#lucid consciousness

[crazyskirtlady]

Cyber Gateway→ lucid_realms

@ctivate_your_HEAD

Balance//AWARENESS

0pen_N0des = pathway

[luvleyaru]

[xilylilly]

✩How to shift via lucid dream.✩

I am sharing my personal research and experience on achieving lucidity and shifting.

Lucid dreaming is an easy and fun way to experience things under your control. While shifting is not something you can control once you've done it. you can script and specify what reality you go to, but your actions have true consequences. Whereas when you lucid dream, your actions do not have consequences.

Approach lucid dreaming as something fun and enjoyable. if you find it stressful, it will impede your journey or prevent it entirely. Not to say you can only do these things with no doubts.

(what do i do personally as someone who regularly lucid dreams on the daily basis?)

Reality checks are your best friend! i personally prefer to count my fingers because, in my dreams, i have more than five fingers. So when i reality-check throughout the day and see that i have five fingers, i know i am not dreaming. when i go to look down at my hands in my dreams, lucidity will be triggered. there are many ways to reality check and you don't have to follow exactly what i do. everyone's journey is different.

(reality checking)

simply looking around and observing your surroundings is a good way to begin lucidity. Something you might notice in your dreams is that your surroundings are out of place and wonky. Whereas when you're awake, you can tell things are as they should be. if you take time out of your day to stop and look around, making sure everything is in place, these actions will eventually subconsciously carry onto your dream world, enhancing the possibility to induce a lucid state.

(consistency)

consistency is key. despite it being a drag, it will go well for you in the long run. your subconsciousness doesnt have eyes, you have to train it.

(what do i do when lucid?)

I become aware of my surroundings. in other words, i am lucid. i go through my usual routine of checking my reality and fingers to remember my goals. I then proceed to increase my lucidity. how? By solving complex problems to ensure i am using good l am using good logic and that i am thinking clearly. i sit down and attempt to breathe in, no longer attempting to create a portal or go through a door as there is likely to be inconsistencies with that method. Don't try to create the world. Rather just go to it. feel your desired reality surroundings. How does it smell? what room are you in? what emotions are you feelings? just focus on the world that already exists.

[jolynesmom]

reasons you’re unable to enter the void or shift while lucid dreaming or in sleep paralysis

recently I received a couple of messages from followers and other blogs explaining how, when they were in sleep paralysis or lucid dreaming, were unsuccessful in reaching the void or shifting after stating their intentions

this also happened to me a couple of times, seemingly at random; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t

I did a bit of research and also analyzed my own experiences to figure out the root of the problem and how to fix it:

you’re not completely grounded/you’re rushing

this took me an embarrassing amount of tries to realize this, but every time I’m lucid dreaming or feeling myself entering the void, I would instantly start to spew out my intentions/desires instead of completely grounding myself in there and I would be instantly kicked out from that state. I guess it just doesn’t work that way — you have to be completely grounded in your ld or sp for your desires to manifest

a lot of you (me included) get so excited or scared when realizing we’re in a certain state that the connection, I guess, breaks. as an example, when I wasn’t very knowledgeable on the void state I entered it and chilled there for like 10-15 minutes before exiting willingly, but after discovering it can be used for shifting or manifesting I could barely spend 10 seconds there before waking up unintentionally

mental exhaustion

your psyche is exhausted and it simply can’t proceed the instructions anymore. imagine you stay awake for more than 24 hours and someone asks you to do a task that requires concentration and precision. would you be able to do it perfectly? I highly doubt

to get over this issue you need to take a serious break, and I don’t mean you can’t attempt anything for a day or two, I mean a BREAK — don’t even think about shifting or entering the void and chill and sleep as much as possible. I mean it, especially sleeping! fix your sleep schedule or sleep lots for 2-3 days

after you start your attempts again, if the first few instances are unsuccessful, you need to take another break before continuing, otherwise you risk of repeating the same scenario over again — reaching your desired state but not being able to do anything from there due to mental strain

brain activation trigger

brain activity changes — realizing you are dreaming changes how your brain works, especially in parts that help you think about yourself and make decisions. these changes can wake you up; knowing you are dreaming can make you feel excited or surprised - these strong feelings can wake you up too

