Aliens versus Materialists (Part IV): Alien ninja minds to the rescue!

How could we cast suspicion on the semantic poverty thesis discussed in Part III? (Recall this is the view that ‘no amount of analysis, conjunction, or <insert your favorite semantic construction method here> applied to concepts about brain states will yield a concept about subjective experience as such.’).

One way is to show that the aliens could in theory come to understand, alien_vs_catbased on their purely neuronal theory, the incompleteness of their initial understanding of cats. I described the bar that I’d like to see them jump:

We aren’t asking for the aliens to know the subjective character of red, but to realize that there is some experience there, period. It seems reasonable to expect a complete theory would leave the aliens in a position analogous to Mary before she leaves her black and white jail. That is, she knows she lacks color experiences (i.e., her brain has yet to instantiate the relevant color-seeing properties), and she knows she lacks the typical cognitive reactions to having that experience (e.g., she will not recognize red when she sees it the first time).

In the rest of this post I will suggest how the aliens could surmount this hurdle.

Augmenting the alien mind

Our aliens, realizing that they do not have brains, or a smonscious representational system, wonder what it would be like to have a smonscious brain. They find the representations uniquely interesting, and are intrigued by corollary phenomena deeply integrated with smonsciousness, such as the ability to recognize when smonscious states recur, smonscious visual attention, and smonscious decision making by the cats. What benefits or costs might accrue if they were smonscious?

They realize they cannot presently know this directly, because their minds are not shaped the right way. However, they can make predictions, using the model developed for the cat, about the consequences of  augmenting their minds to include a smonscious representational system. Through years of diligent effort of their best theoretical physicists, psychologists, and biologists, they model an interface between a biophysically detailed model of the smonscious brain and their off-the-shelf model of their own minds (an alien simulation they named Keanu).

There is enough detail built into Keanu that they can simulate his performance on various tasks (such as visual recognition tasks), and they can even have conversations with Keanu so he can express his reactions when augmented to be smonscious. The plan is to put Keanu through a battery of psychological tests both before and after the augmentation procedure, to determine if the augmentation indeed speeds up his visual reaction time and short-term planning when faced with complex visual stimuli.

Once all the preparations are finished, the aliens initiate stage one of the plan, running Keanu in ‘alien only’ mode to troubleshoot and get baseline values for the battery of tests.  Keanu reacts as expected based on their previous experience with him. After the series of initial tests is finished, they flip the switch that hooks him up to a virtual smonscious representational system. Keanu responds strangely:

Whoa…I’m sorry, but words will not do this justice.

It’s like I am directly experiencing the world for the first time,  like the processes we have been studying have been revealed in a way that only I can access and appreciate.keanu

Consider my experience of the redness of this ball. I am sure this is all the result of a great deal of information processing. I expect to have countless new subtle differences in my behavior and cognitive reactions now that my mind has been augmented. For instance, you will find that I can learn to recognize this shade of red (this amazing shade!) when it recurs.

But if you were to focus on such behavioral/information processing changes going on right now, that would miss what is most significant here. What is amazing is that I am literally seeing this ball, in some sense, for the first time.

I think I should shut up, and just stand by my first reaction as the most appropriate…

Whoa…

The alien researchers initially think this must be some mistake in their code. However, after enough troubleshooting and cross-checking their models, they realize they haven’t discovered a bug in their code, but have generated one of the most incredible predictions their species has ever made. It becomes a top priority to study this process in more detail, to see what they missed when focusing exclusively on cat brains, to see what properties in the model were most directly responsible for Keanu’s response. Most exciting for them, they start the clinical research necessary instantiate the augmentation procedure in practice, so they can directly learn what it is like to be conscious [1].

Fallout of the simulation

The possibility of such a scenario suggests that acceptance of the semantic poverty thesis is premature, and that knowledge of subjective experience could be a natural outgrowth of a neural theory. It was a prediction that emerged when their original theory was extended beyond its original feline domain.

Scientific practice produces conceptual novelty in more ways than you might expect from analytic philosophers’ rational reconstructions or conceptual analyses. Scientists tend to place much less stock in what they intuitively think is already “contained in” their conception of the world. We tend to hold onto our concepts with a loose grip, allowing data/evidence gained from experiments, and predictions gained from models/simulations, to expand our outlook in unexpected directions. In this way, our understanding of the implications of our theories is continually expanding and enriched.

Especially in the biological study of complex systems such as brains, we do not see conceptual rumination as a particularly useful source of knowledge. While biology admittedly involves a great deal of prediction-building in ordinary language, significant stress is also placed on the importance of prediction based on quantitative models. Even something as simple as the human heart displays behavior that we would not predict from ordinary-language meditations about hearts. Why, for an object orders of magnitude more complex, would we expect to find a transparent conceptual route without the help of computers or simulations?

