The Bard: A Journey to the Edge of Life and Matter

Bardo is a fundamental concept in Tibetan spiritual traditions, particularly Vajrayana Buddhism . The term, meaning “transition,” refers to the intermediate states between death and rebirth, a phenomenon described in depth in the Bardo Thodol , the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

The first of these stages, the Chikhai Bardo , is the moment immediately after death, in which the “Clear Light” manifests. Here the individual, if properly prepared, has the opportunity to understand the ultimate nature of reality, achieving complete liberation from Samsara. The Chönyid Bardo is the next state in which symbolic and archetypal visions appear, often in the form of peaceful or wrathful deities. These are manifestations of the individual's deep emotions and attachments that disappear only in the Sidpa Bardo , the final stage in which the consciousness incarnates in another physical form. It is in this stage that the karmic tendencies accumulated during life are activated, determining rebirth in one of the six realms of existence.

Those who are not familiar with Buddhism will certainly wonder how all this fits in with the concept of anatman , one of the fundamental principles of this religion. If there is no permanent essence in man, such as the soul, then what is it that transmigrates from one body to another? The theory of anatman seems to contradict the idea of ​​reincarnation, but in reality it is perfectly consistent with it. Buddhism, in fact, sees existence as a continuous flow of conditioned mental and physical processes, in which karma plays a connecting role. The consciousness that passes through the Bardo and reincarnates is not a fixed and personal entity, but rather an impersonal flow of experience, which does not end immediately after death.

Does this mean that mind can exist without matter? Not exactly, we will understand why further in the article.

Today we are used to thinking of consciousness as a phenomenon that depends exclusively on the electrochemical activity of the brain. From the point of view of traditional science, the Bardo and reincarnation are just superstitions, stories created by man to overcome the fear of nothingness that accompanies the end of existence. With brain death, scientists say, all types of psychic activity end because the conditions that make it possible cease to exist. However, it is still unclear what exactly consciousness is or how it emerges from the neural substrate; furthermore, the psychic phenomena that accompany the last moments of life remain a mystery that many scholars continue to wonder about. Such uncertainties leave room for theories and speculations on the nature of these events, and make one think that perhaps the stories about the afterlife are not all nonsense.

A much talked about phenomenon is represented by the so-called near-death experiences ( NDEs ). Some people who have awakened from a coma or have survived serious accidents, report having experienced moments in which they were “separated” from their body and attracted towards a blinding light. These events are usually explained as the result of physiological processes typical of the dying brain, such as lack of oxygen, the release of particular chemicals or the progressive reduction of neural activity. However, some researchers argue that NDEs could suggest a different reality: these experiences, in fact, closely resemble what is experienced in the deepest states of meditation, when the mind is detached from external stimuli and totally absorbed in itself. This leads to the belief that they are not due to specific processes of death, but to aspects of mental functioning that are still unclear. Consciousness, researchers say, could be less dependent on the body than we think or at least have a different relationship with it than we have imagined so far.

Research conducted by Ian Stevenson and Jim Tucker of the University of Virginia, followed this line of thought by hypothesizing that consciousness or at least a part of it can survive death. The two scientists collected testimonies from children who claimed to remember previous lives and, in some cases, provided details that extraordinarily corresponded to real events or people. According to critics, however, all this suggests only the presence of information learned unconsciously, the effect of suggestion or absolutely unique coincidences. After all, as psychology teaches us, the memory of events and experiences is often influenced by emotion and fantasies and in any case is not a faithful copy of reality. Even if in good faith, therefore, these children may not be the most reliable witnesses of the phenomenon of reincarnation.

A more promising field, however, is that of physics. Today, scientists are evaluating the possibility that consciousness could be a fundamental property of the universe, not exclusively linked to the brain. According to Physicist Roger Penrose, the phenomenon could even have a quantum basis: in other words, it is possible that a proto-consciousness could be present in all things, including inanimate ones. This does not mean that stones think or are self-conscious, but that in the constituent elements of matter there could be the conditions for a primitive form of experience.

The theory that supports this view, called Panpsychism , states that consciousness is a property that does not emerge exclusively from complex configurations of matter (such as the brain), but is a feature present everywhere in nature. Atoms and fundamental particles could even have a spark of awareness that we, accustomed to our sensory modalities, are unable to understand and recognize. In other words, at the microscopic level there could be the basis for subjective experience, a fact that at least for the simplest living organisms today appears increasingly probable. Human consciousness could be the result of the sum of these micro-experiences and therefore after the dissolution of its organic support it could continue to exist in a more subtle, distributed or partial form. This is an interesting hypothesis, capable of explaining the Bardo states and near-death experiences.

In general, Panpsychism states that consciousness is the element that unites us to all the rest of reality, the very fabric of the universe. Unfortunately, to date it is not possible to verify this hypothesis, while the application of quantum mechanics to the study of the brain is more within reach, a new field of research that has the potential to completely renew our conception of the psyche. As physicist Fred Alan Wolf argued, in fact, modern science, in an attempt to explain the mysteries of matter, is increasingly opening a window on the immaterial reality of the spirit, approaching the ancient traditions of the East.

In conclusion, we cannot say what awaits us after death, nor do we know exactly where consciousness comes from and how it works. The future will probably give us surprising and unexpected answers to these questions, but for now we can only continue to ask questions, keeping an open and flexible mind.

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