Relaxing and the illusion of Control... / Χαλαρώνοντας και η ψευδαίσθηση του Ελέγχου...

Photo by Spiros Kakos @ Pexels

Relax.

Nothing is under control...


Χαλάρωσε.

Τίποτα δεν είναι υπό έλεγχο...


[written on 7/2014]

Non-local consciousness, NDEs and other arguments against the brain

Author: Spyridon Kakos, PhD, National Technical University of Athens

August 2026, Athens, Greece

Published at PhilPapers at https://philpapers.org/rec/KAKNCN

Abstract: What is consciousness? Even though the current mainstream view suggests that the brain is the producer of consciousness in a materialistic and reductionist context, there is ample evidence supporting an alternative model: that the brain acts as a receiver of consciousness instead. This paper discusses evidence from cases where consciousness exists despite a non-working brain, from cases where the brain is nearly absent and from data related to non-local consciousness. All this evidence points towards a different viewpoint than the materialistic one that is currently accepted: The brain acting as a receiver or filter of consciousness. Such a model fits perfectly with all the currently available data and at the same time, solves the problems the current local consciousness model cannot explain. Without claiming to offer a definite solution to the problem, one thing is certain: The evidence calls for a more open mind when viewing the problem of consciousness. I am me. That I know. But where does that stem from? Let’s keep our mind open to everything and we might discover that the world is more exciting than we could ever consider.

Tags: consciousness, non-local consciousness, brain, biology, self, NDE

Overview

What is the brain?

We all know that it is the center of our existence. Our brain generates our consciousness, it is the reason that we reason, the tool that helps us think, that makes me be… me!

The current model for consciousness is a materialistic-reductionist local consciousness model: Everything stems from the brain of my body as an organ. Everything can be reduced to neuronal activity inside that brain. There is nothing more.

All conventionally accepted data points to this as well. A severe head injury can leave you in a vegetative state, unable to speak or feel. A neurological disease that affects it could hinder your thoughts or your ability to walk.

And yet, here we are.

To question the obvious.

Isn’t that what scientists should do?

Isn’t that what science is all about?

The quest for something more

For millennia humans have been thinking about what is that thing that we today call ‘consciousness’. What are these thoughts that we have inside our head, that point towards our sense of self? To whom are we speaking when we think alone?

Philosophy has had many ideas through aeons regarding the matter at hand. And even though thinking has been the major element that makes us who we are, we have not gotten very far. Yet, from time to time we did sense that something more could be involved, than just a piece of our body producing thoughts like the liver produces bile.

For aeons, people entertained the idea of our spirit delving beyond the limits of their body. Philosophy and theology alike have been saying that perhaps something more than just thoughts reside in the brain – something eternal that transcends beyond the confounds of our skin and our limited life.

Goal of this paper

The goal of this paper is to explore the possibility of the brain not being the generator of consciousness. The details of this brain model and the implications will be briefly explored, but the main outcome is clearly focused on providing arguments for non-local consciousness residing outside the brain.

Method used

Science in every sector of research progresses by discrediting the existing paradigm and formulating a new one. No theory can be considered scientific if it does not have a way to be falsified, as Karl Popper said. That will be the method used here: The paper will provide examples of consciousness existing without a brain, or without a working brain, thus providing evidence to challenge the mainstream belief that the brain is the factory producing consciousness.

Counter-Examples

The way to prove that something is not true is rather simple: Just find one counter-example that shows the exact opposite of what we believe to be true. The main section of this paper consists of three types of such examples:

·       Type I: Examples that show how consciousness can exist without a functioning brain,

·       Type II: Examples that show that consciousness can exist when the brain is missing,

·       Type III: Examples showing how the conscious experience can be unrelated to the ‘local’ brain a person has in their body.

All these types of counter-examples show the same thing: How consciousness of a person is not solely related to their brain, hence providing an argument against the current model of consciousness.