Note we are not talking about physical laws here, where simple thought experiments (coupled with mathematical expertise) have been so undeniably helpful as a tool for discovery and the generation of theoretical novelty. We are addressing the analysis of extremely complex physiological systems with many nonlinear parts interacting in nonlinear ways. Analytic philosophers were understandably strongly influenced by theoretical physics from the first half of the 20th century, but the philosophical picture of science that emerged was correspondingly parochial.

Why the computer?

So far I have said little about the alien’s mental structure. We are already dealing with an outlandish science fiction scenario, so why should we limit our aliens so that they must think  and communicate in the clunky word-models that are standard in the philosophical musings of H sapiens? Perhaps the alien mind is much quicker at correctly seeing implications of their theories, and can calculate quantitative implications of their theories with little effort. Let’s say they think more like an analog computer than a philosopher. Instead of running simulations on a computer, they could make the predictions described above directly and quickly, using their quantum unconscious super ninja minds. That is, the very premise of the argument, that the aliens would end up not knowing the cats are conscious, could be a non-starter.

This turbo-charged computer-free response is particularly powerful as a rebuttal to semantic poverty. To shorten this post, I am putting nine potential objections  in the notes [2].

Just to quickly finish up, and full circle with the dualist attack from Part II, what about the ‘two concepts one property’ (2C1P) approach? The scenario here is actually an instance of this approach. While I am suspicious of phenomenal concept strategy, with its peculiarly premature acceptance of the semantic poverty thesis, I am no opponent of phenomenal concepts as such, in the sense of concepts we typically use to respond to, and describe, our own experiences in phenomenological terms. And clearly one can believe that experience-concepts and brain-concepts are different without thinking that they are necessarily and forever screened off from one another. That indeed seems a premature overreaction to our present levels of ignorance.

 Notes

[1] From now on, I will drop talk of  ‘smonscious’ brains, and let the aliens talk about consciousness, as they have crossed the semantic gap.

[2] List of objections, roughly in ascending order of strength (the last one is probably true): 1) This scenario doesn’t undercut semantic poverty, because the conceptual route from brains to experiences has not been provided in an explicit and transparent route. 2) The aliens haven’t really gained an understanding that the cats are conscious: they have not jumped the hurdle set at the beginning of the post. 3) The aliens have jumped the hurdle, but the hurdle is too low: you still would have Mary-type arguments that they wouldn’t know red from blue the first time they saw color. 4) The simulation required to predict the existence of consciousness would itself be conscious, and this would support dualism as much as materialism. 5) Perhaps the aliens, and Keanu, would become dualists based on the scenario, so their model actually predicts dualism is true. 6) Predicting consciousness is not the same as explaining consciousness, and this scenario achieves prediction without explanation. The Hard Problem remains. 7) This dialectic merely replicates the phenomenal concepts strategy, a strategy I criticized in Part III, but this time in the aliens. 8) You may as well have had the aliens talk to humans, which you have stipulated is cheating. 9) Why didn’t you just start your scenario this way? You made it seem as if the aliens had complete knowledge of the cats, but if they had more to learn (from additional simulations), then their knowledge wasn’t really complete. (In my defense, I wrote the first two posts a year ago, planned to defend PCS, but found it lacking, and thought of this scenario about two months ago).

[3] This series of posts began in response to someone who, after I gave a materialist response to Mary, asked what I would say if Mary started out with no experiences whatsoever, rather than lacking only color experiences.

3 Comments

  1. Assaf Weksler

    Thanks for a very interesting and thought-provoking thought experiment!

    I have the impression that perhaps a certain important detail is missing from the description of Keanu’s mind, namely the origin of his phenomenal concepts. I think that tracing the origin is important for the following reason.
    Having a smonscious state and having a meta-representation of one’s own smonscious state do not guarantee a “whoa” effect. The reason is that (on the physicalist view) smonscious states are simply neuronal-cognitive states of some sort, which are not deeply different from many other non-smonscious neuronal-cognitive states. The feeling that there is something more to them than functional-cognitive properties (which is equivalent to the “whoa” effect) arises out of the special nature of the phenomenal concepts we have of them. To illustrate, if the introspective concept Keanu acquires of his smonscious state feels to him like no more than a label that directly points to a brain state, he would (arguably) not feel the “whoa” effect (something like this point is discussed in Demircioglu, “Physicalism and Phenomenal Concepts”, phil studies, 2012 ). The same is true if his introspective concepts have explicit physical-functional content.

    Thus, in order that Keanu will say “whoa”, he must have the right sort of introspection and so acquire the right sot of concepts of them; he must acquire phenomenal concepts just like our phenomenal concepts. Does this seem correct to you?

