Beyonder,
i'm just wondering how well your 'empirical rationalism' deals with new areas of science such as quantum physics and more specifically 'string theory' (www.mkaku.org)? string theory attempts to summarize all physical reality with an equation which is about one inch long. the idea of finding such an equation goes back to einstein, who was unsuccessful. string theory is currently the only working solution to the famous 'cat problem' (also known as 'many worlds' theory). although string theory has nothing to do with the out of body experience and in no way validates it, its multi-dimensional approach to the universe certainly makes ideas about OOBE seem more approachable.
it might also be helpful if you define what exactly you are disputing about the out of body experience? are you disputing whether people have such experiences, or the meaning that people assign them? i wouldn't think there could be too much doubt that people have these experiences, even susan blackmore well known skeptic accepts that they happen (she has induced them herself). she simply disputes that a person is actually 'leaving' their body in any useful sense. i'd like to know what you think the function of such an experience could be, since you obviously disagree with the meaning people have assigned to the experience on this board. surely there must be a reasonable explanation for this experience which does involve some kind of 'random neurons firing' theory. i'm yet to experience the human body doing anything truly 'random' and think this is a weak explanation.
in my own research i've not found anything truly concrete as evidence for the out of body experience. there are a few papers in academia which come close, yielding results of interest (just not the results they were looking for). thanks to string theory and those involved in high level physics one day there might be an expansion of our currently limited scientific method which is able to explain or account for the out of body experience.
i'm just wondering how well your 'empirical rationalism' deals with new areas of science such as quantum physics and more specifically 'string theory' (www.mkaku.org)? string theory attempts to summarize all physical reality with an equation which is about one inch long. the idea of finding such an equation goes back to einstein, who was unsuccessful. string theory is currently the only working solution to the famous 'cat problem' (also known as 'many worlds' theory). although string theory has nothing to do with the out of body experience and in no way validates it, its multi-dimensional approach to the universe certainly makes ideas about OOBE seem more approachable.
it might also be helpful if you define what exactly you are disputing about the out of body experience? are you disputing whether people have such experiences, or the meaning that people assign them? i wouldn't think there could be too much doubt that people have these experiences, even susan blackmore well known skeptic accepts that they happen (she has induced them herself). she simply disputes that a person is actually 'leaving' their body in any useful sense. i'd like to know what you think the function of such an experience could be, since you obviously disagree with the meaning people have assigned to the experience on this board. surely there must be a reasonable explanation for this experience which does involve some kind of 'random neurons firing' theory. i'm yet to experience the human body doing anything truly 'random' and think this is a weak explanation.
in my own research i've not found anything truly concrete as evidence for the out of body experience. there are a few papers in academia which come close, yielding results of interest (just not the results they were looking for). thanks to string theory and those involved in high level physics one day there might be an expansion of our currently limited scientific method which is able to explain or account for the out of body experience.