If consciousness persists after we die, where might it be found? Recall that the transmissive model of consciousness is consistent with survival precisely because, even when the brain is alive, the source of consciousness exists independent of it. Therefore, the question should be re-formulated: Where can consciousness be represented other than the brain? Where is consciousness stored?
The issue of where a person’s consciousness goes when they die has always been of interest to the human species as evidenced by our complex rituals associated with death as well as the rich cultural narratives that accompany them. Whether the beliefs were originally constructed to address grief, increase group cohesion, or identify the veridical position of a person in space-time after their body decomposes, the proposed solutions have typically shared thematic elements. In our modern era, the idea of “returning to the void” is becoming an increasingly popular belief, where in death, consciousness exists in the same space it existed before life: nowhere at all. This view is logical if one assumes, as most do today, a productive dependence of brain function. Because if consciousness is generated by the brain, and it did not exist before the brain developed, then it will not exist after it decomposes. In other words, productive models of consciousness will leave you stranded at the gates of Heaven – or Hell.
Other well-subscribed beliefs about a “life after life” are consistent with the transmissive dependence of brain function. For example, a mechanism for “reincarnation” might involve the return of consciousness to a reborn version of oneself or the transfer of consciousness into a new body. Concepts of “ascension” and “descension” place consciousness in non-living realms, where rewards and punishments may be issued.
There are also notions of a “persistent” consciousness that may linger among the living as an independent apparition263 or exist in unity with the consciousness of others. It is, however, difficult to discern which model, if any, reflects reality. Many have reported experiencing glimpses of an afterlife, apparently confirming or disconfirming one or more of these popular beliefs. Because afterlife beliefs are common and often conflicting, confirming any one of them will depend upon which eye-witness reports are prioritized. However, for reasons that I have outlined in a previous section, I do not think near-death and other experiences commonly cited in survival research should be regarded as the best available scientific evidence as they cannot be independently verified or replicated. Even if near-death experiences are informed by genuine glimpses of an afterlife, the burden of repeatability – for which exceptions should not be granted in science – may be too extreme by dint of the transient nature of the phenomenon.
Again, this is not to say the experiences are fabrications or even confabulations. As a method, science admits a weakness when it attempts to grapple with the private contents of experience. Rather than rejecting experiences outright, I claim that we cannot base an empirical case for the survival of consciousness following death on these types of experiences alone due to an intrinsic limitation of the scientific method. Nevertheless, themes of survival consistent across cultural narratives and eye-witness testimonies have inspired the formation of hypotheses toward more scientific approaches that are grounded in objective measurement.
In the late 1800s, the notable philosopher and mystic H.P. Blavatsky borrowed from Vedantic and Buddhistic thought to formulate her own narrative concerning, among other things, the location of consciousness outside the body. Indeed, her theosophy of Akasha – a term derived from the Sanskrit word for “space” or “sky” – places all intent, consciousness, memory, thought, and will in a pervasive and ethereal plane. Indeed, the Akashic record was also thought to be the place from which radiates “the First Logos”, where logos refers, in context, to sound or speech.
Blavatsky’s idea is essentially a reformed version of the Hindu concept of Akasha as the eternal and imperceptible substrate of the Universe – a sound or musical vibration from which all else emerges. Artistic representations of it are found in classical Indian music as the meditative drone of a single repeating note played by instruments like the tanpura or shruti box over which all other notes are played. Interestingly, one of the most ancient Indian stringed instruments – the veena – began as a harp-like device called Akasa, which consisted of strings tied to the tops of trees that vibrated with the wind – thus channeling what was assumed to be the musical substrate of the Universe.
Inspired by Blavatsky’s original interpretation of Akasha as an external but accessible record of all minds, the philosopher Ervin László identified analogous concepts in quantum mechanics that he claimed could accommodate evolutionary and cosmological processes as well as consciousness in the “Akashic Field” or “A-Field”. A recent paper even discussed the possibility of extracting information from the Akashic records for military intelligence purposes. These ideas parallel William James’ view of consciousness as being transmitted from one “infinite Thought”, existing “behind the scenes, coeval in the world”, which he reasoned avoided “multiplying [the] miracle” of de novo consciousness production within billions of brains across the planet and over time.
But is there a scientific basis for the storage of memory and consciousness in space? Or perhaps, given the electromagnetic nature of the brain, one might ask: Is it possible to store memory and consciousness in an electromagnetic field? The survival of consciousness after death requires a space within which it can exist independent of the brain. Here, I will demonstrate that the evidence indicates it is stored all around us in our shared electromagnetic environment.
