LIVING IN A MINDFUL UNIVERSE

As readers may recall, Eben Alexander is a neurosurgeon who had a life-changing near death experience in 2008. In his third and most extensive book, co-authored with his partner Karen Newell, he spans science and spirituality to present a comprehensive life philosophy of meaning and purpose arising from his experience and wide-ranging research. It is an adventurous exploratory journey moving beyond the boundaries of neuroscientific materialism which formed his previous horizon.

This began with the process of deconstructing his former scientific belief system through questioning his foundational assumptions still shared by almost all his former colleagues. The essence is that consciousness is not in fact produced by the brain, but the brain acts as a filter or reducing valve, as first proposed over 100 years ago by William James, FCS Schiller and Henri Bergson and more recently developed by University of Virginia scholars in the books Irreducible Mind and Beyond Physicalism. Conversations with conventional thinkers 'blindsided by their underlying assumptions' are revealing in the light of a lack of a theoretical framework causally linking the brain with consciousness beyond correlations. Steven Novella expresses certainty that the mind is essentially the brain on the basis of analysis of the neuroanatomical correlates of consciousness. He states that we absolutely know that the brain creates consciousness and that 'consciousness is what the brain does'. He admits that we do not yet know how this happens – this is the 'hard problem' – but when challenged to be more specific he is at a loss. In other words, the idea that the brain gives rise to consciousness is a theoretical postulate based on structures and interpretations of current research. Even in his day, William James realised that this theory accounts well for conventional experiments, but not for the further reaches of conscious experience. The same is true today.

In another revealing encounter with sceptic Michael Shermer, he discusses Shermer's extraordinary account of a defunct radio suddenly coming to life in a drawer on the occasion of his wedding, which seemed at the time to be some kind of communication from his wife's grandfather. However, a year on, they come to the understanding that this had a perfectly natural explanation. When challenged to expand, he said it could not have been supernatural so there must have been some rational explanation - but he could not say what this might be. The pattern of his story is similar to other after death communications in timing and content. A neuroscientist who did change his mind about the relationship between brain and consciousness was Wilder Penfield in his last book published in the 1970s, showing an admirable openness of mind and not resorting to the temptation to fit evidence into a predetermined conclusion.

Eben puts forward a primordial mind hypothesis consistent with quantum physics in a form of metaphysical idealism acknowledging the oneness of the universe within consciousness or the Universal Mind, as suggested by New Thought writers over 100 years ago. He relates this to the filtering function of the brain, observing that he experienced a much broader contact with universal consciousness characterised by ultrareality without a properly functioning brain filter. He quotes an interesting study published in Scientific American by a group from Imperial College studying the effects of LSD through fMRI: 'the most extraordinary experiences were reported by those subjects who had the greatest inactivation of their brains junctional centre network activity…. As the brain becomes less active, internal mental experience actually becomes more active', a finding also consistent with meditation studies. Eben comes to the conclusion that God or the ordering intelligence 'is actually the very source of our conscious awareness as sentient beings. There is no separation between the ultimate creative force and our conscious awareness of existing in this universe. The observer, self-awareness of the universe for itself, is us at the deepest level' (p. 70) it is important to emphasise, as he does, that by consciousness he means the observer part of awareness, the knower of the knowledge – the witness of the Upanishads.

This and other similar books draw on a level of intuitive knowing beyond rational analysis, which used to be defined as a function of the intellect rather than reason in gnostic and mystical circles. It is an interesting reflection that modern accounts of mystical and near death experiences insist on the validity of their noetic nature, suggesting that we should reinstate this lost faculty of apprehending reality by becoming one with it – contemplation rather than observation. This means trusting personal experience and looking for coherent and consistent patterns of explanation. Here Eben covers quite a bit of research ground as well, including ganzfeld studies, heartmath, memories from previous lives, reincarnation, placebo and the power of belief.

This brings him to the heart of the matter, namely that spiritual light is love with which we can align, also by exploring consciousness more deeply, for instance through sacred acoustics. He himself experienced this infinite love, remarking that 'such oneness and dissolution of the sense of self, and complete identity with all of life and the source of all that is, is the pathway towards truth.' (p. 227) He continues that 'the deepest lesson of my journey was realising that unconditional love was the very fabric of the spiritual realm from which the totality of reality emerges.' He reports an experience of this with Ram Dass, quoting him as saying that 'we come to see the oneness we share, oneness we are – together' (p. 230); and his injunction 'just love until you and the beloved become one'. This is the essence of the mystical path.

This is a courageous book in venturing into personal and metaphysical realms but without losing the enquiring and open spirit of science in the process – it may be a step too far for some, but such a response is likely to arise from the reader's own inner structures and philosophical assumptions.