Source: Journal of Consciousness Exploration & Research| December 2016 | Vol. 7 | Issue 11 | pp. 900-909.
This podcast explores the idealist view of consciousness after death by first examining the relationship between consciousness and the body during life. It critiques physicalist and dualist ontologies, suggesting they face challenges with empirical evidence and explanatory power. We then present idealism as an alternative ontology, where reality is fundamentally within a universal consciousness, elegantly explaining phenomena like the correlation between brain activity and experience. Finally, it argues that if idealism is correct, consciousness would expand rather than disappear upon bodily death, a prediction supported by accounts of near-death experiences and psychedelic trances.
In the idealist view of consciousness presented in the podcast, universal consciousness, also referred to as cosmic consciousness (God), is the fundamental and sole reality. It is not limited by personal boundaries and encompasses all of existence. Instead of being an emergent property of physical arrangements (as in physicalism) or distinct from a physical substance (as in dualism), consciousness itself is considered the only irreducible aspect of nature. All that we perceive as the physical world, including physical elements and arrangements, exists within this universal consciousness solely as phenomenal properties, meaning they are experiential (mental) in nature.
Our individual, personal consciousness, along with that of all other living organisms, arises as a result of a process of dissociation within this universal consciousness. This dissociation is likened to how a person with Dissociative Identity Disorder (multiple personalities) develops multiple centers of experience or alters. Each living creature can be seen as an alter of universal consciousness, which explains why we are not directly aware of each other's inner lives or of the entirety of universal consciousness across time and space.
Within this framework, experiences are understood as patterns of self-excitation of cosmic consciousness. Just as a dance is inseparable from the dancer, experiences are not ontologically distinct from cosmic consciousness but rather are cosmic consciousness "in motion". Different experiences correspond to different patterns of these self-excitations ****. Universal consciousness is also described as having a dual nature: a concealed or enfolded, intrinsic dynamic domain of creative activity and a revealed or unfolded, outer, observable expression side. However, it's crucial to note that this duality does not imply two separate ontological classes; everything remains phenomenal, with the revealed order (the physical world we perceive) being grounded in the concealed order (underlying thoughts or activity of cosmic consciousness).
The concept of death is fundamentally reinterpreted within this idealist ontology. Since a living biological body is considered the extrinsic appearance or image of a dissociative process within universal consciousness, bodily death and its ultimate dissolution are seen as the end of this dissociation. Logically, the end of dissociation implies a reintegration of aspects that were disrupted or made discontinuous, such as "memory, identity and emotion," which were seemingly lost at birth due to the dissociative process.
Therefore, instead of the cessation of consciousness as suggested by physicalism, idealism predicts that bodily death correlates with an expansion of our felt sense of identity, increased access to a broader range of memories, and an enrichment of our emotional inner life. This is in direct contrast to the physicalist view and is not a necessary implication of dualistic ontologies either.
The podcast shows that there is circumstantial but significant empirical confirmation for this prediction in reports of near-death experiences (NDEs). Individuals reporting NDEs often describe an expanded sense of self, feeling larger and more encompassing than their physical body. Additionally, studies on psychedelic drugs, which are shown to reduce brain activity, are interpreted as potentially offering glimpses into the early stages of the death process. These experiences often involve an unambiguous expansion of awareness, further circumstantially supporting the idealist view of consciousness expanding upon bodily death. In essence, if consciousness is the fundamental ground of reality and the body is merely a temporary manifestation of a dissociated aspect of it, then the dissolution of the body signifies not the end, but a return to a less restricted state of consciousness.