Out-of-body experiences could be evidence of non-local consciousness. Updated for 2024

Updated: October 14, 2024

When we communicate with other people who are not right in front of you, let's say, on the phone, some of the questions you ask frequently are, "Where
are you?" And the other
question that you ask is,
"What are you doing? What are you up to?" So most people would probably give an answer as follows: I'm here in whatever, New York City, and I am
recording a video. I just want to
explore that because that
could be the biggest illusion, the biggest
hallucination that you and I exist in space or time,
that you and I exist in something called the "Theater
of Spacetime", where we interact
with each other and we interact with objects. So the basic
question we are
asking right now is one of location, not one
of experience, because
the experience is happening
all the time. All the time.

Okay? Even sleep
is an experience. So experience
is happening all the time. And so the answer
to the second part, "what
are you doing?", is, "I'm having
an experience." But where are you? The one who's having
the experience. So most people,
again, have the intuition, that the one who's having
the experience, that which we call
the "observer" the "thinker", the "feeler",
the imagine… the one who is
imagining. The one who is
interacting, the observer, I think
is the easiest phrase,
the observer, the experiencer and the seer, the one who sees is somewhere
inside the body. There's a little
Deepak somewhere looking at the world through these eyes, listening
to the world through these
ears and on and on. The problem is there's no observer to be found
in the body. In fact,
the question of how we have an
in-body experience is a huge problem for neuroscience and even for
philosophers. Here are some ways
that people have thought
how an in-body experience
is created, even though there's no observer
in the body.

I will mention this
even though I don't agree
with most of these. So here are some of the ways that humans
have thought Scientists, philosophers,
neuroscientists, etc. have thought
how do we get an in body experience? Number one, the brain creates
a model of the body based on sensory
information from the body's
internal inside and external
environment. This model is then
used to generate the experience
of being inside the body. That's one explanation. Another explanation
is that the brain has a special self sensing device
a special sense sensing mechanical device, a mechanism that allows it
to directly perceive the body's
internal state. Again, you know,
not really a satisfactory explanation to me
anyway. Another is that the experience
of being inside the body is a
subjective illusion that is not actually
based on any
physical reality. Getting
a little closer. Okay. So of course, there's evidence, so-called
scientific evidence, to support each of
these explanations.

For example, studies have shown
that the brain's representation
of the body is constantly
updated based on sensory
information. This suggests
that the brain is actively creating a model of the body which could be used
to generate the experience
of being in it. Okay, but that doesn't actually answer
the question, "where is the observer?"
and when we say "the brain creates
a model", then also we have a problem
because the brain itself is a model. The word, "brain" is a model for mind. The brain looks like
an object, but it reflects
the mind. Is the mind
doing the brain or is the brain doing
the mind? And I would suggest that there are. I would suggest
that there are both complementary
aspects of a deeper
consciousness.

But let's keep following
this argument. So there are also, now, very good
documented cases of so-called out-of-body
experiences. And there are
clinical studies of out-of-body
experiences. And these studies
have been has found that out-of-body experiences
are often associated with certain brain
states, such as those
that occurred during sleep
paralysis or near-death
experiences. And this, according to current
science, suggests that out-of-body
experiences may be created
by abnormal activities
of the brain. Some studies
have attempted to induce out-of-body experiences,
experimentally. These studies have used techniques
such as sensory deprivation, hypnosis,
transcranial magnetic
stimulation. And the results of these studies
have been mixed. It is not clear if OBE's, as
they are called, can be reliably induced in a
laboratory setting. So how do we have an in
body experience? How do we have an out-of-body
experience? So this is still
a philosophical and I would say a scientific dilemma.

There was a study
published in the journal,
Nature, a long time ago by researchers led by Olaf Blanke that found that
stimulating the temporal
parietal junction, TPJ of the brain
can induce out-of-body
experiences. And this is a region
of the brain that is involved in, according to current
neuroscience, in self-awareness and spatial
observation. Another study published
in the journal, Psychiatry Research
found that people who have had
out-of-body experiences
are more likely to have certain brain abnormalities,
such as a smaller hippocampus and
a larger amygdala.

And of course,
the hippocampus is involved
in memory formation, and the amygdala
is involved in emotional
processing. Another, yet
another study published
in the journal, Frontiers
in Psychology, found
that people who have had out-of-body
experiences are more likely
to have certain personality
traits, such as openness
to experience and getting very absorbed
in the experience, openness
to experience is a personality
trait that is associated with being interested
in new experiences and ideas. Absorption is a
personality trait that is associated with being easily drawn
into an experience to become one with
the experience. So these are some of the
published studies and some of the
thinking that's going on in both science and philosophy. I don't think any of these studies
is giving us access to truth, although they do
give us clues to what
truth could be.