Type I: Examples of consciousness without functioning brain

There are multiple cases of people having consciousness while their brain is not working, usually due to a life-threatening situation, like a cardiac arrest. Some of the most important cases are the famous Near-Death Experiences (NDEs). Besides those though, there are also cases where people have been having conscious experiences while being under extraordinary psychological circumstances that would make these experiences improbable.

Resources for such cases (including Near Death Experiences) are listed below.

1. Dr. Lommel (Division of Cardiology, Hospital Rijnstate, Arnhem, Netherlands) published a well-known paper regarding patients who suffered a cardiac arrest and had an NDE. These cases showed how a person can be clinically dead and still have conscious experiences. The paper also tried to argue that the NDEs cannot be linked to a simple brain-based explanation since, if that was the case, most patients facing life-threatening experiences should have an NDE and that is not the case (van Lommel et al., 2001).

Note that after the publication of Lommel’s research in The Lancet, no other research on NDEs has been published in that journal (dogmatism often leads to censorship).

2. Another paper has been published that shows that about 10% of people who experience cardiac arrest also experience a near-death experience. The paper notes that cardiac arrest in these cases was followed by an isoelectric (flat) line in the EEG waves within 10-20s, with the EEG activity not returning for many seconds or even hours after the cardiac output has been returned (Parnia et al., 2001).

3. A paper discussing Near-Death Experiences and explaining how scientific dogmatism has hindered the analysis of these phenomena. A scientist adhering to the materialistic reductionist dogmatism cannot see or acknowledge other possible explanations of the phenomena experienced, even if they stare back at him.

An excerpt from the paper notes: “In order to safeguard the accepted axioms, odd comments have sometimes also been reported. For instance, in order to justify the occurrence of NDEs, Bardy (2002) questioned whether in cardiac arrest with flat EEG brain electrical activity is really silent; however, it is well known that this is not the case (Parnia and Fenwick, 2002).”

The paper correctly reminds us that even though we can have loss of consciousness with an EEG activity still present, there can be no consciousness with flat EEG activity according to our current knowledge. (Agrillo, 2011)

 

4. Another resource reporting on NDEs analyzes how physiological explanations of NDE experiences are implausible. Patients who went through cardiac arrest had zero (flat) EEG since they have not been resuscitated within 20 sec and a body under such conditions cannot support the coordination between various areas of the brain that supposedly generate consciousness (Walach et al., 2011).

 

5. The case of Pam Reynolds reported by Sabom in “Sabom MB. Light and death: one doctors fascinating account of near-death experiences”, is also interesting. Pam was a patient who was treated with a high-risk operation that essentially put her to death (zero EEG) and she experienced an NDE that proved to be detailed and accurate (Greyson, 2003; Sabom, 1998).

 

6. The Jan Kerkhoffs case: In his book “Droomulucht in coma” (Dream Flight in Coma), Jan Kerkhoffs tells us about his conscious experience after neurologists declared him brain-dead following complications during brain surgery. His family refused organ donation, and he was able to recover after three weeks, telling the world about his experience. Again, zero EEG does not seem to mean lack of consciousness (van Lommel, 2010).

 

7. Fred Schoonmaker research:  Known cardiologist Fred Schoonmaker conducted an 18-year study of 1,400 near-death experiences, including those of about 55 persons whose experiences took place while flat EEG readings were recorded. The near-death experiences reported during the absence of brain waves are a very good argument against viewing the brain as the source of consciousness (Habermas, 1996).

 

8. Cased of born-blind people seeing in Near Death Experiences have been documented and reported by Kenneth Ring (Ring & Cooper, 1999). A brain-generated consciousness cannot support such a scenario.

 

9. Results from doctors researching NDEs indicated that some of the patients examined reported experiences even though they were in the state clinically defined as ‘death’ (Parnia & Fenwick, 2002).

