In this article the concept of the
continuity of consciousness will be described, based mainly on recent
scientific research on near-death experiences (NDE), but also on other
experiences of enhanced consciousness. Since the publication of several
prospective studies on NDE in survivors of cardiac arrest, with strikingly
similar results and conclusions, the phenomenon of the NDE can no
longer be scientifically ignored. The NDE seems to be an authentic
experience which cannot be simply reduced to imagination, fear of
death, hallucination, psychosis, the use of drugs, or oxygen deficiency.
According to these prospective studies,
the current materialistic view of the relationship between consciousness
and the brain as held by most physicians, philosophers, and psychologists
is too restricted for a proper understanding of this phenomenon. There
are now good reasons to assume that our consciousness does not always
coincide with the functioning of our brain: enhanced or nonlocal consciousness
can sometimes be experienced separately from the body. The general
conclusion of scientific research on NDE is indeed that our enhanced
consciousness does not reside in our brain and is not limited to our
brain.
Our consciousness seems to be nonlocal,
and our brain facilitates rather than produces the experience of that
consciousness. It is evident that these findings are important for
our concepts of life and death, because of the almost unavoidable
conclusion that at the time of physical death consciousness will continue
to be experienced in another realm, one that encompasses past, present,
and future. Death is only the end of our physicality. Without a body
we can still have conscious experiences, we are still conscious beings.
In this article examples will be given
of experiences of nonlocal consciousness beyond the brain, for instance
during a period when the brain is either non-functioning or malfunctioning.
Other experiences of nonlocal consciousness will also be mentioned,
including contact with the consciousness of deceased relatives during
special states of consciousness, or the effect of consciousness on
the brain as witnessed in neuroplasticity. The primacy of consciousness
will also be discussed. All these findings make the concept of the
continuity of consciousness highly probable. Based on these ideas
it seems obvious that death, like birth, may be a mere passing from
one state of consciousness into another.