In a previous section, I demonstrated that the brain is fundamentally an electromagnetic organ. While I did discuss the effects of artificial EMFs on brain function, I did not touch on the effects of their natural or environmental equivalents. This section is reserved for a detailed exploration of natural EMFs, their effects on human cognition and behaviour, and the possibility that they can store and transmit information to and from brains – thus permitting its survival beyond brain death.
The primary reason why environmental EMFs demand our special attention is the following: If brain function is at least partially dependent on the reception of transmitted EMF signals, there must be at least one source in Nature that functions as the transmitter or zeitgeber. Whether transmissive brain function was selected or an incidental adaptation, the environmental source of the cue should be physical and therefore subject to measurement.
The Sun’s extended magnetic field – the interplanetary magnetic field – interacts with Earth’s in several ways. When it carries plasma toward the Earth’s magnetic field, the net result is an aurora – a light show caused by charged particles moving along flux lines that ultimately excite particles in our atmosphere. Another category of interaction is called the geomagnetic storm, which is caused by a compression and energization of the geomagnetic field by a colliding coronal mass ejection from the Sun. Incidentally, the frequency of coronal mass ejections is cyclical and tracks solar activity over periods of 11 and 22 years as indicated by sunspot numbers. The net result of the collision is an increase in geomagnetic field strength coupled with increased geomagnetic current. A sufficiently intense storm has the capacity to wipe out satellites and other electronic devices but there are also marked biological effects.
There is overwhelming evidence that biological organisms detect and respond to Earth’s magnetic field and its storms. The highly-cited works of Joseph L. Kirschvink demonstrate that magnetoreception – the ability to detect and respond to magnetic fields – is not uncommon among biological organisms. Indeed, bats, honeybees, pigeons, species of bacteria, and fish, as well as humans and many other animals display capacities to orient and navigate using the geomagnetic field as a reference point. Kirschvink has proposed biogenic magnetite as the primary receptor and transducing element for magnetoreception.
These biologically precipitated particles of iron oxide can even be “magnetized”. That is, the polar structure of the material can be re-aligned to become a permanent magnet. Magnetite is also ferrimagnetic – which is to say it displays a property called magnetic hysteresis. This unique property allows the magnetic behaviour of the material to change as a function of the history of its magnetization, holding a memory of its previous states. Incidentally, iron bars with similar properties can be induced to display conditioned responses that are operationally indistinct from animal forms of learning. Therefore, as a material, magnetite is able to store and re-express electromagnetic information as magnetic “states” or “memories”.
Magnetite deposits were initially found to be homogenously distributed throughout the brain. However, experimental magnetizations of these particles by exposures to high-intensity fields from an MRI scanner recently enabled researchers to use a MEG-based localization technique to identify increased concentrations of magnetite within the limbic regions. In particular, there were high concentrations of magnetite found within the hippocampal bodies, deep within the temporal lobes. Incidentally, while the hippocampus is an important organ for memory encoding and retrieval, it is also associated with spatial orientation and navigation. If magnetite participates in human magnetoreception, it may be a fundamentally passive process. Unlike heme iron in the oxygen-transporting metalloprotein hemoglobin, magnetite is not clearly coupled to any protein that opens an ion channel or performs some other active function at the level of the cell. Magnetite may instead interact with brain and environmental EMFs at a material level, though the precise mechanism remains unknown.
As reviewed in Persinger’s 1974 book “ELF and VLF Electromagnetic Field Effects”, as well as Dubrov and Brown’s 1978 book “The Geomagnetic Field and Life: Geomagnetobiology”, there is considerable evidence that the Earth’s magnetic field influences living systems including the human brain. In the early part of the 20th century, it was reported that psychiatric hospital admissions tracked geomagnetic activity, which was independently confirmed decades later. The same effect would later be observed in epileptic patients as the frequency of their convulsions – usually within the temporal lobes – correlated with geomagnetic activity. On the bases of these and other observations, it was predicted that EEG rhythms and geomagnetic activity would also likely correlate. Since the 1960s, the effects of geomagnetic activity on synchronous brain activity as inferred by EEG have been independently replicated by several research groups.
