My Video Interview with Dr. Larry Dossey on the Nature of Consciousness

Larry Dossey, MD is a leader in bringing scientific understanding to spirituality, and rigorous proof to complementary/integrative medicine. He lectures at leading medical schools and hospitals around the country. His 13 books have been translated and published all over the world. Click here to visit Larry Dossey’s website.

Welcome, Larry. Thank you for joining us.
Phil, thanks for the invitation. It’s a pleasure.

Allow me to introduce you. Larry Dossey, MD is the author of 13 books and the executive editor of EXPLORE: The Journal of Science & Healing, a peer-reviewed bimonthly publication. He has become an internationally influential advocate of the mind’s role in health and the role of spirituality in healthcare. And we’re here to talk about your book, One Mind: How Our Individual Mind Is Part of a Greater Consciousness and Why It Matters. What is your book about?
It’s about an idea, which sounds radical. The idea that our consciousness is not just individual the way we ordinarily experience it, but there’s a domain in a dimension where all of our minds come together to form what people in the past have called the “Universal Mind,” what I’m calling the “One Mind,” and you can trace this idea, Phil, back 3,000 years to Hindu literature. It pops up in Plato, and you can trace this idea that our minds are connected. Even in modern science, people like David Bohm, the great physicist, and Erwin Schrödinger, who won a Nobel Prize in physics in 1933, and many other outstanding scientists have adopted this idea that at some dimension, our minds connect in an indissoluble way. Of course, this is not what we experience on a daily basis.

We think our minds are private and personal and cut off from everybody else, but there’s a substantial body of evidence that suggests that that’s just not fundamental. And in the book, I explore all of the reasons to go in this direction of the unified mind, and these have to do with people’s experiences, and also experiments, which show that you

It Makes No Difference to the Sun

This is a nice analogy that speaks to the existence and the ubiquity of God. You’ll find it on page 56 of the book, I Am That: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

It is like entering a dark room. You see nothing—you may touch, but you do not see—no colors, no outlines. The window opens and the room is flooded with light. Colors and shapes come into being. The window is the giver of light, but not the

Give It to God

In the book, The Practice of the Presence of God, the priest who interviewed Brother Lawrence, a kitchen worker in a seventeenth-century Paris monastery, recorded that Brother Lawrence told him:

That our sanctification did not depend on changing our works, but in doing that for God’s sake which we commonly do for our own.

In those few words lies great wisdom. if you’re frustrated because you can’t find the time for a spiritual practice, you need

What Are You Afraid Of?

More than once, friends have confided in me that they are angry with their spouse or family members. My response is the same: “Anger is always a manifestation of fear. What are you afraid of?” The question catches them off guard but I see the light go on in their eyes. After pausing to reflect, they are soon able to articulate a thoughtful response.

For example, a man who allowed his wife to push his buttons acknowledged that he feared a loss of status as “the man” in the relationship. He was trying to avoid losing respect not only in his own eyes but in hers. Perhaps that realization will lead to a productive discussion between them about power dynamics in their marriage.

A female friend of mine who was angry at her mother and sisters admitted that she feared feeling

Living the Dream

In church today, the minister used an entertaining analogy to make an intriguing point. He recalled that during a cross-country plane ride years ago, he was trying to concentrate on a talk he was preparing but that his eyes kept being drawn to the movie that was being shown, even though he wasn’t wearing any headphones and couldn’t hear a word that was being said.

That was one way to experience a movie, he pointed out. A second way to experience a movie is to watch it and listen to it in a theater. In that environment, it’s easy to be drawn into the movie to the point where your consciousness is so absorbed in it that your own problems and concerns disappear for a while.

Then he said, “But there’s a third way to experience a movie, and that’s what everyone here is doing right now.” After the congregation’s laughter subsided, he went on to explain that even though the

All Tangled Up

Dr. Larry Dossey

Dr. Larry Dossey was kind enough to permit me to print this essay, which was published in the November 2011 issue of EXPLORE: The Journal of Science and Healing

Some of the fascinating issues explored by Dr. Dossey include:

• The ubiquity of quantum behavior • The difference between entanglement and nonlocality • One of the most important transitions in the history of human thought • The origin and definition of consciousness • Swarm theory: the group mind of animals • Human-animal entanglement • Limbic science • Linked minds and distant communication • The need for poetry and music • The corruption of science by the church • How science can and must regain its moral center • The return of ancient wisdom in the form of modern scientific insights unconscious in spiritual healing

Please note that the superscripted footnotes in Dr. Dossey’s essay were lost in translation to this post. Nevertheless, the unnumbered footnotes can be found at the bottom of this article. Or you can read the original article which includes the footnotes here.

