Best evidence for the afterlife is something 'to die for'

James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 Best evidence for the afterlife is something ‘to die for’ James E. Beichler, Ph.D. Abstract: The best evidence presently available for the afterlife has already been tried and found wanting, although there is a great deal of good and various levels of even better evidence when NDEs, reincarnation, new standards for verifying mediumship, death bed visions and other phenomena related to dying and the afterlife are considered. But none of these rises to the level of ‘best evidence’ for ‘proving’ the reality of the afterlife. The truth is that there is no falsifiable evidence that can distinguish between the afterlife and other paranormal phenomena, i.e., there are always alternative super-psi or general psi explanations for the data, stories and evidence gathered by parapsychologists and experienced by individuals. The afterlife hypothesis is neither falsifiable nor verifiable given the absolute best ‘so-called evidence’ available today. Only a valid theory could offer scientific verifiability and also distinguish whether the evidence gathered so far supports the afterlife concept or super-psi. So, with no valid theory of the afterlife available, either an independent acceptable theory based on specific phenomena or better yet as part of a greater comprehensive theory of physical reality, there is nothing on which to base a truly rigorous experiment that could verify the afterlife to the satisfaction of both the scientific and nonscientific communities. Some form of valid acceptable theory is necessary and long overdue to explain and verify the various paranormal phenomena as well as hone the scientific search for survival of consciousness and the afterlife. We must assume that at least consciousness survives as either part or the whole of any possible afterlife. All of the common paranormal examples that deal with the afterlife are in some way simply different data points that should be used to follow the scientific method and lead to some common physical concept that we identify as the afterlife, so the hypothesis can be tested and verified. Not one of these examples is based on anything other than experiences/observations for which no comprehensive scientific model has ever been developed and/or studied in enough detail to even attempt to verify even the minimum level survival of consciousness in some manner. Only one theoretical unification model in modern physics, the single (operational) field theory or SOFT, is comprehensive enough to model life, mind, and consciousness and their evolution in enough specific detail to even talk logically about survival of consciousness. Be this as it may, the only possible ‘best evidence’ would then be the direct experience of higher consciousness, as in NDEs and enlightenment, which are very personal experiences, but even then, it could only be used as evidence, the best evidence, when it can be analyzed and understood as a physical phenomenon within the context of SOFT, an equivalent or better theoretical model. Keywords: afterlife, best evidence, NDEs, enlightenment, fourth dimension, hyperspace, fourdimensional space-time, five-dimensional time-space, unification, 0-D point/twist, psi, paranormal phenomena, consciousness, higher consciousness, A-fields, physical evolution, unification, psi, ‘pattern matching’ 1 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 Introduction There are a few speculative models that try to explain this or that individual psi phenomenon alone, independent of other paranormal phenomena and without concrete connections to the present paradigms of physics. They tend to use buzz words and ideas that are currently popular when the models are developed (such as quantum mind or quantum consciousness), as if adding the pop-culture word will render the model true, but they will never work or be accepted because they are mere guesswork rather than logical extensions of present physics paradigms that try to explain the reality we experience as well as they can. On the other hand, no generally sufficient model of the paranormal and/or afterlife has ever been developed that can be merged into any of the present physics paradigms. In general, parapsychologists are just experimentalists and data collectors who seem uninterested in legitimate theoretical work, while normal scientists look on in disgust and do not even bother talking about mind and consciousness. This includes psychologists who are supposed to be studying mind and consciousness. It might even seem to some who already suspect the truth of the afterlife, and the afterlife is real, that the best evidence is already available to show that consciousness (at least) outlives death of the material body and brain. We can continue to gather more evidence, but to what purpose is that ‘suspicion’ if we do not use this evidence, knowledge, and our experiences to develop a proper scientific theory that is both falsifiable and verifiable as well as comprehensive enough to predict survival if it were not already being experienced and providing new evidence that the afterlife is true. Some of the reincarnation examples are nothing short of spectacular, but they are not quite enough to convince everyone, let alone scientists and the scientifically inclined beyond a shadow of a doubt, or everyone would believe in reincarnation. The same is true for other spectacular examples. People have even been clinically dead at room temperature for as long as forty-five minutes and revived on their own.[1] As spectacular as that may be, their Near-Death experiences (which are excellent examples of the best evidence presently available) while clinically dead have given us no real scientifically acceptable answers as to what would have happened if the experiencers had not come back to life and remained dead. What then is the problem with the ‘best’ evidence presently available? If it is the best possible evidence, then why do we still need to keep gathering more of the same. In the end, the truly best evidence could only come after we have a true scientific understanding of our living consciousness, its characteristics, and its purpose within the context of a viable scientific theory of physical reality is developed. Until a unified field theory or TOE (Theory of Everything), which some people mistakenly (mistaken because we do not know everything and TOEs so far proposed do not include consciousness) call it, is already accepted by the scientific community on its own merits, without reference to the paranormal or the afterlife, science will not accept the reality of the paranormal phenomena that it explains. Such a theory must even be fully able to predict the possibility of the survival of consciousness (at least) in some form. Then it could be used to make predictions to be used to verify survival as predicted before survival and the afterlife could ever be acceptable to science. According to professor and theoretical physicist Bernard Carr, a proper paradigm shifting unification theory in physics, whether it is a TOE or not, must include consciousness. What sort of paradigm would be required to accommodate psi? An essential feature is that it must involve consciousness since this underlies all psychic experiences. This already places it at loggerheads with those physicists (the majority) who claim that we are close to a "Theory of Everything", since such theories make no reference to consciousness. Another feature of 2 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 the new paradigm is that it must involve some kind of higher dimensional reality structure. This is because many psychic phenomena (e.g., OBEs, NDEs, apparitions) seem to involve some form of communal space, which is not the same as physical space but subtly interacts with it. The existence of telepathy also suggests that our minds are part of a communal space rather than being wholly private. This "Universal Structure", as I term it, can be regarded as a higher dimensional information space which reconciles all our different experiences of the world. It necessarily incorporates physical space, but it also includes non-physical realms which can only be accessed by mind.[2] Carr goes further to describe the theory that he envisions, which sounds a great deal like the SOFT model of the universe that is explained below. I propose that the higher dimensional reality structure required to accommodate psychic experiences is intimately connected with the higher dimensional space invoked by modern physics. For if our physical sensors only provide us with a 3-dimensional aspect of a Universe which in reality has many more dimensions, and if physical objects occupy only a limited part of that higher dimensional space, what else can exist in this space? Since the only nonphysical entities in the Universe of which we have any experience are mental ones, and since the existence of paranormal phenomena suggests that mental entities have to exist in some sort of space, it seems natural to relate this to Kaluza-Klein space. More precisely, I identify the Universal Structure with the higher dimensional "bulk" of Randall-Sundrum theory. This has profound consequences for physics, psychology, parapsychology, and philosophy.[3] Such a theory would also give us fundamental insights on what to expect when we die and begin our own afterlife, although Carr did not mention the problem of survival in his description. So, if we do ask the question “What is the best available evidence for the Survival of Human Consciousness after Permanent Bodily Death?”, there is no, nor could there be, a satisfactory answer at this time. Or maybe there is because the unification of physics has been completed with the single (operational) field theory or SOFT.[4] The SOFT unification model goes beyond just unifying relativity and the quantum since it also fully incorporates electromagnetic theory, thermodynamics, and Newtonian physics, as well as a new theory of physical evolution which necessarily incorporates life, mind, and consciousness, as well as the survival of our higher consciousness after death in such a manner that survival will soon be verified with the best possible evidence. Given this, we can now begin to understand the ‘ins and outs’ of the afterlife that we will all eventually experience so that we can all prepare ourselves for that eventuality, which is the purpose of this paper. The real problem The following truth is simple but hurtful: As late as 2010 we have not learned and do not know or understand enough about our commonly experienced physical reality to develop a valid theory, or even a metaphysical or hypothetical meta-model, of consciousness, assuming that the afterlife would at least consist of some form of conscious awareness or consciousness that might have survived death, let alone determine whether we do survive death in some more substantial manner (such as the religious concept of a soul). Strangely enough, the same is true for the unification of physics that would give us a better and truer context for developing a theoretical model of consciousness that mirrors that reality as the observer and interpreter of that physical reality. This is not a coincidence, because one necessitates the other. Otherwise, we just have the alternative result that death is nothing but the 3 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 complete, total, undeniable, and irrevocable end of us. It should be clearly evident to us that we need to understand life, mind, and consciousness at a much higher scientific level than we now comprehend them, in order to fully understand the possibility of any form of survival or afterlife, and that can only be done within the context of a more complete and truer picture of the physical reality in which life, mind and consciousness have evolved, play an integral role, and continue to evolve than we now have. In other words, it is impossible to understand the observer and interpreter of our collective sense of reality, our consciousness, without knowing as well and as accurately as possible what the context of the consciousness that is interpreting what our externally sensed reality really is. At present, our best theories of both physical reality and consciousness are admittedly lacking since we cannot even determine where and how the present dominant physics paradigms can be unified yielding one single material framework in which we exist. We are in dire need for a reset in our scientific thinking that would seem necessary to develop a single comprehensive scientific model of reality, or at least a paradigm shift that would change our scientific and cultural mindset toward acceptance of the afterlife, and all of the evidence so far has not even begun to accomplish that much needed mental reset. Nature is one, not two or three or many different things, so unification is absolutely necessary to move forward. So, even the best evidence presently available supporting the afterlife hypothesis is not good enough because we have no singly-accepted theoretical context in science against which we can analyze and judge that evidence. We exist as separate distinct and unique individuals, but we are also simultaneously integral inseparable parts of the oneness of nature and the universe, and that paradoxical notion alone is enough to give scientists a lifelong headache of misunderstanding. This notion parallels the differences between the quantum (a discrete point) and relativity (a continuity) theories in physics. How can both perspectives of our existence be true? Life first emerged and evolved into what we have come to be according to the simple rules of nature, not according to our own plans and desires, so we should be able to find the fundamental aspects of nature and reality to which we are subject within ourselves as well as within the world external to our ‘selves’. Each reflects the other. Since we are a product of nature as well as a part of nature, we cannot rule over nature nor tell nature how to act in any specific case, because we remain subject to nature. We need to find the limits of our subjugation to nature to understand life, mind, and consciousness, as one continuous conscious stream of awareness of both our independent being as ‘selves’ and continuously and unceasingly interacting with nature as a contributing part of that reality as our ‘higher selves.’ We are but reflections of the prevalent physical conditions of our experienced reality, both internally and externally, which also means mentally and thus consciously, and this principle must be understood and considered to develop a truer unification theory of that reality. Such a theory can and must be verified and accepted only upon its own merits, before a proper physical model of life, mind, consciousness, and the afterlife can be developed within it. Only then can the reality of an afterlife be considered and verified in such a way that the afterlife would be acceptable to scientists and nonscientists alike. When we take these truths into consideration, we very quickly find that the material/physical world we observe and interpret external to our mental ‘selves’ is grossly incomplete, such that we can only and must exist within a greater world where some part of us constantly and subconsciously experiences a spiritual otherworldliness that science has so far failed to explore, except through parapsychology and similar studies. That otherworldliness, as well as our intuitively sensing the oneness and wholeness of the universe, is mentally sensed subconsciously through our higher consciousness (our sixth sense). This extraordinary feeling can be easily demonstrated as resulting from the experience and subsequent knowledge of a direct contact between our consciousness and a 4 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 fourth purely physical dimension of space of which we otherwise have no experience even though our three-dimensional material/physical existence is a materialized slice, albeit small, of that greater reality. Neither the paranormal aspects of our consciousness nor the afterlife, which are intimately related, will ever be accepted by the majority of people within a scientific context or by the scientific community at large, even when the evidence, whether anecdotal, observational, experiential, or experimental, is overwhelming but has no valid theoretical basis. The reason for this is quite simple and straight forward, but no one has ever dared to define that reason, let alone challenge it, until now. Nearly everyone would just say that the afterlife is supernatural and thus part of religion but given all of our experience with the afterlife the simplistic explanation that it is just religious and based on faith, not observable or verifiable fact, sounds more like an excuse not to treat the subject scientifically than a reason why scientists should just ignore it as too problematical and outside of the natural realm of science for them to consider, but that is patently untrue. The paranormal was once called the praeternatural and was thought to exist as a buffer between the religious supernatural and scientific natural realms, but it has now become part of science even if only existing along the far edge of science called parapsychology. But even then, our search for an understanding of the afterlife need not be supernatural but scientific because it is part of our natural human spirituality, i.e., a specific subconscious sensation and natural function of our higher consciousness (what some call our Buddha nature), which precedes, predates, and can be interpreted as independent of religion in its true physical characteristics and functions. In fact, religion did not invent human spirituality as most people might think and claim, especially religious scholars, historians, and philosophers, but rather religion was invented by humans for the expression and practice of their natural innate spirituality openly and collectively within society. Spirituality is the instinctual and naturally inbred knowledge that there is something more, far greater, and far more comprehensive, to our existence than just our immediate experiences in this material world. Spirituality is a form of natural innate knowledge that we all possess, although some people do not pay any attention to it and even deny its reality. Nor does our natural spirituality depend upon the existence of a supreme being (but it does not deny it either), although a collective, universal and/or cosmic consciousness is scientifically possible at the very least. But to advance our level of science even this far into the former realm of the praeternatural, let alone the supernatural, would require that we develop a working theory and physical model of consciousness that incorporates this greater reality within the context of a unified theoretical model of that physical reality, at the very least. A person’s higher consciousness can easily be shown to survive material death of the human body and brain, so whatever the human soul might be, it is at the very least expressed and characterized by our surviving higher consciousness, just as a supreme being would be a higher undefined expression of any possible cosmic consciousness. Then, given a new unification theory or SOFT, whichever is verified, the best evidence possible of the afterlife is, and could only be, any evidence that could be used to verify the SOFT prediction that our higher consciousness, the very essence of our being, survives intact as a stable physical entity. Our present physics paradigms are individually incapable of accomplishing this task, but a far more complete and comprehensive unification of physics like SOFT that incorporates all of the paradigms of modern physics−relativity theory, quantum theories, thermodynamics, electromagnetism, and Newtonian mechanics as well as a good deal of modern metaphysics−is capable and does predict the survival of higher consciousness. 5 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 Many scientists are presently developing metaphysical theories or metatheories (reality is just information, mathematics, a computer program, consciousness, or consciousness created, and so on) as substitutions for a true physical theory of reality. In so doing, they really just looking for excuses not to do the real observation-based physics necessary to develop a real comprehensive unification theory. At the same time, some scientists and non-scientists who seek a metaphysical or metatheory theory of consciousness claim, independent of those physicists, that consciousness is the only reality, and our observed material reality is an illusion, which is also just an excuse not to do the necessary physics. They are playing a scientifically dangerous game of escapism. Metaphysics is born from the ability of our higher consciousness to go beyond our present interpretations of reality and imaginatively speculate on possible answers to those questions which normal science cannot yet answer reliably about our true physical existence and reality, but metaphysics is NOT a substitute for real physics and the scientific method. Pure mathematics and metaphysics are both useful tools for advancing science, but they do not necessarily represent good science when observational and data-based science is thrown out to justify their use to develop their own theories. Metaphysics can only suggest possibilities, as does pure mathematics, that real physics must follow up on to test. In other words, neither metaphysics nor pure mathematics are, or can ever be, substitutes for real physics in this search to understand consciousness and the afterlife. Keeping this in mind, there is no such thing as ‘life after death’, which is a contradiction in terms except in the case of reincarnation, so the question “does life continue to exist after death?” is the wrong question to ask with regard to the existence of the afterlife. The correct question to ask and investigate would be whether some part of a living being, such as our higher consciousness, could possibly survive the normal strictly three-dimensional material death of the body and brain. This could only be the case if there is more to our commonly experienced material/physical reality than could be explained by our normal biological sensations of the external and internal worlds of common human experiences. In other words, if a physically-based higher consciousness, or something like it, survives death of an individual, it must continue to exist somewhere in the physical universe that we are not yet aware of or do not normally sense. And with this restriction, the answer to that question would be a resounding yes. There does truly exist a higher fourth dimension of space that science all but ignores,[5] even though the fourth dimension of space is mathematically and physically necessary (it determines the physical conditions by which our normally experienced three-dimensional space exists and operates) to ensure and guarantee the existence of our three-dimensional material world is just the way that we experience it,[6] and its existence is mathematically ‘proven.’ The mathematically proven existence and necessity of this higher dimension then becomes he fundamental principle upon which the unification of present physics paradigms can be accomplished, and consciousness truly modeled. Only then can we ask about the survival of consciousness, the afterlife and obtain the best possible evidence and description of them. The overall picture It is common practice in modern science and medicine to only consider electrical and electrochemical interactions within a body to explain all of the life-giving functions that delineate biological life−everything from ion exchange through cell walls, biochemical interactions throughout the body that seem to fully support the functions of life, to action potentials traveling along neural axons, and neurotransmitters traveling across synaptic gaps in the brain−and only think of magnetism 6 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 and magnetic changes as a diagnostic tool to analyze them (fMRI and MRI). Yet all of the electric variations in the body form complex magnetic fields that add into ever more complex fields until a single final extremely complex magnetic field structure exists for the whole body. This magnetic field structure guarantees that a single extremely complex and multifaceted electric or E-field exists. Every electrical charge that varies its field strength in any way generates a corresponding magnetic field that adds to the overall magnetic field, and vice versa, in a dynamic dance that stabilizes, coordinates, and orders the consistency of the overall electrochemical functions that maintain the life of a living body. In nature and science, the electric field holds the same relationship to the magnetic field that mind holds to consciousness. People properly conclude that mind is electrical in nature and then mistakenly conclude that mind exists only and wholly within the brain, so it is easy to accept the hypothesis that the mind is electrical in nature. But mind is more. Mind is the complete E-field that stretches throughout the body or me-field. The brain is just the ‘functional center’ of the mind due to the complex structure of neural nets (electrical wiring) in the brain that is not matched anywhere else in the body. This means that consciousness, the total magnetic field also exists throughout the body and not just within the brain. Moreover, human consciousness could not be and is definitely not epiphenomenal (accidental) as most scientists believe but has evolved as a direct consequence of the overall physics of life. Consciousness still differs from either of the other physical fields because it consists of two distinguishable parts: The scalar magnetic or B-field, which is two-dimensional in threedimensional space, and the magnetic vector potential or A-field, whose three-dimensional existence occurs only in discrete (quantum) points but is otherwise is extended into the fourth dimension of space. This particular physical arrangement is fully falsifiable, and parts of the model have already been verified.[7] This configuration or dual multilevel magnetic structure also implies (predicts) that physical consciousness comes in two parts: The mundane everyday consciousness of three-dimensional material/physical space that gives rise, through our five major three-dimensional senses, to our sense of ‘self’, and a higher consciousness that is our ‘true self’, as expressed in mystical and spiritual philosophies, and as our body’s extension into the higher fourth dimension of space. This ‘true self’ (our ‘higher-self’ or buddha nature) is what we directly experience during NDEs and spiritual enlightenment, two cases where our three-dimensional material/physical sensations of reality are either naturally or intentionally minimized allowing us to directly realize (make real for us) our natural contact with the higher dimension with its continuity and undivided wholeness, instead of sensing the wholeness of the universe logically (three-dimensionally) by counting and mentally connecting its various material parts to realize (make logical to us) our experience of three-dimensional space. Our purported sixth sense is a comprehensive ‘knowing’ or ‘sensing’ of the physical nature of the hyperdimensional space relative to the normal three dimensions of space. Each and every point in space, three-dimensional and extended into the fourth dimension, is a virtual photon, so our recollection of NDEs and spiritual ‘en-light-enment’ focus on the radiative electromagnetic nature of the higher dimension, when that experience of the contact is explained in logical three-dimensional terminology. It is this four-dimensional, ultra-complex and stable multi-layered magnetic vector potential pattern of single unified field potential, the A-field, that is our higher consciousness body or spirit, seemingly a body of light when described in three-dimensional terminology, that survives when the three-dimensional body and brain die and the three-dimensional me-, E- and B-fields are disrupted and destabilize.[8] The three-dimensional physical destabilization called death does not necessarily or automatically apply to the four-dimensional A-field pattern because it alone is stabilized from ‘above’ by its continuity and connectedness with the universe as a whole. The surviving higher consciousness 7 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 contains the blueprints for the me-, E- and B-field patterns of its once living body within its structure, while a person’s afterlife four-dimensional hologram-like body of pure potential would include a threedimensional presence due to the cell memories portion of that consciousness while living.[9] This blueprint explains ghosts, apparitions, and haunting phenomena.[10] The extent to which the surviving higher consciousness is still ‘self’ aware after death depends on the manner of death, the state or level of higher consciousness at the time of death, and a person’s knowledge and prior experience with the higher dimension while living. The permanent and stable magnetic vector potential A-field multileveled complexity pattern thus forms our purely physical but non-material ‘afterlife’ body. According to modern science, death results with a complete cessation of all biological and mental functions of the body and brain as defined by modern biological science. Yet, modern biology does not even think of or consider life in the context of the me-, E-, B-, and A-fields that actually define and sustain life. The biology paradigm is stuck in the notion that cells are the smallest fundamental living units and is built upon that, and only that, foundation. So, the notion that life is based upon the mutual interaction between these fields, as stated herein, is completely beyond the normal scientific concepts of biology and biological functioning, and biologists do not normally consider them in their deliberations and reflections about the function and meaning of life. The long suspected biofield can also be described as a matter/energy field (or me-field) which is far more explanatory and accurate than the term biofield. The me-field is an extremely complex yet completely stable and enduring threedimensional spatial curvature pattern in the four-dimensional embedding space. Other fields or complex field patterns, without which life could not and would not exist, exist alongside (or rather within the three-dimensional boundaries of) the me-field to both complement and supplement its structure, functioning and stability. These are the electric and magnetic fields that characterize all organisms, bodies, and material ‘things’ in the universe. The overall electric field, or E-field, that corresponds to the me-field can be equated to mind and the complex multi-leveled magnetic field can be equated to consciousness. This relationship must be so because the magnetic field is higher order than the electric field, i.e., it acts as a guide to electric charges moving through it, and it is additive as opposed to the cancelling effect of electric charges which gives the magnetic field functional structural qualities. In other words, only the magnetic field can form semi-permanent and even permanent structures that the electric field or E-field cannot, and thus direct specific E-field life functions and processes. But the magnetic field consists of two components representing the scalar magnetic field, or B-field, and the vector magnetic field, or A-field. Every variation in the E-field, including the simple movement of charged ions and particles, creates a two-dimensional B-field around it, and the corresponding A-field in the fourth dimension of space. All of the B-Fields add together to give the measured B-field its apparent extended three-dimensionality as represented by classical ‘lines of force’ or ‘field lines’, with which we are all familiar, but the corresponding A-field is not as well-known and cannot be pictured in the same way. As our mundane or common waking consciousness, the overall B-field magnetic pattern corresponds point-by-point to the E-field mind pattern and thus interacts directly with mind. In this manner, it constitutes our everyday image of ‘self’ that forms in each person’s mind, but the A-field is different although it also has a point-to-point correspondence with the B-field and E-field because it is the discrete point-by-discrete point magnetic vector extension into the fourth dimension of space. When taken together collectively, the magnetic A-vectors constitute the A-field that exists threedimensionally only within the discrete quantum points of our three-dimensional relative space. As such, the A-field is perfectly physical but also completely non-material and exists three-dimensionally as the three-dimensional expression of pure single field potential. 8 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 This super-complex structural pattern of complexities of complexities that corresponds to the human mind and consciousness, a structure inherited from thousands of generations of memories and experiences of our forebears (which determines the fundamental structure of the neural-net wiring system of our brain that we inherit at birth) as well as our own individual memories and experiences, constitutes that person’s higher consciousness or ‘true-self’ and Buddha nature. No matter what course any given death follows, it is the combined effect/interaction of these fields, i.e., the interacting complexity of these fields, that defined the stability that was life itself, so the unrecoverable loss of stability of any one field pattern results in reduction of life’s normal biological functions to an inanimate state of death. Diseases, chemical poisoning, organ failure and other causes of death would be a combination of me-field and E-field disruption and destabilization. Yet no one has ever been magnetized to death, although It might be possible with future technology, because a person’s magnetic field adds to (aligns itself within) any external magnetic field and becomes a contributing part of any stronger magnetic B-field that it encounters. Given these circumstances, our higher consciousness is more existentially stable, within the context of both our material three-dimensional world as well as the four-dimensional context of the universe as a whole, in its natural oneness and wholeness, than the me-field, E-field and B-field to which it also corresponds. A person’s A-field pattern of higher consciousness has a dual stability, structural integrity, and permanence, because it is simultaneously coupled to (quantum entangled with) all of the discrete points that constitute the whole of the four-dimensional universe and its oneness, as well as coupled (relatively and geometrically entangled) to the three-dimensional material world. The mechanism of ‘psi’, which is normally used to explain how paranormal phenomena work, is easily explained as different examples of ‘pattern matching’ between a psychic, medium, healer, or remote viewer with a targeted material object’s A-field pattern in the higher dimension of space.[11] Beyond this, ‘psi’ is just a matter of how that ‘matching’ is interpreted (cognized or re-cognized) in the neural nets of the recipient person’s mind.[12] 9 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 Since the A-field pattern that is our higher consciousness is characterized by a dual structural stability and permanence as well as a constant direct connection to every other discrete point in the universe (the physical source of quantum entanglement in three-dimensional space), it must survive the threedimensional death and deterioration of the semi-permanent me-field, E-field, and B-field patterns that constitute our normal biological existence and being. We can even imagine what this ‘spirit’ would look like if we could actually see it in three-dimensional space. We can imagine that a three-dimensional slice of our four-dimensional A-field higher consciousness pattern would look something like the alien beings from the 2009 movie “Knowing”.[13] The brighter areas in the chest represent the heart, with the strongest magnetic field in the body, and the brain in the head, with the most complex magnetic field structure. In this manner, the A-field pattern in the fourth dimension of space becomes the afterlife incorporeal body or ‘spirit’ of a person after death.[14] But just stating this truth, no matter how true it is, is no better than throwing out another metaphysical speculation regarding its reality. A great deal of further justification for making the statement, clarification, and explanation of how this extra dimension fits into our perception of the world is necessary, especially when we have so clearly failed to directly perceive it in our daily common experiences of the world, as well as an explanation of why we have failed to perceive this higher dimension of space or, as some have called it, a hyperspace throughout all of human history. From a historical perspective, ghosts would seem to be the most common and thus the best example of our direct experience with the surviving higher consciousnesses or ‘spirits’ of the dead. Yet such experiences give us no clues on how to interpret their physical reality, unless, of course, we have a theoretical model like SOFT to explain these phenomena. Since higher consciousness is the overall product of the three-dimensional me-field that constitutes the living body, the E-field or mind, and the B-field or mundane consciousness, the A-field higher consciousness or surviving spirit carries in its fundamental structure the cellular blueprint (cellular memory) for all three as well as the overall complexity structure of the memories that constituted and established the personality of the formerly living person. So, if the surviving ‘spirit’ of a person were to interact in any way with the normal three-dimensional surface or ‘sheet’ of our material world, whether willfully or not, it would appear as a non-material luminous figure or ‘ghost’. Apparitions, on the other hand, that play out historical scenes over and over again, i.e., the battlefields of Gettysburg, the WW2 invasion of Normandy, and Roman soldiers marching off to battle in York England, need not be spirits of the dead, but rather A-field fragments that were implanted or imprinted directly into the material/physical environment due to the high degree of stress, fear, anxiety and 10 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 other high-intensity emotions that the living actors in the historical scenes experienced during the original events.[15] These explanations only represent the beginning of what scientists can explain and understand about life, death, and the afterlife if they were better able to understand the physical context of consciousness. Even given these facts and explanations, modern physicists still need to account for a much greater and more comprehensive physical reality to even begin to characterize and understand the stable single field complexity patterns and their physical connections that give us life and the afterlife. Physicists, other scientists, both natural and non-natural philosophers including religious philosophers, as well as common people must come to terms with the existence of a far greater fourdimensional universe than our normally experienced material world commonly presents to us, as observers and witnesses of reality. The conscious realization and acceptance of this fact must occur in both its material and purely physical but non-material parts, and that must include the physical reality of a real extended four-dimensional embedding space as well as the electric and magnetic forces at work throughout the body within the context of that extended fourth dimension of space, upon which life depends. Yet even to start progressing along this road of understanding, everyone must first understand and accept the physical reality of a macroscopically extended fourth dimension of space. Reality of four-dimensional space If someone were to ask, ‘how many dimensions of space do we experience?’, the overwhelming answer would be three, but that answer is simply and completely wrong. We do not experience space, but only material objects in space. The space in which we live out our material reality and spend our whole life is four-, not three-dimensional, and must be at least four just for the three-dimensionality of matter to be possible. We sense space indirectly by the material bodies which inhabit that space, and they are all three-dimensional, so we merely assume that space also has three and only three dimensions. That assumption merely reflects an evolutionary illusion that has allowed us to survive and learn since life first emerged on this planet. The very fact that our space of experience has four dimensions, rather than the normally experienced three dimensions, changes everything and requires corresponding alterations in our physical theories and laws of nature that reflect this new knowledge. This new knowledge also calls into question our ‘normal’ perceptions of reality as well as give more credence to the possibility of para-normal perceptions of reality. Nor is there any logical reason, except for our local immediate experiences with nature and our continuing survival, that space should or even must and can only have exactly three dimensions. Moreover, the space of our experience has been mathematically ‘proven’ through physical analysis to have at least four dimensions, but only four are needed to develop a purely mathematical picture of our three-dimensional universe when coupled to time on a point-bypoint basis. One might say (claim) that the mathematically ‘proven’ existence of a fourth dimension of space,[16] which we normally only ‘experience’ sub-consciously through our higher consciousness connections with the universe at large, is clearly the best evidence that our higher consciousness survives bodily death, giving us an afterlife. This conclusion is reinforced by the notion that we only directly experience our four-dimensional higher consciousness and its intimate connection with the universe at large when our normal three-dimensional senses, which are our only means of contact with (how we know) the external material world of common experience, are severely restricted (willfully during meditation) or shut down altogether (during the near-death experience). The complete or 11 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 partial shutdown of our normal senses allows the extremely subtle influence of the newly experienced direct contact between three-dimensional mind and the real four-dimensional universe via our higher consciousness to reach whole-brain coherence at that moment (moment of satori or state of nirvana during meditation) or have memories of the contact after the experience (in the case of NDEs). Information from the higher fourth dimension, which forms the truer physical context of our existence, is constantly being synchronized and processed with new information in the form of memories coming from the external material world that we sense in the communications center of the brain (Broca’s area) during our entire lifetime. This synchronization forms the fundamental worldview against which we interpret the observations and our experiences of the external three-dimensional world. In this ongoing subconscious process, our higher consciousness is stabilized by both the three-dimensional external and the four-dimensional internal world, or by the three-dimensional worldliness (materialism) and fourth-dimensional 12 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 otherworldliness (spirituality) of our existence. The two parts must always be in balance at the most fundamental level of our subconscious mind because they must confirm each other. If they fail in this confirmation, as with PTSD (unnaturally induced) and spectrum disorders (natural), mental chaos and other problems emerge to varying degrees. In either case, the ND and enlightenment experiences of that direct contact in the higher dimension of space are so mentally intense that the balance is momentarily disrupted in the favor of the four-dimensional reality, forcing neural net systems to rewire themselves in such a manner that balance is restored at the cost of a higher level of consciousness, thus altering the experiencer’s normal psyche and personality. If those experiences were not real and just imaginary due to the lack of oxygen as some scientists contend, then the neural nets would not rewrite themselves (exhibit common brain plasticity) based on the experience and what is learned from it. What was learned of the higher dimension and contact with the wholeness and oneness of the universe through that direct contact is thereafter rewired into the brain for easier access to ‘signals’, utilization of ‘psi’ and further contacts to, from and through the higher dimension as well as other ‘single field patterns’ in the higher dimension whether they are animate or inanimate. This new contact fundamentally changes the thinking patterns of the experiencer in specific ways, for instance gaining a better sensitivity toward life, a new more ecological attitude, and an enhanced empathy toward the world of nature. Plant life is fundamentally different from animal life in that plants do not have functional centers for life, mind, and consciousness (the gut, brain, and heart, respectively), but instead have dispersed individual consciousness. Plant consciousness relies more on group or collective consciousness, so a plant’s higher consciousness is less complexly patterned and more dispersed in the fourth-dimension single field. Lower-level animal life, having less and even undeveloped higher consciousness, also relies more on their own species collective consciousness, so it is easier to ‘pattern match’ as part of the background single field in the fourth dimension. These characteristics make it easier for human higher consciousness to make connection with both lower-level animal and plant consciousness while in their own higher states of consciousness, rendering the human consciousness more ecologically aware after NDEs. Experiencers learn, or rather their brain has been re-programmed to literally and empathically ‘feel’, if not directly experience, the world in which they live subconsciously by their NDEs. Further circumstantial evidence of the higher-dimensional connection to the oneness of the universe comes from the simple fact that neither ND experiencers nor those individuals who have been spiritually enlightened are able to describe their experience in any understandable way to those who have not had such experiences themselves. To verbally describe their mystical experiences to others, experiencers must resort to metaphorical descriptions and language, analogies, and other lingual gimmicks to even come close to giving others a mental picture of what they mentally experienced and make them aware that the universe and our physical reality are far more comprehensive than they have been led to believe by their own senses and experiences. This description problem results from the simple fact that our common language and lingual concepts have developed throughout human history to describe and communicate thoughts, concepts and ideas that are completely three-dimensional in nature. In other words, we have an inbred threedimensional mental bias that does not allow us to even think about the possibility of a higher dimension of space. We have literally been three-dimensionally brainwashed by human evolution and our own survival instincts only to be reinforced by all of our normal experiences throughout our individual lives. No wonder we are skeptical and even cynical about the existence of a fourth 13 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 dimension of space, even though that fourth dimension is completely necessary for our commonly experienced three-dimensional space and matter to even exist. Our three-dimensional bias The lengthy and continuing persistence of our three-dimensional bias, in both science and the human species in general, is seemingly an unflagging roadblock to human progress, whether scientific or evolutionary. Physical and metaphysical hypotheses that were created to explain only one or even a few different types of paranormal phenomena in the past (such as 8-D attempts to explain remote viewing by Elizabeth Rauscher,[17] Harold Puthoff, Russell Targ[18] and independently William Tiller,[19] and more recently Edwin May’s Decision Augmentation Theory or DAT[20]), including afterlife and reincarnation, will never be accepted by the scientific community or the general nonreligious portions of our society as useful to produce convincing evidence, no matter how convincing the evidence that is produced. Human nature is fundamentally skeptical and positivistic when it comes to something that not everyone experiences or senses and is beyond three-dimensionally biased logical and/or scientific explanation. Evidence for this can be easily found in the simple fact that psychology is supposed to be a science of the mind, yet psychologists basically claim that it is impossible to know the mind directly, and we can only know or logically interpret the existence of mind through secondary means, i.e., behaviorism. So, the bulk of psychology, supposedly the science of mind, has been based instead on behaviorism. In fact, it would be safe to say that psychology lost its mind in 1913 when John B. Watson published his ‘behaviorist manifesto.’ As Watson said in the opening paragraph of his paper, Psychology as the behaviorist views it is a purely objective experimental branch of natural science. Its theoretical goal is the prediction and control of behavior. Introspection forms no essential part of its methods, nor is the scientific value of its data dependent upon the readiness with which they lend themselves to interpretation in terms of consciousness. The behaviorist, in his efforts to get a unitary scheme of animal response, recognizes no dividing line between man and brute. The behavior of man, with all of its refinement and complexity, forms only a part of the behaviorist’s total scheme of investigation.[21] According to early psychologists, direct consideration of the mind is absolutely not necessary to understand the behavior displayed by human minds under any circumstances. Studying that behavior under any observable circumstances is the only method left to psychologists to understand the human mind and consciousness. At best, Watson recognized the existence of consciousness and its role in our interpretation of the world, but no more than that. Psychology is about behavior and not consciousness (mind being implied). Insofar as psychology is a science of mind, and even based on the concepts of mind and consciousness, psychology cannot logically state anything or make any deductions regarding mind and consciousness, and that would certainly include any possibility that consciousness survives death. So, from the very start psychology was nothing but a severely restricted and vastly over limited study of the human condition. This attitude not only affected the new science of psychology but reverberated throughout the scientific and academic/scholarly communities. Science as a whole lost consciousness (as a valid subject for scientific study) at the same time, except for the fledgling study and purely experimental science of parapsychology which was founded as an empirical science more than a decade later. But even parapsychologists adopted a positivistic view toward the paranormal that was just as restrictive and limiting in its probabilistic interpretation of its experimental results. And if we cannot accept the 14 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 reality of consciousness and theoretically explain it, we cannot theoretically explain the paranormal and afterlife or accept any ‘evidence’ of them as valid. The scientific discipline of experimental parapsychology is thus based on some unknown form of direct contact or subtle physical mechanism (termed psi after 1942 but naming something does make it any more real than not having a name for it) between a person’s mind and matter (PK or Psychokinesis) and/or mind and mind (ESP or Extra Sensory Perception).[22] Within that context, parapsychology actually pertains more directly to mind and consciousness than psychology itself and parapsychology would be a better candidate for a legitimate science of mind than psychology, which traditionally disregards mind and consciousness. However, there is an even older form of psychology, transpersonal psychology, which has recently become popular and is now growing and advancing with new research. To prove its difference from normal psychology, you need only look at its history from the time it was indirectly founded by Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha,[23] in the seventh century BCE until now. Since the mechanism of direct paranormal communication and contact was unknown when the science of mind was founded, as were the mind and consciousness, i.e., no theory or explanatory hypothesis guided psychological research, leading to the common use of statistical methods for interpretation of psychological results as well as parapsychological results. Zener cards and guessing games from a deck of cards were some of the first experients conducted at the Rhine Laboratory in North Carolina to exhibit the paranormal effect of mind over matter and/or mind to mind contact. But science is not just about experiments and observations, both of which are supposed to lead to hypotheses and theories. The parapsychology community has never had a simple, let alone a complex and comprehensive, theory on which to base its expansion and further advances with more complex experiments that strictly referred to consciousness and the verification of its existence. Unless modern parapsychology develops more comprehensive experiments based on theoretical considerations such as falsification and verification, experimental parapsychology has reached its limit without having produced any ‘best evidence’ of anything. There are, of course, exceptions to this, but they are few and far between. Parapsychology has shown that something is there, but what is it and how does it work? This fact alone implies that a new comprehensive theory of physical reality is necessary for science as a whole, which must include the results of parapsychology, to advance any further than the paradigmatic stalemate between the quantum and relativity that it now faces. The other possibility is a greater reliance on those who experience and observe paranormal phenomena that are spontaneous, and not planned in advance, but this involves other problems. The major influence to throw out and/or ignore the concepts of mind and consciousness, thus placing unrealistic limits on the reach and scope of science, came from the Ernst Mach’s dictum that it is impossible to directly or personally know either mind or physical reality. According to Mach, all of our physical laws or laws and theories of nature are based upon our sensations of the outer external world as interpreted by the inner world of mind.[24] Mach’s empirical positivism was a major influence on all of science after 1900, including the new physics and quantum theory as well as the new science of psychology, and still holds a prejudicial sway over a great deal of science and human thought. Positivism (especially in the form of American pragmatism) is still strong in science because it plays to the innate inbred skepticism that is natural to the human mind. Mach was a well-known and respected scientist, and his empirical positivism was a direct response to some of the excesses of Newtonianism in his day. While one of these excesses was the relationship of Newtonian science with the modern spiritualism movement, the other was the popularization of non-Euclidean geometries, hyperspaces, and the real possibility that our commonly 15 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 experienced space of three dimensions might really consist of four dimensions that could not be directly sensed or observed.[25] Science has tried Mach’s way of neglection and denial, and it only leads to dead ends, yet such attitudes have not changed in the last century and a half. We still carry with us, both scientists and non-scientists alike, an overwhelmingly strong three-dimensional bias that will not allow us to move forward and accept even the slightest possibility that space is fourdimensional. Even those theoretical physicists who do develop theoretical models with more than three dimensions overly restrict the size and extension of those extra dimensions to sub-quantum measures that could not possibly be real,[26,27,28,29,30] just to approximate and kowtow to the threedimensional bias against the reality of higher dimensions and forego any serious questions about the real physical characteristics that govern any possible higher dimensions, other than we do not sense them. That is their error and that is why those theories are worthless and cannot make predictions that can be tested, let alone verified. The non-falsifiability of those theories is built into the over-restrictive physical limits they use to scientifically express the higher dimensions, as was the case with Theodor Kaluza’s original five-dimensional extension to General Relativity in 1921.[31,32] The conceptual idea that space could be four-dimensional, that hyperspace is real, was so popular in the late-nineteenth century that astronomers tried to measure the curvature of space using the concept of stellar parallax.[33] These early attempts to verify and measure spatial curvature in a higher dimension have not only been forgotten, but even denied as attempts to falsify history through revisonism.[34,35] Mach’s empiricism and his positivistic inspired negative reaction to such attempts has been so successful that many present-day scientists and historians presently deny that such measurements could ever have been made. The history of those attempts has been all but wiped out of the history books. Yet there still remains an even older mathematical proof that space must be fourdimensional, and that proof lies in the fact that three-dimensional arithmetic and algebra are completely inadequate to describe simple three-dimensional circular and rotational motions. In the 1840s, the mathematician/physicist William Rowan Hamilton knew,[36] as did others, that three-dimensional mathematics was unable to completely describe rotational and circular motions (such as planetary orbits) without inventing and invoking false, non-existent, pseudo-forces to overcome the mathematical shortcomings of the general assumption and belief that our common space is only three-dimensional. Earlier natural philosophers, including Isaac Newton, invented various pseudo-forces and gave them fancy and impressive names like centripetal, centrifugal, and Coriolis, to render space three-dimensional in basic physics. We still have not learned this lesson and scientists have since invented a new pseudo-force and daily argue the existence of its source, called Dark Matter, even though it is really no more than the four-dimensional component of gravity that acts as a centrifugal force of galactic proportions. Historians and scientists know this story but still refuse to believe that Hamilton was correct, and space is four-dimensional, because our hereditary threedimensional bias is so strong and difficult to overcome. How can we accept the reality of the afterlife when we still deny the existence of the far greater portion of the very universe that we accept as the home to our living selves? Hamilton actually overcame the problem in physics by developing a four-dimensional number system called quaternions (‘qua’ from quad for four) and a matching four-dimensional quaternion algebra so physics could be done without referring to non-existent three-dimensional pseudoforces.[37] When James Clerk Maxwell developed his mathematical theory of electromagnetism in the 1850s,[38,39] he based the theory on Hamilton’s quaternions, implying the four-dimensionality of electromagnetism with respect to the A-vector. But a few decades later quaternions were replaced by 16 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 simpler three-dimensional vectors which were much easier to use in physical mechanics (to explain rotations, orbits, and circular motions) and electromagnetics. Even then, Oliver Heaviside,[40] one of the inventors of vector algebra, determined that Newton’s gravity theory, when represented by his vectors, was incomplete and added an extra term to Newton’s gravity equation to account for the centrifugal forces on orbiting planets. This term should be considered the first elaboration and explanation of Dark Matter, but insofar as it is used at all today by a few scientists it is incorrectly interpreted as a new fifth torsional force of nature called gravito-electromagnetism, or GEM.[41,42,43,44] Elizabeth Rauscher[45] and William Tiller[46] even use quaternions to model psi and paranormal phenomena today, indirectly implying a higher-dimensional ‘bulk’ as modern scientists now call the old undefined notion of a hyperspace. This same undefined five-dimensional ‘bulk’ is also used in one type of superstring theories called ‘brane’ theories.[47] To this day, it has been and remains impossible to measure the magnitude, strength, or size of the magnetic A-vector by any means in our three-dimensional space.[48] Yet the A-vector is accepted as physically real because it is essential to calculations and applications of the electromagnetic theory and the scientific understanding of the propagation of light. If anyone believes that the A-vector is not physically real and merely a mathematical gimmick to make electromagnetic theory work, we need only refer to the Aharanov-Bohm [49] and similar experiments that verify and even ‘prove’ the existence of A-vectors. And yet no one has ever asked, let alone answered, the question of why Avectors exist but are immeasurable? That is because the answer is simple, but nobody wants to go there: All of our measuring instruments and methods are strictly and materially three-dimensional, while the A-vector is strictly and wholly a four-dimensional extension or quantity which cannot be measured by three-dimensional means. The mathematical and scientific logic as stated above should be enough to convince anyone and everyone, both scientists and non-scientists alike, that the fourth dimension of space is real and needs to be considered in all of our theoretical models of reality, including life, mind, consciousness, psi, and the afterlife. Yet even this is still not enough to overcome our innate three-dimensional bias against the possibility of any type of real physical hyperspace, although it is a start. Everyone learns in their first college course in psychology that a person must first recognize and accept their problems before they can even begin to overcome them, so science first needs to recognize the threedimensional bias for what it is, and that is just beginning to happen. So, the solution is to expose this three-dimensional bias for what it is and accept the reality of the fourth dimension of space even if we do not directly experience it under normal circumstances. This must be done before any accurate models of life, mind, consciousness, and the afterlife, as well as unification in physics can be developed and accepted. Unfortunately, the three-dimensional bias by which we interpret our world is inbred and wired into our brains at birth because it has been such an important part of our evolution. Our survival as a species and as individuals for millions of years depended completely and wholly on our mental attention being focused on our immediate three-dimensional material needs, desires, and hostile environment, where everything that we encountered and experienced might have appeared as a dangerous enemy and threat to us. So, our primitive brains and minds weeded out anything other than the three-dimensional world that normally affected our most immediate survival instincts and concerns. But in order to understand this and how we developed, we must first turn to the present-day theory of evolution (Darwinian and genetic) which, likes physics, is grossly incomplete and also needs to be changed to properly understand consciousness and the survival of consciousness. 17 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 True evolution and the new thermodynamics The science of thermodynamics is incomplete as it presently stands, if for no other reason than it deals with ideal closed systems which do not exist in nature. It also completely ignores the existence of order and orderly systems in the universe, but it can be completed quite easily and rendered symmetric with respect to order (evolution) and disorder (entropy) by adding new principles or laws based on the concept of order, exactly those that are already used to correct the second law and make it workable in the real world: Prigogine’s Principle and Chaos theory. Then, and only then, would thermodynamics be of any use studying the universe as a whole thermodynamical system, including the emergence of life, mind, and consciousness. This is necessary to understand consciousness’ role in the universe, the purpose of life, and the survival of consciousness for what we call the afterlife. Although there have been no serious attempts to expand the laws of thermodynamics in this direction, there are still precedents for these new laws to be added. In order to do so, we only need remember that nature always seeks lower energy states corresponding to higher levels of stability when choosing between two or more structural configurations, another fact of nature that has not yet been included in thermodynamics or elsewhere in physics despite its general truth. Prigogine’s principle, which is commonly used to correct the shortcomings of the second law of thermodynamics, deals with order and chaos rather than disorder and entropy. Prigogine’s work also resulted in new scientific research on self-organizing systems such as life, so it causally relates life and living orderly/organized systems to thermodynamics. Once Prigogine’s principle has been given its proper place within the overall structure of thermodynamics as a new law, the next law becomes self-evident, chaos or linear dynamics as it is called in physics. Chaos theory would incorporate the ‘emergence’ of an ordered stable state or material thermodynamical system from a more chaotic physical system. Under the proper external and environmental conditions, chaotic material systems tend toward the ‘emergence’ of completely new and unique system structures that have physical characteristics quite different from the chaotic situation that created them. This would be described as the emergence of a complexity. As far as we know, planets and star systems form from intergalactic dust and hydrogen clouds in a similar fashion. Under the influence of external environmental conditions (gravity and other forces), the prevalent chaotic conditions (high entropy) of an open thermodynamic system (the intergalactic gas and dust clouds) leads to the emergence of a complexity (a galaxy, stars, and star systems) with physical characteristics wholly different from the material system that gave rise to them. This statement defines a new fifth law of thermodynamics, the principle or law of chaos and emergence. It is all the more significant because it considers the physical forces and other laws of nature that are missing from standard thermodynamical considerations and places them within the wider context of ordered structures in the universe. It would thus seem that nature and evolution take great care and pride in constructing this universe using the same efficient physical principles that govern our lives. Given Prigogine’s ‘principle’ and the ‘principle’ of emergence from chaotic systems, the concept of ‘system evolution’ is directly implied. Prigogine’s law presents the probability that higher-level stabilities will form naturally at lower energy levels that emerge from a chaotic state while the concept of emergence deals with the internal self-organizational property of emergent systems due to the new physical properties that define them. Together, these two laws result in the natural development of progressively higher levels of self-organizing and self-sustaining systems, i.e., a sort of ‘mechanical systems evolution’ of increasingly greater complexity and stability at lower and more efficient energy levels. So here we have the sixth law of thermodynamics: Individual systems and groups of systems 18 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 undergo a form of natural evolution toward ever-increasing complexity as time flows forward. It may be presumptuous to call these additions to thermodynamics ‘laws’ or (fundamental) principles of nature instead of hypotheses and theories, but they have already been well verified in so many other physical circumstances that they all but have that status already. With these changes, it should be evident that a truer theory of biological evolution is built into the very fabric of the physical universe and evolution is not just a biological process ending with Homo sapiens stuck at our present level of consciousness. Evolution is a continuous unending process that does not stop at any given point in time or level of development, such as our present normal level of human consciousness. The new laws also imply that the evolution of life is ubiquitous throughout the universe, while everything within the universe evolves, so the universe in its wholeness must also be evolving internally. Evolution is thus an integral part of all natural and physical processes, whether material or non-material, and since everything undergoes evolution in so far as time moves forward, evolution is the true ‘arrow of time’ rather than entropy. Even higher consciousness continues to evolve after it has survived the biological death of its once living host body. It is only when a high enough complexity level of matter/energy-field, in connection with the Efield, B-field and A-field complexities, develops in nature that biological life itself, in the form of a stable me-field or biofield, emerges from a chemical ooze of inanimate chemical and material structures. From that moment onward, the self-organizing principle of chaotic complexities governs evolution in conjunction with the organism’s external environmental conditions and the universe, as demonstrated by the development of ever more complex versions of each of those major fields. This model also implies how the mind and consciousness fields, as well as the biofield, can each reach their own independent inheritable new complexities at new higher levels of life, mind, and consciousness, and thus initiate top-down evolution, as opposed to the classical forms of Darwinian and genetic bottom-up evolution. In fact, death as a simple end of a person’s existence, or any being for that matter, would seem counterproductive in the overall scheme of the internal evolution of the universe and it would be better to think of dying as the process leading to a new emergence of a person’s being and existence in a still higher state of complexity, i.e., the afterlife. Our present science of biological evolution, based on Darwinist natural selection and modern concepts of genetic drift, is grossly incomplete. It cannot explain either the initial emergence of life or certain features of evolution that are part of our heritage. 