 

10. A large-scale resuscitation study showed that consciousness may be present when the circumstances make that impossible. This major study of NDEs focused on how we should approach the subject without prejudice. In some cases of cardiac arrest, memories may indeed correspond with actual, verifiable events in the operating room (Parnia et al., 2014).

 

NDE experiences remain part of an ongoing debate regarding their nature. However, the more science analyzes those cases the more legitimate they appear to be. Materialistic explanations of such experiences – arguing that activity stemming from the brain can explain what we observe – are discarded under serious scientific scrutiny when the cases mentioned in this paper are examined. The sources mentioned above already contain such refutations, although the debate is far from settled. Many other papers arguing against the materialistic interpretation of NDE experiences exist (Mays & Mays, 2008).

 

Type II: Examples of consciousness without a brain

Multiple cases of people having consciousness and a fully functioning life without a complete (full) brain have been documented. Note that even though we mention “without a complete brain” instead of “without a brain” for the sake of being accurate, in all of the cases mentioned the percentage of the brain missing is such that it can adhere to the goal of the paper. When someone can see, feel, think without the 90% of his brain, then surely there is something more going on beyond that brain.

Those cases are well known as John Lorber cases. John Lorber studied people with "virtually no brain" that had a normal conscious life (Lewin, 1980).

To those cases we can add cases of people with half-hemisphere missing from their brain and who are still able to live a normal life (Kliemann et al., 2019).

Other references of persons without a brain and yet a normal life, include the case of a French man who lived normally even though he lacked 90% of this brain, that has been reported first in The Lancet (Feuillet et al., 2007).

 

Type III: Examples of non-local consciousness

As in the cases of people that are conscious without a working brain or with a significant part of their brain missing, there are also examples of people who have conscious awareness of the environment without having local presence in that environment. These cases are a different way of proving how the brain is not the source of consciousness; if consciousness can expand to distant places not physically near our brain, then there is no need to consider the brain as its source anyway.

Some interesting evidence showing the non-locality of consciousness is mentioned below.

1. Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) (find archived page here)

Princeton University conducted an extensive research study into non-local consciousness. Pages of the university regarding the study can now be found only in Internet Archive. (Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research, n.d.)

The research revolved around three major axes that are listed below.

I. Human-Machine Anomalies

According to the site, the most substantial portion of the PEAR experimental program examined anomalies arising in human-machine interactions. From the site: “In these studies human operators attempted to bias the output of a variety of mechanical, electronic, optical, acoustical, and fluid devices to conform to pre-stated intentions, without recourse to any known physical influences.” Using machines that produced random data, “the experiments showed changes in information that can only be attributed to the consciousness of their human operators.”

II. Remote Perception

This involved the study of – according to the site – “the ability of human participants to acquire information about spatially and temporally remote geographical targets, otherwise inaccessible by any of the usual sensory channels”. Again, according to the university’s site “(this ability) has been thoroughly demonstrated over several hundred carefully conducted experiments.”[1]

2. Quantum mechanics

Quantum mechanics offers a variety of ideas that are compatible with a non-local interpretation of consciousness. For example, Wheeler's delayed choice experiment (Wheeler & Zurek, 1983), or other experiments related to the measurement of quantum phenomena, indicate that matter may be inherently governed by non-local laws that allow the transfer of information from here to the end of the universe without a problem. Combining this with interpretations calling for a pivotal role of human consciousness in the process (rf. to the Wigner-Neumann interpretation), we are very close to a way of thinking that is way beyond the current local consciousness paradigm.

An example of such a case is research related to PK Effects with Pre-Recorded Random Events. During a study, the result of a random numbers generator was recorded in two sound cassette tapes. Depending on the random result, the machine recorded a click in the right or the left sound channel of the tape. One tape was put in a safe. The other was listened to by someone, who had the intention to alter its contents by consciously thinking hard that he "wishes" more right clicks than left, while he was listening at the tape. In the end, the results he heard were what he thought and not what one would expect from the random process (i.e. an equal number of right and left clicks). Most astonishingly, the tape inside the safe was also altered and presented the same result as the one heard by the observer as if the initial phenomenon in the past was retroactively altered (Schmidt, 1987).

