Looking for the Light: Consciousness, Near Death Experiences and the Mystical Shroud of Turin

In my research the past month, I have dealt three phenomena which I believe are related: consciousness, Near Death Experiences (NDE) and the Shroud of Turin. Among other things I discovered a Renaissance painting of astonishing relevance.

A. Consciousness

There is a heated scientific dispute as to the nature of consciousness and its relationship to the brain. The philosophical battlefield for this dispute is the application of materialistic reductionism. The reductionists hold that all worthwhile scientific inquiry must be aimed at reducing any phenomena to its physical components at the simplest level. Thus to the reductionist consciousness is merely the sum total of physical processes of the brain. On the other hand there is a large body of thought by some scientists that perceive consciousness not only existing apart from the processes of the brain but being the basic fabric of not just human existence but all existence.

Quantum Mechanics (QM) poses unique problems for the reductionists. QM deals with existence at its most elementary levels and grapples with the problems posed by the apparent role of conscious observation in determining our existence.

Sir Roger Penrose and Dr. Stuart Hameroff have written:
“Consciousness implies awareness: subjective experience of internal and external phenomenal worlds. Consciousness is central also to understanding, meaning and volitional choice with the experience of free will. Our views of reality, of the universe, of ourselves depend on consciousness. Consciousness defines our existence.” (Emphasis added)

B. NEAR DEATH AND OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCES

There are two phenomena which have been studied that specifically relate to the issue of whether the consciousness is merely a process of the physical brain or can exist independent of the brain. One phenomenon is Out of Body Experiences (OBE). The other is Near Death Experiences (NDE). OBE have occurred during surgical procedures when the patient suffers a crisis and seems to have died by reason of a cardiac arrest and apparent cessation of brain function.

The classic example of an OBE is a sensation of the patient that she or he is observing the doctors from a position above the operating table. The patient sees and hears things that due to her unconscious state she could not hear or see.

The NDE goes several  steps further. The individual is projected into a different stage of existence and although the experiences may very depending upon cultural or religious backgrounds there are repetitive observations that occur across a broad cross-section of the NDE experiences.

For this brief outline of where I am heading I will concentrate on two of them which are widely reported among the hundreds (if not thousands) of individuals who have had NDE  experiences. The first is progressing through a tunnel and the second is the seeing of a bright light at the end of the tunnel. If you were to Google as I have the phrase "light at the end of the tunnel" on May 20, 2016 the program would report 77 million hits. If you were to modify the search request to "light at the end of the tunnel death" you would receive merely 24 million hits.

I believe that is one example of the pervasive nature of the tunnel – light observation of the NDE. I am not writing that there are 77 million tunnel and light experiences only that the 24 million hits indicate extraordinary interest in the phenomena.

There is in the matter I have reviewed one illustration of the light at the end of the tunnel in death:


It is from a painting by Hieronymus Bosch: Ascent into the Empyrean, circa 1500. It has been identified by one recent NDEer has an accurate representation of what he saw in his NDE experience. 

It's difficult to draw a definitive conclusion about the inspiration for Bosch's painting. Did he have an NDE? Was he told about an NDE by a third party. How could hundreds if not thousands of individuals relate an NDE that contains the Bosch vision? I believe that most people today, if they are familiar with Bosch's work at all, are familiar with his visions of Hell rather than his vision of the light at the end of the tunnel. There can be no doubt if you are familiar with NDE studies that Bosch's vision was inspired by an NDE or NDEs.

Those who have related  the tunnel – light phenomena as a part of an NDE go on to recite that the light was a warm welcoming presence but before they become immersed in the light they are drawn back to reality. Christians have identified the light as God or Jesus. 

Throughout Scripture Jesus is identified with light. How apropos is that to the NDE experience and beyond that to the mysterious image of the crucified Christ on the Shroud of Turin. Is the Bosch vision part of Carl Jung's "collective unconscious" or Teilhard de Chardin's "Noosphere?

C. The Shroud of Turin

There have been significant hypotheses that the Shroud image may have been created by collimated light which resembles but obviously is not a laser beam. May we not say at least metaphorically that through the scientific study of the Shroud, He is coming again. That is my query from the Introduction of my book: The Coming of the Quantum Christ.

In this Apocalyptical time, when the extinction of humanity now appears to be a real possibility as soon as 2101, do we not need Him more than ever? 


