dmb said: And an empirical study of mystical states would be no different in this regard either. Expanding what counts as valid empirical evidence beyond sensory experience does not alter the basic rules of science nor is it immune to the same problems.
Krimel replied: So what would this expansion of evidence include? Please give us an example of what would constitute an empirical study of mystical states. I suggested the use of EEG and brain imaging. Did you have something else in mind? dmb says: I'd say that stuff like EEGs and brain imaging are just about the only reasonable way to study mystical states IF WE CONTINUE TO LIMIT SCIENCE TO SENSORY DATA. And if we insist on such a narrow empiricism it is extremely unlikely that we'll learn anything interesting about mysticism. As Wilber explains, the people who study mysticism have to conduct experiments in which they experience these modes of being and NOT people who study the brains of people who are in these states. This would not only make the data second hand knowledge, it would also be data about brain states and not mystical consciousness. This sort of scientist would need to be well trained and highly competent just like a physicist or biomedical researcher but they'd be skilled in their own area of study, of course. See, the usual notion of empirical science limits the range of what we can treat scientifically by insisting that sensory experience (which includes microscopes, telescopes, EEGs and all the other instruments with which we enhance or amplify the senses) has the effect of excluding a wide range of experience. The wish to include mystical experience is certainly not the only reason to reject the limits imposed by sensory empiricism but it is a prime example. As Pirsig says, this limitation is not scientifically based. Its the metaphysical assumptions behind the science rather than science itself. The metaphysics of substance is what leads us the think that the observation of physical processes will somehow reveal the nature of mystical experiences. That would be like trying to get at the nature of literary genius by measuring the brains of readers. It just won't work. There was a skit on Saturday Night Live in which a man traded his children for some very large rocks. It was a great deal, he explained to their mother, because the rocks weighed so much more than the children. This is just about at the same level of confusion. We don't measure the value of our offspring by their weight because that would be absurd. We don't measure the value of our mystical experiences in terms of electro-chemical activity in the brain either. Yes, children have weight and density. Yes, brains exhibit their processes. The problem is that when we try to evaluate everything in terms of its physical state we have reduced everything to "substance". And that's the problem with scientific materialism and the narrow brand of empiricism upon which it is based. In short, the problem is SOM or, as Wilber calls it, flatland reductionism. Make sense? dmb _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail to go? Get your Hotmail, news, sports and much more! http://mobile.msn.com moq_discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
