Explanation for Mandela Effect and Reality Shifts

While the term “Mandela Effect” is relatively new, having been first coined in 2010 by blogger Fiona Broome, the phenomena it describes has been around much longer. Author PMH Atwater was the first to call this phenomenon by the name “reality shifts” in a chapter by that same title in her book, Future Memory. My book, Reality Shifts: When Consciousness Changes the Physical World, was first published in 1999, and provides scientific insights into what might be going on when people observe differences between what they remember and what current historical evidence at that time suggest.

Thanks to the advent of the internet and social media making it newly possible (since the late 1990’s) to share notes about this relatively off-beat phenomenon, people first began sharing their surprise at noticing differences between their memories and facts starting in the late 1990’s–as well as differences between their memories and memories of others. The RealityShifters ezine begun in October 1999 has now documented hundreds of such first-hand reports from people on every continent and many countries over the past 20 years.

What does it mean to shift reality / jump timelines?

What’s really going on when we notice a discrepancy between something we thought we knew for sure and what the current reality ‘has always been’? What we know can be summarized as our sense of self awareness holds the key:

Quantum phenomena occurs at all levels of reality–not just ‘in the quantum realm.’ Such phenomena involves instantaneous changes of state, and includes seemingly improbable things as: so-called ‘spooky action at a distance’ and instantaneous exchanges of information through quantum entanglement, quantum teleportation, and superposition of states. Quantum phenomena require an Observer, and the measurements obtained by an Observer has everything to do with what choices the Observer makes. Observers can influence past events, also, so choices made now can change what has previously occurred. It becomes clear that quantum physics delivers us with all we need to experience reality shifts when we are both the Actors in and the Observers of our lives. As we expand our awareness of self to be more than just Actors experiencing physical events, but also Observers of our actions, thoughts and feelings–we can expect to witness more than one record of historical events. 

A non-scientist layperson might presume that if we’re talking about quantum physics effects occurring on the macroscopic (large) scale, then scientists ought to be able to agree on how this might occur and what role consciousness plays–yet there is not yet any such agreement. Instead, we have a number of interpretations of quantum physics, which include several variations of “many worlds” or multiverse theories, holographic interpretations, and the Copenhagen ‘classical’ collapse interpretation–and an equal lack of convergence of agreeement as to what consciousness is.

Regardless which quantum interpretation most appeals to you, within a context of acknowledging there must be a way to bring together classical physics with quantum physics in a “Theory of Everything,” and agreeing that such a theory must include consciousness in the form of an observer is central to starting to understand a scientific explanation for the Mandela Effect–and thus, an Observer’s recognition of their independent consciousness is sufficient and necessary for their subsequent experiences that can feel as if they’ve jumped from one ‘reality’ or ‘timeline’ to others. An Observer’s awareness of having jumped between realities or timelines is a paradox, in the sense that all possible realities co-exist in some form, yet we typically only remember one–or in some cases two or more.

There are still mysteries to be more fully explored, but at the heart of it lies a reassessment of our fundamental assumptions about who we are, and how reality operates. We find clues in these areas when we view the differences between the way we typically believe we live in a “classical physics” world, yet we are seeing ever-increasing evidence that suggests primacy of quantum physics. And some of the greatest insights can come from taking a closer look at ways that Quantum physics differs from Classical. The differences between classical physics and quantum physics that are essential to recognize here include:

(1) Quantum physics requires an Observer outside of the system being perceived; Classical physics does not. This may seem unimportant, yet who “I” am as an Observer is of central significance in the reality I subsequently observe. For those of us noticing we are both Actors in and Observers of our lives, we gain the ability to expand our sense of self, and we lay the groundwork for becoming capable of witnessing more than one set of historical events. As Dean Radin describes in his book, Supernormal, individuals who master levels of awareness of self are aware of developing reality-shifting, quantum jumping abilities.

(2) Quantum physics utilizes a concept of ‘quanta’ in which events occur in discontinuous, ‘stair step’ fashion; Classical physics events occur on a smooth continuum. While western education has long described all branches of science as following classical, continuous paths, fresh insights are arriving that incorporate Quantum jumps in the new fields of: Quantum Biology, Quantum Chemistry, Quantum Astronomy, and more. Nature appears to be especially adept and adroit at utilizing quantum retrocausality in such a way that produces exceptionally high levels of efficiencies in such natural processes as photosynthesis–which has been proven to be an example of quantum phenomena occurring in a warm, wet, messy and macroscopic (larger-than-Planck-scale) environment.

