XPost: alt.dreams.lucid   
   From: david@edenroad.demon.co.uk   
      
   On Fri, 10 Nov 2006 03:16:40 -0800, rolandberry wrote:   
      
   >   
   > David Mitchell wrote:   
   >> On Thu, 09 Nov 2006 12:44:54 -0800, Blue_Beard wrote:   
   >> The usual one is that you have somehow found yourself in a parallel   
   >> dimension, either one of the parallel universes required by the MWI of QM,   
   >> or one of the "astral planes" which conveniently exist to explain things   
   >> like this ;-)   
   >   
   > I've been thinking about this. I cant' have an OBE at will so until   
   > then I will speculate. I speculate that the brain is a very powerful   
   > organic computer that at night puts you through role-playing scenarios   
   > in dream to train you how to react to the world and especially other   
   > people. It registers what does not register with you and like austistic   
   > people can remember huge amounts of information then this part of your   
   > brain has registered this information accurately. When you have an "out   
   > of body" experience then it has all the details of your surroundings   
   > and the places you have been or seen in pictures and everything you   
   > have read about it and been told and so it is easily capable of   
   > presenting you with very detailed and convincing scenery. Your mind is   
   > awake during this process of an OBE except it is being fed by this area   
   > of the brain so you are fully awake and alert and seeing very detailed   
   > information recreated by the brain that is largely accurate, except   
   > that the brain may choose to change things round a bit as it sees fit   
   > for training purposes. While in an OB state you will be able to notice   
   > things in your room that you have never paid attention to before   
   > because your brain has accurately stored these things even though it   
   > never registered with you.   
      
   Don't downplay the role of confabulation, the brain is very good at   
   creating plausible environments at will, just consider dreams.   
      
   I'm not sure whether we can ascribe any purpose to the experience though,   
   IMO it's just a stable anomolous state the brain can fall into, and   
   doesn't have any meaning.   
      
   > It will only be real if under carefully controlled conditions and by   
   > arangement you could go to a lab and read a number put there and   
   > accurately report it later.   
      
   Yep (with the usual caveats)   
      
   > This has never been done convincingly. A   
   > guy I knew had these OBEs and assked his girlfriend to leave a book out   
   > on the table and he would tell her what book it was the next day. He   
   > was able to project over to her room, identify the book and even open   
   > the book and read some of the text on one of the pages. This was all   
   > very clear. But when he told his girlfriend what the book was then it   
   > was the wrong book.   
      
   Confabulation at its best.  I usually find (in dreams) that I'm unable to   
   read, most of the time, which I interpret as my brain being to lazy to   
   bother with realistic text.   
      
   Monroe describes such a situation in JOOB.   
      
   --   
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   = David    --- No, not that one.   
   = Mitchell ---   
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   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)