SOME RESOURCES:

The authenticity of the Shroud
A grave Injustice: An investigation into "The First Selfie"
http://www.shroud-enigma.com/

Consciousness
Roger Penrose, PhD, OM, FRS1, and Stuart Hameroff, MD, “Consciousness in the Universe: Neuroscience, Quantum Space-Time Geometry and Orch OR Theory,” Cosmology of Consciousness: Quantum Physics & Neuroscience of Mind (Kindle Locations 681-683). Cosmology Science Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Global Consciousness project
http://www.noetic.org/research/projects/mindatlarge

The Tunnel Experience
"I also came across a very interesting work by Hieronymus Bosch, the famous 15th-century Dutch painter. In a painting entitled Ascent into the Empyrean, he had depicted what looked like a typical NDE: a passage down a tunnel toward a bright light, with people being taken there by angels ….I wondered whether Bosch had experienced an NDE himself or whether someone else had described one to him."
Parnia, Sam. What Happens When We Die?: A Groundbreaking Study into the Nature of Life and Death (p. 9). Hay House. Kindle Edition.

van Lommel, Pim. Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience (p. 27). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

Dave Hines
Dave Hines who is producing a video of Shroud of Turin  as witness to the Resurrection has created an adaptation of the tunnel-light phenomenon as an introduction to the video. Interesting work in progress. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d2e62RCPFo
Can you identify the theme music? Think Peter O'Toole.

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This is not a promo for my book "The Coming of the Quantum Christ" but if you are interested:  but if anyone is interested: http://johnklotz.blogspot.com/2015_01_01_archive.html

David Hines Video: Let there be Light

David Hines has edited his Shroud video to deal with the relationship of light to the Resurrection. He has added a dramatization of the Resurrection as a light event.  A trailer for the video is at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T635dyZavY

The trailer contains a link to the full video. There is extensive biblical references in the video in chief which you may or may not agree with in whole or in part. His approach is somewhat fundamentalist in terms of those references.

At minute 18:58 he discusses the presence of photons in DNA and the fact those photons are essentially ultraviolet. He notes that the one experiment which actually altered linen in the same manner as the shroud image Shroud image was with an ultraviolet laser.

He concludes with a reference to a prayer that ends the video which is the Prayer of St. Francis although he doesn't identify it as such. The third line is "where there is darkness let me bring light." His video is an admirable bringing of light to the darkness of the tomb.

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This is not a promo for my book "The Coming of the Quantum Christ" but if you are interested:  but if anyone is interested:http://johnklotz.blogspot.com/2015_01_01_archive.html

The Pope, the Apocalypse and the Shroud

On Thursday, June 18, 2015, Pope Francis released to the world his groundbreaking encyclical on climate change Laudato Si. On Sunday, June 21, he prayed before the Shroud of Turin and then standing-up moved forward and tenderly touched the rim of the Shroud's display frame. Both the release of Laudato Si on  June 18 and his travel to Turin had been publicized months in advance. Could they have been related?

"Groundbreaking" understates the importance of Laudato Si. There have been five mass extinctions of species in the history of earth. One of them, the Permian, nearly extinguished all life.

Concerns about climate change have been building for decades. In the first five months of 2014, an avalanche of reports was issued which again highlighted the problems and the dire consequences of inaction. It may already be too late. The reports supported the conclusion of Elizabeth Kolbert and Richard Leakey that the sixth mass extinction was underway and while its furthest extent could not yet be limned, one species in peril is  humanity.

The Pontifical Academy of Science and Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences (PAS/PASS) sponsored a workshop on “Sustainable Humanity, Sustainable Nature” in Rome from May 4-May 6, 2014. Among the 57 participants was Nobel Laureate Paul Crutzen. [i]

Crutzen is a Dutch Chemist who shared the Nobel Prize for his discovering the effects of ozone-depleting compounds.[ii] Crutzen also named the current geological era, the “Anthropocene,” a not necessarily honorable honorific for humanity. Until approximately 200 years ago, humanity was believed to have little impact on the geologic eras but that changed:[iii]

“The Anthropocene could be said to have started in the late eighteenth century, when analyses of air trapped in polar ice showed the beginning of growing global concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane.”[iv]

It its May 6, 2014 final conference statement, the scientists noted among other things:

“Human action which is not respectful of nature becomes a boomerang for human beings that creates inequality and extends what Pope Francis has termed "the globalization of indifference" and the "economy of exclusion" (Evangelii Gaudium), which themselves endanger solidarity with present and future generations.”[v]

After the conference, it was rumored that Francis intended to write an encyclical about climate change and its moral and ethical impact on humanity.[vi] Environmentalists, scientists, public officials, and academics from a variety of institutions awaited its publication.

