Living with love and hope

You have been raised with Christ, so set your hearts on things above. For you have died and now the life you have is hidden with Christ in God. (Col. 2:1-4)

 

Resurrection is not about what happens to a body after it dies. As Paul argues in 1 Corinthians 15, resurrection is a spiritual reality. A final hope, but now a Way of living. As Paul says in his letter to followers of the Way in Colossae, a small city near Ephesus in what is today Turkey, faith is dying to life as an everyday, material existence and being born anew in a life marked by hope and love. This is what Paul means by living "in Christ."

Grace and peace . . . Bob Traer

Living without fear of death

May the God of perseverance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves following the example of Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and one voice you may glorify God. (Romans 15:1-6)

Paul struggles to achieve support for his teachings in Rome and elsewhere. Paul argues that diversity can exist within the body of Christ, but his teaching is also a cause of division. He blames the conflicts on those who oppose him, but Paul's opponents must have blamed Paul. And who are Paul's opponents? The former disciples of Jesus, the apostles in Jerusalem who, we learn in Galatians 2 and in the second half of Acts, are led by James, the brother of Jesus.

The apostles in Jerusalem seem to believe that some if not all of the commandments of Jewish law must be kept by all following the Way of Jesus. As they knew Jesus during his lifetime, it is hard to believe that the historical Jesus set aside the Jewish law as Paul claims the risen Christ does. Paul never knew the historical Jesus, but he acknowledges that both he and the former disciples know the risen Lord. Why then do they differ?

Paul was a Greek-speaking Jew from a Roman city; the disciples of Jesus who were the first apostles were Aramaic-speaking Jews from Galilee. Perhaps their experience of the risen Christ was different, because their lives were so different. Yet, despite conflicting beliefs about Jesus, the first apostles and also Paul were transformed by their experience of the risen Christ.

In our time, thousands of survivors of near-death experiences have been transformed by the love and light that embraced them when they were unconscious and their brains were incapable of constructing perceptions, feelings, or memories. Nonetheless, these witnesses had striking perceptions, feelings, and memories. And now tell us that we all are going home. If you trust in their testimony, you too can live without fear of death.

Grace and peace . . . Bob Traer

 

Conclusion: Rouleau excerpt #18

Rouleau writes: In this essay, I have presented the best available evidence for the survival of human consciousness after permanent bodily death. As it stands, the data indicate that survival is possible beyond a reasonable doubt. Predicted over a century ago by William James in his prescient lecture on human immortality, contemporary neuroscience research indicates that brains display transmissive functions – they receive, process, and emit electromagnetic energies that are not dependent upon the activities of living cells. 

Consciousness is not produced by the brain alone. It is a force that exists independent of any organ as an electromagnetic signal that can interact with the brain by transmission to generate thought and experience. Therefore, when brain cells functionally deactivate, decay, decompose, and disintegrate, an immortal stream of consciousness persists. Just as consciousness survives death, so too do our memories as electromagnetic patterns stored in a physical Akashic record. The dying brain does not drag consciousness into the void – it merely loosens its grip on the transcerebral field that gives rise to it and connects us all. The butterflies of the soul cannot be caged, and without the air beneath their wings, they cannot fly.

I hope what was presented here will inspire philosophers and scientists alike to pursue an increasingly sophisticated study of consciousness as it relates to death and dying. Equipped with advanced measurement tools, modern investigators will likely be successful in elucidating the forces that give rise to consciousness and its relationship with death. However, there are many self-defeating habits that threaten its discovery. Chief among them is a failure of imagination, which shackles the mind to the useful dogmas and doctrines of so-called established disciplines. The life sciences, in particular, have become ironically resistant to change or new ideas that subvert convention. On the other hand, there are some who are too willing to accept any model of consciousness that conveniently satisfies a particular belief system. Extreme positions such as these do not grapple with the data, but rather attempt to contort facts to satisfy theories. Therefore, the practical success of this essay will only be realized if it breaks more bonds than it builds – an open mind is more productive toward the related sciences of consciousness and survival. Above all else, we should dispassionately align ourselves with whatever the empirical evidence suggests is most likely.

In the spirit of kindling scientific discussion and creative ideas, I will close this essay with a forward-looking exercise by outlining possible future directions for survival research. Specifically, I will offer suggestions to experimentally assess the brain’s putative transmissive functions on which the post-mortem survival of consciousness likely depends. What I will discuss are only a few obvious paradigms that follow from the main points of the essay; however, I suspect the most creative ideas will come from readers from all over the world and across all areas of study. Therefore, I will frame each thought with a question that I hope others will refine or attempt to answer.

