How Would Angus Menuge Resolve the Mind–Body Problem?

But all of those phenomena just add more questions about interaction if there are two distinct substances. How does PK and Telepathy work, given they seem to be used by OBErs and spirits as well?

Keep in mind a soul/body distinction can be the distinction between two levels of the same underlying substance.

I would say the best explanation for paranormal phenomena is a "Simulation", just that a such a simulation has to be grounded by some deeper level and no physical (as in some substance that doesn't include mind) substance can magically produce mind. (Nor is it clear to me how this physical stuff accounts for its own causal relations.)

This means the substance at the Ground Level is either Mind itself or some substance that encompasses both the physical or mental aspects of reality. My guess is our divisions between "physical" and "mental" need to be revised, just as our hard distinction between the Subject & Object.

I'm curious. What would be the explanations in the Monist Idealist system, and in your suggested world simulation system, for one particular type of experience during an NDE, where the NDEer feels himself sucked out of his body and then floating above the hospital bed near the corner of the room, observing the doctors work on his devastated body, then proceeding to a supernal spiritual realm, then sucked back into his physical body? His own suggestedly naive interpretation based on his actual personal experience is of being a separate mobile center of consciousness that is transported out of and back into his physical body to experience various distant locations and realms and further paranormal phenomena. 

It would seem that the two alternate mind-body systems mentioned above would have to involve quite a few auxiliary hypotheses explaining how this direct personal experience is merely an illusion.

I'm curious. What would be the explanations in the Monist Idealist system, and in your suggested world simulation system, for one particular type of experience during an NDE, where the NDEer feels himself sucked out of his body and then floating above the hospital bed near the corner of the room, observing the doctors work on his devastated body, then proceeding to a supernal spiritual realm, then sucked back into his physical body? His own suggestedly naive interpretation based on his actual personal experience is of being a separate mobile center of consciousness that is transported out of and back into his physical body to experience various distant locations and realms and further paranormal phenomena. 

It would seem that the two alternate mind-body systems mentioned above would have to involve quite a few auxiliary hypotheses explaining how this direct personal experience is merely an illusion.

But his spiritual body is also a physical entity in the context of the spiritual realm right?

And if he can observe the doctors working then there is a sensory causal continuity between his "mobile center of consciousness" and the physical world?

This all seems like a reality made of a singular substance. So not sure what problems there would be explaining it in terms of Idealism or a Simulation of some sort. The "Simulation" itself might be dualist in the sense of the user existing in some higher frame that lies beyond many of these spiritual realms.

Even if there some higher beings or God that set up a dualist system, that still seems like there is some underlying "stuff" used to make two (or more) realms that get divided into spiritual/material levels.

edit: I think the mistake here is to conceive of the OBE/NDE under Idealism or Simulation as an illusion. In the former case everything is ultimately Mind but that doesn't mean the experiences are any more illusory than the physical world. In the latter both the physical and spiritual realm are illusions in the sense that they are simulated, but the user can still exist.

But his spiritual body is also a physical entity in the context of the spiritual realm right?

And if he can observe the doctors working then there is a sensory causal continuity between his "mobile center of consciousness" and the physical world?

This all seems like a reality made of a singular substance. So not sure what problems there would be explaining it in terms of Idealism or a Simulation of some sort. The "Simulation" itself might be dualist in the sense of the user existing in some higher frame that lies beyond many of these spiritual realms.

Even if there some higher beings or God that set up a dualist system, that still seems like there is some underlying "stuff" used to make two (or more) realms that get divided into spiritual/material levels.

edit: I think the mistake here is to conceive of the OBE/NDE under Idealism or Simulation as an illusion. In the former case everything is ultimately Mind but that doesn't mean the experiences are any more illusory than the physical world. In the latter both the physical and spiritual realm are illusions in the sense that they are simulated, but the user can still exist.

The NDEer experiences himself as a mobile center of consciousness that leaves the body and returns to the body. 

In Interactive Dualism: this is an accurate description of the situation. There is a body and physical world, there is a separate spirit that can inhabit it, and there is a spiritual realm separate from the physical.

In Monist Idealism: this is Mind experiencing various things, which things are also Mind; there is no literal spacially mobile soul center of consciousness leaving and reentering the body, or for that matter a body at all - these happenings are indeed an illusion to the experiencer and need to be explained by auxiliary hypotheses.

In the Simulation reality: some powerful being or beings have set up and are running a cosmic simulation for human users or victims featuring among a million other things, spiritual experiences including veridical NDEs involving OBEs. There is no literal spacially mobile soul center of consciousness leaving and reentering the body, or for that matter a body at all. A massive number of auxiliary hypotheses are needed for any sort of explanation.

The NDEer experiences himself as a mobile center of consciousness that leaves the body and returns to the body. 

In Interactive Dualism: this is an accurate description of the situation. There is a body and physical world, there is a separate spirit that can inhabit it, and there is a spiritual realm separate from the physical.

In Monist Idealism: this is Mind experiencing various things, which things are also Mind; there is no literal spacially mobile soul center of consciousness leaving and reentering the body, or for that matter a body at all - these happenings are indeed an illusion to the experiencer and need to be explained by auxiliary hypotheses.

