Much indicates
that the particle does not, point by point, follow any path at all — it just finds itself first at
A and a moment later at B.
Quantum mechanics also offers a long series of paradoxes that do not accord with our
everyday experiences. The most famous instance is that light can be both a particle and a
wave motion, depending on how we measure its properties. Under certain conditions, light
can behave as if it is in many places simultaneously. A wave also behaves like this. Other
experiments indicate that light is a particle — i.e., a photon — with a fully determined posi-
tion. In the same way, an electron, too, which is usually understood to be a particle, can
sometimes exhibit wave behavior, as in the case of interference with another electron.
(Interference: interaction between two wave motions.)
If we determine a particle’s position very precisely, it is totally impossible to know its
speed at the same time. (It is actually the momentum, i.e., the product of the particle’s mass
and its speed, that enters into the consideration of uncertainty here.)
Two photons that are simultaneously emitted from the same atom and go in different
directions will have correlated or coordinated properties despite the fact that they are going
away from each other at the speed of light.

Physical Reality: What Is It?

The Debate Between Bohr and Einstein
Thus, there are profound conflicts between our everyday perception of the world out
here and the world of acausal connections that quantum mechanics displays. These conflicts
have of course been discussed by physicists. The Danish physicist Niels Bohr and Albert
Einstein had a public debate about this in the 1920s and 1930s that attracted a great deal of
attention.
Einstein was well grounded in the classical as well as the relativistic concepts of the
world. He could not believe that the world was in any way dependent on me as observer,
but considered that the world had to exist as it is regardless of whether or not I observe it.
He could not accept the randomness in quantum mechanics. “God does not play dice with
the world,” he often said. To this, Bohr replied, “It is not for us to tell God how He should
behave.” Experiments have since shown that Einstein was wrong and Bohr right, and that
quantum mechanics provides a correct description of reality.
What was it Bohr and Einstein were debating? They were never quite clear about it,
although they carried on with their conversations all their lives. Briefly, it can be said that
Einstein, in spite of his great reliance on the findings of quantum mechanics, never thought
30 Part I. Consciousness

that the quantum theories gave a correct and complete picture of reality, i.e., a full descrip-
tion of nature. Even the micro-particles are physical and real, and this is wholly independent
of an observation or measurement, he maintained. If we had better knowledge, if we knew
the hidden properties, then the paradoxes, the uncertainties, and the ambivalences would
evaporate. The quantum world would then show itself to be as precise and objectively real
as the classical everyday world we know so well, he said.
The stories about how things would proceed in the course of these debates are now
among the legends of physics, for instance, when Bohr lectured on “The Conflict Between
Quantum Physics and Classical Physics” at the Fifth Solvay Conference in 1927 in Brussels,
Belgium. After the lecture it was Einstein’s turn, and his reaction was clear. Bohr had gone
much further than Einstein could accept. He apologized that he did not know very much,
but raised many counter arguments that were supposed to point out weaknesses in the the-
ory, without any success. At the next meeting, in Brussels in 1930, Einstein was very well
prepared with good arguments, meeting Bohr with a well-reasoned thought experiment,
which was to show that quantum mechanics’ indeterminacy was to be repudiated. With
that, all of quantum mechanics would also fall. Bohr went down for the count — it was a
huge shock for him that he did not immediately see the solution to the problem. After a
restless evening and a sleepless night, he met Einstein over morning coffee, smiling and
happy. By using the Einsteinian theory of relativity itself, Bohr was able to show the errors
in his opponent’s argument. But Einstein, as we shall see later, did not give up.

Bohr’s Idea of the Observer’s Role

The world’s physicists have given a lot of thought to what micro-particles actually are:
objects, waves, fields, or charges with mass?
In classical physics there is no doubt: a wave is a wave, and a particle is a particle. Posi-
tion and speed (i.e., momentum) are well-defined properties of the particle, with exact val-
ues, and these are completely independent of each other and of any observer. They exist
objectively.
Such is not the case, however, in the quantum world. Here, the prevailing uncertainties
and ambivalences seem to both damage and even tear apart the independence and objective
properties of the micro-particles. The micro-world, in other words, is rather chaotic. But
when an atomic physicist makes his measurements of a particle’s position or momentum,
for instance, he obtains concrete values, exactly as in the classical picture. How can this be?
The answer came from Copenhagen: the process and procedure of measurement are the
keys to the riddle — and the observer, i.e., the human being, holds the keys!
As Niels Bohr conceived it, before we make our observations or measurements, a
micro-particle has no actual existence, i.e., it lacks physical properties. It is only when we
observe it that it gains physical existence. Before the observation, the particles are mere
“phantoms,” which find themselves in a phantom world full of unrealized possibilities. But
every phantom component is important: sometimes their interaction registers as interfer-
ence. With the observation, they are transformed into concrete realities. The observation
process appears to transform potentiality into reality in a way that looks more like magic
than cold science.
Thus, according to Bohr, the observer has an utterly crucial significance in the con-
cretizing of the particles of the atomic world.
The American physicist John Wheeler, currently at the University of Texas at Austin,1
 Physics and Consciousness (Tellefsen) 31

is one of Bohr’s most well-known disciples. Citing the importance of a quantum observa-
tion, he says, “No elementary phenomenon is a real phenomenon before it is an observed
phenomenon.” Remarkably, Wheeler seems to be saying that the universe is a “participatory
universe.” He has formulated the role of the observer such that the universe is no longer
out there, with us as passive observers behind a thick pane of glass making our little meas-
urements and noting them down. There are no observers who are totally separate from
what they are observing; we are all, in a special way, participants, interacting in the great
game.
As Wheeler says, instead of observing from a great distance, we must shatter the pane
of glass and extend ourselves into the reality we want to measure, if we want to find out about
its properties.
So, when all is said and done, is the physical existence of the entire world dependent
on the fact that a great number of observations have been made? In that case: observations
made by whom? By the collective human family? By monkeys and other animals far back
in primeval time? Or by a global consciousness, which is not localized to any single person?
As yet, we have no answers to these questions.
John Wheeler has taken these ideas seriously and has created a kind of quantum-
cosmological vision in which the human being and human consciousness are placed in the
center. Of all possible and conceivable universes, only a few are constructed, with their nat-
ural constants and other things, such that galaxies, stars, and planets can be formed. An
even smaller number can be imagined to allow the evolution of life. Finally, there comes
the eye of the needle: if a universe is not so finely tuned that intelligent life and conscious
beings can evolve, it cannot be observed, and nor is it real in a meaningful way, Wheeler
thinks.
In the face of these fantastic perspectives, Wheeler sighs in an interview published in
1985, “I admit that now and then I take the idea that the world is a product of imagination
sprung from my own thought with full seriousness. At other times, I am similarly persuaded
that the world out there exists completely independent of us.”
The Anglican bishop George Berkeley stated back in the eighteenth century that nothing
can exist at all without its being experienced by some consciousness. Berkeley’s motto, in
Latin, was Esse est percipi: To be is to be perceived. And now it appears as though quantum
physicists are talking literally about the same thing, but now against the background of a
sophisticated theory.

The Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) Paradox

We have seen how Einstein and Bohr debated various aspects of the concept of the
world in quantum physics, the paradoxical properties of matter on the micro level and the
central role of the observer. The opposition that they provided for each other always resulted
in a wealth of new thoughts and ideas, which are still echoing in the corridors of physics.
The debate continues even today — long after death of both debaters.
In 1935, Einstein and two colleagues, Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen, published a
relatively short paper in the prestigious journal The Physical Review. This article concerning
the completeness of quantum mechanics, its title framed as a challenging question (“Can
Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete?”), con-
tained in relatively simple terms what the authors (known to posterity as EPR) considered
wrong with quantum theory. They asserted that quantum mechanics did not have the last
32 Part I. Consciousness

word on physical reality. EPR presented their argument in the form of a thought experiment
that, if properly thought out, would lead to results that clearly conflicted with the theory
of relativity itself. And that, of course, was solid as a rock, they thought. Thus, the basic
idea of the article was to point out that nature, if their doubts were correct, would behave
in a very puzzling and paradoxical manner that went totally against Einstein’s scientific
intuition. The idea subsequently came to be known as the EPR paradox. Due to two events
that took place much later, in 1964 and in 1982, the EPR paradox has become a highly topical
subject nowadays at physics conferences and has even reached the television audience and
been taken up in popular science contexts.
The EPR article offers no concrete suggestion for what might be added to or, plain and
simple, replace quantum mechanics. Concepts like “hidden variables” did not exist in Ein-
stein’s world of ideas at that time. It did, however, advance two alternatives for how nature
is constituted. If Einstein’s idea was accurate, the quantum world with all its photons and
particles would be an objectively existing and exact world. The other alternative pointed at
a new and unexpected affinity between all material micro-objects, totally independent of
space and time. This, Einstein could not accept, since it gave nature properties of instan-
taneous “spooky action at a distance” (German: “Spukhafte Fernwirkungen”), something
he found distasteful.
The EPR article was largely ignored by contemporary researchers with one exception —
Niels Bohr. Before the end of the year (1935), he had published his response, also in The
Physical Review. His title has the exact same sequence of words that EPR had, i.e., framed
as a question. But while EPR are distinct, simple, and clear in their arguments, Bohr is, as
he usually was, theoretical, unclear, and difficult to understand. In spite of this, his response
to EPR is loud and clear: quantum mechanics is a correct and complete theory, it is all we
have and are going to get — even in the future, and the faster we learn to act on its terms,
the better!

Bell’s Theorem: The World Is Nonlocal

The EPR paradox has many variants, and the reader should look at some of the refer-
ences in the bibliography for details about them. One of the simplest examples applies to
relationships between polarizations of two photons if these photons, in one and the same
process, have been emitted by an atom and then go off in opposite directions. For details,
see e.g., the article by Bernhard d’Espagnat in Scientific American, November 1959 (p. 158).
The photons in the example above are correlated (correlation: mutual connection) or
coordinated with each other as a consequence of their common origin. That is, if photon
A’s polarization is upwards, photon B’s polarization is downwards. If we measure A’s polar-
ization we can immediately assume that B’s has the opposite direction. If quantum mechan-
ics gives a correct description of the emission process, we cannot say with certainty what
original direction of polarization the photons have, but can merely state this with a certain
degree of probability. Only with a concrete measurement are we able to determine the
direction. If we now recall Bohr’s supposition that a particle, i.e., like a photon, does not
possess concrete properties before a measurement, we can assume that it is not until the meas-
urement is in progress that the photon “decides” at all which polarization it will have. EPR
would now have asked how it can be that as soon as we measure A’s polarization, B also
“chooses” its polarization, and that this always has a direction opposite to A’s. Bohr would
have answered that the two photons “go together,” that they are part of an unbroken,
 Physics and Consciousness (Tellefsen) 33

common system. If A decides on one property, B will of necessity choose the opposite prop-
erty.
What happens later if, after a time, the photons are now so far from each other that
no physical means such as a tree or a radio signal can join them? According to Einstein,
since both of the photons are moving at the speed of light, no physical object can connect
them. Bohr was not able to respond properly to this, but considered that the photons were
nonetheless correlated even if the distance amounted to several light years. Einstein trusted
and believed firmly that the continued correlation was due to the photons’ having hidden
properties, the so-called hidden variables, which they carried with them in some way.
In 1935 it was not possible to decide the question through an experiment, as the lab-
oratory technology of the time was too crude and inaccurate and the electronics were prim-
itive and slow. A step closer to the realization of a key experiment of this sort was taken in
1964, when the Scottish physicist John S. Bell, working at the CERN Laboratory in Geneva,
published a remarkable and complex theorem that was able to show right away that all so-
called “local” hidden variable theories conflicted with the statistical statements of quantum
mechanics. “Local” here means “in place,” i.e., at an exact position. A local hidden variable,
then, only affects an object in the immediate environment. The concept of “statistics” enters
the picture since quantum-mechanical statements actually apply only to the outcomes of a
large number of measurements. Single outcomes can only follow the specified probabili-
ties.
Based on Bell’s results, eight to ten groups across the world have had the opportunity
to experimentally test the startling content of the EPR paradox, and most of these have in
fact confirmed that quantum physics is right and that some type of direct connection does
prevail between two distant micro-objects, however far apart from each other they may be.
The most convincing experiments so far have been conducted since 1982 by Alain Aspect
and his colleagues at the University of Paris in Orsay. His extreme precision and sophisti-
cated setup have subsequently brought more and more physicists to realize the epochal
nature of these findings. The consequences for our concept of the world are not yet clear,
and what effect these will have in the macrocosmos we do not yet know. Nonetheless, the
EPR paradox seems to show that, in principle, distant parts of the universe on the quantum
level can be connected to each other. By means of a kind of quantum information that is
almost instantaneous, the parts are held together as a whole.

What Is a Micro–particle?
Complementary States and Uncertainty
The evolution of modern physics causes us to have a lot of difficulty nowadays in
understanding what we mean when we talk about an object in the micro-world. The objects,
as we have previously seen, have conflicting properties. The same object can manifest itself
as a particle or as a wave, depending on how we measure it. A particle, of course, is some-
thing that is in a determined place and not in several places simultaneously. A wave, on the
other had, has a large extension in space. It would appear, therefore, as though nothing
could simultaneously be both particle and wave. But Niels Bohr said that the concept of
particle and the concept of wave are complementary concepts that together describe reality,
although they seem to be mutually exclusive.
At the 1927 Solvay Conference mentioned earlier, where Bohr and Einstein clashed,
Bohr developed his latest thoughts on the wave-particle duality. It was here he presented
34 Part I. Consciousness

his complementarity principle to his colleagues for the first time. His discovery was based
in part on Werner Heinsenberg’s uncertainty principle from earlier the same year, in which
Heisenberg summarizes his ideas about how accurately, in principle, certain properties of
the micro-object can be measured; for example, an object’s position and momentum. This
relationship between uncertainty of position (Dx) and corresponding uncertainty of
momentum (Dp), is usually given as Dx•Dp=(∂)h -. Here, -h =h/2p, where h is Planck’s con-
stant. This is sometimes called the uncertainty principle, sometimes the indeterminacy
principle, and sometimes the principle of indeterminism. It is this relationship that deci-
sively separates quantum physics from classical physics. In the latter, both position and
momentum can be determined simultaneously with arbitrary exactitude. Bohr’s comple-
mentarity principle has changed our way of thinking and, for this reason, it is one of the
most important principles of modern physics; it also has great validity outside the domains
of physics. In fact, with this principle, Bohr tried many times later in his life to unite the
human sciences and natural science. The apparent conflict between “the two cultures” was
caused, he said, merely by a complex variant of the wave-particle syndrome.
Duality and complementarity exist on many levels in life. In ethics and morality, for
instance, it can be used to discuss free will in the human being versus our deterministic
laws. In the same way, many other well-known concepts form complementary pairs:
wave/particle; thoughts/nerve impulses; the novel/a collection of words; software/hardware;
life/biology; feelings/thoughts. Alone, each concept means little; together with their partner,
they describe a totality.

The Classic Double-Slit Experiment

This duality in reality comes out in what is called the double-slit experiment. We have
a screen with two slits. We can choose to seal one or the other of them. Behind the screen
is a detector plate. If we shoot particles— electrons, for example — towards the screen, we
find that if we let one particle at a time go through one slit, we get a registration on the
detector which shows this. If we let them go through the second slit, we get a different, but
similar, registration, precisely as we might expect. If the experiment is conducted carefully,
these two registrations on the detector plate will not differ significantly from what we would
have received if the particles, i.e., the electrons, were classical objects.
But, if we open both slits simultaneously and let only one electron through at a time,
we get a new sort of registration that displays a complex, checked pattern which shows that
the particle now appears to have gone through both slits simultaneously! The electron phe-
nomenon no longer behaves like a particle — because something of that kind can obviously
pass through only one of the slits— but like a wave. Laboratory experiments with water
waves give the same type of registration. It was with just this type of thought experiment
that Bohr and Einstein discussed the wave-particle paradox, which says that matter exhibits
a dualistic aspect. The first aspect complements the second.
Electrons, then, are peculiar phenomena. According to certain measurements, they
appear to have no extension at all, but to be only point charges, which have mass. According
to other measurements, they seem to have the same properties as a wave with, in principle,
a breadth of several centimeters. The problem is that the electrons can display only one
aspect at a time. If we try to trick them, such as by checking one of the slits in order to
reveal which of the two slits the electron really went through, the wave-pattern registration
quickly disappears and the electron appears again as a particle.
 Physics and Consciousness (Tellefsen) 35

The following thought has been developed by Heisenberg, among others. While Bohr
merely wanted to understand the established phenomenon, the object revealed through
measurements, Heisenberg speculated about what existed before the measurement.
When an electron comes to a screen with two openings, it can go through opening 1
or opening 2. We call the first case world 1, the second world 2. These two alternative worlds,
which are thus completely different on just this point, coexist in quantum mechanics, inas-
much as the electron goes through both openings simultaneously. In other words, during
the experiment we have an ambivalent situation with two worlds which largely overlap and
therefore interfere with each other, precisely as water waves, or two light waves, do. They
have the same power, they are equivalent. And they are equally possible, equally potential.
But they are not totally identical. Therefore, they are able to interfere.
This remarkable phenomenon applies not only to electrons, but to the particles of the
micro-world on the whole. The different alternatives that quantum mechanics allows exist
simultaneously, as different possibilities, which overlap each other and enter each other.
As soon as we demand a response from nature on whether the electron has gone through
the first slit or the second, nature replies that it went through slit 1 and not through slit 2 —
or vice versa, and when we have made our measurement in this way, one of these “phantom
worlds” disappears, while the other emerges as a concrete reality. Before we made the meas-
urement, both alternatives existed there, fully ready and measurable. It is thus the meas-
urement process itself that differentiates between the alternative worlds in such a way that
one goes towards zero and the other becomes concrete reality. Accordingly, it can be said
that we, the experimenters, in some fundamental way determine what will become physical
reality.
And what is even more amazing, according to John Wheeler’s quantum cosmological
model, which we described earlier, we are even able to determine what was real and actual
far back in time. (This remarkable phenomenon has often been described in the literature
as the delayed-choice experiment.)

The Quantum Mechanical Measurement

Process: The Wave Function Collapse
Our difficulties have to do with the measurement process, that procedure which, like
a bridge, connects Heisenberg’s world of potential possibilities with the real world of con-
crete objects and events. Before we make a measurement, a series of possibilities exists, the
different worlds, with different properties. Later, when we have made our measurement,
we concretize one of these worlds, while the others just disappear. We do not know in
advance which of the “phantom worlds” will be concretized. A deep uncertainty prevails
concerning the outcome of each measurement. It was this relationship that we earlier termed
Heisenberg’s uncertainty or indeterminacy relation.
How does the whole thing work? We return again to the famous 1927 Solvay Conference
where so many important thoughts and ideas made their debut. One of the most remarkable
concepts to show up was what was called the wave function collapse, which in some magical
way was to explain the course of events during a measurement. The concept of wave function
came from the newly developed quantum theory of the Austrian physicist Erwin
Schrödinger (1925). These days it goes by the name of wave mechanics and is still very pop-
ular, above all in connection with calculations of practical problems. Schrödinger’s wave,
designated in the literature by the symbol y, is given in each situation as a solution to a
36 Part I. Consciousness

Figure 1

wave equation, the Schrödinger equation. The wave function, then, is a mathematical
expression that in some way represents or describes a particle (for example, an electron)
or a system of particles (for example, a molecule) and how it changes with time. The function
y gives us, further, the probability that a particle will have a certain property when we con-
duct a measurement.
This property may, for example, be position, speed, energy, etc. (The probability is
expressed mathematically as the square of y, i.e., (y).2 If y describes the particle’s position,
the value of (y)2 gives the probability of finding the particle there. This interpretation goes
back to the physicist Max Born in Göttingen.)
Look at the situation in Figure 1, which represents a collision process between Particle
P1 and Particle P2. We are now interested in finding out what takes place during the collision.
Particle P1, as we see, has only two alternative fates, namely (1) to follow track 1, which goes
above P2, or (2) to go on the other side of P2, track 2. Before the collision, P1 is represented
by the function y, which is wide and rounded in order to accommodate both alternatives.
After the collision, if P1 follows track 1, it is represented by the function y1, which is narrow
and pointed. If it follows track 2, function y2 applies; as the figure shows, it is a bit displaced
in relation to y1. So the measurement procedure can be symbolized by the equations y→
y1, or y→y2. In physics, the transition from y to y1 or y2 is called the reduction or collapse
of the wave function. It is an allegorical story of the transition from potentiality to reality,
from possibility to concrete actuality. The collapse process does not appear in Schrödinger’s
equation; it is not given by the mathematical requirements. Of all the difficulties Einstein
had with quantum mechanics, the question of wave function collapse was probably the
greatest. We are also left with the major question of what it is that causes the collapse of
 Physics and Consciousness (Tellefsen) 37

y. One of several alternatives is that the consciousness of the person, or the observer, is
involved.

The Micro-World and the Macro-World:

A Complete Description
That the micro-world and the macro-world go together in some way is an ancient idea.
That Bohr and Heisenberg would deviate from this intuitive approach, therefore, comes as
something of a surprise. The Copenhagen school, as it came to be called, considers our only
chance to explain the atomic world to be through using terms and concepts from the every-
day world and expressing it in ordinary language. For them, the world is forever divided
into two sorts of reality: the quantum realities that we can never experience, and the classical
reality that is the only one we are ever going to experience. In this picture, quantum theory
does not explain anything about quantum realities; it is solely an expression of the rela-
tionship between our everyday world and the quantum world. In other words, while in the
old physics we try to understand and explain macroscopic objects as functions of the atoms
and molecules that form them, in quantum physics à la Bohr we try to describe and char-
acterize atoms in terms that apply solely to macro-objects, for example, our measurement
apparatuses. In a paradoxical way, therefore, it is correct to say that electrons, photons, and
atoms are “constructed” by measurement instruments and apparatuses. Naturally, the
Copenhagen school and its followers consider ordinary measurement apparatuses to consist
of atoms, but further than that they will not go.
A completely different school of thought, led by the great mathematician John von
Neumann, now deceased, considers the world to possess only one kind of reality, and it is
definitely not a classical reality. In other words, the world is entirely quantum mechanical.
This leads to major philosophical questions, to which we shall return. Now, even on the
practical plane, where our measurements must of course take place, we have problems.
From the von Neumannist point of view, one difficulty with all investigations of the
micro-world is that they require measurement apparatuses taken from the macro-world.
This results in our unavoidably having to link the micro-world’s quantum realities with
the macro-world’s classical everyday realities. The von Neumannist metaphors are not suf-
ficient here for the purpose of being able to explain this fully. The mysterious collapse of
the wave function proves once again to be important. And, in the extension of the image,
the consciousness of the measurer comes in as well. Further, we know that these apparatuses
in turn consist of an almost infinite number of micro-objects. This means that, in some
peculiar way, the whole measurement process is biting its own tail. The circle is closed.
These circumstances, together with Bell’s Theorem, lead easily to the thought that
everything in the universe is connected in a more intimate manner than we had previously
thought. The world, says British physicist David Bohm, consists not of a collection of things
that are separated from one another but of a great many interconnected things, a network
of relationships. And Heisenberg thinks that the usual division of the world into subject-
object, inner world-outer world, body-mind is no longer adequate. These various aspects
are interconnected and constitute parts of the total description.
Max Planck, the man who developed the quantum concept in 1900, maintained:

There is no matter as such. All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings
the particles of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together.
38 Part I. Consciousness

We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is
the matrix of all matter [from a lecture in Florence, Italy, 1944].

One theoretical physicist after another has reached the conclusion that a world of inde-
pendent objects does not exist in reality and that all things appear to be connected; even
our inner being, our consciousness, is connected in an intimate fashion with the external,
physical world.
Among the leading quantum physicists and relativists in the first half of the twentieth
century, we find many who, in addition to their scientific interest, were also deeply fasci-
nated by philosophy, religion, metaphysics, and mysticism. Here we can note such names
as Heisenberg, Schrödinger, Einstein, de Broglie, Jeans, Planck, Pauli, and Eddington. (In
Ken Wilbur’s book Quantum Questions (1984), the interested reader can find many tidbits
from the hands of these pioneers of physics. In an as yet unpublished report (PEAR 83005.
1 B) from Princeton University’s parapsychology laboratory, Robert Jahn, one of America’s
leading researchers in paranormal phenomena, presents a compilation of thoughts from
many of the above-named scientists on the role consciousness plays in modern physics.
(See the Selected Readings.)

Does Quantum Mechanics Describe Reality?

But is quantum mechanics a reliable description of physical reality? It has in fact been
a great success! It has succeeded in many areas and has greatly exceeded expectations. By
means of it we are able to describe to the last decimal what happens in a transistor, in the
laser, in metals. We can describe atoms and molecules in detail with excellent definition.
Modern chemistry is greatly indebted to quantum mechanics. But we have a problem with
quantum physics’ description of the world: Exactly what sort of reality does it describe? It
appears to be paradoxical. As yet we have no answer to this.

von Neumann’s Infinite Chain

If it was Heisenberg, Schrödinger, and the English physicist Paul Dirac who first created
quantum mechanics, it was the Hungarian-American mathematician John von Neumann
who wrote the bible of the quantum world, Die Mathematische Grundlagen der Quanten-
mechanik [Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics]. Published in 1932, it pre-
sented, on the whole, the most definitive mathematical quantum analysis. No other book
on quantum theory has influenced the world’s physicists to so great a degree. He also estab-
lishes the criteria for the now so well-known quantum measurement problem so dear to
our hearts, and with that became the godfather of the school that embraces the principle
of consciousness-created reality.
We saw previously that von Neumann regarded the entire world as a single quantum
system, all the way from micro-particles up to measurement apparatuses, and it was here
he had to confront the difficult problem of wave function collapse. It also became one of
the central problems in the book. Observe, first, an isolated micro-object. It obeys the rules
of quantum mechanics and it therefore exists in a hybrid existence in which all possible
properties overlap one another. (Hybrid stands for “mixed origin” here.)
He was able to show with great mathematical stringency that when we measure such
an object with an apparatus belonging to the macroscopic world, the entire measurement
system — i.e., object, apparatus, and observer — becomes quantum mechanical, with new
 Physics and Consciousness (Tellefsen) 39

overlapping worlds that are not determinable in themselves. Through the measurement,
only the object itself has become concrete, with defined properties. The uncertainty that
previously existed only in connection with the microscopic object has, so to speak, infected
even the measurement apparatus as well, which now has landed in the indeterminate quan-
tum mechanical phantom world in which all possible properties exist simultaneously, par-
tially overlapping one another. The only chance to clarify the situation is to use yet another
measurement apparatus, which now measures the first measurement apparatus. But, if we
do this, the second measurement apparatus lands in the quantum world as well — yes, in
the end we have an infinite chain of apparatuses that are measuring one another. Unfortu-
nately, even this giant system remains quantum mechanical — i.e., it is in an indeterminate
state.
Confronted with this fact, we quickly realize that in order to be able to determine a
micro-object’s properties we must, in some way, break this infinite von Neumann chain of
measurement apparatuses. Naturally, von Neumann realized this himself, and from his
material he was able to draw two conclusions, one with great certainty and the other with
a certain degree of doubt. The first conclusion was that we are allowed to break the chain
whenever we wish and insert a collapse process there. The second conclusion was that in
reality, the collapse could take place only in the moment that the brain’s nerve signals trans-
formed into being conscious mental activity. Here, for the first time, we have the idea that
consciousness is in fact able to create a reality, i.e., that an object with its properties is
brought forward into existence only if we consciously observe it! This, if anything can,
could be termed quantum magic!

Schrödinger’s Cat
Someone else who realized the difficulties with wave function collapse was Erwin
Schrödinger, one of the founders of quantum mechanics. In a little-known paper from
1935, he discussed, according to his understanding, the problems we get when we bring the
quantum mechanical mode of description in its entirety up to the macro level, to the every-
day. He illustrates these difficulties with a thought experiment that has become a legend in
itself. We have a closed, impermeable box, in which there is a cat. In the box there is also
a radioactive substance, the behavior of which belongs, of course, to the micro-world, and
which within one hour with 50 percent probability has emitted one electron. When the
electron is ejected from the decaying atom, it strikes an electronic detector, which puts out
a signal, which in turn causes a hammer to break a bottle of cyanide so that the poison dis-
perses in the box, with the consequence that the cat quite promptly dies.
No one knows whether the cat is alive or dead before one has looked into the box after
an hour has passed. One does not know if the radioactive decay has taken place and, with
that, brought about the cat’s death.
The problem is that inasmuch as the radioactive decay is a quantum-mechanical
process, it has to be perceived in accordance with the rules of quantum mechanics. Quantum
mechanics says that it is not until we make an observation, i.e., looking into the box, that
the process can take place through one of the two possibilities, decay and non-decay, being
realized. If the cat dies, then it dies exactly when the observation occurs. During an entire
hour it was quantum mechanically schizophrenic. It found itself in both states simultane-
ously: it was both dead and alive. But this of course is contrary to conventional logic, which
says that at some time during the hour the bottle broke and the cat died (if it is that possibility
40 Part I. Consciousness

which was realized). The wave function, which had represented the state “living cat,” col-
lapsed at that same moment. This paradox is called Schrödinger’s cat. No one has yet been
able to solve the problem, which is a logical consequence of the claim of quantum mechanics
that before one makes a measurement, i.e., in this case, opens the lid of the box and looks
inside, everything in there finds itself in two phantom worlds: cat living and cat dead. The
phantom worlds are present the entire time, though they are not concretized for us before
we have observed one of them.
Well, what about the cat? Can’t the cat itself have made an observation that something
happened? Maybe it can. But that does not matter. Even if the cat has observed the quantum
process, the entire system inside the box is, remarkably enough, in a hybrid situation for
the human experimenter, who is of course outside. A quantum process in there becomes
real for the experimenter only when he himself makes his observation. At the same time,
the overall situation is still hybrid for all the others. An additional person can check the
first person. But that doesn’t help. Thus, we are back at von Neumann’s infinite chain. (We
might imagine following the process in secret with a television that transmits its signals
through a fiber-optic cable to us, who are outside. With a little reflection, it can probably
be seen that this doesn’t help at all! We are simple back to an ordinary measurement situ-
ation.)
When Schrödinger presented his thought experiment with the schizophrenic cat, it
was in actuality in protest against von Neumann’s idea of extrapolating the laws and ordi-
nances of the quantum world up to macroscopic levels. He presented it almost as a paradox.
No one at that time could probably have imagined doing any laboratory research or exper-
iment that in some way could confirm the basic idea. Among other things, it has been
believed that any effect of that kind would not be measurable. Merely the blink of an eye
involves such an incredibly large number of contributory energy quanta (~ 1027) that it is
almost a miracle that human beings have been able to discover the quantum world at all.
On the atomic level, a few quanta more or less make a very great difference. On the macro
level, one would expect, this is totally insignificant.
But experimental technology has evolved in the more than fifty years that have passed
since the cat was born; cryogenics, low-noise electronics, microchip technology are a few
examples. And the fact is that we are no longer so distant from being able to explore these
remarkable states and their consequences (but now without the cat!). (See e.g., John Legget,
in the bibliography.)

Can Consciousness Break the von Neumann Chain?

Can the infinite chain be broken in some way? As we have just seen, the first person
to respond to this important question was the mathematician John von Neumann. In his
famous quantum bible, he had come to the conclusion, with some degree of doubt, that
the only thing that could cause a break in the infinite chain and collapse the wave function
was the consciousness of a conscious observer. If von Neumann was dubious, his successors
have been the more certain. One of these is the American physicist and Nobel laureate
Eugene Wigner. In his collection of essays, Symmetries and Reflections (1967), he says: “It
was not possible to formulate the laws of quantum mechanics in a fully consistent way
without reference to the consciousness ... it will remain remarkable, in whatever way our
future concepts may develop, that the very study of the external world led to the conclusion
that the content of the consciousness is an ultimate reality” (p.172). He says that the person’s
 Physics and Consciousness (Tellefsen) 41

consciousness breaks the chain, since human consciousness is not a component of physical
existence but has an all-embracing function, which does not follow the rules of quantum
mechanics. “Only a conscious thinking,” he continues his reasoning, “possesses such a
developed capacity for self-observation that it really knows when it is in a certain state....
To be even more painfully precise,” he says, “[this concerns] my own consciousness, since
I am the only observer, all other people being only subjects of my observations” (p. 186).
If a good friend of Wigner’s is the first person to look into the cat’s box, then he will know
exactly what the cat’s fate was. But for Wigner himself, the cat will hover in an indeterminate
state until he goes off and observes his friend. This relationship is called the paradox of
Wigner’s friend.
Wigner was continually amazed that everything around us in existence possesses such
pronounced invariability. Like an echo of Bishop Berkeley, he delightedly quotes
Schrödinger’s question: “Would it otherwise have remained a play before empty benches,
not existing for anybody, thus quite properly speaking not existing?” (Schrödinger, Mind
and Matter, p. 100).
Wigner thinks that we must distinguish consciousness from matter and the physical
world. Matter and consciousness are in some way complementary properties of reality, but
consciousness has an all-embracing function. For instance, when he raises the lid and looks
at Schrödinger’s cat and is informed of its fate, this is due to the fact that his consciousness
has forced a decision. The decision means that he has stopped von Neumann’s infinite chain
of observers. The hybrid world has stopped being hybrid; for example, the first of the alter-
natives in the double-slit experiment concretizes itself and the second becomes zero.
If one now, like Wigner, accepts this function of consciousness, the paradoxes of quan-
tum mechanics dissolve and the world becomes more intelligible.
According to Eugene Wigner, then, consciousness influences the physical world in
some way. In his more philosophical writings, he goes so far as to accept consciousness as
influencing the physical-chemical state of the brain and of the body in general. He says that
the body influences consciousness and consciousness influences the body (matter over mind
and mind over matter). How it all works, we do not yet know!
That mind and body are influenced by each other is well known in modern medicine,
and we are starting to understand more and more how the body’s state of health and our
resistance to all sorts of diseases may depend on our state of mind, our mood. How this
link between psyche and soma works is still an open question in medicine, however.
THE ROLE OF CONSCIOUSNESS IN PHYSICS. Many of the young pioneers of physics were
enthusiastically engaged in questions related to philosophy and the outlook on life. They
often wondered at existential problems such as the nature of knowledge, what a reality is,
the place of consciousness in the cosmos, what life is, human consciousness, etc. Some have
followed in von Neumann’s footsteps and linked consciousness with quantum physics. Here
we shall only give a few examples and sketch their most central ideas. For the rest, we refer
the reader to the bibliography.
Human consciousness is allotted a unique role by von Neumann: it is able to influence
the measurement process and the collapse of the wave function. Walter Heitler, author of
a well-known textbook on the interaction between light and matter, accepts a reality that
is created by the observer, but the process erases the boundary between the observed and
the one who observes. Fritz London, known for his work with the quantum behavior of
fluids, and Edmond Bauer continue von Neumann’s discourse on the wave function’s col-
lapsing when it reaches the consciousness of the observer. Their work is clearer than their
42 Part I. Consciousness

predecessor’s with regard to the special role of consciousness. Eugene Wigner, whom we
have dealt with previously, thinks that quantum mechanics must be supplemented to include
living matter and conscious beings. But consciousness can be linked to matter and vice
versa. He is the first physicist to discuss the link between body and mind, the so-called
mind-body problem, in plain language. L. Bass, of the University of Queensland, Australia,
has recently (1975) proposed a model for the link between a single quantum event (on the
molecular level) and a macro event (stimulation of a neuron), i.e., a concrete mind-body
model. Evan Harris Walker (1970) has developed a quantum theory for certain processes
occurring in the brain in an effort to model the interaction between consciousness and
brain. Helmut Schmidt has recently (1982) presented a theoretical model for the psychoki-
netic (PK) effect, in which he combines the wave function collapse à la Wigner with a model
of mental effect on the outcome of a quantum jump. The model can be used to explain the
outcome of certain PK experiments.
As we see, the question of the place of consciousness in quantum physics has stimulated
a great deal of work, even if the majority of today’s physicists are not clear about this. What
is missing, of course, are good experiments, something that has repeatedly been pointed
out by Wigner among others. In any event, quantum mechanics has emphasized the great
and central significance of the observer and his consciousness for our perception of the
physical world. It does in fact appear to be the case that the consciousness or volition of
the human being is in some way a primary actor in the determination and concretization
of the actual properties of matter and objects. We are in this sense creators of realities!
THE EVERETT-WHEELER INTERPRETATION : MANY WORLDS. There are many suggestions
for solving the quantum-mechanical measurement problem; some of these we have touched
on earlier in this essay. One of the most bizarre goes by the cryptic name of the relative-
state interpretation, or the imagination-stimulating designation the multiverse interpretation.
As consciousness does not play a central role in this picture, we shall content ourselves
with a brief description.
The multiverse interpretation was invented in 1957 by Hugh Everett, at the time a stu-
dent of John Wheeler’s at Princeton University. Since Neill Graham has also contributed
to the understanding of this interpretation, the whole thing has been abbreviated as the
EWG interpretation. According to the EWG theory, it all starts the same way as before, with
our particle prepared to find itself in its ambivalent state. Upon measurement, no collapse
of the wave function occurs, but the entire universe is split into two almost identical variants.
In one universe, the particle has one property —for example, spin up — while in the other,
the spin is down. Otherwise, they are identical. One can show that the two universes are
not in a causal connection with each other. My “I” here and my “I” there cannot commu-
nicate. For every new quantum measurement or transition, we are split up more and more.
The EWG interpretation is mathematically very satisfactory; it solves the measurement
problem in an elegant manner, but it is hard to see how one can check it with a laboratory
experiment. Quantum cosmologists, however, like it!

Bohm’s Interpretation: Hidden Variables

Earlier in the essay, we saw how Einstein time and again dug in his heels against the
ideas of the young quantum physicists. It was the uncertainties, the complementarities, the
observer’s role in the creation of physical reality, and, most of all, the wave function collapse.
His resistance to all this, paired with his own ideas of an ordered, law-bound world, has
 Physics and Consciousness (Tellefsen) 43

generated a series of different schools of thought that are hard for the layperson to grasp.
Since consciousness plays a much smaller role here as well, we shall content ourselves with
a brief sketch.
One of the fundamental ideas is that the world, and with that, the observed realities,
presents an unbroken whole. In spite of the apparent divisions and limits we see everywhere
in both macrocosmos and microcosmos, in reality, the world is without seams and separated
parts. This is Fritjof Capra’s central idea in The Tao of Physics. During a measurement, the
observer is joined to what he is observing. David Bohm, at Birkbeck College, University of
London,2 has especially stressed the importance of the world of quantum physics as char-
acterized by an undivided whole, and everything being connected to everything else.
Another idea, of which Einstein is the foremost representative, is what is called neo-
realism, which maintains that the world is made of ordinary objects, i.e., their existence
does not depend on any measurement at all and their properties are objective. This does
not fare well vis-à-vis Heisenberg, who says, “Atoms are not things,” and Bohr, who states,
“There is no quantum world. There is only an abstract quantum physical description.”
Many of the neo-realists, Einstein included, were among the first quantum pioneers—for
example, Max Planck, Schrödinger, Louis de Broglie, and more. Later, Bohm became one
of the most influential. The neo-realists’ number one enemy these days is John von Neu-
mann with his quantum bible. In this book he attacks the neo-realist claim that under all
quantum data the usual ordinary reality lies buried. With mathematical stringency he is
able to show that this does not accord with quantum theory. From von Neumann’s proof,
as it is now called, one can draw the conclusion that no deep, buried, or hidden reality
exists. The hidden properties, or hidden variables, do not exist, says von Neumann. For
thirty years, therefore, there was silence on the matter.
In any event, in 1952, Bohm was able to construct a realistic electron theory that also
agreed with quantum theory. To do this, he had to invent a new phenomenon, the so-called
pilot wave, which would affect the electron and lead its movements. (A similar type of lead-
ing wave also exists in de Broglie’s idea from the 1920s.) He has also introduced the concept
of quantum potential, which is supposed to link classical mechanics and quantum mechan-
ics, and in this context, he developed several new theories for the hidden variables. This
most recent development should be seen as an effort to map processes and structures in
our nature that are and remain subquantal, but even so, mirror a real and deep reality.
Then, in 1964, John Bell,3 a theoretician at CERN, Geneva, came with his theorem,
which proclaims that in order to accord fully with the statements of quantum mechanics,
the hidden properties must be nonlocal; i.e., invisible global realities exist in actuality. This
appears to conflict with ordinary common sense — but, as we saw earlier, many performed
experiments appear to confirm the correctness of the theorem.

Holographic Models
Nobel laureate Dennis Gabor invented the holographic principle in 1947, a fantastic
opportunity for three-dimensional photography. Five years after the invention of the laser
(1960), the optical scientists Emmett Leith and Juris Upatnieks were able to demonstrate for
the first time a practical method for constructing a proper hologram. From this fundamental
physical-technical principle has come a great wave of streams of thought, all of which, in
somewhat different ways, endeavor to show through analogies that parts of or all of nature,
i.e., both the material part and the living organisms, are in some way part of a totality.
44 Part I. Consciousness

That nature exhibits holistic traits has existed for a very long time in Eastern philosophy
and in mysticism. Similar thoughts have also been advanced by philosophers like Henri
Bergson and Alfred North Whitehead, a poet like T. S. Eliot, and scientists like James Jeans
and Arthur Eddington, and many others. Two radical ideas in this context show up in the
1960s and 1970s in the wake of holography. One is that the entire universe, including the
living parts of it, could be imagined as being organized according to holographic principles
(David Bohm 1971). The other thought is that the various activities of the brain might pos-
sibly be explained if it is regarded as a multidimensional hologram (Karl Pribram 1969).
Myriads of organizations, philosophies, cults and sects have sprung forth from these ideas.
They have had a powerful impact, making themselves felt even in such diverse fields as edu-
cation, health care, medicine, and psychology.
Bohm’s work has its origin in his earlier work with the quantum potential and hidden
variables. This earlier work led to the idea that all apparently separate and discrete physical
objects and events are in reality interconnected and united on a deeper, underlying level.
In his book Wholeness and the Implicate Order (1980), he gives an account of these trains
of thought. In his own terminology, existence and all existing objects and phenomena can
be described as belonging to two planes, by their nature completely separate and different,
called the implicate order and the explicate order. The former — also termed the enfolded
order— is deeper and more fundamental than the latter — the unfolded order.
Our everyday world of separate objects and experiences, then, is as we would expect
in the world of visible or manifest order. In this world, as is well known, we sort our infor-
mation in terms like location and time and similar concepts. In the world of implicate
order, Bohm says, all information exists as an invisible and abstract, but still meaningful,
pattern, an unbroken and primary wholeness without spatial and temporal limitations.
This implicate wholeness is at the same time accessible to all parts of the manifested world.
In other words, according to this description, one can clearly regard the whole of the physical
universe as a super-gigantic hologram, in which every part exists in the whole and the whole
exists in every part. Here, on this plane, all information is sorted in terms like frequencies
and amplitudes. This analysis, which may seem incomprehensible and theoretical to non-
scientists, is nonetheless well known in fields like systems analysis and communication the-
ory, for instance. We even recognize it from what we see when we closely examine the
ordinary test images and test patterns that are seen from time to time on the television
screen. These black and white images consist of a series of geometric figures with varying
local frequencies, as they are called. With such images, the quality of the television channel
can be checked.
According to Pribram’s model, the human brain and our consciousness have the ability
to mathematically transform or convert this information about frequency and amplitude
into the more normal representations of space and time with which we are familiar. In tech-
nical terminology, this is called the Fourier transform. According to Pribram, the reason
consciousness is able to perform this complex transformation process lies in the fact that
the brain appears to function more like a hologram than like a serially working computer.
This applies to human memory as well.
He has described these ideas in detail in his now classic book, Languages of the Brain
(1971), and in later works. Karl Pribram is a brain scientist and neurosurgeon, and since
1958 has worked at Stanford University in California. In summary, the holographic model
says that “the brain is a hologram that reads and interprets a holographic universe.” The
interested reader is referred to Ken Wilber’s book The Holographic Paradigm and Other
 Physics and Consciousness (Tellefsen) 45

Paradoxes (1982). (See the Selected Readings.) Both Bohm’s and Pribram’s ideas are very
fascinating and creative but are still counted highly speculative and controversial, and are
not generally accepted.

Jahn’s Quantum Consciousness Model

Robert G. Jahn, dean of the Princeton University School of Engineering and Applied
Science, established a research laboratory (PEAR) in 1979 for the purpose of studying what
are called engineering anomalies, i.e., systems and phenomena that arise in familiar
technical-physical contexts but which clearly deviate in their basic features from so-called
normal behavior (Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) Laboratory4 at the
School of Engineering/Applied Science, Princeton University, New Jersey, U.S.). Systems
that have been studied from this point of view include very sensitive optical, mechanical,
and electronic apparatuses (e.g., optical interferometer, mechanical cascade, electronic ran-
dom number generator, etc.), which are based on some kind of random physical process
and which, under the influence of an operator or observer, exhibit what is called low-level
psychokinesis (PK). Phenomena of a different nature that have also been studied in the
PEAR Laboratory are what is called precognitive remote perception, in which various time
displacements have been observed. Researchers at the PEAR Laboratory are in the process
of collecting their results along with their various requirements into an analyzable data
base, which in turn will form the basis for different theoretical models of the interaction
between human consciousness and its external environment. Above all, they are interested
here in understanding the above-mentioned anomalous phenomena. One could say that
the work of Jahn and his colleagues represents a tentative answer to Eugene Wigner’s famous
plea (1967) for a search for phenomena in which the effect of consciousness on the physical
world can be observed using modern experimental techniques (“and, thereby, discovering
phenomena in which consciousness modifies the usual laws of physics”).
The point of departure for the PEAR group’s mathematical and physical modeling of
the properties of consciousness is that all experience-based realities are formed only through
the exchange of information between consciousness on the one hand and its outlying envi-
ronment on the other. Furthermore, the flow of information is presumed to be able to go
both ways.
The analysis proceeds by means of concepts and formalisms taken from elementary
wave mechanics (Schrödinger’s variation on Heisenberg’s quantum mechanics), which was
originally developed to explain anomalous physical phenomena and occurrences. Through
metaphors and analogies, a similar theory, which is to be able to represent the interaction
of consciousness with its environment, is now being formed. We will not go further with
our description of the model, but will merely indicate that many of the generic principles
of quantum mechanics so well known in physics, along with many of the specific applications
one tends to count on, exhibit a strong and striking metaphoric relevance for a number of
normal as well as anomalous processes of consciousness.

Conclusion
In this essay, we have looked at a lot of ideas drawn from certain subfields of modern
physics in which the mind, i.e., the consciousness, of the observer seems to be a piece of
the action. We have concerned ourselves mainly with the philosophical features of quantum
46 Part I. Consciousness

mechanics, surrounded by interpretations and hypotheses. We have seen numerous and

substantial pieces of evidence that physics by no means deals only with “hard facts,” i.e.,
matter and radiation; it has also been grappling with difficult existential questions such as
what we mean by reality and whether the human being is able to create, with his or her con-
sciousness, an external reality that can then be observed by other people as well.
It was something like this that Edgar Mitchell, former astronaut, had in mind at a con-
ference in New York in 1977, when he stated:
The seriousness of this question lies in its significance for our system of thought with regard to the
nature of the human being, the universe, and our reality. Despite the relative rarity of these events
[Mitchell is speaking here of certain paranormal experiences he had experienced], we have to ask
the following question: Might it be the case that we, each and every one of us, every day with our
thoughts are influencing our surroundings, our reality, and our universe without our being con-
scious of it?

In his article “The Universe as Home for Man” (1974), John Wheeler identifies three
specific areas that we must focus our attention on:
Three mysteries we have passed in review that call out for clarification: the quantum, the universe,
and the mind. All three lie at that point where, in the phrase of Fred Hoyle, ‘mind and matter
meld.’ All three threaten that clean separation between the observer and the observed which for so
long seemed the essence of science. Consciousness can analyze the world around; but when will
consciousness understand consciousness? [Wheeler, p. 691].

Earlier in the same article we find the now so well-known quotation

We have to cross out that old word “observer” and replace it by the new word “participator.” In
some strange sense the quantum principle tells us that we are dealing with a participatory universe
[Wheeler, p. 689].

In his highly regarded book Mind and Matter (1958), the quantum physicist Erwin
Schrödinger writes the following:
Subject and object are only one. The barrier between them cannot be said to have been broken
down as a result of recent experiences in the physical sciences, for this barrier does not exist
[Schrödinger, p. 137].

Many inspiring threads start out from modern physics and cross to other branches of
science. Physics is but one of many puzzle pieces for understanding ourselves and the world
in which we find ourselves, a world filled with different forms of life as well as forms of
matter. In the midst of all of it stands the human being with all our many riddles: How do
we create thoughts, dreams, feelings, and ideas with our brains? How is consciousness cre-
ated, how is my “self ” formed, and where does my “soul” come from? Schrödinger himself
says that “the search for the answer to these questions is not one of the tasks of scientific
research, it is The Task itself.”
The biologist Stefan Edman, in his book Jordens Sång [Earth’s Song] (1984), vividly
describes how different branches of research are now engaged in this task. Each specialist
climbs his own slope in the terrain. The biochemist and the brain physiologist join in
scaling their peak. On another mountain we find the psychologist and the psychiatrist. Fur-
ther off, the theologian and the philosopher gaze out from their platform. Somewhere in
the terrain we also find the physicist and the cosmologist:
All are looking at the same fascinating landscape, but from different angles and in shifting light.
They are constantly attaining new outlook points, and with their different languages they are try-
ing to describe what they see.
 Physics and Consciousness (Tellefsen) 47

Conversation between experts inspires new ideas. There are many good examples of
this. One is the relationship between Schrödinger and the famous biologist and biophysicist
Francis Crick, who discovered the DNA model of the double helix with James Watson. Both
were working at Cambridge University in England. Crick was trained as a physicist, but
changed fields after reading Schrödinger’s What Is Life? By this means, quantum physics
was linked with modern genetics.
There are also many threads between physics and psychology. The famous analyst Carl
G. Jung, for example, credits some of his ideas about the relativity of the psyche to his con-
versations with Einstein in Zurich. Later, he collaborated with the atomic physicist Wolfgang
Pauli on a thesis of synchronicity, i.e., the deeper connection existing between certain appar-
ently unrelated events. David Bohm conversed repeated times with the Indian philosopher
Jiddu Krishnamurti; the theme was often of a psychological nature and touched on such
topics as consciousness, thoughts, life, etc.
The quantum physicist Eugene Wigner has never tired of pointing out the road that,
as he sees it, physics must take in the future. He focuses particularly on certain phenomena
that in his opinion cannot be described using current concepts of physics but which he
would very much like to see dealt with. At the top of his wish list we find, as expected, the
question of life and consciousness. This essay has dealt in various ways with the half of
Wigner’s dream of the future that has to do with consciousness. We have not taken a position
on his detailed proposal for a solution. However, we thank him — and many others with
him —for the fact that the question is being asked!

Notes
1. Wheeler was the director of the Center for Theoretical Physics at the University of Texas in Austin from 1976
to 1986. Wheeler passed away in the year 2008.
2. Professor David J. Bohm passed away in 1992.
3. John Bell passed away in 1990.
4. PEAR Laboratory was officially closed in the year 2007.

References
Bohm, David. Wholeness and the Implicate Order. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980. Contains
nearly all of Bohm’s most central philosophical ideas.
Bohr, Niels. Atomic Physics and Human Knowledge. New York: Wiley, 1958.
Capra, Fritjof. The Tao of Physics. Berkeley: Shambhala, 1975. The first of a wave of books endeavoring
to link modern particle physics with Eastern philosophy, mysticism, and religion.
Davies, Paul. God and the New Physics. London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1983. Has interesting chapters about
life, consciousness, mind and soul, the self, the quantum, free will, etc.
_____. Other Worlds. London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1980. One of the best books translated into Swedish
on quantum physics’ picture of the world.
d’Espagnat, Bernard. “The Quantum Theory and Reality.” Scientific American 241, no. 11 (November
1979): 158 –181. A good, clear description of the EPR paradox, written before A. Aspect had completed
his famous measurements in Paris.
DeWitt, Bryce S. “Quantum Mechanics and Reality.” Physics Today 23, no. 9 (September 1970): 30 –35.
This article gives the first description of the Everett-Wheeler-Graham (EWG) interpretation of quan-
tum mechanics, the so-called multiverse interpretation. DeWitt is one of the foremost champions of
this theory.
Edman, Stefan. Jordens Sång [Earth’s Song]. Stockholm: Verbum, 1984. Among other things, has a chapter
on the brain, memory, and consciousness.
Herbert, Nick. Quantum Reality: Beyond the New Physics. London: Rider, 1985. The author discusses
the quantum mechanical models of interpretation, proceeding from Bell’s Theorem and nonlocality
in quantum systems.
48 Part I. Consciousness

Jahn, Robert G., ed. The Role of Consciousness in the Physical World, AAAS Selected Symposium, vol.
57. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1981. Contains contributions from Robert G. Jahn, Eugene P. Wigner,
and John A. Wheeler, among others.
Josephson, Brian D., and V. S. Ramachandran, eds. Consciousness and the Physical World Oxford: Perg-
amon Press, 1980. Edited lectures from a symposium on consciousness at Cambridge University in
January 1978. Participants were R. L. Gregory, H. C. Longuet-Higgins, N. K. Humphrey, and others.
Leggett, A. J. “Schrödinger’s Cat and Her Laboratory Cousins.” Contemporary Physics 25, no. 6 (1984):
583 –598. Here, Leggett discusses both practical and philosophical problems in implementing macro-
scopic quantum experiments with superconducting systems.
Schrödinger, Erwin. What Is Life? & Mind and Matter. UK: Cambridge University Press, 1967. The
famous quantum physicist’s celebrated book about the physical basis of life. Discusses the metaphysical
content of consciousness. This volume is a reprint of the two previously published books.
Snellman, Håkan. “Gud och den Nya Fysiken” [God and the New Physics]. Gnosis l (1984): 29 –35. A
thought-provoking review of books by Capra, Zukav, G. Edman, and Davies.
_____. “Medvetandet och den Naturvetenskapliga Världsbilden” [Consciousness and the Scientific Con-
cept of the World]. In Medvetandet och Döden [Consciousness and Death] edited by J. Pilotti and K.
Wistrand. Stockholm: Natur och Kultur, 1982. Describes the various concepts we have of the world
that are based on classical physics and modern physics.
Wheeler, John A. “The Universe as Home for Man.” American Scientist 62 (November–December 1974):
683 –691.
Wigner, Eugene P. Symmetries and Reflections. London: Indiana University Press, 1967. Contains Wigner’s
view of a direct influence between body and consciousness. A classic book by a very distinguished
physicist. The famous paradox, “Wigner’s friend” is also introduced here.
Wilber, Ken, ed. The Holographic Paradigm and Other Paradoxes. Boulder, CO: Shambhala, 1982. Con-
tains conversations with and articles about Karl Pribram, David Bohm, Fritjof Capra, and more.
_____, ed. Quantum Questions: Mystical Writings of the World’s Great Physicists. Boulder, CO: Shambhala,
1984. Contains contributions from such leading physicists as Heisenberg, Schrödinger, Einstein, de
Broglie, Jeans, Planck, Pauli, and Eddington.
Wolf, Fred Alan. Taking the Quantum Leap. New York: Harper and Row, 1981. A pleasant, popular
description of modern quantum physics and its roots in classical physics. Also deals with free will
and consciousness.
Zukav, Gary. The Dancing Wu Li Masters. London: Fontana, 1979. The book, which is a counterpart to
Capra’s Tao of Physics, is primarily about the new physics. Written by a non-physicist (a psychologist),
the book is pleasant and worth reading, if not always completely correct in certain details.
 Consciousness and Consequences:
The Physical Nature of Mind
JAMES E. BEICHLER

Science investigates phenomena that are either experienced or observed by people. Yet
some special classes of phenomena are generally considered outside of the realm of science
if not just plain unscientific, i.e., unworthy of scientific investigation by most scientists.
Science has generally dismissed or ignored any phenomena directly associated with mind
or consciousness, which amounts to a scientific bias against these concepts. Even psychology,
the science of mind, neither directly studies nor even speculates on the ultimate nature of
mind and consciousness, but hides behind behaviorism. But nature has had her way in
spite of the best intentions and efforts of science to the contrary: New research and recent
discoveries point directly to the conclusion that science has reached a point in its normal
advancement beyond which it cannot pass until it distinguishes between matter and the
consciousness that is perceiving and interpreting matter, thus necessitating the first ever
theories of both consciousness and matter. The devil, some might say, is in the consequences
of this new direction for science.

Introduction
Consciousness first became legitimate fodder for scientific investigation in the final
decades of the nineteenth century as a result of the successes of Newtonian science. The
separation of the realms of MIND (religion) and MATTER (science) as defined by René
Descartes and instituted by Isaac Newton in the seventeenth century were rapidly shifting
in favor of the scientific investigation of mind, if not beginning to dissolve altogether. The
breaking point was reached with the theories of evolution, electromagnetism and thermo-
dynamics, all successes of Newtonianism. The theory of evolution suggested that mind and
consciousness could evolve even further according to simple logical processes, electromag-
netism that humans could cast information in the form of unseen electromagnetic signals
across space and thermodynamics that any energy that existed would live forever. However,
science went too far in its initial speculations on the ultimate nature of mind and con-
sciousness as well as matter in the final decades of the nineteenth century. A positivistic
backlash developed and the new science of psychology lost consciousness in 1913 by vol-

49
50 Part I. Consciousness

untarily limiting its domain of study to behaviorism alone. Psychologists are still taught to
avoid any and all speculation on the underlying mechanisms of behavior, in other words
mind and consciousness.
However, both physics and science in general have recently found it difficult, if not
impossible, to progress past their present states of development without reference to con-
sciousness. Consequently, a new interest in the theoretical structure of consciousness
emerged quite naturally during the closing decades of the twentieth century and the newest
round of consciousness studies has been conducted as a multidisciplinary affair. Conscious-
ness affects and influences all forms of human endeavor, but it is ultimately to physics that
a theoretical model of consciousness must look because physics deals directly with reality
as perceived and interpreted by human consciousness. In fact, a complete and comprehen-
sive theory of the nature of matter, the logical goal of all physics as well as the most fun-
damental principle of our commonly perceived reality, is not possible without a
corresponding understanding of the consciousness that takes into account and interprets
human sensations and perceptions of the material world.
Many scientists and scholars, especially psychologists, still believe that consciousness
is a purely mental phenomenon in that it is completely nonmaterial and nonphysical. They
simply do not believe that a physical theory of mind or consciousness is feasible or even
desirable, but their argument that neither physics nor any natural science can explain mind
and consciousness is basically flawed: they do not distinguish between the material and
physical aspects of either mind or consciousness and many times seem to use the two ideas
of “material” and “physical” interchangeably. Yet these two aspects of reality are essentially
and fundamentally different. Everything that is material is physical, but not everything
physical is material. Electric, magnetic and gravitational fields are physical but not material
and no one denies their reality. So consciousness could still be physical, i.e., a physical field
structure, and remain nonmaterial, fulfilling the demands of scientists and scholars who
claim that mind and consciousness are nonmaterial while allowing natural scientists such
as physicists to develop a physical theory of consciousness.
Some scientists may already suspect this fact at some low subconscious level in their
minds, but reject it because any physical theory of consciousness would imply the reality
of some forms of paranormal phenomena as well as the possibility that consciousness could
survive death of the material body. The unintended consequences of a physical theory of
consciousness may be more than science has been or is presently willing to accept. Yet it
still remains that a scientific understanding and knowledge of matter (even in normal
physics) necessitates a scientific understanding of consciousness (the new emerging physics)
and nature is forcing science to accept this fact. So a physical theory of consciousness, no
matter how abhorrent the prospect might be to some scientists and scholars, has now
become a scientific necessity.
How consciousness relates to physical reality in general and how it interacts with the
material body and brain in particular leads to two different approaches to the consciousness
problem. In the macro view, the model of consciousness starts by first considering simple
chemistry and then progressing to a stable self-contained, self-motivating and self-
replicating complex of chemical equilibrium reactions that form the material basis for that
“something extra” that constitutes life. Only after life is explained can the model progress
to consider the evolution of the brain and mind before progressing toward the emergence
of consciousness. In the micro view, a model of the physical mechanism for storing and
retrieving memories is explained, leading to an explanation of what constitutes conscious
 Consciousness and Consequences (Beichler) 51

thought or a stream of thought in the brain and thus explaining how consciousness interacts
with the material brain and body. Only then can both of these approaches be coordinated
into a single mutually interacting theoretical structure that can and will eventually be used
to explain all of the various aspects of human consciousness.

The Macro Model

The macro or cosmological/evolutionary model of consciousness is based on the “single
(operational) field theory” or SOFT, a purely physical theory of reality. SOFT is based upon
the existence of a four-dimensional space or rather the extra dimension in the five-
dimensional model of space-time is more space-like than time-like. Our commonly per-
ceived three-dimensional space is a slice or “sheet” through the greater macroscopically
extended four-dimensional space. An extrinsic curvature of the three-dimensional sheet in
the fourth direction accounts for all forms of matter. Common electric, magnetic and grav-
itational fields originate from and are thus separate structures within the single field that
occupies four-dimensional space and varies over time to form five-dimensional space-time.
Ordinary matter is described by the Riemannian “metric” of space while elementary particles
would amount to specific variations (bumps, peaks and ripples) in the metric at the sub-
microscopic or quantum level of reality, so this structure is completely compatible with
present physics as formulated in general relativity and the quantum theory.
It is simpler to view matter and material bodies as well as the common electric, mag-
netic and gravitational forces existing only within the sheet. The sheet, in turn, constitutes
all of three-dimensional space. So, normal chemical reactions occur within the sheet as
does all of “normal” physics. In physics, chemical reactions are represented by energy
exchanges between the elementary particles from which atoms and molecules (individual
bumps and peaks in the sheet as represented by the metric) are composed. The energy
changes come from the sharing and exchange of electrons between atoms in molecules,
which are thus changing positions and velocities. The bumps and peaks that represent elec-
trons, atoms and molecules rise and fall in the fourth direction of space as they (the particles,
atoms or molecules) gain or lose energy, respectively, during chemical interactions. Since
the sheet in which the bumps, peaks and wrinkles (particles, atoms and molecules to us in
three-dimensions) occur is continuous, all the material actions and reactions that constitute
reality share a common connection together across the higher dimension of space which
forms the substructure of physical reality.
Life is something extra within that substructure that is not evident in other forms of
non-living matter — a special stable pattern of connectedness or entanglement that includes
the continuity between the bumps, peaks and wrinkles. The mutual connection between
all material particles via the continuity of the five-dimensional single field is the ultimate
source of the quantum entanglement that connects all “things” whether living or non-living.
That “something extra” beyond the material-based biochemical interactions that are nor-
mally equated with living processes as explained by quantum theory can be far more accu-
rately and truly modeled as a stable self-perpetuating and continuous single field density
variation pattern in the higher fourth dimension of space that corresponds to the material
biochemical interactions of living organisms within the three-dimensional sheet.
In simpler terms, a basic chemical equilibrium reaction forms a recognizable internally
varying but overall stable “wrinkle” in the three-dimensional sheet of common space as
time passes. In the next level of complication, different equilibrium reactions come together
52 Part I. Consciousness

by feeding energies to each other in such a way that they establish a stable interaction group
that could be pictured as a complex stable self-contained pattern of “wrinkling” and “rip-
pling” in the sheet as time passes: they literally feed off of each other and are thus mutually
sustaining. A living organism is commonly defined by this type of a biochemical interaction.
The stable self-perpetuating pattern is the something extra that is the physical source of
life. This means that each chemical reaction within a living organism supplements and
complements all of the other reactions, such that, each reaction feeds and/or contributes
to the remaining common chemical mixture yielding a stable self-sustaining chemical com-
plexity or interaction “state” at any given moment in time that is entangled with other such
states in the past and future of the organism. This complex life pattern would appear phys-
ically as a four-dimensional hologram with internal single field density variations within
the four-dimensional embedding space; it would thus be a holomovement displaying inter-
nal variations as the basic hologram (four-dimensional complexity pattern) moved through
time.
After the life pattern or biofield structure emerges, it acts as an organizational principle
for the entangled chemical reactions from which it emerged. The life pattern further organ-
izes and controls the organism’s internal chemical reactions to improve the normal func-
tioning of the living organism (seeks the lowest internal energy states which are the most
stable) and thus enhances further evolution, forming a two-way dependence between the
life pattern and the biochemical interactions which characterize the living material body.
New internal chemical reactions become necessary to sustain ordinary survival within the
context of the changing external material environment, but only those chemical reactions
that are compatible with, help sustain, or enhance the form and function of the complexity
survive. As the number and variety of organism/environmental interactions increases, the
internal structure of the organism becomes increasingly more complicated in both form
and function.
Eventually, the organism begins to differentiate its internal functions as it grows more
complicated through the development of specialized functional organs. There are two types
of complexity patterns within living organisms: the actual chemical processes (functional
patterns) and the various structures (form patterns) that support life. More complete pat-
terns within patterns within patterns evolve, which become various organs as internal dif-
ferentiation begins. At this point, some organisms diverge from other organisms due to the
various differences in external environments and influences. Even as this divergence of
species occurs, the internal structure of the different organisms becomes so complicated
due to the continuing development of functional organs that they must develop a new spe-
cialized organ and accompanying system (the brain and nervous system) solely for con-
trolling and regulating interactions among the various internal organs and processes.
The specialized organ that controls and regulates the system of internal organs and
various processes in this manner is commonly called the brain. The brain has a strictly
three-dimensional material existence. Yet coinciding with the emergence of the brain, an
even more complex electromagnetic pattern is imprinted over the whole life pattern. The
electric portion of this secondary electromagnetic pattern or complexity is commonly
referred to as mind. It is, in fact, an electromagnetic scalar potential (quantum level varying
voltage) pattern. Mind corresponds to the whole organism or body, but acts primarily
through the brain where the most complex and detailed electrical functions occur. While
the mind pattern is more amorphous and uncomplicated when it first emerges, it is primed
to evolve further by collecting, storing and interpreting memories. New memories tend to
 Consciousness and Consequences (Beichler) 53

reorganize the underlying mind pattern and thereby the corresponding matter/energy struc-
ture within the brain for greater (energy) efficiency, or in physical terminology memories
organize the pattern to occupy (or utilize) the lowest possible energy state. The continuing
storage of memories begins to give mind a more consistent and organized structure as its
internal organization becomes more ordered.
Upon its emergence, the electrical potential pattern of mind becomes the overall organ-
izing principle for life and the material body, acting electrochemically through the material
three-dimensional brain. Mind is not localized in the brain but ordinarily regulates the
body through the brain and its interconnected nervous system. The brain continues to
evolve under the organizational principles of the mind as further contacts with the physical
environment continue and stored memories begin to build and form new higher-level struc-
tures. The five normal senses work wholly within the three-dimensional external environ-
ment to input data through the body to the brain, thus influencing the further evolution
of mind. The collection and organization of memories into various simple groups and sub-
groups of magnetic potential patterns eventually forces the mind to comprehend the fact
that physical objects outside of the local range of its five senses continue to exist even when
they are not directly sensed. In other words, the mind eventually begins to cognize or
become aware of the nonlocal nature of its external spatial environment. Mind then differ-
entiates between its own local physical existence and the complete physical reality that is
the sum of material components within its nonlocal physical environment. This realization
or cognition constitutes a major substantial step toward the emergence of human or human-
like consciousness.
In the most recent phase of human evolution that distinguishes us as Homo sapiens,
but only as completed and experienced so far, the mind has begun to comprehend, or rather
become aware of, the flow of time itself. In a sense, the memory patterns stored in the mind
as magnetic potential patterns coalesce to form a new higher level (super) complexity
pattern involving all of the memory patterns and patterns within patterns in a natural hier-
archical structure that changes over time. In other words, the memories stored in mind at
this juncture, which led to an awareness of both spatial and temporal nonlocality, precip-
itated the formation of a new and far more subtle four-dimensional electromagnetic vector
(magnetic) potential pattern within the mind pattern. When mind realizes and subsequently
cognizes the nonlocality of both space and time in this manner, a new higher-level com-
plexity of memories that we call human consciousness emerges.
Since a vector has (or must have if it is physically real) extension in space and the elec-
tromagnetic vector potential is not extended in three-dimensional space, it would actually
constitute a purely magnetic potential whose extension is in the fourth direction of space.
Consciousness is a complex variable pattern of magnetic potentials whose variations exist
at the quantum level of reality or smaller and is extended in the fourth dimension of space.
This complex magnetic potential pattern would appear as a macroscopically sized four-
dimensional magnetic hologram whose individual magnetic potential elements are con-
stantly varying over time at the quantum level or smaller as new information is fed into
the brain and hence to mind as new memories when new associations (patterns within pat-
terns) develop between individual memory patterns. The mind and consciousness together
form a complex and extremely stable electromagnetic potential pattern that overlays the
metrical pattern of matter and energy that is life. Humans (and other living beings) view,
interpret and interact with the three-dimensional material world around them through
these complex memory patterns and associations.
54 Part I. Consciousness

Figure 1. The basic structure of evolution.

