There is life after death, according to a relatively new theory of quantum physics that is gaining increasing attention from scientists.

Every now and then a radical new idea arrives to shake the very foundation of our understanding of life and the universe.

This new theory is particularly radical. Here’s what is suggests:

Anything you see, including the computer screen you are reading this article on, the chair you’re sitting on, the sounds in the background, all of it doesn’t exist – except as a result of an active process occurring in your mind.

The implications for life after death are profound. How we understand time is completely flawed. Time, space and death are all illusions, according to this theory.

This theory has been termed “biocentrism” and is being developed by Robert Lanza. He was recently named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world.

In this article, we’ll explain what biocentrism says about life after death, share more about the background of the key scientist developing the theory and compare what biocentrism says about consciousness with Zen Buddhism has been saying for a long time.

By the end of this article, you’ll have a better understanding of life after death, according to quantum physics.

Life after death: Quantum physics has a new theory

Here’s the central tenet of biocentrism:

Consciousness is creating an awareness of an “out there” outside of ourselves, when actually, the world we experience around us is actually created in our consciousness. There is no “out there”.

What you have just read is the first principle of biocentrism: “What we perceive as reality is a process that involves our consciousness. An ‘external’ reality, if it existed, would—by definition—have to exist in space. But this is meaningless, because space and time are not absolute realities but rather tools of the human and animal mind.”

Robert Lanza articulated this first principle in his book Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness Are the Keys to Understanding the Nature of the Universe.

Biocentrism is a new theory of everything and is based on the idea that the universe arises from life and not the other way around. He places biology above the other sciences to develop his theory of everything which comes to the same conclusions as non-duality.

Just so you know you’re not reading about the crazy musings about life after death of just any garden philosopher:

Dr. Lanza has been acknowledged as one of the greatest minds of our times.

He is a noted scientist and foremost stem cell expert.

In 2014 he appeared on TIME’s list of the hundred most influential people in the world.

In 2015 he was selected as one of Prospect Magazine’s “World Thinkers 2015,” and he has been voted the third most important scientist alive by NY Times.

Lanza says biocentrism shows space and time are simply the tools our mind uses to weave information together into a coherent experience — they are the language of consciousness.

Why biocentrism suggests there’s life after death

Here’s the key point:

According to Lanza, when we dream our minds use the same algorithms to create a spatio-temporal reality that is as real, 3-D and flesh-and-blood as the one we experience when we’re awake.

“At death there‘s a break in our linear stream of consciousness, and thus a break in the linear connection of times and places. Indeed, biocentrism suggests it’s a manifold that leads to all physical possibilities. More and more physicists are beginning to accept the ‘many-worlds’ interpretation of quantum physics, which states that there are an infinite number of universes. Everything that can possibly happen occurs in some universe.”

He continues:

“Death doesn’t exist in these scenarios, since all of them exist simultaneously regardless of what happens in any of them. The ‘me’ feeling is just energy operating in the brain. But energy never dies; it cannot be destroyed.”

Parallels between biocentrism and Zen Buddhism

One of the most remarkable phenomenons about biocentrism is that there’s a strong parallel with what Zen Buddhism has been saying about consciousness for a very long time.

Check out the table below put together by White Clouds Sangha. It compares key points made by Robert Lanza and Thich Nhat Hanh:

Principles of Bio Centrism (From Biocentrism 2009 by Robert Lanza and Robert Berman; BenBella Books inc) The Buddhist Understanding of Reality talk by Thay reproduced in“the Mindfulness Bell” #52 Autumn 2009 edition What we perceive as reality is a process that involves our consciousness. An “external” reality, if it existed, would – by definition- have to exist in space. But this is meaningless, because space and time are not absolute realities but rather tools of the human and animal mind “We usually believe that consciousness is something inside of us, and we go and look for the world outside. We think there is an objective world outside and there is a subjective world inside. Remember when we read from “Winnie the Pooh”? Winnie the Pooh thought he saw the footprints of a hostile animal, and he became afraid. But with the help of Christopher Robin, Winnie the Pooh discovered that the footprints he found on the snow were his own footprints! The same thing is true with the object of our inquiry – the so-called objective reality of the world. We think it is something distinct from our consciousness, but in fact it is only the object of our consciousness. It is our consciousness.” Our external and internal perceptions are inextricably intertwined. They are different sides of the same coin and cannot be divorced from one another “The world outside is our consciousness, is us. It is not something separate and distinct. The object and the subject of perception inter-are. Without subject, there is no object; without object, there is no subject. They manifest at the same time. To see means to see something. The seer does not exist separately from the seen; they manifest at the same time. If you imagine that the seer is independent and goes out in order to see the seen, that is a mistaken perception.” The behaviour of subatomic particles – indeed all particles and objects-are inextricably linked to the presence of a conscious observer, they at best exist in an undetermined state of probability waves “Consciousness is like an elementary particle, like an electron; its nature is non-local. Nonlocality is a word used by scientists about time in quantum physics. An elementary particle can be everywhere at the same time. We think that one thing cannot be several places at once, but scientists have agreed that an elementary particle – an electron – can be both here and there at the same time. It can be both this and that at the same time. It can be you, it can be me.” Without consciousness, “matter” dwells in an undetermined state of probability. Any universe that could have preceded consciousness only existed in a probability state In Buddhism we speak of karma as the threefold aspect of action; thinking, speaking and acting. When we produce a thought, that thought can change us and can change the world in a good way or in a bad way. If it is right thought, if that thought is produced in line with right thinking, then it will have a healing, nourishing effect on our body and on the world. Just by producing right thinking you can change the world. You can make the world a better place to live, or you can transform the world into hell. That is karma, action; this is not something abstract. For example, the economic crisis is born from our thinking. There is a lot of craving and fear, and the value of the dollar, of the euro is largely created by the mind. Everything comes from the mind. That is why thinking is action and speaking is action. Speaking can release tension and reconcile, or speaking can break relationships. Speaking can destroy someone’s hope and cause that person to commit suicide. Physical action is also energy.

Conclusion: There’s life after death because death is an illusion (according to biocentrism)

After the death of his old friend, Albert Einstein was reported to have said:

“Now Besso has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us … know that the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”

Robert Lanza makes the key point about life after death:

“In truth, you can’t see anything through the bone that surrounds your brain. Your eyes are not portals to the world. Everything you see and experience right now – even your body – is a whirl of information occurring in your mind. According to biocentrism, space and time aren’t the hard, cold objects we think. Wave your hand through the air – if you take everything away, what’s left? Nothing. The same thing applies for time. Space and time are simply the tools for putting everything together.”

He continues:

“Death doesn’t exist in a timeless, spaceless world. Immortality doesn’t mean a perpetual existence in time, but resides outside of time altogether.”

Life is an adventure that transcends our ordinary linear way of thinking. Lanza asserts that “when we die, we do so not in the random billiard-ball-matrix but in the inescapable-life-matrix.” Life has “a non-linear dimensionality — it’s like a perennial flower that returns to bloom in the multiverse.”

So there we have it. A new theory of quantum physics suggests there’s life after death, because death is an illusion. Energy never dies. In that sense, your energy continues.

Here’s Lanza explaining his theory.

Correction: This article was amended on 25 June 2019. The previous heading “There’s life after death, according to a new theory of quantum physics” was updated to “Biocentrism: There’s no time and no death” to more clearly indicate the propositions of Dr. Lanza’s theory of biocentrism.