In the Simulation reality: some powerful being or beings have set up and are running a cosmic simulation for human users or victims featuring among a million other things, spiritual experiences including veridical NDEs involving OBEs. There is no literal spacially mobile soul center of consciousness leaving and reentering the body, or for that matter a body at all. A massive number of auxiliary hypotheses are needed for any sort of explanation.

Monist Idealism to me just means the fundamental Ground of Being is mental. So space & time are secondary/emergent from either a Mind or Minds. But even in physics there are those who push the idea that space & time are emergent which would mean this idea of space is illusory in some way.

I think you are using the word Simulation literally, while I am thinking of it more functionally. I don't see much difference between your idea that some higher entity made some rules for harmonious interaction between (at least) two realms and a Simulation, especially if the physical conception of space-time is emergent from some prior interactions.

As for the mobile center of consciousness, where is it when it floats over the body and where is it when it goes to have experiences of different spirit realities? It seems it is in the physical world, experiencing it via some senses before it then goes on to experience other spirit realities with its sensory capabilities. This suggests there is an actual continuity between the physical, the mobile center of consciousness, and the spirit realities just as the two-way interaction of body & consciousness in our usual life suggest this continuity.

Continuity suggests the body and soul, the physical and spiritual, are all made of some underlying substance.

I think you are using the word Simulation literally, while I am thinking of it more functionally.

This though is the problem faced by those promoting or discussing the simulation hypothesis. It is an idea born out of current fashionable technology. Of course what is trendy is unlikely to stand up to much scrutiny as time goes on. The words used are set up to fail. A simulation of the weather is not the weather. A simulation of a nuclear reactor is not a nuclear reactor. Always it is understood that a simulation has a real counterpart. What is the real counterpart of the simulation hypothesis? It has none.

What is the real counterpart of the simulation hypothesis?

The higher frame is real, and it creates the lower frame of the simulation. I'll try to find his exact words but Myers had an idea IMO very much akin to something like a user playing a virtual reality video game, he just lacked the modern context to make it comprehensible.

Given our sensory apparatus is giv[ing] us a selected view of reality - an idea strongly put forth by Donald Hoffman's Interface Theory of Perception - we already exist in a simulation of sorts. All the supposed external reality is ultimately mediated through conscious experience.

If the space-time physics studies is itself is emergent from some more fundamental process, then that further suggests perceived reality is illusory in some way.

But Psi and even Survival also suggest space-time is different from what we usually think given their action-at-a-distance. When an NDEr can traverse space-time with their guide using the power of thought, the closest analogous process seems to be a video game.

I'm not wedded to the Simulation Hypothesis, in either its Computational or Idealist forms. I just think if one goes by the paranormal evidence paired with other scientific findings these are far better options than Dualism. Even for Dualists the harmonious interaction between the Spirit and Physical seems very much like a programming effort. Which then makes one wonder if there is some more fundamental medium that relays the back-and-forth interaction between Spirit and Physical...

A better pseudo-Dualism would be the Hyperspace ideas where the NDEr's spirit form utilizes the intersection between mundane physical reality and the spiritual reality. Arguably Psi would exploit this intersection as well.

 Always it is understood that a simulation has a real counterpart. What is the real counterpart of the simulation hypothesis? It has none.

This turns out to be a good thought-experiment.  I was up last night at 3, with the idea of recursive functions in my half-dream.

The counter-part of an actual phenomenon is the simulation that models its meaning, actions or outcomes.  Going in the reciprocal direction, a sim can reproduce an actual phenomenon by having the data and program that is "a copy" of important information.  It is never a full reproduction, but has heuristic (limiting) aspects.  

Simulation theory is neither phenomenon or a specific program, so analogies don't fit.  

But, still -- the starting point for a Matrix like sim is fixed.  The movie, which is about information science, clearly fixes the Matrix circumstances as being generated from having a prior intelligence.   So, its a snake that eats its tail.  It is also very thermodynamic in its background context.  The whole purpose of the Matrix is for rechargeable batteries.

But sim theory has evolved past then, when it was spear-headed by Nick Bostrom.  He wrote a book on the Anthropic Principle, that I had spent time with.  My view is that ideas from the AP grounded his ideas on Simulation as a conjecture.  

There is much deeper thinking on the subject, but for me it got little serious thought, as it's flawed right from the start of his argument.  There is an assumption about the nature of life and its meaning, that is not credible.  Let alone the the lack of an identified purpose for effort needed.  Let alone electronic equipment needed.  Let alone.....

Here is Nick Bostrom talking about genes as if they are thumb drives.  I had to look-up eudaemonic - "having meaning and happiness in life"

 7.  Preventing non-eudaemonic agents from arising

It is quite plausible to suppose that technologically advanced life forms would be able to prevent unwanted mutations from occurring, at least if we understand “mutation” in a narrow sense.  Cryptographic methods and error correcting codes could reduce transmission errors and copying errors to negligible levels.  The control systems of nanotechnological replicators could be encrypted in such a way as to make them evolution-proof (any random change would be virtually certain to completely destroy the replicator). [19]  For uploads, avoiding reproductive mutation may simply be a matter of performing multiple verifications that the copy is identical to the original before it is run.  Even for biological creatures unaided by nanotechnology, sufficiently advanced gene technology should make it possible to scan all embryos for unwanted mutations, and ordinary genetic recombination could be avoided with the use of reproductive cloning.