How many GODS do you have?

[Hydra009]

You can't argue with such sound logic!

I'm convinced the conclusions are randomly selected and any arguments in defense of it are where the real thinking happens, such as it is.

"3+3=5!"
"No it doesn't"
"Yes, it does, you're just closed off to the evidence that 3+3=5 in your 6-centric worldview."

[Sal1981]

God of the Gaps as per mind/brain dualism.

We have good evidence that the brain is the center of the mind, that they're in fact the same qualia. The story of Phineas Gage, amongst others, tell us as much. Not to mention run-of-the-mill brain surgery where brain surgeons have to know where the vital centers of the brain are located and use an electrode to map it during surgery. In fact, you can map, for instance, the motor functions of the body unto the brain.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=map+of+the+brain

[Baruch]

God of the Gaps as per mind/brain dualism.

We have good evidence that the brain is the center of the mind, that they're in fact the same qualia. The story of Phineas Gage, amongst others, tell us as much. Not to mention run-of-the-mill brain surgery where brain surgeons have to know where the vital centers of the brain are located and use an electrode to map it during surgery. In fact, you can map, for instance, the motor functions of the body unto the brain.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=map+of+the+brain

The brain is the center of the nervous system.  Qualia question is hard, and unresolved aka mind  But I thought you people didn't do philosophy?  The brain is like a radio.  It isn't the radio program, but it is where the radio program manifests in a more physical form. Imagine that it is both a transmitter and receiver .. it gets a mixture of pickup from its own signals, as well as those outside.   And the action/reaction part is wired up to the peripheral nervous system.

[Sal1981]

To stretch that radio analogy further, there a different configurations of the brain (i.e. plasticity) which means different memories, different perspectives, etc. from other brains.

[Baruch]

To stretch that radio analogy further, there a different configurations of the brain (i.e. plasticity) which means different memories, different perspectives, etc. from other brains.

Now going too far, I am not claiming the brain/nervous system is man-made as in un-natural.  It took a long time, over countless generations, to make it.

Normally you wouldn't want feedback, the radio transmitter feeding back into its own receiver ... but that might explain how broken people are.  Ever have an audio-visual system screech?

[Unbeliever]

I think consciousness is just the brain perceiving parts of itself. Maybe the inner dialogue we experience is just communication between Wernicke's and Boca's areas. The current drive to map the brain will teach us a lot about how these things happen, but we will always have more questions.

[Hakurei Reimu]

I see..............so I suppose that anyone can break those materials by using only their bones or skull and the power of the mind is not necessary.
Is that so?

I have seen no evidence that the feats you describe require any sort of "power of the mind" beyond mere discipline.

If you are so expert in the matter than I suppose you know why these people do not show a single scratch on their head

For the same reason I can hit a table and not acquire a scratch, really. There's a reason why the medical term for a scratch is "abrasion."

and what about those guys that insert metal hooks through their flesh and at the end of the festival when they remove those metal hooks the hole close as nothing happen leaving no trace of blood or injuries.

What makes you think that they get away with no blood or injuries? There is certainly a traceable hole, and if you think otherwise, you need to provide evidence that the hole simply disappears. I have no need to explain what is not evident. (No, a sensationalist newspaper article does not cut it. You need a medical examination.) As to why there's no blood (assuming there is), well, if you poke the same spot multiple times, the body is going to stop bothering healing it up completely and just scar a hole over, like your ear piercings.

How do you explain that?
Do you really think you can explain that with your compression, tension and shear logic?

Yes. You have yet to give evidence of anything that is genuinely inexplicable. I don't think you know well enough how nature works to say anything is supernatural.

[Baruch]

I think consciousness is just the brain perceiving parts of itself. Maybe the inner dialogue we experience is just communication between Wernicke's and Boca's areas. The current drive to map the brain will teach us a lot about how these things happen, but we will always have more questions.

Correct.  Feedback has to be part of it.  Otherwise you wouldn't be conscious of self, by definition.

[Cavebear]

Nothing really special in that link except for atheists that are still stuck to the notion that everything must follow a material outcome.

If Fenwick would be an idiot then nobody would contact him to talk and explain how things works but important institution contact him quite regularly so there has got to be a reason.