In other words consciousness corresponds to a living organism’s development of knowl-

edge of its unique place within a greater universe which has a history (past) as well as a
future. When it evolves to this point, an organism develops the ability to distinguish between
its “self ” and the rest of the universe at large as local and nonlocal portions of its complete
physical environment, respectively. It is commonly believed and accepted that recognition
of one’s self is a fundamental property of human-level consciousness and this model sup-
ports that belief. Consciousness evolves or emerges within mind, but consciousness then
acts to organize mind from its superior position of external interactions in the five-
dimensional single field. Consciousness normally acts through mind to brain and body, but
like both life and mind, consciousness actually extends throughout the whole body of an
organism. Life, mind and consciousness fill every mathematical point within the three-
dimensional volume of space occupied by the living organism, including the space between
the elementary particles, atoms and molecules that constitute the biochemical processes by
which science distinguishes living organisms because life, mind and consciousness are con-
tinuous field patterns.
This model of consciousness has emerged naturally and logically from the physics of
the five-dimensional space-time continuum as a further refinement of life or the biofield.
After it emerges, consciousness acts through mind and begins to hardwire the brain and
life in its organizational capacity: it alters the DNA of individuals for inheritance by future
generations of the species. Individuals in future generations of a sentient species are thus
born with a framework or basic template for consciousness, but fill in the details of each
individual’s personal consciousness as that individual grows older and learns (grows wiser).
Evolution can be characterized by four tiers or levels corresponding to primary stages of
evolutionary development according to this model.
Ordinary chemical reactions evolve to form life and then the life pattern further organ-
izes the internal chemistry to enhance form and function causing evolution in reaction to
a hostile external environment. Mind then evolves after which further organizes life and
the internal structure and chemistry of the living organism. Consciousness emerges and
further refines mind and mind’s organization of life and the organism.
The development of science or some similar form of a mental structure for ordering
 Consciousness and Consequences (Beichler) 55

and understanding a sentient organism’s knowledge of its external environment is a natural

function of the evolutionary process. Science naturally emerges as consciousness continues
to internally organize the memories in mind and thus “its self ” in strict coordination with
its environment. This evolutionary model further implies that human evolution is a con-
tinuing process and perhaps the next step is the realization or the cognition of the higher
fourth dimension of space and the development of a “sixth sense” to operate within the
higher dimension, if it has not already evolved.

Preliminary Consequences
All living organisms are governed by the same natural laws, as are all dynamical actions
and interactions in the material universe. Therefore, all living beings have at least a pre-
emergent mind and consciousness. As soon as life emerges from the primordial ooze, or
however it first appeared, life has the potential to fully develop mind and consciousness, if
not more, through further evolution. Life, mind and consciousness all go together as a
single complete package from the very first moment that life emerges, even if mind and
consciousness have not yet evolved to the human level of complexity or beyond. Even plant-
life, which has failed to evolve a brain and thus has no animal-like mind, must still have
some ordered form of mind and consciousness, according to the same physics, because the
biochemical interactions that define plant-life also establish ordered patterns of scalar (elec-
tric) and vector (magnetic) potential in the single field. So it is safe to conclude that all
living organisms and beings have mind and consciousness of some type, however low a
level that might be and no matter how primitive a life-form they might represent. These
simple facts have serious and far-reaching consequences as well as fundamental implications
for science and physics in so far as they are related to human consciousness, far beyond
their consequences for biology, medicine and evolution alone.
In quantum theory in particular, the long established belief that only consciousness
can “collapse the wave packet” to create material reality should no longer be taken seriously.
The mere fact that the consciousness generally referred to by quantum philosophers and
others is human consciousness alone and no other poses an even greater problem. If all
living organisms have consciousness at some level, even if only in a rudimentary or pre-
emergent stage of development, then life itself is the only prerequisite necessary to collapse
the wave packet and determine material reality. So human consciousness alone is not nec-
essary to create physical reality at the quantum level and elsewhere. This simple fact alone
has the capacity to vastly alter the scientific interpretation and thinking behind a large part
of modern physics. This model further implies that life is naturally emergent, literally a
universal component of nature and property of physical reality, and thus needs not be lim-
ited to the human concept of life on the planet Earth. So life, mind and consciousness, if
not some form of consciousness beyond mere human consciousness, should be common
throughout the universe, given the time and proper physical conditions for life to emerge.
In the academic fields of genetics and theoretical biology that deal with evolution
theory, scientists have been unable to explain how sudden evolutionary jumps or favorable
mutations occur in the human evolutionary record, let alone elsewhere. As an example,
scientists believe that the large human brain that separates Homo sapiens from other pri-
mates, hominids and animals evolved in the not too distant past, geologically speaking.
The large complex human brain seems to have been a beneficial mutation that appeared
suddenly out of nowhere without any reason, cause or known source. However, the sudden
56 Part I. Consciousness

jumps in evolution that occur in this manner are a direct result of the organizational prin-
ciples of life, mind and consciousness as explained in this physical model. As human mind
and consciousness emerged, they reorganized the brain as well as the human genome such
that future generations of humans would be born with the newly evolved mind and con-
sciousness template intact. Radical new beneficial enhancements (mutations) only occur at
these special moments in the evolutionary track of life and mind because the variations are
so physically strong and influential to substantially and radically change the otherwise stable
genetic code in DNA, thus accounting for the extremely rapid development and sudden
appearance of a large human brain and other favorable evolutionary mutations that scientists
have found so puzzling.
And finally, the emergence of a sixth sense that works in the higher spatial dimension
needs to be mentioned again because it is a direct and logical consequence of the evolution
of consciousness. To be more specific, our normal five senses, which operate within three-
dimensional space, evolved to allow living beings a fuller interaction with our normal three-
dimensional material environment. Therefore, it would be reasonable and logical to assume
that a separate sixth sense must also have evolved or is presently evolving to take advantage
of life’s physical interaction with the rest of the universe within the higher fourth dimension
of space. Within the same context, this model of consciousness also implies the possibility
that mind and consciousness can survive death of the material body. Only the mental con-
dition or state (of awareness or completeness) of mind and consciousness after death is in
question, because death need only disrupt the life pattern and not necessarily the mind and
consciousness patterns.
It should now be evident that the physical consequences of this model are numerous,
quite radical and even revolutionary, even though the model is not yet complete. The phys-
ical mechanism that links memories and thoughts, respectively the building blocks and
products of consciousness, to the brain still needs to be identified and explained in the
micro model of consciousness.

The Micro Model

The first task science needs to address is the identification of those elements in the
brain that are related to the storage and retrieval of memories since memory mechanisms
and location are crucial to the concept of consciousness. Science needs to identify the ele-
ments in the brain that correspond to bits of memory so it can build a model of how the
brain works and gives rise to consciousness. This task may seem impossible, but there are
now many clues how memory works and interacts with consciousness. To make an analogy
with modern computers, a vast amount of memory units of information, probably num-
bering in the thousands of gigabytes and more, are sensed and analyzed by the brain during
each and every moment that it is operating. The flow of information to the brain may slow
during nonconscious periods like sleep, but it never ceases during life. So there must be far
more memory bits stored in a mind at any given time than there are atoms in the brain or
body. Therefore, it would be safe to assume that memory cannot be electronically stored
bit-by-bit in either the mind or brain as in a computer, although memories could be stored
as a complex pattern of information bits using some form of naturally occurring data com-
pression algorithm — a mathematically defined pattern. Memory requires patterns of infor-
mation rather than just collected bits of data. Settling that issue only begs the question,
where might this pattern be stored and how does it interact with the material brain? Also,
 Consciousness and Consequences (Beichler) 57

Figure 2. The microtubule as an induction coil.

there must be some type of a connection or link between the micro and macro models of
consciousness. The two models must merge together to form a single model of consciousness
at some level. In this respect, the only answer would be a holographic model that corresponds
to four-dimensional single field patterns, as already specified in the macro model.
Science knows that thought processes occur in the brain and little else. Newer tech-
nologies such as fMRI, which give dynamical pictures of brain activity, actually show
thought processes in action in real time and support this point of view. It is almost as if
science can picture thought at work, yet all the physical and biological theories to explain
the thought process still leave a lot to be desired. They could not possibly offer the whole
story of consciousness, although they must still be a part of the overall story. As good as it
has become, technology only lets science see a small and incomplete picture of the neural
correlates of mind and consciousness. The synaptic clefts that are normally associated with
thought and memory do not show enough diversity, in that there are not enough of them
to act as bits or bytes of memory to support a complete theory of consciousness, yet they
still play a significant role in consciousness as observed in EEGs and fMRIs. On the other
hand, vast neural networks can also be found in the brain and these nets may somehow
form the geometrical patterns necessary for memories in the absence of a satisfactory num-
ber of organic or biochemical “bits” in the synapses, or so some scientists believe.
When the individual tubulin protein molecules in the microtubules fire sequentially
around the microtubulin cylinder along a helical path, the microtubules act like tiny mag-
netic induction coils. This is not a theory, but a fact. The “firing” (sequential ionization)
of individual tubulin protein molecules in either their alpha or beta configuration in a
linear sequence is physically equivalent to electrons moving through a wire, i.e., a simple
electrical current. In the case of a sequential firing in a helical path around the microtubulin
cylinder, a magnetic field would be induced through the center of the cylindrical micro-
tubule, just as a current carrying wire wrapped around a cylinder (a coil) induces a magnetic
field through its center. If there was no such induced field within the microtubule under
these circumstances, physicists would be required to explain why microtubules defy the
laws of electromagnetism.
This finding alone is profound, but when combined with the fact that the wall of an
axon that houses the cytoskeletal microtubule structure forms a capacitor, it becomes pro-
foundly significant since capacitors and inductors together form radio tuning circuits. Indi-
vidual microtubules in the axons become simple LRC (Inductance L, Resistance R and
58 Part I. Consciousness

Capacitance C) circuits, while the complex of microtubules which constitutes the whole
cytoskeleton of the neuron becomes a complex pattern of electromagnetic wave transmit-
ter/receivers.
The role of the axon and microtubule structure in the development of consciousness
can thus be explained using semiclassical electromagnetic theory. As the electrical action
potential or voltage travels up (or down) the outside of the axon, ionization through the
axon wall causes capacitance within the wall, but the moving potential also induces tubulin
molecules in the microtubules to fire sequentially in the helical sequence, inducing corre-
sponding magnetic fields within the microtubules.
The resulting combination of microtubule inductance and axon wall capacitance creates
a vast pattern incorporating millions of little LRC circuits (specifically tuned radio-wave
transmitter/receivers) in each and every neuron. If the action potential represents an incom-
ing sensation (perhaps seeing a tree), the vast pattern of microtubule inductors sends out
a radio signal (a complex transverse electromagnetic wave pattern) that causes similar
microtubules in other neurons to resonate, creating an even greater and more complex
holographic pattern of magnetically charged microtubules that represents the sensed object
(a tree). Thus, the resonance pattern between different microtubules induces a single thought
or stream of thought as associated with consciousness as time passes. This classical elec-
tromagnetic model supplies the coherence from individual firing microtubules to a vast
pattern of microtubules in other neurons within the brain that other physical models are
missing. Although this physical process accounts for individual thoughts in the brain, mem-
ories have not yet been included in the model and they are the link to understanding and
identifying that “something” called consciousness.

Memories

The radio waves that establish coherence and resonance between the microtubules
within different neurons in the brain are common transverse electromagnetic waves. How-
ever, electromagnetic theory also predicts the existence of longitudinal waves that accom-
pany the transverse waves (Whittaker 1903, 1904). Although predicted, these longitudinal
waves have never been detected or observed in nature. They are considered a mathematical
artifact if they are even mentioned at all by scientists. But if space has four dimensions and
the fourth dimension is magnetic dominated, as hypothesized, then the longitudinal waves
would travel and spread out in the higher dimension as magnetic potential or electromag-
netic vector potential waves. Being four-dimensional waves, they could not be detected in
three-dimensional space, which is why they have never been observed or detected in normal
three-dimensional space. So the vast coherent pattern of microtubule resonances in the
neurons of the brain that represents a given sensation, say seeing a tree, would also produce
a pattern of longitudinal waves that would imprint an electromagnetic vector or magnetic
potential pattern in the higher-dimensional single field that would amount to a memory
of the tree. Memories then are four-dimensional holograms of magnetic single field vari-
ations at the quantum level that remain stable over time. They are stored in the four-
dimensional electric portion of the single field extension of the living organism or mind,
like leaves on a tree, as well as retrieved through the transmission of longitudinal electro-
magnetic waves.
Memories are magnetically stored in the fluid-like single field in a manner that is
 Consciousness and Consequences (Beichler) 59

similar in concept and result to the manner by which pictures and sounds are stored on
video and audio tapes. Each microtubule represents a bit of information stored in the four-
dimensional single field while the vast pattern of individual bits represents real material
objects or combinations of real objects in the perceived or sensed three-dimensional material
world. However, this model differs from the computer analogy in that these magnetic bits
are continuous over time as well as space in an analog fashion, unlike the discrete or digital
bits in computers. Furthermore, these bits are not static but dynamic. The analog character
of the bits that form individual elements of a memory corresponding to microtubule firings
is important because it lends each memory an amount of “fuzziness” that can account for
the “qualia” that philosophers of consciousness have found necessary to dwell upon and
whose explanation they require for any successful theory of consciousness, physical or oth-
erwise.
Suppose the same tree is seen at a later time. When this new sensation of a tree travels
along the optic nerve to the brain, it initiates the same or at least a very similar microtubule
pattern in the brain to be stored in the mind where the original memory of the tree was
stored at an earlier time. A new complex longitudinal wave representing the new “tree”
memory pattern goes into the mind for storage, but instead resonates or pattern matches
with the existing tree memory pattern in the mind, forcing the brain to cognize or re-
cognize the object sensed in the real three-dimensional material world as a tree. On the
other hand, when a person thinks of an object in their mind, without actually having sensed
that object within the material world, a resonance of the stored memory pattern in con-
sciousness initiates a reverse process from mind to the corresponding microtubules in the
neuronal net, producing a mental picture of the remembered object in the brain. This
reverse process explains the recall of memories. So this model can simply explain such com-
plex mental actions as recognition and recall. However, the concept of qualia or in this case
the “treeness” of the sensations still needs further clarification.
Each time the same tree is seen, the pattern in mind gains a slightly greater amount
of fuzziness by the superposition of slightly different complex wave patterns. When other
trees are seen and registered in mind as such, they increase the fuzziness of a developing
generalized pattern in the memory of what trees should look like. That fuzziness defines
the qualia, in this case, of treeness. When such a fuzzy superposed tree memory pattern is
activated upon seeing or thinking of a tree, the electrochemical response in the brain could
be pleasurable or emotional, depending upon the original pleasure or emotion that the
visions of various trees invoked in the brain and stored in the mind as portions of the
overall memory pattern. In other words, when other tree memory patterns were stored in
memory they were linked or associated with other non-tree but related memory patterns
such as emotional patterns. Each individual memory pattern of “things” is stored not only
within the mind, but also within a larger contextual complex of related memories, including
emotional states. There could also be a measure of indistinction or loss of specificity in
translating the associated feelings stored in the mind as memories from their four-
dimensional holographic superposition patterns to the corresponding three-dimensional
real world pattern of microtubules in the neurons that could add to the fuzziness and inter-
pretations of sensations.
In summary, the microtubules that are associated with sensing a real material object
or group of objects in the material world simultaneously emit a combined transverse and
longitudinal electromagnetic wave. The transverse portion acts to give coherence to the
thought in the brain and the longitudinal portion of the wave goes to mind to create a
60 Part I. Consciousness

memory of the sensation as a complex magnetic potential pattern in the single field extension
of the brain. However, neurons extend throughout the body where they form the nervous
system. Only in the brain, and especially the white matter portion of the brain, is the con-
centration and density of axons high enough to guarantee an adequate amount of coherence
to initiate thought and store a complete complex memory of that thought. Otherwise,
microtubules in axons in the nervous system throughout the body of a complex living
organism imprint memory segments in mind and consciousness that do not rise to the
level of true thought or memories, but none-the-less add to the overall mind and con-
sciousness patterns that extend throughout the whole body of the organism. That is
why mind and consciousness normally act through brain to the rest of the body, rather
than directly through life at the specific location of each and every mechanical action of the
body.
Although this model utilizes classical electromagnetic theory, it is anything but classical
due to the basic hypothesis that the magnetic field and embedding space are four-
dimensional. The classical electromagnetic field is strictly three-dimensional. However, this
model would still be valid in a normal three-dimensional spatial framework alone because
the scalar and vector potentials would be just as real in a three-space (intrinsic) electro-
magnetic configuration. In any case, this model of memory corresponds nicely to the macro
model of consciousness explained above. Consciousness is far more than just the individual
patterns of memories in mind that are explained in this micro model. Consciousness is the
complete electromagnetic vector or magnetic potential pattern that corresponds to the
whole living organism and this includes the magnetic potential pattern associated with
emotions, personality and all other aspects of consciousness and mind. That complete com-
plex of memories and all else that constitutes consciousness is merely bound together by
the memory patterns stored in the mind and explained by this model. Memories in mind
are the glue that holds consciousness together, but consciousness extends throughout the
whole body and eventually incorporates the whole range of electromagnetic interactions
within the body.
All biochemical and ordinary chemical interactions in the body are energetic, electric
and magnetic in nature, so each and every atom and molecule in a living organism con-
tributes to the overall life, mind and consciousness patterns, respectively. It is upon this
point that previous theoreticians have failed in their attempts to model consciousness. Con-
sciousness is not within the neurotransmitters nor is it within the synaptic clefts of the
brain.
Consciousness cannot be found in the grey matter. It cannot even be found in the
microtubules or the axons or the white matter portion of the cerebrum, although all of
these “things” contribute to both mind and consciousness. They all contribute complex
patterns to mind and consciousness that are practically but not theoretically beyond mod-
eling by simple human developed mathematical formulations, at least at present. In other
words, it should be theoretically possible to write an equation, a system of equations or a
complex algorithm to model consciousness, but present science is nowhere near the level
of sophistication necessary to render such a theoretical possibility practical. However, the
basic ideas and concepts upon which a mathematical formula could eventually be built or
developed are not beyond present science. Perhaps, just perhaps, a very general mathemat-
ical formula of mind and consciousness could soon be derived, but only a very simple
general formula lacking specifics. So the story of consciousness is not yet complete, even
given this model of memory storage and utilization.
 Consciousness and Consequences (Beichler) 61

Radical But Logical and Natural Consequences

As suggested above, this model can account for some of the physical phenomena that
are commonly described as paranormal. The term paranormal and the description it implies
have negative connotations in the minds of many scientists and scholars, which is detri-
mental to conducting good science because science studies the “normal” aspects of reality.
Proper science “only” studies what is “normal,” but then science also defines what is normal
so the game is fixed and scientists study whatever they choose for any reason that they wish.
Yet the meaning of paranormal takes on a whole new significance with the SOFT model of
mind and consciousness.
Our “normal” five senses operate completely and only in the normal material-
dominated three dimensions of space, but the sixth sense operates in the higher fourth
dimension of space and is thus paranormal for a completely different reason. Normal
physics, normal chemistry and normal science all refer to the physical reality of three-
dimensional space while the paranormal sciences explain all physical interactions in the
higher space. So any physical mechanism of Psi, the mysterious “force” behind paranormal
phenomena, could only act within the higher fourth dimension of space outside of the
three-dimensional sheet. Quantum entanglement also takes place within this higher fourth
dimension, so Psi could be described as a form of entanglement, as some open-minded sci-
entists have pointed out. Under these circumstances, Psi is perfectly and completely natural,
but not exactly normal and thus paranormal.
In fact, modern quantum theory actually implies the existence of paranormal phe-
nomena, if not Psi itself. If consciousness “collapses the wave function” to create material
reality, as quantum theorists propose, and the quantum can act nonlocally, as recent exper-
iments have indicated, then quantum theory implies that consciousness can act nonlocally
to collapse the wave function and create reality, which is as good a definition of the para-
normal as anyone has ever given. In the case of physical events that have been designated
as paranormal, consciousness acts directly and nonlocally without the intervention of mate-
rial brain and/or body. When two individual consciousnesses act directly on each other
without the intervention of brains, the result is ESP (Extra-Sensory Perception), and when
consciousness acts directly on its material environment without the intervention of body,
the result is some form of PK (Psychokinesis). ESP and PK are the two major categories of
paranormal phenomena that are mediated by Psi and studied by parapsychologists and
paraphysicists. Since consciousness and mind have a real physical existence, there is
absolutely no logical or scientific reason for scientists to deny the existence of direct com-
munication between different minds (ESP) or between mind and nonlocal matter (PK). So
science cannot so easily a priori rule out the possibility of either ESP or PK phenomena,
although many scientists do on a regular basis and are abnormally vocal about their personal
opinions on the matter. Nor can science, under these circumstances, rule out the possibility
that consciousness and mind survive death of the physical body. Any such a priori dismissal
of these possibilities would amount to an unscientific and positivistic bias that is detrimental
to the true goal of science, which is to understand nature on nature’s own terms. Science
does not order nature according to the time-honored and cherished theories that it has cre-
ated; nature acts on her own and informs science how to structure its theories. So the para-
normal phenomena commonly studied by parapsychologists and paraphysicists, phenomena
mediated by Psi, are a legitimate and natural part of science. They may be para-normal
because the mechanism of Psi exists outside of “normal” three-dimensional space, but they
62 Part I. Consciousness

are still natural phenomena and should be accepted by all scientists and scholars as an inte-
gral and necessary part of the natural sciences.
As natural phenomena, it then becomes necessary to explain the physics of Psi. When
sentient beings become aware of their greater connections or “entanglement” with other
material bodies via the single field or utilize the connections to some benefit, they develop
direct intuitive knowledge of the higher space and thus Psi. This knowledge can arise in
mind when a sentient being, such as a human but not limited to humans, has either directly
or indirectly (intuitively) experienced their connectedness with the higher dimension of
space. In either case, the experiencer need not realize (in a logical manner) that it is a higher
dimension of space that they have experienced. In fact, the experiencer is quite often unable
to explain the experience of the higher dimension in normal logical terms. A logical aware-
ness or understanding of the higher dimension of space is not necessary, but certainly helpful
for facilitating Psi. Of these possibilities, the direct experience of the higher space has by
far the strongest and most lasting effect because the experience itself alters pattern memory
structures in consciousness at a fundamental level. At the very least a familiarity or intuitive
feeling for the fourth dimension of space and the single field is necessary before anything
more than a chance occurrence of Psi can occur, although direct logical knowledge of how
Psi operates in the fourth dimension of space or the single field is not necessary.
A residual memory of the higher space, without a logical knowledge of the physics or
nature of the higher dimension, would be the case for both mystically “enlightened” indi-
viduals or those who have experienced NDEs (Near Death Experiences) followed by a sub-
sequent increase in paranormal abilities. The conscious memory of the experience alone is
enough to alter the basic contextual structure of the individual memory patterns in mind
allowing easier access to later single field interactions, thus the subsequent increase in para-
normal abilities. In both cases, the direct experience of the higher dimension was accom-
plished by either intuitive or non-logical means (such as momentary death), enhancing the
intuitive understanding of the single field without developing any corresponding logical
understanding of the physical nature of the experience. People know that they experienced
“something” in these cases, but they cannot describe that “something” in logical terms that
were originally developed to describe the common three-dimensional reality that they had
experienced through their five senses throughout the whole of their life up to that time.
We “normally” perceive or detect the fourth dimension of space and its characteristic
interconnections with the universe as a whole indirectly through intuition, abstract thought
and other intangible qualities that are commonly associated with the mind and conscious-
ness, but without any conscious awareness of it. In the case of mystical enlightenment and
NDEs, our natural intuition of the higher space becomes part of the fabric of the individual’s
conscious awareness (in the brain). In essence, the whole material body acts like an antenna
protruding into the fourth dimension and the brain is a complicated tuning/amplifying/ana-
lyzing circuit, so Psi cannot be localized in the brain. Psi is a four-dimensional sensation,
acting through consciousness to mind. Our normal life experiences are constantly moder-
ated by the physical nature of the three-dimensional sheet, part of which is material, because
they were experienced entirely within the sheet — the material world of normal sensations
exists only within the sheet. The memories that constitute an individual’s seemingly com-
plete conscious knowledge of physical reality are only constructed from electromagnetic
three-dimensional sensations, so we instinctively sense something more than our sensed
three-dimensional reality because intuition operates in the higher dimension. Our intuition
is a product of the connection between consciousness and the higher dimension of space.
 Consciousness and Consequences (Beichler) 63

Figure 3. Sensory input for the body/brain and the mind/consciousness.

Life, mind and consciousness as well as Psi and paranormal phenomena extend beyond
the three-dimensional range of our normal five senses so the direct experience of any of
these is so hard to explain or describe in common terms. That extension also explains the
existence of an ephemeral and difficult to describe sixth sense that acts only within the
higher space.
With mystical enlightenment, a person purposelessly develops and becomes aware of
his or her special four-dimensional connections with the rest of the universe during a waking
or conscious state, although the enlightened individual need not recognize enlightenment
as awareness of a higher dimension of physical space. In NDEs, individuals’ brains shut
down momentarily, freeing the mind from the normal din of interfering three-dimensional
sensations and body functions, allowing the individual to directly experience the sixth sense
and the mind/consciousness complex as a stable unit (the out-of-body experience or OBE)
in its natural habitat, the greater physical reality of four-dimensional space.
Within this higher-dimensional context, consciousness becomes the new “sensory
organ” in the higher dimension of space after death. Consciousness is the only physical
structure that has small enough or subtle enough elements, continuous “bits” of magnetic
potential variation, to detect the normally undetectable variations in the higher-dimensional
single field in the process of “pattern matching.” A normal thought or sensation in the
brain initiates a resonance with a corresponding or matching memory pattern in mind
when the new thought or sensation goes to the mind as a memory for storage. That reso-
nance will be “felt” throughout the single field in that it will cause a corresponding distur-
bance to translate through the single field. The transmitted disturbance that propagates
64 Part I. Consciousness

throughout the single field (and is interpreted by consciousness as a feeling) is not a trans-
verse electromagnetic wave in the normal sense of wave mechanics, but rather a potential
that at best could only precede the development or creation of a wave under the proper
material conditions.
The more emotional intensity that is associated with the originating thought or pattern,
the stronger the thought pattern in the brain and the more pronounced the disturbance
pattern that is felt throughout (or becomes part of ) the single field. Emotional intensity
translates into higher biochemical energy variations in the brain and body that affect the
field more strongly. Therefore, extremely subtle magnetic potential variation disturbances
are constantly “flitting” throughout the single field, but they are not subject to the same
dissipative and time constrictions as electromagnetic waves in three-dimensional space,
i.e., they are not inside the sheet per se so they do not degrade over time or distance as do
transverse electromagnetic waves. They are patterns of “potential” and thus carry no energy
in the three-dimensional sense of the word.
It is extremely difficult to understand the experience of the higher space and single
field given the collection of memories created from events in the dimensionally limited
material world by which we judge and interpret the new experience. Just the act of logically
understanding the mathematics and logic of the higher space itself can be extremely difficult
in many ways. While the higher space is separate from the sheet where the material world
exists, the sheet is also continuous with as well as a part of the higher space. The higher
fourth dimension is actually “inside” every mathematical point in three-dimensional space
even while it is an extension of three-dimensional space along a fourth direction. So, while
life, mind and consciousness exist along the fourth direction of a living organism’s three-
dimensional body, extended point-by-point into the higher space as an extended (nonma-
terial) body, they also exist within each and every point inside the three-dimensional
material body of the living organism. Strangely enough, life, mind and consciousness are
external to the material body (from the four-dimensional perspective) yet internal to the
material body (from the normal three-dimensional perspective). As mystical as this sounds,
the paradoxical nature of the notion is actually shared by physicists and other scientists
who cannot distinguish between the “intrinsic” and “extrinsic” nature of curvature in the
four-dimensional space-time continuum, resulting in the major problems that scientists
are now having in understanding the latest mysteries of the material universe.
The three-dimensional space that the material world inhabits is within a sheet that can
alternately be described as a “slice” of the overall four-dimensional or higher space that
represents physical reality. Yet at any point on a perpendicular line that starts from the top
of the sheet and circles around to the bottom of the sheet at the same point (called an A–
line by Theodor Kaluza who originated the five-dimensional theory) along the fourth direc-
tion, there is a three-dimensional component of direction (Kaluza 1921). In other words,
physical reality is a four-dimensional space and each point in that four-dimensional space
has components in each of the four directions. Technically, there is no separation between
the three-dimensional sheet and that part of the higher-dimensional space that exists outside
of the sheet, i.e., they are not two different separate “things.” They only “seem” separate
for the convenience of explanation in the three-dimensional vocabulary of science and phi-
losophy. A gross misunderstanding of this very concept forms the major misconception
that individuals have regarding other dimensions of space than the normal three. Most peo-
ple mistakenly believe that dimensions other than the normal three that they sense are com-
pletely separate places (manifolds in mathematical speak), but that is not necessarily so. To
 Consciousness and Consequences (Beichler) 65

believe that other dimensions, especially the fourth physical dimension of space in our uni-
verse, are other places is pure science fiction, although there might be other multidimen-
sional universes within an infinite-dimensional pluriverse, which is a completely different
matter that does not enter into this physical model of reality. The sheet is actually an
extremely dense portion of the fluid-like single field. The extreme single field density is
limited to the sheet and thus defines the sheet while its contribution or role in the “mate-
riality” of the universe is limited by physical connectivity constants such as Planck’s constant
“h” and the speed of light “c.” So the life, mind and consciousness patterns stretched through
four-dimensional space (including the sheet) are the real “body” and the material body
(within the sheet) is just a denser or grosser slice of that real body. This logical mathematical
description actually corresponds, and then surprisingly so, to mystical intuitive explanations
that the material body is not the reality, but a mere shadow of reality: the true mystical
reality is the mind and consciousness. So mystic teachers and philosophers instruct prac-
titioners to dissolve or let go of the self (the material slice of the real four-dimensional body
of life, mind and consciousness within the sheet) to realize the greater reality and become
one with the universe (realize their natural connectivity and continuity with the single field
that fills all of four-dimensional space or five-dimensional space-time).

The Basic Mechanism of Psi

Rather than describing the mechanism of psi as vibrations of energy or everything is
energy as psychics as well as some scientists do, even though they are almost correct in
some overly simplistic way, it would be far more accurate to say that everything is potential
and potential patterns (structures) within the single field. Everything is the universe is a
matter/energy pattern along with an electromagnetic pattern, i.e., based on gravitational
scalar potentials, electric scalar potentials and magnetic vector potentials. When a particular
pattern is both intense enough and distinct enough to match and influence another pattern
in another consciousness, the pattern matching process proceeds to completion, causing a
pattern stimulation or resonance (an awareness, but not a vibration) in consciousness. This
does not mean that awareness has occurred in the brain yet: awareness in consciousness
alone would be a subconscious (non-cognized) awareness relative to the brain.
No material vibrations are involved, or for that matter no materiality whatever is asso-
ciated with this type of “resonance” or “pattern matching.” Resonance is just the closest
three-dimensional concept that can be used to describe the higher-dimensional situation.
It is a resonance of potential, hence a pattern matching rather than a material resonance.
Under these circumstances, the pattern matching process described here is none other than
the missing and previously unexplained Psi mechanism. This resonance of potential marks
the beginning or source of ESP, rather than the ESP event as a whole and the pattern match-
ing alone does not guarantee that ESP or any other paranormal event has occurred or will
occur. Receiving a “signal” in this manner does not automatically render cognition in the
brain because the pattern matching in consciousness must overcome other physical limits
and material obstacles to become a conscious or cognized thought in the brain, thus com-
pleting the ESP or paranormal process.
Consciousness is always picking up stray disturbances in the single field, which occa-
sionally results in intuition or intuitive insights, but seldom do these random matchings
rise to the level of a cognitive thought or even register as recognizable sensations in the
brain. In a sense, our consciousnesses are smarter than we are individually because they
66 Part I. Consciousness

are “in tune” with the rest of the universe, even when our minds and brains are not. The
part of consciousness in tune with the universe is the source of human intuition. The mind
or consciousness of a newborn individual should normally be in tune with the universe
because that consciousness is a product of an evolutionary and genetic process that resulted
from universal principles as well as direct connections to the universe and the single field,
or that would be the case if inheritance proceeded as planned without interference. The
“planning” in this case is the result of the genetic code passed from parents to newborn,
not the result of some ambiguous and mysterious “planner.” However, new memories
implanted in the mind after birth can mislead mind and consciousness so much that con-
sciousness may go out of tune. At best, this would mean that a growing and developing
individual would have poor intuition, but in cases where the mind and consciousness (pos-
sibly even affecting the brain and brain chemistry) are so strongly at odds with the rest of
the universe, distorting and even overpowering the consciousness and its direct relationship
with the universe, a dissonance occurs that could lead to either psychic or psychological
problems for the individual.
Otherwise, under normal conditions with a normally evolving individual conscious-
ness, the more powerful the matching sequence, the greater the probability becomes that
it could initiate a conscious thought or awareness in the brain, but no more. The term
“powerful” can refer to many different physical and mental conditions since there are so
many different physical factors involved in the process. The original Psi signal or transmis-
sion could be more intense, i.e., have a more intense potential variation pattern, or the
receiving consciousness could have a more intense stored pattern that could pick up or
match even the most subtle and weakest incoming patterns. The initial signal pattern and
the stored memory pattern could also be closer to an exact match, rendering a more intense
resonance, or they could be some degree less than an ideal or perfect match, the degree of
difference causing a less intense matching or resonance. There are a number of options that
could occur with respect to the intensity of the matching and thus influence the overall
ESP experience. A stronger or more intense stored pattern could result from nothing more
than the fact that a correspondingly more meaningful event originally formed that memory
pattern, or perhaps a more emotionally filled event caused the memory pattern, either of
which would influence the possibility of a Psi event such as ESP occurring at a later time.
However, even after the matching has been concluded and memory pattern resonance occurs
in one’s consciousness, it still has to be filtered by both mind and brain before it could
become a cognized thought and thus complete the ESP process.
The next steps in the process would be moderated by the filtering systems in the mind
and brain. Mind filters the resonance by interpretation, while the brain filtering process is
strictly electromechanical, i.e., the re-cognition process in the microtubules must be intense
enough to initiate a cascade of microtubule “firings” to develop a conscious thought. In
other words, the pattern resonances in mind must overcome strict quantum limits of energy
with respect to the microtubules in order to initiate the cognition or awareness of thought
necessary to complete the ESP sequence. The mind determines if the matching resonance
is meaningful enough and then interprets the signal before it filters down to the brain. This
interpretation includes any factor that would give more meaning to the resonance as well
as placing the pattern within the context (worldviews, opinions and attitudes) of the mind,
such that the resonance in consciousness could cause a greater number of associations with
other memories stored in mind and thus increase the signal strength to the brain for re-
cognition. The more powerful or intense the signal to the brain, the greater the probability
 Consciousness and Consequences (Beichler) 67

that it will initiate the necessary cascade of microtubule firings to initiate a cognized or
conscious thought becomes. Even then there is still no guarantee that the thought will reach
the minimum level for awareness in the brain because the brain filtering system is electro-
mechanical and thus subject to interference such that the thought associated with the ESP
event still has to compete with the normal sensations and thoughts that are already being
processed in the brain.
On the other hand, the brain could also be prepared in advance to receive any signals
from consciousness and mind by shutting down or otherwise minimizing its constant sen-
sation input from the outside three-dimensional environment. This preparation could be
accomplished through meditation, some form of sensory deprivation or sensory masking,
but again these preparative measures would not nor could not guarantee that the brain
cognizes the Psi signal into the individual’s spectrum of awareness: such preparations and
methods do no more than increase the probability of the ESP event progressing toward
completion. Also, the brain is still controlling bodily functions and is subject to random
thoughts that are not associated with new incoming environmental sensations, so there are
other possible sources of interference at all times. Otherwise, the brain could be prepared
to receive and cognize the signal through a familiarity with the paranormal process that
developed through experience (growing or developing the proper neuron channels to
process this particular type of input in advance), or recognizing that particular type of
signal and consciously amplifying it against the constant background and din of other brain
processes. Perhaps this is how a psychic accomplishes and conducts his or her trade. So
many conditions need to be overcome that the probability that a Psi signal reaches a recip-
ient’s awareness level in the brain is still quite low, which is why paranormal events such
as ESP are so rare and seem random in nature.

Precognition
Of the various forms of paranormal phenomena, precognition and PK are the most
difficult to explain scientifically. Precognition suffers from issues of causality and the flow
of time while PK, in the form of mind over nonlocal matter, suffers from issues of energy
resources. However, both can be explained within the SOFT model of consciousness and
physical reality. Precognition presents a number of unique but not insurmountable chal-
lenges for a SOFT interpretation of the paranormal. The substantial mysteries inherent in
understanding the physical nature of time renders a complete and comprehensive expla-
nation of precognition more difficult than necessary, but at least the space-time continuum
offers a two-way path for time. To initiate precognition, a future material event or future
thought creates a corresponding but subtle disturbance in the single field that is “felt”
throughout both space and time. However, this implies that the future already exists which
is not necessarily true. It would be far more accurate to view precognition as a problem of
the unfolding of current actions creating the future, whether that is the true case or not.
Whichever the case, ESP and PK are products of the spatial variations in the single field
while precognition relies on the temporal variations. So either can initiate a pattern match-
ing process in consciousness after which the process becomes the same as ESP.
Yet if the process were that simple, then the future would be set (predetermined) and
there would be no need for the “choices” made by mind and consciousness and thus no
need for mind and consciousness themselves. Free will would be rendered irrelevant if not
lost altogether. Instead, the action or event in the future that is being precognized could
68 Part I. Consciousness

represent a change or variation from an “objective status quo future,” the expected future
that is set in motion by past and present events (without further intervention by free will
choices) and realities following scientific rules and common logical standards, i.e., the sun
will rise tomorrow morning and that the moon will be full at a fully predictable and precise
time next month. The objective status quo future is clearly an extension and elaboration
of the Newtonian concept of predetermination except that it implies all of the logical laws
of nature, including those that have not yet been discovered but can be found by logical
reduction, not just those that have already been discovered. It would even incorporate a
quantum worldview which is probabilistic but still follows a clear and precise set of rules
only allowing that those rules are capable of discovery someday.
However, both worldviews are wrong for reasons other than those commonly cited.
The Newtonian view is wrong because it does not take into account life and living beings,
which can make choices and change the sequence of physical events and material interac-
tions from their Newtonian predetermined paths. On the other hand, quantum theory is
wrong, not just because life rather than consciousness can make choices to collapse the
wave packet, which is true, but because quantum theory does not normally take into account
entanglement and when it does consider the contributions of entanglement, it incorrectly
applies the concept. In reality, the wave packet can be collapsed by either life or entangle-
ment, normal quantum physics only allows entanglement to modify the wave packet (at
most), which must then be collapsed by consciousness.
If there was no such thing as life (and subsequently consciousness) in this universe,
then the universe could not exist as far as quantum theory is concerned because material
reality does not come into being until consciousness collapses the wave packet and deter-
mines which possibility will become reality. Otherwise, if there was no such thing as life
in the universe, it would just be a Newtonian type of predetermined universe corresponding
to a quantum universe predetermined by entanglement at the quantum level to create the
Newtonian universe on the macroscopic level. This model would accurately describe an
entangled Newtonian deterministic worldview, assuming that entanglement could be defined
and understood.
If modern relativity were included in this model, this particular universe could also
be described as a classical Newtonian/Einsteinian predetermined universe with quantum
entanglement if not more. This view represents the objective status quo future, a future
that is predetermined and thus preexistent in the single field in five-dimensional space-
time. This future can be likened to a restricted version of David Bohm’s concept of the
implicate order, in that Newtonian and relativistic laws of motion as well as entanglement
“imply” the reality of this future. In such a universe, precognition would reduce to a sci-
entific prediction based upon known initial conditions of particles and the physics of the
situation. So the objective status quo future is actually a limiting condition on the possi-
bilities inherent in a real universe that contains life, mind and consciousness: It is the future
of the universe that would emerge if all conscious and other choices ended and predeter-
mination ruled.
However, life and thus mind and consciousness do exist in this universe and every
time that a living being makes a choice the local future for that being changes from the
objective status quo future, causing corresponding material variations to propagate forward
into the future portion of the single field in five-dimensional space-time, but also corre-
sponding potential variations in all directions of space and future. Even so, choices are still
limited by what is physically possible (by entanglement) and therefore simple local choices
 Consciousness and Consequences (Beichler) 69

are predictable with some degree of accuracy, especially in the very near future. We can
predict with accuracy that an amoeba will move toward a warm area, but not toward a hot
or cold area given those three choices. The further into the future that consciousness can
be projected, where local predictable choices affect other local and nonlocal predictable
choices in ways that cannot be so easily foreseen, the more complicated the vast web of
future possibilities becomes and the harder predictions become because of the greater like-
lihood of other intervening consciousnesses. So predictions based on science and logic
become too complicated the further into the future that science looks while the “objective
status quo future” altered by conscious choices deteriorates more rapidly the further into
the future we attempt to look.
On the other hand, consciousness is linked to those other consciousnesses (both local
and nonlocal) that are making choices, even in the future. So consciousness has access to
a very complex subjective status quo future that science and logical predictions cannot even
fathom. The subjective status quo future is the vast web of possibilities stemming from the
simple and not so simple choices that life makes. Therefore, a more stable and predictable
(precognitive) future is available to any given consciousness when both other conscious-
nesses, representing the “subjective” status quo future, and the “objective” status quo future
are taken into account. In a very real sense, this model of precognition takes into account
both an ESP (subjective mediated) and PK (objective mediated) view of future events.
Under such circumstances, a single consciousness that is completely in tune with the uni-
verse should theoretically have the ability to precognize a more complete objective status
quo future of the universe than present science could ever hope for or imagine because it
is in tune with a universe that includes those things that have not yet been discovered or
explained by science as well as every existent thing (or event) that is not even subject to
reduction and explanation by science.
So even if the future does not already exist, which would allow a simple “pattern match-
ing” for precognition as disturbances travel backward along a timeline, precognition could
still be explained as an extremely complicated prediction of the future whereby a conscious-
ness’ connections with other consciousnesses (the subjective status quo future) through
the single field in both space and time directions as well as the objective status quo future
(the connection to the whole universe) are all taken into account.

The Control of Mind Over Nonlocal Matter

PK phenomena such as the direct control of “mind over matter” are rarer, but still not
beyond theoretical explanation. However, any theory or model of PK must explain where
the energy associated with the material action that defines the PK event comes from at the
very least. A far greater amount of applied energy is needed than just that needed to initiate
the firing sequence of microtubules in the brain, but the extra energy certainly doesn’t
come from the brain of the individual initiating the PK event. First, a thought of the pro-
posed” PK event must be created in consciousness by mind in the form of an individual
pattern or group pattern. The magnetic potential pattern that forms the thought in mind
is projected by consciousness to the material object, but no energy is or even can be trans-
mitted with the projected thought. The energy must be found at the site of the PK event.
In our three-dimensional world, we see or otherwise sense material objects as solid
matter, but determine their material content by their mass. However, in reality, the actual
mass particles that constitute a gross material body are only a small portion of the overall
70 Part I. Consciousness

extension (volume) of the “solid” object in space. The solidity that the mind commonly
associates with the material content of the object is not really a product of the object’s mass,
but is instead the product of the various physical fields that bind the individual atoms and
molecules that constitute the internal material structure of the object together. The pattern
representing the proposed PK action that is constructed in mind and projected by con-
sciousness to the object to initiate the PK event is also an electromagnetic field structure.
In particular, the projected thought pattern is a subtle magnetic potential pattern whose
variations occur at the atomic or quantum level of physical space and time. So PK must
actually occur at the atomic/molecular level of the material object’s internal structure and
the physical energy involved must originate at that same level within the object or the local
environment in the vicinity of the object.
The energy associated with PK must be magnetic or electromagnetic in origin, although
electromagnetic waves are not involved in the Psi or transmission process itself. The pattern
that was projected by the consciousness to the object does not carry any energy because it
is a pattern of electromagnetic vector potential variations, which is in essence an instruction
set that only oversees or guides (rather than creates) the event by directing and controlling
energy flow during its interaction with matter. The necessary energy must be created at the
position of the interaction by the instruction set (magnetic potential pattern), so the energy
associated with PK events and phenomena comes from the same electromagnetic forces
that bind an object together and lends a “solid” material appearance to the object.
The projected thought pattern (an electromagnetic potential pattern) interacts with
the extremely subtle electromagnetic patterns that constitute the internal physical structure
of the target body to cause the actual physical action associated with the PK event , most
often but not limited to some type of motion or change in motion of the material object.
The PK event is just a manipulation of the single-field structure of the material body by
the initiating mind and consciousness, even if the body itself is outwardly nonmagnetic.
Each material atom in the material object has a magnetic dipole moment and the potential
pattern of the projected thought “carries” magnetic potential which manipulates the and
internal and local external electromagnetic fields. However, such a manipulation of the
field would require an extremely complex and intense pattern of intent in the originating
mind and that is very difficult to achieve and thus extremely rare in the case of humans,
although theoretically possible.

Survival of Consciousness
Death is a cataclysmic failure of the biochemical processes and biomechanical functions
within a living organism. The field density patterns in the fourth dimension that comprise
the life pattern or biofield lose coherence and the life complexity is completely and totally
disrupted. Quite simply, life ends at death and there is no life after death. But mind and
consciousness are shielded from the three-dimensional material disruption of the life pattern
by their own internally shared stabilities, which absorb the disruptive interference of death.
So they can still survive as a mutually coherent unit. The coherence between mind and
consciousness should have increased in strength during the life of an individual, depending
on the quality and amount of knowledge gained by that individual during life.
Any increased complexity of the memories and memory patterns after the initial sta-
bility was formed through evolution and inherited at birth would further enhance that sta-
bility. This means that the more “true” knowledge of the universe that was stored as complex
 Consciousness and Consequences (Beichler) 71

memory patterns in mind, the more stable an individual’s consciousness complexity pattern
became before death. Greater knowledge means a more structured as well as a greater com-
plexity of mind in general. Any knowledge of how the world works, even simple experiential
knowledge, but “true” knowledge is better. Since “true” knowledge reflects the actual reality
of the universe as accurately as possible, the memory patterns that “true” knowledge forms
in mind automatically form resonances with the greater universe, even before death. “True”
knowledge keeps the mind and consciousness in tune with the universe at large, literally.
So reaching the minimum necessary level to evolve human mind and consciousness is not
the end product of evolution as many have thought, either on Earth or anywhere in the
universe. It was just a level that was reached by humans who are now on their way to the
next level beyond simple human consciousness, depending on the further accumulation of
true knowledge.
Consciousness continues to evolve by the incorporation of new memory complexes
that mirror the reality of the universe (either through scientific learning, normal experience
or mystical experience). Thus mind and consciousness become more suited to their existence
relative to the higher dimension, resulting in a greater stability as a separate unit after death
of the body and the end of life. True knowledge or memories are those that most closely
conform to the actual reality of the universe, such as those toward which the theories of
science should progress and supposedly do progress. If new memories and stored knowledge
correspond more closely to physical reality, they conflict less with the single field which fills
the universe and face less chance of disruption by either the act of dying or direct interaction
with the single field environment after death. Under these circumstances, mind and con-
sciousness reinforce and stabilize each other and thereby retain coherence relative to the
higher-dimensional single field, but they also tend to retain or develop greater awareness
of the new existence that they will face after death, even before dying.
The mind/consciousness pattern that survives is cut off from the normal three-
dimensional materiality of the organism by the corresponding decoherence of life after
death. The mind/consciousness complexity pattern is a neutral title for scientific purposes,
rather than a soul or spirit. The term “soul” is a purely religious term and thus has no proper
place in science. On the other hand, the term “spirit” is not specific enough for science.
Both of these terms carry too many preconceptions and false impressions to have any objec-
tive or subjective scientific value. So, for the sake of good science, only mind and con-
sciousness survive as a single stable combined electromagnetic (scalar and vector) potential
pattern (a complex electromagnetic four-dimensional hologram) in the higher-dimensional
single field.
The surviving coherent pattern is the “afterlife” body for all intents and purposes as
far as science is concerned and forms the basis for a new science of the afterlife which has
logically emerged from the SOFT model of consciousness.
The state or status of existence for the mind/consciousness complex after death would
depend upon events and actions experienced by the individual before the body died and
life ended. While the organism/body was alive, all sensory input to the brain and through
the brain to the mind resulted from three-dimensional contacts between the organism/body
and its material environment. Information and data originally entered the mind, forming
new memories in the form of electromagnetic potential patterns, by way of the normal five
senses and the brain. After death of the organism/body, the pathways for sensory input to
mind via the brain no longer exist. Yet the surviving mind would still expect mental and
sensory input after death simply because it had continuously received them during life,
72 Part I. Consciousness

Figure 4. The shift of “self ” awareness to mind/consciousness after death.

without fail, even while asleep or unconscious. Receiving none, mind searches for new
(any) sources of mental input, which can only come from the consciousness via its five-
dimensional connections in the single field and then only if the mind is “aware” of that new
source and willing (or ready) to accept new sensory input from the single field via con-
sciousness. If the mind is not advanced or evolved enough, it does not “look” to its new
external environment (the single field) because it does not expect any input from that quar-
ter. It only expects, or rather it is only used to or familiar with, input from its consciousness
if the mind had previously experienced an NDE or been “enlightened,” or even experienced
real believable (and convincing) psychic communications (ESP, mediumship, etc.) while
living. Then the mind would already know (be prepared by previous experience while alive)
where and how to look for continued sensory input after death.
If all else fails, the mind looks to its own internal memories for sensory input, like a
body cannibalizing fat when no food is available, and this search would initiate the past-
life review that people have described. In a simplistic interpretation of the sequence of post-
mortem events, the new “self ” literally becomes its own stored memories before (and if ) it
realizes that “its (material dominated) self ” is no more. Still not realizing the death of the
body and the cessation of life, mind could actually get stuck in its past memories, especially
bad memories or highly emotional memories that are stronger or more intense than other
memories. Or, by not accepting its new reality, refusing to relive its past memories, for
 Consciousness and Consequences (Beichler) 73

whatever reason including pure ignorance, and receiving no sensory input as expected from
the three-dimensional material world, the mind could experience nothing, a total inde-
scribable blackness and thus a “hell” of sorts. On the other hand, the mind/consciousness
complex could refuse to believe or understand that death had occurred and mentally attach
itself to the material three-dimensional world, literally force itself to remain within the
sheet portion of the greater four-dimensional space, as an apparition thus creating a haunt-
ing situation. The complex could even attach itself to a blank mind/consciousness template
in a fetus as a reincarnation, or worse, a possession of some material object. Each of these
possibilities would be a direct result of and conditional upon the past learning, experiences
and knowledge that any given individual living being had accumulated and reacted to during
life. So, upon death, many different courses of action would be open to the surviving mind/
consciousness complex, depending upon the unique internal mental conditions of each
individual’s mind and consciousness.
On the other hand, the mind and consciousness of the dead individual could have
reached a high enough level of true knowledge and worldly experience to allow awareness
of the new situation and complete the connection to the single field upon death. Perhaps
this would include a past-life review or not, but the mind would open up to its new con-
nection to the single field that fills the five-dimensional universe. Under these conditions,
a reversal of input of data and information to mind would occur. This reversal follows the
same path as Psi utilized for paranormal phenomena before death except for the fact that
after death there is no brain and thus no need to establish awareness in the brain. Awareness
now occurs in the mind whereas awareness had been a brain function before death. The
mind must take over the brain’s function of awareness in order to function with respect to
its new environment and the single field. When the mind, newly liberated from its material
body and brain by death, realizes or otherwise becomes aware of its new physical reality as
part of a strictly five-dimensional complex, it senses entering the “light.” Entering the light
is just realizing contact with the wholeness of the five-dimensional single field. In this case,
new sensory or rather extrasensory input of information would be absorbed directly through
consciousness to the mind from the surrounding five-dimensional single field.

Conclusion
Science began in ancient Greece when philosophers began to ask fundamental questions
about the nature of human existence. In the two and a half millennia since then, science
has shied away from many of those fundamental questions, surrendering some to religion
and metaphysics, while ignoring others. Perhaps this subconscious and thus unplanned
strategy was essential and necessary for science to grow strong and independent, perhaps
not. It certainly was not a commonly known or accepted plan by which scientists set out
when science first began to develop as an independent branch of inquiry within philosophy.
However, science has now progressed to the point where it can no longer ignore some of
those basic and fundamental questions about the nature of physical reality, nor surrender
them to the unverifiable speculations and prejudices of religion and metaphysics. The most
fundamental of those questions involves the very nature of mind and matter themselves.
Science utilizes mind to study the universe and studies matter and matter in motion to
explain what it has observed and learned about the universe, without really understanding
the fundamental nature of either mind or matter. Mind then uses consciousness to interpret
the information that it has learned about the universe, still without any true understanding
74 Part I. Consciousness

of mind, matter or consciousness. Science has not even attempted to define mind, matter
or consciousness for simple practical purposes, at least not seriously, nor has it ever taken
into account the direct relationship between them.
However, recent discoveries in physics (such as dark matter and dark energy) and
recent trends in physics (attempts to unify the quantum and relativity) as well as science
in general (the development of consciousness studies as an interdisciplinary effort) indicate
that the present status quo situation will no longer stand as adequate for the continued
progress of science. The problem for science has now become, “How does objective science
treat the subjective aspects of reality?” The answer to this dilemma is to precisely define
“mind” and “matter,” thus determining the role of consciousness in their common rela-
tionships. So the subjectivity of consciousness must be reduced (made logical) to an object
model even though consciousness is irreducible in this respect. While this seems impossible,
it is the only way to accomplish this amazing but necessary feat. A parallel problem exists
in physics, as it has since the ancient Greek philosophers first began ruminating on the sub-
ject, and that is the difference between the discrete nature of material reality (from the
Greek atomists to the modern quantum theorists) and the continuous nature of physical
reality (from Aristotle’s plenum to modern relativity theory). Therein lies the physical
unification of science whose completion is necessary to distinguish between mind and mat-
ter using consciousness.
As a result of this unification, explanations of life (the biofield), mind and conscious-
ness emerge naturally from the new structure of space-time following a logical progression
(evolution) from simple chemical reactions. Only classical science is needed to model a
living body as a combination of three overlapping classical fields: the metric field of
matter/energy, the electric and magnetic fields. However, the mere existence of the higher
dimension that characterizes the external curvature of space-time implies existence of the
extension of a living organism into the higher dimension that allows the emergence of three
levels of organizing principles or complexities that can be associated with life, mind and
consciousness, corresponding to each of these three fields, respectively. The extra dimension
also implies the reality of what are normally called paranormal phenomena characterized
by Psi. Yet the most radical result of this model is the scientific possibility and even the
probability that mind and consciousness survive the end of life.
In reality, classical electromagnetic (EM) theory actually “requires” that mind and con-
sciousness survive the end of life if this model is accurate and true. A vibrating electron
emits an EM wave at the same frequency as the vibration. Yet when the electron stops
vibrating the wave continues to exist, spreading out over the universe. Its existence is
required by the third and fourth parts of EM theory. The first two parts of the theory only
address the material sources of EM fields, while the third and fourth parts of the EM theory
state (3) that a changing electric field generates a magnetic field and (4) a changing magnetic
field generates an electric field. So, when the material source of the fields disappears, the
“pattern” of EM interaction between the two fields guarantees their continued existence,
just as it does in the case of a light wave. The same would hold true for the complex EM
patterns that have been associated with mind and consciousness in this model. In fact, it
should hold truer for them because of the added stability that the combined complexity
gives the field structures. Once the material sources of the EM field patterns (the material
body or organism) ceases to function (dies), the combined complex EM field patterns that
it initiated continue to survive, not as light waves spreading out into space, but more like
a localized complex interacting diffraction pattern (or a hologram in four-dimensional
 Consciousness and Consequences (Beichler) 75

space) of light (EM potential). This surviving pattern defines the “self ” in the “afterlife”
from the scientific perspective.

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_____. 2009b. Evo: The Next Step. Victoria, BC: Trafford.
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ituality and Paranormal Studies 32.4.
Bohm, David. 1980. Wholeness and the Implicate Order. London: Routledge.
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herence and Biological Feasibility. Physical Reviews E 65: 061901.
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Kaluza, Theodor. 1921. “Zur unitätsproblem der physik.” Sitzungsberichte der Preussischen Akademie der
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_____. 1994. Shadows of the Mind. New York: Oxford University Press.
Pribram, Karl H. 1971. Languages of the Brain: Experimental Paradoxes and Principles in Neuropychology.
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by B. J. Hiley and F. David Peat. New York: Routledge.
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Pylkkänen, Paavo, and Tere Vaden, eds. 2001. Dimensions of Conscious Experience. Philadelphia, PA:
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Tuszynski, Jack, ed. 2007. The Emerging Physics of Consciousness. New York: Springer.
Walker, Evan Harris. 2000. The Physics of Consciousness. New York: Basic Books.
Whittaker, Edmund T. 1903. “On the Partial Differential Equations of Mathematical Physics.” Mathe-
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_____. 1904. “On an Extension of an Electromagnetic FIeld Due to Electrons by Means of Two Scalar
Potential Functions.” Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society 1: 367–372.
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The Emerging Physics of Consciousness, edited by J. Tuszynski. New York: Springer: 49 –94.
 At the Speed of Light
DAG LANDVIK

Timelessness Is the Core of Nature

At the speed of light, time stands still. This is one of the cornerstones of Einstein’s
theory of relativity, which explains the relative properties of space and time. The fact that
this groundbreaking theory physically “allows” a natural timeless state, signifies an impor-
tant point of departure for trying to explain observations of human and animal traits that
appear to show that timeless and spaceless knowledge exists— through intuition and instinct,
for example. Moreover, through quantum mechanics, which is the science of particle
physics, it has been discovered that timeless communication, scientifically expressed as
“nonlocality,” is a reality in nature. This has been proven repeatedly since 1982 through an
experiment in which a particle is split into two or more. Even if the particles are afterwards
separated in space by vast distances, the manipulation of one instantaneously also happens
to the others. The particles are understood not to be actually sending signals among them-
selves but to be collectively reacting as one despite being separated in space. Through this
groundbreaking discovery it is not farfetched to imagine that everything in the universe
might be entangled on particle level. These observations constitute a reasonable confirma-
tion that a timeless and spaceless state — which the theory of relativity also allows room
for — is actually a reality, connecting all matter and, with that, the inner nature of human
beings and all other biological life as well. In this essay, time and space, being linked, have
the same meaning.
The two principles of physics that have revolutionized people’s lives and created mod-
ern technological society since the beginning of the twentieth century are the theory of rel-
ativity and quantum mechanics. The theory of relativity was the result of one man’s intuition
and brilliant logic, but no scientific theory has yet been able to fully explain quantum
mechanics. The apparent lawlessness, or rather incomplete understanding of particles, is
still an enigma. At the same time, however, the practical applications of quantum mechanics
have revolutionized the world in many ways, especially in information technology. Einstein,
who was the originator of the theory of relativity, and in part of quantum mechanics as
well, was trying right up to his death in 1955 to find a link between the two physical systems.
Quantum mechanics deals with the physics of the microcosmos, i.e., everything that is
smaller than the atom, and the theory of relativity with the physics of the macrocosmos,

76
 At the Speed of Light (Landvik) 77

the world that human beings experience with their senses, the human being’s outer world.
As history has shown, Einstein was very close to realizing the inmost principle of quantum
mechanics with a thought experiment in 1935 but was unable to believe in the conclusion
he and his colleagues had arrived at, namely that timeless communication can occur between
particles. It was not until 1982, twenty-seven years after his death, that this timeless aspect
of quantum mechanics could finally be confirmed. The experimental setup had been
developed by John Bell in 1964, based on an idea of Einstein’s disciple and confidant,
David Bohm, with a view to verifying Einstein’s 1935 thought experiment in practice. The
historic experiment was carried out in 1982 by Alain Aspect at the University of Paris and
proved at last to fully corroborate the thought experiment that is called the EPR para-
dox for its three originators— Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen: In the interior of matter,
spaceless and timeless communication exists. Nature is spacelessly and timelessly intercon-
nected.
Parallel to the development of modern natural science from the end of the nineteenth
century, scientific interest also arose in spaceless and timeless human psychic phenomena
such as telepathy and remote viewing. Completely “unreal” by their nature, they were
nonetheless intriguing. Initially, in fact, they came to interest the scientific elite strongly.
However, as the insights of natural science into the lawfulness of nature increased during
the twentieth century, scientists showed increasingly less interest in parapsychology, as the
subject came to be called in the 1930s. At that time there was no, even remote, possible sci-
entific explanation to these phenomena. Today, one decade into the twenty-first century,
parapsychology, still lacking any reasonable explanation, is virtually banished to science’s
back lot despite the fact that its results have continued to astonish investigators. In 1974 –
1994, for example, the U.S. Army conducted a careful study of the phenomenon’s utility for
intelligence purposes in the form of remote viewing. The official outcome of this study was
that the “technology” was insufficiently reliable, something that accords with all other expe-
rience as well. However, a substantial number of observations were noted that were correct
in detail, showing that parapsychological phenomena do exist and should therefore be care-
fully studied, inasmuch as the consequences have considerable bearing on insight into the
human being’s constitution and conception of reality. In fact, it is hard to imagine a more
important field of research than the human being’s own psychic nature. Besides, the inscrip-
tion over the entrance to the temple of wisdom in Delphi in ancient Greece, which was
famous for its oracles, i.e., prophecies, from about 650 B.C.E. to 300 C.E., was “Man, know
thyself.” This laudable injunction suggests, in fact, that the ancient Greeks’ sometimes
extremely remarkable knowledge of the natural order had come about at least partly through
using human psychic ability or intuition as a source of knowledge. One of the reasons—
besides its improbable nature — that the demonstrated timelessness of both parapsychology
and quantum mechanics has not been taken with greater scientific seriousness is presumably
that it has been seen as a threat to society as it functions. Indeed, active opponents of para-
psychology emphasize that “because remote viewing is such an outlandish claim that will
revolutionize the world, we need overwhelming evidence before we draw any conclusions”
(Richard Wiseman, interviewed in The Daily Mail, 28 January 2008).
All experience, however, says that this fear is groundless. The phenomena of parapsy-
chology are not going to revolutionize the world more than they have previously, inasmuch
as they have existed in all ages, but the understanding of them is going to revolutionize our
view of the world. That is to say, nature’s inbuilt wisdom has seen to it that predictions and
remote viewing cannot be relied on. One never knows until afterwards whether they are
78 Part I. Consciousness

true or false, and most often they are wrong. But when they do agree, it can be with con-
vincing precision.

