In this episode, I had the honor of speaking with Dr. John Webber. Dr. Webber is a practicing Psychiatrist whose patients have experienced past-life regression and near-death experiences. He is also the author of The Red Chair, the story of John and his patient, Judy, who discovered past lives and a connection with spirituality, which led them to the healing they had previously thought impossible. We discussed near-death experiences and other psi phenomena as they relate to consciousness Please enjoy this episode with Dr. John Webber.
Questions we discussed:
Son-in-law medium
Past lives
Psychic phenomenon
Reincarnation
Consciousness precedes matter, universal consciousness, source of physical being
Brain is the filter, narrow bandwidth
Near death experiences (NDE)
Psychedelics
Hypnosis, past life regressions
What kind of shift happened in your mind when presented with this evidence?
In this episode, I had the honor of speaking with cardiologist Dr. Pim van Lommel. For more than twenty years Dr. van Lommel has studied near-death experiences (NDEs) in patients who survived a cardiac arrest. In 2001, he and his fellow researchers published a study on Near Death Experiences in the renowned medical journal The Lancet. He, then wrote the bestseller Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience in 2007.
We had a great conversation and covered Enhanced Consciousness, NDEs and more. Please enjoy this episode with Dr. Pim van Lommel.
Questions we discussed:
You are known for your extensive work with NDEs; however, your book is titled, Consciousness Beyond Life. It’s a book about consciousness. So, if it’s okay with you, let’s start there.
Medical Doctors generally see consciousness as either on or off. In your first experience with NDE’s in 1969, you saw consciousness differently, as more than just that waking consciousness. Is that correct? Can you expand on that for us?
So, the idea — that NDEs lead you to — is that there is a special state of consciousness, an enhanced consciousness?
And this is technically, medically impossible during cardiac arrest, but observed/reported.
What is the difference between normal, waking consciousness and enhanced consciousness? [no time, no space, non-local].
Are there other ways to access enhanced consciousness, such as Psychedelics?
Speaking of psychedelics, you mention DMT a few times in your book, as having a role in consciousness. What role in consciousness do you think DMT plays?
You sought to answer the question, “What is the biological basis of consciousness?” Within that question, though, is a pretty significant assumption — that there is a biological basis — which you point out, has never actually been proven…we all just kind of ran with it. So, how do you answer that question today?
You say that the brain facilitates consciousness, it does not produce or create it.
So, then, what is consciousness and where does it come from, then?
When/how does consciousness bind to the brain? Mind-brain binding?
When does that happen in a new human life?
Is Quantum Mechanics the ‘missing link’ between the brain and consciousness? Might we find a particle, the conscioutron? Gravity?
You have an analogy of the brain being like a radio – a relay station – tuning into the Consciousness channel, with waking consciousness being a single channel and enhanced consciousness being all channels at once. Can you expand on that a little?
Aldous Huxley, and his book, Doors of Perception, describes the brain as a filter for a cosmic Consciousness, Universal knowledge. Is there any correlation there to your idea of the brain’s tuning into consciousness?
NON-LOCAL CONSCIOUSNESS:
“The content of an NDE suggests that consciousness may be nonlocal.” What is a nonlocal consciousness?
In quantum physics, you mention, that everything is connected. Is it that way for our consciousnesses? Is that endless consciousness?
DNA is the ‘mobile phone number’ of consciousness, or IP address?
Does non-local consciousness enable connections between minds?
Collective consciousness is unlimited, and connects each individual with everything else, past, future, everything. Is there a way to access this greater Collective consciousness?
What about the living and the dead, can they be connected?
In your view, then, what is death, then, a simple change in consciousness?
Would it be possible to bind, or affix non-local Consciousness to a new brain? Perhaps, a mechanical brain? DNA
I think you reference this in your book…but you are familiar with the study on brain activity in rats…just before cardiac arrest…the burst of activity, with George Mashour and others.
What do you make of this activity as it relates to you ideas of non-local consciousness? Is that a sign of consciousness releasing and re-binding to the body, before and after the NDE?
Since writing the book, have you seen any new information or recent discovery out there that is causing you to either second-guess or reaffirm your ideas on consciousness?
What breakthroughs do you see coming in the study of consciousness and NDEs?
What else, what haven’t I asked you, in the context of consciousness? What’s next from you?
