Psience Quest

(2020-08-28, 06:20 PM)Sciborg_S_Patel Wrote: [ -> ]Next we'll get into how Terminal Lucidity fits into the puzzle of case types.

What seems to be happening with these cases is the two-way causal relationship between consciousness and brain becomes one sided. So mind can use the brain interface without being limited by the damages to that organ.

Replacement Reincarnation points to the same relationship. A brain is an interface that can be used by different users, just like a VR helmet can be used by multiple people to interact with a game.

Overshadowing by mediums also points to something similar in the relationship between mind & brain. The spirits who use the medium as their channel back to the world of the living are temporarily taking over an interface while the medium's mind is submerged and possibly Elsewhere - recall Piper said she was in some kind of afterlife at times and even identified photos of the deceased she met on the other side while her trance state was being used by other souls to communicate to the living attendees of a sitting.

One might even class terminal lucidity as the consciousness overshadowing the brain it was bound to in order to make some final communications. However, there doesn't seem to be a wilful intent in these cases, at least not all of or even most of them. Rather it seems a failure of the limiting function of the filter/transmitter allows the dying person to use their body to communicate with clarity. 

One does wonder, however, why there are cases of people dying while raving in madness, with no last clarity. But that question of why only some people have paranormal experiences is an issue for every case type, from reincarnation to NDEs to things like Ganzfield tests that don't have to do with death & dying. There does seem to be some limiting factor that in general prevents us from having more common interaction with the spirits of the deceased.

It would be interesting to find a case where someone has, for example, Alzheimer's and dies in confusion but their ghost later comes back to communicate with clarity. Will try to see if there's one like that.

Next we'll look at a few filter/transmission theories and see how they might fit in with our varied case types, but to round out our main case types I want to briefly mention Patience Worth and Seth. These are cases where you have a large amount of information communicated through mediums [but nothing directly evidential AFAIK]. In the Patience Worth case you have a vast amount of fiction and poetry, and in the Seth case you have a great deal of metaphysics and spiritual advice.

The Patience Worth case has a big problem in that we seem to have something of a confession regarding the reality of Patience Worth:

Quote:“It seems similar to photographic memory surrounded by a context of spiritualism,” says Howard Eichenbaum, director of the Center for Memory and Brain at Boston University. But such a medical abnormality would not explain her stunning narrative skills or the moments of true art in her writing.

“We don’t really have an explanation” for cases like Pearl Curran’s, says McGaugh. “It’s a frontier of neuroscience that’s never really been explored. We just haven’t had the conceptual tools to think about it.”

The answer, however, may lie in a short story Pearl wrote under her own byline in 1919 for the Saturday Evening Post (and was ignored by Prince, Marion Reedy and other critics at the time). In that story, “Rosa Alvaro, Entrante,” Mayme, a lonely salesgirl in a Chicago department store, is told by an obviously fraudulent fortuneteller that Mayme has a spirit guide, a fiery young Spanish woman named Rosa Alvaro. Mayme begins slipping in and out of Rosa’s persona and eventually confesses to a friend that she purposefully adopted it to enliven her drab life: “Oh Gwen, I love her! She’s everything I want to be. Didn’t I find her? It ain’t me. It’s what used to be me before the world buried it.”

Pearl was thrilled that she, and not Patience, was the acknowledged author.

As for Seth, ask around and some people will tell you Seth has great spiritual wisdom, maybe even insights into a future physics... and others will tell you it's nothing but twaddle...

So both these cases have problems. The Patience Worth case, if Pearl was conscious the entire time, probably hurts Super Psi more because Braude leans on Patience Worth's creativity to point out the possibility of how a medium's subpersonality can demonstrate incredible skills and off-the-cuff improvisation. And Seth, AFAIK, never presented anything evidential [to a body like the SPR] and arguably nothing of incredible literary talent...and whether anything he said corresponds to physics seems questionable...

Quote:Jeffrey Mishlove continues to engage himself in a dialogical interview. Here he discusses the question of what would constitute good evidence for the survival of human consciousness after the permanent death of the body. He notes that the alternative hypothesis of Living Agent Psi (LAP) will probably confound every possible interpretation of even the best evidence – if we view the problem strictly logically. He discusses a crucial experience of afterlife communication that changed his life in 1972. He also discusses the nineteenth century case of the "Watseka Wonder".