(3) Quantum physics has disproven Classical physics assumptions of: Material realism (only what can be measured matters); Non-local events can be assumed to never occur (quantum entanglement ensures non-local events regularly occur); and that “Objective measureements” can be made, and the role of Observers can be ignored (quantum physics requires an Observer).

You Are the Operating Observer (Not just a Puppet)

The main reason we are capable of recognizing that we can experience more than one possible history of events is that who we are consists of levels of Operating Observer awareness. We can thus ‘take a measurement’ in the form of checking on facts that we already know, and occasionally be surprised that what we remember having actually experienced is different than what we see evidence for currently in the physical reality we exist within as Observing Beings.

Quantum jumping involves recognizing that you can be the Operating Observer behind the Observing Being–that you can activate and energize the part of you that is the energizing force animating and directing your life. You might think of this as being analogous to operating a puppet, and knowing that you are the animating force that inspires the puppet to take actions and talk. Such an awareness is a spiritual awareness, in the sense that you begin to practice spiritual practices of viewing your true self as the one who chooses all your daily practices in life. You are the one who chooses whether you become loving, compassionate, kind, and fearless–or weighed down by fears, worries, doubts, grudges, or anger. Such development has more in common with joining a spiritual group and devoting years of daily practice than it does to following a cooking recipe–in the sense that you will be learning how to direct yourself through awareness of being a larger being–of being the one capable of interacting directly with other Operating Observers in the universe.

 

 

You can watch the companion video to this blog post at:

 

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Cynthia Sue Larson is the best-selling author of six books, including Quantum Jumps. Cynthia has a degree in Physics from UC Berkeley, and discusses consciousness and quantum physics on numerous shows including the History Channel, Coast to Coast AM, the BBC and One World with Deepak Chopra and on the Living the Quantum Dream show she hosts. You can subscribe to Cynthia’s free monthly ezine at: http://www.RealityShifters.com

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Review of top Mandela Effects of 2017

I’m grateful for the ever-increasing awareness that people have of reality shifts and Mandela Effects, with many noteworthy shifts coming to my awareness this past year.

Some of these include:

Kidneys have moved up from where many of us remember they used to be in the lower back, as they remembered, but rather higher up, closer to the lower ribcage. Those least likely to report this physiological change don’t include a geographically clustered group this time, but rather doctors, nurses, and medical professionals. Intriguingly, kidney punches are still called kidney punches in martial arts, but now don’t hit anywhere near the actual kidneys–thus the report of kidneys now being in a new physical location in the body finds some ‘reality residue’ support in the term ‘kidney punch.’ The so-called “kidney punch” in martial arts no longer makes any physical sense, since the target is now where the kidneys used to be, and not where they are currently situated. You can compare these two things for yourself quite easily to get the quickest sense of why so many people (such as myself) are so amazed by this particular shift.

 

Objects in the Mirror ARE closer than they appear is now the message we see on vehicular side view mirrors, rather than what many of us remember, “Objects in mirror may be closer than they appear.” There was a kind of understated humor to that wording, that made the scene in the movie Jurassic Park so much more subtle and funnier for me, back when the movie used to have the wording the way all the side-view mirrors at the time used to be.

 

Abraham Lincoln’s son, Robert Todd Lincoln survived to adulthood, and fathered children. I’d only previously ever heard of President Lincoln’s son, Todd, who died tragically in childhood–but now he has a son who had children and grandchildren. I see that the official history about Abraham Lincoln now shows that he and Mary Todd Lincoln had four sons, with only one living to adulthood and having children.

 

First terrorist attack in the USA? 1916 Statue of Liberty While you might have guessed the first terrorist attack in the United States of America happened at Pearl Harbor, historical documentation now exists showing the Black Tom explosion on 30 July 1916 was the first such incident. German agents attacked a munitions supply dump on Black Tom Island, a 25-acre promontory jutting out from Jersey City in 1916, causing a huge explosion that killed seven people and damaged the Statue of Liberty. The explosion registered an estimated 5.5 on the Richter scale, and resulted in the permanent closing off of the torch on the Statue of Liberty ever since.