19 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 The mind and consciousness, E-field, B-field, and A-field, can also direct evolution of any living organism or being and this fact can solve the seemingly insoluble mysteries normally associated with life on this planet. As a case in point, science has been faced with the mystery of the Cambrian Explosion five-hundred and forty million years ago since before Darwin’s day. In a matter of several millions of years, rather rapidly on the evolutionary scale, single cell living organisms, even single-cell organisms that had combined together to form specific mutual cooperation communities like sponges, suddenly evolved into far more complex multi-cellular bicameral organisms. Shortly thereafter, the evolutionary path split or bifurcated to yield plants and animals. These ‘events’ have never been fully explained to the satisfaction of all scientists and interested parties. However, the new thermodynamical concept of physical evolution explains these natural developments quite easily as a mind-driven evolutionary leap when the single-celled organisms became knowledgeable enough (their simple core memories became complicated enough to form a new higher-level complexity of mind) to leap forward. This knowledge was gained by the existential problems of survival they faced by forming sponge-like colonies. Quite simply, plant life had no evolutionary need for centralized function, so it evolved photosynthesis for energy, but animals, which were based upon function developed functional-centers such as the brain, heart and gut which were evolutionarily necessary for survival. This was clearly an early case of top-down evolution, directed by mind or the E-field and proceeding down to the genetic level of inheritance through a process something like modern epigenetics. Another mysterious unexplainable case like this emerged about three-hundred millennia ago with the emergence of Homo sapiens with larger and far more complex brains than seemed necessary for normal survival in the natural world. This raises the question “what did nature have in store for humans, by giving them larger more complex brains than were unnecessary for survival?” It should be obvious that there must be more to our natural reality (a higher dimension) than we normally interacted with for simple survival in our natural three-dimensional material habitat. Nature was just giving us the potential to understand and interact directly with a far greater universe than our normally 20 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 perceived three-dimensionally limited immediate material environment provided for us. By the time that Homo sapiens emerged, our predecessors had developed enough knowledge and understanding of their world to begin thinking of other ‘things’ outside of the box in which they existed. The new human consciousness then began to drive our evolution from the top down; thus, we inherited a larger and more complex brain with the potential to begin exploring this new part of our true reality. But now, after three-hundred millennia since that last evolutionary leap, we have reached the point where our knowledge and understanding of our physical universe, as expressed by physics, is ready for further expansion. Our brains are literally ‘filled to capacity’ and we are ready for the next step in our evolution, i.e., the conscious awareness of the fourth dimension of space, our higher consciousness, and its role in our survival of death. This next step in our evolution will be top-down driven by our consciousness and result in the emergence of a new inherited level of higher-consciousness equivalent to spiritual enlightenment. That fact is exactly why paranormal experiences such as NDEs, spiritual enlightenment, DBVs, remote viewing, DNEs, and so on are on the rise and becoming ever more common and better understood (scientifically studied) than ever before.[50] The veil that seemingly separates our lower threedimensional consciousness and awareness of our two ‘selves’ has become so thin that our higher fourdimensional consciousness, our ‘true self’ or buddha nature,[51] is beginning to shine through in our normal everyday lives. The revolution in science to explain this new expanded worldview and the evolutionary leap in consciousness that completes this period of human development and existence are both at hand and progressing hand-in-hand. So, evidence of the afterlife, whether good, bad, better, or best, will soon be overwhelming since it only depends upon the development of a proper theoretical explanation and description of our true nature and that of the world external to us. Consciousness created physics creating higher consciousness We can neither understand consciousness nor the afterlife until we better understand the physical nature of the universe as one whole with parts, but present science is based upon its opposite, material reductionism, which is itself based on the unspoken hypothesis that our universe is the sum of its parts. This ultimately requires us to understand the nature of the universe as several different and seemingly incompatible things or paradigms, i.e., quantum theory and relativity. The solution to this obvious paradox is unification but quantum theory and general relativity cannot be unified until we identify the role of zero points or point-elements within a surface described by Riemannian geometry, even though tensors are placed at points for calculational purposes in Riemannian four-dimensional space-time. The tensors used in general relativity only refer to an infinitesimally close approach to the three-dimensional zero point, not the actual value at, in or through the zero point.[50] Therefore, the tensor calculus used by Einstein and others is both incomplete and theoretically misleading, at least until it or Riemannian geometry is generalized to consider other geometrical possibilities at, in and through the points in the spatial surface that tensors represent.[51] Electromagnetism combines the E-field (defined by center E-charge point to center E-charge point) and magnetic field which is a two-dimensional scalar B-field (two-dimensional at any moment but three-dimensional collectively over time) that forms around moving E-charges and a point-twist Avector or collectively an A-field that exists within discrete three-dimensional points, which does not make sense unless the three-dimensional discrete 0-D point/twist extends vectorially into the fourth dimension, which is torsional (a twist extended along and around a line), from spatial points in the Bfield.[52] But normal gravity (both Newtonian with Euclidean geometry and Einsteinian with 21 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 Riemannian geometry) is only center-mass point to center-mass point directed with no torsional-point components, even though space must be torsional at all discrete points, whether defined by electromagnetic points or gravity points. So normal gravity is missing an expression for torsional-points along orbital paths in both the Einstein and Newton’s theories of gravity.[53] The momentum vector in or at the point (moment) of orbit or rotation in a gravitational field is thought to be perpendicular (tangent) to the radius of orbit/rotation in the two-dimensional orbital/rotational plane in three-dimensional space. But in reality, it is perpendicular to the orbital plane in the fourth direction of space, which changes everything. As such it would be a gravitational analogy to the A-vector in magnetism (except that it is not extended but only exists within the threedimensional discrete point).[54] So, gravity and electromagnetism cannot be unified in the manner by which Einstein and others tried until Riemannian geometry is modified to include discrete or zeropoints (point-elements). This was first attempted mathematically by W.K. Clifford in 1873, who rendered Riemannian geometry torsional at three-dimensional spatial point/twists, but he only applied this to Maxwell’s electromagnetism and not gravity.[55] If a twist and torsion are not added at spatial points, then the fourth embedding dimension cannot be defined properly as single-polar spherical geometry.[56] This demonstrates why Theodor Kaluza’s five-dimensional extension of Einstein’s spacetime was incomplete and did not offer falsification or predictions to test it.[57] This also invalidates Oscar Klein’s modification of Kaluza’s theoretical model as only three-dimensional spatially within the non-extended three-dimensional discrete points, as well as the superstring and brane theories based on Kaluza-Klein.[58] They had the right idea of adding a dimension but applied it incorrectly. Once both electromagnetism and gravitation (or gravito-gravnetism) can account for interactions as both extended lines between point centers (of charge and mass) and at those points where the action occurs, the unification of general relativity and electromagnetism can be completed. The resulting 0-D point/twists are thus defined such that three-dimensional surface points are discrete relative to, or in the reference frame of, the fourth dimension of space, but act collectively together in three-dimensional space to form continuous surfaces.[59] Dark Matter and Dark Energy are both relative results of the new point-of-action geometry, or rather a secondary effect of the unified gravity field (called gravnetism) at points along the circular orbits or rotation of spinning material objects (centrifugal forces due to the rest of matter in the spherical universe according to Mach’s principle). Gravnetism is so weak a force that it is only observed under normal conditions in astronomical observations at exceptionally large distances with extremely massive gravitational centers, such as we see in galaxies (and solar/star systems to an exceedingly small measure), but gravnetism is present in all circular/rotational physical phenomena, even in the electron orbits within atoms.[60] In quantum theory, the Schrödinger wave function lies along A-lines in the fourth dimension of space (discrete point lines) before it collapses (due to either consciousness or entanglement) and becomes a reality within relative (continuous extension) three-dimensional space. Before collapse, the Schrödinger wave function is an ambiguous probability along the fourth-dimension of space while residing in a three-dimensional quantum-point absolute Euclidean flat space (perpendicular to relative three-dimensional space at points along fourth-dimensional extensions) of all possibilities (probabilities). These possibilities are defined by the probabilities of  and *, such that collapsed = {(pre-collapse) *}.[61] The probabilities  = a+ib and *=a-ib which are absolute space twodimensional relative flat space projections from a 1-D probability function which is the wave function. Think of them as bi-ternions (analogous to quaternions) or projections of 1-D mathematical quantities (probabilities) into two-dimensional spatial positions which intersect (into the collapsed wave function) to form our three-dimensional relative space.[62] 22 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 The wave function  represents the possibility of measuring an expected value among an infinite number of possibilities before collapse, but it becomes the fourth-dimensional extension of a center-of-mass point (the true Higgs value) in the three-dimensional surface of a material body after collapse. Heisenberg’s quantities of x, p, E, and t in the uncertainty principle are really ‘expectation values’ (where we would expect to find an object or event) that can have any value from zero to infinity (taking up all space or located at a point anywhere in the universe), so quantum mechanics actually requires a statistical ‘expectation factor’ (renormalization value) to yield the expected results.[63] The Heisenberg uncertainty principle need not be characterized by ‘hidden variables’ but it does depend on ‘suppressed variables.’ Time is suppressed in the variable p (but only since momentum is considered more fundamental in quantum mechanics) and the spatial position that defines relative space is suppressed in the E variable (but only since energy is considered more fundamental in quantum mechanics).[64,65] This means that the Heisenberg uncertainty principle can be applied to real observations and experiments only when the results are absolutely space and time separated (breaking relative space-time continuity to look at possibilities in the quantum-point absolute reference frame before the collapse of the wave function) and not measured or even considered in calculations as measurable or observable concurrently in space and time or space-time. The Heisenberg uncertainty principle thus tells us that you cannot measure true (relative) spatial or temporal positions independent of each other except as probabilities until the other is measured to confirm space-time position (concurrent measures), i.e., the Heisenberg uncertainty principle artificially splits true measurement of real position into unrelated (unnatural) space and time measurements. Relativity requires space AND time concurrent measurements, while quantum mechanics accepts either space OR time (but not both) measures non-concurrently and independent of each other. In other words, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle predicts the extent to which any event is ‘real’ when space-measured without regard to time, or time-measured without regard to space, and is thus a measurement limit to material space-time reality but not physical reality. The absolute independency of the spatial location x and time location t of a material event or physical 23 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 interaction is exactly what Einstein, Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen questioned in their infamous 1935 EPR paper.[66] This new interpretation can be ‘proven’ mathematically by putting the two splitting Heisenberg formulations (thus putting space and time) back together to represent a concurrent measurement or observation in space AND time (reconstitute the suppressed variables such that xp=Et). Then it is easy to algebraically derive Einstein’s special relativity relationships (Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction, time dilation, and exponential mass increase due to relative speed increases) just by using the relationship x/t= c as a probability limiting constant or factor (rather than a speed). Newton’s second law can also be derived by applying the work-energy theorem, depending on your choices of expectation values for x, p, E, and t.[67] In summary, the simple equation that everyone (falsely) thinks science should develop to explain everything is written in SOFT as Ulijk = Sneh. This equation can be interpreted such that the discrete three-dimensional tensor at each point along a four-dimensional line (Ulijk), representing the extrinsic surface curvature of our three-dimensional 24 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 space-time continuum, is no more nor less than single field three-dimensional surface density variations (Sneh) along the fourth direction of time-space as modified by the mathematical constants e, n, and , and the physical constants ,  and h-bar. This relationship splits into electromagnetism and gravito-gravnetism in the four-dimensional single field, and further still into electricity, magnetism, gravity and gravnetism (Dark Matter) within the three-dimensional surface. The overall structure of the time-space continuum is that of a three-dimensional (n = 3) Riemannian surface embedded within a fourth (n+1 = 4) embedding dimension or manifold. Our three-dimensional space or surface is spherical as Einstein thought and double polar, which he only assumed, while the embedding fourth dimension of space is single-pole spherical. This difference between the three- and four-dimensional geometries gives the structure the physical properties, and thus the physics that characterizes our three-dimensional experienced and observed space. All matter is confined to three-dimensional space. 25 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 The four-dimensional extension of space consists of parallel infinitesimally thin three-dimensional stacked surfaces [68,69], like an infinite number of pages in a book in which subsequent threedimensional surfaces decrease in size very slowly to a point at the single-pole in the fourth dimension, and then return to the bottom of the primary three-dimensional surface, which is our curved material space or surface. With the single-polar structure, the embedding dimension has a half-twist to it in one complete circuit from above our primary surface back to the same point below our primary surface. This halftwist (like a Mobius strip) constitutes the primary reality condition for fundamental particles, each of which must display a half-twist or half-spin within the three-dimensional surface to exist as a true extended material particle. Quantization then takes place in the fourth-dimension of space as Oscar Klein thought,[70] but not in the manner he envisioned when he quantized Theodor Kaluza’s fivedimensional unification model of Einstein’s four-dimensional space-time continuum. He later changed his theoretical model, but he was still wrong.[71,72] Instead, an infinite number of infinitesimally thin parallel three-dimensional surfaces form a quantum-thickness ‘sheet’ of surfaces with an effective width or height in the fourth dimension equal to the ‘fine structure constant’ times the proton’s threedimensional diameter. This quantity and structure yield the quantum effects that we detect and observe in our three-dimensional surface/space.[73] A complete four-dimensional structural model of the proton can be drawn and fully explained while a simple hydrogen atom, which includes and reexplains the Bohr model of the atom in terms of space-time curvature, can be deduced from this four-dimensional structure.[74] 26 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 A fundamental particle, such as the proton, is basically an Einstein-Rosen Bridge extended into the fourth dimension of space to at least a distance that is approximately the same as any single dimension in three-dimensional space. The point-center or center-of- mass of the proton (the Higgs point) initiates an ephemeral nonmaterial extension that goes to and through the single pole to maintain continuity of existence relative to the fourth dimension where the half-twist comes to completion, even though the three-dimensional surface curvature is closed since the width at the top of the three-dimensional continuous particle curvature is capped off by a neutrino whose three-dimensional width is equal to the effective width of the ‘sheet’ in the fourth-dimension of space. So, real material particles cannot and do not form mathematical singularities or surface-holes at their centers as Einstein feared. Only protons, electrons and neutrinos are real fundamental particles with the neutron a stable hybrid elementary particle that appears as a combined proton-electron product within nuclei where the neutron is stabilized from decay by the internal forces of the nucleus, but decays when it is shed by the nucleus. Since this SOFT model of the atom gives a more complete rendition of all of the forces involved in the atomic structure (gravity is just a product of the curvature which is included), it will eventually be used to model all atoms (and predict the structure of atoms yet to be discovered) and even molecules more accurately, even to the point of calculating and theoretically predicting the known energy levels of atomic electronic shells and orbits instead of guesstimating those values using the original Bohr model and experimentally determined ionization energies.[75] More complex nuclei of different elements form by stacking protons and neutrons in four-dimensional space, which allows them to maintain their basic spherical shape in three-dimensional space (as if they have fluidly mingled together and lost their individual identities from the three-dimensional perspective)[76] while keeping them separate and preserving their identities as protons and neutrons while in the nucleus. This structure easily explains such nuclear features as ‘magic numbers’, and the proton to neutron ratio necessary for stable nuclei.[77] This structure should eventually (promises to) lead to the prediction of decay values for unstable nuclei. The stacking structure within the nucleus in the fourth direction or space reduces the electroweak and strong nuclear forces to point-to-point electrical contact between stacked particle surfaces and surface-to-surface gravitational contact (tension or frictional), respectively, rather than separate fundamental forces of nature.