The Yale Forestry and Divinity schools sponsored a panel discussion on the impact of the anticipated encyclical. It may be viewed on the web.[vii] The participants included not just Christians but a woman who works on environmental issues with Buddhist monks in Nepal. All were enthusiastically awaiting not just the encyclical but also the pope's follow-up addresses to the US Congress and the United Nations. The Pope's ultimate goal was clearly to influence the UN Conference on climate change scheduled for Paris in December. That conference may be humanity's last clear chance to avoid total climate disaster.

On June 18th, the Vatican published Laudato Si. Yet there is a word missing from Laudato Si, a word which better than any expresses an ancient and persistent fear of humanity that applies to the projected results of the climate change engendered by the sixth mass extinction: Apocalypse. Understandably, Pope Francis shunned the  use of apocalyptic reference. Francis avoids criticism that he is a hysterical alarmist.

However, the unfortunate fact is that we are starting down the path that may lead to an apocalyptic extinction of the humanity. In fact, the early stages of the sixth mass extinction of life exhibits signs that it may be the last. Forces are being unleashed that may make the Earth inhospitable to any conscious life and perhaps any life at all.

On January 17, 2015, the New York Times published an Op-Ed by astrophysicist Adam Frank who believes that mass extinctions of life are a natural result of the evolution of conscious life forms that as they develop abuse the environment as a matter of course. The nearly inevitable result is the extinction of all life. It's a scenario that he hypothesizes has been repeated millions of time on planets throughout the Universe.

Listen! Can you hear the hoof beats? The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are riding. They are just over the horizon.

In  Evangelii Gaudium, Francis excoriated the selfishness of those whose claim faith in blind market forces that they manipulate for their own selfish interests. In Laudato Si, he doesn't completely connect the dots. Nonetheless, the Apocalypse we face is an Apocalypse of Selfishness.

Perhaps it is no accident that Francis' trip to Turin and planned visit to the Shroud followed so closely the publication of Laudato Si. Given the ferocious criticism he received and no doubt anticipated from reactionary forces in the Church and elsewhere, he needed a moment with the Shroud. I can only suspect that as he prayed, he was offering-up of Laudato Si to the God made man to whom he has dedicated his life. If so, I pray that his prayer was answered:

"Well done, good and faithful servant."
	Mathew 25:21

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Learn about The Coming of the Quantum Christ

http://johnklotz.blogspot.com

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[i] http://www.casinapioiv.va/content/accademia/en/events/2014/sustainable.html

[ii] Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History (Henry Holt, New York, 2014)

[iii] Paul Crutzen, Nature 415, 3 January 2002. (cited hereafter as “Crutzen)

[iv] Crutzen, supra.

[v] Statement of the Joint PAS/PASS Workshop on Sustainable Humanity, Sustainable Nature, May 6, 2014 (http://www.pass.va/content/scienzesociali/en/events/2014-18/sustainable/statement.html)

[vi] http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/05/21/3440075/pope-francis-if-we-destroy-creation-creation-will-destroy-us/

[vii] http://environment.yale.edu/news/article/pope-francis-and-the-environment-why-his-new-climate-encyclical-matters/

Ordering Quantum Christ

See johnklotz.blogspot.com

Ordering The Coming of the Quantum Christ

If you wish to order The Coming of the Quantum Christ:
CreateSpace
A hard copy full color version can be order from CreateSpace:

https://www.createspace.com/5049060

Smashwords

There are eight different formats that you can download on Smashwords and actually read a free sample.

Epub can be read by Nook and Adobe Digital Editions.  Mobi can be read by Kindle.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/509210

The Coming of the Quantum Christ has Arrived

It's here. It has finally arrived. The Coming of the Quantum Christ: The Shroud of Turn and the Apocalypse of Selfishness is now available in a hard copy four color edition published by CreateSpace and in multiple E-Book formats.

Read some of the reviews:

Barrie Schwortz

Editor, shroud.com

Documenting Photographer, 1978 Scientific Examination of the Shroud

"Meticulously researched, thoughtfully written and handcrafted with love and respect for the subject matter, this book is a must read for anyone fascinated by the Shroud of Turin and what it might mean to the world."

