RE: Today Show Sybill Shepherd and NDEs
March 19, 2015 at 8:43 am
(This post was last modified: March 19, 2015 at 8:50 am by Neo-Scholastic.)
Ethical science also includes scrapping theories that do not conform to the data.
The important finding here is that the higher order cognition and complex sensory processing evident during NDEs is not consistent with any model of consciousness based on large scale electro-chemical processing. What I mean is that when people point to FMRI images and say something like, "increased activity is this part of the brain is correlated with experience X" that is not the same as saying "increased activity in this part of the brain IS experience X." The data clearly refutes several current theories of consciousness including: mind-brain identity, computationalism, and functionalism. Those who cling to these discredited theories are stuck on stupid. The specific brain activities these theories associate with hallucinatory experiences are empirically absent. Nevertheless, some of the remaining options are epiphenominalism, substance dualism, pan-psychism, and eliminative materialism. I'm on the fence about how aspect dualism fares with respect to the data.
The important finding here is that the higher order cognition and complex sensory processing evident during NDEs is not consistent with any model of consciousness based on large scale electro-chemical processing. What I mean is that when people point to FMRI images and say something like, "increased activity is this part of the brain is correlated with experience X" that is not the same as saying "increased activity in this part of the brain IS experience X." The data clearly refutes several current theories of consciousness including: mind-brain identity, computationalism, and functionalism. Those who cling to these discredited theories are stuck on stupid. The specific brain activities these theories associate with hallucinatory experiences are empirically absent. Nevertheless, some of the remaining options are epiphenominalism, substance dualism, pan-psychism, and eliminative materialism. I'm on the fence about how aspect dualism fares with respect to the data.