In this edition, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Marjorie Woollacott, author of the book, Infinite Awareness: The Awakening of a Scientific Mind, which she describes as both a scientist’s memoir and a research survey on human consciousness. Dr. Woollacott was a neuroscience professor at the University of Oregon for more than three decades and a meditator for almost four. She also has a master’s degree in Asian studies. Her master’s thesis was the foundation for her book. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, and includes both research in neuroscience and testing the efficacy of alternative forms of therapy such as tai chi and meditation for improving both attention and balance in adults.
Get the book at Amazon.
We had a great conversation about her studies and experiences around consciousness, meditation, and event psi phenomena. Please enjoy this conversation with Dr. Marjorie Woollacott.
Questions we discussed:
Let’s start off with your story: your meditation workshop, the Swami, and how it all played with your being a Neuroscientist.
After that experience, you spent time observing your own mind during meditation. What were you able to observe? What did you learn from that?
You mention that mantras help to quiet the mind, letting thoughts go, even opens the filters to the non-local consciousness.
First, What is non-local awareness or consciousness?
How does this relate to paranormal experiences like NDEs?
I’m guessing your top-down view of consciousness would mean that consciousness is already out-of-body and these observations are merely new perspectives, filtered down into the mind?
Is there a link between paranormal experience and meditation? I’m curious about meditation being a window into consciousness, into my own consciousness, into the non-local consciousness. Is it? Can we exercise, modify, improve our mind/consciousness through meditation?
Is there a connection to Robin Cahart-Harris’ (et al) study of psychedelics using fMRI imaging that showed these hallucinogens actually slow down parts of the brain, actually freeing consciousness from the brain’s own filters? If so, how does that play into the top-down architecture of consciousness?
So, what is your notion of consciousness, how do you define or describe it? [the melding together of ‘Western science’ and ‘Hindu teachings’ on consciousness — how did you reconcile those two?]
You mention that, ‘All this is consciousness’ — can you expand on that?
How does it emerge in an individual, conscious being?
What about the ‘ego’? Thoughts on that? ‘Self’ is an illusion?
You’re a panpsychist? What does panpsychism mean to you — I hear a few different definitions.
You’re also an idealist, believing that the mind creates reality?
You describe how our nervous system filters all the input it receives, that it must do this. The brain also filters a greater consciousness, non-local awareness (infinite awareness)? Can you expand on that?
Can we access this non-local awareness?
How does the brain filter this?
What’s available to us if we don’t filter it? Can we turn the filter off?
Aldous Huxley’s, “Doors of Perception” — the mind filters the greater consciousness and is opened by psychedelics/mescaline. Any thoughts on that? [turns out he might’ve been wrong, according to Carhart-Harris’ findings.]
[given top-down design model] Does consciousness survive death? Does it change form, or does it persist?
What do you think about how neuroscience is taught in our universities? Have you seen an evolution of these studies and teaching in the universities as a result of your experiences and those of others? (DOPS)
In your own studies and in the study of consciousness/awareness/meditation, what about future discoveries or advances excites you?
What else will you be working on?
Anything else you’d like to share? Academy for the Advancement of Postmaterialist Sciences: https://www.aapsglobal.com/
This week, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Michael Nahm, and the topic was Terminal Lucidity, a term he coined. Terminal Lucidity has implications in end-of-life experience, Near Death Experience, and provides insight into human consciousness. Dr. Nahm is a Biologist and studied Zoology, Botanics, Genetics, and Palaeontology. Learn more about his thoughts, ideas, and studies at www.michaelnahm.com.
Please enjoy this edition of The Consciousness Podcast with Dr. Michael Nahm. And listen past the end for a ‘far out’ discussion on psychedelics and Terminal Lucidity.
Questions:
The topic today is a term you coined, Terminal Lucidity. Can you tell us what that is and why you’re drawn to it?
For those who have not observed or studied Terminal Lucidity, what is that experience like for the patient and for the family or friends who are there for that moment?
How common, statistically, is Terminal Lucidity? Some hospice care nurses even tell families to expect it. Is what they describe different from actual ‘Terminal Lucidity’ due to the non-impairment of those patients’ brains?
In terms of doing studies, is it common enough that using cameras, EEGs or MRIs could provide some insight? It’s probably not that simple. This is very difficult to study, isn’t it
This has been observed even in patients with meningitis, brain tumors, Alzheimer’s disease or strokes. Can you tell us more about that? I find that interesting, given the physical damage that has occurred to those brains.
