Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience (45 page)

In summary, we can say that this heightened intuition does not just affect NDErs, but is also quite common among the general public. However, these kinds of experiences are generally hushed up, because today’s society, and especially today’s scientific community, cannot really accommodate it. The concept of nonlocal consciousness, however, provides an explanation for these experiences.

Remote Viewing (Nonlocal Perception)

Since 1972 physicist Hal Puthoff and his colleague Russell Targ at the Stanford Research Institute have been carrying out research into the accuracy and reliability of remote viewing. Also known as nonlocal perception or nonlocal awareness, this involves the reception of information from or about an object, such as a building, appliance, or location, that is not accessible or available to the senses. It means that people are capable of remote (nonlocal) perception of objects that are either randomly selected or merely indicated by coordinates on a map.
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Puthoff was rather skeptical at first, but the results obtained by intuitively gifted subjects were so impressive that during the Cold War the CIA expressed an interest in the method in the hope of obtaining intelligence about secret projects in the Soviet Union. The CIA financed this research into remote viewing for dozens of years and drew on it frequently for intelligence about the enemy. It was not until 1996 that President Clinton declassified some of the research results.

Research at the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) institute has shown that “normal” people are equally capable of obtaining positive results. The chances that the results of remote viewing were mere coincidence were found to be statistically less than 1 in 1 billion. It later emerged that people were also capable of accurate perceptions of buildings or objects if they were isolated in a Faraday cage blocking all electromagnetic radiation or in submarines at a depth of up to 170 meters under sea, excluding even extremely low frequency transfer. The concept of nonlocal consciousness provides the only explanation for this. The reported nonlocal perceptions are conveyed as if made from a great height but are coupled with the power to zoom in on the minutest details. People could even describe the interior of buildings and the contents of locked filing cabinets or state secrets. Perceptions at extreme distances in space include that of a ring around the planet Jupiter that had never been seen from earth. Its presence was confirmed only later by images taken by the passing NASA satellite
Pioneer 10.
One of the most recent remote viewing successes was the discovery of Saddam Hussein’s hiding place thanks to detailed descriptions of the suspected location.
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Researcher Stephan Schwartz has drawn on nonlocal perception that goes back in time for the rediscovery of archaeological sites, including Cleopatra’s palace, Mark Antony’s palace in Alexandria, and the ruins of the lighthouse of Pharos near Alexandria.
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Researchers at PEAR have also carried out research into nonlocal perception in the future. Researchers asked people to travel and photograph places like train stations and airports. These photographs bore a striking resemblance to previously documented images that had been remotely viewed by other subjects several hours before the photographed events took place.

This method of perception, with its 360-degree range of vision and simultaneous bird’s-eye and detailed view, is reminiscent of people’s descriptions of out-of-body experiences during an NDE. The fact of verifiable perceptions from both past and future is also consistent with what happens during an NDE, when clear images from the past or future may be seen during a life review or preview. Schwartz too puts forward a theory of nonlocal perception that corresponds exactly with the concept of nonlocal consciousness.
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Genius Insight

Where does sudden scientific insight come from? How do radically new insights enter consciousness? We know that Einstein’s theory of relativity came to him in an epiphany. A sudden brain wave inspired Mendeleyev, the Russian chemist, to draw up the periodic table, listing the chemical elements according to atomic mass. What are the origins of inspiration in writers, painters, and other artists? How could someone like Mozart write his beautiful compositions at such a young age? Mozart said, as did Brahms, that he heard the music in his head and that all he had to do was transcribe it, which allowed him to put his brilliant music on paper in near-perfect notation within a very short space of time. Inspiration, creativity, and sudden scientific insight may be explained by (unconscious) contact with aspects of nonlocal consciousness. In the same way, an NDE can give people the feeling of being in contact with a tremendous source of wisdom, although they usually have no recollection of it later. Those who are interested in this subject should have a look at the chapter on the genius insight in Edward and Emily Williams Kelly’s book.
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The Mind’s Influence on Matter: Psychokinesis, Telekinesis, and Teleportation

We earlier looked at the power of the mind to exert an active influence on the anatomy and function of the brain (neuroplasticity). We know that the mind can have an effect on the body from the fact that fear or sexual arousal can trigger clear physical reactions. Then is it also possible that consciousness has an effect on “dead” matter by influencing processes at quantum level?

