S5 E7: Consciousness and Near-death Experiences

Season 5 covers the supernatural and paranormal from a Spirit-led perspective. In this episode, Glenn looks at three different views of consciousness and their relationship to the supernatural and paranormal. Glenn then shows the importance of how these views of consciousness relate to near-death experiences.

The Bible will be the source of truth for this season, even though extra-biblical books and podcasts will be discussed. As discussed in Episode 1, Glenn will be kind to the authors and podcast hosts discussed throughout the season.

This episode has a transcript. If your podcast player does not support transcripts, please go to the Transcripts section of https://spiritledhope.com/  These transcripts have been edited for accuracy and are typically of higher quality than those produced automatically by many podcast apps.

Transcript

S5 E7 TRANSCRIPT 

CONSCIOUSNESS AND NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES

INTRODUCTION

Hello everyone and welcome to Spirit-Led Hope. My name is Glenn Erichsen, and in this episode, we are discussing:

     CONSCIOUSNESS AND NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES

And, right away, you might wonder why we are talking about consciousness in a season dedicated to the supernatural and paranormal. That will become clearer after we define what consciousness is and from where it originates.

The definition of consciousness can be a little fuzzy. But as a general definition, consciousness refers to your self-awareness of what is going on in the world around you, and what is going on within you. Consciousness helps me to recognize who I am, and that I am not you. And consciousness helps you to recognize that you are not me.

Consciousness can be very difficult to define and study, because there is a lot of subjectivity. Two people can be in the same situation and experience different emotions. Or two people can eat the same food and experience different tastes. And because consciousness includes self-awareness and subjective perspective, consciousness is intertwined with our personal identity.

So where does consciousness come from? The answer to that is what puts us squarely in the realm of the supernatural and the paranormal. While there are several theories about the origins of consciousness, I am going to present three views that will help us think about consciousness from a Spirit-led perspective. 

THE MATERIALISTIC VIEW

I am going to call the first view of where consciousness comes from, the “materialistic view.” This is a view held by many scientists and it is probably the view that gets the most visibility within the scientific community.

Remember that materialists do not believe there is anything apart from the physical world. So, from this perspective, consciousness emerges from the brain. In other words, the source of consciousness is something physical and there is nothing supernatural or paranormal about it. 

Somehow, in ways not yet understood, our brains create a sense of self-awareness as it performs all of its duties. In this view, when the brain dies, our consciousness dies with it, and our sense of self is gone. There is no concept of immortality or life after death.

As a side note, if someone holds this view, it is easy to see how they could believe that artificial intelligence might develop consciousness if it is sufficiently complex or can mimic the biological functions of the brain. If so, this might be one way that someone can achieve immortality by uploading themselves into a machine. This used to be the stuff of science fiction, but serious researchers are actively looking into this. It is mind bending. The important part for us is that the mainstream materialistic view of consciousness believes that consciousness is bound and limited to each individual person.

THE UNIVERSAL CONSCIOUSNESS VIEW

As we talk about the second view of consciousness, I am going to simplify things by wrapping up dozens of theories into one. I know that I may be unfairly simplifying things, but covering all types of belief is not possible in an episode like this.

We will call the second view of consciousness, “universal consciousness.” This is like the opposite of the materialistic view. While a materialist will say that consciousness emerges from the physical, advocates of universal consciousness will say that the physical world emerges from consciousness.

In this viewpoint, everything began as consciousness. Some versions of this approach will say that everything began with “mind.” And this mind may or may not be personal depending on the view.

With the universal consciousness approach, consciousness condenses, or manifests itself, into what we know as the physical world. And the human brain gets its consciousness by tapping into the universal consciousness which is everywhere. One analogy used is that our brains are like radio receivers tuning into the universal consciousness. Or another analogy is that we are each individual waves on the ocean. The key is that universal consciousness is described by the lyrics in Led Zepplin’s “Stairway to Heaven” which go “when all is one, and one is all.” So, everything is connected in this view of consciousness.

If true, this view of consciousness falls into paranormal investigations, because it seems like we might be able to find some way to measure or evaluate the effects of universal consciousness from a scientific perspective. In fact, there is a “Global Consciousness Project” which is trying to do just that. The theory is that if everyone is connected to universal consciousness, significant worldwide events that affect people may affect experiments in the physical world. Advocates of universal consciousness believe there is a way to bridge science and spirituality, and they are often very involved in understanding and describing human potential.

