From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lcrocker@mercury.colossus.net)
Date: Tue Jul 13 1999 - 18:35:23 MDT
> My take on this subject is the same as I have towards the
> existence of God, life after death, heaven and hell and
> reincarnation. I cannot dismiss people's experiences...
That's not an opinion, that's a cop out. It may have less
chance of pissing people off, but it has no chance of
accomplishing anything useful or helping the search for
truth. Wouldn't it be 1000 times better to research and
discover what it is about the human mind that fabricates
these experiences, and why?
The "keep an open mind" mantra is usually spouted by the
most closed-minded mystics who refuse to even entertain
the idea that the mind can do these things. Frankly, I
find that insulting. Of course the mind can do it--every
experience you have is processed by that wonderfully
complex machine of your brain; why should it be any more
immune to an occasional malfunction than any other machine?
Isn't that a far simpler explanation of these experiences
than accepting them at face value? Isn't that a more
profitable line of research than any effort based on
taking these claims at face value?
I want to know how the mind works; examining those that
fail is a great way to do that. Pretending that they are
working well when they fail is a waste of opportunity.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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