--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Hugo" <fintlewoodle...@...> wrote: <snip> > the brain may be > the most amazing thing in existence but it's still a > physical structure that evolved, unless there is something > *really* weird going on. How we go about translating the > explanation into our own experience might turn out to be > the tricky bit.
Don't think there's any question that *is* the tricky bit. I meant to comment earlier, if psychedelic and mystical experience--as well as a lot of "paranormal" experience-- is all generated by the physical brain, the brain is not just more amazing than we imagine, but possibly more amazing than we *can* imagine (to steal a phrase from Eddington). Just for kicks, here's Huxley on the "reducing valve" concept (from "Varieties of Religious Experience"): "Each one of us is potentially Mind at Large. But in so far as we are animals, our business is at all costs to survive. To make biological survival possible, Mind at Large has to be funnelled through the reducing valve of the brain and nervous system. What comes out at the other end is a measly trickle of the kind of consciousness which will help us to stay alive on the surface of this particular planet." I find it interesting to contemplate the possibility that the physical brain has evolved to select and make available those features of Mind at Large that had the greatest survival value while selecting others to be screened out (because they weren't necessary, or would interfere with those that are screened in).
