The Secret of Secrets (Robert Langdon, #6)

by Dan Brown

The afterlife is a shared delusion … created to make our actual life bearable.

“As it turns out,” Katherine said, “the brain reacts not only before the image is displayed … but before the computer’s random-number generator has even chosen which image to show! It’s as if the brain is not predicting reality … so much as creating it.”

The human brain works the same way; it has a complex series of filters to prevent the mind from being overloaded with too much sensory stimulus

Habituation is another kind of filtering,” Katherine said. “Repeated sensory input is blocked by your brain so effectively that you literally cannot hear the incessant hum of the air conditioner or feel the pair of glasses sitting on your nose.

And modern neuroscience,” Katherine continued, “has now identified the actual biological mechanism by which the brain filters out incoming data.” A faint smile crossed her lips. “It’s called GABA. Gamma-aminobutyric acid.”

GABA is a remarkable compound—a chemical messenger in your brain that plays a critical role in regulating brain activity. But probably not in the way you’d think. Specifically, GABA is an inhibitory agent.”

What happened was the exact opposite! As he died, his GABA levels dropped precipitously! In his final moments, GABA levels approached zero, meaning all of his brain filters were gone. The entire death experience was flowing in—with nothing blocked out!”

Nikola Tesla, whose quote Katherine had sent him after their first discussion about nonlocal consciousness: My brain is only a receiver. In the Universe there is a core from which we obtain knowledge.

Huxley’s vision of the future had included dosing the entire population with a happy drug called SOMA.