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Experience Beyond the Body and Mind

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cloud potato

Nonfried potato in the sky = )
I am laying here, enjoying a contemplative quietude and ambient music. Thinking, ironically :p Wondering if it is possible to experience outside the mind? In feeling this beautiful state of creativity and tranquility, I wonder if it is possible to experience this outside the body and the mind. Here in this state, you are inspired to write a book or to reach out to a loved one and hope they resonate with you. Yet you know in doing so, you risk losing that kindred connection.

Connection to what? I believe in a Living Spirit. I believe that is what we are connected to. Still, to contemplate on a living spirit is curious- to experience the living spirit is complete. I think about our time on this planet and how our bodies will cease to function and return to the Earth. I wonder if Spirit will carry me then, in that terrifying realization that my personality and interaction with Life is ending. Maybe a next life isn't necessary. May be a next life isn't what we think. How we experience will also cease to exist. But I wonder, is it possible to experience with Spirit after this body and mind wither away?

What do you imagine that looks like?
 
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Who says the mind withers away? There are difficulties of language and definitions of words, as always. I wonder what your understanding of the term 'mind' is. There are no right or wrong answers, just practicalities of being understood (or misunderstood).
 
Thanks Speedwell,

I'm referring to the material body and the organ we call a brain. At death these things will decompose. Without this organ how would we understand and interpret experience?
 
Thanks for the reply.

Ah, then at least to some extent, you are equating mind with brain. This is a common viewpoint among materialists. However, in my view, once we start to consider any sort of phenomenon such as telepathy or precognition, we are breaking free of that viewpoint, so at the very least the mind has to be non- local, that is not confined to the skull. Going a little further, once we start to consider possibilities for surviving death, then in my view, we break that connection completely, so it is possible to say that mind has a wholly independent existence.

Now, having said that, the question arises, then what is the purpose of the brain? I can't say entirely, but a primary function must be to accept input from the human senses, sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. It also controls the body. The brain I think is also responsible for human languages. There is more, the human personality, the one active during a physical lifetime must be influenced by the brain too.

And yet - as described in numerous individual accounts on these forums and elsewhere, there are aspects of personality which can be transmitted from one lifetime to the next, so personality is not exclusively brain-based. What about thinking? Well, from NDE reports, when the activity of the brain may be reduced or even stopped, a person may still continue thinking, and may even find their thoughts flow faster or more freely than usual. So although we might consider our brains valuable for thinking, it may also be that the brain is a kind of brake or limiter, reducing our abilities. What I'm saying here is some of my own interpretations based upon reading or listening to many NDE accounts. But I'd always recommend to go direct to those original sources rather than listen to my second-hand re-interpretations.

I'm not sure whether this has particularly addressed any of the thoughts or questions raised at the start of this thread, maybe it was a diversion away from the topic.
 
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