mental blockages and expectations

your subconscious mind might have doubts or fears regarding the process. if you unconsciously expect that your attempts won’t work or fear the consequences of them working, this can create a mental block — this is actually more common than people think and a lot of you don’t even realize you have these blockages

overexcitement

if you become too excited or anxious about the possibility of your desires manifesting, this can trigger your body to wake up. remaining calm and composed is very important (even though we can’t help ourselves at times). overexcitement goes hand in hand with other strong emotions such as fear, so make sure you’re in a neutral state

subconscious programming

your subconscious might need more time and positive reinforcement to accept and integrate the idea of shifting realities, entering the void or manifesting desires. using affirmations, subliminals and visualizations regularly can help reprogram your subconscious mind

timing

certain times of the night or stages of sleep might be more conducive to successful lucid dreaming/sleep paralysis and shifting. experimenting with different times and conditions can help you so much!!

as an example: I have an easier time entering the void by meditating at night after 1 a.m., but I have an easier time doing wbtb and lucid dreaming between 8-11 a.m.

I honestly think that what can help you overcome this is self reflection — a lot of you search for answers but never bother to answer them yourselves. by self reflecting throughout my journey has helped me identify my weaknesses, how to fix them, what works for me and other tricks to speed up the process or make it more enjoyable

[shiftlalou]

"I had a dream about my dr but I didn't shift.." GIRL . . . . . . . . . .

Dreams are often overlooked in the shifting community, and I’d like to share my perspective on this.

Why do you feel upset when you only dream about your desired reality instead of actually shifting? I understand it can be disappointing, especially when you’ve put in the effort and energy to shift, but we shouldn't dismiss dreams in this process.

When you use dream methods, you're essentially training your subconscious to remember your goal of shifting. If you're dreaming about your desired reality, it’s a sign that your subconscious is engaged and actively working towards that goal. It indicates that your mind is becoming familiar with the concept of shifting, and through these dreams, your desired reality can start to feel more natural and attainable.

Moreover, dreams can serve as a bridge to deeper understanding and connection with your desired reality. They allow you to explore the scenarios, emotions, and characters within your desired world, which can enhance your overall experience when you do achieve a successful shift. Instead of viewing dreams as mere distractions or failures, consider them as valuable practice sessions, where your mind is rehearsing the experiences you long for.

A common issue among many shifters is that they tend to place their desired reality on a pedestal, which can create unnecessary pressure. This mindset can lead to frustration and feelings of inadequacy when things don’t go as planned. I don’t mean to generalize, but I believe many can relate to this. Embracing your dreams as part of the shifting journey can be a valuable step in the process.

✧˚ · . ˚ · . ༉‧���˚. '•.¸♡ ♡¸.•' +:ꔫ:﹤ ✧˚ · . ˚ · . ༉‧₊˚. '•.¸♡

When we recognize that dreams are a form of progress, we can shift our mindset from one of disappointment to one of appreciation. Each dream can offer insights, help to clarify our desires, and even strengthen our intention to shift. So the next time you find yourself feeling discouraged about dreaming instead of shifting, take a moment to reflect on the significance of those dreams and the role they play in your journey. They are not just fleeting images ; they are a testament to your commitment and the groundwork for the experiences you wish to create.

[kamiiik0]

☆ 𝙑𝙤𝙞𝙙 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝 𝙇𝙪𝙘𝙞𝙙 𝘿𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙜

This is gonna be a FULL guide to enter void state aka induce pure consciousness through lucid dreaming. I'm gonna start from the very basics, It's also gonna be the way i induce pure consciousness through lucid dreaming (Don't worry, it's easy), but I have also provided other methods if some people don't resonate with mine. Let us begin.

》 1. What is lucid dreaming?

Lucid dreaming is an of gaining awareness inside a dream. Basically it's just being aware that you're dreaming in a dream, which allows us to control and mold our dreams into the way we want, and also opens opportunities for interesting things like inducing pure consciousness, or more commonly for shifting. Lucid dreaming is ,, extremely easy , and anyone can do it.

