Stress Academy Presents:

Web Series – The Story of Stress

Part 1 – Understanding Stress

Episode 10 – Scientific Evidence of Consciousness

In the last few videos, we learned about the challenges associated with believing the brain as a sole causative factor in formation of a person’s knowledge, beliefs and emotions. We also concluded that the idea of consciousness as a separate entity from the brain and body is essential to rationally explain free will. Now, let’s discuss the question you may be asking: “is there any scientific evidence to support the idea of consciousness being a separate entity from the brain and body?”

Like we discussed in video 5, logically everything in the universe must follow the principle of conservation of substance. That means something cannot be created out of nothing and something cannot turn into nothing. Instead, everything in the universe undergoes constant change. Some of the body’s attributes such as touch, taste, color and smell do not cease to exist after death, but they simply change their form as the matter particles disintegrate. But, what happens to attributes of living beings (or consciousness) such as knowledge, beliefs and emotions? So, it means that they must survive in a different form as well. According to Jain philosophy, consciousness of the living being unites with a different body either as human or a different species after death. So, existence of consciousness would be proven if we can find evidence of a person’s knowledge, beliefs and emotions surviving after their death.

Late Dr. Ian Stevenson (MD), an internationally renowned psychiatrist, had established the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. He spent a major part of his career travelling, researching & investigating cases of kids claiming to remember their past lives. To collect data, Dr.Stevenson methodically documented children’s statements of previous life. Then, he would identify the deceased person the child claimed to remember as being himself and verify the facts of the deceased person’s life to match with the child’s memory. In many of the cases, he was able to verify the identity of the deceased person and account of his death by obtaining their medical records. His strict methodology ruled out all possible “normal” explanations for the child’s memories including possibility of fraud, fantasy, faulty memory, genetic memory and knowledge acquired through normal means1. 

The child psychiatrist Dr. Jim Tucker (MD) at University of Virginia School of Medicine has continued Dr. Stevenson’s research regarding rebirth. In all of these cases, the children have displayed their knowledge of the past life (in the form of previous memories), beliefs (about them being a previous personality) and emotions (in the form of attachment to their previous life). In his book “Life Before Life – Children’s memories of Previous Lives”, Dr.Jim Tucker summarizes his research from 2500 cases of children with past life memories. Dr.Tucker argues that viewing yourself as a fundamental, nonmaterial part of the universe makes it possible to conceive consciousness as continuing to exist after the death of the brain. He provides the analogy of a signal decoder and television transmission. The signal decoder is required to interpret and express the signal, but it does not create the signal. In a similar way, the brain may be instrumental for expressing knowledge or awareness, but may not be the source of the knowledge in itself. Dr. Tucker further concludes that the idea of rebirth from one life to the next appears to be the best explanation of the evidence from this research2. 

Similarly, another researcher Dr. Brian Weiss (psychiatrist) has done extensive research on rebirth using past life regression therapy. According to Dr. Weiss, in 1980 one of his patients, “Catherine”, began discussing past-life experiences while undergoing hypnosis for anxiety and depression. Dr. Weiss did not believe in reincarnation at the time but, after confirming elements of Catherine’s stories through public records, he was convinced of the survival of an element of the human personality after death3. Dr. Weiss has regressed more than four thousand patients since 1980. He advocates hypnotic regression as a therapy for phobias and the other psychiatric ailments, claiming that many of these are rooted in past-life experiences and therefore, this awareness and recognition by the patient becomes integral for having a curative effect.”

After learning and understanding this concept of rebirth scientifically, you may wonder why do most people not have any recollection of memories from their past lives? Most of us tend to either remember things learned through frequent repetitions over time or remember significant moments associated with strong emotions in the current life. Most people do not have any memories from early childhood when they were infants and toddlers. However, these memories can be recalled to the conscious mind using psychoanalytic techniques such as hypnosis. Similarly, as documented by Dr. Weiss in his research, people may also remember or recall memories of their past lives due to certain triggers in early childhood or even adult life. 

From the above research, we can conclude that:

1. Consciousness survives death and is a separate entity from material worldly things including the body as well as the brain. 
2. Consciousness (Jiv) is the fundamental and eternal substance of nature which consists of attributes such as knowledge, belief, conduct (emotions) and happiness. 
3. The brain processes the information received from senses and facilitates the expression of knowledge, beliefs and emotions occurring within consciousness.

Based on teachings of Tirthankar Mahavir Swami, the great Jain Acharya Pujyapad has documented details about past life memories (Jati smaran Gyan) in his treatise Sarvarth Siddhi around the 5th century CE4.

Now we have established the concept of consciousness being a separate but coexisting entity within the body. In the next video, it is time to investigate natural and unnatural modes of consciousness that would allow us to understand our stressful behavior. 

Feel free to leave your questions in the comments section. Don’t forget to like the video and subscribe to the channel.

References:

1. Ian Stevenson, MD. Division of Perceptual Studies, University of VA, Charlottesville, VA.
2.  https://med.virginia.edu/perceptual-studies/who-we-are/dr-ian-stevenson/

1. Tucker, J. Life before life: A scientific investigation of children’s memories of previous lives. St Martin’s Press. 2005
2. Weiss, L. Many lives, many masters. New York: Simon & Schuster. 1988
3. Acharya Umaswami. Tattvarth Sutra.  ~150 C.E. Acharya Pujyapad. Sarvarth Siddhi (commentary on Tattvarth Sutra). . ~500 C.E. English translation and explanation by S.A. Jain. 1992 C.E. 

Available at: https://jainelibrary.org/book-detail/?srno=001197