RE: What philosophical evidence is there against believing in non-physical entities?
August 31, 2016 at 8:47 pm
(This post was last modified: August 31, 2016 at 8:52 pm by Panatheist.)
(August 31, 2016 at 8:27 pm)Rhythm Wrote: I'm afraid you might be equivocating over the term altered state. That there is a nueral correlate does not imply or demonstrate that you were in an altered state during any of those experiences, whatever they were (and whatever they weren't). Our brains do this sort of shit all the time. It's not a bug, it's a feature, lol. I;m not in an altered state when I misremember having had a convo with the wife and only open my mouth to actually -speak- halfway through it (I can see her smirking now). I'm not in an altered state when something that isn;t in my closet goes bump, or when I see the great grey shape that makes men shiver sneak back behind the barn. That's standard operating procedure.
You have anecdotes about anamolous experiences....but without some sort of equipment producing corroborating data, I can dismiss the notion that they were altered states as a poor inference.
Well, again, there is no way to prove it to anyone. 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. 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.
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.
