Introduction
Throughout history people have reported psychic experiences (psi), and in more recent times, thousands of well-controlled scientific experiments have supported the validity of psi effects. Despite this documentation, however, the general scientific community rejects the notion of extrasensory perception (ESP) and psychokinesis (PK). Like the PE, psi is considered an “anomaly;” an unexplained deviation from the norm. They are anomalous since they cannot be convincingly justified by known current scientific theories. Thus, it can’t exist. But anomalies should not be considered irrational in any way, shape, or form. In fact, the parapsychological literature clearly indicates strong empirical evidence showing that psi exists, both at the microscopic (subatomic quantum scale) and macroscopic levels (classical physics).
The history of science clearly demonstrates that anomalies can lead to major discoveries and revolutions History also shows that not all scientists are the model of open-mindedness and rationality. Take for example the Wright brothers, who for years claimed to have constructed a heavier-than-air flying machine and to have flown it successfully. But despite this evidence, their claim was dismissed as a hoax by several American scientists.1 Most considered it impossible just like electricity – a mysterious incomprehensible entity which is invisible and visible, both at the same time. Even today, no one is absolutely certain what it is but we know how to use it. And the same can be said for ESP. Despite the lack of scientific principles to justify ESP, its existence has been experimentally proven beyond doubt.
Communication between minds is normal not paranormal, natural not supernatural, and is common between people, especially people who know each other well. You may, in other words, be able to exchange information that transcends space and time without the use of sensory systems and intentionally effect change in other people and physical systems at a distance. After a century of slowly accumulating scientific evidence, we now know that some aspects of psychic phenomena are real. Controlled experiments in ESP and PK, for example, have been validated through replicated well controlled experimental studies with “staggering probabilities against chance of having produced the results.”2, 3 Even Dean Radin, the Chief Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Science emphatically stated, “there is some way that humans are connected with the rest of reality in non-local ways.”4 In fact, a statistics professor published a paper in 1999 showing that ESP experiments actually produced much stronger results than studies showing a daily dose of aspirin helps prevent a heart attack.5 This chapter, however, is not an attempt to convince the reader to wholeheartedly adopt psi as a provable concept, but rather to present some of the more convincing evidence for one to make a more informed decision of the validity of psi within the context of the PE.
The Biofield
Overview: Are human beings entirely isolated from each other or does a biofield or “subtle connections” actually exist between you and the world at large? We know, for instance, that our body emits low-level heat, electric, and acoustical energy, but it may also generate a yet to be discovered energy as part of this human energy field. And this energy field may provide a scientific foundation of possible connections of living systems through an all-encompassing energy field that incorporates long-range interactions. The implications of its existence for scientific understanding and associated applications in medicine, health, and healing may be profound. For one, this unseen force may eventually help narrow the existing void among science, psi, the PE, and possibly even life itself.
The Torsion Wave: Noted physicist Nicolas Tesla was probably the first to realize that a force exists around the body. He called it a “higher octave of magnetism,” and he was spot-on. This extremely ultra-weak photon emission or “biophotons,” has actually been detected and accurately measured from cell cultures and from the body surface using sophisticated instrumentation.6 And with the creation of each biophoton there is also a torsion wave – a form of radiation that connects subatomic particles and spreads through space as a rotating energy current. Biophotons form an electromagnetic field, whereby frequencies of waves determine the strength and timing of a biological event, and provide the main signals and physical basis for cellular biological regulation.7
The torsion wave concept was developed by astrophysicist Nikolai Kozyrev using pendulums and gyroscopes. Like time, he described this “torsion field” energy flow as a sacred geometric spiral that controls time, space, matter, gravity and electromagnetism.8 According to physicist C. Swanson, this “torsion” force is everywhere, and when its “spin pattern changes, it causes a twist in space that carries effects.”9 This “spin” – the quantum version of angular momentum – is used to describe the properties of nuclei, atoms and molecules. And spins of molecules within the human body have even been observed to couple with other molecules several inches away.10 This form of communication or information exchange may even represent a cellular version of ESP or nonlocality. And if this is indeed the case, then a physiological basis and explanation for ESP may exist in the form of a torsion force that interacts with consciousness.
The Torsion Field and Consciousness: The torsion field, concommitent with the four conventional fields of the Unified Field Theory (electromagnetic, gravitational, and the two nuclear forces), may actually allow for the manipulation and even possible manifestation of consciousness. In fact, this higher dimensional field may actually be linked with your consciousness. Your biological biophoton torsion field, an energy which is over one million times greater than the body’s magnetic force, exists in a holistic form of coherence in electromagnetic waves, 11, 12 biophotons,13 and human intention. In fact, the torsion field may be the “missing ingredient which makes it possible to develop a true science of consciousness.”14
Torsion may interact with and possibly even represent consciousness itself. Kozyrev’s most controversial theory, for instance, was that human thoughts and feelings generate torsion waves of biophotons, and that even sudden changes in one’s thoughts, feelings and actions influence torsion fields. Consciousness, in other words, may be a “detectable force which can act on the environment both locally and remotely.”15 These effects have been studied for decades and the most important conclusion is that torsion force is a subtle energy; a higher dimensional field that may interrelate with consciousness itself. Kozyrev, in fact, claimed to have developed a complicated meter to measure the physical effect of his own psychological changes. And when he realized that his emotional thoughts had a greater effect on this device than did his intellectual thoughts, he considered this interaction between torsion and consciousness as rationale for “spiritual phenomena,” and the “physical” understanding of consciousness within a model of reality.16 As Kozyrev points out, consciousness is related to vibrations within a fluid-like “aetheric” medium, and acts like an unknown form of energy – time itself. Physicist Claude Swanson takes this concept to the next level in his contention that torsion energy gives rise to the “subtle structure of the aura and chakras, and also the long range signals used in distance energy healing.”17 The body’s DNA, therefore, may play an active role in ESP and may even be the receiver as well as the transmitter of your permanently evolving consciousness.18
Torsion waves are a fundamental feature of the physical universe. And like torsion waves, consciousness may possess quantum-like properties – nonlocality, superposition, and complementarity of a real and detectable force that acts on the environment both locally and remotely – biophotons. For this reason alone, the torsion field, combined with these forces, may provide for a “unified field theory that will extend the realm of science to include the effects of consciousness.”19 In other words, your mental intention alone releases energy in the form of a torsion field which causes a “ripple in the wave of time.”20 Consciousness, therefore, may be explained as quantum particles that carry information through a vacuum faster than the speed of light. And this may explain the mechanism that governs and regulates ESP.
Even leading physicist David Bohm considered the existence of subtle energies in his statement that, “The implicate order has many levels of subtlety. If our attention can go to those levels of subtlety, then we should be able to see more than we ordinarily see.”21 Like Tesla, Bohm may also be correct. In fact, experimental evidence demonstrates that the “torsion field operates holographically, without regard to time and distance.”22 Consciousness, therefore, may be a nonlocal electromagnetic system that does not exist in the physical world. And if this is indeed true, then YOU – your consciousness – actually operates as a torsion/scalar biofield. But don’t go bragging about this just yet until more evidence emerges, especially since supportive evidence for this concept is still evolving.
Experimental evidence, for example, has shown that photons released from chemical processes within the brain produce biophysical pictures during visual imagery. In one study, for instance, when subjects were dark adapted and asked to think about white light, reliable, physiologically densities of photons were emitted and measured from the right side of the brain’s cerebrum. More specifically, increases in photon emission from the head occurs while imagining light in the dark and is correlated with changes in EEG power.23
Scientist Tom Bearden got my attention to the point of almost “bragging” when I read his statement that, “all mind operations are time-like – they are comprised of scalar electromagnetic photon and wave functions.” We see this in plants and insects. The fact that plants grow more quickly when spoken to may be related to torsion waves created by human intention. The “cavity structural effect” created by bee nests is another example. Entomologist Victor Grebennikov, for instance, discovered that the unique shape of the nest allow bees to “harness and throw off large amounts of torsion waves” and this energy was even detected by human hands when the nest was shielded with thick metal.24 Torsion waves may also act as a guide to trees. As trees detect them, their roots grow around the bees’ structures rather than growing into them.25
If you are still unsure about the biofield, then ask physicist Buryl Payne, who alleges to have measured this unseen force using ordinary materials of just a piece of string, a few sticks of wood, metal, or plastic, and a few magnets. With these items, Payne constructed and suspended a frame with magnets over a subject’s head, and when the frames and magnets were placed in airtight bottles while the subjects placed their hands around the bottle, the frame consistently rotated a few degrees. Over a series of experiments using this technique, Payne noticed that healers and young children usually produced greater rotation of the frames, and the direction of this rotation reversed when the Moon was new or full, and when solar flares and geomagnetic activity increased.26 This bioenergy, therefore, may be the interconnecting force between you and the entire solar system.27 Consequently, there may actually be more science behind astrology than initially thought? Now, go ahead and read your horoscope for today.
Discussion: If torsion waves serve as connections in the realm of time-space, then instantaneous telepathic communication between people may seem plausible. Such phenomena like ESP and the PE may, therefore, be facilitated and explained by torsion waves through nonlocal correlations – the ability of objects to instantaneously know about each other’s state, even when separated by billions of light years. But we do not yet fully understand the implication of the biofield on the human condition. Theoretically, however, since the biofield may exist as quantum information flow that regulates the body’s cellular and neurological activity, effective alternative approaches in the treatment of psychological and physical illnesses may eventually be at hand.28
This is not a far-fetched idea, especially since biofield healing has existed for thousands of years in a wide range of cultures. And even today, physiological evidence is accumulating which suggests its’ therapeutic value in complimentary alternative medicine (CAM) techniques of healing. Energy medicine or bioenergetic therapies of healing, for example, are used by so-called energy healers who claim to sense and modulate “subtle energies” of the body to promote healing in the form of Reiki (Japanese spiritual healing) and qigong therapy (an ancient form of Chinese energetic medicine). But since we do not fully understand how biofield energy can be effectively applied to the human condition, medical research must continue to explore its’ potential benefits on the mind and body. After all, any alternative to adverse side effects of ineffective drugs is something we all need, especially since time, at least for us old folks, is quickly evaporating.
Human Entanglement: Are Minds Linked?
Overview: Theories in quantum mechanics (QM) tell us that your focused intention or consciousness can influence external events. Consciousness, in other words, is vital to the existence of physical events being observed. In other words, this so-called “nonlocality” enables YOU to make reality real. And this paradoxical notion must be taken into consideration to understand the nature of reality. This is so, since a non-local connection may allow for communication by thought transfer with other people’s consciousness, regardless of distance.29 And proof may be found in well-controlled experiments in parapsychology.
The discipline of parapsychology, the scientific study of interactions between humans and their environment, serves as part of the broader study of consciousness and the mind,30 and typically includes three major areas: 1) Extrasensory perception (ESP or the sixth sense: sensory information that an individual receives beyond the ordinary five senses). Extrasensory perception includes telepathy (mind-to-mind communication – being affected by someone’s thoughts or emotions, unmediated by the senses or logical inference; clairvoyance (obtaining information about a distant state of affairs, unmediated by the senses or logical inference, such as in remote viewing – someone accurately describes details of a place chosen at random by someone else); precognition/presentiment (acquiring knowledge without the mediation of human senses or logical inference about a future event – being affected by an event taking place in the future that could not have been foreseen, as in dreaming about an event before it occurs); and retrocognition (acquiring knowledge without the mediation of human senses or logical inference about a past event); 2) Psychokinesis (PK – the ability to influence a physical system or move an object without any known physical ways of doing); and 3) Survival of physical death; the concept of consciousness being able to operate separately or independently of the physical body and brain. This includes the notion of discarnate human spirits who have survived the death of their physical bodies (ghosts, hauntings, and apparitions), mediumship and channeling (communication between physically embodied and other intelligent beings), near-death experiences (NDEs), out-of-body experiences (OBEs), and reincarnation.31
These concepts are more than just theory. In fact, both physiological (electroencephalography – EEG) and psychological (consciousness and intuition) based experiments tell us that one can even respond to external stimulation before consciousness processes the event; that is, intuitive perception may occur from nonlocal characteristics of particles at the subatomic scale – the “observer effect,” and quantum entanglement.
Entangled Minds: The experience of having our wellbeing impacted by the actions of others occur all too frequently with both positive and negative consequences. The negative comes from those who are argumentative, stressed, or pessimistic, while the positive can be felt from those who are compassionate, empathetic, and optimistic. This is true for the friend you meet on the street, the physician explaining your blood test results, and the driver who unexpectedly cuts you off with only inches to spare. These experiences are common and you’ve dealt with them accordingly, but there are those few indescribable awe inspiring moments that must have shocked you to your core. How do you explain, for instance, your absolute connection with the love of your life, the profound emotion you felt the moment your child was born, the horror and sense of connectedness with others following a major world event like 9/11, or the spiritual sensation of ineffability and unity with a divine force? This unseen force hits YOU hard and resides in the pit of your stomach. This gut wrenching feeling is far beyond the “fight or flight” reaction induced by your body’s elevated cortisol levels. It is a powerful connection with others and almost feels non-physical in nature with resulting impressions and memories that can last a lifetime. It feels as if an unseen force is in control. And this unseen force may actually be YOU.
