In order to formulate a candidate for an ultimate experience, let’s start with Near-Death Experiences, or NDEs. Upon loss of respiration and pulse, the brain ceases normal processing due to oxygen deprivation, and millions who have experienced NDEs have recounted experiences so dramatic and euphoric that a typical response is that they couldn’t imagine anything greater. They frequently claim they must have seen a glimpse of heaven, or the like. In contrast, the initial response of the scientific community was to largely ignore such events, as they must simply have been hallucinations. Currently, a Google search for Near-Death Experiences on the website for the National Institutes of Health, provides more than 150,000 results, and will serve as Solid Science to shape this talk. The final sentence of the research study shown ends with, “… the combination of all of the presented nine lines of evidence provides powerful evidence that NDEs are, in a word, real.” Oh, but that’s just “powerful evidence.” What about proof? Well, one of these lines of evidence comes from the research of Dr. Kenneth Ring, which reported NDEs experienced by individuals who were totally blind. Yes, totally blind. And in becoming aware of their Out-of-Body Experience, they instantly attained crystal-clear vision, and subsequently recounted visual events corroborated by others in attendance. But physics maintains the only way vision is accomplished is by physical eyes processing light. And these people didn’t have functional eyes. One of them even had his eyes removed from their sockets during a surgical procedure at age four. So the undeniable conclusion is that a completely real process of vision can be accomplished by non-physical means, and this deals a heavy blow to theoretical physics.
Now theoretical physicists have been working on a Theory of Everything for over a century now, and some claim it is just around the corner. However, unless theoretical physics admits that non-physical processes can generate very real results, then they can’t claim to have a Theory of Everything. Therefore, theoretical physics must accept and be unified with the mystical teaching that consciousness and the mind can separate from the body, as has been taught for millennia, in order to explain non-physical phenomena that are proven real.
So is this the biggest of all the big ideas? Glimpsing heaven during an NDE? Not even close, and those weren’t glimpses of heaven. So let’s begin by unifying mystical teachings and theoretical physics with some very simple considerations. It turns out Quantum Mechanics is a great place to start, and a number of theoretical physicists have postulated that consciousness is just another elementary particle. But we’re not going to do that. Remember, Ring’s research proves consciousness is non-physical, so calling it a particle doesn’t make any sense. Instead, we use the Correspondence Principle, which states that if you have two theories describing the same situation which have previously been assumed to be in conflict, but if you now suspect both theories are actually true, then there must be some interpretation which reveals that the two theories are actually consistent with each other. Our two theories will be Quantum Mechanics and a description of the universe from a Tibetan spiritual master.
Theoretical physics states that all quantum mechanically allowable wave-states exist simultaneously. Since this is taken to always be true, I will slightly reword the statement to say that all such states exist simultaneously and eternally. The first thing that jumps out about this is that we never experience all possible states of existence at the same time. Instead, we see specific states at any instant which transition to causally related states each successive instant. An interpretation of quantum mechanics explains that we don’t see all states at the same time, evidently because any interaction in the universe causes all the waveforms to collapse into just the states we observe, jumping back and forth between all states and the specific states we observe at each successive instant. In my view, that is an unrealistic amount of activity to expect for any universe.
Now compare this with a Tibetan spiritual master’s statement that “The entire contents of all time and all space, while experienced in a time sequence, actually coexist in an infinite and eternal now. … In short, it appears that events change, but what really happens is that we shift our viewpoint from event to event; the events are stationary and fixed.” If we take the “entire contents of all time and all space” to be “all quantum mechanically allowable states,” we realize the two theories agree on the simultaneous existence of all allowable states. Quantum Mechanics doesn’t really explain why we experience a causal sequence of states. It just says that’s the way it is, while the Tibetan claims the mind is responsible for the appearance of causality. So this mystical teaching claims the mind is what prevents us from experiencing all the contents of time and space simultaneously. Also, in the creation story of this mystical teaching, this Tibetan goes on to state, “God looked over all His creations at that time and found all was not right in the lower worlds, and that man needed something else. That something else was a mind, which could be used as an instrument for perception through which to understand and reason out his experiences.” In other words, we need to observe patterns of how different objects interact, in order to understand our environment. If nothing ever interacted with anything else; and nothing ever moved, there simply wouldn’t be any relationships for consciousness to understand, and that’s why our minds create the movie we’re part of, to be able to make sense of things.