3. Connecting brains - Nonlocality psi experiments

Controlled experiments concerning subtle connections between subjects removed in space, and occasionally also in time, date back to the 1930s, with J.B. Rhine's pioneering card-and dice-guessing work at Duke University. In 1970s, Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff conducted experiments on connections and transfer of images between distant subjects.

Other research regarding remote viewing (involving distances from half a mile to several thousand miles) or a brain of a person affecting the brain of another (rf. to Stanley Krippner’s research on "dream ESP” at the Dream Laboratory of Maimondes Hospital in New York City) have been conducted. They all show that our brain may be something more than just a local consciousness factory and that most likely it resembles a receiver or transmitter of consciousness (Laszlo, 1999).

4. Dean Radin’s studies on consciousness.

Dean Radin has shown how multiple mental powers that have been tagged as ‘pseudoscience’ can be more grounded in measurable reality than most people believe. As Chief Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) he presented persuasive experimental evidence for the existence of such phenomena, like precognition.

For example, in one experiment, Dean Radin measured the pupils of women in a lab who were being shown ‘negative’ (horrifying or stressful) images flashed in sequence against ‘positive’ images of flowers and landscapes. The results showed that women's pupils dilated prior to a horrible image being shown (Radin & Borges, 2009).

A consciousness that is produced by the brain as a result of organic functions cannot explain such an experimental result. Such results that question the current model have been further validated by other research. For example, a research in mass events showed that collective brain activity can influence the environment. (Radin et al., 2012) Another type of consciousness theory – as the one mentioned below – could explain such phenomena, but not the current materialistic one.

5. Voluntary out-of-body experiences

A surprising case of someone with the ability to have out-of-body experiences at will, offers a valid argument against the local consciousness paradigm we currently accept (Smith & Messier, 2014).

 

One example is enough

As said in the beginning of the paper, one counterexample for an existing scientific theory is enough to refute that theory. The above-mentioned cases try to offer exactly that, in the form of…

·       Cases where the brain does not function and yet, there is consciousness (e.g. in the case of people experiencing an NDE while having a cardiac arrest)

·       Cases where people with almost no brain have a fully functional conscious life (e.g. someone with 90% of his brain missing and still having a normal life)

·       Cases where people have conscious experiences completely unrelated to their local physical environment (e.g. remote perception)

If even one of these experiences is scientifically legitimate, then the current scientific way of thinking needs to be revisited.

Given the academic credentials of many of the authors of the sources mentioned above, this re-evaluation is already overdue. If not to change the current materialistic models for the generation of consciousness, at least to consider other models as well.

But what could those other models be?

 

Proposed solutions

Instead of the brain generating consciousness as a byproduct of its functioning, an alternative model views the brain acting as a receiver and/ or transmitter of consciousness. In this model, the brain could be a means through which consciousness is manifested in our bodies, or rather through our bodies, rather than as a factory producing it (Kakos, 2018). In other words, it operates in the same way a TV is working as a medium for the shows that you love to see.

This solution was first proposed in the modern era by William James, who explained that the brain could be acting as a ‘transmissive’ or ‘permissive’ filter to allow the experience of consciousness from a broader pre-existing conscious environment (Hawkins, 2011). The idea of a non-local pre-existing conscious environment in which our brain acts as a “consciousness receiver” has been entertained by many other scientists ever since (Rouleau & Dotta, 2014; Taylor, 2020).

This alternative model seems to solve the problems created by the sources mentioned above: A field of consciousness that is there for anyone to access can explain how someone with no brain can be conscious or how someone without a functioning brain and with zero EEG activity can still have experiences.

