Near Death experiences and the scientific method.

[SkepticThinker]

So I guess all you have is word salad.

I was just thinking that I'm going to bow out of this thread now because it appears to have gone full woo-woo.

 

[night912]

Now I refer to the reality beyond the conceptual mind's state by many names, spiritual awareness, transcendence, higher consciousness, pure awareness, etc., but in all cases I can never claim that I have ever been experienced that state because ironically, the higher state is only present when 'I' am NOT present.

So you are not qualified to say what that state of mind is or is not.

 

[Ben Dhyan]

So you are not qualified to say what that state of mind is or is not.

When the mind is still and no personal I is engaged in thought, an awesome mind state may be present that is unforgettable, the memory of which remains after the 'I' resumes thinking. It is also natural for most novices, certainly for me speaking personally, that initially I presumed I, the personal self, had had the experience. It is only when a more experience spiritual aspirant explained to me that when the mind is still, totally free from thought, the I, the thinker, is not active, so what is being experienced is not a result of the thinking process, it is a transcendent state. As one gains more experience, understanding of the mind increases to a greater degree than hitherto existed.

Also what happens after many years of practicing still mind meditation is that a new self identification arises in addition to the ego self identification with the physical body. This new Self is associated with the spiritual self awareness of the mind when it is free from thought.




Fwiw, my first still mind experience occurred over forty years ago.