 

Great Wall of India is the second biggest wall in the world, yet most of us have never heard of it. And for some reason, the origins and history of this giant wall in the heart of Madhya Pradesh still remain a mystery. The wall is constructed from large, evenly sized local stones that interlock without mortar. Apparently in this current reality, this rather gigantic wall has been well known a long time–so long, in fact, that there are more questions than answers about who built it, when, and why.

 

No north polar cap shown on maps and globes, nor can any polar ice mass be seen on any maps, including Google Earth. The date on the globe pictured here is 1979. I remember seeing cartoons of Santa’s workshop up at the north pole with a red and white specially marked pole that said, “North Pole” up in the snowy north polar ice cap. But here we have such an old-looking globe, sans north pole ice.

 

Bruce Springsteen’s back pocket has a red cap now, not the red bandanna so many people seem to recall on the cover of his album, “Born in the USA.” I remember when the album came out back in the 1980s that Springsteen’s back pocket sported his iconic red bandana–not a red cap, which looks all wrong.

 

Jesus was hung in a tree, not on a cross (Acts 5:30), changing the entire crucifixion story.

 

World population is now 7.6 billion. I remember seeing the world population was around 6 billion in the 1980s, headed for 7 billion in the 1990s, always with anticipated exponential growth. Yet now, the official historical records still show that familiar exponential curve, yet the current January 2018 world population figure is 7.6 billion.

Infrared image of WTC on 9/11

WTC buildings 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 were all demolished in 9/11 (not just 1, 2 and 7), with the damage to building 6 occurring inexplicably and spectacularly–yet I do not recall having previously heard about destruction of that 8-story building. Now WTC building number six apparently experienced a massive implosion with a crater at its basement in its center, with damage going to the lowest sublevels, with the basement of WTC building six now having exploded at the exact moment the South Tower was hit.

 

What used to be HIPPA is now HIPAA: Many Americans remember the “Health Information Patient Privacy Act” (HIPPA), yet apparently this never existed. Instead, we’ve long had the United States’ Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

You can watch the companion video to this blog post at:

 

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Cynthia Sue Larson is the best-selling author of six books, including Quantum Jumps. Cynthia has a degree in Physics from UC Berkeley, and discusses consciousness and quantum physics on numerous shows including the History Channel, Coast to Coast AM, the BBC and One World with Deepak Chopra and on the Living the Quantum Dream show she hosts. You can subscribe to Cynthia’s free monthly ezine at: http://www.RealityShifters.com

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False Memories and Mandela Effects

When people hear about Mandela Effects, in which groups of individuals report remembering events differently from recorded historical records, some suggest as a possible explanation that Mandela Effect reporters are possibly experiencing false memories. The implication of Mandela Effects being “false” is made based on the assumption that whatever events are recorded are defined automatically as being “true,” so therefore people must be mistaken in thinking that they remember specific things that are different from recorded historical facts. No mention is typically made that a presumption to call Mandela Effects “false” memories assumes a bias in favor of a classical physics view of reality–which is a view of reality that has started to look somewhat shakier recently.

The connection between “false memory” and “Mandela Effect” have become so strong in recent articles and in a large number of mainstream media posts that the current definition for “false memory” on Wikipedia currently includes mention of the “Mandela Effect” on its “False Memory” Wikipedia page, with this excerpted passage provided as an example:

In 2010 this phenomenon of collective false memory was dubbed the “Mandela Effect” by self-described “paranormal consultant” Fiona Broome, in reference to a false memory she reports, of the death of South African leader Nelson Mandela in the 1980s (rather than in 2013 when he actually died), which she claims is shared by “perhaps thousands” of other people.^[1] Broome has speculated about alternate realities as an explanation, but most commentators suggest that these are instead examples of false memories shaped by similar factors affecting multiple people,^{[2][3][26][4][29][5][6]} such as social reinforcement of incorrect memories,^[7][8] or false news reports and misleading photographs influencing the formation of memories based on them.^[9][8]

The association between “false memory” and “Mandela Effect” is thus presented as “false memory” now being expanded beyond original usage to presume the same types of causes for false memories (ie: Construction hypothesis for malleability of memory, or Skeleton theory).

For those of us who have experienced shifts in reality, either with others or alone, and either intended (quantum jumps) or unintended (reality shifts and Mandela Effects), we can gain additional information with regard to better understanding what is going on.

