Comments on Out of Body Experiences

Now I won't get anyone to believe that I am the next messiah. Dammit! Think of the lost Kool-Aid.

Who needs all that gear? Just wait until October and look under pine trees.

Most researches speculate the "out of body experience" is actually the human brains way of coping with the sometimes extreme trauma of death, or near-death. Cheaper than fancy techno-goggles, a very similar experience can be induced with Ketamine, which was used for near-death research in the UK recently.

At least that's what late-night PBS has me believe.

I'm thinking Ari, and nothing comes to mind. Everything you comment is such bullshit. But keep it up, I will too, you loser, a disgrace to people everywhere

It seems that this does not really explain what out of body experiences are. It's basically saying, "out of body experiences are like if you had two cameras behind you and..." But people who have these experiences DON'T have cameras, etc. yet they still think they are floating. So they are still mysterious. There was another NYT article several months ago where scientists actually induced the feeling of being out of body, e.g. floating. They assumed it was all neurological (i.e. false impression) What I would have done is put a picture of a dog on the top of a bookshelf or something, not told the person, and asked what was on top of the bookshelf. Science is supposed to be open minded - why not test if they are actually out of their bodies?

Seems like this study, rather than explaining away strange experiences, actually puts into question the reality of our "normal" perception, which we assume is real. If we can fake ourselves into thinking that we are in a different place, what do our mind and our senses trick us into thinking is real all the time? If we all fall for the same thing, then we never even think to question it. Serious questions with no simple answers...

For the record, I don't have any opinion one way or another about out of body experiences, except that "I'll believe it when I see it" although maybe I'll just see it when I believe it...

I don't trust any piece of content that includes a botched sentence like this one:

Usually these sensory streams, which include including vision, touch, balance and the sense of where one’s body is positioned in space, work together seamlessly, Prof. Botvinick said.

I don't know too much about this science stuff, but there sure seems to be a lot of "stroking with a stick" going on in these tests.

Dirty, dirty lab techs...

Kabbalah teaches that behind the illusion is transcendent ONE. Hegel also suggests mind seeking completion knowing itself.

For the Jew outer body is simply moving deep into the body of Keter. For the gentile, outer body experience is another form of Christian neurosis, they are unable to experience the ONE.

favorite part:
"In that illusion, people hide one hand in their lap and look at a rubber hand set on a table in front of them. As a researcher strokes the real hand and the rubber hand simultaneously with a stick, people have the vivid sense that the rubber hand is their own."

i'm going home and doing this with my girlfriend asap.