[78] And finally, mutual annihilation and pair production are simply explained as space-time curvature effects, as is the experimentally detected three-sidedness of the quark effect (particulate quarks do not exist), without resorting to quantum aethers, quantum soups, quantum fields and point particles.[79] All of the other particles predicted by the standard quantum model, including those whose ‘partial existence’ has been confirmed by high-energy collsion experiments in accelerators such as the LHC, are, at best, pseudo or intermediate but not true material particles. Some other particles predicted or used for calculational or explanatory purposes by the standard model (gluons, gravitons, quarks and etc) are just mathematical devices and/or explanatory placeholders (myths) of convenience to ‘save the phenomena’, or in this case, ‘save the basic premise (particles are points in the various fields) of the standard model. The Standard model is an idealized flat three-dimensional model of fourdimensional space-time and should only be used to predict possible energy potential patterns in the four-dimensional single field that might, but do not necessarily, become real material particles in the three-dimensional ‘sheet’ if−and only if−they meet the correct ‘conditions of reality’ set forward by the five-dimensional time-space single field model. All real material manifestations of the single field potential that we detect and call real three-dimensional material particles must meet specific rules or 27 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 ‘conditons of reality’, and those that do not meet all of these rules, even when predicted by the standard model, eventually decay into real particles and/or photons after some short period of time. There are three fundamental conditions of material reality that determine whether any random energy pattern (single potential field density pattern) in four-dimensional space can become a real material particle in three-dimensional space; The quantum condition, the three-dimensional condtion and the four-dimensional condition. The four-dimensional conditon is the simplest and refers to the single-polar structure of the fourth-dimensional of space. It simply states that all real material particles must have half-spin. The three-dimensional conditon merely states that the collective point-masses (Higgs point at the three-dimensional center of mass in the fourth-dimensional of space) that yield the inertial mass of the particle must equal (fall upon) the three-dimensional curvature of the particle in the fourth-dimensional which determines the gravitational mass of the three-dimensional extended particle. This is otherwise known as the equivalence principle as first developed by Einstein in 1912 but implied by Newton in his laws of motion. And finally, the quantum condition is that the energy equivalence of the four-dimensional energy potential pattern must equal the four-dimensional ‘volume’ (under the curvature) of the material content of the extended three-dimensional particle such that E=mc2. This conditon, effectively, is the four-dimensional equivalent of the three-dimensional conservation of matter-energy. If the four-dimensional energy potential patterns predicted by the standard model of the quantum theory meet all three of these conditions, the result upon collapse of the wave function by either consciousness (unnaturally) or quantum entanglement (naturally) will be a real stable extended three-dimensional material particle. Singularities in nature In standard general relativity, there are three possible types of singularities in nature: The Big Bang singularity, the centers of Black Holes, and the centers of material particles. Technically, the mathematical singularities in Black Holes and fundamental particles are not physical singularities since point centers do not extend to infinity but are instead closed loops due to the single-pole spherical structure of the fourth dimension. Fundamental particles also have neutrino caps which render their extrinsic curvature continuous at their center-of-mass points, so they cannot form physical singularities. This knowledge leads to new theoretical models of both Black Holes and fundamental particles which clear up some of the physical paradoxes surrounding them. The possibility that the Big Bang started with the formation of a true singularity in an Absolute Void of nothingness is the only possibility that a real mathematical singularity has ever existed in our reality. Muons and Tauons are just electrons in their n=2 and n=3 quantum energy states and SOFT predicts that protons and neutrons will also have normally unstable higher quantum energy states. So, it is highly possible that the protons and electrons from which Black Holes have evolved have at least partially, if not wholly, been three-dimensionally compressed into their n=2, 3, and even 4 quantum states. How this would affect the Black Holes has not yet been investigated, but this possibility does offer science a whole new way to investigate the interior physics of Black Holes, something that it has never before been able to do. That leaves only the theoretical Big Bang singularity to be investigated. On the other hand, standard general relativity and quantum mechanics have nothing to say about the original Big Bang singularity because they are both based on measurements (extension and uncertainty) approaching the zero point but not reaching the zero point. However, SOFT does not suffer from such limits, so SOFT can be used to model the Big Bang scientifically and logically, instead of using questionable extrapolation and guesswork. The result is a model of the Big Bang and Cosmic 28 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 Inflation without the problems of infinite energies appearing from nowhere and the creation of antiparticles that have never been observed. We can only assume there existed an empty Absolute Void of timeless nothingness in the beginning. At some moment, the first moment of time to be exact, a singularity must have appeared in the Void. How or why is immaterial at this point in science. That singularity was a 0-D point Void which after some other undefined or infinite amount of time morphed into a 0-D point/twist characterized by a virtual three-dimensionality for the first time, literally.[80] Having done so, it was able to distinguish itself from the Absolute Void and tried to fall back into that Void. But having a virtual three-dimensionality, it instead twisted or torqued into a fourth dimension and created duplicate 0-D point/twists representing equal and opposite virtual torques in both directions of the new four-dimensional embedding space. When those 0-D point/twists tried to collapse back into the original 0-D point/twist with virtual three-dimensionality, they instead created duplicates of it in each of the six directions of virtual three-dimensionality. 29 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 Then in the next moment, this whole process of doubling by duplication began for each of the points so far created, and so on and so on, each and every undefined immeasurable moment that followed. This doubling of the 0-D point/twists in each direction of space each moment eventually developed into a ‘geometrically structured Void’ that expanded ever more rapidly with each passing moment of time. This virtual physical reality was the Big Bang. The new Geometrically-Structured Void, the product of Cosmic Inflation, continued to expand until the expansion rate became so great that it outpaced and finally overcame the quantum fluctuations that had developed in its virtual three-dimensional surface. The quantum first appeared with the emergence of the first 0-D point Void when that first moment (point) of time was joined or bound to it by the binding constant of h/2 (h-bar or Planck’s constant). This preceded the emergence of the 0-D point/twist which caused the rapid expansion and thus played a role in Cosmic Inflation. At the moment when the rate of expansion overwhelmed the first group of quantum surface fluctuations the expanding balloon-like surface blew out, creating the first protons at the points of blowout. A secondary blowout occurred but did not have enough ‘force’ to completely blow out holes in the surface (protons) and instead these locations became small mounds of surface curvature which we call electrons. A third partial blowout was so weak that it only produced minimum bits of burble or curvature in the surface that we call neutrinos. This Big Blowout thus ended the era of Cosmic Inflation creating the universe that we observe and experience today. No quarks and no dense super-heated quantum aethers or soups existed during the Cosmic Inflation era. No anti-particles were formed when Cosmic Inflation ended with proton creation and no infinite energies were ever involved anywhere or anytime in this process since neither energy nor the speed of light existed until the material world of particles was ‘created’ by the Big Blowout. The Big Blowout slowed external expansion in all four directions of space, but it also caused an internal compression which continues today within the surfaces that caused an electromagnetic emission that we interpret today as the Cosmic Microwave Background, like the clanging of a bell, as well as the elasticity constants of space that we know as electric permittivity (in the three-dimensional surfaces) and magnetic permeability (along the fourth-dimensional of space) between the compressing 0-D point/twists. The single potential field formed from the virtual torques that characterize 0-D point/twists points in the fourth dimension of space, but the 0-D point/twists themselves, which were individually 30 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 characterized by a ‘primal awareness’, collectively formed a new type of potential field from the physical merging together of the 0-D point/twists when the Big Blowout occurred. The original 0-D point and the subsequent 0-D point/twists carried with them a ‘desire’ to fall back into the Absolute Void from which they emerged,[81] and that ‘desire’, want, or need represented a ‘primal awareness’ of their individuality with respect or relative to the Void. In a sense, their inherent awareness could be considered a primal awareness of ‘self’, or type of virtual pre-consciousness. This virtual ‘primal awareness of self’ collectively formed a virtual ‘pre-consciousness potential field’ when the physical unification of all 0-D point/twists to form the single potential field occurred. In other words, the universe as a whole as well as the individual parts that make up the universe have all inherited the potential to evolve and form complexities that are self-conscious to some degree while remaining universally and simultaneously entangled with one and all other 0-D point/twists. The Geometrically Structured Void still exists in the background of our physical universe, intrinsically compressing forever toward infinite 0-D point/twist smallness and extrinsically expanding forever, driving the expansion of physically extended space in both its three- and four-dimensional realities. So, as material systems became more complex over time, expressing the very nature of physical evolution, the most complex of those systems slowly differentiated its ‘self’ from other material systems and ‘life’ began. The difference between inanimate and animate is just one of complexity level. But, from the very beginning of ‘life’ (as the me-field or biofield), life developed in conjunction with simultaneously developed complexities of mind and consciousness, all of which could evolve to still higher levels of complexity over time. Life thus emerged and evolved as a material but biological complexity (me-field) that was following or utilizing the mandate of the pre-consciousness field potential to increase the complexity of the now living material system’s inherent E-, B- and A-field patterns. Yet while developing as independent self-aware material biological units (organisms and beings), these unitary material systems still partook of the rudimentary self-awareness of the universe itself through their own four-dimensional A-field connections. Under these conditions, not only is life ubiquitous throughout the universe, but so are mind and consciousness, although only under special environmental conditions can consciousness effectively evolve to higher and higher levels, such as is evident in Homo sapiens. Nor is the present level of human consciousness necessarily the highest possible level of consciousness possible. Both our individual and collective consciousness are still evolving. This predisposition toward evolving higher levels of consciousness is not just evident in living organisms but is part of the very fabric of the universe its ‘self’ as prescribed by the virtual pre-consciousness potential field by which the 0-D point/twists collectively interact with the physical universe and the single potential field in their wholeness and oneness (connectivity of differentiable internal parts and continuity, respectively). Everything that we presently know in physics is included and explained by the SOFT model of physical reality, but the biggest and most significant scientific and evolutionary changes that Homo sapiens now faces reside in the simple truth that we are now on the threshold of a new knowledgebased event that will change us forever and the development of SOFT is part of that change.[82] With this coming evolutionary event in mind, we are presently faced with the simple fact that the paranormal will soon become normal to some degree when our newly evolving higher level of consciousness becomes a hereditary reality. But before that happens, the SOFT model of consciousness predicts that our higher consciousness (four-dimensional based) must survive death in the form of our ‘spirit’ or afterlife, and this prediction will eventually be verified given the proper experimental research based on the SOFT model, in preparation for the new approaching evolutionary leap. 31 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 From external sensations to cognition and consciousness Everything we know and think we know, all of academia and the human search for knowledge and understanding of its ‘self’, our ‘selves’, and the external world, even our fundamental evolution as a species, is literally calling for, even begging for, a better understanding of consciousness and the afterlife at this time in our history. But given the present state of science almost no one hears that call. This call is implied in every facet of human society and culture. The call has traditionally come disguised in the form of the question ‘what is our purpose in life?’ Yet we have had no answer to that question because our purpose has been posed by the universe itself, acting under the collective influence of the primordial self-awareness exhibited by the 0-D point/twists that constitute the universe and the preconsciousness potential field which they collectively constitute. Until recently this has not been known except to a few adepts, and certainly not to science. The universe can only know its ‘self’ internally through learning, collected knowledge and a correct understanding of the universe, by all of the life forms that exist within it. We, and all intelligent and prescient beings, are here to add to the Universe’s overall knowledge of its own ‘self’ and when we die our knowledge, all of our memories, become an inseparable continuous part of the universe, as four-dimensional hologram-like patterns of magnetic vector potential, literally varying density single field potential patterns. As much as this continuity with the universe will be a large part of our afterlife, and it will, it is not the end for us as individuals because we are still individuals within the collective whole and we therefore still have the ability to learn and advance our individual level ‘consciousness’ even more in our afterlife. In order to prepare for this, we must increase the level of our consciousness as much as possible while still alive and do nothing that goes against the basic and fundamental rule of the universe, i.e., do nothing that will subtract any potential for knowledge of itself from the universe, which would prevent the universe from learning about itself through our and other forms of life. This simple rule is the fundamental concept of our own human sense of morality. But in order for us to conduct ourselves by this rule, we must learn and know as much truth as possible about the nature and physical reality of the universe, which means developing as true and accurate a theory of reality as humanly possible. The caterpillar/cocoon/butterfly analogy of our life/death/afterlife is not that inaccurate. Our life is that of a caterpillar and we can be either a moth or a butterfly after our cocoon of death. In either case, we add our memories and knowledge to the universe’s knowledge and experience of its ‘self’, whatever that might ultimately be, when we die, as do all living organisms. If we have not yet either inherited or developed a high enough level of consciousness during life, and do not reach it at the moment of our death, a level whereby we are fully or almost consciously aware and knowledgeable about what is ahead for us in the afterlife, we become moths that are either attracted to the light of the cosmos without fully understanding how or why, or worse, we go someplace else that is dark without the light of our own making. If we have become spiritually enlightened during life, had a profound and revealing NDE or become familiar with the oneness and wholeness of the universe in some other manner, any manner at all, we will be aware of and prepared for our afterlife and its potential when we die. We will be butterflies that continue to learn and explore and add to the universe’s knowledge of itself. That is our purpose in life, to become part of the universe’s knowledge of itself. In any case, a proper knowledge of the true reality of the higher dimension of space and our sub-conscious and conscious interactions with it, such as that provided by SOFT which is far closer to the reality of the physical universe than any other theory yet developed, will undoubtedly prove helpful and even enlightening when, if not before, we die. 32 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 Death results in a complete cessation of biological (bio-chemical and mechanical) and mental (electrical) functioning within the body and brain as defined by modern biological science. In the language of SOFT, death results when the bio- or me-field, E-field, and its corresponding B-field, either collectively or singly, destabilize to the extent that they deteriorate beyond repair. Even given this, our higher consciousness is dual stabilized by the B-field in our three-dimensional bodies and lives as well as the continuity and wholeness of the four-dimensional universe, so it does not destabilize with death but instead becomes continuous with the universe alone at the expense of its living continuity with our three-dimensional surface or space. In other words, death is only and strictly a three-dimensional inconvenience of our material, not our overall physical, evolution. Scientists normally consider only electrical changes and exchanges within the living body to explain biological causes and effects−everything from ion exchange through cell walls, to action potentials traveling along neural axons, to neurotransmitters traveling across synaptic gaps in the brain, and so on−and only think of magnetism and magnetic changes as a diagnostic tool to analyze electrical variations in the body. Science considers the magnetic characteristics of the body as insignificant, just as it disregards the four-dimensionality of our world and space, yet they are more important than science or anyone else could have ever imagined. Science has been so busy only looking at and trying to understand (unsuccessfully) the mechanical, biological, chemical, and electrical nature of life, that they have completely missed the significance of the magnetic aspect of life, whether dealing with medical and health problems or with the issues of our mind and consciousness even though electric field and the minutest electrical variation holds pretty much the same relationship to magnetic fields that mind holds to consciousness. In other words, with regard to life and the human body, science only considers the first and second (strictly material) laws or electromagnetism, all but completely forgetting to consider the third and fourth laws which are far more important. No wonder science has failed to completely understand life and how the human body functions. With this in mind, science needs to rethink how the human body and all living organisms work, especially in the area of mind and consciousness, but not just those areas. Information about the external world, in the form of sensations, reaches the neural net system in the brain through electric or ‘action potential’ transfer along the outside wall of neural axons. The advancing action potential causes E-field changes inside the axons which move forward and ‘charge’ the microtubules (MTs) of the neuron’s cytoskeletal system in a spiraling pattern along their tubulin protein surfaces, and that turns the MTs into nano-scale bio-magnetic induction coils. When fully charged, each individual MT emits a momentary magnetic burst or pulse in the form of a bio-soliton/photon.[83] These bio-solitons from neighboring MTS within the axon interact creating interference patterns that change the quantized magnetic moments of the interstitial water molecules between the MTs. That interference pattern then imprints itself into the discrete quantum points of the four-dimensional space-time continuum (singe potential field) as stored memories or A-field patterns in the four-dimensional component of space. These are our simpler or less complex white matter core memories. Memory recall occurs by reversing this process and recognition occurs automatically when incoming patterns duplicate and thus match memory patterns of external objects, events and ‘things’ already sensed and stored.[84] So ‘pattern matching’ in the fourth dimension in the brain and body is the key to the workings of mind and consciousness. After creating the momentary interference patterns that induce and imprint stored memories magnetically at 0-D point/twists in space, the biosolitons (magnetic pulses) travel beyond the axons where they are absorbed by matching MT group structures within other axons. This process establishes magnetic B-field links between neighboring axons in the brain (both white matter and grey matter) which then act as guides for the formation of 33 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 synaptic bulb positioning and repositioning between neurons in the neural nets according to the magnetic memory patterns of new learning and experiences, a process that neuroscientists call plasticity. In the meantime, the action potential continues to travel along the axons to the neuron head and on to the dendrites, ultimately reaching the synapses and synaptic bulbs (in the outer grey matter of cerebral cortex lobes) and on to other axons that control the particular input represented by the stored memories. This encodes portions of the grey matter outer surface of the brain (where higher brain functions occur) with even more complex memory patterns from multiple sources within the white matter.