Among the many possible experimental approaches, the continued investigation of complex EMF-brain interactions and their effects on consciousness represents the lowest-hanging fruit and can be immediately pursued. Therefore, the first question is: If environmental EMFs are received and filtered by brain tissues to generate consciousness, will selective shielding conditions change experience? While previous studies have focused on attenuating field strength or intensity, efforts should now focus on blocking frequencies and pulse patterns using high- and low-pass EMF-filtering materials.

For example, selectively inhibiting theta- and alpha-band EMF oscillations should attenuate real-time EEG coherence with geomagnetic field fluctuations. Psychometric scales of mood, attention, and arousal states as well as personality inventories should also be administered and correlated with brain measurements. Quantitative analyses of linguistic themes and emotional content of self-reported experiences should be analyzed across large groups of participants exposed to the same EMF-blocking conditions. Dying patients may also be measured using combinations of shielding, magnetometers, EEG devices, and photomultiplier tubes to determine relationships between functional brain death and local electromagnetic energies including biophotons. In particular, I anticipate that measuring the “death flash”, its neural correlates, and environmental dynamics will help advance an empirically-based science of survival.

Beyond a study of the individual, the transmissive model predicts that consciousness can effectively be shared between all brains. In recent decades, there have been several independent efforts to demonstrate real-time brain signal coherence between paired human subjects who are physically isolated from each other. One of the most simple and elegant experiments of brain-brain “excess correlation” was performed by Leanna J. Standish’s team and published in 2006. A pair of human subjects, designated as “stimulated” or “non-stimulated”, were separated by 30 feet and a wall of medical-grade EMF shielding material. The stimulated individual always sat in front of a video screen that presented them with visual stimuli in sequential ON-OFF patterns while the non-stimulated individual, wearing sensory-isolating goggles, was always placed in an fMRI scanner.

Remarkably, the visual cortex of the non-stimulated person became reliably activated when the other person was being stimulated and deactivated when the stimulation stopped. In other words, even though the non-stimulated person was not experiencing visual stimulation, their cortex was being activated as if it was. This was one of the first robust demonstrations of brain-to-brain communication without the use of an intermediate technology.

Since her seminal discovery, others have replicated the effects with weaker intensity magnetic fields. As a graduate student in Michael Persinger’s laboratory, I published a similar experiment wherein subjects separated by approximately 6,000 km were exposed to synchronized rotating magnetic fields with changing angular velocities. Interestingly, when we measured the EEG rhythms of our paired subjects and later source-localized the brain activity, theta band (4–8 Hz) signals originating within the parahippocampal cortex displayed significant superimposition across pairs of brains as if they were functionally connected.

Therefore, the second question is the following: Are all brains fundamentally connected by shared forces, electromagnetic or otherwise, which permit the exchange of brain-based information associated with memory and consciousness? And can they be enhanced or attenuated by certain technologies?

Pursuing fundamental mechanisms of survival and transmissive consciousness may require a completely different approach grounded in biological engineering. In our 2021 review article entitled “Toward Studying Cognition in a Dish”, my colleagues and I discussed using neural tissue engineering techniques to assess cognitive capacities including consciousness in lab-grown brains59. One implication of this approach would be a novel means of testing independence of consciousness from substrates including brain matter:

Instead of probing the preassembled brains of animals, investigators are now free to design and build artificial circuits and pathways that differ from their naturally selected counterparts and to push systems to their extremes in search of first principles that underlie brain function. Indeed, artificial neural tissues are not limited by inborn developmental morphology or structural–functional templates found in nature. As it is conceivable that some or all higher-order cognitive functions may be substrate independent, the rationale and means to test the independence hypothesis are now beginning to converge.

We argued that incremental innovations would eventually lead to the creation of bioengineered brains that would be indistinguishable from their natural templates and that these lab-grown tissues would necessarily display features of consciousness:

To fully replicate the structure of the brain such that the artificially generated tissue is at every level of analysis – from the proteins that make up the cells and the precise composition of the extracellular matrix linking neurons and glia – indistinguishable from its natural template would be, by definition, to create a tissue that can experience. To suppose otherwise would be to admit that consciousness does not emerge from brain matter. . . . Just as comparative anatomy highlighted the remarkable overlap between species which were thought to be phylogenetically unrelated, we submit that a comparative study of cognition across a large set of iterative artificial neural tissues is of equal importance as we attempt to understand the biological origins of phenomena such as thought, intelligence, and even consciousness.

With near-limitless customization potential, lab-grown tissues may represent the perfect tools to test passive neural properties and the transmissive theory of consciousness. Thus, the third and final question is: Are transmissive brain functions independent of productive functions or do they interact?

