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I have already addressed this elsewhere I think. But this doctor's experience over 7 days mirrors my experiences in deep meditation over 40+ years but for much shorter durations. His experiences were far more visual than mine. I cannot therefore confirm his visual descriptions of anything.
(edited for brevity)
I do not know him nor do I have any way to confirm his story or credentials. But his descriptions track closely to my experiences, I am inclined to believe that he genuinely experienced them.
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Originally Posted by very.leary.rflmn™
COLOR="Blue"]The trouble, Mystic, is that you would like to believe him, mostly, it seems, because his experiences "closely mirror" your own. However... such experiences should be (if all were as they are typically described by the believer set...) anticipated asunique and individual. Or in other words, hardly EVER similar.[/color]
The issue of whether or not they are the result of a "dream state" existing within a coma state with the cortical higher functions shut down by disease . . . or they are glimpses of another level of reality . . . is and will remain debatable to those who have not experienced it themselves.
Not so fast Big Guy! YOu left out some very realistic other alternatives, such as: they simply didn't happen in any way, state of mind, or actuality AT ALL, but were simply his interpretation of a drug (alcohol for example?) episode... or... a particularly hair-raising but repeating nightmare resulting from the clam broth not being quite well enough cooked...
(Note: I've had several repeat dreams, some bordering on nightmares. Once the engram is emplaced firmly in the brain by virtue of it's particularly intensity, it may well re-appear for weeks, if not years... It's a commonly reported experience, not to be so whimsically interpreted as an NDE!
I have not experienced these myself, and also have no latent desire to experience them, or even one. If I were to do so, I would then expend my energies in debunking then as true NDE OoB combines, rather than a simple hsllucinogenic dtae achieved by some biochemical imbalance, or transient ischemia or the like.
(This being my own personal bias against such flim-flammery, at least as far as I have read up on or even see NDEs and OoB these experiences)
Not so fast Big Guy! YOu left out some very realistic other alternatives, such as: they simply didn't happen in any way, state of mind, or actuality AT ALL, but were simply his interpretation of a drug (alcohol for example?) episode... or... a particularly hair-raising but repeating nightmare resulting from the clam broth not being quite well enough cooked...
Ah my old friend . . . it is important to get the facts right. This was a coma brought on by meningitis (a disease attacking his brain) . . . not a drug or alcohol-induced state. It's duration (7 days) is a long time to be in an altered state due to brain dysfunction. Unlike my experiences which are deliberate and achieved while retaining conscious control . . . it was not under conscious control because he asserted that his higher functions were disabled by the disease. This then WOULD more closely match the altered states created by drugs or other brain issues . . . because there was no conscious control available to validate or test the experience for any subconscious involvement. These would be valid reasons to be skeptical, rifle . . . but I am simply acknowledging the similarity to my experiences as a reason to accept them as valid experiences. All my experiences were under my conscious control and were tested by me with attempts to alter them. Those that I could alter were assumed to be from my subconscious and not reality-based. Those that could not be altered were considered valid and reality-based. That his descriptions matched the ones I validated as unalterable gives them some credence in my eyes, rifle . . . that is all I am saying.
Grasping at straws, that is all this nonsense of NDEs and OOBEs are about.
The reason we hear more NDEs and OOBEs accounts is because SCIENCE is resuscitating folk by way of CPR, shock paddles to get the heart going again. 60+ years ago, drown victims and heart attack victims stayed dead.
I am simply acknowledging the similarity to my experiences as a reason to accept them as valid experiences.
Which would be a valid approach if you had established the base comparison - your own experiences - to be valid. But validating one with the other when neither has been validated is a circular argument.
The problem I see here is that the human brain has evolved to react in certain ways to "normal" stimulus. When it goes into abnormal stimulus - drugs, meditation, sleep, injury, coma, stress and more - it therefore outputs abnormal and unexpected results.
Subjectively deciding that these unexpected results are evidence for something we otherwise have literally no evidence for - gods and after lives for example - is not a valid line of "reasoning" but is fallacious. It might seem pretty to you - especially after decades of self confirmation bias you tell us you have applied to your initial conclusions on the experiences - but not to anyone else.
There are more ways to explain any similarities between your experience and his. Simple ones and complex ones. A simple one for example is that the two of you may simply have been dreaming. Him while going in and out of different states of consciousness related to his ailment and the treatments for it. And you while dozing off while engaging in what you assure us was "deep meditation".
Subjective experience is all well and good and we should pay heed to it and not ignore it. However some level of validation and confirmation and testing has to be applied to it before making wild and otherwise baseless conclusions on them. I have no doubt that if you actually had the experiences you claim to have had - which I do doubt for the record - that they were very convincing to you at the time and still are. That alas does not change the fact that the conclusions you have reached based on them fly in the face of a complete lack of any other supporting evidence out here in the reality outside your head.
My NDE would take me to Natalie Portman's boudoir. Now that's heaven.
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