Mysteries Made Simple: Campbell and Mishlove on the Meaning of Paranormal Events

1. Remembering Robert Monroe and Journeys Out of the Body
2. The Larger Consciousness System and Us
3. Are We Inside a Computer Simulation?
4. Paranormal Phenomena and the Larger Consciousness System
5. Bring Your Toughest Questions to Tom Campbell
6. Tom Campbell Answers More Tough Questions
7. Tom Campbell Answers Even More Tough Questions

Campbell didn’t start out claiming his model was the absolute truth. But after decades of testing it against physics, philosophy, biology, and theology, he found it could explain nearly everything—from quantum mechanics to free will. That’s when he upgraded it from a theory of everything to the Theory of Everything.

Tom shares why he thinks his TOE is THE Theory of Everything. (~9:44)

I published them, um, kind of as a theory of consciousness and a theory of everything. But I didn’t at all feel like this was the theory. I’m a scientist and I have to go a long way before I get to the theory. I thought it was a theory. It was a way of constructing reality such that it explained everything I knew about that was normal. I’m a physicist. I know a lot about, you know, physics and also everything that I knew about the paranormal and just consciousness in general. Not just the paranormal, but about consciousness. So, I, I did that and like most people, I continued learning. I mean, learning is a life’s journey. It’s not something you do and then you’re done. Yeah. So after the books were published, probably two or three years after the books were published, I was talking with Ted Ballers who was also, he had a PhD in engineering, and he was running my uh, um, where people came to talk, you know, the discussion board and he said something to me and it just triggered an understanding of quantum physics and I got, oh that’s how that works, and I got excited and I worked on it for about a week and sure enough I could explain why quantum physics was the way it was, why probability was the basis, what that, um, you know a particle is created by the wave function, you know, a measurement and the wave function turns into a particle. And I finally got all that and I said, well, I understand where they’re coming with that. That’s not the way it works, but it’s a good metaphor for the way it seems to work. And then I said, well, if I got that, what about relativity? So I thought about that and then that came to me just in a few days. And then I started working on all the other paradoxes within science and within physics and all of those fell out just as well. Then I started working on the problems in philosophy, you know, and then theology and then biology and some sociology, you know, you, you kind of work through these. What are the paradoxes? What is it that just stumps the scientists and they don’t, they know that this is so, but they just don’t know how that worked or how it’s so. So, I worked on all of those and it turned out I could explain all of them. And that surprised me immensely. So, I then started finding what couldn’t it explain and I started looking for things that couldn’t explain. And I, I shared this with the people who had come and, and kind of become followers of mine. I said come up with things that it doesn’t explain. Where does it fall down? And after some five or 10 years of, you know, working that vein, it turned out that it explained everything. There wasn’t anything that I couldn’t explain that was fundamental. It doesn’t explain things that are derived because that’s just the logic of the derivation, but it explains things that were fundamental. So, then just a year ago 2024 I decided to change, in my mind, it being a theory of everything to the theory of everything because you couldn’t possibly get that much right with a very simple elegant idea, a wild and crazy idea, no doubt, but it was simple, straightforward, and it got so much right that I couldn’t help but thinking, well, it couldn’t be very far off the mark

You can’t demand proof of the paranormal

The Psi Uncertainty Principle means that paranormal abilities often fail in high-pressure, public settings. The system prevents misuse to avoid societal breakdown. As humanity’s collective consciousness evolves, these restrictions may loosen.

Why is it so hard to prove paranormal events. (~26:39)

So, let’s say I’m a, I’m a, I’m a really good practitioner of the paranormal and I can levitate a box of rocks and I have my friends over and there’s two or three friends. I levitate the box of rocks and it goes up and it comes down and they can weigh it and it weighs 50 lbs and it goes up and down and it floats around the room and I can do all that. So, somebody says, “Well, let’s, let’s publish that. I mean, that’s really great. That’s amazing.” So they call all the network news and say, “Come to this guy’s house and we’re going to watch him levitate a box of rocks.” So NBC, CBS, MSNBC, you know, they’re all there. They all have their camera going. And guess what? The box of rocks sits on the table and never moves because now you’re in a situation that violates the Psi Uncertainty Principle. The Psi Uncertainty Principle says you can do Psi things that violate the rule set or seemingly violate the rule set but you have to do it in such a way that it doesn’t damage the larger society, in such a way that you don’t create more fear more negativity like you have in coastal Africa and that’s east coast and west coast of Africa they tend to be that way. But it’s not all negative No. Well, it’s, it’s not that it’s negative. It’s not that the, that the breaking the rules is negative. Breaking the rules is just something that can be done. But if people used it, if people were able to, you know, you can, you can bond to somebody’s consciousness and you can talk to them. You can communicate consciousness to consciousness. You can plant ideas in their mind. So what if all the people who worked for you all were planning ideas in your mind? You need to promote me. I’m the one that you should be promoted. You know, look at all the chaos that would be going on and everybody trying to manipulate everybody else. And you’d have a culture that would then become fearful of that manipulation, have to ward against it, and all that creates dysfunction. All creates high entropy. So the system says if you’re going to do paranormal do it within a setting that is informative that’s useful, like at the Rhine Institute you know do it someplace that it’s not scary and then it’s okay, you can do it, but the general public will not believe you and that’s right now designed in. So as we grow up, as our population has a higher quality of consciousness, that Psi Uncertainty Principle will be relaxed. More people will be able to, to use that intent and do so even in a public place.