One way to parse productive and transmissive brain functions is to build modular brains in the laboratory and to systematically add and subtract tissue elements to examine their relative impact on passive EMF signal filtration and amplification as well as how these properties influence action potentials and network properties. Neural tissue engineering techniques may also be used to identify the receptive structures and transduction mechanisms that underly both passive and active magnetoreception. Lab-grown brains with titrated concentrations of embedded magnetite could be exposed to alternative EMF conditions while measuring neural activity. EMFs could then be applied to examine the role of magnetite on brain activity and its resonance potential.

As technological innovations accelerate, it is worth considering the possibility that memory and consciousness could one day be transmitted to artificial or bioengineered brains – a voluntary rebirth for those who resist drifting away from their bodies. A procedure to transfer experience from one brain or to another would circumvent the need for medical breakthroughs associated with cancer and senescence because the diseased body could always be substituted for another without sacrificing the ”individual”. In that case, repairing the body would always be less desirable than replacing it.

Similarly, a sufficiently precise 3D printer may one day be able to re-create the fine-structure of a deceased person’s former brain. If the transmissive theory of consciousness is valid, the 3D printed brain would be precisely “tuned” to capture the signals which once defined the individual’s consciousness. While it may only be a distant reality, consciousness may be “brought back” from its brain-independent state by re-creating the brains of the deceased using advanced technologies.

The future of survival research will depend on our willingness to entertain creative and previously unexplored ideas as well the availability of funding opportunities to legitimize the subject matter, attract talent, stimulate discovery, and elevate the topic for public engagement. In addition to what I have presented, alternative solutions to the problem of survival should be explored in the interest of generating competing scientific theories and a robust dialectic that drives innovation.

For example, consider the possibility that there are many paths to immortality. Indeed, the simulation argument is quite compelling: If humans, equipped with super powerful computers, will one day be able to generate simulations with conscious humans that are indistinguishable from reality, they may also be able to run many simultaneous simulations – perhaps several orders of magnitude more than the one surface reality. It is then much more likely than not that our consciousness is simulated. While it is likely that consciousness survives death independent of any technological assistance, the opportunity to choose an afterlife would be the ultimate expression of human freedom.

 

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/.

Remote Viewing: Rouleau excerpt #17

Rouleau writes: The most famous and well-documented example of an individual who could engage in “remote viewing” or a capacity to experience people, places, and events at a distance is the late Ingo Swann. Originally investigated by prominent psychical researchers Hal Puthoff and Russel Targ in the 1970s, Ingo Swann’s remote viewing procedure was supported by U.S. national defense and intelligence agencies with clear military and strategic applications. When Swann engages in remote viewing, he experiences flashes of visual stimuli and words, as well as recognizable images, the sensation of floating, and out-of-body experiences – all known correlates of temporal lobe activation. In one experiment, Swann was asked to remotely view pictures placed in envelopes positioned in a distant room while his EEG rhythms were measured. Just as Puthoff and Targ had originally observed, Ingo Swann’s readings were highly accurate. When he began to concentrate and engage in his remote viewing procedure, bursts of 7 Hz spikes were observed over his right temporal and occipital lobes that strongly correlated with his accuracy scores. MRI scans later revealed structural abnormalities within the same regions of his right hemisphere.

To discern how Swann was receiving information, EMFs were applied to his brain while he was not engaged in remote viewing. Echoing Harribance’s experience, Swann reported spontaneous inductions of his remote viewing experiences when exposed to the applied EMFs; however, some EMF patterns could also disrupt his abilities. Again, the simplest explanation supports the existence of transmissive brain function and an electromagnetic basis of memory and consciousness. The involvement of the right temporal lobe and the conspicuous 7 Hz signature also suggests a potential link to Schumann resonances and the geomagnetic field.

Finally, the lesser-known Ms. Black (anonymized) represents a rare case of an individual who expresses psychokinesis – an ability to move objects by means of thought alone – with associated poltergeist phenomena including electronic, movement, and sound-based events coupled to her own emotional state. The sounds were typically experienced as taps that were linked to real-time fluctuations in geomagnetic activity. Notably, they were typically heard on the left side of her body, and she reported experiencing occasional discharges of light from her left hand – both of which indicate lateralized, right hemispheric brain activations. This is relatively unsurprising given she sustained an impact to the right side of her head during a car accident earlier in adulthood, causing a moderate right hemispheric brain injury.

EEG measurements confirmed an anomalous, high-intensity and high-frequency signal over her right temporal lobe that could be attenuated by sitting in a Faraday cage that significantly reduces local geomagnetic field intensity – suggesting an electromagnetic basis to the phenomenon. The signal was source-localized to the right insula – a region of the cortex that is structurally adjacent and medial to as well as continuous with the temporal lobe.

