The Continuity Manifesto; Part II: What You Might Have Presupposed
I have sought to make this Continuity Manifesto a moving and philosophically coherent theory of death and consciousness. In support of my claims, I will draw from a range of interdisciplinary evidence and schools of thought. Neuroscience, quantum theory, psychology to parapsychology, near-death studies, and consciousness research.
We will now go over the strongest supporting foundations for the Continuity Manifesto.
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1. CONSCIOUSNESS DOES NOT DIE.
We believe that consciousness is not produced by the brain—rather it is filtered through it.
What is known as the “Filter” or “Receiver” Theory has been proposed by thinkers like Aldous Huxley, William James, and Henri Bergson. It has recently met revival at the hands of post-materialist scientists like Dr. Bernardo Kastrup and Dr. Pim van Lommel.
There is known to science The Phenomenon of Terminal Lucidity. Cognitively impaired patients (such as those with dementia) have shown sudden mental clarity before death. This would be difficult to explain if the brain alone produces consciousness. If an “impaired” brain can produce episode of crystal clear consciousness, what then is the relationship between the brain, impairment, and consciousness?
Other neuroscience anamolies such as cases of high cognitive functioning in individuals with severely damaged or small brains (such as sufferers of hydrocephalus). This alone is a strong challenge to brain-centric views.
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2. DEATH IS TRANSFORMATION, NOT OBLIVION.
Death is merely a transition, not destruction. Nothingness remains impossible. What has been must always be. If it exists, then it shall continue existing. Form may change, but continuity is not optional, necessarily.
Near-Death Experiences, or NDEs, have been reported for ages. Thousands upon thousands of consistent, coherent, and cross-cultural reports include oddly cohesive sensations of separation, light, peace, and continued awareness. (see studies by Dr. Pim van Lommel and Dr. Bruce Greyson).
Furthermore we have Shared Death Experiences. Often witnesses near dying loved ones report remarkably similar visions and sensations, suggesting death is a shared transformational event. These reports lead one to at least consider that there is some experience to be had after death, and that death itself is a uniform experience. This lends to the idea that death is merely a uniform transition to another way of experiencing existence.
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3. THE DEAD ARE NOT GONE.
The dead remain in altered form and can even perhaps interact with the living.
After-Death Communication. Also know as ADC has millions of documented cases around the world of spontaneous contact (dreams, visions, messages) reported by grieving individuals.
Research on grief suggests that Continued Bonds Theory (Klass, Silverman, Nickman) validates ongoing relationships with deceased loved ones as psychologically and spiritually healthy.
Then there is Instrumental Transcommunication and research into EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena) and other anomalous digital phenomena shows unexplained messages correlating with deceased identities.
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4. MEANING SURVIVES.
Our choices, connections, and personal narrative endure beyond death. Our lives serves as testaments to how we lived to those who remember us, and the affects of our actions and convictions echo on long after we transition to another consciousness.
There is plenty of profoundly interesting reincarnation research, especially involving children (e.g. Dr. Ian Stevenson, Dr. Jim Tucker), with verified past-life memories, behaviors, and traumas that persist beyond physical death.
Uniform reports of “life reviews” in NDEs seem to suggest that the death experience and near-death experiences often include a “review” of life events from an empathetic, expanded perspective. One more calm and clear than our own normal state. This phenomenon has a tone of suggesting that our narrative does not simply end when this particular form of life ends.
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5. THE AFTERLIFE IS A FIELD, NOT A PLACE.
The afterlife is a vibrational spectrum, it is a frequency. Consciousness is the super-position. Before and after all things there is consciousness. Consciousness is godliness.
Quantum Consciousness Models and theories by physicists like Dr. Amit Goswami and Sir Roger Penrose suggest that consciousness may be a fundamental field, not a byproduct of various meat-based components. The meat-parts are merely a reciever of the frequency that animates the universe.
Then there are Multidimensional Hypotheses like those arising from Esoteric systems (e.g., Theosophy, Tibetan Buddhism) and some modern physics models (like M-theory). These sources point toward layered realities that could support gradated afterlife experiences. They suggest to us there is more beyond this life, before it, and after it.
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6. SPIRITUAL CONTACT IS POSSIBLE.
Mediumship and spiritual communication can be authentic. They aren’t always. But they can be. The mind is a receiver, after all. Energy is vibration, vibration is frequency.
In Controlled Mediumship Studies like research done at the Windbridge Institute, there is evidence that mediums can provide accurate information under blinded, controlled conditions.
The Phenomenon of Cross-Correspondences. This early psychical research (e.g., Sidgwick group) found complex, interlinked communications through multiple mediums that were not explainable by chance or fraud.
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7. WE ARE NEVER ALONE.
There is an unseen soul-network that connects all beings. The Hindu called it the Atman. Universal soul. Universal consciousness. The divine thread through all life.
In discussion of Synchronicity and Interconnectedness Jungian psychology and quantum entanglement metaphors support a reality where minds may be subtly linked beyond time and space. The mental energy fields are not entirely disconnected. One stage or another merely highlights transition between the states, not full breakages.
Group NDEs & Telepathic Experiences give us documented cases of people sharing the same spiritual event or sensing distant deaths in real time.
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8. NOTHINGNESS IS A LIE.
Consciousness cannot vanish, because it never was material to begin with. This is perhaps my strongest stance. My most universal and non-denominational claim. This sentence holds no dogma or bias. It just is. In a realm of existence non-existence cannot exist.
The Hard Problem of Consciousness presents us with this reality; Despite decades and decades of neuroscience, no theory adequately explains how meaty matter generates subjective experience. Why does the constituent parts equal something greater than the whole? Where else is this possible? I cannot throw a duck carcass, some wires, and a battery into a crockpot and generate life or consciousness. So why is this the case with all living matter in the universe? Even plants know to bend toward the Sun. There is an intelligence that goes beyond comprehension.
The Phenomenon of Non-Local Consciousness Evidence. Things like Remote viewing, out-of-body experiences, and verified psychic phenomena (e.g. CIA’s Stargate Project) suggest to us that awareness is not confined to the brain. The brain merely taps into the field, the frequency. It does not generate consciousness.
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9. LIVE AS IF LIFE CONTINUES.
For the most part, because it does. Our moral, spiritual, and psychological growth continues past death. Not only in how it affects the parts of us that continue on, but in the lasting kegacies we leave on this plane of existence.
Reported Moral Development in NDEs is a common occurence. Many experiencers report returning with a commitment to personal growth, kindness, and transformation. Why should such experiences inspire such actions?
The Immense Treasure of Esoteric Teachings has much to share with us. Traditions like Tibetan Buddhism, Kabbalah, and the Egyptian Book of the Dead all emphasize soul progression across lives. This idea is not new, but in the span of Big History, soulular evolution makes decent sense.
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10. DEATH IS NOT THE ENEMY.
Death completes a cycle and opens another, or more likely is itself an act of transition or transformation. A gateway more than an ending.
Across cultures, death is often symbolically tied to rites of passage, awakening, and renewal (e.g. Eleusinian Mysteries, shamanic death-rebirth initiations). Death is part-of, not an ending-of. Death is an ingredient of the full spectrum of experience.
Conscious Dying Practices like Tibetan Phowa, hospice work, and death meditation reduce fear and reveal death as a natural transformation. Memento Mori has long been observed by stoics and the like to help embrace inevitable death and better understand its impact on the lived life.
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