From: Scott Badger (wbadger@psyberlink.net)
Date: Mon Oct 19 1998 - 15:41:12 MDT
[snip]
>In the first type of case, it seems clear that the brain has developed this
>type of recognitional/experiential capacity to deal with something beyond
>itself. Why shouldn't the same be true of the second type of
>recognitional/experiential capacity? Why would the brain have evolved a
>recognitional capacity for something that doesn't actually occur?
Naysayers suggest that the brain developed this capacity to disassociate
as an escape from things like imminent physical death. I know about the
Pediatrician studying children's NDEs who has suggested that there is a
place in the brain (in the Sylvian fissure of the right temporal lobe) that
is
triggered during times of tremendous physical stress or at the moment of
death. He alludes to this bundle of neurons as being our link to the
spiritual
world. (sigh) It seems a bit more parsimonious to assume that intense
levels of anxiety simply trigger dissociative phenomena. It; probably just
an extension of the flight response.
>If OBE's are real, then consciousness can survive outside the body, and
life
>may have a spiritual side.
Yes. *If* is a big word, of course.
>I'm not saying this was Penfield's reasoning......
I don't recall this being his reasoning either, but he does discuss it in
his
last book written shortly before his own death.
Scott
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