Your intentions create your experiences and your reactions express your intentions. This often occurs unconsciously. Your intentions facilitate an action or a type of energy whether you are conscious of it or not. You have, for instance, an unconscious intention to marry to enable the survival of our species, to love and to be loved, and for spiritual growth. You create your own personal Heaven or Hell through unconscious intention. You are always being given chances to love and be loved, but how many times have you regrettably squandered this chance?
Telesomatic Events: Actual feelings and physical sensations triggered in another person by the intention of another, despite the distance between the individuals involved, is called a “telesomatic event.” This may be what is called “Karma” in action. Negative karma means that the person who produces harmful intentions towards another will experience that same behavior from that person. And the same is true for positive karma. And studies now suggest that its’ effects may actually be associated with linked minds.
Interpersonal connection or linked minds, for instance, is frequent among identical twins in which one twin feels the pain suffered by the other, and is aware of traumas and crises even if he or she is far away. The unique connection of mothers is also seen by incidents where they know when their son or daughter was in grave danger, or was actually involved in an accident.
Objective physiological evidence for an unseen connecting force that links the minds of people through conscious intention alone has actually been observed. Information produced by stimulating an individual’s brain, for example, has been shown to somehow be transmitted and instantaneously measured via EEG in a distant individual’s brain.32 And this information transference was more likely to occur if the individuals were closely related or emotionally linked, while meditating, or when attempting to communicate with the subject intentionally.33
In one study, for example, EEG results from individuals who were placed in separate rooms and asked to feel the presence of each other showed that their electrical activity in each brain hemisphere synchronized.34 And when one individual in one room was visually stimulated by a flickering light, a significant increase in brain activity was observed in another person in a distant room.35 These results have also been observed in separated identical twins. In two pairs of twins tested, for example, eye closure in one twin produced not only an immediate alpha rhythm in his own brain, but also in the brain of the other twin. What is especially significant, is that this startling finding was reinforced by ten replicated studies by independent research groups around the worlds, and of these studies, eight reported positive findings which were published in respected peer reviewed journals.36-40 Moreover, this confirming evidence was reinforced after a successful experiment by EEG expert Jiri Wackerman, who emphatically announced that, “no biophysical mechanism is presently known that could be responsible for the observed correlations between EEGs of two separated subjects.”41 This evidence indicates that you are indeed connected through space and time at the level of consciousness with others.
In another experiment to test the validity of nonlocal intuition, physiologist L. Hendricks observed an interpersonal EEG coupling between healer and subject pairs by which the healer produced a “connection between the healer and the subject.”42 Similarly, psychologist Dean Radin, asked subjects to imagine that they could perceive and alter a low-intensity laser beam in a distant interferometer. Astonishingly, the subjects were able to do so – their intuition alone modified the photons’ quantum wave functions and the pattern of light produced by this device. This result led Radin to conclude that, “intuitive knowledge arises from perceptions that are not mediated through the ordinary senses,”43, 44 and that “conventional explanations” for these results were “implausible.”45, 46 In fact, the notion of communicating on “invisible pathways” has been documented in experienced meditators who were able to willingly affect change in the pH of water in an electrical device using their intent alone.47 One study also showed that individuals successfully increased the energy field output of very weak emissions of light by up to 70 percent through conscious intention alone.48
Are Autistic Savants Telepathic? An autistic savant is an individual with autism spectrum disorder. These individuals seem to possess certain extraordinary cognitive abilities, naturally exceeding the abilities of those who may have practiced similar skills for a lifetime.49 And despite their severe disabilities, they demonstrate remarkable memory and calculation, as well as musical and artistic talents. Evidence also suggests that some autistic savants may also have an enhanced capacity for telepathic abilities.
Autistic savants have not undergone rigorous scientific investigation for psychic ability, although many of their skills are very psi-like. Some are capable of correctly calculating cube roots of over five digit numbers without knowing how to perform simple mathematical functions like addition or multiplication, and with no conscious derivation of the answers. These remarkable skills are even accepted by mainstream science because they have been reliably replicated.50 Neuropsychiatrist Diane Powell, for example, conducted an experiment with a severely autistic child named Haley. In this experiment, Haley and her therapist were seated at the same table separated by a partition. The therapist was given various pictures and equations and would glance at them one by one. As she looked at the images or equations, the therapist would hold another card with numbers, letters or images in front of Haley who would point to the number or image that she was thinking of. Incredibly, the numbers or images that Haley pointed toward were the same numbers or images on the therapist’s hidden cards. In one particular test, her answers were 100 percent accurate, and through all the tests, she never scored below 90 percent.51
To verify this result, Powell conducted two controlled sessions with two therapists who presented randomized numbers, sentences, fake words, and visual images out of view of the girl. She was then asked to “read the therapist’s mind.” The therapists were asked to write their own verbal descriptions of the images for comparison to the girl’s answers. Haley was asked to give all the numbers in the equations and to duplicate the answers generated by the author with a calculator. Results from the first session with one therapist were amazing. She scored 100 percent accuracy on three out of twenty image descriptions containing up to nine letters each, 60 to 100 percent accuracy on all three of the five-letter nonsense words, and 100 percent accuracy on two random numbers: one eight digits and the other nine. Results from the second session also showed 100 percent accuracy on six out of twelve equations with 15 to 19 digits each, and between 81 to 100 percent accuracy on sentences of between 18 and 35 letters. In light of these extraordinary results, Powell concluded that: “The data is highly suggestive of an alternative, latent and/or default communication mechanism that can be accessed by people born with severely impaired language abilities.”52 These results, in combination with other successful ESP experiments, led psychologist D. Eysenck, to conclude: “Unless there is a gigantic conspiracy involving over thirty colleges and several hundred highly respected scientists in various fields, the only conclusion the unbiased observer can come to must be that there does exist a small number of people who obtain knowledge existing either in other people’s minds, or in the outer world, by means as yet unknown to science.”53
Synchronicity
Overview: Are things indeed “meant to be” at some deeper level? Or is the universe revealing random events as we seek to find the thread that links them together? It may be “synchronicity” – a term often used as a synonym for coincidence, as in, events that trigger the exclamation… “What a coincidence!” or “What are the chances?” At times, however, coincidences are perfectly designed as an unbelievable experience of timing and meaning that is impossible to ignore. We’ve all had them. And they happen when you see a meaningful connection between an external event and your own internal state. Such events can be relatively minor occurrences or, in some cases, significant events that alter our lives. The impactful significance and profoundly life changing meaning of a synchronicity has long fascinated humankind. And it may even help us to understand the nature of the PE.
There is a fine line between intuition – a feeling that makes it possible to know something without any proof (internal), and synchronicity – something totally unexpected and timed to wake us up to our connection with reality (external). The difference between intuition and synchronicity is this: Intuition is having a sudden desire to phone a friend who you haven’t talked with in a while when they suddenly call you – in contrast, synchronicity is feeling a sudden desire to talk with this friend and as you begin to phone, they suddenly call you. In this case your intention initiates the act (first event) and synchronicity answers your intent (second event).
“Synchronicity” is the meaningful relationship of related internal (first) and external (second) events that go a step or two beyond an unusual chance occurrence. They are totally unexpected and timed to startle and wake us up to our connections with other realities around us in a way that cannot be explained by cause and effect. One is left bewildered trying to make sense of it. Or not? When the seeming absurdity of such random improbable events occur, rare and fleeting though it may be, our sense of reality is momentarily questioned. Something happens within us that may shock us at our core – as if there is some kind of meaning behind it all. For some, there is a feeling of profound awe.
Synchronicity and One Mind: We have all experienced the sense of understanding the way things really are, especially when this experience is accompanied by a feeling of compassion and love. Anyone who has been deeply in love experiences the inexplicable fusion of two people, like the love of a mother for her baby, or the love between true “soul mates.” People who are emotionally close often exchange thoughts, feelings, and emotions, despite being apart. In this nonlocal effect, a parallelism cannot be explained causally. Is it an invisible field effect linking multidimensional spaces as the PEr believes it to be?
Synchronicity is in control when the experience contains significant meaning to the individual, and which occurs at a specific time, that makes the experience all the more meaningful. The classic example is a mother who “just knows” that her child is in danger, even though far away – as if the mother and child have a linked mind. And, not to her surprise, the mother arrived just in time to prevent the child from serious injury. Synchronicity, in other words, represents the boundary between meaning and time.
Now, here’s an old gamblers joke: A man wakes up and looks at his alarm clock which reads 5:00 am. He turns on the TV to see that the 5 o’ clock news is on channel 5. He takes 55 minutes to get ready for work, goes down to street level and takes the number 5 bus to 5th street to where he works at 555 Fifth Street. He takes the 5th elevator to the 5th floor and notices his office is on the 5th door to the left. And it’s his 55th birthday so he figures this is a message from God and that there’s got to be some way to take advantage of all these remarkable coincidences. So, he sits down at his desk and he finds the cleaning staff has left a racing form on his desk. He looks at the number 5 horse named Lucky Fives in the 5th race, and figures this is a sure bet to make a lot of money. So, he bets $5,000 with his bookie for that horse to win. He waits ‘til 5 o’ clock to call back and says, “How did my horse do?” The bookie says, “He came in 5th.”54
This poor attempt at humor aside, these sequences actually happen to people all the time. What materializes is that one’s conscious or unconscious intent influences the person’s future experiences. If we are actually “seeing” our “own projections,” then we may actually be creating our own reality. But while intriguing to contemplate, it may not be all good. After all, it’s an unexpected puzzling thing which can make people think they’re going crazy, especially when caught in a series of synchronistic events of their own making.55
Synchronicity is a part of life that has no definite explanation. To explain such remarkable events psychologist Carl Jung, coined the term “synchronicity”: “The coming together of inner and outer events in a way that cannot be explained by cause and effect and that is meaningful to the observer.”56 One such example is as follows:
“In 2012 I was doing research for a novel. The story would hinge upon an unlikely combination of geopolitical events that might lead to the collapse of civilization. To get to grips with the subject I bought an excellent academic book called ‘Collapse’ by Jared Diamond. Diamond is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author who has made a lifetime study of these things. After I read the book, I composed an email to Jared Diamond. I wanted to explain the central concept of my novel to see if he thought it was realistic enough to be defensible. But he’s a professor in Los Angeles and I’m a writer in England. Could I ever get through to him? I tried to guess his email address, but all my attempts failed. So I gave up and took a vacation. We were off to Indonesia to look for the world’s rarest rhinos. In a remote forest in Sumatra we found ourselves staying at a tiny eco-lodge. But there were two other tourists at the lodge – so we shared a table at dinner and got to talking about birds and rhinos. One of tourists was an American – it was Jared Diamond. And I promise – I had never come across him before.”57
Such an experience seems to defy all logic and mere coincidence. It can certainly be debated if meeting Jared Diamond at this time, and in this way, was a coincidence and nothing more. But the nature and the timing of the event, which provides profound significance and meaning to the individual, makes it something uniquely different that a mere coincidence. This is synchronicity at work.
Discussion: Synchronicity is an aspect of consciousness which may not have its origins in the material world, but instead, in the nonlocal energy field referred to as – the biofield, semantic field theory (SFT), and the collective unconscious. Like consciousness, this field may operate as a nonlocal inter-connective force that unifies us in real-time, without regard to space and time. But whatever it is called, an unseen force may actually represent the missing link that facilitates synchronicity, ESP, and even aspects of the PE. According to the SFT, for instance, “one “injects meanings into the semantic field, modifying its organization, while the modified organization is “retrojected back” to the subject; this loop continues as long as the person continues to generate new meanings about the event, and may start all over again the next time one thinks about it.”58 In other words, our intentions may influence our future life events in an “interactive way” that may allow for synchronicity.
Those who believe that they’ve had a meaningful coincidence in their lives often experience feelings of wonder and amazement attributed to a form of destiny, mysticism, or existential importance. But meaning, a central component of synchronicity, cannot be obviously recognized or adequately defined since “meaning” is not scientifically testable. Thus one major obstacle is in trying to scientifically explain what a meaningful coincidence is, and the possible mechanism that facilitates it. And this mechanism may have its roots in the illusion of time.
The Illusion of Time
Overview: Time is an illusion. It doesn’t really exist, but we are taught that it does. We have all learned to consider the past as something that happened, and that the future is about to occur. But that’s an illusion because the past and future really don’t exist at this very moment. The past and future are just simple language based words to describe a present moment; instead, they are all transpiring simultaneously through our individual consciousness. In other words, time is interrelated with our consciousness – the brain archives and can recover past experiences. Our past memories and reflections, along with our thoughts and intentions towards the future, are one of the same. We’re just experiencing them from different sides of time’s illusion.59, 60 And with this in mind, physicists are now telling us that the past and future are not absolute and depend on the reference point of the observer. But how can this be explained for it to be understood on a personal level?
Physicists are now telling us that everything that ever has existed, does exit, and will exist. Confused? Well, if we assume that the past, present, and future, all exist simultaneously, than it may be theoretically possible for you to access the future of “you that is experiencing your highest and best reality and outcomes. You may feel like you’re postulating intentions of future actions, but instead, may simply be receiving the memory of that version of you. This is practical in the sense that if the memories of our future self exists right now, then it may be theoretically possible to make strategic purposeful decisions based on thoughts coming to you from the future “you” that has already experienced it. If reality is indeed flexible in this way, then foreseeable possibilities can be transformed into certainties.
