Word
Gems
What is a
man but the sum of his thoughts?
Love:
Dr.
Gary Schwartz, U. of Arizona
The
AfterLife Experiments
- "How can you prove to anyone that you love your
husband or wife, a child, a friend, a pet? Not by what you say--people
often lie to protect themselves or others. Not by what you do--we all do some
things because they're expected of us rather than because we truly want to do them...
there is no substitute for having the experience of love--or, for that matter, any other
experience. One must ultimately have the experience for oneself. Everything else is
indirect--a process of inference, of interpretation. But the deep question arises,
how do we know whether the interpretation of our personal experiences is genuine?
... it's difficult to determine whether what we interpret to be love is actually love...
Fortunately, just because something is difficult doesn't make it impossible... Scientific
exploration begins by forming a hypothesis, and then gathering evidence that will support
it or will prove it false. We started with the hypothesis, the working assumption, that
science can establish that love exists, that consciousness exists, and that survival of
consciousness exists, in the same way that science has established that gravity exists,
that electrons exist, and that photons from 'deceased' stars continue to exist... Physics
teaches us that it's scientifically appropriate to infer the existence of invisible
processes through careful observation in repeated experiments. Just as we
scientifically infer the existence of an invisible force termed gravity through the
systematic and careful observations of objects falling to the ground, our hypothesis said
that one can scientifically infer the existence of invisible living info-energy systems --
living souls and spirits -- through systematic and careful experimentation."
- "The Harvard Mastery of Stress Study was
originally conducted in the early 1950s with 126 healthy male Harvard undergraduate
students. Each student received a physical and psychiatric exam, and filled out
an inch-thick stack of pencil-and-paper tests... [included] fourteen questions that rated
the men's perceptions of their mothers' love and caring, and fourteen that rated the men's
perceptions of their fathers' love and caring, based on criteria such as how loving, fair,
just, and kind the parents had been during the men's childhood and adolescence. Could
these simple ratings of perceived parental love obtained in college serve as a predictor
of their long-term health thirty-five and forty-two years later? When we
calculated the scores and entered them in the computer, the results were clear cut-and
startling. The findings indicated that perceptions of parental love in college did indeed
predict long-term physical health in later life. We created four possible subgroups based
on their college ratings: (1) father and mother both rated high; (2) father rated high,
mother rated low; (3) father rated low, mother rated high; and (4) father and mother both
rated low. For those men who rated both their parents high in love and caring
while they were in college, about 25 percent had a confirmed diagnosis of physical disease
thirty-five years later. The diseases included cancer, heart problems, high blood
pressure, arthritis, and asthma. However, for those men who had rated both of
their parents low in love and caring, 87 percent had a diagnosed disease thirty-five years
later. Not surprisingly, of men who rated one of their parents high and the other
low, approximately half had a diagnosed disease in midlifie. The higher their perception
of parental love, the healthier their lives. And we found that these patterns were
independent of family and genetic history of disease, death, and divorce history of
parents, as well as the smoking and marital histories of the men themselves. None of these
familiar, well-established risk factors could explain the findings obtained. What
did these strong data suggest? Since the men who perceived themselves as coming from the
most loving parents had the lowest rates of physical disease, this implied that love might
be acting as a buffer, protecting a person from the deleterious health consequences of
risk factors-even such significant factors as genetic predisposition, divorce, and
cigarette smoking. (The results of this study were reported by us in a 1997 article in the
Journal Psychosomatic Medicine.)"
- THE HEART'S ENERGY TRAVELS IN SPACE FOREVER
Physics defines energy as the capacity to do work and overcome resistance. Energy is
force. Magnetism, electricity, heat, and gravity are all examples of energy.
As discussed earlier, a system is defined as a set of components or parts that interact
recurrently. The components share information and energy with one another. In the process
of connecting and sharing, the parts join and become a whole whose novel properties are
termed emergent.
When we combine the concept of energy with the idea of a system, the resulting conceptual
system is termed dynamical energy systems theory. The info-energy system hypothesis
predicts that everything in nature--yes, everything--not only has a physical body (what we
experience as the material), but also has an internal invisible soul (information) and
spirit (energy) that continuously extend into space at the speed of light. Let's consider
the heart, the largest generator of electromagnetic signals in the body.
The heart's electrocardiogram--its dynamically changing electrical charge created with
each heartbeat--can be readily recorded with electrodes placed on the surface of the skin.
Our bodies, containing 70 percent to 80 percent water constituting the blood and lymph
(which includes salt and other minerals), are very good conductors of electricity. As a
result, with each beat of the heart, the electrical signal travels to every cell in the
body. This means not only that each cell is bathed in the blood
circulated by the heart, but every cell is also bathed in the electromagnetic energy
produced by the heart.
The patterned electrocardiographic signal, or cardiac info-energy, can be recorded from
anywhere on the body. This includes the tips of the fingers and the toes, the nose, and
even the top of the head. In fact, when doctors want to record brain waves, muscle
tension, or any other bioelectromagnetic signal, they first must filter out the heart's
electrocardiogram.
