Arvin Ash has made several videos on consciousness now, including one on
panpsychism and one on
quantum consciousness. He
seems open-minded to them but clickbaits-he made a comment in one of his videos claiming there's 'no evidence' for the radio theory, which makes his open-minded approach comes across as rather insincere. His clickbait thumbnails and titles don't help either, and many of his videos on consciousness are suspiciously short.
To sidetrack a bit, take his video on OBEs/NDEs for example:
It's only 6 minutes long and everything he says can be read in the description:
- He cites the Blanke study claiming that OBEs are caused by disturbances of the temporo-parietal cortex, though I'm fairly certain that doesn't explain NDEs and or the veridical components.
- He cites the 'remembrance of birth' theory, which near-death.com has debunked to my knowledge. That theory isn't taken that seriously anymore.
- He claims that endorphins may be responsible, which seems to go against what Parnia and Fenwick say.
- He references the DMT theory unsuprisingly and doesn't mention that it's just speculation.
- He claims Blackmore's 'dying brain hypothesis' is the most 'widespread' explanation, again not mentioning the many criticisms made of it.
Most of the comments on that video were highly critical of him, and this is the same for all of his videos on consciousness. He also doesn't seem to understand how cardiac arrest works and veridical cases:
Quote:In all cases, people still had consciousness during the time they had NDEs. What makes you think that they had no perceptions during this period. Their ears, noses, other senses still worked. Is it inconceivable that their ears heard things that their brains recorded as memories?
Pretty sure there are examples of cases where that simply isn't true. Just because their body parts still 'work' doesn't mean much, especially for NDEs under anaesthesia. And how does he know this? He doesn't cite any examples of veridical NDEs to back this up. Peak-In-Darien experiences also refute this...
He also makes a massive scientific and philosophical fallacy of claiming that 'science says' such and such about the afterlife, which really makes me question his credibility. He even admits himself he is biased. If the vast majority of his own fans are pointing out basic errors in his logic and research then I'm not inclined to take him seriously. He does nothing but preach his own worldview like it's fact and misinterprets studies.
PBS Spacetime seems more credible imo.
Edit: Seems he's already made a video proving my point of his misunderstanding of basic philosophy of science and mind, in a video that he posted first on his website then posted to YouTube:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5H9Q9e1N5Dc
He
claims to have degrees in chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, physics and has spent 2 years at medical school. I find that very difficult to believe given how so many of his videos seem to be full of errors or opinion spoken as fact.
With his video on panpsychism, he says this:
Quote:The concept of Panpsychism has been around for thousands of years. It is an essential aspect of many religions, from the Old Testament's omnipresent God to the Brahman of Hinduism and Buddhism. In fact, in Buddhism, nothing exists except consciousness.
I am
fairly certain he is mistaking panpsychism for idealism here, which is quite the grievous mistake to make on his part.