Psychokinesis or telekinesis involves transforming the visible, outward form of objects through mindfulness, which has been repeatedly demonstrated under controlled circumstances, even inside the U.S. Capitol Building in the presence of an official military delegation. Teleportation involves moving material objects, sometimes at a great distance, by unknown physical forces summoned by the mind. Psychokinesis and telekinesis are now also known as nonlocal perturbation because they involve the mind’s direct influence on matter without the intervention of any known physical energy. The research that was done to prove that mindfulness can indeed alter the course of processes of chance has been covered at length in a recent book.
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It may look like science fiction, but the U.S. intelligence services and the U.S. Army are spending a lot of money and research resources on these phenomena, as shown by a U.S. Air Force report published under the title
Teleportation Physics Study
. The author of this report, a physicist, cites the many scientific studies that suggest that these phenomena are possible at macroscopic as well as at quantum level. He is referring here to the work of people like quantum physicist Anton Zeilinger, who has written that there is definitive proof of quantum teleportation.
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The U.S. Air Force report features an extensive overview of studies on nonlocal perception and teleportation and offers a possible scientific explanation for this kind of phenomenon on the basis of quantum physics, including the concept of zero-point fluctuations, otherwise known as the information stored in wave functions in nonlocal space. Most fascinating are the Chinese studies described here, which were controlled, blind, and double-blind and carried out in the Aerospace Medicine Engineering Institute in Beijing. The articles were all translated from Chinese into English by the Defense Intelligence Agency. The experiments were carried out with intuitively gifted children and young adults and proved teleportation across dozens of yards for small radios, photosensitive paper, mechanical watches, and insects; the tests were later repeated and the results of teleportation recorded on video and with extremely high speed photography.
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The findings sound spectacular indeed: objects such as nuts, matches, pills, sponges, live insects, and so forth were moved through sealed envelopes and sealed glass bottles and from canisters with sealed caps without any of these storage containers breaking or ripping. Video recordings of the instantaneous transportation showed the object suddenly vanishing from its storage container and reappearing in another location. Sometimes it looked as if the object merged with the side of the container or storage box. Insects remained alive, but the amplitude and frequency of the radio signals of the small radio transmitters that were moved changed during the teleportation process; in fact, during teleportation they were momentarily imperceptible, as if the transmitter was temporarily in another dimension. The steady signal reappeared as soon as the radio transmitter had been moved. The subjects were always blindfolded and had no idea what object they were supposed to move with their mind. Objective spectators and military observers were in attendance at all times to rule out deception. To the author of the American military review article, it is clear that consciousness, in conjunction with theories from quantum physics, plays a key role in the explanation of this kind of phenomenon.

In his recent book
Entangled Minds,
Dean Radin also uses a quantum-mechanical model to explain many carefully researched and well-documented phenomena of nonlocally connected consciousness, both between people and between consciousness and matter. Likewise, quantum physicist Amit Goswami has written extensively on the causal influence of consciousness on matter. Here too the concept of nonlocal consciousness seems to be essential in explaining these kinds of extraordinary phenomena.
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He who has never changed his mind has never learnt anything.

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In this chapter we looked at various aspects of nonlocal consciousness for which there is scientific and often well-founded evidence. Research into near-death experience helped me develop the concept of nonlocal and endless consciousness, which explains many and perhaps all aspects of the extraordinary experiences of consciousness discussed in this chapter. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that the essence of our endless consciousness predates our birth and our body and will survive death independently of our body in a nonlocal space where time and distance play no role. There is no beginning, and there will never be an end to our consciousness. In view of this, we should seriously consider the possibility that death, like birth, may be a mere passing from one state of consciousness into another. During life, the body functions like an interface and facilitates the reception of some aspects of our enhanced consciousness; junk DNA and DMT may play a role in this process.

Following the more theoretical aspects about consciousness and the brain in the last chapters, with a more scientific view at the various aspects of nonlocal consciousness, I want to reconsider some of the implications of NDE and nonlocal consciousness in relation to ethical, medical, and social issues in our predominantly materialist Western society. If it really is true that the essence of our endless consciousness predates our birth and our body and that it will survive death independently of our body in a nonlocal space where time and distance play no role, there will be no beginning or end to our consciousness.