Therefore, at any given moment in time, as long as your heart is beating, all of this
bioelectromagnetic information and energy is mixing and interacting throughout your body,
in a constantly circulating manner.
Now, what happens to the cardiac (and other electromagnetic) signals once they reach the
surface of your skin?
Are we encased in an electromagnetic shield that would keep the signals from leaving the
body? No. A moment's reflection will tell you that the signals keep traveling and go into
space at the speed of light, which is approximately 186,000 miles per second. Physics
tells us that the heart's electrocardiogram, like all electromagnetic signals, is actually
a form of invisible "light," or photons.
So as our cardiac energy leaves the body, it radiates out into the
vacuum of space.
Imagine that you standing outside in the evening, looking at the stars in a clear sky, and
now consider the following:
One second after your heart beats, or your loved one's heart beats, or even your dog's
heart beats--it actually doesn't matter which--the heart's electromagnetocardiogram will
have traveled approximately 186,000 miles in space.
Physics tells us that it must be out there because it is an
electromagnetic signal. It is similar in nature to electromagnetic signals generated by
distant stars or cell phones. Of course, our electrocardiographic signals are
weaker in comparison to these signals, and they will continue to get weaker as they expand
out into the vacuum of space. However, despite the relative weakness of these signals,
physics tells us, in no uncertain terms, that they are traveling in the "vacuum"
of space.
Two seconds later, your heart's signal will be 372,000 miles out into space, and once out
there, it will keep going and going. Think about it--once your heart's signal is out in
space, there is no way to get rid of it.
The science of astrophysics is based on the fact that once a star is born, it begins
emitting and radiating electromagnetic fields, some of which we call visible light, and
they will keep going and going, like that advertising animated toy, the Energizer
Bunny--except these signals are truly eternal.
Long after the physical star has "died," its energy and
information keep traveling, eventually reaching earth where you're standing. The
photons that have traveled billions of miles to make their way into your pupils are not
much larger than the head of a pin. The retinal cells in your eyes detect information from
thousands of stars that can be millions of light-years away.
What then, are you looking at when you see the stars "in the sky?" Physics tells
us that what you are actually looking at is the history of the stars reflecting the way
they used to be when they emitted their energy ions ago.
Though the philosophical implications of this fact are typically
ignored, the truth is that light has a kind of immortality. This light, composed of
infinitesimally tiny photons, supposedly contains information that goes all the way back
to the Big Bang and presumed by most contemporary physicists to have been created at the
beginning of the known universe.
What is called the background radiation, which has been documented over the last few
decades, is the "electromagnetic noise" that is believed to reflect the history
of the universe going back 12 billion or more years ago.
And these are tiny photons indeed.
Care to guess how many biophotons it takes for our retinal cells to fire? Millions?
Thousands? Ten?
Science tells us it takes just one.
Care to guess how many biophotons are being emitted from your heart alone with each beat?
Millions and millions.
The Energy Is Love
Once our cardiac biophotons get into space, all this information and energy is preserved
in space. Hence, our heart's info-energy has a kind of immortality too, just like the
stars themselves.
EXPLANATIONS OF LOVING SYNCHRONICITIES: THE ENERGY CARDIOLOGY PREDICTION
In connection with our follow-up work on the Harvard Mastery of Stress Study, Linda asked each of the men we gathered data from whether they had ever
experienced synchronicities, or meaningful coincidences, in their life. Virtually
all of them reported they either had experienced them personally or witnessed one or more
of their family member having them. Examples included having the identical thought as
their wife, or a daughter sensing that her mother or father was ill and calling home.
The men offered three possible explanations for these seeming coincidences.
Approximately one third of the men said the reason was simply statistical coincidence; the
synchronicity happened by chance.
Another third of the men attributed the coincidence to the fact that over the years, they
and their wives had come to know each other's likes and dislikes, or the daughter knew her
parents' habits and concerns.
However, a third of the men said they believed it had something to
with "vibes." Each of these three hypotheses is plausible.
I then told the men our energy cardiology hypothesis--about how our heart's energy
theoretically extends into space and interacts with our loved ones. After hearing the
energy cardiology hypothesis, they were intrigued by the possibility that there might be
some sort of neural recognition between people's electrocardiograms, even over long
distances.
This hypothesis becomes even more plausible when we realize that most of us typically have
spent many thousands of hours with our family members and loved ones, beginning from the
intimate time we spent bathed in our mother's electrocardiogram in her womb, to the
thousands of hours per year many of us spend in close contact with our spouses sleeping in
bed.
The capacity for us to build up a systemic memory of our loved one's electrocardiogram
requires that each heart have different features so we can know whose cardiac energy
pattern or cardiac energy "signature" we are recognizing.
It turns out that each person's heart does have a unique pattern, which can be likened to
the similarities of faces.
In one sense, all healthy faces look the same. They have two eyes, a nose, and a mouth.