Mandela Effects affecting large groups of people generally represent unexpected, unintended shifts that highlight differences between the historically recorded events that “actually happened” and what these groups of people expect to see when viewing historical records.

Our problem-solving ability relies upon our awareness of distinctions between what “actually” happened and what we “expect,” so by observing more about both of these areas, we can learn more about what is going on with Mandela Effects. We can observe details through observation that, for example, we might see groups of people with similar “Mandela Effects” grouped geographically for something like remembering Nelson Mandela’s death–but other times, we might observe groupings of observers are not based on geography, but instead some other factor.

For example, with regard to people remembering when they first heard of Nelson Mandela having died, there is a tendency for South Africans’ memories to coincide with official historical recorded accounts, whereas people living outside of South Africa are more likely to have seen earlier reports of his death. This is not to say that everyone living outside South Africa will remember Nelson Mandela dying prior to 2013, but rather that very few, if any, South Africans will report this particular Mandela Effect (the very one that the “Mandela Effect” is named after).

In contrast with this local area Mandela Effect, a more recent type of reality shift, such as the one in which many people noticed that the official historical location for kidneys is no longer in the lower back, as they remembered, but rather higher up, closer to the lower ribcage. Those least likely to report this physiological change don’t include a geographically clustered group this time, but rather doctors, nurses, and medical professionals.

Intriguingly, kidney punches are still called kidney punches in martial arts, but now don’t hit anywhere near the actual kidneys–thus the report of kidneys now being in a new physical location in the body finds some ‘reality residue’ support in the term ‘kidney punch.’ The so-called “kidney punch” in martial arts no longer makes any physical sense, since the target is now where the kidneys used to be, and not where they are currently situated. You can compare these two things for yourself quite easily to get the quickest sense of why so many people (such as myself) are so amazed by this particular shift.

Here’s the Google description of the moving-on-up new-and-improved kidney location:

“The kidneys are bean-shaped organs (about 11 cm x 7 cm x 3 cm) that are located against the back muscles in the upper abdominal area. They sit opposite each other on both the left and right side of the body; the right kidney, however, sits a little lower than the left to accommodate the size of the liver.”

You can then look up “Kidney punch” and see:

“A kidney punch is a punch that occurs usually when the fighters clinch. It is a hit that goes into the lower back, to the kidney area. It is illegal because of its high danger level to health.”

Which is to say that kidney punches used to be potentially lethal. I’ve practiced martial arts for 20 years, and I remember hearing that such strikes would occasionally result in the recipient urinating blood–a very bad sign of kidney damage–which, thanks to the relocation of kidneys, is apparently a danger no more.

Memory–particularly subconscious memory–is sometimes compared with a “black box,” because memory processes are not obvious, and we can mostly only guess at they operate. Various theories thus arise, with some of the newest theories incorporating concepts from quantum physics, such as is described in Jerome Busemeyer and Peter Bruza’s excellent book, “Quantum Models of Cognition and Decision.”

When considering a possible quantum explanation for the Mandela Effect, we can thus consider the way that certain groupings of people divided in different ways (sometimes geographically grouped, sometimes grouped based on occupation) sometimes recall different histories than any current historical factual evidence can be found for–aside from artist’s recollections indicating some such history exists.

While critics may point out that such an explanation seems convoluted, the presence of macroscopic quantum jumps actually provides an operational mechanism for such things as the placebo effect, and is more practically aligned with any true physical “theory of everything” thanks to incorporating quantum phenemona (such as macro scale quantum jumps).

You can watch the companion video to this blog post at:

 

 

1. “Nelson Mandela Died in Prison? – Mandela Effect”. Mandela Effect. 2010-09-09. .

2.  “Collective False Memories: What’s Behind the ‘Mandela Effect’?”. The Crux. 2017-02-16. .

3.  “21 Mandela Effect Examples List To Get You Thinking”. BuzzFyre. 2017-02-16. .

4. “Does this picture look a bit off to you?”. NewsComAu. .

5.  “NZ and the ‘Mandela Effect’: Meet the folks who remember New Zealand being in a different place”. Stuff. .

6.  “On a Grandma’s House and the Unknowability of the Past”. Pacific Standard. 2017-02-09. .