(2021-02-11, 10:41 PM)Sciborg_S_Patel Wrote: [ -> ]

"He (Mishlove) notes that the alternative hypothesis of Living Agent Psi (LAP) will probably confound every possible interpretation of even the best evidence – if we view the problem strictly logically."

That's a good insight. A "strictly logical" approach is wrong reasoning. This is because "strict logic" dictates that no matter how small it's probability the LAP hypothesis is at least possible, and since an afterlife is even more extremely improbable (an arbitrary view probably motivated by desire to, in order to minimize criticism, get as close to materialism as possible), the LAP hypothesis is still more likely. 

This is obviously flawed primarily because it depends on the arbitrary judgement that an afterlife is extremely improbable regardless of a boatload of empirical evidence - very many cases of well investigated veridical psychical phenomena where the obviously superior least complicated interpretation is separation of human spirit from the body. LAP ignores the obvious reasonableness of using the abductive reasoning approach (going to the hypothesis with the preponderance of evidence). This arbitrary judgement that an afterlife is extremely improbable also derives from a flawed interpretation that interactive dualism as a philosophy of mind is untenable.

(2021-02-11, 10:41 PM)Sciborg_S_Patel Wrote: [ -> ]

"He notes that the alternative hypothesis of Living Agent Psi (LAP) will probably confound every possible interpretation of even the best evidence – if we view the problem strictly logically."

I strongly disagree. I think not only is he mistaken, but to say this is to mislead and misrepresent the nature of the problem. To take the view that Jeffrey and others before him have expressed, means to discard a great deal of evidence, and to disregard the very nature of what it means to be human. I'm deeply saddened by this misrepresentation and the pessimistic outlook on the feasibility of distinguishing survival from other alternatives.

I've not said that before so strongly, but there are other things which I have expressed, that we are beings. When we talk of survival, we are talking about the continuation of that thing which does that act of be-ing, the is-ness, the I am.

Imagine that one is feeling nauseous, sick, about to vomit. Sorry, that's not pleasant, I just meant something with a strong physical sensation, something which we feel. Now usually there is some direct physical cause, sometimes we already know, perhaps it was something we ate, or some associated illness. But perhaps other times there is just this feeling, nausea, and no definite explanation. It is not the cause I'm looking for, but just the experience of feeling that sensation.

Now in a parallel way, there may be many other things we feel, more of an emotional category, but no less real than the example of feeling nauseous. These things we feel are not all bad, just a whole range of different experiences of feeling something. Sometimes we can make some sort of connection, we feel a particular way because of such-and-such. There is cause and effect. But what if there is a feeling with no discernible cause, and that feeling is overwhelming, not just background, but something which is more powerful than the comings and goings of day-to-day life? Does Jeffrey really expect us to believe that the cause is Psi among the living?

What I'm talking about here is something more concrete than for example picking up a name or some other factual data, things which may indeed have some external cause. But the things we feel, the things we are, those don't fall prey to such external agent explanation. We just are what we are.

Quote:Jeffrey Mishlove continues the discussion of evidence for postmortem survival of consciousness. Once again, he interviews himself. He delves more deeply into the nineteenth century case of the "Watseka Wonder" and points out that the great psychical researcher, Frederick Myers, interpreted it as a case of pseudo-possession. He describes a stronger case of possession that occurred more recently in India, known as the "Shiva-Sumitra" case.

edit: Psi Encyclopedia file on this case ->

https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/artic...va-sumitra

Quote:Jeffrey interviews himself about the story of U Ba Kyar, a Burmese village head man who was kidnapped and murdered by insurgents in 1956. His reincarnation was foretold in a series of announcing dreams. The young child, Aung Than, who then claimed to be the reincarnation of U Ba Kyar was born with birth defects related to his memories (unverified) concerning the death of U Ba Kyar. There are many interesting and significant features to this ostensible reincarnation – as well as an important lesson about the nature of suffering.

