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Mind has remained a metaphysical riddle for centuries because it inhabits the physical world like a ghost. But thats a Western perspective based on our bias for solid, tangible things. We insist that the brain must be the source of mind because the brain is a visible object, which is like saying that a radio must be the source of music because it is a visible object from which music emerges.The Vedic rishis adopted the opposite perspective, insisting that visible objects couldnt be the source of mind since the physical plane is the least conscious of worlds. It may seem significant that the brain is active during thought, but a radio is active during a broadcast.Mind will only be proved to exist outside the brain if it leaves some kind of footprint, a visible sign that is as convincing as the MRIs that provide concrete evidence of neural activity. One such piece of evidence is information.No scientist has a problem believing that matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed, and the cutting edge of physics is grappling with the notion that information cannot be created or destroyed, either.What we see in the universe is constant transformation. Helium atoms that fuel the sun send heat to Earth that gets transformed by photosynthesis into plants and all other life-forms. It can fairly be said that life consists of the suns atoms exchanging information with atoms on Earth. (Energy is information in the sense that all chemical or electrical charges can be expressed as plus or minus, positive or negative, zero or one.)It doesnt matter, then, that your body bears no resemblance to a fiery star. Both are part of the same information field, which undergoes endless transformation within itself.Adapted from Life After Death: The Burden of Proof, by Deepak Chopra (Harmony Books, 2006).