An Information-Theoretical Perspective on Consciousness: Implications for the Treatment of Death Anxiety

A trans-materialist information-theoretical framework is proposed to account for conscious experience, from ordinary embodied modes to altered states such as near-death experiences (NDEs). The approach extends the Bohmian model to treat brain and mind as a unified quantum/classical system governed by implicate informational dynamics, resolving the Cartesian gap. Consciousness, personal identity, and free will are characterized as informational processes spanning classical matter/energy and quantum fields. Reports of veridical information obtained during NDEs are reviewed, suggesting that consciousness and self-identity may persist as coherent informational patterns (CIPs) without a functioning brain. The framework is also proposed as a clinical tool for alleviating existential death anxiety.

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Abstract

In this paper, we propose a trans-materialist information-theoretical approach to a full spectrum of conscious experience, from its normative embodied mode as part of an integrated brain/mind system to altered modes of consciousness, including nonlocal and near-death experiences (NDE). It allows for bridging the Cartesian gap and resolving the “hard problem” of non-material mind arising from material brain. The first part focuses on quantum information science, specifically an extension of the Bohmian model that re-defines brain/mind from a Cartesian duality to a unified quantum/classical system based on implicate informational dynamics that underlie both the physiological processes of the brain and phenomenological processes of the mind. In this light, consciousness, personal identity and free will are seen as informational processes that incorporate both classical matter/energy and quantum field domains. We then review reports of veridical information obtained during near-death experiences (NDEs), which support the view of consciousness and self-identity as coherent informational patterns (CIPs) that may persist in the absence of a functioning brain. The second part will focus on using the informational framework as a clinical tool in alleviating the ubiquitous experience of existential death anxiety.