In this episode I explore the idea that is advanced by many nondual teachers that the brain does not produce consciousness. They say that consciousness exists separate from the brain. One person compared the brain to a radio receiver that picks up the radio waves of Cosmic Consciousness. They use out-of-body experiences, Near Death Experiences, and past life memories as evidence that consciousness exists independent of body. Many think that when the body dies there is no significant change in consciousness. We continue to exist as we always have, only without a human body.
I disagree. Consciousness is caused by the brain. That is the consensus of medical science, and I have no spiritual reason to challenge it. The human brain along with the central nervous system produces consciousness. Out-of-body experiences, Near Death Experiences, and past life memories are simply the brain at work producing experiences. They say nothing about the independence of consciousness from the body.
The real questions that should be asked is what is the nature and origin of this consciousness that is produced by the human brain - and which is produced in other living creatures as well? Consciousness seems to be a characteristic of matter. As small as you can get into the microscopic world, you would find evidence of consciousness. Probably also at the atomic and subatomic level. I do not pretend of understand quantum physics, but it seems to me that the randomness and unpredictability at that level is an expression of consciousness. Physicists have found that observation of quantum phenomena can change the result. That seems to imply consciousness even at that level, which may be where all consciousness originates from.
Rudimentary consciousness in the earliest one cell organisms did not appear by magic. It was somehow already present in the matter from which they emerged. To me that indicates that matter is consciousness. I would go so far as to say that the universe is conscious or that it is consciousness.
Consciousness is the essence of existence. That consciousness is what we fundamentally are. We are consciousness expressing itself through a human organism. It is the nature of Reality to be conscious, and the universe evolves forms of life to produce that consciousness. That is what our human bodies are. They are consciousness producing organisms, which evolved self-consciousness-producing organs called brains.
It is likely that consciousness is expressed in a nearly infinite number of ways in this universe beyond life on earth. Together it is one infinite consciousness. That infinite consciousness is our essential nature. As the Upanishads say, “That thou Art.” We are one with and identical to that Consciousness. This consciousness is Unitive Awareness, or nondual awareness, or Cosmic Consciousness.
The Spiritual Nature of Consciousness
I read and listen to what other people are writing and teaching about what is called Nondual Reality or Nondual Awareness. Not a lot. I am more interested in presenting what I have seen in an original and authentic way and not repeating or borrowing others’ way of expressing it. But I do some reading and listening to see how others express it.
I have heard teachers repeat the idea that the brain does not produce consciousness. They say that consciousness exists separate from the brain. One person compared the brain to a radio receiver that picks up the radio waves of Cosmic Consciousness. They use out-of-body experiences, Near Death Experiences, and past life memories as evidence that consciousness exists independent of body. Many think that when the body dies there is no significant change in consciousness. We continue to exist as we always have, only without a human body.
I disagree. To address this I need to make it clear that we are in the realm of ideas here, and ideas are by nature dualistic and therefore ultimately false. But some ideas point to reality more clearly than others. I think that the idea of consciousness-body dualism points people in the wrong direction.
Consciousness is caused by the brain. That is the consensus of medical science, and I have no spiritual reason to challenge it. The human brain along with the central nervous system produces consciousness. Out-of-body experiences, Near Death Experiences, and past life memories are simply the brain at work producing experiences. They say nothing about the independence of consciousness from the body.
There is no reason to think that consciousness is something outside the brain which resides temporarily in in the body. That is the old body-mind dualism - the so-called ghost in the machine. It is the idea that a soul enters into a body at birth or conception and leaves the body at death. In the early 20th century they even conducted experiments to prove that the soul left the body by measuring the body immediately before and after death. They famously determined that the soul weighs 21 grams. That experiment was later discredited.
The body and consciousness are one and cannot be separated. As far as we can determine the brain produces consciousness. This has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. The connection between brain and consciousness can be seen easily by us, if we have ever known anyone with a brain injury or a degenerative brain disease. Injury to the brain changes consciousness. Making changes to the function of the brain can eliminate consciousness, like when one is under anesthesia. It is clear that the brain produces consciousness. We would not be conscious without functioning brains. That means that when the brain dies, the human consciousness dies with it.
The real questions that should be asked is what is the nature and origin of this consciousness that is produced by the human brain - and which is produced in other living creatures as well? We humans have no monopoly on consciousness. All you have to do is look at the fossil record and you can see there was consciousness long before Homo sapiens came on the scene, and consciousness will be around long after our species is gone. We are nothing more than a blip in the zoological history of the earth, not to mention the universe.