Daniel Porter,

Editor, shroudstory.com

"It is the best book ever written about the Shroud. Actually, it is not just about the Shroud. The Coming of the Quantum Christ is about what the Shroud is about. It is about the confluence of streams of human understanding that meet in the study of the Shroud. Religion converging with science is one. Our history meeting our future is another. This book makes us think."

David Rolfe, Independent Movie Producer

Winner, BAFTA Award for The Silent Witness

"John Klotz brings a lawyer's mind to an analysis of the Shroud and what, if genuine, it might mean for us. His assembly of the evidence for authenticity is meticulous and he relays it in an unfolding chronicle which also reveals the twists, turns and human frailties that have bedeviled the Shroud’s reputation and left it in limbo to anyone who has never taken the time and trouble to dig a little deeper. It is far reaching in its scope and conclusions. Hold on to your hats.”

Joe Marino

Author, Wrapped Up in the Shroud

"John Klotz has made a most impressive case for the argument that the Shroud of Turin is the actual burial cloth of Jesus. He thoroughly summarizes the history of the Shroud, including the politics involved in the controversial 1988 C-14 dating, as well as the scientific evidence that has been gathered since the late 19th century, including how the latest cutting-edge theory of quantum mechanics applies to the cloth. Heavily footnoted and lavishly illustrated with both color and black & white photos, this book should be in the collection of anyone interested in the Shroud, whether a novice or a trained scientist."

Annette Cloutiér,

Author, Praey to God: A Tasteful Trip Through Faith

"Rarely does a book centered on one specific subject, in this case the Shroud of Turin, mirror a true integration of life. John Klotz’s genius in writing The Coming of the Quantum Christ is that he carefully and freely managed to integrate the whole of our current society and wrap it around the Shroud of Turin. The result of which The Coming of the Quantum Christ is the most exhilarating book ever written thus far on the investigations and the implications of the Shroud of Turin vis à vis the human condition. It is a clear and concise literary masterpiece, a must read for everyone interested or even just curious about the Shroud of Turin, Christ, and Life itself."

The Apocalypse of Selfishness: The Great “So What?”

“When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, 'There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and lowering.' You know then how to discern the face of the sky, and can you not know the signs of the times?”
Matthew 16:2-4

It is my premise  that the Shroud of Turin is the authentic burial cloth of Jesus, called Christ, and that it offers evidence that supports the claim of his resurrection within three days of his crucifixion. The scientific examination of the Shroud began with the Secondo Pia photographs in 1898. Until then,  the facts concerning the death and purported Resurrection were essentially matters of faith drawing on the four Gospels accounts, the Epistles of Christ’s apostles and oral traditions of cloudy provenance. There were even those who claimed that Christ never existed at all. Science has now provided a rock of fact to which believers may cling. But so what?

Here’s what: Humanity now faces an apocalyptical extinction as a species. Revelations and other apocalyptical writings have been until now mystical allegories and metaphors. But science is not prophesying in metaphors or allegories ‑ its prophecies of doom are based on hard facts.

The Apocalypse that threatens us is an apocalypse of selfishness. The heedless exploitation of our environment has resulted in multiple crises that demand immediate, concerted international cooperation and action, but the very apostles of selfishness that are driving humanity to the brink of extinction bar our way.

For prophecy of an apocalypse, let us turn to the current Roman Catholic Pope.

“Small yet strong in the love of God, like Saint Francis of Assisi, all of us, as Christians, are called to watch over and protect the fragile world in which we live, and all its peoples.
	Pope Francis ¶216 Evangelii Gaudium

Despite some criticisms from conservative elements in the Church, Francis has not retreated from his elevation of the environment to a religious issue. On May 21, 2014, Pope Francis told an audience; “If we destroy creation, creation will destroy us.”

Is Francis right? Was his statement hyperbole or prophecy? Creation destroying us! Is he prophesying an Apocalypse?

The Triumph of Love

Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loves is born of God, and knows God. He that loves not knows not God; for God is love.
	St. John 4:7-9

 A.   Cosmic Love

(1)   Before the daystar, I begot thee[i]

On December 25^th of each year, Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. It is not the precise date of his birth. However, it does give Christians, at least, cause to celebrate in the face of the tightening grip of Winter (at least in the Northern Hemisphere, anyway).