Ms. Black reportedly developed her psychokinetic ability by learning to rotate a pinwheel by force of concentration alone. In one experiment, she was asked to move the pinwheel while her EEG rhythms were monitored. A strong relationship was identified between the amount of 7 Hz activity she expressed over her right temporal lobe and the rotation of the pinwheel. When she was exposed to a simulated geomagnetic EMF in the laboratory, the 7 Hz signal that was diminished by the EMF-shielding cage spontaneously returned with a paired feeling of distress and unease. Like Harribance and Swann, Ms. Black displayed a prominent right hemispheric functional brain anomaly that could be modulated by electromagnetic fields. However, unlike the highly subjective reports of the former cases, Ms. Black displayed an objective mind-matter interaction, which supports the transmissive model of brain function.

Assuming scientists will one day conclusively validate the existence of psychokinetic activity, a revision of some historical events may be necessary. For example, recalling the near-death experience that inspired Hans Berger to pursue the measurement of “psychic energy”, it is worth considering the possibility that he did not telepathically transmit fear to his sister, but rather that her distress psychokinetically caused the fall that nearly killed him.

Here, I have focused on a small set of cases to demonstrate parallel findings across psi research; however, statistically abnormal performance on tasks related to telepathy and remote viewing have been reliably reported to varying degrees among randomly sampled, otherwise normal people. Indeed, the use of random event generators (REGs) to demonstrate mind-matter interactions in humans has indicated that some individuals can bias random physical systems by concentration alone. Meta-analyses of hundreds of studies examining the effects of consciousness on REGs and the results of falling dice clearly indicates the existence of a genuine interaction between thought and physical systems outside the head.

Consciousness therefore likely extends beyond the brain, supporting a transmissive model over current productive models. Interestingly, EMFs can be used to induce, amplify, and suppress psi task performance among randomly selected individuals. There is also a developed literature on psi phenomena that reinforces the significance of geomagnetic activity and its effects on performance. Geomagnetic storms affect extrasensory perception scores indicative of telepathy among average human participants and are linked to poltergeist phenomena.

Despite independent verification of some specific cases and phenomena, the mainstream rejection of psi abilities as “spooky” or the always-childish “woo-woo” is reasonable given the productive model of consciousness. That is, if brains generate consciousness by endogenous mechanisms that can only interface with the external environment by way of the peripheral nervous system and its control of our musculoskeletal system, psi is a total non-starter because it lacks a realistic mechanism. However, it should be noted that, historically speaking, phenomena which are unexplained because of an incomplete or inaccurate model of the system always seem spooky until an accurate model is adopted. Once a causal mechanism is identified, the phenomenon becomes mundane and post-hoc analyses are often paired with a dense incredulity associated with sentiments such as “How could we have ever thought otherwise?”

Similarly, the survival of consciousness after death is expected to become increasingly mundane as a concept if empirical efforts toward its validation yield compelling results with a defined mechanism. Based upon the three presented cases, psi phenomena are typically associated with anomalous right hemispheric activity with localized activations in the temporal lobe and parahippocampal area in particular. Synchronous brain activity is often reflective of Schumann resonance frequencies with dominant theta rhythms that track psi performance. Finally, actual and simulated geomagnetic fields as well as artificial EMF exposures can modulate psi ability. Together, these findings strongly support the validity of transmissive, electromagnetic models of consciousness. Therefore, the survival of consciousness after bodily death – which is at least partly dependent upon transmissive function – is likely beyond a reasonable doubt.

 

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/.

Psi phenomena: Rouleau excerpt #16

Rouleau writes: Humans have always shared and preserved stories of unique individuals who could apparently perform extraordinary acts or, by David Hume’s definition of miracles, “violations of the laws of Nature”. Contemporary equivalents of those once mythologized as prophets, oracles, soothsayers, and other special beings, are often regarded as frauds or charlatans – and many of them likely are. Of course, the convenient argument that unique abilities may be incompatible with measurement or the highly controlled environments of scientific laboratories could be valid; however, it is an untestable hypothesis and therefore not scientific – or rather, a limitation of the scientific method.

Regardless, there are also many credible reports of individuals who have reliably demonstrated unique abilities including better-than-chance outcomes that also exceed the average performance of other humans. Beginning with the 1886 publication of “Phantasms of the Living” and well into the 20th century, scientists and scholars began to operationally distinguish these unique phenomena from the typical behaviors and mental states under the dominion of the newly formed field of psychology.

Thus, parapsychology research was first initiated to investigate infrequent, transient, esoteric, and fringe phenomena that I will refer to as “psi phenomena”. Classically, these include mediumship, telepathy, clairvoyance, remote-viewing, different types of extrasensory perception, as well as near- death experiences, post-mortem apparitions, synchronicities, and other oddities. Most are intrinsically subjective but some including psychokinesis and poltergeist phenomena involve objectively measurable mind-matter interactions and are empirically linked to emotional states of arousal and interpersonal conflict.