Try to access the illusion of time by feeling for those thoughts that are the most aligned for you right now. Maybe this is the “gut feeling” we have all experienced and regard as being true. And how many times do we remind ourselves that “we should have acted on that feeling? Maybe life becomes more manageable when we begin to practice it.61, 62 This may be what neuroscientist Christof Koch implied about intuition and that “meaning” exists in the universe. Koch said: “I can’t really describe it. I just feel the universe is filled with meaning. I see it everywhere and I realize it’s a psychological mindset. I fully realize other people don’t have this. I have it. It’s very difficult to explain where it comes from. I just have this firm belief and the experience of numinosity. It’s difficult to put into words.”63 What may be difficult for Koch to “put into words” may be more easily explained by what psychologist Imants Barušs described by “meaning fields.”64 According to Barušs, “meaning fields affect reality through whatever mechanism it is that human beings use when they are remote viewing and remote influencing (ESP). They structure the form that events take at any level of existence. They are not only spatially nonlocal, but temporally nonlocal, in that the content of meaning fields can be modified by events from the past or future. Events are “tuned” to one meaning field rather than another. Meaning fields can interact directly with human meanings so that human beings can “tune” to different meaning fields as well as modify meaning fields according to some weighting algorithm.”65
This explanation may represent a major step towards the elimination of time from the description of the universe. In fact, this idea may have been established by physicists John Wheeler and Bryce Dewitt who developed an equation in which time had no role. This theory was advanced by physicist Julian Barbour, who believed that “time” is nothing more than changes that lead to the illusion of time.66 It is important to note, however, that such concepts are inconsistent with the Newtonian concept of linear time and that of the 4th dimension proposed by Einstein. But while theoretical evidence in the world of math can provide the needed foundation to support the illusion of time, empirical evidence is also required to verify the concept of synchronicity, and it’s interrelationship with this illusion of time. Science has not yet determined the nature of time itself or why it seems different (both perceptually and in the equations of quantum mechanics) than the three dimensions of space but the answer may help to explain synchronicity.
The proof likely requires yet to be realized scientific principles to test under controlled experimental conditions in humans.67
Is The Future Now?
Overview: Telepathy experiments indicate that information can be transmitted via intention across space. But is it possible to detect information about an event before it actually occurs? Experimental evidence of precognition have been conducted for decades. In fact, a meta-analysis of over 300 precognition studies published before 1990 produced odds against chance of 10 million billion to one. Chance can’t be in control with these odds.
Experimental findings in ESP suggest that consciousness can exist beyond the brain. This implies that an aspect of ESP known as precognition may also allow you to access information which does not exist. In other words, knowing future events can change the past.68 More specifically, precognitive events or the ability to respond to a future event that could not be anticipated by any normal inferential process, usually appear to individuals as a flash or spontaneous vision. For example, a mother who has a vision of her child injured at the park quickly arrives to find her child about to fall from a swing. Another example is of a person who is about to board an airplane and has a vision of a crash that is so meaningful that he decides not to board the plane. He finds out later that the plane crashed. These occurrences illustrate how information can flow from the future to the present. But this notion doesn’t “feel right” because our commonsense impression of time is purely linear: at a given moment we are at one point on a dimension linking the past, the present, and the future. It may be possible, however, to move about this linear channel to another time where the past and the future may be observed. There are, of course, no agreed upon scientific principles of the physical world that can explain this, but experimental evidence suggests this may be true.
Experimental Evidence: In the quantum world, time runs both backward and forward whereas in your reality, it only runs forward. A recent discovery, however, has added a major new spin on this concept. A subatomic particle, for instance, not only moves backwards in time, but its state in the past can also be altered by knowing its future outcome.69 While seemingly confusing, this finding is significant. For one reason, it supports the first testable framework for the investigation of anomalous psychological properties in the groundbreaking studies by eminent research psychologist Daryl Bem. His experiments demonstrated that future practice might influence present performance – retroactive influence.70 One of the most impressive findings from Bem’s precognitive experiments was that practice on a list of words after a word-memory task was correlated with significant improvements in recall for the words that would subsequently be practiced. That is, instead of presenting the stimuli and then measuring the response, Bem reversed them in time and measured the response before the stimuli were presented – “retroactive causation.”71 Incredibly, the subjects were significantly better at recalling words that they would later type. Thus, the cause became the effect. But does this prove that people unconsciously know what will happen in the future? Possibly.
Several experiments, for example, have shown that brain activity and unconscious emotional arousal occur appropriately before a stimulus is presented. This is called presentiment – the sense that something is about to occur, but without conscious awareness of a specific event.72, 73 In fact, compelling evidence from an analysis of experiments from many independent laboratories have consistently showed that humans do indeed unconsciously react to future stimuli. Researchers, for example, have shown that physiological measures such as heart rate, blood volume, and skin-conductance activity can be used to determine precognitive effects while participants viewed a randomized series of emotional stimulating images.74
Psychologist Dean Radin pioneered a novel way to study precognition experimentally by exploring whether further emotional states (future feelings) are detectable in nervous system activity. With subjects seated and affixed with electrodes to measure their emotional reactivity, he observed that skin-conductance activity reacted appropriately consistent a few seconds prior to randomly shown emotionally calming or upsetting computer pictures.75 Most of the pictures were emotionally neutral, but on randomly selected trials, a highly arousing erotic or negative image was displayed. As expected, participants showed strong physiological arousal when these images appeared. But the important “precognition” result was illustrated by the significantly different physiological changes preceding future emotional events, as compared with calm events. This arousal occurred between 2 to 4 seconds before the picture actually appeared on the screen – even before the computer randomly selected the picture to be displayed. Bodily functions, in other words, began to change several seconds before the image was randomly selected by the computer and shown on the screen.76 This is a convincing result. But even more persuasive was that subsequent studies by various researchers successfully replicated this outcome over twenty times.77-79
Radin’s many presentiment experiments revealed the same striking outcomes with combined odds against chance of 125,000 to one. These results were also replicated by independent researchers using an fMRI scanner while subjects looked at computer images.80 After each picture presentation, they were told to remain as calm as possible and to avoid thinking about the previous pictures. On each trial, the pictures were presented randomly – no one knew in advance which picture was about to be presented. Incredibly, specific areas of the brain involved in emotion were activated in ten subjects before erotic pictures appeared.81 This suggests that the brains of the subjects were somehow responding to future events. In fact, there have been over forty replications of the presentiment experiments with physiological measures.
In another presentiment experiment, researchers measured the time it took for a touch stimulus on a patient’s skin to reach the brain as an electrical signal.82 The patient was also asked to push a button when he or she became aware of being touched. Surprisingly, the brain transmitted the stimulus in 0.0001 of a second after it occurred, and the patient pressed the button 0.1 of a second after the stimulus was applied. Remarkably, however, the patient didn’t report being consciously aware of either the stimulus or pressing the button for almost 0.5 second. Thus, the decision to respond may have been made by the patient’s unconscious mind – an outcome which forces one to speculate if “free will” does not even exist.83 Similar findings by neuroscientist Hunt, for instance, led her to conclude that, “I think we have way overrated the brain as the active ingredient in the relationship of a human to the world. It’s just a real good computer. But the aspects of the mind that have to do with creativity, imagination, spirituality, and all those things, I don’t see them in the brain at all. The mind’s not in the brain. It’s in that damn field.”84 This so-called “damn field” may even be responsible for the finding by researchers of EEG correlations between the brains of spatially separated people. In other words, objective measures of a subjective sense of connection via non-local intuitive perception may be reflected in brain activity.
Collectively, this evidence suggests that the brain’s regulatory mechanism may be activated just before conscious will to allow a brief period for consciousness to override a decision – the unconscious mind allows one to bring information into conscious awareness. Consequently, nonlocal intuitive perception appears to be predictive of randomly selected future events; that is, the mind somehow anticipates these events more often than chance, and is based on physiological activity in the autonomic and central nervous systems. In other words, you can perceive your future. But the question remains as to whether or not the perception of your future is a pure unconscious related outcome or if the brain somehow interacts with a field of information (SFT) for the answer.
Discussion: The experimental evidence shows that people can somehow access information that does not exist in the present time. Time, therefore, not only runs both backward and forward in the quantum world – it does so in your physical world too. Although the awareness of future events that are eventually realized (precognition) appear to exist on an “unconscious” level in experimental settings, this awareness is also reported as a usual “conscious” occurrence during a PE. The PEr, for instance, typically reports alterations in time, and access to all information that exists in the past, as well as, the future. For this reason, another piece to the PE puzzle fits. That is, additional experimental evidence provides supporting corroborative evidence to the anecdotal descriptions of the PE.
The many controlled replicated studies demonstrating a compelling unconscious reaction in the form of changes in physiological activity just before conscious awareness, indicates that you may very well have an unconscious ability to know the future. So, do you unconsciously know the future before our conscious awareness does? Well, based on these positive study outcomes, several well-respected researchers provided a definitive answer to this question by stating: “Barring widespread collusion among independent investigators, it appears that nonconscious access of future, unpredictable information is possible.”85 And I accept this conclusion, especially since it has been verified by numerous independent investigators. But I am still left wondering how this is accomplished. After all, only theories exist to explain it. And one popular, albeit controversial theory, is that you are able to construct “concrete” reality by interpreting information from another dimension which transcends time and space. While this may sound more “woo woo” in nature than agreed upon scientific principles, prepare yourself, because this may actually be allowed for by the quantum hologram.
Global Consciousness
Overview: Evidence to support the PE and non-local intuition is an important step towards understanding how consciousness is not limited to the brain and how it may relate to the PE. After all, if the mind interrelates with the physical universe, then your awareness – the thinking, feeling part of yourself – may not even be confined to the physical body. We have seen, for instance, that many physicists believe you are connected with the universe through nonlocal intuitive perception via a biofield, and that physical systems like the brain or mind can be moved, changed, or influenced without being physically touched by anything else. In fact, some of history’s most notable discoveries may have evolved in this way.
A prime example is when people acquire knowledge of things in ways that are inexplicable. The inventor Thomas Edison, for example, said, “I have never created anything. I get impressions from the Universe at large and work them out….Thoughts come from the outside.”86 The amazing life of Srinivasa Ramanujan provides another example. Born in 1887, he had no formal training or prior knowledge of mathematics before he began to see the Hindu Goddess of Namagiri in his dreams. Remarkably, nearly all the mathematical formulae he acquired in these dreams proved correct. And they even paved the way for later success in many other fields.87 Like Ramanujan, chemist Dmitri Mendeleev said he discovered the Periodic Table from dreams. The instant he awoke, he made notes of this table and the elements fell into place. Similarly, the grandfather of quantum physics Albert Einstein said the Theory of Relativity came to him in a dream, and the founder of Apple Inc., Steve Jobs, alleges his daydreams inspired the development of the I-pad and I-phone.88
When the mind is at rest and free of every day distractions, the sudden awareness of the solution to a problem – the so-called “Aha!” moment – has a greater tendency to emerge from the subconscious into conscious awareness. And because it occurs with little or no conscious effort leading up to that solution, some people think the information for the “Aha!” moment was “downloaded” from the universe. That is what Edison thought when he said, “I get impressions from the Universe at large and work them out.” The mind slightly relaxed or when in a sleep state allows it to explore different combinations of ideas to test out different solutions. And then once it arrives at one that looks promising, that is what pops into your head as an “Aha moment.” You may, therefore, actually think about solutions at an unconscious level prior to solving problems.89 And distinct neural processes in the brain may underlie the sudden flash of insight that allows people to “see connections that previously eluded them.”90 But don’t start taking more frequent naps just yet – other non-brain-like possibilities for your “Aha!” moments may exist. In fact, some neuroscientists think the answer lies in that “damn field.” And its possible existence comes from the startling results of the Global Consciousness Project.
The Global Consciousness Project: Is an unseen force or “global consciousness” created when people worldwide feel a sense of coherence or resonance among each other? And, if so, is this force strong enough to effect physical system? The possibility that human intention alone can affect physical systems was actually demonstrated after a decade of rigorous experimentation as part of the Global Consciousness Project (GCP) at the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Laboratory (PEAR). The results were dramatic and hard to ignore.
In this unique study, the output of a worldwide network of one hundred computer random event generators (REG), which continuously emitted ones and zeros in a random pattern, was analyzed by a supercomputer at PEAR to identify any statistically significant deviation from randomness influenced by major world events. Remarkably, such deviations were reported when major events elicited the attention of millions of people to a single point in time. This result occurred simultaneously with the terrorist attacks on September 11, the tsunami that devastated Southeast Asia, and the election of President Obama, among others. The odds against chance of this consistent result were less than 1 to 1 billion.
