What Is Consciousness?

Sharon Hewitt Rawlette is a philosopher and writer who studies extraordinary experiences and what they have to tell us about consciousness and the deeper nature of the world we live in. She has a Ph.D. in philosophy from New York University and taught for two years at Brandeis University before leaving academia in 2010 for a career as an independent writer and researcher. Her foray into the realm of extraordinary experience began with synchronicities, and her first non-academic book was The Source and Significance of Coincidences, published in 2019. In 2020, she published a memoir about her personal spiritual journey—The Supreme Victory of the Heart—and then in November 2021, she was named a runner-up in the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies essay contest for her essay “Beyond Death,” on the best evidence for the survival of human consciousness after death. She has also contributed to a forthcoming collaborative volume on “deep weird” and a French collective work on the role of the Trickster in paranormal phenomena. Another book, (forward by Thomas Nagel): The Feeling of Value: Moral Realism Grounded in Phenomenal Consciousness Website: sharonrawlette.com Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group. Summary and Transcript of this interview Interview recorded May 14, 2022 YouTube Video Chapters: 00:00:00 - Introduction to Buddha at the Gas Pump 00:04:40 - A Difficult Transition out of Religion 00:09:18 - A Serendipitous Encounter in Brittany 00:13:37 - Stories of Synchronicity 00:17:06 - A Mysterious Phone Call 00:21:00 - The Invisible Network of Consciousness 00:25:28 - The Intelligence and Gravity Connection 00:29:47 - The Evolution of Inhabitants of a Planet 00:34:06 - The Emergence of Consciousness and the Illusion of a Continuous Physical World 00:38:26 - The Mechanics of Observation and Consciousness 00:42:24 - The Paradoxes of the Universe 00:46:48 - Welcoming Anomalies and Going Beyond the Party Line 00:50:51 - The Impact of Specialization on Progress and Perspective 00:55:26 - The Intrinsic Value of Consciousness 01:00:17 - Ethical Boundaries and Unity of Consciousness 01:04:25 - Consciousness and the Holographic Nature of the Universe 01:08:27 - The Universe as a Playpen 01:12:33 - The Importance of Looking in the Mirror to Prevent Accidents 01:15:57 - Guardian Angels and Divine Interventions 01:20:11 - Higher Levels of Consciousness and Celestial Beings 01:24:13 - Imaginative capacities and renewal 01:28:35 - Overcoming Fear and Promoting Flourishing Consciousness 01:32:45 - The Power of Making Unpopular Decisions 01:36:42 - Between Consciousness and the Body 01:40:51 - Memories of Previous Lives and Afterlife Communications 01:45:10 - The Soul's Entry into the Body 01:49:03 - Memories of Past Lives and Reincarnation 01:53:13 - The Value of Positive Consciousness and the Cycle of Life 01:57:17 - The Ethics of Abortion and the Soul 02:01:41 - The Possibility of Life after Death 02:05:20 - Organizing Content on batgap.com