    I assume that cats do not have phenomenal concepts, and Keanu does. The question now becomes: Where does he get them from? Keanu is supposed to be an alien mind augmented with smonscious states. Given this, it seems that his phenomenal concepts arise out of the encounter between his alien introspective abilities (if aliens have such abilities) and the smonscious states. But why should we expect this encounter to yield phenomenal concepts, as we know them? That is, why should we expect the encounter to yield concepts that generate a “whoa!” effect? After all, the aliens (on this picture) have been introspecting their own mental states for all their lives, thereby creating directly-referential concepts of their mental states, but this (I guess) did not generate a “whoa” effect in them, right?

    Alternatively, if Keanu’s phenomenal concepts are not the upshot of applying alien introspection to smonscious states, then it seems that Keanu has a new introspective system, coming neither from cats nor from aliens. So where does it come from?

    • Thanks Assaf for another helpful comment.

      >>>[Under physicalism], smonscious states are simply neuronal-cognitive states of some sort, which are not deeply different from many other non-smonscious neuronal-cognitive states. The feeling that there is something more to them…arises out of the special nature of the phenomenal concepts we have of them…To illustrate, if the introspective concept Keanu acquires of his smonscious state feels to him like no more than a label that directly points to a brain state, he would (arguably) not feel the “whoa” effect (something like this point is discussed in Demircioglu, “Physicalism and Phenomenal Concepts”, phil studies, 2012 ).

      We are drawing different lessons here. What is special about conscious states is that there is something it is like to be in them. This doesn’t require phenomenal concepts, per se. We don’t even require Keanu to have phenomenal concepts, but simply perceptual concepts that apply to the world (we could have him amazed at ‘The red shade of this ball’ not the red content of this subjective experience).

      In a true story, there was a neurologist who didn’t have functional stereoscopic vision, so she didn’t see in binocular 3-d (Stereo Sue). Sue did various procedures to remedy this problem, so she actually gained the ability to see in 3-D. Her response included things like (Sachs, 2006):
      “At seminars…my attention is completely captivated by the way an empty chair displays itself in space, and a whole row of empty chairs occupies my attention for minutes. I would like to take a whole day just to walk around and LOOK.”

      and

      “One winter day, I was racing from the classroom to the deli for a quick lunch. After taking only a few steps from the classroom building, I stopped short. The snow was falling lazily around me in large, wet flakes. I could see the space bewteen each flake, and all the flakes together produced a beautiful three-dimensional dance. In the past, the snow would have appeared to fall in a flat sheet in one plane slightly in front of me. I would have felt like I waws looking in on the snowfall. But now, I felt myself within the snowfall, among the snowflakes. Lunch forgotten, I watched the snow fall for several minutes, and as I watched, I was overcome with a deep sense of joy. A snowfall can be quite beautiful–especially when you see it for the first time.”

      What is important here isn’t new concepts. She is not explicitly introspecting here, but descring the perceptual contents (the way the world is presented in this new way). Maybe she has some new concepts, but is the experience itself that generated the ‘whoa.’

      The phenomenal concept strategy seems to persistently displace interest from the actual phenomenon that is amazing (the experience) to thoughts about this phenomenon. Yes, we can think about and describe the experience, but that’s not what is significant. The significant discovery, for Keanu, was that there was experience there, and somehow they missed that in their initial accounting of the cats.

      So my claim is that if the smonscious content of his experience were not subjectively conscious, he would not feel the “whoa” effect. It isn’t the concepts, it is the experience.

      >>>Thus, in order that Keanu will say “whoa”, he must have the right sort of introspection and so acquire the right sot of concepts of them; he must acquire phenomenal concepts just like our phenomenal concepts. Does this seem correct to you?

      Not on its face, for the reasons above. I think he must just be able to have the (virtual) experience of the world and react to this experience. I don’t see need for introspection at all.

      Here’s an analogy I had in my original Part III (in favor of PCS):
      “Experience and cognition are not related to one another in some slipshod manner, but constitute two aspects of one overarching mental life, often running in lockstep. It seems that the relationship between our experiences and our judgments about our experiences is just another instance of ubiquitous coupling between mechanisms that physiologists observe at every level of biological organization.
      “For example, photosynthesis includes two phases: a light-dependent phase and a light-independent phase. The light-dependent phase involves ATP production using light energy, and this ATP is fed directly into the light-independent phase of photosynthesis (the Calvin Cycle) in which a simple (three-carbon) sugar is created with the help of ATP. The Calvin Cycle is parasitic upon light-dependent photosynthesis, using the products of the latter as its inputs; if you remove light-dependent photosynthesis, the Calvin Cycle ceases to function properly. Our ability to think directly about our experiences is like the Calvin Cycle, in that it is directly and exclusively depends on our ability to have the first-order experiences.”