Researchers at PEAR also conducted a meta-analysis of about 600 REG studies by 68 different researchers. The overall results generated odds against chance beyond one trillion to one. In a separate series of experiments, over one hundred subjects were asked to try to intentionally influence the REG outputs to drift above the chance-expected average (the high aim condition) then the below-chance average (the low aim condition). The results showed that when the subjects wished for high scores, the REG outputs drifted up, whereas when they wished for low scores, the REG outputs drifted down. Estimates made of the results produced odds against chance of 35 trillion to one. Remarkably, in some of the PEAR experiments, the subjects were thousands of miles away from the REG, and no decline in effects was found as a function of distance.91 This conclusive result, combined with thousands of experiments with hundreds of subjects over the past two decades at PEAR, convincingly demonstrate that one’s intention alone can influence REGs to produce a significant change in the direction of their will. In fact, the extraordinary results from the GCP, led physicist R. Jahn to conclude that changes in REGs were caused by a field of consciousness strong enough to affect artificial intelligence” and proves “we are all one.”92
But while it is certainly encouraging to know we may be “all one,” what does this imply? Well how about this – humans can indeed exchange information without the use of their sensory systems and intentionally effect change in other people and physical systems at a distance. There exists overwhelming evidence to support the concept of a deeply interconnected “conscious universe.”93 And it is impossible to ignore, as too many closed-minded scientists do, the numerous studies which convincingly demonstrate that perception of reality without the use of physical senses is indeed possible.94-100
The GCP outcomes, combined with many other similar experimental results, are generally considered “implausible” and “anomalous,” especially since scientific principles cannot explain how intuition can both affect physical systems and obtain knowledge from the minds of other people from perceptions that are not mediated through the ordinary senses. And not surprisingly, these outcomes have caught the attention of the CIA. For example, one declassified CIA document on psychic ability titled, “Research into Paranormal Ability to Break through Spatial Barriers” stated, “A total of 50 experiments in the ability to break through spatial obstacles were conducted,” and of these, “25 were successful.”101 These results are precisely why the American Institutes for Research concluded: “The statistical results of the studies examined are far beyond what is expected by chance,” and that “the data reviewed constitute genuine scientific anomalies for which no one has an adequate explanation for.”102
Discussion: Parapsychological studies indicate that conscious intent is indeed a real and unseen force. An invisible connection between individuals does indeed exist and one’s intuition is capable of “gaining knowledge about the world.”103 But although evidence of how one’s intention can influence other people and physical systems has been justified, the mechanics of this transmission cannot be explained by traditional scientific models. This does not mean, however, that intention can’t exert influence on the physical world or the notion of “linked minds” isn’t valid. The overarching question is simply this: If minds are linked – then, so what? Well, one potential implication is that your “cooperative intent” may have “subtle but real consequences,” especially since you may be capable of communicating with others on “invisible pathways.”104
Science and the Peak Experience
Overview: An obvious paradox associated with the nature of PE triggers, like a NDE and OBE, pertain to the reported sense of one’s existence from outside one’s body during a PE. For example, during a PE, individuals allege to: 1) possess knowledge of existence in another dimension without a body, 2) perceive time as if the past, present and future exist simultaneously and instantaneously (nonlocality), 3) be linked with the memories and consciousness of oneself and others, including deceased relatives (universal interconnectedness), and 4) experience a loss of “universal wisdom and love” they had experienced during their PE upon return to their body and wakeful consciousness.
Attempting to explain such incomprehensible experiences that are undeniably inconsistent with medical and scientific principles present a unique and insurmountable challenge to say the least. But given the high incidence and pronounced behavioral impact of the PE on those who experience it, it is important to at least try.
Theories and Anecdotal PE Evidence: Scientific theories have been advanced to provide insight on the PE and the means by which consciousness and memories interact with other minds, the deceased, and NHEs. Evidence on the PE and NDE, for instance, suggests that the experiencer often returns from an apparent unseen realm with a firm understanding of the holographic interconnectedness of all things.
The PE is typically described as a dimension beyond where one has access to an infinitely interconnected informational realm. If we assume this to be true, as experiencers firmly claim it to be, then an aspect of consciousness likely behaves independently of the brain during a PE. Consequently, the question emerges as to whether the brain inhibits cognitive function rather than facilitating it by normal embodiment. After all, if consciousness is a byproduct of the brain, then if the brain is injured, consciousness should also be adversely affected in some way. But this is not the case in those who report to have had a NDE. Their reported experience contradicts what would be expected if consciousness is dependent on normal brain function, especially since during an NDE the brain is severely compromised.
Indirect evidence to support the notion that consciousness is not the brain comes from anecdotal reports by those who claim to have an OBE. In an OBE study of “objective perceptions,” for example, about half of the subjects (N = 48) reported “precise perceptions corresponding to verified details in the environment and/or to scenes which took place just as described, thus giving a precise idea of when the actual experience occurred.”105 The following anecdotal accounts of four individuals, who reported to have explored their surroundings during their NDE, exemplify how one’s consciousness is not adversely affected by their compromised near death brain state:106
1). “My displacements were subject to my will with instantaneous effect. Instant zooming of my vision, without any displacement on my part. When I was on the outside in the park at tree level, I remember experiencing this zoom effect very clearly since I could see inside a tree without having moved.”
2) “I see everywhere at once, except when I target an object towards which I am “hurled” at great speed, as if I was zooming onto it. It is like a rapid zoom to be there where I am looking. It is very pleasant and fun.”
3) “My consciousness, like a beam of light, can move around very fast, nearly instantly. This gaze, just like thought, can move about very rapidly.”
4) “Moving around is done as if time does not exist anymore. We “think” about where we wish to be and we make a volitional effort and we get there instantaneously since there is a sensation of movement, but very fast.”
If you believe these accounts to be valid perceptions of events without the use of one’s sensory system, then intuitively, you may believe your personal identity, intention, and free will, are not facilitated by the brain. Conversely, the traditional scientific viewpoint is that only matter exists, and that everything about one’s uniqueness and “self” is facilitated entirely by poorly understood neuro-electrochemical activity in the brain. These opposing viewpoints raise a critical question. That is, is an aspect of one’s consciousness or “I” (spirit or soul) absolute, unbounded by space and time, and not entirely defined and controlled by the brain? If you believe that a PE provides the means to access another reality and interact with NHEs, then this must be the case!
These similar PE accounts may be explained, in part, by integrating theories in physics and consciousness studies. And my interpretation, if I may cut to the chase and spare you the details, is that consciousness: 1) is not limited by spatial and temporal parameters (non-local); 2) may function independently of the brain; and 3) may be capable of experiencing other realms of existence. In fact, theories in QM support these and other types of characteristics unique to the PE. Similarities, for example, may be found between components of the PE and quantum field concepts of nonlocality, universal interconnectedness, and an alternate dimension beyond our time-space; that is, all events are related and influence each other instantaneously.107
The Quantum Hologram Theory (QHT) may provide the essential underlying principle to explain the PE. The QHT, addresses how at the quantum level, everything such as atoms, cells, plants, animals, and people are connected within a network of information. And according to many physicists, the PE may be explained by the QHT – a “shift” in consciousness from one dimension of the hologram to another. This abstract concept may be represented in the PErs descriptions of “no time,” “eternal present,” and “being out of time” – a form of time alteration not consistent with your physical reality.108
In a holographic universe, the past, present, and future all exist simultaneously; a phenomenon documented in the PE trigger – the NDE. This concept may be supported by the following testimonies by individual NDErs:109 1) “Feeling that time no longer existed,” 2) “In fact, there was no time, it was like a moment of eternity,” 3) “Time did not exist. Now it’s a real knowledge for me, time does not exist,” 4) “On the other side, time does not exist. One truly realizes it. Time is a completely mental concept. A thousand years may be instantaneous,” 5) “I had a horrible feeling of eternity. I had an experience where time no longer unfolded. Furthermore, no past, no future, just an eternal present. I had the feeling that all that was real, the feeling of “living” in eternity,” 6) “Past, present future are merged in a single concept, that’s what I experienced,” 7) “The notion of time has nothing to do with ordinary life, that’s for sure. Physical, material time does not exist. Time does not flow. To say that there is another “time system” I do not know,” and 8) “Time is no longer linear. Your own life is in 3D and the fourth dimension is fully integrated. At that time, if I had watched a man, I could have known everything about him. His age, height, blood type, his siblings, the amount of all his taxes, his diseases. All in a single concept.”110
The unique similarity of such anecdotal reports suggest that consciousness could be the result of interactions between 4D and 5D phenomena and/or universes; a theory supported by neuroscientists, cosmologists, and philosophers. This paradox may best be explained by assuming that if we try to take apart something constructed holographically, we only get smaller wholes instead of the pieces of which it is made. This “whole in every part” nature of a holographic universe may represent the mystical features reported in the PE.
Now, if we take this to the next level, as many more physicists seem to do each day, it is not outside the realm of possibility that the universe is actually holographic in nature. That is, light energy, interacting with holographic information in a two-dimensional realm, produces a holographic projection of our three-dimensional world – the universe. This holographic information, therefore, may be the result of information existing outside the universe itself. My old friend and Harvard professor and astrophysicist R. Schild, even proposed that, “black holes” – super-dense, massive, collapsed, evolved stars and galaxy-center quasars – store “quantum holograms” and may even function as “nature’s hard-drives” by holding copies of the “quantum holograms generated by each new moment of human experience”111 And this notion has been repeatedly proposed by eminent scientists – especially since the universe is comprised of interfering electromagnetic waves – just like the holographic image that you marveled at years back in a science museum.
Theories and anecdotal evidence are all we have to support the “holographic universe” concept. But that’s an important initial step in a long-needed and evolving process to explain the PE. For example, you saw how time may be altered by a PE, but what about space? Well, PErs often report a change in normal visual perception and claim to: a) be “everywhere at once,” b) have an “enlarged vision,” and c) experience perception by transparency. Seven individual accounts consistent with the holographic concept are as follows: 112
1) “I visited various places I managed to identify afterwards. I remember a window in a village, a building with very white plaster, sand-carved windows. My curiosity was attracted to details. This is quite important, since we cannot do this normally, like seeing inside and outside at the same time, an impression of a quasi-holographic vision. Not a panoramic view, but seeing in front, behind, all details simultaneously which is completely different from ordinary sight. It is very rich.”
2) “I had a 360° spherical-like vision. I saw everything and had different points of observation: above, sideways, from the front, underneath, it was really extraordinary to see and be all of it at the same time. When I saw the sofa, the furniture and the room in which I was, I was simultaneously above, sideways, from profile, facing forwards… it was very clear.”
3) “Here you see this, then elsewhere you see something else, you know everything, from one place to another from the spot where you are. For example, if I want to go to the window, I have to move. But there you don’t move, you’re everywhere. Unbelievable, but it’s great.”
4) “I could see everything at once and if I focused on one thing, I could see this thing through any obstacle and in every detail, from its surface to how its atoms were organized, truly a global and detailed vision.”
5) “I could see in front and behind oneself simultaneously, through objects, a holographic view.”
6) “I felt like a soap bubble with eyes strolling about above at ceiling level, in a space which seemed a little “closer” than real space. Behind a wall was a woman dying in the resuscitation room. I saw the instruments, the doctors’ gestures and their conversation, I could see through the curtains which hung in front of the glass partition.”
7) “I could see up close and also transparently. I remember seeing a stick of lipstick in one of the nurses’ pockets. If I wanted to see inside the lamp which illuminated the room, I’d manage, and all of this instantly, as soon as I wanted to.”
These individuals are convinced that what they experienced during their PE is a reality and not an illusion. And quantum theory supports their personal accounts. That is, consciousness behaves in a nonlocal manner that is free of both time and space.
Discussion
A fundamental, yet seemingly elusive question, is whether QM may provide the conceptual framework for understanding the PE. And quite interestingly, the reported subjective PE characteristics do seem analogous to QM principles of time and space. But the overarching issue remains as to how consciousness may be experienced independently of the body during the PE. That is, is our consciousness itself a non-local phenomenon? Unfortunately, the answer will likely remain tenuous at best since explaining the PE using QM principles have not been seriously considered, let alone attempted, using an objective, testable framework. This major limitation is further compounded by the fact that mainstream science equates consciousness with the brain. And this is regrettable, especially since the initial first step towards explaining the PE should, at the very least, require the consideration that separation of consciousness from the body may be possible. This obstacle, however, may be circumvented by studying the inner workings of the brain itself. In fact, the PE may possibly be explained by studying the brain’s holographic-like behavior.
Despite objective evidence of correlations between nonlocal intuition and associated physiological measures, however, further justification is required to validate this cause-effect relationship. This is a necessary step to help explain the possible force which may govern and regulate the means for such information transmission; that is, consciousness is not constrained by time or distance. And as far as I’m concerned, ESP is indeed real. In fact, ESP will one day provide the foundation to explain the connection between one’s own consciousness and that of other living persons and the PE.
The supportive evidence of communication on “invisible pathways” justify the existence of ESP. And this is critical for understanding the PE, especially since PErs report telepathic communication with deceased relatives and NHEs via telepathy. Linked minds, therefore, may not only exist in your present reality as research studies indicate. It may also be a normal behavioral mode of communication during a PE. Thus, the pieces to explain the PE puzzle continue to evolve into a more coherent whole. The unique properties of torsion fields, and the results that conclusively prove minds are linked on invisible pathways, demonstrate the emerging view of life as information and energetic flows. This theoretical and experimental foundation may actually provide a model for understanding the PE and associated psychic phenomena.
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Harris, et al., “The neural correlates of religious and nonreligious belief,” PLoS ONE 4, (2009). 33. B. Johnstonea, et al., “Right Parietal Lobe-Related “Selflessness” as the Neuropsychological Basis of Spiritual Transcendence,” International Journal of the Psychology of Religion, 2012: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120419091223.htm. 34. L. Miller, et al., “Neural Correlates of Personalized Spiritual Experiences,” Cerebral Cortex 102, (2018). 35. D. Newberg, and D’Aquili, Neuroscience and Religion: Surveying the Field (Macmillan Reference Gale, Cengage Learning, 2017) 200-210. 36. D. Newberg, and D’Aquili, Neuroscience and Religion: Surveying the Field. 37. D. Newberg, and D’Aquili, Neuroscience and Religion: Surveying the Field. 38. J. Taylor, My Stroke of Insight (New York, N.Y: Penquin Group, 2006). 39. J. Taylor, My Stroke of Insight. 40. H. Brown, “What Really Happens In Our Brains When We Have Spiritual Experiences? 41. M. A. Persinger, “The Neuropsychiatry of Paranormal Experiences,” Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience 13, (2001): 515. 42. D. Newberg, and D’Aquili, Neuroscience and Religion: Surveying the Field.
