Consciousness: and psychedelic alterations like NDE's (General)

by David Turell , Thursday, August 16, 2018, 17:51 (2289 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: Not exactly, because in none of the subjects was new information received:

Thank you for making this crucial point. For me it is an essential factor that demands open-mindedness in one’s attitude not just towards NDEs but towards all psychic experiences that provide information which would not otherwise have been accessible.

QUOTE: “Near-death experiences are sometimes said to give people a different outlook on life, and may be helpful in reducing fear of death and increasing people’s concern for others. Similar effects have been reported for psychedelic experiences, and a number of studies have reported positive effects on wellbeing when patients with life-threatening cancer take the drug psilocybin."

DAVID’s comment: Not entirely a comparison, but a clear example of thought alteration.

dhw: Yes, it’s a clear example of how drugs/diseases change the brain and hence a person’s thoughts and behaviour. As I keep pointing out, it is evidence for materialism, whereas psychic experiences that provide new information – together with the known fact that thought also changes the brain (illiterate women, taxi drivers, musicians) – provide evidence for dualism. Hence the great dichotomy which you refuse to recognize, although we have spent so much time trying to resolve it.

All I have done is recognize the material side of the problem, not that I am a materialist, but your mind is tightly closed to the way I approach the problem. So be it.