newsarticles.media: Nature of Reality News

Fringe or frontier: Is our current scientific paradigm still the best fit?

A scientific paradigm is the set of assumptions, principles, and methods that define the science of an era. It's what establishes "normal science" and "fringe" or "pseudo" science. A paradigm needs to be elastic enough to accommodate new scientific discoveries and comprehensive enough to explain most of how the world works. [English biologist Rupert] Sheldrake ... refers to our current scientific paradigm as "mechanistic materialism," which is characterized by three main elements. First, everything can be reduced to some smaller component – tissues are made of cells, which are made of molecules, which are made of atoms. Second, everything in the world is physical or "real." Third, and most importantly, this physical matter is unconscious and purposeless. Sheldrake argues that our current paradigm can no longer ignore two things. First, dark matter and dark energy. As he puts it, "So we've now reached the point where 95% of reality is supposed to be dark matter and energy, about which we know nothing and for which there's not a shred of independent evidence ... Ninety-five percent of reality is nothing like the physics you learned about at school, in physics classes, or that people study at university." Second, is the presence of consciousness. How can consciousness exist in an entirely unconscious paradigm? Sheldrake suggests we need "a larger, more inclusive model of reality, which includes these anomalies" rather than ignoring them. He proposes ... that the so-called "laws of nature" be seen "more like habits, and that they've evolved along with nature," instead of being fixed constants imposed at the moment of the Big Bang. This means shifting .. to "a more holistic approach of seeing things at different levels of organization," and where "consciousness is a fundamental reality," not just "an illusion produced by brain activity." Rather than continuing to "sweep under the carpet 95% of reality," Sheldrake argues for expanding the scope of science to include the study of consciousness, memory in nature, and other excluded phenomena – while remaining grounded in empirical research.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on technology for good and the mysterious nature of reality.

Seeds Can â€Hear' the Rain–And the Sound Waves Make Them Grow Faster Shows MIT Study

Seeds may come alive to the soothing sound of rainfall, sensing the drops while they are still beneath the surface, suggests a new study. A series of experiments at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology demonstrated that rice seeds sprouted faster to the sound of rainfall. The sound of falling droplets effectively shook the seeds out of a dormant state, stimulating them to germinate at a faster rate compared with seeds that were not exposed to the same sound vibrations. The findings, published yesterday in the journal Scientific Reports, are the first direct evidence that plant seeds and seedlings can sense sounds in nature. Rice seeds can germinate in either soil or water, and these experiments involved seeds submerged in shallow water. The researchers suspect that many similar seed types may also respond to the sound of rain. The MIT team found that when a raindrop hits the surface of a puddle or the ground, it generates a sound wave that makes the surroundings vibrate, including any shallowly submerged seeds. The vibrations can be strong enough to dislodge a seed's "statoliths", tiny gravity-sensing organelles within certain cells of a seed. When the statoliths are jostled, their movement is a signal for seeds and seedlings to grow and sprout. The groups of seeds that were exposed to the sound of water drops were able to germinate 30% to 40% faster than the seed groups that were not exposed to rain sounds but were otherwise in identical conditions.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on healing the Earth and the mysterious nature of reality.

The Bizarre Story Of Titu Singh, The Boy Who Claimed To Be The Reincarnation Of A Murder Victim

What's the true story behind Titu Singh's apparent reincarnation? After Titu was born, he began telling his family tales of a past life. "He would tell his mom and dad loads of stories about how he had a wife and two kids, and they owned a radio cassette shop," [Tom] Carty explains. "Sure enough, when the parents brought the boy to the radio cassette shop back then, guess who was there? His wife," Carty explains. "And he starts speaking to his wife and saying, â€I know your name, and I know our two kids' names,' and going into mad detail." Not only that, but Titu claimed he had been murdered – and he knew who did it. Eventually, the boy identified the killer, who was later prosecuted for the crime. In a 1989 study, researcher Antonia Mills documented as many of the known details about the case as possible. According to Mills, a family reported that their son, Toran "Titu" Singh, began making strange claims as soon as he could talk, around 18 months old. The family claimed that Titu said he was from the city of Agra, had a wife and children, and owned a shop in Sadar Bazaar. Most astonishingly, Titu reportedly knew that he had been killed via gunshot – though, contrary to many online versions of the events, he said that he was unable to identify the attackers. While later reports say his words were used to identify the culprit, there's no solid evidence that this is the case. Still, some people are convinced that Titu was telling the truth. There are countless other details that believers point to indicating that Titu Singh was genuinely the reborn Suresh. For example, a 1988 article in India Today reported that there was a birthmark on Titu's head in the exact location where Suresh was shot.

Note: For more inspiring and credible material on past-life memories in children, read our Substack investigations, How Consciousness Research Can Help Heal a Divided World. Explore more positive stories like this on near-death experiences and the mysterious nature of reality.

The spiritual core of the hard problem: consciousness as foundational, not emergent

The so-called "hard problem of consciousness," famously articulated by philosopher David , asks why and how physical processes in the brain give rise to subjective experience. Why does neural activity in the visual cortex generate the qualia of red, or neurochemical shifts involving oxytocin result in the felt sense of love? Despite significant advances in cognitive neuroscience, this explanatory gap remains unresolved. Transpersonal psychology, rooted in an expanded ontology that embraces the spiritual dimension of human life, offers a compelling framework for reimagining consciousness beyond mechanistic assumptions. This paper proposes that consciousness is not a byproduct of brain activity but rather ontologically fundamental. The filter theory of consciousness ... posits that the brain does not generate consciousness but functions as a filter, receiver, or reducing valve. In this analogy, just as a radio tunes into and selects specific frequencies from the broad spectrum of electromagnetic waves, the brain filters and constrains a vast, undifferentiated field of consciousness into a form adapted for practical survival and everyday functioning within the material world. Empirical research supports this filter model in several ways. Importantly, this model explains why non-ordinary states of consciousness, whether induced by trauma, meditation, psychedelics, or mystical absorption, often feel subjectively "more real" or authentic than ordinary waking consciousness.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on the mysterious nature of reality.