The early 20th century was a genuinely exciting time to be scientist with an interest in psi phenomena – this is perhaps best illustrated by Duncan MacDougall’s famous experiment published in 1907, where he attempted to weigh the soul as it left the body by placing the beds of dying humans and dogs on an industrial-sized scale. His results indicated that the soul might weigh approximately 21 grams; however, his experiments suffered from low sample size and, without further investigation, his inconsistent results could reasonably be explained by variations in lung capacity and sweating.

Though it might seem like a digression, I claim that the likelihood that human consciousness survives permanent bodily death increases if the model of consciousness that accommodates it – the transmissive model – can also accommodate psi phenomena. Because, as I will demonstrate, some psi phenomena are measurable but unexplained by productive models of brain function. And if transmission can do what production cannot by successfully unifying psi with mainstream psychology, its strength as a theory will be further supported.

Also, because survival is dependent upon transmissive consciousness, demonstrating the validity of certain psi phenomena will, in turn, bolster the plausibility of survival itself. Further, if psi abilities can be suppressed, modulated, or enhanced by electromagnetic energies including EMFs and geomagnetic fluctuations, their convergence with

transmission and survival will be even greater by dint of a shared putative mechanism. Therefore, I will now present three cases of individuals who display psi abilities under experimental conditions with similar neural correlates localized to the right temporal lobe, and I will discuss how the individuals involved are affected by natural and artificially-generated EMFs. The details of each case were originally compiled by Persinger in his 2015 book chapter entitled “Neuroscientific Investigation of Anomalous Cognition”.

Sean Harribance is a representative example of an individual who displays telepathy – which is also known as “mind reading”. His ability to access the memories, experiences, and medical histories of other people, which is consistent under experimental scrutiny, has been assessed by several independent investigators. Harribance describes his process of “reading” people as a communion with an “angel”, experienced as a sensed presence, that is accompanied by the perception of images about the person that appear in his upper-left visual field, which corresponds to the brain’s visual receptive areas of the right temporal and occipital lobes. When engaged in a reading, Harribance’s brain expresses a distinct pattern of EEG rhythms over the surface of his right hemispheric temporo-parietal region, which becomes more prominent as his reports become more accurate. Source-localization methods have identified the right parahippocampal cortex as the locus of his unique right hemispheric activations, which is the area of the brain’s temporal lobe that links the experiential neocortex and the memory-accessing hippocampus.

As measured by magnetometers placed alongside his temporal lobes, local geomagnetic field intensity significantly diminishes over his right temporal lobe proportionally to EEG rhythms within the same region and returns to baseline intensity when he mentally disengages from the reading procedure. In other words, there is a conserved relationship between his brain activity and the geomagnetic field intensity on the right side of his head. Remarkably, Harribance’s right temporal lobe activity strongly coheres with the activity of his subject’s left temporal lobes when he is “reading” them as if their brains are functionally connected. The right side of his brain also emits many more photons when he “reads” his subjects or imagines white light and displays prominent EEG frequency signatures of Schumann resonances.

Finally, experiments have demonstrated that Harribance’s sensed presence experience and visions could be systematically induced by stimulating his right temporal lobe using artificially applied EMFs. A parsimonious integration of these findings can only be achieved by adopting a transmissive model of consciousness. Indeed, telepathy may represent a rare capacity to intentionally access the electromagnetic representations of personal information.

Experiences of unintentional access or exchanges during altered states and sleep could account for similar phenomena in average individuals. Further, it is conceivable that mediumship is the equivalent of telepathy, however, in the case of the former, the electromagnetic information is associated with a deceased individual instead of a live one. Whether individuals such as Harribance accesses information directly from the brains of their subjects, or indirectly by either intercepting transmissions of consciousness or retrieving stored data from the shared geomagnetic environment is unknown but likely testable.

 

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/.

 

Proposed theory of survival: Rouleau excerpt #15

Rouleau writes: Throughout this essay I have presented significant evidence in support of a hypothesis that reconciles the continuity of experience and death. Before offering some important corollaries, implications, and final thoughts, I think that for the purposes of clarity it is necessary that we briefly return to the question at the core of this essay by restating its challenge: What is the best available evidence for the survival of human consciousness after permanent bodily death? On the bases of what has been presented thus far, I offer the following answer:

The best available evidence for survival is the significant observational and experimental data that indicate the brain is an organ that receives and emits electromagnetic radiation in ways that are consistent with a transmissive model of brain function that positions consciousness as independent and at least partially separate from the brain itself.

