The universe we describe is inseparable from the organism that describes it

My ideas have changed since then, for example, this diagram doesn't get to the heart of explaining how people recall experiences which are not their own...

I think it's truly commendable when someone dares to step forward with a fresh perspective instead of getting caught in the endless cycle of criticizing existing ideas.

My impression is that your core idea is that "experience" can be shared between individuals, and that this is what OBEs during NDEs genuinely reveal, rather than pointing to some spiritual dimension. I believe this is a reasonable hypothesis, and it can be presented without invoking mathematics or physics, which is, in my view, where the argumentation in this thread begins to falter.

While I suspect that most physicists would reject the idea that consciousness acts as an agent of downward causation, there are nevertheless prominent exceptions such as Brian Josephson and Bernard Carr, who hold different views.

Von Neuman as well IIRC.

Wheeler was more on the fence OTOH despite being the Observer Participancy guy.

Don't pay too much attention to my icon. You might not recognize the famous slogan from The X-Files, a popular UFO-themed TV series from the 1990s. (For the record, I don’t believe in UFOs in any literal or physical sense.)

Physics, by definition, is the study of the physical realm, matter, motion, force, and energy.

Notably, this definition says nothing about "experience," whether spelled with a lowercase or uppercase "E."

While I suspect that most physicists would reject the idea that consciousness acts as an agent of downward causation, there are nevertheless prominent exceptions such as Brian Josephson and Bernard Carr, who hold different views.

Well science is not done (or should not be done) by consensus.

The problem is obvious when one considers the inside of the brain. Here we have signals being passed from neuron to neuron by depolarisation waves, which rely on electrostatic effects. They are part of the physical universe, and should be subject to top down causation.

It would be possible (at least before long) to make a computer model of the entire brain, and it would not experience anything (I assume).

Now think about your brain. Does it experience stuff - can you possibly deny that you experience things!

OK, now imagine that you model it on a computer - does that computer (or its software???) experience anything?

Without claiming that you aren't part of physical reality, you can't explain how your brain can possibly exist.

I can't claim to be able to explain this - that is why I come here - but I do know you can't brush the problem away.

I think the real reason why you don't find too many physicists that confront this problem, is that the kind of problems they normally handle don't come close to this aspect of reality.

I'd suggest you read some Rupert Sheldrake, a very intelligent man who has struggled with these problems for a very long time.

BTW, In what way do you believe in UFOs? Also as I recollect it, the X-Files didn't just deal with UFOs, but the whole gamut of paranormal phenomena.

David

I think it's truly commendable when someone dares to step forward with a fresh perspective instead of getting caught in the endless cycle of criticizing existing ideas.

My impression is that your core idea is that "experience" can be shared between individuals, and that this is what OBEs during NDEs genuinely reveal, rather than pointing to some spiritual dimension.

Yes, that's not far away (with regards to the outcome - not the process - of recalling anomalous information)... and is easiest to understand...

Penington's work announced in 2019 was great news for me... that replica's/copies/matching patterns may get glued together... with the right sort of semi-superconducting isolation that I'm convinced must exist within some sort of structure within the brain.

Then in 2020 during the pandemic Nima briefly revealed a diagram regarding his idea of summing triangles in a 10+ hour marathon lecture, to show us what his mathematical structure would look like here in the everyday world we live in, and his claim that the relationships within that extremely simple diagram naturally led to everything else, right up to cosmological scale. That first presentation blew me away. IIRC... to see the projections triangles tile to always form a complete sphere, no gaps... you could never come up with that beauty by accident... and to discover that Feynman diagrams mapped to the triangle centers... the presentation was filled with pure magic...