A Great Shift in Consciousness
The Universe begins to look more like a great thought than like a great machine.
—PHYSICIST AND ASTRONOMER JAMES JEANS1
In the quantum universe—in which we increasingly live—there is no mind-brain problem because there is no radical separation between the mental world and the physical world. The new paradigm is here; we just need to open our eyes. It is my fervent hope that Brain Wars will be an important part of that process.
The wealth of scientific studies you have read about in the chapters of this book indicate that our thoughts, beliefs, and emotions can greatly influence what is happening in our brains and bodies and play a key role in our health and well-being:
Norman Cousins was one of a number of people who have demonstrated that our beliefs and expectations about medical treatments can stimulate our self-healing capacity, even in diseases as severe as cancer and Parkinson’s disease. And recent research suggests that our thoughts and emotions can even affect how our bodies can turn certain genes on or off.
Jake’s success in controlling his seizures and behaviors is one of many examples of how we can use neurofeedback to deliberately change brain processes that are normally not under voluntary control and improve our mental functions. As you have seen, other studies show that we can intentionally train our minds—through meditative practices—to enhance the activity of brain areas implicated in emotional well-being, compassion, and attention. Meditative practices can even alter the physical structure of the brain.
Our minds can be extremely powerful—far more powerful than we thought only a few decades ago.
The effects of the mind and mental abilities are not limited to the confines of the body. For instance, psi studies show that we can sometimes receive meaningful information without the use of ordinary senses and in ways that transcend the habitual space and time constraints. Still other psi research demonstrates that we can intentionally influence—at a distance—not only random number generators but living organisms, including human beings.
NDE studies show that people like Pam Reynolds can have veridical perceptions—corroborated by independent witnesses—during OBEs triggered by a cardiac arrest. These perceptions concern events that occur while the heart is not functioning. We know that the activity of the brain ceases within a few seconds following a cardiac arrest. Given this, the findings of NDE research strongly challenge the idea that mind is “only” a product of brain activity, giving rather more credence to the view that mind may be dependent on the brain “much as a radio transmission is dependent upon a receiver and broadcast unit.”2 Additionally, the mystical (or transcendental) component of NDEs occurring during a cardiac arrest supports the idea that the brain usually acts as a filter that prevents the perception of what could be dubbed other realms of reality. This aspect of NDEs also corroborates the idea that we are more than our physical bodies.
Mental activity is not the same as brain activity,3 and we are not “meat puppets,” totally controlled by our brains, our genes, and our environments. Indeed, our minds and our consciousness can significantly affect events occurring in the brain and body, and outside the body. We do have these immensely important capacities, and it is time for science to begin taking them seriously. But for this to happen, science—and all of us—must change the lens through which we view reality.
Fortunately, the scientific enterprise (as a method, not as materialist ideology) allows for all of these possibilities, and infinitely more. Materialist science, based on the classical Newtonian physics, took science out of the Dark Ages, showing us a world no one had ever seen before. Now there is another heretofore invisible world for us to see, one that the dogmas of materialist science obscure but that is brought into focus by the discoveries of quantum physics.
Toward the end of the nineteenth century, it became obvious that classical physics was limited; it was just not able to explain certain phenomena at the atomic level. The acknowledgment of these limitations led to the development of a revolutionary new branch of physics called quantum mechanics (QM), which smashed the scientific materialist worldview. In the words of theoretical physicist Amit Goswami, QM is “a new paradigm of science based on the primacy of consciousness. . . . The new paradigm resolves many paradoxes of the old paradigm and explains much anomalous data.” 4
The work of QM has effectively dematerialized the classical universe by showing that it is not made of minuscule billiard balls, as drawings of atoms and molecules would lead us to believe. QM has shown that atoms and subatomic particles are not really objects—they do not exist with certainty at definite spatial locations and definite times. Rather, they show “tendencies to exist,” forming a world of potentialities within the quantum domain.5 Werner Heisenberg, winner of the 1932 Nobel Prize in Physics, explained, “The atoms or elementary particles themselves are not real, they form a world of potentialities or possibilities rather than one of things or facts.” 6
The quantum world appears different from the physical world, but some elements may sound familiar. For example, a central feature of QM is called the observer effect: particles being observed and the observer—the physicist and the method used for observation—are linked, and the results of the observation are influenced by the observer’s conscious intent. This effect implies that the consciousness of the observer is vital to the existence of the physical events being observed. In other words, QM acknowledges that the physical world cannot be fully understood without making reference to mind and consciousness.7
In QM, the physical world is thus no longer viewed as the primary or sole component of reality. Most contemporary physicists agree with Wolfgang Pauli—one of the founders of QM—that the physical and the psychological, physis and psyche, should be recognized and embraced as distinct but complementary aspects of one reality.8 Regarding this issue, the mathematician and physicist John von Neumann raised the possibility that mind and consciousness constitute not an emergent property but rather a fundamental component of the universe. Regardless of whether it is the case, QM teaches us that we must consider mind and consciousness if we are to reach a more adequate conception of nature and reality.