Admittedly, there are several conceptual steps that must be followed to fully appreciate the argument and I suspect its conclusion can only be compelling if all of the evidence can be considered simultaneously. Therefore, it may be necessary to compress the argument down to its most essential postulates, even at the risk of losing information. Here, I will provide an explicit and succinct summary of the evidence I have laid out in previous sections, formalize my proposed theory of survival, suggest a general mechanism, and provide some historical background for models of consciousness that support survival.

Recall that, initially, I approached the question by focusing on how brains function because the survival of consciousness is only threatened by death if brains produce consciousness by force of internal mechanisms alone. I then invoked William James’ transmissive model of brain function, which posits that consciousness is a signal or the product of a signal that may interact with the brain but originates in the external environment. Therefore, if consciousness is generated in part or whole by forces outside the head, brain death is not synonymous with the end of consciousness.

I argued that the transmissive model is consistent with the electromagnetic nature of the brain and is supported by an established literature of EMF-brain interactions. I demonstrated that cognition, behaviour, and even free will can be manipulated by external EMFs. Next, I summarized the results of my own experiments with fixed, post-mortem human brains. Together, they suggested that a transmissive model could be mediated by the material-like properties of brain tissues that filter induced voltage fluctuations caused by natural and artificial EMF exposures. The right parahippocampal cortex was particularly capable of passively amplifying and filtering electromagnetic signals. Other EMF-brain mechanisms are possible including interactions with biogenic magnetite. Finally, I discussed human magnetoreception, environmental sources of EMFs, real-time Schumann-brain resonances, and the reasons why brain-EMF interactions can account for the continuity of consciousness and the storage of memories outside the brain.

The argument put forward here is that brain death cannot eliminate consciousness because consciousness is not a product of the brain. Rather, consciousness and other brain functions are explained by EMF-brain interactions, and these are not wholly dependent on the activities of living cells. To formalize my theory of survival:

Consciousness survives permanent bodily death because the electromagnetic forces that give rise to experience and thought are not created by brain tissues – they are only received, interpreted, filtered, or transmuted by them.

The idea that an electromagnetic field emitted by the body may permit the continuation of consciousness after permanent bodily death has been previously articulated. In the 1987 paper entitled “Electromagnetic Radiation and the Afterlife”, Janusz Slawinski cited the pioneering biophoton research of Fritz-Albert Popp and others to propose a scientific theory of the afterlife. Slawinski theorized that sharp increases of biophoton emissions from dying organisms – the “death flash” – may represent the separation of an electromagnetic consciousness or life force from the body that carries information about the individual. The following excerpt from his seminal paper337 echoes several key themes in this essay:

An important finding is that all dying cell populations and organisms emit a radiation ten to 1,000 times stronger than their stationary emission during homeostasis. That phenomenon of “degradation" or “necrotic" radiation, picturesquely called “light shout", “light S.O.S", or “death flash", is universal and independent of the cause of death. Its intensity and time course reflect the rate of dying. Of particular significance are reports on electromagnetic radiation from the human brain during the agony (and/or ecstasy) of contemporary near-death experiences, which center on ineffable light. Measurements of the number of photons emitted and the number of dying cells, Ndc, give the ratio Nhv/Ndc = 1. That suggests the involvement of one center critical both for the life of the cell and for light emission. The phenomenon of the “death flash" constitutes a cornerstone of this hypothesis.”

Persinger and St-Pierre later calculated that the energy of the death flash (5 x 10-17 Joules) would be within the range of visible detection for dark-adapted eyes, meaning it should be perceivable under very low light conditions. They argued that the existence of the death flash phenomenon accounts for historical reports of perceived blue and white light emissions observed hovering over or emanating from the bodies of dying people and blue-shifted wavelengths of light associated with cellular stress. Therefore, the proposed theory of survival outlined in this essay builds on an existing scientific literature concerning the biophysics of death and dying that should be pursued with vigor.

The proposed theory of survival is dependent upon the validity of transmissive brain function, which is not incompatible with models of productive brain function. The action potential really is generated by local, electrochemical events – and those that run along the corticospinal tract really do generate voluntary motor activations. However, the complexities of higher order functions appear to be reliant on the synchronizing and cohering effects of endogenous and exogenous EMFs. And because many of these effects are mediated by inorganic, sub-cellular, or material-like properties, it is reasonable to treat transmissive and productive modalities as compatible, parallel processes.

Therefore, the proposed theory does not require a complete revision of our understanding of the brain but rather, an amendment and consideration of some important implications. Still, there are some possible limitations that will need to be addressed by future research efforts. Most notably, the dependence of consciousness on external EMFs, how qualia are derived from EMF-brain interactions, whether the surviving consciousness is personal or shared, and the degree to which productive mechanisms participate in transmissive function are important issues that will require dedicated investigation.

