Consciousness After Death: Orchestrated Objective Reduction

In past times, those of us who believe in higher consciousness have been ridiculed.

Those who practice astral projection, experience lucid dreaming, or deep meditation that transcends the physical realm; those of us who experience contact with spirits/higher beings, psychics, mediums; we always get those “woo woo” comments or funny looks.

Even us brainwave entrainment enthusiasts get laughed at on occasion by those who have no idea of the science behind frequency response and how different frequencies change the way we think and feel, and indeed how frequencies control the natural world.

To think outside societal norms requires a thick skin. We go with our intuition, wth what seems plausible, and we trust in science, which tends to catch up eventually and prove that we aren't all living in “la la land”.

So how about this for a conversation with your friends then: Imagine if consciousness existed outside the body. I mean, have you ever questioned where consciousness comes from? Where do thoughts come from? How do they appear in the brain/mind?

You can't think thoughts. You can't stop thinking either. There is seemingly no filter.

So it makes sense that it is possible thoughts are put into our heads rather than created in a system within the mind.

Perhaps the brain is simply a catalyst for the projection of thoughts and consciousness that is being drawn from an external source; a higher being, something bigger, a master computer, perhaps.

I've been thinking about this stuff since I was kid. By nature, I question everything.

Orchestrated Objective Reduction (ORCH-OR)

So when I heard about the theory of ORCH-OR, or Orchestrated Objective Reduction, I was intrigued.

The theory provides a scientific framework, as yet disproven, that consciousness manifests in living things through quantum microtubules in the brain, and is not a by-product of the brain itself.

So what the hell does that mean?!

Basically, it means that microtubules in our brains (and the bodies of simple single-cell organisms like paramecium, which exhibit behaviors of consciousness) are acting like antennae for consciousness, and that consciousness is actually a non-local property.

So imagine there are little antennas in your brain, receiving signals from an external source, and then the brain processes the signals into thoughts and emotions = consciousness.

Orchestrated objective reduction” (‘Orch OR'), was first put forward in the mid-1990s by eminent mathematical physicist Sir Roger Penrose, and prominent anesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff, MD.

They suggested that quantum vibrational computations in microtubules were “orchestrated” (“Orch”) by synaptic inputs and memory stored in microtubules, and terminated by “objective reduction” (‘OR'), hence “Orch OR.” Microtubules are major components of the cell structural skeleton.

This theory was harshly criticized from its inception, as the brain was considered too “warm, wet, and noisy” for seemingly delicate quantum processes.

However, evidence has now shown warm quantum coherence in plant photosynthesis, bird brain navigation, our sense of smell, and brain microtubules. Nature always proves us wrong, doesn't she!

The recent discovery of warm temperature quantum vibrations in microtubules inside brain neurons by the research group led by Anirban Bandyopadhyay, PhD, at the National Institute of Material Sciences in Tsukuba, Japan (and now at MIT), corroborates the pair's theory and suggests that EEG rhythms also derive from deeper level microtubule vibrations. (Source: Elsevier)

In addition, work from the laboratory of Roderick G. Eckenhoff, MD, at the University of Pennsylvania, suggests that anesthesia, which selectively erases consciousness while sparing non-conscious brain activities, acts via microtubules in brain neurons.

So in short, yes, it is absolutely possible that we have a quantum soul!

And so the thinking now goes one step further, suggesting that healing may be a non-local process too, or at least assisted by an external source.

Does That Mean There's Consciousness After Death?

In terms of life after death, this would mean that consciousness may remain when individual identity perishes with the body. This lends itself to the theory of a collectively conscious universe.

Wait! What?

So those of use who have been saying all these years that we are interconnected, that we all experience a collective consciousness through a different vessel (body), and were laughed at, could be right?

Indeed.

It makes absolute sense.

In fact, a study by Sam Parnia, head of a research team at Southampton University (United Kingdom), published in the Official Journal of European Resuscitation Council, with the title “AWARE—AWAreness during REsuscitation—A prospective study”, which included more than 2,000 persons who suffered a cardiac arrest and successfully responded to resuscitation treatment, in 15 hospitals in the United Kingdom, United States and Austria, found that…

40% of those who survived a cardiac arrest were aware during the time that they were clinically dead and before their hearts were restarted

Mr Parnia reported that…

One in five said they had felt an unusual sense of peacefulness while nearly one third said time had slowed down or speeded up. Some recalled seeing a bright light; a golden flash or the Sun shining. Others recounted feelings of fear or drowning or being dragged through deep water. 13 per cent said they had felt separated from their bodies and the same number said their sensed had been heightened.

Parnia believes that…

Contrary to perception, death is not a specific moment, but a potentially reversible process that occurs after any severe illness or accident causes the heart, lungs and brain to cease functioning.

Hard proof of consciousness after death would be the holy grail for the unknown about consciousness, and we are getting there.

Listen to Sir Roger Penrose ( in the video below) give his take on consciousness and how it occurs outside the computational laws of physics.