“I do have a strong idea about the limitations of the computer in our skulls — it’s just large enough to take care of our lives and must ignore an awful lot of what is going on around us. . . . I have a very primitive approach to science — I wonder how the universe originated, how could it have originated … how could you make something out of nothing … and sophomoric ideas like that. And so, after having banged around with that — how do you make a universe out of nothing — I have decided, just logically, that it can’t be done and therefore it must always have existed. And so, from that, I get a sense of permanence and, also, an annoyance with the limitations of my head. And I really do think that what we perceive as time is simply a processing device in our heads to let us consider a little of reality at a time — we couldn’t let it all come in at once.” Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Neuroscience researcher, psychiatrist & author, Iain McGilchrist, among others, have said that "the brain is primarily a reducing valve" to prevent our consciousness from being overwhelmed by the massive amounts of constantly changing sensory data in which we're immersed. Rather than maximal clarity of awareness, the basic function of our mind seems to prioritize survival. This includes a number of built-in biases and other 'thinking mistakes': https://buffer.com/resources/thinking-mistakes-8-common-mistakes-in-how-we-think-and-how-to-avoid-them/
Based on very little, narrowly-selected data (see above), we incorrectly assume that we understand what's going on, and though wrong, we may be absolutely certain we're right! (Burton RA. “On
being certain. Believing you are right even when you’re not.” St. Martin’s
Griffin, 2008.) These delusions provide a sense of control over our surroundings & life, necessary to function in a bewilderingly complex, constantly changing environment. BUT ...
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” Hamlet
We have so much to learn, and we can IF we're brave enough & psychologically flexible enough to open our heart-minds to at least some of the data outside our comfort zone. Below are a few of the points discussed in a fascinating interview with Bruce Greyson MD about his research over the past 40 years on near death experiences (NDEs):
Bruce Greyson BG: “A near death experience is a profound event that people experience when they are near death, on the threshold of death, or sometimes when they are afraid they’re about to die. And they include such things as a sense of leaving the physical body; going through some type of tunnel to another realm of light where they encounter a loving beam of light; they often go through a life review; and at some point may see other entities such as deceased loved ones; and then at some point they choose to come back to their bodies, or are told to come back. But the entire experience is infused by a sense of peace and well-being, which is in stark contrast to the near-death state where they’re terrified usually, and in a lot of pain.
As a psychiatrist … I spend my life trying to help people make changes in their lives and know how difficult it is. A near death experience comes along, and in a second or two, it can totally transform peoples’ lives. It generally makes them more spiritual, more compassionate, more altruistic, and less concerned with physical things – material goods, power, prestige, fame, competition. And I’ll give you some examples of this.
One fellow I knew was a high-school bully whose goal in life was to become a marine, and he eventually did become a marine. This was back in the ‘70s, and he served in Viet Nam. He was a sergeant leading his platoon and he was shot in the chest and had shrapnel all over his lungs. He was air-evaced to a hospital in the Philippines where he underwent surgery. During that surgery, he had a blissful near death experience. And when he awoke, he was a changed person. He was kind, compassionate. When he recovered, he was sent back into Viet Nam to lead his platoon again, and he found that he could not shoot his gun. The idea of hurting someone was just unthinkable to him. So he ended up leaving the marines, coming back to the States, and becoming a medical technician. And I’ve heard story after story like this. About police officers who had near death experiences, and again, could not partake in a violent life. One person I interviewed was a Mafia employee, and had to give up that career. I’ve also heard of people who were in competitive businesses who came back from near death experiences thinking that competition makes no sense, that we’re all in this together, and what you do to somebody else, you do onto yourself.
They often come back with a sense of the golden rule as being what it’s all about – not a goal that you should aim for (as the rest of us do), but say they realize that this is the law of the universe, like gravity. That what you do to someone else, you do to yourself as well.”
Rick Archer RA: “Why do you think an NDE produces these personality changes?”
BG: “I don’t know the answer to that. As I said, I don’t know of anything else that is that powerful in transforming peoples’ lives. But it changes their attitudes, their beliefs, their values, and therefore their behavior. And I’ve talked to people in their 90s, who had the experience as teenagers, and they say it’s like it happened yesterday. I’ve never forgotten it and the changes stay with me.”
RA: “What effect has doing all this research had on you?”
