Consciousness Beyond Life by Pim Van Lommel, M.D.

The First, Best Hard Science Look At NDEs (Note to materialists: scientifically speaking, life is but a dream)

Wow! This book shot up to the top echelon of my all-time favorite reads. It’s a big book and much of it fairly technical, but it is well worth the effort. Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of Near-Death Experiences by Pim Van Lommel, M.D. (hereinafter 'PvL').] PvL is a reductive materialist turned quantum wonk as the result of his studies of near-death experiences in his cardiac patients. He has not experienced a NDE himself.

A better, but less snappy, title for this book would be “Consciousness is Non-local”. The second part of the book sets forth a robust dissertation that consciousness arises from quantum processes probably linked primarily to DNA, and sprinkled with awe-inspiring examples drawn from the annals of science. To use the Metaphor of Our Age (computers) in a crude analogy, consciousness is to humans as the Cloud is to computers. The second half of the book sketches a science-based metaphysics that is truly astounding and puts the first part of the book in context.

As to the first part of the book, it is primarily descriptive (empirical) and covers material that is standard fare for books about near-death experiences ('NDE'). It contains descriptions of NDEs from the POV of both the experiencer and attending medical professionals, and includes both subjective and third-party verified (‘veridical’) reports. PvL addresses and dismisses conventional explanations of NDEs as unworkable, including things like oxygen deprivation, hallucinations, dream-like recall and cheating.

His paper published in The Lancet on NDEs is discussed, along with three studies that verified his results. The paper is interesting, but it’s a statistically study of subjective changes to NDErs after the fact, and doesn’t address the root causes of NDE. The paper establishes that people experience life changes after an NDE that other non-NDE cardiac patients, including some that where clinically ‘dead’, don’t. For instance, in comparison to non-NDErs, among NDErs formal Church-going religion drops off sharply, but ‘spirituality’ goes off the charts. NDErs have a much lower opinion of the opinion of others; yet NDErs have dramatic increases in compassion for others. Most interesting, NDErs experience dramatic enhancement of psychic ability, especially early on (more on this later). In any event, PvL’s and the confirmatory studies deal with subjective changes as reported by NDErs, and can be safely ignored by the forces of materialism.

All that is very interesting, but I didn’t start festooning my copy of the book with post-it notes until the second half of the book. For the first time in my life, as soon as I finished the last page, I turned back to the first page and read it again (and festooned a bunch more pages).

Chapter 9: What do we know about brain function?

“This chapter will draw on scientific studies to prove that the materialist approach falls short in many respects and can no longer be maintained in its current form. It is now becoming increasing clear that brain activity in itself cannot explain consciousness . . . For decades, scientists have tried unsuccessfully to localize memories and consciousness in the brain. It is doubtful whether they will ever succeed.”

Actually, they can’t succeed.

It is misguided to search for neural correlates of consciousness. There are no such neural structures.
--- philosopher and neuroscientist Alva Noe

Whoops! There goes building a human computer brain.

In this chapter, PvL marshals forces from medicine, computer science, neuroscience, neuroplasticity, Libet (‘readiness potential’) and Penrose, etal. to argue that consciousness and memory are not fully the product of the brain. For instance, the brain is not conceivably big enough to store a life-time of memories, and people can function fairly normally with a fraction of our current brains. A comment I made on another thread comes from this chapter:

Your post expresses surprise that Einstein had a small brain, but that it may have had a different shape. As to smallness, there is no evidence to support the hypothesis that a bigger brain translates into increased intelligence. Let me give two examples. First, a young (3 yo) girl suffered severe developmental problems and epilepsy from conflicts between her left and right hemispheres. The doctors had no choice but to remove (and I mean cut out in its entirety) the left hemisphere of her brain. She now has half a brain, but shows almost no symptoms of her former affliction or the operation. She is developing normally—fluent in two languages, running and jumping about, and doing well in school. All with half a brain.

The second example of weird science is a young man in Britain who has a University diploma in math and an IQ of 126. Outwardly healthy, he suffers from a problem (hydrocephalus) that left his head filled with non-brain material (cerebrospinal fluid). His estimated brain size is a miniscule 100 grams. Normal human brains are about 1500 grams.

