tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post8931627042997760999..comments2024-03-27T17:15:37.606-04:00Comments on Triablogue: Making a case for ChristianityRyanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17809283662428917799noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post-20812251918849330002017-12-24T08:27:48.740-05:002017-12-24T08:27:48.740-05:00For instance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgEz...For instance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgEz4rbI4I8stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16547070544928321788noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post-73467777361910375582017-12-24T08:26:14.379-05:002017-12-24T08:26:14.379-05:00I'm not referring to the perception of an out-...I'm not referring to the perception of an out-of-body experience, but examples of veridical out-of-body experiences where the mind perceives things it couldn't perceive if its perception was localizes (i.e. confined to the five physical senses). Say the patient is in the operating room, but their mind perceives things outside the operating room, which is later confirmed by witnesses. Or overhearing conversations in the operating room when higher cortical functions were shut down.<br /><br />I didn't attribute the experience to spiritual reasons. Rather, I point out that it's incompatible with naturalism (i.e. physicalism+causal closure). <br /><br />Another example concerns veridical apparitions of the dead. <br /><br />stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16547070544928321788noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post-70220465869167135162017-12-24T03:42:04.623-05:002017-12-24T03:42:04.623-05:00Discount out-of-body experiences as paranormal. Th...Discount out-of-body experiences as paranormal. They can be reliably induced. Rituals like chanting, mantra recitation, and prayer, all utilize repetitive sounds to help induce a wide variety of states of consciousness that correspond to the tempo or rate of the repetition. The parietal lobe is involved in how we locate ourselves in physical space, and it can get dialed down under known and repeatable conditions. I've heard personal testimonies of a few people who have had "out of body" experiences which they invariably attribute to spiritual reasons. If you can switch off that part of your brain, then your brain would "have no choice" but to perceive that the self is "endless and intimately interwoven with everyone and everything the mind senses." <br /><br />My experience is that Christians who appeal to the supernatural so quickly, have had their curiosity to understand the natural world neutered by the easy explanation -- and indeed the explanation they actively want -- "it's possible, because God". But... the answer has never been magic. Out of body experiences are not supernatural at all. These mystical occurrences, which happen across a wide range of religions, are often described in similar terms. And that's because there's nothing supernatural actually going on. We tend to downplay just how malleable our brains are. Until recently, any advanced neuroscientific explanation wasn't possible. No one 1000 years ago could say "ah, but that's just your posterior superior parietal lobe shutting down, which you brought on yourself with sounds that repeat at a specific frequency". So the explanation was "God". In the same way ancient cultures didn't understand what a rainbow was, or where language came from, so the explanation was always and everywhere "God". It's indisputable that the category of what you consider supernatural today is smaller than what was considered supernatural 5000 years ago. Stephen Galanishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14509266923792169486noreply@blogger.com