Macrocosmos, Microcosmos and the Human Being

The macrocosmos, the outer universe of the human being, is thought to have come into
existence about 13.7 billion years ago through some kind of matter formation, commonly
called the Big Bang. The planet Earth formed about 5 billion years ago. It is calculated that
there are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on all beaches on Earth. Both the
actual and relative magnitudes of our outer and inner worlds are difficult to conceive of.
The diameter of Earth is 1 percent of the diameter of our closest star, the sun, which is one
of 300 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, which in turn is one of 1,000 billion galaxies
in our visible universe. And beyond all this, an infinite number of galaxies are thought to
exist. The smallest unit in the macrocosmos is the atom.
The microcosmos, from the human perspective, is everything that is smaller than the
atom. The atom is already very small. A grain of sand may contain 10,000 billion atoms,
for example. This inner universe is an infinite space of energy-creating particles in ever-
smaller particle systems. The particles can exist as, for instance, light photons, or as atomic
structures of electrons whose orbits constitute the atom’s shell as an effect of its tremendous
peripheral speed around its nucleus. An atom is actually to 99.99 percent made up of empty
space and 0.01% of particle matter. Through Aspect’s confirmation in 1982 of Einstein’s
EPR paradox, it was discovered that free particles are able to communicate timelessly with
one another regardless of distance, e.g., reacting simultaneously to change in one of them.
This points to the existence of a hitherto unknown spaceless and timeless communication
in nature, the principle of which potentially constitutes a link between all matter and all
life.
The human being, as well as the planet Earth with its minerals and all biological life,
is created from ninety-two natural elements. Each element consists of atoms of only one
kind. All minerals, plants and animals, including human beings, are mathematically con-
structed of different combinations of atoms. Everything is numbers, maintained the Greek
natural philosopher Pythagoras back in the sixth century B.C.E. The atoms in various com-
binations have f.i. created a hierarchy of functions, in the physical body of the human
being, through first building molecules, which in turn build cells, which build organs,
which build the whole body. One human body consists of more atoms than there are grains
of sand on all the beaches in the world, or stars in the universe. The 1953 discovery of the
genomic DNA molecule has further underscored biological nature’s infinitely complex
structure. Each and every one of the human body’s approximately 100,000 billion cells con-
tains, in addition to instructions for its own function, exact and complete instructions for
the entire body of which it is a part. The whole exists in every part.

Animal Instinct
All animals, including the human being, are already equipped at birth with instinctive
behavior for many vital needs. They also have in common a brain that governs them and
their autonomic nervous system, including muscles. Animals, which largely lack memory
and conscious planning, quite likely live in an eternal present. Because animals, unlike
plants, have the characteristic of being able to move about in nature, we can assume that
 At the Speed of Light (Landvik) 79

one of the brain’s original functions was the instinct to be able to find the way home to the
nest. “Homing” is in fact a very interesting scientifically identified phenomenon that con-
cerns the unexplained — despite a great deal of research — ability of animals to make their
way home over considerable distances. Many owners of animals have wondered at the ability
of a cat or a dog, for example, to find its way home over hundreds or even thousands of
kilometers if it has been left or lost by its owner. This holds true in spite of such obstacles
as roads, cities, lakes and rivers. Among fish, “natal homing” to their birthplace is a fixed
instinctive behavior. The journeys of migratory birds have been mapped as they repeat their
annual migrations across vast distances year after year, reaching their goal with unfailing
precision. The exact route need not be identical, but the goal is. Further, the domesticated
pigeon has a history of extensive use, from at least about 3000 B.C.E. until the invention of
the telegraph in 1792, to carry messages and letters. The last regular carrier-pigeon post
went between Great Barrier Island off New Zealand to Auckland, 92 kilometers; it was dis-
continued in 1908. The phenomenon is based on the pigeon’s finding its way home to its
dovecote in the same way migratory birds do to their hatching places. This unexplained
orientational ability is constantly being demonstrated today through so-called pigeon racing,
which has become a sport under human auspices. The pigeon must first be transported by
ordinary means to the dispatch location, which might be a considerable distance from its
own nest. If a pigeon changes residence, it soon finds its way home to the new nest. This
holds for dogs and cats as well. The sea turtle has also been the subject of extensive scientific
studies due to its ability, immediately after hatching alone on the beach, without any parent
present, to crawl down into the water and, without any instructions, begin its life in the
sea. It knows instinctively and innately what to do. Later on, it makes its “homeward jour-
neys” through oceans back to the beach where it was born, by a route that takes into account
both swimming speed and the drift of ocean currents. This has been documented scien-
tifically with mounted transmitters and satellite surveillance.
When the “homing ability” of animals has been studied, it has been assumed that it
must be able to be explained according to principles of orientation that human beings can
conceive of, such as geomagnetism, scents, visual memory, etc. In spite of extensive efforts,
however, these hypotheses have not proved capable of explaining the phenomenon, which
leads instead to the most likely explanation, that the animals in fact have an ability to ori-
entate themselves that is instinctive and genetically inherited. It is important to reflect a
bit on this. If an animal with an “autopilot” manages to find its way home across consid-
erable distances and in totally unknown terrain, where does this ability come from? How
is it communicated? How is this possible? The next challenge to realize is that since we
humans originate from animals, then we too probably retain this capacity for instinctive
behavior and knowledge, even if our consciousness has taken over most of our needs to
orientate ourselves in nature.

Intuition Is the Stage Whisper of the Subconscious

Thales was the first of the Greek natural philosophers. He was on the council of “seven
sages” who were held in the highest regard in ancient Greek society; this council was con-
nected with the new temple at Delphi when it was inaugurated in the mid-seventh century
B.C.E. as a “shrine to wisdom.” Thales explained that all life had originated in water, some-
thing we know today is correct. In the sixth century B.C.E., Pythagoras stated that everything
is numbers, and Anaxagoras, in the fifth century B.C.E., that all things are infinitely divisible:
80 Part I. Consciousness

no part can ever be so small that it cannot theoretically be halved once more. The natural
philosophers Leucippus and Democritus, also in the fifth century B.C.E., thought rather that
“the atom” is the smallest indivisible unit of matter; everything consists of atoms, even
human thoughts and feelings. Atomos is Greek for indivisible. Atoms, according to Leucip-
pus and Democritus, would be nature’s smallest particles— too small to be seen, having
different geometrical forms, and being in constant motion. How could they guess? According
to this theory, every object and every living thing is composed of atoms in different com-
binations. In fact, this has proved to be correct. At that time, however, it was a totally unre-
lated and unverifiable theory, based only on intuition, inspiration or subconscious
prediction, whatever one wishes to call it. The doctrine of atoms had no immediate success,
however, since it contradicted the divine powers. After that, no one bothered with this
“prediction” until more than 2,200 years later, in the nineteenth century, when John Dalton
formulated the modern concept of the atom in a similar manner. The name “atom” was
bestowed as a tribute to the “visionaries.”
Today the predictions of Leucippus and Democritus are considered remarkable, to be
sure, but also erroneous, since the atom has been found to consist of still smaller particles.
In another sense, though, the prediction is correct. If matter is divided into smaller and
smaller parts, matter remains in the form of atoms the whole time, but when the last atom
is divided, its electromagnetic system and internal structure dissolve. In this way the atom
is indeed indivisible: it cannot be divided into two units of the same kind, and this is what
Leucippus and Democritus might have meant as the difference from Anaxagoras’ principle
of eternal divisibility. Incidentally, Anaxagoras was eventually sentenced to death for his
impious declaration that the sun and stars are actually glowing rocks, which they are of
course, in principle, but he succeeded in fleeing and lived on in exile. He became most well
known, however, for his statement that everything in the physical world contains a part of
everything. This undeniably resembles today’s theories and knowledge about both the brain
and the DNA molecule, where the whole exists in every part, like a hologram. It could
actually become the most remarkable premonition of all, as, according to certain quantum
physics theories, the holographic principle could eventually very well turn out to be a viable
explanation of the physical world from the human being’s perspective.
One might note that since no laboratory technique whatsoever existed at the time, the
most advanced ideas must have been seized straight out of the air, as intuition or subcon-
scious knowledge. Or might the statements even have originated from oracles? Democritus
himself, according to historical writings, was trained by Egyptian magi. Whatever the expla-
nations, it appears more likely than not that phenomena of what could today be called sub-
conscious knowledge have been involved in the oldest and most startling theories on the
nature of matter in the history of physics.

The Mysterious Brain

Knowledge about the brains of animals and human beings is still very limited. The
brain is nature’s greatest mystery. Given the manifest ability of animals to find their way
by instinct, it is likely that the brain of all animals, including the human being, not only
has a coordinating command function for its own body’s nervous system but is in turn an
integral part of a larger communicating system. Characteristic of the human brain is a con-
scious problem-solving ability together with a memory and planning function that, in con-
trast to the animals, makes possible the experience of existence in a time and space
 At the Speed of Light (Landvik) 81

perspective. Still, no matter how mysterious the brain may be, it has not been accepted by
science as having more than a local function for its own body, despite the fact that obser-
vations in all ages have suggested that the brain also appears to be “nonlocal” in its function,
something that shows itself, for instance, through instinct and intuition.
The brain’s levels of functioning can be figuratively divided into a conscious and a
subconscious, of which the latter is very little researched. One reason for this lack of knowl-
edge about the human subconscious is that the religions have long had the exclusive right
to the spiritual aspect of the human being. Ever since modern science began developing in
the sixteenth century, the question of the spiritual constitution of the human being has not
been a permitted area of research, owing to the different religions of the world. Not until
the year 2000, for example, was the church separated from the state in Sweden. However,
church philosophers have historically devoted a great deal of interest to the construction
of nature. The church father Augustine wrote in the fifth century, “Miracles are not contrary
to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature.” In that time, and today as
well, material nature and the soul have been assumed to represent two different “worlds,”
one physical and one psychic. The psychic world has been assumed to be beyond the pos-
sibility of human beings ever to understand. This is no longer the case. Instead, with today’s
knowledge, everything in the universe can be assumed to have a common basic physical
principle of functioning based entirely on cause and effect. It embraces everything from
the stars to planet Earth with its matter and biological life, including human beings with
their behaviors, thoughts, feelings, dreams and subconscious processes.

Human Free Will Is an Illusion

Human beings, together with all other biological life on Earth, plants as well as animals,
are part of a single great shared family tree, inasmuch as all life once began from the same
“original cell” in the ocean. Further, the pre-programmed cells of the human body, like
everything else alive, have in common with the stars of the Milky Way and the galaxies of
the universe that their conditions, destinies, and generational successions appear to be pre-
determined. “Everything in nature is the result of fixed laws,” said Charles Darwin. Indeed,
this statement is now further justified by, among other things, the revolutionary discovery
of the DNA molecule, the hereditary disposition of nature with the genetic code, whose
discoverers, Watson and Crick, were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1962. Crick has described
the consequence of this as follows: “You, your joys and sorrows, your memories and your
ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior
of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules” (1994, p. 3). His supposition
is that there is an unconscious part of the brain which mediates everything we are going
to do. These ideas later pop up in consciousness as if from nowhere, which gives an illusion
of free will.
Through the discovery of the DNA molecule, every cell in the human being, as well
as in all other biological systems, has shown itself to contain a complete blueprint for the
whole of which it is a part, i.e., the whole body. The genetic material of the DNA molecule
contains a specification down to the last detail for all attributes of an organism, e.g., physical
constitution, appearance, behaviors and health profile. The entire “foundation of the blue-
print” for all physical and psychic functions exists in each one of the approximately 100,000
billion cells of the human body. The mental functions are in fact basically physical. Inasmuch
as everything is mathematics, nature’s in-built and indescribably complex process-
82 Part I. Consciousness

management system in every species makes today’s most advanced computer technology
compare to a simple counting frame. All matter and all life is created with the same law-
bound building blocks— the brains of animals and human beings too. Every feeling, reac-
tion, impulse, thought or event is the result of precise physical processes in the brain.
Therefore, in nature, including human and animal lives, there is no chance and consequently
no free will, even if people perceive it that way.
Experiments that have been conducted to measure the brain’s signals in connection
with decision making (Libet, University of California, 1979, and The Max Planck Institute
for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig 2008) seem to show that the human brain
contains both an apparent deciding consciousness and an unconscious “actual” deciding
subconscious. The studies show that the person’s conscious decision is preceded, by up to
ten seconds, by an unconscious decision that is signaled in another part of the brain. The
comment of the lead author of the latter study was, “We can’t rule out free will, but I think
it’s very implausible” (Feder Ostrov 2008).

Einstein’s “Space-time” Is a Landscape

in Which All Events Already Exist
At the beginning of the twentieth century, Albert Einstein argued on the basis of the
theory of relativity, which is valid for the world of consciousness in all other respects and
constitutes the foundation of modern physics, that it is no longer possible to regard time
and space as separate but only as parts of a single four-dimensional system: length x breadth
x height x time. Space-time, according to Einstein, can be seen as a landscape in which all
events already exist. He has expressed his conviction about man’s lack of free will in the
following ways, among others:
Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end, by forces over which we have no con-
trol. It is determined for the insect as well as the star. Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust,
we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper [Einstein: The Life
and Times, R. W. Clark 1979, p. 422].

And:
I do not believe in free will. Schopenhauer’s words: “Man can do what he wants, but he cannot will
what he wills,” accompany me in all situations throughout my life and reconcile me with the
actions of others, even if they are rather painful to me. This awareness of the lack of free will keeps
me from taking myself and my fellow men too seriously as acting and deciding individuals, and
from losing my temper [Einstein 1932].

And when his lifelong friend Michele Besso died in 1955, Einstein wrote a letter consoling
Besso’s family:
Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like
us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present and future is only a
stubbornly persistent illusion [Einstein 1955].

The EPR Paradox

In 1905, the same year Einstein presented his special theory of relativity, he also
described light’s potential to occur not only as a wave but also as a stream of particles,
quanta, later called photons. This was the basis of quantum mechanics, for which, in prin-
ciple, Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1921, once the significance of the discovery
 At the Speed of Light (Landvik) 83

had been realized. However, he eventually came to be seen mistakenly as a doubter of quan-
tum mechanics. He was not, of course, but like all other physicists he had problems under-
standing it. Even today it is not fully understood, which has not prevented its practical
application from contributing substantially to technological development in the world. In
1935, via what is called the “EPR paradox,” Einstein was able to demonstrate mathematically
that quantum mechanics stood in conflict with the theory of relativity and the image of
reality that was assumed to apply as a law of nature. According to Einstein’s calculations,
the particles of quantum mechanics appeared to exhibit a timeless element that he described
as “spooky action at a distance.” And certainly he was right to be troubled. No one at that
time could imagine that nature would prove to be divided into two completely different
law-bound domains, macrocosmos and microcosmos, the first with time, space and mass,
the latter at least partly timeless, spaceless and massless.
One might wonder why Einstein did not see a connection between the predetermined
space-time landscape that his own theory of relativity in fact contains, and the timeless
quantum mechanical effect that the EPR paradox suggested but which he could not believe
was possible. Further, he was convinced that free will does not exist. Nor did the conse-
quences of time’s being relative, his own discovery, arouse in him the thought that time-
lessness could in fact exist in the microcosmos. It can be said in Einstein’s defense, though,
that at that time there was no reason to think that anything could move at the speed of light
or that particles could be nonlocally entangled. As a matter of fact, the theory of relativity
expressly dictates that nothing can be accelerated to the speed of light, as this would require
an infinite amount of energy. The thought that matter could contain massless particles that
had once been created naturally at the speed of light in connection with e.g., a Big Bang,
or were being continuously created by the sun’s nuclear reactions, did not cross anyone’s
mind at the time.

Quantum Mechanics Opens the Door

to Timelessness and Nonlocality
Ever since the seventeenth century, determinism, i.e., the supposition that the future
is predetermined by the underlying logic of all events, was the scientifically based theory
for the evolution of life. Through Einstein’s theory of relativity in 1905, science appeared
to further confirm the conformity of nature and existence to law, and that human free will
therefore could not exist. However, with the presence of quantum mechanics since the
1920s, with its uncertainty principle due to the apparent indeterminacy of the subatomic
particles, it was taken as a possibility that existence is not predetermined.
With that, human free will and chance became popular as a modern philosophy of life
after all the millennia under the will of the gods. It was not until 1982, however, that Alain
Aspect, at the University of Paris, carried out what was perhaps the most important exper-
iment in the history of science. The idea for this had been developed back in 1964 by John
Bell, inspired by insights by David Bohm. The experiment’s purpose was to perform and
verify in practice Einstein’s theoretical EPR paradox of 1935, which had demonstrated that
in order for the equations of quantum theory to tally, timeless communication between
subatomic particles must exist. Aspect’s experiment forty-seven years later did in fact
confirm that this revolutionizing communication actually does exist, something that has
since been substantiated by several other researchers.
In relation to traditional physics quantum mechanics was ultimately just as “spooky”
84 Part I. Consciousness

as Einstein had calculated theoretically from basic quantum mechanical data and for that
reason had been unable to believe. Aspect established that a particle of light, a photon, can
be in different places at the same time. Despite the fact that the photon appears in space
like different particles, those particles are nevertheless, inexplicably enough, identical and
interconnected, or “entangled,” in a “nonlocal” timeless and spaceless microworld. One
particle always knows what the other one or ones are doing and reacts simultaneously to
every change in the system. On top of that, it is obvious that in connection with these
experiments, the human brain also unconsciously participates in and is capable of affecting
the quantum mechanical processes, something that must now of necessity also be included
in the scientific considerations. Thoughts, too, can be assumed to be made up of particles
and influence physical systems. Timelessness, or nonlocality, in the particle world does not
in fact conflict with the theory of relativity but rather confirms one of its cornerstones, that
“at the speed of light, time stands still.” The conclusion was that the previous incompre-
hensibility of quantum mechanics was now partially explained. A system that does not obey
the traditional principle of time and space appears chaotic and difficult to interpret since
it does not exhibit the normal pattern of cause and effect. Indeed, innumerable quotations
have expressed science’s troubles with quantum mechanics:

A philosopher once said ‘It is necessary for the very existence of science that the same
conditions always produce the same results. Well, they don’t!—Richard Feynman
If you are not completely confused by quantum mechanics, you do not understand it.—
John Wheeler

[T]he atoms or elementary particles themselves are not real; they form a world of poten-
tialities or possibilities rather than one of things or facts.—Werner Heisenberg
The doctrine that the world is made up of objects whose existence is independent of
human consciousness turns out to be in conflict with quantum mechanics and with
facts established by experiment.—Bernard d’Espagnat

“All of today’s experimental evidence points

to the conclusion that nature is nonlocal”
Owing to the original incomprehensibility of quantum mechanics dating from the
1920s, the apparently random effects in the particle world came to be interpreted as a proof
of nature’s being essentially indeterministic. Chance and, with that, an at least partial free
will seemed to prevail on Earth for human beings and animals. This can no longer be
claimed. Repeated quantum mechanical experiments since Aspect’s 1982 experiment have
unanimously shown instead that matter is nonlocal and entangled, i.e., that it is timeless
and spaceless. If space-time does not exist on the particle level, while simultaneously the
human being consciously experiences a period of time, then this must be interpreted as its
being the very consciousness of the human being that creates the illusion of time and space.
With that, the fact that quantum mechanical experiments have been incomprehensible and
impossible to understand in relation to the human space-time system, has found its expla-
nation.
In “Quantum Nonlocality: How Does Nature Do It?” in the 4 December 2009 issue of
Science, Prof. Nicolas Gisin sums up:
All of today’s experimental evidence points to the conclusion that nature is nonlocal. This has
implications both for our worldview and for future technologies.... However, it is important to
 At the Speed of Light (Landvik) 85

state that the nonlocal correlations of quantum physics are nonsignaling. That is, the particles do
not communicate information [Gisin 2009].

This means that the particles do not communicate information between themselves
with any time-bound principle of cause and effect resembling that in the local conscious
world of the human being. The process is naturally timeless and spaceless through matter’s
own nonlocal instant communication system. This system of nature’s is expected to lead
to the next IT revolution. See information on the Internet about “quantum computer,”
“quantum Internet” and “quantum teleportation.”
In the future, quantum mechanics’ natural phenomenon, nature’s inner timelessness,
researched intensively for about a hundred years but so far not understood, will create a
new generation of revolutionary high-tech inventions, especially in information technology.
As with other epochal natural phenomena in human history —fire, for example — it is not
always necessary to fully understand the underlying principle before using it in practice.
However, with the timeless phenomenon of quantum mechanics, there is every reason for
trying to understand its cause as well. This is a matter not just of a practically applicable
natural phenomenon but simultaneously of a revolutionary aspect of humanity’s own psy-
chic construction and conception of the world.

Both the Theory of Relativity and

Quantum Mechanics Allow for Timelessness
The reckoning of time is a very ancient, practical method for ordering those events
that human beings plan, experience and remember in consciousness. It was based originally
only on Earth’s rotation and after that, on its rotation and period of revolution around the
sun. This method held until 1967, when the basis for measuring time was transferred to the
decay of the cesium atom. In 1905, Einstein had already shown in theory, as one part of the
theory of relativity, that time, and consequently biological aging, is not an absolute mech-
anism but proceeds at different speeds depending on the speed at which a body travels in
space. Time is relative. According to the theory of relativity, the highest speed anything can
have is the speed of light in a vacuum. At the speed of light, not only do space and time
cease to exist but also mass, which is then transformed into energy — invisible mass. By
means of an experiment in 1971 with atomic clocks in airplanes and on the ground, also
this part of Einstein’s theory of relativity was actually able to be substantiated in practice,
even though on this scale the difference is very small. Time goes more slowly for a body in
motion than for a body at rest. When a body is moving faster than the speed of Earth in
space, time goes more slowly for this body in comparison with Earth time; the greater the
speed, the slower the passage of time. And at the speed of light, time stops.
For a long time, the so-called “twin paradox” of the theory of relativity, which, like the
“EPR paradox” of quantum mechanics was formulated by Einstein, was doubted by many
and thought to be simply unbelievable. A paradox is a true statement but which is seemingly
absurd. Today the “twin paradox” too is substantiated, although in a small scale, and is a
scientifically accepted consequence of the relativity of time. The conditions are: one twin
remains on Earth while the other makes a journey in a space rocket at a speed that is con-
siderably greater than the speed of Earth in space. When the space-traveling twin returns
to Earth he finds that the twin who remained has aged significantly more than the one who
traveled. In the same way, a son who remains on Earth could be older than his father when
the father returns from a space trip at a speed that has been sufficiently greater than Earth’s.
86 Part I. Consciousness

Time’s relativity in accordance with the theory of relativity with its ultimate consequence
of timelessness, together with the ascertained timelessness of particles in accordance with
quantum mechanics, means that both of these fundamental scientific systems of physics
confirm, on the basis of different observations, the theoretical possibility of a timeless and
spaceless dimension.

Einstein’s Last Prediction: “If anyone can do it,

then it will be Bohm” (Peat 1997, p. 104)
Einstein’s intelligence and intuition led him to a series of insights beyond compare in
the history of science. David Bohm (1917–1992) was Einstein’s disciple and discussion part-
ner and one of the most prominent quantum physicists in the generation after Einstein,
Bohr, Heisenberg and the other great names in quantum mechanics. Through their con-
versations, Bohm had won Einstein’s confidence, and they had developed a shared under-
standing of the complex relation of quantum mechanics to the theory of relativity. With
the 1935 thought experiment of the EPR paradox, Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen had brought
the issue to a head with a theoretical calculation which meant that only a timeless mechanism
on the particle level would be capable of explaining the apparent lawlessness of quantum
mechanics. The familiar account of the story says that in 1964 John Bell reformulated this
thought experiment as a practical experiment so as to be able to verify the EPR paradox.
This finally occurred successfully in 1982 through Alain Aspect. With that, the nonlocality
of particle nature was established.
Something that does not ordinarily come out is the crucial role David Bohm played
in this scientific drama to reveal the secret of quantum mechanics. John Bell describes the
background himself:
In 1952 I saw the impossible done. It was in papers by David Bohm. Bohm showed explicitly how
parameters could indeed be introduced, into nonrelativistic wave mechanics, with the help of which
the indeterministic description could be transformed into a deterministic one [Bell 1987, p. 160].
Bell says further:
Bohm’s 1952 papers on quantum mechanics were for me a revelation. The elimination of indeter-
minism was very striking. But more important, it seemed to me, was the elimination of any need
for a vague division of the world into “system” on the one hand, and “apparatus” or “observer” on
the other. I have always felt since that people who have not grasped the ideas of those papers ... and
unfortunately they remain the majority ... are handicapped in any discussion of the meaning of
quantum mechanics [Ibid., p. 173].
Thus, when Einstein put it that “if anyone can do it, then it will be Bohm,” he had
good reason. And again his intuition was right. But it was not only Einstein who was
impressed. Richard Feynman, another of the great names of quantum mechanics, declared
Bohm the smartest man he had ever met. It is important to understand Bohm’s exceptional
intelligence in connection with the assessment of his subsequent career, as he then brought
up theories that many regarded as far too speculative. Through collaboration with the brain
researcher Karl Pribram in the 1970s, Bohm developed a theory that everything which exists
in the universe can be compared to a hologram, a holographic image, in which the whole
exists in every part. This can be compared with the knowledge about the cell’s DNA, where
the whole also exists in every part. Holography is a photographic method that is based on
laser light and was discovered in 1947 by Dennis Gabor, for which he received the Nobel
Prize in physics in 1971. If a holographic image is divided into various smaller parts, the
 At the Speed of Light (Landvik) 87

entire image is still represented in every part when they are once again illuminated with a
laser. This phenomenon gave Bohm the idea that in the same way, quantum mechanics’
particles also remain in contact after they have been divided, not by means of any signal
occurring between them but because the separation is an illusion for the human being.
Bohm proposed by analogy that the entire universe is a hologram and that every part con-
tains the information about everything, i.e., an extension of nature’s already-known local
DNA principle for every individual biological system, to encompass all matter. Bohm’s the-
ories about the ultimate consequences of quantum mechanics did not fall on fertile ground,
however. The problem is that natural science is still cautious about discussing the conse-
quences of nonlocality’s existing on the subatomic level, despite the fact that since Aspect’s
experiment in 1982, quantum mechanics has consistently shown this to be a fact. On the
subatomic level, nonlocality unequivocally exists. However, such an acknowledgement,
e.g., in the form of awarding a Nobel Prize for Aspect, which there has been talk of for
years, would create an embarrassing situation for natural science, whose foundation and
tradition are still composed of the law-boundedness of space-time and the world of con-
sciousness. It is only a question of time, however, before this outlook has to be modified.
New Scientist, 15 January 2009, says for instance, confirming Bohm’s view from the 1970s
of the universe as a hologram: The idea that we live in a hologram probably sounds absurd,
but it is a natural extension of our best understanding of black holes, and something with
a pretty firm theoretical footing. It has also been surprisingly helpful for physicists wrestling
with theories of how the universe works at its most fundamental level (Chown 2009).

Parapsychology Studies Timeless

and Spaceless Phenomena of the Subconscious
Human consciousness functions in a time and space perspective, i.e., it has the possi-
bility to perceive and register directly with its own senses only what happens in its immediate
vicinity. In the human subconscious, on the other hand, there exists neither time nor space,
according to parapsychology. Though it is not systematically accessible, knowledge exists
there, in principle, about everything that has happened, happens or will happen — every-
where. Experience has shown that an experiment leader’s attitude has great significance for
the outcome of a parapsychology result, just like the leader’s role in many other contexts.
In other words, the belief, desire or conviction of a team leader as well as an experiment
leader is important and obviously capable of creating an unconscious rapport with or
influence on people, animals, plants and even inanimate matter, like particles. Well-known
and scientifically proven mental phenomena of this kind include the medical placebo effect
and hypnosis. A positive attitude yields better results than a negative one. Besides the mental
influence of human beings on biological systems and even non-biological systems, the exis-
tence of timeless and spaceless psychic phenomena in the form of e.g., divination and remote
viewing, has been challenging people in all ages. Modern experimental statistical parapsy-
chology has in fact confirmed that the human being can have these abilities.

A Number of Nobel Laureates Have Been

Convinced of the Validity of Parapsychology
Parapsychology is the study of subconscious phenomena. As these have timeless and
spaceless knowledge as a necessary prerequisite, they have automatically not won the interest
88 Part I. Consciousness

of modern society and science. According to the present interpretations of the natural laws
, they cannot exist. The task of natural science has instead been to try creating order in
existence by, among other things, replacing old folklore, superstition and religious concep-
tions with logical knowledge. In 1882, the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), London,
was founded by academics and scholars with the intention of using scientific principles to
investigate the challenging psychic phenomena of unaccountable knowledge — e.g., tele-
pathy (transmission of thought), clairvoyance (remote viewing), precognition (prediction),
dowsing (to find water or something else that is sought). From the very beginning,
SPR represented the highest possible scientific credibility and purpose. Among those who
served as chairman during the first fifty years were two British prime ministers, Arthur
Balfour and William Gladstone, and honorary members included four Nobel laureates:
John Strutt (physics), William Crookes (physics), Charles Richet (medicine) and Henri
Bergson (literature). Other Nobel laureates who have devoted considerable interest to
parapsychology are Marie and Pierre Curie (physics) and Brian Josephson (quantum
physics).
Albert Einstein, also a Nobel laureate, made his contribution to the history of para-
psychology by writing the preface to Upton Sinclair’s book Mental Radio (1927), which
describes experiments by Sinclair’s wife with “remote viewing.” As a close friend, Einstein
considers it out of the question that the results would not be recounted truthfully and
cannot explain any other way it might have worked unless it were, as he writes, “through
telepathy or some unconscious hypnotic influence from person to person.” In addition to
these prime ministers and Nobel laureates, among the members of SPR there have been a
large number of other prominent scientists who were convinced of the reality of the phe-
nomena. From about the 1930s, however, it became less and less appropriate for a scientist
to have an interest in this subject that neither behaved consistently nor could be given any
explanation, but, on the contrary, was considered to run counter to all reason and was
increasingly regarded as trickery, superstitiousness or old folklore.
It is common to paranormal knowledge that it can be expressed through the practi-
tioner’s autonomic nervous system, by means of what are called automatisms, in the form
of speech, writing, sight, hearing and other muscular reflexes, when consciousness is passive.
Experiences from these studies as well as all subsequent ones have shown that the uncon-
scious knowledge can sometimes be entirely correct, even in details, but for some wise
reason is most often quantitatively wrong. Its great value, instead, is to be a piece of the
puzzle for science about the psychic constitution of the human being.
With regard to the phenomenon of “communication with the deceased,” spiritualism,
the conclusion early on was that this phenomenon cannot be interpreted as an actual expres-
sion of communication “with the other side” but rather as the ability of the experiment
leader, the medium, to paranormally perceive knowledge that is incorporated in the con-
sciously accepted belief system. The adjustment of the subconscious to the belief which the
practitioner maintains or is open to seems to be able to create corresponding physical or
psychic effects. This holds not only for a positive intention, as in connection with healing,
for example, but also negatively, through phenomena like black magic or more everyday
forms of pessimism. The problem with all practice of the phenomena of the subconscious
is that the attitude and expectations of the experiment leader automatically become part of
the results, which are therefore always subjective. For this reason, this highly interesting
and important field of research has in fact been very difficult to generalize and to understand
the mechanisms of.
 At the Speed of Light (Landvik) 89

Modern Parapsychology Is Proven

in Accordance with Standards of All Other Science
The task of early psychic research taken on by SPR was to experimentally investigate
phenomena that were called at the time telepathy (thought transmission), clairvoyance
(remote viewing), precognition (prediction) and also psychokinesis (mental effects on
objects). The collected documentation of experiences and experiments in this area, reported
by SPR, conveys both honesty and scientific ambition.
Modern parapsychological research with statistical card-guessing experiments was
developed in the 1930s by J. B. Rhine at Duke University, North Carolina, in the United
States, and is applied today in many university-affiliated parapsychology research projects
around the world. These experiments have also often provided convincing evidence of gen-
eral human ability in Extra Sensory Perception, ESP, but even so, not repeatable enough
for science to accept its existence. The problem is that natural science rules out that the
human being could possess any information process beyond the conscious senses, in spite
of the fact that we still have very limited knowledge of the brain. In an interview with The
Daily Mail, Dr. Richard Wiseman, one of the foremost representatives of the sceptics,
says:
I agree that by the standards of any other area of science that remote viewing is proven, but begs
the question: do we need higher standards of evidence when we study the paranormal? I think we
do.... Because remote viewing is such an outlandish claim that will revolutionize the world, we
need overwhelming evidence before we draw any conclusions. Right now we don’t have that evi-
dence [Penman 2008].

Can the scientific community really support “rules of admission” like this? Far too many
demonstrably intelligent people have believed in and given a great deal of serious interest
to parapsychological phenomena; to dismiss these observations as results of imagination
or deception is not only a collective insult but also exceedingly unwise. Instead, it would
be in the interest of humanity to seek new knowledge when reasonable grounds exist, not
to protect established conceptions and actively oppose new, plausibly well-founded hypothe-
ses and ideas, however strange they may seem.
On the other hand, the statement of the sceptic above does indirectly imply a recog-
nition of parapsychology as an important field of research by a representative of an organ-
ization that for many years has voluntarily taken upon itself the mission of constantly
categorically denying and spreading disinformation about the research results of the subject
matter. The parapsychological processes appear to be so intelligently constructed by nature,
however, that they are not generally reliable and therefore cannot be exploited to a systematic
extent through e.g. various forms of divination or other truth-seeking. For instance, in
general the error rate is substantially greater than the hit rate per experiment, while the
qualitative hit rate can be astronomically positive in relation to chance. The phenomena
are important from a purely scientific viewpoint, however, inasmuch as they provide valu-
able information about the nature of human beings and of life. Besides, it is not very likely
that parapsychological phenomena would revolutionize the world if they are confirmed to
be true at some particular statistical level, in any case no more than before in history when
they were more generally practiced in the guise of various forms of folk belief. On the other
hand, the phenomena of parapsychology could have a great deal of significance for human-
ity’s possibilities of understanding more about its own nature and the nature of existence.
Conceptions of the world have changed before.
90 Part I. Consciousness

The CIA and the U.S. Army Explored

Remote Viewing for Twenty Years
Remote viewing is the term for the parapsychological phenomenon in which a person
is able to mentally perceive an image, situation or event that is physically distant. The “Sin-
clair” experiments mentioned earlier and whose validity Einstein attested to were of this
kind. An even more extensive confirmation that psychic remote viewing is a reality, albeit
uncertain, is the fact that from 1974 to 1994 the CIA and the U.S. Army invested the equiv-
alent of about 20 million U.S. dollars in investigating the possibility of using it in intelligence
work. The official conclusion after twenty years of experiments was that ultimately, in spite
of everything, the technique was not usable. Bearing in mind the impenetrable unreliability
of parapsychological phenomena, this is not surprising, rather a confirmation of their
nature. Whether the project’s official endpoint is true, however, is an open question. Add
to this the fact that after completing their service, a number of remote viewers who took
part in “Project Stargate,” as it was called, opened their own businesses offering intelligence
services using this method to companies and private persons. A warning is always in place,
however, to those who seek information through remote viewers, mediums, fortune tellers,
dowsers and other practitioners of subconscious knowledge. The subconscious information
is far from always correct, precisely as the CIA has also concluded. Perhaps up to 20 –30
percent for the person who really possesses this ability more than the average person. When
the information does prove correct, however, it can be correct in the kind of detail that
cannot even be expressed in relation to chance; this is and always has been the astonishing
essence of these psychic phenomena.
That the method was ultimately found not to be reliable enough is not surprising but
conforms with all other experience. However, it might also be that the final official evalu-
ation is a doctored picture aimed at giving the appearance of officially ending the project,
but that the research and perhaps the use continues in secret. In any event, the most impor-
tant conclusion of Project Stargate has to be that the phenomenon of remote viewing, and
with that, the validity of parapsychology, has apparently been judged to basically exist to
some extent, because otherwise the project would not have been kept at for twenty years.
The problem, however, is the same as always: parapsychological phenomena do not satisfy
the demands of the conscious world for repeatability, for some reason, and are therefore
difficult to demonstrate and manage with the measuring stick of natural science.

Research on the Timeless Inner World of the Human

Being Is as Important as Research on the World Around Us
It is only through state-aided research in parapsychology that greater knowledge of
the timeless inner aspect of the human being and of nature can be achieved. Scientific com-
missions must be established in order to make neutral inquiries under the right conditions.
Although statistical parapsychological experiments have been going on since the 1930s, the
research must continue in this manner but now elevated to science. In fact, no further
proof of parapsychology’s validity is needed; one could hardly go any further. The unreli-
ability that parapsychological phenomena display is simply built into the nature of the phe-
nomena. The overall picture, however, is clear enough to establish the existence of what is
a fundamental aspect of the human being, sometimes more and sometimes less obvious,
depending on parameters that are not properly mapped out but in which belief is important,
 At the Speed of Light (Landvik) 91

positive or negative depending on which kind of effects are to be studied. This can be com-
pared to the placebo effect in medicine, which is now scientifically proven and in which
belief is important as well. However, more researchers, more experiments and more lectures
are needed in order for the subject of parapsychology to exist and be commented on in the
media, so that the scientific world and the public will be informed on a continuing basis
and will gradually realize its valid existence.
Research on the inner being of the human should be no less important than research
on the surrounding world. The new particle accelerator at CERN, for example, cost about
6 billion USD to build and has an annual budget of about 1 billion USD. The International
Space Station, ISS, cost 130 billion USD; in addition to this are annual costs of about 1
billion USD. For parapsychology, the annual investment of public funds is set at about zero
USD. Even if research on the human being’s erratic subconscious timeless transmission of
information includes no commercial value, merely an official confirmation of its existence
would mean a new chapter in human history. In the long run, this is not possible to avoid
anyhow.

On the Way to a New Conception of the World

In 1633, Galileo Galilei was sentenced to eternal house arrest because he maintained,
like Copernicus before, that Earth was not the center of the universe but merely one planet
among others orbiting the sun. This judgment was formally repealed by the Catholic Church
only in 2000, after what was presumably the longest sentence in history. In Galileo’s day it
was the Church’s belief that constituted science and described the natural order. Today it
is natural science that determines what is science and instead of being shut in like Galileo,
parapsychology is shut out. Since parapsychology is a subject that is complex, difficult to
understand, and partially encumbered by old folk beliefs, it has not won the confidence of
science despite the existence of qualitative and quantitative evidence that, for every other
science, would be regarded as convincing. It is highly likely, however, that inherent in the
subject is a scientific revolution that is going to affect not only the worldview of science
but also people’s lives and way of looking at each other, at themselves and at their destinies.
Nevertheless, the validity of natural science for the human being’s conscious world will not
change. It will merely be complemented by the insight that in our subconscious, as well as
in nature in general, there is a parallel timeless and spaceless dimension that sometimes
makes itself known, and, naturally, that there is no actual chance, or good or bad luck, but
that everything has already happened, or is predetermined, however one wishes to see it.
As human beings, in the future, too, we will experience our choices and decisions in
daily life as free and as our own, despite our knowing deep inside that in every situation
they are givens, like all other events regardless of whether or not we cause them ourselves.
The difference from a real free will is not great. We experience our identities in the same
way as before. Life is still as interesting because we do not know what will happen and what
we will aim to do until we consciously “decide.” As it is, most of what happens to and
around us depends on events and causal connections beyond our own control. In this
respect our free will is already restricted. With the new conception of the world , we do not
need to worry in the same way about what is going to happen; even so, we will plan, ponder,
exert ourselves and still worry for sure, in spite of the fact that things can only turn out
one way. It is built into our nature. We do not choose our thoughts and decisions; they
come to us. When things go well we can rejoice at being fortunate and capable. We will
92 Part I. Consciousness

still, however, have to be accountable for the consequences of wrong decisions and negative
events, even though it might seem unjust. In itself, it already is today, inasmuch as we are
able to choose neither our genes nor the environment we grow up in and most of what is
happening around us. Compassion, understanding and tolerance among people will come
to feel more natural. It is not that much a question of condemnation and punishment, but
more of solidarity and support in a strange world.

References
Bell, J. 1987. Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics. UK: Cambridge University Press.
Chown, M. 2009. “Our World May Be a Giant Hologram.” New Scientist 2691 (15 Jan. 2009).
Clark, R. W. 1979. Einstein: The Life and Times. New York: Avon, 422.
Crick, F. 1994. The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul. New York: Scribner’s.
d’Espagnat, B. 1979. “The Quantum Theory and Reality.” Scientific American 241:5.
Einstein, A. 1932. “Mein glaubensbekenntnis [My Credo].” Albert Einstein in the World Wide Web,
http://www.einstein-website.de/z_biography/credo.html (accessed 20 Sept. 2010).
_____. 1935. Quoted by T. Folger in Newsflash: “Time May Not Exist.” Discover Magazine 12. http://dis-
covermagazine.com/2007/jun/in-no-time/article_view?b_start:int=1&-C= (accessed 20 Sept. 2010).
Feder Ostrov, B. 2008. “Free Will? Not as Much as You Think.” The Boston Globe. http://www.boston.
com/news/health/articles/2008/04/14/free_will_not_as_much_as_you_think/ (accessed 22 Sept. 2010).
Feynman, R. Quote found at Multiplication by Infinity, http://tetrahedral.blogspot.com/2010/06/thirteen-
quotes-by-richard-feynman.html (accessed 30 Sept. 2010).
Gisin, N. 2009. “Quantum Nonlocality: How Does Nature Do It?” Science 326: 1357–1358.
Heisenberg, W. Quote found at Quantum Enigma, http://quantumenigma.com/nutshell/notable-quotes-
on-quantum-physics/ (accessed 30 Sept. 2010).
Peat, F. D. 1997. Infinite Potential: The Life and Times of David Bohm. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley.
Penman, D. 2008. “Could There Be Proof to the Theory That We’re ALL Psychic?” Daily Mail.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-510762/Could-proof-theory-ALL-psychic.html (accessed
16 Feb. 2010).
Wheeler, J. Quote found at Physics Musings, http://phys.wordpress.com/2006/06/09/quantum-
mechanical-quotes/ (accessed 30 Sept. 2010).
 PART II: NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES/
THEORETICAL POSSIBILITIES

Near-Death Experiences: The Ins

and Outs of NDE Perception
GÖRAN GRIP, M.D.

I have no need for the near-death experience (NDE) to be nothing but lack of oxygen.
Also I have no need for it to be proof that consciousness leaves the body. But my two NDEs
have told me that perception during an NDE is something more than or something different
from what is commonly believed. This article, however, is not an effort to put forward a
new hypothesis, only to point out a few interesting details about the experience which —
if the experience is more than lack of oxygen — might point in an interesting, fruitful direc-
tion. So let us for the sake of argument assume that the near- death experience is more than
a figment of a dying mind.
When I was a child my father and I had a fight. I wanted to eat only meat, but my
father wanted me to eat (much cheaper) potatoes as well. To persuade me he told me, incor-
rectly, that it is only potatoes that make little boys grow. I did want to grow up, didn’t I?
Eventually I gave in to my father and started eating potatoes. In order to please him
and justify my surrender, I made up an explanation as to why I should eat this unsavory
food: whereas meat went from the mouth straight down into the stomach, each chunk of
potato made a detour into the skull, giving the roof of the skull a small push from under-
neath, that made the little boy grow a teeny-weeny bit.
This was my first scientific theory. Founded on false and incomplete information and
driven by my need for reality to be in a certain way, it was not unlike many other theories
humans make up to explain a totally unknown territory.
When Raymond Moody published his book Life After Life1 on the near-death experience
(NDE) in 1975, it would, if taken at face value, have threatened the ruling paradigm of con-
sciousness. The scientific community immediately came up with theories, and, like my
potato theory, most of them were founded on ignorance and a need for reality to be in a
certain way — in their case unchanged.
The first line of defense against the NDE was that Moody had made up the whole story
in order to make money. The next line of defense was that it was his interviewees who had
made up their stories, fooling Moody. Today, however, most people accept as a fact that

93
94 Part II: Near-Death Experiences/Theoretical Possibilities

people do have these experiences while unconscious and close to death, and the line of
defense has moved further up the road. I call it a line of defense because most people have
a very strong inclination to defend their view of life, even at very high costs to others or to
themselves.
During the Inquisition people who threatened the ruling belief system were quite sim-
ply killed. Later, when Dr. Semmelweis in Wien pointed out that when doctors washed
their hands before delivering babies the mothers stopped dying from puerperal fever, nobody
listened to him because he couldn’t explain why this would be so. His colleagues closed
their eyes to the clearly observable fact that Semmelweis was right and defended the ruling
paradigm, that puerperal fever was caused by “cosmic-telluric influences” (and that, indeed,
the doctors didn’t have dirty hands). At the age of 47 Semmelweis died in an insane asy-
lum.
A few years after Semmelweis’ death, Pasteur’s work with microorganisms and Lister’s
work on antiseptics had provided doctors with a theoretical framework for infections, mak-
ing them able to understand, and only then were they willing to acknowledge Semmelweis’
observations— which had been in front of their eyes all the time.
Many years ago a friend of mine who is a nurse had a cardiac arrest in an ambulance.
She had a NDE including an out-of-body experience (OBE), where she observed the straight
line on the cardiac monitor, noticed that her doctor had a very hard time performing resus-
citation in the confined space of the ambulance, and overheard the ambulance driver’s dis-
cussion over radio with the hospital.
A few weeks later she returned to her doctor and told him about her experience and
her detailed observations of what had taken place in the ambulance. “You are right,” he
answered her. “Things happened exactly as you describe them.” Her doctor now was in the
unique position of having firsthand knowledge of events observed and reported by a NDEer,
and my friend thought that he would acknowledge that something unusual, unexplainable,
had happened. But no. The doctor said: “Then you didn’t have a cardiac arrest after all.”
At first glance this looks like the easy way out for the doctor, but it isn’t. When a cardiac
monitor is available it’s very easy to diagnose a cardiac arrest: the monitor suddenly shows
a straight line, the patient becomes lifeless, stops breathing and stops responding to painful
stimuli. But rather than accepting that he had witnessed something that he couldn’t explain
and which went contrary to his beliefs about consciousness the doctor chose to explain the
whole thing away by assuming that he had made a very grave diagnostic mistake and that
he erroneously had subjected her to a dangerous and painful treatment during which he
unnecessarily cracked four of her ribs and ran a tube down her windpipe. He defended his
threatened beliefs about consciousness at the cost of severely attacking his own competence
as a doctor.2
The most common scientific explanation today for the NDE is that it is a hallucination
or a fantasy, created by a dying, oxygen-deprived brain. This is a perfect explanation — as
explanations go. In one fell swoop it explains everything; it is in accordance with available
facts and the ruling paradigm. And there are no aberrations to deal with. Except, maybe,
for corroborated OBE observations like my friend’s.
But for one who wants to defend the ruling paradigm the situation is easy. The patient
might have overheard a conversation, the ones present might be mistaken about what really
happened, the presented story is second or third hand, there are no objective proofs. And
occasionally the defender takes to the ultimate weapon: the informant lies or the author
lies. And so the ruling paradigm stands unchallenged.
 Near-Death Experiences (Grip) 95

For one who wants to prove that something extraordinary has taken place the situation
is more troublesome. Extraordinary claims need extraordinary proof.
So far no extraordinary proof has been presented, only lots of easily dismissible case
reports and other anecdotes.
Already in the 1960s, however, Charles Tart ran an experiment with Robert Monroe,3
who was able to induce OBEs more or less of his own free will. In Tart’s sleep laboratory
Monroe was to induce an OBE while hooked to an EEG machine and other monitoring
equipment. In the OBE state he was to move to the adjoining room where a technician was
monitoring him. On a high shelf under the ceiling he was to observe a five-digit number,
return to his body and report the number to the technician. This would be proof that he
had been out of his body.
After several nights in the uncomfortable, unfamiliar environment Monroe succeeded
in having a short OBE. He moved into the adjoining room looking for the female technician.
She wasn’t there, but he found her in the corridor where she was talking to a man. Monroe
made what he experienced as mental contact with her, “and only slight sexual overtones
were present which I was nearly able to disregard.” He then returned to his body and noticed
that the technician was in fact absent. He called her and told her that she had been in the
corridor with a man. She said that it was her husband. Monroe met him, and “my impression
was that I was able to identify the man she had been talking to as her husband.”
Formally this experiment was a failure, because Monroe did not report the five-digit
number, which was the objective of the experiment. However, that he correctly stated that
the technician was absent, that he correctly observed that she was talking to a man and that
he recognized the man could not be evaluated after the fact, said Tart.
Since then several books and thousands of newspaper articles have reported an
uncounted number of cases where NDEers have made observations corroborated by wit-
nesses present at the scene of the resuscitation or the accident. Such anecdotal evidence, as
it is called, generally has very low scientific value, and when it comes to the question of
whether correct observations can be made by someone who is comatose and close to death,
it has been ascribed no value at all by the scientific community.
For that reason prospective studies have been designed and performed in different
parts of the world where sheets of papers with five-digit numbers, or drawings of Mickey
Mouse and Donald Duck, or laptop computers showing random pictures have been placed
on high shelves in emergency rooms (ERs) and intensive care wards, in the hope that patients
who come close to death will have an OBE and will make an objectively verifiable obser-
vation. In some studies entire resuscitations are recorded on video. Such prospective studies,
if correctly conducted, have a much higher scientific value and would not as easily be dis-
missed by the scientific community. But so far these investigations have failed to produce
scientifically proven OBE observations. Monroe’s success-failure in the sleep lab pinpoints
three main reasons for this failure.
One, OBEs are rare events. Even the seasoned Monroe had great difficulties producing
an OBE during laboratory conditions. Only very few cardiac arrest patients arriving to the
ER in an ambulance survive, and some of them suffer acute brain damage with memory
loss afterwards. Among the survivors with intact brains only a few report an NDE. Among
the NDEers only a few report an OBE. Among the OBEers only a few take an interest in
what goes on around their lifeless body. And among them only a few make potentially ver-
ifiable observations.
Two, so far the very few observations made by the OBEers always seem to have slipped
96 Part II: Near-Death Experiences/Theoretical Possibilities

through the research net. Either they fall outside the research protocol or they are not reg-
istered by the video camera or the video camera is out of order or removed for another pur-
pose.
Three, OBEers observe only things that interest them. Monroe went directly for the
(sexually interesting) technician and totally forgot about the (dull) five-digit number.
Among the emergency room OBEers who make potentially verifiable observations very
few — to my knowledge so far no one — have noticed a Donald Duck or a laptop screen
with a scenery or anything else on a high shelf. They look at their body and at the doctors
and nurses or go to the waiting room to reassure their waiting relatives that everything is
all right. There is in the literature a case report of a female NDEer who noticed a lot of dust
on top of the light fixtures underneath the ceiling in the operating theater where she had a
near-fatal operation. But without being sexist, I guess that she was interested in dust, or
maybe in the removal of it.
In studies now underway these three obstacles are dealt with in several ways.
The rarity of the OBE and the few observations that are made but slip through the net
are compensated for by plans to collect 200 — 300 experiences in a multicenter study in the
UK and the USA.4
When it comes to the fact that OBEers have never been known to observe symbols,
numbers or drawings on a shelf beneath the ceiling some researchers have hypothesized
that although the OBEer reports that he hovers underneath the ceiling, the symbol on the
shelf is outside his visual field when he looks down at his own body, and that might be the
reason why he doesn’t notice it.
In a study designed by a research group under Peter Fenwick’s guidance5 the plan is
to project the image on a transparent screen canopy above the ER bed. There it would be
in the line of sight of the OBEer looking down at his body, and so he couldn’t avoid seeing
it. Or could he?
When we deal with a phenomenon in a field which is totally unknown to us we con-
sciously or subconsciously make assumptions about it grounded in our own frame of ref-
erence. When for example people in medieval Europe first came into contact with cotton
and were told that it grew on bushes, the thought that “wool” would grow straight out of
a bush was incomprehensible to them, and so they made a supporting, somewhat less incom-
prehensible help assumption: that small sheep existed, who lived among the branches of
the cotton tree — an idea quite on a par with my own potato theory: incompletely informed
and designed to meet a need.
The thought that an image might be outside the visual field and the idea to put an image
in the line of sight of an OBEer — or putting it on a shelf underneath the ceiling in the first
place —contain several such supporting help assumptions about the nature of perception
during an OBE, but unlike the small, tree-climbing sheep these assumptions are implicit
and therefore invisible to the naked eye, as it were.
Before we examine these assumptions let us look very closely at how perception works
during an OBE. At first glance perception seems to work the same way as usual, during an
“in-the-body experience” (IBE). But a very careful scrutiny reveals that this is not the case.
Here are three typical cases.

Agneta
Many years ago I helped a friend of mine, Agneta, with a book about her numerous
spontaneous OBEs.6 One of her OBEs occurred one afternoon when she was lying on the
 Near-Death Experiences (Grip) 97

sofa on her left side, facing the backrest, trying to get some sleep. Suddenly she noticed that
she was in the hypnagogic state (vibrations, paralysis, and a buzzing sound, which always
preceded her OBEs) and she realized that she was “out” although still within the physical
boundaries of her body. She was watching the backrest of her sofa. She heard the door open
behind her and saw her husband entering the room. She was drawn back into her body.
Period.
I asked Agneta if she found anything peculiar with this short, rather dull OBE. She
said no. I then pointed out to her that she was able to see the backrest of the sofa and her
husband, while she was out of her body, paralyzed and (if that was of any importance)
unable to move her physical head. Only then, with a start, she realized that she had been
able to see both backwards and forwards at the same time.
Most OBEers describe their experience as if perception worked like during an ordinary
IBE. They fail to notice the difference to ordinary perception. The reason might be that
even during ordinary IBEs we are mostly not aware of the details of how perception works.
We walk into a room. In front of us we notice a sofa. To the right we see a piano and on
the wall to the left a mirror. We then create an inner map of the room, and the memory of
how we moved our eyes and head in order to look at all these things is erased from conscious
memory (if it was even registered) and only the map stays. During an OBE we have no eyes
and no body to move and the inner map of the room is created in some other way (see
below). But once it is in place, it is the same kind of map, and the memory of how it was
created is erased from conscious memory (if it was even noticed).
The reason this is not mentioned or emphasized in the literature might be that the
interviewer would have to be aware of this phenomenon in order to elucidate the details
with questions aimed directly at the aberrant OBE perception, like I did with Agneta and
later with Anneli.

Anneli
I met the grown-up daughter of a friend of mine, a friend who in her childhood was
able to move almost effortlessly between this world and the OBE state. I asked the daughter,
Anneli, if she, like her mother, had had any OBEs.

— No, she said. Never. I’m not at all into my mother’s crazy business.
— Have you ever experienced your body starting to vibrate?
— But yes. Many times.
— Have you experienced your body becoming paralyzed?
— Yes, of course. Many times. Immediately after the vibrations.
— And a buzzing sound?
— No, it’s more like a thunder.
— Does this happen often?
— Yes, rather often.
— Once a year?
— No, more like once every two weeks.
— Tell me about one such occasion. The most recent one.
— Well there was nothing to it. I was lying on the sofa with my head on the armrest, watching
TV. The TV set was standing behind the other armrest and I was watching it above its rim. I got
sleepy, the vibrations started, and I slid down into the sofa. I saw my father coming into the room.
That’s all. There is nothing to it.
— OK. Could you still see the TV screen?
— Why, yes.
— And you could see your father?
98 Part II: Near-Death Experiences/Theoretical Possibilities

—Sure.
—Where was the door in relation to the sofa?
—It was behind the armrest on which my head had been resting.
— And you find nothing strange about all this?
— No, what would be strange about it?
— You slid down into the sofa, so the TV screen must have been hidden behind the armrest
close to your feet. Your father must have been hidden behind the armrest close to your head. You
were situated between your father and the TV screen and still you were able to see them both. Is
there nothing strange about that?
— No, what’s strange about that? I just used my wide-angle vision.
— Your wide-angle vision?
— Yes, she said, and only now doubt crept into her face. My wide-angle.... Doesn’t everybody...?
— Think, I said. From which point in the room did you see the TV screen and your father? What
was your vantage point?
She thought hard, bewildered.
— Maybe a point one or two feet above the sofa? I’ll be damned...

Anneli was a habitual OBEer without being aware of it. She had taken her wide-angle
experiences so much for granted that it never occurred to her to speak to anyone about
them. You don’t usually speak about breathing, passing wind or using your wide-angle
vision. But she was aware of the fact that in the OBE state her perception was more unlimited
than her perception through her physical eyes, and she even had a name for it.
Her description of her experience didn’t include a specific vantage point, just a descrip-
tion of her inner map of the room, and only when I asked her did she say that she must
have been located a few feet up in the air. This was probably a conclusion after the fact,
not part of her experience. She realized intellectually that it was only a few feet up in the
air that she would be able to see both the blocked out TV set and her hidden father.
This might be the reason why most OBEers say that they hover above the scene. They
seem to see everything in the room, and during an IBE it’s only when you are at a high
vantage point that you are able to see everything, where nearby things don’t block out
distant things.

Iris
I also talked to my friend Iris, Anneli’s mother. I asked her to tell me a typical OBE
during her childhood. She said she would sit in the swing outside her farm house. She
would set the swing into motion. She would relax. And then she would be “out.” I asked
her what she was able to see from her vantage point in the swing, without moving. (She
was able to move around freely in her OBE state.) She said she could see the farm house.
She could see the barn behind a tree. She could see the stables behind the barn. She could
see the cat walking out of the open stable door. She was able to see people in the farm house.
She was able to see all the four sides of the farm house at the same time, without moving.
— Did you have to move up in the air to see all those things?
—No. Definitely not. From my vantage point in the swing I could see all this. I didn’t have to
move. The only thing I had to do was to want to see it. And then I saw it. Without moving. I was
able to see it from a great distance. I was able, at the next moment, to see it close up, very close up.
I just decided how I wanted to see it and then I saw it that way.
Iris was the only one of my three friends who was aware of the fact that her OBE per-
ception worked differently from her in-the-body perception. The only thing I had to do was
to want to see it. I just decided how I wanted to see it and then I saw it that way [from a
distance or close up].
 Near-Death Experiences (Grip) 99

Interestingly this is, with only a small difference, how we create our inner map during
an ordinary IBE. We want to look at something and direct our eyes in that direction and
we see it — within the limits of optical laws. Afterwards we forget all physical movements,
and only the inner map of the room stays in memory.
To summarize:
Although the result of perception — the inner map of a room — on the whole is the
same in IBEs and OBEs, perception per se is different. During an OBE the observer sees
what he wants to see and movement in space doesn’t seem to be necessary. This creates in
him an impression that he hovers above the scene, as objects that are close to him don’t
block out objects at a distance. It also creates a feeling that he can see “forward” and “back-
ward” “at the same time.” From this it also follows that he only sees things that he takes an
interest in, which obviously doesn’t include five-digit numbers or Mickey Mouse images
on shelves.
Perception during an IBE is local, i.e., the eyes are at all times located at a specific point
in the room, and the eyes have to change direction and move around in order to register
different objects.
Perception during an OBE seems to be nonlocal. Perception doesn’t take place from a
specific point in the room. The experiencer is not at a certain vantage point in the room,
nor does he have to move around or direct physical eyes in different directions in order to
see what he wants to see. The reason why the OBEer doesn’t point this out and the reason
why interviewers often fail to notice it might be that the result of perception, the inner map
of the room, is the same as during an IBE.
We can now see the hidden assumptions about OBE perception. The idea of putting
an image in the line of sight of the OBEer implies that something — maybe consciousness—
hovers in the physical space above the bed, at a defined location in space. The idea that an
image underneath the ceiling is outside the visual field implies that the OBEer has a visual
field similar to that of physical eyes. And while the OBEer observes only things that interest
him, even emotionally engaging or provocative images are still only images and therefore
mostly uninteresting to him.
Here I have picked out certain aspects of the OBE that point to nonlocality. To be sure
there are other aspects of the OBE that seem to go hand in hand with the perception of
ordinary space-time locality. Some experiencers report that they have a kind of body that
is similar to their physical body, but often “thinner” or “more transparent.” They also report
that they are able to move around in physical (and also nonphysical) space with this body.
My friend Agneta would often wake up early in the morning not knowing if she was in her
body or out of it, because the two states were indistinguishable from each other. Her test
was to roll out of her bed. If she fell to the floor she was in, otherwise she was out. During
one of her very first OBEs, she woke up taking for granted that she was in her body and
went out into the kitchen. When she failed to switch on the light she noticed that her hand
went through the light switch, as if she were a semitransparent Hollywood movie ghost.
These traits seem to be local. But to rule out the idea of nonlocality only because there
are also local traits would be to make it easy for oneself by constructing help assumptions.
Details which from our vantage point in time and space seem to be inconsistent traits could
be distortions created when experiencers try to press impressions from an unfamiliar realm
into the confines of time and space.
It’s a little like when you project the spherical face of the Earth onto a flat map: you
can choose what kind of distortions you want (distorted angles, distorted surface areas,
100 Part II: Near-Death Experiences/Theoretical Possibilities

etc.) but there is absolutely no way of avoiding all types of distortion. The essence always
gets lost in translation.
Such inconsistencies with OBE perception should not be used to refute disturbing
observations. Instead they could be used as peep holes into what lies behind our screen of
ignorance. The problem of nonlocality inevitably is connected with the problem of time.
Many NDEers say that their experience was timeless, that time was not passing in the
usual way. My own second NDE, which I had as a five-year-old, was timeless, and like other
experiencers, I find it impossible to describe the sense of timelessness. I could say that I
experienced several things to be “happening simultaneously.” And even those two words
are completely inaccurate, for they both imply time. I could, of course, add “ineffable” but
that’s a word that doesn’t describe anything. One experiencer said: “It could have happened
in seconds, in minutes, in years, or even in an eternity.”7
It is mostly the transcendental parts of the NDE — a dark tunnel, a realm of light,
meeting with dead relatives and a being of light and a life review — that are described as
timeless. Sometimes very long and detailed experiences have taken place within a few min-
utes of cardiac arrest. This, of course, is no proof that the NDE is timeless. We have to look
upon this observation from the opposite viewpoint: if the NDE is more than a hallucination
and if the experience in some meaningful sense is timeless, then we can say that the obser-
vation that long and detailed experiences can take place within just a few minutes of clock
time makes sense.
The possible timelessness of the out-of-body part of the NDE is a trickier question.
The observations of ordinary time and space around the lifeless body made during an OBE
are experienced and described with time flowing in the usual manner, from left to right as
it were. But what about the OBE per se? Does time flow during the experience like it does
in the ER?
Physically, space and time are inextricably entwined. Where there is space there also
has to be time. Where there is no time there can be no space. A simplified explanation for
this is that moving from point A to point B takes a certain amount of time — even for a
photon. Therefore you can move around in space only if time exists. Therefore space exists
only if time exists.
To be able to watch what one wants during an OBE — in the ER or miles away — by
only willing it, with no movement involved, hints at timelessness. And so it would seem
that the ER events in time and space are perceived from a timeless, spaceless realm.
And therefore we can, if the OBE is something else than a hallucination, conclude that
the implicit assumptions made by NDE researchers about OBE perceptions are not valid.
Nothing hides behind anything. There is no line of sight. There is no limited visual field. Images
of Mickey Mouse cannot compete with the resuscitation and other important things for the
OBEers’ interest.
And so, the question of what leaves the body during an OBE can tentatively be answered
thus: nothing leaves anything, “nothing” being anything that we have a name for, anything
that we can think of or have knowledge about. Physical laws of space and time do not apply.
The implicit assumptions about OBE perception are not valid.
Nothing leaves anything.
Let me finish by recounting a small part of my own second NDE, which illuminates
the question of time and space in a more profound way than what I have sketched above,
a way that I haven’t seen reported anywhere else in the NDE literature.
I had my experience when I was five, probably during a routine hernia operation. It
 Near-Death Experiences (Grip) 101

contains most of the known traits of an NDE except reunion with dead relatives. It includes
a life review, which is very unusual for an experiencer that young.8
In a realm of light I met a being of light that radiated love, wisdom and strength.
Together we went through the entire five years of my life. Most of my life review was about
my relation with my three years younger brother. I was very jealous of him and very mean
to him, and my parents often reproached me (they never beat me).
The way we went through the episodes was much like the way you go through things
in your own mind: in a wordless way you simultaneously relive something as if it happened
once again and watch it from above, seeing yourself as an actor among the others; only this
time we were two beings sharing the same events at the same “moment.”
Time was not passing in the usual way. The episodes of my life were not replayed like
in a movie. Instead, an entire episode — with its beginning, its middle and its end — stood
out as a unit: it was possible to see simultaneously every little action or spoken word with
its thoughts and emotions (my brother’s and mine) attached to it. With an adult description
it was as if we were able to wander about, back and forth, in a static landscape the features
of which were not trees and hills, but actions, words and emotions. His suggestions (for a
more loving attitude on my part) were there at the same “time”— as an alternative landscape
superimposed on the original one. And although I re-experienced envy, hate, humiliation,
and loneliness once again, this time it was flooded with his love and the strength it gave
me. To describe what an episode of my life looked like is impossible, but I will try a
metaphor. An episode was laid out with its beginning, middle, and end in a straight line
in front of us. But not like a series of time frames, not like a cartoon with speech balloons.
And also not like a series of movie clips with a sound track. What we “saw” were actions,
all the actions of an episode, “simultaneously,” with a sound track of sorts, and also with
an emotional track which “displayed,” “communicated,” “conveyed” our thoughts and emo-
tions, mine and my brother’s. My brother’s thoughts and emotions were as clear to me as
my own. When I revengefully hit him, I not only experienced my own feelings of glee and
triumph, but also my brother’s physical pain and despair. When I, occasionally, was nice
to him, I experienced my reluctant joy and also his gratitude and happiness. And so, during
my life review, every blow I had given him was now in a way given back to me. And the
few nice things that I did were also given back to me.
We, me and the being of light, were able to do very strange things. We could “walk”
up to the beginning of an episode of my life and at a glance scrutinize it all the way to its
end. And we could “walk” to its end and glance it over all the way back to its beginning.
And we could also do something that was very meaningful and which gave me a lot of
information about myself, although I now cannot comprehend what we actually did: we
“went” over to the “side” and “simultaneously” looked at several lined up episodes, at right
angles! Me and the being of light “moved around” in the landscape that was my life, and
so there was a kind of ordinary time lapsing in my wordless communication with the being
of light.9
As an adult I have read two descriptions that very accurately pinpoint this experience,
where time didn’t flow in the usual way, where it actually didn’t flow at all. This is the first
one (in my own translation back into English):
This implies that while doing the computations you will have to measure time with imaginary
numbers* instead of with real numbers. This has an interesting effect on time-space: the distinc-

*Imaginary numbers have nothing to do with imagination. It is a technical term for very “strange” numbers.
102 Part II: Near-Death Experiences/Theoretical Possibilities

tion between space and time disappears altogether.... This means that time is imaginary and is
impossible to distinguish from different directions in space.... This might be a hint that so called
imaginary time actually is the real time and that which we call real time is really only a figment of our
imagination.... Imaginary time cannot be distinguished from different directions in space. If you can
walk north you should also be able to turn around and walk south; likewise, if you can go forward
in imaginary time you should be able to turn around and go backwards in imaginary time. This
implies that there can be no important difference between forward and backward directions in
imaginary time [italics added.]

This is a quote from A Brief History of Time by Stephen W. Hawking,10 and the point is that
it is not a description of the experience of time during a near-death experience but a popular
description of a cosmologist’s thoughts on the very nature of time.
The borderline of our theories on the physical universe and the borderline of experi-
ences close to death seem to touch at the point where time collapses. If this has a meaning
I don’t know.
The second quote is from Illusions. The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard
Bach.11
“You can hold a reel of film in your hands,” he said, “and it’s all finished and complete — begin-
ning, middle, end are all there that same second, the same millionths of a second. The film exists
beyond the time that it records.”

