Consciousness and Modern Physics: The Limits of Science ~ Steve Pollaine

scienceandnonduality

Recorded at Science and Nonduality Conference http://www.scienceandnonduality.com/

Consciousness is either an emergent property based on the brain, a fundamental feature of the universe related to quantum mechanics and entanglement, or is something more fundamental than the physical world. What does the evidence show? If we examine children who remember previous lives and provide details that have been corroborated, accounts of near death experiences, mediums who speak with spirits, the experience of ghost hunters, shamanic practitioners, and the perceptions of enlightened masters, then the simplest conclusion is that our consciousness survives physical death, and existed before birth. If true, this means that our consciousness is not dependent upon a physical brain, and in fact is not dependent at all on the physical world. This implies that consciousness is more fundamental than any physical manifestation, and thus can’t be described in terms of quantum mechanical wave functions, the zero point field, entangled particles, or any other entity subject to the equations of physics. If true, then there must exist a reality that lies beyond the physical world that our awareness goes to after physical death. In fact, this reality, and consciousness itself, has been explored for thousands of years with subjective techniques such as meditation, inquiry, shamanic journeying, and the use of entheogens such as peyote, mushrooms or ayahuasca. The fundamental question for this conference then changes from “how does the brain generate consciousness” to “how does our body and brain interface with consciousness?” Does the randomness inherent in quantum mechanics allow consciousness to affect the physical world? The unity we long for will come as we bring the Sacred to the physical world.

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