by: Eben Alexander, M.D. read in 2013

80 "We must believe in free will. We have no choice. Isaac B. singer (1902-1991)"
80 "To understand how the brain might actually block our access to knowledge of higher worlds we need to accept--at least hypothetically and for the moment--that the brain itself doesn't produce consciousness. That it is, instead, a kind of reducing valve or filter, shifting the larger, nonphysical consciousness that we possess in the nonphysical worlds down into a more limited capacity for the duration of our mortal lives. There is, from the earthly perspective, a very definite advantage to this. Just as our brains work hard every moment of our waking lives to filter out the barrage of sensory information coming at us from our physical surroundings, selecting the material we actually need in order to survive, so it is that forgetting our trans-earthly identities also allows us to be "here and now" far more effectively."
82 "From the Core my understanding of what we call "dark energy" and "dark matter" seem to have clear explanations, as did far more advanced components of the makeup of our universe that humans won't address for ages."
83 "These answers were not simple "yes" or "no" fare, either. They were vast conceptual edifices, staggering structures of living thought, as intricate as cities."
84 "We--the spiritual beings currently inhabiting our evolutionarily developed mortal brains and bodies, the product of the earth and the exigencies of the earth--make the real choices. True thought is not the brain's affair. But we have--in part by the brain itself – been so trained to associate our brains with what we think and who we are that we have lost the ability to realize that we are at all times much more than the physical brains and bodies that do – or should do – our bidding."
150 "Far from being an unimportant by-product of physical processes … consciousness is not only very real – it's actually more real than the rest of physical existence, and most likely the basis of it all."
154 "To truly study the universe on a deep level we must acknowledge the fundamental role of consciousness in painting reality."
154 "What I discovered out beyond is the indescribable immensity and complexity of the universe, and that consciousness is the basis of all that exists."