      In response, I had included:
      “The analogy with photosynthesis actually helps the dualist make her point. Focusing on phenomenal concepts is like studying the Calvin Cycle when your goal is to understand light-dependent photosynthesis. They aren’t the same thing. Even the materialist acknowledges that subjective experience is not a property of our concepts about subjective experience, but a property of the neural processes that instantiate conscious experience. Again, the materialist ends up squirming around talking about concepts about experiences, while the dualist can directly focus on the system instantiating the relevant properties.”

      Reference:
      Oliver Sacks (2006) Stereo Sue, from A Neurologist’s Notebook, The New Yorker, June 19, 2006, pp. 64-73.

  2. Don Smalter

    IS SCIENCE ON THE VERGE OF PROVING AFTERLIFE ??

    ARE YOU OPEN MINDED ??

    Electro-magnetic imprint of DNA goes with you in the death transition! Multi-life
    history/experiences in DNA! Unseen IMPERISHABLE “bodies” in aura? Brain is not the mind! Mind based upon mental (or reasoning) body of aura! Mind goes with you in death!!

    Note: I lost both of my parents at their early age of 57. This caused me to launch a part-time
    fifty year study of “what comes next after death?” Topics I researched were such as
    the Mother Mary apparitions, a variety of religion beliefs other than my former Catholic (though still Christian), atheists’ rationale, the paranormal, quantum physics, astronomy, biology, genomics, messages from the afterlife, instrumental transcommunication (ITC) via tapes & TV, UFO objectives, and extraterrestrial messages, trying to find out answers, primarily thru books, science magazines, and numerous websites, obviously with a very open mind.

    I was particularly interested in answering this QUESTION: How can it be that it is possible to
    contact afterdeath personalities as if they were still of full mental capability — via paranormal
    MEDIUMS, or even by special ITC electronic communications, as has been demonstrated
    repeatedly? As a retired engineer/executive, I needed to understand exactly HOW
    “mechanically”or structurally this could be possible. I FOUND THE ANSWER:
    Electromagnetic/energetic version of DNA — and unseen IMPERISHABLE body aura containing
    the mind — go with you in death transition!!

    Two books in particular provided key answers, and both were most believable due to being very
    comprehensive and “scientific” though not related to much of Christian/Judeo training. Below I
    have compiled short summaries and excerpts for your possible interest. Also, a short list of books
    that reinforced these two. I hope you will keep an open mind in reading them. An old Chinese
    proverb states: “A mind is like a parachute. It only functions when it is OPEN.”

    To summarize the first book, a dictation by a benevolent extraterrestrial group Guardian Alliance,
    it teaches SCIENTIFIC EVOLVEMENT: 1) Your electro-magnetic or energetic version of DNA
    goes with you in the death transition. 2) you will reincarnate repeatedly and the DNA holds your personal multi-life history and experience. 3) Your invisible aura is the source/basis of your mind and morphogenetic fields for holding patterns, etc. 4) Your consciousness will next progress
    eventually through fifteen dimensions toward “nirvana” perfection, currently being in the third.
    All other dimensions are unseen and have different vibrational frequencies and atomic
    configurations. 5) After incarnation as the Buddha, Christ came to us as a teacher from the twelfth or higher dimension. 6) God is the Universe Prime Creator/Force/Source — and not the god Yahweh of the Old Testament who was an Ancient Astronaut to Earth.

    As dictated by Ascended Masters, key messages in the second book were: 1) There are other
    unseen IMPERISHABLE “bodies” around the physical one in an aura (Note: As seen by
    Kirlian/GDV photography, see Wikipedia re: the paranormal aura). Key bodies are the astral, the
    mental (or reasoning), the etheric, among several others. 2) THE BRAIN IS NOT THE MIND. The mental body is the basis/source of the mind. 3) All these “bodies” go with you in the death transition,
    especially including the mind. 4) In the next step, all these bodies and DNA will proceed with
    you into the astral plane or dimension. 5) do not fear death as it is merely a transition to another
    “form”.
    See the more detailed excerpts below. Also, a short list of other reinforcing books. To me, these
    were “startling” concepts, but comforting in their believability as they “fit” based on other related
    research.