With universal consciousness, death is not the end. A person’s consciousness simply returns to the infinite universal field. Some branches of thought may have the consciousness returning in some other form, like with reincarnation. Because everyone is connected to the same universal consciousness, this view can explain things like telepathy, communication with the dead, and the manifestation of creativity.

THE CHRISTIAN VIEW OF CONSCIOUSNESS

As you might expect, the third view of consciousness is the “Christian view.” From the Christian perspective, all consciousness begins with God, and thus falls into the realm of the supernatural, but may also be considered paranormal depending on your definition and perspective.

I find that human consciousness, from a Biblical perspective, is complicated. There are many verses that talk about our soul, and our heart, and our spirit, and our mind, and our intellect, and our body, but there is no focused and exhaustive teaching on how they all work together. In fact, Christians have a range of beliefs that are acceptable based on Scripture. In this episode, let me highlight some perspectives that I think will be useful for the rest of the season.

When discussing the origins of conscious from a Christian perspective, we rely on the Creation account in Genesis, Chapter 1. As we have talked about in other episodes, we are made in God’s image. And since God is self-aware and perceives what goes on in the universe, we have the same ability because we bear his image. We have self-awareness because of our mind, soul, and spirit.

Where things get complicated is that humans are spiritual beings who exist in a physical body. Christians do debate over whether we are twofold (body and soul, or body and spirit), or threefold (body, soul, and spirit) like I believe. But all Christians accept the essential belief that we have both a material and non-material nature. And these two natures are so intertwined that we will die if they are permanently separated. In James 2:26, James says that the “body without the spirit” is dead. 

And that brings up something interesting. Listen to this verse from 2 Corinthians:

So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

2 Corinthians 5:6-8 ESV

What these verses tell us is that at death, our non-material conscious-self goes to be with God, and our body stays behind to decay. Think about that. The very nature that makes each one of us unique will be separated from our body. While we are alive, our bodies, especially our brains, dramatically affect how we perceive ourselves and the world. But that will not be the case immediately after death.

It would be tempting to think that this means our bodies are not important. But if that were true, why would Jesus come to redeem us as a human? Also amazing, is that God promises that at a future time, each person will be reunited with their body which will be in a resurrected and glorified form. Obviously then, God had a reason for making humans body, soul, and spirit. We just will not know that reason until Jesus returns.

Being made in God’s image has some interesting implications when it comes to consciousness. One of the most important aspects is that not only do we have self-awareness, but there is also a built-in ability to be aware of God as a conscious Being. Scripture does teach us that we can cultivate or suppress that awareness, but human consciousness points everyone in the direction to have relationship with God.

Before wrapping up this high-level overview of how Christians view consciousness, I want us to think about what it might mean that we can have relationship with God, who is transcendent and immanent. Transcendence means that God is above and apart from his Creation, and immanence means that he is still near and actively with us. We see this summarized in the book of Colossians where we read:

For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and by him all things hold together.

Colossians 1:16-17 CSB

As we continue to look at the supernatural and paranormal, we can see that God has command over all things either physical or spiritual. And we, as conscious beings, have access to God. Because of this, Christians have a worldview that allows them to consider all aspects of the supernatural and the paranormal. A Christian worldview, especially a charismatic one, opens the door for a relationship with God that includes miracles, physical and mental healings, the capacity to know things unknown, and other gifts of the Holy Spirit. These all come out of relationship with God.

None of this is true of the materialistic view which rejects anything spiritual. And it is not true of many universal consciousness views which see physical things as illusionary, or not real. 

Now there are some universal consciousness views which view universal consciousness as a type of god. But this god is vastly different than the Christian God who desires deep relationship+ with each person. And because God is holy, the Christian God has established a profound moral framework that is typically lacking in universal consciousness views.

We will need to keep all of this in mind as we move forward.

TESTABLE COMPARISON OF THE THREE VIEWS OF CONSCIOUSNESS

These three views do a pretty good job of capturing the main ways that people think about consciousness. Of course there are more, but most of our discussion will still apply to them.

