The Idealist View of Consciousness After Death

Journal of Consciousness Exploration & Research, 2016

What happens to the inner light of consciousness with the death of the individual body and brain? Reductive materialism assumes it simply fades to black. Others think of consciousness as indicating a continuation of self, a transformation, an awakening or even alternatives based on the quality of life experience. In this issue, speculations drawn from philosophical research are presented.

Drawing on the mystical experiences of the author, this paper examines death. After making several observations about his own mystical experience, the author explores the implications of his experience for both theories of consciousness and the ultimate question of death. He concludes, based on the observable facts of his experiences, that not only is consciousness far more varied and complex than most might admit, but that in order to account for observations in his home laboratory, it must survive the death of the physical vehicle.

Medical hypotheses, 2015

During the last decades an increasing interest has developed in the so-called altered state of consciousness (ASCs); among these, near-death experiences (NDEs) are one of the most intriguing and debated examples. NDEs are deep and universal experiences with a clear phenomenology and incidence, while some of their features challenge the current views of human consciousness (focused on neural circuits and based on the concept of mind as a byproduct of brain circuitry) with relevant epistemological and historical implications. The origin of the ruling mechanist-reductionist paradigm can be traced back to Descartes' radical separation of res cogitans and res extensa and the conflict between the nascent science and the Inquisition; this led to removing the subjective properties of mind from the field of scientific interest, relegating them to philosophy and theology in order to enable the development of modern science. However, the physics of the 20th century has eventually moved bey...

Death and Soul Consciousness recounts my growing interest in the spiritual perspectives of both East and West and how quantum cosmology appealed to me as a bridge between science and mysticism. I highlight the unitary nature of consciousness and associated research into presentiment, psychokinesis, remote viewing and in particular, the near-death experience. I set out my understanding of the soul journey, concluding with two past life regressions of my own, which suggest to me that learning from experience (often through adversity) is part of humankind’s continuing evolution of spiritual growth.

In the ongoing 'brain death' controversy, there has been a constant push for the use of the 'higher brain' formulation as the criterion for the determination of death on the grounds that brain-dead individuals are no longer human beings because of their irreversible loss of consciousness and mental functions. This essay demonstrates that such a position flows from a Lockean view of human persons. Compared to the 'consciousness-related definition of death,' the substance view is superior, especially because it provides a holistic vision of the human person, and coheres with the perennial axiom about the 'whole and parts.'

Consciousness: A Philosophical and Scientific Exploration, 2024

This work investigates the phenomenon of near-death experiences (NDEs), integrating scientific, philosophical, and empirical perspectives to explore the relationship between consciousness and the physical brain. By examining veridical perceptions, transformative aftereffects, and phenomena in individuals with minimal or no measurable brain activity, the study challenges materialistic paradigms of consciousness. Evidence from crosscultural studies, blind individuals, and longitudinal research underscores the universal characteristics of NDEs, suggesting the presence of trans-physical consciousness. Additionally, parallels with quantum mechanics, dualism, and the placebo effect provide a multidimensional framework for understanding consciousness as a fundamental component of reality. This analysis reveals significant gaps in naturalistic explanations and invites further interdisciplinary exploration of consciousness, its origins, and its implications for human identity and spirituality.

The Anticipation of Afterlife as Based on Current Physics of Information, 2019

Individual consciousness is considered as an expression of an underlying, non-local, quantum field, that exhibits holographic properties. This paper pays special attention to the interfacing of this field of universal consciousness and our personal brain in relation to potential afterlife. We postulate a toroidal event horizon workspace of the brain that allows symmetric 4-D to 3-D quantum information flux and holographic 2-D personal memory integration. The geometry of a 3-D brain being embedded in a 4-D realm may explain the phenomena of functional brain binding, qualia, intuition, serendipity, synchronicity, extra-sensory perception, and well-established Psi-phenomena. Brain function is conceptualized as guided by zero-point energy field (ZPE) derived pilot waves that support consciousness also in the absence of neuronal activity, such as in near death experiences (NDE). Its toroidal organization exhibits quaternionic dynamics and thereby allows an opening to 4-D geometry and thus to universal consciousness and ZPE. This personal holographic workspace, that is associated but not reducible to the brain, collects active information in a 2-D "brain event horizon", an internal and fully integral model of the self. At death of the material body, this personal knowledge mental domain uncouples from the body, yet it is conserved because quantum information can never be destroyed. In NDE this uncoupling is only temporal but reveals universal consciousness in a fully transparent manner, since in this condition non-neuronal information processing is maintained by fractal semi-harmonic frequencies from ZPE that reflect an entangled personal register of each conscious being. The proposed concept, therefore contradicts the tentative, promissory materialist solution to the mind-body problem. Instead, it substantiates the notion that brain can act as a kind of 'receiver' by filtering of (sub)conscious states, through holographic resonance of universal consciousness with specific coherent oscillation domains in the body. Yet, it is recognized that our self-consciousness can also act as a damping filter for information from this universal knowledge field. The latter aspect of a " dual filter theory" is apparently removed at states of modified brain function such as NDE, deep meditation and use of psycho-mimetic drugs, that expose us to an unknown cosmic perspective. The presence of a mental field-receptive resonant workspace, might be termed our "supervening double", (or "soul", not implying religious doctrine), and provides an interpretation framework for widely reported, but poorly understood transpersonal conscious states. It even implies that death should not be seen as a transition to another state of existence, but rather that all of us are already belong to such an eternal domain in our present life. Therefore, the present model implies the potential for the survival of individual life, qualifying us as designated survivors and eternal beings. 2

