From: Ian Goddard (Ian@goddard.net)
Date: Tue Dec 21 1999 - 16:34:02 MST
(with graphics: http://Ian.Goddard.net/paranorm.htm)
NEUROLOGICAL EXPLANATION FOR PARANORMAL EXPERIENCES
(c) 12/21/99 Ian Williams Goddard
Paranormal experiences that transcend the perceived
confines of the body, such as out-of-body experiences,
may be seen as evidence of the existence of a "spiritual
body" that can exceed the confines of the physical body.
The following, however, provides a simple neurological
explanation for such paranormal experience.
THE INTERNAL WORLD MODEL
Looking at the computer screen before you, you assume
the screen you're seeing is external to you. However,
because all that you perceive is in fact data that have
already entered the interior of your skull, what you
perceive as external is a neurologically constructed
model inside your brain of the real world outside your
brain. (graphic: http://ian.goddard.net/paranorm.htm)
You never perceive the external world directly, you
only perceive second-hand "messages" sent via photons
and sound waves that have already struck your sensory
apparatus and sent information about the external world
into your brain where it was processed into the three-
dimensional model of the real world that you see. The
things that you perceive as being the genuine articles
"out there" are actually simulations of them inside
your brain. (see: http://ian.goddard.net/paranorm.htm)
Amazing as it seems, this means that what you think of
as your body is actually a simulation body walking around
your brain's model of the world! So long as your internal
model is exact, you can interact with the real world
without problem. However, if and when the accuracy of
your internal world model is compromised, paranormal,
insane, or unsober experience is the result.
Because the perceived parameter of your body is a
computational construct of your brain, it can be
altered by abnormal brain activity. For example, the
neurological program that places you, the observer, in
one location in the model could just as well place you
at any other location in the model, thereby creating
an out-of-body experience. Or the location of your
consciousness could appear to expand and engulf the
entire world-model, resulting in a "cosmic consciousness"
experience. Or, inside your brain's program, experiences
like pain could be placed in a location outside your
simulated body, such as in the perceived location an
amputated leg used to be, resulting in a "phantom pain"
apparently outside your body. In each example, only the
parameters of a simulated body inside the brain are
transcended, and thus the evidence of a spirit body
disappears like a ghost.
CONCLUSION: In comprehending the nature of out-of-body
expereinces there's one thing we can know for sure: the
fact that all observed data have already entered the
skull of the observer leaves no room for doubt that the
world you perceive including your perceived body is a
simulation inside your brain of the real world outside
your brain. The real world is thus never directly
perceived. One explanation for out-of-body experiences
is that the observer, or consciousness, moves outside
the physical body via a spirit body. However, the physical
evidence indicates that the spirit-body theory rests on
the illusion that the observer's perceived body and
environment are the real thing rather than a model inside
the observer's brain, wherein, as a result of neurological
anomalies, an observer can transcend the limits of his
perceived body without actually transcending the limits
of his real physical body.
************************************************************
Visit Ian Williams Goddard ------> http://Ian.Goddard.net
------------------------------------------------------------
(+) Something can come from nothing, if, and only if, (-)
(-) that something is equal to nothing ((-)+(+) = 0). (+)
____________________________________________________________
"[I]n any closed universe the negative gravitational energy
cancels the energy of matter exactly. The total energy, or
equivalently the total mass, is precisely equal to zero."
- + - + Dr. Alan Guth (The Inflationary Universe) + - + -
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