6 Signs that the brain isn’t the originator of consciousness

6 Signs that the brain isn’t the originator of consciousness

Image: Shutterstock

It seems so obvious that the brain is the originator of consciousness. No brain, no consciousness – it seems simple. This assumption has become so fundamental that we barely notice that it is an assumption or that it has never been proved.

Now that consciousness is being taken seriously by scientists let’s look at a number of interesting findings that suggest that there is something deeper happening.

1. There is no particular place that seems to be responsible for the function of consciousness.

I once attended a seminar for doctors given by a neuroscientist who specialised in studying consciousness. The top question of the evening was which part of the brain is responsible for consciousness.

Image – Graphic Stock

The scientist had to disappoint people as there is not particular place in the brain that gives rise to consciousness. But the question itself just shows how reductionist we are. We are always looking for the ‘part’ that has a particular function because we have bought into the beliefs that we are biological machines with constituent parts.

Studies have been done by people who wanted to find the exact location of consciousness in the brain so destroyed various parts of the brains of rats and found that function is still retained even though most of the brain is essentially mush. Even these people had to conclude that there was no particular location in which consciousness resides although they set out to prove the exact opposite.

2. People with hardly any brain matter can have normal intelligence.

Occasionally people can have brain disorder which causes the fluid of their brain to squash the brain matter into a small space so that they end up with hardly any brain mass.

Amazingly, if treated, some people can live normal lives. Such as the case of Sharon Parker who is a British qualified nurse and mother. Although her condition of hydrocephalus or ‘water on the brain’ was detected and treated in childhood, the condition had already caused the brain to adapt so she ended up leading a normal life, even qualifying as a nurse with very little brain mass.

Sharon Parker The Woman with the Mysterious Brain

There is even a case of a person studying higher mathematics with very little brain mass. It seems that if the conditions were from birth and developed slowly then the brain may adapt. It also means we have to think again when we equate brain mass with intelligence and consciousness.

3. The brain alters according to usage.

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When I was in medical school we were taught that after childhood the brain stopped growing and the amount of neurones present in adulthood remained static.

That picture has now changed and we can see that certain activities can change the structure of the brain and increase the mass in certain areas. A famous example is in taxi drivers in London who have to go through rigorous training to learn the complex map of London by heart. Studies have shown that this activity seems to increase the mass of the brain.

Now for some this will point to the brain being the origin of consciousness and memory. But think about what is causing the change: experience. You cannot hold experience, it is no tangible. So something not tangible is causing a physical change in the brain. This fits more with the concept that the brain is a conduit of consciousness.

4. The God spot

When the so-called ‘God spot’ was discovered in the brain, scientists were triumphant. By electrically stimulating the brain they were able to reproduce the mystical effects that people often report in certain states such as just before an epileptic fit.

They extrapolated that all mystical or psychic phenomena were simply generated by the brain in this way and people were just mistaking them to be real.

However there is an interesting factor in this. They obtained their results by electrically stimulating the brain with electrodes in the laboratory. So in the case of mystical events outside the laboratory and with our electrodes what is stimulating the brain then? Could it be that consciousness itself is acting through the brain and stimulating areas such as the so-called God spot?

5. Blindsight

The reductionist paradigm is all about physical connections. Sight is a function that is no different. So what happens when the normal optic tracts are damaged yet in tests the person can still ‘see’?

There have been amazing cases of blindsight in which the person has not been able to see by normal means but in controlled testing they correctly identify visual stimuli. With the damage to the optic tracts people with blindsight just should not be able to do this, if the reductionist paradigm is correct.

There have also been cases when some traumatic event like a childhood epileptic fit or a blow to the head have caused the person to have extraordinary abilities. Daniel Tammat is one example – he is able to do complex mathematics and linguistics seemingly effortlessly.

It is interesting how he describes some of the ways he obtains this information. He describes it as coalescing in his mind as shapes which he can then interpret. Is his brain obtaining information from the field in an unusual way?

6. Studies of precognition

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Precognition is a subject that is normally discussed with derision by scientists but some scientists such as Dean Radin of the Institute of Noetic Science have actually taken the subject seriously enough to study the topic under controlled conditions. He found that the brain reacts to a stimulus even before the stimulus is present. The brain shows an EEG response before the event.

