Mind-brain interactions: Mays excerpt #14

The Mays write: First, there is strong evidence that the out-of-body mind interacts with physical processes such as light, sound waves in the air, and solid matter, giving rise to subjective sensations in the NDEr’s mind. The NDEr later reports accurate veridical perceptions in the physical realm. There is no reasonable explanation for these veridical perceptions except that the out-of-body nonmaterial mind was able to interact with physical processes at the time of the events, resulting in the accurate perceptions.

Second, there is evidence that a new force is involved in mind-to-matter interactions. A subtle, previously unrecognized push-pull force seems to exist when the out-of-body mind entity passes through solid matter, giving rise to the subjective sensation of resistance or increased density in the NDEr. NDEr Howard felt the densities of the insulation as he rose up through the ceiling, the 10-year-old NDEr felt resistance as she pushed through the door, and Raymond Moody’s patient felt his arm to have a “very rarified gelatin” consistency when she passed her out-of-body “hand” through his arm. In addition, a physical object can interact with the NDEr nonmaterial “body,” as happened when the man ran through Laszlo and “wafted” his out-of-body shoulder.

The interactive force works both from the mind “pressing” through a solid object and feeling its resistance and from a solid object passing through the mind’s “body” and causing a distortion of the body’s form. Both forms of interaction suggest a subtle two-way interactive force exists between the nonmaterial mind and matter. Therefore, it is very plausible that the mind can interact causally—not just receptively—with physical matter to produce an effect.

Third, there is evidence that when NDErs interact with another person’s physical body, the mind can interact specifically with neural electrical processes. Raymond Moody’s out-of-body patient passed her hand through his arm and felt an electric current running through it, apparently sensing the neural electrical activity in the arm muscles as Moody inserted the IV needle. Jerry Casebolt tickled the old lady’s nose with his out-of-body “finger” and caused her to sneeze three times. The interaction of the finger with the woman’s nose apparently stimulated a tickling sensation by triggering neural activity causing the sneezing. These cases suggest that causal interactions specifically between the mind and neural electrical processes are plausible, both to sense neural “action potentials” and to trigger action potentials. Thus, it is plausible that the mind can both sense and trigger electrical brain activity.

Most skeptical philosophers and scientists will say it’s fine to show that it’s possible—and even plausible—that the nonmaterial mind entity can interact with the brain, but it’s also necessary to present a plausible mechanism how this can actually work. How does the mind entity actually work with the brain to produce phenomenal awareness?

The mind entity hypothesis is a form of “interactionist dualism” that holds that the mind and brain are separate entities that causally interact with one another to produce awareness. As part of this hypothesis, it’s important to include a plausible mechanism for two-way causal interactions between the nonmaterial mind and the brain.

In a series of experiments in the 1970s, neurophysiologist Benjamin Libet established that one’s conscious awareness of anything requires a minimum duration of neural electrical activity—typically 300–500 milliseconds, up to about half a second. Libet concluded that this process of “coming to awareness” applies to all mental content, whether the content of awareness is a perception, a thought, an intention, or a memory.

Libet’s “time on” requirement becomes important when we consider the mental content the mind generates internally, such as thoughts, plans, daydreams, etc. In order for internally generated mental content to come to awareness, the mind must first trigger neural activations in appropriate brain regions which then bring the internal content to awareness. This seems paradoxical—how the mind must first impress its content on specific brain regions to bring that content to awareness. However, this process explains why most NDErs experience their thoughts to be speeded up while out-of-body and subsequently dulled down when returning to ordinary consciousness. Also, if brain function is somehow impaired (e.g., with alcohol), the process of coming to awareness can be hindered or blocked.

In our theory, the physical interface between the nonmaterial mind and the brain is in the gray matter—the outermost 2–4 mm portion of the cortex, including in all the folds of the brain. The mind entity interfaces with the apical dendrites, the dendritic structures that project vertically to the surface of the cortex.

The mind interface works in two ways:

The brain-to-mind interface (for sensory input) occurs when neural activations occur in sensory neural areas. When a sensory neuron “fires,” its action potential propagates upwards from the cell body throughout the entire dendritic structure (58). When a large number of neurons fire together in a brain region, these “backward-propagated” pulse-like activations are detected by the mind, bringing the sensation to awareness.

The mind-to-brain-to-mind interface (for internal mental content) occurs when the mind induces neural activations in a brain region to impress a specific mental content on it, for example a concept or image from the mind. The mind-induced neural activations are then detected by the mind, bringing the mental content to awareness. The neural activations act as a kind of mirror to reflect the mental content back to the mind.

How does the nonmaterial mind actually induce neural activations? We propose that the mind can alter the molecular configuration of the “ion channels” in the apical dendrites. When these ion channels open, an action potential is triggered in the neuron. The energy required to open an ion channel is very small, on the order of the subtle force of interaction between the mind and physical matter.

In both cases, neural activations are necessary to bring sensations or mental content to awareness. When united with the brain and body, the mind cannot become aware of its own sensory or mental content without these neural activations. This view of mind-brain interactions is consistent with the close correlation of all in-body mental states with brain activity and with Libet’s findings that a minimum of neural activity is needed for both sensory and mental content to come to awareness.

Our proposed mind-brain mechanism is plausible because NDE evidence strongly suggests (a) that a previously unrecognized force of interaction exists between the NDEr’s mind and solid matter, and (b) that the nonmaterial mind can interact with neurons to both sense and trigger action potentials.

 

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.