From: david@edenroad.demon.co.uk   
      
   On Sun, 17 Dec 2006 17:40:15 +0000, MikeH wrote:   
      
   >   
   > "hermes"  wrote in message   
   > news:1166313495.766285.85050@16g2000cwy.googlegroups.com...   
   >> MikeH wrote:   
   >>> Is it possible to learn and develop a method of leaving one's body at   
   >>> will in such a way that I could do this voluntarily even after a major,   
   >>> debilitating, stroke?   
   >   
   > From hermes:   
   > My thoughts which prompted my initial enquiry were that whatever happens   
   > when one dies, will happen anyway, whatever one believes. IF, however, there   
   > is continued consciousness when one dies (The Afterlife?) AND oobe's are   
   > possible (visiting whatever the Afterlife is while alive?), THEN I may be   
   > able to create a condition that would mean that I could initiate oobe's even   
   > though my brain had ceased to function due to a severe stroke, because my   
   > "true" consciousness is not dependent upon brain activity, possibly. That's   
   > what I'm not sure of. Any ideas, anybody?   
      
   Sorry Mike; but it's almost certainly impossible.  All the evidence we   
   have, is that the brain is all there is.   
      
   We've had this particular discussion in aoob about a jillion times; so   
   I'll only summarise it, but basically, there are two schools of thought,   
   those that believe that the brain is all there is to our minds, and those   
   who think that the brain is some sort of "terminal", through which our   
   "real" mind interacts with the world.   
      
   The problem with the latter view is that the more we investigate the   
   brain, the more we find that it is composed of dozens of sophisticated   
   function groups -for example there are areas which handle grammar, syntax,   
   empathy, face-recognition, self-recognition, recognition of animate versus   
   inamimate, and so on.   
      
   Firstly, the more of these groups we find, the less there is for the "real   
   mind" to do, making the case for it weaker, and secondly, if all of that   
   is handled in the brain, how does the "mind" work without it when you're   
   between bodies?  Does it really mean that "souls" cannot speak, or   
   understand? Cannot recognise faces? and so on.   
      
   Thirdly, there is at least one well respected series of experiments which   
   seems to show that at least some conscious decisions are made   
   subconsciously, hundreds of milliseconds before we actually think we make   
   them - this also has profound implications for those of you who   
   believe in free will, of course, as well as raising the question of what,   
   precisely, consciousness _is_.   
      
   Research seems to suggest that our stream of consciousness is simply a   
   "narrative", a summary of brain function, created after the events it   
   describes.  The "separate mind" hypothesis would have to address the   
   question of why the decision-making signals we can detect are so far in   
   advance of our conscious recognition of them, and why we find them in the   
   brain at all, and not the "mind".   
      
   --   
   =======================================================================   
   = David    --- No, not that one.   
   = Mitchell ---   
   =======================================================================   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)