A major but biased new paper on consciousness

Hi again, nbtruthman. All noted but wasn't the famous cross correspondence case an example of a successful connection? It's not really my area of most interest, though, so I won't debate that with you. 

Just as an aside, I did have a very persuasive reading with an Irish medium (quite well known now) who plucked two names out of the ether in quick succession, bump, bump. And she was bang on, these were two deceased people that I was formerly close to and liked very much and the chances of her doing that (together) are astronomically slim. 

I was so surprised I still don't necesarily accept it (I don't know why) but I have no reason not to. There is absolutely no way she could have known these two names, not a chance and she didn't give me any names that were wrong. It startled me.

I think the key is that the "system" doesn't seem to allow either outright objective proof, or scientific confirmation with a high degree of certainty, of survival. There are allowed to be isolated occasional experimental and experiential evidences that can easily be interpreted as of a surviving personality, but they usually seem to be shrouded in ambiguity, as in the Irish medium communication you refer to. Even I would look at this as quite possibly being telepathy on the part of the medium, looking into your mind. The simpler explanation, perhaps.

The book tests certainly are quite evidential and hard to challenge, but they are an example of extremely rare success, and still not absolutely impervious to challenge, by an extremely improbable manifestation of LAP.  

The surviving spouse picking up the agreed-upon code sequence from his/her deceased partner would constitute much more definitive proof, and has been repeated many times, unsuccessfully. And it is still not absolute. It could be made considerably more absolute by making the code unknown to the sitter, but deposited in some location not accessed by the sitter. Unfortunately even this procedure wouldn't be free of the (albeit remote) suspicion of LAP being the source. Ambiguity again.

I think the key is that the "system" doesn't seem to allow either outright objective proof, or scientific confirmation with a high degree of certainty, of survival. There are allowed to be isolated occasional experimental and experiential evidences that can easily be interpreted as of a surviving personality, but they usually seem to be shrouded in ambiguity, as in the Irish medium communication you refer to. Even I would look at this as quite possibly being telepathy on the part of the medium, looking into your mind. The simpler explanation, perhaps.

The book tests certainly are quite evidential and hard to challenge, but they an example of extremely rare success, and still not absolutely impervious to challenge, by an extremely improbable manifestation of LAP.  

The surviving spouse picking up the agreed-upon code sequence from his/her deceased partner would constitute much more definitive proof, and has been repeated many times, unsuccessfully. And it is still not absolute. It could be be made considerably more absolute by making the code unknown to the sitter, but deposited in some location not accessed by the sitter. Unfortunately even this procedure wouldn't be free of the (albeit remote) suspicion of LAP being the source. Ambiguity again.

I actually think some of this you are quite right in mentioning has been addressed? Windbridge Institute (Julie Beischel etc)

Sure, the words "inhibition" and "excitation" are abstract ideas. But they are firmly based or grounded on the substrate of matter and energy, the related collective behaviors or properties of very physical neurons in the brain. Inhibition and excitation as the abstract ideas, in themselves, have absolutely no physical effectivity or motive power. It is the physical organization of neurons that has the physical effectivity or motive power of "chemical cascades" or "series of reactions". So references to inhibition and excitation and oscillations and holographic waves, etc. in the paper all very definitely presume the material neuronal substrate is mechanizing and producing them.

The bottom line is that this approach of the paper still squarely runs into the Chalmers "Hard Problem" of consciousness, in that the properties of consciousness are in an entirely different and higher existential category than organizations or behaviors of matter.

Please note:  besides all you protests against materialism - you are preaching it to me.  ?

The "properties" of consciousness are not physical.  You ignored completely that the outcome of the cascade is not moving chemicals.  The functional output is a focus on informational organization.  ie a logical response

Chalmers' own analysis of the hard problem and how to deal with it - has nothing to do with your viewpoint excluding information as causal.  In the future if you claim something about him or his work - please provide a specific quote so I can understand you.

The measurables of consciousness ARE in a different category.  The are measurable by models of communication. (Shannon)  They are measurable as to the functional meaning. (Linguistics)  They are measurable as to focus on important tasks (Intelligence). They are measurable by logical output in relation to the environment.  (Ecology)  Consciousness studies are ONLY seen as physical in a biology context of the nervous system.  All other focus on the active phenomena of mind are researched through the study of information in action.

And as to your story of holograms are just physical................  https://www.scientificamerican.com/artic...phic-univ/

  Ask anybody what the physical world is made of, and you are likely to be told matter and energy. Yet if we have learned anything from engineering, biology and physics, information is just as crucial an ingredient. The robot at the automobile factory is supplied with metal and plastic but can make nothing useful without copious instructions telling it which part to weld to what and so on. A ribosome in a cell in your body is supplied with amino acid building blocks and is powered by energy released by the conversion of ATP to ADP, but it can synthesize no proteins without the information brought to it from the DNA in the cell's nucleus. Likewise, a century of developments in physics has taught us that information is a crucial player in physical systems and processes. Indeed, a current trend, initiated by John A. Wheeler of Princeton University, is to regard the physical world as made of information, with energy and matter as incidentals.

By Jacob D. Bekenstein on April 1, 2007 

  bolding mine

[Laird]

Neardeath experiences: the experience of the self as real and not as an illusion (pimvanlommel.nl)

Just a little note, tim, to say that this was a good read. It took me a while to get through in piecemeal fashion amongst other demands on my time, but it was worth it.

Just a little note, tim, to say that this was a good read. It took me a while to get through in piecemeal fashion amongst other demands on my time, but it was worth it.

https://pimvanlommel.nl/wp-content/uploa...rticle.pdf
In the article I found this pleasurable to read, because it is a wonderful description of a perspective that matches with science facts.

 Life review
During a holographic life review, the subject feels the presence and renewed experience of not only every act but also every thought from one’s life, and one realizes that, in some way, we are connected to others and to ourselves, such that we influence ourselves as well as others. Because one is connected with the memories, emotions, and consciousness of another person, you experience the consequences of your own thoughts about, words to, and actions toward that other person at the very moment in the past that they occurred (interconnectedness or entanglement).

 

 “Not only did I perceive everything from my own viewpoint, but I also knew the thoughts of everyone involved in
the event, as if I had their thoughts within me. This meant that I perceived not only what I had done or thought, but even in what way it had influenced others, as if I saw things with all-seeing eyes. And so, even your thoughts are apparently not wiped out. Time and distance seemed not to exist. I was in all places at the same time.” 

If:       The mind can detect interference patterns in informational reality, including the meaningfulness they may represent ...
Then:  An agent's perception would be just as described in this report of an NDE account documented by Von Lommell.

Just a little note, tim, to say that this was a good read. It took me a while to get through in piecemeal fashion amongst other demands on my time, but it was worth it.

The following elements were reported: half of the patients with an NDE were aware of being dead and had positive emotions

The bolded is something that is impossible and because of that is ignored by mainstream science and academics. Parnia's aware 1 confirmed it (around 40% were aware of being dead) and they ignored that, too. Even though these studies are of the highest calibre. They really are 'cloth eared'.