Now is there a test, to determine whether the mind keeps us from seeing all states at once, or does the universe keep jumping back and forth between all states and just the states we actually observe? Excellent question. The teaching this Tibetan puts forth, as well as all other mystical teachings which lead to the Biggest Idea Ever, claim the same thing. In order to test this, instead of separating consciousness and the mind from the body, as occurs during the process of dying, instead, train yourself to separate consciousness by itself, separate from the body and the mind, without dying. In other words, consciousness and the mind are not the same thing, and for ages, mystical teachings have taught how to do just this in order to best explore the universe. Mystical teachings further relate that the mind is itself an aspect of time and space, so in order for consciousness to accomplish this, it must go beyond time and space into its native realm, the eternal realm as mentioned in all mystical and religious teachings.
Of course it would be appropriate to be able to justify the existence of an eternal realm. And actually, that’s quite easy. Remember that physics claims that prior to particle formation during the Big Bang, the universe is so compressed that everything is squeezed out of an individualized existence into some homogeneous, primordial goo. With no particles in existence, and no energy being exchanged, neither space nor time can be defined. Therefore, prior to particle creation, this state of the universe is beyond space and time, and is unique, and is the only obvious candidate for the eternal realm as mentioned throughout the history of religion and mystical teachings.
Historical descriptions of this Eternal Realm, or God Consciousness, of going beyond space and time and experiencing the entire universe in an instant are rare, perhaps because so many mystical teachings claim the experience itself is rare. Compounding this, since the event encompasses the infinitude of the universe, the mind, being finite due to existing within time and space, can scarcely recount anything beyond the fact that the experience occurred. One remembers that the event did happen, and that the entire universe made perfect sense, but descriptive language can relate very little more than this. The best commentary I have come across is found in Kabbalah—Tradition of Hidden Knowledge, where the author, Z’ev ben Shimon Halevi, describes the experience: “A heightened physical awareness changes into a psychological lucidity which then transforms into a profound consciousness of the totality of the universe and the Presence of Divinity. One is in direct contact with all the Worlds at once, and perceives both the complexity and the unity of everything. Although the moment may last just one second, it is always unforgettable.”
Halevi’s description prompts a couple of comments. I find perception of the complexity and unity of everything to be a reasonable characterization, and there is the accompanying realization that this is absolutely everything in the universe. As a result, this caused me to realize that in that state, I could no longer harbor any sense of desire. At that moment, I had everything. Not in any exclusive sense, as everyone has complete access to this state, but most are simply not aware. But in another sense, the experience did create one specific desire, and that was to share the realization with all who are ready for it. Also, Halevi’s comment of the “Presence of Divinity” resonated with my experience, in that I also had the overwhelming realization that I was sharing God’s consciousness in that instant.
So this is the Biggest of the Big Ideas. It is literally infinite. Without the mind to limit awareness to causal sequences, we experience the entire universe the way Quantum Mechanics and Mystical Teachings claim it exists––We experience all allowable states at the same instant. Within our interpretation, it turns out that theoretical physicists are saying the same thing as the mystics have always claimed, which gives us a reason to take this seriously. Remember, it has been proven that Near-Death, Out-of-Body Experiences are completely real, even though they are non-physical. There is no reason for God Consciousness to be any less real than a Near-Death Experience. It, too, is clearly non-physical, and beyond the realms of space and time as well. While I found my Near-Death experience to be profound, I found God Consciousness to be infinitely profound. A glimpse of one aspect of the universe simply cannot be compared to the experience of the entire universe.
One result of this, is that while there are many differences among Near-Death, Out-of-Body accounts, the central aspects of God Consciousness are described much more uniformly. Words can’t do justice to God Consciousness, but it certainly includes the experience of the entirety of the universe in an eternal existence, within the presence or consciousness of God. And since one’s consciousness is eternal by nature, the experience is inevitable. It is up to you to determine when this occurs. And it can be accomplished in a single lifetime.
So, if you like the idea of life without limits, it is waiting for you. All that is required is to enroll in school and go to class. Here, enrolling in school doesn’t necessarily mean paying tuition somewhere, but studying a spiritual teaching that resonates with you, and which is capable of providing sufficient guidance, and going to class involves the practice of meditation or contemplation. And by guidance, I mean having a spiritual guide within the teaching who has not only completed this journey, but who continuously maintains this state of consciousness and meets with you in contemplation. The universe is just too vast to complete this path on your own. And since there are an infinite number of psychic curiosities along the way, skipping over as many of those as possible is the best way to accomplish this in a single lifetime.
