Brain Damage Saved His Music

Complete dualism is impossible to consider seriously.

Whatever consciousness is, it either stored, produced or filtered by the brain. Whatever the case, if you damage the brain you also impact on consciousness

What about NDEs? Veridical NDEs, especially ones where the brain was not functioning or only minimally functioning (as with cardiac arrest) are strong empirical evidence for human consciousness ultimately being independent from or separate from, the physical brain, implying some form of interactive dualism. As you mention, there is the filter theory. There is also the rough analogy of the receiver/transmitter. Like the TV set receiving and transducing the electromagnetic waves of the TV signal, the brain physically manifests immaterial consciousness which still interacts with matter via the neurons, synapses, etc. of the brain. But the brain is not the producer of human consciousness any more than the TV set produces the information content of the program.

The thousands of verified reincarnation cases as investigated by researchers like Ian Stevenson constitute another area of strong empirical evidence for some form of interactive dualism.

What about NDEs? Veridical NDEs, especially ones where the brain was not functioning or only minimally functioning (as with cardiac arrest) are strong empirical evidence for human consciousness ultimately being independent from or separate from, the physical brain, implying some form of interactive dualism. As you mention, there is the filter theory. There is also the rough analogy of the receiver/transmitter. Like the TV set receiving and transducing the electromagnetic waves of the TV signal, the brain physically manifests immaterial consciousness which still interacts with matter via the neurons, synapses, etc. of the brain. But the brain is not the producer of human consciousness any more than the TV set produces the information content of the program.

The thousands of verified reincarnation cases as investigated by researchers like Ian Stevenson constitute another area of strong empirical evidence for some form of interactive dualism.

I would argue that Interactive Dualism isn't the only explanation.

A form of Idealism could just as easily account for NDEs ~ the brain being an archetype, specific to animals, designed to restrict the range and power of consciousness while active.

I would argue that Interactive Dualism isn't the only explanation.

A form of Idealism could just as easily account for NDEs ~ the brain being an archetype, specific to animals, designed to restrict the range and power of consciousness while active.

"Idealism is the theory in philosophy that reality essentially consists only of minds, and that the physical world is an illusion, or otherwise the product of minds. Idealism in philosophy of mind is a form of monism, rather than dualism, since it argues that there is only one substance, mind."

One problem with this is, certain features of the experience of many NDEers clearly imply a mobile in physical space center of human consciousness independent of the brain (such as viewing the OR and emergency room doctors from a physical point in space - from the point of view of what is clearly experienced as such a mobile center of consciousness). Sometimes the NDEer views events and people hundreds of feet to many miles from the body, sometime interacting with these people, and experiences a physical space point of view as if the NDEer is physically located at the remote position. The simplest explanation for this is that the experiences are what they seem to be - a mobile center of consciousness moving from place to place in a separately existing physical space-time realm.

The reincarnation empirical evidence indicates that when the very young child is able to speak he/she starts to talk about another, immediately previous life (usually where the death was violent and sudden). Sometimes the child will exhibit birthmarks or birth defects that correspond to the death wounds of the previous personality. By far the simplest explanation is along the lines of interactive dualism - at one point in time a mobile in physical space center of consciousness moved in to occupy the fetus or baby.

"Idealism is the theory in philosophy that reality essentially consists only of minds, and that the physical world is an illusion, or otherwise the product of minds. Idealism in philosophy of mind is a form of monism, rather than dualism, since it argues that there is only one substance, mind."

One problem with this is, certain features of the experience of many NDEers clearly imply a mobile in physical space center of human consciousness independent of the brain (such as viewing the OR and emergency room doctors from a physical point in space - from the point of view of what is clearly experienced as such a mobile center of consciousness). Sometimes the NDEer views events and people hundreds of feet to many miles from the body, sometime interacting with these people, and experiences a physical space point of view as if the NDEer is physically located at the remote position. The simplest explanation for this is that the experiences are what they seem to be - a mobile center of consciousness moving from place to place in a separately existing physical space-time realm.

The reincarnation empirical evidence indicates that when the very young child is able to speak he/she starts to talk about another, immediately previous life (usually where the death was violent and sudden). Sometimes the child will exhibit birthmarks or birth defects that correspond to the death wounds of the previous personality. By far the simplest explanation is along the lines of interactive dualism - at one point in time a mobile in physical space center of consciousness moved in to occupy the fetus or baby.