Over the past century, modern scientists have grossly overemphasized molecules and their pathways as the bases for biological function, which has sadly overshadowed the equally relevant electrodynamic features of cells and organisms. Despite its general dismissal or outright suppression, the scientific evidence in support of the electromagnetic basis of life is longstanding and mounting. Early modern pioneers like the neuroanatomist and electrophysiologist Harrold Saxton Burr, who summarized his work in the 1972 book entitled “Blueprint for Immortality”, identified how electric fields changed as a function of ovulation, menstruation, gestation, growth, maturation, and regeneration. He described these fields, which seemed to track the development, physiology, and psychology of an organism the “fields of life” or “L-fields” and even commented on their relationship with death:

Electricity seems to bridge the gap between the lifeless world and living matter. . . . [it] is one of the fundamental factors in all living systems just as it is in the non-living world.

Burr’s influence on the field of biology can be found in the works of later scientists like Robert O. Becker, who significantly popularized the view that electrodynamics were consequential features of biological organisms rather than incidental biproducts and even suggested they may underlie psi phenomena. Over time, electrical contributions to living systems became increasingly clear and electromagnetic theories of consciousness began to emerge in the literature, where they continue to develop and gain popularity.

One review of the literature suggested that many prominent thinkers including Köhler and Libet have touched on elements of EMF-based theories of mind but have been historically misclassified. Among the more explicit theorists is the neuroscientist E. Roy John, who developed his own field theory of consciousness and claimed that spatiotemporal coherence of electromagnetic and quantum-like processes could resonate with brain structures to give rise to binding, synchronous firing and other important features of consciousness including cortico-thalamic reverberations. Related is the conscious electromagnetic information (CEMI) field theory proposed by Johnjoe McFadden.

Arguably, the famous orchestrated objective reduction (Orch OR) model of consciousness offered by Roger Penrose and Stuart Hameroff is fundamentally an electromagnetic theory of consciousness since it relies upon the quantum effects of electrons and their interactions with the material properties of microtubules, which are well-known to align and interact with EMFs. Indeed, microtubules represent an obvious candidate for the mediation of EMF-brain interactions since they generate dipoles within cells, respond to electric fields, and interact with biophotons. Incidentally, microtubules also display electric circuit properties of memristors that give rise to hysteresis-like phenomena that can encode information sub-cellularly – providing a mechanism for EMF-based memory within cells. Therefore, it is unsurprising that some have explicitly placed microtubules at the center of electromagnetic field theories of consciousness.

A good theory should provide new ways of interpreting existing empirical data and the supposedly established concepts on which they are based. In addition to explaining survival, a working model of transmissive consciousness may provide new insights that challenge existing assumptions about life, death, and everything in between. When a baby babbles as part of normal language acquisition, we currently assume it is essentially practicing behaviour that is selectively reinforced by caregivers as part of normal development. In other words, babies learn language from trial and error.

Viewed through the lens of transmissive function, babbling may represent something subtly different. Suppose babbling is the behavioural correlate of downloading linguistic information from a local or distant “source file”. This may involve a wireless brain-to-brain connection with caregivers or access to historical linguistic information in the electromagnetic equivalent of the Akashic record. This would be consistent with the disproportionate representation of EMF-sensitive REM cycles in infant sleep. Even if language is learned by conventional means, it may be reinforced and crystalized by EMF-sleep interactions.

Similarly, the insidious cognitive decline associated with neurodegenerative disorders and dementia may represent an uncoupling of the brain’s structure from the transmitted signal rather than a failure of endogenous neurophysiology. As brains degenerate, they become increasingly “out-of-tune”, space and time become increasingly irrelevant, the life-death boundary may become blurred, and individuals may incorrectly identify people in their environments as long deceased spouses or friends. With both babbling and dementia, the neurobiology would be exactly as it is currently understood; however, the causal mechanisms and ultimate explanations would be fundamentally different.

A good theory should also explain more phenomena than its predecessor or its contemporary alternatives. Indeed, a theory of survival that relies on transmissive brain function will necessarily implicate psi phenomena because they too are reliant upon the independence of mind from brain. Consider that popular models of brain function that are based upon the assumption of productive functional dependence do not provide a mechanistic framework for psi and paranormal events. 

Consequently, psi research has either been ignored or marginalized by modern scientists despite significant interest among people all over the world and throughout history. In the following section, I will describe how the apparently unique abilities of some individuals classically termed telepathy, remote viewing, and psychokinesis are consistent with the survival of consciousness and easily accommodated by a model of transmissive brain function. It will also become evident that these phenomena can be inhibited or modulated by natural and artificial electromagnetic fields, which supports the general arguments that have been put forward in previous sections.

 

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/.