Surely this model, as well as the mainstream one, does not explain many things. This is not a weakness of model but rather of our general knowledge in the area. In the field of consciousness, research is at an embryonic stage when trying to answer the most basic questions regarding the nature of consciousness per se.

Does the receiver model fit the existing data?

But does this ‘receiver’ viewpoint fit the extensive existing neurological data that we already have regarding the brain and its biological functions?

The short answer: Yes.

It is crucial to note that the transmissive model for consciousness fits all the data that we currently have equally well with the materialistic one. As explored already in previous Harmonia Philosophica articles and papers, the TV analogy is great in realizing how both solutions – the materialistic/ reductionist one and the brain-receiver one – fit all the data with equal success (Spyridon Kakos, 2018):

·       A TV seems to be producing the TV show you are watching.

·       If you look inside the TV, you see things happening that are related to what you are watching.

·       When a TV breaks, then the show is not transmitted anymore.

In a similar manner:

·       The brain seems to be producing what we call consciousness.

·       If you look inside the brain, you see things happening that are related to what you are feeling as consciousness.

·       When the brain malfunctions, consciousness stops existing.

In the case of the TV, we know that the TV is just a medium of the TV program we are enjoying. In the case of the brain, we can choose the same solution and the data we have will fully support it. So, from an empirical perspective, there is absolutely no way to determine which model is true based on that data alone.

 

Gods under construction…

In his famous insight, the prince’s nephew in Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s renowned novel of social upheaval, “The Leopard,” claimed that “everything needs to change, so everything can stay the same” [2]. Of course, he was talking politically.

But...

Could that mystical phrase be true for the Cosmos as well?

Could that phrase capture the true essence of what we call "reality"?

Numerous scientific experiments show that consciousness is not limited to our body. Even Princeton University conducted experiments and reached impressive conclusions. As physicist Chris Clarke, of the University of Southampton, says, “On one hand, Mind is inherently non-local. On the other hand, the world is governed by quantum physics that is inherently non-local. This is no accident, but a precise correspondence.” (Dossey, 2009)

Consciousness could be something not related to a specific brain, but a non-local phenomenon that transcends the body we are in.

And the implications could be immense.

If consciousness is non-local (Kakos, 2013)...
If what makes me, ‘me’ is something beyond me...
If our mind is what creates "reality"...

If our brain is not what causes consciousness,
But what filters it and is potentially blocking it.

Then we ARE God!
We just have to open our minds to another way of thinking.
And potentially stop relying so much on our brain to see…

References

van Lommel, P., van Wees, R., Meyers, V., & Elfferich, I. (2001). Near-death experience in survivors of cardiac arrest: A prospective study in the Netherlands. The Lancet, 358(9298), 2039-2045.

van Lommel, P. (2010). Consciousness beyond life: The science of the near-death experience. HarperCollins.

Agrillo, C. (2011). Near-death experiences between science and prejudice. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 5(42).

Dossey, L. (2009). The power of premonitions: How knowing the future can shape our lives. Dutton.

Feuillet, L., Dufour, H., & Pelletier, J. (2007). Brain of a white-collar worker. The Lancet, 370(9583), 262.

Greyson, B. (2003). Incidence and correlates of near-death experiences in a cardiac care unit. General Hospital Psychiatry, 25(4), 269-276.

Habermas, G. R. (1996). Paradigm shift: A challenge to naturalism. Bibliotheca Sacra, 153, 44-50.

Hawkins, S. L. (2011). William James, Gustav Fechner, and early psychophysics. Frontiers in Physiology, 2(68).

Kakos, S. (2013). Non local consciousness. Being God. Harmonia Philosophica.

Kakos, S. (2018). Consciousness and the end of materialism: Seeking identity and harmony in a dark era. International Journal of Theology, Philosophy and Science, 2(2), 17-33.

