Or because they *are *really seeing a ghost. Flatlanders have a helluva
time understanding that though.
On 12/10/2013 05:03 PM, yifux...@yahoo.com wrote:
[from a pamphlet sent by the Skeptics Society, by Michael Shermer and
Pat Linseto 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!]