If the OBE is something more than a hallucination this seeming timelessness and non-
locality of perception, of course, defies explanation. There is no way within the existing
paradigm of consciousness— or physical reality for that matter — to account for what seems
to take place during an OBE. In the absence of hard proof of corroborated OBE observations
however, hallucination lies close at hand as an understandable explanation. And with that
most of the scientific community rests.
But the fact that there is no explanation for an observation that we can’t understand,
is no proof that the observation is false. Ask Semmelweis.
There is, of course, no reason to rush ahead and accept timelessness and nonlocality
as an explanation for the OBE, as well as there is no reason to accept as facts all the other
strange observations about reality that people claim to have made. But there is also no
reason to dismiss them out of hand. For in the overwhelming abundance of absurd, ridicu-
lous, and flaky assertions about reality which more knowledgeable persons than I have dis-
missed since time immemorial, some of the most fundamental, paradigm breaking, five-star
discoveries about reality have been hiding: the four moons of Jupiter, the beaks of finches
on the Galapagos Islands, the presence of sediment with marine shells on high mountain
tops.
In my opinion the case reports on corroborated observations of OBEers is such a five-
star enigma. Behind this enigma something hides that eventually will force us to open up
to a new understanding of consciousness and the mind. I am not willing to speculate what
this understanding would look like, for I am convinced that it — like the heliocentric world
view, the origin of the species, and plate tectonics— will turn out to be something that
nobody has even thought of.
And then the era of potato theories will be over. For a very short time.

Notes
1. Raymond Moody, Life After Life (Covinda, GA: Mockingbird, 1975).
2. The story is told in full in Göran Grip, Everything Exists, Stockholm: 1994.
 Near-Death Experiences (Grip) 103

3. Robert Monroe, Journeys Out of the Body (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1971).
4. For example The AWARE–study, the Human Consciousness Project to be launched at International UN Sym-
posium on 9/11 2008, supervised by Sam Parnia. http://esango.un.org/event/documents/mbs_media_kit.pdf (accessed
July 15, 2011).
5. Personal communication, 2008.
6. Agneta Uppman, Ut ur Kroppen (Stockholm: Natur och Kultur, 1987).
7. Kenneth Ring, Heading toward Omega (New York: Morrow, 1984).
8. Ibid, personal communication.
9. A more detailed account of my NDE can be found in Göran Grip, Everything Exists, and in Kenneth Ring,
“Amazing Grace: The Near-Death Experience as a Compensatory Gift,” Journal of Near-Death Studies 10, no.1 (Fall
1991): 11–39.
10. Stephen W. Hawking, A Brief History of Time (New York: Bantam, 1988).
11. Richard Bach, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (New York: Delacoute, 1977).

References
The AWARE–study. 2008. The Human Consciousness Project, Sam Parnia, sup. http://esango.un.org
/event/documents/mbs_media_kit.pdf.
Bach, Richard. 1994. Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah. New York: Delacorte, 1977.Grip,
Göran. Everything Exists. Stockholm.
Hawking, Stephen W. 1988. A Brief History of Time. New York: Bantam.
Monroe, Robert. 1971. Journeys out of the Body. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
Moody, Raymond. 1975. Life After Life. Covinda, GA: Mockingbird.
Ring, Kenneth. 1984. Heading toward Omega. New York: Morrow.
_____. Fall 1991. “Amazing Grace: The Near-Death Experience as a Compensatory Gift.” Journal of
Near-Death Studies 10.1: 11–39.
Uppman, Agneta. 1987. Ut Ur Kroppen. Stockholm: Natur och Kultur.
 Near-Death Experiences:
In or Out of the Body?
SUSAN BLACKMORE

New Introduction — February 2010

Twenty years ago, when I wrote the article, “Near-death Experiences: In or Out of the
Body,”* I suggested that any satisfactory theory of NDEs “leads us to questions about minds,
selves, and the nature of consciousness.” How much has happened in the intervening years
to improve our understanding of all those ideas! I am pleased to be asked to write a short
update and explore some of these new discoveries.
Let me start with “minds.” The natural dualist idea that minds are separate from bodies
seems, if that’s possible, even more unbelievable than it did twenty years ago. Neuroscience
has progressed in leaps and bounds with new scanning techniques that help us peer inside
living brains and discover what is going on. To give a few examples, we have learned how
decisions are made and impulses held back in parts of the frontal lobes, how memories are
integrated with emotions in circuits involving the temporal lobes, and the importance of
loops between the outer layer of the cortex and the deeper relay stations of the thalamus
that stabilize perceptions and bind their features together. Pain turns out to be correlated
with activity in the anterior cingulate cortex deep inside the brain, even though it still
seems miraculous that the vivid awfulness of pain can depend on a specific group of neurons
firing.
Then there’s vision. There is no single visual system but dozens of different pathways,
including specialized areas that recognize faces, perceive objects, or process edges or colors.
Fast motor actions are controlled by one visual system (the dorsal stream) and perception
by another slower system (the ventral stream), so you can catch a ball before you’ve even
seen it. There is no room for the idea of a single “mind” in all of this (Blackmore 2010,
Milner and Goodale 1995).
Why then do we feel as though we are one mind that lives in our body and could
potentially survive its death? New answers have been found to that question too. Research
on child development reveals that young children are natural dualists. As psychologist Paul
Bloom explains, children as young as three see the world as containing two distinct domains:

*Published in Skeptical Inquirer 16, no. 1 (Fall 1991): 34 –45.

104
 Near-Death Experiences (Blackmore) 105

bodies and souls. By five or six they know that the brain does lots of useful things, like
thinking and solving problems, but they still talk about it as a tool that “we” use. As Bloom
puts it, they see the brain as a kind of “cognitive prosthesis, added to the soul” (Bloom,
2004 p. 201). Interviewed about death, four year olds know that dead animals don’t need
to eat or go to the toilet, then as they get older they separate biological and psychological
functions, saying that dead people or animals can have beliefs, emotions and desires, but
not perceptions (Bering and Bjorklund 2004). One interpretation is that we tend to attribute
to the dead those mental states that we cannot imagine being without (Bering 2002).
So it seems that we all start out as dualists and have to work to overcome this false
divided view. Knowing this may help us understand why it is so difficult to wriggle out of
dualism and accept the oneness of the universe.
What then of the self? Here is perhaps the biggest change over these twenty years, with
many new theories and discoveries that bear directly on OBEs and NDEs. It is hard to
realize that Dennett’s seminal work Consciousness Explained was also published in 1991 and
I had not read it when I wrote this article. There he described what he called the Cartesian
Theatre; that mythical inner place in which we seem to live, consciously experiencing the
stream of events flowing through our minds and issuing instructions to our voices and
muscles. Of course it cannot be like this for there is no central place to which impressions
come in and from which orders go out. The brain is a multiple parallel processing system
with nowhere for such a self to live and indeed no need for one. Instead Dennett described
the self as a “benign user illusion” created by the stories we tell ourselves. Of course one
might argue that this illusion is far from benign and is ultimately the root of suffering,
greed, hatred and delusion (Blackmore 2000).
This idea of the self as illusion underlies most new theories of self but they differ in
how and why they think the illusion comes about and what its function is. For some the
self is an actual brain process, such as Douglas Hofstadter’s theory of strange loops in which
“I am a mirage that perceives itself ” (Hofstadter 2007) or Rodolfo Llinás’s (2002) “I of the
vortex.” In a theory that has echoes of my own descriptions of models of reality, Thomas
Metzinger describes the self as a Phenomenal Self-Model (PSM). This is “a distinct and
coherent pattern of neural activity that allows you to integrate parts of the world into an
inner image of yourself as a whole” (Metzinger 2009, p. 115). Some divide the idea of self
into different layers, such as Damasio’s distinctions between the proto-self, core self and
autobiographical self. Others go further, denying any continuing process and replacing it
with constantly reappearing illusions of a central self. Strawson’s (1999) “pearls on a string”
with no continuity is one example. A much older one is William James’s famous contention
that “thought is itself the thinker, and psychology need not look beyond” (James 1890, i 401).
Theories of this kind relate to the Buddhist idea of no-self. This means not that there
is literally no self but that selves are ephemeral and ever-changing, being born and dying
again every moment. Accepting this means that there is no need to fear death because in
effect we are dying from moment to moment all the time. There is no continuing “me” who
experiences the myriad events of my lifetime, and no continuing “me” who could experience
an NDE or carry on afterwards. These events are experienced by someone, but the next
moment that someone is gone and another appears. In this light NDEs are just part of the
on-going interdependent activity of the one universe. It seems to me that this radical view
of self is far more compatible with both the latest scientific evidence and with the insights
from meditation and mystical experiences than any idea that of self as something that could
survive death. The problem is— it is so hard to accept!
106 Part II: Near-Death Experiences/Theoretical Possibilities

I mentioned research that bears directly on OBEs and NDEs. This includes confirmation
of some predictions from my theory of OBEs. For example, people who have OBEs are
better at spatial imagery, and better at switching viewpoints in imagery. OBErs also have
superior dream control skills and more often dream of seeing themselves from above, as
in a bird’s eye view (Blackmore 1996).
Other discoveries relate to the construction of our body image. To function properly
brains must construct a continuing and stable image of their body in relation to the world
around and integrate this with information coming in from the senses. The first clue relating
this to OBEs came from an accidental discovery in the 1930s by the Canadian neurosurgeon
Wilder Penfield. A pioneer of electrical brain stimulation, he operated on epileptics when
there was no other treatment available and electrically stimulated their exposed brains to
try to locate the epileptic focus. On one occasion, when stimulating a patient’s right temporal
lobe, she cried out “Oh God! I am leaving my body” (Penfield 1955, p. 458).
Other clues came from the fact that temporal lobe epileptics report more OBEs and
related experiences. This led to experiments in which OBEs, body distortions, the sense of
presence, and many other experiences were induced using transcranial magnetic stimulation
(Persinger 1983, 1999). Then, over half a century after Penfield’s operation, with much finer
electrodes and greater precision, a team of neurosurgeons in Geneva, Switzerland, achieved
the same result with another epileptic patient. When a weak current was passed through a
subdural electrode on the right angular gyrus, she reported sinking into the bed or falling
from a height. With increased current she said, “I see myself lying in bed, from above, but
I only see my legs and lower trunk.” This was induced twice more, as were various body
image distortions. The researchers believed that her OBE occurred because the stimulation
prevented the integration of all the information which normally maintains the body image
(Blanke et al. 2002).
Since then the specific area involved has been pinned down. It turns out to be the tem-
poroparietal junction (TPJ) on the right side. In this area visual, tactile, proprioceptive and
vestibular information all come together to construct a body image that is constantly
updated as the body moves and the scene changes. In other words it constructs our physical
sense of self. Several kinds of research have converged to show that the OBE is caused by
a breakdown of this normal process. Not only does direct stimulation of this spot induce
OBEs but PET scanning has shown brain activation at the TPJ during OBEs induced by
stimulating the right temporal gyrus. The researchers conclude that “activation of these
regions is the neural correlate of the disembodiment that is part of the out-of-body expe-
rience” (de Ridder et al. 2007, p. 1829). Other evidence comes from several patients who
experience OBEs or autoscopy and have been found to have damage to the TPJ (Blanke et
al. 2004; Blanke and Arzy 2005).
In other studies, the same area was found to be active when healthy volunteers were
asked to imagine themselves in the position and visual perspective of an OBE. Finally, inter-
ference with the TPJ using transcranial magnetic stimulation made this mental transfor-
mation more difficult (Blanke et al. 2005). It turns out that close to the TPJ are other brain
areas implicated in aspects of the self, including body imagery, visuo-spatial perspective
and the sense of agency (Blanke and Arzy 2005). So at last research on OBEs seems to be
making sense as a natural phenomenon related to our sense of self.
Using a totally different approach, Swiss and German researchers have used virtual
reality technology to induce OBE–like experiences in the laboratory (Lenggenhager et al.
2007; Metzinger 2009). Volunteers wore goggles showing a virtual room. Their own back
 Near-Death Experiences (Blackmore) 107

was filmed and projected into this space so that they seemed to be looking at themselves
from behind. Then an experimenter stroked their back so that they could feel the stroking
while watching it as though from behind, with the result that some people felt drawn towards
the virtual body and even felt that they could slip or jump into it (Metzinger 2009).
This research has moved extraordinarily fast and has transformed the OBE from an
oddity at the margins of psychology to an experience that throws light on the very nature
of self. Doubtless there will always be some who prefer the soul theory, such as pediatrician
and NDE researcher Melvyn Morse who believes that the brain areas involved must be “the
seat of the soul,” “the place where the material and the spiritual worlds meet” (Morse 1990,
pp. 109, 110). Such soul theories cannot be ruled out but seem ever less convincing as we
begin to understand just how and why we normally build a self-model that coincides with
our bodily position — but occasionally one that seems to leave the body and fly.
So finally we come to the third mystery I listed — the nature of consciousness itself.
Back in 1991 the word “consciousness” was still more or less taboo in psychology. Students
did not learn about consciousness in their degrees and respectable researchers were nervous
of being thought way-out or not serious if they tackled it. Yet big changes were already
under way. Not only was Dennett’s book published then but the first of the Tucson confer-
ences on consciousness was held in 1994, and it was there that the young Australian philoso-
pher, David Chalmers, coined the phrase “The Hard Problem” to describe the problem of
subjectivity — or how subjective experiences can arise from objective events in the brain.
Solving this modern version of the mind-body problem subsequently became a kind of
Holy Grail for consciousness researchers. In 1994 Nobel Laureate Francis Crick, famous for
his discovery, with Watson, of the structure of DNA, wrote The Astonishing Hypothesis
laying out his first stab at solving the riddle of consciousness. Then until his death in 2004
he worked along with Christof Koch searching for answers. Consciousness had come out
of the gloom and into the glare of serious neuroscience, philosophy and psychology.
In 2010 a solution to the Hard Problem remains elusive, although I get lots of muddled
emails from people who claim to have solved it. So here we face what some say is the greatest
mystery for science today — the nature of consciousness itself. But is there any “itself ”? I
think not. I suspect that we are still all transfixed by the illusions given us by our long evo-
lution and the way our brains are built. We seem to be someone looking out from behind
our eyes at the world the way it really is. But we know this cannot be so. We seem to be a
self having a stream of conscious experiences. Yet we know we cannot be.
How can we throw off these illusions? One way is through the collective and rigorous
methods of science; another is through the equally rigorous but purely private methods of
personal inner inquiry After thirty years of practicing Zen meditation and mindfulness, I
know how very hard it is to accept the ephemeral and impermanent nature of that oh-so-
precious illusory self (Blackmore 2009). But this, I believe, is what we have to do.
What if I’m wrong? In this case someone will surely find convincing evidence that peo-
ple can see at a distance during NDEs or that consciousness can operate beyond the physical
body and brain. So far, despite many popular claims, the evidence seems no better than it
was when I wrote Dying to Live (1993), but if survival theories are true then someone will
surely find the evidence one day.
This is why I applaud recent experiments designed to find it, including those in which
randomly selected targets are concealed in hospital wards and cardiac units so that NDErs
might see them during their experience. Several experiments of this kind have been
attempted but with no success (Parnia and Fenwick 2002; Parnia et al. 2001). In 2008 the
108 Part II: Near-Death Experiences/Theoretical Possibilities

AWARE project (AWAreness during REsuscitation) was launched and aims to measure
brain function at the same time as providing hidden images that NDErs might be able to
see. Potentially this could confirm that patients really were close to death during the time
of their NDEs, thus refuting the alternative that NDEs depend on brain function just before
or just after the medical crisis. I am glad these experiments are being undertaken, but I do
not expect them ever to provide evidence of vision beyond the body or a spirit or soul that
can leave the body. If they do, my own theories will be overthrown.
NDEs are wonderful experiences. For those who return from them they are life-
changing experiences. But there is no persisting self who has the NDE or who will continue
on after the brain processes that gave rise to it quietly settle down into nothingness and
the brain that was once so vividly alive seeps back into oneness with the universe if which
it is a part. Let us not play down the importance of NDEs or their capacity to teach us deep
truths about mind, self and consciousness, but let us equally not delude ourselves into
clinging to the oh-so-natural belief that they mean that those selves can carry on when our
frail bodies are gone. They cannot.

Original Article*
What is it like to die? Although most of us fear death to a greater or lesser extent, there
are now more and more people who have “come back” from states close to death and have
told stories of usually very pleasant and even joyful experiences at death’s door.
For many experiencers, their adventures seem unquestionably to provide evidence for
life after death, and the profound effects the experience can have on them is just added
confirmation. By contrast, for many scientists these experiences are just hallucinations pro-
duced by the dying brain and of no more interest than an especially vivid dream.
So which is right? Are near-death experiences (NDEs) the prelude to our life after
death or the very last experience we have before oblivion? I shall argue that neither is quite
right: NDEs provide no evidence for life after death, and we can best understand them by
looking at neurochemistry, physiology, and psychology; but they are much more interesting
than any dream. They seem completely real and can transform people’s lives. Any satisfactory
theory has to understand that too— and that leads us to questions about minds, selves, and
the nature of consciousness.

Deathbed Experiences
Toward the end of the last century the physical sciences and the new theory of evolution
were making great progress, but many people felt that science was forcing out the traditional
ideas of the spirit and soul. Spiritualism began to flourish, and people flocked to mediums
to get in contact with their dead friends and relatives “on the other side.” Spiritualists
claimed, and indeed still claim, to have found proof of survival.
In 1882, the Society for Psychical Research was founded, and serious research on the
phenomena began; but convincing evidence for survival is still lacking over one hundred
years later (Blackmore 1988). In 1926, a psychical researcher and Fellow of the Royal Society,
Sir William Barrett (1926), published a little book on deathbed visions. The dying apparently
saw other worlds before they died and even saw and spoke to the dead. There were cases of

*”Near-death Experiences: In or Out of the Body,” was originally published in Skeptical Inquirer 16, no. 1 (Fall
1991): 34 –54.
 Near-Death Experiences (Blackmore) 109

music heard at the time of death and reports of attendants actually seeing the spirit leave
the body.
With modern medical techniques, deathbed visions like these have become far less
common. In those days people died at home with little or no medication and surrounded
by their family and friends. Today most people die in the hospital and all too often alone.
Paradoxically it is also improved medicine that has led to an increase in quite a different
kind of report — that of the near-death experience.

Close Brushes with Death

Resuscitation from ever more serious heart failure has provided accounts of extraor-
dinary experiences (although this is not the only cause of NDEs). These remained largely
ignored until about 15 years ago, when Raymond Moody (1975), an American physician,
published his best-selling Life After Life. He had talked with many people who had “come
back from death,” and he put together an account of a typical NDE. In this idealized expe-
rience a person hears himself pronounced dead. Then comes a loud buzzing or ringing noise
and a long, dark tunnel. He can see his own body from a distance and watch what is hap-
pening. Soon he meets others and a “being of light” who shows him a playback of events
from his life and helps him to evaluate it. At some point he gets to a barrier and knows that
he has to go back. Even though he feels joy, love, and peace there, he returns to his body
and life. Later he tries to tell others; but they don’t understand, and he soon gives up. Nev-
ertheless the experience deeply affects him, especially his views about life and death.
Many scientists reacted with disbelief. They assumed Moody was at least exaggerating,
but he claimed that no one had noticed the experiences before because the patients were
too frightened to talk about them. The matter was soon settled by further research. One
cardiologist had talked to more than 2,000 people over a period of nearly 20 years and
claimed that more than half reported Moody-type experiences (Schoonmaker 1979). In
1982, a Gallup poll found that about 1 in 7 adult Americans had been close to death and
about 1 in 20 had had an NDE. It appeared that Moody, at least in outline, was right. In my
own research I have come across numerous reports like this one, sent to me by a woman
from Cyprus:
An emergency gastrectomy was performed. On the 4th day following that operation I went into
shock and became unconscious for several hours.... Although thought to be unconscious, I remem-
bered, for years afterwards, the entire, detailed conversation that passed between the surgeon and
anaesthetist present.... I was lying above my own body, totally free of pain, and looking down at
my own self with compassion for the agony I could see on the face; I was floating peacefully. Then
... I was going elsewhere, floating towards a dark, but not frightening, curtain-like area.... Then I
felt total peace.
Suddenly it all changed — I was slammed back into my body again, very much aware of the
agony again.
Within a few years some of the basic questions were being answered. Kenneth Ring
(1980), at the University of Connecticut, surveyed 102 people who had come close to death
and found almost 50 percent had had what he called a “core experience.” He broke this into
five stages: peace, body separation, entering the darkness (which is like the tunnel), seeing
the light, and entering the light. He found that the later stages were reached by fewer people,
which seems to imply that there is an ordered set of experiences waiting to unfold.
One interesting question is whether NDEs are culture specific. What little research
there is suggests that in other cultures NDEs have basically the same structure, although
110 Part II: Near-Death Experiences/Theoretical Possibilities

religious background seems to influence the way it is interpreted. A few NDEs have even
been recorded in children. It is interesting to note that nowadays children are more likely
to see living friends than those who have died, presumably because their playmates only
rarely die of diseases like scarlet fever or smallpox (Morse et al., 1986).
Perhaps more important is whether you have to be nearly dead to have an NDE. The
answer is clearly no (e.g., Morse et al., 1989). Many very similar experiences are recorded
of people who have taken certain drugs, were extremely tired, or, occasionally, were just
carrying on their ordinary activities.
I must emphasize that these experiences seem completely real — even more real (what-
ever that may mean) than everyday life. The tunnel experience is not like just imagining
going along a tunnel. The view from out of the body seems completely realistic, not like a
dream, but as though you really are up there and looking down. Few people experience
such profound emotions and insight again during their lifetimes. They do not say, “I’ve
been hallucinating,” “I imagined I went to heaven,” or “Can I tell you about my lovely
dream?” They are more likely to say, “I have been out of my body” or “I saw Grandma in
heaven.”
Since not everyone who comes close to death has an NDE, it is interesting to ask what
sort of people are more likely to have them. Certainly you don’t need to be mentally unstable.
NDEers do not differ from others in terms of their psychological health or background.
Moreover, the NDE does seem to produce profound and positive personality changes (Ring
1984). After this extraordinary experience people claim that they are no longer so motivated
by greed and material achievement but are more concerned about other people and their
needs. Any theory of the NDE needs to account for this effect.

Explanations of the NDE

Astral Projection and the Next World: Could we have another body that is the vehicle
of consciousness and leaves the physical body at death to go on to another world? This,
essentially, is the doctrine of astral projection. In various forms it is very popular and
appears in a great deal of New Age and occult literature.
One reason may be that out-of-body experiences (OBEs) are quite common, quite
apart from their role in NDEs. Surveys have shown that anywhere from 8 percent (in Ice-
land) to as much as 50 percent (in special groups, such as marijuana users) have had OBEs
at some time during their lives. In my own survey of residents of Bristol, I found 12 percent.
Typically these people had been resting or lying down and suddenly felt they had left their
bodies, usually for no more than a minute or two (Blackmore 1984).
A survey of more than 50 different cultures showed that almost all of them believe in
a spirit or soul that could leave the body (Sheils 1978). So both the OBE and the belief in
another body are common, but what does this mean? Is it just that we cannot bring ourselves
to believe that we are nothing more than a mortal body and that death is the end? Or is
there really another body?
You might think that such a theory has no place in science and ought to be ignored. I
disagree. The only ideas that science can do nothing with are the purely metaphysical ones—
ideas that have no measurable consequences and no testable predictions. But if a theory
makes predictions, however bizarre, then it can be tested.
The theory of astral projection is, at least in some forms, testable. In the earliest exper-
iments mediums claimed they were able to project their astral bodies to distant rooms and
 Near-Death Experiences (Blackmore) 111

see what was happening. They claimed not to taste bitter aloes on their real tongues, but
immediately screwed up their faces in disgust when the substance was placed on their (invis-
ible) astral tongues. Unfortunately these experiments were not properly controlled (Black-
more 1982).
In other experiments, dying people were weighed to try to detect the astral body as it
left. Early this century a weight of about one ounce was claimed, but as the apparatus
became more sensitive the weight dropped, implying that it was not a real effect. More
recent experiments have used sophisticated detectors of ultraviolet and infrared, magnetic
flux or field strength, temperature, or weight to try to capture the astral body of someone
having an out-of-body experience. They have even used animals and human “detectors,”
but no one has yet succeeded in detecting anything reliably (Morris et al., 1978).
If something really leaves the body in OBEs, then you might expect it to be able to see
at a distance, in other words to have extrasensory perception (ESP). There have been several
experiments with concealed targets. One success was Tart’s subject, who lay on a bed with
a five-digit number on a shelf above it (Tart 1968). During the night she had an OBE and
correctly reported the number, but critics argued that she could have climbed out of the
bed to look. Apart from this one, the experiments tend, like so many in parapsychology,
to provide equivocal results and no clear signs of any ESP.
So, this theory has been tested but seems to have failed its tests. If there really were
astral bodies I would have expected us to have found something out about them by now —
other than how hard it is to track them down!
In addition there are major theoretical objections to the idea of astral bodies. If you
imagine that the person has gone to another world, perhaps along some “real” tunnel, then
you have to ask what relationship there is between this world and the other one. If the other
world is an extension of the physical, then it ought to be observable and measurable. The
astral body, astral world, and tunnel ought to be detectable in some way, and we ought to
be able to say where exactly the tunnel is going. The fact that we can’t, leads many people
to say the astral world is “on another plane,” at a “higher level of vibration,” and the like.
But unless you can specify just what these mean the ideas are completely empty, even though
they may sound appealing. Of course we can never prove that astral bodies don’t exist, but
my guess is that they probably don’t and that this theory is not a useful way to understand
OBEs.
BIRTH AND THE NDE: Another popular theory makes dying analogous with being
born: that the out-of-body experience is literally just that — reliving the moment when you
emerged from your mother’s body. The tunnel is the birth canal and the white light is the
light of the world into which you were born. Even the being of light can be “explained” as
an attendant at the birth.
This theory was proposed by Stanislav Grof and Joan Halifax (1977) and popularized
by the astronomer Carl Sagan (1979), but it is pitifully inadequate to explain the NDE. For
a start the newborn infant would not see anything like a tunnel as it was being born. The
birth canal is stretched and compressed and the baby usually forced through it with the top
of its head, not with its eyes (which are closed anyway) pointing forward. Also it does not
have the mental skills to recognize the people around, and these capacities change so much
during growing that adults cannot reconstruct what it was like to be an infant.
“Hypnotic regression to past lives” is another popular claim. In fact much research
shows that people who have been hypnotically regressed give the appearance of acting like
a baby or a child, but it is no more than acting. For example, they don’t make drawings like
112 Part II: Near-Death Experiences/Theoretical Possibilities

a real five-year-old would do but like an adult imagines children do. Their vocabulary is
too large and in general they overestimate the abilities of children at any given age. There
is no evidence (even if the idea made sense) of their “really” going back in time.
Of course the most important question is whether this theory could be tested, and to
some extent it can. For example, it predicts that people born by Caesarean section should
not have the same tunnel experiences and OBEs. I conducted a survey of people born nor-
mally and those born by Caesarean (190 and 36 people, respectively). Almost exactly equal
percentages of both groups had had tunnel experiences (36 percent) and OBEs (29 percent).
I have not compared the type of birth of people coming close to death, but this would pro-
vide further evidence (Blackmore 1982b).
In response to these findings some people have argued that it is not one’s own birth
that is relived but the idea of birth in general. However, this just reduces the theory to com-
plete vacuousness.
JUST HALLUCINATIONS : Perhaps we should give up and conclude that all the experiences
are “just imagination” or “nothing but hallucinations.” However, this is the weakest theory
of all. The experiences must, in some sense, be hallucinations, but this is not, on its own,
any explanation. We have to ask why are they these kinds of hallucinations? Why tunnels?
Some say the tunnel is a symbolic representation of the gateway to another world. But
then why always a tunnel and not, say, a gate, doorway, or even the great River Styx? Why
the light at the end of the tunnel? And why always above the body, not below it? I have no
objection to the theory that the experiences are hallucinations. I only object to the idea that
you can explain them by saying, “They are just hallucinations.” This explains nothing. A
viable theory would answer these questions without dismissing the experiences. That, even
if only in tentative form, is what I shall try to provide.
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE TUNNEL : Tunnels do not only occur near death. They are also
experienced in epilepsy and migraine, when falling asleep, meditating, or just relaxing,
with pressure on both eyeballs, and with certain drugs, such as LSD, psilocybin, and mesca-
line. I have experienced them many times myself. It is as though the whole world becomes
a rushing, roaring tunnel and you are flying along it toward a bright light at the end. No
doubt many readers have also been there, for surveys show that about a third of people
have — like this terrified man of 28 who had just had the anesthetic for a circumcision.
I seemed to be hauled at “lightning speed” in a direct line tunnel into outer space; (not a floating
sensation...) but like a rocket at a terrific speed. I appeared to have left my body.

In the 1930s, Heinrich Klüver, at the University of Chicago, noted four form constants
in hallucinations: the tunnel, the spiral, the lattice or grating, and the cobweb. Their origin
probably lies in the structure of the visual cortex, the part of the brain that processes visual
information. Imagine that the outside world is mapped onto the back of the eye (on the
retina), and then again in the cortex. The mathematics of this mapping (at least to a rea-
sonable approximation) is well known.
Jack Cowan, a neurobiologist at the University of Chicago, has used this mapping to
account for the tunnel (Cowan 1982). Brain activity is normally kept stable by some cells
inhibiting others. Disinhibition (the reduction of this inhibitory activity) produces too
much activity in the brain. This can occur near death (because of lack of oxygen) or with
drugs like LSD, which interfere with inhibition. Cowan uses an analogy with fluid mechanics
to argue that disinhibition will induce stripes of activity that move across the cortex. Using
the mapping it can easily be shown that stripes in the cortex would appear like concentric
 Near-Death Experiences (Blackmore) 113

rings or spirals in the visual world. In other words, if you have stripes in the cortex you
will seem to see a tunnel-like pattern of spirals or rings.
This theory is important in showing how the structure of the brain could produce the
same hallucination for everyone. However, I was dubious about the idea of these moving
stripes, and also Cowan’s theory doesn’t readily explain the bright light at the center. So
Tom Troscianko and I, at the University of Bristol, tried to develop a simpler theory (Black-
more and Troscianko 1989). The most obvious thing about the representation in the cortex
is that there are lots of cells representing the center of the visual field but very few for the
edges. This means that you can see small things very clearly in the center, but if they are
out at the edges you cannot. We took just this simple fact as a starting point and used a
computer to simulate what would happen when you have gradually increasing electrical
noise in the visual cortex.
The computer program starts with thinly spread dots of light, mapped in the same
way as the cortex, with more toward the middle and very few at the edges. Gradually the
number of dots increases, mimicking the increasing noise. Now the center begins to look
like a white blob and the outer edges gradually get more and more dots. And so it expands
until eventually the whole screen is filled with light. The appearance is just like a dark
speckly tunnel with a white light at the end, and the light grows bigger and bigger (or nearer
and nearer) until it fills the whole screen. (See Figure 1.)
If it seems odd that such a simple picture can give the impression that you are moving,
consider two points. First, it is known that random movements in the periphery of the
visual field are more likely to be interpreted by the brain as outward than inward movements
(Georgeson and Harris 1978). Second, the brain infers our own movement to a great extent
from what we see. Therefore, presented with an apparently growing patch of flickering
white light your brain will easily interpret it as yourself moving forward into a tunnel.
The theory also makes a prediction about NDEs in the blind. If they are blind because
of problems in the eye but have a normal cortex, then they too should see tunnels. But if
their blindness stems from a faulty or damaged cortex, they should not. These predictions
have yet to be tested.
According to this kind of theory there is, of course, no real tunnel. Nevertheless there
is a real physical cause of the tunnel experience. It is noise in the visual cortex. This way
we can explain the origin of the tunnel without just dismissing the experiences and without
needing to invent other bodies or other worlds.

Out of the Body Experiences

Like tunnels, OBEs are not confined to near death. They too can occur when just relax-
ing and falling asleep, with meditation, and in epilepsy and migraine. They can also, at
least by a few people, be induced at will. I have been interested in OBEs since I had a long
and dramatic experience myself (Blackmore 1982a).
It is important to remember that these experiences seem quite real. People don’t
describe them as dreams or fantasies but as events that actually happened. This is, I presume,
why they seek explanations in terms of other bodies or other worlds.
However, we have seen how poorly the astral projection and birth theories cope with
OBEs. What we need is a theory that involves no unmeasurable entities or untestable other
worlds but explains why the experiences happen; and why they seem so real.
I would start by asking why anything seems real. You might think this is obvious—
114 Part II: Near-Death Experiences/Theoretical Possibilities

after all, the things we see out there are real aren’t they? Well no, in a sense they aren’t. As
perceiving creatures all we know is what our senses tell us. And our senses tell us what is
“out there” by constructing models of the world with ourselves in it. The whole of the world
“out there” and our own bodies are really constructions of our minds. Yet we are sure, all
the time, that this construction — if you like, this “model of reality”— is “real” while the
other fleeting thoughts we have are unreal. We call the rest of them daydreams, imagination,
fantasies, and so on. Our brains have no trouble distinguishing “reality” from “imagination.”
But this distinction is not given. It is one the brain has to make for itself by deciding which
of its own models represents the world “out there.” I suggest it does this by comparing all
the models it has at any time and choosing the most stable one as “reality.”
This will normally work very well. The model created by the senses is the best and
most stable the system has. It is obviously “reality,” while that image I have of the bar I’m
going to go to later is unstable and brief. The choice is easy. By comparison, when you are
almost asleep, very frightened, or nearly dying, the model from the senses will be confused
and unstable. If you are under terrible stress or suffering oxygen deprivation, then the
choice won’t be so easy. All the models will be unstable.
So what will happen now? Possibly the tunnel being created by noise in the visual
cortex will be the most stable model and so, according to my supposition, this will seem
real. Fantasies and imagery might become more stable than the sensory model, and so seem
real. The system will have lost input control.
What then should a sensible biological system do to get back to normal? I would suggest
that it could try to ask itself — as it were —“Where am I? What is happening?” Even a person
under severe stress will have some memory left. They might recall the accident, or know
that they were in hospital for an operation, or remember the pain of the heart attack. So
they will try to reconstruct, from what little they can remember, what is happening.
Now we know something very interesting about memory models. Often they are con-
structed in a bird’s-eye view. That is, the events or scenes are seen as though from above.
If you find this strange, try to remember the last time you went to a pub or the last time
you walked along the seashore. Where are “you” looking from in this recalled scene? If you
are looking from above you will see what I mean.
So my explanation of the OBE becomes clear. A memory model in bird’s-eye view has
taken over from the sensory model. It seems perfectly real because it is the best model the
system has got at the time. Indeed, it seems real for just the same reason anything ever
seems real.
This theory of the OBE leads to many testable predictions, for example, that people
who habitually use bird’s-eye views should be more likely to have OBEs. Both Harvey Irwin
(1986), an Australian psychologist, and myself (Blackmore 1987) have found that people
who dream as though they were spectators have more OBEs, although there seems to be no
difference for the waking use of different viewpoints. I have also found that people who
can more easily switch viewpoints in their imagination are also more likely to report OBEs.
Of course this theory says that the OBE world is only a memory model. It should only
match the real world when the person has already known about something or can deduce
it from available information. This presents a big challenge for research on near death.
Some researchers claim that people near death can actually see things that they couldn’t
possibly have known about. For example, the American cardiologist Michael Sabom (1982)
claims that patients reported the exact behavior of needles on monitoring apparatus when
they had their eyes closed and appeared to be unconscious. Further, he compared these
 Near-Death Experiences (Blackmore) 115

descriptions with those of people imagining they were being resuscitated and found that
the real patients gave far more accurate and detailed descriptions.
There are problems with this comparison. Most important, the people really being
resuscitated could probably feel some of the manipulations being done on them and hear
what was going on. Hearing is the last sense to be lost and, as you will realize if you ever
listen to radio plays or news, you can imagine a very clear visual image when you can only
hear something. So the dying person could build up a fairly accurate picture this way. Of
course hearing doesn’t allow you to see the behavior of needles, and so if Sabom is right I
am wrong. We can only await further research to find out.

The Life Review

The experience of seeing excerpts from your life flash before you is not really as mys-
terious as it first seems. It has long been known that stimulation of cells in the temporal
lobe of the brain can produce instant experiences that seem like the reliving of memories.
Also, temporal-lobe epilepsy can produce similar experiences, and such seizures can involve
other limbic structures in the brain, such as the amygdala and hippocampus, which are also
associated with memory.
Imagine that the noise in the dying brain stimulates cells like this. The memories will
be aroused and, according to my hypothesis, if they are the most stable model the system
has at that time they will seem real. For the dying person they may well be more stable than
the confused and noisy sensory model.
The link between temporal-lobe epilepsy and the NDE has formed the basis of a thor-
ough neurobiological model of the NDE (Saavedra-Aguilar and Gomez-Jeria 1989). They
suggest that the brain stress consequent on the near-death episode leads to the release of
neuropeptides and neurotransmitters (in particular the endogenous endorphins). These
then stimulate the limbic system and other connected areas. In addition, the effect of the
endorphins could account the blissful and other positive emotional states so often associated
with the NDE.
Morse provided evidence that some children deprived of oxygen treated with opiates
did not have NDE–like hallucinations, and he his colleagues (Morse et al., 1986) have devel-
oped a theory based on the role of the neurotransmitter serotonin, rather than the endor-
phins. Research on the neurochemistry of the NDE is just beginning and should provide
us with much more detailed understanding of the life review.
Of course there is more to the review than just memories. The person feels as though
she or he is judging these life events, being shown their significance and meaning. But this
too, I suggest, is not so very strange. When the normal world of the senses is gone and
memories seem real, our perspective on our life changes. We can no longer be attached to
our plans, hopes, ambitions, and fears, which fade away and become unimportant, while
the past comes to life again. We can only accept it as it is, and there is no one to judge it
but ourselves. This is, I think, why so many NDEers say they faced their past life with
acceptance and equanimity.

Other Worlds
Now we come to what might seem the most extraordinary parts of the NDE; the worlds
beyond the tunnel and OBE. But I think you can now see that they are not so extraordinary
116 Part II: Near-Death Experiences/Theoretical Possibilities

at all. In this state the outside world is no longer real, and inner worlds are. Whatever we
can imagine clearly enough will seem real. And what will we imagine when we know we
are dying? I am sure for many people it is the world they expect or hope to see. Their minds
may turn to people they have known who have died before them or to the world they hope
to enter next. Like the other images we have been considering, these will seem perfectly
real.
Finally, there are those aspects of the NDE that are ineffable — they cannot be put into
words. I suspect that this is because some people take yet another step, a step into nonbeing.
I shall try to explain this by asking another question. What is consciousness? If you say it
is a thing, another body, a substance, you will only get into the kinds of difficulty we got
into with OBEs. I prefer to say that consciousness is just what it is like being a mental
model. In other words, all the mental models in any person’s mind are all conscious, but
only one is a model of “me.” This is the one that I think of as myself and to which I relate
everything else. It gives a core to my life. It allows me to think that I am a person, something
that lives on all the time. It allows me to ignore the fact that “I” change from moment to
moment and even disappear every night in sleep.
Now when the brain comes close to death, this model of self may simply fall apart.
Now there is no self. It is a strange and dramatic experience. For there is no longer an expe-
riencer — yet there is experience.
This state is obviously hard to describe, for the “you” who is trying to describe it cannot
imagine not being. Yet this profound experience leaves its mark. The self never seems quite
the same again.

The After Effects

I think we can now see why an essentially physiological event can change people’s lives
so profoundly. The experience has jolted their usual (and erroneous) view of the relationship
between themselves and the world. We all too easily assume that we are some kind of per-
sistent entity inhabiting a perishable body. But, as the Buddha taught we have to see through
that illusion. The world is only a construction of an information-processing system, and
the self is too. I believe that the NDE gives people a glimpse into the nature of their own
minds that is hard to get any other way. Drugs can produce it temporarily, mystical expe-
riences can do it for rare people, and long years of practice in meditation or mindfulness
can do it. But the NDE can out of the blue strike anyone and show them what they never
knew before, that their body is only that — a lump of flesh — that they are not so very impor-
tant after all. And that is a very freeing and enlightening experience.

And Afterwards?
If my analysis of the NDE is correct, we can extrapolate to the next stage. Lack of
oxygen first produces increased activity through disinhibition, but eventually it all stops.
Since it is this activity that produces the mental models that give rise to consciousness, then
all this will cease. There will be no more experience, no more self, and so that, as far as my
constructed self is concerned, is the end.
So, are NDEs in or out of the body? I should say neither, for neither experiences nor
selves have any location. It is finally death that dissolves the illusion that we are a solid self
inside a body.
 Near-Death Experiences (Blackmore) 117

Note
In November 1990, I visited the Netherlands to give two lectures. The first, on para-
psychology, was part of a series organized by the Studium Generale of the University of
Utrecht and titled “Science Confronts the Paranormal.” The second was at the Skepsis Con-
ference. Skepsis refers to the very active Dutch skeptics organization called Stichting Skepsis,
which means “skeptical foundation.” Cornelis de Jager, professor emeritus in astronomy,
is the Chair. Skepsis was established in 1987 and publishes the journal Skepter. Stichting
Skepsis also publishes conference proceedings and monographs on subjects like reincarna-
tion, spiritism, and homeopathy. As its purpose is to educate the public, Skepsis received
a starting grant from the government but is now self-supporting, thanks to many generous
donations. This is the lecture I presented at the organization’s 1990 conference, on “Belief
in the Paranormal.”

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 The Beyond That Is Within:
Recognizing Larger Realities
WILLIAM BRAUD

Many of us move through our lives in what might be called a typical fashion —accepting
and acting on the basis of only the knowledge and guidance we have received from our own
families and from certain relatively narrow and focused groups of which we have had direct
acquaintance. We follow a majority view of what our family, immediate associates, the
media, and various experts in areas of politics, religion, and medicine tell us about ourselves,
human nature, and how the world works. We may question that received knowledge and
guidance very little, if at all. This approach seems to serve many of us very well.
But for others of us, such a typical approach is not satisfying. We recognize that the
approach seems less than complete, that something important may be missing. This recog-
nition can lead to questioning of some of this received knowledge, guidance, and the
assumptions underlying these, and to curiosity about whether there might be more to life,
human nature, and the nature of the world than such conventional knowledge and guidance
may suggest.
For those of us who take this alternative path, hoping to satisfy our curiosity about
what might lie beyond what is immediately apparent, there can be a felicitous outcome. As
we confront an increasing range of experiences and phenomena, explore how these have
been interpreted and applied by others, and examine what they may imply about ourselves
and the nature of the world, we may begin to notice important, transformative changes in
ourselves. Our attitudes and understandings of ourselves and of the world at large may
expand sufficiently to result in qualitative shifts not only in our worldview but also in our
self view — an expanded appreciation of the nature of our identity. Such a transformation
can occur either suddenly and dramatically or more gradually and subtly, and can include
bodily, emotional, cognitive, expressive, relational, and psychospiritual changes.
In this essay, we will explore progressively larger and more inclusive realms and forms
of experience that individuals and researchers in areas of psychology and consciousness
studies have discovered or rediscovered, how we might access these more fully ourselves,
and how these discoveries and recognitions may expand our ways of knowing, being, and
doing and foster transformative changes in ourselves and others. We will do this by describ-
ing six areas in which our awareness and our appreciation of who or what we really are can

119
120 Part II: Near-Death Experiences/Theoretical Possibilities

be expanded, allowing us to live our lives more fully, with increased consciousness, knowl-
edge, and wisdom. These six areas are represented by the increasingly large circles in Figure
1.

Our Sensory Functioning

The nature of our senses imposes limits on what we can know about our physical
world. Our conventionally recognized
senses—vision, audition, touch, smell, and
taste — have evolved in ways that allow us
to adapt to different qualities of the world
around us. Our senses reveal, but they also
conceal. Each sense is able to access only a
certain aspect of the world, and even then,
it is able to process only a limited range of
frequencies (qualities) and intensities of
that aspect. For example, our eyes are sen-
sitive to only a very narrow range of the
electromagnetic (EM) spectrum (from
about 380 to 760 nanometers in wave-
length, and perceived as different colors).
They are insensitive to much shorter
Figure 1. Six areas that allow but also constrain (gamma rays, X–rays, ultraviolet) or much
human awareness and functioning. In the dia- longer (infrared, radar, radio, alternating
gram, the numbers 1 through 6 indicate areas of current) wavelengths. Our ears are sensitive
sensory functioning, constraints of consciousness, to physical vibrations in the frequency
altered conditions of consciousness, unconscious-
ness, psychic functioning, and other realms of range of 20 to 20,000 Hz (hertz, cycles per
being. second). In addition to these wavelength or
frequency limitations, our visual and audi-
tory receptors are responsive only within a certain range of intensities of stimulation: inten-
sities below or above that range will be either undetectable or damaging to the system.
Compared to human capabilities, some animals have even more limited visual and auditory
ranges, and some exceed human capabilities. For example, dogs, cats, many rodents, bats,
whales, and dolphins can hear sounds of much higher frequencies (some as high as 150,000
Hz) than humans can hear; elephants can communicate by means of infrasound (5 — 30
Hz); and many fish, reptiles, birds, insects, and some rodents are able to see ultraviolet
light (which most of us cannot see). Many living creatures, even plants, are sensitive to
tastes, odors, and chemicals that humans are unable to detect. And it certainly is possible
that there exist other qualities or energies that neither humans nor any other living creatures
are able to detect — qualities for which we don’t even have names.
I included the above section for three reasons: (a) this is an area in which it is easy to
appreciate the limits of our experiences— that there is much of which we are unaware; (b)
that because each sensory mode limits what can be known, there is need to make greater
use of other senses in order to know more about ourselves and the world; and (c) there
may be ways of deliberately increasing the sensitivity or range of each of our senses.
Regarding (b) above, in addition to the five well-known senses, we possess senses of
temperature, pressure, pain, equilibrium or balance, kinesthesia (movement- and position-
 The Beyond That Is Within (Braud) 121

related sensibility), and awareness of what is happening inside of our bodies (variously
known as proprioception, organic sensibility, visceral sensations, interoception, “gut reac-
tions”). Becoming more aware of these additional senses and how they might provide clues
about one’s feelings, attitudes, fears, needs, and desires (the “wisdom of the body”) can
help us learn more about the world and also adapt to it more effectively and efficiently.
Regarding (c) above, we can become more aware of the information that any sense is
conveying by framing a strong intention for this goal, by attending more fully and carefully
to that sense and what becomes available to it, and by deliberately reducing both external
and internal distractions or “noise” that might mask or interfere with weak sensory infor-
mation. Ways of reducing such distractions will be treated in more detail in a later section
of this essay. It might also be possible to use psychophysiological self-regulation and feed-
back techniques to extend the range and sensitivity of any given sense.

Constraints on Consciousness, Affect, and Behavior

Our senses effectively limit and filter what we can know about the world. Similarly,
there are constraints and limits on how we think, feel, imagine, and behave. Some of these
constraints are genetically determined; others are influenced by our early and present envi-
ronments, our prior experiences, and the habits that we have acquired through interactions
with our families, peers, society, culture, and the media. What we receive genetically and
our conditioning and learning histories influence our temperament, character, personality,
attitudes, what we chiefly attend to, typical reactions, capabilities, and general modes of
functioning. All of this could be called our preparedness or adequateness. Some of these
determining factors are obvious, but others can be quite subtle, exerting undetected
influences on seemingly “random” thoughts and actions. Our genetic makeup and history
of experiences combine to influence how we construct our perceptions, our model of the
world, and our self-concept and identity.
By examining these things more closely, we can modulate their influences and learn
to respond less automatically and robotically. We can counter the influences of these con-
straints by paying greater attention to our thoughts, feelings, and reactions and the cir-
cumstances that produce or accompany these, and by delaying and slowing down our
responses to situations in an effort to reduce their automatic nature. Psychological tech-
niques can be used to examine our assumptions and to discern which of our thoughts and
feelings might be groundless or lacking in rationality. Further, meditation and contempla-
tion procedures can help us deautomatize our perceptions and reactions and attain a kind
of beginner’s mind that can allow us to sense and perceive more freshly and less robotically.
A key to recognizing what is constraining our views and reactions and leading us to filter
our perceptions and knowings in certain ways is to use our skills of intention and attention,
which, fortunately, are trainable skills, with greater mindfulness and discernment.

Altered Conditions of Consciousness

Our ordinary waking consciousness is but one form of consciousness. Other forms of
consciousness occur during dreaming, deep dreamless sleep, reverie and twilight states,
and meditation. The contents, what can be known, and what can be “done” (what is possible
or impossible) differ in these different conditions of consciousness. In addition to the forms
already mentioned, there are less familiar forms of consciousness: lucid dreaming (in which,
122 Part II: Near-Death Experiences/Theoretical Possibilities

during the dream, one is aware that one is dreaming and is able to “control” the dream
more than is usually the case); hypnagogic and hypnopompic states (twilight states between
waking and sleeping, which are rich in visual and sometimes auditory imagery); conditions
of pure, contentless, or witnessing consciousness (in which one is more aware of one’s
awareness itself, akin to there being a searchlight with nothing for it to shine upon); out-
of-body experiences (OBEs, in which one perceives aspects of the world, and perhaps one’s
own body, from a point of view outside of one’s body); and near-death experiences (NDEs,
with features of perceptions of movement through space and perhaps through a “tunnel,”
of a special form of light, a landscape, presences, intense emotion, perhaps a panoramic
life review, and a conviction of having a new understanding of the nature of the universe).
The constraints and filters active within our ordinary waking consciousness have to
do primarily with what is known— with content, information, and knowledge. The lesson
of the existence of altered conditions of consciousness is that there also are constraints and
filters that have to do with how knowing occurs in the first place — which sorts of inputs
inform the knower, how these knowings are processed and expressed, and which sorts of
accompaniments and outcomes that might have. In many of the altered conditions men-
tioned above, there is an inwardly directed attention, a freedom from external sensory dis-
tractions, and a greater role of imaginal processes. By imaginal, I do not mean imaginary.
Imaginal processes and contents partake of another form of reality. The imaginal realm is
rich in imagery, symbols, and various forms of nonverbal experience. These additional
forms of knowing not only can help expand us as knowers, but the images and other non-
verbal experiences unique to some of these altered consciousness conditions can also have
indirect and sometimes direct impacts on the physical world, as we will see later. It has even
been suggested that different forms of science itself might be developed and practiced within
different conditions of consciousness— a possibility that Charles Tart (1972) has called
state-specific sciences.
Although entry into some of these altered consciousness conditions, such as the OBEs
and NDEs, tends to occur only spontaneously, there are ways of fostering experiences of
others of these. Procedures of relaxation and quieting, directing attention inwardly, framing
suitable intentions, contemplation and meditation, and the use of biofeedback and other
forms of psychophysiological self-regulation can help on enter some of these altered con-
ditions of consciousness. A number of physical devices, usually involving certain forms of
light or sound stimulation, have been marketed, with claims that they can help induce
altered consciousness; however, whether such devices are actually effective remains con-
troversial. Perhaps one of the easiest of these altered states to enter is the hypnagogic, twi-
light state. One passes through this state every time one shifts from waking to sleep;
however, the duration of the condition usually is quite short and what occurs during these
brief visits usually is not well remembered. It is possible to self-induce a hypnagogic state
by using a procedure, which involves relaxing, exposing oneself to unpatterned visual and
auditory stimulation (known as ganzfeld stimulation), and carefully observing and reporting
the imagery that will automatically emerge. An even simpler technique is to artificially
lengthen the naturally occurring hypnagogic state by placing your forearm in a bent,
upright, yet very carefully and effortlessly balanced position as you prepare to fall asleep.
As you approach sleep, decreasing muscle tension will cause the arm to fall, increasing your
activation level and keeping you hovering in the hypnagogic condition for longer periods
than usual and allowing better access and better memory for the information that can
become available during the hypnagogic condition.
 The Beyond That Is Within (Braud) 123

Unconsciousness
Much happens within our bodies and “minds” without our conscious awareness. Ordi-
narily, the body goes about its crucial business of regulating its inner activities and condi-
tion — its circulatory, respiratory, digestive, eliminative, immune, growth, and repair
processes— quite well, and usually without our knowledge that this is happening or how
this is happening. Often, it is only when something goes wrong, as in distress, pain, or
illness, that we become aware of the workings of our bodies. Similarly, in our mental func-
tioning, much goes on without our knowledge. Unrecognized triggers prompt associations,
thoughts, and emotions. Pheromones (chemical signals that trigger natural biological reac-
tions) and subliminal stimuli may influence us in ways of which we are unaware.
We are able to recognize faces without being able to say how we do this. Unconscious
slips of the tongue may reveal inner motivations of which we were previously unaware.
Young children (and even animals) “know” enough about the physics of trajectories to
allow them to throw and catch balls and other objects with amazing accuracy, but without
knowing how they do this and without being able to express this tacit (silent) knowledge.
Often, we “instinctively” or intuitively know about dangerous persons or situations, without
knowing how we know such things.
An extreme form of the manner in which unconscious knowings can reside within us
is the phenomenon of dissociative identity disorder (DID; formerly known as multiple per-
sonality disorder (MPD), in which certain individuals experience very different patterns
of behaviors and memories (alternate personalities) within themselves, some of these “per-
sonalities” apparently completely unknown to other personalities.
Becoming aware of formerly unconscious processes and information is of value because
this increases our general wealth of knowledge, allows us to become more aware of our pre-
viously hidden motives and biases (so that they are less likely to distort our thinking and
actions, and less likely to lead us to sabotage ourselves), and allows us to access a reservoir
of “collective” (Jung 1973) and “transpersonal” (Grof 1972) experiences typically unavailable
to our ordinary waking consciousness.
There are a number of techniques that can allow us to access formerly unconscious
material:
• Noting subtle bodily reactions that can reveal our true feelings, preferences, and desires;
Eugene Gendlin’s (1978) focusing technique can be helpful in this regard;
• Observing meaningful slips of the tongue, inadvertent “mistakes,” and behaviors that can
be revealing of unconscious motivations (as in Sigmund Freud’s work on “the psy-
chopathology of everyday life”);
• Engaging in free-associating that can reveal meaningful connections that previously went
unnoticed (as in the work of Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud);
• Responding to ambiguous pictures or situations, which allow us to project our dominant,
but unconscious, motives onto them (the rationale behind so-called “projective” tests);
• Remembering, recording, and studying our dreams for useful information they might
provide;
• Incubating dreams, which is a way of asking that our dreams address specific problems
or reveal requested information;
• Practicing active imagination, which is a way of continuing to access, unfold, and learn
from information that previously was unconscious; it is a way of blending unconscious
and conscious information (Hannah 1981);
124 Part II: Near-Death Experiences/Theoretical Possibilities

• Making use of sensory automatisms, such as hand-held pendulums, which can reveal
knowings that certain aspects of ourselves already have, but had not shared with other
parts of us; these involve subtle muscular movements (ideomotor reactions);
• Allowing a possible decision to be determined by some random, chance outcome (such
as the toss of a coin), but then noticing how we react emotionally to the outcome; this
can reveal otherwise unconscious motives and preferences ;
• Using hypnosis to reveal information not previously available to us in our ordinary, wak-
ing conscious state; and
• Imagining (visualizing) an inner guide, and asking that that guide (which might really
be another aspect of oneself ) to provide useful information

Psychic Functioning
Ordinarily, our conscious awareness is informed only by what has been experienced
through the senses and how that information has been processed and possibly transformed
and augmented by our faculty of reasoning. However, under special conditions it is possible
for us to become aware of things beyond the reach of these conventional senses and beyond
what might be inferred rationally. These additional ways of knowing are modes of what has
come to be known as psychic functioning; modern researchers refer to this as psi function-
ing. There are six major forms of psi:
• Telepathy, becoming accurately aware of the mental activities (thoughts, images, percep-
tions, feelings) of another person, usually at a distance;
• Clairvoyance, becoming accurately aware of some objective event or situation, again,
usually at a distance;
• Precognition, becoming accurately aware of some future happening, when this cannot be
inferred rationally;
• Psychokinesis (PK), influencing some physical or living system “mentally,” through imag-
ing or intention for a particular outcome, without use of the conventional motor systems
of the body or physical devices;
• Mental healing, influencing the health or well-being of another person or other living
system, by other than conventional means, sometimes at a distance; and
• Psi-mediated instrumental response (PMIR), an “unconscious” form of psi in which one’s
memory, perception, or behavior changes and results in being at the right place at the
right time and avoiding what otherwise would have been a danger or accessing something
useful or desirable.

Persons have been reporting these kinds of psychic (psi) experiences throughout his-
tory. More recently, primarily over the past 130 years or so, researchers have been studying
psi experiences more formally and carefully, and they have collected compelling evidence
for the existence of each of these six major forms of psi. Although some persist in attempting
to debunk such findings, and although this work tends to be unknown or under appreciated
by scientists in established disciplines, a careful examination of the methods and findings
of psi research will reveal that there is sufficient and sufficiently good evidence for the reality
of these forms of psychic functioning.
I introduce this topic of psychic functioning here to indicate that there are additional
ways of knowing about other people and about our world, and even additional ways of
influencing our world, beyond those involving the familiar conventional senses and our
 The Beyond That Is Within (Braud) 125

motor (muscular) systems and the devices that have been invented to extend these. By
attending to psi functioning, when we notice it occurring in ourselves, we can effectively
expand our ways of interacting with the world at large.
What are perhaps the most important features of psychic experiences are the functions
that they serve. Often, these experiences occur in need-related situations, and often, they
involve other persons who are significant to us in some way. Telepathy and clairvoyance
may occur in circumstances in which it is important that certain information be known,
but there is no conventional way of conveying that information. Often, these processes
inform us about life-threatening or dangerous situations in which loved ones find them-
selves, or that might be dangerous to us had we not known about them. In cases of PMIR,
we might find ourselves changing our usual behavior and thereby avoiding accidents or
meeting persons in ways that are beneficial to us. Instances of precognition — perhaps in
the form of premonitions occurring in dreams—can alert us to future dangers that we might
avoid, should we pay sufficient attention to such foreknowledge. Even if the foreseen events
cannot be changed, precognitions and premonitions can provide a preparatory function,
helping us deal more effectively with later troubling events. Psychokinesis and mental heal-
ing may occur in situations in which other, more familiar, forms of intervention are either
not possible or not sufficiently effective.
The various forms of psi also can occur under seemingly random conditions— in sit-
uations where they appear to serve no obvious need. Frankly, we have no clear explanation
for such seemingly erratic psychic occurrences. Perhaps these are truly “random.” However,
it may be the case that such appearances of psi are following lawful principles of which we
are not yet aware. In addition to occurring in “pure” form (without the usual sensory or
motor supports), it is possible that psi processes of direct knowing and direct mental
influencing are intimately involved even in our regular sensory and motor functioning. Psi
may even be like a kind of glue that keeps everything in the world together and interacting.
Through studies of both their everyday life occurrences and their occurrence in careful
laboratory studies, researchers have learned about many physical, physiological, and psy-
chological factors that appear to either foster or interfere with psi functioning. There is
space here to mention only a few of these factors— those that would be of greatest interest
and use to those wishing to access this mode of functioning more fully.
We have seen that psi often functions in the service of need. Given this tendency, one
may be more likely to observe psi in oneself in situations in which strong needs are present
but are not being satisfied in conventional ways. Being on the lookout for these would be
a way of attending to psi occurrences that otherwise might escape notice.
Psi often manifests in altered conditions of consciousness. Attending more closely to
unusual knowings that might be emerging during dreams, drowsy twilight states, or con-
ditions of reverie or meditation can allow us to notice otherwise evasive instances of psi.
For example, precognitions or premonitions often emerge in the form of dreams.
Because psi influences typically are rather subtle, they are less likely to occur if our
brain functioning or mental functioning is strongly preoccupied, structured, and con-
strained by either very demanding tasks or tasks that require a great deal of attention to
carry out. Such “busy-ness” of our neural or mental functions provides a great deal of
momentum or “inertia,” making it difficult for our brains or minds to shift or change in
response to subtle psi influences. Therefore, an effective way to promote psi occurrences is
to free ourselves, as much as possible, from both external and internal demands, structuring,
constraints, or strong foci of attention. The idea is to allow our internal processes to be
126 Part II: Near-Death Experiences/Theoretical Possibilities

labile, freely variable — letting them be in a condition in which it is very possible for them
to move in any direction but without a strong tendency to move in a particular direction.
This would be a delicately poised condition, akin to the way that smoke wafting from the
tip of a burning stick of incense can move in any direction, strongly influenced by the
slightest breeze. One can produce such a condition in oneself by freeing oneself from outer
sensory stimulation and letting go of inner thoughts and images that might preoccupy one’s
attention. Conditions of reverie (e.g., passively watching flames dance in a fireplace or
watching the random movements of clouds) and of forms of meditation (those that do not
involve strong concentration on a specific image, sound, or feeling) can approach this state
of free variability of our neural and mental processes. In such conditions, one can be alert
to novel thoughts, images, and feelings that enter one’s awareness, unbidden, and remember
these and later record these to learn whether these might have carried psychically acquired
information.
The foregoing suggestions addressed the very occurrences of psi events. However, once
they have occurred it is important to us to become more fully aware of them. The psi-
acquired information can be carried into our conscious awareness via vehicles of thoughts,
images, and feelings. These may be subtle, and they may be competing with other, stronger,
thoughts, images, and feelings for one’s attention. Stated otherwise, the psi-carrying vehicles
are like onto weak signals that might be masked by strong sources of noise. By noise, in this
case, I do not mean only sounds, but any sources of distraction or interference. The key to
detecting the relatively weak, or perhaps less familiar, psi signals is to reduce the interfering
noise at as many levels as possible. Fortunately, we have a variety of effective techniques
for reducing noise. Sensory noise or distractions can be reduced by entering a quiet envi-
ronment and closing one’s eyes; hypnagogic state inducers and the ganzfeld technique men-
tioned previously also can be helpful in this regard. Internal muscular distractions and
distractions from heightened inner bodily activities can be reduced through the practice of
relaxation exercises (Jacobson 1938) and autogenic training exercises (Schultz and Luthe
1969), which help reduce autonomic and emotional distractions. Cognitive noise (mental
distractions) can be reduced by means of concentration and meditation procedures (LeShan
1974). Other, more subtle, distractions can be reduced by attempting to refrain from ana-
lytical thought (which seems to interfere with accurate access to psi-related information)
and refrain from excessive effortful striving to succeed, which is its own source of noise.
Once psi-related information is accessed, it is important to attend to internal clues or ref-
erence points (certain kinds of feelings, certain qualities of imagery or thought) that might
be associated with such information, so that psi-related vehicles might be identified in
future and distinguished from other internal activities that might be confused with psi,
such as wishes or fears.
Investigators in the fields of parapsychology and psychical research do not really under-
stand how psi interactions occur. It is clear that the knowledge and influences contributed
by psi functioning are beyond the presently known capabilities of the conventional senses
and of the brain. Attempts to explain the how of psi functioning have yielded three general
types of theories or models. The first model could be called a transmission model. According
to this view, knowledge or influence of distant events is accomplished through some physical
or quasi-physical force that carries information from one locus to another through some
channel or medium in a manner analogous to mental radio: There is transmission and
reception of information, intelligence, or energy. Such models have many difficulties. The
mediating force has not been identified, nor has the “channel,” nor do we know of mechanisms
 The Beyond That Is Within (Braud) 127

through which conscious content at the “source” can be coded into or modulated onto the
“carrier” then decoded or demodulated from the carrier at the “destination.” The process
does not behave as other forms of transmission customarily behave with respect to physical
factors such as distance, shields, screens, amplifiers, attenuators, the nature of the “target”
or of the conveyed information (message content), or (perhaps most problematically) time.
A second type of model could be called a reorganization model. In such a model, noth-
ing is posited to be transmitted from point to point. Rather, the inherent “noise,” random-
ness, or disorder already present in an unconstrained brain or mind of the percipient (in
the case of receptive psi processes such as telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition) is reor-
ganized to match or resemble the organization or structure of what is to be known, or the
noise, randomness, disorder of some external physical system (in the case of active psi such
as psychokinesis) is reorganized in a manner that creates the desired goal outcome (and
appears force-like). The process is analogous to resonance, but without the typical mediators
of familiar forms of resonance (such as auditory resonance in which a specific string of a
musical instrument vibrates and sounds when the corresponding string of another similar
instrument is plucked). The challenges facing a reorganization model are (a) what precisely
“feeds” the reorganization process at the changing end of the transaction, and (b) what pre-
cisely specifies the particular form the reorganization will take (that is, of the many things
that a disorganized system might change to match, why does it happen to change in a way
that matches the particular object of knowing at hand or change to match a particular
intention or wish, in the case of PK)?
A third type of model could be called a holonomic or correspondence model. Here, noth-
ing is either transmitted or reorganized. Rather, it is hypothesized that all information is
already present throughout all parts of all systems, in some implicate or potential form, in
a manner not unlike the complex interference patterns in which information is represented
in a hologram. The “correct” information is simply read out of this vast and complete reser-
voir of latent information. The challenges for this model then become (a) accounting for
why a specific form of information is accessed, from all of the information that is available
at all points, at just the right time; (b) specifying the grounds or fields that make all of this
possible; and (c) accounting for creation of novelty within such a system. How do the
intended or useful read-outs or effects occur at some particular time, as opposed to a vast
number of alternative possibilities? The findings regarding psi functioning, and especially
the third, holonomic model just described, indicate that we are sometimes able to access
information and produce effects in a nonlocal manner, and they also indicate that in some
mysterious manner we are all profoundly interconnected with one another and with all
aspects of nature. The findings also indicate the important roles that psychological processes
of attention and intention play in realizing these nonlocal knowings and outcomes.
Our present uncertainty about the true nature or underlying “mechanisms” of psi processes does
not in any way decrease their utility in providing us with access to information or effects not oth-
erwise possible, and does not obscure their role as indicators of expanded ways of knowing and
doing, beyond those currently recognized by mainstream science.
Useful summaries of the methods, findings, and theories regarding psychic functioning have
been presented elsewhere (Braud 2002, 2008).

