THOUGHTS ON LIFE, DEATH, AND CONSCIOUSNESS
by Larry Cornett 10/6/2021 hugnome41@yahoo.com

Consciousness is an aspect of the interconnection of everything in the universe. Normal, waking, individual, consciousness is a manifestation of that interconnectedness resonating intimately in the brain of an individual - holistically connecting information storage, retrieval and sensory mechanisms into a single physical unity. Thus, universal consciousness manifests as individual consciousness. For details, see http://www.lcorncalen.com/QUANTM4P.htm.

Many of us have also experienced non-ordinary consciousness, when our awareness is merged with the Universe, and we feel oneness, when we transcend the limits of time and space, and experience telepathy, remote vision, and past lives. Such is the nature of consciousness.

When the physical, individual brain no longer has electrons resonating holistically in it (as when a person is dead), the normal waking consciousness of an individual no longer exists. However, consciousness remains and may manifest in forms that retain aspects of the individual, as the non-local interconnections associated with the person continue to operate. While the complete mundane ego of an individual may die in mundane death, some remnants often remain.

While the physical body of someone one was close to may be not be with us, the person's interconnectedness with us and with the universe continues. As a result, dreams involving the recently departed person are a common experience.

One can connect with the personality of someone who as died by resonating with it, despite its distance in time and space. Time works in all directions at once at fundamental quantum and subquantum levels; and the effects of something happening at one time live on and remain connected at other times. This makes it possible to connect with a past, present or future personality when we transcend the limits of time, as in an appropriate trance, in dreams, in a magic circle, etc. This helps explain experience of reincarnation, telepathy, mediumship, clairvoyance, and divination, along with contact through dreams and ghosts. Such is the nature of consciousness.

Ritual can be useful for working with the interconnections associated with a loved one who has died, to help deal with loose ends. This can help both the one who has died and those who miss him or her. Rites associated with a departed one include:

* Remembrances, such as wakes and funerals

* Mediumistic rites, in which the spirit of someone departed speaks through another person or through his or her tools (such as a pendulum, Ouija board, etc.)

* Shamanic soul retrieval, where disconnected, non-localized aspects of the consciousness of a living or departed one are retrieved and made whole again

* Magickal rites in which the spirit of the departed is invited to participate and may be offered an opportunity to commune with participants and to say goodbye, perhaps along with rites giving the departed person guidance and/or options such as travel, staying around, rest, or rebirth, with power and thoughtforms to help the process

* Magickal rites in which the spirit of the departed is invited to inhabit something physical (such as a spirit house) which may be dealt with in ritual at a later date or dates

* Ancestor worship and rites in which the spirits of the departed are honored and asked to help the living

Different traditions have different rites and ways of dealing with those aspects of consciousness associated with the dead. Whatever the tradition, it is important to treat those aspects of consciousness associated with the dead with respect, and to assure that the rites performed and the results that they manifest are appropriate for and willingly accepted by those with whom, for whom and to whom the rite is conducted.

++++++++++++++++++++Addendum 10/18/2012++++++++++++++++++++

Translating some of the ideas above into the terminology used in my recent training in the Gelug Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism at Jewel Heart Cleveland (as best I can, given my limited and imperfect understanding): Mind is an aspect of the interconnection of everything (infinitely deep interdependent processes of causes and conditions that include non-local aspects), and mental factors are categories of associated processes. Gross mind is a manifestation non-local aspects (primary mind) resonating intimately in the body, etc. of an individual. When the physical body is no longer functioning, the gross mind of an individual no longer exists. However, primary mind (an aspect of fundamental nonlocal processes) remains and commonly manifests in forms that retain aspects of the individual, as processes of causes and conditions (karma) associated with the individual continue to operate (interdependent factors come apart, transform and come together ). This helps explain reincarnation, telepathy, mediumship, clairvoyance, and divination, along with dreams and ghosts. Such is the nature of mind, death, karma, and reincarnation.

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For additional pertinent thoughts, see A Physicist's View of the Afterlife: Weird Quantum Physics by Tara MacIsaac, Epoch Times , September 5, 2014 http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/936107-a-physicists-view-of-the-afterlife-weird-quantum-physics/

Along with other references on quantum physics and the nature of consciousness.

I have had enough psychic experiences, evidence of reincarnation, and studied theories of quantum physics and consciousness to know that there are non-local connections in consciousness that are not trapped at one location in time and space. However, it is complicated; and the ego and sense of self are impermanent