    There does need to be more scientific research especially on 1) electromagnetic/energetic &
    biophotonic properties of DNA, and 2) functions of the aura (or bio-energy field)! Russian and
    German scientific researchers are “on track” to one day scientifically prove life continues after
    death. Dr. Fritz-Albert Popp and son Jurgen at University of Marburg, Germany continue early
    work on electromagnetic aspects/versions of DNA and cell biophotonics as members of the Int’l
    Institute of Biophysics, and among others, Dr. Peter Geriaev in Russia with a breakthrough in
    biophotonic electromagnetic DNA termed Wave Genetics or bioholography. This energetic/biophotonic research will radically transform genetic science, currently based on bio-chemicals. And, Dr. Konstantin Korotov, Director at the St Petersburg State Tech University, who concentrates on aura (or bioenergy field) research as Founder/President of the International Union of Medical and Applied Bioelectrography, has actually produced early Kirilian/GDV photographs which may be of the “soul” or aura leaving dying human bodies. American research on these two “niches” appears to be more modest, especially on the aura as mainstream scientists refrain from it due to its Indian paranormal history. Also, “materialist” brain researchers continue to believe that the source of the mind MUST be someplace in the brain or physical body. Plus, narrowly educated atheists do not believe in any perceived afterlife.

    Book #1. Source: “Voyagers” Volumes I & II — by ASHAYANA DEANE(Anna Hayes)
    For details see Chapters on Ascension Mechanics & DNA. Available from Amazon.com,
    Volume I and 2nd Edition Vol. II 583 pages. Also includes information on Earth history and quantaum physics.

    “At the death of the physical body, you will discover that your consciousness lives on and your
    evolution continues.
    “Ascension is not some lofty spiritual concept designed by the minds of man, it is the literal,
    tangible scientific process of the evolution of consciousness and biology with the laws of energy
    mechanics that apply to a multidimensional reality system. All souls will eventually evolve and
    ascend through a 15 dimensional scale to re-emerge as sentient identity within realms of pure
    consciousness beyond the dimensional systems. Whether or not you view ascension and
    multidimensional evolution as a reality while you are alive on Earth, you will be directly faced
    with that reality once your consciousness has passed out of physical life and into the
    multidimensional framework. How well you prepare for that discovery now will determine the
    ease with which you are able to take your next evolutionary step once you “wake up on the other
    side”
    “The term “Ascension” represents much more than some lofty spiritual concept invented by the
    finite human psyche in order to give purpose to its finite existence. Many in the earthly scientific
    communities believe that life is limited to the physical expression and that consciousness is the
    result of the body’s biochemical/neuro-electrical functions. Following these erroneous beliefs
    they draw an equally erroneous conclusion that consciousness ends at the death of the physical
    body. Consequently, human science will be confronted with a whole new order of
    multidimensional reality and a whole new science.
    “The process of ascension is not some quasi-religious concept based upon the meandering of the
    human mind. Ascension is instead a highly SCIENTIFIC process that represents the universal
    order through which consciousness experiences itself as being. Ascension also involves the
    understanding of morphogenetic fields or the form holding energy constructions that allow
    matter to build into individuated forms. Ascension therefore is a science with specific mechanics
    that allow for the evolution of consciousness from simple to more complex forms. Every being
    in existence is involved in this evolutionary process and applies to each and every one of you.
    The choices one makes in thought and deed will determine the quality of experience, or lack
    thereof, that will be personally encountered.
    “DNA is built upon minute electro-tonal (i.e., multi octave) patterns of multidimensional
    frequency and the energetic imprint of the DNA goes with you in the death transition. The
    content of that pattern will determine how high your consciousness will be able to travel
    (progress) in the system once it is released from the body. Whatever frequencies are contained
    within that imprint will determine the specific dimensional placement after death.
    “This “system” blueprint has called your races forward toward an unseen destiny which is the
    return of immortality and the (eventual) reunion of the consciousness of man with its Prime
    Creative Source. In terms of the soul’s perspective, the challenges and hardships faced along the
    way in Earth life are understood to be lessons in growth as human consciousness evolves to
    remember the truth of its eternal existence and embrace the beauty of its multidimensional
    identity. From the perspective of a human consciousness focused within a physical body on
    Earth, those challenges can seem, at times, overwhelming. Without consciousness recognition of
    the purposes, processes and objectives of the evolutionary plan, the hardships can appear to be
    unbearable and without meaning.
    “All human souls are involved with the exact same process of evolving the genetic “package”
    and the consciousness to higher dimensional levels; some souls are just further along in this
    journey. This is a process by which the life forms evolve through matter particles and antiparticles
    upward through the 15 dimensional scale, from dense matter solidity to pure, nonmattered-
    based conscious energy substance.
    “All dimensions exist in the same space, but seem to operate separately due to the particle
    pulsation rates of which they are composed. The degree of angular rotation of particle spin shifts
    90 degrees from one dimension to the next while remaining invisible to each other. In the
    universe there are 15 primary dimensional bands. Dimensional frequency bands group in sets of
    3 and each set of three dimensions represents a Harmonic Universe. Thus there are five
    Harmonic Universes within one (overall) dimensional Universe. The degree of angular rotation
    of particle spin shifts 90 degrees from one dimension to the next within one Harmonic Universe.
    In each Harmonic Universe containing three dimensions, there are two 90 degree shifts of the
    angular rotation of spin between particles. Between one Harmonic Universe and the next there is
    a 45 degree reverse angular rotation of particle spin. This 45 degree reverse angular rotation of
    particle spin creates a Magnetic Repulsion Zone, or void between Harmonic Universes, which
    keeps the reality fields contained there within separated from each other. Through this structure
    of relative angular rotations of particle spin, the holographic illusions of multidimensional
    reality, matter, time, space, movement and individuation of form are perpetually created and
    sustained. Entities existing below the 7th dimension possess physical biological forms.
    Dimensions 7 through 9 possess the etheric matter form.
    “All matter forms and forms of consciousness are manifested through a morphogenetic form-holding imprint which exists as a quantity of crystalline, electro-tonal energetic substance that is composed of specific patterns of frequency. These multidimensional electromagnetic fields are collectively referred to as the bio-energetic system or the aura field of a manifest form. The aura field has seven primary inner layers (i.e.,bodies) which correspond to dimensional frequency bands 1 through 7. The aura field also has seven outer layers which represent the form-holding MORPHOGENETIC imprints for the seven inner layers of the aura field. The morphogenetic imprint holds the instructions and design for
    form-building in a type of digital or electronic encoding. The seven outer layers correspond to
    dimensional frequency bands 9 through 15.