A really great book that address this problem of proving paranormal events is Rani’s Prize. (See my book review.) In this book the author, Robert McLuhan talks about the long running $1Million offer by James Randi.

The One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge was an offer by the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) to pay out one million U.S. dollars to anyone who could demonstrate a supernatural or paranormal ability under agreed-upon scientific testing criteria. A version of the challenge was first issued in 1964. Over a thousand people applied to take it, but none was successful. The challenge was terminated in 2015. (From Wikipedia).

Robert McLuhan discusses the amount of evidence for the Paranormal, and how the skeptics are unwilling to play fair in assessing the evidence.
soulfulbooks.home.blog/2019/03/14/randis-prize/

Living with Uncertainty and Letting Go of Control

A recurring theme is the importance of learning to live gracefully with uncertainty. Campbell explains that the quality of our choices—rather than the events themselves—is what matters for growth. This perspective encourages acceptance of life’s unpredictability, reducing stress and fostering resilience.

Stop trying to manipulate the world. (~1:24:02)

So uncertainty is a very key part of the way this reality works and you have to learn to live gracefully with uncertainty. And with that comes the idea that you should stop trying to manipulate the world to be the way you know it should be and you just accept the world the way it is. And then what’s important is not what happens. What’s important is what you do about it, what you do with it, the quality of your choice. So then you begin to live with uncertainty gracefully because what happens happens might be hard, might be rough, child may die, you may win the lottery and all kinds of things are possible to happen, but you let them happen as they do and you deal with them with positive, caring intent. So that’s kind of you, you live your life and you don’t care a whole lot about uncertainty. You don’t need to manipulate things to be the way you want and you find there’s a lot more joy in life and a lot less stress when you have that, that attitude.

While some people discover that intention can be used to shape reality and create a “positive bubble,” Campbell warns against overusing this ability. Shielding oneself from challenge may create comfort, but it also prevents the very learning that life is meant to provide. Ultimately, spiritual maturity requires letting go of control and embracing the growth that arises from unexpected difficulties.

Eventually you have to let that go. (~1:54:27)

People say, well, if you, or they, they want to do this, they want to get to the point that they can manipulate reality with their intention, you know, to make it rain when they want it to rain and sunshine and be healthy and all this stuff. And yes, you can do that. But if you do, you put yourself in a bubble of your own creation. Now, that bubble becomes a very plain vanilla bubble. No bad things hardly ever happen to you, you hardly ever get a flat tire, you know, this stuff happens because you’re living in this positive bubble of things being nice and you can do that, but eventually you have to let that go. You have to outgrow that. You don’t want to make your life with, you don’t want to make your your life happening according to the way you’d like it to happen. You’re interfering with why you’re here. You’re here to deal with whatever happens and make choices and there, evolve. If you make your reality so agreeable, that you don’t have hardly any challenges, because everything kind of goes your way. Yeah, you get the promotion. Yeah, you get this job and yeah, you somebody gives you a new car and yeah, you get a, whatever you, you need, but you’re losing out now on making the choices. So people who really do grow up, they go through a phase where, wow, I can control this and I can control that and and if I get sick, I can heal myself. And they go through that, but then when they grow up a little more, they just let it all go. They stop doing any of that because they realize that what’s important is to deal with what comes and deal with it. Well, that’s where the learning is, not manipulating your reality to be the way you want it.