BG: “I started out in this career as a die-hard materialist. I grew up in a scientific family, where all we talked about, all we knew about, was the physical world. We weren’t opposed to the spiritual, it’s just never occurred to us there was anything beyond the physical. So I went through college and medical school thinking what you see is what you get, and when you die, that’s the end of it and there’s nothing beyond the physical.
And then when I first started my internship in psychiatry, within a couple of months, I was confronted by a patient who was unconscious when I tried to evaluate her in the emergency room. I ended up talking to her roommate in a room down the hall to get some background information about her. Then I saw the patient the next day when she awoke. She stunned me by describing to me the entire conversation I had with her roommate, including what we were wearing, where we were sitting, and so forth, not making any mistakes at all. That just blew me away. Frankly, it terrified me. Just before I came to see her, I dropped some spaghetti sauce on my tie and covered it up with my lab coat so no one could see it. And when I talked to her roommate, it was so hot in the room, I unbuttoned the coat and she could see it. The patient, who at the time was lying unconscious down the hall in another room, knew about that. The roommate was in the intensive care unit overnight with no visitors allowed. The only way the patient could have known these things is if she had followed me down the hall to another room – it made no sense to me. As far as I was concerned, we were our bodies - how could you leave your body?
Three different studies of scientists, one done in Scotland, one done in Belgium, and one done Brazil, have found that 50% of scientists believe that the mind is something independent of the body, something nonphysical that exists outside the brain.”
RA: “I ponder sometimes what it must be to live life if you think this body is all you are, and when this dies, that’s the end of it. It would be such a radically different perspective than what I’m accustomed to. Some people seem to be fine with it. Personally, I think I would find it very disturbing.”
BG: “Well, let me respond to that, because I started out life that way – for the first 25 years – and it was not disturbing at all. It was very comforting to know that we had all the answers, and there was nothing surprising out there. When you encounter something that can’t be explained by materialistic models, it’s quite unnerving. And it does require you to confront everything you thought you know.”
RA: "It’s a major issue in the scientific world – one of the main unanswered questions in science is ‘What is consciousness?’ There’s this big debate whether consciousness is created by the brain or vice versa. There’s this entrenched paradigm of materialism that is resisting the ever-growing body of evidence – anomalies that would overturn it."
BG: “Most of us grew up thinking that the mind is what the brain does because it seems that way in everyday life: when you get intoxicated, you don’t think very clearly; when you have a stroke or hit your head, that effects your thinking. But it does seem that in extreme circumstances, like near death experience, when the brain seems to be diminished, the mind seems to be doing better than ever. And there are other examples of this as well, including the studies done at Hopkins and elsewhere in the last decade with neuroimaging of psychedelic drugs, showing that the more elaborate mystical experiences are associated with a decrease in electrical activity in the brain.
We have studied NDEs across the globe from different cultures and we also have records of NDEs going back to ancient Greece and Rome, and they all sound essentially the same in terms of the phenomenology. However, how people interpret what they experience, is influenced by their cultural background. An example is, most people report encountering a warm loving beam of light that makes them feel welcomed and well-protected. In Western countries that’s often interpreted as God or Christ, and you don’t hear that in Hindu and Buddhist cultures – they will say I saw Krishna or Buddha. However, even among Christians, they will say to you, ‘I’m going to call this “God” so you’ll know what I’m talking about, but it wasn’t the God I was taught about in church – it’s much bigger than that. I’m just using that word so we can communicate.’ ”
RA: “One metaphor or analogy I find very handy for explaining the possible relation of consciousness to the body is that of the radio in relation to the magnetic field. The radio isn’t actually generating the music, it’s picking up fluctuations in the field and giving us music. And if you damage the radio, the music stops, but it doesn’t mean the fluctuations in the field have stopped.”
BG: “Exactly. And I think that’s a good analogy for how the brain and the mind interact. It makes sense in terms of evolutionary theory that the brain, having evolved as part of our physical body, would have this filter function to let in from consciousness, only those thoughts and feelings that are relevant to our survival in the physical world – how to find food, shelter, a mate, and so forth. And if the brain is perceiving things about deceased loved ones or a deity, those aren’t relevant to physical survival, so it’s sure to filter those out.”
Above from: Bruce Greyson MD interview https://batgap.com/bruce-greyson/
and a shorter, more concise, excellent interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MMJPjnShZs
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Book available March 12, 2021
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