Now that we have these three views, which one most accurately describes reality? Is it even possible to answer that? I mean, if there was a way, it seems like someone would have already presented evidence or proof by now. 

What I find fascinating is that we seem to be entering an era where it might be possible to show which view of consciousness is more consistent and more closely represents reality as we know it. I am not saying that we can prove God exists, but I do think evidence is mounting that is very favorable to the Biblical perspective.

One phenomenon that has captured people’s attention relates to the large number of reports having to do with near-death experiences. Near-death experiences have been recorded for centuries, but they have garnered a lot of attention in modern times since Dr. Raymond Moody, Junior, published “Life After Life” in 1975.

It is in “Life After Life” that Dr. Moody coined the term “near-death experience,” often shortened to “NDE.” Since that time, more research has been done, and more books have been written by a variety of authors. Two books about NDE’s written by John Burke, a Christian, have become very popular. “Imagine Heaven” was written in 2015, and “Imagine the God of Heaven” was released more recently in 2025. I know that “Imagine Heaven” sold over a million copies and I won’t be surprised if “Imagine the God of Heaven” does the same.

What is a near-death experience? I am going to provide two definitions that will show you why NDE’s are important in our discussion of consciousness.

Wikipedia describes a near-death experience as: a profound personal experience associated with death or impending death, which researchers describe as having similar characteristics. When positive, which most, but not all reported experiences are, such experiences may encompass a variety of sensations including detachment from the body, feelings of levitation, total serenity, security, warmth, joy, the experience of absolute dissolution, review of major life events, the presence of a light, and seeing dead relatives.

The Webster online dictionary describes a near-death experience as: an occurrence in which a person comes very close to dying and has memories of a spiritual experience (such as meeting dead friends and family members or seeing a white light) during the time when death was near.

With those two definitions, we can see that near-death experiences, if true, have the potential to cast doubt on the materialistic view of consciousness. Wikipedia talks about detachment from the body, which makes one wonder how is that possible if consciousness is centered in the brain? And Webster describes an NDE as a spiritual experience, which has no place in a materialistic view.

But these definitions are not the biggest problem for the materialistic view. The biggest issue is that if the materialistic view of consciousness falls, materialism itself is doomed. This really raises the stakes because the predominant scientific worldview in academia today is a materialistic one. But if it can be shown that consciousness occurs because of something non-physical, the door is wide open to validate what Christianity, and other religions, have said all along.

Where we are today with consciousness reminds me of the drama surrounding the scientific discoveries made by Georges Lemaitre in the 1920’s. You may recall from Season 2 that Lemaitre’s work ultimately led to an acceptance of what we call the Big Bang Theory. The Big Bang Theory shows us that the universe had a beginning, just like the Bible says. And this conclusion, based on scientific evidence, was despised by many scientists because it seemed to validate Scripture. Today, much of the work in astronomy and physics is dedicated to finding ways around the need for a beginning of the universe.

And I believe we are in a similar place with regards to materialism. If evidence implies that consciousness can leave the body, materialists will need to scramble if they wish to protect their view. This summer, as I studied for this season, I predicted there would be scientific papers which try to show that consciousness is rooted in a field or something, much like gravity or electromagnetism. And sure enough, as I prepared to record this episode, I ran across a recent paper titled, “Universal Consciousness as a Foundational Field: A Theoretical Bridge Between Quantum Physics and Non-Dual Philosophy.” The paper presents a universal consciousness view and then tries to show how that results in a physical world described by our current materialistic scientific models. It is like a way to have your cake and eat it.

CLOSING

So now, we have set the stage to see what kind of paranormal or supernatural experiences people have had with respect to consciousness. And we want to see if these experiences can point to the best view of consciousness…or if they can they cast doubt on one or more of them. 

Unfortunately, we have run out of time in this episode. In the next episode, we will look at the stories of some near-death experiences. If it works out, I will share my favorite near-death story, and my connection to it.

As always, you can send me comments, suggestions, or questions, by email at glenn@spiritledhope.com, or simply use the Contact Form at spiritledhope.com. You can also send me a one-way text message by going to the episode show notes and clicking on the link with your smart phone. If you find these episodes useful, please spread the word and share them with your friends.

As you think about consciousness and being made in God’s image:

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope, by the power of the Holy Spirit.  

Until the next episode, take care.

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