    “The perceptions of your present races are focused within the middle range of the third
    dimension. In order for humanity to evolve into higher dimensional fields, the frequency
    patterns of dimensions four, five and six must be brought into manifest expression with the
    energetic grid of Earth. The frequencies or sound-tones must also become operational within the
    active DNA strands. The energetic imprint of the DNA is carried with the personal
    morphogenetic field and consciousness after physical death of the body. (Note: Morphogenetic
    fields are the form holding patterns through which matter forms. Rupert Sheldrake postulated on
    their existence, but proposed no physical mechanism.) Whatever frequencies are contained with
    that imprint will determine the dimensional placement of the consciousness after death. The
    ultimate success of DNA* building lies in the hands of the embodied consciousness who
    personally directs the process by the way in which personal energy is used and applied.
    *Note 1: Our current scientific community is thoroughly confused about the multiple
    strands of DNA, declaring only a few as having a known usage – and calling the remainder “junk
    DNA.” Over 97% of DNA has an unknown function! However, if it were junk, the sequence of
    the “syllables” i.e., the nucleotides in DNA, should be completely random. In fact, they are not
    random at all, and current scientists now believe that this DNA contains some kind of code with
    function completely unknown or undetermined.
    “(At death), you will move your consciousness through a dark tunnel, with a bright light at its
    end, the same effect as in a Near-Death-Experience (Note: the subject of much book
    investigative reporting).
    “Multiple reincarnational** identities represent portions of a person’s soul awareness evolving.
    To the soul-self identity, the immediate incarnates in its incarnational family are recognized as
    living sub-personality fragments of its own identity whose reality simultaneously takes place
    with the dimensional bands contained within the soul-self’s DNA. The DNA represents electromagnetically encoded digital imprints of the other living portions of your identity.
    **Note 2: Reincarnation occurs only in the first Harmonic Universe. “You reincarnate into
    multiple forms and situations because one lifetime is in no way sufficient time, nor does it offer
    sufficient exposures to enough diverse situations to give the fragment-spirit the understanding
    necessary. The best way to learn about poverty, or being rich, or being helpless, or being
    powerful, or being female, or being male is by experiencing lifetimes in such circumstances.”
    Book source: Andareon Theory communication.
    “Consciousness and matter are both composed of these units of electro-tonal energy and so both
    spiritual and scientific mastery are brought together through the applied knowledge of electro-tonal
    energy dynamics. For the smallest units of energy in the cosmos you could find 800
    billion billion units in an average 3 dimensional photon. They represent the “divine substance”
    out of which the cosmos is composed.
    “There is an organizational intelligence and sentient creative force of vast proportion that is
    responsible for the design and creation of the cosmos, i.e., the Central Creative Force you call
    God***. Members of the benevolent Guardian Alliance (Note: who communicated this book)
    are beings from higher reality fields, dimensions ten through fifteen, who have evolved beyond
    the manifestation of biology, physical and etheric matter substance into states of conscious prematter
    form who appear as forms of light when they enter your system**** or, occasionally take
    on the appearance of biological forms in order to interact with Earth life. Note for example: Jesus from
    the 12th dimension.
    ***Note 3: The GOD of the Old Testament Yahweh was an Ancient Astronaut as demonstrated
    by the Jewish-American scholar Zecharia Sitchin who authored multiple books based on
    historical Middle Eastern archeological hieroglyphic interpretations.
    ****Note 4: The above afterlife “system” description is supported in the website Zetatalk.com
    which contains details on souls, reincarnation, DNA and dimensions (density), particularly
    Dimension Four.
    Book #2. “The Treasure of El Dorado” Chapter 7. The Bodies of Man. EXCERPTS from dictated communications by Ascended Masters. Joseph Whitfield 213 pages. Available through Amazon.com.