Here below you can see his credentials.
Peter Fenwick, M.D., F.R.C.Psych., is Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College, London, and associated with the Mental Health Group at the University of Southampton. He is also Consultant Neuropsychiatrist at the Maudsley Hospital and at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, and holds a visiting professorship in Japan, where he spends three months of the year in advanced neuropsychiatric research.

Just mentioning that...

Just noting that he still depends on "reports of death bed visions, such as visitations by deceased relatives, and spooky coincidences, such as clocks stopping when someone dies".

His list of credentials does not change that.

[Arik]

In that case, I eagerly await a hand capable of using a N64 controller properly.

A hand?

That is a primitive way of doing.
If you will be alive maybe in 30-40 years time those machines will be controlled by the mind.

[Arik]

Just noting that he still depends on "reports of death bed visions, such as visitations by deceased relatives, and spooky coincidences, such as clocks stopping when someone dies".

His list of credentials does not change that.

That article in that paper make a very short comment about what the journalist think he understood about Dr. Fenwick or maybe this journalist made up a story, who knows?
I would like to see and read what really Dr. Fenwick said in the proper context.
Only after that is possible to make a comment.

Remember however that there is a huge difference between a vision that may be caused by an hallucination and a real experience as an NDE.

[Arik]

I think consciousness is just the brain perceiving parts of itself. Maybe the inner dialogue we experience is just communication between Wernicke's and Boca's areas. The current drive to map the brain will teach us a lot about how these things happen, but we will always have more questions.

How can something made of matter perceive part of itself?

That is absurd.
It would be like to say that a vehicle made of matter is able to perceive part of itself.
The consciousness is the only entity able to perceive itself same same as the driver of the vehicle is the only entity able to perceive himself.

One day you too will be able to differentiate between an abstract entity such as the consciousness and the brain which is made of matter that is only there to serve the boss-consciousness.

[Arik]

I have seen no evidence that the feats you describe require any sort of "power of the mind" beyond mere discipline.
For the same reason I can hit a table and not acquire a scratch, really. There's a reason why the medical term for a scratch is "abrasion."
What makes you think that they get away with no blood or injuries? There is certainly a traceable hole, and if you think otherwise, you need to provide evidence that the hole simply disappears. I have no need to explain what is not evident. (No, a sensationalist newspaper article does not cut it. You need a medical examination.) As to why there's no blood (assuming there is), well, if you poke the same spot multiple times, the body is going to stop bothering healing it up completely and just scar a hole over, like your ear piercings.
Yes. You have yet to give evidence of anything that is genuinely inexplicable. I don't think you know well enough how nature works to say anything is supernatural.

If I wouldn't have seen with my eyes many years ago in Penang I wouldn't have believed that as soon as the hooks are removed the hole close by itself in seconds.


Apart from feeling no pain, no blood is shed and no scars will remain.

http://scribol.com/anthropology-and-history/cultures/ouch-extreme-body-piercing/


I am curious to know if any devotee has been hospitalized or seriously wounded due to this practice. Upon asking this I am answered with a very clear ‘no’. Devotees are able to obtain a trance-like state in which they feel no pain, not bleed from their wounds and leave no scars. I am amazed at their spiritual strength. The ability to control the body is achievable, but to control the mind to remain on a single focus is a far more difficult task and takes practice. Yet, despite this barrier I witnessed young children participating in Vel Kavadi, disregarding the pain of having your flesh flagellated by imploring the help of Lord Murugan.

https://snapshotfromsomewhere.com/2019/02/27/thaipusam/

[Arik]

The evidence has been presented to you several times. Your inability to understand it doesn't mean the evidence isn't there. It just means that you're an idiot.

The evidence has been presented to you several times.....................oh, yeah, is that so BL.........WHEN, WHEN BL? Please show that to me so I can believe that.

[Mike Cl]

Please show that to me so I can believe that.

You are a good little theist, aren't you.  You live in a little world in which only beliefs exist.  Facts don't matter, so why even bother considering them.  And you don't.  You are a vapid little creature with no desire to think--that is way beyond what you are capable of, so why try????  As the typical little theist if you believe it it is so.  Typical.