》 2. How did I lucid dream? (and how you can do it too the easy way)

Personally, I just get a sudden realisation or a feeling inside my dream that goes "wait, I'm dreaming". IKeep in mind i've never done any methods or reality checks whatsoever, I just decide that I'm a lucid dreaming master (loaasumption) and can easily enter void state through lucid dreaming, and that was basically it. I used subliminals, (if you want me to link it then let me know), but the night I lucid dreamt i didn't listen to any subliminals, i just set the intention. But yes, they helped me a lot I'd say, you can definitely give them a try. And yes, I've succeeded through this method.

Basically, all you need to is intend to lucid dream, whether that be by deciding, affirming, repetition or by your own method. Personally, I just decide that I'll lucid dream tonight.

What i do after I realise I'm lucid dreaming (and what you should do too), I calm myself down, then I close my eyes (this immediately leads you to the void) and I start affirming things such as "I am pure consciousness", "I am in the void state", then i enter. Its a guaranteed void inducing method. and IF YOU WAKE UP IMMEDIATELY AFTER CLOSING YOUR EYES, then stabilise your dream for a bit by creating random stuffs or staying longer and exploring.

》 3. Other methods to lucid dreaming

If you don't resonate with the intention method, here are some other methods you can use:

a. Wake Back To Bed (WBTB)

Wake back to bed involves setting an alarm for 4.5-6 hours after you sleep. To be honest, you can use any alarm it doesn't have to be touchless. After waking up, stay awake for anywhere between 10-60 minutes, you can do anything just try to stay awake. After staying up for between 10-60 mins, go back to sleep. This sends you directly into the REM sleep stage which is associated with lucid dreaming.

b. Finger Induced Lucid Dream (FILD)

FILD involved setting an alarm anywhere after 2-3 hours. After waking up, lie down on your back and close your eyes. Then move your fingers like you're playing a piano and start visualization/ daydreaming (about anything). After that, your fingers will start to become less "noticeable". After 30 seconds of doing this, do a reality check like closing your nose and breathing. If you can breathe, you're dreaming. If not, repeat from the finger tapping again.

c. Dream Exit Induced Lucid Dream (DEILD)

In the DEILD method, you have to wake up WITHOUT physical moments. You can set an intention to wake up at x time, or use a touchless alarm for this. After waking up, remain completely still, moments can cause the brain to wake up. After that, imagine any scenario. Keep imagining, until your scenario has turned into a dream. (Your dream might exactly not be the same as your Scenario).

d. Mnemonic Induced Lucid Dreaming (MILD)

For MILD, set an alarm, for 5 hours. After waking up, try to recall your dream at your best ability. Identify any key signs that can help you know whether your dreaming or not if you re enter the dream. You can also use phrases like "next time I'm dreaming, I'll remember I'm dreaming". Then fall back asleep quickly.

4. 》 Things to remember while lucid dreaming

a. Calm down, getting overly excited can collapse your dream. Taking deep breaths help

b. Stabilise your dream by creating stuff, flying, or doing xyz things in your dream so you're properly grounded (Optional step, I personally just calmed myself down and affirmed for the void, but it can be important for some people)

c. FOR THE PEOPLE WHOSE DREAM COLLAPSE AS SOON AS THEY BECOME LUCID/ PEOPLE WHO WANT TO VIVIDIFY THEIR DREAM; I know collapsing your dream as soon as you become lucid sucks. So to prevent this, ▪︎Immediately start touching the ground as soon as you become lucid. ▪︎Start rubbing your hands together. ▪︎Yell, or tell your subconscious "I want clarity". ▪︎Keep your emotions in check, stay as calm as possible.

d. BE PATIENT! inducing pure consciousness may nor be immediate, it can take upto 5 minutes of affirming for some (usually not), but if you think you're affirming and nothing happened, keep doing it because I guarantee those 5 minutes extra of affirming are worth living your dream life.

5. 》 Why I prefer this method (and why might you too 😉)

Lucid dreaming is the most effective and guaranteed method to induce pure consciousness in my opinion. I tried inducing pure consciousness by relaxing and daydreaming, but i couldn't help but focus on my 3D a lot which left me discouraged, even after i succeeded. So I decided upon this method. This method will be extremely helpful for those who just suck at actually daydreaming without the "back of their mind" still focusing on the 3D (me lol).

This concludes our Lucid Dream guide. I might or might not edit it again, but if you have any questions then you can ask me! Now go live your dream life!

[cosmicportal]

“Imagine a world where the untamed power of nature is harnessed not for destruction, but for the betterment of humanity.”

