The data I’m working from is that contact with certain people sometimes causes me to have mystical experiences. This has happened somewhere between 20 and 100 times, with less than a dozen people. Sometimes but not always, it happens in both directions; i.e., they also have a mystical experience as a result of the contact.
The simpler hypothesis, from a materialist point of view, is that seeing these people just tripped some switch in my brain, without any direct mind-to-mind interaction being involved. Then we can say that I also tripped such a switch in their brains in the cases where it was reciprocal. We are left with the question of why this weird psychological phenomenon happens.
The religious explanation is in many ways easier and more natural. We can say that my souls brushed up against these people’s. It makes sense from within the religious frame of mind that this sort of thing would happen. But obviously we run into the issues with religious views in general.
If we replaced “mystical experiences” with something of less religious connotations like “raging hard-ons”, you wouldn’t think that ‘souls brushing up against each other’ is the most natural explanation—you’d instead conclude that some aspect of psychology/biochemistry/pheromones is causing you to have a more intense reaction towards certain people and vice-versa.
From a physicalist perspective the brain is as much an organ as the penis, and “mystical experiences” as much a physical event in the brain as erections are a physical event in the penis.
EDIT: Why was this downvoted? I intended to convey that I thought ArisKatsaris was right in saying that brains are just as physical as genitals, and also that I thought his similie was funny.
You’re giving a mysterious answer and proposing ontologically basic mental substances.
I still say that it is a rather extraordinary claim, and thus requires extraordinary evidence. So far you have presented close to none, and what you have could easily and more sensibly be explained with psychological kinks. See cold readings.
The data I’m working from is that contact with certain people sometimes causes me to have mystical experiences. This has happened somewhere between 20 and 100 times, with less than a dozen people. Sometimes but not always, it happens in both directions; i.e., they also have a mystical experience as a result of the contact.
The simpler hypothesis, from a materialist point of view, is that seeing these people just tripped some switch in my brain, without any direct mind-to-mind interaction being involved. Then we can say that I also tripped such a switch in their brains in the cases where it was reciprocal. We are left with the question of why this weird psychological phenomenon happens.
The religious explanation is in many ways easier and more natural. We can say that my souls brushed up against these people’s. It makes sense from within the religious frame of mind that this sort of thing would happen. But obviously we run into the issues with religious views in general.
If we replaced “mystical experiences” with something of less religious connotations like “raging hard-ons”, you wouldn’t think that ‘souls brushing up against each other’ is the most natural explanation—you’d instead conclude that some aspect of psychology/biochemistry/pheromones is causing you to have a more intense reaction towards certain people and vice-versa.
From a physicalist perspective the brain is as much an organ as the penis, and “mystical experiences” as much a physical event in the brain as erections are a physical event in the penis.
So true, so funny.
EDIT: Why was this downvoted? I intended to convey that I thought ArisKatsaris was right in saying that brains are just as physical as genitals, and also that I thought his similie was funny.
Neither of these is an explanation.
You’re giving a mysterious answer and proposing ontologically basic mental substances.
I still say that it is a rather extraordinary claim, and thus requires extraordinary evidence. So far you have presented close to none, and what you have could easily and more sensibly be explained with psychological kinks. See cold readings.