Dr. Larry Dossey’s eleven books include The Extraordinary Healing Power of Ordinary Things, Reinventing Medicine, Prayer Is Good Medicine and Healing Words. He is also the executive editor of EXPLORE: The Journal of Science and Healing, a peer-reviewed, bimonthly publication. Dr. Dossey has become an internationally influential advocate of the mind’s role in health and the role of spirituality in healthcare.

ALL TANGLED UP:
LIFE IN A QUANTUM WORLD

[I]nconceivable as it seems to ordinary reason, you — and all other conscious beings as such — are all in all. Hence this life of yours which you are living is not merely a piece of the entire existence, but is in a certain sense the whole; only this whole is not so constituted that it can be surveyed in one single glance.
Erwin Schrödinger, Nobel physicist

There are conversations one never forgets. One I’ll always remember occurred around ten years ago, in which a good friend of mine, who is a physicist, and I were discussing remote viewing. In one version of this procedure, an individual somehow conveys complex, detailed information to a distant person, even though the two have no sensory contact with each other. My physicist friend is a leading researcher in this field and has published several experiments that demonstrate these phenomena beyond reasonable doubt. I asked him whether quantum-physical effects might be involved in these long-distance exchanges of information. I had in mind the 1964 theorem of CERN physicist John Stewart Bell and subsequent experiments showing that subatomic particles, once in contact, remain connected thereafter, no matter how far apart they are, so that a change in one is correlated with a change in its remote partner, instantly and to the same degree. Such particles are said to be “entangled,” a term introduced into physics in 1935 by Nobel physicist Erwin Schrödinger. Schrödinger said, “I would not call [entanglement] one but rather the characteristic trait of quantum mechanics, the one that forces its entire departure from classical lines of thought.” Might the nonlocal connectedness of distant subatomic particles underlie the linkage between humans who share thoughts remotely?

“Impossible!” my physicist

We’re Still Just Snowflakes

Years ago, I remember Caroline Myss saying during a talk, “You think your thoughts are private?” And she laughed heartily. Yes, the thought that your thoughts are not your own, that not only are you not creating your thoughts but that they are available to others, is quite the mind-blowing concept . . . until you consider the nature of consciousness.

Your thoughts are not just gossamer wisps of nothingness that uneventfully dance and dissolve in the uncharted recesses of your mind. Your thoughts (expressions of your individual consciousness) immediately connect you to all of creation through the Unified Field (the omnipresent expression of collective consciousness that includes your “individual” consciousness).

In essence, then, we are all radios attuned to different frequencies. The higher your consciousness, the more you realize that we are all just thought delivery systems, and all connected to a master consciousness grid. Here’s how Dr. David R. Hawkins put it:

Objectively, it can be seen that thoughts really belong to the consciousness of the world; the individual mind merely processes them in new combinations and permutations. What seem to be truly original thoughts appear only through

Beyond the Body

Heidi von Beltz, a former championship skier and aspiring actor, was paralyzed from her earlobes down in a two-vehicle head-on collision while working as a stunt double in The Cannonball Run in 1980. Unbowed by her doctors’ prognosis that she had perhaps five years to live, von Beltz routinely endured a grueling regimen of physical therapy and muscle stimulation for up to ten hours a day. Nine years later, she was able to sit up on her own. Six years after that, outfitted with lightweight aluminum leg braces, she taught herself to stand.

Sixteen years after the crash, while promoting her memoir, My Soul Purpose, von Beltz, who had devoured countless books on philosophy and spirituality, said she considered herself lucky and wouldn’t have wanted to miss the experience of her paralysis for anything. “I’m the happiest I’ve ever been,” she told Entertainment Weekly magazine. ‘‘I was always so active that I would never have sat down long enough to learn what I’ve learned. I can’t imagine going through this life and not knowing what I know now. I just had to break my neck to do it.’’