Earth's Underground Fungus Network Is So Gigantic That If You Stretched It Out, It Would Reach to Other Star Systems

Scientists have mapped the Earth's entire underground fungal network, showing that it's so extensive that if it were stretched into a straight line, it would reach other star systems – and span a sizable chunk of the Milky Way galaxy, for that matter. The groundbreaking work, published in a study in the journal Science, focused on microorganisms known as arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Forming the hidden backbone of our planet's soil, they circulate water and nutrients and regulate the climate by locking away vast stores of carbon. Altogether, the global fungal network weighs around 300 megatons, the study found, which is four to six times more than the biomass of all human beings. Around 40 percent of that fungal mass resides in high-altitude or flooded grasslands, like the Everglades in Florida. The authors hope that their work will highlight the indispensable but overlooked role that these fungal networks play in the Earth's ecosystems, with around 70 percent of all ground-based plant life depending on the fungi. In all, the model found that the planet is lined with more than 110 quadrillion kilometers of hyphae, or 68 quadrillion miles, which is almost a billion times the distance between the Earth and the Sun. On a cosmic ruler, that equals nearly 12,000 light years, or about a tenth the diameter of our galaxy. It's the clearest picture yet of just how much fungal networks underpin our terrestrial ecosystems.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on technology for good and the mysterious nature of reality.

The continuity of consciousness

After reading George Ritchie's 1979 book Return From Tomorrow, a psychiatrist's account of his own Near-Death Experience (NDE)... I started to ask patients who had survived a cardiac arrest if they had memories from their period of unconsciousness. Within two years, 12 patients out of 50 survivors of cardiac arrest told me about their NDE. That piqued my scientific curiosity. According to our current medical concepts, it is not possible to experience consciousness during a cardiac arrest. Those patients should have no memories at all! Certain elements of the NDE ... might be of particular interest to psychologists. First, the Out-of-Body Experience, or OBE. People have the feeling that during their NDE they have apparently taken off their body like an old coat, and to their surprise they appear to have retained their own identity with the possibility of perception, emotions, and a very clear consciousness. This out-of-body experience is scientifically important because physicians, nurses and relatives can verify the details of the reported perceptions, and they can also corroborate the precise moment the NDE with OBE occurred. Another common experience [is] the Life Review. During such a life review, one feels connected to the memories, emotions and consciousness of those with whom they have interacted in the past, thereby experiencing the consequences of their own thoughts, words, and actions and more generally, their interconnectedness with others. NDEs are always transformational, often causing profound changes in life-insight, the loss of fear of death, and enhanced intuitive sensitivity (Van Lommel, 2010).

CIA Financed Illegal Tests On Teens For Psychic Warfare, New Evidence Suggests

Jolly West, a doctor and MKUltra contractor, reported in 1956 that, through the use of LSD and other drugs, he could "speed the induction of the hypnotic state and deepen the trance," after which he could replace "true memories" with "false ones" in people's minds without them knowing it. Two years earlier, a 34-year-old Air Force sergeant with no history of violent or criminal behavior murdered a three-year-old girl in an apparent trance state. West was assigned to be the man's psychiatric expert. It turned out that the sergeant had been, ostensibly, undergoing an experimental treatment for his migraine headaches at the base. The son of Andrija Puharich – an American physician, scientist, and inventor who used teenagers in his psychic experiments – gave documentary filmmaker Greg Mallozzi access to his father's archive, which includes numerous recordings. "I worked as a consultant to the CIA," Puharich says in one of them. "My boss was the chief medical director who's in charge of all the dirty tricks stuff when it came to drugs and hypnosis and all the mind manipulation stuff." Toward the end of his life, Puharich became a whistleblower and publicly lectured about the dangers of the experiments and the US government's role. Annie Jacobson, author of Phenomenon, confirmed that Puharich "was there in the very first moments when this all took off in the late 1940s and early 50s." A 1957 FBI memo reported that Puharich "uses various electronic equipment and drugs in his experiments and appears to be dedicated to the study of the science of transmitting messages from one person to another through mental telepathy." The memo notes that Puharich served in the Army Medical Corps at the Army Chemical Center at Edgewood, Maryland, the installation at the center of the military's early LSD work. Puharich's work, which covered both drugs and psychic phenomena, may have bridged two separate government programs, MKUltra and the Stargate Project, which investigated the use of extrasensory perception (ESP) and psychokinesis from 1972 to 1995. Former President Jimmy Carter revealed that the CIA had, on at least one occasion in the late 1970s, effectively used a psychic. "We had a plane go down in the Central African Republic – a twin-engine plane, a small plane. And we couldn't find it," Carter told GQ in 2005. "The director of the CIA came and told me that he had contacted a woman in California who claimed to have supernatural capabilities. And she went into a trance, and she wrote down latitudes and longitudes, and we sent our satellite over that latitude and longitude, and there was the plane."

Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on intelligence agency corruption and mind control.

NASA scientist claims she died 3 times – revealing her peek at the afterlife: â€Everything was interconnected'

Ingrid Honkala, a former NASA scientist, claims she is intimately familiar with death after allegedly flatlining a staggering three times. Each time, she had the same revelation. "It felt like entering a deeper layer of reality that exists beyond our physical senses," Honkala, 55, told Jam Press of her trifecta of near-death experiences. "In that state, consciousness felt vast, intelligent, and interconnected." When she was just two years old ... Honkala fell into an icy tank of water at home, unbeknownst to the maid who was listening to the radio in another room. Thankfully, the tot's mother ... was able to resuscitate her. During that brief stint on the other side, however, Honkala said "Something extraordinary happened." Her fear gave way to a "deep calm." "The panic disappeared and was replaced by an overwhelming sense of peace and stillness," recalled Honkala. "It felt as if my awareness separated from my body." "The experience showed me that what we call the afterlife did not feel like a distant place at all," she said. "To me, the experience suggested that consciousness may not be produced solely by the brain – it may be something more fundamental." Honkala would undergo two more near-death experiences: one following a motorcycle accident at 25 and the other at 52, when her blood pressure dropped during surgery. She was able to attain the same serene state each time. She claimed it was this spiritual awakening that inspired her to pursue science.

