Our day-to-day perceptions and interactions occur in the physical world governed by laws of matter and energy. Yet some philosophies, religions, and fringe sciences have long posited that reality consists of more than just the physical. Might there be subtle informational layers to reality that interact with and influence the physical in unconventional ways? Consider phenomena like near-death experiences, mystical states of consciousness, quantum entanglement or the placebo effect that seem to point to dimensions of reality not fully explained by materialist science. Thinkers as diverse as Plato, Leibniz, Carl Jung and modern quantum physicists have speculated about realities beyond the physical. Key questions we will explore include: * What is the role of human cognition and information processing in perceiving reality? To what extent do our informational models shape our observations? * Can phenomena like consciousness, emotions, and abstract concepts be reduced to physical matter, or do they point to something more? * Are there emergent levels of reality that interact with yet cannot be fully explained by physical laws? How might physical and informational layers intersect? * How should we evaluate unconventional ideas about informational facets of reality that currently lack rigorous scientific evidence? * What epistemic stances like skepticism, curiosity and intellectual humility best serve our collective understanding of complex issues? Our goal here is to synthesize perspectives from science, philosophy and personal experiences into likely possibilities and speculative models that can be refined through future discoveries. We will identify key tensions between prevailing paradigms and anomalous observations that warrant open-minded inquiry. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, rigorously examined. Yet mainstream models also have limits that may hinder understanding. A strictly materialist view may neglect important facets of our experiences, while uncritical acceptance of mystical ideas ignores the need for evidence and logic. As we probe the informational depths of reality, we must value skepticism, intellectual humility and following the evidence wherever it leads. Although much remains unknown, synthesizing insights appears to suggest intrinsic connections between information and consciousness, and layers of reality not reducible to materialist paradigms. Phenomena Overview ================== The relationship between information and physical reality presents many profound mysteries. While the materialist view argues that consciousness and perceptions arise purely from physical matter in the brain, a growing body of phenomena point to the possibility of subtle informational layers of reality that interact with and influence the physical in unconventional ways. Our day-to-day lives unfold in a shared physical world governed by natural laws and these informational layers that defy complete materialist explanation. Our current scientific understanding struggles to fully account for the subjective qualities of consciousness, the deeper meanings experienced in altered states, and anomalies that seem to reveal connections beyond the physically possible. Specific phenomena that stretch the boundaries of materialist explanations include near-death experiences, psychedelic states of consciousness, and extra-sensory perception. Communing with deceased loved ones and encounters with mystical light suggest consciousness may operate beyond the confines of the physical brain. Psychedelic states induced by substances like psilocybin or DMT that reveal realms of cosmic unity, interconnectedness and mystical consciousness at odds with ordinary perception. Extra-sensory perception, as investigated by parapsychology, where meta-analyses provide some statistical evidence for telepathy, precognition, remote viewing and psychokinesis. While limited and contested, phenomena like telepathy and precognition imply non-local consciousness. Integrating these view-expanding experiences with prevailing scientific paradigms remains an ongoing challenge. Many near-death experiences contain transcendent elements that challenge conventional notions of consciousness. Cardiac arrest patients like Pim van Lommel have reported verified out-of-body experiences during surgery where they accurately described details of the operating room while fully physiologically compromised. This directly implies mental function continuing beyond physical brain capacity, suggesting informational properties irreducible to grey matter. While skeptics argue these could be hallucinations as the brain shuts down, the verified accounts of perception when physiologically brain dead pose difficulties for models that equate mind with brain matter. Research by Roland Griffiths at Johns Hopkins found that psychedelics like psilocybin and DMT can induce experiences described as the single most personally meaningful and spiritually significant event of one’s life. Common themes include a sense of unity, transcending space/time, intuitive knowledge of ultimate reality, and interconnectedness between conscious beings. Neuroimaging shows psychedelics alter connectivity between brain regions, but the subjective experience itself remains unexplained. Users often report their worldviews and life priorities profoundly shaped by the insights obtained. The consistency of mental shifts point to genuine expansions of