However, experience tells us that no two faces are exactly the same. The subtle
differences in the shapes and colors of the eyes, nose, and mouth are what enable us to
distinguish one face from other. The better we know people, and love them, the easier it
is to recognize their faces in a crowd.
It's the same with the electromagnetic signature of the heart. All healthy hearts look the
same. They all have what is called a P wave, a Q R S complex, and a T wave. However, when we look more closely, we discover that no two
electrocardiograms are the exactly the same. There are subtle differences in the
shapes of the P waves, QRS complexes, and T waves, and these differences enable us to
distinguish one electrocardiogram from another. Each heart's unique anatomy, much like a
snowflake, allows it to have a different energy signature that can develop a unique
systemic memory. Contemporary quantum physics suggests that such energetic differences
can, in theory, be detectable over long distances.
Is it possible that we can consciously distinguish between such
subtle differences? Here is a simple example that illustrates the possibility. Have
you ever been at a party, or in a loud restaurant with a lot of background noise, and
someone quietly speaks your name, and you're aware of it despite the noise?
Even when we're not paying attention, we're nonetheless very good at pattern recognition,
especially for patterns that have been repeated thousands of times and are meaningful to
us, such as our own names.
Systems can come to recognize one another, like a tuning fork that resonates when another
nearby tuning fork vibrates. In this sense, it is possible that our
bodies as well as our minds remember the people we have come in contact with the most.
Our tuning forks, so to speak, may become tuned to one another because we share a common
systemic memory bond.
FROM CARDIAC ENERGY TO HIGH-FREQUENCY X RAYS AND GAMMA RAYS
If this isn't enough to raise an eyebrow or two, let us briefly share a recent discovery
Linda and I made with colleagues in our laboratory.
We have been recording what are termed gamma rays, which are very high-frequency signals
that typically come from distant stars. Gamma rays pass not only through bodies and walls
but even through lead shields.
These studies have shown that the human body spontaneously absorbs and/or scatters
high-frequency gamma rays and simultaneously emits high frequency X rays. It appears that
our bodies are continually emitting high-frequency X rays as we absorb and/or scatter the
even higher-frequency gamma rays. Most of the energy studied in our laboratory to date is
from the heart and hand regions. However, as far as we know, the entire body participates
in this process. It is important to remember that gamma rays and X rays are actually
photons;, when they originate from the body, they are called bio-photons.
New research ongoing in our lab suggests that during times when
people intentionally send energy to a person, especially a loved one, there is a
detectable increase in the absorption and/or scattering of the gamma rays and an increase
in the emission of high-frequency X rays.
When we put all these findings together, they strongly add up to the possibility of a
biophysical linking between love, the heart, and energy. Some of my colleagues have even
been so bold as to posit that the gamma rays may be interpreted as reflecting loving
energy coming from the universe, which when absorbed is slowed down by the body and
redistributed to people around us at a lower frequency, observed as high-frequency X rays.
The Energy Is Love
What would happen if we were to take these observations and inferences even further? What
if the loving energy that a mother shares with her child while it is in the womb actually
affects the infant's DNA structure and development? If the electromagnetic signals from
cell phones can supposedly do this in a disease-promoting way, why couldn't our body's own
electromagnetic signals do so as well--hopefully in a life-affirming way?
You may be wondering: How can we make predictions about things we cannot see, smell,
taste, or touch? Electrocardiograms, brains, X rays, and gamma rays share a fundamental
property--they are all invisible to our normal senses. Could some of these invisible
forces reflect the connective power of universal love?
Such an idea is by no means novel. In fact, a similar debate took place when Sir Isaac
Newton decided to address the question of the universal law of gravity.
GRAVITY AS AN INVISIBLE UNIVERSAL ATTRACTIVE FORCE: IS THIS EVIDENCE FOR THE
EXISTENCE OF THE UNCONDITIONAL LOVE OF GOD?
Whenever I lose faith in humankind, nature, or the cosmos as a whole, I conduct a little
experiment.
I drop things.
Keys, erasers, dog bones--whatever objects I have in my hand that will not break when they
fall, I drop them. Right now, as I take a moment to reflect, it's my dog Sammy's bone.
I have conducted this little experiment thousands of times. Every time I have dropped an
object, it has fallen to the ground. Of course, I realize that theoretically it is not
impossible that someone might be able slow down the speed with which a given object falls,
or even cause an object to float in mid-air. However, when I drop things, what happens is
totally predictable. The object falls.
When I go to sleep at night, I don't worry that when I awake I might find my body floating
up near the ceiling. The truth is, after having conducted the experiment many thousands of
times, and having witnessed my body safely in bed every morning, I put my faith in
Newton's force called gravity.
The deep question, however, is, what is the explanation for this replicable observation?
Seriously, can we "measure gravity?"
The truth is, we cannot measure gravity directly. What we do is observe objects, or dials
moving on a scale, and we infer the existence of an invisible force
that cannot be seen or heard. This mysterious forces even acts at a distance.