Note: For more inspiring and credible material on this topic, read our Substack investigations: How Consciousness Research Can Help Heal a Divided World and Insights from Near-Death Experiences Remind Us of Who We Are and What Unites Us. Explore more positive stories like this on inspiring near-death experiences and the mysterious nature of reality.

What I Saw When I Peeked Over the Edge of Consciousness

Near-death experiencers are the best dancers. I could identify which attendees at the annual conference of the International Association for Near-Death Studies have been to the brink, because they moved their bodies with un-self-conscious abandon, ripping up the floor of a tent on the grounds of a suburban Chicago Hilton. You could walk up to any one of them, and they would matter-of-factly tell you about how they almost died. Facing death, whether your own or a loved one's, is a core part of making meaning of one's life. To struggle through this universal contemplation without a community can be brutal. The American religious landscape has become fragmented over the past few decades, and even observant people got out of the habit of going to services in person after 2020. So it makes sense that a group like IANDS could fill a much-needed gap for people who are unsatisfied by the strictures of mainstream observance and who aren't fulfilled by the loose ties of a virtual and vague spirituality. According to Pew's huge Religious Landscape Study published last year, almost 80 percent of Americans surveyed said they believed "there is something spiritual beyond the natural world, even if we cannot see it." "I feel like I found my tribe," said Maria Small, a Navy veteran who lost her young daughter, Mia, in 2020 and had not been to an IANDS conference before. She was there with her husband, Derek, who is also a veteran.

Childhood Origins of Altered States in Adults

Research by Donna M. Thomas at the University of Lancashire ... found that children ages 4 to 5 often describe consciousness as something holistic and love-infused–a connective force linking them to family, nature, and even a purposeful universe. Notably, they do not equate consciousness with an individual "me." By ages 10 or 11, however, this shifts. Children begin to define consciousness as "I-ness"–an inner presence distinct from roles, relationships, or passing thoughts. In a recent preprint, Donna Thomas and I teamed up to explore the striking parallels between these early exceptional experiences and adults' pursuit of altered states of consciousness (ASCs). While children may slip naturally into states of self-transcendence or extrasensory sensitivity, adults often rely on "gateway tools" to revisit similar territory–meditation, prayer, breathwork, psychedelics, or other consciousness-altering practices. Using the eight core ASC dimensions identified by Larry Fort and colleagues (2025), we found compelling phenomenological overlaps. Children's reports of expanded awareness, boundary dissolution, and timelessness look surprisingly similar to adult descriptions of altered states. Whether we interpret these reports metaphorically or metaphysically, one thing is striking: The altered states many adults work hard to induce may share deep roots with the natural modes of awareness that characterize early childhood.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on the nature of reality.

What is it like to die? The reassuring science of near-death experiences

It's hard to listen to accounts of people who've had [near-death] experiences and not be moved. Leanda Pringle from Connecticut had a NDE a little over 15 years ago, brought about by a double kidney infection. She experienced floating above her body and felt a sense of being everywhere and nowhere at the same time. "I've no idea how long I was floating in that abyss before I began to feel a presence," she recalls. "As it got closer I began to feel immense bliss. It was beyond anything I had ever felt before in my life. It's very hard to put that feeling into words. It was as if I was intertwined with it, but at the same time it felt as if it was hugging me." Tommy McDowell, a retired army veteran from Texas, spent seven days on a ventilator after suffering multiple organ failure induced by sepsis. During that time, he had a NDE that involved feeling a powerful sense of goodness. "It was a transformational presence of peace, comfort, serenity, love and home," he says. "I was no longer confused. I was no longer alone." He also saw a cloud of crystallised light that invited him towards it. As he entered, "I could feel embedded trauma, regret and loss washing away from my back and shoulders." Reflecting on what happened, Tommy says, "I experienced the presence of God. It was overwhelming and occurred in a way that I just don't have language to fully describe." By now, scientists have collected thousands of similar testimonies from people who have lived through a NDE.

I changed my views studying near-death experiences; consciousness isn't as we think.

My life, at least at the beginning, followed a very traditional path. I believed science was moving us beyond religion and superstitions about life after death. But as my interest in the unexplainable grew, I started to see trends. Experts who weren't working together were finding the same results: that things science couldn't possibly explain like near-death experiences or psychic phenomena, were happening. I looked at documents from a CIA program where people were asked to send their thoughts – using just their minds – to others. The program concluded that there was a "statistically significant" success in doing this. I read multiple accounts of near-death experiences where a blind person was able to see, or a deaf person was able to hear. I reviewed stories of children who recalled past lives, and could even speak languages that they'd never been taught, at least in this lifetime. As I went to the primary sources and interviewed scientists, I felt like I had opened Pandora's box. I had always felt, and been taught, that science led us away from the paranormal. Now, that belief was turned on its head: I became convinced that science was showing us there is something bigger that can't be explained by our current scientific understanding of the universe. I've come to believe in non-local consciousness, or consciousness that originates outside our physical bodies and outside our brains. To me, this is the most scientifically sound explanation.

Note: For more inspiring and credible material on this topic, read our Substack investigations: How Consciousness Research Can Help Heal a Divided World and Insights from Near-Death Experiences Remind Us of Who We Are and What Unites Us.Explore more positive stories like this on near-death experiences.

