James Randi crosses over

There's no salt-water theory, rather in Irreducible Mind they make note that the relationship to the body & soul is akin to that of salt in water.

Of course it isn't exactly like that either, after all there's the varied OBE cases so there's also (partial) separation during this life.

Maybe NDEs are form of precipitation lol

Maybe NDEs are form of precipitation lol

Wait, I'm confused. Is the water or the salt representing consciousness?

Maybe NDEs are a form of distillation

Wait, I'm confused. Is the water or the salt representing consciousness?

Maybe NDEs are a form of distillation

I always imagined consciousness representing the salt that is left behind once the water-representing the brain-finally dries up/dies. It then floats away I suppose.

I always imagined consciousness representing the salt that is left behind once the water-representing the brain-finally dries up/dies. It then floats away I suppose.

I'm sure that whoever first came up with the idea had a very particular meaning in mind. Though it probably, like most analogies, breaks down when we look at it too closely.

Myself I tend to view consciousness as a sort of all-pervading fluid. In particular, I consider that human consciousness extends well beyond the body, so that for example we can have a connection with loved ones on the other side of the world. I'm not referring to modern technology, which tends to hide or make us ignore our innate abilities. But for example a mother may wake up in the middle of the night and know that one of her offspring in some distant location is having some life-threatening crisis. Also, for myself personally, I tend (for better or worse) to pick up the strong emotions which my actions may provoke in other people, even at a distance. Of course there is an everyday background 'noise' of my own inner emotional chatter, but sometimes I may bring joy or pain to other people, and when it is intense, I get to feel it.

So, for me I see consciousness as a sort of cloud, extending to vast distances, in fact independent of distance, but also concentrated mostly in and around the body. Perhaps I'm viewing the body as a lump of something suspended in a fluid, a lot like fish swimming in water. In my case, the water represents consciousness - of all the fish, not just of one.

But like all analogies, I don't suggest to take it literally or it will fall to pieces with its own self-contradictions.

I mean if a soul is perceiving this world then there seems to be causation going from World -> Soul.

So PK would just be traveling along the same "line" of causal connection, from Soul -> World. And since the World is where the Body is, it seems there has to be something like PK to explain how the same Soul that travels to other realms in an NDE is also maneuvering the Body.

If we take common human 'feelings' as an example, how is it conceivable that thought processes such as "I am sick with jealousy"
or "I am crushingly disappointed" (for instance) can produce the very real reactions and pain that they do, in the body. 

What is the chemical and electrical composition of the bitter disappointment thought/feeling. Thoughts cause pain, but thoughts are not physical, so must it not be the case that the non physical can act on the physical, in some way we don't understand?

If we take common human 'feelings' as an example, how is it conceivable that thought processes such as "I am sick with jealousy"
or "I am crushingly disappointed" (for instance) can produce the very real reactions and pain that they do, in the body. 

What is the chemical and electrical composition of the bitter disappointment thought/feeling. Thoughts cause pain, but thoughts are not physical, so must it not be the case that the non physical can act on the physical, in some way we don't understand?

Yeah this is how I see it as well. PK just seems like something "over the top" but surely telepathy and PK aren't that different in that a mind is interacting with something [that] at least seems to be merely matter?

My guess is there [is] just some "stuff" that comprises that which we think of as mental and that which we think of as physical. Maybe it's all a collective dream, maybe it's "ether", etc....