Marjorie Hines Woollacott

“In relation to awareness, one way of expressing this dichotomy in science is “bottom-up versus top-down.” I think of this as the fundamental theme of this book. “Bottom-up” is the perspective of Newtonian science—there is nothing governing conscious awareness beyond the physical, and whatever inspires, drives, repels, or prompts an individual can be found, explained, and quantified within that person’s physical body. In other words, the activation of neurons is the sole determinant of human consciousness. “Top-down” is the perspective of mystics (a category that does include some quantum physicists)—there can be input into conscious awareness from a source beyond the body. This input could be from the mind itself or from another person’s mind, or it could happen at a time when the body is not functioning. In other words, “top-down” implies that the mind has an existence apart from the brain.”
― Marjorie Hines Woollacott, Infinite Awareness: The Awakening of a Scientific Mind

“the brain itself doesn’t produce consciousness. That it is, instead, a kind of reducing valve or filter, shifting the larger, nonphysical consciousness that we possess in the nonphysical worlds down into a more limited capacity for the duration of our mortal lives. There is, from the earthly perspective, a very definite advantage to this. Just as our brains work hard every moment of our waking lives to filter out the barrage of sensory information coming at us from our physical surroundings, selecting the material we actually need in order to survive, so it is that forgetting our trans-earthly identities also allows us to be “here and now” far more effectively. . . . (That’s not to say we shouldn’t be conscious of the worlds beyond now—only that if we are extra-conscious of their grandeur and immensity, they can prevent action while still here on earth.)”
― Marjorie Hines Woollacott, Infinite Awareness: The Awakening of a Scientific Mind