> From: Jed Rothwell ...
> It is quite rational, but the conclusion you reach > depends upon your preconceptions, background, training > and expectations. In my mother's case she integrated > it into her pre-existing picture of reality and concluded > it must be a clinical problem rather than a supernatural > revelation. Actually, even if she had experienced a > genuine supernatural revelation (assuming such a thing as > possible), I expect she would have dismissed it as a > clinical problem. I sure would! As I said, I cannot > transcend my own culture, even though I have a great > deal of experience living in other people's cultures. > > - Jed I watched my own mother experience "hallucinations" on-and off for close to a year before she finally died. She was quite the rational person during her lifetime. But when she started seeing the "other people" and creatures floating effortlessly in the air that the rest of us couldn't see, it never once entered her mind that they didn't exist. She knew better! My father was terrified of the fact that no amount of deductive reasoning on his part (and, boy, did he try!) could convince his wife that she was simply hallucinating. He desperately tried to get her to pay no attention to the "apparitions", but to no avail. It did put a strain on their relationship. As for me I had many fascinating conversations with my mother during this experiential time in her life when I came over to visit. "Hi mom. What did you see today?" It was fortunate that she could still communicate fairly well. I made it clear to my mother that I couldn't see what she was seeing. Never the less I also made it clear to her that I was curious and wanted to know what she was seeing. We got along pretty well, and in some ways even better than before she started hallucinating. I have no idea if what my mother was seeing really existed or not. Doesn't really matter. However, the fact that western influenced scientific rationale would simply proclaim that my mother was experiencing nothing more than a "hallucination" is, in my view, a cop out. It's a convenient way to dismiss experiences for which it has no idea how to classify and/or interact with. How convenient to simply state that the brain is malfunctioning in some yet-to-be-understood scientific way. Jed, I thought some of your recent post contained many astute observations. OTOH, you claim you "cannot transcend [your] own culture." Personally, I would disagree with that assumption. I tend to suspect we all eventually transcend the boundaries of the culture we were born into, some more obnoxiously than others. Regards, Steven Vincent Johnson www.OrionWorks.com