Everyone knows that the moon pulls on the earth, the earth pulls on the sun, the sun pulls
on the moon, the moon pulls on the sun, and the earth pulls on the moon. The truth is, it
is profoundly mathematically difficult to calculate the effects that three
"bodies" have on each other as they engage in mutual attractive feedback
interactions.
In Newton's time, he infuriated some people with his proposal that
we had to hypothesize the existence of something we couldn't see or hear, and could
observe only indirectly. This sounds a lot like mediumship, doesn't it? We infer
the existence of our loved ones by observing what a medium says, or by having an indirect
experience of them. You and I can't see or detect them ourselves.
My dear friend Paul Pearsall has suggested that gravity and ghosts
share the identical conceptual problem--they can be known only indirectly through their
inferred effects on objects or beings.
It is curious that physics lectures and textbooks typically fail to mention that in
addition to being a physicist and a mathematician, Newton was also a
mystic. A deeply religious and spiritual man, he studied alchemy and philosophy,
and some scientists frankly considered him to be a flake.
Here is what Newton actually believed. He proposed that every
physical object has mass, and that this mass has a gravitational pull that exerts its
force in all directions. This means that every object in the universe, to various degrees,
is pulling in all directions on every other object. Through the universal force of
gravity, everything is literally connected to everything else. According to Newton's view,
the universe is a gigantic interconnected feedback system.
In order for any one object to move, it has to affect every other object in its immediate
environment to some degree. The universal force of gravity requires that everything is
dependent on everything else--nothing in the universe that has mass is independent of the
interconnecting force of gravity.
For Newton, this force was truly unconditional--be it white or black, male or female,
Eastern or Western, good or bad--it didn't matter. The unconditional force of gravity was
totally non-prejudicial and dependable. In fact, gravity was the force that literally held
the universe together. If Newton had lived to see Star Wars, he would have loved
the phrase "May the force be with you."
Here is the amazing part of the story--the part most physics classes fail to teach. It turns out that Newton viewed the universal, unconditional attractive
force of gravity as an expression of the unconditional love of God for the universe as a
whole.
According to Newton, love is the universal energy,
and the existence of gravity is one of the most fundamental and far-reaching illustrations
of this unconditional loving process. The loving heart of God is literally expressed
through the universal attractive force of gravity.
The persistence of gravity, like the persistence of light, points to the enduring if not
eternal nature of information and energy. To the extent that consciousness is a
fundamental property of an interconnected feedback universe, like energy itself, it cannot
be destroyed but can only be transformed.
s
- Integrating Science and Spirituality
The following is derived in part from published scientific articles developed with Linda
Russek.
The origin of the word science comes from the Latin scire, which simply means
"to know."
Science is first and foremost concerned with discovering truth. The process of science
involves searching for information and then repeating the search, ie.,
"researching" -- in order to replicate the observations.
- The purpose of science is not to validate the way we wish
nature to be -- it is to discover the way nature really is.
This is the reason for choosing as the motto of the Human Energy Systems
Laboratory veritas, the pursuit of truth -- borrowed from Harvard's motto -- and
why we choose to be guided by the principle "Let the data speak."
The history of science reminds us that sometimes research leads to discoveries that
challenge the way we think about virtually everything. When this happens, it is often
tempting to put our heads in the sand. We prefer to make believe that nature is the way we
want it to be (which is typically the way we were raised as children to believe it is)
rather than the way nature really is. It has been said that ignorance is bliss. The truth
is, it is often easier to hold on to the past than to face the discoveries revealed
through science.
Science as a process, and survival as a hypothesis, have a unique relationship. The living
soul hypothesis has profound implications for how science is conducted; in turn, science
has profound implications for our understanding of the continuation of consciousness. The
research that we've described in this book can be thought of as the tip of a gigantic
prism, creating a rainbow-colored spectacular possibility that transcends virtually
anything we have imagined. It is more than just poetry that we scientifically pursue Lux
et Veritas--Light and Truth, Yale's motto--because the key may literally be light.
The key to predicting survival of consciousness happens when we understand the concept of
a system.
Integrating Science and Spirituality
SYSTEMS THEORY: UNDERSTANDING THE MAGIC AND MIRACLE OF
"WATERNESS"
- How is it possible for two or more things to come together
and create something--a whole--that is truly different from the individual components that
constitute them?
The concept of a system is used to explain the exchange of information and energy, which,
in the process, creates ever more complex wholes.
In the process of sharing information and energy, the components become a couple, or a
unit. As they develop a relationship--a teamwork of mutual sharing of information and
energy--novel dynamic possibilities emerge that are different from, and go beyond, any of
the components by themselves. The phrase "the whole is greater than the sum of its
parts" is one way to express these "emergent properties" of systems.
Our earlier book, The Living Energy Universe, explains how at every level in
nature--from the micro levels of atoms and molecules to the macro levels of solar systems
and galaxies--and everything in between, including people, when things come together and
connect, they can develop long-standing bonds that "bring out the best in each
other." Through this systemic, emergent property process, we witness novel and
unpredictable phenomena that emerge only when the components develop a stable relation and
become whole.
My favorite illustration of systemic emergent properties is "waterness."
