Science and Life Beyond

A Physicist’s View of the Afterlife: Weird Quantum Physics
By Tara MacIsaac, Epoch Times | September 5, 2014

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.—Dr. Alan Ross Hugenot has spent decades contemplating the conundrums of physics, along with the enigma of human consciousness.

Hugenot holds a doctorate of science in mechanical engineering, and has had a successful career in marine engineering, serving on committees that write the ship-building standards for the United States.

“I did things using Newtonian physics to create ships,” he said, “but the whole time, I knew better. There’s this whole other world that our five senses don’t register.” He gave a talk on the science of the afterlife at the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) 2014 Conference in Newport Beach, Calif., on Aug. 29.

Exploring the scientific theories related to this other world, Hugenot has wondered whether the consciousness of living human beings as well as the “souls” of the dead reside in dark matter or dark energy. He has pondered the implications of the power our consciousness seems to have over physical reality.

Hugenot told of a near-death experience in the 1970s during which he experienced part of this other world. He found it “more real than this place.”

These matters aren’t only intellectual curiosities for Hugenot; they bear on a profound experience that has changed his worldview.

Hugenot summarized some theories in physics, interpreting how they may point to the existence of a consciousness independent of the brain and to the existence of an afterlife on another plane. He noted that further investigation (reliant on further funding) would be needed to verify his postulates. He also noted challenges in trying to verify these ideas in a traditional scientific framework.

How Your Consciousness Could Exist in a ‘Cloud’

Hugenot said the human consciousness may function like the data we store in the cloud. That data can be accessed from multiple devices—your smartphone, your tablet, your desktop computer.

During a near-death experience, theorized Hugenot, the mind may be fleeing a dangerous situation. We can “flip the switch and go to the other computer,” he said.

“The nexus of my consciousness is in my head, but the locus of my consciousness—where is it really? It’s outside my body. Because inside and outside is an illusion.”

Space may not exist, or at least not in the way we commonly understand it, he said, citing Dr. John Bell’s non-locality theorem. “[It's a] hard one to get; we love our space,” he joked.

Non-locality refers to the ability of two objects to instantaneously know about each other’s states, even if they’re separated by vast distances. It is related to the phenomenon of entanglement: particle A and particle B interact, and thereafter remain mysteriously bonded. When particle A undergoes a change, particle B undergoes the same change; A and B have, in many ways, lost their individuality and behave as a single entity.

Bell’s theorem has been verified by many scientists over the years and is part of mainstream quantum physics. Hugenot’s ideas about the consciousness existing inside and outside of the human body at the same time build on this theorem, but remain outside the mainstream.

Is the Afterlife in Dark Matter, or Maybe in Another Dimension?

What scientists have observed accounts for an estimated 4 percent of our universe. Dark energy and dark matter comprise the other 96 percent. Scientists don’t really know what dark energy and matter are, and their existence is only perceived because of the effects they appear to have on observable matter.

Hugenot said: “This undiscerned 96 percent of the universe … gives us plenty of room for both consciousness and the afterlife to exist in.”

Perhaps the consciousness exists in another dimension, Hugenot said. String Theory, much-discussed in mainstream physics, holds that other dimensions exist beyond the four-dimensional concept of the universe. String Theory views the universe as a world of very thin, vibrating strings. The strings are thought to project from a lower-dimensional cosmos, one that is simpler, flatter, and without gravity.

Link to the original full article:
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/936107-a-physicists-view-of-the-afterlife-weird-quantum-physics/