Significant progress has been made in neuroscience explaining how human thinking leads to the ability to learn new skills, solve problems, and communicate with language. However, psychologists admit consciousness is still a mystery.
The author of an article in Psychology Today, Paul Thagard, Ph.D., says it's a "result of interactive processes that bind together perceptions and appraisals." 1
So, what does that mean? You are aware with a keen perception of your surroundings. You are even aware of your emotions.
But is that consciousness? Or is your brain just connecting all these perceptions? I think that's what Dr. Thagard was trying to say in his article.
I read a different concept of this by an author in Scientific American. Here's an excerpt:
Mr. Shermer claims it to be a fact. At least he qualifies his statement by saying, "until proved otherwise."
Scientists believe that our consciousness is a function of our brain. However, every cell in our body could be a storage unit for our memory, and that memory triggers our consciousness.3
So, where is consciousness happening? Is there some other entity responsible for storing the data our mind is aware of that simulates our consciousness? Notice how I refer to it as a simulation. You can't rule that out. If our entire life is a simulation, there is no way of knowing it.
Just think about how vivid your dreams are. When you dream, you are in a world created in your subconscious. You are fully aware of your physical presence. Your dream is a simulation, but it seems just as real while you're dreaming.
In the same respect, even though we imagine our physical existence in our dreams, our body is not part of that. We can't be sure our dreams originate in our minds.
Can we extend that idea to having consciousness after death? The phenomenon of near-death experience (NDE) that neuropsychiatrists have been studying seems to disprove that consciousness ceases to exist when the brain dies.4
If our consciousness does not require our brain or any part of the body, it could be possible for it to continue after death. To be more precise, our conscious experience continues after we die.
I found possible evidence when I read a book by Dr. Eben Alexander, a neurosurgeon who was in a deep coma for a week. He described his Near-Death Experience in his book, Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife.5
During the seven days in a coma, there was no detection of brain activity. He had a bacterial meningitis infection with a rare case of an E. Coli attacking his brain.
The part of the brain that controls thought and emotion had shut down. However, when Dr. Alexander recovered, he had a conscious recollection of everything that took place while he had been in a coma, even of people not in his presence.
I found it interesting that during his coma, he had an out-of-body experience that he could prove by describing everything that went on with the people who loved him and were concerned about his recovery.
One has to wonder about that.
The experiences he remembers were related to what he describes as being in Heaven. Since I had researched similar cases, I found it interesting that many people who encounter near-death experiences describe their memories of it in very similar ways.
For that reason, I don't want to doubt it, even though my scientific understanding contradicts the results. Nevertheless, Dr. Alexander's explanation is clear and precise. He describes in detail every stage of his struggle:
His story relates well to my research on figuring out where our consciousness resides and whether it can survive our death.
The out-of-body experience that people talk about after having had a near-death experience is said to result from the soul leaving the body. However, I have a different idea about this. I call it "Out-of-Body Memories."
Here is how I explain that. Whenever I think about a past event I experienced, I realize I see it from a bird's-eye view. In other words, I visualize my memories as if observing from above, looking down, or from another location. Is that how you recall memories?
The point I'm making is that people claiming to have an out-of-body experience might be visualizing it in that way.
It remains difficult to dismiss what Dr. Alexander claims about his alleged time in the afterlife, especially with the accuracy his friends and family confirmed.
If it's true that one can be conscious of life outside the body while in a coma with no brain function, then it leaves the question of where our consciousness is located unresolved. But that implies it's not definitely a function of the brain.
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