Show #63 - Into the supernatural: Interview with parapsychologist Stephen Braude
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I really enjoyed listening to this show. It was a fascinating topic and having Laura, Ark and Harrison made it even more interesting. I actually had to listen to the show three times before understanding most of what was being discussed.
While Stephen is undoubtedly one of the top researchers in the field, I disagree with his view about information as well as organ transplants and how that affects the recipient’s personality. If I understood him correctly, he doesn't believe that this phenomenon occurs through cellular memory but that the soul is attached to the organ and it 'possesses' the recipient once the transplant is performed. This suggests that Stephen thinks that cells, or organs for that matter, do not carry meaningful (semantic) information. He instead supposes that these psychokinetic phenomena can only be explained through semantic information which happen at the macroscopic level and discounts the possibility of information theory playing a role at the microscopic level which he relates to syntactic information.
However, if we suppose that everything is made of information at the most fundamental level then even personality and character traits are composed of information organized at the microscopic level so that when the organ is transplanted, the organ's information configuration will be merged or integrated into the recipients own information field. This also supports the idea that our mind and consciousness are not found or stored in the brain but are non-local phenomena which reminds me of Mae-Wan Ho’s concept of quantum coherence.
Now another interesting question would be whether after a transplant, is it just information that gets integrated in the recipients information field or is his own coding system also affected, i.e. is there a change in the way that information is structured and organized within his system? I wonder if this is then reflected in the DNA and genetic coding.
Btw, for those who have read Stephen Braude's books, which one would be best to start with? I also remember someone posting a list of recommended parapsychological books but I cannot seem to find it (I may be making this up though).
While Stephen is undoubtedly one of the top researchers in the field, I disagree with his view about information as well as organ transplants and how that affects the recipient’s personality. If I understood him correctly, he doesn't believe that this phenomenon occurs through cellular memory but that the soul is attached to the organ and it 'possesses' the recipient once the transplant is performed. This suggests that Stephen thinks that cells, or organs for that matter, do not carry meaningful (semantic) information. He instead supposes that these psychokinetic phenomena can only be explained through semantic information which happen at the macroscopic level and discounts the possibility of information theory playing a role at the microscopic level which he relates to syntactic information.
However, if we suppose that everything is made of information at the most fundamental level then even personality and character traits are composed of information organized at the microscopic level so that when the organ is transplanted, the organ's information configuration will be merged or integrated into the recipients own information field. This also supports the idea that our mind and consciousness are not found or stored in the brain but are non-local phenomena which reminds me of Mae-Wan Ho’s concept of quantum coherence.
Now another interesting question would be whether after a transplant, is it just information that gets integrated in the recipients information field or is his own coding system also affected, i.e. is there a change in the way that information is structured and organized within his system? I wonder if this is then reflected in the DNA and genetic coding.
Btw, for those who have read Stephen Braude's books, which one would be best to start with? I also remember someone posting a list of recommended parapsychological books but I cannot seem to find it (I may be making this up though).
Eboard10 said:
Not sure here. Cellular memory theory itself (at least as it's thought about in mainstream science) denies that cells/organs/etc. have any 'semantic information' or awareness. It's a purely 'mechanistic' theory. So in that sense, I think it's right to reject cellular memory. There's no mechanistic way for organs to "remember" stuff about a previous personality. Question is, what is being remembered? Is it just personality fragments and characteristics? Or an actual soul? I dunno.
Probably Gold Leaf Lady. It's the least cerebral, IMO, and has some fun anecdotes and case studies.
paralleloscope
The Living Force
Thanks for an interesting show 
Yeah his problem with the information theory angle was, I think in a nutshell: "trying to reduce semantic information and certain other patterns which first occur at the macro level, including behavior patterns". To me it seems strange or synthetic to break off behavior patterns from communication with the micro of that persons reality, if I understand correctly the implications of his argument. In retrospect it would have been interesting to hear which of the 10 dogmas, proposed by Sheldrake, he is adhering to.
Yeah his problem with the information theory angle was, I think in a nutshell: "trying to reduce semantic information and certain other patterns which first occur at the macro level, including behavior patterns". To me it seems strange or synthetic to break off behavior patterns from communication with the micro of that persons reality, if I understand correctly the implications of his argument. In retrospect it would have been interesting to hear which of the 10 dogmas, proposed by Sheldrake, he is adhering to.Organ memory could be an an argument for morphogenetic fields with behavioral/personality/ancestral imprints, where the organs comes entrained from a different field.Approaching Infinity said:
lilies
The Living Force
It was refreshing to listen to Ark's razor sharp thinking and yet beautifully simple explanations, allowing us laymen to grok more of advanced physics. Stephen gave amazing information, thank you! Couple of caveats however:
Wrong definition of precognition:
- plane crash and building collapse scenarios at around 120:00
What Stephen talks about seems more like clairvoyance: how the passenger is scanning the plane's physical structure, pilots and maintenance personnel's consciousness with his mind. Same with the architectural engineer. Both conclude the plane will crash / building will collapse with good probability based on how many errors they can find collecting already existing data.
