As a candidate for ceasing the living and an aging person of 87 years, a friend's article from Sabine Hossenfelder initiated my spending time with this blog (The Return Of Quantum Woo SCIENCE NEWS Consciousness Survives Death With Quantum Physics, Scientists Claim).  She describes an experiment in which the authors attempted to show that near death experiences prove that consciousness becomes part of the energy or fabric of the material world and therefore after death experiences of the former living persist. Now, if I was biased, longed for an after life this would be encouraging news to me! Hosenfelder has nothing but disdain for the botched report presented as a science experiment. Since I'm not aware of any scientific experiments that proves life after death in any form, I'm left to ponder the issue of biased thinking, beliefs that are strongly held, pseudoscience in which biased observations are treated as facts. Maybe I'm an adherent of  Pyrrhonism. 

Back in the day, when younger and interested in assisting patients in overcoming trauma, I had a specialty of a few patients who suffered from dissociative disorders. I became a local expert in this field. I was enveloped for a time in a field very controversial full of pseudoscientific reports and biased opinions. I had patients who reported living past lives. I had patients who reported memory lapses in which they became someone else who took control over their body. I interviewed and counseled patients who "switched personalities" and were convinced they were separated but inhabited the same body as the host. I attended workshops, read extensively in this field and came to these conclusions. 

There is no evidence for separate independent other personalities in the same person. There are some patients who pick up on my biases and for a time attempt to please my fantasies that they have dissociated. There are some patients who do have some or all of these symptoms and more. These patients all have a history of trauma from childhood so severe and persistent. These patients are highly hypnotizable! This characteristic explains how they seem to escape from the experiences of being abused often in extreme multiple ways by dissociating using their ability to suspend their active consciousness (hypnosis). So I became somewhat adept in using hypnotic techniques in a therapeutic manner. 

I was aware that my journey into this specialized practice was controversial to some of my colleagues. There is a long history of controversial practices and theories in psychiatry. One of my psychology colleagues reminded me of the diagnosis of hysteria thinking that my patients were hysterical females. I did my research into this literature and found that we were in the area that Charcot, Freud, Jung, and and many others wrote about (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3480686/) . For example. Freud hypothesized that many "hysterical"  patients were molested by their father or relative as young children. He later rescinded this theory and proposed that they fantasized as children that they were molested. So more survey research revealed that maybe both hypothesis were true and more. In 1980 Hysteria was removed as a valid diagnosis for patients. My journey into this practice was during the time where neurolinguistics programming was proposed, meditation practices were suggested, psychedelic usages were on the rise, and political turmoils was ruling the day. Psychological trauma research was burgeoning with war trauma studies on the rise. Dissociation research was being validated while alternative health practices flourished. 

So how do we navigate in this world of alternative realities, fake new, alternative information sources purporting to give us the truth and guide us. Carefully! 

For example, researchers into the paranormal  include Carl Jung, William James, and then more modern studies reveal hype but no real substantial proof. Treatments for hysteria include orgastic treatment by Wilhelm Reich and others in which the "patient" mostly female are brought to orgasm by using an artificial probe placed by the practitioner or assistant with the patient reporting relief from psychological distress. 

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing  EMDR is a treatment proposed by Francine Shapiro that has many adherents and practitioners.  Results are mainly positive though the theories on how its effects occur remain controversial.  The patients for its use include people suffering from anxiety disorders and post traumatic stress related symptoms. My colleagues who have been trained in this technique are strong adherents of its usefulness.

I must also mention Milton Erikson a renowned hypnotist who resided in a ranch outside Phoenix has had many adherents. His storytelling techniques while using a form of hypnosis has been very beneficial. The field of hypnosis as a stage craft entertainment and the whole field of magic practitioners craft is related to the issues that lead us to endorse and believe in many false certainties that are part of our human functioning.    

My last dive into the controversial has to do with meditation. The Buddhist beliefs on letting go, dismissing our pull into desires, worldly interests and endorsing asceticism are related. In the 1980's, transcendental  meditation reported that in Switzerland practitioners were able to levitated off of the floor they were practicing in. Yoga hopping or levitating has been investigated and there is no observable proof that adherents can actually levitate.  Willoughby Britton is a researcher in meditation a one time adherent who noticed that some practitioners became dysfunctional and symptomatic when practicing for more than a short time (minutes). She went onto surveying people who were practitioners and validated her initial impression that this practice can be harmful to some especially people with anxiety, depression, and trauma history (Atlantic Magazine article by Hanna Rosin September 17, 2026).   I have some training in meditation and find it useful in short burst to alleviate painful procedures or stress. In many ways the practice for short spurts is related to our ability to use dissociation (hypnosis). My caution is for those practitioners who use it in extended workshops or individual practice. The Buddhist asceticism practice of disengagement may lead to the person becoming passive less active in problem solving and pursuing more difficult to attain goals. I'm impressed with the neuroscientific research into meditation and brainwave research that shows true more permanent brain changes for adept meditators.   

Neuroplasticity is a related topic associated with our human tendency to have beliefs alter our reality for change in both positive and negative ways. It used to be suggested that people with stroke disabilities where they lose function of part of their body should protect the affected part of their body usually with a sling. After in the sling for a time they did not regain functioning of the affect part.  Researchers and practitioners with an alternative view who thought that the brain could develop new connections to innervate the non functioning muscles began advocating that the stroke victim begin to mentally and physically attempt to use the limb and low and behold some of those disabled were able to gain functioning! Other researchers then also had disable people who lost other functioning (https://www.google.com/search?q=neuroplasticity+treatment+of+stroke+victims&oq=neuroplasticity+treatment+of+stroke+victims&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigATIHCAQQIRigATIHCAUQIRirAtIBCTE4NTk1ajBqNKgCA7ACAQ&sourceid=chrome&source=chrome.ob&ie=UTF-8). 

Hindsight Paradox is a phenomenon in which we conclude that something that has happened with us involved was predicted by us before it happened. It is related to other human biases which may be related to our original topic of consciousness surviving death.  Of course, then when we are on the topic of bias, related is bias delight bias. I love my car that I bought because "I bought it, invested money in it, want to be pleased etc". 

So in closing, I have near death experiences. I have no evidence that my consciousness will persist after my body stops functioning. But I did enjoy writng this blog. Hope you did too!

Leonard

 

Red Rock Canyon Nevada