Hortensia de los Santos
Author, Researcher, Theorist

THE LIVING MIND: CONSCIOUSNESS BEYOND MATTER

In recent years, a growing wave of thought has begun to challenge the long-held assumption that the material world is the sole foundation of reality. Instead, it suggests that consciousness — the living mind — may not only perceive the world but shape it, perhaps even give rise to it. From spontaneous healing to mystical experiences across cultures, and from near-death revelations to the insights of saints like Sri Ramakrishna, this essay explores the idea that mind may transcend matter and influence reality at its most fundamental levels.

Spontaneous Healing and the Power of Belief

One of the most compelling arguments for the power of the mind is the phenomenon of spontaneous healing. In a case shared by physician Deepak Chopra, a terminal cancer patient, once told that her gallbladder surgery had been successful, returned a year later completely free of cancer — despite never receiving cancer-specific treatment. This story is echoed in countless others where belief, faith, or a shift in mental state appears to unlock the body’s own healing intelligence.

Modern medicine, too, acknowledges the placebo effect, where patients improve from inert substances simply because they believe they are being treated. Conversely, the nocebo effect demonstrates how negative expectations can produce real harm. These examples suggest that the mind can influence the body’s biochemistry, immunity, and perhaps its very structure, bypassing conventional causal chains.

Scientific Glimpses of Mind’s Influence

Quantum physics has introduced disturbing yet fascinating possibilities regarding the role of consciousness in shaping reality. The famous observer effect, where particles behave differently depending on whether they are being observed, has led some physicists (like Eugene Wigner and John von Neumann) to propose that consciousness may collapse the wavefunction, determining the outcome of physical events.

Outside the lab, subtle but persistent findings — such as random number generator experiments and studies on meditation’s impact on the body — suggest a non-trivial connection between focused awareness and measurable changes in the world. The Global Consciousness Project, for instance, has recorded statistically unusual fluctuations in random data streams during moments of global emotional coherence, such as 9/11.

Black Holes (Confirmed in Stages: 1970s–2019)

• Theory:
  • Predicted by general relativity (Einstein, 1915), but for decades remained theoretical.
  Confirmation:
  • In the 1970s, Cygnus X-1 was identified as a likely black hole candidate via X-ray observations.
  • In 2015, gravitational waves from merging black holes were detected.

Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMB) Anisotropies (Confirmed 1992)

• Theory:
  • Predicted tiny fluctuations in the CMB due to early density variations.
  Confirmation:
  • Detected by COBE (1992), refined by WMAP and Planck missions.
  • In 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope produced the first image of a black hole (M87*).

These findings, though controversial, hint at a deeper non-local aspect of consciousness, one that may not be confined to the brain or limited by space and time.

Near-Death Experiences: Consciousness Without the Body

The testimonies of those who have had near-death experiences (NDEs) add powerful evidence to the argument that consciousness survives bodily death. Whether in the East or West, among Christians, Muslims, Hindus, or atheists, NDEs often include strikingly similar elements: an out-of-body experience, encounters with beings of light or deceased relatives, panoramic life reviews, and a sense of peace and unity.

Notably, these experiences often occur when brain activity is minimal or absent, challenging the materialist claim that consciousness is merely a brain function. Even more remarkable is the lasting transformation many NDE survivors undergo. People like Dr. Eben Alexander, Anita Moorjani, and Howard Storm not only recovered from life-threatening illness or trauma, but returned with radically altered worldviews, often centered on love, service, and fearlessness in the face of death.

Across religions, these experiences appear shaped by the cultural mind but point to a universal reality. In India, NDEs may involve Yama, the Hindu god of death; in Muslim contexts, angels or Azrael; and in Christian cases, Jesus or heavenly light. Yet the structure of the experience — its numinous character, its moral clarity, its transcendence — remains constant.

Sri Ramakrishna: One Consciousness, Many Forms

Perhaps no figure better embodies the truth of a universal, shaping consciousness than Sri Ramakrishna (1836–1886), the Bengali saint whose spiritual life was a living experiment in divine realization. Initially devoted to Kali as the Divine Mother, he entered such profound states of samadhi that he experienced her as a real, conscious being.

But Ramakrishna did not stop there. He practiced Islam with devotion, eventually having a vision of a radiant being (perhaps Muhammad) and achieving samadhi. Later, he embraced Christianity, meditated on Christ, and experienced the divine light and form of Jesus merging into his own self. In each tradition, he reached the same ecstatic union, proving by experience that God is both with form and without, and appears according to the devotee’s path.

This radical inclusivity was not philosophical — it was experiential, and it deeply supports the idea that consciousness is not limited by religion, form, or dogma. It shapes what it receives, reflects what it seeks, and ultimately transcends all duality.

The Mind as Architect of Reality

When we bring together spontaneous healing, quantum mysteries, near-death experiences, and the mystical realizations of saints like Ramakrishna, a clear pattern begins to emerge: consciousness may be not only a participant in reality, but its creator. This challenges the foundations of materialist science and opens the door to a reality in which belief, attention, love, and will have the power to shape not only our experiences, but the world itself.

This doesn’t mean abandoning science — it means expanding it to include the full spectrum of human and spiritual experience, from the depths of the body’s wisdom to the heights of transcendental light. As Sri Ramakrishna said, “If you cry earnestly to the Mother, She will respond.”

Conclusion

We stand at a crossroads where science and mysticism are beginning to speak the same language — the language of consciousness. Whether through the sudden healing of disease, the clear memory of life beyond death, or the ecstatic embrace of the divine in many forms, the evidence suggests that the mind is more than matter — it is a mirror of the Infinite.

If this is true, then the future of healing, understanding, and peace may not lie only in what we do with our hands, but what we awaken in our hearts and minds. For in the deepest silence, when thought falls away and love alone remains, we may find that the mind is not just in the world — the world is in the mind.