In 2007, Babayev and Allahverdiyeva quantitatively demonstrated that right hemispheric theta (4–7 Hz) and alpha (8–13 Hz) EEG power correlated with geomagnetic activity. The changes were observed within the temporal-limbic regions and typically marked by negative emotional responses, which is unsurprising given the correlation between geomagnetic activity and population-level aggression or war. The right hemispheric theta-alpha effect was quickly replicated by Mulligan, Hunter, and Persinger in 2010 with data from quiet periods of geomagnetic activity. The same authors later established a causal role by experimentally simulating geomagnetic storm conditions. One of the most recent examples of brain-based interactions with simulated geomagnetic field changes was reported by Kirschvink’s group. Indeed, with Wang and colleagues, Kirschvink reported a desynchronization of alpha rhythms (8–13 Hz) which was associated with the static component of the Earth’s magnetic field and was orientation-dependent. In addition to EEG changes and the well-documented suppressions of the hormone melatonin, geomagnetic field fluctuations have always been associated with reliable reports of post-mortem apparitions (i.e., ghosts), and other intense paranormal experiences.
All states of consciousness are apparently affected by geomagnetic activity; however, influences on sleep states are notable. Incidences of vivid and bizarre dreams, as well as sleep paralysis are associated with geomagnetic activity. The duration of rapid eye movement (REM) was also affected by the position of the human head relative to the Earth’s magnetic poles, where the latency for East-West orientation was significantly shorter relative to North-South. Recently, a similar experiment demonstrated that low-frequency EEG rhythms – alpha in particular – were significantly affected by sleep orientation. In 1996, Stanley Krippner and Michael Persinger demonstrated that performance on a remote viewing task involving the identification of target pictures by dream content alone was enhanced by reduced geomagnetic activity. Incidentally, prophetic or precognitive dream events are widely reported and have been linked to geomagnetic activity as well.
There is clearly a connection between the Earth’s magnetic field, brain activity, cognition, and behavior. The mechanisms that relate them have not been fully elucidated; however, repeating patterns in the data have revealed a likely unifying candidate. Recall that the literature consistently reported that synchronous neural activity with frequencies ranging from 4 Hz to 14 Hz (theta and alpha rhythms) are affected by natural and artificial EMFs. If the geomagnetic field oscillates with a similar frequency, resonance with the brain may be possible. Resonance is a physical phenomenon associated with waves where the frequency of an applied force can become amplified by a paired frequency or wavelength-matched structure.
A tuning fork, for example, will resonate with particular frequencies of vibrating air but not others. Likewise, antennae will only receive particular frequencies of electromagnetic radiation. In both examples, as the frequency of the signal becomes less like the ideal receptive frequency of the system, resonance potential decreases. Fortunately, the oscillations of Earth’s magnetic field, which are driven by a resonance phenomenon involving lightning strikes, have been under investigation for nearly a century.
There are, on average, approximately 39 to 49 lightning flashes that occur between the Earth’s ionosphere and ground surface every second. Lightning strikes interfere with each other, perturbing the geomagnetic field with a predictable oscillation pattern. The Earth-ionosphere cavity is effectively a resonance chamber for lightning that generates a perturbation of the geomagnetic field with a frequency mode of 7.83 Hz, which is called the Schumann resonance for its discoverer W. O. Schumann. With his colleague H.L. König, Schumann measured a peak frequency of approximately 8 Hz with harmonics which have since been confirmed at 14, 20, 26, and 33 Hz.
König and colleagues later noted the peculiar overlap of brain EEG rhythms and Earth-ionospheric resonances – an observation that has received significant quantitative support in recent decades. In particular, Kevin Saroka’s research has empirically demonstrated the existence of a real-time coherence between Schumann resonance and the frequency spectra of human EEG rhythms. That is, the synchronized activity of brain cells and geomagnetic oscillations driven by lightning occur simultaneously – presumably across all 7.9 billion human brains. Whether or not they can be causally disentangled is unknown; however, the possibility that they are fundamentally one unified process is promising for the continuity of consciousness following brain death. Because if brain activity is the transmitted product of Schumann-type signals, survival is likely.
Interestingly, Persinger noted several other conspicuous overlapping features between lightning and the brain that point to a scale-invariant relationship. For example, both action potentials from neurons and lightning strikes share pulse patterns, refractory periods, current densities, and energy densities. Together, these studies support the conclusion that the electromagnetic patterns of the Earth and the brain are not only similar across several parameters, but they are also functionally synchronized in time.
Nicolas Rouleau, PhD, a neuroscientist and bioengineer, is an assistant professor at Algoma University in Canada. He received an award from the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies "An Immortal Stream of Consciousness" in response to its search for "scientific evidence for the survival of consciousness after permanent bodily death." Footnotes and bibliography are omitted from these excerpts from his essay, but the full essay is available online at https://www.bigelowinstitute.org/index.php/contest-runners-up/.
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