More interesting than God
Every time I get involved in the debates that erupt here between the atheists and the theists, I end up feeling bemused by the fact that so much attention is focused on the question of whether "God" exists. It's been done to death.
I'm more interested in the question of whether there exists a spiritual dimension that is accessible to our own individual self. By "spiritual dimension", I mean a realm of consciousness that both contains and transcends our thinking rational mind and our "ordinary" waking-state sense of self. I don't necessarily mean a part of us that survives the death of the body. I'm talking about pre-death experience here.
My questions are: Is there information beyond sensation and learning? Is there identity beyond memory and reflection? Is there knowledge beyond logic and reason? Is there a level of "mind" that we sometimes have access to, but that is not exclusively or primarily "our own"? If you think the answer is yes, why do you think so? If you think not, or aren't sure, what kind of experience would it take to convince you that you do have access to relevant and useful information that originates or resides somewhere other than your own mind, whether conscious, subconscious or unconscious?
What about dreams, daydreams, epiphanies, visions, inspirations--are such relatively common experiences evidence that many if not all of us have some kind of access to some source of knowledge that doesn't originate entirely within our personal and individualized brain-based mind? Or are all such experiences best explained as a normal bio-electro-chemical brain and nervous system function that brings to conscious awareness previously learned but perhaps forgotten or hitherto unconscious knowledge?