- Nikola Tesla

[nottsim]

the feminine urge to shift the multiverse

<3

[the-raccoon-girl]

So like.. fav shifting method!😋🙏🏼

Definetly Lucid Dream!! I think I like it more because I'm dreaming.. So it's aways a funny place to create a door (my portal do shift), one time I did one in the middle of a futurist shop. I have done it 5 times I guess, it's pretty fun.

[emshiftss]

୨୧ ・。・。・why do some people end up not shifting to their DR ? ・。・。・୨୧

 

{ disclaimer: i understand the kind of question i am proposing. i am fully aware that every one is different and so is their shifting journey. nonetheless, i’d like to share my thoughts and experiences. }

i've always wondered about this. if shifting is so easy, why does it seem that so many struggle? of course i understand that something may be universally simple to do but for some that may not be the case. but my question still stands, even in my own journey.

now for some context. the morning i wrote this i was quite tired when i woke up, i was trying so hard not to go back to sleep but ultimately failed. this experience shares some similarities to my last post where i shared how i thought i almost shifted via lucid dreaming. this morning after i fell asleep, i was constantly slipping in and out of consciousness. the whole thing felt like it was going on for so long, when really it was probably only thirty minutes.

from the get go i began trying to shift to my desired reality. it was hard to even tell if i was awake or asleep most of the time. but on multiple occasions it felt as though i was moving into a different position. it was such a confusing experience, i tried multiple times " i'm in my DR, i'm in my DR, i'm in my DR... " visualizing my room... at certain points it seemed like i was pulling my room together, with my eyes closed a light began to form on my right. other times it seemed no matter what i was in the same place in my mind.

at one point i even began to astral project/dream that i was. (i know little to nothing about AP, but i'm pretty sure i was just dreaming). i felt like i was floating up in my room and looked down to see my body on my bed, but it only lasted maybe five seconds before i snapped out of it.

my point to sharing this, and what happened to me the morning of christmas, is that my experiences like this are more than i can count. experiences where after i'm thinking to myself " hey! how did that not work??? "

so often (especially since september) i have many dreams where i try to shift through them, but to no avail... so many dreams where i am not even lucid and i'm subconsciously just trying to shift (?). dreams where my subconscious is basically pointing and yelling at me that shifting is inevitable for me (i wish i was exaggerating). dreams of my DR, dreams of my s/o, on and on again.

and i'm left heartbroken in the end... " why in an altered state of consciousness where i don't need to have worries of my body, my surroundings, am i not there? " now it just feels like i am haunted by my desire to love and be loved.

some days are easier than others, yes, but this question is still stuck in the back of my mind. perhaps dreams are not the way for me, i've definitely thought of it a time or two. then i let it go... but my dreams have always stayed with me, a constant reminder. if i am aware of my dreams so often... shouldn't i use that to my advantage?

i will persist of course, but i've been lost for some time.

[crazyskirtlady]

popping corks off bottles of interdimensional magicks....

~°~•*•~°~•*•~°~•*•~°~•*•~°~•*•~°~°~•*•~°~

[luvleyaru]

Wow

[isopod-chan]

This is how I look shifting through a lucid dream.

[hslvrs]

they are obsessed with us too much, why would we lied for fun for 3 years (shiftok) 😭😭😭 leave us alone omg

[thebardostate]

Is the Brain a Driver or a Steering Wheel?

This three part series summarizes what science knows, or thinks it knows, about consciousness. In Part 1 What Does Quantum Physics Imply About Consciousness? we looked at why several giants in quantum physics - Schrodinger, Heisenberg, Von Neumann and others - believed consciousness is fundamental to reality. In Part 2 Where Does Consciousness Come From? we learned the "dirty little secret" of neuroscience: it still hasn't got a clue how electrical activity in the brain results in consciousness.

In this concluding part of the series we will look at how a person can have a vivid conscious experience even when their brain is highly dysfunctional. These medically documented oddities challenge the materialist view that the brain produces consciousness.