The CIA Watched Him Bend Reality With Just His Mind–Then Tried to Turn His Consciousness Into a Weapon

In 1972, American artist and psychic Ingo Swann altered the magnetic field inside a thickly shielded vacuum container located underground for several seconds–by simply thinking about it. As Harold Puthoff, a physicist with the Stanford Research Institute, witnessed the output from his magnetometer changing, he was mind-blown. There was no physical explanation for the reading changing the way it did. And as soon as Puthoff asked Swann to stop thinking about the apparatus, the unexplained changes in the magnetic field abruptly stopped. And in the early 1970s ... the U.S. government agreed. By the time Puthoff and his colleague Russel Targ, another physicist at the Stanford Research Institute ... presented their results at an international meeting on quantum physics and parapsychology, the CIA had already begun working with SRI to perform top-secret research on paranormal phenomena–primarily "remote viewing" for intelligence collection. Remote viewing refers to a type of extra-sensorial perception that involves using the mind to "see" or manipulate distant objects, people, events, or other information that are hidden from physical view. By the mid-1980s, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) took the program over, calling it "Stargate." The DIA continued the project until the mid-1990s, when the CIA began declassifying its documents on remote viewing research to facilitate an external review of the project, and the DIA quickly followed suit.

Note: Learn more about psychic spying programs and remote viewing. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on intelligence agency corruption and the nature of reality.

Scientists Think Children May Hold the Key to Understanding Death

Children regularly survive near-death experiences, or NDEs, just like anyone else. But a new study published in the journal Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice notes that very few researchers actually speak with this critical age group, despite the special insights it offers for experts exploring human consciousness. In their review, the authors noticed that children reported some similar "core features," including tunnels, bright lights, and out-of-body sensations. They interviewed seven children who survived cardiac arrest in a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) using arts- and play-based approaches, rather than the more direct questions used in most adult-based NDE interviews. Strikingly, however, the children's self-reported NDE experiences did not include every hallmark found in adult descriptions of NDEs. For example, there are no life reviews or messages from loved ones present in children's descriptions. Culture and religion also played little to no role in their responses, leading the authors to assert that a child's NDE may be more "raw" ... than adult NDEs, and should be considered extremely valuable data for future research. Unlocking the secrets of NDEs could help us understand consciousness, but scientists need more data. Thankfully, as resuscitation techniques become ever more advanced, it's likely that more and more people will experience these events instead of simply dying before they can share what happened to them.

Note: Our Substack investigation, How Consciousness Research Can Help Heal a Divided World, features fascinating examples and credible, scientific investigations into past-life memories in children. Explore more positive stories like this on near-death experiences.

Scientists Studied the Dreams of People Who Nearly Died. What They Found Is Incredible.

The human brain remains deeply mysterious. Scientists have mapped its synapses and neurons in extraordinary detail, yet ... the felt experience of being you still defies efforts at a full explanation. However, researchers do have one fascinating window into that inner world: near-death experiences, or NDEs. As the name suggests, near-death experiences are altered states of consciousness reported by upwards of one-fifth of people who experience a life-threatening medical emergency. Some common traits of NDEs have emerged over nearly 50 years of research: intense emotions of peace and joy, out-of-body experiences (OBEs), encounters with dead relatives, altered perceptions of time, and elevated lucidity, among others. These accounts from people who've nearly died appear to contradict what scientists expect to occur in the brain as its regions begin to shut down one by one. In a new qualitative study published in the journal Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice, [researcher Nicole] Lindsay and her colleagues reveal details of how individuals' dreams changed drastically following an NDE. A participant named Basil said he could confidently recall one dream every week or two, but after his near-death experience, that recall became a nightly occurrence. Others reported that dreams become intensely vivid after an NDE and that the separation between dreaming and waking was much more ambiguous than it was before.

Congressman Tim Burchett Claims Navy Personnel Discovered Alien Bases Beneath the Ocean – 'We Have Sightings of These Underwater Crafts'

Aliens arrived on Earth thousands of years ago and may STILL be hiding in secret bases thousands of feet below the oceans' surface, according to a respected congressman. The amazing declaration by Rep. Tim Burchett was based on the extraordinary number of UFO sightings recorded by U.S. Navy personnel near "five or six" unspecified deep-water sites around the globe. Those sightings have prompted "a lot of questions" focusing on whether secret alien bases are hidden at sea, according to Burchett, who is a member of the House Oversight Committee investigating USO (unidentified submerged objects) reports. "We have naval personnel telling me that we have sightings," notes Burchett. The underwater crafts "they're chasing are doing hundreds of miles an hour, and the best we've got is something that does maybe just a little bit under 40 miles an hour," he said. His stunning comments are only the latest to raise the specter of aliens hiding on Earth. As far back as Christopher Columbus' 1492 voyage to the New World, sailors – and pilots in more recent times – have reported seeing mysterious crafts dramatically emerge from the oceans and soar into space. U.S. Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Alexandro Wiggins testified during a September 9 congressional hearing on UFOs that he was aboard the USS Jackson off the coast of Southern California in 2023 when a "self-luminous Tic Tac-shaped object emerged from the ocean before linking up with three other similar objects" right in front of him. "The orb then disappeared simultaneously with a high, synchronized, near-instantaneous acceleration," Wiggins testified.

Note: Did you know that 80% of our oceans remain unmapped and unexplored? Congressman Tim Burchett has stated that US Navy admirals have reported encounters with unidentified submerged objects (USOs) as large as a football field moving at speeds of up to 200 miles per hour underwater. If accurate, such performance would far exceed the capabilities of any known human-made submarine, which are limited by drag, pressure, and propulsion constraints in water. Don't miss our new video UFO Disclosure Explained: New Solutions for Humanity w/ Daniel Sheehan and Amber Yang.