The Science of Unseen Forces
Introduction
Throughout history people have reported psychic experiences (psi), and in more recent times, thousands of well-controlled scientific experiments have supported the validity of psi effects. Despite this documentation, however, the general scientific community rejects the notion of extrasensory perception (ESP) and psychokinesis (PK). Like the PE, psi is considered an “anomaly;” an unexplained deviation from the norm. They are anomalous since they cannot be convincingly justified by known current scientific theories. Thus, it can’t exist. But anomalies should not be considered irrational in any way, shape, or form. In fact, the parapsychological literature clearly indicates strong empirical evidence showing that psi exists, both at the microscopic (subatomic quantum scale) and macroscopic levels (classical physics).
The history of science clearly demonstrates that anomalies can lead to major discoveries and revolutions History also shows that not all scientists are the model of open-mindedness and rationality. Take for example the Wright brothers, who for years claimed to have constructed a heavier-than-air flying machine and to have flown it successfully. But despite this evidence, their claim was dismissed as a hoax by several American scientists.1 Most considered it impossible just like electricity – a mysterious incomprehensible entity which is invisible and visible, both at the same time. Even today, no one is absolutely certain what it is but we know how to use it. And the same can be said for ESP. Despite the lack of scientific principles to justify ESP, its existence has been experimentally proven beyond doubt.
Communication between minds is normal not paranormal, natural not supernatural, and is common between people, especially people who know each other well. You may, in other words, be able to exchange information that transcends space and time without the use of sensory systems and intentionally effect change in other people and physical systems at a distance. After a century of slowly accumulating scientific evidence, we now know that some aspects of psychic phenomena are real. Controlled experiments in ESP and PK, for example, have been validated through replicated well controlled experimental studies with “staggering probabilities against chance of having produced the results.”2, 3 Even Dean Radin, the Chief Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Science emphatically stated, “there is some way that humans are connected with the rest of reality in non-local ways.”4 In fact, a statistics professor published a paper in 1999 showing that ESP experiments actually produced much stronger results than studies showing a daily dose of aspirin helps prevent a heart attack.5 This chapter, however, is not an attempt to convince the reader to wholeheartedly adopt psi as a provable concept, but rather to present some of the more convincing evidence for one to make a more informed decision of the validity of psi within the context of the PE.
The Biofield
Overview: Are human beings entirely isolated from each other or does a biofield or “subtle connections” actually exist between you and the world at large? We know, for instance, that our body emits low-level heat, electric, and acoustical energy, but it may also generate a yet to be discovered energy as part of this human energy field. And this energy field may provide a scientific foundation of possible connections of living systems through an all-encompassing energy field that incorporates long-range interactions. The implications of its existence for scientific understanding and associated applications in medicine, health, and healing may be profound. For one, this unseen force may eventually help narrow the existing void among science, psi, the PE, and possibly even life itself.
The Torsion Wave: Noted physicist Nicolas Tesla was probably the first to realize that a force exists around the body. He called it a “higher octave of magnetism,” and he was spot-on. This extremely ultra-weak photon emission or “biophotons,” has actually been detected and accurately measured from cell cultures and from the body surface using sophisticated instrumentation.6 And with the creation of each biophoton there is also a torsion wave – a form of radiation that connects subatomic particles and spreads through space as a rotating energy current. Biophotons form an electromagnetic field, whereby frequencies of waves determine the strength and timing of a biological event, and provide the main signals and physical basis for cellular biological regulation.7
The torsion wave concept was developed by astrophysicist Nikolai Kozyrev using pendulums and gyroscopes. Like time, he described this “torsion field” energy flow as a sacred geometric spiral that controls time, space, matter, gravity and electromagnetism.8 According to physicist C. Swanson, this “torsion” force is everywhere, and when its “spin pattern changes, it causes a twist in space that carries effects.”9 This “spin” – the quantum version of angular momentum – is used to describe the properties of nuclei, atoms and molecules. And spins of molecules within the human body have even been observed to couple with other molecules several inches away.10 This form of communication or information exchange may even represent a cellular version of ESP or nonlocality. And if this is indeed the case, then a physiological basis and explanation for ESP may exist in the form of a torsion force that interacts with consciousness.
The Torsion Field and Consciousness: The torsion field, concommitent with the four conventional fields of the Unified Field Theory (electromagnetic, gravitational, and the two nuclear forces), may actually allow for the manipulation and even possible manifestation of consciousness. In fact, this higher dimensional field may actually be linked with your consciousness. Your biological biophoton torsion field, an energy which is over one million times greater than the body’s magnetic force, exists in a holistic form of coherence in electromagnetic waves, 11, 12 biophotons,13 and human intention. In fact, the torsion field may be the “missing ingredient which makes it possible to develop a true science of consciousness.”14
Torsion may interact with and possibly even represent consciousness itself. Kozyrev’s most controversial theory, for instance, was that human thoughts and feelings generate torsion waves of biophotons, and that even sudden changes in one’s thoughts, feelings and actions influence torsion fields. Consciousness, in other words, may be a “detectable force which can act on the environment both locally and remotely.”15 These effects have been studied for decades and the most important conclusion is that torsion force is a subtle energy; a higher dimensional field that may interrelate with consciousness itself. Kozyrev, in fact, claimed to have developed a complicated meter to measure the physical effect of his own psychological changes. And when he realized that his emotional thoughts had a greater effect on this device than did his intellectual thoughts, he considered this interaction between torsion and consciousness as rationale for “spiritual phenomena,” and the “physical” understanding of consciousness within a model of reality.16 As Kozyrev points out, consciousness is related to vibrations within a fluid-like “aetheric” medium, and acts like an unknown form of energy – time itself. Physicist Claude Swanson takes this concept to the next level in his contention that torsion energy gives rise to the “subtle structure of the aura and chakras, and also the long range signals used in distance energy healing.”17 The body’s DNA, therefore, may play an active role in ESP and may even be the receiver as well as the transmitter of your permanently evolving consciousness.18
Torsion waves are a fundamental feature of the physical universe. And like torsion waves, consciousness may possess quantum-like properties – nonlocality, superposition, and complementarity of a real and detectable force that acts on the environment both locally and remotely – biophotons. For this reason alone, the torsion field, combined with these forces, may provide for a “unified field theory that will extend the realm of science to include the effects of consciousness.”19 In other words, your mental intention alone releases energy in the form of a torsion field which causes a “ripple in the wave of time.”20 Consciousness, therefore, may be explained as quantum particles that carry information through a vacuum faster than the speed of light. And this may explain the mechanism that governs and regulates ESP.
Even leading physicist David Bohm considered the existence of subtle energies in his statement that, “The implicate order has many levels of subtlety. If our attention can go to those levels of subtlety, then we should be able to see more than we ordinarily see.”21 Like Tesla, Bohm may also be correct. In fact, experimental evidence demonstrates that the “torsion field operates holographically, without regard to time and distance.”22 Consciousness, therefore, may be a nonlocal electromagnetic system that does not exist in the physical world. And if this is indeed true, then YOU – your consciousness – actually operates as a torsion/scalar biofield. But don’t go bragging about this just yet until more evidence emerges, especially since supportive evidence for this concept is still evolving.
Experimental evidence, for example, has shown that photons released from chemical processes within the brain produce biophysical pictures during visual imagery. In one study, for instance, when subjects were dark adapted and asked to think about white light, reliable, physiologically densities of photons were emitted and measured from the right side of the brain’s cerebrum. More specifically, increases in photon emission from the head occurs while imagining light in the dark and is correlated with changes in EEG power.23
Scientist Tom Bearden got my attention to the point of almost “bragging” when I read his statement that, “all mind operations are time-like – they are comprised of scalar electromagnetic photon and wave functions.” We see this in plants and insects. The fact that plants grow more quickly when spoken to may be related to torsion waves created by human intention. The “cavity structural effect” created by bee nests is another example. Entomologist Victor Grebennikov, for instance, discovered that the unique shape of the nest allow bees to “harness and throw off large amounts of torsion waves” and this energy was even detected by human hands when the nest was shielded with thick metal.24 Torsion waves may also act as a guide to trees. As trees detect them, their roots grow around the bees’ structures rather than growing into them.25
If you are still unsure about the biofield, then ask physicist Buryl Payne, who alleges to have measured this unseen force using ordinary materials of just a piece of string, a few sticks of wood, metal, or plastic, and a few magnets. With these items, Payne constructed and suspended a frame with magnets over a subject’s head, and when the frames and magnets were placed in airtight bottles while the subjects placed their hands around the bottle, the frame consistently rotated a few degrees. Over a series of experiments using this technique, Payne noticed that healers and young children usually produced greater rotation of the frames, and the direction of this rotation reversed when the Moon was new or full, and when solar flares and geomagnetic activity increased.26 This bioenergy, therefore, may be the interconnecting force between you and the entire solar system.27 Consequently, there may actually be more science behind astrology than initially thought? Now, go ahead and read your horoscope for today.
Discussion: If torsion waves serve as connections in the realm of time-space, then instantaneous telepathic communication between people may seem plausible. Such phenomena like ESP and the PE may, therefore, be facilitated and explained by torsion waves through nonlocal correlations – the ability of objects to instantaneously know about each other’s state, even when separated by billions of light years. But we do not yet fully understand the implication of the biofield on the human condition. Theoretically, however, since the biofield may exist as quantum information flow that regulates the body’s cellular and neurological activity, effective alternative approaches in the treatment of psychological and physical illnesses may eventually be at hand.28
This is not a far-fetched idea, especially since biofield healing has existed for thousands of years in a wide range of cultures. And even today, physiological evidence is accumulating which suggests its’ therapeutic value in complimentary alternative medicine (CAM) techniques of healing. Energy medicine or bioenergetic therapies of healing, for example, are used by so-called energy healers who claim to sense and modulate “subtle energies” of the body to promote healing in the form of Reiki (Japanese spiritual healing) and qigong therapy (an ancient form of Chinese energetic medicine). But since we do not fully understand how biofield energy can be effectively applied to the human condition, medical research must continue to explore its’ potential benefits on the mind and body. After all, any alternative to adverse side effects of ineffective drugs is something we all need, especially since time, at least for us old folks, is quickly evaporating.
Human Entanglement: Are Minds Linked?
Overview: Theories in quantum mechanics (QM) tell us that your focused intention or consciousness can influence external events. Consciousness, in other words, is vital to the existence of physical events being observed. In other words, this so-called “nonlocality” enables YOU to make reality real. And this paradoxical notion must be taken into consideration to understand the nature of reality. This is so, since a non-local connection may allow for communication by thought transfer with other people’s consciousness, regardless of distance.29 And proof may be found in well-controlled experiments in parapsychology.
The discipline of parapsychology, the scientific study of interactions between humans and their environment, serves as part of the broader study of consciousness and the mind,30 and typically includes three major areas: 1) Extrasensory perception (ESP or the sixth sense: sensory information that an individual receives beyond the ordinary five senses). Extrasensory perception includes telepathy (mind-to-mind communication – being affected by someone’s thoughts or emotions, unmediated by the senses or logical inference; clairvoyance (obtaining information about a distant state of affairs, unmediated by the senses or logical inference, such as in remote viewing – someone accurately describes details of a place chosen at random by someone else); precognition/presentiment (acquiring knowledge without the mediation of human senses or logical inference about a future event – being affected by an event taking place in the future that could not have been foreseen, as in dreaming about an event before it occurs); and retrocognition (acquiring knowledge without the mediation of human senses or logical inference about a past event); 2) Psychokinesis (PK – the ability to influence a physical system or move an object without any known physical ways of doing); and 3) Survival of physical death; the concept of consciousness being able to operate separately or independently of the physical body and brain. This includes the notion of discarnate human spirits who have survived the death of their physical bodies (ghosts, hauntings, and apparitions), mediumship and channeling (communication between physically embodied and other intelligent beings), near-death experiences (NDEs), out-of-body experiences (OBEs), and reincarnation.31
These concepts are more than just theory. In fact, both physiological (electroencephalography – EEG) and psychological (consciousness and intuition) based experiments tell us that one can even respond to external stimulation before consciousness processes the event; that is, intuitive perception may occur from nonlocal characteristics of particles at the subatomic scale – the “observer effect,” and quantum entanglement.
Entangled Minds: The experience of having our wellbeing impacted by the actions of others occur all too frequently with both positive and negative consequences. The negative comes from those who are argumentative, stressed, or pessimistic, while the positive can be felt from those who are compassionate, empathetic, and optimistic. This is true for the friend you meet on the street, the physician explaining your blood test results, and the driver who unexpectedly cuts you off with only inches to spare. These experiences are common and you’ve dealt with them accordingly, but there are those few indescribable awe inspiring moments that must have shocked you to your core. How do you explain, for instance, your absolute connection with the love of your life, the profound emotion you felt the moment your child was born, the horror and sense of connectedness with others following a major world event like 9/11, or the spiritual sensation of ineffability and unity with a divine force? This unseen force hits YOU hard and resides in the pit of your stomach. This gut wrenching feeling is far beyond the “fight or flight” reaction induced by your body’s elevated cortisol levels. It is a powerful connection with others and almost feels non-physical in nature with resulting impressions and memories that can last a lifetime. It feels as if an unseen force is in control. And this unseen force may actually be YOU.
