Theosophy Watch

For most of us in the West, consciousness is related solely to a single organ inside our heads. For emphasis we point to our skull when referencing thought. Not all cultures do this. Native American cultures for example, point to the heart.

Many scientists in the cognitive field are busy cataloging The Neural Correlates of Consciousness, in the brain, and seem determined to prove that consciousness itself is born somehow from that location. When we die, everything dies, including our sense of Self. Ah, skulduggery!

The Heart Consciousness

Learn above all to separate Head-learning from Soul-Wisdom,
the “Eye” from the “Heart” doctrine.
-The Voice of The Silence

“One of the early pioneers in neurocardiology, Dr. J. Andrew Armour, introduced the concept of a functional ‘heart brain’ in 1991. His work revealed that the heart has a complex intrinsic nervous system that is sufficiently sophisticated to qualify as a ‘little brain’ in its own right.” (Institute of HeartMath)

The Institute of HeartMath notes that “our physiological systems are interacting in subtle ways and the electromagnetic signal produced by [the] heart.” This signal, they say, is “registered in the brain waves of people around you.”

“The heart’s electromagnetic field is believed to act as a central synchronizing signal within the body,” The Institute states.

The Seat of The Soul

Consciousness A Real Being

“The phenomena of human consciousness must be regarded as activities of some other form of Real Being than the moving molecules of the brain.” – H. P. Blavatsky, Psychic & Noetic Action

For non-reductionist scientists, looking for proof that consciousness exists separately from the gray matter of the brain, research continues. This is useful, and will lead to a spiritual shift. There is much still to learn, and there are potential medical applications — though scientists admit to barely scratching the surface, as well their heads, over what they are now finding.

Many Minds

Recently, for example, it was discovered that the brains in our head are not unique. Our “gut” also has a brain and can think independently, as does the heart.

From PhysOrg.com:
“That gut feeling may actually reflect a reliable memory. You know the feeling. You make a decision you’re certain is merely a ‘lucky guess.’ A new study from Northwestern University offers precise electrophysiological evidence that such decisions may sometimes not be guesswork after all.”

The Importance of a Healthy Gut

Hindu and Tibetan meditators understand whole body consciousness first hand. H. P. Blavatsky would probably tell us that every cell and organ has a brain of its own.

“Memory has no seat, no special organ of its own in the human brain,” she wrote, but has “seats in every organ of the body.” And reminds us that “the ancient Hindus endowed every cell in the human body with consciousness.”

Material vs Divine Consciousness

“It is the function of the physical, lower mind to act upon the physical organs and their cells—but, it is the higher mind alone which can influence the atoms interacting in these cells, which interaction is alone capable of exciting the brain, via the spinal “center” cord, to a mental representation of spiritual ideas far beyond any objects on this material plane.

“The phenomena of divine consciousness have to be regarded as activities of our mind on another and a higher plane, working through something less substantial than the moving molecules of the brain. They cannot be explained as the simple resultant of the cerebral physiological processes, … [only a] form for purposes of concrete manifestation.” (Psychic & Noetic Action)

The Spiritual Brain

All this talk of brains begs several questions: do we really need a brain at all to be conscious? If so, do we possess invisible, psychophysiological correlates to brain function, ready to focus consciousness should our physical brain die?

“If thought is to rise further, it must be thought without a [physical] brain,” the founder of ULT, Robert Crosbie (399) once said. And H. P. Blavatsky was even clearer on this question. This unseen brain is not merely a “back-up” system, but one continuously in parallel with the physical body:

“…we say, man, in addition to the physical, has also a spiritual brain. If the former is wholly dependent for the degree of its receptivity on its own physical structure and development, it is, on the other hand, entirely subordinate to the latter…

… it is the spiritual Ego alone … as it leans more towards its two highest principles, or towards its physical shell— that can impress more or less vividly the outer brain— with the perception of things purely spiritual or immaterial.” (Blavatsky, Transactions, 61)

Near Death Experiences – Dannion Brinkley

“At the solemn moment of death every man, even when death is sudden, sees the whole of his past life marshaled before him, in its minutest details. For one short instant the personal becomes one with the individual and all-knowing Ego. But this instant is enough to show him the whole chain of causes which have been at work during his life. He sees and now understands himself as he is, unadorned by flattery or self-deception. He reads his life, remaining as a spectator looking down into the arena he is quitting — he feels and knows the justice of all the suffering that has overtaken him.” [Key to Theosophy:162]

OBEs and NDEs

There is abundant evidence for an astral or spiritual brain. Out-of-body and near-death experiences strongly suggest it. In our recent post “Peeling The Onion,” Pam Reynolds’ NDE offered compelling scientific evidence of consciousness existing separately from brain function, or any physical function whatever.

Dr. George Ritchie’s NDE, detailed in his book Return from Tomorrow, was so compelling it changed his life forever. “George Ritchie’s gripping account of his near-death experience and subsequent spiritual transformation, is the best such book in print,” says Amazon.

“Dr. Ritchie is the finest man I’ve ever known, and I urge everyone who is interested in the extraordinary visions of the dying to read Ordered to Return: My Life After Dying.” –Raymond A. Moody, PhD, MD, author of  Life After Life: The Investigation of a Phenomenon–Survival of Bodily Death.

Dr. George Ritchie’s NDE – Afterlife Testimony

“Death is nothing more than a doorway, something you walk through.”
- Dr. George Ritchie

Physiology Not the Origin of Self-Consciousness

Thus, the whole conclave of psycho-physiologists may be challenged to correctly define Consciousness, and they are sure to fail, because Self-consciousness belongs alone to man and proceeds from the SELF, the higher [Mind],” writes H. P. Blavatsky in Psychic and Noetic Action:

“The study of the ‘Physiology’ of the Soul, of the Will in man and of his higher Consciousness from the standpoint of genius and its manifesting faculties, can never be summarized into a system of general ideas represented by brief formulae; no more than the psychology of material nature can have its manifold mysteries solved by the mere analysis of its physical phenomena. There is no special organ of will, any more than there is a physical basis for the activities of self-consciousness.”

Near-Death Researcher Dr. PMH Atwater

The Duality

“The phenomena of sensation and volition, of intellect and instinct, are, of course, all manifested through the channels of the nervous centers the most important of which is the brain.

“… the mysterious agency of intellect remains as mysterious and as perplexing to the great physiologists as it was in the days of Hippocrates.

[Science} has not helped towards solving the problem— it has failed to shed even the slightest ray of light on the unfathomable mystery. Nor will they ever fathom it unless our men of Science accept the hypothesis of DUAL MAN.”

Near Death Experiences – Personal Accounts

Spiritual Communication

“There is a sort of conscious telegraphic communication going on incessantly, day and night, between the physical brain and the inner man. The brain is such a complex thing, both physically and metaphysically, that it is like a tree whose bark you can remove layer by layer, each layer being different from all the others, and each having its own special work, function, and properties.” (Blavatsky, Transactions, 61)

“Hence it depends on the acuteness of the mental feelings of the inner Ego, on the degree of spirituality of its faculties, to transfer the impression of the scenes its semi-spiritual brain perceives, the words it hears and what it feels, to the sleeping physical brain of the outer man. The stronger the spirituality of the faculties of the latter, the easier it will be for the Ego to awake the sleeping hemispheres …”