The dualistic paranormal beliefs actually turned my brain. I've had similar thoughts of transcending reality through consciousness but I think like most people, didn't think it was actually possible. As the lecture notes say, without a physical brain we can't actually think, so how would we be able to have our souls leave our bodies. I'd imagine if my house was haunted I would be seeing floating brains everywhere. At the end of the day it's all thoughts. There is no physical consciousness, it's only our brain that creates it. It's a little scary that there are some people out there that refuse to accept strong supported science as factual. It's like Descartes famously wrote, I think, therefore I am. The first time that clicked for me it blew my mind and I went in way too deep in the rabbit hole about reality and dreams but luckily my theatre history teacher in high school was able to teach me this concept and remind me that I'm not actually crazy. Understanding consciousness is really cool, it's even cooler to understand that and also play with ideas like transcending to the 4th dimension through consciousness, which of course isn't physically possible. But if we could... it would be cool.
P.S.
I watched that suicide cult clip, I never knew about that being the largest mass suicide. Wild and crazy stuff, just wanted to express that.
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I also thought the concept of dualism was cool in theory, but definitely unsure of how true this could really be. People having out of body experiences is a crazy concept, but the fact that this is highly linked to anesthesia use in the OR makes sense. Many people who claim they have these experiences are probably just confused from the drugs that they were given.
ReplyDeleteHi Mason, I also did a post on this lecture, I totally understand and agree where you are coming from. My belief is that physical consciousness is to an extent. I truly believe that there is life after death, thus creating the idea that the mind and body are separate. The body spends countless years developing the soul for what it is and allowing it to contain all that it has learned when the two eventually disconnect. This is not to be confused with things like lucid dreaming and hallucinations from anesthesia. I am very much a science and psychological based person and understand how one simply cannot work without the other. With that being said, it never hurts to delve into both sides, it never has to be one or the other. Wonderful post and I completely agree! :)
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