Consciousness transcends materiality and death

Dutch cardiologist Pim van Lommel writes: “It is quite interesting to mention that the assumption that our brain acts as a transceiver and not as a producer of consciousness is in striking concurrence with the view that was expressed over one century ago. Already in 1898, the psychologist William James wrote that the brain’s role in the experience of consciousness is not a productive, but a permissive or transmissive role; that is, it admits or transmits information.

“In his view, consciousness does not originate in this physical world, but already exists in another, transcendental sphere; access to aspects of consciousness depends on the personal ‘threshold of consciousness,’ which for some people is lower than for others, and which allows them to experience various aspects of enhanced consciousness.

“James draws on abnormal experiences of consciousness to support his theory: ‘The whole drift of my education goes to persuade me that the world of our present consciousness is only one out of many worlds of consciousness that exist, and that those other worlds must contain experiences which have a meaning for our life also.’

“James also stated: ‘The total expression of human experience, as I view it objectively, invincibly urges me beyond the narrow scientific bounds,” and he also writes about ‘the continuity of consciousness’ after physical death."

Van Lommel quotes Sir James H. Jeans (1877-1946), English physicist, astronomist, and mathematician, as affirming: “I incline to the idealistic theory that consciousness is fundamental, and that the material universe is derivative from consciousness, not consciousness from the material universe."

And van Lommel notes that Henri Bergson (1859-1941), French philosopher and Nobel prize winner for literature in 1927, asserted: “The more we become accustomed to this idea of a consciousness which overflows the organ we call the brain, then the more natural and probable we find the hypothesis that the soul survives the body.”

Pim Van Lommel, “Near-Death Experience and the Loss of Brain Function During Cardiac Arrest: A Strong Indication for Non-Local Consciousness,” in Beauregard, Mario; Dyer, Natalie; Woollacott, Marjorie, editors, Expanding Science: Visions of a Postmaterialist Paradigm. AAPS. Kindle Edition. (p. 254). AAPS. Kindle Edition.

Bergson, H. (1914, September 27). Quote from interview in The New York Times.

James, W. (1898) Human Immortality. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.