Your intentions create your experiences and your reactions express your intentions. This often occurs unconsciously. Your intentions facilitate an action or a type of energy whether you are conscious of it or not. You have, for instance, an unconscious intention to marry to enable the survival of our species, to love and to be loved, and for spiritual growth. You create your own personal Heaven or Hell through unconscious intention. You are always being given chances to love and be loved, but how many times have you regrettably squandered this chance?
Telesomatic Events: Actual feelings and physical sensations triggered in another person by the intention of another, despite the distance between the individuals involved, is called a “telesomatic event.” This may be what is called “Karma” in action. Negative karma means that the person who produces harmful intentions towards another will experience that same behavior from that person. And the same is true for positive karma. And studies now suggest that its’ effects may actually be associated with linked minds.
Interpersonal connection or linked minds, for instance, is frequent among identical twins in which one twin feels the pain suffered by the other, and is aware of traumas and crises even if he or she is far away. The unique connection of mothers is also seen by incidents where they know when their son or daughter was in grave danger, or was actually involved in an accident.
Objective physiological evidence for an unseen connecting force that links the minds of people through conscious intention alone has actually been observed. Information produced by stimulating an individual’s brain, for example, has been shown to somehow be transmitted and instantaneously measured via EEG in a distant individual’s brain.32 And this information transference was more likely to occur if the individuals were closely related or emotionally linked, while meditating, or when attempting to communicate with the subject intentionally.33
In one study, for example, EEG results from individuals who were placed in separate rooms and asked to feel the presence of each other showed that their electrical activity in each brain hemisphere synchronized.34 And when one individual in one room was visually stimulated by a flickering light, a significant increase in brain activity was observed in another person in a distant room.35 These results have also been observed in separated identical twins. In two pairs of twins tested, for example, eye closure in one twin produced not only an immediate alpha rhythm in his own brain, but also in the brain of the other twin. What is especially significant, is that this startling finding was reinforced by ten replicated studies by independent research groups around the worlds, and of these studies, eight reported positive findings which were published in respected peer reviewed journals.36-40 Moreover, this confirming evidence was reinforced after a successful experiment by EEG expert Jiri Wackerman, who emphatically announced that, “no biophysical mechanism is presently known that could be responsible for the observed correlations between EEGs of two separated subjects.”41 This evidence indicates that you are indeed connected through space and time at the level of consciousness with others.
In another experiment to test the validity of nonlocal intuition, physiologist L. Hendricks observed an interpersonal EEG coupling between healer and subject pairs by which the healer produced a “connection between the healer and the subject.”42 Similarly, psychologist Dean Radin, asked subjects to imagine that they could perceive and alter a low-intensity laser beam in a distant interferometer. Astonishingly, the subjects were able to do so – their intuition alone modified the photons’ quantum wave functions and the pattern of light produced by this device. This result led Radin to conclude that, “intuitive knowledge arises from perceptions that are not mediated through the ordinary senses,”43, 44 and that “conventional explanations” for these results were “implausible.”45, 46 In fact, the notion of communicating on “invisible pathways” has been documented in experienced meditators who were able to willingly affect change in the pH of water in an electrical device using their intent alone.47 One study also showed that individuals successfully increased the energy field output of very weak emissions of light by up to 70 percent through conscious intention alone.48
Are Autistic Savants Telepathic? An autistic savant is an individual with autism spectrum disorder. These individuals seem to possess certain extraordinary cognitive abilities, naturally exceeding the abilities of those who may have practiced similar skills for a lifetime.49 And despite their severe disabilities, they demonstrate remarkable memory and calculation, as well as musical and artistic talents. Evidence also suggests that some autistic savants may also have an enhanced capacity for telepathic abilities.
Autistic savants have not undergone rigorous scientific investigation for psychic ability, although many of their skills are very psi-like. Some are capable of correctly calculating cube roots of over five digit numbers without knowing how to perform simple mathematical functions like addition or multiplication, and with no conscious derivation of the answers. These remarkable skills are even accepted by mainstream science because they have been reliably replicated.50 Neuropsychiatrist Diane Powell, for example, conducted an experiment with a severely autistic child named Haley. In this experiment, Haley and her therapist were seated at the same table separated by a partition. The therapist was given various pictures and equations and would glance at them one by one. As she looked at the images or equations, the therapist would hold another card with numbers, letters or images in front of Haley who would point to the number or image that she was thinking of. Incredibly, the numbers or images that Haley pointed toward were the same numbers or images on the therapist’s hidden cards. In one particular test, her answers were 100 percent accurate, and through all the tests, she never scored below 90 percent.51
To verify this result, Powell conducted two controlled sessions with two therapists who presented randomized numbers, sentences, fake words, and visual images out of view of the girl. She was then asked to “read the therapist’s mind.” The therapists were asked to write their own verbal descriptions of the images for comparison to the girl’s answers. Haley was asked to give all the numbers in the equations and to duplicate the answers generated by the author with a calculator. Results from the first session with one therapist were amazing. She scored 100 percent accuracy on three out of twenty image descriptions containing up to nine letters each, 60 to 100 percent accuracy on all three of the five-letter nonsense words, and 100 percent accuracy on two random numbers: one eight digits and the other nine. Results from the second session also showed 100 percent accuracy on six out of twelve equations with 15 to 19 digits each, and between 81 to 100 percent accuracy on sentences of between 18 and 35 letters. In light of these extraordinary results, Powell concluded that: “The data is highly suggestive of an alternative, latent and/or default communication mechanism that can be accessed by people born with severely impaired language abilities.”52 These results, in combination with other successful ESP experiments, led psychologist D. Eysenck, to conclude: “Unless there is a gigantic conspiracy involving over thirty colleges and several hundred highly respected scientists in various fields, the only conclusion the unbiased observer can come to must be that there does exist a small number of people who obtain knowledge existing either in other people’s minds, or in the outer world, by means as yet unknown to science.”53
Synchronicity
Overview: Are things indeed “meant to be” at some deeper level? Or is the universe revealing random events as we seek to find the thread that links them together? It may be “synchronicity” – a term often used as a synonym for coincidence, as in, events that trigger the exclamation… “What a coincidence!” or “What are the chances?” At times, however, coincidences are perfectly designed as an unbelievable experience of timing and meaning that is impossible to ignore. We’ve all had them. And they happen when you see a meaningful connection between an external event and your own internal state. Such events can be relatively minor occurrences or, in some cases, significant events that alter our lives. The impactful significance and profoundly life changing meaning of a synchronicity has long fascinated humankind. And it may even help us to understand the nature of the PE.
There is a fine line between intuition – a feeling that makes it possible to know something without any proof (internal), and synchronicity – something totally unexpected and timed to wake us up to our connection with reality (external). The difference between intuition and synchronicity is this: Intuition is having a sudden desire to phone a friend who you haven’t talked with in a while when they suddenly call you – in contrast, synchronicity is feeling a sudden desire to talk with this friend and as you begin to phone, they suddenly call you. In this case your intention initiates the act (first event) and synchronicity answers your intent (second event).
“Synchronicity” is the meaningful relationship of related internal (first) and external (second) events that go a step or two beyond an unusual chance occurrence. They are totally unexpected and timed to startle and wake us up to our connections with other realities around us in a way that cannot be explained by cause and effect. One is left bewildered trying to make sense of it. Or not? When the seeming absurdity of such random improbable events occur, rare and fleeting though it may be, our sense of reality is momentarily questioned. Something happens within us that may shock us at our core – as if there is some kind of meaning behind it all. For some, there is a feeling of profound awe.
Synchronicity and One Mind: We have all experienced the sense of understanding the way things really are, especially when this experience is accompanied by a feeling of compassion and love. Anyone who has been deeply in love experiences the inexplicable fusion of two people, like the love of a mother for her baby, or the love between true “soul mates.” People who are emotionally close often exchange thoughts, feelings, and emotions, despite being apart. In this nonlocal effect, a parallelism cannot be explained causally. Is it an invisible field effect linking multidimensional spaces as the PEr believes it to be?
Synchronicity is in control when the experience contains significant meaning to the individual, and which occurs at a specific time, that makes the experience all the more meaningful. The classic example is a mother who “just knows” that her child is in danger, even though far away – as if the mother and child have a linked mind. And, not to her surprise, the mother arrived just in time to prevent the child from serious injury. Synchronicity, in other words, represents the boundary between meaning and time.
Now, here’s an old gamblers joke: A man wakes up and looks at his alarm clock which reads 5:00 am. He turns on the TV to see that the 5 o’ clock news is on channel 5. He takes 55 minutes to get ready for work, goes down to street level and takes the number 5 bus to 5th street to where he works at 555 Fifth Street. He takes the 5th elevator to the 5th floor and notices his office is on the 5th door to the left. And it’s his 55th birthday so he figures this is a message from God and that there’s got to be some way to take advantage of all these remarkable coincidences. So, he sits down at his desk and he finds the cleaning staff has left a racing form on his desk. He looks at the number 5 horse named Lucky Fives in the 5th race, and figures this is a sure bet to make a lot of money. So, he bets $5,000 with his bookie for that horse to win. He waits ‘til 5 o’ clock to call back and says, “How did my horse do?” The bookie says, “He came in 5th.”54
This poor attempt at humor aside, these sequences actually happen to people all the time. What materializes is that one’s conscious or unconscious intent influences the person’s future experiences. If we are actually “seeing” our “own projections,” then we may actually be creating our own reality. But while intriguing to contemplate, it may not be all good. After all, it’s an unexpected puzzling thing which can make people think they’re going crazy, especially when caught in a series of synchronistic events of their own making.55
Synchronicity is a part of life that has no definite explanation. To explain such remarkable events psychologist Carl Jung, coined the term “synchronicity”: “The coming together of inner and outer events in a way that cannot be explained by cause and effect and that is meaningful to the observer.”56 One such example is as follows:
“In 2012 I was doing research for a novel. The story would hinge upon an unlikely combination of geopolitical events that might lead to the collapse of civilization. To get to grips with the subject I bought an excellent academic book called ‘Collapse’ by Jared Diamond. Diamond is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author who has made a lifetime study of these things. After I read the book, I composed an email to Jared Diamond. I wanted to explain the central concept of my novel to see if he thought it was realistic enough to be defensible. But he’s a professor in Los Angeles and I’m a writer in England. Could I ever get through to him? I tried to guess his email address, but all my attempts failed. So I gave up and took a vacation. We were off to Indonesia to look for the world’s rarest rhinos. In a remote forest in Sumatra we found ourselves staying at a tiny eco-lodge. But there were two other tourists at the lodge – so we shared a table at dinner and got to talking about birds and rhinos. One of tourists was an American – it was Jared Diamond. And I promise – I had never come across him before.”57
Such an experience seems to defy all logic and mere coincidence. It can certainly be debated if meeting Jared Diamond at this time, and in this way, was a coincidence and nothing more. But the nature and the timing of the event, which provides profound significance and meaning to the individual, makes it something uniquely different that a mere coincidence. This is synchronicity at work.
Discussion: Synchronicity is an aspect of consciousness which may not have its origins in the material world, but instead, in the nonlocal energy field referred to as – the biofield, semantic field theory (SFT), and the collective unconscious. Like consciousness, this field may operate as a nonlocal inter-connective force that unifies us in real-time, without regard to space and time. But whatever it is called, an unseen force may actually represent the missing link that facilitates synchronicity, ESP, and even aspects of the PE. According to the SFT, for instance, “one “injects meanings into the semantic field, modifying its organization, while the modified organization is “retrojected back” to the subject; this loop continues as long as the person continues to generate new meanings about the event, and may start all over again the next time one thinks about it.”58 In other words, our intentions may influence our future life events in an “interactive way” that may allow for synchronicity.
Those who believe that they’ve had a meaningful coincidence in their lives often experience feelings of wonder and amazement attributed to a form of destiny, mysticism, or existential importance. But meaning, a central component of synchronicity, cannot be obviously recognized or adequately defined since “meaning” is not scientifically testable. Thus one major obstacle is in trying to scientifically explain what a meaningful coincidence is, and the possible mechanism that facilitates it. And this mechanism may have its roots in the illusion of time.
The Illusion of Time
Overview: Time is an illusion. It doesn’t really exist, but we are taught that it does. We have all learned to consider the past as something that happened, and that the future is about to occur. But that’s an illusion because the past and future really don’t exist at this very moment. The past and future are just simple language based words to describe a present moment; instead, they are all transpiring simultaneously through our individual consciousness. In other words, time is interrelated with our consciousness – the brain archives and can recover past experiences. Our past memories and reflections, along with our thoughts and intentions towards the future, are one of the same. We’re just experiencing them from different sides of time’s illusion.59, 60 And with this in mind, physicists are now telling us that the past and future are not absolute and depend on the reference point of the observer. But how can this be explained for it to be understood on a personal level?
