Self-Transcendence Correlates with Brain Function Impairment?

[SQAAD]

I  recently came across this --> https://philpapers.org/rec/KASSCW

I don't get it though. Can someone interpret what does this suppose to mean?

And why "trance-induced physiological effects and the action of psychoactive substances" is labeled as BRAIN FUNCTION IMPAIRMENT.

I don't get it.

But this made me feel kinda anxious and doubtful about my spiritual progress.  

Edited March 27, 2019 by SQAAD

[Highest]

Materialism you know ? Find out what the brain itself is. You can become conscious of it.

[SQAAD]

@Highest Yes. 

Btw it's kinda tough when you are not engrossed in mainstream culture. You feel lonely and sometimes crazy. Maybe in a few hundred years content like actualized.org  and non-duality will become mainstream.

Who knows.

Edited March 27, 2019 by SQAAD

[Highest]

4 minutes ago, Highest said:

 

 

1 minute ago, SQAAD said:

@Highest Yes. 

Btw it's kinda tough when you are not engrossed in mainstream culture. You feel lonely and sometimes crazy. Maybe in a few hundred years content like actualized.org will become mainstream.

 

I hope so. A new revolution has to happen in the world: Spirituality and non-duality.

To answer the question of what the brain is: It's That which is Everything and includes Everything. God is inside your head. Surprised? ?

[Forestluv]

I fully support this type of exploration into the natural of consciousness. And I appreciate the author's attempt at integrating published work. However, it's just ill-defined. All it really says is that altered brain activity is correlated with perception. This is totally obvious. Sleep, drugs, strokes, hypoxia, NDE, TBIs - of course they will all affect perception. The only point he touched on that I found interesting was in regards to recontextualization. That is the transition from one pattern of brain activity to another pattern of brain activity and how perception is contextualized. However, he barely touched on this and I don't think he is aware how deep that question would go.

Regarding his usage of "brain impairment". He doesn't define the term - yet he is calling deviations from "normal" brain activity to "altered brain activity" to be "brain impairment". I don't think "impairment" is the best term for all conditions because it has an underlying value assumption. Yet I understand how he is using the term in the context of his essay.

What I found more disappointing was his usage of the term "self transcendence". I appreciate his effort to write an essay on this and help to raise societal awareness, yet his idea of self-transcendence is extremely limited and he has obviously not had direct experience with this. I think the vast majority of actualized members would give a better description of self transcendence. He defines it as:

‘self-transcendence’ is defined as the abrupt—thus not gradual— broadening of one’s sense of self through a step-function enrichment of one’s subjective inner life. This can happen, for instance, when one suddenly acquires (a) a feeling that one is no longer confined to the spatio-temporal locus of the physical body; (b) entirely new mental skills that one has never attempted to develop through learning or training; or (c) unfamiliar emotions, insights or inner imagery.

Those are variations of sensation and perception, not self transcendence. . . 

[SQAAD]

@Serotoninluv Thank you sir!!

Edited March 27, 2019 by SQAAD