2024-02-17, 06:03 AM
(2024-02-16, 05:05 PM)nbtruthman Wrote: [ -> ]Agree with the highlighted. But I still am puzzled over how neutral Monism handles the differences between the interactive substance dualism way that you admit matter and mind behave in the physical world, and the spiritual state out of body. Let's consider a specific concrete example, say during an NDE OBE. How can this sometimes actually encountered temporary (apparently) fundamentally dual state of existence be reconciled with the assumptions of neutral Monism? The problem is that in this NDE OBE disembodied state, both the physical brain (which is still alive) and the immaterial spirit/mind, still exist at the same moment in time, and they are experienced in fundamentally separate realms and consist of fundamentally different "substances".
They cannot be fundamentally separate if the disincarnate NDEr is able to experience physical qualia like sight and hearing still. My problem is that fundamentally separate substances simply cannot interact without a common medium.
You have posited the idea of divine providence allowing for such interaction before, yes? There's your neutral substance in this example ~ the source of that divine providence, which created mind and the physical world, along with their capability to interact, albeit in very particular ways.
(2024-02-16, 05:05 PM)nbtruthman Wrote: [ -> ]In that situation at that moment in time, how can this person still be composed of one single ultimately fundamental substance when this person simultaneously exists as two fundamentally different and separate natures (the spirit consciousness (soul), and the unconscious physical living brain)? It doesn't seem to make sense. Dual aspect neutral Monism ideas don't seem to work, because an aspect is merely a psychological construct, what something looks like to an observer or experiencer. Aspect doesn't have anything to do with existential differences.
You're making the mistake of thinking that the physical form is part of the person's nature ~ it's not, not fundamentally. It's more like an avatar that the incarnate soul seems to require to be able to experience properly in this reality. That is, this reality is properly known and experienced through the limitations and filters imposed by experiencing through the reality filter the physical form imposes as part of incarnation.
The physical form is partially molded, and fully animated by the incarnate soul throughout incarnation, but the incarnate soul is not the physical form. The experiences the incarnate soul has through the physical form are not the physical form's, because the physical form has no innate life, will or existence ~ those aspects belong purely to the incarnate soul that is animating the physical form. We may leave imprints upon the physical form, but it is still not what or who we are in any sense of the word.
I hope this offers some answers.