[85] These must match or be coordinated with stored memories within the white matter where the simpler core memories are stored. In the case of a strong enough sensation from the external world, which fires more MTs in the white matter of the brain, a cascading effect can occur whereby an extremely large enough number of bio-solitons (initially electromagnetic pulses rather than full waves) reach a high enough quantum energy statistical limit to merge (cohere) and create fully coherent electromagnetic waves or photons between the gray matter area of the brain, or specialized lobes where higher functioning of more complex memory occurs, and the stored memories in the white matter of the brain, where the axons are in greater abundance. This interaction or synchronization initiates whole-brain coherence or cognition.[86] Thinking originates in the outer cerebral cortex as the opposite direction of this process. This predicted electromagnetic result of the two-way neural feedback process between the white and gray matter areas of the brain by photons has recently been confirmed by observation.[87] The simpler core memories stored in the white matter area of the brain (technically they are stored point-for-point in the fourth-dimensional time-space continuum) must always correspond to the complex memories managed and stored by the grey matter areas of specialization along the outer cerebral cortex surface of the brain. Whole-brain coherence or cognition is a special case of this 34 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 correspondence or agreement whereby thoughts and streams of thought are brought to conscious awareness within the brain. It is strictly an electromagnetic effect, not just an electric effect, that occurs when all of the various inputs come together harmoniously like the ‘hand-shake’ when your computer signs onto the internet and logs into a specific website with a specific URL address. When this electromagnetic effect, literally a resonance of coherent light waves, reaches a high enough harmonic crescendo a special complex resonance occurs between the newly forming memories in the white area (or stored core memories being recalled by intention from the white area) and the memories in the various specialized lobes of the outer brain (cerebral cortex) creating a cognized or waking thought. This effect is strong enough for the brain to reach whole-brain coherence or the cognition associated with conscious thought and streams of thought. For all intents and purposes, the images and harmonies in the mind/brain that result from this process are hologram-like in nature. The true holographic patterns (that are being pattern matched with memories in mind/brain) that form three-dimensional hologram-like images and harmonies in the brain are actually projections from the four-dimensional hologram-like A-field patterns. Under these conditions, the grey matter surface of the brain, with its specialized lobes, acts as an index, organizer, and catalogue for the most complex of memories that a person has gathered during their lifetime. In this context, it also forms our overall worldview since it is synchronized (entangled) with the wholeness and oneness of the universe, and our corresponding ‘self’ view. The neural net structure in the grey area surface was inherited at birth from the parents of each person within any given biological species and thus reflects species-specific past-memories, thus giving every newborn baby a background ‘picture’ or template of our external physical reality that can be realized and further built upon by new learning and experience during the child and future adult’s lifetime. The grey matter neural nets of the cerebral cortex thus form the background context for any living beings’ (animals, not plants) perception of physical/material reality (our three-dimensional world) as synchronized with purely physical non-material reality (the four-dimensional reality) through the communications center (Broca’s area) of the cerebral cortex. The resulting worldview must conform with incoming sensations or information from both directions, from upward in the higherdimensional universe (the source of our intuition, sixth sense, spirituality, and such) as well as lower 35 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 input from the outer three-dimensional external material world via the sensations of our five-normal senses. Sensations from the three-dimensional external world dominate our overall perception of reality due to the simple fact that our external three-dimensional world of reality so readily and quickly affects and influences our immediate survival (survival of the fittest) within a hostile and antagonistic material world. The evolutionary path that produced the Human species has traditionally been more concerned with survival and the continuation of life, so our neural net structure reflects a threedimensional bias for the sake of our survival in a hostile world. Therefore, our normal senses all but completely drown out nearly all four-dimensional sensations and signals under normal operational conditions except at the subconscious level of our mental existence. That three-dimensional dominance (rising to the level of an intellectual and scientific bias) is so strong that we normally only have a fourth-dimensional knowledge or belief in our greater four-dimensional spatial reality paranormally (but still naturally) and/or spiritually. We normally regard the greater existence offered by our extended five-dimensional time-space reality psychically through our purported sixth sense without really having any specific physical knowledge or waking memory of the experience of the fourth dimension of the space we occupy. In the case of our sixth sense and other non-local paranormal interactions, the ‘memory’ patterns in our brains and bodies (cellular memory) are ‘pattern matched’ (quantum entangled) with other non-local A-field patterns (memories, events, information or even the space-time curvature of other physical bodies) along the fourth dimension of space, where the speed of light does not exist as a limit to information transmission and no energy exists nor is needed for the transfer of information. Only when that matching is strong enough to elicit whole-brain cognition, ESP, PK, remote viewing, precognition, clairvoyance, communication, and other paranormal phenomena, are said to occur and they thus seem to be chance occurrences. Collectively this is called super-psi. In reality, they are always 36 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 occurring in our subconscious mind well below the quantum energy levels necessary to establish whole-brain cognition. The trained mind as well as ND experiencers and spiritually enlightened adepts, anyone who has either intentionally (by practice or inheritance) or unintentionally (resulting from NDEs and spontaneous enlightenment) formed or ‘built’ new neural-net patterns that can enhance paranormal abilities and make whole-brain cognition easier, can intentionally initiate these phenomena (ESP, PK, remote viewing, mediumship and so on) under specific physical conditions. This configuration or dual multilevel magnetic structure implies that we regard our consciousness as a duality of ‘self’: The mundane everyday consciousness of three-dimensional material/physical space is the source, through our five major three-dimensional senses of our normal vision of ‘self’, and a higher consciousness that exists as our ‘higher self’ that is our body’s extension into the higher fourth-dimensional of space. In a sense, we are three-dimensional bodies made up of corresponding me-Field, E-field, and B-field complexities, embedded in a four-dimensional A-field complexity, just as our three-dimensional material space is embedded in the four-dimensional physical space. The higher- or hyper-dimensional extension of our body and ‘self’ constitutes our ‘true self’ as expressed in mystical and spiritual philosophies. Our ‘true (four-dimensional) self’ or ‘higher-self’ is what we become aware of and experience during NDEs and spiritual enlightenment, two cases where our three-dimensional material/physical sensations of reality are either naturally or intentionally minimized. When so minimized, whether intentionally or non-intentionally, we extra-sensorially and intuitively come into direct contact with the higher dimension and its continuity with the wholeness of 37 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 the universe, instead of deriving the wholeness of the universe after the modern scientific manner of logically counting, measuring, and mentally connecting its various parts as we normally do. Our purported sixth sense, as are all paranormal phenomena, is a comprehensive subconscious or subliminal ‘knowing’ of the physical nature of the hyper-dimensional space relative to the normal three dimensions of space. Everything we know is simply a case of ‘pattern matching’, whether normal recall or recognition locally in a person’s brain/body or from some other non-local source paranormally. Pattern matching always, whether normally or paranormally, occurs along the fourth dimension of space. Each and every point in space, three-dimensional and extended in the fourthdimensional, is a virtual photon, so our recollection of NDEs and spiritual ‘en-light-enment’ focus on the point-by-point electromagnetic nature of the higher dimension, when our experience of the contact is explained in logical three-dimensional terminology, for example the tunnel of light that ND experiencers report. It is this four-dimensional, extraordinarily-complex and stable multi-layered magnetic vector potential pattern of single unified field potential, the A-field, existence that forms our higher consciousness body or spirit. It is seemingly a body of light when described in three-dimensional terminology, that survives when the three-dimensional body and brain die and the three-dimensional me-, E- and B-fields are permanently disrupted. The physical disruption (energy dissipation) called death does not affect the four-dimensional A-field pattern, which also happens to carry with it, within its own structure, the blueprints for the me-, E- and B-field complexity patterns. Whereas the bio-field and E-field substantiated ‘consciousness’ during life and rendered it stable and enduring over time, i.e., the life of the person, and the magnetic fields provided structure and stability to the living body, the whole of the universe renders the surviving A-field pattern potentially ‘substantial’ after death, where our ‘spirit’ endures as a single field potential hologram-like four-dimensional variational density pattern. The extent to which we, or the A-field complexity patterns, are ‘self’ aware after death depends on the manner of death, the state of our higher consciousness when we die, and our knowledge and prior experience of our existence in the higher dimension of space while we were living. The permanent and stable magnetic vector potential A-field pattern that is continuous with, supported and stabilized by the oneness and wholeness of the universe thus forms our purely physical, but nonmaterial, ‘afterlife’ body. Quite clearly, this A-field pattern is also our spiritual body (and perhaps even our soul) and the source of our natural spirituality while we were alive. Spirituality is not the product of religion, but it is our natural ‘sense’ of being part of the continuous wholeness and undivided oneness of the universe. NDEs and spiritual enlightenment are living experiences of the fourth dimension, making direct contact with the fourth dimension and the wholeness of the universe, while our normal threedimensional senses are muted to some degree through actual death, near-death situations or willfully through meditation. These experiences are so profound and true, not imaginary, that their natural intensity rewires some of the fundamental neural nets in the brain so that we are more receptive to the direct influence of the higher dimensions and universe afterwards. This rewiring gives people a new sense of ecology, greater contact with and understanding of nature and the natural world, as well as changes in personality and a higher level of paranormal abilities. Moreover, these direct contacts with the higher fourth dimension of space prepare us for the afterlife to varying degrees, i.e., we inherently know what to expect when we die, which is why people who have experienced either NDEs or enlightenment are no longer afraid of death−death is no longer an unknown. NDEs and enlightenment are essentially pre-views of the fourth-dimensional 38 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 environment which will become our new reality and experience in the afterlife. These direct contacts are so different from our normal experience of external physical reality, that experiencers are unable to find adequate language or concepts (both of which are three-dimensional oriented and very heavily biased) to describe their experiences. Since the higher dimension is all about connection and continuity with the universe as a whole, including its internal parts, any emotion or experience in our normal three-dimensional world that enhances ‘connections’ between people and other living beings, improves and elevates our higher consciousness while living. The common emotion of love, although chemical in the brain, is in actuality a form of direct pattern matching between A-fields and thus a special connection within the higher fourth dimension that opens a person to other universal connections, as are compassion, happiness, kindness, and similar emotional states. That is why love and compassion were taught by Jesus, Buddha, and other religious leaders, who were instinctively just trying to elevate our level of consciousness while living to better prepare us for the afterlife. Hate and similar negative emotions are the opposite because they willfully and intentionally block establishing new connections or matches with other Afield patterns in the higher dimension and make pattern matching more difficult after death. All hateful and destructive acts toward other humans and living beings do the same. So, there is some truth to the concept of karma and the notion that we carry our karma into death with us. From this, it is easy to conclude that people who practice hate are hurting themselves and not the people and/or things that they hate. If they act on that hate toward another person, it is even worse. We can conclude that altruistic love and compassion create stronger and more intense pattern matchings between beings and increases a person’s overall five-dimensional awareness in the afterlife, while hate negatively blocks connections. To prepare for the afterlife, everyone needs to practice consciousness elevating principles that positively influence our afterlife and develop our predeath awareness of the hyperspace. That even includes scientific inquiry and conceptual understanding of hyperspace in any way and to any degree possible since it elevates our conscious awareness of higher consciousness and thus positively influences the afterlife. Given these details of higher consciousness and its significance for the afterlife and the fact that the direct awareness and experience of the fourth-dimensional hyperspace during an NDE is an extremely personal and private experience that cannot be adequately described in three-dimensional biased language, the best evidence for any person would be the experience of their own NDE. The best evidence is always personal experience As a considered scientific opinion as well as a gut feeling and personal intuition, NDEs are the most profound and significant of all aspects of consciousness and spirituality, including all of the various paranormal and psychical phenomena that others have reported experiencing. An NDE is so profoundly significant that experiencing one rewires fundamental neural net systems in the brain in a manner that allows the experiencer a more direct conscious awareness of his or her extended existence into the higher fourth dimension of space, whether they know that fact or not, enhancing the experiencer’s paranormal and other abilities that are natural to the fourth dimension of space. This rewiring could not take place, let alone increase a person’s later access to his or her higher consciousness, unless the NDE revealed the truth of the universe since the universe stabilizes higher consciousness from above, just as life and mind stabilize consciousness from below. When these two forms of stabilization are out of synch or disagree in some manner, mental disorders such as PTSD occur in the mundane 39 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 consciousness and mind as mental problems, which is why such disorders have been treated successfully with meditation and Tai Chi (moving meditation). Rewiring of the neural net in the brain afterwards is the best verification, ‘proof’ or ‘evidence’ that the experience is real. It clearly demonstrates that the experience cannot be imaginary, a hallucination, a dream, or an invention of the mind because the brain could not be naturally rewired by its own three-dimensional creations or thoughts. Doing so could only result from a serious dissonance or discord with our true four-dimensional physical reality, i.e., a case of the mind damaging itself. 40 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 This conclusion is the result of many years of seeking, learning, experiencing, travelling around the world, experiencing different cultures, scientific study, practicing science, studying the history and philosophy of science and the history of human cultures, as well as conducting theoretical work in physics. Everything that I know leads me to this one conclusion: NDEs are our first and most commonly experienced step toward encountering that reality which is beyond our normally sensed and experienced physical reality. The world of our normal experience is not the whole natural world that we normally sense, there is a great deal more to our natural world that we do not normally but paranormally sense. We do not normally sense this ‘other world’ because we have an inborn bias or prejudice that has been produced hereditarily in our brains (our neural net wiring system at birth) that imprisons our individual minds, holds our thoughts and thinking processes prisoner and enslaves us against directly experiencing, or rather directly cognizing, our natural connection to that higher reality at a conscious waking level, and thereby accepting this other reality. That bias shapes our normal lives as well as our thoughts and dreams. That bias is presently holding back science and our general accumulation of knowledge from further advancements as well as our own evolution because that bias is a direct product of how we have previously evolved in this three-dimensional material existence that we normally, but wrongly, interpret as our whole and complete reality. We have evolved this way through universal necessity and perhaps even universal purpose since it was three-dimensional material threats that have always presented blocks and traps to our immediate survival upon which our previous evolutionary path has been based. Our own evolutionary path has kept us from learning about and directly experiencing our true reality on a normal and regular basis, rather than the whole of our true reality, until we could better understand our normal reality, but that situation began to change with our last evolutionary jump and the emergence of Homo sapiens three-hundred thousand years ago. For some previously unknown reason, nature gave us more complex and larger brains than were necessary for survival, with greater complexities for gaining and storing new knowledge through experience and learning than we needed at that time. The only possible reason for this would be that nature was preparing us to learn of our greater existence within a greater than previously experienced universe than we normally needed for our immediate survival, i.e., the Homo species had reached a point in its mental evolution whereby it would and could soon start directly experiencing our larger and more comprehensive hyperdimensional physical reality. Perhaps, then, we had not yet cognized or learned of the existence of that greater physical reality since it would have interfered with our more immediate need to successfully survive in our three-dimensional material world without getting lost along the path of our overall evolution within the vastness and limitlessness of this greater reality. We had to learn to survive and thrive in this simpler three-dimensional material reality in order to help us navigate through the coming experience of that greater reality that we now directly but only momentarily experience during NDEs. Yet at the same time our more recently acquired immediate mental evolution, which occurred when sapiens first emerged in the Homo species, has given us the means to directly experience the extended parts of our truer reality through subconscious paranormal, but still natural, means. Thus, NDEs are the greatest of these means, short of true spiritual enlightenment in the Buddhist sense of the enlightenment concept, which leads to our personal realization and experience of our Buddha nature, ‘true self’ or higher consciousness, and its direct connection to the universe in its wholeness and oneness. In fact, it is easy to demonstrate that Siddhartha Gautama, born a pampered Shaktriyan prince in northern India, became the great Buddha and developed his method for spiritual enlightenment 41 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 through experiencing an extremely lucid and intense NDE. After years of being a wandering ascetic beginning when he was in his thirties, he gave up and decided to sit under a Bo tree and let his life slip away. He sat there for nine or ten days without eating or drinking, experiencing hallucinations and temptations by demons, before he experienced the satori and spiritual enlightenment which broke the cycle of reincarnation that was his life. Or so the legend goes. This certainly sounds like an NDE, which Gautama only understood and interpreted within the religious-dominated culture and lingual concepts of his time. Jesus had similar experiences when he spent forty days in the desert wasteland as did Mohammed who spent time meditating in a cave where the angel Gabriel came and dictated the Koran to him. In each case, and there were probably many more such NDE experiences that we have never heard about, but the NDE was interpreted within the cultural norms and lingual concepts of the experiencer, which were decidedly religious, until the Scientific Revolution in the seventeenth century and even well after that. The otherworldly reality that we already experience subconsciously and paranormally is not really a different place than that which we