consciousness beyond what neural activity alone can account for. Parapsychology studies psychic phenomena like telepathy, precognition, remote viewing and psychokinesis (collectively known as psi). Statistical meta-analyses show small but significant effects favoring these abilities even after controlling for publication bias, with odds against chance over a billion to one. However, concerns remain about replication and proper controls. For instance, PEAR lab remote viewing studies resulted in subjects accurately describing remote locations at higher than expected rates. But critics argue flaws in methodology. Quantum theorists posit psi effects may be explained by entanglement or tunneling. The overall evidence for psi remains contested but suggestive. Existing Scientific Theories ============================ Quantum biology examines biological phenomena involving quantum mechanical effects like electron tunneling or entanglement. Examples include photosynthesis, bird navigation, olfaction, enzyme catalysis, and microtubule function. While these demonstrate quantum processes operating in living systems, clear evidence tying quantum biology to consciousness remains sparse. Some theorists speculate synaptic vesicle release in the brain may exhibit quantum coherence supporting cognition. But direct empirical demonstrations are lacking, and classical biochemistry likely dominates neural function. Quantum biology offers clues, but the connection to consciousness requires substantial further evidence. The Orch OR theory developed by physicist Roger Penrose and anesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff proposes that consciousness arises from quantum vibrations in microtubules inside neurons. Microtubules serve as information processing networks in brain cells. Orch OR suggests these microtubules can exhibit quantum coherence, allowing entanglement between tubules in different neurons. This quantum processing gives rise to consciousness, with tubules maintaining coherent states that avoid decoherence long enough to integrate information. However, critics argue the model lacks evidence that microtubules can achieve isolated quantum coherence at body temperatures. The theory remains speculative without empirical demonstration that biological microtubules have the required quantum properties. Physicist Henry Stapp’s model aims to synthesize consciousness and physics by arguing that the mind selects probabilistic states from a superposition, mediated by Zeno effects. In his view, the mind itself is non-computable yet influences neurocomputation via intentional action on quantum uncertainty. Stapp suggests consciousness manifests as top-down causal efficacy upon quantum states. This complements bottom-up neurobiological processes. However, precisely how intentional mental states apply causal power to physical brain states remains unclear. The specific mechanisms of mind-matter interaction require further elaboration. The physicist David Bohm proposed an alternate interpretation of quantum theory based on underlying variables. In his implicate order framework, deeper fields contain enfolded information that explicates into physical forms. Consciousness interacts with these implicate levels. Bohmian mechanics aims to explain quantum “weirdness” by adding hidden layers while retaining causality and realism. However, some argue that the explicate-implicate model is epiphenomenal and does not offer clear advantages for describing consciousness compared to mainstream quantum theory. Experimental evidence for Bohm’s hidden variables is also lacking. Neuroscientist Giulio Tononi’s integrated information theory proposes that consciousness arises from the interconnected informational structure of the brain and nervous system. Higher integration and complexity of information correlates with more sentient states. However, the theory has challenges quantifying informational relationships in the brain to produce consciousness metrics. Its predictions have proved difficult to empirically verify. The hypothetical mechanisms remain underspecified. But integrated information theory offers a starting point to conceptualize consciousness emerging from informational dynamics. Philosophical Analysis ====================== Metaphysical idealism posits that reality is fundamentally informational or mental in essence, rather than physical. It inverts the common assumption that matter gives rise to mind, instead arguing that consciousness is primordial while the physical world derives from it. Modern philosophers like Bernardo Kastrup have developed analytical idealism, contending that one universal consciousness is the source of both individual minds and the physical universe apparent to our senses. Through a process of dissociation, this cosmic consciousness generated relatively autonomous alters that inhabit the physical. However, idealism struggles to explain the consistent lawful behavior of matter independent of observation, the shared intersubjective world, and precisely how mentation produces the physical. It risks solipsism without an integrating framework. While it provides an informational foundation for phenomena like NDEs, idealism requires further rigor and evidentiary grounding to satisfy philosophical skepticism. Panpsychism offers a mechanism for how emergent informational layers could arise from and interact with the physical world. By attributing a form of mentality intrinsic