    “The value of the TREASURE is literally priceless since it could not be purchased with all the
    material wealth of all worlds. The asset is the SECRET OF OVERCOMING DEATH.

    “Few indeed are aware of the totality of their being. Existing within and around the physical
    bodies are IMPERISHABLE bodies. These other bodies interpenetrate the physical body as well
    as extend beyond it. The various bodies which constitute the total potential of all developing
    human beings are: the physical matter body, the astral (antimatter) body, the etheric (Christ)
    body, the mental body and the emotional body. It is these other bodies that constitute the
    phenomenon referred to as an aura (NOTE: Which has been proven to exist by special
    photographic techniques, see Wikipedia aura paranormal). The reason that the aura is not readily
    seen by most people is that its range of vibration renders it invisible to the physical eye. One’s
    CONSCIOUSNESS and other higher faculties reside in this “spiritual” (frequency existing) body
    and are INDESTRUCTIBLE.
    “WHEN PHYSICAL DEATH OCCURS, THESE OTHER BODIES LEAVE THE PHYSICAL
    BODY AS A UNIT AND BECOME THE OPERABLE VEHICLE THROUGH WHICH THE
    CONSCIOUSNESS CONTINUES TO FUNCTION IN OTHER DIMENSIONS! While one is
    no longer physically incarnated, the astral body houses the other bodies after the transition called
    death. Unlike the physical body, however, the astral body is inviolable, (i.e.,incorruptible).
    “Let us examine some of the functions which the various aspects of the astral body serve while
    one is physically incarnated. The subconscious is the mechanism which performs those vital
    functions that produce automatic actions and reactions on the physical level. Examples of this
    would be breathing, beating of the heart, blinking of the eyelids, digesting, etc. It is the
    subconscious which permits the formation of habits and which must be reprogrammed in order to
    break habits and existing beliefs. The subconscious however does not have the capacity for
    rational thought. Everything that is recorded in the brain is also recorded in the subconscious.
    The subconscious contains total memory information FROM ALL PREVIOUS LIVES AND
    EXPERIENCES (as recorded in the energetic DNA).
    “The brain is the memory bank while physically incarnated. The subconscious mind is the
    memory bank for your total experiences. Whatever is recorded in the brain is recorded
    automatically in the subconscious as well.
    “Consider that quality of the astral body that is called soul. Think of a cassette tape (i.e., the
    energetic DNA). When the tape is blank, it can be said to contain no soul. Now fill it with
    recordings. What we have done is to impart attributes to a previously empty cassette. We have
    thus CREATED SOUL. When the life ends, the tape (i.e., the surviving energetic DNA) is filled
    with that essence called SOUL. Within the total soul are many completed “tapes” containing the
    records of all incarnational experiences. The completed “tapes” form the memory bank, or the
    akashic record of each individual being. Whatever information is contained (from past lives),
    whether it be good or evil, true or false, right or wrong, correct or incorrect, can and does
    influence your well-being in your present life. This is why many people go through lifetime
    after lifetime making the same mistakes over and over again. In summary, the subconscious and
    the soul lack discernment. They cannot reason.
    “The conscious part of your mental body provides you with the powers of thinking. Thinking is
    the capacity to discern, reason, rationalize, to exercise self-discipline, to deduce, to employ logic,
    to analyze, inquire, synthesize, judge, investigate, observe, etc. THE BRAIN IS NOT THE
    MIND. It is one of the instruments that the mind uses while you are manifested in the physical
    planes (dimensions) of expression. The mental body has three distinct parts or levels: the
    conscious, the subconscious, and the superconscious. A primary function of the mind or mental
    body is to produce awareness, an incredible tool in the development of potential. As a
    component of the mental body, the subconscious has the ability and the capacity to record all
    sensual, mental, and emotional, and spiritual experiences and to “play back” this information,
    functioning like a tape recorder (i.e. the morphogenetic field and/or DNA).
    “The etheric (or Christ) body has been described by enlightened writers. Often referred to as the
    light body due to the effect produced in the atomic structure of this body by the speed of the
    electron movement within the atoms which equals or exceeds the speed of light. Achieving the
    status of etheric (or Christhood) confers upon the recipient many powers not found in the lesser
    bodies. Jesus represents the best example in history. Among the powers he was known to have
    demonstrated were: bilocation, levitation, materialization, healing, etc. Jesus constantly
    reminded his followers that they could do all of these and even greater things.
    “When one achieves the full etheric (or Christ) vibration, then death will no longer have
    dominion over him. It gives him the power to alter his vibrations at will, and thus he can freely
    travel through the physical, astral and etheric vibrations.
    “It is the emotional body that gives you a feeling nature, i.e., that produces the capacity for
    experiencing all levels of emotion such as joy and sorrow, love and hate, compassion and
    malevolence, ecstacy and depression, pleasure and pain, excitement and indifference. The
    emotional capacity is experienced on all levels of expression.
    “The superconscious is the functioning mind of the etheric or Christ self. What is required is that
    man of earth become aware of the existence of the incredible power of the superconscious mind
    and desire its attainment. To give you some idea of the scope of the superconscious mind, think
    of a rating scale numbered from 1 to 10 as representing the range of man’s conscious mind in
    Earth. Then classify the most outstanding geniuses of Earth history using 10 as the ultimate that
    is attainable. You will find that such men as Einstein, Swedenborg, Whitman, etc., would be
    rated from perhaps 7 through 9. By comparison, a pure state of superconsciousness would range
    into the hundreds or thousands. It is quite easy to conclude from this, is it not, that the means
    exist to literally transform Earth into a paradise by educating mankind as to its potential.
    “These bodies constitute man’s potential as he continues to evolve within the “system.” Each
    aspect of our total self is indispensable to the function and purpose of our total being.

