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theranger · Nov 2, 2011, 02:57 PM

I suppose this happens when I meditate. I use the word meditate because I have no other term to describe what I feel. I concentrate past what I see and open my mind and it feels like the top of my head is a lid that opens and the centre of my body i.e.. My spine, nervous system blends with everything else. It's a bit like when you stare into the distance and you lose focus. I start to feel my edges blur, no definition and I am big (as in the universe) and small (as in smaller than anything known) at the same time.

TUT317 · Nov 2, 2011, 08:01 PM

Originally Posted by theranger

I suppose this happens when I meditate. I use the word meditate because I have no other term to describe what I feel. I concentrate past what I see and open my mind and it feels like the top of my head is a lid that opens and the centre of my body ie. my spine, nervous system blends with everything else. Its a bit like when you stare into the distance and you lose focus. I start to feel my edges blur, no definition and I am big (as in the universe) and small (as in smaller than anything known) at the same time.

Hi Ranger,

Generally speaking the experiences you speak of are not the experiences that science deals with. Mystical experiences are distinct from experiences gained through empirical observation. Empirical observation being the basis for the scientific method.

This is not to say that you experiences aren't real, it is just that sciences does not consider them as something that actually exists over and above the physical process involved in meditation.

For example, a physicalist might explain your experience as epiphenomenalism. That is to say, meditation causes your brain to function in a certain way and this is why you are having an illusion.

Not many scientists take these experiences seriously. Many philosophers of mind on the other hand do. They take these experiences quite seriously and put forward convincing arguments to claim experience has an existence all of its own. In other words, experience is something 'extra' that exists over and above the physicalist explanation.

Tut

theranger · Nov 3, 2011, 02:26 AM

Thank you for your answer. I will wait for science to catch up.