to all basic subatomic particles or information fields, panpsychism does not require an ontological emergence of mind from matter. Informational properties are present all the way down at the foundations of physics. Panpsychism offers another route to integrate informational and physical, attributing a form of consciousness or experience to all constituents of reality. Philosophers like David Chalmers argue it elegantly solves the mind-body problem by making consciousness a fundamental feature that exists everywhere, not just in biological nervous systems. This avoids the need to explain an ontological emergence of mind from matter and provides a conceptual foundation for understanding how higher-order informational realities could potentially emerge seamlessly from the quantum substrate while retaining causal efficacy. Neutral monism stakes out a metaphysical middle ground, proposing that reality is ultimately composed of a neutral essence that is neither physical nor mental. Both informational and material properties then emerge from this common neutral substance in a dual-aspect manner. Philosophers like William James and Baruch Spinoza adopted versions of this perspective. However, a key challenge is providing a clear definition and examples of the purported neutral essence. What exactly constitutes this substrate from which mental and material emerge? Unless the fundamental substance is specified, neutral monism remains only a vague conceptual abstraction. Still, it offers a starting point to build models where information and matter share primal origins. Ancient and Indigenous Perspectives =================================== In addition to contemporary scientific theories, many ancient and indigenous cultures have long recognized subtle informational layers interwoven with the physical world. Concepts like prana, qi, and meridian networks in Indian, Chinese, and Japanese traditions propose the existence of vital energy fields that shape health and consciousness. Shamanic practices work with alternate states and non-corporeal realms beyond the material. While often lacking empirical verification, these cross-cultural views align with modern notions of metaphysical energies and systems that defy strict materialism. For instance, traditional Chinese medicine sees qi as a ubiquitous invisible energy that flows through meridians in the body to influence health. The ayurvedic concept of prana similarly proposes vital life force energies. Indigenous shamans enter trance states to commune with spirits, entities, and immaterial realms through rituals, music, and psychoactive plants. The diverse cosmologies unite in recognizing subtle interplay between consciousness, energy, and matter difficult to capture empirically. While frequently stereotyped as primitive superstition, these ancient knowledge systems preserve conceptual foundations and experiential explorations of the informal layers now being rediscovered at the frontiers of postmodern science. Integrating wisdom from diverse human experiences and ways of knowing could prove invaluable as we expand understanding of consciousness beyond physical reductionism. With nuance and skepticism, we can build bridges between traditional lore and modern science on the hidden depths of reality. Evidentiary Evaluation ====================== When claims profoundly challenge established scientific paradigms and assumptions about reality, they incur an extremely high burden of proof reflective of their extraordinary status. As astronomer Carl Sagan famously stated, “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” Phenomena like verifiable NDEs and statistically significant parapsychology findings certainly push the boundaries of conventional materialist models. However, protagonists would contend that the empirical data points still fall far short of meeting the rigorous evidentiary standards required to completely overhaul current physics and neuroscience. At the same time, critics caution that overly rigid demands for repeatable proof can sometimes hinder scientific advancement. Many breakthroughs occur at the fringes where phenomena are faint and poorly understood. As such, the merits of each data point deserve careful evaluation on its own terms, while accounting for human flaws in observation and analysis. Standards must be high, but not unreasonably absolute. A balanced view that weighs remarkable claims with intense skeptical scrutiny yet maintains openness to new depths of reality may be most conducive to scientific progress. A major point of contention is the failure to reliably reproduce many promising initial parapsychology findings suggestive of anomalous cognition or psi phenomena. For instance, Daryl Bem’s studies on precognition yielded positive results but subsequent replication attempts by other teams produced mixed results at best, with some sharpened protocols nullifying the effect. Supporters contend that subtle psychological factors like motivation or environmental influences like geomagnetic activity could alter outcomes in complex psi trials in unknown ways. They argue this allowance of vague influencing factors does not necessarily render the phenomena unfalsifiable, but skeptics are typically unsatisfied by this explanation for irreproducibility. While single instances of non-replication do not automatically invalidate an observed effect, the broader lack of consistency in parapsychology remains