Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia;  Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.

Spooky dreams
or
Wandering Ghosts

   Post 102.  November 02, 2019

  Out of Body Feelings

   Ghost Ex Machina

 That’s also why she is still motivated to understand the mysteries of the mind after years of careful experiments have failed to reveal the link. But in view of my Enformationism theory, I suspect that an essential clue may lie in the underlying unity of all things. Instead of Descartes’ Substance Duality, my thesis proposes Information Monism : all phenomena in the world are phases of en-formation. And that includes the one thing that Descartes felt most sure of : the existence of his Soul as expressed in Latin as cogito ergo sum (I think therefore I am), and by St. Augustine as dubito ergo sum (I doubt therefore I am). If universal non-dual Information6 is the essence of the real world as well as the ideal world, then the same mind that knows Matter should also be able to know its own Mind.

So the nature of the Soul/Self is a key to revealing the link between Mind and Body. Blackmore’s research always led back to one question : “Is my self a separate, conscious entity inhabiting a physical body, or is this an illusion?” Ironically, my answer is BothAnd : the Self7 is a creation of the mind, which is a creation of the brain, which is a creation of G*D. The Self is both the only entity that we can know for sure . . . and it’s an imaginary illusion. By that I mean, the “Me” that thinks and doubts is also the entity that knows and believes. But it’s not a physical thing made of matter, but merely a mental construct, no more real than the concept of a unicorn. “I” am literally an ideal representation of my body relative to my mental model of physical world, similar to an avatar in a video game. There is no actual homunculus at the focal point of my perspective on the world.

However, even if the Self is imaginary, the question remains : who is being deceived by this virtual image? Using Virtual Reality technology, researchers have been able make people think that the computer-generated body is their own. So, the brain believes its own eyes. MS. Blackmore doesn’t have the final answer to the Mind/Body conundrum. Yet, as a scientist, she merely accepts that somehow the physical brain is aware, not only of the world out there, but also of the Self inside. But she has found no convincing evidence, beyond personal testimony, that the Soul sans body is aware of anything. Most Near-Death reports involve minimally functioning brains. And, aside from empathetically-talented Psychics, we have no reports from After-Life.

Nevertheless, she maintains that she is also not convinced by the Western Materialism paradigm. Moreover, “I reject dualism because it does not work, so I could better be described as a neutral monist . . . All I mean is that the universe consists of only one kind of stuff, and I do not know what that stuff is.” A frank admission of ignorance by an open-minded scientist. But, as an amateur philosopher, I’m bold enough to say that think I know what Spinoza’s “universal substance” is. So, I could describe my position on the Body/Mind issue as Information Monism (all is information). But that I mean, all matter, energy, and ideas in the world are composed of the fundamental power to enform. That’s what I call EnFormAction. In imagination, I can travel to the stars. 

End of Post 102

6. Information :
When spelled with an “I”, Information is a noun, referring to data & things. When spelled with an “E”, Enformation is a verb, referring to energy and processes
http://blog-glossary.enformationism.info/page11.html

7. Self /Soul :
The self-image or self-concept that Descartes took for granted is a mental model of the body. If it didn’t exist in a metaphysical sense, we’d have to call it an illusion. But it’s as real as our mental model of the “real” world.
http://blog-glossary.enformationism.info/page18.html

Seeing Myself
The New Science of Out-Of-Body Experiences

Susan J. Blackmore
Psychologist & Parapsychologist

Dualism vs Non-dualism
Astral Travel vs Hallucination
Near Death vs Afterlife