If they were really done, they wouldn’t have that attitude. (~2:14:58)

Campbell also shares striking personal insights, such as his encounter with what he calls the “Done Reality.” This is a realm where individuals who believe themselves to be “finished” in their evolution gather—only to find that hidden ego and fear begin to creep back, causing de-evolution. The lesson: spiritual pride can be a major obstacle, and true growth requires humility and continued willingness to learn.

one time I was taken to a thing I call the the done reality. And that’s where people who in  individual units subconsciously think they’re done. They’re enlightened. They’re done. And and when it comes time, where how would you where would you like to incarnate next? And  they say, “Next? I don’t have a next. I’m done. ” And of course, that’s generally not true or they  wouldn’t be saying that. If they were really done, they wouldn’t have that attitude. But anyway, so they nobody’s ever forced to do anything. So if they say, “No, I’m done now. I don’t need that  anymore. I want to progress to the next level. ” Well, they go to this reality I call the done  reality because everybody there was done. And uh and this was funny because I got  sent there and it’s like what what is this place? What am I supposed to learn here? because I learned I needed to learn something here. I said, “What’s the lesson? What am I  supposed to learn?” And I’d go back and I’d go back and it wasn’t I wasn’t getting it. In general, the people there were polite. They were nice. They were mostly very intelligent.  Uh but then eventually I started seeing that they were also cliquish. And there were this  group who thought that they were the they were more done than that other group. And  I saw that starting to form up that way. And then I’d come back like in a more like  time would go by and I’d come back and I find out that that clique was even more so like that. And then I I realized that there was other divisions amongst the the people who  were done. And generally they were all nice and polite but there was ego starting to creep in. There was some fear starting to creep in. What are those people going to do? And how is that going to  affect us? See some fear was creeping in. And then I realized what the lesson was. These are the done  people. These are the people who are very highly evolved. But they also still had a big wad of ego.  Yeah. because they were proud of being evolved. They had no humility and uh they were uh in their  own minds they had gone as far as anyone could go which was not true but it’s what  they thought and they started to de-evolve. They get in this place and pretty soon they were very  high quality entities. Yes. But they got here and they started to de-evolve. They started to build  their ego started to come up and their fears started to grow and they started to get into  cliques that didn’t like each other and thought badly of each other that have negative feelings. And this whole thing started to to degrade. And then I noticed that some of them they would just  wink out and go and I would follow them. And what they did is they realized what had happened. Yeah.  They realized that they were de-evolving and they went back and said, “Okay, I need to go  again. Give me another incarnation. I’m not done. ” So, they would then return. But these other  people would stay there until they realized that they were de-eolving and then they would they would go back

Death is just part of the process. (~3:12:45)

He further stresses that death should not be feared. Instead of being a final end, death is a transition that allows consciousness to reset and continue its evolutionary journey. Without death, growth would plateau; reincarnation ensures renewed opportunities for learning.

Also the idea that death is not a a  permanent end because so many people the their basic ultimate fear is the fear of dying. Yeah.  Which is also a fear of the unknown. They don’t know what happens afterwards. So uh it’s scary but yes when you take this path you learn that there’s no fear at all around death. Death is just part of the process. If you didn’t die you wouldn’t be able to learn again. And if  you just kept going with one life like I say you’d probably hit a plateau and not it’d be really difficult for you to go any further than that. So, you need to die so that you  can start over in a new set of experiences, bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready to go. No, no, I’ve done all that. None of that works, you know. So, it’s part of the plan.  Death isn’t isn’t a uh a problem at all. It’s a wonderful transition where you get to regenerate  and regenerate again and again and you keep learning and growing

Usually, physics theories aren’t very interesting to the general public, but this, this theory actually  will directly affect every human on the planet. (~3:39:49)

how does this theory change your life? What good is this theory to the guy in the street? Usually, physics theories aren’t very interesting to the general public, but this, this theory actually  will directly affect every human on the planet. It’s, it’s not just science. It’s about life and  living and being. It’s about finding happiness. You know, happiness is a byproduct of a life well-lived. It’s not something you can make happen. So,  there’s lots of little logical consequences that we haven’t gotten to yet, but they will be fun.

What makes Campbell’s My Big TOE unique among scientific theories is its practical relevance to everyday life. Unlike most physics models, this theory directly addresses how to live, grow, and find happiness. By placing consciousness at the foundation of reality, it connects metaphysics with personal well-being, offering a roadmap for both scientific inquiry and spiritual practice.

Campbell’s TOE is not only a bold metaphysical model but also a practical guide for personal exploration. He encourages individual experimentation—through dream journaling, intentional healing, probability testing, and meditation—rather than blind belief. In this way, the theory remains both intellectually rigorous and personally empowering.