Identity (Identity)

by xeno6696 , Sonoran Desert, Tuesday, September 01, 2009, 22:55 (5560 days ago) @ dhw

Matt recommended "an absolutely awesome theory for NDE's" from the show "Where am I", on radiolab.org.
> 
> Thanks to my technical incompetence, I wasted about an hour trying to find the right show and the right part of the show! A doctor gets pilots to sit in a centrifuge which rotates at colossal speeds. A lot of them then have weird, dreamlike visions unconnected with reality (don't drugs and alcohol have a similar effect?), like fishing or being in a supermarket, and some of them experience OBEs afterwards, being above or behind themselves, and seeing tunnels with a white light (also experienced in NDEs). 
> 
> The doctor does not draw any conclusions, except that "the brain is confused at having lost the body". This, however, sheds no light on the aspect of NDEs that I find particularly intriguing, which is that some patients obtain information not known at the time but later confirmed by independent witnesses. My main question to you though, Matt, is: what exactly is the "awesome theory"?-Well crap, I must be mixing 2 shows together. Either that or I inferred it and thought it was his idea... no clue. I can't tell you which show from there, but the theory I heard was that our brain is operating based on its own model at all instances. So when those pilots were walking "behind themselves" this is because their brain's model isn't at a 1:1 correspondence to the world, they're still receiving sensory data but the brain is processing it incorrectly. In an OBE/NDE the theory was carried forward, suggesting that the brain was still receiving inputs and recording information that is then recalled upon awaking. This would be supported in my view by the idea that I've never heard of a person recalling events that weren't happening around them, or from someone who was "braindead" for more than a few minutes. -I could also suggest (my idea) that in the low blood-content of the brain in these instances breaks the barrier that allows our subconscious brain to take over the model, allowing you to have a "waking dream," that could easily have you floating above the yourself. This isn't drastically different than the USAF doc "walking behind himself" at all.

--
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\"It is, brahmin, because of attachment to views, adherence to views, fixation on views, addiction to views, obsession with views, holding firmly to views that ascetics fight with ascetics.\"