THE IMMORTAL MIND

My own book on this question came out in 1984 and covers some of the same ground in a slightly different way, coming to a broadly similar conclusion. The book is in three parts: the evidence for consciousness beyond the brain, the science in terms of cosmos and consciousness, and the explanation based on Ervin's Akasha model. The authors investigate six main areas: near death experiences, apparitions and after death communication, medium transmitted communication, instrumental transcommunication (ITC), past life recollection and reincarnation. As readers will be aware, mainstream science avoids these questions while emphasising the evidence for consciousness as a brain function. Each chapter describes the phenomenon, presents a number of case histories and draws a conclusion from these. Many of the cases are well known from the literature, and a few are even taken from classic 19th-century cases.

I think it is fair to conclude, as the authors do, that the NDE represents conscious experience taking place during the time when the brain is clinically dead, a fact that has been established beyond reasonable doubt. Apparitions show that contact with deceased persons is a widespread phenomenon where some evidence is highly significant. In the chapter on mediumship, the cross correspondences are quoted along with other classic material and the use of mediums in criminal investigation. The case that stood out for me, and which I had not come across before, was a chess game between Viktor Korchnoi and a deceased grandmaster called Geza Maroczy, ranked third in 1900. Circumstances meant that the game was very slow and took a long time, but the deceased grandmaster gave instructions in a technical form known only to professional players. Maroczy resigned at move 48 and would have been checkmated five moves later.

I don't personally think that the evidence from ITC is as strong as from other research areas, but Ervin describes a fascinating personal experience in this respect. There is also evidence from computers and messages from mobile phones only briefly mentioned here. The chapter on past life recollection shows that such memories can be accessed, while the chapter on reincarnation discusses the work of Ian Stevenson. All this suggests the conclusion that communicating intelligences are dynamic rather than simply psychic imprints. The authors put these findings within the framework of the Akasha paradigm, suggesting that the world we observe is a manifestation of a deeper reality or matrix. The Akasha is defined as the algorithm that governs the fields and forces that regulate the behaviour of particles and systems of particles in the world; non-locality also suggests that the manifest universe is 'an instantly and intrinsically interconnected whole', as proposed by many recent scientific developments. They suggest that consciousness is in fact an intrinsic element in the Akasha that infuses the cosmos and exists 'whether or not it is transmitted by a living brain.' This leads on to a more systematic presentation of the principal propositions of the Akashic concept of consciousness, which I personally found very resonant whereby 'our localised consciousness is an integral part of the consciousness that in-forms the universe'.

This leads them to conclude that our consciousness does not end with the demise of the body but continues to exist in another deeper dimension. They suggest that this insight heralds a transition from an era of conscious mortality to one of conscious immortality. I would not expect sceptics to be persuaded by the evidence presented here but it is sufficiently comprehensive for general readers to be able to reach their own conclusion.