(2021-03-31, 09:31 AM)Sciborg_S_Patel Wrote: [ -> ]

Reincarnation as a Scientific Concept:In search of the most parsimonious sufficient hypothesis

Titus Rivas

Quote:In this article, an attempt is made to explain the so-called Cases of the Reincarnation Type (CORTs), studied by researchers all over the world. The author stresses in general that a good scholarly interpretation is both parsimonious and exhaustive. Thus, although many cases can be explained by normal processes such as self-deception and fantasy, some of them definitely need a parapsychological explanation. Similarly, although ESP appears to be a more parsimonious hypothesis, it doesn't satisfactorily explain those cases that defy normal hypotheses. In contrast, reincarnation does fulfill both conditions. Finally, the author mentions some topics for further research, which go beyond a mere demonstration of reincarnation.

Quote:Jeffrey Mishlove dialogues with himself about reality and illusion as it pertains to life after death. He draws upon the concept of "the plane of illusion" as articulated in the automatic writing ostensibly dictated by the deceased Frederic Myers in Geraldine Cummins' book, The Road to Immortality. He also draws upon discussions between Sir Oliver Lodge, while alive, and Myers through the mediumship of Mrs. Gladys Osborne Leonard.

=-=-=-=

Quote:Jeffrey Mishlove interviews himself about the many possibilities for survival following the permanent death of the physical body. He draws upon the inquiries made by William James in evaluating the mass of evidence produced by the trance medium, Leonora Piper. He also draws upon the mystical premise of one consciousness that sees through the eyes of all creatures. He reflects on the data of reincarnation and how it differs from the worldview of many nineteenth century spiritualists.

(2021-04-15, 06:05 AM)Sciborg_S_Patel Wrote: [ -> ]

Quote:He also draws upon the mystical premise of one consciousness that sees through the eyes of all creatures.

I take an interest in this perspective for reasons quite unconnected with survival. I'm already of the view that I as an individual survive from one life to another, retaining that individuality.

But, that isn't the whole story. We know we are connected, we form emotional bonds with those we love, and may experience telepathic connection (an empathic connection) at times of need or stress. What about those to whom we have no bonds, strangers, passers by or those we may consider alien or outsiders in our lives? Accounts from NDEs, in particular the life-review which is sometimes described, often has us experiencing the world through the eyes of those 'others' with whom we may have interacted, for better or for worse.

I do sometimes have an emotional link with those people where I've had some sort of interaction. If it was a positive experience it's easy to take these things for granted, "I feel happy" just being a state of mind, not realising that it may be a sharing of someone else's happiness at a distance. The unpleasant or damaging contacts we have with others can stand out more. Sometimes maybe we take for granted that we are separate from other people. But I've found unexpected feelings of distress and unease, negative or painful emotions sometimes seem to appear out of nowhere, and then I realise it is something which I have triggered in the life of someone else, their pain becomes my pain. This is pretty much a real-time thing, I don't need to wait for a life review, it happens in the now.

I've come to consider that we are like the fingers on a hand, apparently separate, but if one finger injures another finger, it is apparent that they are both part of something larger.

This relation between individual survival, and connectedness with others I'm regarding as analogous with wave-particle duality in physics. Something may be a particle. Or it may be a wave. But it can't be both at once. Or can it? Maybe it is neither, these are only descriptions, and we choose to focus on the particle nature or we choose to focus on the wave nature. Likewise the relation between the individual and the whole. Maybe these too are just descriptions, nether takes precedence, we simply observe whichever we decide to look for.

To close, some of what I've written here is evidenced-based or experience-based. But other parts are just speculation and ideas. I'll quote myself:

(2021-04-15, 06:40 AM)Typoz Wrote: [ -> ]Such problems are one reason why I'm unattached to any philosophy, it can be problematic to grow too attached to ideas of "this is the way things are".

Quote:Jeffrey Mishlove engages in a conversation with himself about certain discarnate human spirits that have ostensibly manifested through different physical mediums for more than a century. He compares these cases to those of both reincarnation and possession – and examines different causes of action that, he feels, are operating simultaneously in such cases.