For as long as humans have reflected on their existence, consciousness has been viewed as a personal possession, an interior experience generated and contained within the brain. Yet scientific and philosophical inquiry challenges this, suggesting that consciousness may not be bound to the human body at all. Instead, it may be a fundamental field, existing independently and accessed rather than produced.
At the same time, we do not truly know the full capacity of the brain. While the old claim that humans use only ten percent has been debunked, it is also true that much of its potential remains unexplored. The complexity of its networks, the mysterious integration of its billions of neurons, and the depth of inner states we can access show that we have only begun to understand its true reach. The brain may not be a generator of consciousness but a receiver, a translator of something far larger.
Touching the Edge of Consciousness
This idea isn’t an abstract concept; it's something I've contemplated since childhood and experienced directly as an adult.
When I was six, my mom took me to a Transcendental Meditation center. My Buddhist teacher taught me to meditate and, as she guided me, spoke about the extraordinary concepts of the brain, mind, and consciousness. It was the first time I learned about the vastness of the brain and how we only touch a small part of its true capacity. It unlocked a part of me that I have never stopped exploring. It felt almost impossible to imagine that this giant construct could exist inside my small head, holding so much potential that was either unused or misunderstood. To my young self, brain, mind, and consciousness felt like one vast, endless landscape with no edges, and I felt lost inside it. Exploring this became one of the guiding missions of my life, to visit the map of all knowledge that I believed was surely inside me and to plant the flag that would confirm I finally "knew myself." Of course, this is an impossible task, as the philosopher Socrates said: “I know that I know nothing.”
Years later, during a near-death experience, I felt the separateness of mind, brain, and consciousness in a visceral way. My brain was in my body, yet my mind and consciousness were not. They were disconnected, and yet all three still existed and functioned in their own ways. I felt no pain, but I was aware of it. I felt deep empathy toward those in the room and toward my body itself. I was mindful of this, conscious of the sadness and urgency in the space around me. Even though I was unconscious and unresponsive, I was fully conscious of my consciousness. I felt it expand beyond the boundaries of my body, then diminish again quickly as I was pulled back into myself, and finally, over the year of recovery that followed, rebuilt into something new. I emerged as someone else: same brain, but a different consciousness, which gave way to a different mind, and it felt as if my body was just along for the ride.
Non-Human Intelligences: Proof of a Greater Field
Evidence from other species further challenges the idea of isolated consciousness, hinting at intelligence that is distributed and shared.
Across different life forms, we find striking examples suggesting distributed intelligence. Trees, connected through underground mycelial networks, communicate and share resources. Dolphins display sophisticated social cooperation. Elephants show long-term memory and emotional mourning rituals. Bees dance to relay information, and ants collaborate with astonishing strategy. Even some non-verbal autistic children appear to communicate in deeply empathic ways that resemble telepathy. These examples suggest that intelligence and consciousness can be shared, collective, and fluid rather than strictly isolated within individual brains.
How do we reconnect to this universal consciousness? Practices such as deep meditation, advanced contemplative traditions, and psychedelic-assisted therapy have been studied for their ability to help individuals access states beyond ordinary selfhood. Research at institutions like Johns Hopkins and Imperial College London explores these altered states, often reporting experiences of merging with a greater field of awareness. While concrete evidence of extraterrestrial collective consciousness remains elusive, serious scientific efforts like the Galileo Project are investigating non-human intelligences, suggesting that broader forms of consciousness may indeed exist.
Connecting Mind, Brain and Consciousness
The brain is the physical organ, a biological structure made of neurons, glial cells, blood vessels, and electrical circuits. It processes sensory inputs, coordinates movement, stores memories, and maintains basic bodily functions. It is tangible and measurable, studied through MRI, EEG, and other tools.
The mind is the collection of mental processes: thoughts, emotions, perceptions, imagination, memories, and reasoning. It is not a physical object but an emergent phenomenon of the brain’s activity, shaped by personal experience and cultural context. Some describe it as the software running on the brain’s hardware.
Consciousness is awareness itself, the fundamental experience of being. It allows us to know we exist, to have subjective experiences, and to feel presence. Unlike the mind, consciousness is not about what we think or feel but about the fact that we can experience anything at all.