The following paragraph from page 97 of von Beltz’s memoir illustrates the start of her transition from body identification to a higher awareness of self:

After the crash, talking with good friends or “losing myself” watching a movie, I forgot about my physical body. This was a new experience for me because I am such a physical, active person. Other people always had reinforced the importance of my body because, even when I was growing up, they reacted to my appearance: I’m a tall and

Your Biography Becomes Your Biology

Many reject the notion that illness often has an emotional root, complaining that they should not have to feel guilty for becoming ill. True enough; guilt is irrelevant because they did not intentionally, consciously get sick.

If you want to see what your body will look like tomorrow, look at your thoughts today.
Navajo proverb

Yet it is inescapable that your life history—the cumulative and synergistic blending of your

In the Difficult Are the Friendly Forces

Though adversity may scramble the puzzle pieces of your life, it arrives bearing a gift—a shift in consciousness that deepens your understanding and appreciation of Universal forces.

In every crisis there is a message. Crises are nature’s way of forcing change—breaking down old structures, shaking loose negative habits so that something new and better can take their place.
Susan L. Taylor

The value of adversity has long been the stuff of legend. In the Bhagavad Gita, Kunti, mother of heroic

The Greatest of Virtues

It is a virtuous circle. The blessing of God’s perfect care naturally elicits gratitude; every expression of gratitude heightens your awareness of God’s presence; the stronger your attunement with divine consciousness, the more you recognize life’s blessings.

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.
Cicero

Nurture your gratitude practice by carrying a gratitude icon—a rock, coin, or other small object—in your pocket. Every time your

There Are Only Two Tragedies

It sounds contradictory, but a prosperity consciousness and material abundance may be mutually exclusive. True prosperity is recognizing and appreciating that you already have everything you need to fulfill your calling in this life.

My riches consist not in the extent of my possessions but in the fewness of my wants.
J. Brotherton

If wealth will help you carry out your life’s work, then by all means build your bank account.

See where your own energy wants to go, not where you think it should go. Do something

Dr. Larry Dossey on Spiritual Healing, Nonlocality and Beef Stroganoff

Dr. Larry Dossey

As a follow-up to our thought-provoking interview on intercessory prayer, Dr. Larry Dossey sent me this essay, which was published in 2002 in Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine. He had first presented this paper in 2001 at Conference on the Big Island in Kona, Hawaii.

Some of the fascinating issues explored by Dr. Dossey include:

• The mysterious mechanics of remote/distance/energy/spiritual healing • The importance of language in healing
• The three phases of spiritual healing • Is spiritual healing spiritual?  • The scientific view of nonlocality  • The nonlocal behaviors of consciousness • The role of the

Truth Will Make Its Way to the Light

A truth is relative and open to human interpretation. A Truth is absolute by divine decree.

Every issue has its own levels of truth. Levels of truth move in a progression. As one grows and increases in awareness, his or her levels of truth move from the superficial to the more profound.
Anne Wilson Schaef

As you peel away layers of human perceptions, you discern the eternal Truths looming behind the more common truths that govern your daily life, which yields

Walk, Don’t Run

Walking a spiritual path is called just that for a reason. It’s not called running a spiritual path. It takes time to drink in new ideas, to integrate them into your perspective and consciousness, and most importantly, to reflect them in your relationships with God and with others. I like how Paramahansa Yogananda conveyed the importance of patience for spiritual aspirants:

A thirsty man coming upon a lake craved to swallow all its waters. Naturally, he could not drink more than his stomach would hold. Likewise, many thirsty seekers of limited understanding sit by the lake of truth and aspire to drink all of its vast waters and contain all of its mysteries. They do not understand even this truth: that to swallow

When Peace Becomes Your Dearest Friend

You know you have made a quantum leap in consciousness when you look back at the life you had so recently led, and feel like you are watching somebody else’s life.

Only in growth, reform, and change, paradoxically enough, is true security to be found.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh

As self-awareness grows, your mind and heart are purified. As your heart opens and your mind clears, you