RE: What philosophical evidence is there against believing in non-physical entities?
August 31, 2016 at 9:10 pm
(This post was last modified: August 31, 2016 at 9:12 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
(August 31, 2016 at 8:47 pm)Panatheist Wrote: Well, again, there is no way to prove it to anyone.Yes, there is, you referenced it yourself, in that altered states have been recorded. There's no way for -you- to do so because you are referring to anecdotes. You did not have any equipment available. As such I can't know that they -were- altered states in the sense you previously referenced, and neither can you.
Quote:But literally having the sensation of my environment disappearing and being replaced with an entirely different one on an island is always going to count as altered perception to me, not a mere misinterpretation or whatever. It's not even similar to you thinking you heard a bump in the closet.How could you know that, you didn't have any equipment present....you don't know the lucidity of my daydreams...and you can;t even establish that this was a genuine experience rather than a cognitive blip related to memory that you now relate to us.
Quote:Much of my background and experience is similar to that of those who report symptoms of dissasociation which I have been treated for although I do not know if all or only some experiences are trauma-related. Some certainly seem to have been. Others, perhaps not. Who knows? Now someone may infer differently, sure, particularly since I am anonymous here - not that I will typically discuss such things when I'm not.I've had a disassociative break. I've been diagnosed. See..I do have experience with "experiences of this kind" - I;m not dismissing you out of hand, you're simply not presenting anything that we can work with.
Quote:But it is really not as important on a personal level. I do think what research is being done on all sorts of reported experiences usually associated with the paranormal is important for skeptics. It certainly has helped me understand problems with basing supernatural beliefs on subjective experiences.There's also a problem in basing "natural beliefs" on anecdotal references to potential subjective experiences or memories of experiences. Such as the belief that you were in an altered state.
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