Among the hymns sung Christmas is the French hymn Canitque Noel (O Holy Night). It captures the mystery of the night and its enduring message of Jesus birth in these words:\

“Long lay the world in sin and error pining,

till he appeared, and the soul felt its worth.”

Chapter 15 identifies the soul with the reflective consciousness described by Teilhard. It also identifies “original sin” as selfishness, one of the driving forces of evolution. Before humanity evolved with a reflective consciousness, there was no sin. Metaphorically, the first sin was Cain’s murder of Abel, an angry selfish response to God’s favor being bestowed on his younger brother that Cain thought should have been his.

The “sin and error” which the caused the world to pine were the bitter fruits of selfishness which, like the paths of glory, lead but to the grave.[ii]

Christian theology describes Jesus as the Son of God, the second person of a Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit (One God in three persons). Having been taught from an early age that we can never truly understand this divine mystery, I will not try to explain it here. However, I have asked myself, if we are made in the image and likeness of God, where is the holy trinity of  our personality?

I came up with some tortured metaphors, if not answers. There is human psychological dysfunction of multiple personalities demonstrated in the 1957 movie The Three faces of Eve. Freud found three aspects to human personality: ego, super ego and id. How far of a reach is three persons in one God?

As Chapter 15 demonstrates, nothing appears as it seems in the Newtonian universe. The concepts of Quantum Mechanics including Quantum Information have turned traditional macro physics on its ear.

On January 4, 2005, The New York Times published the answers of a several scientists to the question: “What do you believe even if you can not prove it?”

Richard Dawkins, who in the Introduction to this book was anointed the “Atheist Pope” replied

“I believe, but I cannot prove, that all life, all intelligence, all creativity and all “design” anywhere in the universe, is the direct or indirect product of Darwinian natural selection. It follows that design comes late in the universe, after a period of Darwinian evolution. Design cannot precede evolution and therefore cannot underlie the universe.”

There is one problem. Certainly, the laws of physics both Newtonian macro and Quantum Mechanical micro were formed within a microsecond of the Big Bang. For Dawkins to hypothesize a role for the application of “Darwinian natural selection” to that infinitesimally small microsecond would be nonsense. It’s safe to say that Darwinian natural selection played no role in the creation of the basic quantum forces of our existence and the rules of physics that govern ‑ and design ‑ our existence. At the quantum level, consciousness plays a role. There is no role for consciousness at any stage of Darwinian Natural Selection,

Rosenbaum-Kuttner in Quantum Enigma quoted the answer of cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman to the same question:

“I believe that consciousness and its contents are all that exists. Space-time, matter and fields never were the fundamental denizens of the universe but have always been, from their beginning, among the humbler contents of consciousness, dependent on it for their very being.”

This book has defined God as the primordial consciousness which birthed the cosmos. In attempting to unlock the mystery of creation of both the Universe and our own consciousness, we have to rely on such objective facts as we can ascertain and the inferences and conclusion we can draw from them. The written Gospels are in themselves material facts whatever their veracity. So too is the Shroud of Turin. Can these material facts help us untangle the Gordian knot of our own existence. Do they in fact verify each other?

Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. He claimed to offer a way to the eternal life: that way was love. In the Introduction, it was stated that a Tennessee Williams remark ‑ that most important moments of life are when we break out of our own egoistical shell and really sense the presence of another person ‑ was in fact a definition of love.

Is such a definition real – or practical?

(2)   The Prophet of Love

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[i]  Psalm 109:3, Douay-Rheims edition

[ii] Thomas Gray, "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard".

The Catholic Revolition: A Deacon as acting Bishop

There is reported today that  Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, profligate Bishop of Limburg has been suspended and that his duties His "duties will be assumed by a deacon, Wolfgang Rösch, who was scheduled to become the diocese’s chief administrator at the end of the year."

This is big,  Deacon's unlike priests are allowed to marry. I do not know Deacon Rosch's marital status but I wonder how much precedent there is for a deacon to assume such a role.
Another question: Can women become deacons? I know in many parishes in the United States nuns and law women are assuming administrative responsibilities. In my own parish we have a male deacon whose wife is principal of the school (which has so far survived.)

But beyond those questions it is obvious that the winds of reform originally unleashed by Vatican II are blowing again and not as a gentle zephyr but as a hurricane. Behold the Holy Spirit.