Category: Consciousness

The Science Behind the Woo-Woo: Mark Gober

Are you ready for a paradigm shift? Are you even open to one? Why is a shift in paradigms so threatening to so many? And what does it mean to have a paradigm shift, anyway? Calling all those who are interested in REALLY “following the science,” regarding the metaphysical—phenomena such as the continuation of consciousness after death, intuition, mediumship, remote viewing, telepathy, and much more. Have I got a book for you!

As those of you who have surfed the waters of YouTube know, it has its own algorithmic elves who pop up recommended content that relates to other videos you’ve recently viewed. That’s how I came upon Mark Gober, and this “Buddha at the Gas Pump” interview conducted by Rick Archer. Mark Gober is the author of several books with “Upside Down” in their titles, the first being An End to Upside Down Thinking: Dispelling the Myth That the Brain Produces Consciousness, and the Implications for Everyday Life. After watching this interview, and several of Gober’s others on YouTube too, this book jumped to the number-one spot on my personal to-buy list.

Why? Reader, I loved Gober’s story. Like me, he’d launched into his own exploratory expedition, and written a book that I would have loved to have written myself, if only I could have. Gober reminded me of the smart, nerdy (in a good way) “kids” who went to Stuyvesant, my math-and-science specialized New York City high school, with me, many of whom, I’m sure, think I’m crazy for believing in the phenomena I wrote about in Adventures of a Soul. But here’s the thing I’ve always said to them, and to others who roll their eyes indulgently when I tell them what my book is about: There has been SO MUCH RESEARCH on SO MANY OF THESE PHENOMENA that many of them have actually already been proven—using the standards by which all NON-“suspect” types of scientific phenomena are typically judged—and yet, hardly anyone in the world of mainstream media, nor the scientific community, talks about or even acknowledges this. I know this. And others like me who have sought out this information know this. (It’s not hard to find it!) But Gober didn’t know it: Until he did! And it rocked his world.

But, Reader, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Gober had me hooked with his tale of how, as a Princeton graduate working at a “technology-focused investment bank and strategy firm” in Silicon Valley and commuting long hours each day in his car, he’d tuned into a health-related podcast, only to find that the featured guest, Laura Powers, was talking very matter-of-factly about psychic intuition and her ability to communicate with nonphysical entities—things which Gober had no absolutely awareness of. Gober was a self-described “materialist” at the time, who believed that consciousness was a product of the brain, and that when the body—and thus the brain—died, well . . . that was it (although, as he states in this interview, he’d had an interest in “big existential questions for a long time”). When Powers mentioned her own podcast, “Healing Powers,” where she interviewed other people who had abilities and experiences similar to hers, Gober was left with a dilemma: What he was hearing, from these people who sounded intelligent and credible to him, didn’t fit in with his own long-held beliefs about reality. Unlike many who would simply dismiss such information as rubbish, and move on with their day, Gober grew extremely curious.

Gober ended up, on his daily commute over the next few weeks, listening to every single episode of Powers’ podcast—at that time, five years’ worth of shows. Hearing so many independent individuals’ convincing accounts of their own experiences, experiences that so fully contradicted his own materialistic worldview, he grew more curious yet, and plunged deep into his own “obsessive” research on these and other such topics. (Sound familiar, dear Reader?) Gober looked at the science—experiments and research that had been conducted about which he’d never read or heard—and also eventually worked firsthand with people who had these types of abilities themselves, finding that what he witnessed in doing so backed up what the science claimed. The results: His vigorous investigations brought him to the point of a total “paradigm shift” in terms of his beliefs about reality, which, he says, “rocked” and, for a time, disoriented him. After sharing what he was learning about topics like psychic abilities and life after death with some friends, many of whom had been as skeptical of such things as Gober had, they encouraged him to write about it. And thus, Gober’s amazing first book!

In An End to Upside Down Thinking, Gober tackles not just the scientific and academic studies that are proving that so much of what a good part of the world considers “woo-woo” is real—with many notable physicists and other scientists, including Nobel prize-winners, chiming in—he discusses the implications of that conclusion for our world and our future. He also discusses why it is that so much of this work and information is ignored, dismissed out of hand, or ridiculed sight unseen by so many in the scientific community—including the fact that most scientific journals refuse to publish studies, no matter how professionally and rigorously done, to do with topics such as psychic ability, even when the studies have proven that these things are real; that university faculty won’t generally pursue such studies until they are tenured, for fear of losing their jobs; and the tendency of many in the scientific community to even consider ideas that they don’t personally feel—without any study or investigation of them—could possibly be real.

Why is this the case? Gober discusses that, too. Basically, he points out, if these phenomena were widely accepted as real, it would call into question the world’s currently established scientific views on . . . well, pretty much everything!

Now that’s a paradigm shift.