Kliemann, D., Adolphs, R., Tyszka, J. M., Fischl, B., Worden, I. L., Wald, L. L., ... & Paul, L. K. (2019). Intrinsic functional connectivity of the brain in adults with a single cerebral hemisphere. Cell Reports, 29(8), 2398-2407.

Laszlo, E. (1999). Cosmic connectivity: Toward a scientific foundation for transpersonal consciousness. International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 18(1), 2.

Lewin, R. (1980). Is your brain really necessary? Science, 210(4475), 1232-1234.

Mays, R. G., & Mays, S. B. (2008). The survivalist interpretation of recent studies into the near-death experience. Journal of Near-Death Studies, 27(1), 5-22.

Parnia, S., Waller, D. G., Yeates, R., & Fenwick, P. (2001). A qualitative and quantitative study of the incidence, features and aetiology of near death experiences in cardiac arrest survivors. Resuscitation, 48(2), 149-156.

Parnia, S., & Fenwick, P. (2002). Near death experiences in cardiac arrest: Visions of a dying brain or visions of a new science of consciousness. Resuscitation, 52(1), 5-11.

Parnia, S., Spearpoint, K., de Vos, G., Fenwick, P., Goulet, D., ... & Schoenfeld, E. R. (2014). AWARE—AWAreness during REsuscitation—A prospective study. Resuscitation, 85(12), 1799-1805.

Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research. (n.d.). Scientific study of consciousness-related physical phenomena. Princeton University.

Radin, D. I., & Borges, A. (2009). Intuition through time: What does the seer see? Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing, 5(4), 200-211.

Radin, D., Vieten, C., Burnett, J., Delorme, A., & Hunt, T. (2012). Deviations from randomness associated with collective attention: Burning Man 2012. Institute of Noetic Sciences.

Ring, K., & Cooper, S. (1999). Mindsight: Near-death and out-of-body experiences in the blind. William James Center for Consciousness Studies.

Rouleau, N., & Dotta, B. T. (2014). Electromagnetic fields as structure-function zeitgebers in biological systems: Environmental orchestrations of morphogenesis and consciousness. Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, 8(84).

Sabom, M. B. (1998). Light and death: One doctor's fascinating account of near-death experiences. Zondervan Publishing House.

Schmidt, H. (1987). The strange properties of psychokinesis. Journal of Scientific Exploration.

Smith, A. M., & Messier, C. (2014). Voluntary out-of-body experience: An fMRI study. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8, 70.

Taylor, S. (2020). An introduction to panspiritism: An alternative to materialism and panpsychism. Zygon®, 55(4), 898-923.

Walach, H., Schmidt, S., & Jonas, W. B. (Eds.). (2011). Neuroscience, consciousness and spirituality. Springer Science & Business Media.

Wheeler, J. A., & Zurek, W. H. (1983). I. Questions of principle. In J. A. Wheeler & W. H. Zurek (Eds.), Quantum theory and measurement (pp. 1–214). Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400854554.1

---

[1] Needless to mention the military uses of such a capability. The reader can surely relate this research with other similar military research that is now known through declassified documents. Delving into those goes beyond the scope of this paper though – we only focus on the science.

[2] Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/25/world/europe/a-proud-nation-ponders-how-to-halt-its-slow-decline.html

Harmonia Philosophica related articles

·       Harmonia Philosophica – Consciousness related articles

·       Humans with no brain. MIND is all we need...

·       NDE and other consciousness without brain references

·       Near Death Experiences (NDEs) and other non-brain consciousness cases / Επιθανάτιες Εμπειρίες και άλλες συνειδησιακές εμπειρίες χωρίς εγκέφαλο

·       Non local concsiousness. Being God.

·       Mind, Morphogenetic fields, Quantum physics...

Babies. The misunderstood wise people...

Babies are spiritually complete as persons. We believe they are not because they do not talk. But how quickly can you learn a new language without a teacher?

Everything we learn as we grow prevent us from seeing the truth. The truth which (according to Heidegger) is simply a revelation of what once knew but have now forgotten.

