Our brains are driven by well understood biochemical processes, comprised of plain old physical matter. But there’s always been that sliver of a theory, you know? That there’s more to the mind and consciousness than what we perceive. Beyond the gray matter and the neurons and the chemicals.
Something else. Something we can’t see.
Could our consciousness actually exist within a higher dimension?
Of course, there’s no particular reason to believe the brain isn’t a classical system.
The chemical processes, the neurons, the electricity.
All of that is something we could conceivably replicate with computers and machines.
We know how it works. We know how memories form, how we learn.
We know what happens if certain bits go…missing.
But consciousness, an awareness of the world around us. That’s where our understanding falters.
One idea is that consciousness simply emerges from all of the complex processing of all of our neurons and the convergence of all areas of the brain. A byproduct of all that complicated stuff going on.
And, yes, many believe quantum mechanics may be at the crux of our consciousness conundrum.
For the most part, however, we haven’t quite figured it out.
“Consciousness is a fascinating but elusive phenomenon…” – Stuart Sutherland, Macmillan Dictionary of Psychology
This gap in understanding has led many to posit their own theories, and one of those theories is that our consciousness — our soul, if you will — is actually located in a higher dimension.
It’s an odd theory, but it goes like this:
Our brains are physical “radios,” transmitting data about the world to and from a higher state of consciousness. Our bodies are essentially three-dimensional Avatars.
When that link becomes severed — by brain injuries, drugs, or even death — our higher consciousness is still functioning, but our physical bodies are inhibited.
Our radios are broken.
The implications of such a reality would be profound.
Out-of-body experiences, for example, would be explained as our consciousness revealing itself as something beyond the confines of our physical bodies, allowing us to explore the universe in our true state within the higher dimensions.
It would also have the extraordinary side effect of allowing us to “live on” or exist within the higher dimensions after physical death, whatever that would entail.
Of course, that’s all a theory, and an esoteric, fringe one at that.
Occam’s Razor would tell us it’s not likely, that everything that happens in our minds is, well, all in our heads. Our consciousness could very well just be software to our body’s hardware, comprised of information and not matter. Metaphysical, but not immeasurable.
But this is a strange universe we live in, and I’ve always found the idea intriguing.