Other Realms of Being

In the five areas mentioned above, we have treated ways of extending our knowings
and influences beyond their typically narrow range. There is a sixth area that suggests that
128 Part II: Near-Death Experiences/Theoretical Possibilities

even our way of being might be extended. I will treat this in the context of an expanded set
of experiences that researcher Rhea White (1997) has called exceptional human experiences
(EHEs). These are experiences that include the kinds of psi related and altered states related
experiences already mentioned, but include, in addition, experiences suggestive of possible
other realms of being. White and her coworker Suzanne Brown (1998) identified several
classes of EHEs, each including many, many types of experiences. For present purposes, I
will simplify those classes and categories and organize the most relevant of these into two
major areas—afterlife related experiences and mystical/unitive experiences.
Afterlife experiences (often called survival related experiences) are those that suggest
that human consciousness and perhaps even aspects of individual human personality might
survive the death of the physical body. The most extensively treated experiences of this
type include the following. The reader will note that some of these (especially OBEs and
NDEs) overlap experiences treated earlier in this essay. This is because the experiences may
occur during altered conditions of consciousness (treated above).
Out-of-body experience (OBE). An OBE involves perceiving or observing the world or
one’s physical body from a point of view outside of the physical body; one’s center of con-
sciousness may seem to be in a spatial location other than that occupied by the physical
body. Although the description of the experience is clear, its interpretation and implications
are controversial. One common interpretation is that something (some form of subtle body?)
may actually move away from the physical body and make true observations from a distant
position. The implication is that if this can happen while the person is alive, perhaps it also
can happen even after death — that is, whatever can leave the body of the living might be
able to survive the death of that body. An alternative interpretation is that during an OBE
nothing really leaves the body. Instead, one enters an altered condition of consciousness in
which one may actually become accurately aware of distant events through the more familiar
processes of telepathy or clairvoyance. The fact that an OBE can occur in a person, while
living, does not necessarily imply that such an experience might continue after the death
of the body. Currently, it is not clear which of these alternative interpretations is more likely
to be correct.
Near-death experience (NDE). An NDE is an experience reported by a person who
almost died or had been declared dead (due to absence of vital signs) but “recovered” or
by someone who found himself or herself in a very dangerous or life-threatening situation.
Such experiences tend to form a pattern that may include all or most of the following:
feeling detached from one’s body (an OBE), having an experience of a tunnel or moving in
a tunnel, having an experience of light, having the experience of seeing luminous beings,
entering realms of ineffable bliss, having a panoramic recollection of one’s entire life,
encountering beings such as deceased loved ones or otherworldly messengers. As in the
case of an OBE, the experience itself is subjectively quite real, and it can have a very dramatic
impact on one’s life. Also like the OBE, the experience itself, which occurs not infrequently,
is relatively easy to describe but subject to several interpretations. It may be that, in these
occasions of near-death or threatened life, one may actually have a glimpse of conditions
and beings that may exist in some afterlife realm. Critics of this view argue that although
the experiencer comes close to death, the body as a whole does not actually die, and the
experience may depend, in some way, upon a still-living body or may be subjective accom-
paniments of physiological changes taking place in a dying brain. As in the case of the OBE,
it currently is not clear which of these alternative interpretations or explanations of the
NDE is the more accurate one.
 The Beyond That Is Within (Braud) 129

Apparitions. An apparition is a visual appearance, usually manifesting only once or

rarely, that suggests the presence of a deceased person or animal, or of a living person or
animal not within the sensory range of the experiencer. Apparitions are more commonly
called ghosts. Other apparitions take the form of angelic or divine visits or of unusual beings.
Apparitions may occur as part of a deathbed experience in which a dying person may report
awareness of the presence of deceased relatives or friends, along with an altered state of
consciousness such as exaltation or increased lucidity.
Presence, haunts, and poltergeist encounters. These are three types of experiences that
are somewhat related to apparitions. In a sense of presence encounter, there is a “sensing,”
feeling, or knowing of what seems to be the presence of an alien being or realm. There may
be physiological accompaniments of the experience such as chills, a feeling of coldness, or
a prickly feeling of the skin. A haunt encounter or haunting involves experiences of unusual
sounds, sights, or feelings that are associated with a particular locality. These usually are
attributed to the activity or residual effect of a discarnate entity. In poltergeist encounters
(“poltergeist” is a German word for “noisy, disruptive, or mischievous spirit”) there are
unexplained movements or breakages of objects that often seem to center around a par-
ticular person; they differ from hauntings in that apparitions are rarely seen.
Regarding the explanations of apparitions, presences, haunts, and poltergeist activities,
there are, as in the case of OBEs and NDEs, alternative views. The most common interpre-
tation is that these phenomena are manifestations of spirits of the dead, which remain con-
nected to particular locations or persons and make their presence known through
apparitions or physical phenomena. An alternative interpretation is that these phenomena
are attributable to psychic functioning in the living — persons may be learning things about
the deceased via processes of telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, and retrocognition
(direct psychic knowledge of the past) and may be dramatizing or personifying this
psychically-obtained knowledge in the form of apparitions and physical effects, and may
even produce effects observable to others (particularly in poltergeist episodes) via uncon-
scious psychokinetic influences upon things in the environment.
Afterlife (or afterdeath) communications and encounters and mediumistic communica-
tions. These involve receiving communications that seem to come from the deceased. The
communications may be meaningful and specific enough to allow those receiving them to
have the experience that they are indeed from the purported sources. Afterdeath (afterlife)
communications (encounters) usually occur spontaneously and tend to involve what appear
to be communications that come directly from deceased relatives or loved ones. Mediumistic
communications, on the other hand, tend to be mediated (as the name “medium” implies)
through individuals who may possess special skills and who serve as channels through
which afterlife communications are shared with sitters who consult them. These commu-
nications, whether received directly or conveyed indirectly through some other living person,
frequently are helpful to the experiencer’s grief /bereavement process.
Some of the most convincing evidence that suggests that some aspects of the deceased
may survive death and be capable of communicating with the living comes from cases in
which some message ostensibly from the deceased contains information known only to the
deceased or to a small number of living persons who are able to confirm its accuracy, cases
in which the deceased seem to provide instructions about where to find something (such
as a hidden will) whose location or even existence was not previously known, and cases
called cross-correspondences in which different mediums receive different messages, osten-
sibly from the same deceased communicator, that have meaning when put together, func-
130 Part II: Near-Death Experiences/Theoretical Possibilities

tioning like parts of a puzzle. Also impressive are cases in which a medium is able to describe
or imitate certain personal characteristics (ways of speaking or moving) or skills of the
deceased, in addition to simply providing information uniquely known by the deceased.
Once again, there are alternative explanations for these kinds of experiences. The most
straightforward explanation is that these experiences really are what they seem to be —com-
munications from some aspects of the deceased that survive death. An alternative view is
that such communications may be dramatizations or personifications of the thoughts,
wishes, or fears of the living regarding the deceased. In cases involving accurate mediumistic
communications, the accurate information conveyed by the medium might have its source
in psychically obtained knowledge of the living medium rather than some persisting spirit
of the departed. Even mediums themselves are uncertain about the source of their knowl-
edge. Toward the end of her life, when questioned about the source of the accurate infor-
mation she conveyed, the well-respected medium Eileen Garrett replied,
It is as if on Monday, Wednesday and Friday I think that they are spirits as they say, and on Tues-
day, Thursday and Saturday, I think that they are multiple personality split-offs I have invented in
order to make my work easier. And as if on Sunday I try not to think about the problem [cited in
LeShan 1976, p. 104].

Past life recall or cases of the reincarnation type (CORT). These are instances in which
persons appear to have memories of experiences and occurrences in a previous time and
place, which suggest that the person may have lived a prior life as another person. Such past
life memories are most common in young children and tend to fade away once the child is
about 7 or so years of age. In addition to memories (or, more accurately, knowledge) that
can be checked for accuracy, some cases involve body marks in the experiencer that appear
to match similar marks of the body of the person whose earlier life is being recalled. As in
the case of other forms of evidence suggestive of survival of bodily death, past life recall
may be precisely what it appears to be. Alternatively, any information known to the sub-
sequent “incarnation” that may be verified as accurate regarding the prior incarnation might
have been acquired through psychic access to existing records or still existing knowledge
of persons who knew the prior incarnation, obtained via clairvoyance, telepathy, or retrocog-
nition.
One of my favorite treatments of reincarnation is found in a letter that the Indian
philosopher and spiritual teacher, Sri Aurobindo, had written to a student in 1933:
You must avoid a common popular blunder about reincarnation. The popular idea is that Titus
Balbus is reborn again as John Smith, a man with the same personality, character, attainments as
he had in his former life with the sole difference that he wears coat and trousers instead of a toga
and speaks in cockney English instead of popular Latin. That is not the case. What would be the
earthly use of repeating the same personality or character a million times from the beginning of
time till its end? The soul comes into birth for experience, for growth, for evolution till it can bring
the Divine into Matter. It is the central being that incarnates, not the outer personality — the per-
sonality is simply a mould that it creates for its figures of experience in that one life. In another
birth it will create for itself a different personality, different capacities, a different life and career....
It is not the personality, the character that is of the first importance in rebirth — it is the psychic
being who stands behind the evolution of the nature and evolves with it. The psychic when it
departs from the body, shedding even the mental and vital on its way to its resting place, carries
with it the heart of its experiences— not the physical events, not the vital movements, not the men-
tal buildings, not the capacities or characters, but something essential that it gathered from them,
what might be called the divine element for the sake of which the rest existed. That is the perma-
nent addition, it is that that helps in the growth towards the Divine. That is why there is usually
no memory of the outward events and circumstances of past lives ... [Aurobindo, 1970, pp. 451–
452].
 The Beyond That Is Within (Braud) 131

Instrumental transcommunication (ITC). This is the most recent type of evidence that
has been put forth in support of the possibility of discarnate survival. The evidence takes
the form of unusual voices that are claimed to appear on audio tape recorders or heard and
recorded from radios or telephones. A frequent interpretation is that these may be voices
of the deceased. There have been claims that likenesses of the deceased may even appear
on television sets or in video recordings. The voices are said to have unusual physical char-
acteristics, unlike those of conventional voices, and sometimes they are said to correspond
to the remembered voices of the deceased. The three most common explanations regarding
such anomalous voices are that (a) the voices are what they appear or claim to be — namely,
the voices or images of the deceased or of other beings, (b) the voices might really be stray
radio break-ins or random sounds or patterns upon which meanings are projected by the
listener, or (c) the voices or images might be produced psychokinetically by the listeners
and researchers.
For each of the forms of evidence mentioned above there are both survival-supporting
interpretations and alternative interpretations that treat the findings in terms of the psychic
functioning of the living rather than of the deceased. A reasonable and wise approach in
dealing with such ambiguity would seem to be one of examining each finding or form of
evidence in a case-by-case manner, evaluating the plausibility of the various alternative
explanations. Once cases of misperception and other conventional causes have been elim-
inated, within each type of experience there is likely to be a range of degrees of plausibility
of the various interpretations, with certain cases being very consistent with the survival-
related explanation and with certain other cases being less consistent with this kind of
interpretation. Cases most consistent with the survival-related explanation are relevant to
the major theme of this essay in that they would form a pattern suggestive of yet another
way or realm of being — other than our familiar physical reality — in which the deceased
and other entities perceived in these experiences would exist.
For those wishing to explore the methods, findings, and theories related to survival/
afterlife research, useful information and summaries are provided in works by Arcangel
(2005), Fontana (2005), and Storm and Thalbourne (2006).
An important issue raised by these survival-related experiences concerns the precise
nature of what might survive biological death. This question has not been sufficiently
addressed by researchers in this area. There is a tendency to assume that what survives is
something identical to or very similar to the individual personality as it exists before death
(like the Titus Bulba and John Smith individuals in the Aurobindo quote above). Given
the dependence of such individual characteristics (appearance, knowledge base, memories,
ways of thinking and acting, and so on) upon the physical body and brain, it would at first
seem unlikely that an individual personality as such would be able to persist without the
physical body that would provide the substrate for such characteristics. What might survive
could range from persistent, individual, personal forms of consciousness (as just men-
tioned); to more transient residues of these; to contentless, featureless witnessing con-
sciousness (akin to a search light with nothing to shine upon); to traces that may or may
not have awareness; to a form of being that is “unconscious”; to the basic constituents and
processes of the universe; or to the ultimate ground of being — to name but a few possibil-
ities. In fact, we presently have a quite meager understanding of exactly what might survive
the death of the body.
Mystical experience. A final type of experience relevant to other realms of being is the
mystical/unitive experience. This has been described as an experience of direct union or
132 Part II: Near-Death Experiences/Theoretical Possibilities

communion with ultimate reality and as a form of knowledge of the divine, spiritual truth,
or ultimate reality attained through direct experience by means other than the discursive,
rational intellect. The experience is characterized by an inability to express it fully in words
because of its extraordinary quality; an inability to sustain it for long; absence of control
of the occurrence; feelings of mystery, awe, and sacredness; loss of ego and a sense of having
no boundaries; changes in perception and one’s sense of space and time; strong positive
affect (joy, ecstasy, exultation, euphoria, bliss); feeling transformed; and being able to appre-
ciate that opposites are not truly incompatible. Such an experience certainly involves an
altered way of being in the world. The experience is accompanied by a decreased identifi-
cation with the individual self and an increased identification with a greater Self, the divine,
or the world at large, and a greater appreciation of the interconnectedness of all things.
Long ago, philosopher/psychologist William James (1902/1985) argued that although a mys-
tical experience is very convincing and “authoritative” to the experiencer, persons who
stand outside of such experiences do not have a duty to accept their reality. However, James
went on to write,
Yet ... the existence of mystical states absolutely overthrows the pretension of non-mystical states
to be the sole and ultimate dictators of what we may believe.... It must always remain an open
question whether mystical states may not possibly be such superior points of view, windows through
which the mind looks out upon a more extensive and inclusive world.... The wider world would in
that case prove to have a mixed constitution like that of this world.... It would have its celestial and
its infernal regions, its tempting and its saving moments, its valid experiences and its counterfeit
ones, just as our world has them; but it would be a wider world all the same [pp. 427–428].

Theoretical Possibilities
The six areas treated above point to the existence of these increasingly “wider worlds.”
What we described is like unto the many layers of an onion. However, rather than peeling
back or removing layer after layer to get to some inner core, our treatment has involved
the reverse of this process— an adding of layer after layer, yielding an increasingly expanded
view of possibilities and of possible worlds or realms beyond the familiar but narrow one
to which we usually are accustomed. The natures of these various realms differ in important
ways, and there are important differences in what is possible and what is impossible within
each of these. What is perhaps most important about these various worlds, realms, forms
of consciousness, or ways of knowing, doing, and being, is that they appear to be already
near and available, ready for us to access them and apply them in useful ways.
Our normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special type of
consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms
of consciousness entirely different. We may go through life without suspecting their existence; but
apply the requisite stimulus, and at a touch they are there in all their completeness, definite types
of mentality which probably somewhere have their field of application and adaptation. No account
of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite dis-
regarded. How to regard them is the question, —for they are so discontinuous with ordinary con-
sciousness. Yet they may determine attitudes though they cannot furnish formulas, and open a
region though they fail to give a map. At any rate, they forbid a premature closing of our accounts
with reality [James 1902/1985, p. 388].

Practical Accompaniments and Outcomes: Transformative Potentials

But what is the practical value of what becomes accessible in each of the six areas
treated above? There are several answers to this question. First, simply knowing about these
 The Beyond That Is Within (Braud) 133

areas increases our awareness that our own humanity and the nature of the world itself is
larger and has greater potentials than we might originally have imagined. Second, by know-
ing about each of these areas, we become better able to access the knowledge and skills that
are available in each of these, increasing our own adequacy and capabilities. Third, and
perhaps most important, as we become increasingly aware of these six areas, and begin to
work more diligently with the experiences available within each of these, our understanding
of our true nature and potentials may undergo important changes—changes that can be
sufficiently persistent, pervasive, and profound to quality as transformative changes. One
of the most useful accounts of how such transformative changes can occur can be found in
Rhea White’s treatment of what she (White 1997, 1998) and her colleague Suzanne Brown
(1998) have called the EHE process.
The process begins with an anomalous experience (AE), an unusual experience that
cannot be explained in terms of conventionally recognized physical, biological, psycholog-
ical, or sociological processes. Many of the experiences described in the six areas above can
be considered “anomalous” because they are outside of narrow realm of our usual ordinary
waking consciousness. It is possible that an AE will be ignored, dismissed, or explained
away. However, if an AE attracts the experiencer’s attention and the experiencer wishes to
learn more about its possible meaning, the AE is not dismissed; it becomes an exceptional
experience (EE). As one continues to work more deeply and extensively with an EE, one
begins to uncover other, similar experiences, the EE’s meaning and significance deepens,
and in the process one can discover and begin to actualize and express more of one’s true
human potentials. The EE then becomes an exceptional human experience (EHE), and one’s
self-schema, lifeview, and worldview begin to transform. One begins to shift one’s prior
narrative to a new narrative, and begins to disidentify with one’s earlier, limited, isolated,
separate ego-self (“little self ”) and begins to re-identify with what White has called a more
inclusive “All-Self.” (Of a similar concept, William James, 1902/1985, p. 508, wrote, “[One]
becomes conscious that this higher part is conterminous and continuous with a MORE of
the same quality, which is operative in the universe outside of [one], and which [one] can
keep in working touch with....”) One enters the “experiential paradigm,” begins to live a
new “project of transcendence,” and develops a new way of being in the world.
As we continue to contemplate and work with our exceptional experiences (i.e., some
of the contents of the six additional realms considered in this essay), we can change our
narrative about ourselves. Our self-narrative may shift from a life-depotentiating one (as
when we attempt to devalue, explain away, or view unusual experiences in a continuing
anomalous or pathological context) to a life-potentiating one (as when we affirm the excep-
tional experiences and use them in stories in which they are more meaningful and in which
we have a more meaningful place). The nature of the narrative can be known through its
everyday life fruits— the life-potentiating ones yielding a more productive, happier, health-
ier, zestier, and more exciting life.
Although White and Brown did not mention these, there are bodies of research that
add further empirical support to their claims about the value of honoring exceptional expe-
riences. Studies have identified the energy loss and low-level stress that occur when one
denies exceptional experiences, and the healthful benefits of disclosing and assimilating
these previously excluded experiences (as shown, for example, in the work of Pennebaker,
1995, and Wickramasakera, 1989). Such disclosure can occur through journaling about
one’s experiences (creating what White called an EHE autobiography) and through dis-
cussing these with others.
134 Part II: Near-Death Experiences/Theoretical Possibilities

As an example of the value of working with exceptional experiences, in a recent study

(Palmer and Braud 2002), we found that EHEs occurred frequently, were perceived as mean-
ingful and important, and their disclosure was perceived as beneficial. Frequent and/or
profound EHEs were positively and significantly related to high levels of meaning and
purpose in life, high levels of spirituality, “thin” or permeable boundaries, and a tendency
toward transformative life changes. Disclosure was positively and significantly associated
with meaning and purpose in life, positive psychological attitudes and well-being, and
reduced stress-related symptoms. EHEs and their disclosure were accompanied by themes
of well-being, meaning, openness, spirituality, need-satisfaction, and transformative change.

Conclusions
Major conclusions to be drawn from the material presented in this essay are that ordi-
narily we are aware and profit from only a relatively narrow range of the full spectrum of
our human potentials; that additional realms of knowing, doing, and being, which can
extend beyond space, time, and boundaries, can be identified and accessed; and that access-
ing these can not only provide us with otherwise neglected knowledge and influence pos-
sibilities but also can foster meaningful transformative changes in us and in our relationships
with others and with the world. Consideration of the content and processes of the six areas
mentioned in this essay can be accompanied by the realization, both mysterious and reward-
ing, that these realms that initially seem to be beyond us are actually within us and are
quite available to us, if only we examine ourselves more closely and more deeply.

References
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 Open-Minded or Empty-Headed?
The Editor’s Dilemma
ANTHONY FREEMAN

I have edited the Journal of Consciousness Studies (JCS) for more than fifteen years. In
that time the antagonism between two particular groups of researchers has stood out as one
of the major stumbling blocks to agreed progress in this field. On the one side are those
who claim the only scientific way to study is with a physicalist paradigm; on the other are
those who assert the need to look beyond merely physical in the search for understanding.
This latter group brand their opponents’ attitude as narrow and “scientistic,” and insist
that to be truly scientific is to be open-minded. The former retaliate that going beyond the
rational and physical is to become empty-headed rather than open-minded.
This antagonism presents a dilemma to the journal editor who wishes to provide a
forum where the two sides can meet and have dialogue. It is especially acute when it comes
to discussing “paranormal” or “anomalous” phenomena, which for one side offer a glimpse
of reality normally denied us and for the other represent delusions and threaten to carry
us back into a world of superstition and magic.
There follow two editorials from JCS in which I explain the background to two par-
ticularly contentious special issues of the journal, one in 2003 and the other in 2005. I hope
these will help you as a reader of this volume to appreciate some of the issues lying below
the surface of consciousness studies and to assess your own position in relation to this intel-
lectual and emotional divide.

A Long Time Coming: A Personal Reflection1

The history of this collection goes back to 1994 and the very first issue of the Journal
of Consciousness Studies. That number included a short paper by John Beloff on the subject
of conscious machines, and it evoked some controversy for JCS because he quoted Alan
Turing as saying that the evidence for psi is overwhelming. Beloff drew attention to a seldom
noted aspect of Alan Turing’s paper that introduced his famous Turing test for machine
intelligence (Turing 1950). Turing had suggested that extrasensory perception (ESP) might
provide the one means to smoke out even the most sophisticated computer trying to imitate
a human being:

136
 Open-Minded or Empty-Headed? (Freeman) 137

Thus, given that you had a human being gifted with ESP in one room and a computer in another,
the player in his imitation game could ask the two candidates to guess a given sequence of cards.
Since the computer, using a random number generator, would be able to guess only at chance lev-
els it would soon become clear which of the two was the human being and which the computer.
“Unfortunately,” writes Turing, “the statistical evidence, at least for telepathy, is overwhelming”
[Beloff 1994, p. 35].

Beloff claimed that materialist scientists and philosophers refuse to accept the reality of the
paranormal, not for lack of evidence (evidence that Turing found “overwhelming”), but
because it “upsets the physicalist applecart” (p. 36). In particular, according to Beloff, the
proven existence of parapsychological (psi) phenomena would show the mind is able to
interact causally with matter, and thus remove at a stroke the chief objection to the “radical
dualism,” which he himself espouses.
Reading Beloff today, I find it is hard to see this as more than an eye-twinkling bit of
fun, teasingly invoking “the father of artificial intelligence” in support of a crusade against
physicalism. The article contained nothing new or threatening. But at the time it undoubt-
edly exposed a fear that the new journal might be “flakey” (to borrow the adjective applied
at the time by Thomas Metzinger). The implication was that no mainstream scientist or
philosopher would want to have anything to do with JCS. Nine years on, with reputable
scholars from all branches of consciousness studies contributing to the journal, such fears
might appear fanciful, but they were real enough at the time. The editors, some of whom
shared in the concerns about Beloff ’s paper, were properly cautious in their response to
criticisms of the article.
Our main concern has always been to achieve dialogue about the many controversies
in the field of consciousness studies, in line with the journal’s subtitle (“Controversies in
science and the humanities”), and to achieve balance in what we publish. Since a journal
can only host a dialogue if it has the confidence of all parties, it was essential that JCS should
quickly establish its reputation on the mainstream scientific and philosophical side of the
consciousness community. The stature of many of the early contributors helped to achieve
this. For instance, the second and third numbers of the journal carried a heavyweight two-
part paper titled “Consciousness as an Engineering Issue” (Michie 1994/1995). Its author
was Donald Michie, professor emeritus of machine intelligence at Edinburgh University,
editor-in-chief of the Machine Intelligence series, and coincidentally a former colleague of
Turing in the code-breaking group at Bletchley Park in World War II. On the philosophy
side, the second year of publication saw contributions from senior figures such as Pat
Churchland, Daniel Dennett, John Searle and Colin McGinn, among others. Despite the
confidence this engendered, there was a continuing degree of editorial unease where psi-
related submissions were concerned, and they were handled differently from other papers
for the remainder of the 1990s. The result was a protracted review process and consequent
delays that were felt to be unsatisfactory by some of those whose submissions were affected.
The underlying problem was to find a way of including psi papers in the journal without
appearing to accept uncritically the claims for paranormal or anomalous phenomena that
such submissions regularly contained. The obvious solution was to publish a balance of
sceptical and parapsychological papers, but that was easier said than done. The sceptics
seemed to regard the war as won. For them to take the issue seriously and set out again the
arguments against psi would, in their view, simply lend the alleged phenomena a spurious
legitimacy. Parapsychologists on the other hand were eager to publish their results in a
mainstream journal and not just preach to the converted in the Journal of Parapsychology.
138 Part II: Near-Death Experiences/Theoretical Possibilities

The result was a steady stream of pro-psi submissions to JCS and rarely a flicker of anything
from the other side. The only way to remedy this seemed to be for the journal’s editors to
take a proactive stance and invite contributions to what it was hoped would be an even-
handed special issue with all views fairly represented.
As early as mid-1995 the publication of such a collection was seen as the best way to
establish JCS as a level playing field. Once its neutrality was affirmed, the editors believed,
individual contributions from either side could be published from time to time without
appearing to commit the journal to any particular viewpoint. There was a complication
due to the fact that some people, including some of the editors, felt that Beloff ’s article,
and possibly one or two other published contributions, had already tilted us in a pro-psi
direction, and that a sceptical emphasis would therefore be needed in future to restore the
balance. Others were more inclined to draw a line under the past and aim for an internally
balanced collection. But either way the principle of the special issue was agreed.
None of the core editorial team at JCS is even a psychologist, let alone a parapsychol-
ogist, so having agreed in principle to run a special issue on the subject it was essential to
find some suitably qualified scholar to act as guest editor. No easy task. The person to whom
we first offered the editorship was a scholar with appropriate knowledge of both the pro-
psi and sceptic points of view, who after provisionally accepting later dropped out, pleading
poor health and other commitments. Some continuing indecision on the part of the regular
JCS editors as to exactly what they wanted in the issue may also have been a factor in the
withdrawal. It subsequently proved impossible to find any one person willing to undertake
the task who was acceptable to both the psi and sceptical communities as a neutral umpire,
so the editors decided to try making up a team from both sides.
This led in 1997 to a team of two parapsychologists and two sceptics undertaking
jointly the task of commissioning and refereeing a balanced collection of papers, in liaison
with myself as the journal’s representative editor. There was a meeting in Brighton when
by good fortune most of us were able to get together, followed by intermittent correspon-
dence and much good will — and even quite a few promises of contributions— but by the
end of 2000 there was still no sign even of an agreed set of abstracts. I allowed things to
drift for a little longer, but in March 2001, to save everybody from embarrassment and with
a feeling that it was kill-or-cure time, I thanked the “gang of four” for their efforts and took
control of the project back into my own hands.
Meanwhile frustration with the journal had been building up among some parapsy-
chologists. I had at that time about ten psi-related submissions that had come in unsolicited
and had been put on the shelf pending some movement on the special issue. I was under
considerable pressure to get on and do something about them. One option was to try to
build a focused parapsychology number of JCS around those existing submissions, but
need for perceived balance rendered that impossible. I wrote to one complaining author
about that time as follows:
I can assure you that your own frustration in this matter is more than matched by my own. I
joined JCS as managing editor at the time of its launch in November 1994 and my correspondence
relating to the projected special issue on parapsychology goes back to June 1995. There is so much
suspicion and mistrust between the protagonists of anomalous effects and the sceptics that after
five and a half years we have still not succeeded in putting together a package of papers that is rec-
ognized on all sides as being fair and balanced. Coming to the journal after 25 years full-time
involvement with the Church, nothing in the theological world had prepared me for the degree of
antagonism generated by the psi question.
I should say that as well as getting pressure, I was also in receipt of quiet support from a
 Open-Minded or Empty-Headed? (Freeman) 139

number of academics sympathetic to parapsychology. They understood the problems I faced

and helped to explain my difficulties to their colleagues.
Another possible way forward was to commission a single hard-hitting and partisan
paper and then invite open peer-commentary on it. Or perhaps a pair of opposing targets.
It was by then well over a decade since the Behavioral and Brain Sciences had published their
very high-quality symposium with a pro-psi target paper by Ramakrishna Rao and John
Palmer (1987) and a sceptical one by James Alcock (1987). I thought that the time might
be ripe to try a similar exercise.
In the event I went back to the original idea of a balanced collection of papers, none
more important than another, and with some trepidation I asked James Alcock if he would
be prepared to assist me either as an adviser or as co-editor. To my relief he agreed to give
the venture his support as a full editor, and together with Jean Burns, an associate editor
of JCS since its inception and the member of our inner team closest to the psi community,
we set about getting the long-delayed parapsychology issue into the hands of our readers.
Having reviewed the psi papers already on my shelf, we decided that whatever their indi-
vidual merits it would be better for the special issue to begin with a clean slate. Somehow
the year slipped by and it was January 2002 when the following carefully drafted call for
papers was published on specially selected websites used by the psi and sceptical commu-
nities. It was a matter of principle to us that identical wording should be used in all notices.
This announcement is to invite submissions for a special issue on parapsychology to be published
by the Journal of Consciousness Studies (JCS) in spring of 2003. The editors of the issue will be Jim
Alcock, Jean Burns, and Anthony Freeman. We ask for abstracts to be submitted by March 1, 2002.
Invitations for articles will be chosen from these abstracts by the editors and sent no later than
March 28. We will need completed articles by August 1, 2002. We are also looking for people who
will volunteer to review articles. (All articles will be reviewed by both a parapsychologist and a
skeptic.)
JCS is a multidisciplinary journal, with readers in neurobiology, physics, psychology, philoso-
phy, and other fields, and this special issue is meant to give our readers more familiarity with both
the findings of parapsychology and skeptical arguments about them. We especially would like arti-
cles which review experimental findings (e.g., ganzfeld, remote viewing, PK, DMILS, global con-
sciousness). If there is a controversy within the parapsychology field about the phenomena (e.g.,
PK v. DAT), that should be mentioned in the article, with references that direct the reader to fur-
ther literature about it. Articles on interpretation of data (e.g., PK vs. precognition) and on the
history of parapsychology (or some aspect of it) are also welcome. Please mention in your article
the relevance of consciousness (the topic of our journal) to your subject.
On the other hand, we do not want for this issue articles which describe one set of experimental
runs only, or articles which describe a new finding, not previously published and therefore not yet
thrashed through in the parapsychology literature. This issue will have a peculiarity which poten-
tial contributors should know about. In earlier years JCS has published several articles which are
favorable to psi, but not so far any skeptical articles. The journal’s senior editors feel that this
imbalance should be remedied, and we anticipate that the special issue will reflect this by having
the page count and/or number of articles skewed toward the skeptic side. However, please be
assured that we intend to have scholarly articles on both sides of the parapsychology/skeptic debate
which properly reflect all facts and findings referred to.
I hope you will give serious consideration to sending us an abstract and/or volunteering to
review articles. I am hopeful that this special issue will help inform the academic/research commu-
nity about the findings of parapsychology and the ongoing skeptical/parapsychology debate. Please
send correspondence to any of the following: [names and contact details followed].
I give the text in full because it may help to explain something of the make-up of the present
volume, and the constraints that the contributors were under. It is also a clear reflection of
the mind of the three editors at that stage in the process.
As submissions began to come in, it was clear that a policy decision had to be made
140 Part II: Near-Death Experiences/Theoretical Possibilities

with regard to the parapsychology papers. If we held them to the same standards that apply
in mainstream science, then we should end up insisting they all be re-written, and in a way
that parapsychologists would most likely find unacceptable. That followed from the nature
of the discussion about parapsychology, which largely turns upon questions of what counts
as acceptable evidence. If, as it seems to some, there has never been any reasonable evidence
to support the notion that psi actually exists, nor any good theoretical reason for suggesting
that it does, then there would be nothing substantive to publish in this volume, but only
conjecture. So the question for the editors became this: How could we have a special issue
of the journal, treating both sides of the discussion openly and without prejudice, unless
we let parapsychologists express what is arguably the “standard view” of parapsychology?
Consequently we agreed to allow certain assumptions and claims to stand in this collection
of essays that most in the scientific community, and some of the editorial team, would not
personally accept. We operated on the assumption that the purpose of the exercise was to
expose readers equally to parapsychologists’ and sceptics’ views of the field, and let them
make their own judgment on the merits of each side. So as long as parapsychologists were
representing the mainstream of their community reasonably well, their papers should be
accepted. The review process involved critiques by other parapsychologists and that, we
felt, was the appropriate form of quality control, and enough to ensure that parapsychology
was not being misrepresented.
From there on the frustrations and dead-ends of the previous six years gave way to a
mercifully smooth process more like the normal running of a special issue of the journal.
We have had our disappointments and further slight delays, and none of us would claim
that the result is perfect in every respect. But the basic goal is now achieved and I wish to
express my thanks to the two guest editors and to all who have helped to bring about this
outcome, whether by active participation or by their patience and forbearance. It’s been a
long time coming.

The Sense of Being Glared At:

What Is It Like to Be a Heretic?2
In September 1981 the prestigious scientific journal Nature carried an unsigned editorial
(subsequently acknowledged to be by the journal’s senior editor, John Maddox) titled “A
book for burning?” (Maddox 1981). It reviewed and damned Rupert Sheldrake’s then
recently published book A New Science of Life: The Hypothesis of Causative Formation (Shel-
drake 1981) and raised a storm of controversy whose fall-out is still very much with us.
Up to this time Sheldrake was a well-respected up-and-coming plant physiologist and
the recipient of academic honors including a fellowship at his Cambridge college. The furore
that grew out of the assault in Nature put an end to his academic career and made him per-
sona non grata in the scientific community. Over twenty years later this journal still runs
the risk of ostracism by publishing his work. What can explain this deep and lasting antag-
onism?

The Origins of the Controversy

The saga began a week ahead of the book’s publication, when Sheldrake had trailed his
hypothesis of formative causation in an article in the New Scientist magazine. The piece
was provocatively headlined: “Scientific proof that science has got it all wrong.” An editorial
 Open-Minded or Empty-Headed? (Freeman) 141

introduction admitted that, to modern science, an idea such as Sheldrake’s was “completely
scatty,” but justified its publication on the grounds that first, “Sheldrake is an excellent sci-
entist; the proper, imaginative kind that in an earlier age discovered continents and mirrored
the world in sonnets,” and secondly, “the science in his ideas is good.... This does not mean
that it is right but that it is testable.”3
This was mid-June, and over the summer Sheldrake’s ideas were subjected to much
discussion in journals and newspapers, and his book was reviewed in a variety of scientific
and religious publications. Attitudes were predictably mixed and by no means all negative.
Then came the bombshell in Nature.
Nowhere did the editorial actually say the book under review ought to be burned.
Indeed, it said the exact opposite: “Books rightly command respect ... even bad books
should not be burned; ... [Dr Sheldrake’s] book should not be burned.” But it also contained
the comment “[Sheldrake’s] book is the best candidate for burning there has been for many
years” and — probably the real clincher — there was that headline: “A book for burning?”
Dozens will read a headline who never read the text, and how many of those troubled to
note the question mark at the end of the heading? Thus the myth was born: Nature says
Sheldrake’s book should be burned.
What concerns us in this editorial is not Sheldrake’s hypothesis,4 but Maddox’s “hys-
terical attack” (as a writer to his own letters page called it a week or two later). Why did
the editor of Nature, himself a noted secularist, deliberately invoke the language of book-
burning, an activity inevitably associated not only with religion, but with forcibly imposed
dogmatic teaching? What caused him — in the words of another correspondent — to treat
his editorial column as “a pulpit from which to denounce scientific heresies”? The answer
came most clearly in an interview on BBC television many years later, in 1994, when Maddox
said:
Sheldrake is putting forward magic instead of science, and that can be condemned in exactly the
language that the Pope used to condemn Galileo, and for the same reason. It is heresy.5

This quotation makes absolutely explicit a charge that appeared in more muted form in the
original editorial. Here Maddox had written that,
Sheldrake’s argument is an exercise in pseudo-science.... Many readers will be left with the impres-
sion that Sheldrake has succeeded in finding a place for magic within scientific discussion — and
this, indeed, may have been a part of the objective of writing such a book.

The image of Sheldrake as the opponent of science was also presented in a radio dis-
cussion between the two protagonists in the autumn of 1981. In his closing speech, Maddox
first spelled out his very conservative approach to new theories:
The conventional scientific view, which I think is entirely proper, is that there is no particular
point in inventing theories which in themselves require a tremendous feat of imagination and con-
stitute an assault on what we know about the physical world as it stands, when there is at least a
chance, and in this case a good chance, in my opinion, that conventional theories will in due
course provide an explanation.

After some further comments on the proper business of “serious, sober scientists,” he
ended the programme — I sense more in sorrow than in anger — with this lament:
I am very worried indeed at the way that this will have comforted all kinds of anti- science people.

Several things in these quotations point to why Maddox found religious terminology
so appealing in his own defense of science, and they indicate how similar in some respects
142 Part II: Near-Death Experiences/Theoretical Possibilities

are the scientific and religious establishments. These similarities throw light on the nature
of the hostility most mainstream scientists and philosophers continue to show toward
Rupert Sheldrake and his research programme.6

Heresy in Religion and Science

Sheldrake is accused both of “putting forward magic instead of science” and of “finding
a place for magic within scientific discussion.” This is noteworthy because the only reference
to book-burning in the New Testament is when the magicians of Ephesus, under the
influence of St Paul’s preaching, came out on to the streets and publicly burned their books
of spells (Acts 19.19). There is an implied contrast here between the openly proclaimed
teachings of Christianity and the secret arts of the magicians, and much early Christian
polemic praised the transparency of the public orthodox tradition over against the secret
knowledge claimed by the Gnostics. Orthodox science is orthodox religion’s true heir in
this respect, putting its trust in public replicable experiments rather than spooky unpre-
dictable effects.
Another motif in the Ephesus incident is the idea that written words have an inherent
power, so that false words need to be physically destroyed (burned).7 In the debate over
Sheldrake, this has its parallel in the view — expressed privately by a number of members
of the JCS editorial advisory board, and publicly in this volume [the JCS special issue] by
Christof Koch and Susan Blackmore — that his work should not be published in a reputable
journal because “bad ideas” will persist despite refutation. I discuss this proposition and
explain the reasoning behind the publication of this symposium, in the following section.
A further point of interest is the choice of the term heresy. In a religious context, heresy
is not simply false belief, it is a betrayal of true belief. An outsider may be in error, but only
an insider can be a heretic. For early Christians, Judas was the father of heretics, because
he was the follower of Christ who turned traitor. This sense of betrayal explains the vitu-
peration that characterized writings against heresy, that was lacking in works directed at
total non-believers (Wiles 1967, pp. 29 –30). Maddox regards Sheldrake as a heretic because
he presents as science that which (in Maddox’s eyes) is non-science, is magic. John Searle
recently wrote “that science does not name an ontological domain; it names rather a set of
methods for finding out about anything at all that admits of systematic investigation” (Searle
2004, p. 302). Sheldrake would agree with this and is trying to extend science as understood
by Searle into realms it has hitherto eschewed. So anyone holding, pace Searle, that science
is limited to a physical ontology will see Sheldrake as a traitor, and the stage had already
been set for this by the New Scientist headline about “scientific proof ” that science was
wrong.
I have personal experience of writing a religious book deemed to be heretical (Freeman
1993/2001). It was not publicly burned, but did lead directly my dismissal by the Church
of England and a hostile attitude from many former colleagues. Now, by associating with
Sheldrake, I find myself experiencing again the kind of antagonism more familiar in the
world of religion than science. The feeling in both cases is much the same — in parallel with
Sheldrake’s title The Sense of Being Stared At, we might call it “the sense of being glared8
at”— and this has strengthened my view of the similarity between the two arenas.
Another clue to Maddox’s motivation is his phrase “anti-science people,” which exem-
plifies the tendency to slice the world into “goodies” and “baddies,” orthodox and heretic,
pro-science and anti-science, “us” and “them.” This attitude grew out of a world view in
 Open-Minded or Empty-Headed? (Freeman) 143

which cosmic good and transcendental evil are in mortal combat at every level. Originating
in the religion of ancient Mesopotamia and energized by Zoroastrian influences from the
sixth century BC, it entered the mythologies of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and so
became the “master story” of western culture. We see it in all aspects of life from hero-
touting movies, through popular literature, to the war against terror. But psychologist and
theologian Harold Ellens shows in his introduction to The Destructive Power of Religion
(2004) that this “primal archetype of our understanding” is a huge mistake.
The consequences of this mistake are severe. There is no place in this narrative for
ambiguous shades of grey, for the idea that humans are bound together by our common
ignorance, seeking complementary paths to achieve our common goals. Instead there reigns
a divisive moral dualism that breeds an assuredness of one’s own correctness and the error
of any who think otherwise. This leads inevitably to the heresy hunter’s favourite dictum,
that “error has no rights.” Historically this has justified the burning not only of books
deemed to be erroneous, but of their authors and readers as well. It is the same temper of
mind that underlies both John Maddox’s assault on Rupert Sheldrake, with its allusion to
book burning, and also the still apparent resistance to openly debating Sheldrake’s ideas.

Controversies in Science and the Humanities

Given the situation described in the previous few pages, it was clear to me before I
even read Rupert Sheldrake’s submission that if I submitted it to peer review under the
usual conditions, it would be rejected. Unless I deliberately picked unrepresentative referees
(which would defeat the object of the exercise) some reviewer was bound to oppose pub-
lication on grounds that its whole approach undermined science (cf. Maddox’s fear of giving
comfort to “anti-science people” and Koch’s view that “these sorts of ideas” should not be
published because they impede the task of studying consciousness “as a natural phenomenon,
subject to known physical and biophysical principles”). To arrange for the submission
to be rejected would have been the easy option, but would it have been appropriate for
a journal that claims to publish “controversies in science and the humanities”? I thought
not.
An aspect of heresy (in its religious version) not so far mentioned is its association
with what we now call “paradigm shift.” St Thomas Aquinas, the greatest of mediaeval
scholars and for centuries past the touchstone of Catholic orthodoxy, came in his lifetime
within a whisker of being condemned for heresy (Chesterton 1933). This was because the
main thrust of his work was to reinterpret Christian doctrine into the then recently redis-
covered philosophy of Aristotle. This shift from the neoplatonism in which the early Chris-
tians had forged their beliefs into new-fangled Aristotelian categories looked to many like
the betrayal and destruction of the whole enterprise. At a level that is trivial by comparison,
my own presentation of Christian teaching in the “non-realist” or “postmodern” categories
was deemed by the Church authorities to constitute a betrayal and denial, rather than a
translation, of traditional faith.
One way of looking at what Sheldrake is attempting is to treat it as a change of para-
digm, from a science based in physicalism to an enterprise no less scientific that is open to
a nonphysical dimension. Maddox called this magic, and deemed it heresy, but there are
less pejorative ways of describing it and many in the scientific consciousness community
doubt that the physicalist paradigm will ever yield the full story. If the charge of heresy
results from pushing at the boundaries, from seeking to enlarge the range of the investiga-
144 Part II: Near-Death Experiences/Theoretical Possibilities

tion, then to suppress the work concerned seems at odds with the ideals of open public
experimental science.
It was somewhat like the situation facing the editors some years ago over submissions
to the parapsychology special issue of JCS. Had we held them to the same standards that
apply in mainstream science, they would all have been rejected. Since the object of the exer-
cise was to expose readers equally to parapsychologists’ and sceptics’ views of the field, and
let them judge the merits of each side, such a result would have been self-defeating. So we
agreed, on that one occasion, to allow certain assumptions and claims to stand that most
in the scientific community would not accept, with the proviso that the parapsychologists
were representing “the mainstream views of their community reasonably well.” Critiques
by other parapsychologists served as an appropriate form of quality control, in the circum-
stances. (See Freeman, 2003, for fuller discussion.)
In the present case I could not apply quite the same solution, because Rupert Sheldrake
is a one-off and represents only himself. So the only alternative to outright rejection was
to publish his work with open peer commentary to provide balance and criticism.9 Such a
procedure will never win the approval of those like Maddox and Koch, who in passages
quoted above make clear not only their commitment to the existing paradigm but their
opposition to exploring any alternative. But their viewpoint is not the only one found among
the readers and editors of this journal. JCS exists to provide a meeting place for conscious-
ness researchers with a wide range of backgrounds and working assumptions, as shown by
the presence —from the very start — of names such as Huston Smith and Roger Walsh along-
side those of Daniel Dennett and Bernard Baars on our editorial advisory board. The editors
value and need this breadth of support in order to carry out the journal’s unique role. The
decision to proceed with this special issue was made in the knowledge that Sheldrake’s work
interests many of our readers and it reflects our commitment to open debate. It does not
imply an endorsement of his ideas by the journal or any of its advisers.
The sense of being glared at — the awareness that one is the subject of distant and
hostile attention — is undoubtedly an integral part of what it is like to be a “heretic” whether
in science or religion. It is an element in a wider and destructive sense of isolation, an iso-
lation increased by the heretic’s knowledge that he is “dangerous to know” and therefore
ought to discourage such friends as he does have from too open an association with him,
for their own sakes. Believing as I am bound to do that those branded heretic are not always
deserving of such treatment, I would like to see their isolating sense of being glared at
transformed into a sense of being engaged with. Engagement, even in battle, holds the pos-
sibility of creative encounter, a positive outcome with potential value not only to the indi-
viduals but to the religious and scientific communities to which they belong.
The willingness of fourteen respected commentators to join this discussion of Rupert
Sheldrake’s papers and offer a variety of reflections— most of them a robust mixture of
criticism and encouragement — leads me to hope that this is not an idle dream.

Notes
1. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 10, (no. 6 –7), (2003): 1–5.
2. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 12, (no. 6), (2005): 4 –9.
3 Except where noted otherwise, the source of all direct quotations is the appendix of Sheldrake (1995).
4. For a discussion of Sheldrake’s hypothesis itself, in the context of his work on “the sense of being stared at”;
see the commentary section of this special issue.
5. Quoted from the transcript of a videotape of the interview in Dr. Sheldrake’s possession.
6 As illustrated by the following response from neurophysiologist Christof Koch to my invitation to join this
 Open-Minded or Empty-Headed? (Freeman) 145

symposium. “I’ll not comment on Sheldrake’s papers because I think it is a waste of time. I would like to see hard
physical, empirical evidence — and not just appeal to what Nobel laureate Murray Gell-Mann called quantum flap-
doodle —for such a non-local mental “field” that would carry information from a subject in one room, observed via
a video camera, to an observer at a remote location. Of course, this information would not have to interact specifically
with any other subject who would then also claim to be stared at.
“Sheldrake has no understanding of modern neurobiology or modern theories of vision, confusing metaphors and
museum exhibits with the ideas themselves— his characterization of how vision occurs in the brain is cartoonish.
“The morphogenetic fields postulated by Sheldrake to be necessary to explain developmental processes have proven
to be equally elusive and molecular biology, coupled with the physical diffusion of various chemicals, has proven to
be far more successful in explaining, in a predictive manner, how organisms develop from a single cell. Nor are such
fields needed to explain animal communication in non-vocal species. See, for example, the recent article by Couzin
et al. (Nature, 433, pp. 513 –16, 2005) on how local mechanisms can explain rapid group decisions in animal collectives
on the move (e.g. school of fish). No need for any spooky substances.
“Finally, I don’t see how appealing to the beliefs of people makes a theory more or less true. In the US, far more
people believe in ghosts, astrology, the literal truth of the bible and so on than in natural selection by evolution. That
is a sociological but not an ontological observation.
“As a member of this journal’s advisory board I’m surprised that JCS would give a platform to these sorts of ideas.
It makes the job of those of us that seek to identify and study consciousness as natural phenomenon, subject to
known physical and biophysical principles, so much more difficult.” (Text of an email from Christof Koch to Anthony
Freeman, February 10, 2005, reproduced here with the writer’s permission.)
7. Cf. Jeremiah 36, where the King burns the doom-laden prophecies of Jeremiah in an effort to prevent their
fulfillment. The prophet responds by commanding his scribe to write them all out again.
8. The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary defines glaring (of the eyes) as “staring fiercely and wildly.”
9. It has been pointed out to me that in Behavioral and Brain Sciences, which similarly publishes simultaneous
commentaries, the target papers are still required to pass peer review first. I accept this, but for the reasons given,
making successful blind peer review a condition of publication would in this case have killed the project at the out-
set.

References
“A Long Time Coming”
Alcock, J. E. 1987. “Parapsychology: Science of the Anomalous or Search for the Soul?” Behavioral and
Brain Sciences 10 (4), pp. 553 –65.
Beloff, J. 1994. “Minds and Machines: A Radical Dualist Perspective.” Journal of Consciousness Studies
1 (1), pp. 32–7.
Michie, D. 1994/1995. “Consciousness as an Engineering Issue, Parts 1 and 2.” Journal of Consciousness
Studies 1 (2), pp. 182–95, and 2 (1), pp. 52–66.
Rao, K. R., and Palmer, J. 1987. “The Anomaly Called Psi: Recent Research and Criticism.” Behavioral
and Brain Sciences 10 (4), pp. 539 –51.
Turing, A. 1950. “Computing Machinery and Intelligence.” Mind 59, pp. 433 –60.

“The Sense of Being Glared At”

Chesterton, G. K. 1933. St. Thomas Aquinas. London: Hodder & Stoughton.
Ellens, J. H., ed. 2004. The Destructive Power of Religion, Vol. 1. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Freeman, A. 1993. God in Us. London: SCM; 2nd ed. Exeter: Imprint Academic, 2001.
_____. 2003. “A Long Time Coming.” Editorial Introduction. Journal of Consciousness Studies 10 (6 –7),
pp. 1–5. [Reprinted in this volume.]
Maddox, J. September 24, 1981. “A Book for Burning?” Editorial. Nature.
Searle, John R. 2004. Mind: A Brief Introduction. UK: Oxford University Press.
Sheldrake, R. 1981/1995. A New Science of Life. Rochester, VT: Park Street Press.
Wiles, M. 1967. The Making of Christian Doctrine. UK: Cambridge University Press.
 PART III: THE CONSCIOUSNESS
OF DUALISM-INTERACTIONISM,
ECONOMICS AND MIND

Through the Looking Glass: Discovering the

Cosmology of Mind with Implications for
Medicine, Psychology and Spirituality
RICHARD L. AMOROSO

The concept of an élan vital or teleological life force has long been considered the ele-
mentary action principle driving the evolution of living systems by theologically minded
scientists and individuals. Sufficiently extending Einstein’s original model of a Static Uni-
verse, to a Holographic Anthropic Multiverse (HAM), provides a context for solving this
centuries old problem for empirically introducing this type of life principle into biology,
medicine and psychology. This means the contemporary framework of biological mechanism
should no longer be considered the formal philosophical basis for describing living systems,
contemporary allopathic (scientific) medicine or consciousness. The new noetic action
principle, synonymous with the unified field sought by physicists or tantamount to the
spirit of God, has far reaching implications for medicine and transpersonal psychology. It
will lead for example, to the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease and eventually the develop-
ment of fantastic consciousness based technologies like the fabled Star Trek Medical Tricorder
able to heal a wound in a few seconds normally taking months! The question is not if the
current paradigm will shift to noetic form; but how soon the necessary requirements can
be implemented in order that society may reap the benefits.

Introduction to the New Paradigm

We introduce a Cartesian dualistic-interactionist model of Mind-Body-Consciousness-
Universe based on a Holographic Anthropic Multiverse cosmology. This noetic model is

Portions of this essay first appeared in Orbiting the Moons of Pluto: Complex Solutions to the Einstein, Maxwell,
Schrödinger and Dirac Equations, Elizabeth A. Rauscher and Richard L. Amoroso. Hackensack, NJ: World Scientific,
2011 and in R.L. Amoroso and P.J. Amoroso, “The Fundamental Limit and Origin of Complexity in Biological Systems:
A New Model for the Origin of Life,” in Computing Anticipatory Systems: CASYS’03 Sixth International Conference,
Liège, Belgium, 11–16 August 2003, edited by D.M. Dubois, Melville, NY: American Institute of Physics, 2004.

147
148 Part III: Consciousness of Dualism-Interactionism, Economics, Mind

an extension of the interactive dualism of Nobelist Sir John Eccles ideas of an interconnec-
tion between brain and spirit by means of quantum microsites (dendrons and psychons).
We propose a dynamic concept of consciousness, a new teleological action principle driving
self-organization, that generates a flux interconnecting holonomic informational quantum
brain dynamics with the quantum informational holographic nature of the universe. This
scale-invariant self-organizing flux is embedded in the holographic mode of neuronal infor-
mation and can be optimized through practices of deep meditation, prayer, and other states
of higher consciousness underling the coherence of cerebral waves.
Brain mapping studies performed during the occurrence of these harmonic states have
shown a spectral array of brain waves highly synchronized and perfectly ordered like a
unique harmonic wave, as if all frequencies of all neurons from all cerebral centers played
the same symphony. This highly coherent brain state generates the nonlocal holographic
informational cortical field of consciousness interconnecting the brain and the holographic
cosmos. Comprehending this holonomic quantum informational nature of brain-
consciousness-universe interconnectedness allows us to solve the old mind-matter Cartesian
hard problem, unifying science, philosophy, and spiritual traditions in a more transdisci-
plinary, holistic, integrated paradigm.
The discovery of the Holoinformational Noetic Theory represents a Copernican class
discovery; one that comes along only once in several hundred years. In sharing this occasion
with you dear reader, it seems fitting to enjoy an ancient verse by Lucretius:
I am blazing a trail through pathless tracts of the Muses’ Pierian realm, where no foot has ever trod
before. What joy it is to light upon virgin springs and drink their waters. What joy to pluck new
flowers and gather for my brow a glorious garland from fields whose blossoms were never yet
wreathed by the Muses round any head. This is my reward for teaching on these lofty topics, for
struggling to loose men’s minds from the tight knots of superstition and shedding on dark corners
the bright beam of my song that irradiates everything with the sparkle of the Muses [Lucretius].

What would it take to make psychology a hard science like physics or chemistry? Hip-
parchus, a Greek mathematician 2,000 years before Copernicus, was first to make calcula-
tions revealing a heliocentric cosmology in conflict with Aristotle’s principle of perfect
circles or spheres. After some intellectual struggling Hipparchus discarded his calculations
as false because elliptical planetary orbits were considered unphysical theologically. Hip-
parchus’ influence was so strong that his bias suppressed the truth for 2,000 years! A similar
problem exists today. Scientists insist that consciousness is a product of brain only. Noetic
science is in radical opposition to current thinking in six main fields of scientific endeavor:
psychology, philosophy, biology, physics, cosmology and computer science. Progress in
medicine is driven by advances in these disciplines. Progress in the evolution of human
consciousness most often takes place in a constant series of tiny steps; however on rare
occasions like that of Galileo, Newton, Copernicus, or Pasteur, for example, a radical trans-
forming event occurs. You dear reader are witness to such a historical moment. The purpose
of this essay is to introduce the revolutionary concepts of noetic science precipitating a rev-
olution where mankind leaves the “modern Age” enters the Age of Consciousness.
The current vogue —Biological Mechanism states that: “The laws of chemistry and
physics are sufficient to explain all life; no other principles are required.” Providing a phys-
ical basis for the action of the “life force” or élan vital would finally change this myopic nat-
uralistic perspective. The empirical formalization of such an action principle leads to a
whole new class of consciousness based medical conditions and associated “spirit” or
transpersonal based treatment modalities. When psychology is recast as a physical science,
 Through the Looking Glass (Amoroso) 149

“Moral Psychology” will also have a pragmatic basis because one will be able to experimen-
tally measure which types of behaviors or mental conditions promote life and health or
disease and death.
This immense task is accomplished by first extending the standard model of cosmology
from the current Darwinian naturalistic (atheistic) “Big Bang” theory to one that contains
an inherent teleology or purpose. Making this change creates a domino effect that runs
through all the other standard models of science. Evolution remains in the new model, not
as a random Darwinian progression; but one considered to be “guided” by the teleological
action inherent in the Conscious Multiverse. Such a noetic cosmology called the Holographic
Anthropic Multiverse (HAM) has now been developed in general form. The associated com-
prehensive theory of mind is now sufficiently mature; and is not only empirically testable,
but also able to rigorously define qualia1 and begin categorizing the associated fundamental
conscious elements in a manner similar to that performed in developing the periodic table
of the chemical elements in past centuries. This will lead immediately to new “conscious
technologies” allowing dissolution of the 1st person 3rd person barrier. Because of the tele-
ology inherent in noetic cosmology, the HAM represents philosophically what is called a
form of Cartesian substance dualism/interactionism. This means that the brain is not of
paramount importance to consciousness; the brain is not the seat of awareness as cognitive
psychologists currently define it. The brain plays only a secondary role with three main bio-
logical functions related to the operation of the complex self-organized living system:
1. The brain couples awareness to temporal reality.
2. The brain acts as a transducer for processing sensory data and intentional action.
3. The brain represents a form of naturally occurring “conscious quantum computer” that
data processes and operates the moment-to-moment homeostatic and metabolic func-
tions of the body.
This important discovery has not been feasible earlier because the currently dominant
model for consciousness research (cognitive psychology) has rejected it by definition.

Status of Allopathic Medicine — The Demise of Vitalism

Contemporary Western medicine is comprised of traditional and alternative treatment
forms. Traditional scientific medicine is the orthodox style also known as allopathic; a term
derived from the Greek allo— reversal and pathos— to suffer. Traditional medicine is char-
acterized by four treatment modes: (1) pharmaceutical drugs, (2) surgery, (3) radiation and
(4) psychotherapy, which sadly are all applied only when a person’s life is threatened.
The development of organic chemistry began in the middle of the eighteenth century
when alchemy began to evolve into modern scientific chemistry. There were unexplained
differences between substances in minerals and those observed in living systems; compounds
from living systems were difficult to isolate and tended to decompose more readily than
compounds from minerals. Swedish chemist Torbern Bergman was first to express this dif-
ference between organic and inorganic substances in 1770. Many chemists at that time
believed this difference was the result of a vital force, which they believed precluded the
ability to prepare organic compounds in the laboratory. But in 1816 when French chemist
Michel Chevreul discovered that soap made from alkali and animal fat could be separated
into glycerin and a number of pure organic compounds he called fatty acids, vitalism was
dealt a severe blow. This was the first time organic substances were converted into other
150 Part III: Consciousness of Dualism-Interactionism, Economics, Mind

substances without the influence of a vital force. About a decade later in 1828, German
chemist Friedrich Wöhler converted the inorganic salt ammonium cyanate into the organic
compound urea. By 1850 the scale had tipped heavily against vitalism.
Not until the beginning of the twentieth century did standard scientific (allopathic)
medicine become totally dominant. Before that allopathic physicians prescribed harsh and
distasteful cures based on mercury, purgatives, emetics and blood letting which were not
considered more effective than popular alternatives such as phrenology, homeopathy, botan-
ics, eclecticism or folk remedies. Allopathic theory was based on the mechanical or material
laws of physics and chemistry. The adherents of alternative medicine generally believed
that health was based on a vital force related to the soul or spirit. A combination of adherence
to the educational standards of state and local medical boards, the complete adoption of
science (which history had shown meant progress) and development of a strong professional
identity by the class of allopathic physicians led to the inevitable demise of vitalism which
became considered old fashioned by an increasingly progressive science and technology
based society.
Is it time for a rebirth of Energy Medicine? First to clear up any nomenclature conun-
drums, Although there may be a loose association with contemporary discussions of energy
medicine and mind-body medicine; any of these modalities would be considered primitive
in terms of the advances noetic medicine will introduce. The standard models associated
with the current state of medicine are (1) Darwinian naturalism, (2) biological mechanism
and (3) the cognitive brain model of psychology. To summarize briefly this means: (1) evo-
lution by natural selection, (2) the laws of physics and chemistry are sufficient to explain
life, and (3) the mind is state of brain processes. Obviously noetic medicine would be con-
sidered a radical heresy by these standards. Noetic medicine redefines the basis for living
systems based on a new cosmology that is an advanced form of Einstein’s static universe
model. This model includes what Bergson and others called the élan vital or vital force.
Currently use of energy medicine and mind-body medicine uses the vital force in only a
superficial manner like the early history of electricity with only “amber and fur” not the
highly advanced transistor based devices of modern technology.

The Current Status of Consciousness Theory

— The Hard Problem
The study of awareness has been recently classified as a “hard problem”; with the easy
problems of awareness being ones that are nearly impossible to research by scientists. The
nature of mind has been called the oldest and most difficult problem facing human epis-
temology. While people of faith have always been complacent with theological doctrines
stating that individuals have an immortal soul created by God; it is only recently that a
framework for posing the question of the nature of mind has reached sufficient maturity
that any real scientific progress has been able to be made. Chalmers’ initial premise that
“awareness is the fundamental principle from which to formulate a theory of mind” is a
reasonable assumption for studying consciousness; but he mistakenly goes on to ask: “What
processes in the brain give rise to awareness?,” which creates the very “hard problem” he
wants to solve because this manner of posing the question represents a category error for
philosophy of mind. While it is true that the brain is the most complex structure known
in the universe, it is not the seat of awareness. If the mind is instead a whole cosmology;
then trying to save the problem in terms of the brain alone will be forever impossible. His-
 Through the Looking Glass (Amoroso) 151

torically whenever there has been a “hard problem” in science, it has turned out to be
because the underlying principles have been poorly understood. Although it has been pos-
tulated that the mind/body is a naturally occurring form of conscious quantum computer,
mind is more than brain or algorithm and it is impossible to formulate a correct or sufficient
theory of awareness from the point of view of AI, computer science or neurobiology alone.
Mind, to be adequately described, must be represented by a complete cosmology with
mankind imbedded in it. Currently about 93% of scientists mistakenly believe the brain is
sufficient to model the mind.

Philosophy of Mind — Vitalism/Teleology

The noetic model of cosmology called The Continuous State Holographic Anthropic
Multiverse (HAM) requires reintroducing concepts like vitalism and teleology that have
been historically disdained by science. Mechanistic models of the universe have allowed no
place for these “philosophical constructs” considered non-scientific and nonphysical even
by their major proponents. In the HAM they finally become physicalized and thus subject
to falsification or study by empirical scientific methods. So in one sense we cannot blame
science, because by definition it only allows concepts that have been empirically tested even
if it is obvious to many that they exist.
Teleology is the philosophy based on the supposition that the universe has intelligent
design and inherent purpose beyond the mechanics of a Newtonian Big Bang universe driven
a causally by a Darwinian type of natural or random evolution. Evolution obviously exists,
but it is not a random series of accidental events. It is guided by a teleological quantum of
action (God defined in the coldest scientific terms) inherent in the higher dimensions of
the HAM. In perennial philosophies, teleology represents a basic argument for the existence
of God, that the order and self-organization of the natural world are not accidental. If mind
is fundamental to existence, an ultimate designer or teleological principle exhibiting a
quantum of action must exist. Since God is unseen, he does not exist in our temporal locale
but resides in a higher dimensional realm that acts nonlocally on our three dimensional
domain.
Modern teleologists like H. Driesch or H. Bergson proposed a principle of vitalism—
the processes of life result from a self-determining fundamental rule not explicable by cur-
rently observed physiochemical laws. Bergson, proposed an élan vital or vital force as the
spontaneous energy of the evolutionary process and defined mind as pure energy responsible
for all organic evolution denying sciences claim to explain the universe on purely mechanical
principles. This vis vitae is shown to be physical when discussed in terms of the noetic field.

Current Theories of Mind

Consciousness is not a brain state but a complex multifactor cosmology. Often indi-
vidual researchers consider their component theory to be a complete fundamental model.
The time has come when it is possible to go beyond this “elephantness” consciousness to
formulate a true comprehensive theory. The elephant metaphor relates to six blind men
trying to feel an elephant, each attempting to describe it: One thinks of (1) the tasks as
swords, (2) the elephant’s trunk as a hose, (3) another the leg as a tree, (4) the body as a
wall, (5) the tail as a rope and the sixth thinks the ear is a large fan. Until now this has been
a major problem for consciousness researchers.
152 Part III: Consciousness of Dualism-Interactionism, Economics, Mind

Figure 1. The Elephant of consciousness.

A number of partial theories of merit at the forefront of consciousness research are

outlined below and then integrated into one comprehensive theory called Noetic Field The-
ory (NFT) representing The Quantization of Mind in a Holographic Anthropic Multiverse
(HAM). NFT is the first complete and empirically testable theory of mind.

AI and Computational Models

The artificial Intelligence (AI) model states that the mind is merely a computer; and
if the correct algorithm was known it would be able to completely describe all the functions
of human consciousness. This view stretches from considering a thermostat as a conscious
entity because it has two bistable states on one hand to an advanced autonomous android
on the other.
Current classical computers are much less complex than the human brain and do not
have enough degrees of freedom to handle consciousness. Furthermore they are prepro-
grammed and unable to change or escape from this condition as a sentient being is able to
make choices based on spontaneous volition. The AI computer model of consciousness
states that mind is just a matter of a standard computer and programming. If the correct
algorithm was known the intelligence of a human being could be readily duplicated on a
Turing machine (standard electronic computer).

Neural Networks and Cellular Automata

The neural network model of mind states that the subjective process of awareness is a
result of computational information dynamics in various biophysical networks such as neu-
ral, quantum and sub-cellular systems. Cognition is a problem of both processing and rep-
resentation. There is a wide spectrum of belief among researchers regarding the nature of
mental data processing in networks. Some think the linear electrical pulses along neurons
are sufficient. Others believe quantum processing with nonlocal effects is required. Or is it
 Through the Looking Glass (Amoroso) 153

nonlinear, parallel processing or

a more complex form of distrib-
uted processing throughout the
whole neural network as in the
holonomic model of Pribram? A
similar conundrum occurs
among researchers of the neural
model regarding representation.
This is called the problem of
qualia —the nature and origin of
qualitative subjective experience.
Do qualia emerge into a mind Figure 1b: Another metaphor for current theories of mind
from the neural substrate? How illustrating how they are integrated into one comprehensive
model by noetic field theory. (1) Al and Computational mod-
does thought bind to the con- els, (2) Neural Networks, (3) Synpatic Tunneling, (4) Quan-
scious system? This is called the tum Brain Dynamics, (5) Holonomic Brain Theory, (6)
binding problem. These ques- Orchestrated Reduction (Orch-OR), (7) Dualist/Interaction-
tions have been called the hard ist Mind-Body Theory, (8) New Physics, (9) Noetic Field The-
ory: The Cosmology for Quantization of Mind.
problem of consciousness.