Survival of Consciousness and the Anticipation of an Afterlife as Based on Current Physics, 2024

This paper pays special attention to the interfacing of the field of universal consciousness and our personal brain in relation to a potential afterlife and postulates a toroidal event horizon workspace of the brain that allows a symmetric 4-Dimensional (4-D) to 3-Dimensional (3-D) quantum information flux and holographic personal memory integration. The geometry of a 3-D brain, embedded in a 4-D realm, may explain the phenomena of functional brain binding, qualia, intuition, serendipity, synchronicity, extra-sensory perception, and other well-established parapsychological phenomena. Brain function is conceptualized as guided by the Zero-point Energy (ZPE) Field (ZPF)-derived pilot waves that support consciousness, even in the absence of neuronal activity, such as in Near-Death Experiences (NDE). The brain's toroidal organization exhibits quaternionic dynamics and thereby allows an opening to 4-D geometry and, consequently, to universal consciousness and the ZPF. This personal holographic workspace, that is associated with but not reducible to the brain, collects active information in a "brain event horizon," as an internal and fully integral model of the self. At death or transition of our material body, this personal mental knowledge domain dissociates from the body, yet it is retained because entangled and meaningful quantum information can never be destroyed. In NDE, this uncoupling is only temporal, but reveals universal consciousness in a fully transparent manner, since in this condition non-neuronal information processing is preserved. This preservation occurs through fractal semi-harmonic frequencies, from the ZPE field, that reflect an entangled personal register of each conscious being. The proposed concept, therefore, contradicts the tentative and promissory materialist solution to the mind-body problem. Instead, it substantiates the notion that the brain can act as a kind of "receiver" by filtering (sub)conscious states through holographic resonance with universal consciousness through specific coherent oscillation domains in the body. Yet, it is recognized that our self-consciousness can also act as a damping filter for information from this universal knowledge field. The latter aspect of a "dual filter theory" is apparently perturbed at states of modified brain function such as NDE, deep meditation, and use of psychomimetic drugs, that all expose us to an unknown cosmic perspective. The presence of a mental, fieldreceptive, resonant workspace, might be termed our "supervening double" (or "soul," not implying religious doctrine), and provides an interpretation framework for widely reported but poorly understood transpersonal conscious states. These may even imply that death can be conceived as a transition to another state of existence, yet we realize that all of us already belong to such an eternal domain in our present lives. Therefore, the present model may imply the potential for the survival of individual consciousness, qualifying conscious individuals as designated survivors and eternal beings.

Journal of Scientific Exploration, 2014

Science and the Afterlife Experience is the concluding volume of a trilogy that began with Parapsychology and the Skeptics (Carter 2007; reissued as Science and Psychic Phenomena, Carter 2012) and continued with Science and the Near-Death Experience (Carter 2010). These books provide handy introductions to parapsychology, psychical research, and allied concerns (such as the near-death experience) for a new generation of readers. They may best be described as quasi-scholarly, aimed primarily at a general (non-academic) audience, although they include notes, reference lists, and indexes. Carter, who holds an M.A. from the University of Oxford, England, identifies himself as a philosopher and here and there addresses philosophical concerns, such as the implications of "paranormal" phenomena for concepts of personal identity. One of the hallmarks of the series is the attention given to materialistic skeptical positions, extended in the volume under review to include super-ESP.

2006

Among the greatest questions ever asked, perhaps the greatest is whether some part of us survives death of the body. Whole religions, individual philosophers, scholars of all types, scientists and ordinary people have all tried to answer this question, so far without any verifiable success. Yet most people continue to believe that some form of a soul survives, but not much more than that is known. This book describes in general terms a new fundamental theory of physics based on a five-dimensional space-time continuum that includes new scientific definitions of life, mind and consciousness, Given these, the book explains a scientific model of the survival of consciousness and mind when the physical body dies. Other cultural beliefs about death are described and their essential points are compared to this new physical model of the afterlife.