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openthought · 06-14-2003, 05:12 AM

Bentnottwisted- I thought that may have been what you were trying to say. I would say that out of body experiences are made possible by the unique hardware of the brain. The hardware I'm refering to is the ability for people to think in 3 dimensions, rotate objects mentally, etc. If you were to picture a pepsi can you could easily rotate the picture of the pepsi can in any manner. This is possible because our brain is able to syntheisze experiences and perceptions into new pictures, very much like how dreams are made. Most out of body experiences I think are analogous to waking dreams. Your mind has taken a lifetime's worth of experience and is able to synthesize into new experiences that due to the powers of rotation and visual thinking can cause what appears to be an out of body experience. Right now I can close my eyes and imagine hovering above my body and a little to the back. I see my tangled dirty hair because I haven't showered yet, I notice all these things about the back of me and I notice the unique features of my offic from this vantage point. The rotation part is easy to understand, but the picking out of details on my back is something slightly different. The process involves taking little bits of data, like the skin on my chest, which I see, extrapolating it onto my back, etc. ,etc. Never doubt your powers of imagination, and the mind's want to fill in details. This is why so many visual testimonies can be vivid but ocassionally incorrect, the mind is able to guess what is a plausible detail of say the color of a car, etc.

Now on to other things:
I vehemently reject dualism. Rene Descartes was a smart man but he often contradicted the logical conclusion of his own arguements just so that they wouldn't seem that extreme.

ARTelevision- I am probably misunderstanding what you mean by "basic component." Is it supposed to be a subatomic particle, a field of dimension that pervades the universe?
Although you may be right, and a lot of theorists hold a similar opinion to yours, I think saying that consciousness is a "basic component" of the universe is a little far fetched, and what's worse unneccesary for explaining consciousness. Before I introduce my view, I'll need to hear some feedback.

06-14-2003, 05:12 AM	#9 (permalink)
openthought Upright	Bentnottwisted- I thought that may have been what you were trying to say. I would say that out of body experiences are made possible by the unique hardware of the brain. The hardware I'm refering to is the ability for people to think in 3 dimensions, rotate objects mentally, etc. If you were to picture a pepsi can you could easily rotate the picture of the pepsi can in any manner. This is possible because our brain is able to syntheisze experiences and perceptions into new pictures, very much like how dreams are made. Most out of body experiences I think are analogous to waking dreams. Your mind has taken a lifetime's worth of experience and is able to synthesize into new experiences that due to the powers of rotation and visual thinking can cause what appears to be an out of body experience. Right now I can close my eyes and imagine hovering above my body and a little to the back. I see my tangled dirty hair because I haven't showered yet, I notice all these things about the back of me and I notice the unique features of my offic from this vantage point. The rotation part is easy to understand, but the picking out of details on my back is something slightly different. The process involves taking little bits of data, like the skin on my chest, which I see, extrapolating it onto my back, etc. ,etc. Never doubt your powers of imagination, and the mind's want to fill in details. This is why so many visual testimonies can be vivid but ocassionally incorrect, the mind is able to guess what is a plausible detail of say the color of a car, etc. Now on to other things: I vehemently reject dualism. Rene Descartes was a smart man but he often contradicted the logical conclusion of his own arguements just so that they wouldn't seem that extreme. ARTelevision- I am probably misunderstanding what you mean by "basic component." Is it supposed to be a subatomic particle, a field of dimension that pervades the universe? Although you may be right, and a lot of theorists hold a similar opinion to yours, I think saying that consciousness is a "basic component" of the universe is a little far fetched, and what's worse unneccesary for explaining consciousness. Before I introduce my view, I'll need to hear some feedback.