7.  Brown, Adam D.; Kouri, Nicole; Hirst, William (2012-07-23). “Memory’s Malleability: Its Role in Shaping Collective Memory and Social Identity”. Frontiers in Psychology. 3. ISSN 1664-1078. PMC 3402138 . PMID 22837750. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00257.

8. ^ ^a b “Can groups of people “remember” something that didn’t happen?”. Hopes&Fears. .

9.  “CogBlog – A Cognitive Psychology Blog » False Memories in the News: Are Pictures Worth MORE Than 1,000 Words?”. web.colby.edu. .

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Cynthia Sue Larson is the best-selling author of six books, including Quantum Jumps. Cynthia has a degree in Physics from UC Berkeley, and discusses consciousness and quantum physics on numerous shows including the History Channel, Coast to Coast AM, the BBC and One World with Deepak Chopra and on the Living the Quantum Dream show she hosts. You can subscribe to Cynthia’s free monthly ezine at: http://www.RealityShifters.com

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Where is the Mandela Effect Taking Us?

For everyone aware of the Mandela Effect and reality shifts, it’s clear that experiencers are greatly outnumbered by those who’ve yet to consciously recognize such phenomena. The two surveys that I’ve conducted interviewing hundreds of people in 2000 and again in 2013 indicate that despite some small increases of reported experiences of some types of reality shifts, the percentages of experiencers are roughly similar. Keeping in mind that these two surveys were conducted just 13 years apart, the small increases of some types of reality shifts can conceivably indicate bigger shifts yet to come. Which brings us to ask the question, “Where is the Mandela Effect taking us?”

While we may not know for sure where humanity is headed as some of us come to recognize we are traveling between what seems to be parallel possible worlds–so movie dialogue, product logos, celebrity deaths and much, much more are observed by us to change from time to time–this certainly seems to be a good time to ask ourselves where we’d most like to go.

One thing becomes more certain even as facts and histories become less so, and that is a recognition of human consciousness being capable of moving between physical realities. Thanks to the internet and our ability to quickly communicate with others, we are now finding large numbers of people who may also recall alternate histories to what apparently now ‘has always been this way,’ so we can ask ourselves why, for example, so many of us recall the young blonde character, “Dolly” having braces on her teeth in her scene with “Jaws” from the James Bond movie “Moonraker.” There is no logical reason why so many people would simultaneously be so strongly convinced that there used to be a very logical reason why Dolly and Jaws looked so happy together–they each boasted a mouthful of metal teeth!

Once we begin to notice Mandela Effects in which we can compare notes and observe changes to human anatomy, geography, passages in books we’ve memorized by heart, and more–we also start noticing changes in our personal lives where we might not be able to compare notes with anyone else.

Yet once our eyes have been opened to the fact that we seem to be observing changes in physical reality, we also begin to ask why such changes occur. And this line of questioning can bring us to a place of playing with shifting realities more consciously–with quantum jumping from one reality to the next. We thus can become aware that our beliefs have tremendous power and influence over what physically happens in our lives, and we notice how the placebo effect has doubled in the past 30 years, and people who have some kind of faith tend to experience the most profound placebo benefits–feeling better when having taken some kind of “sham” treatment with no known medical efficacy.

Alexander Lvovsky

If it turns out to be true that there is no boundary line demarcating the end of the classical physics world and the beginning of the ‘quantum realm’ as some scientists such as Alexander Lvovsky are recently contemplating, we begin to see what the Mandela Effect and reality shifts and quantum jumps are telling us, and where they may be taking us, too.

We begin to imagine there’s continuity from the realm of the very smallest subatomic particles and quantum wave functions that behave more like energy than matter–all the way to the realm of the immensely, gigantically enormously huge star systems, galaxies, and constellations. Relativity may then apply both to spaceship travelers and quantum measurements and ‘quantum phenomena’–such as teleportation, tunneling, entanglement, and superposition of states–such that we can reach a point of expecting histories to change from time to time as consciousness (individual and/or larger group levels) makes various levels of leaps.

