TOWARD THE LIGHT
~ Monday, 31 July 2006 ~
Denis Purcell
is the president of Los Angeles IANDS and has a Masters degree in
electrical engineering. At the age of 19 in 1965, he had a veridical
out-of-body experience which completely changed his life. Like many
NDErs, he communicated with spiritual beings and experienced himself as
a sphere of consciousness. Knowing thereafter that we are spiritual
beings enjoying a brief physical experience and that we predate our own
birth and will live after death into eternity, he has tried to convey
that truth to people with a sceptical background – with limited success.
Working
on government contracts for 15 years largely in the field of artificial
intelligence, he is very familiar with the limitations of “scientistic”
thinking. That is a dogmatic adherence to the traditional metaphysics
of science. In the late 70’s, he came to the conclusion that the only
way to make a robot conscious would be to provide it with an interface
to attract a conscious agency. This was associated with evidence from
his OBE that his consciousness was connected to his body through a
neuronal interface.
Lately,
he has been talking and writing about an Objective Correlate of
Consciousness (OCC) consisting of the energy envelope surrounding one’s
consciousness when it is exteriorized from the body. This energy
envelope is often photographed as a shining orb by psychical
researchers. His intent is that, with specialized sensors, someone will
be able to process their output and provide an image of consciousness
while it is external to the body. The final goal is to once and for all
convince science that consciousness can be studied and is independent
of the body. When this occurs, most people in our society will have
permission to believe that they are immortal. Denis, also, is a
thanatologist, (i.e., an expert on death and dying,) volunteers with
hospice patients, and is a substitute secondary school teacher.