Synaptic Tunneling
The linear action potential along a nerve fiber is electrical; and is converted to nonlinear
chemical transmission at the synapse which are “boutons” at the end of nerve fibers that
release various neurotransmitters. There is always a low level continuous release of neu-
rotransmitter acting as the baseline of activity. Quantum tunneling is the charge transport
of electrons through an otherwise impenetrable barrier or insulator at the synapse. Acts of
volition or other neurosensory inputs are believed to be the phase regulators that trigger,
through quantum tunneling, the release of neurotransmitter vesicles which is called exo-
cytosis at the synaptic grid. The most a neural impulse can evoke is a single exocytosis,
probably because of the paracrystaline nature of the material the vesicles are imbedded in.
Exocytosis is the most fundamental action of the cerebral cortex; and is an all-or-nothing
response each of which results in a brief excitatory postsynaptic depolarization.
The trigger model itself is still incomplete because it has only been developed at the
classical level of the electron transmission. What is still needed is a description of the coher-
ent process that couples a mental event by quantum probability selection to the actual bio-
chemistry associated with action.

Quantum Brain Dynamics

Quantum Field Theory has several branches, Quantum Electro Dynamics (QED) for
electromagnetic interactions, and Quantum Chromo Dynamics (QCD) for strong interac-
tions. Quantum Brain Dynamics (QBD) is a quantum field theory describing biological
systems and the fundamental mechanics of the brain. QBD is mediated by an exchange
field called the corticon, a quantum of the water rotational field which interacts with electric
dipole oscillations along neural proteins. When synchronization of the water corticon and
electromagnetic field occurs, nonlocal coherence is manifest giving rise to long-range order
and collective phenomena. Nonlocal coherence provides a much stronger correlation than
a classical collective mode could describe.
154 Part III: Consciousness of Dualism-Interactionism, Economics, Mind

QBD of the water rotational field and interacting electromagnetic field although pro-
viding an excellent model of neuromolecular computation is not sufficient to describe con-
sciousness because free will or intentionality is still left out of the picture and the founding
fathers of quantum mechanics said it was not capable of describing biological systems. The
Schrödinger equation describes the evolution of a particle on a manifold; so just because
QBD describes action on a brain manifold it is not a sufficient extension of the theory. For
this we need an extension not only of the orthodox Copenhagen interpretation but also are
required to go beyond the quantum ontology of Bohm into a higher dimensional extension
of Cramer’s theory. Bohm described the quantum potential as a nonlocal pilot wave effecting
the probability matrix of the Schrödinger equation.
As we will show, “Noetic Field Theory: The Quantization of Mind” completes Bohm’s
work by introducing a noetic effect. Neurocomputing models of the brain are linear closed
systems; once a computer is programmed there are no remaining degrees of freedom for
rational input.
In summary water has been theorized to play two important roles in consciousness:
(1) to provide a storage buffer to amplify or attenuate the corticon field, and (2) to allow
switching between sensory computation and intentionality. Although the role of ordered
water in the dynamics of consciousness remains a qualitative model at this point in time,
a growing body of literature from both experimental and theoretical areas are converging
to suggest an important role of water in the quantum physics and molecular biology con-
sciousness.

Holonomic Brain Theory

The holonomic brain theory relying heavily on the Fourier relation and the holographic
application of Fourier’s theorem by Gabor has been expanded by Pribram to include a phase
space of interaction in the brain called the holoscape. Integration of holonomic theory and
the Bose-Einstein model provide a substrate for explaining recent work on quantum infor-
mation processing represented as conformational changes of alpha and beta tubulin dimers
in microtubule protein structure providing a stage for the first application of these concepts
to tangible brain material. However, the brain, a Fermi apparatus with Einstein-Bose inter-
actions, is viewed here as only one of three key aspects of consciousness.
Integral to Pribram’s holonomic brain theory is the concept of the holoscape, a neuronal
manifold which embodies the polarization occurring in dendritic networks. The holoscape
is the active manifold of entrained neural processing that couples phenomenal information
to the phase space of what Pribram calls the Heisenberg matrix which includes the raster
of consciousness (TV screen) below it. Gabor and Fourier relationships describe the activity
of information processed in the neural ensembles as a raster of mental functioning. In an
idealized portrait of a holoscape, contours forming such a holoscape are embodied in the
microprocess of polarization occurring in dendritic networks, consisting of a sub- and
trans-neuronal manifold. The Fourier and Gabor relation ensemble quanta of information
into a dynamic phase space of neurodynamic functioning.
Freeman relates that chaotic dynamics can create information in the Shannon-Weaver
sense of information. This is the relationship with the Gabor logon utilized by Pribram in
the holoscape. Pribram has skillfully integrated his holographic model with quantum activ-
ity associated with QBD in what might be thought of as a dualistic picture of consciousness.
The question remains, does consciousness originate from qualia at the level of holoscape
 Through the Looking Glass (Amoroso) 155

dendritic microprocess or is it underpinned by the quantum domain? There has been general
skepticism of quantum effects having any relevance to such a hot entropic matrix as the
brain. However, there is a distinct difference in coherence at these levels. In the quantum
realm there is essentially thermodynamic equilibrium. Much could be written about the
holoscape, where the major philosophical issues are information coding and processing,
the binding problem.

The Orchestrated Reduction (Orch-OR)

Model of Hameroff and Penrose
The Hameroff and Penrose theory states that quantum events at the microtubule (MT)
and other nanoscale objects are sufficient to process the necessary amount of information
to satisfy the needs for consciousness. The conformational states of the tubulin dimer are
coupled to Van der Wall dipole moments. Each conformational state could represent a bit
for information exchange.
There are several types of microtubules in the cytoskeleton that seem to have comple-
mentary features such as acidic and basic tubulin subunits. The tubulin polypeptide dimer
has been found to have seven alpha and over ten beta species. Other differences include
dynamic or stable, more or less curly, and variance in turnover rate. MT’s are involved in
a wide variety of cellular functions. They form the spindles during mitosis and meiosis, the
cytoskeleton plays a major role in cell morphology, MT’s aid transport, and maintain cell
surface sites like receptor caps.
Microtubules don’t handle all the information processing of mental states. There is an
integrated system of data processing that includes DNA, cell topology, microtubules, cAMP,
and water, not only in the brain but also coupling the noetic field throughout the entire
body modulated by muscle dynamics, thought, and other psychosphere processes. One
problem with the Orch-OR model is that it attempts to utilize a conservative model of
gravitation asking: What is the minimum gravitational mass required to collapse the wave
function? which Orch-OR considers the process of mental action. This limits conscious
systems to creatures only as small as a planaria; but we know from noetic theory that even
the prior responsible for mad cow disease is a conscious system albeit a mechanical one.

Dualist/Interactionist Theory of Mind-Body

Over 400 years ago Rene Descartes claimed to receive a revelation from God that con-
sciousness was divided into mind stuff, res cogitans, and body stuff, res extensa. This dualism
of mind and body has endured until today because intuition dictates self as separate from
world and until now there has never been a comprehensive mind/body theory. The nature
of rationality or free will, as opposed to Newtonian determinism evidenced in a computer
program or robot suggests that the basic theory of quantum mechanics also is not equipped
to describe consciousness. The violation of the 2nd law of thermodynamics and entropy
flow by living systems, and the smoothness of our perception of reality versus the discreet-
ness or discontinuity of its origins at the microscopic brain level, all show the inadequacy
of our current thinking on the nature of cognition. Dualism states that although the mind
has an independent eternal existence from the temporal body, it acts in concert with it. Tra-
ditionally considered beyond physics because by definition only measurable quantities are
deemed to exist, the dualistic view has funneled most scientists into the erroneous belief
156 Part III: Consciousness of Dualism-Interactionism, Economics, Mind

that brain equals mind. Since the brain is a physical object, scientists have believed this is
the only basis for developing a physical theory of mind.
The complaint against the current thinking of cognitive psychologists regards the limits
of inquiry bounded by its myopic metaphysical foundation of considering the brain as
equal to mind. Science fits the basic definition of a theology by its rigid adherence to its
principles. This heresy is not a call for science to embrace an a priori philosophy. Since
Galileo the profound value of empiricism has been well learned. But the finite limitations
surrounding the measurement problem in quantum theory and the need for a more
advanced approach strongly suggests that we have come full circle to the time for mandating
another evolutionary step to improve:
• The ability to pose foundational and empirical questions, and
• Data gathering and evaluation techniques that accept input in ontological terms, allow
subjectively or both.
There may be no alternative to integrating a noetic based science for progress to occur. The
Perennial Philosophy, attributed to Kant and others, states:
1. Deity exists
2. Is knowable
3. Provides a path to be found.
Benefits to utilizing the perennial philosophy include, insight into the nature of absolute
truth, which promises a more efficient compass for reality testing, and insight into the
utility of subjectivity by developing an acceptable methodology for instituting the radical
empiricism of James.
Aspects of the following premises are based on noetic insight2 using elements of the
Cartesian modality (institution and verification by revelation or meditative insight), and
presented axiomatically as a bold call for testing this hypothesis. It must be stressed that
utilizing the “Cartesian modality” does not interfere with the pragmatism of the empirical
method. It is a time saver; If the correct model is “divined” it may save hundreds of years
in finding it, but it must then still be experimentally verified. Descartes distinction between
res extensa and res cogitans has not been tested. If this turns out to be the correct model as
is presented here, is it any wonder little progress has been made — if no one has been looking
where the answer lies.

Beyond the Brain — Elemental Intelligence

While the brain services the temporal aspects of our earthly existence, current thinking
has ignored the eternal aspects of mind and body. Elemental Intelligence is the fundamental
eternal condition of individuality and exists outside of time and the bounds of the phe-
nomenological reality we observe in our 3D world view. This bound, although currently
an ineffable domain not yet having an empirical foundation waits for vacuum quantization
and a deeper understanding of nonlocality to open the avenue to a more empirical expla-
nation, and is currently only known to exist by noetic insight. Simply stated, if individual
intelligence has no domain, i.e., is not bounded in some manner, it cannot exist with any
connotation of individuality. Apparently there is as much to us behind the curtain of reality
as we see in front of us. So at this time only transcendent or philosophical arguments can
be given for Elemental Intelligence as follows:
 Through the Looking Glass (Amoroso) 157

Firstly, individuality must be separated from “The One” at some level for absolute
unity is again nothingness, and nothing has no boundaries and cannot exist by its very
definition. For even the demarcation of nothing as such demands its qualification by some-
thing extant which gives it existence. This idea of nothingness is not meant also as in the
abstract sense of redness for example. For though redness is not assigned “thingness,” it
still has existence in sentient apprehension and is therefore not nothing. This is the abstract
content of consciousness often deemed immaterial. However, according to the tenets of
noetic field theory, thought is deemed a physically real unitary noetic field that is encoded
with information; thus a typical case of abstractness in this sense is now relegated to tan-
gibility.
Secondly, without some form of separation from absolute unity, there can be no self
identity. Without this identity or boundary, it would disappear into the “one” or nothing
as stated. Absolute unity is nothingness, cannot exist and cannot be comprehended. Further
this complement of Elemental Intelligence is fixed nonlocally and promotes the separateness
mandatory for individuality to exist.

Consciousness Is a Universal Cosmological Principle

The second compliment of consciousness is a cosmological principle that fills and
orders the immensity of space. It could be said to be equivalent to the life principle, élan
vital, chi, prana, or Holy Spirit. In contrast to Elemental Intelligence above this aspect is
not fixed but represents flux and promotes the unity of mind and body. This is the root of
the mind — brain problem —cognitive brain science versus Cartesian dualism. We are com-
plementary aspects of both unity and separation so monism by itself cannot be an absolute.
The cosmological aspect of consciousness exists in all matter and is itself a pure material
with the properties of light. However, as ordinary photons originate in atomic geometries
coupled with properties terminating in space, photons of mind (psychons as termed by
Eccles) originate in complex higher dimensional geometries. Noeons is the term given to
the unitary field in noetic field theory. They are confined to the spacetime backcloth like
quarks. This is why they haven’t been measurable by standard methods of physics and why
an extension of QT is required.
Consciousness pervades atoms, is the organizing power deeper than gravitation that
controls the universe, causes gravitation, and the flux of which gives life. Plant life does
not appear to make direct use of the component of elemental intelligence, only the cosmo-
logical ordering principle and the “body state” of matter. Sentience is caused by the autopoi-
etic (self-organized) integration of elemental (eternal) and cosmological (spiritual)
intelligence. This basic holistic framework incorporates the implicate and explicate order
described by Bohm.

The Origin of Complexity in Biological Systems:

New Model for the Origin of Life
Generally unicellular prokaryotes are considered the most fundamental form of living
system. Many researchers include viruses, since they commandeer cellular machinery in
their replication, while others insist viruses are merely complex infective proteins. New
biological principles are introduced suggesting that even the prion, the infectious protein
responsible for transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, qualifies as the most funda-
158 Part III: Consciousness of Dualism-Interactionism, Economics, Mind

mental form of life, and remains in general concordance with the six-point definition
of living systems put forth by Humberto Maturana and his colleagues in their original
characterization of living organisms as a class of complex self-organized autopoietic sys-
tems.
“What is the necessary and sufficient organization for a given system to be a living
unity?.” Maturana and his collaborators posed this question in their effort to formalize the
general definition of a living system. They further stated that all other functions are sec-
ondary to the task of establishing and maintaining this unitary organization, defining this
process as autopoiesis. For review, the description of an autopoietic living system is as fol-
lows: autopoiesis from the Greek “self-production” is a fundamental expression of the basic
complementarity of structure and phenomenology. An autopoietic system is self-organized,
complex, open, dissipative, self-referential, auto-catalytic, hierarchical, far from equilib-
rium and autonomous. A system is autopoietic when its primary function is self-renewal
through self-referential activity. This contrasts an allopoietic system like a robot deriving
function from an external source. Stated another way, autopoiesis is a network of production
components participating recursively as a globally stable structure operationally separable
from the background.
These properties operate in an ascending hierarchy:
• An autopoietic system is an open non-equilibrium system. If closed in equilibrium all
processes die down.
• The processes are cyclical.
• As a complex self-organized system, operations occur within multi-levels where higher
levels contain all lower levels.
• Function — the primary function of the system is autopoiesis as defined above.

Summary of Maturama’s Six-Point Key

for the Determination of Life
1. Does the entity have identifiable boundaries?
2. Does the entity have unique constitutive elements?
3. Is the entity a mechanistic system possessing properties satisfying certain relations for
its interactions and transformations?
4. Do the components constituting the boundaries of the entity act through preferential
relations and interactions between the components?
5. Are the components constituting the boundaries of the entity produced by interactions
of the components either by transformation of previously produced components, or by
transformations and/or coupling of non-component elements that enter the entity
through its boundaries.
6. If all the other components of the entity are produced by the interaction of the compo-
nents as in 5, the entity is an autopoietic entity in the space in which it exists.

Non-Autopoietic Entities That

Seem to Satisfy Maturana’s Conditions
• Automata — Superficially automata seem to obey Maturana’s six points for autopoiesis,
especially in terms of self-reproduction and autonomy; but they are readily disqualified
 Through the Looking Glass (Amoroso) 159

for two salient reasons: automata are generally nonphysical and cannot naturally escape
or exist outside of the computer system they are programmed in.
• Crystals— Crystalline structures conform to many of Maturana’s six key requirements.
The symmetry of the unit cell contains the geometric framework of the whole periodic
structure, which is repeated in translations of the unit cell. So although a crystal has open
self-organized boundary conditions, appears to be recursive and can reproduce, a crystal’s
main failing is that it remains mainly a chemical reaction because its “unique constitutive
elements” can only be reproduced and remain structure preserving under precise condi-
tions of chemical reactivity.
• Ribosomes— Although partially comprised of components produced by the ribosome, as
entities they are produced by processes beyond those comprising their operation and their
function is not completely self-referential. Ribosomes have high level metabolic properties
but they are organelles not unique unities.
• Belousov-Zhabotinsky Reaction — A key aspect of a self-organized autopoietic system is
its globally stable structure over an extended time. These are called dissipative structures
because they maintain a continuous production of entropy, which is then continually
dissipated. The best known dissipative structure is the Belousov-Zhabotinsky Reaction
produced by the oxidation of malonic acid by bromate where rotating concentric or spiral
waves create interference patterns oscillating with a periodicity maintaining itself for
many hours. Although self-organized with environmental interplay, can this be more
than a recursive chemical reaction?
Jantsch and Maturana both state that dissipative chemical reactions like the Belousov-
Zhabotinsky reaction and the glycolytic cycle qualify as primitive autopoietic systems.
Should these or any of the entities be accepted as living systems? Maturana’s six-point key
is not experimental, but a set of logical premises, and in that sense arbitrary philosophical
deduction. Even if these systems are considered autopoietic by the claim of definition, the
thesis developed here is to not accept these types of entities as living systems but to make
a case for requiring additional physical principles added to Maturana’s key to complete the
requirements for properly defining a unique class of autopoietic systems qualifying as true
living systems. Our conclusion is that Maturana’s autopoiesis at best only defines the mech-
anistic components of self-organization.

Mechanism in Biology as a Semiclassical Limit

Autopoietic systems as defined by Maturana are a special class of mechanistic system.
This is a challenging philosophical issue. It is generally considered an open question whether
all biological process can be described completely in terms of the “mechanisms” of physics
and chemistry. In the philosophy of biology, mechanism is defined as the view that every
event described as a biological event is the same as those exemplified in non-biological
physical chemistry. Beckner in a discussion of mechanism states:
It is plausible to suppose that biology contains terms that could not be defined by reference to
physics and chemistry, particularly if we count psychological phenomena as special cases of the
biological, but perhaps even if we do not. Biological theory takes account of the circumstances of
an event’s occurrence in a way that the physical sciences do not. For example, it is a biological fact
that lions hunt zebras. The biological mechanist ought to insist merely that everything that hap-
pens in a given case of zebra hunting is identical with a sequence of physicochemical events, not
that the concept of hunting can be defined in physicochemical terms. It may be the case that hunt-
ing can be defined only in intentional language [Beckner 1972].
160 Part III: Consciousness of Dualism-Interactionism, Economics, Mind

This has left the final sense of reduction for the standard model of biology an open
question; and until recently this is where conceptual development had to remain. The phi-
losophy of biological mechanism reviewed here is akin to philosophical naturalism that
states that “the natural world represents the whole of reality without requiring any additional
teleological parameters.” This suggests that the current limits of scientific pragmatism pro-
vide sufficient explanation for all universal phenomena. Arguments on mechanism and nat-
uralism have probably not been quite beaten to death but let it suffice here to postulate that
additional scientific laws are yet to be discovered because “lion hunting” as intentional
action is not describable by the laws of physics and chemistry.
One cannot in good conscience label the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction as a living
system any more than one can logically allocate consciousness with reasonable definition
to the bi-level state of a thermostat as is often done in artificial intelligence (AI) circles.
The sophistication of self-organization in autopoietic systems cannot be discounted. While
this inherent complex order provides a highly efficient substrate for living systems to be
built on, like a little finger applied to the helm of a megaton ship, mechanism alone provides
an insufficient basis for describing living systems. A teleological principle, inherent in a
conscious universe, acting in concert with mechanism is required for life, providing com-
ponents of what cosmologists have recently called the holographic cosmological principle.

New Cosmology Leads to Redefinition of Biology

Until the advent of the noetic cosmology, physical cosmologists generally believed that
the universe could not be ordered enough to have a symmetric spacetime with an inherent
periodicity where events are structured such that the future-past prepares the “nows” evo-
lution into the future. These spacetimes were considered nonphysical and appeared to
violate the causal principles of quantum theory. The semiclassical limit in physics refers to
the boundary between classical mechanics and quantum mechanics where an incomplete
understanding of the dynamics of a system allows only statistical predictions to be made
on the behavior of a system rather than a precise determination. Consciousness is able to
violate quantum causality. Quantum mechanics is known to be both incomplete and not
able to describe biological systems; therefore, how can biological mechanism offer a com-
plete framework for living systems!
Self-organization produces freedom and the degree of autonomy a system achieves in
relation to its environment provides one way to loosely define consciousness. Jantsch says,
“This autonomy appears as an expression of the fundamental interdependence of structure
and function which is one of the most profound laws of dissipative self-organization.”
Drãgãnescu further adds, “If a virus is alive it has a phenomenological subconscious, if not,
it cannot have any form of consciousness, because there is no structural organization with
sufficient complexity to process structural information significantly.” This is similar to
Maturana’s idea that the autonomy obtained by autopoiesis relegates a primitive form of
consciousness, even to chemical dissipative structures, which he calls a cognitive domain in
relation to the systems environment. This is where we will draw a line in the sand giving a
definitive description of the term cognitive domain that goes beyond mechanism.
Consciousness, and not necessarily that with self-awareness, requires a sufficient num-
ber of degrees of freedom beyond those of an allopoietic mechanistic automaton. While
one might reluctantly concede that the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction is autopoietic by
Maturana’s original definition, one cannot proscribe a cognitive domain with the structural-
 Through the Looking Glass (Amoroso) 161

phenomenology of intentional awareness to such an autocatalytic pattern-producing chem-

ical reaction. How is this ultimately different than programmed automata? We believe that
embracing biological mechanism leads one into the trap of “conscious thermostats.” The
autocatalytic chemistry of the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction has a cyclical self-organization
that keeps the cycle in motion recursively by a chaotic component in the symmetry of the
boundary conditions leading generally to a global stabilization of the reaction until a chance
occurrence of an ordered ground state occurs. One could argue the reaction is the result of
the inherent activity in the reactions so-called cognitive domain because it includes a self-
referential multilevel hierarchy that maintains the cycle of the reactions self-production.
One could carry this argument further to lend correspondence with Prigogine’s symmetry
breaking factors in the thermodynamics of evolution. But the driving force described by
these arguments is not an intrinsic intentional awareness; it is more like the incongruent
geometric symmetries driving the chain of unstable intermediaries in a radioactive decay
series— an automatic unraveling continues as long as a stable ground state with boundary
conditions that preserve the unity of the intermediate atom cannot be reached.

Living Systems and Consciousness

Recall Jantsch’s claim that the Beluzov-Zhabotinski reaction, as a result of its classifi-
cation as an autopoietic system by Maturana’s definition, has rudimentary consciousness.
For decades researchers have believed that consciousness is merely a computer program, “a
special software in the hardware of the brain or just a matter of information processing.”
This isn’t seem acceptable; and is more a reflection of the current state of bias in the field
of consciousness studies where the dominant cognitive model is aligned with the standard
model of biology. This philosophy of biological mechanism provides only half the story of
mind. Our aim is to show that an addition to and clarification of Maturana’s key allows
classification of the prion as the fundamental living system.
The cognitive domain of a prion3 does not create and dissipate entropy in its own right
like higher life forms. The prion is not even at the same level as the virus where this critical
factor of far from equilibrium complex processing is satisfied by proxy when the virus pro-
tein commanders the existing cellular machinery of the host. The prion, as the zeroth case
of a living system, does not “live” at the viral level. The factor that separates the prion from
the non-autopoietic entities (which utilize only the mechanistic half of the complementarity
required for a complex self-organized living system) is the prion’s utilization of the coherent
energy of the élan vital in its propagation. This is a prediction of the noetic theory we intend
to demonstrate empirically.

Is There More to Biology Than Mechanism?

Returning to the analysis of the fundamental philosophy of biology we summarize
Brillouin’s categorization of the issues of mechanism versus teleology into three general
positions:

• Knowledge of physics and chemistry is essentially complete and life could be explained
without introduction of any additional life principle.
• Considerable physics and chemistry is known, but not everything. A new law or principle
needs to be discovered to explain life; but this concept will not be outside the laws of
162 Part III: Consciousness of Dualism-Interactionism, Economics, Mind

physics and chemistry already known. Whether or not this is considered a life principle
or not is irrelevant.
• A life principle is mandatory for an understanding of life because living systems are much
different and more complex than inert matter. The laws of thermodynamics describe only
inert and dead matter to which life is an exception requiring a new principle to explain.
Theories of mind abound with great disparity between them. It could be said to be
like the early days of electromagnetism when “for every 100 theorists there were 101 theories.”
Simply stated, and reducing from the top down, mind theory can be generally categorized
as follows:

A. Classical Reductionism — Newtonian Mechanics

Deemed Sufficient to Describe Mental Activity
• Neural action — Consciousness can be completely explained by brain processes
• Information processing in Neural Networks / Cellular Automata / Physics and Chem-
istry

B. Heisenberg Cut — Additional Degrees of Freedom,

Possibility of Nonlinear & Nonlocal Interactions
• Quantum computation in brain microstructures like synapses, microtubules or ordered
water
• Copenhagen phenomenology —collapse of wave function essential for mental activity

C. Cartesian Cut — Requires Additional “Life”

and/or Physical Principles Beyond Mechanistic Theory
• Dualism / Interactionism — ontological extension of quantum theory, collapse not
required for evolution
• Monism — all is mind, consciousness is ineffable
The first four types above fall under the domain called the philosophy of biological
mechanism. Theories in the classical and Heisenberg arenas have defined consciousness as
a hard problem too difficult to research. This provides significant motivation to explore
below the Cartesian divide where additional physical laws are anticipated. What evidence
exists to justify such a search?
Continuing with the premise that quantum theory is incomplete, Schrödinger (1945),
in relating the 2nd law of thermodynamics and life, says: “We cannot expect that the ‘laws
of physics’ derived from it to suffice straightway to explain the behavior of living matter....
We must be prepared to find a new type of physical law prevailing in it. Or are we to term
it a nonphysical, not to say a super-physical law?”
But what can this new physical law be?

Complex Systems Theory: A New Model for the Origin of Life

It appears unanimous that unicellular prokaryotes are considered the most fundamental
form of living system with the inclusion of viruses controversial. By defining awareness as
 Through the Looking Glass (Amoroso) 163

a fundamental physical quantity like the concept of charge in electrodynamics, it is possible

to show how the prion recapitulates, in the sense of its organization, the propagation of its
infective state by maintaining the “charged” form of its conformation by merely being cou-
pled to the noetic field. Prion propagation therefore represents the most fundamental form
of biological mechanism and provides the root of its redefinition. Although slightly more
complex, the self-organization pertinent to viral replication also falls under this new defi-
nition of biological mechanism. Something else happens at the level of bacteria or perhaps
any motive unicellular life form. The cognitive domain has sufficient capacity for activity
based on an interactive computational model; the evolution of the content (qualia) is driven
by more than the mere presence of teleology as in the case of the prion or virus, i.e., more
degrees of freedom are available.
The continuous state of this new action principle, as already suggested, is a “force for
coherence” like the well-known radiation pressure in the QED of light propagation. This
symmetry enhancing force acts not only on the topological states of prion conformation by
constructive interference as the base state of biological mechanism, but also by higher order
conditions of self-organization. The structural phenomenology of the new noetic action
principle is a complementarity of mechanism and the noetic field, together forming a tele-
ology that is the general driving principle governing all aspects of complex self-organized
living systems. Applying the concept of a unit cell from the nomenclature of crystal structure
to this fundamental teleology in the topology of spacetime, forms the scale-invariant hier-
archical basis of living systems from the microscopic origins of mechanism to macroscopic
intentional systems. The complementarity of mechanism and teleology is a structural phe-
nomenology that is the primary cosmological principle of the conscious universe, the fun-
damental least unit of which is defined as awareness.
Defining awareness as a fundamental principle like charge in electromagnetic theory
provides two paths to formulate a theory of life and consciousness: (1) The currently popular
cognitive avenue poses the question, “What processes in the brain give rise to awareness?”
Unfortunately this creates a hard problem, which at present is deemed impossible to study
empirically — an investigative dead end! Charge has been considered fundamental physically
and indivisible; but this definition appears to hold only to the semiclassical limit. Physicists
are finding out that the so-called unit of elementary charge arises from a deeper wormhole
structure in the higher dimensional topology of spacetime. This is also true in defining the
fundamental unit of awareness. Charge, or in this case awareness, does not arise as a brain
process. (2) Only looking beyond the brain leads to a model of awareness (consciousness)
that is both definable and empirically testable. In brief, the fundamental basis for the least
unit of awareness has three complementary components:
• Elemental Intelligence — A nonlocal atemporal HD domain or set of boundary conditions
co-eternal with God that define an individual entity.
• Noetic Ordering Principle — A new action principle synonymous with aspects of the
unified field and mediated by an exchange particle called the noeon that is synonymous
with spirit or an élan vital.
• Local Fermi and Bose brain/body States— Classical, semiclassical and quantum modes
associated with neural activity and other aspects of simpler autopoietic or complex self-
organized living systems.
Remaining problems center around the fundamental nature of space, suffice it to say
that Einstein’s superceding of Newton’s 3D absolute space with a 4D relativistic space was
164 Part III: Consciousness of Dualism-Interactionism, Economics, Mind

a significant milestone, but not a final answer. The triune complementarity above provides
a sufficient structural-phenomenology of the 12D noetic space to define the psychosphere
of an individuals mind and body.

Action of the Unified Noetic Field

Fröhlich proposed a new energy that produces coherent long-range order in biological
systems. Some authors have suggested this coherence is a type of Bose condensate. Einstein
and Hagelin further postulate this coherent principle arises from the unified field, which
is also proposed here by noetic field theory. The action of the unified field is the basis for
a life principle governing the evolution of complex self-organized living systems.
We will show generally how the continuous transformation of the topology of the 12D
superspace of the noetic least unit introduces by periodic holophote action evanescence of
a life force from the HD energy covering of each moment of the present. First we illustrate
one of a number of possible models of how at the semiclassical limit from the stochastic
background of the vacuum zero-point field, this energy of the élan vital is harmonically
injected into every point and atom in spacetime by a mechanism like a “chaotic gun.”

Physical Self-Organized Basis of Qualia

Qualia, plural of quale, constitute “the subjective quality of experience; a qualitative
feel associated with an experience.” The physical HAM cosmology of élan vital leads to a
rigorous model for representing qualia allowing immediate application on the mind-side
to psychology and on the body-side to medicine. In “What’s it like to be a bat?” Nagel
(1974) states that current reductionist attempts fail by filtering out any basis for conscious-
ness; becoming meaningless since they are logically compatible with its absence. He assumes
if an organism has conscious experience, “there is something it is like to be that organism.”
This is the subjective character of experience for any conscious entity whether bat or Mar-
tian. Every experience has a specific subjective nature.
To Nagel “there are facts which could not ever be represented or comprehended by
human beings, simply because our structure does not permit us to operate with concepts
of the requisite type”; because “to even form a conception of what it is like to be a bat one
must take up the bat’s point of view.” If one removed the viewpoint of the subjective
observer, what would be left? Nagel suggests the remaining properties might be those
detectable by other beings, the physical processes themselves or states intrinsic to the expe-
rience of awareness. This changes the perspective of qualia to the form “there is something
it is like to undergo certain physical processes.” “If our idea of the physical ever expands
to include mental phenomena, it will have to assign them an objective character.” Nagel rec-
ognizes that:
Very little work has been done on the basic question (from which mention of the brain can be
entirely omitted) whether any sense can be made of experiences having an objective character at
all. Does it make sense ... to ask what our experiences are really like, as opposed to how they
appear to me?... This question also lies at the heart of the problem of other minds.... If one under-
stood how subjective experience could have an objective nature, one would understand the exis-
tence of subjects other than oneself [Nagel 1974].

These are questions an integrative noetic science can answer. Standard definitions of qualia
are an inadequate philosophical construct describing only subjective character. In the phys-
 Through the Looking Glass (Amoroso) 165

ical sense of noetic field theory (NFT) components describing qualia from the objective
sense are introduced — i.e., distinguishing the phenomenology of qualia from the noumenon
or physical existence of the thing in itself.
A comprehensive definition of qualia includes three forms considered physically real
by NFT because the noetic fields of HAM cosmology on which the noetic model is based
are all physically real.
Type I. The Subjective — The what it feels like basis of awareness. Phenomenological
states of the qualia experience. (The current definition of qualia Q–1)
Type II. The Objective — Physical basis of qualia independent of the subjective feel that
could be stored or transferred to another entity breaking the 1st person 3rd person barrier.
The noumenal elements of qualia upon which the phenomenology is based.
Type III. The Universal — Living systems represent a qualia substrate of the conscious
universe, acting as a —“blank slate” carrier from within which Q–II are modulated into the
Q–I of experience by a form of superradiance or hyper-holographic evanescence.
A standard image requires a screen or other reflective surface to be resolved; but if the
foci of two parabolic mirrors (Casimir-like plates in our model) are made to coincide, the
two images superpose into a real 3D image that does not need a screen. A science toy called
the “magic mirage” is used to demonstrate this effect of parabolic mirrors. Objects placed
in the bottom appear like solid objects at the top of the device.
The holophote action of élan vital energetics arises from the harmonic oscillation of
least unit boundary conditions tiles the spacetime backcloth and pervades all self-organized
living systems. The inherent beat frequency of this continuous action produces the Q–III
carrier wave that is an empty slate modulating cognitive data of Q–II physical parameters
into Q–I awareness states as a superposition of the two (Q–III and Q–II). This modulation
of qualia occurs in the HD QED cavities of the cognitive domain. The QED cavities are a
close-packed tiling of least unit noetic hyperspheres; the Casimir surfaces of which are able
to reflect quaneme subelements. While the best reflectors of EM waves are polished metal
mirrors, charged boundary conditions also reflect EM waves in the same way radio signals
bounce off the ionized gases of the Kennelly-Heaviside layers in the Earth’s ionosphere.
This reflective “sheath” enclosing the cognitive domain is charged by the noeon radiation
(exchange particle of the noetic field) of the élan vital, the phases of which are “regulated”
in the complex HD space of the least unit HAM cosmology.
How does noetic theory describe more complex qualia than the simple qualia of a light
pencil? (The qualia-II of a light pencil is assumed to be the pencil of light. Light quanta are
microscopic in contrast to the macroscopic sphere of awareness. It thus seems reasonable
to assume that scale invariant properties of the HAM least unit of awareness would apply.
Like phonemes as fundamental sound elements for audible language there are qualia-nemes
or quanemes for awareness all based on the physical modulation of Q–II states by the geo-
metric structural-phenomenology of the Q–III carrier base of living systems.

Example of Noetic Medicine: Mechanism

of Protein Conformation in Prion Propagation
Regarding homeostasis— living systems and every component subsystem, especially
those related to health and well-being, biophysically are forms of dynamical systems that
generally operate in a framework of stability and equilibrium, the maintenance of which
166 Part III: Consciousness of Dualism-Interactionism, Economics, Mind

is the charge of medical practice. Technically these systems have a restrictive class called
gradient systems which contain singularities or points of extrema. Some causal action can
institute a bifurcation of an extrema that can initiate a qualitative change in the physical
state of the system. Fatal neurodegenerative disorders known as transmissible spongiform
encephalopathies (TSE’s) have been shown to spread by a proteinaceous infectious particle
or prion. According to Prusiner’s definition, these prion elements propagate conformational
variation leading to replication by a mechanism not well understood until now. Two con-
version hypotheses have been proposed:
• The template-assisted conversion model where a putative cellular chaperone called protein
X assists conformational transition by altering the thermodynamic equilibrium of a kinetic
barrier in favor of transition state protein formation.
• The nucleation-polymerization model where highly ordered aggregates of the infectious
element form. This also shifts thermodynamic equilibrium allowing this nucleus to act
as a seed for further prion propagation. Protein folding thus appears in both cases to be
the primary autocatalytic mechanism propagating prion diseases.
According to Nobelist Stanley Prusiner:
Nascent prions are created either spontaneously by mutation of a host protein or by exposure to an
exogenous source. Prions are composed largely, if not entirely, of a modified form of the prion
protein (PrP) designated PrPSc. Like other infectious pathogens, they multiply but prions do not
have a nucleic acid genome to direct the synthesis of their progeny. A post-translational, confor-
mational change features in the conversion of cellular PrP (PrPC) into PrPSc during which alpha-
helices are transformed into beta-sheets. Since this structural transition in PrP underlies both the
replication of prions and the pathogenesis of the CNS degeneration, much of the effort in the labo-
ratory is devoted to elucidating the molecular events responsible for this process. Indeed, prion
diseases seem to be disorders of protein conformation [Prusiner 1992].

And further relative to the theory of propagation proposed here:

During prion replication, an as yet to be identified factor that we have provisionally designated
protein X binds to PrPC. The PrPC/protein X complex then binds PrPSc; by an unknown process,
PrPC is transformed into a second molecule of PrPSc [Ibid.].

A Postulated 3D X–bundle structure of the PrPC was chosen by Prusiner from four
penultimate PrPC models reduced from ~300,000 possible configurations by both theoret-
ical and experimental constraints. These four choices correlated best with human prion
mutations. A conceptual model of the orientation of the four helices of the X–bundle model
looks like two X’s nearly superimposed on each other. Since prions have no nucleic acid
based genome to direct their propagation. Noetic theory proposes that prion replication is
directed by fundamental mechanisms of complexity theory and that the action principles
driving this complexity are a more fundamental form of mechanism than that perceived
currently by the philosophical basis of mechanism in biology.

Implications for Transpersonal Psychology and Autoimmunity

The immune system is comparable in the complexity of its functions to the nervous system. Both
systems are diffuse organs that are dispersed through most of the tissues of the body. In man the
immune system weighs about two pounds. It consists of about a trillion (1012) cells called lympho-
cytes and about 100 million trillion (1020) molecules called antibodies that are produced and
secreted by the lymphocytes. The special capability of the immune system is pattern recognition
and its assignment is to patrol the body and guard its identity.... The immune system is subject to
continuous decay and renewal. During the few moments it took you to read this far your body
 Through the Looking Glass (Amoroso) 167

produced 10 million new lymphocytes and a million billion new antibody molecules. This might
not be so astonishing if all these antibody molecules were identical. They are not. Millions of dif-
ferent molecules are required to cope with the task of pattern recognition, just as millions of dif-
ferent keys are required to fit millions of different locks [Jerne 1973].

Much biochemistry, biophysics and quantum dynamics has been developed in the
study of the immune response relating to the principles of allopathic medicine. But if one
recalls that the founders of quantum theory emphatically stated that quantum theory and
the Schrödinger equation did not describe biological systems, something must be missing
in all this work. This is of course the “life principle” that is introduced by the holoinfor-
mational principles of interactive dualism. First let’s outline all the models that are insuffi-
cient:

• F. Popp’s biophotons— Sure, all of human physiology is a thermodynamic heat-bath and

radiates a spectrum of radiation. But this is after the fact of any immune response and
has nothing to do with consciousness.
• K. Pribram’s holographic brain model utilizing Fourier and Gabor principles for a spectral
holographic domain throughout the brain — A fabulous advance in quantal brain func-
tion, but again devoid of principles of consciousness.
• W. Schempp’s quantum holography and his discovery that all information about objects,
including their three-dimensional shape is carried in the quantum fluctuations of the
Zero Point Field, the vast memory store predicted by Puthoff. With this information
Schempp calculated, recovered and reassembled three-dimensional MRI images through
Fourier transformation.— Again no conscious principles.
• Marcer and Schempp developed a mathematical map of how information is processed in
the brain that is a mathematical demonstration of Pribram’s theory.— Still no conscious-
ness.
• S. Hameroff ’s showed microtubules are an exceptional conductor of quantum pulses and
these pulses are transmitted through pockets of protein. Hameroff discovered a coherence
among neighboring tubulin dimers; calling them “light pipes” or “waveguides” for photons
sending these waves from cell to cell throughout the brain with Fröhlich coherence.— A
model of consciousness, but insufficient.
• K. Yasue and M. Jibu also theorized that the quantum messaging must take place through
vibrational fields and quantum coherence along the microtubules.
• K. Pribram, K. Yasue, S. Hameroff and S. Hagan assembled a collective theory about
human consciousness in cytoskeletal microtubules in which microtubules and the mem-
branes of dendrites represent the Internet of the body. Theoretically every neuron could
log on at the same time and speak to every other neuron simultaneously via this quantum
processes by quantum superposition, “Superradiance” and “Self-Induced Trans-
parency.”— A logical step forward but still missing the conscious action principle.
• Similarly physicists Del Giudice and Preparata suggested Hameroff ’s “pipes” contained
coherent energy fields. They also suggested that water molecules in the brain extend
coherence effects as far as 3 nanometers outside the cell’s cytoskeleton suggesting water
inside the microtubules is also ordered. They showed that this focusing of waves would
produce beams 15 nanometers in diameter — precisely the size of the microtubule’s inner
core.
• All this led to the heretical thought already occurring to F. Popp that consciousness was
a global phenomenon occurring everywhere in the body, not simply in the brain. Perhaps
168 Part III: Consciousness of Dualism-Interactionism, Economics, Mind

consciousness is fundamentally a coherent light within a unified theory of mind and mat-
ter like Bohm’s “unbroken wholeness,” where the universe is a vast dynamic and intelligent
holoinformational web of information exchange containing all possible versions of all
possible forms of energy and matter.— Yes, but what kind of light?
This is the crux of the problem because any place where there are atoms and molecules
and spacetime there are quantum fluctuations. This is all that is addressed by Copenhagen
interpretation whether in microtubule, synapse or neuron — there is no consciousness
described here even though this is the currently dominant cognitive model accepted by
90% of consciousness researchers today.
A holoinformational cosmology of consciousness is required because consciousness is
deeper than the 3D brain. The sphere of action must be taken to where the unified field —
Spirit of God lies, hidden behind this virtual barrier, the regime described by the Copen-
hagen interpretation as outlined in the bullets above. We must follow Einstein’s view that
quantum theory is incomplete: “God does not play dice.”
Several hypotheses are considered by immunologists:
• Clonal Deletion theory, proposed by Burnet, according to which self-reactive lymphoid
cells are destroyed during the development of the immune system in an individual.
• Clonal Anergy theory, proposed by Nossal, in which self-reactive T– or B–cells become
inactivated in the normal individual and cannot amplify the immune response.
• Idiotype Network theory, proposed by Jerne, wherein a network of antibodies capable of
neutralizing self-reactive antibodies exists naturally within the body.
• The so-called “Clonal Ignorance” theory, according to which host immune responses are
directed to ignore self-antigens.
• The “Suppressor population” or “Regulatory T cell” theories, wherein regulatory T–
lymphocytes (commonly CD4+FoxP3+ cells, among others) function to prevent, down-
regulate, or limit autoaggressive immune responses.
Autoimmune diseases can be broadly divided into (1) systemic and (2) organ-specific
or localized autoimmune disorders, depending on the principal clinico-pathologic features
of each disease. An example of a systemic syndrome is rheumatoid arthritis; and local syn-
dromes include virtually any circumscribed mass of body tissue like Addison’s disease or
multiple sclerosis. Current treatments for autoimmune disease are usually immunosup-
pressive, anti-inflammatory, or palliative. Non-immune therapies, such as hormone replace-
ment in Hashimoto’s thyroiditis or DM Type 1 treat outcomes of the autoaggressive
response. Dietary manipulation limits the severity of celiac disease. Steroidal or NSAID
treatment limits inflammatory symptoms of many diseases. More specific immunomodu-
latory therapies have been shown to be useful in treating rheumatoid arthritis. These
immunotherapies may be associated with increased risk of adverse effects, such as suscep-
tibility to infection. These therapies treat the ‘branch’ but not the ‘root’ of the problem;
and therefore provide no cure.

A Noetic Effect on Autoimmune Systems

Holoinformational-noetic-conscious medicine is far different than scientific-allopathic
medicine; it is a spiritual medicine relying on the élan vital. This is the gap we wish to
bridge. We postulate that all autoimmune etiologies are diseases on consciousness and
therefore require a holoinformational cosmological perspective, rather than the current
 Through the Looking Glass (Amoroso) 169

Figure 2. Conceptualization of interactionist cosmology, (a) showing injection of the noetic field or
élan vital into spacetime points, (b) Planck scale least-units mediating the noetic field, (c) an Eccles
Psychon field coupled to a brain dendron where autoimmune interactions may interrupt normal
homeostasis.

limitations to brain or biochemistry. Our starting point for correspondence to current the-
ory is the network immune theory of Jerne. This means that medical treatments must be
found to regulate the flow of the unified noetic field. Complex self-organized systems like
living systems are driven by an action principle. This action principle is the teleological life
principle equated with the cosmology of unitary field. This is the missing component from
scientific or allopathic medicine; this is the principle that must be added.
In allopathic-scientific medicine, if a tumor exists, we surgically remove it or give
chemo-radiation. If a deficiency, we give a vitamin or any of the tens of thousands of phar-
maceuticals discovered to control the human biochemistry and its myriad etiologies. But
this is the branch, only and rarely the root, of the problem except for microbial causation.
We want to address the root of the problem, the ~400 autoimmune conditions that allo-
pathic medicine has little insight into especially at the root. These are the noetic etiologies.
Imagine a child with a magnifying glass focused by the sun on an ant that actually can catch
them on fire. Imagine those foci are not on an ant but “catastrophes” focused on many
energetic microsites of the biochemistry or organ systems. Also imagine the converse — a
cover is put over the lens blocking the flux of life energy. This life energy arises from a deep
regime in spacetime structure itself in a holographic anthropic multiverse — the entry point
of the life force where deep catastrophes may occur in the hysteresis (energy) loop of the
propagation of the noetic unitary field with a simple relation that coupled with all the
transpersonal-personality pre-disposition which forms a complex pattern specific to the
~400 different ways that lead to these conditions. I call it the noetic effect which is governed
by the noetic field equation. The noetic effect is the switch for all the quantum/classical
places discussed — neural, synapse, MT, maps, etc. This deeper understanding is the fun-
damental key to all conscious medicine.
We can understand that this sustained noetic effect resulting in catastrophes in the
holoinformational noetic unitary field is responsible for all autoimmune disorders. The
hysteresis loop in the center of the Double Cusp Catastrophe (DCC) is the energy available
for this action. This can be applied to a Jungian type collective unconscious related to
170 Part III: Consciousness of Dualism-Interactionism, Economics, Mind

transpersonal psychology if we metaphorically consider the absorption-emission spectra of

complex molecules to be like personality structure: we know already people are made of a
web of molecules. We know a little of personality types and wish to apply this as a model
to the absorption emission spectra of atomic structure. So in scale invariance people are
like huge particles or atoms. The hysteresis loop in the middle of the DCC represents energy,
bioenergy and mental energy depending on the relation. We know in general about extro-
vert, introvert, dependent personality, dominant, submissive; we know depression is like
black hole, and from Selye that stress causes foci of negative energy that is destructive. From
the relaxation response and meditation we know of energy balance. For physics the future-
past spacetime hysteresis loop can be applied directly to the formula for absorption-emission
spectra. What is next is to formally systemize this model to generalize each foci of these
noetic catastrophes. For Alzheimer’s negative foci are on the brain, for colitis on the intestine
excessive anger in a certain way can cause a brain a tumor, another kind of dominance
causes necropsy in the knees or a weak spine for back problems. But this initial idea must
be systemized for the whole complex system. What are the precise entry points of the field;
which autoimmune molecules as Jerne suggests are related?
This is a global view generalized for personality structure to focused deficits in energy.
The model is empirically testable and medical devices are being designed to implement
conscious medicine for both diagnosis and treatment. In the near future new medical tech-
nologies will be developed that are currently considered science fiction. The popular US
sci-fi TV–movie series Star Trek includes advanced medical techniques utilizing a device
called the medical tricorder, able to diagnose and heal. Most notable at the fundamental
level of triage is the tricorder’s ability to heal a variety of injuries in a few seconds that
today might take several months to heal. At the advanced level using combined features of
replicator and transporter4 technology as illustrated in the Hollywood movie The Voyage
Home when Dr. McCoy utilizes the tricorder to repair a ruptured cerebral artery inside
Chekov’s head. The operation is accomplished by beaming out the damaged section of the
artery and beaming in a new section.
We may not see the advent of the advanced form of the tricorder until our children’s
or grandchildren’s day, but sufficient theory exists to construct the basic form of the tricorder
now. In the interim noetic holoinformational theory can be used to greatly expand the ver-
satility of transpersonal psychology.

Completing Epistemology:
Utility of Transcendence as a Tool in Science

I want to know God’s thoughts ... the rest are details —Albert Einstein

Human epistemology has steadily evolved from dark ages of superstition through
enlightened periods of logical reason to the current pragmatic age of empiricism. Now
another Galilean class revolution completing epistemology by integrating science and the-
ology (S&T) utilizing transcendence seems immanent. S&T represent opposite ends of a
long continuum of schools of thought rather than mutually exclusive disciplines as often
believed. To implement the required paradigm shift an integrative noetic science must
include an adequate understanding of transcendence. Over 2,000 years ago the Greek
philosopher Plato considered this type of noetic insight, paraphrased here as a corollary:
 Through the Looking Glass (Amoroso) 171

Noetic Insight: No matter how great ones intelligence or how vast ones wisdom, noetic insight is
cosmic insight transcending the capacity of the self .

Human epistemology has come full circle to a time not only for another evolutionary
step, but the final one completing the tools of epistemology through the use of transcen-
dence. For the first time since the Dark Ages, physicists Ginsparg and Glashow wrote 12
years ago, we can see how our noble search may end, with faith replacing science once
again.
This condition is not what is advocated here because it seems that no matter how
advanced tools of transcendence may become, empiricism leads directly to engineering
which is an integral part of temporal existence. In some arenas current science has already
reached, at least in terms of experimental design, the limits of empiricism; for example
some experiments in particle physics require an accelerator the size of the universe and
some calculations require a computation cycle with a duration the age of the universe. Only
about 70 years ago cosmology was not considered science. The universe was believed to be
clock-like as described by Newtonian mechanics. Since the advent of quantum theory, the
majority of scientists have considered the universe to be quantum.
But recent studies extending the standard models have allowed a growing number of
scientists to embrace forms of an anthropic conscious multiverse. The form utilized here
in noetic theory has continuous-state properties with temporal reality cast as a virtual sub-
space of a higher dimensional eternity. This new cosmology yields key elements pertinent
to premises here (especially the periodic properties enabling introduction of an inherent
spirit-based action or life principle); some of which are:
• The fabric of reality continuously cycles between classical, quantum and unitarity
(continuous-state).
• Phenomenological reality is virtual; because of the arrow of time much of the underlying
noumenon is “filtered” out of perception.
• Dimensionality cycles continuously from spatial to temporal to energy.
• Matter by Einstein’s is continuously created, annihilated and recreated (the well-known
wave-particle duality) forming the holographic backcloth of perceptual reality.
Inherent in these periodic properties is the unitary field or Spirit of God, acting in
governance as a higher dimensional de Broglie-Bohm super quantum potential. Periodicity
allows for the pervasive ubiquity of this supernumerary action principle. Since a conscious
universe is implied the field is one of information. This is key to our idea of transcendence.
In an anthropic holographic conscious multiverse (HAM) human beings are spiritual beings
and a path to enlightenment is possible by following certain laws related to this condition.
Because of the nonlocal (and because of the additional dimensionality — supralocal) char-
acter of the holographic principle individuals perceive themselves as separate entities in 3 –
space. But in higher dimensionality (HD) we are unitarily imbedded in the holographic
backcloth, which because of its spiritual nature,
• Transcendence may occur and
• Information is received in the process.
The coming paradigm shift does not merely represent a significant intellectual break-
through like Copernicus’ transformation of egocentricity into heliocentricity, the advent
of quantum theory or Einstein’s theories of relativity; but a profound paradigm shift where
humanity will leave the so-called Modern Age behind an enter an Age of Consciousness.
172 Part III: Consciousness of Dualism-Interactionism, Economics, Mind

An “empirical metaphysics” is under development that will violate the uncertainty

principle and allow actualization of Plato’s noetic insights in a manner useful for scientific
exploration. Noetics, the study of the cosmology of mind, comes from the Greek word nous
meaning intellect. Noetic insight, when used scientifically to complete epistemology, is the
highest form of knowing because it utilizes and integrates the pure logic of philosophical
reason, the rigors of scientific empiricism and the absolute truth of theology.
All scientific theory formation has at least low level metaphysical components. Without
entering into a technical discussion of the nature of creativity, we assume here that this is
what any creative process entails. The latter-day Mormon prophet Brigham Young went so
far as to say, “All scientific discovery comes as a revelation from God.” While this may
indeed be considered true in an anthropic universe, one would suspect the vast majority
of scientists are currently neither generally interested in, consciously aware of its occurrence,
nor even consider this possibility, especially since statistics have demonstrated that only
about 20 to 30% of scientist believe in some form of god in contrast to 95% of the general
population.
Currently all the standard models of science are Darwinian or naturalistic excluding
any place for God or Spirit. For example biological mechanism, the basis for allopathic or
scientific medicine and psychology states: The laws of chemistry and physics are sufficient to
describe all life; no additional life principle is required. The founding fathers of quantum the-
ory stated it could not describe biological systems. Big Bang cosmology is also naturalistic.
Therefore something most assuredly must be missing in physical theory.
The noetic model for the integration of S&T is based on three premises:
§1. That transcendence is a universal anthropic principle able to provide an interface
or common ground between S&T.
§2. Rigorous application of the Golden Rule (see below) spontaneously leads to tran-
scendent abilities under certain optimal conditions because
§3. Man is inherently a spiritual being (the spirit and the body are the soul of man)
imbedded in a conscious universe guided by a unitary field tantamount to this spirit.
A common ground uniting S&T is required because traditionally scientific principles
are not accepted by faith-based theology; and religious dogma is generally considered an
unacceptable anti-intellectual mode of epistemological inquiry by the common definition
of scientific pragmatism in place since Galileo showed that reason, in the case of heavier
objects falling faster, failed. Similarly today Hubble discovered redshift, not a Doppler
expansion of the universe. Other interpretations are available supporting HAM cosmol-
ogy.
According to the perennial philosophy: God exists and has revealed a path to find him.
This perennial philosophy is not only universal to all theology but ultimately to all truth
whether theological or scientific as we make the case for here. The HAM an extension of
Einstein’s static universe model, is shown to naturally include a new action principle gov-
erning complex self-organized living systems. This HAM elucidates the physical basis of
spirituality. All legitimate religions or life paths in principle provide avenues to transcen-
dence. Achieving transcendence is not based on the superficial icons of the world’s theolo-
gies. Superficial artifacts like phylacteries, crosses, rosaries or rituals like bowing east or
genuflecting are not relevant.
Because human beings are inherently spiritual, transcendence can be achieved univer-
sally by practicing principles of love, service and charity; or adhering “perfectly” to what is
 Through the Looking Glass (Amoroso) 173

called the Golden Rule — Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you. The Golden
Rule is the most fundamental moral or ethical principle; it is the basis for the theology of
virtually all world religions, the basis of social order, interpersonal relations, sound business
practices and international diplomacy. The Golden Rule has many similarities to the Hindu
belief in karma.

The Golden Rule Subsidiary to Love for God

— The Great Commandment
For simplicity we will argue our case only form the point of view of Judeo-Christianity,
but the reader is asked to keep in mind that as illustrated in fig. 4 the premises here are
postulated to apply to all legitimate theolo-
gies. The monotheistic religions Judaism
and Christianity teach that the Golden Rule
and other moral commands for human rela-
tions are subsidiary to the Great Command-
ment relating to God, e.g., Jehovah,
Emmanuel or Jesus. The Christ explicitly
identified the Great Commandment as
supreme love for God, as affirmed in the
Hebrew Torah and Christian Bible. In con-
trast to the ancient “an eye for an eye,” Jesus
gave a new command —“Love one another
as I have loved you.” By categorizing “love
your neighbor as yourself ” as the second
command like unto the first, Jesus placed
the Golden Rule and human relationships Figure 3. Pyramid of Transcendence/Enlighten-
ment. Individuals “living” operationally at the
as not subsidiary but tantamount to one’s top of the “karmic pyramid” spontaneously
ideal relationship with God the Father. develop transcendent abilities. “Sin” or violation
The paramount statement relating to of ethical principles, commandments or Karmic
our purpose here is Christ’s teaching law can be classified into three weighted cate-
gories of decreasing severity: (1) actions, (2)
regarding the two great commands, specifi- speech, (3) thoughts.
cally as stated in the last sentence:

Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great
commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these
two commandments hang all the law and the prophets [Matthew 22:35 –40, King James Version].

Prophets are seers and revelators— users of transcendent abilities. The requirements
for transcendence may be further clarified in terms of a three-level pyramid. The base rep-
resents crimes or sins of action like murder, theft or adultery for example. The middle of
the hierarchy is represented by sins of word like lies or insults, which under extreme con-
ditions could lead to another’s harm or death. Goethe’s 1774 classic, Sorrows of Young
Werther, is purported to have produced a rash of suicides on its publication; whereas a
statement like “where’d you get that stupid shirt” may or may not only hurt one’s feelings.
The top of the pyramid represents sins of thought. Thought by nature is fleeting. As long
as an evil thought is not dwelt on, it can be forgiven as quickly as contemplated. At this
174 Part III: Consciousness of Dualism-Interactionism, Economics, Mind

Figure 4. Because of the inherent spiritual nature of mankind as part of an anthropic cosmology with
an inherent teleological life prinicipal and the concomitant existence of “absolute truth” in regard
to spiritual matters, the Golden Rule, as a universal principle of the perennial philosophy provides
a path to both find God and spontaneously develop transcendence.

level of living, the limitations of being human come into play. Deity can expect no more
of a mortal being than trying to manage ones thoughts.
According to metaphysical law of the perennial philosophy as applied to HAM cos-
mology, one is virtually guaranteed attainment of a degree of transcendence when ones
“moral crimes” hover at the apex of the pyramid; provided one has sufficiently good karma
or repaired any karmic debt or made restitution for negative conditions of the past. Noetic
cosmology suggests that by routinely living at this apex, a universal anthropic principle of
transcendence comes into play whereby anyone maintaining this mode will spontaneously
achieve a state of transcendence. If the premise for this noetic principle of transcendence
is correct, any team of scientists whether comprised of any combination of Jew, Christian
or Shinto, for example, will be able to utilize transcendence as a tool in scientific theory
formation. Likewise any dialogue between scientists and theologians could achieve similar
fruition. Based on the fundamental premise that men are spiritual beings living in an
anthropic multiverse; the following postulate is said to hold true:
Postulate 1: Any individual or group of individuals living by the Golden Rule, to the extent where
those individual’s moral offenses5 occur generally only at the level of thought, will spontaneously
develop transcendent abilities.

Two conditions apply. The past history of the individual must be relatively free of seri-
ous offense. The postulate may not apply to those guilty of unpardonable offenses like mur-
der or blasphemy against God.6 The activity of thought is at the limit of human control.
Human beings cannot be expected to have perfect control of their thoughts. The karmic
rule is satisfied if one does not dwell on negative thoughts.
The basic needs of all life on Earth is optimized by the Golden Rule — treating other
entities and the environment holistically in the same manner as we would like to be treated.
This perennial philosophy is an absolute truth that relates to all sentient consciousness
universally throughout the holographic multiverse where intelligent life is the rule not the
exception. Transcendence can be achieved by a high level adherence to the universal tenets
 Through the Looking Glass (Amoroso) 175

of the Golden Rule. Empiricism has been an impossible challenge for theology; and scientists
have historically denigrated any dialogue utilizing religious dogma based on faith-based
logic put forth by theologians as merely a product of pre-Galilean imagination. Therefore,
only by developing a common basis for utilizing transcendence as a universal epistemolog-
ical tool can S&T be united pragmatically. Producing a universal framework for transcen-
dence seems of grave import because such a completion of human epistemology could have
broad impact ultimately leading to world peace, higher quality of life and amelioration of
environmental concerns.

Transcendence as a Tool in Scientific

Theory Formation and Transpersonal Analysis
Since there are about 10,000 religious sects or spiritual paths in the world today, most
of which have conflicting teachings or dogmas, how could developing an empirical meta-
physics be possible? Whatever one’s spiritual path — the dance of a twirling Dervish, fasting,
meditation, charity, chanting, prayer or peyote — it is achieving the resulting pure tran-
scendental state that is of paramount importance.
As done here for noetic cosmology, a team of investigators or an individual therapist
attempting to utilize transcendence might also utilize historical tracts or scriptures pertinent
to their individual path as a starting point to help guide the questions posed to the universe
or for the therapy. We realize the extent of this challenge; one must have sufficient faith in
the veracity of a scriptural tract to use it as a starting point. The spirit of truth gained from
entering the state of transcendence is then used in the Platonic sense for verification. Noetic
insight is received through diligent study after sufficiently following ones individual path
to perfection in conjunction with prayerful meditation. Alternatively, when one comfortably
“hovers” at the apex of the pyramid, if one is studying a physics manuscript, a passage on
the Bessel function may leap out while reading or later while pondering as a transcendent
suggestion that the Bessel function is pertinent to the engineering or other theory at hand.
We wish to make it clear that receiving such “revelations from God” need not interfere
with experimental verification; because, as we mentioned earlier, all theory formation has
a metaphysical element when initially formulated in the creative mind(s) of its inventor(s).
Therefore the metaphysical act of theory formation is independent of the pragmatic demands
of hard science which is the second step or companion step in theory testing. There is
already a growing movement for integrating science and theology.
Examples of noetic insight from history are Friedrich Kekule’s dream of a snake joining
head to tail in the discovery of the benzene ring, or perhaps more pertinent to our interest
in the nature of consciousness here, Descartes claim of receiving a revelation from God
designating to the distinction between mind and body. Descartes “vision” has remained
controversial for over 400 years and is only now about to be tested by the methods of noetic
theory. Science, if my work here has been successful, has finally progressed to the point
where this is possible.

Absolute Truth in Theology

The philosophical or theological concept of absolute truth has been argued for cen-
turies; whether there is such a thing, what form it takes, can it be proven, and what are the
implications if any. A very simple perspective is taken here: absolute truth indeed exists,
176 Part III: Consciousness of Dualism-Interactionism, Economics, Mind

it is independent of opinion or even what some kinds of empirical tests might show; because
sometimes interpretation can be ambiguous. Absolute truth can only be verified through
transcendence. For example, in near history the Earth was considered flat (as can be seen
from any mountaintop or the seashore) and the center of the universe.
Although we might be interested in forms of theological absolute truth like “the Gods
organized the Earth and gave life to man”; some theological elements will not easily lend
themselves to standard experiential-experimental forms of “empirical metaphysics” and
will have to be “confirmed” by mutual verification by teams of noeticists experiencing the
same transcendent “facts” or remain faith-based until a viable experimental protocol can
be designed. Critics might consider the “divinations” of a particular group a form of group
hysteria, which might be dispelled if disparate groups are causally separated.
If we consider God to be the Great Physicist, it is physical truths that science would
be most interested in and also most readily verified by standard empiricism after transcen-
dent discovery. It is difficult to predict what the world might do when it realizes that the
path to transcendence is formulaic and while not necessarily a cakewalk, so to speak, cer-
tainly no more difficult than learning to play the piano proficiently. And the earlier one
begins, the easier the journey. This is not unreasonable considering that most scientists
undergo an average of 22 years of study in preparing for an academic life, plus the lifelong
study to keep abreast of developments in one’s field(s).

Absolute Truth in Science

Interestingly, there exists a concept of absolute or immutable truth in science:

A truth that represents a permanent and final grasp of some limited aspect of nature.
Most people would say this is incompatible with the expectation that our theories will
be falsified. I adhere to the expectation that our theories will be falsified, and look for
the immutable truth only in those theories that have already been falsified. Newtonian
mechanics ... is an example of the most certain and permanent truth man has ever
achieved. Its only failing is its scope; it does not cover everything —Misner 1974.

Now that it has been falsified, it is an “absolute truth” in the domain it describes.

Notes
1. Qualia — short for “quality of the feel”; the “what it feels like” sensation of awareness.
2. Noetic Insight: Plato said noetic insight was the highest form of knowing (epistemology) because it was tran-
scentdent — beyond ones intelligence and knowledge.
3. The prion propagates through conformational changes in the geometry of its protein structure.
4. The Star Trek transporter disassembles the individuals atomic and life energy information and broadcasts it to
a remote site for reassembly. The replicator is a similar technology for objects and tissue assembled from templates
stored in a computer.
5. Moral offense — We wish to skip for the most part a detailed delineation of what constitutes moral offense. For
our purpose here we chose to simply state that good has a tendency to bring people together and moral offense has
a tendency to separate or harm.
6. Unpardonable blasphemy — This is not a condition of swearing or cursing of the general kind; but a rare occur-
rence of a fully transfigured person who has beheld God like a Moses who then turn against God.

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 Conscious Economics
AMIT GOSWAMI

A new paradigm of science based on quantum physics and the primacy of consciousness
has been in the offing for a couple of decades now (Goswami 1993, 2008a; Stapp 1993; Blood
2001). Where should this paradigm shift lead us for the society at large, in particular, in
the field of economics where the need for change is urgent? My answer is: economics within
the primacy of consciousness, or in short, conscious economics, an extension of Adam
Smith’s capitalism to include the subtle and creative dimensions of the human being.
In 1999, I was part of a conference in Dharamsala, India, at which the Dalai Lama met
with about thirty scientists with a view to examine this kind of question (some details can
be found in a documentary film entitled Dalai Lama Renaissance). We didn’t go very far,
but ever since I have been interested in the impact of the new science paradigm on eco-
nomics, politics, business, education, religion, etc.
All the fields above, none more than economics, have been influenced by the currently
prevalent matter-based science. This influence has restricted economics to grow only in
the material dimension: the domain of sensing (pretty much leaving out the subtle dimen-
sions), the domains of feeling, thinking, and intuiting — of human existence. The current
paradigm of economics is moreover designed to satisfy our ego need, if that, but certainly
not our creative need. Most importantly, it does not work; witness the current economic
meltdown that has led to a complete loss of credibility of economics as a science. Can the
new economics within consciousness, conscious economics, save us from such meltdowns?