The Mandela Effect offers to take humanity out of our current tendencies toward presumption of material realism and classical True-False logic into the realm of quantum logic, where facts are entangled and sometimes seemingly unrelated things move together coherently, like birds of a flock moving in perfect synchrony. Quantum logic invites us to consider how something can be: True, True-and-False, Not-True-Not-False, or False. Mandela Effects, reality shifts and quantum jumps show us that just because we think something is a certain way doesn’t mean it will stay that way, or that others will believe that they have experienced it that way. We’ll thus begin to formulate an explanation for why scientists are currently having such trouble replicating their experiments. We’ll begin to transform our legal systems as historians, psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists and biologists come to recognize alternate histories as being a natural part of human existence. Medical professionals will adopt a view of spontaneous remission being a naturally occurring process, and doctors will therefore encourage people to adopt ‘healthy beliefs’ and states of mind that facilitate quantum jumps as one of the fundamental foundations of healing. Our views of unbiased observers and impartial judges will be completely changed, as we appreciate how information can travel anywhere instantaneously, and how everyone and everything is interconnected.

The ultimate destination for humanity may be unknown, in terms of just how radically we may eventually be capable of evolving ourselves and our environment as we master our mind-body-spirit connection with the physical world. Yet we can be relatively certain that as long as we keep asking questions such as, “How good can it get?!”, we likely have a wonderful future to look forward to!

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Cynthia Sue Larson is the best-selling author of six books, including Quantum Jumps. Cynthia has a degree in Physics from UC Berkeley, and discusses consciousness and quantum physics on numerous shows including the History Channel, Coast to Coast AM, the BBC and One World with Deepak Chopra and on the Living the Quantum Dream show she hosts. You can subscribe to Cynthia’s free monthly ezine at: http://www.RealityShifters.com

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Many Possible Realities and Mandela Effect

When I first began studying the field of quantum jumping, reality shifts, and the Mandela Effect back in the 1990s, I was noticing things appearing, disappearing, transforming, and transporting–and the only thing that matched the kind of bizarre stuff I was seeing was to consider the radical viewpoint that maybe quantum behavior doesn’t just happen in the so called “quantum realm.” I’ve been presenting the viewpoint in my books Reality Shifts and Quantum Jumps that maybe there is no ‘quantum realm.’ Maybe everything is essentially quantum, and we usually just don’t notice it.

While it may seem bizarre to imagine that you and I and everyone and everything exists in what can be described as a ‘superposition of states,’ a growing number of physicists believes that this is precisely what is going on. So, rather than there just being one ‘true reality’ at any given moment, we can imagine that each moment consists of an infinite range of possibilities, with many possible me’s and many possible you’s.

This idea of existing in a superposition of states with many possible variations of ourselves and everyone and everything else around us is precisely the idea behind why placebos have become so remarkably effective in recent years. Many scientists have noted with wonderment that efficacy of placebos–which can be like a saline solution, sugar pill, or ‘sham’ surgery–has doubled over the past few decades. Many people can even feel the benefit from telling themselves, for example, that they got a good night’s sleep, even if in truth it was one of the most interrupted nights of sleep they’ve ever had, and astonishingly they will respond on cognitive and motor skill tests just as well as if they really did get a good night’s sleep.

The Placebo Effect thus shows us how we can access the realm of alternative possible realities, by doing what American psychologist William James suggested, and acting as if we’re in the reality we require. So you can, for example, simply tell yourself that you’ve had a good night’s sleep, and connect with the reality in which that was in fact true. And you can feel well-rested, just as if you actually did get one of your best night’s of sleep ever.

Scientific evidence for the existence of such things as ‘placebo sleep’ and ‘placebo exercise’ have been proven true in recent years, in studies such as Placebo Sleep Affects Cognitive Functioning. A study of hotel housekeepers who were informed that doing their regular work activities was good exercise found that those workers scored higher on health indicators than a group of similar workers who had not been told they were getting on-the-job work-outs.

What’s being found to be consistently proven true is that any time people are informed by someone they respect that some kind of “treatment” is going to work, it probably will. I include summaries of numerous such studies in my book, Quantum Jumps, along with laboratory-proven simple things you can do to feel reduced pain, greater intellectual ability, improved willpower, and better relationships.