This idea has raised in me over the last twenty years many mind-boggling questions. Therefore I would like to devote the next sections to a few of the profound and sometimes emotional questions about coma, dying, and death that I have asked myself and also received in recent years since the publication of our Dutch study in
The Lancet
in 2001 and of my Dutch book,
Eindeloos bewustzijn
(Endless Consciousness), in 2007 as well as during question-and-answer sessions after the many lectures on NDE that I have given in the last twenty years.

The widespread reports of an enhanced and lucid consciousness during a spell of unconsciousness brought on by the loss of brain function can inspire us not only to change our perception of the relationship between consciousness and brain function but also to change our ideas about life and death. Perhaps nowadays most people still believe that death is the end of everything because they never have heard or read little about NDE. That death is the end used to be my own belief. But after many years of critical research into the stories of NDErs, and after a careful exploration of current knowledge about brain function, consciousness, and some basic principles of quantum physics, my views have undergone a complete transformation. As a doctor and researcher, I found the most significant finding to be the conclusion of one NDEr: “Dead turned out to be not dead.” I now see the continuity of our consciousness after the death of our physical body as a very real possibility.

Questions I receive are usually prompted by personal experiences or by the experiences and stories of friends and family, and they tend to be about the content or consequences of an NDE and the greatly enhanced intuitive sensitivity that is often reported afterward. Other frequent questions cover deathbed visions and contact with deceased relatives, what we called postmortem experiences. People also mention what happened when they tried to discuss their NDE with doctors, nurses, or family. They are greatly relieved when they can finally discuss their often profound experiences and receive answers to questions that they never dared to ask for fear of being rejected or derided. Likewise, fellow doctors and scientists frequently ask me, either in person or in writing, why a serious oxygen shortage cannot explain an NDE and how we can be so certain of the complete loss of all brain function during a cardiac arrest. Most of these questions have already been dealt with at length in previous chapters, so I will not revisit them here.

In this chapter I want to focus on the following three questions: (1) Why does the medical and scientific community harbor so much opposition to research into the cause and content of an NDE? (2) If there is such a thing as continuity of consciousness, does this endless and nonlocal consciousness return in another body? (3) An organ transplant cannot go ahead unless the donor has been declared brain-dead. What is the difference between coma and brain death, and does brain death really equal death?

Scientific Opposition to NDE

I am frequently asked why the scientific and medical community harbors so much opposition to research into the cause and content of an NDE and why the topic receives so little attention in scientific journals. Occasionally the inquirers themselves are extremely critical.

Research into NDE and other manifestations of nonlocal consciousness that cannot be accounted for by current Western science often evokes ridicule or rejection as well as emotional responses or prejudices. The response of doctors and other scientists toward near-death experiences is for the most part shaped by their ideas about life and death, and these in turn are shaped by their religious or spiritual background or lack thereof.

It is useful therefore to reflect on what we know about scientists and their religious beliefs. Surveys have shown that, in contrast to the general public, most scientists are not very interested in religion or the possibility of immortality. Whereas 91 percent of the U.S. population believes in God or a form of personal afterlife, a recent survey among more than a thousand American doctors put the number at 76 percent (belief in God) and 59 percent (belief in a personal afterlife). An article in
Nature,
however, suggests that only 39 percent of scientists describe themselves as religious and that 61 percent are either nonreligious or agnostic. A comparison with an identical survey conducted in 1914 shows that this percentage of nonbelievers has remained stable over more than eighty years. More remarkable still is that another article in
Nature
claims that only 7 percent of the most prominent and influential scientists, who are all members of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States, describe themselves as religious or spiritual. This means that 93 percent of today’s leading scientists reject any form of religion or spirituality whereas in 1914 the percentage of religious leading scientists was still 28, while 35 percent believed in a personal afterlife.
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If our consciousness denies the possibility of a god or immortality, our (preconceived) ideas about life and death will be informed by that very same consciousness. It looks likely therefore that opinion on these matters will remain divided. The influence of well-known leading scientists must certainly not be underestimated because they often occupy important positions in national and international scientific advisory committees and they have seats on the boards of major scientific journals, where they determine whether or not an article will be published. But surveys suggest that their opinion is not representative of all scientists, especially not of doctors.

