What philosophical evidence is there against believing in non-physical entities?

[Panatheist]

I cannot of course prove to others what kind of purely subjective experiences I have.  There are nevertheless reports of similar experiences that can be produced in various ways including electrical stimulation of parts of the brain.  My point here is that said experiences are different than merely being fanciful - they involve altered states.

-Some- of them do..but is there any reason for anyone to conclude that yours is one of them? Is there any reason for -you- to conclude that yours was one of them?  What equipment were you using to determine that you were in an altered state?  We also misremember and retcon with more than a trivial amount of regularity.  This is all ancillary to your experiences, or whatever they mean to you...nothing to do with it,. only giving you some insight as to why people can and rightly do dismiss these claims. You've read about altered states, and then assume you were in one, that your x was one of those x's........or is there more to the story?

I understand there is no necessary connection between skepticism of the paranormal and atheism and did not claim that.  Blackmore did become an atheist, yes, and she also generally became a skeptic of the paranormal.  In her case those two perspectives are related, but not in everyone.

Rgr, rgr, I thought that there was some significance there, in that you found it interesting.  What did you find interesting about it, specifically, btw?

I presume a waking experience involving a highly complex visual experience unrelated to my immediate environment involved a physical correlate in my brain. Likewise when this involves the (purely subjective) experience of being transported entirely to a different location. I call this an altered state because it is very different from how I usually perceive my reality.

Of course I cannot prove how I am experiencing the world anymore than you could prove you saw green aliens from Mars after ingesting acid. For that matter reports of life reviews in controlled settings correlated with stimulation of parts of the brain are not proof of said experiences, though the correlation is taken as evidence that the brain is involved in such states. We cannot even prove that we are conscious, but it is interesting then that so many people report that they are and that humans have written and talked about it for so long. It is not so much annoying if my experiences personally are dismissed - maybe a bit but it isn't important - but there is quite a bit of research on how to induce repeated reported altered perceptual phenomena that is being seriously engaged without resorting to the paranormal; such information can be valuable to those who are generally skeptical of supernatural claims.

Reading my post again I see how you could have thought I was making a necessary connection between atheism and skepticism of the paranormal. I don't think Blackmore was theistic in a traditional sense, but probably believed in some source or reality that could be called God, and she does describe herself as an atheist. All I meant is that she became an all-around skeptic to any sort of god, higher realm, the paranormal, all of that. Seems to me that she was pretty New Age.