Our geomagnetic brain: Rouleau excerpt #14

Rouleau writes: There are several additional reasons to suspect geomagnetic-brain resonance. As referenced in a previous section, the intrinsic, material-based resonant frequency of brain tissue is approximately 7 Hz or “theta”. Nunez’s mathematical modelling of the skull-brain cavity suggested that a dominant resonance frequency of 10 Hz is expected, which is equivalent to the alpha rhythm, or the dominant frequency affected by geomagnetic activity in empirical studies. Neurobiological processes associated with memory consolidation, particularly during sleep, are also associated with prominent theta rhythms. Sleep spindles, which are bursts of synchronous neural firing in the order of 11 to 15 Hz, are also well-within range of the first harmonic of the Schumann resonance frequency, which may explain EMF-sleep interactions.

In summary, synchronous brain activity, Schumann resonances, and their interactions by way of the geomagnetic field operate within a narrow band of low-frequency oscillations centering on 7–8 Hz but extending up to 14 Hz. That they display real-time coherence indicates they are likely related, not coincidental. This connection between the brain and the Earth is interesting, but it does not explain how memory or consciousness can be stored within it.

In his 2013 paper entitled “Billions of Human Brains Immersed Within a Shared Geomagnetic Field: Quantitative Solutions and Implications for Future Adaptations”, Michael Persinger provided a theoretical and quantitative basis for the storage of brain-based information in the Earth’s magnetic field56. Discussing the available energies to store brain activity, Persinger wrote:

The potential energy that could be maintained within the geomagnetic field is significant. The product of its dipole moment (8·1022 A·m2) and average intensity (5·10-5 T or kg·A-1·s-2) is about 4·1018 J. With ~10-20 J per action potential associated with each unit charge, an average discharge of ~10 Hz (range of alpha rhythms) and 4·1010 neurons in the cerebral cortices, the life-time (~2 Gsec) electromagnetic energy from the information associated with this activity from each human cerebrum would be about 1 J. Assuming 50 billion human brains in recent history, the total energy associated with cerebral activity (and the subsequent alterations in synaptic activity associated with memory) would have involved ~1011 J. Even if there were diminishment in the magnitude of the dipole moment by factors of 100s, there would still be sufficient potential to represent all of this information. This means the earth’s magnetic field has sufficient capacity to represent or “store” the information within the energy that has been associated with the action potentials that have been generated by every human brain that has existed on the planet.

Based upon parameters of magnetic diffusivity, Persinger explained that this holographic-like, transcerebral field could potentially activate every brain on the planet over a period of approximately 10 minutes. He argued that the same period of time associated with the duration of REM cycles could account for a functional exchange of information between the geomagnetic field and the human brain during sleep – a kind of uploading and downloading procedure for brain activity, like a neural form of cloud computing. Persinger viewed Schumann resonance as a conduit for the information transfer, with 7 to 8 Hz as the carrier wave (i.e., the signal that transports the information):

The role of the Schumann-type frequencies (fundamental around 7 to 8 Hz) may be relevant as well. This frequency is in large part determined by the fixed relationship between the velocity of light (3·108 m·s-1) and the earth’s circumference (~4·107 m). The total magnetic flux of the earth’s surface (5.1·1014 m2) for an average global value of 5·10-5 T is 2.6·1010 Webers. The amperage for this field would be the dipole moment (8·1022 A·m2) divided by the surface area, or 1.6·108 A. Therefore, the inductance, which is Weber per amp, would be 1.6·102 Henrys. With this value for inductance, a global capacitance of 2 Farads, and a frequency of 7–8 Hz, the solution would be 2 ks or about 30 min. These values are within the range required for consolidation of memory (the representation of experience) from the electrically labile stage to the patterns associated with the synthesis of proteins and the growth of dendritic spines at synapses.

It should be noted that the strongest theta rhythms produced by the brain are generated by cells in the temporal lobes – specifically, the hippocampus and adjacent entorhinal cortex334. Because the neurophysiology of memory formation – long-term potentiation (LTP) – is dependent upon theta activity within the hippocampus335, a reduced resonance potential between the Schumann frequency and the underdeveloped hippocampal circuitry of young children may account for the universal experience of infantile amnesia – our inability to remember the first few years of our lives. However, after the age of 3 or 4 and into adulthood, the brain would meet the structural criteria to resonate with the geomagnetic field and continually exchange packets of electromagnetic information. It follows that the memories of those whose brains have decayed have survived death. Instead of disintegrating with the body, they remain as electromagnetic representations in a planetary Akashic record. It should therefore come as no surprise to you, dear reader, that when I walked by Dr. Persinger’s old office after he passed away in 2018, I smiled when I read what he had written years earlier on the magnetic white board affixed to his door: “To Find Dr. Persinger Check the Akashic Record”.

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/.