You can see the video summary of this blog post at: https://youtu.be/AVIZM–qQQg

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Cynthia Sue Larson is the best-selling author of six books, including Quantum Jumps. Cynthia has a degree in Physics from UC Berkeley, and discusses consciousness and quantum physics on numerous shows including the History Channel, Coast to Coast AM, the BBC and One World with Deepak Chopra and on the Living the Quantum Dream show she hosts. You can subscribe to Cynthia’s free monthly ezine at: http://www.RealityShifters.com

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Neurotechnology, AI and Enhanced Human Intelligence

David Eagleman and Cynthia Sue Larson

I attended an invigorating open discussion, “The Future of Neurotechnology: Human Intelligence + Artificial Intelligence,” led by neuroscientist David Eagleman and entrepreneur Bryan Johnson at my alma mater, UC Berkeley. The purpose of this talk was to discuss possible directions as we go forward to incorporate advances in neuroscience with those of Artificial Intelligence (AI), with awareness that there will be some degree of synergy between development of advances in human cognitive enhancement and AI.

Eagleman and Johnson agree that it’s not a matter of IF but WHEN neurotechnology will become reality in our lives. Neuro-tech may not yet be a common household word just yet, but it is definitely well on the way. And in fact, now that most of us hold in our hands devices that allow us to access the internet, we already are starting to get a glimpse of how this merging of technology into the way we make choices, communicate, and remember important people and events in our life will feel.

At this time when venture capitalists are understandably wary about investing in businesses with unproven track records that are operating on the “bleeding edge,” Bryan Johnson explained he invested one hundred million dollars of his own personal money in his company, Kernel, a human intelligence (HI) company to develop the world’s first neuroprosthesis for cognition. Working together with Ted Berger at USC, Johnson is exploring how new technologies might help us improve memory through neuromodulation. Johnson and his team seek to answer the question, “What if we could read and write neural memory in the hippocampus?”

In 2013, Kernel’s NeuroPace proved itself to be a commercial success in quelling epileptic seizures. Future advancements may rely upon such new technologies as neural dust and nanobots.

What does all this have to do with you? In much the same way that transportation is being revolutionized with the coming of robot cars and self-driving vehicles, neurotechnology is poised to transform Human Intelligence (HI) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), while reducing disease, dysfunction and degradation–and enhancing human cognitive functioning.

Neurotechnology Ethical Considerations

Bryan Johnson noted that several people were raising questions and voicing concerns about ethical considerations of human cognitive enhancement–so he asked for a show of hands to indicate how many people felt ethics should be given high priority with regard to neurotechnological advances. Many people (including me) raised our hands, confirming Bryan Johnson’s hunch.

Johnson took note of this, and pointed out that however each of us might feel about the ethical questions involving applying neurotechnology with such things as neural dust–designed to non-invasively enter a human’s peripheral nervous system and sit on the surface of the neurocortex–there will be countries in the world, such as China, that welcome such experimental research with open arms.

The subject of the singularity came up, as one gentleman shared the observation that based on simulations of what happens when AI develops, it appears to be extremely clear that we will need some kind of human enhancement in order to give humans a fighting chance. A variety of simulations of how AI will interact with humanity show that unless everything goes just exactly right, human survival after the creation, expansion, development, and dominance of AI is not a sure thing. We would thus do well to help ensure a more level playing field between humans and AI by boosting Human Intelligence with neurotechnology.

Participants in the discussion voiced the opinion that convergence between machine learning and human cognitive enhancement will be helpful now. One woman in the audience expressed her profound heartfelt desire that wisdom be prioritized in neurotechnological advances as being one of the most important priorities to keep in mind.

Envisioning New Neurotechnical Horizons

With regard to envisioning where neurotechnology may go in the next few decades, Johnson and Eagleman spoke mostly in generalities, rather than specifics. Intelligent neural dust, such as that developed at UC Berkeley’s Brain Machine Interface Systems Laboratory involving sensors about the size of a grain of sand, is a form of implantable technology that can be placed in nerves or muscles to treat disorders such as epilepsy, to stimulate the immune system, and to reduce inflammation. Powered by and working with ultrasound, the tiny neural dust can go super-deep inside a body to take measurements and assist in stimulating nerves and muscles. Another new arrival in the new field of electroceuticals will be nanobots, which will be even smaller than neural dust, and can automate tasks such as performing delicate surgical procedures, delivering exact drug dosages, and diagnosing disease; this past year, swarms of nanobots demonstrated promise in precisely targeting and treating cancer.

Job requirements may change once human intelligence and cognitive functioning is neurotechnologically enhanced. We expect that some of our technical professionals receive additional training to become doctors and lawyers–and it’s conceivable that in the not-too-distant future, some professionals may also be expected to undergo neurotechnological enhancement as part of the requirements for the job.

