I don't buy the multiverse idea (and if I did, I wouldn't buy THIS idea that "your consciousness flees your body just before you die and inhabits one of 'your' bodies in another universe" -- what happens to the soul of THAT body, or are all the infinite number of bodies in the infinite number of universes just zombies until YOUR soul -- you being apparently the only "REAL" version of you -- jumps into some other schmuck's body? And as the centuries roll by, how is it that a copy of your body is still around to take over?).
There is ANOTHER quantum-based idea about mortality that some of us might be interested in, although I have trouble with it because it lacks any visible mechanism for memory retention -- certain types of brain damage can erase memories because memory is stored in the physical brain; if the immaterial soul had a way to store memories, that wouldn't be an issue.
The theory I'm discussing is best described by Kastrup and basically consists of these ideas:
Consciousness is primary; the physical is secondary. Quantum wave theory, which states that elementary particles, such as light and electrons, are nodes (or call it what you will) on the probability waves that carry the particles; see the Double-Slit experiment for details proving that particles are waves of probability -- which Kastrup sees as emanations of the universal consciousness -- until they are observed (which has a specialized meaning broader than the common one).
The physical brain is constantly, iteratively self-reflective and this causes a small amount of the universal consciousness to be captured and dissociated from the whole, much as in multiple personality disorder where one conscious personality is isolated from the others. The result is a person's soul, which does something the glob-of-matter-brain cannot do on its own: EXPERIENCE what happens in the brain and body and exert free will (possible due to quantum uncertainty and more).
After death, including after a temporary death (e.g., someone "brought back from the dead" via an EMT's revival efforts or whatever), the soul re-merges with the Universal Consciousness.
What I DON'T see is any method to take one's memories with the soul; without the physical brain, there isn't any mechanism for that in the theory (unless I've missed something).
Of course, that doesn't mean there ISN'T such a mechanism; this is, after all, just a theory and while it seems well supported in a number of ways I don't think of it as any more than a sketch. I like it, though.
In 2011, while crossing the street after work, I was hit by a Dodge truck and thrown up and over it. Seeing my body fly across the windshield, the driver pulled over leaving me airborne to come crashing to the pavement. As I hit the pavement I suddenly expected another vehicle to strike/run over me. It took a second to realize no vehicle struck me during afternoon drive time. Instantly the police and ambulance arrived. Since I was alive, conscious and had no severe injuries the police looking at my dirty work clothes assumed I hadn't even been hit. However, the driver and several witnesses assured them that I had so they put me in the ambulance and took me to the hospital to be checked out. My BP was normal in the ambulance which surprised the paramedic. At the hospital, the doctor was shaking his head how surprised he was that I wasn't more than just bruised. So, what if immortality is OUR timeline and other remnants of us do die in other people's timelines? Or do we transfer timelines and never die? Or, is it possible that 100 billion players are running a video game simulation and we are just a background character? Thoughts?
I have thought about this my entire life. Like, how many times have I actually died in other "timelines" and does it happen all the time ultimately ending in death from old age? Because there are SEVERAL times I shouldn't have walked away.
Agreed. I drowned twice as a child. Age 5 resuscitated. I was hit briad by a drunk driver going 90 mph. I fell in front of a train 9 seconds away. And other close calls. Likely we all have.
I don't buy the multiverse idea (and if I did, I wouldn't buy THIS idea that "your consciousness flees your body just before you die and inhabits one of 'your' bodies in another universe" -- what happens to the soul of THAT body, or are all the infinite number of bodies in the infinite number of universes just zombies until YOUR soul -- you being apparently the only "REAL" version of you -- jumps into some other schmuck's body? And as the centuries roll by, how is it that a copy of your body is still around to take over?).
There is ANOTHER quantum-based idea about mortality that some of us might be interested in, although I have trouble with it because it lacks any visible mechanism for memory retention -- certain types of brain damage can erase memories because memory is stored in the physical brain; if the immaterial soul had a way to store memories, that wouldn't be an issue.
The theory I'm discussing is best described by Kastrup and basically consists of these ideas:
Consciousness is primary; the physical is secondary. Quantum wave theory, which states that elementary particles, such as light and electrons, are nodes (or call it what you will) on the probability waves that carry the particles; see the Double-Slit experiment for details proving that particles are waves of probability -- which Kastrup sees as emanations of the universal consciousness -- until they are observed (which has a specialized meaning broader than the common one).
The physical brain is constantly, iteratively self-reflective and this causes a small amount of the universal consciousness to be captured and dissociated from the whole, much as in multiple personality disorder where one conscious personality is isolated from the others. The result is a person's soul, which does something the glob-of-matter-brain cannot do on its own: EXPERIENCE what happens in the brain and body and exert free will (possible due to quantum uncertainty and more).
After death, including after a temporary death (e.g., someone "brought back from the dead" via an EMT's revival efforts or whatever), the soul re-merges with the Universal Consciousness.
What I DON'T see is any method to take one's memories with the soul; without the physical brain, there isn't any mechanism for that in the theory (unless I've missed something).
Of course, that doesn't mean there ISN'T such a mechanism; this is, after all, just a theory and while it seems well supported in a number of ways I don't think of it as any more than a sketch. I like it, though.
In 2011, while crossing the street after work, I was hit by a Dodge truck and thrown up and over it. Seeing my body fly across the windshield, the driver pulled over leaving me airborne to come crashing to the pavement. As I hit the pavement I suddenly expected another vehicle to strike/run over me. It took a second to realize no vehicle struck me during afternoon drive time. Instantly the police and ambulance arrived. Since I was alive, conscious and had no severe injuries the police looking at my dirty work clothes assumed I hadn't even been hit. However, the driver and several witnesses assured them that I had so they put me in the ambulance and took me to the hospital to be checked out. My BP was normal in the ambulance which surprised the paramedic. At the hospital, the doctor was shaking his head how surprised he was that I wasn't more than just bruised. So, what if immortality is OUR timeline and other remnants of us do die in other people's timelines? Or do we transfer timelines and never die? Or, is it possible that 100 billion players are running a video game simulation and we are just a background character? Thoughts?
I have thought about this my entire life. Like, how many times have I actually died in other "timelines" and does it happen all the time ultimately ending in death from old age? Because there are SEVERAL times I shouldn't have walked away.
Agreed. I drowned twice as a child. Age 5 resuscitated. I was hit briad by a drunk driver going 90 mph. I fell in front of a train 9 seconds away. And other close calls. Likely we all have.