Infinite Awareness Quotes

“NDEs seem instead to provide direct evidence for a type of mental functioning that varies “inversely, rather than directly, with the observable activity of the nervous system.” Such evidence, we believe, fundamentally conflicts with the conventional doctrine that brain processes produce consciousness, and supports the alternative view that brain activity normally serves as a kind of filter, which somehow constrains the material that emerges into waking consciousness.[”
― 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

“suggest that the meditation and near-death experiences reported by many are glimpses into a higher reality—and by this I mean a reality more subtle than the one to which our nervous system usually has access. At those moments in our lives when the mind has been quieted, we may indeed go “beyond” our nervous system’s usual capacities. Then the consciousness within us, freed from perceiving the machinations of the mind, is able to perceive its own expanded form.”
― Marjorie Hines Woollacott, Infinite Awareness: The Awakening of a Scientific Mind

“Dr. P. was diagnosed with a massive tumor in the parts of his brain involved in integrating visual sensory information and binding it into a whole scene. It is this “binding” capacity that allows us to recognize the sum of the parts as a person or a fire hydrant or a hat. Like other patients with this problem, Dr. P. could easily identify individual sensory stimuli but had lost the visual processing circuitry that binds these separate features into a recognizable whole.”
― Marjorie Hines Woollacott, Infinite Awareness: The Awakening of a Scientific Mind

“In India kundalini awakening is called initiation or, in Sanskrit, diksha, which means, etymologically, “to cut.” There is profound significance to this term, for yogic texts speak about this initiation as the means for an individual to sever, to cut, the three impurities that are said to bind each human being. The first impurity, known as anava mala, is also considered the foremost: our sense of separation from God. It is this impurity that is cut with the awakening itself—as I had experienced. The second mala, mayiya mala, involves our sense of separation from each other and from other forms in the universe, something I recognized experiencing as well. In the week after my awakening, I became aware that I was feeling a warm connection to the people I ran into at school, both my colleagues and students. Then one day something extraordinary happened in an otherwise insignificant interaction with a total stranger. I was at the grocery store, buying food for my evening meal, when I became aware that I also felt a bond with the clerk who was ringing up my purchases.”
― Marjorie Hines Woollacott, Infinite Awareness: The Awakening of a Scientific Mind

“The experience of receiving the awakening was something like a spark moving from the swami into me. And that transmitted energy, which I sensed as a tingle, then ignited the same sensation in me. Something in me was kindled. What was that “something”? I experienced it as love—a deep, pervasive, unconditional love. I could feel I was connected to this love; I knew I was a part of it because I could feel this all-encompassing love within myself. I knew, intuitively, that this was the heart and core of the entire universe, what some people might call God. Until that moment I had been an atheist. When asked my religious affiliation, I would say, “None.” I was one of the people known as a “none.” I had experienced nothing in regard to a higher power, and so to my mind nothing could possibly exist. Once this love was ignited within me, though, I knew that the universe I live in is not confined to material dimensions. How could it be? I experience a powerful energetic force, a profound sense of love. I could never deny this experience of the Divine; it is utterly real to me.”
― Marjorie Hines Woollacott, Infinite Awareness: The Awakening of a Scientific Mind

“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

“There is a level accessed in meditation that is beyond the neuron. This level has many names; one we could use is infinite awareness.”
― Marjorie Hines Woollacott, Infinite Awareness: The Awakening of a Scientific Mind

“The word that comes to mind is “equanimity.” After meditating, I was better able to watch what happened around me without jumping into reactions.”
― Marjorie Hines Woollacott, Infinite Awareness: The Awakening of a Scientific Mind

“My experience of meditation was different from one day to the next, but a common thread emerged: the way I felt afterward. I began to experience a quiet satisfaction from my daily practice of quieting my mind.”
― Marjorie Hines Woollacott, Infinite Awareness: The Awakening of a Scientific Mind

“found that with less effort in meditation, I could relax into a quiet, aware state much more easily.”
― Marjorie Hines Woollacott, Infinite Awareness: The Awakening of a Scientific Mind