At room temperature, hydrogen and oxygen, the two gases that create water, are
undetectable with our human senses. We can't see, taste, or smell them. But when they join
forces and become the "simple" molecule called H2O, what emerges at room
temperature is a novel liquid that represents 70 percent to 80 percent of our bodies and
is required for all physical life as we know it.
Water is a special molecular system, expressing a unique pattern of properties unlike any
other. At room temperature, it's a liquid, but when it freezes, it creates complex
crystals of ice that float when placed in the liquid--unlike most other solids, which sink
in their respective liquid forms.
Water also has the capacity to create exquisitely beautiful and complex crystals:
snowflakes. Each flake is unique and reflects a pattern of structures that dazzle the eye.
I have a book that contains photographs of thousands of individual snowflakes, and no two
are identical.
Where does this breathtaking capacity for organization, structure, and the other unique
properties of waterness come from?
Can we predict them by examining hydrogen and oxygen by themselves? No. It is only when
these two gases are brought together and allowed to circulate their energy and information
as H2O that the novel patterns of waterness emerge.
But what does waterness have to do with the living soul and the survival of consciousness
after death? As you are about to see, the answer is "everything."
FEEDBACK LOOPS: UNDERSTANDING THE "MAGIC" AND
"MIRACLE" OF LIVING MEMORY
When we combine the idea of eternal energy with the idea of a system, we discover the
novel, emergent idea of "dynamical energy systems theory." Isn't it curious that
the very idea of systems theory itself predicts that when it is combined with quantum
physics, novel systemic properties will be revealed, and the whole will be greater than
the sum of its parts?
- Quantum physics tell us that everything vibrates and is never
completely at rest. Even at the temperature of absolute zero, atomic systems vibrate.
Subatomic systems such as photons and electrons act more like disturbed waves or
fuzzy clouds than discrete objects or particles. Depending on how they are measured, they
can resemble waves, distributed in space, or particles, localized in space. Photons and
electrons seem to dance around in space, so to speak, waiting to be
"materialized" into matter.
When we look closely at how information and energy circulate within a system, we discover
something remarkable. Photons and electrons can circulate within a system by
"feedback loops." One explanation for how neurons in the brain learn is that
they are arranged like complex networks of components interconnected by recurrent feedback
loops. So long as the feedback loops are connected, the information and energy will
circulate, and memories will accumulate.
- What systems science tells us is that the reason neurons
learn is precisely because they are arranged as systems containing feedback looks.
When information and energy are continually circulated within a system--neural or
otherwise--this constantly transforming information and energy will be stored in the
system, and it will evolve over time.
- In other words, a history or "memory" of the
interaction of the components in the network will be retained in the system and revised
over time.
All systems, from the simplest atoms to the most complex organisms and beyond,
contain feedback. Since feedback loops create memory, all systems should contain dynamic
memory to various degrees.
The simplest way to describe this process is by using a two-component system, with
components A and B.
The theory allows for A and B to be literally anything: two atoms, such as the
relationship between hydrogen and water; or two cells, such as between two neurons in the
brain; or between two cardiac cells in the heart. They could also be two organs, such as
between the brain and the heart; or two people, such as between Linda and her father; or
even two huge masses, such as the earth and the sun, or one galaxy and another.
- The scale doesn't matter. Size isn't important. What matters
is that one of them is A and the other is B, and they have the possibility to relate, to
interact through feedback.
The key to remember is that to create and maintain a system, component A must be
able to send information and energy to component B, and B must be able to send it back to
A, over and over, time after time.
Integrating Science and Spirituality
Note that the process of sending information and energy from A to B and back again takes
time. Even when the process occurs as quickly as the speed of light (or even faster, as
some physics now speculates), it still takes time.
- Once A's information reaches B, B will interpret it and send
it back to A in revised form. Save for special-purpose digital circuits in artificial
devices, the information returned to A will have been somewhat revised by B.
Let's say that A represents Albert (after Einstein) and B represents Betty (after
Susy Smith's mother). Imagine that they are speaking to each other. They are
becoming a two-person system.
Let's take the simplest case: After Albert says something to Betty, Betty responds by
repeating what Albert just said.
What will Albert hear?
- Albert won't hear exactly what he said because Betty's voice
and intonation will reflect her interpretation of what she heard Albert say to her from
their immediate past. Even if Betty simply repeated, word for word, whatever Albert said,
the energy of her response would be somewhat different from Albert's. In this sense,
during each cycle of their "conversation," the energy from the past will be
revised and incorporated with the present. Sometimes this energy can be additive.
For example, a familiar example of energy memory with feedback is what happens
when an amplified speaker (A) is connected to a microphone (B), and the microphone is then
pointed toward the speaker.
What will you hear emerging from the speaker?
The rapidly emerging "wow" sound is a simple expression of the accumulation of
information and energy as the sound travels between the speaker A and microphone B, over
and over, amplified and revised rapidly with time.
The logic of systemic memory can also be expressed with two tuning forks of the same
pitch.
