In search of the vectors for migrating consciousness

And old thread to pick up on the occasion of my 58th birthday - can consciousness migrate from one body to another? As I've written many a time (just click on the label 'reincarnation?' below for more), I have long held the belief - since childhood - those frequently experienced familiar flashbacks, those anomalous memory events - those brief moments when I'm feeling the precise mood of another time and another place - though not of my lifetime.

Pondering on the transmission mechanism by which this phenomenon may occur, I've considered brain-waves as being receivable by other beings. I've also considered the fact that we are made up of indestructible atoms that last for ever, electrons whizzing around the nucleus for many billions of years. This week, a new possible vector for the transmission of consciousness has turned up.

The Economist has an interesting piece about the bacteria that pass through us and that we give off on many different forms. [Click here to read - register to get three free articles a week.] Here's the key: "People constantly generate puffs of bacteria, even when they are sitting perfectly still... [They] shed bacteria - from their skin, mouths, noses and other orifices - at a rate of about 1m an hour."

Those bacteria have been inside us - and what have they learnt about their hosts? What memories have been encrypted in their structures? Can that be passed on to other living creatures that later play host to the same bacterium?

I discussed this with my brother, who raised the concept of the virome - the collection of all the viruses in the human body. It's not just bacteria that enter our bodies and leave. Could bacteria and viruses collect fragments of our will and memory before passing on to other living beings - like a pen drive picking up data from one computer and taking that same data into the memory of another computer?

The universe is teeming with life: hundreds of billions of galaxies containing hundreds of billions of stars, many of which are orbited by planets on which sentient life has evolved. However, those islands of life are separated by light years of emptiness. The space between galaxies is said to contain but one atom per cubic metre. In between the light generated by stars, and the particles of visible, tangible matter, is dark matter, at present no more than a hypothetical construct devised by physicists to explain the gravitational push causing the expansion of the universe. What it is - scientists are utterly unable to explain. Yet without it (and dark matter is thought to make up the bulk of matter in the universe), the sums don't add up.

So here's another wacky idea. Until such time as science proves otherwise, I'd posit that dark matter is consciousness - the will and purpose of the universe. We come from dark matter, and into dark matter we will return, for our consciousness to be recycled eternally, evolving in awareness, evolving spiritually, until it has journeyed from Zero to One; the One being total awareness of everything.

I'm increasingly confident in my belief that the fundamental truth of life, the universe and everything lies somewhere between the human notion of 'science' and the human notion of 'spirituality'. The poetic mind can 'feel' the truth though not define it in empirical terms. Ideas spread like viruses; they 'infect' one brain then another and catch hold (the original concept of the 'meme'). Some are good and civilising - others are debilitating and disabling. Whether those ideas are scientific or spiritual (or metaphysical), they evolve; the stronger ones displacing the weaker ones.

Many thanks to everyone who sent me birthday greetings by e-mail, SMS, phone call, Twitter or via Facebook or Google+!

This time last year:
Slipping from late summer to early autumn

This time two years ago:
Turning 56

This time three years ago:
Turning 55

This time four years ago:
Turning 54

This time five years ago:
Turning 53

This time eight years ago:
Turning 50