now occupy and is presented to us by our daily experiences, but a larger, more complete, and comprehensive physical reality of which our four-dimensional spacetime is only an infinitesimally thin quantum slice or Riemannian surface. So, the place where we go when we die is not a place that is any different than we now experience subconsciously. It is not a heaven or a hell unless we create it as a heaven or hell, or worse yet, nothing at all if we refuse to accept and believe in it and intently block it our when we die. That place is literally within us in the discrete spatial points of our material bodies so we cannot reach it or travel to it while occupying our material bodies. When we realize this and the simple fact that the fourth dimension of space is real and we are so three-dimensionally biased that we do not normally accept that reality, we will have taken the first step toward developing our own higher level of consciousness. SOFT predicts that our higher A-field consciousness survives death because it has a higherdimensional existence than the other physical fields. That existence exists only ‘discretely’ within the geometric points described by SOFT, which implies particular methods for developing experiments and specialized equipment that could verify the SOFT model of the afterlife. Such verification would provide by far the best evidence of the afterlife, but that new technology is not yet available. Nor can we materially explore the higher dimension of space or develop experiential tests for its existence, because it only manifests three-dimensionally within the discrete 0-D point/twists that are immeasurably small. Science cannot even verify its existence until humans have evolved to a higher level of consciousness, whereby we can normally experience its presence and better understand the higher dimension. So, the best evidence available for the afterlife at this time could only be a person’s direct experience of the higher dimension during an NDE. But that experience is deeply personal so any verification that an experiencer could provide to science would be deemed circumstantial at best by scientists. However, when a scientist who has developed a valid theoretical model of NDEs and afterlife has an NDE that can be successfully analyzed within the context of the model, that scientist’s self-verification would easily be the best possible evidence of the afterlife. My personal best evidence In the absence of any particular death-like and /or afterlife phenomenon that could provide us with ironclad undeniable and irrefutable evidence of the afterlife as well as any experimental or observational results that could be used to verify a valid scientific theoretical model of the afterlife, only one possibility remains. A personal experience that is undeniable and completely understandable 42 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 within the context of a valid scientific model. In my case, that would my own NDE. I have never died and been resuscitated or died and revived naturally, so my NDE was not as profound as those experienced by others, but it was extremely unique and powerful. In fact, at one time my experience would have been called a Fear-Death experience as opposed to a Near-Death experience, but that name never caught on. This means that I have been within a moment of dying, so close in fact that my mind shut down in expectation and preparation of my immediate death. From 1987 to 1991, I worked for the University of Maryland, University College European Division, teaching university level courses to US military personnel and their dependents overseas. At the end of the summer of 1988, I was assigned to an eight-week semester at Ramstein Airbase in Germany. Ramstein was also the venue for Europe’s second largest military air show at the end of August, but it also became famous for another reason at the 1988 airshow when an Italian jet completing a ‘pierced-heart maneuver’ clipped the wing of another jet causing two jets to crash beyond the end of the runway. But the ‘heart-piercing’ jet, was flying across the runway and crashed at the edge of the runway exploding into a ball of deadly fire that swept into the crowd, immediately killing over thirty spectators. I was at ground zero, literally. I was standing in the front row of spectators at the edge of the runway taking pictures when the ‘pierced heart’ maneuver started (position 1), but I had run out of film. Since this was the last act in the airshow, I moved from that position further back in the crowd while I put my camera in my rucksack (position 2). That would allow me to rush away to my parked car ahead of the crowd when the airshow ended. In anticipation of the show ending, I walked behind the white truck containers that were being used as refrigeration units for the refreshment stand, across the access road to the runway, and placed myself directly in the flight path of the oncoming ‘heart-piercing jet’ (position 3). I had been thinking about my dead father and how he would have enjoyed that airshow since he had always wanted to become an airplane mechanic, but with only a grade school education he did not have the mathematics necessary for such a job. That last lonely jet, the heart piercer, was just then coming down across the hills to the south of the base, so I put myself into a position where I could just watch it go directly over my head and imagine taking pictures of it as it did. 43 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 The jet was so close to me when they collided, twenty or more yards away and ten to fifteen yards above the runway deck, that I could see the shocked look on the Italian pilot’s face. I had put myself in a position to die within the next second or more, just few seconds before the collision, and the jet was moving straight toward me at over one-hundred knots per hour, out of control. In the next split-second after the collision, while watching the disabled jet moving closer toward me and knowing that I was about to die, I had three thoughts in rapid succession: “What would it feel like when the jet hit me” (I pictured in my mind being smashed by the underside of the jet fuselage); “My family isn’t going to like this”; And “should I bend over and kiss my ass goodbye?”. I also remember a thought, or something like a thought, of reaching up with my hand and brushing the jet aside to my right so that it would not hit anyone, but I am not really sure about that ‘thought’. It seemed different than the others. It seemed like something other than a thought as I turned my head away and never saw the jet flip to its left (my right), cartwheel and crash into the runway, exploding in a ball of flame that swept into the crowd where I had been standing (positions 1 & 2 in my diagram) less than a minute before. I turned to the left as my eyes followed the spectators sitting directly in front of me on blankets rose up and started to move to their left and out of the way. My head and body just followed my eyes to the left without any conscious thought or decision to escape. I halfheartedly started to run as I turned away, but I knew it was too late. I had already died in my mind; I literally gave up the ghost and accepted my death because I knew that I had no way nor time to avoid my impending death. Maybe I only took a step or two to the left, if that, I do not know for sure because I blacked out completely as I turned my head to the left thinking I was dead, even though my eyes were fully open. And that is when it happened. I did not leave my body like others who have NDEs. Nor did I experience the white light or tunnel, but for a moment my mind did not seem to be in my body, although not out of my body, and in that instant I received a message in my mind telling me I still had something to do. There was no voice, at least nothing that was recognizable as a voice. I just heard, saw, and felt the message simultaneously in my mind, where I had obviously ascended to a higher state of my own consciousness. I saw the message sort of behind me to my left in dull white letters against a flat black boundless background, but not with my eyes. I may not have been completely in my body, since the message that I saw in my mind’s eye was somehow behind me even though I was moving away from the crash site. It was a short four-word message, orders that I sensed I needed to follow, but I knew it did not come from my own mind or from the outside external world of my normal sensations where the jet had just crashed and exploded in a ball of fire, but from someone or something else, somewhere else. I have never told anyone the contents of the message and I never will because I plan to use the wording of the message to identify its source at some later point in my life, or death. 44 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 And then, just as quickly as I had received the message, I felt a blast of hot air on my back and literally thought to myself “I am still alive”. I had somehow survived, and my consciousness bounced back from wherever it had been to my mind and the material world of the living. This all took place in one or two seconds, I think. When I decided I was still alive, I spun around in place from my waste, facing backwards to the direction that I had started running, without losing or missing a step, as I again became conscious of the world around me. Another person was about five feet behind me and as I turned, he doubled over with is head moving toward my waste. I merely brushed him aside to the right with my hand, as if he were a leaf on the wind, i.e., without any physical effort or exertion. I then saw a person (position #4) whose hair and shoulders were on fire. I ran to him and patted out the fire and told him to sit down and wait for more help to arrive. I could hear people shouting in the distance, but the sounds were funny and muffled as if they came from the other end of a long tunnel. Otherwise, everything seemed inexplicably and deadly silent to me. To this day, I cannot remember hearing the crash, nor smelling the smoke and burning fuel. I did not even see any flames from the initial explosion, nor were my bare hands burned when I put out fires with them. My normal senses, as well as my sense of passing time, had completely shut down and it took a while for them to return to something like normal. Only my sight returned immediately. My body was moving, almost without thought or intent. My mind seemed to be operating at a much higher than normal level, under the direct influence of a higher state of consciousness where I was experiencing the specious moment, for less than a minute of real material time. I moved toward the crash site at the edge of the runway, without thinking, seemingly operating at the command of the message I had received, but instead I stopped to look at the body of a victim lying on his stomach, face down in the open space between the refrigeration units. All he had on was a baseball cap and his underpants. His fingertips and toes looked like fried pork rind and he had a hole in his back, the flesh inside the hole seared white. The sight did not emotionally affect me because I was emotionally numb, but I think I said a little prayer over him, and then moved on to the other end of the refrigerator units, even closer to crash site. There I found another man on fire sitting at the edge of the access road, just yards from where the jet crashed into the runway, wrapped in the concertina wire. No sooner had I started to pat out the fire on his head and shoulders when I heard a muffled popping sound and looked up just in time to see a small piece of metal from a secondary explosion flying at exceedingly high speed straight through the air toward me, leaving a thin trail of smoke behind it. Even at high speed It looked as if it moved toward me in slow motion. The shrapnel hit my right inner thigh but did not hurt me and left no mark or injury where it should have. As I turned away to pick up a spectator’s blanket to smother the flames, we were splattered with white foam from an emergency crew fireman who had just made it to the scene. He arrived there within about forty-five to fifty seconds after the collision according to the later official report of the incident, but I swear that I had experienced at least four minutes or more from the time that I had felt the heat wave hit my back and realized that I was still alive to the moment that the fireman yelled at me. He ordered me to leave the area and I did so, again without thinking. I do not even think that I was even capable of independent thought at that time, but just followed his orders and walked away. I wandered about for a while, not knowing what to do, and finally found the first-aid emergency tent. Only then did I start to think again. As I waited outside the tent, I heard someone behind me describing the crash, but he had it wrong, so I turned to correct him only to find myself looking into the camera lens of an Armed Forces Network TV camera. I had blood on my arm, which made me a legitimate victim, so I was ‘interviewed’ about the crash. That ‘interview’ was picked up by other news agencies and broadcast over the whole 45 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 world on the evening news.[88] Since no other news organizations were there to report on the disaster, quotes from that interview were picked up by the international news services (UPI and AP) and the military’s Stars and Stripes newspaper, where I am quoted to have said I was ‘surrounded by fire’ and people on fire.[89] To this day I have suffered no PTSD or other problems or ill effects due to the experience, even though others have reported suffering PTSD from the disaster as late as the recent thirtieth anniversary of the incident on the Ramstein Air Show Disaster group page on Facebook. I had experienced the characteristic ‘specious moment’ of time which means that I was still in a much higher state of consciousness immediately after my NDE, which also explains why I have never experienced PTSD or other ill effects from the experience. Upon reflection, I know that I had a legitimate NDE, and it was not my imagination, because I experienced many of the telltale characteristics of an NDE, including the momentary loss of all my normal senses (as if I were dead) and gained some precognitive abilities afterwards. Ten weeks later, I was in Brunssum Holland for the next eight-week semester before Christmas. I taught one course there and another across the border at a Belgian airbase where a small NATO support contingent of US airmen was stationed. One month before the end of that semester and Christmas, I made reservations to fly back to the US so I could spend Christmas with my family. But as soon as I made the reservation, literally as I walked out of the office of the travel agent, I started having premonitions that I would die on the way home for Christmas. I had made my reservation to fly home on the Thursday before Christmas, but planned to bump my flight forward one day, to Wednesday afternoon, if I was able to get my students’ grades back to our Heidelberg headquarters in time. The premonition that I would die on the trip home haunted my every thought for the next month. I had finished my library research for my doctoral dissertation in England the year before, so I spent my spare time in Holland writing my history of science dissertation. By the time I left, I had competed the first seven chapters of the draft. But the premonition was so strong that I was daily, in fact several times every day, considering mailing my dissertation and research back to my brother in the states for posthumous publication following my death. But then I would think that I was being foolish and jumpy because of the Ramstein disaster and would decide not to send my work home to my brother. I even had a car accident, totaling the front end of my car, and left it at the base in Belgium when I left to go back to Heidelberg after my students took their final exam. Even that did not quell the feeling that I would die before getting back to the USA. That night I graded the exams and was able to get back to Frankfurt and the main train station on Wednesday, several hours before the flight was to leave. My students’ exams were graded, and I could have phoned the grades to the University headquarters and still take the Wednesday flight later that afternoon. I walked in the front door of the Pan Am office across the street from the main train station about 3 PM, having finally decided to bump my flight ahead to Wednesday and get back to the USA as fast as possible. But as I walked the fifteen feet to the booking desk, I once again changed my mind and only confirmed my flight for the next day, Thursday. There was plenty of room on the Wednesday flight, but for some reason I decided to wait that last evening and fly on Thursday. So, I took the train to Heidelberg instead of the train to the Frankfurt international airport. I was back in Heidelberg by the early evening and checked into a ‘bed and breakfast’ for the night. It was only then that the dread that been haunting me for the past month, the feeling that I was going to die before I got back to the USA, started to melt away. The next morning, I reported the car accident In Belgium to my insurance agent who told me that there had been an airline accident the night before, but I took no heed of it. Even 46 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 when I turned my grades in at the Heidelberg office of the University of Maryland, my friends and colleagues were talking about the airline accident. But once again, I made nothing of it and just wished everybody a Merry Christmas. I felt great because the feeling I was going to die, had all but faded away since the evening before. By the time that I arrived at the airport and checked in for my flight on Thursday afternoon, the dreaded feeling of impending death while traveling home had completely disappeared. It was strangely quiet and somber in the Frankfurt airport waiting room for my flight and surprisingly few people were there. I pulled out that day’s Stars and Stripes newspaper and in a small box in the upper left-hand corner of the frontpage, the words “Pan Am Flight 103 crashes in Lockerbie Scotland” were highlighted. I quickly took my ticket out of my shirt pocket, where it waited with my boarding pass, and read it−It clearly said Pan Am Flight 103. I finally knew why I had been suffering from the dreadful feeling that I was going to die before I got back to the US and why that feeling had faded away after I got to the ‘Bed and Breakfast’ in Heidelberg the evening before. I arrived there and checked in at about the same time that the doomed Pan Am Flight 103 would have been taking off from Frankfurt on its ill-fated flight. At that point in time, everything had come together to fulfill the destiny of the plane, its passengers and crew, without me onboard. I even had to find a pay phone as quickly as possible to call my family back home and let everyone know that I had not been on the crashed flight. So, what can we take from this lengthy story other than I have been incredibly lucky with some aspects of my life? My premonition of impending death certainly could have been an example of my having gained some psychic abilities from my earlier NDE. Who ‘spoke’ to me during my NDE? I had been thinking about my dead father all afternoon at the airshow, so perhaps it was his presence or ‘voice’ that I did not hear but sensed in my head. At least that would fit other NDE reports. I also ‘saw’ that message in white against a flat black background sort of to my left and almost behind me, and that is where Broca’s area, the communications center of the brain, is located. The momentary super strength that I used to push the man behind me out of the way when I turned around was just a welling up of the subtle energy Chi or Ki which can only be produced in emergencies by a person’s higher consciousness. Otherwise, these incidents and the relationship between them raise more questions than they answer. What I have learned is the importance and scientific significance of NDEs and how they change people. I do not know for sure whether I only partially ‘precognized’ the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 since I had no specific details of how I was going to die. I just felt very strongly that I was going to die, without any other information, so I can only conclude that I was not supposed to die at that time for some unknown reason, and that conclusion fits the message I received. I deeply regret that I did not have more specific information about the possibility that my death might occur on the Pan Am flight. Had I even suspected that I was going to die on that particular flight, bombing or not, I would have called in a false bomb report and gotten Pan Am 103 grounded and searched on that disastrous and ill-fated Wednesday afternoon in Frankfurt. Nor can I understand why my ‘feelings’ of impending death were so dreadful and strong for a month, yet I made no attempt to better understand or learn any more about the details of my impending death. The whole incident still remains puzzling to me. I am just sorry that I had no chance to stop the Lockerbie bombing, but then maybe it was supposed to happen for some unknown reason that is beyond my reckoning and comprehension. Only the universe knows for sure, and I am not going to second guess the universe. For me, these events are easily the best evidence of the afterlife based on the reality of NDEs, and no one can challenge or take that belief away from me, refute my account of what happened, tell me I was hallucinating, or even contest what happened and my account of it. This may not be 47 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 convincing to others, but I, and only I, have the science to back it up. To this day, I am still trying to finish the task given me during my NDE. Even this essay and its message is just another part of that attempt. References [1] Carr, Bernard. (2003) “Is there space for psi in modern physics?” A talk given at Euro-PA conference, November 2003. Abstract online at https://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/~bdj10/psi/carr2003.html. [2] Ibid; also, Bernard Carr. (2008) “Worlds Apart? Can Psychical Research Bridge the Gap between Matter and Mind?” Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 59: 1-96. [3] Watson, John B. (1913) “Psychology as the Behaviorist views it.” Psychology Review 20: 159-177. [4] Beichler, James E. (2013) “The point of unification in theoretical physics.” Proceedings of the 2013 Natural Philosophy Alliance Conference, College Park, MD; Available online at http://www. academia.edu/7674017/The_point_of_unification_in_theoretical_physics. [5] Beichler, James E. (2007) “Three Logical Proofs: The five-dimensional reality of space-time.” Journal of Scientific Exploration 21 (3): 523-542. Online at https://www.academia.edu/7919795/ Three_Logical_Proofs_The_five_dimensional_reality_of_space_time. [6] Beichler, James E. (2017) “Unification Accomplished: Einstein’s dream realized in the Single Field Theory.” WISE Journal 6, 1: 41-51. At https://www.academia.edu/32985587/Unification_ Accomplished_Einsteins_dream_realized_in_the_Single_Field_Theory. [7] Beichler, James E. (2018) “The new galactic dynamic: A complete model of DE, DM and their role in forming galaxies.” Full unpublished paper, 15 October 2018. At https://www.academia. edu/ 37722661/The_new_galactic_dynamic_A_complete_model_of_DE_DM_and_their_role_in_formin g_galaxies ; And at https:// www.Academia.edu/37722666/The_new_galactic_dynamic_A_ complete_model_of_DE_DM_and_their_role in forming_galaxies; (2018) “A complete unification of modern physics paradigms: A necessary reappraisal of the state of theoretical physics in light of new observational data.” Letter to the editors of Scientific American magazine, 25 July 2018. Never published. At https://www.academia.edu/37129878/A_complete_unification_of_modern_physics _paradigms_A_necessary_reappraisal_of_the_state_of_theoretical_physics_in_light_of_new_obs ervational_data. [8] Beichler, James E. (2017) “Consciousness Manifesto: Physical origins of consciousness through evolution and revolution.” WISE Journal. At https://www.academia.edu/34710506/Consciousness Manifesto_Physical_origins_of_consciousness_through_evolution_and_revolution. [9] Beichler, James E. (2021) To Die For: The story of everything, 2nd edition; (2006) To Die For: The physical reality of conscious survival, 1st edition. Vancouver: Trafford. Summary at https://www. academia.edu/8136881/To_Die_For_The_Physical_Reality_of_Conscious_Survival. [10] Beichler, James E. (2011) “Apparitions 'R Us: Far more than a ghost of a chance.” Proceedings of the 2011 ASPSI Annual Conference. Slide presentation online at https://www.academia.edu/ 32208008/ Apparitions_R_Us_Far_more_than_a_ghost_of_a_chance. Full paper online at https://www. academia.edu/8068247/Apparitions_R_Us_Far_more_than_a_ghost_of_a_chance. [11] Beichler, James E. (2019) “The Consciousness Revolution in Science.” A seminar for the 42nd Annual ASCSI Conference, Aspects of Consciousness: Theoretical, Spiritual, Anomalous, Experiential. Online at https://www.academia.edu/39577607/The_Consciousness_Revolution_ in_Science: Slides 20-22. 48 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 [12] Beichler, James E. (2019) “A Physics of Consciousness: The only path to understanding true consciousness.” https://www.academia.edu/34388666/A_Physics_of_Consciousness_The_ only_path_to_understanding_true_consciousness: 25. [13] Ryne Douglas Pearson (writer), Alex Proyas (Director), Nicolas Cage (starring). (2009) Knowing. Movie originally by Columbia Pictures, picked up by Escape Artists. [14] Beichler, James E. (2020) “A Comprehensive New Paradigm for Consciousness: From Sensations of the External World to Neural Correlates, Whole-Brain Coherence and the Whole Cosmos.” A video presentation at Toward a Science of Consciousness Conference. PDF online at https://www. academia.edu/44087424/A_Comprehensive_New_Paradigm_for_Consciousness_From_Sensation s_of_the_External_World_to_Neural_Correlates_Whole_Brain_Coherence_and_the_Whole_Cosm os: Slides 32-34. [15] Beichler, James E. (2013) “Paraphysics and Ghost Research.” Presentation at 2nd Ghost Excavation Conference, Bedford, PA. Presentation at C.A.S.P.E.R. conference online at https://www.academia. edu/8337274/Paraphysics_and_Ghost_Research. [16] Beichler, “A Comprehensive New Paradigm”; (2019) “Spirituality, Higher Consciousness and Hyperspace: The Final Frontier.” Presentation at Psi Con: Aspects of Consciousness, 2019 Annual Conference of the ASCSI. PDF online at https://www.academia.edu/ 40561002/Spirituality_Higher_Consciousness_and_Hyperspace_The_Final_Frontier. [17] Rauscher, Elizabeth. (2021) “The Spirituality in Remote Viewing: We are all non-locally connected.” Aspects of Consciousness, Theoretical, Spiritual, Anomalous, Experiential. Proceedings of the 2018 annual conference of the Academy for Spiritual and Consciousness Studies Inc., with Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship of North Carolina. Edited by James E. Beichler. Published as an Amazon ebook and paperback. [18] Puthoff, Harold and Russell Targ. (1979) “Direct Perception of Remote Geographical Locations.” Andrija Puharich, editor, The Iceland Papers. Essentia Research Associates: 17-48; (1997) MindReach: Scientists Look at Psychic Abilities. Charlottesville, NC: Hampton Roads. [19] Tiller, William A. (1997) Science and Human Transformation: Subtle Energies, Intentionality and Consciousness. Walnut Creek, California: Pavior Publishing; with W.E. Dibble Jr. and M.J. Kohane. (2001) Conscious Acts of Creation: The Emergence of a New Physics. Walnut Creek, California: Pavior Publishing; with W.E. Dibble, R. Nunley and C.N. Shealy. (2004) “Towards General Experimentation and Discovery in “Conditioned” Laboratory Spaces: Part I: Experimental pHChange Findings at Some Remote Sites.” At http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15025888 and www.tillerfoundation.com/ToGenExp Part1.pdf; with Walter Dibble, C.T. Krebs. (2002) “Instrumental Response to Advanced Kinesiology Treatments in a ‘Conditioned’ Space.” Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine 13, 2: 91-108; with Walter Dibble, Michael Kohane. (2002) “Exploring robust Interactions between Human Intention and Inanimate/Animate Systems.” Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine 11, 3: 265-291. [20] May, Edwin C., Utts, J.M. and Spottiswoode, S.J.P. (1995) “Decision Augmentation Theory: Toward a model of anomalous mental phenomena.” Journal of Parapsychology 59(3): 195-220. Online at https://www.jjasoc. com/DATjp.pdf. [21] Watson, John B. (1913) “Psychology as the Behaviorist views it.” Psychology Review 20: 159-177. [22] Thouless, Robert H. (July 1942), "Experiments on paranormal guessing." British Journal of Psychology, British Psychological Society, 33 (1): 15–27. [23] Suzuki, D.T. (1934, 1948) An Introduction to Zen Buddhism. Kyoto: Eastern Buddhist Soc. 1934; Republished with “Foreword” by C.G. Jung. London: Rider and Company, 1948. 49 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 [24] Mach, Ernst. (1897, 1914) The Analysis of Sensations, and the relationship of the physical to the psychical. Translated by C.M. Williams, revised and supplemented from the fifth German edition by Sydney Waterlow. London: Open Court Publishing. Online at https://archive.org/details/ analysisofsensat00mach. [25] Mach, Ernst. (1883, 1919) The Science of Mechanics, 4th edition. Translated by Thomas J. McCormack, Chicago: Open Court; Original German in 1883; Beichler, James E. (2019) “The First Attempted Science of Consciousness.” Journal of Spiritual and Consciousness Studies. https:// www.academia.edu/40033572/The_First_Attempted_Science_of_Consciousness. [26] Beichler, James E. (2012) “The tie that binds: A fundamental unit of change in space and time”. In Physics of Reality: Space, Time, Matter, Cosmos. Proceedings of the 8th Vigier Symposium. Edited by Richard L Amoroso, Louis H Kauffman, and Peter Rowlands. World Scientific Publishing, 2013; Available online at http://www.academia.edu /7708594/ THE_TIE_THAT_BINDS_A_ FUNDAMENTAL_UNIT_OF_CHANGE_IN_SPACE_AND_TIME: 7-8. [27] Beichler, James E. (1980) A Five-Dimensional Continuum Approach to a Unified Field Theory. Master’s Thesis at San Francisco State University, December 1980: Chapter 3 - Inherent Problems. Published in 2013 as the first part of Hyperspace Continuum. Summary online at https:// www.academia.edu/8137036/HYPERSPACE_CONTINUUM_The_Five_Dimensional_Continuum_Ap proach_to_a_Unified_Field_Theory. [28] Beichler, James E. (1992, 1996, 2016) Originally titled “Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble.” (1992); published privately online (1996); revised and expanded as “EPR-b: Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble.” WISE Journal 5, 1 (Spring 2016). Available online at https://www.academia.edu/ 20110699/ EPR-b_Bubble_Bubble_Toil_and_Trouble. [29] Beichler, James. (2012) Phallacies in Fysics: Their essential but strictly limited role in the advance of science and human knowledge. An unpublished book manuscript. Online at https://www. academia.edu/21344274/Phallacies_in_Fysics_Their_essential_but_strictly_limited_role_in_the_a dvance_of_science_and_human_knowledge_1st_edition_. [30] Einstein, Albert, and Peter G. Bergmann. (1938) “On a Generalization of Kaluza’s Theory of Electricity.” Annals of Mathematics 39: 683-701: 683 (Introduction). [31] Kaluza, Theodor. (1921) "Zur Unitätsproblem der Physik." Sitzungsberichte der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 54: 966-972. [32] Beichler, James E. (1980, 2013) Hyperspace Continuum: The five-dimensional continuum approach to a unified field theory. Available online as an Amazon Kindle e-book titled Hyperspace Continuum; Part 1, Hyperspace, was originally written as A Five-Dimensional Continuum Approach to a Unified Field Theory. Master’s Thesis at San Francisco State University, December 1980; Part 2, Continuum, is an update of the hyperspace concept in the context of modern physics. Summarized online at https://www.academia.edu/8137036/HYPERSPACE_CONTINUUM_The_Five_ Dimensional_Continuum_Approach_to_a_Unified_Field_Theory. [33] Ball, Sir Robert Stawell. "On the Distances of Stars," Proceedings of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, 1879-1882, 9: 514-519, on p.519; Beichler (2012) Phallacies in Fysics: 534, 567; Beichler (2015), Phallacies in Fysics; The untold story of classical physics, Volume 1. Amazon e-book: 166168. [34] Miller, Arthur I. (1972) “The Myth of Gauss’ Experiment on the Euclidean Nature of Physical Space.” Isis, 63: 345-348. [35] Beichler, James E. (1992) “DeGaussing Miller’s Myth: A reappraisal of Gauss’ experiment to determine space curvature.” A Schuman Competition Essay, 1992. Online at https://www. 50 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 academia.edu/8092476/DEGAUSSING_MILLERS_MYTH_A_reappraisal_of_Gauss_experiment_to_ determine_space_curvature. [36] Wood, Charlie. (2018) “Meet the Four-Dimensional Numbers That Led to Modern Algebra.” Wired. Online at https://www.wired.com/story/meet-the-four-dimensional-numbers-that-led-to-modernalgebra/; Brown University. Four-Dimensional Numbers: The quaternions. https://www.math. brown.edu/tbanchof/Beyond3d/chapter8/section08.html. [37] B. L. van der Waerden. (1976) “Hamilton's Discovery of Quaternions.” Mathematics Magazine 49, 5: 227-234. Online at https://doi.org/10.2307/2689449 and https://www.jstor.org/stable/ 2689449. [38] Maxwell, James Clerk, (1873) A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, 1st edition; 3rd edition 1892, Volume 1, Volume 2; Reprinted, Dover Publishing, 1954. [39] Clifford, William Kingdon (1870) “On the Space-Theory of Matter”, read 21 February, Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 2 (1866/1876): 157-158; Reprinted in Mathematical Papers: 21-22; (1873) “Preliminary Sketch of Biquaternions.” Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society (12 June 1873): 381-395; Reprinted in Mathematical Papers: 181-200; (1885) Common Sense of the Exact Sciences. Edited by Karl Pearson. New York: Appleton. [40] Heaviside, Oliver. (1893) “A Gravitational and Electromagnetic Analogy.” The Electrician 31: 81-82; Reprinted in Oleg D. Jefimenko. Causality, Electromagnetic Induction, and Gravitation: 189-202. At http://serg. fedosin.ru/Heavisid.htm. [41] Shipov, G.I. (1977) “Obscherelrelyativistskiye nelineinyye spinornyye uravneniya.” Izvestiya VUZ, seriya Fizika 3; (1979) “Problemy teorii elementarnykh vzaimodeistvii.” Moscow, Moscow State University; (1993) Teoriya fizicheskogo vakuuma, (Theory of the Physical Vacuum). Moscow, NTCenter: 362; Akimov, A.E. and G.I. Shipov. (1995) “Torsion Fields and Their Experimental Manifestations.” Proceedings of International Conference: New Ideas in Natural Science. First page and bibliography reprinted, online at http://www.eskimo.com/~billb/freenrg/tors/ torsd.html; also available as Preprint No 4a. Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, International Institute for Theoretical and Applied Physics, Moscow, 1995. At http://www.binet.lv/firms/project/english/ torsion.html; (1997) “Torsion Fields and their Experimental manifestations.” Journal of New Energy 2, 2: 67-84. At http://newenergytimes.com/v2/archives/fic/J/JNE2N2.PDF. Abstract available online at http://www.amasci.com/freenrg/tors/tors.html. [42] Nachalov, Yu.V. (2003) “The Basics of Torsion Mechanics.” Available online at http://www.amasci.com/freenrg/tors/tors24.html; with E.A. Parkhomov. (2003) “Experimental detection of the torsion field.” Online at http://www. amasci.com/freenrg/ tors/doc15.html. [43] Mashhoon, Bahram. (2000). Gravitoelectromagnetism. Reference Frames and Gravitomagnetism Proceedings of the XXIII Spanish Relativity Meeting: 121–132. At https://arxiv.org/pdf/grqc/0011014.pdf; (2008). "Gravitoelectromagnetism: A Brief Review". Measuring Gravitomagnetism: A Challenging Enterprise. Edited by L. Iorio. Nova: 29-39. At https://arxiv. org/pdf/gr-qc/0311030.pdf; See also Reed, Donald. (1998) “Torsion Field research.” New Energy News 6, 1: 22-24. At http://www. padrak.com/ine/ NEN_6_1_6_html. [44] Beichler, James. (2006) “Alternative Physical Models of the Universe.” In Life and Mind. Edited by Savely Savva. Victoria: Trafford: 239-262. [45] Rauscher, Elizabeth A. (1979) “Some Physical Models Potentially Applicable to Remote Perception.” Puharich, The Iceland Papers: 49-94. [46] Tiller, William A. (2006) “Towards a New Physics and Biology that includes consciousness”. In Savely Savva, editor. Life and Mind: In search of the physical basis. Victoria, B.C.: Trafford. 51 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 [47] Randall, Lisa, and Raman Sundrum. (1999) “A Large Mass Hierarchy from a Small Extra Dimension.” Physical Review Letters 83: 3370-3373. At http://ArXiv:hep-ph/9905221; (1999) “An alternative to compactification.” Physical Review Letters 83: 4690-4693. At http://ArXiv:hepth/9906064. [48] Jackson, John David. (1974) Classical Electrodynamics, second edition. New York: John Wiley and Sons; Corson, Dale, and Paul Lorrain. Introduction to Electromagnetic Fields and Waves. San Francisco: Freeman, 1962. [49] Aharonov, Y. and Bohm, D. (1959) "Significance of electromagnetic potentials in quantum theory". Physical Review. 115 (3): 485–491; (1961) "Further Considerations on Electromagnetic Potentials in the Quantum Theory". Physical Review. 123 (4): 1511–1524. [50] Riemann, Bernhard. (1854, 1868, 1873) “Ueber die Hypothesen, welche der Geometrie zu Grunde liegen.” Habilitationsschrift at Göttingen University in 1854, Abhandlungen der Königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, 13; The material from Riemann's Nachlass published by Heinrich Weber in the 2nd edition of Bernhard Riemann's Gesammelte Mathematische Werke. (1861, Gesammelte Mathematische Werke, Zweite Auflage); (1873) “On the hypotheses which lie at the foundation of geometry.” Translated by W.K.Clifford, Nature 8; Reprinted in Clifford's Collected Mathematical Papers. London: Macmillan, 1882. Available online at www.maths.tcd.ie/pub/HistMath/People/Riemann/ Geom/WKCGeom.html. [51] Beichler, James. (2015) “Finishing Einstein Point by Point: The unification of quantum and relativity.” WISE Journal 4, 4 (Winter 2015). Available online at https://www.academia.edu/ 16201568/Finishing_Einstein_Point_by_Point_The_unification_of_quantum_and_relativity. [52] Beichler, “Finishing Einstein”. [53] Beichler, The point of unification: http://www.academia.edu/7674017/The_point_of_unification_ in_theoretical_physics: 3-5. [54] Beichler, James E. (2019) “Spirituality, Higher Consciousness and Hyperspace: The Final Frontier.” Presentation at annual ASCSI conference, Psi Con: Aspects of Consciousness. Online at https://www.academia.edu/40561002/Spirituality_Higher_Consciousness_and_Hyperspace_The_ Final_Frontier: Slide 52. [55] Beichler, James E. (1997) “Twist ‘til we tear the house down: How Clifford solved the universe in 1870.” Presentation at joint APS/AAPT meeting, 17 February 2010, Washington, DC. Online at https://www.academia.edu/8211642/Twist-til_we_tear_the_house_down_How_Clifford_solved_ the_universe_in_1870; (1991, 2013) Twist and Shout. Originally written as a doctoral dissertation for the History and Philosophy of Science program at the University of Maryland, College Park. Later (2013) published as Twist and Shout: Clifford’s (not so) secret program for ‘Solving the Universe’ as an Amazon Kindle e-book. [56] Beichler, James E. (2016) “The Emergence of Neurocosmology: Evolution physics, consciousness, physical reality and our experiential universe”. Proceedings of the Vigier 10 Symposium. Edited by Richard L Amoroso, Louis H Kauffman, and Peter Rowlands. World Scientific Publishing. Available online at https://www.academia.edu/27662437/The_Emergence_of_Neurocosmology_ Evolution_physics_consciousness_physical_reality_and_our_experiential_universe: 5. [57] Beichler, A five-dimensional continuum approach: Chapter 3. [58] Applequist, Thomas, Alan Chodos and Peter G.O. Freund, editors. (1986) Modern Kaluza-Klein Theories. Menlo Park: Addison-Wesley; Davies, Paul C.W. and Julian Brown, editors. (1988) Superstrings, A Theory of Everything. Cambridge: CUP; Schwarz, John H. (1997) “The Second 52 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 Superstring Revolution.” 22 May 1997. At http://theory.caltech.edu/people/jhs/strings/index.htm; Schwarz, John. “Interview.” Davies and Brown. Superstrings: 70-89. [59] Beichler, James E. (2016) “Quantized space-time structure: The 0-D point/twist as co-creator of the continuum and single field”. Proceedings of the Vigier X Symposium. 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[63] Beichler, “Unification Accomplished”: 10; (2019) “Tao, Physics, and Unification in Consciousness: Everything is one.” Conference submission Science and the Scientist April 2019. Online at https:// www.academia.edu/38973343/Tao_Physics_and_Unification_in_Consciousness_Everything_is_on e: 11. [64] Beichler, “Finishing Einstein point by point”: 17-18. [65] Beichler, “Psi-kido”: Slide 15. [66] Einstein, Albert, Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen. (1935) “Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete.” Physical Review 47: 777-780. [67] Beichler, EPR-b. [68] Einstein and Bergmann, “Generalization”; Einstein, Peter Bergmann, and Valentin Bargmann. (1941) “On the Five-Dimensional Representation of Gravitation and Electricity.” In Theodor von Karman Anniversary Volume. Pasadena, 1941: 212-225. [69] Beichler, “Modern Fysics Phallacies”. [70] Klein, Oskar. (1926) “Quantentheorie und Fünfdimensionale Relativitätstheorie.” Zeitschrift fur Physik: 895-906; (1926) “The Atomicity of Electricity as a Quantum Theory Law.” Nature, 118: 516; (1927) “Zur Fünfdimensionale Darstellung der Relativitätstheorie.” Zeitschrift fur Physik 46: 188208. [71] Klein, Oskar. (1939) “On the Theory of Charged Particles.” New Theories in Physics, International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation, Paris; (1947) “Meson Fields and Nuclear Interaction.” Arkiv for Mathematik, Astronomi och Fysik 34A: 1-19. [72] Beichler, James. (2015) The Einstein Unified Field Theory Completed: A direct challenge to the basic assumptions, theories, and direction of modern and post-modern physics (1st ed). Unpublished. https://www.academia.edu/12035946/The_Einstein_unified_field_theory_completed_A_direct_c hallenge_to_the_basic_assumptions_and_direction_of_modern_physics_1st_Edition_: 49-50. [73] Beichler, Einstein completed: 73, 88-89 [74] Beichler, Einstein completed: 86-87 [75] Beichler, Einstein completed: 86-87. [76] Beichler, Einstein completed: 81-82. [77] Beichler, Einstein completed: 81-83. [78] Beichler, Einstein completed: 82-83. 53 James E. Beichler BICS Essay Competition Published JSCS, V44, I2, 2021 [79] Beichler, Einstein completed: 88-89. [80] Beichler, James E. (2017) “In the Beginning: Evolution physics, consciousness and our physical reality.” WISE Journal, 5, 1. At https://www.academia.edu/29738682/In_the_Beginning_ Evolution_physics_consciousness_and_our_physical_reality. [81] Beichler, “Quantized space-time structure”; with Sperry Andrews. (2017) “Intuitive consciousness and the logic of single field physics: A conscious synergy of worldviews and theories.” At https://www.academia.edu/ 32593126/Intuitive_consciousness_and_the_logic_of_single_field_ physics_A_conscious_synergy_of_worldviews_and_theories. [82] Beichler, James E. (2018) “The Consciousness Revolution in Science: The inner workings of the primal cosmic mish-mash which yields our senses of spirit, consciousness and our interpretations of nature/physics.” 2018 ASCSI/SFF Conference Presentation. Written version published in the Proceedings. Slide presentation available online at https:// https://www.academia.edu/37505190/ The_Consciousness_Revolution_in_Science_The_inner_workings_of_the_primal_cosmic_mish_ma sh_which_yields_our_senses_of_spirit_consciousness_and_our_interpretations_of_nature_physic s: Slides 30-34; (2021) Aspects of Consciousness: Theoretical, Spiritual, Anomalous, Experiential. Editor and contributor. Proceedings of the 2018 annual conference of the ASCSI and SFF. Edited by James E. Beichler. Published as an Amazon e-book and paperback; (2014) “Consciousness of Unification: The Mind-Matter Phallacy bites the Dust.” Unified Field Mechanics: Natural Science Beyond the Veil of Spacetime. Proceedings of Vigier IX Symposium. Edited by Richard L Amoroso, Louis H Kauffman, and Peter Rowlands. World Scientific Publishing: 564-578; Online at https://www.academia.edu/7708681/ CONSCIOUSNESS_OF_UNIFICATION_THE_MIND_MATTER_ PHALLACY_BITES_THE_DUST: 13. [83] Beichler, James E. (2013) Four Pillars of Wisdom: The conceptual foundations of natural science. Published as an Amazon Kindle e-book. Summarized online at https://www.academia.edu/ 8137119/FOUR_PILLARS_OF_WISDOM_Fundamental_concepts_of_natural_science; (2012) “The Body Magnetic: Physical source of consciousness, the paranormal and survival.” A presentation at the 36th Annual Meeting of the SPR, University of Northampton, UK. Online at https://www. academia.edu/8311799/The_Body_Magnetic_Physical_source_of_consciousness_the_paranormal _and_survival. [84] Beichler, James E. (2012) “The neurophysical basis of mind and consciousness: An electromagnetic model of the neuron.” A presentation at the annual Spring Meeting of the OSAPS, Ohio State University, April 2012. Online at https://www.academia.edu/8157951/The_neurophysical_ basis_of_mind_and_consciousness_An_electromagnetic_model_of_the_neuron: Slides 23-26; (2018) “Psi-kido”: Slides 56-58. [85] Beichler, “A Comprehensive New Paradigm”: Slides 28-31. [86] Beichler, James, (2015) “Consciousness Manifesto: Physical origins of consciousness through evolution and revolution.” WISE Journal. Online at https://www.academia.edu/34710506/ Consciousness_Manifesto_Physical_origins_of_consciousness_through_evolution_and_revolution: 3-13. [87] Zarkeshian, Parisa, Sourabh Kumar, Jack Tuszynski, Paul Barclay, Christoph Simon. (2017) “Are there optical communication channels in the brain?” Arxiv. Submitted on 23 Aug 2017. 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