The earth is teeming with consciousness. In my backyard there are many species of wildlife – birds and squirrels and a variety of visiting mammals including fox and bear and moose and deer and many other critters, all of which are conscious. Not the same type of consciousness as humans, but conscious nonetheless. I share my house with other forms of consciousness, including a cat and mice and spiders and occasional ants and a minion of microscopic creatures that are undoubtedly conscious.
Plants are conscious. The maple trees in my yard are conscious. Not self-conscious of course, but they respond to the environment, which requires consciousness. Bacteria are conscious. Single celled organisms are conscious. Look at them under a microscope, and you will recognize your cousins in consciousness. The earth oozes consciousness. It grows consciousness. Consciousness is the fruit of evolution.
Consciousness seems to be a characteristic of matter. As small as you can get into the microscopic world, you would find evidence of consciousness. Probably also at the atomic and subatomic level. I do not pretend of understand quantum physics, but it seems to me that the randomness and unpredictability at that level is an expression of consciousness. Physicists have found that observation of quantum phenomena can change the result. That seems to imply consciousness even at that level, which may be where all consciousness originates from.
I don’t know. It is all beyond my understanding. But rudimentary consciousness in the earliest one cell organisms did not appear by magic. It was somehow already present in the matter from which they emerged. To me that indicates that matter is consciousness. I would go so far as to say that the universe is conscious or that it is consciousness.
Consciousness is the essence of existence. That consciousness is what we fundamentally are. We are consciousness expressing itself through a human organism. It is the nature of Reality to be conscious, and the universe evolves forms of life to produce that consciousness. That is what our human bodies are. They are consciousness producing organisms, which evolved self-consciousness-producing organs called brains.
It is likely that consciousness is expressed in a nearly infinite number of ways in this universe beyond life on earth. Together it is one infinite consciousness. That infinite consciousness is our essential nature. As the Upanishads say, “That thou Art.” We are one with and identical to that Consciousness. This consciousness is Unitive Awareness, or nondual awareness, or Cosmic Consciousness.
I call this consciousness Christ or Christ Consciousness. Jesus was a human aware of his true identity as Christ. This is the Universal Christ, what Christians called the Preexistent Christ, what the Gospel of John calls the Word, the Logos in Greek. This is the creative and organizing and essential Reality of the universe. This is what is called God in religion, for want of a better word. Our human consciousness is an expression of this awareness.
The good news, the gospel if you will, is that we can as humans know this experientially. To know this directly is to be saved from our tiny time-bound existence. We can be aware as Awareness. In fact we always are Awareness. It is just that the self-conscious human brain obsessed with the individual self does not notice it. It has been conditioned to ignore it. That is why this human state is called ignorance. Instead humans identify with their separate physical and psychological existence and think they are the pinnacle of creation, and the crowning achievement of evolution. How vain. Vanity of Vanities, to quote Ecclesiastes.
Noticing our true nature as Awareness – as this Unitive Consciousness - is called Spiritual Awakening, or Enlightenment or Self-Realization or in the Christian tradition, salvation or eternal life. It is not just being aware of Awareness as our true nature. It is being aware as Awareness.
When this is seen firsthand, it cannot be unseen. There is no going back, like when Neo wakes up from the Matrix. This is taking the red pill. It is as clear as day and one wonders how it was ever missed, how it was ever not seen. This is known from the inside as the reality at the heart of existence. This insight is the origin of all religion and spirituality, which are clumsy attempts at trying to get at this and articulate this – some better than others. All religion to different degrees is an expression of this and points to this.
Reality is not divided into a dualism of body and mind, or matter and spirit. Reality is not two. It is one. It is nondual. When our bodies die and our psyches die with it, this oneness remains. The Consciousness that was expressed in and through earthly life forms remains, not as something separate from the body, but as what is the essence of all physical existence.
Furthermore every expression that it ever took remains as part of the rich diversity of the One which includes all time and space. Nothing and no one that have ever lived is lost because there is no time. As Einstein said, “Time is a very persistent illusion.” There is no before and after death, no before and after physical Existence. Before and after are just dualistic concepts.
There is only this one Eternal Life which includes all time and space, including all earthly physical lives that have ever lived. They are all here now. This is what Christianity calls the Communion of Saints and that the traditional concept of heaven points to. This One Timeless Reality is what the universe is. This is what is labeled the Divine or God or Christ. As the Bible says of both God and Christ: Christ is all and in all.
We are this now, and we can consciously be this awareness. I will say it again: All we have to do is notice this Reality. When we see, then we rejoice in this. This is the Kingdom of God. This is what Jesus knew and preached. This is salvation. This is Eternal Life. Death holds no fear in the light of this Reality because this Reality is not subject to death. To live as humans aware of this reality is the spiritual life. It is the true Christian life. This is the Tao of Christ.