In this perspective, consciousness is even more fundamental than the mind or the brain. It may not originate in the brain at all but exist as a universal field that the brain accesses or tunes into, with the mind acting as the interpreter or local expression. This reframes the mind not as the origin of selfhood but as an instrument for experiencing a shared field of awareness. It suggests that what we call individuality might be more porous and connected than we realize.
My own experiences have deeply shaped how I see these distinctions. During my near-death experience, I felt the mind, brain, and consciousness separate from one another in a clear and undeniable way. My brain remained in my body, performing its physical functions. My mind carried awareness and emotion, watching and understanding what was happening from a distance. My consciousness, however, felt even more expansive, existing entirely beyond both brain and mind. In that state, I realized that consciousness does not rely on the brain for its existence, nor is it confined by the mind’s interpretations. Instead, it feels like a vast field we momentarily inhabit, a presence that transcends the physical structures we so often mistake for the self.
Quantum Theories of Consciousness
Quantum physicists and certain neuroscientists suggest that consciousness may not be a local phenomenon confined to the brain but a universal wave function that exists independently. The Orch-OR model, developed by Roger Penrose and Stuart Hameroff, proposes quantum processing within neuronal microtubules, possibly collapsing wave functions to produce conscious experience. Other theories, like Karl Pribram’s Holonomic Brain Theory and electromagnetic field theories by Jibu and Yasue, also suggest that consciousness is non-local and accessed rather than generated.
Recent studies show spikes in gamma wave activity at the point of clinical death. One interpretation by Dr. Stuart Hameroff proposes that consciousness persists at a quantum level, not simply shutting off like a light switch. Though these ideas remain controversial, they offer a profound philosophical reframing: the brain may not be the origin of consciousness but rather an instrument tuning into a universal field of awareness.
Current neuroscience tells us that we use virtually all parts of our brain, even during sleep. The long-held myth that we use only ten percent has been debunked by modern imaging and studies of brain damage; no part is truly inactive. Yet much remains mysterious. We still do not fully understand how the brain’s 86 billion neurons integrate to produce the sense of self and subjective experience. Despite its incredible complexity, humans consciously access only a small piece of its true potential. Perhaps by understanding the brain more deeply, we might learn how to access more of the universal consciousness it may be designed to receive.
The Role of Bitcoin and Digital Sovereignty
Understanding consciousness as a field raises critical questions in the digital age. As artificial intelligence advances, the possibility of consciousness patterns being stored, manipulated, or extended without consent becomes real. If consciousness can be expressed as data, then who controls that data?
Bitcoin and blockchain technologies offer a glimpse into how we might protect the sovereignty of consciousness. Decentralized systems ensure that no single entity can fully own, censor, or manipulate the network. In the same way, these systems suggest a future in which the essence of our minds, our most intimate patterns, can be shielded from central control and preserved as part of a larger, incorruptible record. Bitcoin is not only a financial revolution but also a model for safeguarding deeper forms of human autonomy and identity. In the digital world, technologies like Bitcoin and decentralized networks embody the principle of permissionless systems, where no single authority controls or alters the record. These structures point toward a future in which consciousness data could be protected from centralized manipulation, preserving both individual integrity and collective freedom.
Embracing a view of consciousness as non-local and fundamentally shared may be essential not only for personal liberation but also for protecting the sovereignty of the mind itself. The mind may not be an isolated possession but an instrument connected to a larger, universal field.
A Field Beyond Time
If consciousness is a universal field, then time and space lose their ultimate authority. In full awareness, all things simply are. There is no before or after, no separation by distance. The self is not defined by boundaries but by participation in an ongoing, limitless field of knowing. The illusions of linear time and isolated identity dissolve in the light of this greater presence.
This view moves us away from the fear of aloneness and toward genuine reconnection. It suggests that the mind, long thought to be confined to neurons and the skull, may actually be a doorway to something vast, shared, and eternal.
In the next article, we will explore the risks and potentials tied to artificial intelligence, digital immortality, and the question of how we protect the sovereignty of our consciousness data. The third article will take us even further, beyond time and space, closer to the timeless field where consciousness ultimately resides.
Subscribe on Substack to get this series delivered directly to your inbox. Link in bio to subscribe to Bitcoin Weekly and support independent Bitcoin media with donations to mel.btc or https://bit.ly/support-melaniecarstens