If tuning fork A is struck in the presence of tuning fork B, the vibrations from A will
travel to B, making B begin to resonate a sound. However, now that B is vibrating, its
waves will journey back to A, carrying the history of A's initial vibration plus B's new
vibration, creating an "AB" history.
Once this new vibration history returns and interacts with A, it will revise A's initial
history and start back to B.
- To summarize, what returns to A is the history of A as
interpreted by B and returned to A in revised form.
This represents what has been termed a dynamic recurrent feedback interaction.
- Here is an unexpected and novel observation. Quantum physics
tells us that the tuning forks, once they have begun to vibrate, never will be completely
at rest.
Each tuning fork represents a complex material system containing billions of atoms
arranged as a network of vibrating feedback loops. When quantum physics is then combined
with our analysis of feedback in systems, it logically follows that a history or vibratory
"memory" of their interaction will remain in each of the tuning forks to various
degrees.
This logical construction--that emergent properties in systems represent the
dynamic accumulation of circulating relationship interactions as systemic memory--is
consistent with current chaos and complexity theory, which evolved from general (feedback)
systems theory. The challenge is to explain how these dynamic memories can be retrieved,
be they from "neural" networks as structured in the brain, or any other
"systemic" network containing recurrent feedback loops existing in natural or
artificial systems.
Since all feedback networks theoretically store information and energy to various degrees,
any system containing feedback will generate memories and will evolve.
But how common are feedback network structures in nature?
The universal living memory theory suggests that feedback network systems are the rule,
not the exception, at every level in nature. Simply put, this means that all systems will
store memories and evolve. In this sense, all systems can be seen as "alive."
Think about it. When we combine quantum physics with systems theory, we realize that what
we experience with the naked eye to be "inanimate" things may actually be
"invisibly animate."
Let's repeat this; it is key. What we see with our limited naked
eyes as "inanimate" may actually be "invisibly animate."
Hence the vision of a living energy universe.
Of course, it follows that the complexity of the structure will dictate the complexity of
its "memory" storage, and hence its "aliveness." A chair will not
store as complex information as a plant, a plant not as complex as a dog, and a dog not as
complex as a human. Increased complexity leads to increased complexity of memory and
increased "aliveness."
But what exactly is being stored? What is being "re-membered?"
We use the terms information and energy to describe what is traveling between A and B.
- What is information? It is "in-form," a pattern
with a recognizable structure.
And what is energy? Energy is power, the capacity to do work and overcome resistance.
Both information and energy are "invisible" until they manifest their
organization in physical systems. Information and energy are most effective as a team.
Information without energy is "powerless," and energy without information is
"purposeless."
Even though we can't see most information and energy per se, we know they exist through
their effects on physical systems that we can see. Once information and energy, in the
form of photons, are released into "space," they will hold the same properties
as starlight, which we see with the naked eye, or star radio waves, for example, which we
cannot see with the naked eye but can measure with radio telescopes.
- Science tells us that humans, just like the stars, generate
radio waves that can also be measured precisely with radio telescopes.
Photons are photons; waves are waves--whether they come from huge stars such as our sun or
tiny stars such as ourselves. However, the brightness of a huge star may block our
perception of the dim stars all around us.
In the morning, when our sun appears to rise in the east, the night sky appears to become
blue and the starlight seems to disappear from our consciousness. At the end of the day,
when our sun appears to set in the west, we discover that the starlight has
"reappeared" as if by magic. In the same way, the patterns of information and
energy are always there, though we are sometimes blinded by figurative bright lights that
keep us from experiencing the deeper truth.
Where does all this take us? Well, let's consider a controversial topic: the purported
existence of "ghosts." When are such entities purportedly seen?
History tells us that they typically appear in dreams, during meditation, or in the
darkness when the light is dim. These are precisely the stimulus conditions, predicted by
contemporary physics, that would allow us to potentially detect the subtle but nonetheless
persistent info-energy patterns of the history of the universe that literally surrounds
each and every one of us.
The hypothesis of ghosts in energy systems terms is ultimately no different than the idea
of distant stars in astrophysical terms. Even though we may see ghosts or stars only under
very special conditions, theory dictates that their info-energy patterns are still there,
whether we are aware of them or not.
The pioneering work of Dr. Raymond Moody involves putting people into a dimly lit room
with black velvet curtains and a mirror above their heads and inviting them to look, so to
speak, into the infinity of space. Dr. Moody claims that when people who have lost loved
ones sit quietly in this comfortable blackness, with just the slightest amount of light to
allow for minimal perception, between 60 percent and 80 percent (depending on the
experimental set-up) report seeing and hearing things that seem to be ghostly experiences
of departed loved ones--experiences normally missed under normal white-walled, well-lit
conditions.
Do these perceptions merely reflect the amplification of a person's own memories or
fantasies? Or are people actually seeing the existence of the living souls (information)
and spirits (energies) that constitute the continued evolution of the living energy
systems of their beloved?