concerning. However, proponents note that other contested frontiers like superconductivity still demonstrate positive effects in non-repeatable situations among mixed replications. The replication crisis thus does not necessarily negate ESP findings outright, but far more rigorous consistency is undoubtedly needed. Skeptics frequently explain positive parapsychology findings via inherent methodological flaws, improper controls, and opportunities for unconscious collusion, bias or outright fraud. For example, lack of proper blinding and randomization protocols in remote viewing studies at PEAR lab and SRI have been highlighted as major vulnerabilities to manipulation. Defenders concede that addressing such potential weaknesses is crucial, but argue that method criticisms alone cannot constitute definitive disproof when statistically significant positive results persist across multiple independently conducted trial methodologies using different experimental designs. While parapsychology clearly requires far tighter protocols to reduce noise, that may simply diminish anomalous effect sizes rather than negating the existence of all phenomena. Knowledge limitations due to imperfect methods are very real but may not be completely fatal to the field with proper evidential standards. Experiential Knowledge ====================== First-person experiences induced by practices like meditation, psilocybin, float tanks and holotropic breathwork can provide glimpses of typically hidden informational layers. For instance, accomplished meditators speak of witnessing the discrete construction of perception and “virtual” self models. Psychedelic trips reveal normally invisible realms of cosmic consciousness and interconnectedness. Sensory deprivation in float tanks can induce transpersonal states and dissolve subjective boundaries. While individual experiences vary in reliability, systematic practices appear capable of surfacing latent informational facets outside ordinary awareness. Our own consciousness provides the only domain we can be absolutely certain of from a first-person perspective. However, cognitive biases and limitations shape individual perception in ways that constrain objectivity. For instance, confirmation bias leads us to preferentially notice and assign more weight to evidence that aligns with our existing beliefs. Selective attention focuses us on details that stand out while we overlook potentially significant peripheral information. And heuristic thinking applies mental shortcuts that introduce inconsistencies compared to more deliberative analysis. For instance, studies on accomplished meditators using fMRI scans show they can consciously access and manipulate normally automatic subroutines for constructing perceptual reality and the sense of self. This lends credence to first-person testimony of realizing the “virtual” nature of ordinary consciousness. Similarly, common themes reported in psychedelic trips point to genuine expansions of awareness. Integrating evidence and experience is key. Implications ============ Integrating these empirical insights points to a bidirectional relationship between information and consciousness, while information is causally antecedent to physical structure: Information <-> Consciousness -> Physical Reality What this means is that evidence shows information directly determines physical properties like quantum probabilities and DNA genetics. So information comes before and causes physical structure. At the same time, informational realms intersect with subjective experience in ways not reducible to physical matter. For instance, near-death experiences show consciousness continuing when the brain shuts down physically. This implies consciousness arises from sources beyond just material neurons firing in the brain. Rather, mind exhibits intrinsic informational qualities – like imagination and qualitative experiences not measurable physically. So information and consciousness share a two-way, non-reducible bond. Information provides the blueprints for building the house of physical reality. Consciousness then moves in as the occupant of the house, interacting with its informational foundations. Information facilitates consciousness arising, which then perceives information underlying the physical forms. Information comes first causally, consciousness second relationally, and physical reality last sequentially. This model most parsimoniously aligns with the full range of clues examined. While speculative, it provides a unified framework for connecting matter, mind and information based on evidence. If subtle informational layers do undergird physical reality, this could necessitate rethinking fields like healthcare, education, and technology. Information-based perspectives may inform holistic wellness, knowledge acquisition, and design. Evidence suggestive of subtle energetic fields mediating mind-body interactions could indicate new avenues for integrative medicine. Studies on consciousness anomalies may inspire educational techniques catering to different states of mind. Quantum information physics could transform computing and cryptography. If consciousness rather than matter lay at reality’s core, this would necessitate radical shifts in healthcare, education, business, technology and other domains. Relationships, creativity and ethics could take precedence over materialist values. 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