The personal opinions of scientists tend to determine whether new ideas gain currency in science and whether articles about new or groundbreaking insights are published. Scientific NDE studies highlight the limitations of our current medical and neurophysiological ideas about the various aspects of human consciousness and the relationship between consciousness and memories and the brain. The view that consciousness is the product of purely neurological processes in the brain remains the most widely held hypothesis. When new ideas do not fit the generally accepted (materialist) paradigm, many scientists perceive them as a threat. It is hardly surprising therefore that when empirical studies reveal new phenomena or facts that are inconsistent with the prevailing scientific paradigm, they are usually denied, suppressed, or even ridiculed. The history of science tells us a similar story. New ideas rarely received an enthusiastic response; they always evoked resistance.

A good example of the reluctance by materialistic scientists to accept new ideas are the following statements by the renowned Dutch neurobiologist Dick Swaab in a recent interview. He calls himself an atheist, stating that “we are our brain” and “everything, like wrong eating habits, sexuality or the conception of God, is a product of our brain.” He is also convinced that “consciousness is a product of the brain.” And he continues:

His comments on the Dutch edition of this book are in a similar vein:

True science does not restrict itself to narrow materialist assumptions but is open to new and initially inexplicable findings and welcomes the challenge of finding explanatory theories. Science equals asking questions with an open mind and ought to be based on curiosity. Abnormal findings offer the chance of modifying existing scientific theories or replacing them with new insights that do offer an explanation; we have historical precedents for this. Contemporary science remains rooted in a picture of reality based solely on physically observable data. In my opinion contemporary science ought to review its implicit assumptions about the nature of reality because they have led to the neglect or denial of important and as-yet-unanswered questions about consciousness.

Reincarnation

After a lecture on NDE and the possible continuity of consciousness after physical death, the question often arises whether consciousness can return in a new body (reincarnation).

Reincarnation is a generally accepted principle in Hinduism and Buddhism. Encompassing the law of karma, which is also known as the law of cause and effect, reincarnation involves a new life in which people are given the chance to make up for what they neglected to do, did not do well, or failed to learn in a previous life. Reincarnation, or the transmigration of the soul, has been common throughout history and in many cultures, among them the ancient Egyptians, Romans, Greeks (Plato), Celts, and the Cathars. The same was true for the Indian tribes in North America and the Tlingits in Alaska, the Aztecs, Mayas, and Incas of Central and South America, nations and tribes in Africa, the Australian Aboriginals, and the Druze in Lebanon. The anthroposophist Rudolf Steiner wrote, “Everything…is subject to the law of reincarnation.”
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The psychiatrist Ian Stevenson carried out systematic research into reincarnation and published widely on the subject; his accessible book
Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect
contains many well-documented cases of apparent reincarnation. When a child starts talking about a previous life, it usually happens spontaneously between the ages of two to four. Such children are very emotional when they talk about their previous life and remember details of a previous marriage, including the names of their spouse and offspring and often those of neighbors and family as well. In their recollections they do not distinguish between past and present; their memory appears to spring from a timeless source. In more than half of these cases, the children’s stories feature a violent death, ranging from 29 percent of children in Alaska to 74 percent in Turkey. Some of these children exhibit unusual behavior, such as identity confusion or phobias related to the premature, unexpected, and violent end to their previous life.
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For his research Stevenson spoke not only with the child and next of kin but also with the family of the deceased and supposedly reincarnated person. This often resulted in surprisingly detailed similarities between the child’s story and the family’s information, even though the two sets of families had never met or spoken before. Stevenson paid special attention to unusual birthmarks or congenital problems in the children in places where the fatal wounds were sustained in the previous life, and he drew on autopsy reports and other documents for verification. He studied most of his cases in Burma, Alaska, Sri Lanka, Lebanon, India, and Turkey. While reluctant to claim that reincarnation definitely exists, he considers the evidence convincing. Reincarnation may never be scientifically proven, but studies such as Stevenson’s make a reasonable case for it.
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The question remains, How can we explain young children’s detailed memories from a previous life, in conjunction with physical characteristics that are consistent with the violent death in that life, without the idea of reincarnation? And how can it be possible for some Buddhist lamas, such as the Karmapa or the Dalai Lama, to write down, before their deaths, exactly where and when they will be reborn? And what about so-called annunciation dreams telling a mother-to-be, sometimes even before conception, the gender and character of her unborn child?
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Some NDEs involve the experience of what appear to be previous lives cut short by a violent death, as we saw in an earlier chapter, while regression therapy under hypnosis, which lifts the inhibiting function of our waking consciousness, also frequently elicits reports of experiences from a previous life.
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These experiences have left many NDErs open to the idea of reincarnation.