What is Consciousness?

Traditional psychology asserts that consciousness is an “epiphenomenon” of the brain. Believing in the conventional materialist worldview, this group of researchers says that consciousness is somehow created by the brain. Notice that if we believe that every-thing is material, then there is no such “thing” as soul or spiritual existence, no life after the death of the physical body, no consciousness without the brain, no experience that cannot be explained by a physical process. Neuroscientists are busy mapping out which objective parts of the brain correspond to specific types of subjective experience (for example, the multisensory state of consciousness that arises as we inhale the aroma of apple pie baking in the oven). But correlation doesn’t necessarily prove causation.

So far, the latest science shows that our mental and emotional consciousness seems to be present in every cell, not just in the brain. And furthermore, evidence continues to pile up for consciousness independent of the brain and body. Just ask Dr. Eben Alexander, previously a skeptic, now a believer that consciousness is actually “freed up” when it disconnects from the brain, allowing us to experience higher states of existence and knowing. A Harvard and Duke trained neuroscientist, Dr. Alexander has documented his transpersonal near-death experience of out-of-body consciousness in his new book Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey Through the Afterlife. (You can find out more from his site http://www.linkedin.com/pub/eben-alexander-iii-md/a/345/202).

Consider that consciousness is the underlying field of energy that comprises all objective and subjective reality. That means that every-thing and every no-thing is based upon and constructed from consciousness. The entire spectrum of wave vibrational energy carrying information, consciousness spans the slower lower waves of vibration as well as the faster higher pulses of existence. That’s the cutting edge worldview we see after observing the latest data that comes from quantum physics and consciousness research.