Implications for neuroscience: Mays excerpt #26

The Mays write: To adopt the new paradigm of the nonmaterial self-conscious mind, current neuroscience must be reformulated and extended, for example, in the following ways:

Neural activations are currently considered calculations on neural representations of mental content encoded in neural structures.

In contrast, in our theory, all mental processing occurs in the nonmaterial mind. There are no neural representations of mental content. The mental content in the mind is impressed on a brain region; the neural activations in that region bring the content to awareness. The reciprocal interplay of the mind with the brain produces in-body consciousness.

Both episodic and semantic memories are currently considered to be encoded as neural representations in the brain, in the hippocampus or globally in the cortex, respectively.

In contrast, in our theory, all memories are formed and “stored” in the mind and are accessible by impressing specific remembered content, through intuition, on the appropriate brain region, for example, a specific life event or the meaning of a word. The reciprocal interplay of the mind with the brain brings the memory to consciousness.

The “mind” is currently considered to be a set of cognitive and emotional capacities produced by brain activity. The mind is impaired when the brain is impaired. With severe brain damage, the mind is reduced to primitive “unresponsive wakefulness” or “vegetative” states. The mind—the person—is annihilated with the death of the brain.

In contrast, in our theory, the nonmaterial self-conscious mind is ordinarily dependent on brain activity and is impaired when the brain is impaired. With severe brain damage, the mind is still whole but is locked in a severely dysfunctional brain. Therapies can be developed to improve brain function so the mind can begin to work with the brain again and the patient can become more responsive. With the death of the brain, the mind—the essence of the person—is released from the body and continues to exist as the whole person.

Implications for physics

To adopt the new paradigm of the nonmaterial self-conscious mind, current physics must be reformulated and extended to account for the following new phenomenological facts:

An extra spatial dimension: As described above, NDErs frequently report unusual visual abilities— “360° spherical vision” and “vision from everywhere.” Several NDE researchers have proposed that this exceptional ability suggests there is an additional spatial dimension. Because NDEr veridical perceptions occur “simultaneously in all directions,” the 5th dimension must encompass the other dimensions (three of space and one of time). The nature of this 5th dimension has relevance to physicists who are considering an extra spatial dimension to explain the weakness of gravity relative to the other fundamental forces.

A new physical force between the out-of-body nonmaterial mind entity and solid physical objects: This force accounts for the subtle interaction NDErs experience when moving through solid matter, generally described as a resistance or increase in density. This force is likely a universal force between out-of-body entities existing in the 5th dimension and matter, for example, accounting for the rare cases of physical interaction between a deceased loved one and an in-body person. This new force may also be involved in apparent cases of psychokinesis (PK), the paranormal ability to influence a physical system without using ordinary physical interaction.

A new type of entity (spiritual beings): The evidence from NDEs strongly suggest that the NDEr’s nonmaterial mind or consciousness separates from and operates independent of the body; that the mind is the essence of the person; and that the mind entity is objectively real. The evidence of meeting deceased persons in NDEs, in shared death experiences (SDEs), and in after-death communications (ADCs) demonstrates that the deceased persons these experiencers encounter are objectively real. The phenomenological facts indicate that the minds of living and deceased persons are nonmaterial spiritual beings who continue to exist after the death of the physical body. Therefore, a complete scientific description of physical reality needs to include the existence of these entities because every living human being is the embodiment of a spiritual being in a physical body.

The insights derived from NDEs, SDEs, and related phenomena lead to a theory of mind that has greater explanatory power with respect to consciousness, memory, and agency. As we have hopefully demonstrated above, the insights from this theory provide a new conceptual framework that can lead to paradigm shifts in neuroscience, physics, and other fields, thereby extending the current naturalism to include nonmaterial entities, forces, and interactions.

Robert G. Mays, BSc and Suzanne B. Mays, AA,  “There is no death: Near-death experience evidence for survival after permanent bodily death.” An essay written for the 2021 Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies addressing the question: “What Is The Best Available Evidence For The Survival Of Human Consciousness After Permanent Bodily Death?” Footnotes are omitted from these excerpts but are in the full text available from the Bigelow website at https://bigelowinstitute.org/contest_winners3.php.