Sole and sad reason why we have two terms for seeing what has already occurred [clairvoyance] and what has not yet happened, but we would like to see [precognition] is our obligatory brain sickness called the Linear Time Illusion. If one day we would wake up and continue to live in Objective Cyclic Universal Time, we could call these simply Seeing, I guess.
Precognition, the real thing, however, should be what the C's hint at in session 941107 November 7, 1994 F***and Laura.
The Art of Accessing, what is beforehand unknowable in our density. Is more like what Ingo Swann talks abount in Penetration.
_http://www.amazon.com/Penetration-Question-Extraterrestrial-Human-Telepathy/dp/0966767403
Only part of his book seems to contain a useful concept:
He talks about several experiments of "Find out what I *will* put in the envelope". Fishing out info from the mind of the experiment-leader is rather hard when the leader does not know yet, what he will draw and put into the envelope.
Rather what appears to happen is this:
The Living Universe is perpetually self-recording its own EEG, MRI, etc.. "scans" along with everything that happens into its own body The Ether = the Information Field.
From this field the precog and any other clairvoyant / psychic person is able to read like your PC does from your hard-drive - only so much information he she has capacity to access. Receivership Capability is one of the most important determinants in our life.
Increasing one's mind capacity - Work on Being - seems to allow greater portion of the Higher Order Consciousness [the Higher Self hovering] to enter/fuse with our everyday mind resulting in the following gains:
- improved ability to examine new processes and see deeper meanings and recognize more working details in same
- small enlightenings are accomplished and these like sparks ignite our minds-motor effecting positive couplings driving more admirable discoveries [trampoline effect]
- bits of the Veil of Darkness lifted from the Inner Eye in small steps so the person can
see / query more from the Information Field [ether, spirits, assess the weight of several probable futures, pre-estimate outcomes]
It seems that once enough small enlightenings are gained, this interest about the paranormal and psychic / precognitive activities becomes unnecessary, since the new existence that awaits us - the tape at the finish line being Pure Energy Mastery with teleportation, bi-location, create food, telepathy, Reiki mastery - encompasses these as the very basic components of our New Life on a New Earth.
Wrong definition of precognition:
- plane crash and building collapse scenarios at around 120:00
What Stephen talks about seems more like clairvoyance: how the passenger is scanning the plane's physical structure, pilots and maintenance personnel's consciousness with his mind. Same with the architectural engineer. Both conclude the plane will crash / building will collapse with good probability based on how many errors they can find collecting already existing data.
Sole and sad reason why we have two terms for seeing what has already occurred [clairvoyance] and what has not yet happened, but we would like to see [precognition] is our obligatory brain sickness called the Linear Time Illusion. If one day we would wake up and continue to live in Objective Cyclic Universal Time, we could call these simply Seeing, I guess.
Precognition, the real thing, however, should be what the C's hint at in session 941107 November 7, 1994 F***and Laura.
The Art of Accessing, what is beforehand unknowable in our density. Is more like what Ingo Swann talks abount in Penetration.
_http://www.amazon.com/Penetration-Question-Extraterrestrial-Human-Telepathy/dp/0966767403
Only part of his book seems to contain a useful concept:
He talks about several experiments of "Find out what I *will* put in the envelope". Fishing out info from the mind of the experiment-leader is rather hard when the leader does not know yet, what he will draw and put into the envelope.
Rather what appears to happen is this:
The Living Universe is perpetually self-recording its own EEG, MRI, etc.. "scans" along with everything that happens into its own body The Ether = the Information Field.
From this field the precog and any other clairvoyant / psychic person is able to read like your PC does from your hard-drive - only so much information he she has capacity to access. Receivership Capability is one of the most important determinants in our life.
Increasing one's mind capacity - Work on Being - seems to allow greater portion of the Higher Order Consciousness [the Higher Self hovering] to enter/fuse with our everyday mind resulting in the following gains:
- improved ability to examine new processes and see deeper meanings and recognize more working details in same
- small enlightenings are accomplished and these like sparks ignite our minds-motor effecting positive couplings driving more admirable discoveries [trampoline effect]
- bits of the Veil of Darkness lifted from the Inner Eye in small steps so the person can
see / query more from the Information Field [ether, spirits, assess the weight of several probable futures, pre-estimate outcomes]
It seems that once enough small enlightenings are gained, this interest about the paranormal and psychic / precognitive activities becomes unnecessary, since the new existence that awaits us - the tape at the finish line being Pure Energy Mastery with teleportation, bi-location, create food, telepathy, Reiki mastery - encompasses these as the very basic components of our New Life on a New Earth.
anka said:
In light of information fields at the fundamental level, the statement of "gravity being the binder" is starting to look very interesting.
I would imagine that anti-gravity would be turning off or on the right "information bits".
Makes me wonder if the purported focused sound waves of the ancients weren't also information manipulation.