[O]ur thoughts can change the material structure of our brains at a microscopic level, because the brain is constantly adapting itself. So even talking therapy or imagination can change our brains.

--The Brain That Changes Itself

I doubt that believers in reductive materialism will be terribly shaken by the arguments presented in this chapter of the book—but we’re just getting started.

Chapter 11- Quantum Physics and Consciousness

This is the most theoretical and challenging chapter in the book. It changed my outlook. The chapter is too difficult to summarize, so I’ll just make some observations.

Quantum mechanics is magic.
-- D. Greenberger

In order to transition, let me here interject some quantum physics (this is my take, not van Lommel’s, but I think they are pretty close). Classical physics is the physics of the world we live in. Quantum physics is general physics, of which classical physics is a sub-set. The dual slit experiment, which demonstrates the “wave/particle duality” of light, is a meeting ground between the two physics. Just as classical and quantum are ‘complimentary’, so is local and non-local space complimentary, or dualistic. Non-local space (sometimes called “phase space”) is a place with no time or dimension or constant—it is ‘merely’ probability plus consciousness/choice. Our local space has been ‘localized’ by what we call observation (but it could be called ‘conscious choice’). A choice from an infinite probability was made which reduced or ‘localized’ our space into the world we know where there is time, there are three dimensions and there are constants—in short, a world where classic physics works just fine most of the time, and people can argue for reductive materialism (“that’s all there is”) and be right almost all the time. Yet everything in our local space/time remains ‘entangled’ with non-local space because our world is merely a manifestation of non-local space. Our world is real, it’s concrete, yet it and we are entangled with a higher order of phase space. Most importantly, consciousness (writ large) is the (a?) essence of non-local space.

I’m shocked, and I don’t even understand it!

Quantum theory mostly deals with particles, and only fairly recently have quantum effects been observed on macro particles. Studies have focused on ‘dead’ material and generally have ignored quantum effects on living systems. Penrose and others have been broadly criticized for suggesting that the brain functions on quantum physics, but increasingly quantum effects are being recognized in living tissue, for example photosynthesis

Quantum effects in dead matter are lower level expressions of non-local space. More complicated and more interesting quantum effects operate on the living.

Everything in quantum physics is still in flux. In fact, sometimes I get the impression that there are almost as many interpretations of quantum theory as there are physicists who specialize in the field -- Pim Von Lommel

Chapter 12: The Brain and Consciousness

Reductive materialist explanations of the brain don’t survive this chapter. It begins with an analysis of David Chalmers’ paper “Consciousness and its Place in Nature”. From that paper:

**The most important views on the metaphysics of consciousness can be divided almost exhaustively into six classes, which I will label “type A” through “type F.” Three of these (A through C) involve broadly reductive views, seeing consciousness as a physical process that requires no expansion of a physical ontology. The other three (D through F) involve broadly non-reductive views, on which consciousness involves something irreducible in nature, and requires expansion or re-conception of a physical ontology. **

Chalmers’ dismisses everything up to “type F” and then in essence rejects that too (type F includes ‘immaterial monism’ also called ‘panpsychism’ or ‘phenomenalism’). Chalmers argues for what he calls “panprotopsychism” or “everything has phenomenal (subjective or non-local) characteristics, but some things are more phenomenal than others”, by which he means life and everyday consciousness. This means sentient beings like humans have ‘higher’ or more complete access to non-local space via consciousness. At the lower levels of dead stuff, there is ‘merely’ entanglement and compliment.

PvL spends much of this chapter demonstrating theoretically that consciousness cannot be materialistic. He shows that consciousness is non-local—meaning it is instantaneous and everywhere, and wholly inconsistent with classical physics. We can’t really access it most of the time, but it’s there.

The remainder of the book includes, inter alia, relating the quantum theory of mind to NDEs, many fascination examples of non-local consciousness, and lessons that can be applied to medical treatment. I will briefly mention some of his examples of non-local consciousness (other than NDEs), because they’re pretty astounding. Here whatever reductive materialists remain will be left scratching their heads.