After devouring Gober’s book, I signed up for his mailing list at MarkGober.com, and received back a lovely letter from him and his “team,” thanking me for my interest and asking about me—who I was, what I was doing, and what had made me interested in his work! Reader, I loved that too. So I wrote and told him about myself and my book, and how much I loved how open-minded he’d been to have done what he did; how excited I was about it; and how this was the book I was going to give to all my “skeptical” friends! He not only wrote me back personally, but told me he thought my book sounded fascinating, and that he’d just bought a copy. (I knew I liked the guy!)

Whether self-proclaimed skeptic or committed, seasoned metaphysical explorer, I hope with all my heart that you’ll check out Mark Gober’s uber-important first book. (I’ve already bought one of his other three—about ETs and UFOs—which I can’t wait to crack.) You, too, may want to gift it to your skeptical friends and family for the holidays. Not only may they stop rolling their eyes and calling you crazy (well, a gal can dream), but, not too far down the road, when the mainstream media and the scientific community finally begin to admit that all of this stuff is real, you’ll be able to say, with a knowing grin, “I could’ve told you that!”

The Power of Thoughts: Lynne McTaggart

My mother, who often has trouble sleeping, is prone to listening in the wee hours of the night to Coast to Coast AM, a radio talk show about things “paranormal,” “weird,” or “unexplained”—whatever term you want to use. Though often, as with much that is labeled thusly, the topics they cover turn out to be firmly based in science—just science that’s considered by most to be “fringe,” because it is so new. I prefer to think of it as “cutting-edge,” myself.

One morning, my mother handed me a slip of paper, telling me that she’d heard a guest on the show she thought I’d like. Her name was Lynne McTaggart, and she was talking about her book, The Field. My mother couldn’t really explain what this woman had talked about because, she said, it involved things like quantum physics and consciousness. But it sounded really interesting, and she thought I should get the book.

Well, let it not be said, Reader, that I don’t—at least, sometimes—listen to my mother!

And thus began my love affair with the work of Lynne McTaggart, investigative science and medical journalist, New York Times best-selling author, pioneer in the field of consciousness research, and a true hero of mine. In The Field and in a later book, The Intention Experiment, McTaggart reports on the work of respected scientists in prestigious institutions investigating the power of THOUGHT to affect . . . well, everything, from plant growth and the output of random number generators to the behavior of animals and people. Intrigued by what she learned, McTaggart eventually began to create her own experiments, including, eventually,  large-scale, global ones involving thousands of people, to see what effects their collective focused intentions might have on things like lowering the level of crime in inner-city regions and decreasing the level of violence in war-torn nations. The results, dear Reader, were significant—and to many, astounding.

In her book The Bond, she further explores the energetic interconnectedness that exists among all living things—an interconnectedness, I would assert, that helps to explain the workings of phenomena such as telepathy and intuition.

Ultimately, as McTaggart writes in The Power of Eight, her most recent book, she came to the conclusion that even a group of as few as eight people could create such “miracles”—including miracles of healing—by connecting to one another and then projecting their focused, synchronized intentions. Moreover, she also concluded that those who were sending these intentions experienced as many improvements in their life—including the healing of health issues, increases in income and abundance, improved relationships at home and at work, and better, more enjoyable jobs—as those who were receiving the intentions!

As you may by now have guessed, Reader, this was too much of an invitation for me to resist! I had to test it out. During the first summer of covid, when we were all restricted in our movements and activities, and many, I felt, needed community and healing, I formed my own “intention group,” based on McTaggart’s protocol. I scouted out eight to ten interested, open-minded friends from various parts of my life and various parts of the country, and sent them a copy of The Power of Eight. From the first night that we met on Zoom, when the friend for whom we intended experienced a dramatic diminishment in the intense pain she was experiencing while waiting for a root canal, we were hooked.

More than two years later, some members have moved on, new ones have joined, and a solid core group endures. I’m touched by the willingness of these friends to give an hour or more of their time each week simply to help others, often those they do not know. We’ve seen “miracles” of many sorts. Not every intention has worked . . . at least, not yet. (McTaggart notes that it may take several attempts at an intention to manifest it.) But many have, and some have been remarkable, including one “intendee” who cancelled her imminent back surgery because the staggering and debilitating pain she’d had for many weeks, reflected by her MRI results, in her doctor’s opinion, simply disappeared almost immediately after our intention–permanently. As for the intenders experiencing “miracles” too, from what I’ve observed, it seems to be true. For me, it certainly has been.

And yes, I’ll be writing about it all in an upcoming book!

For now, Reader, please enjoy this interview with Lynne McTaggart. I hope it will inspire you to check out her Web site, her many other intriguing online interviews, and of course, her books! Perhaps it may lead you to join in some of the weekly global intentions listed on her site (you’ll find postings there from former intendees about the incredible results they’ve experienced) or even inspire you to start a Power of Eight group of your own! There’s so much opportunity to do good in the world.