Michael Cremo - Human Devolution - A Vedic Alternative To Darwin's Theory

Broughton (1991, p. 167) said, “In one experiment specially marked pieces of paper were chemically treated and placed in a glass test tube. The tube was melted to constrict it roughly at the midpoint. Into the top part were placed cotton wads that had been treated with a different chemical that would react if it came into contact with the chemical on the target papers. The top of the test tube was then irreversibly sealed with special paper. With four experimenters watching from different angles, the tube was placed in front of Zhang. five minutes later the target papers were lying beside the empty tube. The seal on the tube was undamaged. . . . In another experiment of that series a live insect was marked and placed inside a tube. The tube was sealed so that any attempt to open it would break a fine hair glued inside. With two experimenters watching, the tube was placed on a table in front of Zhang. Several minutes later the insect, still alive, was outside the tube.”

In 1984, research with Zhang came under the control of the Institute for Space-Medico Engineering (ISME), an agency connected with the chinese military. This marked the end of regular publication of the results. But there were some occasional leaks. Broughton (1991, pp. 167–168) stated: “In 1987 the chinese scientific community received a shock when the Spaceflight department awarded its Scientific Research Achievement Prize (second class) to the ISME team for a film of one of Zhang’s experiments. Articles in the press and a chinese science magazine reported that the ISME scientists filmed the movement of a medicine pill through an irreversibly sealed glass vial. The film was made in color using a high-speed (400 frames per second) Japanese camera. The reports say that three frames of the film clearly show the pill passing through the glass (entering the glass, halfway through, and exiting). Although no scientists outside of china seem to have seen the film, in late

1990 researchers both in and outside of china were surprised by the arrival of a new chinese journal, the Chinese Journal of Somatic Science. In it was a report of new experiments with Zhang by the ISME team. Accompanying the report was a series of photos, reportedly from a 400frame-per-second camera, showing a pill exiting from the bottom of a bottle held by Zhang. The report does not indicate whether the photos are from the prize-winning film.”

Part one Conclusion: there is a mind element

The experimental evidence accumulated by scientists of the past two centuries in the areas of telepathy, clairvoyance, and psychokinesis cannot be easily dismissed. Among the experimenters reporting positive results were several nobel laureates, including the curies, Richet, and crookes. In later years, other scientists of lesser fame have conducted careful reproducible studies of a variety of paranormal phenomena. The phenomena were judged so reliable that governments and militaries invested considerable sums of money in practical applications of remote viewing. This body of paranormal evidence points to the existence of a mind element associated with the human organism. This mind element appears to be endowed with sensory abilities that enable it to perceive things at a distance and manipulate objects composed of ordinary matter in ways not explained by our current laws of physics.

PART TWO:

EVIDENCE FOR A CONSCIOUS SELF

THAT CAN EXIST APART

FROM THE BODY AND MIND

The mind is a subtle material element, which can, among other things, gather impressions of objects beyond the normal range of perception and manipulate ordinary matter in paranormal ways. But mind does not itself provide the human organism with conscious experience. consciousness has another source, called, in Sanskrit, the atma , or self. The self, according to the Sanskrit vedic literature, is a small particle of spirit that illuminates the body and mind with consciousness. Although we cannot see the atma directly, we can detect its presence through its symptom, consciousness. This conscious self can exist apart from the body and mind. We will now review scientific evidence for the existence of such a conscious self. As in the case of the mind element, I shall confine myself to evidence from the time period paralleling that of the modern evolution science, i.e., from the middle of the nineteenth century up to the present. I shall also confine myself to evidence suggesting that there is at this moment within the body a conscious self that is not a product of mind or matter. I shall consider evidence for the survival of this self after the death of the body in chapter 8.

William James on Consciousness

William James noted that “arrests of brain development occasion imbecility, that blows on the head abolish memory or consciousness, and that brain-stimulants and poisons change the quality of our ideas” (Murphy and Ballou 1960, p. 284). The totality of such observations led many scientists of his day to conclude that consciousness was produced by the brain and continually dependent upon the brain for its existence. When the brain ceased to function, the individual consciousness associated with it ceased to exist.

There was, however, no generally accepted explanation of exactly how consciousness is produced by the brain (and neither is there one today). furthermore, any such theory of consciousness production would have to account for the production of millions of episodes of consciousness in an individual’s daily life. This caused James to say, “The theory of production is therefore not a jot more simple or credible in itself than any other conceivable theory. It is only a little more popular” (Murphy and Ballou 1960, p. 294).

James (Murphy and Ballou 1960, p. 290) thought the brain might have a transmissive rather than productive relationship to consciousness. A prism has a transmissive function relative to light. It does not produce light. When light passes through a prism, the prism modifies it. According to this conception, the brain would transmit or obstruct consciousness to various degrees. James said: “According to the state in which the brain finds itself, the barrier of its obstructiveness may also be supposed to rise or fall. It sinks so low, when the brain is in full activity, that a comparative flood of spiritual energy pours over. At other times, only such occassional waves of thought as heavy sleep permits get by. And when finally a brain stops acting altogether, or decays, that special stream of consciousness which it subserved will vanish entirely from this natural world. But the sphere of being that supplied the consciousness would still be intact; and in that more real world with which, even whilst here, it was continuous, the consciousness might, in ways unknown to us, continue still” (Murphy and Ballou 1960, p. 292). James seems to prefer the image of a living stream of consciousness to that of a particulate conscious soul, but either way, consciousness exists apart from matter.

In connection with the idea that the brain simply transmits preexisting consciousness, James cited the following statement by British philosopher f. c. S. Schiller (1891):“Matter is an admirably calculated machinery for regulating, limiting, and restraining the consciousness which it encases. . . . If the material encasement be coarse and simple, as in the lower organisms, it permits only a little intelligence to permeate through; if it is delicate and complex, it leaves more pores and exists, as it were, for the manifestations of consciousness” (Murphy and Ballou 1960, p. 300).

Out-of-Body experiences

Near death and out-of-body experiences (variously abbreviated as ndEs, OBEs, OOBEs) provide evidence demonstrating that consciousness may have an existence entirely apart from gross matter (the body) and subtle matter (the mind). Throughout history, people around the world have reported these experiences. In a cross-cultural study, dean Sheils (1978, p. 697) stated: “data from nearly 70 non-Western cultures were used to explore beliefs in out-of-the-body experiences (OOBEs).The data reveal that OOBE beliefs appear in about 95 per cent of the world’s cultures and that they are striking in their uniformity even though the cultures are diverse in structure and location. Three conventional explanations of OOBE beliefs—social control, crisis, and the dream theories—were tested and found to be inadequate as explanations. Hence, it is possible that the specificity and generality of OOBE beliefs is simply a response to a genuine event; i.e., the actual occurrence of OOBE.” By demonstrating that there is a conscious self that can experience sensations apart from the gross physical body, the OBE provides a foundation for the further conclusion that there is a conscious self that survives the death of the gross physical body. As Sheils himself says (1978, p. 700), “Before we can consider the issue of survival we are forced to establish that there is in fact ‘something’ that can survive.” Apart from anecdotal cross-cultural evidence, there is medical and scientific research that supports the idea that there is a conscious self that can exist apart from the mind and body.