We do not need to learn more.
We must stop learning and try to forget what we "know".

To experience the revelation, we must have faith.
Faith as a reminder of God whom we have forgotten [Kirgkegkor, Heidegger], not as something opposed to the knowledge or doubt. (see. Heidegger and Theology]

Stop thinking and see the world unfolding before you...

[written on 20/9/2014]

Μωρά. Οι παρεξηγημένοι σοφοί...

Τα μωρά είναι ολοκληρωμένα πνευματικά. Νομίζουμε ότι δεν είναι επειδή δεν μιλάνε. Όμως πόσο γρήγορα μαθαίνεις μια νέα γλώσσα χωρίς δάσκαλο;

Όλα όσα μαθαίνουμε καθώς μεγαλώνουμε μας εμποδίζουν από το να δούμε την αλήθεια. Την αλήθεια η οποία (κατά τον Heidegger) είναι απλά μια αποκάλυψη των όσων κάποτε γνωρίζαμε αλλά τώρα έχουμε ξεχάσει.

Δεν πρέπει να μάθουμε περισσότερα.
Πρέπει να πάψουμε να μαθαίνουμε και να ξεχάσουμε και όσα "ξέρουμε".

Για να βιώσουμε την αποκάλυψη, πρέπει να έχουμε πίστη.
Πίστη ως υπενθύμιση του Θεού που έχουμε λησμονήσει [Κίργκεγκωρ, Χάιντεγκερ], όχι με τη μορφή της αντίθεσης στη γνώση ή την αμφιβολία. (βλ. Heidegger και Θεολογία]

Πάψε να σκέφτεσαι και θα δεις όλο τον κόσμο να απλώνεται μπροστά σου...

[γράφτηκε στις 20/9/2014]

Φιλοσοφικό Τηλεγράφημα: Θάνατος. Πέρα από τον χρόνο και τους αιώνες…

Στοιχεία «σκελετικού τραύματος» σε περισσότερα από 300 άτομα από τρία πολύ διαφορετικά νεκροταφεία αποκαλύπτουν διαφορετικά επίπεδα σωματικής επιβάρυνσης σε όλο το κοινωνικό φάσμα του Κέιμπριτζ, στο Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο, μεταξύ του 10ου και του 14ου αιώνα. [1] Τα πάθη και τα βάσανα δεν εξαφανίζονται ποτέ. Πέρα από τον χρόνο και τους αιώνες. Πέρα από μέρη και γέλια. Τα βάσανα είναι ακόμα εκεί. Σε στοιχειώνουν όσο και όταν τα έζησες για πρώτη φορά. Μην τα απορρίψεις. Αγάπησε τα. Δεν είναι φίλοι ούτε εχθροί. Είναι εσύ. Χαμογελώντας από την άλλη πλευρά με κακία. Απλά χαμογέλα! "Γιατί χαμογελάς;" θα ρωτήσουν. Μην απαντάς. Και θα ξέρουν. Πως ήσουν ευτυχισμένος πολύ πριν χαμογελάσεις…

(c) Φιλοσοφικά Τηλεγραφήματα - Φιλοσοφικός σχολιασμός της επικαιρότητας…

Philosophy Wire: Death. Beyond time and aeons…

Evidence of 'skeletal trauma' among over 300 individuals from three very different cemeteries reveals varying levels of physical hardship across the social spectrum of Cambridge, UK, between the 10th and 14th century. [1] Suffering never goes away. Beyond time and aeons. Beyond places and laughter. Suffering is still there. Haunting you as much as it did when you experienced it for the first time. Do not dismiss it. Hold it dear. It is not your friend nor your foe. It is you. Smiling from the other side with malice. Just smile back! "Why are you smiling?" it will ask. Do not answer. And it will know. That you were happy long before you smiled…

(c) Philosophy WIRES - Commenting world news from philosophy's perspective…