THE SCIENCE OF "SOUL" AND "SPIRIT" IN THE VACUUM OF SPACE
This work clearly suggests that the "soul" and "spirit" of a living
person will continue after bodily death as a "living info-energy system" in the
vacuum of space.
Let's briefly return to our consideration of A and B so that you can make the jump from
the visible to the invisible.
By definition, when A and B interact, the sharing of information and energy occurs within
the empty space that separates the material elements of A and B. This space, according to
quantum physics, is not really void of information and energy. Quite the contrary--it's
filled with it.
Quantum physics tells us that what we experience as physical objects are mostly space,
albeit full of energy and information.
If you imagine that an atom is the size of the Empire State Building, do you know how
large the nucleus inside the atom is? Ten stories high? One story high? The size of a
brick? Quantum physics tells us that it is just the size of a grain of sand.
The vacuum of space allows information from A to B and B to A to flow freely, traveling in
circulating flows between A and B. Since the distance between A and B is mostly
"non-material," this means that it is possible for the info-energy to circulate
as well within the space between A and B. Hence, what happens between A and B is mirrored
within the space between A and B. I term this an info-energy system. Just as we experience
with our limited senses the external A-B system as dynamic and alive, so this "living
vortex" within A and B is dynamic and alive.
It follows that if the material objects of the A-B system are removed, the information and
energy in the vacuum of space will still be intact. What must remain is the circulating
info-energy system that represents the history of that which was once matter--including
memory for the "boundaries" that kept the info-energy within the system in the
first place.
We can re-envision A and B as the scaffolds that help build living info-energy systems. A
and B become the tools that help build and evolve the living energy universe.
Since everything in a physical body is interconnected energetically--for example, all
cells and molecules are interconnected by electromagnetic energy traveling though the
ubiquitous water in the body--all cells and molecules are storing a record of the energy
history that defines the totality of who we are.
Moreover, not only does this information and energy extend out into space as we physically
live, but, in addition, it continues to circulate within our bodies, accruing ever more
structure. Hence, when our physical bodies decompose, the living info-energy systems
within us are now "freed" beyond their physical scaffolds and will have all the
consciousness, intent, and personality--for better or worse--of everything that has
occurred in our lifetimes. Scientifically, this can be viewed as the "soul" and
"spirit" of our physical beings--as seen through new eyes.
Of course, what we have outlined above is just a theory, a scientific "story"
that may or may not be correct. However, because this particular story is based on the
foundation of contemporary physics and systems science, if we are willing to be true to
logic, this story deserves our serious consideration.
(The phrase "true to logic" was originally suggested by Lonnie Nelson, an
inspired graduate student at the University of Arizona, whose interests bridge
conventional and frontier science. As Lonnie puts it, being true to logic means that we
follow the logic where it takes us, even if it takes us to areas we do not like or even
frighten us because the predictions challenge our current world views.)
Being true to logic is a prerequisite to being true to data.
And being true to data is the heart and soul of science.
CHOOSING "TRUTH RATHER THAN PEACE OF MIND"
If I am to be true to data, I must acknowledge the information from our own experiments,
whether I like some of the predictions or not. Even if I consider some of the predictions
ludicrous (and I sometimes do), I must be willing to entertain them to the extent that the
data point in their direction.
At least this is what one is supposed to do if one is practicing science with integrity.
It is for this reason, that I have included the PeeWee gift and the Michael Senior death
stories in this book. Though I am uncomfortable with this level of "psychic"
possibility, the data suggest that I must be open to the possibility that
"pre-cognition" plays a role in research of this kind.
As mentioned earlier, Chet Raymo, in his book Skeptics and True Believers: The
Exhilarating Connection Between Science and Religion, maintains that scientists must
always "chose truth rather than peace of mind." It is in this spirit that we
conduct research in the Human Energy Systems Laboratory. Our number one question in
presenting our data and results is "What's going on in these experiments?"
What are these seemingly superstar mediums actually doing in the laboratory? What do these
findings mean?
If the explanation is not fraud, cold reading, picking up subtle psychological cues, or
statistical coincidence, then what precisely is going on?
Is it telepathy with the living?
Is it reading memories in the vacuum of space?
Are the mediums getting information from their invisible "guides"?
Are they connecting to the living info-energy systems of our departed?
Is it a combination of all those things, and more?
The facts suggest, as we playfully describe them, that some combination of F.A.C.T.S. may
be involved: Fundamental Anomalous Communication Telepathically.
It may be a Type P FACT, for telepathy with the physically living.
It may be a Type V FACT, for telepathy with the totality of information and energy stored
in the vacuum of space.
It may be a Type G FACT, for telepathy with one's "guides."
It may be a Type D FACT, for telepathy with the departed.
The process may involve all of these FACTS, and more.
Whatever the answer or answers turn out to be, we must be willing to choose truth over
peace of mind.
What if the truth science discovers doesn't bring peace of mind?
Depending upon the outcome--no or yes for the living soul hypothesis--some people will
experience peace of mind, while others will not. This seems unavoidable.
What if the belief in an afterlife is the mistaken creation of our minds to help us cope
with the fear of death and the loss of our loved ones?