The Rendlesham Forest mystery: â€It's the perfect storm of a UFO case'

[Nick] Pope worked at the UK Ministry of Defence for more than two decades, from 1985 to 2006. For three of those years – 1991 to 1994 – he worked on what was known colloquially in the department as "the UFO desk". One encounter jumped out at him. It had been reported in Rendlesham Forest by two American airmen on Christmas night in 1980. Rendlesham Forest is in Suffolk, England, outside RAF Bentwaters, an airbase operated by the US during the cold war. On that airbase in 1980 were several nuclear missiles. Unlike other UFO sightings, the eyewitness reports from Rendlesham were backed up by hard evidence. It's multiple witnesses, including military. It's sightings over three consecutive nights. It's physical evidence in terms of radar, radioactivity, ground trace indentations, scorch marks. It's a case where we have declassified and released documents, which you can see at ... the Ministry of Defence website. [Staff sergeant Jim] Penniston says he felt a weird sensation, like static electricity ... then a blinding bright light burst into the night. Expecting an explosion, they flung themselves to the ground, but none came. Penniston rose to his feet and saw the bright light beginning to fade, revealing a triangular craft resting in a small clearing on the forest floor, multicoloured neon lights darting over its black opaque surface until they too dimmed and the only light remaining was emanating from underneath the craft.

Note: Don't miss our new video UFO Disclosure Explained: New Solutions for Humanity w/ Daniel Sheehan and Amber Yang. For more along these lines, explore our summary of the Rendlesham Forest incident in our UFO Information Center.

Ghost Murmur tool that â€found US airman' defies the laws of physics

One of the most intriguing secrets of Operation Epic Fury is how, using an "exquisite" piece of classified technology, the CIA succeeded in finding the injured airman in Iran by detecting his heartbeat, the tiniest evidence of human life concealed in a narrow crevice up a 7,000ft mountain ridge. The technology that led to the airman's rescue by Seal Team Six commandos has been outed as a CIA "tool" called Ghost Murmur. It was reportedly developed as a highly classified "blue skies" invention by Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works, the famous laboratory where young, brilliant scientists and engineers devote their time to finding solutions to impossible concepts. John Ratcliffe, the CIA director, hinted at the new technology in a press conference this week. "We deployed both human assets and exquisite technologies that no other intelligence service in the world possess to a daunting challenge, comparable to hunting for a single grain of sand in the middle of a desert," Ratcliffe said. On the face of it, a futuristic magnetic sensing device ... pinpointed the missing colonel's heartbeat across a 40-mile stretch of land. Ghost Murmur, as described, would appear to push the boundaries of physics beyond even the most exceptional human brain or computer. Intelligence sources would not confirm or deny the existence of Ghost Murmur. But reportedly the "CIA tool" relies on what is called quantum magnetometry, which can find signals of human hearts, aided by artificial intelligence to separate out all the other noises getting in the way.

Note: While it's unclear whether the Ghost Murmur tool was actually responsible for rescuing the injured soldier, this technology is not out of the realm of possibility. Since the 1960s, the CIA had already developed poison weapons capable of causing heart attacks remotely. Learn more about real-life exotic weapon technologies used by militaries around the world. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on AI and intelligence agency corruption.

The Admiral Who Says Atlantis Is Real and the Aliens Are Already Here

Retired rear admiral Timothy Gallaudet ... is a man with serious credentials. A graduate of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, he is the former head of the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, has worked on anti-submarine warfare, ran the Naval Observatory, and eventually became the acting administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). He's also one of the most outspoken proponents of the idea that not only are UFOs real, but the government is hiding the truth about them. "We're being visited by some kind of higher-order intelligence that we don't understand," Gallaudet told me. "And it's happening often, frequently, in our airspace and in our water and in space." Gallaudet recalls participating in a naval exercise off the East Coast in 2015 and finding that pilots flying off the USS Theodore Roosevelt, an aircraft carrier, were not only seeing UFOs but getting so close that officers like him became worried about a midair collision. These sightings produced the famous GoFast video of a UFO, which the Pentagon later said was an object that appeared out of the ordinary due to an effect called motion parallax. Gallaudet, who says his correspondence about the object was mysteriously wiped from his computer, is far from convinced by that explanation. He's particularly curious as to why so many UFOs appear to be flying over water and in some videos, appear to be disappearing beneath the waves. "If they want to remain unseen," he told me, "that's the place they would be." He's testified before Congress about what he's seen. He says what the government has disclosed so far is "a fraction of the tip of the iceberg of what we're really seeing day to day."

Note: In this interview, Rear Adm. Tim Gallaudet asserts that Atlantis was a real ancient civilization, citing Plato's accounts alongside archaeological and geological evidence suggesting it was destroyed in a catastrophic event around 12,900 years ago; he adds that he is part of a team studying it but "can't say much," implying the work may be tied to sensitive or restricted research. He further claims they may have identified its location on the seafloor and are seeking visual proof of human-made structures. For more, don't miss our new video UFO Disclosure Explained: New Solutions for Humanity w/ Daniel Sheehan and Amber Yang.

How to Feel Whole in a Broken World: An Astronaut's Antidote to Despair

Despair is nothing more than ... reducing the immense vista of reality to a particular interpretation of a particular moment. While orbiting a war-torn world aboard the International Space Station, astronaut Chris Hadfield took questions from earthlings in a Reddit AMA. Asked for his advice to anyone on the brink of giving up and his own approach to those moments of darkest despair, he offers: "I remind myself that each sunrise is a harbinger of another chance, and to take quiet, unrecognised pride in the accomplishments I get done each day. Each evening my intended list is unfinished, but I celebrate what I've done, and resolve to do better tomorrow. Also, nothing is ever as good or as bad as it first seems. Keep at it with optimism – it is your life to tinker with, learn from, live and love." This ongoingness of creation – the fact that this world is unfinished and our story unwritten – is nowhere more visible, life's ceaseless insistence on itself nowhere more palpable, than when seen on the scale of the entire planet. Hadfield captures this elemental calibration of perspective: "It's endlessly surprising how continually beautiful our changing, ancient, gorgeous Earth is. Every one of my 1,650 orbits, I saw something new. And I was up long enough to watch the seasons swap ends on the planet, like Mother Earth taking one breath out of 4.5 billion breaths." It is not unimportant that the word "holy" shares its Latin root with "whole" and has its Indo-European origins in the notion of the interleaving of all things.

