[from a pamphlet sent by the Skeptics Society, by Michael Shermer and Pat Linse....to mention a few key points from the 13 viewpoints and Shermer's explanations for people seeing ghosts, Gods, Angels, Demons, Aliens, etc, and why they float, fly, and travel out of their bodies. I don't have time now to present a rebuttal at length, but will simply mention the 13 viewpoints and a few key statements of Shermer]:
[my comments in brackets, if any]: 1. psychoactive drugs. [here, Shermer falls short with statements such as "Dissociative anesthetics such as ketamines are known to induce out-of-body experiences"...and the like. Obviously, the fact of such drug interventions says nothing about the "reality' of induced experiences...just that they occur and may be associated with changes in particular parts of the brain]. . 2. Meditation. [he mentions the work of Newberg with meditating Buddhist monks, and then follows with his usual tactic of mentioning a part of the brain: the OAA or Orientation Association Area. He says that when the OAA is booted up, there may be a breaking down of the lines between reality and fantasy. More non-sequiturs from Shermer. His "may be" is speculation, as well as his "perhaps": "Perhaps this is what happens to monks who experience a sense of oneness with the universe, or with nuns who feel the presense of God, or with alien abductees who float up out of their beds to join with the mother ship. Already I'm getting bored with Shermer's non-sensical "arguments" and wonder where he got his PhD. I'm tempted not to continue with this abuse of logic but may mention a few more]. . Brain damage: -[ more arguments presenting various tumors, hallucinations, etc; and then followed by brief lessons in brain anatomy, as if such facts disprove paranormal claims.]. [by now the reader can see the drift of Shermer's attempted refutations of the reality of the paranormal: hallucinations. I'll just list the rest of his 13: . 4. Comas, 5. Sensed Presence Effect [the sense that someone or something else is with us]. 6. Natural-born Dualists: "Children and adults alike, for example, speak of "my body" as if "my" and "body" are two different entities....[then he - after much blah blah - says "Out-of-body and Near-Death Experiences are processed as external events". [again, this fact doesn't prove or disprove that there is a "real" component to the Out-of-body experience]. 7. Dopamine [again, the hallucination argument]. 8. Right brain v. left brain "Skeptics had greater left hemisphereic dominance compared to believers..." [so what?]. 9. Sleep anomalies and Lucid Dreams. [again, the hallucination argument]. 11. Agenticity, or sympathetic magic: [agenticity: the tendency to infuse patterns with meaning, intention, and agency - such as attributing events to agents such as spirits, ghosts, gods, demons, angels , aliens. True, agenticity is a real psychological phenomenon but says nothing about the reality of the agents]. 10. Patternicity [Shermer says "this is the basis of all superstition and magical thinking'. But again, this is a mere fact about life, not an argument for the true nature of the supposed magic. 12. Hypnosis and memory [right, faulty memory is to blame!]. 13. Near-Death Experiences - [hallucination argument again - due to electrical stimulation of the "right angular gyrus in the temporal lobe" - Shermer's appeal to scientific jargon]. ... [That's it for now!]