    NOTE: The above concepts based on my “knowledge” research were confirmed in Australian Michel Desmarquest’s abduction to a highly advanced planetary culture (see below)

    OTHER REINFORCING BOOKS: *** most favored among hundreds researched.

    ***Abduction to the 9th Planet, republished under title “Thiaoouba Prophecy” by Michel Desmarqueet, Arafura Publishing, Australia. He was abducted physically in 1987 for nine days by the spiritually most highly evolved and most technically developed planet in our galaxy. He confirmed and detailed the existence of imperishable aura , reincarnation, and astral/etheric afterlife on progressively more advanced planets !! Excerpts below.

    “Your astral body, which inhabits every normal human being, transfers to its higher-self all the sensations that are experienced during a lifetime in a physical body. A normal human astral body contains approximately four billion trillion electrons, exactly marrying your (peak) physical shape.

    “The more you cultivate your mind, the less you will be burdened by your physical body and the quicker you will proceed through your cycle of lives. Regarding the problems of your planet, Michel, the solution depends on love, not money. People need to rise above hate, resentment, jealousy and envy, and put their neighbor before themselves.

    “There are nine categories of planets. You are on the planet Thiaoouba which is the top of the scale. Earth is a planet of the first category which could be likened to a kindergarten. We are one of three planets in the galaxy which are the most highly evolved.

    Zetatalk by Nancy Lieder, Granet Publishing, dictated by benevolent extraterrestrials
    also see website Zetatalk.com, Section Density, i.e. Dimensions
    ***An Ascension Handbook by Tony Stubbs, Oughten House Pub’g, channeled by Serapis Bey

    The Science of the Soul by Robert Siblerud, Sacred Science Publishers

    The Infinite MIND by Valerie V Hunt: The Science of Human Vibrations of Consciousness, Malibu Publishing
    The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot, Harper Perennial

    ***Andareon Theory by Robert Gidel, Andareon Foundation Press, dictated by Andar Group

    After We Die, What Then by George Meek, electronics engineer, Ariel Press

    A Lawyer Presents the Case for Afterlife, by Victor Zammit, Gammell Pty, Ltd.,Australia
    also see website Victorzammit.com
    Extraterrestrials in Biblical Prophecy by G. Cope Schellhorn, Horus House Press

    ***The Yahweh Encounters – Controversial Bible Interpretation, by Ann Madden Jones

    Extraterrestrial Contact – the Evidence and Implications by Steven Greer, Cross Point Publishers

    Gods, Genes & Consciousness – Nonhuman Intervention in Human History
    by Paul Von Ward, Hampton Roads

    A Seth Reader, by Richard Roberts, Vernal Equinox Press

    ***The Only Planet of Choice, by Phyllis Schlemmer, Gateway Books, Bath, UK

    Vibrational Medicine, by Richard Gerber, Chapters 1 & 4, Bear & Co.

    Light After Life by Dr. Konstantin Korotkov, Backbone Publishing

    Miracles of the Storm – Instrumental TransCommunication (ITC), by Mark Macy
    See website: World ITC.org

    PS: Pass this along if you are so inclined. Promotion encouraged, but this is NOT for total re-publication in books, magazines, professional journals, etc. without source approval. Short quotes or references OK. DJS

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