Non-Prophet

Scientists Induce Out-of-Body Sensation

This doesn't surprise me at all. The very sense of oneself existing within ones own body at best seems to be a mechanism to help with our own identity. That we can be tricked into feeling as if we've settled elsewhere seems to make perfect sense. The idea that our consciousness is a local phenomenon only holds up while we aren't asking ourselves to decide where it specifically resides. It is very helpful to carry around a vague feeling that it is somewhere within our bodies. Once we put forth any effort to identify its actual locale it becomes fairly clear that it is a nebulous and non-local phenomenon.

While most people can agree that consciousness exists, can anyone cite another example of something that appears to exist but is non-local?

nytimes.com:

Using virtual reality goggles, a camera and a stick, scientists have induced out-of-body experiences — the sensation of drifting outside of one’s own body — - in healthy people, according to experiments being published in the journal Science.

When people gaze at an illusory image of themselves through the goggles and are prodded in just the right way with the stick, they feel as if they have left their bodies.

The research reveals that “the sense of having a body, of being in a bodily self,” is actually constructed from multiple sensory streams, said Matthew Botvinick, an assistant professor of neuroscience at Princeton University, an expert on body and mind who was not involved in the experiments.

Usually these sensory streams, which include including vision, touch, balance and the sense of where one’s body is positioned in space, work together seamlessly, Prof. Botvinick said. But when the information coming from the sensory sources does not match up, when they are thrown out of synchrony, the sense of being embodied as a whole comes apart.

[Thanks N8]

Soft Rationality

How much of what we believe has to do with factors outside of what we perceive to be normal rational thought? As it turns out the answer might be more than you'd think.

From MU with a tip from The Daily Grail:

COLUMBIA, MO - People who are intuitive and in a good mood are prone to believe just about anything, according to a University of Missouri-Columbia researcher.

Laura King, professor of psychological sciences in the College of Arts and Science, along with a faculty member from Johns-Hopkins University, tested the notion during a series of interesting studies that examined how mood and intuition can affect a person's beliefs - even under the most unique circumstances and scenarios.

"When you're in a good mood and more intuitive, you're open minded, creative and engaged in what appears to be reality," King said. "You make non-rational associations."

In My Language

Wow. This is remarkable.

Found on YouTube:

The first part is in my "native language," and then the second part provides a translation, or at least an explanation. This is not a look-at-the-autie gawking freakshow as much as it is a statement about what gets considered thought, intelligence, personhood, language, and communication, and what does not.