DNA

PvL suspects that DNA is the ‘receiver’ of consciousness. All of our body’s cells die and are replaced very quickly, except that DNA remains constant. PvL doubts that consciousness and memories can arise (or remain stable) from a body that totally turns over rapidly. DNA exists in every cell in the body and is constantly emitting a low intensity laser, which presumably communicates information (I was shocked to learn this—see page 283). 95% of human DNA is junk, and human DNA has more “junk” and less genes than many other living things (!).

Non-local communication.

White blood cells from a donor were transported 20 km and placed in a Faraday cage (blocking EM-fields). The cells where monitored and reacted when the remote donor experienced a strong emotional response, exactly as they would have if they were not remote. Flocks of birds and schools of fish react en masse to a threat with a reaction time that is much too fast to be communicated by classical physics means. Lock a queen bee in a Faraday cage away from her hive, and the hive proceeds normally. Kill the queen and the hive falls into chaos (shades of Schrödinger's cat). “Transplant memories” arise when a transplant recipient of an organ inherits feelings, emotions and behaviors of the donor.

Genius insight

I had a 600-level physics seminar taught by an ethereal genius who died young. He gave us a week-end take-home final exam. The problems moved from difficult, to nearly impossible to, finally, incomprehensible. By late Sunday night I had finally got around to the last one. Fatigued (I’d had a rich, full weekend) but still sharp, I stared over my desk at a cement-brick wall in the dingy basement I called home, and thought deeply about the problem. After some time of concentration, I had the sensation of moving through wispy clouds that ultimately cleared to a place where an equation was highlighted. I sort of grabbed it and returned to my test and wrote down the equation. I wasn’t sure about the equation, but it seemed to work, so I wrote some stuff around it and went to bed, dutifully turning the test in the next morning. The Professor was very impressed—I’d gotten everything right. (No drugs were involved in this experience, or any other for that matter.)

I never thought much about that experience until reading PvL’s book, but I think what I may have experienced was what he termed a “Genius Insight” (I only remember this one experience and wasted it on a stupid quiz). Einstein, Mendeleyev, Mozart and Brahms all described their greatest work as having come from special insights (Brahms said he saw the music in his head and just had to write it down, which is similar to my experience). I have read about this sort of thing many times, and wouldn’t be surprised if most of the great scientific insights are derived from this type of experience of non-local space.

Psychic Phenomena

I mentioned earlier that NDErs exhibited dramatic increases in psychic ability, especially for a period of time immediately following their NDE. PvL reports that these phenomena have been demonstrated to a high-level military delegation at the U.S. Capital, and that the military has a keen interest in the topic, as evidence by an Air Force report titled Teleportation Physics Study (see Addendum 1 below). That report includes the translation of Chinese official studies that include fantastic tales of psychic phenomena, including teleportation of objects (including insects) from within sealed containers to elsewhere. Of course, that is impossible.

[Astronaut Edgar Mitchell] walked over to a closet in the hallway outside this office and came back holding a large plastic bag. When he was still some distance away, I wondered if he was going to display samples of moon rock and moon dust – an astronaut’s pirated booty. But as he drew near I realized that the bag was filled with bent spoons. “I got these,” he sad, “during my visits with children, in the’70s, mostly in San Francisco and California.”

Fringe*ology

PvL also briefly discusses remote viewing, which I heretofore thought was no more substantial than a plot line from the movie “The Man Who Stared At Goats”. It turns out to be fact. Explain that, Materialists!

So ends my review and recommendation of this book, the most fascinating I have ever read.

As to a main concern nowadays — building a human brain — it is conceivable, but currently researchers are pursuing a wrong model; that the brain is ‘materialist’. You can make up all the neural nets you want, and it won’t ever be conscious. Even replacing the brain molecule by molecule is a fools errand unless you actually put DNA in there. It is certainly possible to build non-human like intelligence, but it won’t be ‘conscious’.

On the other hand, constructing or expanding human intelligence is conceptually simple. You merely need the card key to access phase space, hopefully fully, but at least partially. That card key would be one valuable thing.

Addendum 1 Those Damn Chinese!