Nonlocality (or nonseparability)—which Albert Einstein memorably referred to as “spooky actions at a distance”—is another remarkable discovery of QM. This concept is based on entanglement, the instantaneous connections that persist between particles (such as photons, electrons) that interacted physically and then become separated. These connections remain even if the particles are separated by enormous distances (for instance, billions of light-years). This counterintuitive aspect of nature has been demonstrated experimentally in a number of labs since the beginning of the 1970s. Nonlocality and entanglement suggest that the universe constitutes an undivided whole.9
Naturally, contemporary materialists strongly disagree with the conclusion that scientific materialism has failed and is currently breaking down. They argue that sooner or later, neuroscience will be able to completely explain mind and consciousness.10 These materialists do not seem to realize that future technological development will only allow neuroscientists to measure more refined correlates of mental activity.
Belief in the materialist worldview compels certain scientists and philosophers to neglect the subjective dimension of human experience and downplay the importance of mind and consciousness. In so doing, they create a severely distorted and impoverished understanding of human beings and reality.
Materialist scientists and philosophers are also led to consider certain phenomena such as psi, NDE, and mystical experiences (MEs) as anomalous. These phenomena are anomalous only to the extent that we cling to the false assumptions of scientific materialism. Seen and understood through the lens of QM, most of these phenomena do not appear anomalous at all. So-called paranormal events are, in effect, perfectly normal.
Physicists were forced to abandon the assumptions of classical physics and the scientific materialist worldview nearly a century ago, but the battles of the brain wars are still being fought by many neuroscientists. The time has come for my colleagues to embrace the many possibilities of the universe opened by the new physics and free their minds from the shackles and blinders of the scientific materialist credo.
The expanded model of reality you have read about in this book offers infinite and exciting concepts for science—and you—to freely explore:11
• This model acknowledges all the empirical evidences related to mind and consciousness, not only those that appear at first sight to be compatible with materialist theories.
• It includes the mental and the physical, the subjective and the objective, the first-person perspective, and the third-person perspective.
• It assumes that mind and consciousness are a prerequisite for reality because they allow us to perceive and experience the world. Stated otherwise, they represent an aspect of reality as fundamental as the physical world.
• It assumes that mind and the physical world are continually interacting because they are not really separated—they only appear to be separated. This means that there is a deep interconnectedness between the mental world and the physical world, which both arise out of the same source. This basic interconnectedness renders the mind capable of influencing various phenomena and events belonging to the physical world. Information may act as a bridge between these complementary aspects of reality. Some physicists go as far as to suggest that the whole of reality can be seen as a pattern of information.
• It assumes that mind and consciousness are not produced by the brain. This idea suggests that mental functions and personality can survive physical death. In other respects, MEs indicate that we are not encapsulated within our brains and bodies but, rather, connected—within the deepest levels of the psyche—with everything in the universe, as well as with the underlying source giving birth to both mind and matter. In this way, MEs represent a direct, intuitive apprehension of the undivided wholeness.
The scientific evidence you have read about in this book makes two things clear: scientific materialism is just plain false, and we humans are not powerless, biochemical machines. Together with exciting possibilities of the quantum universe, this evidence tells us that it is time to enlarge our concept of the natural world to reintegrate mind and consciousness.
This emerging scientific model of reality—this new paradigm of what is possible—has far-reaching implications. Perhaps most important, it fundamentally alters the vision we have of ourselves, giving us back our dignity and power, as humans and as scientists.
We are no longer at the mercy of Big Pharma: in many instances we can willfully choose to positively influence our health and mental functioning by being aware of our thoughts and emotions, and by training our brains.
Scientists, free of the materialist box, are now invited to embark on research into the whole gamut of psi phenomena, expanded and altered consciousness, and spiritual experiences.
Last but not least, the new paradigm fosters positive values such as compassion, respect, and peace. By emphasizing a deep connection between ourselves and nature at large, it also promotes environmental awareness and the preservation of our biosphere.
When mind and consciousness are recognized as one, we are again connected to ourselves, to each other, to our planet, and to the universe.
A great shift in consciousness has begun, bringing with it a profound transformation of our world.12