But everything you describe can fit under Idealism, or possibly a variety of Panpsychism.

I think we'd probably want to distinguish between a body/soul distinction, which could even exist under physicalism versus Dualism in the sense that there are two distinct substances making up at least two different levels of reality.

Complete dualism is impossible to consider seriously.

Whatever consciousness is, it either stored, produced or filtered by the brain. Whatever the case, if you damage the brain you also impact on consciousness

Curious of what you might mean as "stored"? - Don't think I've ever heard of that option.

"Idealism is the theory in philosophy that reality essentially consists only of minds, and that the physical world is an illusion, or otherwise the product of minds. Idealism in philosophy of mind is a form of monism, rather than dualism, since it argues that there is only one substance, mind."

One problem with this is, certain features of the experience of many NDEers clearly imply a mobile in physical space center of human consciousness independent of the brain (such as viewing the OR and emergency room doctors from a physical point in space - from the point of view of what is clearly experienced as such a mobile center of consciousness). Sometimes the NDEer views events and people hundreds of feet to many miles from the body, sometime interacting with these people, and experiences a physical space point of view as if the NDEer is physically located at the remote position. The simplest explanation for this is that the experiences are what they seem to be - a mobile center of consciousness moving from place to place in a separately existing physical space-time realm.

The reincarnation empirical evidence indicates that when the very young child is able to speak he/she starts to talk about another, immediately previous life (usually where the death was violent and sudden). Sometimes the child will exhibit birthmarks or birth defects that correspond to the death wounds of the previous personality. By far the simplest explanation is along the lines of interactive dualism - at one point in time a mobile in physical space center of consciousness moved in to occupy the fetus or baby.

Now please remember that all these NDEs you find on the Internet is self-reported. I think it’s a bit more interesting to conclude an well described experiments than what the random joe sees fit to report. Yes NDEs exists - frequently occuring when people are not in cardiac arrest.

But everything you describe can fit under Idealism, or possibly a variety of Panpsychism.

Technically, yes, but the fit is uncomfortable - there have to be a lot of accessory hypotheses. Explaining some of these features of NDEs and reincarnation evidence along the lines of Idealism or Panpsychism is much more complicated, more contrived.  To begin with, you now have to postulate another Mind or Minds producing the strong illusion of separate mental and physical realms, for some reason(s). What Mind(s), and why? Interactive dualism follows as a direct inference from the empirical evidence.

Technically, yes, but the fit is uncomfortable - there have to be a lot of accessory hypotheses. Explaining some of these features of NDEs and reincarnation evidence along the lines of Idealism or Panpsychism is much more complicated, more contrived.  To begin with, you now have to postulate another Mind or Minds producing the strong illusion of separate mental and physical realms, for some reason(s). What Mind(s), and why? Interactive dualism follows as a direct inference from the empirical evidence.

I don't understand what the issue is with NDEs and reincarnation working within Mind, or a system where substance has material and conscious aspects. OTOH Dualism seems to come with some issues...What is the "mental" realm - Res Cognitans? But that suggests Mind isn't part of Res Extensa?

Yet how would you have a "realm" that is non-extended?

If we have two realms we still would wonder why is there a Veil between them, wonder how they interact, and how we can have a subtle body in the mental realm separate from the body on Earth. Plus the veridical aspect of NDEs suggest you can be an entity viewing your own material body - so the entity seems to be in the material world.

This all suggests that there is ultimately some underlying substance, some ontological primitive, that allows interaction between the two realms because it makes up both the spiritual realm and the physical realm.

addendum: Consider the Buddhist and Hindu faiths, of which reincarnation plays such a strong part, often are tied to Idealism / Neutral Monism / Panpsychism.

Now please remember that all these NDEs you find on the Internet is self-reported. I think it’s a bit more interesting to conclude an well described experiments than what the random joe sees fit to report. Yes NDEs exists - frequently occuring when people are not in cardiac arrest.

I am not referring to often anonymous and uninvestigatable self-reported accounts posted on the Internet. A good number of these are probably valid, but I suggest perusal of sources like The Self Does Not Die by Rivas, Dirven and Smit, which contains over 100 reliable often firsthand accounts that were later verified by independent investigators. This book presents what is probably the largest number of confirmed and researched cases of veridical NDEs ever compiled. The authors went back to the original sources, the people involved, whenever possible, rather than second-hand sources.