Before proceeding, let's be clear what what is meant by "consciousness". For brevity, we'll keep things simple. One way of looking at consciousness is from the perspective of an outside observer (e.g., "conscious organisms use their senses to notice differences in their environment and act on their goals.") This outside-looking-in view is called behavioral consciousness (aka psychological consciousness). The other way of looking at it is the familiar first-person perspective of what it feels like to exist; this inside-looking-out view is called phenomenal consciousness (Barušs, 2023). This series is only discussing phenomenal consciousness.

Ready? Let’s go!

Source: Caltech Brain Imaging Center

A Hole in the Head

Epilepsy is a terrible disease in which electrical storms in the brain trigger seizures. For some people these seizures are so prolonged and frequent that drastic action is needed to save their lives. One such procedure is called a hemispherectomy, the removal or disconnection of half the brain. Above is an MRI image of a child who has undergone the procedure.

You might think that such radical surgery would profoundly alter the memory, personality, and cognitive abilities of the patient.

You would be wrong. One child who underwent the procedure at age 5 went on to attend college and graduate school, demonstrating above average intelligence and language abilities despite removal of the left hemisphere (the zone of the brain typically identified with language.) A study of 58 children from 1968 to 1996 found no significant long-term effects on memory, personality or humor, and minimal changes in cognitive function after hemispherectomy.

You might think that, at best, only a child could successfully undergo this procedure. Surely such surgery would kill an adult?

You would be wrong again. Consider the case of Ahad Israfil, an adult who suffered an accidental gunshot to the head and successfully underwent the procedure to remove his right cerebral hemisphere. Amazingly, after the five hour operation he tried to speak and went on to regain a large measure of functionality - and even earn a degree - although he did require use of a wheelchair afterwards.

Another radical epilepsy procedure, a corpus collosotomy, leaves the hemispheres intact but severs the connections between them. For decades it was believed that these split-brain patients developed divided consciousness, but more recent research disputes this notion. Researchers found that, despite physically blocking all neuronal communication between the two hemispheres, the brain somehow still maintains a single unified consciousness. How it manages this feat remains a complete mystery. Recent research on how psychedelic drugs affect the brain hints that the brain might have methods other than biochemical agents for internal communication, although as yet we haven't an inkling as to what those might be.

So what's the smallest scrape of brain you need to live? Consider the case of a 44-year-old white collar worker, married with two children and with an IQ of 75. Two weeks after noticing some mild weakness in one leg the man went to see his doctor. The doc ordered a routine MRI scan of the man's cranium, and this is what it showed.

Source: The Lancet

What you are seeing here is a giant empty cavity where most of the patient's brain should be. Fully three quarters of his brain volume is missing, most likely due to a bout of hydrocephalus he experienced when he was six months old.

Artist: Tom Wright

Last Words

Many unusual phenomena have been observed as life draws to an end. We're going to look at two deathbed anomalies that have neurological implications.

The first is terminal lucidity, sometimes called paradoxical lucidity. First studied in 2009, terminal lucidity refers to the spontaneous return of lucid communication in patients who were no longer thought to be medically capable of normal verbal communication due to irreversible neurological deterioration (e.g., Alzheimers, meningitis, Parkinson's, strokes.) Here are three examples:

A 78-year-old woman, left severely disabled and unable to speak by a stroke, spoke coherently for the first time in two years by asking her daughter and caregiver to take her home. She died later that evening.

A 92-year-old woman with advanced Alzheimer’s disease hadn’t recognized her family for years, but the day before her death, she had a pleasantly bright conversation with them, recalling everyone’s name. She was even aware of her own age and where she’d been living all this time.

A young man suffering from AIDS-related dementia and blinded by the disease who regained both his lucidity and apparently his eyesight as well to say farewell to his boyfriend and caregiver the day before his death.

Terminal lucidity has been reported for centuries. A historical review found 83 case reports spanning the past 250 years. It was much more commonly reported in the 19th Century (as a sign that death was near, not as a phenomenon in its own right) before the materialist bias in the medical profession caused a chilling effect during the 20th Century. Only during the past 15 years has any systematic effort been made to study this medical anomaly. As a data point on its possible prevalence a survey of 45 Canadian palliative caregivers found that 33% of them had witnessed at least one case of terminal lucidity within the past year. Other surveys found have that the rate of prevalence is higher if measured over a longer time window than one year, suggesting that, while uncommon, terminal lucidity isn't particularly rare.

