Dr. Pim van Lommel                                                                   Cardiologist (Retired)                                                                   Division of Cardiology, Rijnstate Hospital, Arnhem, Netherlands Researcher of Near Death Experiences and Author of :“Endless Consciousness: A Scientific Vision on the Near-Death Experience”                 (2007,translated in Englisch 2008)   RESEARCH  ( sequel of 17-02-'08 and 18-02-2008)  (The blue segments of this post were taken from Dr. van Lommel's research)            Van Lommel contends that the brain does not produce consciousness or store memories. He points out that American computer science expert Simon Berkovich and Dutch brain researcher Herms Romijn, working independently of one another, came to the same conclusion: that it is impossible for the brain to store everything you think and experience in your life. This would require a processing speed of 1024 bits per second. Simply watching an hour of television would already be too much for our brains. "If you want to store that amount of information--along with the associative thoughts produced--your brain would be pretty much full," van Lommel says. "Anatomically and functionally, it is simply impossible for the brain to have this level of speed."         So this would mean that the brain is actually a receiver and transmitter of information. "You could compare the brain to a television set that tunes into specific electromagnetic waves and converts them into image and sound.         "Our waking consciousness, the consciousness we have during our daily activities," Van Lommel continues, "reduces all the information there is to a single truth that we experience as 'reality.' During near-death experiences, however, people are not limited to their bodies or waking consciousness, so they experience many more realities." I saw a man who looked at me lovingly, but whom I did not know. At my mother's deathbed, she confessed to me that I had been born out of an extramarital relationship, my father being a Jewish man who had been deported and killed during the Second World War, and my mother showed me his picture. The unknown man that I had seen years before during my near-death experience turned out to be my biological father.         According to van Lommel, near-death experiences can only be explained if we assume that consciousness, along with all our experiences and memories, is located outside the brain. When asked where that consciousness is located, van Lommel can only speculate. "I suspect there's a dimension where this information is stored--a kind of collective consciousness we tune into to gain access to our identity and memories."          By means of this collective information field, we are not only connected to our own information, but also that of others and even the information from the past and future. "There are people who see the future during a near-death experience," van Lommel says. "For example, there was a man who saw his future family. Years later, he found himself in a situation he had already seen during his near-death experience. I suspect this is also the way deja vu works."         But how does the brain "know" what information to tune into? How can someone tune into his own memories and not those of other people? Van Lommel's answer is surprisingly short and simple: "DNA. And primarily the so-called 'junk DNA,' which accounts for around 95 percent of the total, whose function we don't understand." He suspects that the DNA, unique to every person and every organism, works like a receptor mechanism, a kind of simultaneous translator between the information fields and the organism.         The idea that DNA works as a receptor mechanism to attune people to their specific consciousness fields sheds new light on the discussion of organ transplantation. Imagine you get a new heart. The DNA of that heart is geared to the consciousness field of the donor, not the recipient. Does this mean you suddenly get different information? Yes, Van Lommel says: "There are stories of people who developed radically different desires and lifestyles after an organ transplant. For example, there's a story of a ballet dancer who suddenly wanted to drive a motorcycle and eat junk food." (Will be continued)