Physicists are now telling us that everything that ever has existed, does exit, and will exist. Confused? Well, if we assume that the past, present, and future, all exist simultaneously, than it may be theoretically possible for you to access the future of “you that is experiencing your highest and best reality and outcomes. You may feel like you’re postulating intentions of future actions, but instead, may simply be receiving the memory of that version of you. This is practical in the sense that if the memories of our future self exists right now, then it may be theoretically possible to make strategic purposeful decisions based on thoughts coming to you from the future “you” that has already experienced it. If reality is indeed flexible in this way, then foreseeable possibilities can be transformed into certainties.
Try to access the illusion of time by feeling for those thoughts that are the most aligned for you right now. Maybe this is the “gut feeling” we have all experienced and regard as being true. And how many times do we remind ourselves that “we should have acted on that feeling? Maybe life becomes more manageable when we begin to practice it.61, 62 This may be what neuroscientist Christof Koch implied about intuition and that “meaning” exists in the universe. Koch said: “I can’t really describe it. I just feel the universe is filled with meaning. I see it everywhere and I realize it’s a psychological mindset. I fully realize other people don’t have this. I have it. It’s very difficult to explain where it comes from. I just have this firm belief and the experience of numinosity. It’s difficult to put into words.”63 What may be difficult for Koch to “put into words” may be more easily explained by what psychologist Imants Barušs described by “meaning fields.”64 According to Barušs, “meaning fields affect reality through whatever mechanism it is that human beings use when they are remote viewing and remote influencing (ESP). They structure the form that events take at any level of existence. They are not only spatially nonlocal, but temporally nonlocal, in that the content of meaning fields can be modified by events from the past or future. Events are “tuned” to one meaning field rather than another. Meaning fields can interact directly with human meanings so that human beings can “tune” to different meaning fields as well as modify meaning fields according to some weighting algorithm.”65
This explanation may represent a major step towards the elimination of time from the description of the universe. In fact, this idea may have been established by physicists John Wheeler and Bryce Dewitt who developed an equation in which time had no role. This theory was advanced by physicist Julian Barbour, who believed that “time” is nothing more than changes that lead to the illusion of time.66 It is important to note, however, that such concepts are inconsistent with the Newtonian concept of linear time and that of the 4th dimension proposed by Einstein. But while theoretical evidence in the world of math can provide the needed foundation to support the illusion of time, empirical evidence is also required to verify the concept of synchronicity, and it’s interrelationship with this illusion of time. Science has not yet determined the nature of time itself or why it seems different (both perceptually and in the equations of quantum mechanics) than the three dimensions of space but the answer may help to explain synchronicity.
The proof likely requires yet to be realized scientific principles to test under controlled experimental conditions in humans.67
Is The Future Now?
Overview: Telepathy experiments indicate that information can be transmitted via intention across space. But is it possible to detect information about an event before it actually occurs? Experimental evidence of precognition have been conducted for decades. In fact, a meta-analysis of over 300 precognition studies published before 1990 produced odds against chance of 10 million billion to one. Chance can’t be in control with these odds.
Experimental findings in ESP suggest that consciousness can exist beyond the brain. This implies that an aspect of ESP known as precognition may also allow you to access information which does not exist. In other words, knowing future events can change the past.68 More specifically, precognitive events or the ability to respond to a future event that could not be anticipated by any normal inferential process, usually appear to individuals as a flash or spontaneous vision. For example, a mother who has a vision of her child injured at the park quickly arrives to find her child about to fall from a swing. Another example is of a person who is about to board an airplane and has a vision of a crash that is so meaningful that he decides not to board the plane. He finds out later that the plane crashed. These occurrences illustrate how information can flow from the future to the present. But this notion doesn’t “feel right” because our commonsense impression of time is purely linear: at a given moment we are at one point on a dimension linking the past, the present, and the future. It may be possible, however, to move about this linear channel to another time where the past and the future may be observed. There are, of course, no agreed upon scientific principles of the physical world that can explain this, but experimental evidence suggests this may be true.
Experimental Evidence: In the quantum world, time runs both backward and forward whereas in your reality, it only runs forward. A recent discovery, however, has added a major new spin on this concept. A subatomic particle, for instance, not only moves backwards in time, but its state in the past can also be altered by knowing its future outcome.69 While seemingly confusing, this finding is significant. For one reason, it supports the first testable framework for the investigation of anomalous psychological properties in the groundbreaking studies by eminent research psychologist Daryl Bem. His experiments demonstrated that future practice might influence present performance – retroactive influence.70 One of the most impressive findings from Bem’s precognitive experiments was that practice on a list of words after a word-memory task was correlated with significant improvements in recall for the words that would subsequently be practiced. That is, instead of presenting the stimuli and then measuring the response, Bem reversed them in time and measured the response before the stimuli were presented – “retroactive causation.”71 Incredibly, the subjects were significantly better at recalling words that they would later type. Thus, the cause became the effect. But does this prove that people unconsciously know what will happen in the future? Possibly.
Several experiments, for example, have shown that brain activity and unconscious emotional arousal occur appropriately before a stimulus is presented. This is called presentiment – the sense that something is about to occur, but without conscious awareness of a specific event.72, 73 In fact, compelling evidence from an analysis of experiments from many independent laboratories have consistently showed that humans do indeed unconsciously react to future stimuli. Researchers, for example, have shown that physiological measures such as heart rate, blood volume, and skin-conductance activity can be used to determine precognitive effects while participants viewed a randomized series of emotional stimulating images.74
Psychologist Dean Radin pioneered a novel way to study precognition experimentally by exploring whether further emotional states (future feelings) are detectable in nervous system activity. With subjects seated and affixed with electrodes to measure their emotional reactivity, he observed that skin-conductance activity reacted appropriately consistent a few seconds prior to randomly shown emotionally calming or upsetting computer pictures.75 Most of the pictures were emotionally neutral, but on randomly selected trials, a highly arousing erotic or negative image was displayed. As expected, participants showed strong physiological arousal when these images appeared. But the important “precognition” result was illustrated by the significantly different physiological changes preceding future emotional events, as compared with calm events. This arousal occurred between 2 to 4 seconds before the picture actually appeared on the screen – even before the computer randomly selected the picture to be displayed. Bodily functions, in other words, began to change several seconds before the image was randomly selected by the computer and shown on the screen.76 This is a convincing result. But even more persuasive was that subsequent studies by various researchers successfully replicated this outcome over twenty times.77-79
Radin’s many presentiment experiments revealed the same striking outcomes with combined odds against chance of 125,000 to one. These results were also replicated by independent researchers using an fMRI scanner while subjects looked at computer images.80 After each picture presentation, they were told to remain as calm as possible and to avoid thinking about the previous pictures. On each trial, the pictures were presented randomly – no one knew in advance which picture was about to be presented. Incredibly, specific areas of the brain involved in emotion were activated in ten subjects before erotic pictures appeared.81 This suggests that the brains of the subjects were somehow responding to future events. In fact, there have been over forty replications of the presentiment experiments with physiological measures.
In another presentiment experiment, researchers measured the time it took for a touch stimulus on a patient’s skin to reach the brain as an electrical signal.82 The patient was also asked to push a button when he or she became aware of being touched. Surprisingly, the brain transmitted the stimulus in 0.0001 of a second after it occurred, and the patient pressed the button 0.1 of a second after the stimulus was applied. Remarkably, however, the patient didn’t report being consciously aware of either the stimulus or pressing the button for almost 0.5 second. Thus, the decision to respond may have been made by the patient’s unconscious mind – an outcome which forces one to speculate if “free will” does not even exist.83 Similar findings by neuroscientist Hunt, for instance, led her to conclude that, “I think we have way overrated the brain as the active ingredient in the relationship of a human to the world. It’s just a real good computer. But the aspects of the mind that have to do with creativity, imagination, spirituality, and all those things, I don’t see them in the brain at all. The mind’s not in the brain. It’s in that damn field.”84 This so-called “damn field” may even be responsible for the finding by researchers of EEG correlations between the brains of spatially separated people. In other words, objective measures of a subjective sense of connection via non-local intuitive perception may be reflected in brain activity.
Collectively, this evidence suggests that the brain’s regulatory mechanism may be activated just before conscious will to allow a brief period for consciousness to override a decision – the unconscious mind allows one to bring information into conscious awareness. Consequently, nonlocal intuitive perception appears to be predictive of randomly selected future events; that is, the mind somehow anticipates these events more often than chance, and is based on physiological activity in the autonomic and central nervous systems. In other words, you can perceive your future. But the question remains as to whether or not the perception of your future is a pure unconscious related outcome or if the brain somehow interacts with a field of information (SFT) for the answer.
Discussion: The experimental evidence shows that people can somehow access information that does not exist in the present time. Time, therefore, not only runs both backward and forward in the quantum world – it does so in your physical world too. Although the awareness of future events that are eventually realized (precognition) appear to exist on an “unconscious” level in experimental settings, this awareness is also reported as a usual “conscious” occurrence during a PE. The PEr, for instance, typically reports alterations in time, and access to all information that exists in the past, as well as, the future. For this reason, another piece to the PE puzzle fits. That is, additional experimental evidence provides supporting corroborative evidence to the anecdotal descriptions of the PE.
The many controlled replicated studies demonstrating a compelling unconscious reaction in the form of changes in physiological activity just before conscious awareness, indicates that you may very well have an unconscious ability to know the future. So, do you unconsciously know the future before our conscious awareness does? Well, based on these positive study outcomes, several well-respected researchers provided a definitive answer to this question by stating: “Barring widespread collusion among independent investigators, it appears that nonconscious access of future, unpredictable information is possible.”85 And I accept this conclusion, especially since it has been verified by numerous independent investigators. But I am still left wondering how this is accomplished. After all, only theories exist to explain it. And one popular, albeit controversial theory, is that you are able to construct “concrete” reality by interpreting information from another dimension which transcends time and space. While this may sound more “woo woo” in nature than agreed upon scientific principles, prepare yourself, because this may actually be allowed for by the quantum hologram.
Global Consciousness
Overview: Evidence to support the PE and non-local intuition is an important step towards understanding how consciousness is not limited to the brain and how it may relate to the PE. After all, if the mind interrelates with the physical universe, then your awareness – the thinking, feeling part of yourself – may not even be confined to the physical body. We have seen, for instance, that many physicists believe you are connected with the universe through nonlocal intuitive perception via a biofield, and that physical systems like the brain or mind can be moved, changed, or influenced without being physically touched by anything else. In fact, some of history’s most notable discoveries may have evolved in this way.
A prime example is when people acquire knowledge of things in ways that are inexplicable. The inventor Thomas Edison, for example, said, “I have never created anything. I get impressions from the Universe at large and work them out….Thoughts come from the outside.”86 The amazing life of Srinivasa Ramanujan provides another example. Born in 1887, he had no formal training or prior knowledge of mathematics before he began to see the Hindu Goddess of Namagiri in his dreams. Remarkably, nearly all the mathematical formulae he acquired in these dreams proved correct. And they even paved the way for later success in many other fields.87 Like Ramanujan, chemist Dmitri Mendeleev said he discovered the Periodic Table from dreams. The instant he awoke, he made notes of this table and the elements fell into place. Similarly, the grandfather of quantum physics Albert Einstein said the Theory of Relativity came to him in a dream, and the founder of Apple Inc., Steve Jobs, alleges his daydreams inspired the development of the I-pad and I-phone.88
When the mind is at rest and free of every day distractions, the sudden awareness of the solution to a problem – the so-called “Aha!” moment – has a greater tendency to emerge from the subconscious into conscious awareness. And because it occurs with little or no conscious effort leading up to that solution, some people think the information for the “Aha!” moment was “downloaded” from the universe. That is what Edison thought when he said, “I get impressions from the Universe at large and work them out.” The mind slightly relaxed or when in a sleep state allows it to explore different combinations of ideas to test out different solutions. And then once it arrives at one that looks promising, that is what pops into your head as an “Aha moment.” You may, therefore, actually think about solutions at an unconscious level prior to solving problems.89 And distinct neural processes in the brain may underlie the sudden flash of insight that allows people to “see connections that previously eluded them.”90 But don’t start taking more frequent naps just yet – other non-brain-like possibilities for your “Aha!” moments may exist. In fact, some neuroscientists think the answer lies in that “damn field.” And its possible existence comes from the startling results of the Global Consciousness Project.
The Global Consciousness Project: Is an unseen force or “global consciousness” created when people worldwide feel a sense of coherence or resonance among each other? And, if so, is this force strong enough to effect physical system? The possibility that human intention alone can affect physical systems was actually demonstrated after a decade of rigorous experimentation as part of the Global Consciousness Project (GCP) at the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Laboratory (PEAR). The results were dramatic and hard to ignore.
In this unique study, the output of a worldwide network of one hundred computer random event generators (REG), which continuously emitted ones and zeros in a random pattern, was analyzed by a supercomputer at PEAR to identify any statistically significant deviation from randomness influenced by major world events. Remarkably, such deviations were reported when major events elicited the attention of millions of people to a single point in time. This result occurred simultaneously with the terrorist attacks on September 11, the tsunami that devastated Southeast Asia, and the election of President Obama, among others. The odds against chance of this consistent result were less than 1 to 1 billion.