A young man wearing a T-shirt emblazoned “Qualia Research Institute” asked, “What do we do if we find out we are at the local maxima of human cognitive efficiency? How might we be able to tweak it?” to which Johnson and Eagleman pointed out that we should be able to increase our communication input/output rate to a level that is far faster than the slow verbal speech method currently being used during this discussion–since we can all think far more quickly than we can talk.

Fully aware of the irony, I took hand-written notes during this presentation and discussion, and wrote the draft of this article by hand with a pen on paper–clearly NOT the fastest way to do things! Yet, I’ve seen research showing advantages of taking notes by hand, rather than typing things on keyboards. I’ve found my ability to remember and more completely utilize information gets a huge boost when I work from hand-written notes. So while I agree with the inevitability of human enhancement with neurotechnology, I also envision a future in which “old ways” of knowing, communicating, and interacting with others continues to take place, and might even help us ensure that during the coming ascendance of AI, human intelligence ensures its place, too.

Free Will and the Power to Forget

After the talk, I enjoyed a personal chat with David Eagleman. During their discussion, Eagleman and Johnson had been emphasizing the value of enhancing human intelligence with better memory–and I had a sense that while memory enhancement sounds like a great idea, there are likely some really good natural reasons that we humans so often forget. I pointed out the value of forgetting–in that forgetting can enable us to make quantum jumps to more optimal realities–and this is likely a big factor in the effectiveness of placebo effect healing.

I talked with Eagleman about how he and Johnson had discussed finding ways for neurotechnology to enhance cognitive functioning by reading and writing information to the hippocampus–pointing out that we’ll likely see the that the hippocampus will grow when written to.

I voiced my support for putting human intelligence in the Open AI project, to minimize and prevent attempts to control AI and HI by one or a few governments or corporations.

We ended our conversation discussing ‘free will,’ which David reminded me he does not believe in, per se, as he describes in his book, Incognito. I suggested he consider the work of Thomas Metzinger and Max Velmans with consideration of first person and third person levels of representational self-modeling and levels of awareness. It’s clear that systems that are missing a few lines of code that constantly remind them they are representational models bear more than passing similarity to humans.

I’m inspired to see that David Eagleman’s Laboratory for Perception and Action at Stanford University seeks to understand how the brain constructs perception, how different brains do so differently, and how this matters for society–with special focus in four specific areas of: time perception, sensory substitution, synesthesia, and neurolaw. After giving some thought to neurotechnology, it’s clear to see the growing significance of the emerging interdisciplinary field of neurolaw.

Join the Conversation

My personal bias involves a preference to explore strengthening my awareness of what consciousness is and how it operates, working with natural human abilities that have historically been neglected, ignored or forgotten as technology has advanced. Some of my bias may be due to my being what is called an “exceptional human experiencer,” since I am a near-death experiencer, I am a meditator, I am a lucid dreamer, I have had a kundalini awakening experience, and I was ‘born aware’ (meaning I remembered being conscious prior to being born). Exceptional human experiences can provide people with access to heightened abilities to do some of the things we might also hope to enhance through neurotechnology–and I see a study of neurotechnology as potentially providing us with greater insights into optimizing our natural human abilities.

I’d love to hear your comments, thoughts and feelings about the future of neurotechnology. This is a controversial topic, that I hope you will contemplate and talk to people about it, thus helping set the direction for how humanity continues to evolve with technology. Some people are understandably skeptical or concerned about neurotechnology, while others are excited about the possibilities, and others yet don’t yet have strong feelings one way or the other. My gut feeling is that AI is coming, as is human cognitive enhancement. Humanity will do well to envision how we see ourselves in the future, and what we consider optimal in terms of working with neurotechnology in the future. I tend to agree with Eagleman and Johnson that it’s not a matter of if, but when, this technology will arrive. And those of us like myself who still don’t yet have cell phones can be hold-outs for a while (or in my case now, decades), yet all of us will eventually be affected in some way by these technologies.

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Cynthia Sue Larson is the best-selling author of six books, including Quantum Jumps. Cynthia has a degree in Physics from UC Berkeley, and discusses consciousness and quantum physics on numerous shows including the History Channel, Coast to Coast AM, the BBC and One World with Deepak Chopra and on the Living the Quantum Dream show she hosts. You can subscribe to Cynthia’s free monthly ezine at: http://www.RealityShifters.com

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