Again this should not be possible in the reductionist paradigm. According to that paradigm, the eyes should see the stimulus, the impulse needs to travel into the optic tracts from the retina. The brain then turns that into a response in the occipital and frontal areas of the brain.

In reality there isn’t enough time for this long process before the reaction to a visual stimulus happens as the chemical and electrical processes take a certain amount of time, commented on by Nobelist, Albert Szent-Györgyi. The precognition response is even weirder according to the old paradigm.

Of course such scientific studies are attacked – usually the scientist themselves are denigrated. They may even be subject to an organised campaign where people are employed go into the internet in various guises – as experts, forum posters and on social media to downplay the science and the scientists.

To watch a TED talk on these types of campaigns watch this video.

Conclusion

So all in all these are studies which suggest that the brain may not be the originator of consciousness and that something more may be going on. Some of the results may be better explained if the brain is actually a conduit organ for consciousness.

At the very least such results should have a true scientists questioning the basic assumptions of the reductionist paradigm. After all isn’t that how science is supposed to move forward? By spotting results that can change the current received wisdom?

To find out more about the science of consciousness beyond the brain check out The Genius Groove where you can learn about the new science of creativity and how to use this new science to enhance your own life and creative journey.

Mary Magdalene how did it all start?

Mary Magdalene how did it all start?

The Annunciation by Matthew William Peters, Lincoln Cathedral. Credit Dr Manjir Samanta-Laughton

Some people ask me- how did it all start. Where did the concept of the Magdalene Prophecies come from? By the way that is not what I wanted to call the book! The lady herself came through one New Year’s Eve when I was attending a Lebanese Bellydance event – only later did I see the significance of that. The name just came through loud and clear and it had had a great response.

But it all started way back in the 2001 when I was still training to be a GP. I had taken a trip to New Mexico to attend a conference on the science of consciousness. Still to this day I can feel the magic as I arrived by myself to the hotel. I met several people whom I kept bumping into after lectures.

One of them was a woman named Jenna. On the last night of the conference she invited me to her place in Santa Fe before catching my flight back and I agreed.

After chatting for a while, we decided to head out for something to eat and it was then that something very strange happened. We looked at the moon and I have never before or since seen the moon in that way. It is hard to describe but it seemed to change shape. Then suddenly, without either of speaking, we knew that we were the women going to the tomb of Christ that fateful morning after the crucifixion.

I can’t say who was who as such it was as if we were the group consciousness, not anyone particular individual. Now I didn’t even know it at the time but Jenna is Jewish and I have a Hindu background so neither of us had much idea about the New Testament or Mary Magdalene.

That’s how and when the visions began and since that moment I have had many more including being inside Mary Magdalene’s consciousness as she was giving birth to her second child. To find out the full story check out this lecture. Enjoy.

Where’s your antimatter at?

Where’s your antimatter at?

Image:Graphic Stock/ Dr Manjir Samanta-Laughton

In my first book, Punk Science I described how areas of the universe are made up of matter which we are familiar but also the universe is made up of antimatter.

The process of these coming together to make light in the form of gamma-rays is a process that occurs in black holes which I have described before, but did you know it may be key in your own life?

Building on the work of Dr John Demartini, author of The Breakthrough Experience, I also realised that the antimatter region of your own self may represent your shadow emotions – those aspects of you that you do not want to face.

Dr John Demartini author of the Breakthrough Experience. Credit Dr Manjir Samanta-Laughton

Life, however will provide you with opportunities with which to face your shadow self – this is what we call the journey of life. It is how we handle these events that determines the level of transformation that they give us.

I hear a lot of spiritual teachers, some of them very famous, who tell you to ignore your emotions and people who may bother you in life. I teach the exact opposite; it is in the difficult events and people where the real treasure lies.

These events hold the clues to your own shadow self and emotions and it is by integrating your matter and antimatter in your own consciousness that you can increase the light in your being – just like in a galactic black hole!

This quick exercise can help you to integrate your shadow self and emotions.

If you would like to know more about the links between the science of the cosmos and your own life check out Simply Divine – an Easy guide to the Science of spirituality. You can find out more about the course here.

