It seems strange, somehow, that one of the greatest clues to the nature of the universe should be sleep. It is, though, if one knows that the Mind is completely independent of the brain. A physicist is likely to wonder where the Mind gets its energy? It is certain that mental activity consumes a lot of energy, indeed, can consume far more than vigorous physical activity.
The Mind is composed of a completely different kind of matter than the body. We know this because the Mind is invisible to physical eyes and cannot be photographed in any reproducible way. When we open up the head in a living subject to perform a brain operation, there is no sign of something different, i.e. the Mind. The Mind is only visible to the HSP sense, which we all have, but which normally only comes into operation when we go OOB, which can happen in a variety of ways, and is a fairly common experience. How does this blob of transparent matter observe ordinary reality? Not by interacting with photons. The first law of Mind is that it has absolutely no interaction with the Electro-Magnetic force. That is why it is invisible and intangible. Indeed, a common aspect of OOBEs is that a person in that state can freely move through solid objects, such as in-the-body people or doors, walls, ceilings, floors, whatever. We know that the tangibility and visibility of objects is entirely due to the interaction of their component atoms with the Electro-Magnetic field.
So what do we do when we are mentally tired? We sleep, if we can. Our bodies do not require sleep. If we are forced to go several days without sleep, our bodies still function fine. But the Mind gives out, and begins to hallucinate, or we begin to sleep standing up, with our eyes open.
So sleep is the dynamo (also called generator) which transfers energy from the physical world to the mental world. But how does it work exactly? Simply ask yourself how you can determine that someone is sleeping rather than just lying quietly with their eyes closed? By their breathing! In sleep, it becomes slow and laborious and very rhythmic and noticeable. So that is where the dynamo is located, and must resist the rise and fall of the abdomen or the movement in and out of the diaphragm or the rise and fall of the chest, or all of the above. This must be one of the four forces known to physics, since it is a force which interacts with physical matter. The only likely candidate is the Einsteinian force, which interacts with neutral matter at long range (to a physicist, anything more than the diameter of an atom is long range). It therefore follows that the Mind has the inherent power to effortlessly warp space-time, since that is how the Einsteinian force works.
Interstellar enthusiasts have been looking for a warp engine somewhere in the bowels of theoretical physics. But they won't find it there. They will find it in the everyday act of sleep. This is the only phenomenon which appears likely to involve an effortless bending of the space-time geodesics, in order to produce the resisting force necessary for a dynamo. The physics of all dynamos is the same, and governed by the equation E=F*D, where E is the energy generated, F is the force resisting the motion, and D is the distance traveled.
It is easy to test this idea. Simply pass a laser beam over a sleeping person and see if we can detect a rhythmic bending of the beam. The amount of the bending is likely to be very small, only detectable miles away, and only when the beam is focused to a point, and then magnified, so that the most minute movement can be detected. Only physicists or geologists have the equipment to make that test. Philosophers don't have the equipment, or the temperament. It might also be possible to detect rhythmic changes in the gravity field by mounting a gravity meter over a sleeping person. Gravity meters are very sensitive. So perhaps that is the most promising experiment.
If the results of this test are positive, there will be an overnight revolution in our intellectual history. Finally, the hold of reduction will be broken. The reason is that physicists will have the first reproducible produce-on-demand Psi phenomenon, one that will work with anyone, since we all require sleep. Physicists will go nuts. Our intellectual world will change in a flash, and all the other discoveries of Psionics will become believable, and the leading edge of science.
Sleep provides the easiest test of a complex theory of Mind, my theory of psionics. This is a theory which heals the rift between psi and physics, without being reductionist. The Mind is not the brain, is not the activity of the brain, and is not produced by the brain. It isn't even composed of the same kind of material, since the mind is composed of dark matter like that discovered by the astronomers. We don't know much about dark matter. It may be a property of the vacuum, i.e. a property of space-time itself, which would explain why the Mind can effortlessly bend the geodesics of space-time to produce levitation and apportation. Perhaps there are different levels of energy of the vacuum, or perhaps the vacuum can organize itself into different levels of complexity. I don't know. That is just speculation, and is not part of my theory. What my theory does accomplish is to make the Mind a thing, an object in nature, something with mass, size, shape, internal structure, conservation of energy, and interactions with physical matter. Thus, the Mind ceases to be the "ghost in the machine." It becomes part of nature, and can be weighed and measured just like other parts of nature.
So perhaps we should call this "the theory of the Mind as a natural object." While I can explain sleep, perception, the coherency of an organism, and animacy, I do not explain consciousness. For that, we need the theory of the Soul. See the section on "Spiritual Evolution."
Copyright © Thales 1999
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