Note: Former NASA astronaut Ron Garan watched Earth from space for 178 days and came to the realization that we humans are living a lie with our extractive economic systems and how we treat each other and the Earth. Explore more positive stories like this on the mysterious nature of reality.

Human vision: what we actually see – and don't see – tells us a lot about consciousness

A great deal of visual processing in the brain goes on well below our conscious awareness. Some studies have probed the unconscious depths of vision. One source of evidence comes from the neurological condition known as blindsight, which is caused by damage to areas of the brain involved in processing visual information. People with blindsight report that they are unable to see, either entirely or in a portion of their visual field. However, when asked to guess what is there, they can often do so with remarkable accuracy. The phenomenon of inattentional blindness seems to show you can see without the information crossing into your consciousness. Anyone can experience inattentional blindness. In this experiment, participants are shown a video of people playing basketball, and told to count the number of passes between the players wearing a white shirt. If you've never done this before, I urge to you stop reading now and watch the video. In many cases, people are so busy counting the passes that they completely miss a large gorilla walking across the middle of the scene and beating its chest, then walking off. The gorilla's right there, in the centre of your visual field. Light from the gorilla enters your eyes, and is processed in the visual system, but somehow you missed it, because you weren't paying attention to it. The question is: what makes some information conscious, rather than the information that stays unconscious?

Note: Meet the blind professional skateboarder who teaches blind people how to skateboard. Echolocation expert Daniel Kish is a blind man who has taught thousands of other blind people to "see" and navigate the world by interpreting echoes that activate the brain's visual centers. Explore more positive stories like this on the mysterious nature of reality.

Hidden UFO civilization could be on Earth: Harvard researchers

An unidentified, technologically advanced population could be living secretly on Earth. That startling claim was made in a new paper by researchers at Harvard and Montana Technological University. They speculate that "unidentified anomalous phenomena" (UAP), another term for UFOs, could be living underground, on the moon or even walking among humans. The paper posits the possibility of "cryptoterrestrials" as an explanation for unidentified and unexplainable observations made worldwide each year. Here are the theories proposed in the paper: A "remnant form" of ancient civilization remains on Earth; An intelligent species evolved separately from humans and now stays hidden; Cryptoterrestrials traveled from another time period or planet; The unidentified creatures are of supernatural origin, likened to "earthbound angels." The paper also suggests the idea of cryptoterrestrials living in or under sighting hotspots such as lakes and volcanoes. The researchers propose the influx of sightings in similar areas is due to entry/exit points for hidden societies deep in the Earth. Other possibilities for cryptoterrestrial settlements lie nearby, like on the moon. The paper delves into the government's response to sightings, adding that many believers feel federal agencies are "deliberately downplaying the topic or at least obfuscating the extraordinary nature of many UAP-related events."

Note: After being briefed by high-level military personnel, Rep. Tim Burchett believes non-human beings have underwater bases on Earth. In our new 23-minute video UFO Disclosure Explained: New Solutions for Humanity, civil rights advocate and leading attorney for the UFO disclosure movement Daniel Sheehan and WantToKnow.info Director Amber Yang explore how this topic will open the door to technologies and ideas that could transform how we address humanity's greatest challenges. For more, explore the comprehensive resources provided in our UFO Information Center.

Meet the Former Pentagon Scientist Who Says Psychics Can Help American Spies

Twenty years ago this month, the CIA released a report with the unassuming title, "An Evaluation of Remote Viewing: Research and Applications." The 183-page white paper was more like a white flag–it was the CIA's public admission, after years of speculation, that U.S. government agencies had been using a type of ESP called "remote viewing" for more than two decades to help collect military and intelligence secrets. At a cost of about $20 million, the program had employed psychics to visualize hidden extremist training sites in Libya, describe new Soviet submarine designs and pinpoint the locations of U.S. hostages held by foreign kidnappers. Although the CIA stopped funding ESP research in 1977, the Air Force, Army and Defense Intelligence Agency kept writing checks. The Army's Fort Meade base in Maryland became the program's secret operational home. In 1995, when Congress directed the CIA to evaluate remote viewing and either take over the program or cancel it for good, the DIA was at the helm. Congress bankrolled and protected the program for years. According to the now-declassified "secret" briefing, available online, the Army's Intelligence and Security Command had conducted "100 collection projects" using ESP since 1979 for a slew of government agencies including the CIA, NSA, FBI and Secret Service. Several of the projects involved the use of Army psychics to help locate Americans taken hostage by Iran in 1979. "Over 85% of our operational missions have produced accurate target information," states the briefing. "Even more significant, approximately 50% of the 760 missions produced usable intelligence."

