Early afternoon. You are at the Pine Hill Lakes Park, after your picnic and getting rid of Owen’s two and a half year old energy. As he naps you are leading them around in a search of housing in case they end up in Cincinnati.
Kim’s idea as was the picnic. Tonight we are to Outback at Paul’s request and tomorrow we are driving over to Miami for a look-see of their memories on and off campus. Lunch at Chinese uptown Oxford where Paul worked during student days.
You, Carol and Kim also ate there during her four years on campus. Yesterday, late lunch at Smashburgers and sometime a local Skyline Chili as they can’t get that in Cleveland. Last night they had a get together with Kim’s college roommates at the nearby Brazenhead Pub. The recent article you quoted from yesterday in Discover also mention something else I would like you to consider. Let’s go to it. – Amorella
I really don’t know how you do this. Just like that, a change of direction without me having so much as a clue. The Buddhist priest is the only thing that comes to mind. If it isn’t nothing else is registering. I have more or less forgotten the article Amorella. We are going to leave for supper soon. I’ll find the article to have it ready.
In a quick scan you found the two segments on pages 53 and 56 I want you to place into today’s post. In a subsection of ‘Travel Outside Your Body’ on page 53 is the DIY caption on how it’s done. On page 56 under the subsection of “The Total Body Swap” is another DIY notation on how it’s done. Quote them both later, then I’ll add an explanation. For now, post. – Amorella
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Do It Yourself: Float Outside Yourself
Unless you volunteer for an out-of-body experiment in a neuroscience lab, there is no reliable way to induce the experience on demand. But spontaneous ones can occur. One way to induce the experience, according to reports, is meditation. “In many meditations you avoid moving; the focus is on breathing, and information from the rest of the body is reduced. This seems to be a state that is prone to lead to illusory perceptions.” Blanke says. In one small study, researchers reported that floating in sensory deprivation tanks like those developed in the 1950’s (and available to try for a fee in many cities) produced out-of-body experiences in some users.
Sherry Baker, “Ways to Leave Your Body,” ‘Travel Out of Body,’ Discover, July/August, p. 53
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Orndorff, you hardly focus on anything physical let alone breathing. Only when you are doing your exercises do you focus, but the focus is on the count, usually by thirties. And, when you relax you do attempt to be in a meditative state, not to meditate mind you, but to relax and let your mind do the work. The mind takes far less physical energy from your perspective. You remember when you were nineteen and painting Uncle Ernie’s house and you suddenly saw yourself painting. It has been common in your life for you to have periods (weeks or a month or two) when you fully lucid dreams. Somewhere in your vast notes from your college days on you have these described in spiral college lined notebooks still in the basement. Inside and out, you understand the experience of floating outside yourself. As it was/is felt as an authentically real experience that’s how I find an honest use for it in the books. - Amorella
Below, the total body swap is your version of an exchange of souls, or a partial exchange of souls. You have written poems about such experiences which you felt were real in that they appeared authentic at the time of the experience. Sometimes, what you experience is not imagination. You need to realize that. – Amorella
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Do It Yourself: The Total Body Swap
Even if you aren’t a Trekkie, you probably know the phrase, “Beam me up, Scotty” from the vintage Star Trek television show. In that ultimate version of high-speed travel, a person’s atoms are disconnected, transported and reassembled at the destination of choice. A real-life (but alas, only perceptual) version of beaming is currently under development by Mel Slater, a professor of visual environments at the ICREA research institute at the University of Barcelona. Unlike the Star Trek approach Slater keeps bodies intact while transforming their sense of location. The participant needs to wear virtual reality gear: a motion-capture suit and goggles connected to a real-time, 3-D video of a location – a conference, to pick a dull but practical example. People at the conference would see an avatar of the participant or a humanoid robot that embodies the person who has body-swapped in. The next step is adding a sense of touch to the simulation, so a person’s beaming to a remote location could feel himself hugging or shaking hands with a colleague far away.
Slater’s ultimate goal is nothing less than dissolving “the boundary between the human body and surrogate representations.” If he succeeds, paralyzed people could someday be connected wirelessly to humanoid robots and experience the real world. A few researchers have already tested implants that can read brain waves of paralyzed people. A head-mounted display connected to a video camera, auditory pickup, and other sensors in the robot would let such patients virtually move about and experience the world, even if their physical bodies are immobile. Says Slater, “They will be embodied in that robot, seeing through its eyes, interacting and talking with people, moving through the world.”
Sherry Baker, “Ways to Leave Your Body,” ‘The Total Body Swap,’ Discover, July/August, p. 56
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This then is the reason I say I am honest when I report such experiences?
Yes. Being honest is not the same as being correct in your reading of your senses, yet the experience is authentically felt. The problem comes not with the existential experience; the problem comes with whether any spiritual-like experience you have ever had was/is a real spiritual experience.
I downloaded The Varieties of Religious Experience by Willam James. I have read this book several times in an attempt to understand my experiences better. It is easier to download than it is to walk to the basement and find the book in my collection.
You do not need to upload entire chapters here as you have remembrances of the readings; however a few chapter introductions will be helpful I will chose and you can chose to concur or not. Post only the ones you agree with in importance, not only here but also in terms of heartansoulanmind. – Amorella
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From: "Contents" The Varieties of Religious Experience
LECTURE III: THE REALITY OF THE UNSEEN
Percepts versus abstract concepts-- Influence of the latter on belief-- Kant's theological Ideas-- We have a sense of reality other than that given by the special senses-- Examples of "sense of presence"—The feeling of unreality-- Sense of a divine presence: examples—Mystical experiences: examples-- Other cases of sense of God's presence-- Convincingness of unreasoned experience-- Inferiority of rationalism in establishing belief-- Either enthusiasm or solemnity may in the religious attitude of individuals.
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LECTURES XVI AND XVII: MYSTICISM
Mysticism defined -- Four marks of mystic states-- They form a distinct
region of consciousness-- Examples of their lower grades-- Mysticism
and alcohol-- "The anaesthetic revelation"-- Religious mysticism--
Aspects of Nature-- Consciousness of God-- "Cosmic
consciousness"—
Yoga-- Buddhistic mysticism-- Sufism-- Christian mystics-- Their sense of revelation—
Tonic effects of mystic states-- They describe by negatives-- Sense of union with the Absolute-- Mysticism and music--
Three conclusions-- (1) Mystical states carry authority for him who has them-- (2) But for no one else-- (3) Nevertheless, they break down the exclusive authority of rationalistic states-- They strengthen monistic and optimistic hypotheses.
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LECTURE XVIII: PHILOSOPHY
Primacy of feeling in religion, philosophy being a secondary function--
Intellectualism professes to escape objective standards in her theological constructions-- "Dogmatic theology"-- Criticism of its account of God's attributes-- "Pragmatism" as a test of the value of conceptions-- God's metaphysical attributes have no practical significance-- His moral attributes are proved by bad arguments; collapse of systematic theology-- Does transcendental idealism fare better? Its principles-- Quotations from John Caird-- They are good as restatements of religious experience, but uncoercive as reasoned proof-- What philosophy CAN do for religion by transforming herself into "science of religions."
William James, [Selections of] “Contents”, The Varieties of Religious Experience.
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This does give a perspective that allows me some confidence in my reasoning and associative thoughts on the subject.
Good. Post. - Amorella
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