I used to believe in souls, even as an atheist. This was one of my last things to let go of when I embraced a more skeptical viewpoint and I will still use the word soul in a metaphorical sense. So no laughing from me.
I think it's clear that everything we experience is a phenomena of the brain. I find it interesting that scientists have pinpointed the exact location in the brain that accounts for the perception that you are in your body, and they can manipulate it with drugs to make you feel like you're outside of the body.
There's a fascinating interview on Skeptics Guide to the Universe, where they interviewed a woman named Dr. Susan Blackmore and she got into parapsychology because of an out of body experience and and believed in a paranormal explanation. It wasn't until years later she realized it was a phenomenon of her brain and abandoned her paranormal studies. If I'm remembering the interview correctly, she says that modern science absolutely proves there is no soul, and nothing more to us than our brains and they discuss this part of the brain that accounts for out of body experience. It's a fascinating discussion, I recommend listening to, maybe it will help you better understand that out of body experience. The Interview starts about 25 minutes into the podcast.
(September 30, 2009 at 8:18 pm)Rhizomorph13 Wrote: The main reason I believe in a soul is because of an experience I had where I slowly rose out of my body and saw a silver thread connecting me to my astral body to my physical body. I had never read anything about astral projection so I had no prior knowledge that would lead me to create the hallucination of a silver thread. "The Llewelyn Practical Guide to Astral Projection" talks at length about the silver thread and there were other things that matched my experience.
I think it's clear that everything we experience is a phenomena of the brain. I find it interesting that scientists have pinpointed the exact location in the brain that accounts for the perception that you are in your body, and they can manipulate it with drugs to make you feel like you're outside of the body.
There's a fascinating interview on Skeptics Guide to the Universe, where they interviewed a woman named Dr. Susan Blackmore and she got into parapsychology because of an out of body experience and and believed in a paranormal explanation. It wasn't until years later she realized it was a phenomenon of her brain and abandoned her paranormal studies. If I'm remembering the interview correctly, she says that modern science absolutely proves there is no soul, and nothing more to us than our brains and they discuss this part of the brain that accounts for out of body experience. It's a fascinating discussion, I recommend listening to, maybe it will help you better understand that out of body experience. The Interview starts about 25 minutes into the podcast.
"The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason." Benjamin Franklin
::Blogs:: Boston Atheism Examiner - Boston Atheists Blog | :
odcast:: Boston Atheists Report
::Blogs:: Boston Atheism Examiner - Boston Atheists Blog | :
odcast:: Boston Atheists Report