Researchers at PEAR also conducted a meta-analysis of about 600 REG studies by 68 different researchers. The overall results generated odds against chance beyond one trillion to one. In a separate series of experiments, over one hundred subjects were asked to try to intentionally influence the REG outputs to drift above the chance-expected average (the high aim condition) then the below-chance average (the low aim condition). The results showed that when the subjects wished for high scores, the REG outputs drifted up, whereas when they wished for low scores, the REG outputs drifted down. Estimates made of the results produced odds against chance of 35 trillion to one. Remarkably, in some of the PEAR experiments, the subjects were thousands of miles away from the REG, and no decline in effects was found as a function of distance.91 This conclusive result, combined with thousands of experiments with hundreds of subjects over the past two decades at PEAR, convincingly demonstrate that one’s intention alone can influence REGs to produce a significant change in the direction of their will. In fact, the extraordinary results from the GCP, led physicist R. Jahn to conclude that changes in REGs were caused by a field of consciousness strong enough to affect artificial intelligence” and proves “we are all one.”92
But while it is certainly encouraging to know we may be “all one,” what does this imply? Well how about this – humans can indeed exchange information without the use of their sensory systems and intentionally effect change in other people and physical systems at a distance. There exists overwhelming evidence to support the concept of a deeply interconnected “conscious universe.”93 And it is impossible to ignore, as too many closed-minded scientists do, the numerous studies which convincingly demonstrate that perception of reality without the use of physical senses is indeed possible.94-100
The GCP outcomes, combined with many other similar experimental results, are generally considered “implausible” and “anomalous,” especially since scientific principles cannot explain how intuition can both affect physical systems and obtain knowledge from the minds of other people from perceptions that are not mediated through the ordinary senses. And not surprisingly, these outcomes have caught the attention of the CIA. For example, one declassified CIA document on psychic ability titled, “Research into Paranormal Ability to Break through Spatial Barriers” stated, “A total of 50 experiments in the ability to break through spatial obstacles were conducted,” and of these, “25 were successful.”101 These results are precisely why the American Institutes for Research concluded: “The statistical results of the studies examined are far beyond what is expected by chance,” and that “the data reviewed constitute genuine scientific anomalies for which no one has an adequate explanation for.”102
Discussion: Parapsychological studies indicate that conscious intent is indeed a real and unseen force. An invisible connection between individuals does indeed exist and one’s intuition is capable of “gaining knowledge about the world.”103 But although evidence of how one’s intention can influence other people and physical systems has been justified, the mechanics of this transmission cannot be explained by traditional scientific models. This does not mean, however, that intention can’t exert influence on the physical world or the notion of “linked minds” isn’t valid. The overarching question is simply this: If minds are linked – then, so what? Well, one potential implication is that your “cooperative intent” may have “subtle but real consequences,” especially since you may be capable of communicating with others on “invisible pathways.”104
Science and the Peak Experience
Overview: An obvious paradox associated with the nature of PE triggers, like a NDE and OBE, pertain to the reported sense of one’s existence from outside one’s body during a PE. For example, during a PE, individuals allege to: 1) possess knowledge of existence in another dimension without a body, 2) perceive time as if the past, present and future exist simultaneously and instantaneously (nonlocality), 3) be linked with the memories and consciousness of oneself and others, including deceased relatives (universal interconnectedness), and 4) experience a loss of “universal wisdom and love” they had experienced during their PE upon return to their body and wakeful consciousness.
Attempting to explain such incomprehensible experiences that are undeniably inconsistent with medical and scientific principles present a unique and insurmountable challenge to say the least. But given the high incidence and pronounced behavioral impact of the PE on those who experience it, it is important to at least try.
Theories and Anecdotal PE Evidence: Scientific theories have been advanced to provide insight on the PE and the means by which consciousness and memories interact with other minds, the deceased, and NHEs. Evidence on the PE and NDE, for instance, suggests that the experiencer often returns from an apparent unseen realm with a firm understanding of the holographic interconnectedness of all things.
The PE is typically described as a dimension beyond where one has access to an infinitely interconnected informational realm. If we assume this to be true, as experiencers firmly claim it to be, then an aspect of consciousness likely behaves independently of the brain during a PE. Consequently, the question emerges as to whether the brain inhibits cognitive function rather than facilitating it by normal embodiment. After all, if consciousness is a byproduct of the brain, then if the brain is injured, consciousness should also be adversely affected in some way. But this is not the case in those who report to have had a NDE. Their reported experience contradicts what would be expected if consciousness is dependent on normal brain function, especially since during an NDE the brain is severely compromised.
Indirect evidence to support the notion that consciousness is not the brain comes from anecdotal reports by those who claim to have an OBE. In an OBE study of “objective perceptions,” for example, about half of the subjects (N = 48) reported “precise perceptions corresponding to verified details in the environment and/or to scenes which took place just as described, thus giving a precise idea of when the actual experience occurred.”105 The following anecdotal accounts of four individuals, who reported to have explored their surroundings during their NDE, exemplify how one’s consciousness is not adversely affected by their compromised near death brain state:106
1). “My displacements were subject to my will with instantaneous effect. Instant zooming of my vision, without any displacement on my part. When I was on the outside in the park at tree level, I remember experiencing this zoom effect very clearly since I could see inside a tree without having moved.”
2) “I see everywhere at once, except when I target an object towards which I am “hurled” at great speed, as if I was zooming onto it. It is like a rapid zoom to be there where I am looking. It is very pleasant and fun.”
3) “My consciousness, like a beam of light, can move around very fast, nearly instantly. This gaze, just like thought, can move about very rapidly.”
4) “Moving around is done as if time does not exist anymore. We “think” about where we wish to be and we make a volitional effort and we get there instantaneously since there is a sensation of movement, but very fast.”
If you believe these accounts to be valid perceptions of events without the use of one’s sensory system, then intuitively, you may believe your personal identity, intention, and free will, are not facilitated by the brain. Conversely, the traditional scientific viewpoint is that only matter exists, and that everything about one’s uniqueness and “self” is facilitated entirely by poorly understood neuro-electrochemical activity in the brain. These opposing viewpoints raise a critical question. That is, is an aspect of one’s consciousness or “I” (spirit or soul) absolute, unbounded by space and time, and not entirely defined and controlled by the brain? If you believe that a PE provides the means to access another reality and interact with NHEs, then this must be the case!
These similar PE accounts may be explained, in part, by integrating theories in physics and consciousness studies. And my interpretation, if I may cut to the chase and spare you the details, is that consciousness: 1) is not limited by spatial and temporal parameters (non-local); 2) may function independently of the brain; and 3) may be capable of experiencing other realms of existence. In fact, theories in QM support these and other types of characteristics unique to the PE. Similarities, for example, may be found between components of the PE and quantum field concepts of nonlocality, universal interconnectedness, and an alternate dimension beyond our time-space; that is, all events are related and influence each other instantaneously.107
The Quantum Hologram Theory (QHT) may provide the essential underlying principle to explain the PE. The QHT, addresses how at the quantum level, everything such as atoms, cells, plants, animals, and people are connected within a network of information. And according to many physicists, the PE may be explained by the QHT – a “shift” in consciousness from one dimension of the hologram to another. This abstract concept may be represented in the PErs descriptions of “no time,” “eternal present,” and “being out of time” – a form of time alteration not consistent with your physical reality.108
In a holographic universe, the past, present, and future all exist simultaneously; a phenomenon documented in the PE trigger – the NDE. This concept may be supported by the following testimonies by individual NDErs:109 1) “Feeling that time no longer existed,” 2) “In fact, there was no time, it was like a moment of eternity,” 3) “Time did not exist. Now it’s a real knowledge for me, time does not exist,” 4) “On the other side, time does not exist. One truly realizes it. Time is a completely mental concept. A thousand years may be instantaneous,” 5) “I had a horrible feeling of eternity. I had an experience where time no longer unfolded. Furthermore, no past, no future, just an eternal present. I had the feeling that all that was real, the feeling of “living” in eternity,” 6) “Past, present future are merged in a single concept, that’s what I experienced,” 7) “The notion of time has nothing to do with ordinary life, that’s for sure. Physical, material time does not exist. Time does not flow. To say that there is another “time system” I do not know,” and 8) “Time is no longer linear. Your own life is in 3D and the fourth dimension is fully integrated. At that time, if I had watched a man, I could have known everything about him. His age, height, blood type, his siblings, the amount of all his taxes, his diseases. All in a single concept.”110
The unique similarity of such anecdotal reports suggest that consciousness could be the result of interactions between 4D and 5D phenomena and/or universes; a theory supported by neuroscientists, cosmologists, and philosophers. This paradox may best be explained by assuming that if we try to take apart something constructed holographically, we only get smaller wholes instead of the pieces of which it is made. This “whole in every part” nature of a holographic universe may represent the mystical features reported in the PE.
Now, if we take this to the next level, as many more physicists seem to do each day, it is not outside the realm of possibility that the universe is actually holographic in nature. That is, light energy, interacting with holographic information in a two-dimensional realm, produces a holographic projection of our three-dimensional world – the universe. This holographic information, therefore, may be the result of information existing outside the universe itself. My old friend and Harvard professor and astrophysicist R. Schild, even proposed that, “black holes” – super-dense, massive, collapsed, evolved stars and galaxy-center quasars – store “quantum holograms” and may even function as “nature’s hard-drives” by holding copies of the “quantum holograms generated by each new moment of human experience”111 And this notion has been repeatedly proposed by eminent scientists – especially since the universe is comprised of interfering electromagnetic waves – just like the holographic image that you marveled at years back in a science museum.
Theories and anecdotal evidence are all we have to support the “holographic universe” concept. But that’s an important initial step in a long-needed and evolving process to explain the PE. For example, you saw how time may be altered by a PE, but what about space? Well, PErs often report a change in normal visual perception and claim to: a) be “everywhere at once,” b) have an “enlarged vision,” and c) experience perception by transparency. Seven individual accounts consistent with the holographic concept are as follows: 112
1) “I visited various places I managed to identify afterwards. I remember a window in a village, a building with very white plaster, sand-carved windows. My curiosity was attracted to details. This is quite important, since we cannot do this normally, like seeing inside and outside at the same time, an impression of a quasi-holographic vision. Not a panoramic view, but seeing in front, behind, all details simultaneously which is completely different from ordinary sight. It is very rich.”
2) “I had a 360° spherical-like vision. I saw everything and had different points of observation: above, sideways, from the front, underneath, it was really extraordinary to see and be all of it at the same time. When I saw the sofa, the furniture and the room in which I was, I was simultaneously above, sideways, from profile, facing forwards… it was very clear.”
3) “Here you see this, then elsewhere you see something else, you know everything, from one place to another from the spot where you are. For example, if I want to go to the window, I have to move. But there you don’t move, you’re everywhere. Unbelievable, but it’s great.”
4) “I could see everything at once and if I focused on one thing, I could see this thing through any obstacle and in every detail, from its surface to how its atoms were organized, truly a global and detailed vision.”
5) “I could see in front and behind oneself simultaneously, through objects, a holographic view.”
6) “I felt like a soap bubble with eyes strolling about above at ceiling level, in a space which seemed a little “closer” than real space. Behind a wall was a woman dying in the resuscitation room. I saw the instruments, the doctors’ gestures and their conversation, I could see through the curtains which hung in front of the glass partition.”
7) “I could see up close and also transparently. I remember seeing a stick of lipstick in one of the nurses’ pockets. If I wanted to see inside the lamp which illuminated the room, I’d manage, and all of this instantly, as soon as I wanted to.”
These individuals are convinced that what they experienced during their PE is a reality and not an illusion. And quantum theory supports their personal accounts. That is, consciousness behaves in a nonlocal manner that is free of both time and space.
Discussion
A fundamental, yet seemingly elusive question, is whether QM may provide the conceptual framework for understanding the PE. And quite interestingly, the reported subjective PE characteristics do seem analogous to QM principles of time and space. But the overarching issue remains as to how consciousness may be experienced independently of the body during the PE. That is, is our consciousness itself a non-local phenomenon? Unfortunately, the answer will likely remain tenuous at best since explaining the PE using QM principles have not been seriously considered, let alone attempted, using an objective, testable framework. This major limitation is further compounded by the fact that mainstream science equates consciousness with the brain. And this is regrettable, especially since the initial first step towards explaining the PE should, at the very least, require the consideration that separation of consciousness from the body may be possible. This obstacle, however, may be circumvented by studying the inner workings of the brain itself. In fact, the PE may possibly be explained by studying the brain’s holographic-like behavior.
Despite objective evidence of correlations between nonlocal intuition and associated physiological measures, however, further justification is required to validate this cause-effect relationship. This is a necessary step to help explain the possible force which may govern and regulate the means for such information transmission; that is, consciousness is not constrained by time or distance. And as far as I’m concerned, ESP is indeed real. In fact, ESP will one day provide the foundation to explain the connection between one’s own consciousness and that of other living persons and the PE.
The supportive evidence of communication on “invisible pathways” justify the existence of ESP. And this is critical for understanding the PE, especially since PErs report telepathic communication with deceased relatives and NHEs via telepathy. Linked minds, therefore, may not only exist in your present reality as research studies indicate. It may also be a normal behavioral mode of communication during a PE. Thus, the pieces to explain the PE puzzle continue to evolve into a more coherent whole. The unique properties of torsion fields, and the results that conclusively prove minds are linked on invisible pathways, demonstrate the emerging view of life as information and energetic flows. This theoretical and experimental foundation may actually provide a model for understanding the PE and associated psychic phenomena.
References
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Dr. Robert Davis 