Local and Non-local Consciousness Components

with Paul Grof

The idea that the brain is the source of all human consciousness still dominates contemporary thinking. But this concept has now been challenged by numerous studies and observations. These include physiologically and pharmacologically induced non-ordinary states of consciousness (NOSC), experimental evidence for many psi phenomena,  observations from transpersonal psychiatry and near-death experiences. None of these findings can be explained by hypothetical local brain activities.

All anomalous experiences emerging “at the edges of consciousness” can be described as NOSC. Of all the NOSC, mood disorders have been investigated most extensively. During the past six decades, many marked and reproducible brain abnormalities have been identified in severe disorders, moving from neurotransmitters to neuropeptides, neurohormones, cellular metabolism, and in recent years to brain imaging.

Surprisingly, these brain changes are qualitatively the same during the states that are categorically different experientially, such as clinical states of depression and mania.

Together, these findings appear compatible with a working hypothesis that human consciousness results from the interplay between non-local consciousness fields and local brain processes; that the brain often functions as a transducer. Longitudinal studies indicate that the brain contributes mainly to the timing, intensity and predisposition to NOSC; however, the anomalous experiences are linked to the processes in nonlocal consciousness fields.

Using David Bohm’s terminology, consciousness fields exist as “potentially active” and become “actually active” when transacting with the brain. The access of the brain to information available in the ubiquitous field (presumably zero-point quantum field) varies making the anomalous experiences possible at different times. We are really at the early stages of investigating the non-local nature consciousness as a field outside the brain itself.