Terminal lucidity is difficult to study, in part because of ethical challenges in obtaining consent from neurocompromised individuals, and in part because its recent identification as a research topic presents delineation problems. However, the promise of identifying new neurological pathways in the brains of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's patients has gotten a lot of attention. In 2018 the US National Institute on Aging (NIA) announced two funding opportunites to advance this nascent science.

Due to the newness of this topic there will continue be challenges with the data for some time to come. However, its impact on eyewitnesses is indisputably profound.

Artist: Tom Wright

Near Death Experiences

The second deathbed anomaly we will take a look at are Near-Death Experiences (NDEs.) These are extraordinary and deeply personal psychological experiences that typically (but not always) occur during life-threatening emergencies such as cardiac arrest, falls, automobile accidents, or other traumatic events; they are also occasionally reported during general anesthesia. Much of the research in this area has focused on cardiac arrest cases because these patients are unconscious and have little to no EEG brain wave activity, making it difficult to account for how the brain could sustain the electrical activity needed to perceive and remember the NDE. This makes NDEs an important edge case for consciousness science.

NDEs are surprisingly common. A 2011 study published by the New York Academy of Sciences estimated that over 9 million people in the United States have experienced an NDE. Multiple studies have found that around 17% of cardiac arrest survivors report an NDE.

There is a remarkable consistency across NDE cases, with experiencers typically reporting one or more of the following:

The sensation of floating above their bodies watching resuscitation efforts, sometimes able to recall details of medical procedures and ER/hallway conversations they should not have been aware of;

Heightened sensations, including cases of blind people who report the ability to "see" during the NDE;

Extremely rapid mental processing;

The perception of passing through something like a tunnel;

A hyper-vivid life review, described by many experiencers as "more real than real";

Transcendent visions of an afterlife;

Encounters with deceased loved ones, sometimes including people the experiencer didn’t know were dead; and

Encounters with spiritual entities, sometimes in contradiction to their personal belief systems.

Of particular interest is a type of NDE called a veridical NDE. These are NDEs in which the experiencer describes independently verifiable events occurring during the period when they had minimal or no brain activity and should not have been perceived, let alone remembered, if the brain were the source of phenomenal consciousness. These represent about 48% of all NDE accounts (Greyson 2010). Here are a few first-hand NDE reports.

A 62-year-old aircraft mechanic during a cardiac arrest (from Sabom 1982, pp. 35, 37)

A 23-year-old crash-rescue firefighter in the USAF caught by a powerful explosion from a crashed B-52 (from Greyson 2021, pg. 27-29)

An 18-year-old boy describes what it was like to nearly drown (from the IANDS website)

There are thousands more first person NDE accounts published by the International Association for Near-Death Studies and at the NDE Research Foundation. The reason so many NDE accounts exist is because the experience is so profound that survivors often feel compelled to write as a coping method. Multiple studies have found that NDEs are more often than not life-changing events.

A full discussion of NDEs is beyond the scope of this post. For a good general introduction, I highly recommend After: What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond by Bruce Greyson, MD (2021).

The Materialist Response

Materialists have offered up a number of psychological and physiological models for NDEs, but none of them fits all the data. These include:

People's overactive imaginations. Sabom (1982) was a skeptical cardiologist who set out to prove this hypothesis by asking cardiac arrest survivors who did not experience NDEs to imagine how the resuscitation process worked, then comparing those accounts with the veridical NDE accounts. He found that the veridical NDE accounts were highly accurate (0% errors), whereas 87% of the imagined resuscitation procedures contained at least one major error. Sabom became convinced that NDEs are real. His findings were replicated by Holden and Joesten (1990) and Sartori (2008) who reviewed veridical NDE accounts in hospital settings (n = 93) and found them to be 92% completely accurate, 6% partially accurate, and 1% completely inaccurate.

NDEs are just hallucinations or seizures. The problem here is that hallucinations and seizures are phenomena with well-defined clinical features that do not match those of NDEs. Hallucinations are not accurate descriptions of verifiable events, but veridical NDEs are. Also, it would be extraordinary to say the least that so many people would be hallucinating in similar ways.

NDEs are the result of electrical activity in the dying brain. The EEGs of experiencers in cardiac arrest show that no well-defined electrical activity was occurring that could have supported the formation or retention of memories during the NDE. These people were unconscious and should not have remembered anything.