What if science were to establish, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the living soul
hypothesis is most likely a fantasy, a mental opiate to deaden our terror of death?
To the non-scientist who is more than just open to the belief of survival but desperately
wants it to be true, such a conclusion could be devastating. Though it is impossible for
science to prove that something does not exist (in statistics it is said that one can not
prove the "null hypothesis"), science can lead us to strongly question the
belief that something does exist.
If the hypothesis of a living soul was seriously questioned by scientific research, this
could have the devastating impact of refuting for many people the dream that there is
purpose and meaning to our universe, leaving the religious faithful as the only people
still able to find peace within themselves. And would this mean that our capacity to love
is, in the grand scheme of things, a fleeting emotion that dies with the decomposition of
our physical bodies?
Negative findings concerning the living soul hypothesis would not bring peace of mind to
people who strongly believe in life after life.
However, based on the experiments and findings obtained to date, integrity requires that
we conclude that the data are strongly consistent with the hypothesis that some sort of
anomalous information retrieval is going on with the deceased.
Evidence supportive of the living soul hypothesis will not, at least in the short run,
bring peace of mind to people who wish to believe that (1) the universe is basically dust
to dust, ashes to ashes, (2) consciousness is an adaptive side effect of a material brain,
and (3) in the absence of functioning physical neurons, there is no mind-no thought, no
memory, no feeling.
This is part of the reason why, as more findings emerge that are consistent with the
living soul hypothesis, peace of mind will be in short supply for those individuals who
prefer to dismiss the findings as due to accident, inadvertent misperception on the part
of the investigators, or experimenter fraud.
When confronted with data that challenge one's familiar and preferred world view, there is
a tendency among scientists and laymen alike to distrust the experiments, and even the
experimenters, rather than believe the data. This is an understandable defense mechanism,
since the more we deeply believe something, the more we will resist giving it up.
However, there is another reason why conservative science will first choose to distrust
the experiments, and even the experimenters, before accepting extraordinary data. I
applaud this reason. The truth is that scientists sometimes make mistakes, and we are all
human. We must be open to all interpretations, including possible experimental and
experimenter mistakes.
There is a saying in emergency medicine: "When you hear hoofbeats, don't think
zebras." In emergency situations, it is essential that one consider the most likely
explanation or cause of a problem first, and then go down the list. One must think
"horses" first and "ponies" second, and only later consider zebras or
camels after horses and ponies have been ruled out. When it comes to saving a physical
life, it is critical to make the right choice as quickly as possible.
In a similar fashion, when a scientist hears about strange data, the "horse" and
"pony" hypotheses to be entertained first are experimental error, experimenter
bias, and even experimenter fraud. In fact, as any well-trained undergraduate in
psychology knows, there was a famous horse known as "Clever Hans" that could
apparently do math but was discovered to be "calculating" via subtle cues
inadvertently provided by the human experimenter.
Raised on the "Clever Hans" story, and trained in both experimental psychology
and evidence-based medicine, I'm sensitive to the wisdom of attempting to make the right
choice without wasting time on dead ends.
Depending on one's point of view, metaphorically one could conclude that the data we have
collected so far strongly suggest that "Clever Hans" is not the
explanation--there are no humans creating the phenomenon.
As scientists conducting research in this area who believe strongly in letting the data
speak, obtaining findings that (1) not only suggest that the survival hypothesis is true
but (2) actually point to the possibility of proving it "beyond a reasonable
doubt" (which is all science can ultimately do, one way or the other), is something
of a mixed blessing.
One of the more vocal members of our Friendly Devil's Advocates committee said to me one
day, "Gary, you've taken a ride on a moving train that will be impossible to get
off."
I explained to this person, a well-respected psychology professor, that if the totality of
the data had been negative or inconclusive, it would have been easy for me to get off the
train and leave this research.
I reminded him that what led me to get on the train in the first place was the theoretical
possibility of the phenomenon-the systemic memory hypothesis described above--and Linda's
dream to know scientifically, one way or the other, whether her deceased father is still
here. If the experimental data did not support the hypothesis, I would be free to get off
the train. In fact, integrity would require that I get off the train, or at least
seriously question where it was going.
However, I went on to explain that what keeps me on the train--which, parenthetically,
seems to be moving faster and faster these days-are the efforts of the Dream Team of
mediums we have had the privilege to work with, and the often inexplicable data that keep
coming through them.
To jump off the train now would mean that I lacked integrity. I would have to be willing
to ignore extensive provocative, if not profound, information revealed in the experiments
to date.
As one student, David Meuhsam, aptly put it, "You were willing to collect the data.
Now you're stuck with them."
David is right. The data suggest that our loved ones, their "info-energy
systems," may be with us. And we are stuck with the data.
The question then arises, as the song says, "What's love got to do with it?" It
turns out that it is not only the mediums who claim that love has everything to do with
it; contemporary science, as well, is consistent with the vision that love truly matters.
- If energy matters, as physics suggests, the number one energy
may be love.
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