The CIA Used This Psychic Meditation Program. It's Never Been More Popular

Sarah wasn't expecting to experience paralysis at 7 am on a weekday during a meditation at her home. But in August, while listening to "The Gateway Tapes"–a set of guided meditations intended to help people reach new planes of consciousness–she says her limbs froze. Sarah ... says the tapes–which she had been listening to on and off for months–took her on a roller-coaster journey of out-of-body experiences. "I was in and out of time and space," she says. Developed by radio broadcasting executive Robert Monroe, the Gateway Process claims to be "a voyage of self-discovery" that can help people go "farther, deeper and faster into different dimensions of consciousness." Monroe founded the Monroe Institute in 1971. The facility claims to help coax people out of their bodies via in-person and virtual retreats, and even Spotify playlists, by way of self-hypnosis style exercises powered by "binaural beats"–sounds attuned to different frequencies which play in each headphone ear. In the early 1980s ... the CIA and the Department of Defense sent US Army lieutenant Colonel Wayne McDonnell to the institute to ascertain its suitability as a defense contractor. McDonnell gave the organization and its unusual curriculum his approval in a 1983 report which has since been declassified. "There is a sound and rational basis," McDonnell writes, "in terms of physical science parameters for considering Gateway to be plausible in terms of its essential objectives."

Note: A society that can self-regulate, self-heal, and access deeper layers of perception is harder to manipulate and even harder to govern through fear. Read our latest Substack, How Consciousness Research Can Help Heal a Divided World to learn more about the Gateway Project. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on intelligence agency corruption and the mysterious nature of reality.

The Truth Physics Can No Longer Ignore

Physics students learn about the basic stuff of reality–space and time, energy and matter–and are told that all other scientific disciplines must reduce back down to the fundamental particles and laws that physics has generated. This philosophy, called "reductionism," worked pretty well from Newton's laws through much of the 20th century as physicists discovered electrons, quarks, the theory of relativity, and so on. But over the past few decades, progress in the most reductionist branches of physics has slowed. Physicists largely ignored living systems. But today, many of my colleagues ... have come to believe that a mystery is unfolding in every microbe, animal, and human–one that challenges basic assumptions physicists have held for centuries, and could answer essential questions about AI. It may even help redefine the field for the next generation. Beginning in the 1980s, physicists ... began developing new mathematical tools to study what's called "complexity"–systems in which the whole is far more than the sum of its parts. Throughout the current AI boom, researchers and philosophers have debated whether and when large language models might achieve general intelligence or even become conscious. As the 21st century continues to unfold, my fellow physicists will undoubtedly continue to advance the study of black holes, quantum mechanics, and other traditional domains. The study of life, however, will take us to places we've never imagined, opening a path for the future of our field that, for once, unfolds on a level playing field with biologists, ecologists, neuroscientists, and sociologists. At its best, the pursuit of fundamental answers about the nature of living things might lead physicists not only to new scientific marvels, but also to an entirely new way of doing science.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on the mysterious nature of reality.

What we're learning about consciousness from master meditators' brains

Reducing stress and softening the sharper edges of anxiety in this way are beginners' steps when it comes to the practice of meditation. Put in the hours, though, and you may well reach the deep end: a place where radical, long-lasting upgrades to how you feel and what you experience are possible. Now, these mental transformations are being examined and understood by neuroscientists at world-leading institutions. Matthew Sacchet [is the] director of the Meditation Research Program at Harvard Medical School. His team works hand in hand with advanced meditators, such as Buddhist monks, exploring how the material brain changes because of subjective experiences that are often considered spiritual in nature. Using state-of-the-art brain scanners, his team pinpoints the neural changes that occur across a variety of deep meditative practices. Beyond mindfulness-related stress reduction, advanced practitioners report experiences of ecstatic bliss, deep insights into their own minds, radical compassionate states and prosocial ways of being, and even shifts in their fundamental sense of self. Advanced meditators sometimes report states of consciousness that are described as deeply peaceful, mentally clear or subjectively non-dual – meaning there is no perceived distinction between self and other. These aren't just subjective reports: we observe changes in the brain that support their existence.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on the mysterious nature of reality.

How to Escape the Confines of Time and Space According to the CIA

She turned to me the other morning and said, "You heard of The Gateway?" It didn't register in the moment. The intrigue revolves around a classified 1983 CIA report on a technique called the Gateway Experience, which is a training system designed to focus brainwave output to alter consciousness and ultimately escape the restrictions of time and space. The CIA was interested in all sorts of psychic research at the time, including the theory and applications of remote viewing, which is when someone views real events with only the power of their mind. The documents have since been declassified. The CIA report "Analysis and Assessment of The Gateway Process" [was] produced [in 1983]. It provides a scientific framework for understanding and expanding human consciousness, out-of-body experiments, and other altered states of mind. Consciousness is used to achieve desired objectives in the physical, emotional, or intellectual sphere ... [to] block pain, enhance feeling, and even suppress tumors. The author of The Gateway Process report is Lieutenant Colonel Wayne M. McDonnell. Wayne was tasked by the Commander of the U.S. Army Operational Group with figuring out how The Gateway Experience, astral projection and out-of-body experiences work. One curious feature of The Gateway Report is that it seems to be missing page 25. It's a real cliffhanger too. The bottom of page 24 reads "And, the eternal thought or concept of self which results from this self-consciousness serves the," The report picks back up on page 26 and 3 sections later as if Wayne hadn't just revealed the very secret of existence.

Note: A society that can self-regulate, self-heal, and access deeper layers of perception is harder to manipulate and even harder to govern through fear. Read our latest Substack, How Consciousness Research Can Help Heal a Divided World to learn more about the Gateway Project. Explore more positive stories like this on the mysterious nature of reality.

Is death just an illusion? Here's what quantum physics reveals about life, death, and consciousness

Einstein once wrote about his friend Michele Besso, "Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like usâ€¦know that the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion." Could death, as we understand it, be a construct of our consciousness rather than a universal truth? Proposed by Dr. Robert Lanza, a respected stem cell biologist and author, biocentrism is a revolutionary theory suggesting that life and consciousness are not byproducts of the universe, but the very forces that shape it. According to biocentrism: Space and time are not external, objective realities. They are tools of our perception, shaped by conscious observation. Reality does not exist without an observer. Biocentrism places consciousness at the center of the universe. In doing so, it opens the door to reevaluating what death really means–if the self is not simply the body, its "end" might not be defined by physical decay. In the [two-slit experiment]: When unobserved, particles act like waves and pass through both slits simultaneously. When observed, they behave like particles and choose one path. Quantum physics further supports the biocentric view by demonstrating that the universe behaves differently when observed. Quantum entanglement shows that particles can be instantly connected across vast distances–what Einstein called "spooky action at a distance." This challenges our understanding of time and space, and suggests that reality is not locally bound or strictly linear. Redefining death redefines life. If consciousness persists in ways we don't yet understand, every aspect of human society–from science to ethics–will evolve.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on near-death experiences and the mysterious nature of reality.