Above I mentioned an Air Force’s contract report entitled “Teleportation Physics Study”. It reports on some very strange stuff. I’d heard about most of it at one time or another, but simply filed it away under “Fringe*ology”. The Study goes through a lot of physics before getting to a review of the weird science, which starts on page 55 and continues for about five pages. Here’s an excerpt concerning the Chinese studies I referenced in the OP:

Reported in several articles are experiments involving the videotaping and high-speed photography of the transfer of test specimens (nuts, bundles of matches, pills, nails, thread, photosensitive paper, chemically treated paper, sponges dipped in FeCl3, etc.) through the walls of sealed paper envelopes, double layered KCNS type paper bags, sealed glass bottles and tubes with sealed caps, and sealed plastic film canisters without the walls of any of these containers being breached. All of the Chinese experiments reported using gifted children and young adults, who possessed well-known extraordinary PK ability, to cause the teleportation of the various test specimens. In all the experimental cases that were reported, the test specimens that were teleported were completely unaltered or unchanged from their initial state, even the insects were unaffected by being teleported. The experiments were well controlled, scientifically recorded, and the experimental results were always repeatable.

“Gifted children and young adults” and all this quantum stuff brought back memories of Star Wars and the “Force”. It was like Lucas had some sort of ‘genius insight’ and then made it into SpaceOpera.

Addendum 2 Real World Examples of Genuis Insight?

Above I wrote about ‘genuis insight’:

Einstein, Mendeleyev, Mozart and Brahms all described their greatest work as having come from special insights (Brahms said he saw the music in his head and just had to write it down, which is similar to my experience). I have read about this sort of thing many times, and wouldn’t be surprised if most of the great scientific insights are derived from this type of experience of non-local space.

Here are some well documented weird science examples. A guy who slammed his head into a pool and was transformed into a musical savant.

The cranial blow . . . released black and white squares that to this day run through his mind’s vision “like a ticker tape,” . . . The squares stream 24 hours a day, serving as musical signals that prompt his fingers to glide over the keyboard. Forget feeling the music. Amato, who cannot read scores, literally sees the music, a condition known as synaesthesia.

A Colorado rancher becomes a genius after falling down ravine. She hears in colors after the accident, but doesn't remember before.

Addendum 3 Consciousness Is Never Going To Be The Same

Here are a few minding-bending links dealing with consciousness.

Dr. Michael Clarage discusses consciousness, concluding that it must be non-local. Eleven minutes and a must watch: The Mystery of Consciousness | Interview with Dr. Michael Clarage.

Here's Dr. Clarage's blog. He has a lot of interesting stuff there including reviews of many books that would interest those into this stuff.

Dr. Gary Schwartz has a very impressive resume (Harvard M.D., Yale professor, now at U. of Arizona where he has free rein to do weird stuff) including the founding of Open Science. Here's their manifesto for post-materialist science.

Here's a slick video from Thunderbolts (a fun electric universe site) featuring Dr. Schwartz that's really good!

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Here's another video dealing with consciousness, and something I've always (and to an extent, still do) viewed as flakey -- talking to the dead: Is Consciousness More than the Brain? | Interview with Dr. Gary Schwartz

Addendum 4 Dr. Sam Parnia Almost Captures Holy Grail: A Verdical Out-of-body NDE

Dr. Parnia specializes in bringing people back from the dead, and has shown that the window of survival is longer than previously expected. If that's your line of work, you'll probably run into a lot of NDEs. He decided to focus on NDEs, which resulted in his AWARE study (AWAreness during REsuscitation), a large-scale effort involving 2060 patients from 15 hospitals in the United Kingdom, United States and Austria, sponsored by the University of Southampton. However, of the 2060 patients in the study only 140 patients survived and could be interviewed for the study.

Of these, 101 patients had detailed interviews, which identified 9 patients who had an NDE. Of the 9 NDErs, two had detailed memories with awareness of the physical environment. One NDEr's experience was verified as accurate; the other was too ill for an in-depth interview. These two NDEs occurred in non-acute areas where no visual target was present, so further verification of visual awareness was not possible. AWARE study initial results are published!

Well, you only need one really good one. The results were released this August (2016), and will likely be fodder for future posts.

RedQ

Note: This article is my first post and is one of the posts discussed in Intro to RedQ in the Introduceyourself sub-forum.