A book titled “Biocentrism: How
Life and Consciousness Are the Keys to Understanding the Nature of the
Universe” has stirred up the Internet, because it contained a notion that life
does not end when the body dies, and it can last forever.
The author of this publication,
scientist Dr. Robert Lanza who was voted the 3rd most important scientist alive
by the NY Times, has no doubts that this is possible.
01. BEYOND TIME AND SPACE
Lanza is an expert in
regenerative medicine and scientific director of Advanced Cell Technology
Company. Before he has been known for his extensive research which dealt with
stem cells, he was also famous for several successful experiments on cloning
endangered animal species.
But not so long ago, the
scientist became involved with physics, quantum mechanics and astrophysics.
This explosive mixture has given birth to the new theory of biocentrism, which
the professor has been preaching ever since. Biocentrism teaches that life and
consciousness are fundamental to the universe. It is consciousness that creates
the material universe, not the other way around.
Lanza points to the structure
of the universe itself, and that the laws, forces, and constants of the
universe appear to be fine-tuned for life, implying intelligence existed prior
to matter. He also claims that space and time are not objects or things, but
rather tools of our animal understanding. Lanza says that we carry space and
time around with us “like turtles with shells.” meaning that when the shell
comes off (space and time), we still exist.
The theory
implies that death of consciousness simply does not exist. It only exists as a
thought because people identify themselves with their body. They believe that
the body is going to perish, sooner or later, thinking their consciousness will
disappear too. If the body generates consciousness, then consciousness dies
when the body dies. But if the body receives consciousness in the same way that
a cable box receives satellite signals, then of course consciousness does not
end at the death of the physical vehicle. In fact, consciousness exists outside
of constraints of time and space. It is able to be anywhere: in the human body
and outside of it. In other words, it is non-local in the same sense that
quantum objects are non-local.
Lanza also
believes that multiple universes can exist simultaneously. In one universe, the
body can be dead. And in another it continues to exist, absorbing consciousness
which migrated into this universe. This means that a dead person while
traveling through the same tunnel ends up not in hell or in heaven, but in a
similar world he or she once inhabited, but this time alive. And so on,
infinitely. It’s almost like a cosmic Russian doll afterlife effect.
02. MULTIPLE
WORLDS
This
hope-instilling, but extremely controversial theory by Lanza has many unwitting
supporters, not just mere mortals who want to live forever, but also some
well-known scientists. These are the physicists and astrophysicists who tend to
agree with existence of parallel worlds and who suggest the possibility of
multiple universes. Multiverse (multi-universe) is a so-called scientific
concept, which they defend. They believe that no physical laws exist which
would prohibit the existence of parallel worlds.
The first one
was a science fiction writer H.G. Wells who proclaimed in 1895 in his story
“The Door in the Wall”. And after 62 years, this idea was developed by Dr. Hugh
Everett in his graduate thesis at the Princeton University. It basically posits
that at any given moment the universe divides into countless similar instances.
And the next moment, these “newborn” universes split in a similar fashion. In
some of these worlds you may be present: reading this article in one universe,
or watching TV in another.
The triggering
factor for these multiplyingworlds is our actions, explained Everett. If we
make some choices, instantly one universe splits into two with different
versions of outcomes.
In the 1980s,
Andrei Linde, scientist from the Lebedev’s Institute of physics, developed the
theory of multiple universes. He is now a professor at Stanford University.
Linde explained: Space consists of many inflating spheres, which give rise to
similar spheres, and those, in turn, produce spheres in even greater numbers,
and so on to infinity. In the universe, they are spaced apart. They are not
aware of each other’s existence. But they represent parts of the same physical
universe.
The fact that
our universe is not alone is supported by data received from the Planck space
telescope. Using the data, scientists have created the most accurate map of the
microwave background, the so-called cosmic relic background radiation, which
has remained since the inception of our universe. They also found that the
universe has a lot of dark recesses represented by some holes and extensive
gaps.
Theoretical
physicist Laura Mersini-Houghton from the North Carolina University with her
colleagues argue: the anomalies of the microwave background exist due to the
fact that our universe is influenced by other universes existing nearby. And
holes and gaps are a direct result of attacks on us by neighboring universes.
03. SOUL
So, there is
abundance of places or other universes where our soul could migrate after
death, according to the theory of neo-biocentrism. But does the soul exist? Is
there any scientific theory of consciousness that could accommodate such a
claim? According to Dr. Stuart Hameroff, a near-death experience happens when
the quantum information that inhabits the nervous system leaves the body and
dissipates into the universe. Contrary to materialistic accounts of
consciousness, Dr. Hameroff offers an alternative explanation of consciousness
that can perhaps appeal to both the rational scientific mind and personal
intuitions.
Consciousness
resides, according to Stuart and British physicist Sir Roger Penrose, in the
microtubules of the brain cells, which are the primary sites of quantum
processing. Upon death, this information is released from your body, meaning
that your consciousness goes with it. They have argued that our experience of
consciousness is the result of quantum gravity effects in these microtubules, a
theory which they dubbed orchestrated objective reduction (Orch-OR).
Consciousness,
or at least proto-consciousness is theorized by them to be a fundamental
property of the universe, present even at the first moment of the universe
during the Big Bang. “In one such scheme proto-conscious experience is a basic
property of physical reality accessible to a quantum process associated with
brain activity.”
Our souls are in
fact constructed from the very fabric of the universe – and may have existed
since the beginning of time. Our brains are just receivers and amplifiers for
the proto-consciousness that is intrinsic to the fabric of space-time. So is
there really a part of your consciousness that is non-material and will live on
after the death of your physical body?
Dr Hameroff told
the Science Channel’s Through the Wormhole documentary: “Let’s say the heart
stops beating, the blood stops flowing, the microtubules lose their quantum
state. The quantum information within the microtubules is not destroyed, it
can’t be destroyed, it just distributes and dissipates to the universe at
large”. Robert Lanza would add here that not only does it exist in the
universe, it exists perhaps in another universe. If the patient is
resuscitated, revived, this quantum information can go back into the
microtubules and the patient says “I had a near death experience”
He adds: “If
they’re not revived, and the patient dies, it’s possible that this quantum
information can exist outside the body, perhaps indefinitely, as a soul.”
This account of
quantum consciousness explains things like near-death experiences, astral
projection, out of body experiences, and even reincarnation without needing to
appeal to religious ideology. The energy of your consciousness potentially gets
recycled back into a different body at some point, and in the mean time it
exists outside of the physical body on some other level of reality, and
possibly in another universe.