Is there a correlation to the affected areas of the brain (temporal lobe in Alzheimer’s, other sections in brain tumors) even neuronal damage and this lucidity? If so, where do you think this moment of clarity originates?
How have your studies of Terminal Lucidity affected your idea of the nature of the mind, consciousness overall?
You mention that the mind, even memories, is not generated by the brain, “that the brain functions as a kind of filter or transmitter organ.” This gets right at the hard problem of consciousness. What are your thoughts, observations, hypotheses on what’s going on there with the mind/brain? How do you see the brain as this ‘filter’ or ‘transmitter organ’?
I’m curious about the mind/brain ‘hard problem’ in many of these cases but especially of the 91-year-old stroke victim. The mind/brain problem seems to be mostly concerned with how, or even does, the brain create the mind or allow the mind to connect to the body. In this case, it almost appears as though her mind was able to overcome physical, neuronal blocks (a stroke) to facilitate muscle movement and speech that were physically impossible, or at least no longer controlled by her nervous system. Can you expand on that? Am I getting that right? How could that be possible?
You have collaborated with NDE experts like Drs. Greyson and Kelly and their colleagues at UVA. How does Terminal Lucidity tie into the NDE experience? [timing, before death] Deathbed visions.
What is your opinion on survival of the mind/consciousness after death?
There’s a time element to the cases of Terminal Lucidity, from a couple weeks to minutes before death. Sorry if I’m going way out there, but…[what is time to a dying mind, what is time to consciousness]…is it possible that somebody with a normal/healthy brain/mind, who dies a sudden death, like from an accident or an aneurism or a massive heart attack, might also have his/her own Terminally Lucid experience (clarity)?
Where do you see further study of Terminal Lucidity taking you, what are the long-term possibilities with your studies? Terminal Lucidity scale.
Do you think there’s a possibility of holding a person in this state once it presents itself? [psilocybin/lsd]
…in the treatment of Alzheimer’s patients?
…in helping families, doctors and families during those last moments?
Is there anything else you’d like to share? Is there anything that I haven’t asked that you’d like to discuss?
Far Out Question: Psilocybin reconnecting the networks; can that happen with a released chemical in the brain connected to the knowledge of pending death? Goes around damaged areas of the brain?
This week, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Dean Radin, Chief Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), and our conversation, I’d say, surrounded the topic of scientific study of the foundation of psi phenomena and consciousness. Dr. Radin earned an MS in electrical engineering and a PhD in psychology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Before joining the research staff at Noetic Sciences in 2001, he held appointments at AT&T Bell Labs, Princeton University, University of Edinburgh, and SRI International. He is author or coauthor of over 250 technical and popular articles, three dozen book chapters, and three books including the best-selling The Conscious Universe, Entangled Minds, and the 2014 Silver Nautilus Book Award winner, SUPERNORMAL. His latest book, Real Magic, is available now at booksellers everywhere.
We had a fascinating discussion, so please enjoy my conversation with Dr. Dean Radin.
Get Dr. Radin’s lastest book today!
We discussed:
How do you define consciousness?
Some of your work centers around the concept that ‘we are all part of an interconnected whole’ — like the double-slit experiment, random number generator, and the ‘being stared at’ study — [we’ll discuss some of these in more detail]. Can you tell us what that means, “interconnected whole”? Is it the interconnection of consciousnesses? Is there a larger consciousness that we all tap into?
You’re probably sick of having to do this, but…could you give a relatively simple explanation of your double-slit experiment and the implications the results have in understanding consciousness?
So, what do you think it as play here? What do you think is happening?
In your experiment’s results, why the distinction between those who meditate and those who don’t? What made you even want to observe that difference?
You also did a meta study on the ‘sense of being stared at’, right? What did you find there, regarding consciousness?
What other psi research have you done, especially as it relates to consciousness?
You seem to get a lot of criticism for your work. What do you think is behind all of that skepticism?
What draws the most criticism?
In your synchronicity story (PSI Quest Labs), you mention ‘consciousness that’s emerging into the world at large’. Can you expand on that concept (emergence of consciousness outside the mind/body)? How would that work?
What other psi phenomena have you studied, and how does consciousness tie into those?
Please tell us a little bit about the Institute of Noetic Sciences and what you guys are focused on these days.
Other than what we’ve covered here, is there anything else you’d like to share with us? You have a new book being released in April, Real Magic. What do you cover in that book?
