“We are brought up in the West
today to believe that the brain is a creator of thought, a producer―or at least
an agent in the production―of consciousness. We are indoctrinated into the
materialist belief that the mental world is merely a superficial, almost
superfluous outgrowth of the physical. But now, in the light of NDEs, we must
forcefully challenge that view. From those who have skirted death comes this
extraordinary new evidence suggesting that cognition may actually broaden and
become more profound at exactly the time the brain stops working. How is that
possible?
“It is not simply that scientists
have failed to explain consciousness, they have failed (in the main) to see
that such an explanation is not even possible. Today’s prevailing view that
subjective experiences arise spontaneously when certain physical systems (such
as brains and, perhaps, computers) get complicated enough is fundamentally
misguided. It stems from our habit of seeing the world dualistically―as having
separate subjective and objective aspects. But
in reality there is no such separation.
“Science starts from the
assumption that there is a knowable logic to the universe―which there clearly
is. It then strips away all aspects of the world that logic cannot tease apart,
calling these subjective. There is nothing wrong with this―science couldn’t
progress in any other way. The mistake is to assume that this separation of
objective from subjective, which we
choose to make, reflects how things really are. It does not. And this
misunderstanding is now becoming very clear as scientists go beyond their own
remit and try to explain consciousness as a derivative of brain function. Their
failure is no surprise.
“Consciousness is not some
side-effect, or epiphenomenon, of the objective world. It is an integral,
irreducible part of reality. Consciousness is
the subjective aspect of all things―the ever-present ‘mind’ of the
universe.
“Most, if not all, the major
organs of the body are regulators.
The lungs don’t manufacture the air our bodies need; the stomach and intestines
are not food-producers. So, if we manufacture neither the air we breathe nor
the food we eat, why assume that we make, rather than regulate, what we think?
“Seen as a reducing valve, the
brain is a mixed blessing. Without it, human beings would never have evolved. The
brain shields us from an awareness of every little thing, letting through only
those experiences that are relevant to our survival. On the other hand, the
brain prevents us from being directly in touch with reality. It is the barrier
that stands between us and the limitless potential of the universe.
“We may be supremely
self-conscious, but for this very reason our awareness of reality is
surprisingly limited.
“All other living creatures are
more conscious than us, if by this we mean they interfere less with the
totality of experience available to them. With inanimate objects, the
distinction between the individual―the self―and the unity of everything breaks
down completely. So, the bewildering paradox emerges that inert matter can be
considered more conscious than anything that lives, while human beings are the
least conscious creatures of all!
“Such a conclusion seems
unreasonable. But that is only because it runs counter to the completely false
picture of the world we normally uphold. We
are the ones who invent the myth of objects and phenomena, of separation and
selfhood. None of this really exists.
Everything we experience through our rationalizing minds is an illusion. So
what does it mean to say that a rock is more conscious than a person? Simply that
what it is like to be a rock is the same as what it is like to be the whole
universe, because outside of the human mind there is no differentiation.
“Our brains, far from being
prerequisites for conscious thought, reduce the ever-present torrent of total
subjective experience to a carefully moderated trickle. They condense the
infinite, unbroken cosmos down to an extraordinarily parochial world that seems
to revolve around the individual.
“The brain builds models. Then
these models are projected outward, creating the appearance of ‘things’ and
‘happenings’ beyond the senses. But these phenomena are not objectively real. We see only our own
confabulations― sophisticated falsehoods that include elements of experience as
fundamental as our selves, our perceptions of moving time and our anxiety at
the prospect of death.
“Brains improve the survival
chances of the organic structures that encase them. They assist with the four
F’s―fighting, fleeing, feeding and mating. And they do this by restricting and
rescripting consciousness to just that paltry form needed to maximize our
chances of staying alive.
“If we can readjust to the idea
that consciousness exists only outside
the mental world of the brain, then death no longer appears as the ultimate
tragedy.
“Death is the breaking of a
spell, the waking from a dream. In this alternative paradigm, consciousness is
there all the time, all around us―in the trees, the earth, the sky, and the
emptiness of space. It is there, waiting for us to rejoin it.”
David J. Darling, Soul Search: A Scientist Explores the
Afterlife (Villard, 1995), 156-167.