History Can Help Us Understand Organ Transplant Personality Changes, Says Expert

From vegetarians craving meat to changes in sexual preference, some organ transplant patients report changes to their personality reflecting those of the organ donor. A 2024 study claims to challenge "conventional views of memory and identity" by suggesting organs carry memories and emotions and that the findings raise "ethical and philosophical questions" about transplantation. For decades, researchers have studied whether memories and emotions could linger in the heart, and histories of medicine and emotion show why the question is important. In 2010, I wrote Matters of the Heart: History, Medicine, and Emotion, a history of the emotional, physical and spiritual significance of the heart. My research shows that, before the emergence of scientific medicine, the heart was considered the centre of emotion and memory. Memory and emotions are not merely biological phenomena, but driven by environments, experiences and relationships. They, like beliefs about the heart, are informed by cultural contexts. In Thailand or Japan, for instance, there is more pronounced medical interest in the spiritual heart – Japan wouldn't recognise brain death until 1985 for this reason. So, cross-cultural comparisons are needed to understand how far narratives of memory transfer in heart transplantation are universal. One bride-to-be found her father's heart recipient because she wanted him to walk her down the aisle.

Note: Read our latest Substack, How Consciousness Research Can Help Heal a Divided World to learn more about the mysterious phenomena of organ transplant personality changes. Explore more positive stories like this on near-death experiences and the mysterious nature of reality.

The U.S. Government Hides Some Of Its Darkest Secrets At The Department Of Energy

Over the last few years, allegations of secret, exotic technologies have reinvigorated claims that the DOD may be concealing scientific breakthroughs from the American public. However, if the U.S. government, or some faction within it, hypothetically came across a groundbreaking development in energy production or applied physics ... such a revolution would likely be housed deep within the Department of Energy (DOE) rather than DOD. A DOE special investigative panel concluded in 1999 that the department is "a dysfunctional bureaucracy that has proven it is incapable of reforming itself." More recently, the DOE signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Department of Defense to confirm and enhance the "the longstanding partnership between DOE and DOD on space-related research and technology development." The MOU establishes joint working groups and promotes scientific exchange between the two departments in emerging and disruptive research fields such as advanced power and propulsion, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, next-generation communications, and autonomous or remotely piloted vehicles. The DOE also currently operates a Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) program, an Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program, and a Nuclear Sciences program, the latter of which seeks to put together "a roadmap of matter that will help unlock the secrets of how the universe is put together."

Note: Read our concise summaries of news articles on military corruption and the mysterious nature of reality.

newsarticles.media: Nature of Reality News

Fringe or frontier: Is our current scientific paradigm still the best fit?

Seeds Can â€Hear' the Rain–And the Sound Waves Make Them Grow Faster Shows MIT Study

The Bizarre Story Of Titu Singh, The Boy Who Claimed To Be The Reincarnation Of A Murder Victim

The spiritual core of the hard problem: consciousness as foundational, not emergent

Earth's Underground Fungus Network Is So Gigantic That If You Stretched It Out, It Would Reach to Other Star Systems

The continuity of consciousness

CIA Financed Illegal Tests On Teens For Psychic Warfare, New Evidence Suggests

NASA scientist claims she died 3 times – revealing her peek at the afterlife: â€Everything was interconnected'

What I Saw When I Peeked Over the Edge of Consciousness

Childhood Origins of Altered States in Adults

What is it like to die? The reassuring science of near-death experiences

I changed my views studying near-death experiences; consciousness isn't as we think.

The CIA Watched Him Bend Reality With Just His Mind–Then Tried to Turn His Consciousness Into a Weapon

Scientists Think Children May Hold the Key to Understanding Death

Scientists Studied the Dreams of People Who Nearly Died. What They Found Is Incredible.

Congressman Tim Burchett Claims Navy Personnel Discovered Alien Bases Beneath the Ocean – 'We Have Sightings of These Underwater Crafts'

The Rendlesham Forest mystery: â€It's the perfect storm of a UFO case'

Ghost Murmur tool that â€found US airman' defies the laws of physics

The Admiral Who Says Atlantis Is Real and the Aliens Are Already Here

How to Feel Whole in a Broken World: An Astronaut's Antidote to Despair

Human vision: what we actually see – and don't see – tells us a lot about consciousness

Hidden UFO civilization could be on Earth: Harvard researchers

Meet the Former Pentagon Scientist Who Says Psychics Can Help American Spies

The CIA Used This Psychic Meditation Program. It's Never Been More Popular

The Truth Physics Can No Longer Ignore

What we're learning about consciousness from master meditators' brains

How to Escape the Confines of Time and Space According to the CIA

Is death just an illusion? Here's what quantum physics reveals about life, death, and consciousness

History Can Help Us Understand Organ Transplant Personality Changes, Says Expert

The U.S. Government Hides Some Of Its Darkest Secrets At The Department Of Energy

Seeds Can â€Hear' the Rain–And the Sound Waves Make Them Grow Faster Shows MIT Study

NASA scientist claims she died 3 times – revealing her peek at the afterlife: â€Everything was interconnected'

The Rendlesham Forest mystery: â€It's the perfect storm of a UFO case'

Ghost Murmur tool that â€found US airman' defies the laws of physics