Adam Smith’s Capitalism and Classical Economics

When Adam Smith (1994) developed his far-reaching economic ideas, the worldview
was defined by modernism based on Cartesian dualism of mind and matter. Since the mind
was regarded as God’s territory in this worldview, it is not surprising that Adam Smith
defined wealth (capital), production, consumption, all in material terms and his capitalism
was designed around satisfying the material needs of people. Economic wealth or capital
requires raw material of natural resources to be converted with the help of labor to the
goods and services that people want to satisfy their needs. The main idea was that if the
merchants of production and the consumers likewise intend only on their own self interest
to do their respective jobs and the market is free to allow them to do so, the “invisible

178
 Conscious Economics (Goswami) 179

hands” of the market will lead to an equilibrium of production and consumption, supply
and demand of all the various goods and services. The invisible hands of the market will
allocate the resources and capital for the social good.
Although its main thrust was intended for the material world, Adam Smith’s capitalism
recognized mind in one important respect. Mind is spiritual territory; in the eyes of God
everyone is created with equal potential and everyone should be given equal opportunity
to fulfill that potential. Smith recognized this as a driving force of capitalism. The avowed
goal of Adam Smith’s capitalism is to make capital available to increasing number of people.
The more people that have a piece of the economic pie, the harder they work, and produc-
tively too, so production increases, increased consumption follows, and standard of living
increases and along with it affluence. Crucial to the picture is the creation of a middle class
consisting of innovators and entrepreneurs and, in general, explorers of meaning. Freed
from the burden of physical work, these people of the middle class engage the mind, explore
meaning with creativity.
And indeed it is the new middle class that got us out of the dark ages. Before capitalism,
there were only the rich and the poor, barons and serfs. Rich had the opportunity, but no
prerogative for meaning processing. Poor had no time to do it and no education and no
ability. There was one exception to this situation consisting of the people of the religious
oligarchy with a lot of spare time. These people explored meaning and created a few mean-
ingful enterprises even in the middle ages, if they were not caught by such great intrigues
as how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. As you know, Copernicus and Galileo
were such people.
With capitalism and the creation of the middle class, however, the middle class kept
growing and gave us all the fruits of the exploration of meaning — science, the arts, the
humanities— that we are justly proud of today.
But there has been one major glitch among others that required a major modification
of Adam Smith’s basic idea. In the history of capitalism, there have always been ups and
downs, booms and busts, periodic recession and eventual recovery followed by an up cycle.
In the 1930s, the recession became so huge that it was called the Great Depression.
The modification was proposed by the economist John Maynard Keynes (1977) and
consists of government intervention. The government invests to create public service jobs;
even partial employment creates enough demand to keep the economy going. The money
for the government investment comes from increased taxes on the rich. Eventually, the
businesses regroup because of new technological innovations, and recovery and subsequent
growth takes place. Since Adam Smith’s capitalism is a capitalism of equilibrium, is growth
compatible with it even though it is designed to grow the economy out of a recession? The
answer is yes, so long as growth is brought about through new innovations and involves
the processing of new meaning.
Economists still debate if President Roosevelt’s deployment of Keynesian economics
brought America out of the depression or World War II (that is when a whole bunch of
innovative technology came into play) did, but in the coming decades Keynesian economics
was always used to soften the effect of recession whenever it occurred. I will call the com-
bination of Adam Smith’s capitalism plus Keynesian economics as classical economics.
President Roosevelt also enacted the idea of social safety nets. In America, there are
now several safety net features: social security, unemployment insurance, Medicare, and
Medicaid. In Europe, the idea of social safety net has gone even further to create universal
health insurance.
180 Part III: Consciousness of Dualism-Interactionism, Economics, Mind

The idea of a social safety net is sometimes denigrated by labeling it socialism, but it
is quite consistent with Adam Smith’s capitalism since its main job is to protect the middle
class.
As the worldview changed from modernism in a post modern one based on scientific
materialism in which matter is recognized as the reductionist basis of everything including
mind, meaning, and values, Adam Smith’s ideas were modified to fit this new worldview.
I will call the economics that developed materialist economics.

Materialist Economics
Materialist science’s crown jewel is modern physics, the success of which has largely
come from reductionism (the idea that upward causation from the microcosm determines
the macrocosm) and the “predict and control” power of mathematics. Naturally, the notion
of making economics similarly bottom-up and mathematical became important in eco-
nomics and became the preoccupation of academics. Although the bridge between micro-
economics and the macroeconomics of the real world has never been built, the influence
of mathematical economics has been huge (Samuelson and Nordhaus 1998).
Initially, the mathematical economists were using ideas like utility that recognized the
role of individual need, but very soon the need for mathematics took over, yielding only
some basic rules for ordering people’s choice of goods that became the backbone of a theory
of consumer behavior. The mathematics became tractable as a result, but the price paid was
huge: the meaning a consumer derives from goods is no longer part of the economic trans-
action.
Soon economists were suggesting and businesses were following the idea that consumer
economics can be based on simply promoting behavior through marketing. In other words,
even meaningless products could be sold by the power of marketing. This led to the mean-
ingless proliferation of consumer goods such as the rows and rows of breakfast cereals that
you see in supermarkets today. True innovation and creativity suffered. In materialist eco-
nomics, even the idea that it takes innovative technology to bring the economy out of reces-
sion was replaced by the idea that consumerism alone can do it. This idea does not work,
of course; I think it is the major reason of why recessions are more frequent today than
ever.
One fallout of the consumer orientation of materialist economics is a new class sys-
tem — producers and consumers and, what is worse, a “star” system among the producers.
It started in the entertainment industry, first with Hollywood movie stars, then with rock
stars and then sports heroes. These “stars” at the heights of their professions were given
exorbitant compensations. As materialism sank its teeth into the society, the star system
spread to other professions as well. One of the newer entries is the business leader — the
corporate CEO and the like. In the 1960s, a CEO’s salary was a mere thirty times greater
than that of the ordinary laborer. Now it is more than two hundred times.

Money and Meaning

From its advent, money has been regarded as a representation, a symbol of something
of meaning and value. But with the denigration of meaning and value, many economists
began to treat money as having intrinsic value of its own. Thus was born monetary eco-
nomics.
 Conscious Economics (Goswami) 181

Nowadays a quasi-governmental organization controls the money supply by controlling

interest rates that banks charge for borrowing money. In America the Federal Reserve serves
as the agency of this control. The idea is to avoid recession. If the economy shows signs of
slowdown, the Fed can increase money supply by reducing interest rates. Likewise, when
the economy heats up showing signs of inflation — too much money chasing too few goods—
the Fed can raise interest rates to cool things down. Does this manipulation keep recessions
out? Debatable.
Trade between nations raises the question of the exchange rate between various local
currencies. Previously, we always had a reminder that money is a representation of some-
thing of value; a gold standard was the reminder. It is another sign of the influence of mate-
rialism that the gold standard was abolished in preference to a dollar standard so exchange
rate became a floating concept.
A major influence of the materialist attitude of money having intrinsic value was the
creation of economic transactions completely devoid of normal economic transactions of
production and consumption. This has the potentially disastrous consequence that most
money transactions in the exchange market today are devoid of any meaningful connection
to the goods and services economy; instead they are speculative resembling gambling in a
global casino. According to monetary economist Bernard Lietaer (2001):
Your money’s value is determined by a global casino of unprecedented proportions: $2 trillion are
traded per day in foreign exchange markets, 100 times more than the trading volume of all the
stock markets of the world combined. Only 2% of these foreign exchange transactions relate to the
“real” economy reflecting movements of real goods and services in the world, and 98% are purely
speculative. This global casino is triggering the foreign exchange crises which shook Mexico in
1994 –5, Asia in 1997 and Russia in 1998.... Unless some precautions are taken soon, there is at least
a 50 –50 chance that the next five to ten years will see a global money meltdown, the only plausible
way for a global depression.

This transaction-of-money-without-meaning philosophy, combined with over reliance

on mathematical prediction and control, combined with the general lackadaisical attitude
toward ethics that comes with materialism, eventually led to the great economic meltdown
of 2008. Materialist economics finally lost credibility. Martin Wolf, a financial columnist
for the prestigious Financial Times, declared flatly, “Another ideological god has failed.”
The original “failed god” of economics is, of course Marxism.
We should have suspected long ago that materialism is faulty philosophy as far as eco-
nomics is concerned. Consider this; the only serious challenge to capitalism after the demise
of feudalism/mercantile economy is Marxist economics, which is based on pure and simple
materialism; whereas, as I have already stated, capitalism, as initially conceived, was based
on modernism and did acknowledge a role for the mind. But Marxist economics was a big
failure; no economist would disagree with that assessment. Instead of Adam’s Smith’s “invis-
ible hand” to drive the market and distribute capital, Marx envisioned that such a distri-
bution can be done more effectively under a dictatorship of the proletariat in which the
labor directly takes over the distribution and equalizes wealth. But Marxist economics so
far has been installed only under the politics of communism (in which the dictatorship of
the proletariat become more like a dictatorship of a bureaucracy) and it failed miserably.
What is responsible for the failure of Marxist economics? Economists unanimously
conclude that most people just cannot work hard when it is not for their own benefit, for
the satisfaction of their own private needs.
This gives us a broad hint as to what economics needs for its proper functioning,
182 Part III: Consciousness of Dualism-Interactionism, Economics, Mind

namely that it must be designed to satisfy not just our material needs, but all of our human
needs. Adam Smith failed to see this; he went partway, hence the problem with the business
cycle. The answer is not government intervention but a reformulation of Adam Smith’s cap-
italism to address all human needs, material, emotional, mental, and supramental/spiritual.
We cannot do this by simply going back to modernism. There modern science has
demonstrated the failure of mind-body dualism once and for all: how can a nonmaterial
mind interact with the material world? Only via the exchange of a mediating signal carrying
energy. But the energy of the material world alone is always a constant; no energy ever leaks
to the mental world and vice versa; no energy ever comes to the physical world from the
mental. Therefore, there cannot be any signals and the dual worlds cannot interact. The
philosophical basis of modernism is forever doomed to failure. Scientific materialism is a
monistic alternative.
Fortunately, there is another monistic alternative, a monism based on consciousness.
Now once again a paradigm shift is going on in science and the worldview is once again
changing from one based on the primacy of matter to one based on the primacy of con-
sciousness. The philosopher Willis Harman called this new worldview “transmodernism,”
and he himself theorized about how this worldview change can bring changes in how we
do business, how we run our economy.
In my own work where I have invoked quantum physics to introduce and appreciate
the primary role of consciousness in making models of reality, science within consciousness
becomes potent and predictive (Goswami 1993, 2008a). In particular, it is able to give con-
crete guidelines as to how capitalism should be modified in view of the new paradigm.
The new worldview gives us a philosophically and scientifically acceptable way of intro-
ducing the whole spectrum of human needs in the economic equation, not just material
needs. When we adapt Adam Smith’s capitalism to this new worldview we get what I call
a conscious economics. This short book is about the conceptual foundations of this new
economics and about how it solves the economic problems we face today.
The primary task before us is two-fold. First, to include not only what we can sense
but also what we can feel, think, and intuit. We feel vital energies; we think meaning; we
intuit supramental archetypes of values (Goswami 2008a). We must include all these dimen-
sions of our experience in the equation when we develop our theories of economics.
Our second task is to move to dimensions of the self beyond the behaviorally condi-
tioned ego. Materialist capitalism deals with only our behaviorally conditioned ego and
promotes ego consumerism for economic growth. The new economics acknowledges our
creative self beyond ego and opens the door for creativity and creative innovations for eco-
nomic growth whenever needed.
My preliminary work published by the World Business Academy (Goswami 2005)
showed that a consciousness-based approach to economics solves the difficult problem of
Adam Smith’s capitalism consisting of the boom and bust business cycles. As is well known,
one of the materialist “solutions” to this problem, called supply-side economics, creates a
huge wealth gap between the rich and the poor antithetical to the spirit of capitalism. The
recent 2008 economic meltdown led to government bailouts that have further enlarged the
gap between rich and poor. If this becomes the going practice of economics, then the rich
can make speculative investments for which they keep the profit, but government (that is,
people) picks up the losses. In conscious economics, we solve the problem of large fluctu-
ations of the economy via investments in the subtle domain without increasing the wealth
gap between rich and poor and without squeezing the middle class.
 Conscious Economics (Goswami) 183

The new approach gives us a steady state of economics and incorporates a solution to
the finite resources and finite environment problems that worry all economists and business
people.
In the following pages, I will deal with the following important current issues:
1. The remedies of business cycles and economic meltdowns
2. The problem of government interventions and how to keep the free market free
3. The connection of economics and ecology and the remedies of problems connected with
environment and sustainability. In this context we note that the transition of current
economic model to conscious economics is analogous to the transition of shallow ecology
to deep ecology.
4. Globalization and its discontents from the new perspective
5. Problems related to elimination of poverty and hunger
6. How businesses must change to implement the new economics
7. What the government can do

An Introduction to Science Within Consciousness

The basic elements of the developing science within the primacy of consciousness are
as follows:
• Consciousness is the ground of all being. All objects, material or mental, exist as quantum
possibilities in this ground of being. In other words, the laws of movement of all objects
obey quantum physics.
• Consciousness chooses from among its possibilities to make actual events of experience.
What spiritual traditions call downward causation by a nonmaterial agency (most often
called God) is now recognized as the result of free choice from a nonordinary state of
consciousness where we are all one and where the interconnectedness of all things allow
signalless (technically called nonlocal) communication. No signals to mediate, no dual-
ism!
• The quantum possibilities of consciousness are four-fold: material (which we sense);
vital energy (which we feel, primarily at the chakras and only secondarily involving the
brain; see Goswami 2008a); mental meaning (which we think); and supramental arche-
types of physical laws, mental meaning, vital functions, and ethical discriminations (which
we intuit). The material is called gross because we experience it as external to us; and the
others make up the subtle domain of our experience that we experience privately and
internally.
• Contrary to Newtonian physics, in quantum physics both continuous and discontinuous
movements occur. Continuous movements reign in the movement of possibilities in what
is called the unconscious. Choice leading to collapse (transformation) of possibility into
actuality is discontinuous. We experience such discontinuous movements (called quantum
leaps) in our creative self experiences of aha! insight. The aha! signifies the surprise of
the discontinuity and the newness of the insight.
• Quantum thinking explains why the creative process has four stages: preparation, incu-
bation or unconscious processing, sudden insight, and manifestation. Preparation and
manifestation are easy to understand, but to understand the importance of just sitting or
unconscious processing quantum thinking is necessary. The point is that when we don’t
think possibility waves, being undisturbed, grow in possibility, becoming bigger and big-
184 Part III: Consciousness of Dualism-Interactionism, Economics, Mind

ger conglomerates of possibilities for consciousness to choose from. However, we cannot

sit forever, since then the focus is lost. So the optimum strategy for creativity is alternate
doing and non-doing or being. I sometimes jokingly call this part of the creative process
do-be-do-be-do. For businesses this is extremely important to comprehend because most
business people think providing workers time to relax is wastage.
• Memories produce conditioning and conditioned responses give rise to a continuous and
predictable stream of consciousness the experiencer of which we call the ego. In the cre-
ative self, we have freedom of choice, free will, needed for creative innovation and mod-
ernist exploration. In the conditioned ego, we have the limited choice between conditioned
alternatives that is useful in consumerism.
• The three pillars of quantum physics that stand out in the new paradigm are: nonlocality,
discontinuity, and tangled hierarchy. The first two I have already mentioned. Tangled
hierarchy is the notion of circularly causal relationship between levels of organization,
as distinguished from a simple hierarchy where causality runs one way. What is of utmost
importance is to recognize that in a tangled hierarchical system within consciousness,
self-reference, the ability of perceiving oneself as separate from the environment arises
(Goswami 1993).
• East Indians recognized long ago that people behave with three kinds of propensity. Con-
ditioning dominates most people. This propensity is called tamas in Sanskrit. A substantial
number of people, however, can respond to a situation with creative behavior of which
there are two kinds. Some people attack a problem creatively, but do not go beyond known
contexts of thinking. The solutions they find fit the situation and their creativity is called
situational creativity (rajas in Sanskrit). A few people, when they see a problem, they see
it in more than one context, and the solution they seek and find is a discovery of a new
meaning in a new context. This kind of creativity I call fundamental creativity. The
propensity for it is called sattva in Sanskrit. In recent parlance, sattva is the capacity for
“out of the box” thinking.
• The classification of people into sattvic, rajasic, and tamasic is highly relevant to eco-
nomics and business. In general the movers and shakers of our society, and this includes
business people, are people of predominant rajas. You may recognize the Sanskrit word
raja (which means king) that is the root word for rajas. People of rajas have the same
empire-building tendency as the kings of the olden days. In terms of creativity, when
these people make a discovery in a new context, they will use the discovery in many new
situations either solo or combining several old contexts. This is obviously akin to empire
building. Sometimes this is called “horizontal” creativity whereas fundamental creativity
is “vertical” creativity. The words of the economist Joseph Schumpeter explain their dif-
ference perfectly; “Add successfully as many mail coaches as you please, you never get a
railway thereby.”
• In contrast, the labor force consists generally of people of tamas; people without the
vision of fundamental creativity and without the drive of kingly expansion simply suc-
cumb to the drudgery of conditioned living.
• When consciousness chooses from the possibilities the actual event of its experience (with
one or more of the physical, vital, mental, and supramental components), the physical
(the manifestation of which is compulsory for possibilities to collapse into actuality) has
the opportunity of making representations of the subtle. The physical is like computer
hardware; the subtle is represented in it as software.
• Our capacity for making physical representation of the subtle evolves. First, the capacity
 Conscious Economics (Goswami) 185

for making representations of the vital evolved through the evolution of life via more and
more sophisticated organs to represent the living functions such as self-maintenance,
self-reproduction, self-other distinction, self-expression, etc. Next, the capacity of making
more and more sophisticated representations of the mental evolved. This is the stage of
evolution we are in right now.
• The mind went through two stages of its evolution already: the physical mind (in which
mind gives meaning to the physical sensory world) and the vital mind (in which mind
gives meaning to the vital world of feeling). We are now in the evolutionary stage where
the mind explores the meaning of meaning itself; in other words, this is the stage of the
rational mind.
• Our capacity to represent the supramental in the physical has not evolved yet. However,
there is evolutionary pressure on us in this direction the primary reason some of us are
attracted to creativity and spirituality. Right now this evolutionary pressure is trying to
take us to a new stage of mental evolution in which we will collectively engage the mind
in its intuitive capacity to explore the supramental. (See Goswami, 2008b, for further
details.)
• The entrance requirement for the next stage of evolution of the mind is that we complete
the current stage of the rational mind. This is why it is so important that we make meaning
processing available for all the members of our species as quickly as possible. I see the
paradigm shift from the current materialist economics to a conscious economics of utmost
urgency from this evolutionary point of view. I really think that the current economic
meltdown is a reminder from consciousness (and others like this will follow if we don’t
heed the message).

Conscious Economics: Higher Needs

As the psychologist Abraham Maslow pointed out, besides our basic material need,
we have an entire hierarchy of needs. The major defect of the Adam Smith’s capitalist eco-
nomics is the ignoring of the people’s higher needs. Following Maslow, but modifying his
theory according to the insights of my general approach to spirituality, science within con-
sciousness, we can easily see what these higher needs are.
In the new worldview, there must not only be urge to satisfy physical needs but also
needs in all the other dimensions of our experience —feeling, thinking, and intuition. In
addition to the satisfaction of physical needs, a conscious economics must address:
• Satisfaction of emotional needs, positive emotions such as love, compassion, and satis-
faction itself, both conditioned and unconditioned.
• Pursuit of meaning, including the pursuit of new mental meaning which requires cre-
ativity.
• Pursuit of spiritual and supramental (soul) needs such as altruism, love, and happiness.
And, in truth, this ladder of needs is not entirely hierarchical. If one satisfies higher
needs, the urge to satisfy lower needs actually decreases. The opposite is also true. If lower
needs are satisfied, the urge for satisfying higher needs increases. In this way, the strategy
for conscious economics is to address all the needs simultaneously.
Whereas Adam Smith’s capitalism was developed as an economics of physical well-
being based on the satisfaction of our conditioned physical ego-needs, conscious economics
must be an economics of holistic well-being based on the satisfaction of both our ego needs
186 Part III: Consciousness of Dualism-Interactionism, Economics, Mind

(of both physical and the subtle of what is already represented in us) and higher creative
needs (pertaining to the creative exploration of the vital, mental, soul and spirit in order
to make new representations).
This extension of capitalism to include higher human needs in addition to basic sur-
vival needs and the use of the higher creative self in addition to the consumer ego self fits
nicely with the etymological definition of economics. The word economics originates from
two Greek words: eikos meaning place and nomus meaning management. In this way, eco-
nomics is about the management of the place that we live. But if you think about it, we just
don’t live in the physical world; we also live in the vital world of feeling, the mental world
of meaning, and the supramental world of archetypal values such as goodness, love, justice,
beauty and truth. Naturally, a properly developed capitalism must include the management
of all the worlds in which we live. Finally, where is the profit motive in the subtle arena?
Can we have capitalism without profits and profit motives? But there is profit! When Jesus
says that if you give you get back hundredfold, he is not talking about material profit. He
is talking about subtle profit. People who produce “goods” in the subtle arena are much
aware of the possible profits, they enjoy these profits, and as expected, the more they profit,
the better they become in their production.

Evolution of the Concept of Self-Interest

“Greed is good” is selling as the mantra of capitalism today. Even the respected jour-
nalist Fareed Zakaria used the phrase in a 2009 Newsweek magazine article supposed to lay
down the manifesto of capitalism. He should have made it clear that it is the capitalist man-
ifesto under the spell of scientific materialism. In Adam Smith’s original formulation
influenced by the philosophy of modernism, not materialism, Smith was very clear that he
distinguished between self-interest and greed.
It all depends on your worldview. In modernism, mind, meaning, and ethics are all
valued. And you cannot practice ethics without relationship to others. So your self-interest
covers at least your local societal environment.
Under the influence of materialism, your self tends to become just you, your physical
body and what is conditioned into your brain by your genes and environment. Since the
brain is sort of a computer and rational thinking is computable, it is supposed to be the
rational you; but guess what? Materialism and rationalism cannot change your nature that
is guided a lot by your instinctual brain circuits of negative emotion of which the greed
circuit is a major one. So it is not surprising that you identify self-interest and greed when-
ever it suits you. For example, as CEO of a big corporation, you demand a hefty raise. In
those moments you suppress your higher needs, even rational thinking in favor of greed.
In a consciousness-based worldview, it is different once again. Once again, your broader
self-interest recognizes your higher needs. This prompts you to try to balance your negative
emotions with positive ones. And if the social norm demands that you should be ethical,
you “sacrifice” your greed more often than not and behave ethically.
There are other striking differences, too. The “self ” of materialism is entirely opera-
tional and behavioral. Thus it is not surprising that under the aegis of materialism, business
and corporate CEOs tend to do their empire building not through innovations, but through
acquisitions. In a consciousness-based worldview, the self is once more recognized to have
creativity. So creativity, as in Adam Smith era under modernism, can once again thrive in
businesses.
 Conscious Economics (Goswami) 187

Recoupling Meaning and Money

When modernism gave way to materialism and Adam Smith’s capitalism was gradually
replaced by materialist economics, money was quickly decoupled from meaning. Can con-
scious economics recouple money back to meaning?
Originally, money was created to facilitate meaningful economic transactions. Money
acts as a catalyst. Now if you remember your basic chemistry, catalysts are not meant to
accumulate. It is the failure of materialism to distinguish between need and greed that leads
to the accumulation of money for the service of greed. Up to a point, accumulation of
money, it can be sensibly argued, will lead to investments into economic production and
serve basic capitalism. But since without creative innovation production is limited by the
equation of demand and supply, very soon accumulation serves only the purpose of acqui-
sition: not only acquisition of unneeded goods and services that can be relatively benign
but also acquisition of other businesses and especially acquisition of power.
The Greeks understood this perfectly. Explains the biologist Brian Goodwin (2009):
The confusion between money as facilitator of trading transactions and as something with intrinsic
value comes from a failure to distinguish between oikos, the Greek root for economics, and krema,
the Greek word for individual wealth which is purely about acquisition ... the “krematistic” accu-
mulation of money in individual hands was condemned by Aristotle as destructive of community
wealth and the intrinsic health of resilient trading and exchange systems.

We have argued in the previous pages that the decoupling of meaning and money has
been disastrous; for example, it contributed to the current economic meltdown. Goodwin
agrees. “It is the development of an economic culture based on pure money making and
acquisition that has shaped our monetary and economic systems ... so that they are intrin-
sically unstable and destructive.”
Back to the question, can conscious economics rescue us from acquisitory accumulation
of money? Built into conscious economics is the idea of production of transformative subtle
energy of positive emotions. Also built into it is the scientific validity of ethical principles.
Together they should be able to balance greed in the long run and economic transactions
will return to meaningfulness. In the short run, during the transition between paradigms,
it may be necessary to use taxation to achieve that goal.

Micro Economics of the Subtle

Economics is about production-consumption, demand-supply, prices and all that. How
does that kind of stuff work for our subtle needs? Let’s talk about these micro details.
Production of positive vital energy can be accomplished in many ways: forestation —
plants and trees have abundant vital energy, even indoor plants; pets; cultivating positive
health (for a definition, see my book The Quantum Doctor) in society — people of positive
health radiate positive vital energy; and so forth. But the best way to ensure production of
vital energy is to encourage the work places for ordinary people to have facilities so that
their employees can practice positive health, practices such as yoga, Tai chi, and medita-
tion.
As for production of mental meaning, we already have some of the ways in place in
the contexts of the arts and entertainment industry. Both of these industries have the capac-
ity of producing positive vital energy (positive emotions) as well. However, much of the
arts and entertainment industry has bogged down into the negativity and existential cyn-
188 Part III: Consciousness of Dualism-Interactionism, Economics, Mind

icism of a materialist culture. But we can shift the emphasis from negativity to meaning-
fulness and positivity.
The greatest challenge of a conscious economy is to create meaningful jobs for the
labor force so that people can produce meaning on the job. You may have noticed that
things are already moving in that direction. One of Adam Smith’s historically useful ideas
was division of labor that was used to produce the assembly line. This banished meaning
from the life of the assembly line worker for quite a while, and then a miracle happened.
In Japan, they found that most of the boring routine work of the assembly line can be done
by robots which new technology had made available. Even more important, they found
that if a single person, giving him or her work meaning and satisfaction, does the rest of
the work, the quality of the product increases substantially. “Quality is job one” became
the mantra of industries so modified.
The second development in this direction has been produced by the phenomenon of
outsourcing some types of routine labor jobs to developing countries taking advantage of
cheap labor. There is danger here of lost jobs in the developed economy from which jobs
are being outsourced, no doubt. But there is also opportunity, a challenge for the labor
force. When routine jobs for producing consumer goods are no longer available, the chal-
lenge is for producers to innovate and develop new technology. Invariably, this creates
meaningful jobs for the labor force. The Obama administration is emphasizing green energy
industries; this is a clear example of the creation of meaningful jobs.
It is the job of the educational institutions, schools and universities, to provide the
labor force for business and industries to employ. When America was founded, these insti-
tutions doled out what we call liberal education. The word liberal has the same etymological
origin as the word liberty which means freedom. A liberal education frees the mind from
the known and prepares one to explore the new. But with scientific materialism at the helm,
creativity took a back seat in our businesses and industries, and the demand grew for a
labor force skilled to follow other people’s meaning, not explore their own. So universities
became places for job training — training for jobs devoid of any personal meaning. With
demand for creativity and meaningful exploration in our businesses restored via conscious
economics, perhaps the universities once again can become the bastions of meaning pro-
cessing that they once were.
The production of supramental and spiritual energy requires more effort right now.
In the olden days, spiritual organization likes churches, temples, synagogues, mosques, and
the like cultivated and produced supramental and spiritual intelligence in their leaders and
practitioners. Nowadays these organizations are more interested in influencing mundane
politics than investing in the supramental. But make no mistake about it; it can be done,
although we may have to develop new spiritual organizations to do it. In the olden days,
perhaps the most effective means of production (and dissemination) of supramental energy
were traveling monks (called sadhus in India; in the West troubadours are example). This
we can revive. To some extent the many new age conferences on spirituality are already
serving this purpose; the presenters at these conferences are much like wandering spiritual
teachers. Also effective are group meditations through which, as some of parapsychologist
Dean Radin’s (2006) experiments show, people can experience nonlocal consciousness and
hence can take creative leaps to the supramental domain. This can be done even in work-
places.
We can move one step ahead. Suppose all sizable business and corporations set up a
division of subtle energy production that will employ people of positive health, people of
 Conscious Economics (Goswami) 189

positive mental health, and even people of supramental intelligence for that purpose. Imag-
ine you are a worker in such a corporation and are inflicted by negative emotions. Suppose
your in-house “doctor” can balance your negativity with his or her positivity by simply you
sitting in this person’s proximity. How much productivity is saved! If accounted for properly,
such saving of productivity can easily support such a subtle energy department.
Now to the question of consumption. Because the vital and mental are representable
in us, they can be consumed both by local and nonlocal means. For example, if we see good
theater, it cultivates the processing of meaning in us, even new meaning. When we partake
in good meaningful entertainment, we also feel positive emotions; we are consuming them.
As we consume, we ourselves have the potential to become producers.
Supramental energy consumption is nonlocal, but it requires local triggers. There are
scientists who subscribe to the so-called Maharishi effect according to which the spiritual
and supramental energy generated by a group meditation is consumed automatically in the
local vicinity. Data is cited with claims of crime reduction in big cities where TM groups
perform such meditation. However, this is controversial and I am not advocating it. A
purely quantum mechanical consumption of your spiritual energy requires that I be non-
locally correlated with you by some means or other. For example, experiments by the neu-
rophysiologist Jacobo Grinberg and his collaborators (1994) suggest that if two people
intend for nonlocal correlation and meditate together, they do become nonlocally correlated,
but it should be simpler than that. There are many anecdotes of how people feel peace in
the mere presence of a sage. So just being locally present may trigger nonlocal correlation
and consumption.
I myself have experienced this phenomenon. Back in the 1980s, there was a time in my
life when I was very unhappy and my unhappiness was affecting my marriage. In short, my
wife and I fought a lot. Circumstances sent us to the ashram of an American philosopher
named Franklin Merrell Wolff situated in a small town named Lone Pine in California high
up in the Sierra. Franklin was ninety-seven years old at the time. When I tried talking
quantum physics with him, he refused. “It gives me headaches,” he said. Since I liked him,
and there was nothing else for me to do to spend the long summer afternoons, I just sat
with him in his garden. He napped while I vegetated. This went on for a while. Then I
started hearing people talk about a “delightful physicist” on the grounds and became curi-
ous. “I’d like to meet him,” I said and everybody laughed. I was that physicist! A little
internal checking showed that I had had no marital disharmony for quite a while. What
produced the transformation? I am convinced that it is the local proximity of Franklin that
triggered in me a quantum nonlocal consciousness whose wholeness made me happy. (Inci-
dentally, as soon as we left the campus, within a few minutes, my wife and I started fight-
ing.)
The best part about subtle energy products is that they are mostly free. The subtle
dimensions have no limits; we can consume a sage’s love all we wish, the supply is not going
to diminish. There is no zero-sum game in the subtle. There may be a bit of material cost
of production. So one may put a small material price tag on subtle products to offset this
and that may not be such a bad idea because it enables people to be more serious about
their intentions when they consume subtle products. Here is also an opportunity for the
government to subsidize the subtle industry.
Can we even quantify subtle energy or holistic well-being? For the basic needs, the
GNP is a fairly good indicator. Can we generalize the concept of GNP for conscious eco-
nomics?
190 Part III: Consciousness of Dualism-Interactionism, Economics, Mind

Redefining Economic Well-being

To most materialists, science has to do deal only with the material world, because only
the material can be quantified, can be measured reliably. We have to eradicate this preju-
dice.
We cannot measure vital energy or what is called prana in India and chi in Chinese,
in the same sense that we can measure a quantity of rice, but it is not true that we cannot
measure it at all. For example, when vital energy moves out of you, your feeling at the par-
ticular chakra will tell you the story and the same is true of vital energy excesses. When
vital energy moves out of the navel chakra, you feel insecurity, butterflies in the stomach.
When vital energy moves in to the same chakra, the feeling is quite different, that of self-
confidence or pride.
Similarly, meaning processing gives you a feeling of satisfaction in the crown chakra
because vital energy moves in there. So we can quantify meaning to some extent by the
“amount” of satisfaction we derive from processing it.
Even the supramental can be measured. If we perform a good deed for someone, an
example of altruism, we are happy or blissful. Not because there is any particular influx of
vitality in any of the chakras, but because our separateness is momentarily gone. With love,
it is even easier. Because we not only feel the bliss of not being separate from the whole,
but we also feel vital energy in the heart chakra. And both can be used as a measure.
Of course, this kind of measurement is not accurate; they are indeed subjective and
always a little vague. But if we give up the prejudice that only accurate and objective meas-
urements count, what then? Then we can certainly establish criteria to judge a nation’s net
gain or loss of currency (feeling, meaning, and godliness) in the subtle domain. We must
note that quantum physics has already replaced complete objectivity (strong objectivity)
by weak objectivity in which subjectivity is permitted so long as we make sure that our
conclusions do not depend upon particular subjects (d’Espagnat 1983).
For example, we can send questionnaires to people asking them to keep an ongoing
tab on their feelings, meanings, and supramental experiences or lack thereof. When we tally
all this for the entire year, we can calculate easily an index of vital, mental, and supramental
well-being. This index then will complement the GDP — all goods and services produced
in the material economy of the country, which is the index for our material well-being.
In the same way, we can estimate the contribution to the vital, mental, and supramental
energies from a particular production organization. Some examples will show that well-
being in the subtle dimensions really does count, and we are missing something in our eco-
nomics because we do not count it. In Hindu India (before the tenth century), the country
and culture was fundamentally spiritual. The economy was feudal, of course, but according
to all accounts (not only indigenous but also of foreign visitors) people were satisfied and
happy albeit the prevalence of caste system. What gives? Hindu India certainly had wealth,
but no more than today’s America. In a spiritual culture, lots of good vital energy, mental
meaning and spiritual wholeness is generated, that is the reason. The subtle wealth reduced
the need for material wealth and more than made up for the lack of it. The same is true for
Tibet until the recent take over by communist China. The communist leaders of China
sometimes tout the rise in the material standard of living of Tibetan people under their
rule; if they were only aware of the huge dip in the Tibetan people’s happiness index!
Of course, neither the Indian nor Tibetan cultures were perfect because they did limit
meaning processing of the lower classes so evolution of consciousness eventually caught
 Conscious Economics (Goswami) 191

up with them. But so much energy was generated in the subtle domains in the Indian
culture that even today when there is real poverty in the material domain, the Indian poor
are quite happy because they continue to inherit and maintain their subtle wealth. If Karl
Marx had seen that, it might make him rethink whether the exploited classes are always
unhappy!
Another example is the Native American culture of the old. There was so much of
subtle wealth there that no body even cared to own material wealth. They treated material
wealth in the same way as subtle wealth, globally, collectively, and without playing a zero-
sum game.

How Idealist Economics Solves

the Problem of the Business Cycle

I mentioned the business cycle before which is commonly referred to as boom and
bust cycle. After some years of growth, in the nineteenth century capitalist economies
seemed to fall into a recession and there was always the possibility of an even deeper stag-
nation called depression that eventually happened in the early twentieth century. It is to
prevent this kind of fluctuations that the Keynesian, monetarism, and supply-side govern-
ment intervention cures were proposed. With these cures, recessions still happen, but they
are milder. But these cures have created a perpetual expansion economy. Because now recov-
ery depends almost entirely on consumerism, a perpetual drain of the planetary resources
has been created.
In a spiritual economy, since production of subtle products is cheap, in recession times
we can soften the blow by increasing production in the subtle sector so that consumption
in that sector would also increase. This would reduce demand in the material sector giving
businesses time to regroup, innovate, and increase material productivity.
But most people enjoy the subtle and the transformative practices only for a while. In
a matter of a few months, they reach a plateau. By the end of a year or so, people of tamas
have had enough transformation for now and they are ready to resume “real” work. People
of rajas use the time of subtle consumption for recharging their batteries—-time for incu-
bation, an important stage of the creative process. People of sattva and inner creativity are
of course, the producer of subtle products: this would be their busy “do” time. In about a
year, they, too, need a change to a more relaxed pace of doing. So, in effect, in about a year,
both the producers and the consumers are ready to switch to “normal times” just as material
production companies have regrouped and are ready to produce.
In the same way, in “boom” times the production of the material goods would increase,
material consumerism will increase and there will be less subtle stuff produced and con-
sumed. But as the economy recovers and comes to full swing, after a while, people’s material
needs are satisfied, and they once again would become hungry for the satisfaction of their
subtle needs whose production then increases. And this has the effect of putting a damper
on the inflationary tendencies of “boom” times in a capitalist economy. The important
thing is that there is no subtle price for the subtle stuff, there is no inflationary pressure in
the subtle dimensions. Paying attention to the subtle just enables the entire economy to
soften the blow of both recessions and the boom time inflationary pressure. In other words
cyclical variations of the economy would be much less severe, so mild that little or no gov-
ernment intervention would be needed to keep the economy in a steady state.
192 Part III: Consciousness of Dualism-Interactionism, Economics, Mind

Note also how the business cycle works in harmony with personal and social transfor-
mation. Every recession takes people to a higher plateau of transformed living. The tamasic
people would have increased rajas and their meaning processing capacity would go up. The
people of situational creativity would have more sattva and would learn to creatively enjoy
more “be” time. For the people of sattva, the recession time of increased service would
enable them to purify their sattva further enabling a surrender of their ego. Changes can
be expected for businesses as well, as they, too, are run by the people so transformed. So
after every business cycle, they would become a little more holistic, their products would
be a little more meaningful, and so forth.
In this way, I am convinced that spiritualizing the economy, making capitalism con-
scious under a conscious economics, is how to accomplish a stable economy that many
economists have wondered about if it is ever possible to achieve.

Getting Out of the Current Economic Meltdown

I have introduced the subject of the 2008 economic meltdown already. When the melt-
down was properly recognized, in the fall of 2008 in the middle of the American general
election, did the world’s governments take the right steps? If not, what could they have
done better? What can we learn from the current experience? Would such a phenomenon
occur in conscious economics? In this section, I will deal with these questions. But first,
another quintessential question: what produced the meltdown?
Let’s begin at the beginning. How did the financial market became a fixture of American
economic life? Businesses have used stocks for quite some time to represent the value of
their businesses in order to raise money from the public offering of stocks. This is quite
conducive to capitalism’s basic goal of spreading capital ownership and yet creating a large
enough pool of it so that it can be effectively invested in economic activity. This idea was
taken even further through the creation of mutual funds. Owning stock is good, but there
is risk in whether the particular company whose stocks you own will succeed or nor or what
is more relevant whether the stock price will reliably keep going up or not. If you want to
make quick money, you need a stock that will go up in value in short term. If on the other
hand, you are saving money for retirement, you want a stock that will do good in the long
run. In either case, there is risk involved, and then it makes sense to let the experts handle
it. Thus came the idea of mutual fund. You employ an investment company or an investment
bank to invest your money. The company experts not only invest your money but the money
pooled from many sources like you in a plethora of stocks, thus spreading the risk that each
of you take.
One consequence of materialist thinking is the belief that the universe is fundamentally
mathematical. Naturally, mathematicians invaded the Wall Street and convinced investors
that there is scope of mathematics in investment banking. These mathematicians could cal-
culate statistical effects to enable investors to accurately assess stock and bond prices making
short-term investment in the stock market relatively risk free and making money on them
easy. Once the financial investment banks obtained a footing in the economy, and money
became detached from meaning, and smart mathematicians gave them models of invest-
ments, they began to create very clever way of making money. This led to newer and newer
innovations of the basic idea of a stock giving more and more chance of making quick profit
(with lesser and lesser transparency) such as futures (of commodity markets) and options
(on stocks), hedge funds, derivatives, etc.
 Conscious Economics (Goswami) 193

Eventually, the mathematical “wizards” of Wall Street claimed that they could even
calculate the rate of default on loans backed up by a collateral. Loans to the banks are
money tied up, often for a long time, such as in housing mortgage loans. But if a bank
knows the default rate, and in addition, the bank puts together a whole bunch of loans
from a whole bunch of sources to minimize risk of defaults, the loans can become assets
against which the bank can issue securities. This is called securitization. The securities can
be broken up in chunks, each chunk representing a different aspect of the security. This is
what the bank sells as collateralized debt obligation (CDO). Somebody wrote an article in
the Newsweek magazine comparing the situation of the CDOs with how a cow is divided
into different slices and sold according to the quality of the slice. Apt metaphor. Investors
buy the CDOs and sell them again to other parties thus creating more and more distance
between a CDO and the original mortgage loans that back it up. Transparency is lost.
Since politicians were equally influenced by materialism, it was easy to convince politi-
cians of all denominations to change or suspend rules of investment (deregulation) in the
name of free market, although these changes go against the grain of conventional
production-consumption classical economics. A major deregulation was the abolition of
the law that prevented the merger of investment banks and commercial banks.
These newer manipulations eventually produced the now infamous toxic assets that
helped produce the current economic meltdown. But this is not the only cause.
Economists generally agree about three factors. First, because of dollar standard for
foreign exchange, many net exporting countries tend to station their trade balance in dollar.
This makes America very special, and, during the period mentioned, produced a glut in
capital availability. In the current materialist mind-set, it is hard for people, especially
rajasic people, to give up an opportunity to make money by investing easy credit. Generally,
housing provides a safe haven for investment. So these investments produced the housing
boom. The boom was psychologically so captivating that many people thought that it is
going to go on indefinitely. This created the second step of the problem — subprime mort-
gages, loan mortgages granted by banks at interest less than the prime rate of bank-to-bank
lending. These loan officers did not even properly check the creditworthiness of the lender;
instead, they depended on credit rating agencies who did not do their job, so eager they
were to close a deal and make money.
At the third step there were those securitization process I discussed earlier. Derivatives
called collateralized loan obligations (CDOs) converted the illiquid assets that loan mort-
gages are into tradable objects. These came to wide use because of the belief that the risk
was very spread out and math that calculated the risk was very reliable.
Overall, the scheme was much like how Scott Adams represented it in his comic strip
Dilbert: “I take your money and then use math to turn it into my money while destroying
the whole economy.”
Experts are still trying to piece together how exactly the economy was destroyed. Some-
thing went wrong with the rosy scenario of indefinite expansion of the housing market.
Perhaps it started with the subprime loan interest rates going up, so that lenders went
default at a higher rate than predicted. Perhaps some people became fearful that housing
prices had reached their peaks and began selling off. As a result, housing prices began to
come down. Some buyers made their house mortgage payments for a while with the hope
of making a profit on “zero” investment. When the housing market collapsed and their
expectations did not materialize, they went default and bank foreclosures resulted. These
factors produced uncertainty in the value of the securities that backed up the CDOs. The
194 Part III: Consciousness of Dualism-Interactionism, Economics, Mind

situation was further complicated by the fact that the holders of the CDOs did not even
know where the securities originated — the lack of transparency now became a huge imped-
iment against properly pricing them. The net result was that these CDOs became toxic
assets. Nobody knew how to price them.
Crisis and stagnation of financial banks resulted when banks could not properly esti-
mate their liabilities and therefore refused to loan money to one another. When lending
stopped, even Main Street was affected. The toxic assets had invaded the European financial
banks also. So markets everywhere in the developed world were threatened. Then came
government bailout, both in the United States and Europe. The bailout worked to stabilize
the financial markets. Of course, the fall out of the bursting of the housing “bubble” is a
huge recession that still has to be contended with. President Obama has taken the Keynesian
path to get us out of the recession — government spending which would be paid for not by
increased taxes but by deficit financing.
Critics generally harp on the lack of ethics on the part of several of the actors that con-
tributed to the crisis. Should the loan officers of subprime mortgage organization lend
money to people without thoroughly checking that they were adequately capable of handling
the loans? No, say the critics; the fact that they did is a sign of greed and unethical behavior.
Critics also blame the government for relaxing regulations that could have prevented such
subprime loans. Critics also point out the moral hazard involved in government bailout.
If big financial organizations know that government is going to bail them out because they
are too “big” to fail, they would always go on taking undue risks in their investments because
they get to keep the profit, but government (people really) bears the losses from such invest-
ments. Not fair! This further makes the rich richer and the poor poorer.
The analysis above is not wrong, but incomplete. There is another culprit that went
virtually unnoticed by economists and pundits in general. I am of course, speaking of the
prevalent materialist worldview according to which there is no ethics where profit is involved
and there is no moral prerogative toward equalization of wealth. The fact that that we feel
disturbed about such lack of ethics or moral hazards shows that we are not convinced that
materialism is right in ignoring ethics and morality.
The current crisis is teaching us some lessons. First, it is making crystal clear the limit
of the free market economy — materialist or even Adam Smith classical style. The market
can correct itself with little tinkering, a few bailouts, a little infusion of government spend-
ing, tax cuts, or adjustment of interest rates for a period. But over a long time scale, the
market instability always tends to grow to such proportion that the free market cannot
adjust itself back to equilibrium. In other words, something important is missing in Adam
Smith and materialist capitalism. Earlier in the essay, I pointed out the missing component:
it is the spiritual and subtle needs of the human being. When these needs are included, we
can enjoy a steady state economy.
The second important lesson of the current crisis is this: it is too dangerous to gamble
with our finances. It is not the subprime loans that caused this crisis per se. What caused
the crisis is the packaging of the mortgages making them more attractive for speculation
and less transparent to mid-term correction. Many economists have pointed out the dangers
of the financial market aspect of the economy, but nobody knows on what basis can one
control it or eliminate it altogether.
Conscious economics gives us an answer. In ancient spiritual societies it was forbidden
to charge interest on loans. Even in recent times usury has never been encouraged by reli-
gions. The reason is the recognition that money should be connected to honest labor, pro-
 Conscious Economics (Goswami) 195

duction of goods, or giving a service. But in capitalism, in order to grow capital, it is nec-
essary to pay people interest for their investments. And then it also seems logical that if
people want to speculate on the future values of the stocks themselves or commodities, they
must be free to do so. How else can we say that the market is free?
But in conscious economics, one can argue differently. Economics is the management
of the place where we live, and that means the physical world, the mental world of meaning,
the vital world of feeling, and the supramental world of archetypal values. In this way, eco-
nomic transactions should be transactions of meaning and value. Since money has no inher-
ent meaning, we should consider such transactions as making money on money devoid of
meaning as antithetical. To the extent that for a while some people are going to engage in
such practices anyway, we probably have to do deal with this as we deal with other unhealthy
practices: via taxing.
What happens if we discard the materialist worldview and look at the situation from
the point of view of conscious economics? Could such a meltdown happen with conscious
economics at the helm? The housing bubble was created in part to bring us out of the 2001–
2002 recession. Of course, in view of the last section, conscious economics is a steady state
economics and bubbles would not be necessary to deal with recessions. Second, in conscious
economics, we do not assume that humans, business people included, are always capable
of making rational decisions. So we would not put too much reliance on the predictions of
mathematical models to make business decisions.
In science within consciousness, feeling and meaning are on the same footing. If any-
thing, we have negative emotional brain circuits that take us astray from rational behavior.
Our evolution has not as of yet produced circuits of positive emotions in our brain to
balance the negative emotions. In conscious economics, the subtle sector of the economy
actively strives to produce energies of positive emotion to balance the negative tendencies
(such as greed or excessive unfair competition) of people doing business.
Would conscious economics, implemented immediately, rescue us from the current
recession better? Unfortunately, conscious economics cannot be implemented in to
overnight; there are not that many people around today to produce the necessary amounts
of subtle energy even if businesses, industries and the government went for it. But we can
make a good beginning and that should help.
Actually, the Obama administration is already doing some things that a conscious
economist would approve. Aside from investing in “bridges to nowhere” to create jobs,
Obama is proposing to divert some of the rescue government spending for health care. This
is half way conscious economics because investment in health care is meaningful, not empty
consumption. In full-fledged conscious economics, this particular investment would involve
both conventional and alternative medicine, and also subtle energy practices of preventive
medicine. Obama can still do that and perhaps he will.
Obama’s idea of investing in renewable energy technology also involves meaningful
economic investment. People who will find employment in these renewable energy com-
panies will already be processing meaning creatively and producing subtle energy in pro-
fusion.
We could divert some of the government spending on education and research in devel-
oping new subtle energy technology. We could revamp our philosophy departments in the
academe; we could establish chairs of quantum physics and primacy of consciousness
research. Following the precedent of President Kennedy’s moon project, President Obama
could initiate a ten-year research project to establish scientific consensus for the existence
196 Part III: Consciousness of Dualism-Interactionism, Economics, Mind

of the subtle worlds and for the causal potency of consciousness in the form of downward
causation. The guidelines for such a research project is already clear (Goswami 2008a).
The quantum physics way to consciousness is analogous to what Easterners call gyana
(a Sanskrit word for wisdom) path to spirituality. We could revamp Christianity and other
religious traditions by encouraging them to adapt the new science of spirituality in their
practices to make themselves more effective and efficient producers of subtle and spiritual
energy. In this way we could pave the way to a future sector of subtle economics that would
be in place before the next recession comes about.

What Does It Take to Keep the Free Market Free?

Let us consider the free market in some detail. Why isn’t it free today in the way Adam
Smith envisioned? The truth is, a free market Adam Smith style has large ups and downs—
the business cycles. The down cycle of recession brings hardship to many people in the
form of rising unemployment. Democratic governments feel obliged to do something about
it (otherwise, people, the voters, would vote them out of office). So today, we allow gov-
ernment intervention to soften the impact of recession. One method is to do it through the
Keynesian approach; this we have already discussed. A second way is the idea of supply-
side intervention.
In Keynesian economics, government intervention by providing more employment
increases demand (for goods) that has the effect of increasing economic production. How-
ever, the money for increasing employment comes from taxing the rich or, more recently,
by deficit financing. Both of these mechanisms tend to work in the opposite direction:
toward dampening the economy. The idea of supply-side economics is diametrically oppo-
site. Give the rich huge tax cuts, increasing the money supply. Sooner or later, the rich will
invest the money, increasing economic activity in the form of production. And the money
thus will trickle down to the workers by providing employment. Eventually consumer
spending will return and rescue the economy.
Does supply-side economics work better than Keynesian economics? Many economists
argue that President Reagan’s acceptance of supply-side economics and the passing of huge
tax cuts in the 1980s were what eventually tamed deflation in America prevalent at the time.
(What is deflation? Deflation is a broad decline of both wages and prices.)
In any case, many economists today believe that in order for Adam Smith’s capitalism
to function at all, the idea of a completely free market cannot be maintained. So today,
most economists favor government intervention either through the Keynesian approach
(tax the rich and increase government programs to increase jobs and economic movements)
or through the supply-side economics (cut the taxes of the rich and wait for the wealth to
trickle down and enrich everybody). Notice however, that both remedies work only if eco-
nomic expansion can be maintained indefinitely. The real problem with this kind of tin-
kering is this indefinite growth economics that we seem to have got stuck on.
However, many economists, correctly I think, point out that the effect of both Key-
nesian and supply-side intervention in lifting the economy out of recession is mostly psy-
chological. In both kinds of intervention, there is a considerable time lag as to when the
jobs are actually created. In truth, usually, the economy recovers before then and the real
usefulness of the interference is a little suspicious. In the last section we discussed how
conscious economics can rescue us from this kind of dubious interference with the free
market.
 Conscious Economics (Goswami) 197

Economists also favor quasi government intervention by a central agency of every

nation to control its money supply by changing interest rates as needed. The net effect of
Keynesian, supply-side and monetary economics is the same: if we implement them, free
market is not free any more.
Governments today tinker with the free market in a few other ways than mentioned
above that Adam Smith may not have approved: they make bureaucratic regulations, bailout
big companies from bankruptcy, give tax incentives to segments of the economy counter
to the spirit of capitalism, etc., etc.
Now nothing is wrong with government intervention per se. Adam Smith himself was
quite aware of this. He suggested government intervention to reduce unjust income distri-
bution, to ensure that the entry to the free market is really free, even for the small entre-
preneur (regulation against monopoly, for example), and to provide liberal education to
everyone participating in the market.
I will tell you my hypothesis. You know that materialists say that it is the competition
between businesses that keeps the free market free. This may have some validity, but the
business cycles make it clear that this alone could not make the free market free. I think
that so long as what the businesses do, what the government does, what the consumers do,
are all compatible with the evolutionary movement of consciousness, the economy runs
okay. In other words, so long as the economy serves the job of expanding the processing of
meaning among people, it remains stable. But if the economy runs for long without creative
innovations, or if people’s negative emotions come into play in the working of the economy
in a major anti-capitalist way, the economy becomes unstable. What I am really saying is
that it is time that we acknowledge that the “invisible” hands are nothing but the hands of
intended movement of consciousness.
More recently, the freedom of the market is being invaded by truly anti-capitalist ways.
This has been the result of the wounding that materialism has produced in our collective
psyche. The wounding has released the powerful among us from the search for mental
meaning to the slavery of our instinctual greed, avarice, and competitiveness. One of the
effects of this is the gross corruption of the practices that keep the stock market relatively
free. The current practice is to legalize corruption away (the law against insider trading is
an example), but this has very limited success. The other effect is subtle.
Americans have been in a unique situation since the gold standard shifted to dollar
standard. Americans can borrow money to buy resources and goods from other countries
almost indefinitely because those countries have not much option but to reinvest their trade
balance in American dollar and American economy. The American government has then
the ability for large amounts of deficit financing and it has used this deficit financing for
cutting taxes for the rich. This is not immediately detrimental to the economy because the
rich are the biggest consumers and they are also big investors. But the practice makes the
gap between rich and poor larger and tends to eliminate the middle class. In this way,
market share becomes more concentrated in the hands of the rich and a new class system
is created. Can even materialist economics function when the capital becomes concentrated
again as in feudalism/mercantile economy?
In conscious economics that would be a part of a universal revival of idealist values,
we do not deal with the symptoms of the materialist wound such as corruption, but heal
the wound so the symptoms disappear.
For example, take the case of deficit financing. I commented above that right now it
is being used to increase the wealth gap between rich and poor contrary to the spirit of cap-
198 Part III: Consciousness of Dualism-Interactionism, Economics, Mind

italism. Even worse, deficit financing removes the very important economic constraint
against nations with aggressive ideas. George Bush’s Iraq war would not have been possible
if deficit financing was not permitted. So should we be against deficit financing in idealist
economics? Not necessarily. How does conscious economics deal with government creating
income disparity between rich and poor or aggressive war? In an idealist society, the root
cause for the government actively creating income disparity or war — negative emotion —
would be addressed and attempts would be made to eliminate them by creating an over-
supply of positive emotions.
Instead, in conscious economics we can use deficit financing to eliminate income dis-
parity (as Adam Smith envisioned) as far as practicable without affecting the proper func-
tioning of the economy — national and international (that is, so long as the deficit remains
only a few percentages of the GNP).

Labor’s Leisure Time

Let’s now take up the subject of another counter-evolutionary tendency of materialistic
expansion economy — loss of the worker’s leisure time. Materialist economics and its con-
tinuing economic expansion produces higher and higher standards of living, and wages do
not keep up with it without producing inflation. To meet the demands of higher standard
and its higher cost, people are forced to give up their higher needs such as the need of chil-
dren to have a nonworking mother or leisure time to pursue meaning. Thus invariably
some of the basic promise of capitalism is shortchanged by the nature of the beast itself. In
conscious economics, this problem does not arise.
Conscious economics has a built-in constraint on expansion, as already noted. So the
material standard of living does not have to move up and up at rates faster than wage
increases. Even more importantly, conscious economics values other needs and their satis-
faction that require leisure time. So in this economics, standard of living is defined differ-
ently and increases not in the material dimension but in the higher dimensions and without
compromising the worker’s leisure time.

Conscious Economics, Deep Ecology,

and the Question of Sustainability
I have commented on the etymological origin of economics before. The prefix “eco,”
is common to both economics and ecology and it comes from the Greek eikos meaning
place. Since “logy” originates from the Greek logos meaning knowledge, etymologically
ecology is about the knowledge of the place that we live.
Now realize as before that we not only live in the external material world that is the
domain of shallow ordinary ecology where we study our relation to the physical environment
but also live in our internal subtle world. When we include our ecology to the knowledge
of our relationship to the internal world(s) as well, we get what the sociologist Erne Ness
called deep ecology. In this way, conscious economics is analogous to deep ecology.
In idealist economics, as people’s higher needs are met even partially, their physical
needs reduce, reducing the demand for consumption, reducing the wastage of limited mate-
rial resources. The economy still expands, but in the subtle planes where the resources are
unlimited (there is no limit on love and satisfaction!). In the material plane, we move toward
an ecologically sustainable economy. In the subtle planes, we move toward deep ecology.
 Conscious Economics (Goswami) 199

As we transform, we see the whole world of consciousness as us and we become keen in

protecting it.
There is also another related problem with capitalism and material expansion eco-
nomics— environmental pollution. This is a tricky one. In the short term, production of
pollution helps expand the economy by creating pollution clean-up sectors of the economy.
Believe it or not, the Exxon-Valdez oil-spill disaster actually produced an economic boom
in Alaska. But in the long run, environmental pollution in a finite planet environment is
bound to end up with a doomsday of reckoning. Many environmentalists think that global
warming due to the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere has already reached
doomsday criticality.
In conscious economics, material consumption is reduced, thus automatically reducing
environmental pollution. Much of our material consumption is prompted by our negative
emotions, greed, lust, egotism, etc. The reduction of the dependence of our economy on
material consumption reduces the production of these unhealthy negative emotions as well.
In addition, in conscious economics, we pay attention to production of subtle energies of
positive emotions, in this way creating the possibility of emotional balance and emotional
intelligence. This substantially contributes to our ability to live in a sustainable economy.
People then become willing to accept the slightly higher cost of meaningful and sustainable
technology that conscious economics encourages.
Economics— management of place — does seem to refer to the local place that we live
as the eco-activist Satish Kumar (2008) has argued. At both ends of production and con-
sumption, if the economy is kept local in the main, the people involved will be responsible
for their actions and then economics can be compatible with ecology. When we generalize
the concept of place to include the internal worlds, for these worlds, the local boundaries
are defined by culture. Ideally then, economy should be local, geographically and culturally
as Gandhi and more recently E. F. Schumacher (1973) have envisioned. And I believe that
with conscious economics in place, eventually we may be able to achieve that ideal.

Globalization
Let’s now take up the subject of globalization, a concept that is antithetical to the ideal
of localized economy. Is globalization good or bad? Is it going to be a permanent fixture of
future economies?
The major reason that the world is rapidly becoming an economic flatland, to use
Thomas Freedman’s (2005) metaphor, is the breakthrough technology of outsourcing and
the development of multinational corporations.
Trade between countries has always existed for a variety of reasons. Initially, trading
was confined to goods only, but technology made it possible to trade also services resulting
in outsourcing. This is one way that economies became global, contrary to its original
premise.
Another contributor to today’s globalized economy is the coming in vogue of multi-
national corporations—corporations that operate in more than one national economy. The
so-called liberalization of trade regulations produced the multinationals.
As an example of outsourcing, consider the call centers of India that cater to Americans.
Workers at the call center attend the telephone and answer questions of Americans about
problems with a business or industrial product. These workers try to talk in American
accent and attend to problems devoid of any local (ecological or cultural) importance. In
200 Part III: Consciousness of Dualism-Interactionism, Economics, Mind

this way, the job does not serve the workers in processing any personal or cultural meaning.
Eventually, it very likely can alienate a worker from his or her own culture as captured
beautifully in the popular novel by Chetan Bhagat named One Night at the Call Center.
Multinational corporations have been criticized for many reasons. They have access to
cheap labor in underdeveloped economies and this they use by shifting manufacturing to
underdeveloped countries. This is also a form of outsourcing. One major criticism is that
the multinationals exploit the cheap labor of underdeveloped third world countries; they
also employ child labor, abhorrent to people of advanced economies.
A more sophisticated criticism is this. The labor in the multinational’s host country
has no leverage of wage increase through negotiations with management commonplace in
advanced economies, since the labor laws are very different in underdeveloped countries
because of economic necessities. The labor of developed countries lose leverage, too, because
of increasing fear of outsourcing of jobs.
But I think the argument is also valid that globalization is here to stay for a while, in
which case the important question is, can we put globalization to use to further the purpose
of capitalism and conscious economics— meaning processing? Yes, we can. Multinationals
are after all creating new employment in developing countries. This can be a good thing,
if we make sure that the development that follows becomes an entry to increased freedom
for the labor (Sen 1999). This can be assured through government intervention and insis-
tence that the child labor used gets guaranteed liberal education through night schooling.
Note that this solution additionally benefits the local subtle economy.
In the same vein, the adult holders of outsourced service jobs can be required (through
government intervention) to provide meaningful service to their own culture and contribute
to the subtle sector of the local economy (at the expense of the multinationals, of course).
This will go a long way to prevent alienation.
The case of management-labor relations is more complex. In order to subject multi-
nationals to uniform management-labor practices, obviously we need to move from nation
state economies to more and more enlarged international economic unions. This can be
used to the good in conscious economics. In other words, the tendency anyway of conscious
economics would be to move toward one international economic union within which the
individual democracies will function with political and cultural uniqueness and sovereignty
but with increased cooperation. This is because of science within consciousness recognizes
quantum nonlocality of consciousness from the get go which is fostered through cooper-
ation.

The Elimination of Poverty

The elimination of poverty has two different contexts. First and the more pressing one
is that of the underdeveloped economies in which the bulk of the people live in poverty,
even in hunger. The second context is of a little surprise: in fact, the elimination of poverty
has been a stubborn problem of economic development even for economically advanced
countries. Even in the world’s advanced economies, there is a core of a few percent of the
people that are homeless, that cannot hold a job, and that, in general, can be called
“dropouts.” The communist countries of the old such as the Soviet Russia, had one legiti-
mate criticism of capitalism that stung: if capitalism is so great, why can’t it eliminate
poverty?
Redefining wealth and economic well-being in the way of conscious economics goes a
 Conscious Economics (Goswami) 201

long way to equalize the true economic situation between so called developed and under-
developed countries. In fact, this redefinition brings to light how important it is that the
so called third world countries, while allowing free trade, outsourcing, and multinational
corporate investment, do not allow their innate spiritual cultures to be destroyed by mate-
rialism. Fortunately, as the new consciousness-based worldview replaces scientific materi-
alism and as conscious economics replaces materialist economics, the intrusive destruction
of spiritual cultures by the more aggressive materialist cultures will be arrested (see also,
Liem 2005).
In this way, in the long term, the effect of conscious economics will be a worldwide
economic prosperity of economic well-being in the new sense that has never happened
before. In the short term, however, our work is cut out for us to save the indigent spiritual
cultures of underdeveloped economies from the materialist invasion. And of course, the
most pressing problem of poverty is hunger. It is within our current capacity to eliminate
world hunger and every politician knows it. Unfortunately, until the worldview changes,
the politics of the situation will prevail. When the worldview changes, however, world
hunger will be gone forever.
How about poverty in the second context that I mentioned above? This may be a fun-
damental problem of human nature. There may always be a small percentage of the pop-
ulation whose tamas is so strong that they cannot hold a job. Spiritual cultures like India
had a solution for this, which we may be able to revitalize. Until recently, India’s very spir-
itual culture supported a small group of spiritual “dropouts” called sadhus. Some of these
sadhus were true wandering monks in search of spirituality; however, there is no doubt
that a substantial portion of sadhus were more like what we call in modern times “hip-
pies”— people of tamas taking advantage of the tradition. What is interesting is that although
these people only fake their spiritual search, overall they contribute at least some benign
positivity. Compare this to the negativity the sight of a homeless person in America and
Europe arouse in us!

Implementation: When and How?

You may think, conscious economics sounds good. It brings together spiritual values
and what is best in capitalism. But how is it going to be implemented? By the government?
By social revolution as in the case of the Marxist economics? By a paradigm shift in the aca-
demic practices of economics? And when?
How did capitalism come to replace feudalism/mercantile economy? On one hand, it
was the brainchild of Adam Smith, no doubt. And indeed it helped that academics welcomed
Smith’s research as it opened a new paradigm in academia, economics itself. But today’s
academic situation is quite different from the days of Adam Smith. Some time ago, academic
economists chose to pursue not a real world economics but an economics of certain ideal
situations so that mathematical models can be used for economic prediction and control.
For example, a very recent economic theory was heralded as a breakthrough because
it applied a new innovation of game theory mathematics to economics. Previously, econo-
mists were handicapped in their application of game theory because they had to assume
“perfect rationality,” that every economic player can figure out the best money-maximizing
strategy combination used by the competition. But obviously perfect rationality is impos-
sible in practice because there are so many possibilities. What we have is “bounded ration-
ality”— rational decisions made on the basis of incomplete information about the
202 Part III: Consciousness of Dualism-Interactionism, Economics, Mind

money-maximizing strategies of the competition. The new breakthrough is considered a

breakthrough because it uses information theory formulas to figure out approximate
description of a set of strategies even with the assumption of bounded rationality. But this
still is not the real world. Materialism has so eroded our pursuit of rationalism, today we
are so subject to negative emotions in our decision making, that any theory that ignores
the emotion component of economic decision of the competitor is not going to be of much
use.
Actually, the implementation of capitalism happened not because academics welcomed
the idea but because Adam Smith’s capitalism served the purpose of a modernist adventurous
people. It was during a time that people were exploring new adventures of mind and mean-
ing which feudalism lacked the manpower to do. Meaning exploration had to be opened
up as science broke free from religious authorities. As meaning exploration opened up,
scope had to be prepared for the implementation of the fallout of this exploration by making
capital available to innovative people for new revolutions in technology and keeping it
available. Hence capitalism was inevitable.
And now modernism has given way to post-modernism and trans-modernism. The
old-fashioned exploration and expansion in the material world are practically over. The old
frontier is gone. However many times you see reruns of Star Trek, outer space is not going
to emerge as mankind’s final frontier to play out one final episode of defunct modernism.
Now the society has to deal with the shortcomings of materialist economics with little
opportunity to expand in the face of finite resources and challenges of environmental pol-
lution. In addition, the society has to heal the wounds created in it by materialism.
In the seventies, when I was transitioning from the old physics to the new physics, I
read a lot of science fiction. I came across a statement by a science fiction writer who said
that there are only two frontiers left: to open the sky or to open the mind. Materialists still
pursue the former, but reality will stop us there sooner or later. I think there is only one
new frontier; the new frontier belongs to the subtle dimensions of the human being and
we need a subtler economics to ride in order to explore it. Fortunately, the subtle dimensions
are infinite and will keep us busy forever!
So conscious economics is inevitable for implementation because our society needs it.
As our society moves beyond our competitive ego needs, as we begin to explore the benefits
of cooperation en masse, the old competitive capitalist economics has to give way to the
new economics where competition exists simultaneously with cooperation, each in its own
sphere of influence.
To understand this, we need to look at how any economics is really implemented, what
are the elements that implement it? These elements are the businesses of course. It is how
business is done that provides the drive for the change in economics. And vice versa. The
change in economics helps businesses along. Each is essential to the other.
So what will enable conscious economics to replace the current materialism-influenced
capitalism? Ultimately, it is the need of the workplace, the businesses. And there, if you
look, you will find ample evidence already that business is changing its ways.
Yes, competition will continue to exist without which there is no market economy. But
in the workplace, inside how a business is run, there is increasingly a different philosophy
and a different aspect of the human being which are at work. In our businesses, we are dis-
covering the value of creativity, leisure, love, cooperation, and happiness. The failure of
the American auto industry’s tamasic thinking that was part and parcel of the 2008 economic
meltdown will no doubt hasten the use of creativity in business (Goswami 2011).
 Conscious Economics (Goswami) 203

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Barrett, R. 1998. Liberating the Corporate Soul. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Blood, C. 2001. Science, Sense, and Soul. Los Angeles: Renaissance Books.
d’Espagnat, B. 1983. In Search of Reality. New York: Springer-Verlach.
Freedman, T. L. 2005. The World Is Flat. London: Penguin.
Goodwin, B. 2009. Resilient Economics. Totnes, UK: Schumacher College.
Goswami, A. 1993. The Self-Aware Universe. New York: Tarcher/Putnam.
_____. 2004. The Quantum Doctor. Charlottsville, VA: Hampton Roads.
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_____. 2008b. God Is Not Dead. Charlottsville, VA: Hampton Roads.
_____. 2011. How Quantum Activism Can Save Civilization. San Francisco: Hampton Roads.
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Keynes, J. M. 1977. The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes. London: Palgrave-McMillan.
Kumar, S. 2008. Economics of Place. Totnes, UK: Schumacher College.
Liem, I. 2005. Interdependent Economy. Holland: iUniverse.
Lietaer, B. 2001. The Future of Money. London: Century.
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Ray, M., and R. Myers. 1986. Creativity in Business. New York: Doubleday.
Samuelson, P. A., and W. D. Nordhaus. 1998. Economics. Boston: Irwin McGraw Hill.
Schumacher, E. F. 1973. Small Is Beautiful. London: Blond and Briggs.
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 The Action of the Mind
JEAN E. BURNS

It is assumed that mental action, such as free will, exists, and an exploration is made
of its relationship to the brain, physical laws, and evolutionary selection. If the assumption
is made that all content of conscious experience is encoded in the brain, it follows that free
will must act as process only. This result is consistent with the experimental results of Libet
and others that if free will exists, it must act by making a selection between alternatives
provided by the brain. Also, proposals for some additional actions of consciousness, besides
free will, are reviewed.
The use of mental action by consciousness is not in accord with presently known
physics, in which physical changes are either deterministic or random, and an extension
would have to be made to known physics to account for physical changes produced by such
an action. However, such an extension could be fairly simple in overview, such as the
assumption that consciousness can produce the ordering of randomness. Examples of several
such theories are given.
If consciousness can make selections among programs in the brain/nervous system,
and thereby contribute to the formation of behavior, less programming would be needed,
especially in situations affected by a variety of types of factors. For this reason consciousness
might be present early in the evolutionary line for animals that explore new territory. Emo-
tions and cognitive ability, even though determined by the brain, could be viewed as “choice
guiders,” and for this reason their presence in an animal would indicate the presence of
consciousness.