Does Water equal Life on Mars?

Does Water equal Life on Mars?

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

For centuries, humans have looked at Mars and pondered if this fiery planet can sustain life. To many people the equation is simple – find water and there will be life. I remember when we looked out to space wishing that one day we would find water and therefore we discover that we are not alone.

Within a few decades that wishing has been replaced by real evidence of water and it turns out it is everywhere. It is almost embarrassing as the equation that water equals life is so embedded into science and our psyches. Underlying this equation is the belief that life has arisen completely spontaneously without any intelligent input.

This is essential to the God-free, unspiritual world that science likes to portray – that life and ourselves are just random accidents of no significance in a sterile world devoid of consciousness. So life just started in a warm pond easily and spontaneously and this led to evolution and here we are: all through random, unintelligent, unconscious events.

So finding oceans on many planets and on moons and even in jets from sunspots should be rocking these such beliefs especially if we do not find even the most simple of bacteria in them. Maybe we have to face that life is so extraordinary complex that the creation of just one single cell in a warm pond by chance and random collisions alone would not just take one miracle and defy the laws of entropy but it would need repeated miracles.

So the finding of water on Mars should provoke and stir up a lot of these old wistful notions but it may also force us to face that life could involve more than some random collisions in a warm pond. Before 2015 we knew that channels on Mars suggested there was water on the planet in the past. So far so safe, we don’t have to face up to the prospect of life on Mars. But then evidence of seasonal water on Mars was found and it was realised that water on Mars is not only currently present it is also being renewed. The importance of the news warranted a NASA press conference in autumn 2015.

But the question really should be why? Why is there water on Mars and elsewhere? If you have been following the Black Hole Principle you will know that I have been saying for some time that the gamma-ray bursts in the Earth’s upper atmosphere that produce gamma rays, fast moving electrons and antimatter are demonstrating the same mechanism that black holes at the centres of galaxies do. These so called Terrestrial Gamma Ray Flashes or TGFs are associated with thunderstorms. The fast moving electrons that come out of them are what we normally call lightning.

There is one feature of thunderstorms that for many years I battled with and that is rain. It means that for the Black Hole Principle to be truly universal and occur in a similar fashion at all levels of the universe, black holes need to produce water. It also means everything that almost everything we understand about our water cycle becomes null and void. Water becomes the end point of a higher dimensional process. I think, but I am not sure that water is produced by the process of light splitting into antimatter and matter at the edge of a black hole. I would have to do some more work on the mechanism. But I did realise that water would have to be produced by galactic black holes in order to be a truly universal process.

To see my presentation at the International Conference on the Physics, Chemistry and Biology of Water 2015 on the subject of water coming from black holes at every level of the universe visit

So when it was revealed that black holes do indeed produce water, I was amazed and realise that the Black Hole Principle had been vindicated all this time. This is a universal process that happens from the macroscopic level – huge galaxies in the far reaches of space, to the microscopic – potentially your cellular processes work this way too to somewhere in between – the rain clouds you see in the sky now.

I also made this prediction about the oceans of planet Earth when giving a keynote address at the Institute of Noetic Sciences,

The Earth’s Oceans have long been a mystery as to where they originated and the question was fobbed off with some garbling about an asteroid seeding water here in the past. I knew that the Earth’s interior too is a black hole dynamo and therefore capable of producing water. So it was not a big leap for me to predict that Mars is capable of producing water in real time as are other bodies that are ejecting water such as comets and the moons of Saturn.

So this is why the renewed water on Mars was not a big shock to me. However, we may have to revisit our long held equation that the presence of water automatically means that life is also present.
That is simplifying what life is enormously. Life is not a random arrangement of atoms – this does not make sense from the perspective of science either – see Punk Science for a break down of these issues.
So for now we are having to admit that our previous mantra of ‘follow the water to find life’ may not have been correct. This was whilst finding water in space was unexpected. Now we know it is everywhere maybe we need to look again at why biological life has occurred on Earth in the first place and also why water is present there at all.
This National Geographic article discusses the problems will taking the water = life equation.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/09/150928-mars-liquid-water-life-space-astronomy/

NASA Confirms Evidence That Liquid Water Flows on Today’s Mars


Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

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