The truth could be understood
as follows, okay? Every experience we have,
every experience we have, raw
experience, is either a color or a shape, shape and color
go together. Or a form, shape,
color, form, go together
or a sound or a texture or a taste
or a smell or an emotion or a thought or an image
in imagination. Acronym:
SIFT, S-I-F-T – Sensations, Sense
perception, image,
feeling and thought. And all of
these experiences are qualia. Qualia is a simple word,
which means quality
of experience, quality
of experience. The color red
is a qualia. The taste of wine is
a qualia. Any experience is
a qualia. You cannot, I think, give me an example of an experience
that is not qualia, which means that is not color,
shape, form, sound, texture,
taste, smell, feeling, thought or imagination.

If you know of such
an experience outside
of these qualia, I'd like to hear
about it. Those qualia that we're
talking about, which is all of experience,
your body is a combination
of qualia, your mind is a combination
of qualia, can't be found in space or time. When you say, "What
is the location of the color red?" There's
no answer to that, because color is not a property of the
physical world.

You're looking
at my bookshelf, all those colors. You're looking
at the carpet, there,
that wall hanging. Colors, colors, my shirt, my face, everything is color. But then you say,
"Where is color to be found
in the physical universe?"
It can't be found. Color is an experience,
in consciousness. You know,
what scientists say is color
is a particular part of
the electromagnetic spectrum. Violet, Indigo,
you know, ROY G. BIV. Indigo, blue,
green, yellow, orange, red. And so I'm
experiencing those colors right now
on the screen.

So are you. I'm experiencing the colors
around my body, but at the same time,
I'm experiencing my body and I'm experiencing
my mind, which is trying
to figure this out. And none of the qualia
that I mentioned textures, tastes,
smells, are to be found in
the physical world. Not colors,
photons, etc. You know, when you touch something,
it's electrons that bump into
electrons. These are human constructs to explain
the experience. But where is the
experience of texture,
of sound, of smell, of taste? Where is the experience? Where are those qualias? They can't be found
in spacetime. Your mind is
a combination of qualia.
Your body is a combination
of qualia, and you are the experiencer
of qualia. So I think
the simplest answer is that which experiences, and that which
is experienced, and the whole process
of experiencing, is happening outside
of spacetime.

This is what is
happening right now. You know,
you think you're in wherever,
Mozambique. I think
I'm in New York, those are names given to this present experience
of qualia. You say I have a body, that's a name
to this qualia experience. You say I have
a mind, that's a name given to the
qualia experience that we're having
right now as the result of
this conversation. So then
where are you? Well,
I think the simplest answer is that you're
not in spacetime, that you're
non-local. And this possibility
of non-local consciousness
is now getting some attention, although it's a controversial
topic that is being
debated by scientists
and philosophers and there's
no consensus on whether what we call
consciousness, the source
of all experience and the location misnomer of all
experience is non-local, which means outside
of spacetime.

One piece of evidence
that is often cited in support
of non-local consciousness
is the phenomenon of quantum
entanglement. Quantum entanglement
is a property of certain
pairs of particles. That means that they are linked together
in such a way that they share
the same fate, no matter how
far apart they are. And this suggests
that there may be some kind
of non-local correlation,
a connection between these particles, which could also
apply to consciousness. Another
piece of evidence that is
sometimes cited is the experience
of remote viewing. Remote viewing
is the ability to perceive information about
a distant location or event without
using the senses.

And there have been
a number of studies that have
investigated remote viewing, and some of these studies have
produced results that are difficult
to assume without
the assumption of non-local
consciousness. So there we are. As far as science
is concerned. And the only way
to experience this non-local
consciousness is it.. in the experience that we call
Samadhi. There are many kinds
of Samadhi and I shall
share them with you. Samadhi is when we go in the direction
of resolution, of subject-object split,
which is artificial. So my friends, the mind is
non-local, the body is
non-local, the universe is
non-local.

And you,
who are having this experience
is non-local. And if non-local
means not in spacetime, then it means
everywhere, omnipresent. It also
means omniscient. It also means omnipotent
because that nonlocality can appear through the power of perception, which is a modified
form of of consciousness. Non-local. It can appear
as being anywhere in location
of spacetime. So we can say, "Oh, that statue
is there, I can say the statue is there",
when I look behind. You can say it's
on your computer. But actually that's
just an appearance. The statue, you,
your brain, your body
and the universe are outside
of spacetime. They are activities
of a consciousness that is not
in spacetime, which means it is timeless, eternal and curving back
within itself. It is creating
the experiences of space,
time and causality. But you and
everything you experience, mind, body
and the universe is in reality,
not in space time.

And you are that. Timeless, eternal. That's why spiritual traditions
have said awareness,
consciousness, soul, spirit
are the same thing that divine activities and divine meaning
in this case, timeless, eternal, immortal expressions of a timeless
reality which is you. It sounds a little
clumsy, the way I'm saying it. So what the heck? I'll end with my favorite
quote from the Bhagvad
Gita, one of my favorite
quotes: Who you are not only
is inconceivable and imperceivable,
but timeless and immortal Water
cannot wet it.

Wind cannot dry
it, weapons cannot shatter it, fire
cannot burn it. It is ancient. That which you are
is ancient, unborn and not subject
to death. And birth, death and everything
in between is an adventure
in the illusion of space, time
and causality. Reflect on that and give me
your feedback. I'm anxious
to hear it..

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