Out of Body Experiences

[Elok]

No, not really. I don't think they were strokes or anything like that. The first was preceded by an extended fit of adolescent angst and happened while I was in a church, but I spent most of my adolescence in angst and went to church regularly so that doesn't tell you much. The second came in the early hours just after I woke up, while I was still lying in bed. I don't talk about them much--since I've found they're meaningless to other people--or even think about them all that frequently. They're beautiful and interesting memories, but I wouldn't say they've changed my life. The first did at least give me some peace and comfort.

[Lorizael]

Mine certainly changed my life, but I don't think it would have had I not already been putting a great deal of intellectual effort into figuring out what was true and important. I mean, the whole thing sounds like pretty typical hippy one-with-the-universe stuff, but that's probably not what comes to mind when you think "what wacky things does Lori believe?" The experience was significant because it let me know what my brain--and by extension the universe--was capable of.

[Elok]

(of course I believe the experiences were from God, but then the same is ultimately true of my breakfast)

[Pekka]

out of body experience, is that another term for dissociating yourself from a traumatic experience?

[The Mad Monk]

No.

Not per se, anyway.

[ricketyclik]

Can't say I've had out of body, but I've had a near-death revelation and a few drug/exercise-induced cosmic awareness/spoken to by God experiences.

Probably just the brain coupled with environmental factors. I must admit though, those experiences have had a big effect on my world view.

[Lorizael]

I must admit though, those experiences have had a big effect on my world view.

Interesting. How so? And if you think they were "just the brain," why?

[ricketyclik]

Interesting. How so? And if you think they were "just the brain," why?

I learnt to not trust my own beliefs so completely, and to not be dismissive of other people's beliefs. What we think are objective, rational truths may not be so. Perception is reality for all intents and purposes, and it's good to be mindful of that.

To put it another way, we all function with a working model of reality, but it's important to realise that it's just that, a model, and it needs constant testing and revision, with as great a level of objectivity as one can muster.

In summary, I became a lot more comfortable with uncertainty.

[Lorizael]

You'd make a great addition to my cult.

[ricketyclik]

What's the commission for my recruitments, and my recruits' recruitments, and so on?

[giblets]

Nope, never had one. Or maybe I did, and I don't remember it because I didn't have access to my brain at the time and that's where all my memories are.

[Jon Miller]

I really don't understand why you place any importance to such experiences, on the other hand I am extremely materialistic.

If you are interested in such things, have you experimented with psychedelics/etc? I am not and have not, but my understanding is that people who are, do, and many discover that doing so is relevant.

JM
(How does being a materialistic Christian work? Well, I think only 'God' is not 100% matter.)

(I admit to a little curiosity in ketamine because a friend said that he experienced being an infinite tensor of metallic triangles on the drug. I have dreamed math on a few occasions, when I really immersed myself in topology for example, and I would like to again... of course, immersing myself in inter-universal Teichmuller theory or category theory, which are on my list of things to do, should do so without any tricks or falsehoods.)

[Lorizael]

I really don't understand why you place any importance to such experiences, on the other hand I am extremely materialistic.

Well, as I said, I don't think the experience was anything other than my brain and all its constituent neurons being in a weird state for a minute or so. The brain has plenty of states (sleeping, hyper awareness, flow, etc.); this was just another one. It was important to me because it helped me realize how much of our reality is constructed by the brain, because it can be constructed otherwise. I was already mildly aware of this as a concept, but actually experiencing it was something else. None of that is to say we don't live in a materialistic universe, just that materialism doesn't necessarily imply that the reality constructed by our brain is what reality must be. After all, electrons are just stuff, but we don't perceive them.

[ricketyclik]

Try sticking a coat hanger in a power socket. You'll perceive 'em then.

[Broken_Erika]

Are you Jacking-On in there?