Introduction
This essay explores the relationship of free will and other possible mental actions to
the brain/nervous system, physical laws, and evolutionary selection.
By free will is meant herein the ability to make a selection between consciously expe-
rienced alternatives, with the selection accompanied by a physical change in the brain/ner-
vous system which is not produced by the laws governing physical matter (Burns 1999). All
processes described by these laws are either deterministic or random, so according to the
above definition, free will must be something different from these.
We will use the term mental action to refer to the general ability of consciousness to

204
 The Action of the Mind (Burns) 205

make a physical change in the brain/nervous system, with this change not produced by the
laws governing physical matter. Thus this term refers to free will and any other type of pro-
cessing that consciousness might do. Such action will also be referred to as independent
action or independent processing by consciousness.
If mental action is something different than presently known physical laws, it must
involve in some way an addition to these laws, a point we will discuss at greater length a
little later. Here we simply want to note that supposing the latter to be the case does not
imply any particular ontological relationship between mind and brain. One could suppose
that mind and brain are independent realms which somehow become correlated, in which
case their relationship would be called dualism. Or one could suppose that the brain fulfills
certain special conditions, such as complexity, such that it has, in addition to known physical
properties, new properties involving consciousness that could not be predicted from simpler
conditions. When new properties appear only under certain conditions, the relationship of
the new entity to the original one is called emergence. Or the relationship is sometimes
called radical emergence when the new properties cannot be predicted from the original
ones (Burns 1999). The existence of free will has been proposed within the context of
dualism (Popper and Eccles 1977; Walker 2000), emergence (Sperry 1983), idealism
(Goswami 1993), and panpsychism (Griffin 1998; Seager 1995), and this usage shows the
variety of ontologies free will is compatible with.
We should take note, however, that it is not known whether free will or any other type
of mental action exists, and the reason this is so is that the brain is an extremely complex
organ. A very large number of processes contribute to cellular events, so it would be very
difficult to determine whether some new, but small, effect is included among them. It will
probably be a long time before it is possible to directly determine by experiment whether
free will does or does not exist (Burns 1996).
The organization of this article is as follows. In the next section we will adopt the
assumption, commonly made in consciousness research, that all content of conscious expe-
rience is encoded in the brain and see that this implies that free will must act as a selection
process. In section 3 we will see that this conclusion is consistent with the experimental
findings of Libet and others about free will.
In section 4 we will examine the relationship of mental action to physical laws. We
will review the finding of Mohrhoff (1999) that according to the fundamental laws of physics,
energy need be conserved only in interactions that are deterministic. So if mental action is
arbitrary, and not deterministic, energy need not be conserved in its interaction with matter.
We will also see that any description of the effect of consciousness on matter would require
a radical addition to physical laws and review several theories that propose such additions.
In section 5 we will review various proposals that have been made about additional
forms of independent processing, besides free will, that may occur. In section 6 we will dis-
cuss how the use of independent processing could develop in the animal kingdom through
evolution and inquire as to what type of behaviors could indicate the presence of con-
sciousness. Section 7 gives a summary of conclusions.

The Information Model

There is a great deal of evidence that the content of conscious experience depends on
the brain, both from deficits in conscious functioning when the brain has injury or mal-
function and from comparison of normal brain activity, as observed with various types of
206 Part III: Consciousness of Dualism-Interactionism, Economics, Mind

instrumentation, with verbal reports of conscious experience (Freeman 2003; Sacks 1985).
This dependence brings up the following issue: given that free will is a choice between con-
sciously experienced alternatives, if the alternatives are specified by the brain, how would
free will work?
To go into this dependence in more detail, let’s note that common experience shows
that content is expressed in an analog fashion, such that the color red, for example, can be
visualized as any of a series of shades of red that can vary continuously from one to another.
No explanation is known of how physical quantities in the brain can be expressed in this
subjective, analog fashion. (The latter issue is called the hard problem of consciousness
(Chalmers 1996, 2004).) Furthermore, the specifics of which physical states or processes
correspond to which aspects of conscious experience are not well known (Cleeremans 2005).
Nevertheless, the weight of evidence says that the content of any conscious experience is
dependent on a corresponding state or process in the brain.
It is possible that there might be exceptions to this rule, such as an ineffable experience,
that might be held in consciousness only, but have no corresponding physical manifestation
in the brain. But it has been shown that it is possible to construct a mapping such that a
state with no definite traits can correspond to a definite physical state (Atmanspacher and
Scheingraber 2005), so even the existence of ineffable states does not necessarily imply that
some states of consciousness have no correlation with the brain. In any case, this sort of
exception does not seem needed in describing everyday experience. And in investigating
free will, we are concerned with how consciousness operates in everyday life, not in special
circumstances.
So let us adopt the principle that the content of all conscious experience is correlated
with a state or process in the brain. We should note that this principle is taken for granted
in practically all research into the nature of consciousness, to the extent that it is hardly
ever explicitly stated. But we want to formally incorporate it into our investigation and so
are making it explicit.
Now all physical quantities are specific quantities,1 and in this respect they can be
viewed as information. In the above principle the content of conscious experience can be
viewed as expressing information that has a physical instantiation in the brain. (For a more
detailed discussion of the relationship of information to consciousness, see Chalmers
(1996).) So we will call this principle the Information Model.
Now let’s return to our earlier question. We have adopted the Information Model, and
that means that whatever alternatives you hold in your conscious experience, they have
been developed and are presented to you by the brain. Your choice is not in the alternatives
you experience. The brain determines these. But there are two aspects to free will: the alter-
natives you are presented with and the act of selection between them. We conclude that if
free will exists, its action consists of making a selection among brain-presented alternatives
(Burns 1991a, 1991b). So the result is that assuming free will exists, it acts as process only
on content that is instantiated in the physical world.

Experiments in Neuroscience
As noted earlier, it is not presently possible to directly determine whether free will,
i.e., a process not accounted for by presently known physical laws, exists. However, it is
possible to examine characteristics of the brain associated with what we feel to be a free
will experience and thereby learn about the relationship of that experience to the brain. In
 The Action of the Mind (Burns) 207

that regard experiments have been done by Libet, Gleason, et al. (1983) and others to com-
pare the time a motor program for action is formed in the brain with the time a conscious
intention to act is experienced.
As Haggard and Libet (2001) have discussed, in the traditional concept of free will,
having a conscious intention to perform an action would occur first, and this intention
would initiate the motor program to perform the action. We will see that the results of
these experiments do not support this traditional concept, but are consistent with the view
that free will acts as selection only, to act or veto.
In the experiment of Libet, Gleason, et al. (1983) subjects were asked to flex their wrist
at a time they chose and, using a rotating clock hand, to note the time of their decision. To
perform an action the brain must use a motor program, and a readiness potential is present
in the brain while it is being processed. So the readiness potential of the subjects can be
monitored while they experience making the choice, to see which occurs first, the motor
program or the intention.
The results were that the readiness potential began several hundred milliseconds before
the decision to act, and the movement began about 200 milliseconds after the decision. As
Libet, Wright, et al. (1983) pointed out, the time delay between decision and movement
allow for the possibility that free will could act to confirm or veto an action. But the brain
starts preparing the action before the experience of making a choice occurs.
Other experiments have confirmed this result (Haggard 2008). For instance, Haggard
and Eimer (1999) used a decision of whether to move the right or left hand. Similarly to
the results of Libet, Gleason, et al., they found that the lateralized readiness potential, which
prepares for a movement on a specific side — right or left, began several hundred millisec-
onds before the decision, with movement commencing about 200 milliseconds after the
decision.
These results are consistent with the Information Model, which says that the brain
supplies all specific content of experience, and with the view that free will acts as a selection
process, to confirm or veto in the case of a single action, or to select among alternatives.

Mental Action and the Laws of Physics

Conservation of Energy Versus Arbitrary Action
It is well known that in actions produced by physical laws, energy must be conserved.
As was discussed earlier, in mental action a change is produced in the brain/nervous system,
and therefore in the physical world, that is not in accord with physical laws. If this happens,
energy would usually not be conserved. So it is often argued that mental action cannot take
place because it would violate physical law.
However, Mohrhoff (1999) has pointed out that the law of conservation of energy is
based on Noether’s theorem, which assumes that all forces on a particle can be expressed
deterministically, so if a change produced by mental action is genuinely free, and not deter-
ministic, it need not conform to the law of conservation of energy. Another way of describing
this conclusion is to say that any change produced by mental action must always have an
arbitrary element in it.
Although energy need not be conserved in mental action, the expenditure of energy
is probably very small. The reason for concluding this depends on two points that we have
discussed in previous sections. Specifically, we have seen that in a free will action, any motor
208 Part III: Consciousness of Dualism-Interactionism, Economics, Mind

programs needed must be developed by the brain. Furthermore, we have concluded, based
on the dependence of the contents of conscious experience on encoding in the brain, that
thoughts about the choices available must be presented by the brain. So the free will process
itself must only involve some small physical changes in the brain, such as activating a motor
program or activating a yes or no decision about something you are considering. Simple
actions such as these might be implemented with very little energy compared to ordinary
brain functioning.

If Free Will or Other Mental Action Exists,

a Radical Extension to Physics Is Needed
According to its definition, if mental action exists, it produces an effect in the physical
world. So if it exists, its description would be considered a part of physics. However, we
also know that, according to its definition, this action is not in accord with the known laws
of physics, all of which use deterministic or random processes. So its description would be
a radical extension to physics. If such an extension is made, it would not be completely sur-
prising because presently known laws were developed for matter only and were never
intended to apply to consciousness. Nevertheless, adding a principle about consciousness,
which necessarily would be different from known principles about matter, would be a major
step. However, theories describing the possible relationship of mental action to known
physical laws can be very simple in basic overview, as shown next in a few examples.

Examples of Theories Relating Mental Action

to Presently Known Physical Laws
One way that consciousness could affect the physical world is through the ordering of
quantum randomness. Quantum randomness occurs in two ways— in collapse of the wave
function and in quantum fluctuations, and theories have been developed about each type.
Walker (1975, 2000) has proposed that collapse of the quantum mechanical wave func-
tion is produced by consciousness and that selection of a intended result can be produced
through the use of the will. However, the ability to produce results which are intended in
advance is inherently different from producing results that are random (Burns 1999), so
this ability incorporates the postulate that consciousness can order the randomness ordi-
narily found in wave function collapse.
The trajectories of particles are subject to quantum fluctuations within the limits of
the uncertainty principle, and my own model (Burns 2002, 2006) has proposed that con-
sciousness can order these fluctuations. It has been shown that such ordering can change
the direction of travel of a molecule to any desired direction in one mean free path (the
distance between molecular collisions) when magnification of coordinate changes by molec-
ular interaction is taken into account. Using this process, if sufficient water molecules in
the intercellular medium of the brain are changed in direction, they can impact chemical
bonds in ion gates in a neural membrane, open the gates, and thereby initiate an action
potential. It has been shown that about 80 ordered water molecules can break a chemical
bond. Estimating that several bonds must be broken to open a gate, that several gates must
be opened to initiate an action potential, and that initiating a physical action might require
several action potentials, it can be estimated that about 4,000 water molecules must be
ordered to initiate a physical action.
 The Action of the Mind (Burns) 209

Sirag (1993, 1996) based his model of mind-matter interaction upon consideration of
the mathematical model that describes basic properties, called symmetry properties, of the
particles and fields of the physical world. These properties are expressed in terms of dimen-
sions, and because of that the particles and fields can be considered to reside in a hyperdi-
mensional space. (The dimensions of this space include ordinary space-time, but most
dimensions have to do with other types of properties.) This hyperspace includes a subspace
which expresses mathematically the quantum mechanical property that not all quantities
can be measured simultaneously, and an associated seven-dimensional subspace, that Sirag
calls a reflection space, describes the complete sets of observable charges that can be simul-
taneously measured.
Sirag pointed out that, according to a mathematical theorem, the reflection space is
not only a subspace of the hyperspace describing the particles and fields of the physical
world, but also of another hyperspace with different properties. Because the first hyperspace
describes all of the physical world, the second hyperspace must be something different, and
Sirag proposed that the second hyperspace describes the properties of Universal Mind. The
intersection of the two hyperspaces, the reflection space, would then describe the properties
of consciousness. In this way consciousness would follow some, but not all, properties of
the physical world, and some, but not all, properties of Universal Mind.
Sirag (1993) pointed out that mental action could be associated with the above theory
in the following way. A reflection space has the property that it is closely associated with a
mathematical structure, called a catastrophe structure, which describes the magnification
of small changes. So consciousness, by following properties associated with the reflection
space, could affect matter by making a very small change which would then be magnified.
In Sirag’s model the radical extension to physics would be the addition of a hyperspace
describing Universal Mind to the hyperspace that describes the physical world, with con-
sciousness corresponding to the intersection of these hyperspaces and thereby following
their shared properties.

Additional Independent Actions of Consciousness

Several additional independent actions of consciousness, besides free will, have been
proposed by various researchers. One such proposal is that consciousness can act to bring
insight into issues a person is thinking about (Bohm 1982; Goswami 1993, 1999; Penrose
1989, 1994; Popper and Eccles 1977). As discussed in section 2, consciousness would not be
able to present an entire thought that is not already encoded in the brain, with this constraint
probably occurring because, as discussed in section 4, the physical effect of consciousness
is very small. However, consciousness could activate thoughts for which encoding was
already present but had not been considered in the current context. Or perhaps it could
give a nudge in a general direction, even if an entire thought is not presented.
Another proposal is that consciousness can select motor programs from the brain’s
repertoire to contribute to carrying out physical actions under varying and unpredictable
conditions, for a goal held in conscious experience. For instance, you might have a goal to
walk across some uneven terrain. As you move forward, you do not consciously plan the
details of your movements, but they are appropriate to the goal. The ability of consciousness
to make such selections could save brain programming (Burns 1991a, 2010).
Another proposal has to do with the unified nature of conscious experience. Sensory
information, especially visual information, is processed extensively in the brain, with dif-
210 Part III: Consciousness of Dualism-Interactionism, Economics, Mind

ferent aspects of that information processed in specialized feature processors at different

locations in the brain. So the question arises, how is the unified nature of sensory, or any,
experience produced — is it done physically in the brain or is it done by consciousness?
(This question is known as the binding problem.) The answer is not known. However,
some researchers have suggested that consciousness acts to integrate sensory information,
and information in general, encoded in different places in the brain (Burns 1991a; Seth
2009).
Unified experience, in and of itself, does not necessarily produce any physical effect
on the brain. However, if consciousness makes use of the unified nature of experience in
making physical changes in the brain, this action would be a form of independent process-
ing. Most researchers who have proposed that consciousness produces unified experience
are not explicit about whether consciousness can affect the brain. However, Eccles (1989;
Popper and Eccles 1977) has been explicit that consciousness can not only integrate infor-
mation in the brain, but also use the integrated information to modify its activity.
The possibility that consciousness can integrate encoded information and then affect
the brain, based on that information, brings up an interesting question. The light that
describes our visual environment enters the brain/nervous system through a pattern of
light and dark on the retina. So if consciousness can read encoded information, why doesn’t
it read visual information directly off the retina, with no need for the brain to do any vision
processing? The answer is that the pattern of light and dark on the retina is not sufficient
to distinguish between objects and shadows. To do that the brain must use certain rules in
its processing, and they are applied after quite a lot of early processing is done (Marr 1982).
So consciousness would not have useful information until this stage of processing has been
completed (Burns 2010). Eccles and Robinson (1984), however, have proposed that con-
sciousness may do some of the later stages of vision processing.

Evolution and Consciousness

To start our discussion of consciousness and evolution, let’s compare the characteristics
associated with evolution for epiphenomenal consciousness and consciousness that incor-
porates mental action. Evolution acts to preserve and augment beneficial physical attributes
of an organism. So if consciousness is epiphenomenal, evolution cannot affect its presence
or characteristics. On the other hand, if consciousness can act independently of the brain,
it could act as a supplement to brain programming in producing behavior. Usually evolution
would act on a physical benefit, to preserve and augment its use. However, it appears, from
the examples we have discussed in previous sections, that the primary benefit of mental
action is that less brain programming is needed, and this can only be a benefit if conscious-
ness is present. So let’s ask, why would consciousness be present in the first place?
There are a variety of possible reasons for its presence. It might be that the brain
includes physical characteristics, such as complexity, that generate it (Edelman and Tononi
2000). Perhaps it appears when the physical configuration of the brain includes certain
computational functions (Haggard and Libet 2001). Perhaps consciousness is associated
with all matter, as described by panpsychism. Or it might be present for some other rea-
son.
In any of the above examples, consciousness could be either epiphenomenal or include
independent processing. Let us see if we can make a distinction between the two types of
consciousness by inquiring about the relevance of the content of experience to brain coding
 The Action of the Mind (Burns) 211

for each type. In order for consciousness to do independent processing, the content of
experience must be relevant to brain coding. However, if consciousness is epiphenomenal,
there are two possibilities. One is that the relevance of content to coding is inherent to the
reason consciousness is present. For instance, if consciousness arises from certain compu-
tational functions, it might also be the case that each content would describe the function
that produced it, in a type of functionalism. But if consciousness is epiphenomenal and
does not have this property inherently, there would be no reason for content to be relevant
to brain coding. In that case, as Mould (1998) has pointed out, the conscious experience
of emotions and motivations need not have any relevance to an organism’s actual needs
and goals. For instance, an organism could be starving and yet feel glorious fulfillment.
Also, we could carry out activities just as well if instead of sensory experience we simply
had a meaningless blur of sensations.
Similarly, we can ask whether the stage of brain processing would have any relevance
to the content of experience. We note that brain processing for vision involves many steps,
with the objects of the outside world described in the final stage. In an intermediate stage
the world is described in terms of lines and bars, with no distinction made between objects
and shadows (Marr 1982). If consciousness does independent processing, we would expect
conscious experience to show the final stage. If consciousness is epiphenomenal, then con-
scious content could show the final stage if that were inherent to the reason consciousness
is present. Otherwise, we could experience any stage of visual computation, or none, and
be able to move around just as well (Burns 1991b).
One can observe that in human beings there is a functional relationship between con-
scious experience and the coding and processing steps in the brain. This result is consistent
with the view that consciousness does independent processing and is suggestive of that.
However, little is known about the nature of consciousness, and the possibility that con-
sciousness is epiphenomenal, with the above correlations of conscious content to functional
use being inherent, cannot be ruled out.
Let’s now explore the possible use of independent processing in the animal kingdom.
We’ll assume that independent processing exists, use free will as an example of it, and ask
about the type of situations in which arbitrary choice would be especially helpful in saving
brain programming. This can suggest situations in which the presence of consciousness
would be especially useful for animals.
Such savings could be very helpful in situations in which a number of factors of dif-
fering types can affect behavior. Specifying what an organism should do for each combi-
nation of factors that might be present could take quite a bit of brain programming, whereas
if the brain can propose some alternative behaviors and the organism can simply choose
among them, much less brain programming need be involved. Use of this ability by con-
sciousness could be made by animals that have only simple sensory modalities and behaviors,
but explore new territory, for instance. Animals higher in the evolutionary line with more
complex sensory use and behaviors could make correspondingly increased use of this action.
Relevant to the selection process, Hodgson (1991) has proposed that conscious expe-
rience can be used to compare incommensurate properties. For instance, an organism might
encounter a potential food which is somewhat like previous foods, but resembles a previ-
ously encountered noxious substance in some respects. The characteristics of the new sub-
stance may not be entirely commensurate with those previously encountered. Nevertheless,
if the organism can make some sort of comparison, it can better select a behavior — in this
case, eating or avoidance —for dealing with the new substance. Hodgson suggested that
212 Part III: Consciousness of Dualism-Interactionism, Economics, Mind

experiencing substances by their qualia gives a better way to make such comparisons than
if the brain had to do it mechanistically.
In seeking to understand how consciousness interacts with the brain, let us continue
to assume the Information Model, in which all content of conscious experience is encoded
in the brain. If consciousness uses independent processing, we can then understand much
of conscious experience as simply acting as “choice-guiders” to aid the organism in making
choices (Burns 1991b). Sensory experience can be used in this way when decisions are made
on how to navigate the environment, and therefore even very simple animals, if they move
in a varying environment, may be conscious of sensory information encoded in the
brain/nervous system. In a more complex animal, emotions could be added to suggest a
preference for, or avoidance of, certain actions. And in advanced animals cognitive expe-
rience can be used to make decisions. Emotional and cognitive experience would, like any
other information content, be specified by the brain. However, according to this view, ani-
mals showing behavior that indicates the presence of emotions or cognitive ability are likely
to be conscious.
In general, use of independent action by consciousness can help produce a flexible and
adaptive response to situations that are affected in varying degrees by a number of factors.
So the ability of an organism to produce a flexible and adaptive response in some situations
is also an indicator of the presence of consciousness.
On the other hand, specific behaviors are determined by the brain. So even if a behavior
is complex, the complexity in itself does not indicate the presence of consciousness. For
instance, if an animal can recognize itself in a mirror, this can be taken to show the presence
of cognitive ability. And cognitive ability, as discussed above, is an indicator of conscious-
ness. But merely the ability to recognize oneself in a mirror, taken by itself, does not indicate
the presence of consciousness (Burns 2010).
A number of proposals have been made about the occurrence of consciousness in the
animal kingdom, although usually without explicit mention of the possibility of independ-
ent action by consciousness, and such proposals usually suggest that consciousness is asso-
ciated with exploratory movement, emotions, cognitive ability, and/or versatility. For
instance, Sheets-Johnstone (1998) has proposed that consciousness is associated with the
ability to traverse the environment, and thereby with the use of brain programs for motor
action and proprioception (showing the relative positions of moving appendages). In that
case, consciousness would appear at early stages in the animal kingdom, both for vertebrates
and invertebrates. Also, Meijsing (1997) has pointed out that animals which can travel fast
enough that they could be injured on colliding with something also have vision sufficiently
developed to detect distant objects. She has proposed that consciousness first appears in
evolution in the earliest animals that have both locomotion and vision for distant objects.
In addition, Merker (2005) has pointed out that conscious experience can represent a
body moving through its environment, yet without adding unnecessary details about sen-
sory receptors or muscle motions that are included in the neural representation. He has
proposed that animals with a centralized nervous system, multiple sensory arrays, and
appendages capable of multiple types of motion can be conscious, with conscious experience
providing a simplified view of motion through the environment. Merker was explicit, how-
ever, that conscious experience is merely an “online,” passive representation of coding in
the brain.
With regard to emotions, Panksepp (1998) has pointed out that the basic neurophys-
iology associated with emotions in humans is also found in mammals and has suggested
 The Action of the Mind (Burns) 213

on that grounds that mammals also experience emotions, although perhaps in a simpler
form than humans. Also, Cabanac (1999) has pointed out that several physiological corre-
lates to emotion in mammals are also present in reptiles, but not amphibians, which would
suggest that the conscious experience of emotion began development in reptiles. Cabanac
et al. (2009) have suggested that if an animal deals with a complex environment, it is ineffi-
cient for its behavior to be determined through stimulus-response pathways. Rather, they
suggested, a “mental space” developed in evolution through which emotions associated
with actions could be compared using the common currency of a pleasure/displeasure coor-
dinate, with the action associated with the greatest degree of pleasure being the one carried
out.
Proposals have also been made that versatility in animal behavior involves the presence
of consciousness. For instance, Griffin (2001) has pointed out that even animals relatively
low on the evolutionary line, such as bees, can respond in a versatile way to unpredictable
conditions when foraging for food and has suggested that this response is associated with
consciousness.
Finally, let us note that if consciousness can carry out independent processing, it must
have a further interesting characteristic. A selection process is apt to involve a variety of
types of factors— different sensory modalities, perhaps also emotions and cognitive mate-
rial — that have very different types of physical encoding in the brain. So consciousness
would have to have some means of responding to all these different types of encoding. Also,
sensory modalities differ from species to species, as do emotional and cognitive structures,
and if consciousness is present in a broad array of species, these differences could be con-
siderable. For instance, octopuses appear to have cognitive ability, but their neural archi-
tecture is substantially different from that of mammals (Edelman et al., 2005). So
consciousness would have to respond to encoding which differs from species to species. If
independent processing does, in fact, occur, the ability to respond to many different types
of encoding will have to be considered one of the remarkable capacities of consciousness.

Conclusions About the Nature of Mental Action

It is not known whether free will or other mental actions exist. However, the following
is a summary of conclusions herein about the nature of mental action, assuming that it
does exist.

• If the assumption is made that all content of conscious experience is encoded in the brain,
as is commonly done in consciousness studies, it follows that free will must act as process
only. In other words, it must act to make a selection between alternatives presented by
the brain. This conclusion is consistent with experimental findings of Libet and others
regarding the possible nature of free will.
• According to the above assumption, if other forms of mental action exist, they must also
act as process only, on thoughts or motor programs presented by the brain.
• Because mental action would produce a physical effect, but is not a physical process,
energy would usually not be conserved in its action. However, as Mohrhoff (1999) has
shown, the fundamental laws of physics only require energy conservation in deterministic
actions. So if mental action is truly free, and not specified deterministically, there is no
need for it to conserve energy.
• If mental action acts as process only, its expenditure of energy would probably be very
214 Part III: Consciousness of Dualism-Interactionism, Economics, Mind

small, perhaps only that involved in activating thoughts and motor programs developed
by the brain.
• Various forms of mental action additional to free will have been proposed, such as insight,
selection of motor programs to contribute to carrying out physical activities under varying
and unpredictable conditions, and the integration of information encoded in different
parts of the brain, with this integrated information then used to affect brain processing.
If mental action acts as process only, consciousness would not be able to encode an entire
thought for use in insight. However, it could activate a thought that had been previously
held but not considered in the current context. Or perhaps it could give a nudge in a gen-
eral direction.
• Evolution acts on physical characteristics, so if consciousness is epiphenomenal, evolution
has no way to affect it. On the other hand, if consciousness is present, for whatever reason,
and it can do independent processing, then evolution can act to increase its use. In that
case, the content of conscious experience could be expected to be relevant to encoding
in the brain. However, these cases cannot be distinguished by asking whether the content
is relevant to the coding because consciousness might inherently arise from functions
encoded in the brain, in a type of functionalism, yet be epiphenomenal.
• An important way in which mental action can save brain programming is through its
ability to select suitable behavior in a situation affected by a number of factors of varying
types. Such an ability could be helpful to animals that use simple sensory modalities and
have simple behaviors, but explore new territory, and its use could become more complex
for animals higher in the evolutionary line. In this way the presence of consciousness
could start very early in the animal kingdom.
• If all content of conscious experience is encoded in the brain, so that mental action pro-
duces its effects through process only, we can understand sensory experience, emotions,
and cognitive experience to function as “choice guiders” to assist in the selection of behav-
ior. According to this view, the presence of emotions or cognitive ability in an animal
suggest that it is conscious. Similarly, the presence of versatile and adaptive behavior sug-
gest that an animal is conscious.
• If consciousness can make selections through mental action, it must be able to read a
variety of types of encoding in the brain, for different sensory modalities and, depending
on the species, for emotions and cognitive abilities. It also must be able to read variations
in these that occur from species to species. So if consciousness uses mental action, it must
have a remarkable ability to respond to a great many types of encoding.

Notes
1. In quantum mechanics a quantity can be indeterminate before measurement. However, after measurement it
becomes specific.

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216 Part III: Consciousness of Dualism-Interactionism, Economics, Mind

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 About the Contributors

Richard L. Amoroso is a theoretical physicist and noeticist. He is the director of the Noetic
Advanced Studies Institute, California, and of the Quantum Computing Research Laboratory,
Veszprem University, Hungary. The author of more than 30 books, 200 academic papers and
chapters in five languages, he holds four U.S. patents on quantum computing and related medical
technologies.
James E. Beichler holds the world’s only Ph.D. in paraphysics. He has taught physics, mathe-
matics and the history and philosophy of science for more than three decades. He conducts the-
oretical research in unified field theories and their relationship to cosmology and the physics
of consciousness.
Susan Blackmore, Ph.D., is a freelance writer, lecturer, and broadcaster, and a visiting professor
at the University of Plymouth. She holds degrees in psychology and physiology from Oxford
University (1973) and a doctorate in parapsychology from the University of Surrey (1980). Her
research interests include memes evolutionary theory, consciousness, and meditation.
William Braud, Ph.D., taught graduate courses at the University of Houston and the Institute
of Transpersonal Psychology (California). He has conducted research at the Mind Science Foun-
dation (Texas) and elsewhere on learning, memory, psychophysiology, consciousness studies,
and parapsychology.
Jean E. Burns is a physicist interested in the relationship of consciousness and free will to
physical laws and has written numerous research papers on these subjects. She has shown that
free will cannot be explained by presently known physical laws and has published a model show-
ing that the action of free will on matter can be accounted for if quantum fluctuations (ordinarily
random) can be ordered by consciousness. Jean is associate editor of the Journal of Consciousness
Studies and one of its founders.
Ingrid Fredriksson is a Swedish author with an M.A. degree in public health education. She has
written several books, including Flow Forever, The Third Book, The Power of Thought, Free from
Dangerous Stress, H2O: Just Ordinary Water and There Is No Death.
Anthony Freeman holds degrees in chemistry and theology from Oxford University. Ordained
in 1972, he held a variety of pastoral and teaching posts in the Church of England. He now
lectures and writes on theology and consciousness matters. Freeman has served as managing
editor of the Journal of Consciousness Studies since its launch in 1994.
Amit Goswami, Ph.D., is professor emeritus in the theoretical physics department at the Uni-
versity of Oregon, Eugene. He is a pioneer of the new paradigm of science called science within
consciousness. Goswami is the author of the highly successful textbook Quantum Mechanics. He

217
218 About the Contributors

has also written many popular books based on his research on quantum physics and conscious-
ness.
Göran Grip, M.D., is an author and translator. As a child he had two profound near-death expe-
riences, written about in his autobiography, Everything Exists. For more than twenty years he
has lectured about his experiences across Sweden.
Dag Landvik has served as the president of Fagerdala World Foams AB, Sweden, since 1964, and
has established 34 companies in 15 countries in lightweight materials technologies. Landvik is
an inventor and co-inventor of a number of products, and a member of the Society for Psychical
Research, London.
Elizabeth A. Rauscher received her B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Cali-
fornia, Berkeley, in nuclear engineering, nuclear physics and astrophysics. She taught and con-
ducted research at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and UC Berkeley for nineteen years.
She has published four books and over 380 papers, and holds three U.S. patents.
Russell Targ holds a B.A. degree in physics from Queens College and did graduate work in
physics at Columbia University. He is a physicist and author, a pioneer in the development of
the laser and laser applications, and cofounder of the Stanford Research Institute’s investigation
into psychic abilities in the 1970s and 1980s. He teaches remote viewing workshops internation-
ally.
Jens A. Tellefsen, Jr., is an engineer, and an emeritus professor of physics at the Royal Institute
of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. His fields of research and teaching cover many aspects of
modern physics ranging from solid-state and semiconductor physics, to optoelectronics and
laser physics. He serves as the vice president of the Swedish Society for Psychical Research and
is a senior member of the Society for Scientific Explorations.
 Index

a priori 69 Barrett, Sir William 108 Bohr, Niels 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35,
adequateness 121 The Basic Experiments in Parapsy- 37, 86
advanced electromagnetic waves chology 10 Born, Max 36
11, 12 Bass, L. 42 Bose condensate 164
afterlife 71, 75, 129; related expe- Bauer, Edmund 41 Bose-Einstein model 154
riences 128 Beckner, M. O. 159 botanics 150
age of consciousness 148, 171 behavior 50 brain 3, 28, 39, 42, 44, 46, 50, 51,
Alcock, James 139 Behavioral and Brain Sciences 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60,
allopathic-scientific medicine 147, 139 63, 64, 65, 71, 79, 80, 82, 86, 107,
149 –150, 167, 169, 172; physi- behaviorism 49, 50 112, 113, 114, 128, 147, 149, 150,
cians 150 Beichler, James E. 1 151, 153, 154, 155, 156, 163, 169,
allopoietic 158, 160 Bell, John S. 33, 43, 77, 86; Bell’s 170, 204, 205, 206, 212;
Alzheimer’s disease 2, 147, 170 theorem 1, 14, 32, 37 processes 108
Amoroso, Richard, L. 2, 147 Beloff, J. 137, 138 brain scientist 44
analyticity principle 15 Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction Braud, William 2, 127
Anaxagoras 79, 80 159, 160, 161 A Brief History of Time 102
Anderson, Carl 12 Bem, D. 6 Brighton 138
The Annals of Internal Medicine 6 Bender, Hans 10 Broglie-Bohm 171
anomalous experience 133 benzene ring 175 Brown, Suzanne 128, 133
anomalous phenomena 136, 137; Bergman, Torbern 149 Brussels, Belgium 30
apparitions 129 Bergson, Henri 44, 150, 151; Nobel Buddhism: idea 105; writings 16, 23
Aquinas, Thomas 143 laureate for literature 88 Burnet 168
Aristotle 74, 143, 187; principle of Bering, J. M., and D. F. Bjorklund Bush, George 198
perfect circles or spheres 148 105
Arkansas 11 Berkeley, George 31 Cabanac, M. 213
artificial intelligence 152 Besso, Michele 82 Cambridge University 5, 47
Aspect, Alain 33, 77, 83, 84, 86, Bhagat, Cheten 200 Capacitance C 58
87; confirmation of Einstein’s biases 123 capacitors 57
EPR paradox 78; experiment 87 Big Bang 83, 149, 151, 172 card-guessing 6
The Astonishing Hypothesis 107 biochemistry 57, 60, 167, 169; bio- cardiologist 109, 114
astrophysics 18 chemical energy 64; biochemical Cartesian 14, 148, 149, 156, 157;
atom 13, 29, 37, 51, 78, 80, 157; interaction 52; biochemical Cartesian cut 162
atomic structure 78, 170; atomic reactions 52 causality 14, 28
world 29 bioenergy 170 cell topology 155
Auckland 79 biology 147, 148, 150; life 76; cellular events 205
Augustine 81 mechanism 147, 161 CEO 180
Aurobindo, Sri 130 biological aging 85 CERN Laboratory, Geneva 33, 43,
auspices 6 biophysics 167 91
autoimmune diseases 168 Birkbeck College, University of Chalmers, David 107, 150, 206
autopoiesis 158; autopoietic sys- London 43 Chapra, Fritjof 43
tems 158, 159 Bishop Berkeley 41 chemistry 148, 161; chemical
AWARE project (AWAreness dur- black holes 87, 170 interactions 60; chemical reac-
ing REsuscitation) 107, 108 Blanke, O., and S. Arzy 106 tion 51, 52, 159, 161; chemicals
axon 57, 58, 60 Bletchley Park 137 120
Bloom, Paul 104 Chesterton, G. K. 143
Baars, Bernhard 144 Bohm, David 13, 14, 37, 43, 44, chi 190
Bach, Richard 102 45, 47, 68, 86, 157, 209; interpre- Christ 142
Balfour, Arthur 88 tations 42, 43; work 154 Christianity 142, 143, 173

219
220 Index

Church of England 142 deathbed: experience 129; visions Einstein-Rosen-Podolsky (EPR)

CIA 6, 90 108, 109 paradox 31, 32
clairvoyance (remote viewing) 6, de Broglie, Louis 43 Einsteinan theory 30
88, 89, 124, 125, 127 degrees of freedom 17 élan vital 2, 147, 148, 150, 151, 157,
classical mechanics 22, 43 Delphi 79 161, 163, 164, 165, 168, 169
Clauser, John 13 Democritus 80 electric field/force 51
Cleeremans, A. 206 dendrites, membranes of 167 electric scalar potentials 65
cognitive domain 161 dendritic networks 154 electrical action 53, 58
coherence 58, 60 dendrons and psychons 148 electrical brain stimulation 106
“collapse the wave packet” 55 Dennett, D. C. 105, 107 electrochemical response 59
collapses of the wave function 36, Dennett, Daniel 137, 144 electrodynamics 163
37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 61 de Ridder, D. 106 electromagnetic system 80
Colombia, South America 7 Descartes, René 49, 155, 175 electromagnetic theory 12, 58, 60,
complementary principle 34 d’ Espagnat, Bernard 32, 84, 74
complex momentum plane 15 190 electromagnetism 12, 49, 52, 53,
complex transverse electromag- The Destructive Power of Religion 65, 71, 74, 120: field 60, 74;
netic wave pattern 58 143 potential 53; signals 49; vector
computer science 82, 148 determinism 28 60; vector waves 58; wave 59,
“The Conflict Between Quantum deterministic accurate precogni- 58, 64, 70, 74; wave transmit-
Physics and Classical Physics” tion 17 ter/receiver 58
30 Detroit, Michigan 9 electrons 13, 29, 34, 35, 36, 37, 51,
conscious medicine 170 Dharamsala, India 178 78
The Conscious Universe 10 diagnoses 170 elementary particles 15
consciousness 1, 8, 14, 22, 27, 37, dimensions 1, 15 Emergency Room (ER) 95, 100
38, 41, 42, 43, 45, 46, 47, 49, 50, Dirac, Paul 12, 38 emetics 150
53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, Direct Mental Interactions with Emmanuel 173
63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 69, 70, 71, 72, Living Systems (DMILS) 139 emotional change 119
73, 74, 87, 93, 104, 107, 108, 116, dissociative identity disorder emotional response 59
119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 125, 131, (DID) 123 emotions 60, 101, 105, 123, 212
148, 149, 151, 154, 155, 157, 160, distance 6 endorphins 115
161, 168, 174, 175, 182, 183, 184, DNA 13, 54, 107, 155; model 47; Energy Medicine 150
185, 188, 189, 190, 195, 196, 197, molecule 80, 81; principle 87 enfolded order 44
199, 200, 204, 206, 208, 210, 211, double-blind clinical studies 6 engineering 15
212, 213, 214 Double Cusp Catastrophe (DCC) entanglement 61, 68, 83, 84
consciousness-created reality 38 169 Ephesus 142
Consciousness Explained 105 double-slit experiment 34 epistemology 171
coordinates 7 dowsing 88 EPR paradox 1, 13, 14, 31, 32, 33,
Copenhagen 30 Driesch, H. 151 77, 78, 82, 83, 85, 86; see also
Copenhagen interpretation 154 dualism 205 Einstein, Albert
Copenhagen school 37 Duke University 6, 89 equations 15
Copernicus 91, 148, 148, 171, 179 Dunne, Brenda 9, 10 ESP see Extra-Sensory Perception
cortex 112 Dunne. J. W. 13 Esse est percipi: To be is to be per-
cosmology 148, 150, 151, 165, 168, Dying to Live 107 ceived 31
171 Euclidean geometries 18
Coulomb’s laws 14 Earth 84, 85, 97, 174, 176 Europe 27
Cowan, Jack 112, 113 Eccles, J. 148, 157, 210 Everett, Hugh 42; EWG interpre-
Cox, William 11 Eccles and Robinson 210 tation 42
Craig, Mary 12 eclecticism 10 evolution 49
Crick, Francis 47, 107 ecology 198 exceptional experience 133
Crookes, William: Nobel laureate Eddington, A. S. 22 exceptional human experience
for physics 88 Edelman, D. B. 213 (EHE) 128, 133, 134; autobiog-
cryogenics 40 Edman, Stefan 46 raphy 133
crystal 159 EEG 57; machine 95 experience-based realities 45
Curchland, Pat 137 Egyptian magi 80 experimental paradigm 133
Curie, Marie, and Pierre Curie: eight dimensions 5, 7, 16, 18 Experiments with Time 13
Nobel laureates for physics 88 eight-space 8, 11, 17, 21, 22; met- explicate order 44
cylindrical microtubule 57 ric/model 14, 15 Extra-Sensory Perception (ESP) 5,
Cyprus 109 Eimer, R. 207 6, 61, 65, 66, 67, 69, 72, 89, 111,
cytoskeletal microtubule 57 Einstein, Albert 1, 5, 11, 13, 15, 22, 136
cytoskeleton 58 30, 31, 32, 33, 38, 43, 47, 76, 77, extremely low-frequency waves
82, 84, 86, 88, 90, 164, 168; field (ELF) 11, 12
The Daily Mail 77, 89 equations 18; special relativity extrinsic 64
Dalai Lama 178 theory 18; theoretical EPR para-
Dalton, John 80 dox 31, 32, 83; theory of relativ- Faraday cage 12
Dante’s concept of the world 28 ity 27, 76, 83 fatty acids 149
Darwin, Charles 81 Einstein: The Life and Times 82 Feinberg, Gerald 12, 19, 21
Darwinian 149, 151, 172 Einstein-Bose 154 Fellow of the Royal Society 108;
data compression algorithm 56 Einstein-Maxwell field equations see also Barrett, Sir William
Davitashvili, Djuna 6 22 Fenwick, Peter 96
 Index 221

Ferari, Diane 10 “hard facts” 46 Illusions. The Adventures of a

Fermi apparatus 154 “the hard problem” 107, 150, 151, Reluctant Messiah 102
Feynman, Richard 84, 86 206 imaginal processes 122
Fifth Solvay Conference (Brussels, Harman, Willis 182 imagination 6, 7, 15, 21, 102, 112,
1927) 30 Harris, W. 6 114, 121, 122, 124
Financial Times 181 Harris, M. A. 113 implicate order 13, 44
four-dimensional 15 Hawking, Stephen W. 102 in-the-body experience (IBE) 96,
Fourier, Jean Baptiste Joseph 154 Hayes, R. P. 16 97
Fourier transform 44 healer 6 India 6
free will 11, 17, 28, 82, 91, 204, 205, healing 2, 88 Inductance L 57
208 heart failure 109 induction field 12
Freedman, Thomas 199 Heisenberg, Werner 35, 37, 38, 84, inductors 57
Freeman, Anthony 2, 136 86, 154; Heisenberg cut 162; information technology 76
Freud, Sigmund 123 Heisenberg uncertainty princi- inorganic 149
Fröhlich, H. 164 ple 15, 34 instrumental transcommunication
functional magnetic resonance Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle 131
imaging (fMRI) 57 15, 34 interconnected universe 14
future 5, 6, 8, 10, 17, 83 Heitler, Walter 41 interference 6, 14
fuzziness 59 helical sequence 58 interoception 121
Hertz (Hz) 120 intervention paradox 8
Gabor, Dennis 1, 43, 86, 154 Hindu Vedas 6 invariance 22
Galapagos Islands 102 Hipparchus 148 ionization 58
galaxies 81 Hodgson, D. 211 Islam 143
Galileo 91, 141, 148, 172, 179 Hofstadter, Douglas 105 IT revolution 85
Gandhi 199 holistic 44, 148 Italy 9
ganzfeld 122, 126, 139 hologram 1, 14, 43, 44, 52, 57, 86,
Garfield, J. L. 16 148, 171; holographic image 86; Jacobson, E. 126
Garrett, Eileen 130 holographic models 43 Jahn, Robert G. 6, 9, 10, 45
Gendlin, Eugene 123 Holographic Anthropic Multi- James, William 105, 132, 133
general relativity 14 verse, (HAM) 147, 149, 151, 152, Jeans, James 44
genetics 47, 66 165, 172, 174 Jehovah 173
Geneva, Switzerland 106 holographic multiverse 174 Jerne, N. K. 167, 169, 170
Georgeson, M. A. 113 The Holographic Paradigm and Jesus 173
Gisin, N. 15 Other Paradoxes 44, 45 Jordens Sång (Earth’s Song) 46
Giudice, Del 167 holography 44, 86 Josephson, Brian: Nobel laureate
Gladstone, William 88 Holoiformational Noetic Theory for quantum physics 88
Gleason, C. A. 207 148 Journal of Consciousness Studies
global consciousness 139 Holoinformational principle 168 136, 137, 138, 139, 142, 144
Gnostics 142 holomovement 52 Journal of Parapsychology 137
Golden Rule 172, 173, 175 Holonomic Brain Theory 154, The Journal of Scientific Explo-
Goodwin, Brian 187 155 ration 6
Goswami, Amit 2, 178, 182, 205, holonomic or correspondence Judaism 143, 173
208 model 127 Jung, Carl 47, 123
Graham, Hugh 42 holoscape 154, 155 Jungian 169
Grand Unification Theories (GUT) Holy Grail 107
22 Holy Spirit 157 Kaluza, Theodor 64
gravitational field 51 homeopathy 150 Kant, Immanuel 156
gravitational forces 51 homeostatic 149 Katra, J. 6
gravitational scalar potentials 65 homing ability 79 Kekule, Friedrich 175
Great Barrier Island, New Zealand Homo sapiens 53, 55; see also Kennedy, John F. 195
79 human beings Keynes, John Maynard 179
Griffin, David R. 205, 213 Honorton, Charles 6, 10 kinesthesia 120
Grinberg, Jacobo 189 Hubble 172 Kluver, Heinrich 112
Grip, Göran 1 Huckleberry Finn 11 Koch, Christof 107, 142, 143, 144
Grof, Stanislav 111, 123 human beings 50, 62, 78, 82, 91; Kogan, I. M. 12
Gross National Product (GNP) 189 body 81; brain 44; consciousness Kozameh, C. W. 7
Gruber, Elmar 9 41; existence 73; perspective 78; Krishnamurti, Jiddu 47
gyana 196 see also Homo sapiens Kumar, Satish 199
hyper-holographic 165
Hagan, S. 167 hypnagogic state 97, 122 laboratories 6, 10, 13, 20; evidence
Hagelin, J. S. 164 hypnosis 124; regression concern- 6; experiments 34; studies 125
Haggard, P. 207 ing past lives 111 lack of oxygen 93
Halifax, Joan 111 hypotenuse 16 Landvik, Dag 1
hallucinations 112 hypotheses 46 Languages of the Brain 44
HAM see Holographic Anthropic laser light 86
Multiverse “I am a mirage that perceives law of nature 83
Hameroff, S. 167 itself ” 105 law-bound world 42; law-
Hannah, B. 123 “I of the vortex” 105 boundedness 87
Hansen, R. O. 18 IBE see in-the-body experience lawlessness 76
222 Index

Legget, John 40 mental structure 54 need-related situations 125

Leith, Emmett 43 mercury 150 Nelson, Roger 10
Lenggenhager, B. 106 Merker, B. 212 neurobiologist 112
LeShan, L. 130 mescaline 112 neurobiology 139
Leucippus 80 Mesopotamia 143 neurochemistry 108, 115
Libet, B. 82, 207, 213 metaphor 14, 28 neurons 58, 59, 60, 148, 168
Lietaer, Bernhard 181 Metzinger, Thomas 105, 106, 107, neurophysiologist 189
life after death 108 137 neuroscience 104, 206
Life After Life 93, 109 Michie, Donald 137 neurosurgeon 44, 106
life force 148 micro model 56, 57 neurotransmitters 60, 115
light: particles 11; photons 78 micro view 50 New Orleans 11
line of sight 96 microbial 169 A New Science of Life: The Hypoth-
linear superposition 15 microchip technology 40 esis of Causative Formation 140
linear time 8 microcosmos 78 New Scientist 87, 140, 142
Lister, Joseph 94 micro-objects 37, 38 New Testament 142
Llinás, Rodolfo 105 micro-particles 30, 33 Newman, E. T. 14, 15, 18, 21, 22
logical causality 12 microscopic 15, 39, 51; world 29, Newton, Isaac 1, 5, 14, 15, 22, 49,
logical inference 6 27 148, 163; predetermined uni-
London, Fritz 41 microtubule 57, 58, 59, 60, 155, verse 68
Lone Pine, California 189 167, 168; firings 59, 66, 67 Newtonian 28, 68, 151, 155, 171,
longitudinal waves 58, 59 microtubulin 57 183; mechanics 162; science 49
Lorentz invariance 15, 16 micro-world 37, 39 Newtonianism 49
Lorentz transformation 22 Milky Way 81 Newton’s law 14, 22
low-level psychokinesis (PK) 45 Mind and Matter 41, 46 Nobel laureate 1, 40, 43, 81, 82,
low-noise electronics 40 mind-body link 42 86, 87, 88, 107, 147, 166; interest
LRC 57, 58 Minkowski, Hermann 15, 16, 18 in parapsychology 88
LSD 112 Minkowski space 1, 5, 7, 15, 19, 21, Noeons 157
Lucretius 148 23 noetic field 155
Mississippi River 11 “Noetic Field Theory: The Quanti-
macro: event 42; model 57 Mitchell, Edgar 1, 46 zation of Mind” 154
macrocosmos 33, 76, 78 Mohrhoff, U. 205, 207, 213 noetic medicine 150
macroscopic 15, 53; world 27 molecular biology 154 noetic model 172
macro-world 29, 37 molecules 51, 60, 78, 81, 168, 170 noetic theory 166
Maddox, John 140, 142, 143, 144 momentum 29 noetics 2, 147, 175
magnetic 60; and electromagnetic Monroe, Robert 95, 96 non-actualized 15
field components 22; field 51, Moody, Raymond 93, 109 nonconscious 56
58, 60; hologram 53 Morris, R. L. 111 non-living matter 51
magnetic potential pattern 60 Morse, J. 110 nonlocal 1, 7, 8, 11, 43, 53, 54, 81,
Maharishi effect 189 Morse, Melvyn 107 83, 84, 97, 127, 148, 153, 163, 188,
Marr, D. 211 Moscow 6 189; space 1; universe 23
Marx, Karl 191 Mould, R. A. 211 nonlocal correlations 13
Marxism 182 multidimensional hologram 44 The Nonlocal Universe 6
Maslow, Abraham 185 multidisciplinary 139 nonlocality 1, 14, 15, 16, 23, 53, 84,
massless 83 multiple personality disorder 87
Matthew 173 (MPD) 123 nonmaterial 50
Maturana, Humberto 158, 160, 161 multiple sclerosis 168 nonphysical 50, 162
mausoleum 28 multiverse interpretation 42 Nordhaus, W. D. 180
Max Planck Institute for Human Muses 148 Nossal, G. J. 168
Cognitive and Brain Sciences mystical enlightenment 63 “nothing leaves anything” 100
82 mystical/unitive experience 128,
Maxwell, James Clerk 1, 5, 7, 14, 131 Obama, Barack 188, 194, 195
15, 22 mysticism 6, 44 OBE see Out of Body Experience
Maxwell’s equations 14, 22 objects 30
May, E. 6 Nagarjuna 16, 17 observers 31
McGinn, Colin 137 Nagel, T. 164 one-mindedness 6
mediators 127, 129 nanometers 120 optical wavelength 15
medical technologies 170 nanoscale 155 Oracle at Delphi 6
medical tricorder 170 nanosecond 12 orbits 78
medicine 2, 41, 44, 55, 88, 91, 109, National Security 7 Orch-OR 155
119, 147, 149, 150, 164, 165, 167 Nature 6, 7, 140, 141 organic chemistry 149
meditation 148, 187; and contem- NDE see Near Death Experience organic sensibility 121
plation 121 Near Death Experience (NDE) 2, Orthodox science 142
mediums 130 62, 63, 72, 93, 94, 100, 104, 105, Out of Body Experience (OBE) 2,
memory 6, 60; patterns 59 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 113, 63, 94, 95, 96, 97, 100, 101, 102,
mental healing 124 115, 116, 122, 128; NDE-like hal- 105, 106, 107, 111, 112, 113, 114,
mental noise 6 lucinations 115 115, 122, 128
mental picture 59 “Near-Death Experiences: In or
Mental Radio 11, 12, 88 Out of the Body” 104 Palmer, John 139
mental radio metaphor 12 nebulous wave 29 Palmer and Braud 134
 Index 223

Panksepp, J. 212 Planck, Max 37, 43 psychospiritual 119

parabolic mirrors 165 Planck’s constant 65 purgatives 150
paradigms 93, 148, 178, 187; para- Plato 170, 172 Puthoff, Hal 6, 7, 167
digm breaking 102; paradigm PMIR see Psi-mediated instru- Pythagoras 78, 79
shift 2, 143, 201 mental response Pythagorean theorem 16
paradox 9, 12, 16, 17, 29, 30, 40, Podolsky, Boris 13, 31, 77, 86
64, 85, 109 Poincaré invariance 15, 16 QBD see Quantum Brain Dynam-
paranormal 61, 136, 137; fore- Popp, F. 167 ics
knowledge 6; functioning 14; Popper, K. R., and J. C. Eccles qualia 59, 153, 164
knowledge 88; phenomena 50, 205, 209, 210 quanta 154; of light 13
63; process 65; sciences 61 positron 12 quantum 33, 148, 151, 153, 154,
paraphysicists 61 The Prajnaparamita 16 155, 160, 167, 171
parapsychologists 9, 11, 137, 138, prana 190 quantum bible 40
139 precognition 5, 6, 9, 10, 12, 17, 18, Quantum Brain Dynamics (QBD)
parapsychology 1, 5, 6, 77, 88, 89, 20, 88, 89, 124, 125, 127, 139; 153, 154, 163
91, 111, 117, 126, 139, 140; experi- precognitive dreams 8; precog- quantum causality 15
ments 10; phenomena 90; nitive perception 21; precogni- Quantum Chromo Dynamics
research 6; result 87; skeptic 139 tive psi 12 (QCD) 153
Parnia, S. and P. Fenwick 107 Precognition and the Philosophy of quantum computer 85
particle physics 22, 76 Science: An Essay on Backward quantum cosmologists 42
particle systems 78 Causation 9 quantum description 15
particle-like 17 Preparata, Giuliano 167 The Quantum Doctor 187
particles 6, 14, 29, 51, 87, 139; preparatory function 125 Quantum Electro Dynamics
position 36; split 76 preparedness 121 (QED) 153
partisan paper 139 presence, haunts, and poltergeist quantum entanglement 61
Pasteur, Louis 94, 148 encounters 129 Quantum Field Theory 153
Pauli, Wolfgang 47 preternatural clarity 9 quantum-interconnectedness 13
PEAR Laboratory 45 Pribram, Karl 44, 45, 86, 153, 154, quantum Internet 85
Penfield, Wilder 106 167 quantum jump 42
Penman, D. 89 Price, Pat 6 quantum level 51, 52, 53
Pennebaker, J. W. 133 Princeton University 10, 13, 42; quantum magic 39
Penrose, R. 209 Engineering Anomalies quantum measurement 15, 38
perception 5 Research Laboratory 6; School quantum mechanical 31, 38, 39,
Persinger, M. A. 106 of Engineering and Applied Sci- 42; data 84
persona non grata 140 ence 45 quantum mechanically schizo-
PET scanning 106 prion 161, 163, 166 phrenic 39
phantom worlds 40 Proceedings of the AAAS 6 quantum mechanics 1, 2, 7, 15, 27,
Phenomenal Self-Model (PSM) The Proceedings of the American 29, 32, 36, 43, 45, 46, 76, 77, 83,
105 Academy of Sciences 6 84, 86, 87
phenomenology 161, 163, 164 The Proceedings of the Institute of quantum microsites 148
phenomenon 87 Electrical and Electronics Engi- quantum observation 31
pheromones 123 neers 6, 7 quantum physics 1, 2, 37, 38, 41,
philosopher/psychologist 132 Project Stargate 90 42, 47, 154, 178, 184, 196;
philosophers 44, 65, 73, 81, 130, proprioception 121 quantum possibilities 183
137, 142, 170, 182, 189 Prusiner, Stanley 166 quantum potential 44
philosophy 44, 139, 148, 148, 156, psi 6, 7, 8, 12, 15, 18, 23, 61, 62, 63, quantum principle 46
161; features 45; questions 37 70, 72, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, quantum process 40
philosophy of mind 1 140; mechanism of 65; phenom- quantum randomness 208
photons 13, 22, 29, 32, 33, 37 ena 11, 12, 15, 18; signals 66, 67 quantum realities 37
phrenology 150 psi-mediated instrumental quantum systems 15
physical data 12 response (PMIR) 124, 125 quantum teleportation 85
physical existence 41 psi-research 15 quantum theory 13, 14, 15, 38, 42,
physical laws 14, 15, 205, 207 psilocybin 112 51, 68, 83, 156, 171, 172
physical matter 205 psyche 41 quantum thinking 183
physical phenomena 14, 15, 45, 61, psychic 7, 8, 66, 156; construction quantum world 30, 39
129 85; functioning 9, 124, 131; phe- quasi-physical 126
physical reality 64 nomena 88; signal 6; research
physical science 148 108, 126 radical emergence 205
physical systems 76, 84, 127 psychokinesis (PK) 61, 67, 69, 70, Radin, Dean 10, 188
physical theory 50 89, 124, 125, 127, 131, 139; PK radio signals 58
physical world 120 effect 42; PK event 69; PK radio waves 58
physicians 150 experiments 42 rajas 184, 191, 192, 193
physicist 2, 13, 29, 36, 57 The Psychological Bulletin 6 randomness 29
physics 14, 15, 18, 21, 22, 27, 47, psychology 1, 6, 44, 47, 108, 119, Rao, K. Ramakrishna 10, 139
50, 76, 148, 161, 162, 171, 208; 139, 147, 148, 150; psychological Rauscher, E. A. 1, 7, 14, 15, 18, 22
laws of 7, 205, 207 factors 66, 125, 127; psychologi- reality 1
physics of psi 62 cal health 110; psychologist 50, rebirth 150
physiology 10, 108, 116 104; techniques 121 reduction or collapse of the wave
PK see psychokinesis psychophysiological 122 function 36
224 Index

Reimannian geometry 18 Skepter 117 thermodynamics 49

reincarnation 73 skeptics 138, 139 thoughts 60, 82, 121, 123
relativistic electron 12 Smith, Adam 178, 179, 180, 181, time: and space 5, 76, 80
remote perception 6, 7, 20, 22; 185, 186, 187, 188, 194, 196, 201 “time is relative” 85
experiments 14 Smith, Huston 144 timeless 78, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87; and
remote target 8 Society for Physical Research spaceless state 76
remote viewing 5, 6, 7, 9, 12, 77, (SPR), London 88, 89 time-like loop 9
88, 89, 90, 139; research 13 SOFT see Single (Operational) transcendence 174
Resistance R 57 Field Theory transmission model 126
resonance 58 Solvay Conference 33, 35 transpersonal psychology 166
retro-causality 9 Sorrows of Young Werther 173 Troscianko, Tom 113
rheumatoid arthritis 168 space 65 tubulin protein molecules 57
Rhine, J. B. 6, 89 space and time 1, 6, 7, 8, 16, 27, 28, tubulin subunits 155
ribosomes 159 76, 132 Turing, Allan 136
Richet, Charles: Nobel laureate spaceless 78, 83, 86, 87 twin paradox 85
for medicine 88 space-time 11, 14, 16, 19, 87; inde-
Riemannian “metric” 51 pendence 15 unbroken whole 43
Ring, Kenneth 109 special theory of relativity 18, 82 unconsciousness 94, 109, 120, 123,
Rome 9 speed: and light 29 131, 169
Rome International Airport 10 speed of light 18, 65, 76 The Undivided Universe 13
Rosen, Nathan 13, 31, 77, 86 Sperry, R. W. 205 unfolded order 44
spirit 6, 147 unitarity 15
Sabom, Michael 114, 115 spirituality 81, 134, 148, 188 universe 1, 6, 7, 14, 22, 46, 54, 66,
Samuelson, P. A. 180 SPR see Society for Psychical 71, 78, 87, 148, 171
San Francisco 6 Research University of Bristol 113
satellite surveillance 79 SRI see Stanford Research Insti- University of California 82
sattva 191 tute University of California at Berke-
Schempp, W. 167 Stanford Research Institute (SRI ley 13
Schlitz, Marilyn 9 International) 6, 9, 12, 13; University of Chicago 112
Schmidt, Helmut 42 investigations 7 University of Connecticut 109
Schrödinger, Erwin 1, 5, 15, 35, Stanford University 44 University of Nevada 10
39, 40, 43, 46, 47, 162 Stapp, Henry 13 University of Paris 77, 83
Schrödinger equation 36, 154, Star Trek 202; medical tricorder University of Paris in Orsay 33
167 147 University of Queensland, Aus-
Schrödinger’s cat paradox 17, 39, state-specific sciences 122 tralia 42
40, 41 static universe 147 University of Texas at Austin 30
Schrödinger’s wave 35 statistical nature 15 University of Utrecht 117
Schultz, J. H., and W. Luthe 126 stochastic 15; causality 17 Upatnieks, Juris 43
Schumacher, E. F. 199 Stokes, Douglas 11 U. S. Army 77, 90
Schumpeter, Joseph 184 Stratton, J. A. 12 USSR 12
science 27, 49, 57, 62, 73, 76, 77, Strawson, G. 105 USSR Academy of Sciences 6
81, 84, 87, 88, 91, 136, 141, 142, string theory 1, 22 Utts, J. 6
147, 148, 149, 151, 156, 160, 170, Strutt, John: Nobel laureate for
171, 172, 178 physics 88 validity: of parapsychology 90
scientific laws 15 subconscious 1, 6, 50, 79 Van der Wall 155
scientific paradigm 2 super-physical law 162 von Neumann, John 37, 40, 41, 43
scientific research 5 super symmetry models 22 The Voyage Home 170
scientific theory 172 supposition 83
scientists 5, 7, 44, 49, 50, 57, 61, survival/afterlife research 131 Walker, Evan Harris 42, 205, 208
77, 88, 109, 137, 156, 171, 178 The Sutras of Patanjali 6 Walsh, Roger 144
Seager, W. 205 synapses 57, 168 water waves 34
Searle, John 137, 142 Watson, James 47, 107; and Fran-
self-evident 12 Tachyon paper 21 cis Crick 81, 107
Semiplatansk target site 8 tachyons 11, 12 Watson and Crick 81
Semmelweis, Ignaz 94 tamas 184, 191, 192, 201, 202 wave 17, 33, 59, 64; equation 36;
Sen, A. 200 The Tao of Physics 43 function 37, 42; function col-
The Sense of Being Stared At 142 Targ, E. 6 lapse 35; mechanic 64; motion
“separation is an illusion” 6 Targ, Russell 1, 6, 7, 16 29
serotonin 115 Tart, Charles 95, 111, 122 wavelength 12, 120
Seth, A. K. 210 teleology 149, 151, 160 wave-like 17
Sheets-Johnstone, M. 212 telepathy 6, 88, 89, 124, 125, 127 wave-particle duality 33; paradox
Sheils, D. 110 Tellefsen, Jens A. Jr. 1 17, 34 syndrome 34
Sheldrake, Rupert 141, 143, 144 temporoparietal junction (TPJ) 106 The Western Journal of Medicine 6
Sicher, F. 6 theology 156, 172, 176; doctrines What Is Life? 47
Sinclair, Upton 11, 12, 88; experi- 150 Wheeler, John Archibald 13, 30,
ments 89 theoretical model 42, 50 31, 42, 46, 84; experiment 14;
Single (Operational) Field Theory theoretical research 23 quantum cosmological model
(SOFT) 61, 67, 71 theoretical structure 50 35
Sirag, S. P. 208 theory of relativity 7, 76, 85 White, Rhea 128, 133
 Index 225

Whitehead, Alfred North 44 Wiseman, Richard 77, 89 Young, Brigham 172

Whittaker, Edmund T. 58 Wöhler, Friedrich 149
Wholeness and the Implicate Order Wolf, Martin 181 Zen meditation and mindfulness
44 Wolff, Franklin Merrell 189 107
Wickramasakera, I. 133 World Business Academy 182 Zoroastrian 143
Wigner, Eugene 15, 40, 41, 42, 45, Wright, E. W. 207
47
Wilber, Ken 44 Yause, K. 167
Wiles, M. 142 yoga 187