NDEs are the product of dream-like or REM activity. Problem: many NDEs occur under general anesthesia, which suppresses dreams and REM activity. So this explanation cannot be correct.

NDEs result from decreased oxygen levels in the brain. Two problems here: 1) The medical effects of oxygen deprivation are well known, and they do not match the clinical presentation of NDEs. 2) The oxygen levels of people in NDEs (e.g., during general anesthesia) has been shown to be the same or greater than people who didn’t experience NDEs.

NDEs are the side effects of medications or chemicals produced in the brain (e.g. ketamine or DMT). The problem here is that people who are given medications in hospital settings tend to report fewer NDEs, not more; and drugs like ketamine have known effects that are not observed in NDEs. The leading advocate for the ketamine model conceded after years of research that ketamine does not produce NDEs (Greyson 2021, pg. 110).

Summing Up

In coming to the end of this series, let's sum up what we discussed.

Consciousness might be wired into the physical universe at fundamental level, as an integral part of quantum mechanics. Certainly several leading figures in physics thought so - Schrodinger, Heisenberg, Von Neumann, David Bohm, and more recently Nobel Laureates Roger Penrose, Eugene Wigner, and physicist Henry Stapp.

Materialist propaganda notwithstanding, neuroscience is no closer to identifying Neural Correlates of Consciousness (NCCs) than it was when it started. The source of consciousness remains one of the greatest mysteries in science.

Meanwhile, medical evidence continues to pile up that there is something deeply amiss with the materialist assumption that consciousness is produced by the brain. In a sense, the challenge that NDEs and Terminal Lucidity pose to consciousness science is analogous to the challenge that Dark Energy poses to physics, in that they suggest that the mind-brain identity model of classic materialist psychology may need to be rethought to adequately explain these phenomena.

Ever since the Greeks, science has sought to explain nature entirely in physical terms, without invoking theism. It has been spectacularly successful - particularly in the physical sciences - but at the cost of excluding consciousness along with the gods (Nagel, 2012). What I have tried to show in this series is that a very credible argument can be made that materialism has the arrow of causality backwards: the brain is not the driver of consciousness, it's the steering wheel.

I don't think we are yet ready to say what consciousness is. Much more research is needed. I'm not making the case for panpsychism, for instance - but I do think consciousness researchers need to throw off the assumption drag of materialism before they're going to make any real progress.

It will be up to you, the scientists of tomorrow, to make those discoveries. That's why I'm posting this to Tumblr rather than an academic journal; young people need to hear what's being discovered, and the opportunities that these discoveries represent for up and coming scientists.

Never has Planck's Principle been more apt: science advances one funeral at a time.

Good luck.

For Further Reading

Barušs, Imants & Mossbridge, Julia (2017). Transcendent Mind: Rethinking the Science of Consciousness. American Psychological Association, Washington DC.

Barušs, Imants (2023). Death as an Altered State of Consciousness: A Scientific Approach. American Psychological Association, Washington DC.

Batthyány, Alexander (2023). Threshold: Terminal Lucidity and the Border of Life and Death. St. Martin's Essentials, New York.

Becker, Carl B. (1993). Paranormal Experience and Survival of Death. State University of New York Press, Albany NY.

Greyson, Bruce (2021). After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond. St. Martin's Essentials, New York.

Kelly, Edward F.; Kelly, Emily Williams; Crabtree, Adam; Gauld, Alan; Grosso, Michael; & Greyson, Bruce (2007). Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century. Rowman & Littlefield, New York.

Moody, Raymond (1975). Life After Life. Bantam/Mockingbird, Covington GA.

Moreira-Almeida, Alexander; de Abreu Costa, Marianna; & Coelho, Humberto S. (2022). Science of Life After Death. Springer Briefs in Psychology, Cham Switzerland.

Penfield, Wilder (1975). Mystery of the Mind: A Critical Study of Consciousness and the Human Brain. Princeton Legacy Library, Princeton NJ.

Sabom, Michael (1982). Recollections of Death: A Medical Investigation. Harper and Row Publishers, New York.

van Lommel, Pim (2010). Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience. HarperCollins, New York.

[lyrashifts]

anyone ever have dreams so completely awful that they'll take them to the grave