DMT & Mythology

[deedle-doo]

I do not think however that scientific materialism is a looming end-time. I think this stems from the fact that scientific methodologies and explanations of this world tend to be distorted by laymen who just move the point a bit further to imply things that scientific theories did not imply in the first place.

As a scientist I accept that my body is finite and at some point it is going to melt into nothingness (I'm only body, still have difficulty accepting the existence of the soul); this should not however be interpreted so as to imply that the materialistic point of view is pessimistic, heartless and sterile (as opposed to the optimism of a beautiful afterlife promised by many religions). In fact the materialistic scientist (such as the ones of my kind) have no problem accepting that death is actually the beginning of something new and that turnover is a grandiose and important process in (of?) nature. How cool is that and how many lines it draws between the two supposedly opposite poles of Science and Religion?

Yah my matter will go on. The bonds that give me organized structure will be used to fuel new waves of life in various complex structure until such time the world ends. This gives me endless wonder to be sure. It is a beautiful idea, especially since I am somehow self organized out of stardust in the firstplace. Wonder, beauty and truth. Gotta be honest though, it gives less comfort than the hope of a glowing afterlife.

Still, all things considered, I'll take wonder, beauty and truth over comfort any day. That is why I post here and not on morphine-nexus

 

[obliguhl]

I think the question is: Does my body contain ME? If we alter our brains by ..lets say removing the visual cortex we notice that our perception changes. But that dies not necessarly mean that *we* are getting destroyed by a skalpell. It could also mean that our means of perecieving THIS World gets destroyed.

 

[endlessness]

I think the question is: Does my body contain ME? If we alter our brains by ..lets say removing the visual cortex we notice that our perception changes. But that dies not necessarly mean that *we* are getting destroyed by a skalpell. It could also mean that our means of perecieving THIS World gets destroyed.

sure.. there´s a quite commonly used analogy for this: our brains as a tv or radio.. the images or sounds are not created by the tv, but they are transformed and made visible by the tv..

a direct relationship doesnt mean cause and effect, just like the direct relationship between the tv´s components and configurations has direct relationship with how the image is perceived, but it still doesnt create the original image, it just shows it

btw, very very interesting thread.. I write more some other time

 

[obliguhl]

Good analogy. I think this argument is the most compelling when it comes to accepting the mere possibility of afterlife. I sometimes fantasize, that we're some sort of timeless, multi-dimensional beeings who want to explore dimensional realms beyond us (the third dimension). So we are kinda breeding us into third dimensional existence to explore this world. Psychedelic drugs would be some kind of a doorway into our "home dimension" so we wouldn't forgert that our time here is limited and that there is noithing to be afraid of , really.

 

[deedle-doo]

I think the question is: Does my body contain ME? If we alter our brains by ..lets say removing the visual cortex we notice that our perception changes. But that dies not necessarly mean that *we* are getting destroyed by a skalpell. It could also mean that our means of perecieving THIS World gets destroyed.

It would be more precise to say that you are an emergent feature of the complexity of your body. So your body does contain you but not in a straightforward, easily understood way. Understanding the properties of our bodies that spawn consciousness is almost the holy grail of systems neuroscience and progress is being made.

If we alter our brains by ..lets say removing the visual cortex we notice that our perception changes. But that dies not necessarly mean that *we* are getting destroyed by a skalpell. It could also mean that our means of perecieving THIS World gets destroyed.

This is the best way to ask this question. Central nervous system lesions can profoundly change you in almost any conceivable way. If you are staid you can become horny, if you are laid back you can become hyper-paranoid. Some weirder shit too. There is a guy in the UK who has lost the ability to form any memory. He is now a completely different person.

Neuroscience has been aided greatly by people knocking their heads around. The easiest way to learn something's function is to break it and observe how the system changes.

 

[obliguhl]

Central nervous system lesions can profoundly change you in almost any conceivable way. If you are staid you can become horny, if you are laid back you can become hyper-paranoid. Some weirder shit too.

This seems to be the weak spot of this theory ..or at least the first sticking point for arguing against. I've surely pondered quite a bit about this ..but here is my answer:

If we consider our body as a mere mean of transporting us into this dimension, or to percieving this third dimension, we're also bound to the restrictions of this dimension. If we are destroying our brain, we could as well destryoing the filter. Lets say you've got bad eyes and can't see shit without glasses....shattering them wouldn't destroy YOU...the problem is the way we look at our brain. What is the brain? We only know one thing for sure:

It's function is an interpretation based on the restrictions of this dimension....therefore, it doesn't have to contain us....it is surely a part of us..maybe we just can't see behind it.