Is The Mind Material Or Immaterial?

I will argue that the mind is immaterial based on lots of arguments. I have discussed evidence before for dualism.

First by the introspection argument

The Argument from Introspection

"A more universal consideration is the argument from introspection. The fact is, when you center your attention on the contents of your consciousness, you do not clearly apprehend a neural network pulsing with electrochemical activity: you apprehend a flux of thoughts, sensations, desires, and emotions. It seems that mental states and properties, as revealed in introspection, could hardly be more different from physical states and properties if they tried. The verdict of introspection, therefore, seems strongly on the side of some form of dualism"

Another argument for dualism is the premise that we have privileged access to our mental states.


the premise that you have a special ways of knowing about your own mental states. This knowledge is not usually based on any evidence or observation. You can just tell that you're thinking about elephants. You don't have to infer it from any evidence. But other people do have to infer what you're thinking, from your behavior and from what you say. So you're in a better position to know what you're thinking than they are. You have a kind of special or privileged access to your mental states which other people lack.

You don't have any privileged access of that sort to your height or weight or shoe size. In principle, other people could be in a better position to know your height than you are.

Most philosophers will agree that we do have some kind of privileged access to our own mental states, even if it is difficult to spell that claim out in detail.

But some philosophers go further and argue that the only way we can explain or account for this privileged access is if facts about your mind are facts about what's happening in some private non-physical realm. Physical objects and their physical properties, on the other hand, are all publicly accessible. Other people can know more about your height, and your weight, and the physical state of your brain, than you know. So if your mental states were just physical states of some sort, like neurophysiological states of your brain, then that would make your mental states all publicly accessible.


Other arguments for dualism are discussed here by philosopher Edward Feser

http://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/2008/10/some-brief-arguments-for-dualism-part.html

Things I Got This Christmas

5 Disc entertainment system
Cranium Game Board
Creative Mp3/WWA player 1gb holds 500 songs with lyric display
Nintendo Gamecube system
3 games TMNT, Lord of the rings, G cube-x3 game
Axe set
T shirt
Pants
Lots of body wash, deorderate, tooth brush, toothpaste, blistex creme
Pack of lotto tickets
Poster
Lifesavers
Sweater

Happy Holidays And A Happy New Year!

I like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and an Happy New Year!.

Why It's Very Difficult To Do An Near Death Experiment

Why? you may ask here's why


The fact is if I was out of body experience too, I would be a lot more concern about my lifeless body down below and seeing possible dead relatives then seeing a sign up above. Their is a major problem for these nde experiments, and also if someone who was out of body did claim to see a sign above then the skeptics would say maybe they were peaking at it before they went unconsciousness. Look at the shoe on the ledge case of a woman claiming to see a shoe outside the building. But still the sceptics, say well maybe she looked out the window. Even if she did it still wouldn't, explain how she was able to describe how the shoelace was tugged into the toe of the shoe.

So I wouldn't be surprise if this new study done on near death experiences and out of body experiences done by Sam Parnia and others. Which you can find here. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080910090829.htm.

That it produces negative results. But of course it may not but the likely heard is most of near death experiencers probably are more concerned about their lifeless body and seeing dead relatives then about a trival thing like a sign. I could be wrong. We will see.

Wwe Armageddon Pay Per View Results

1. Dark Match: The Miz and John Morrison defeated Jesse and Festus.
2. Vladmir Kozlov defeated Ecw champion Matt Hardy in a non title match
3. Cm Punk defeated Rey Mysterio in an Intercontinental Championshop finals match.
4. Finlay defeated Mark Henry in an belfast brawl match.
5. Later in the night Hbk comes out explaining why he's with Jbl.
6. Batista defeated Randy Orton.
7. Santa's little helper match: Maria, Kelly Kelly, Mickie James and Michelle Mccool defeated Jillian Hall, Victoria, Maryse and Natayla Neidhart.
8. John Cena Wwe champion defeated Chris Jericho
9. Triple Threat Match Edge Jeff Hardy defeated Edge and Triple H to become new Wwe champion.

Ghostly Facts

Ghosts want to be noticed.

Ghosts have no sense of passing time.

Often, they do not know that they are dead.

Sometimes they exist in a state of confusion, perhaps like being stuck in a dream.

Ghosts can smell things and love the smell of lemons.

Ghosts have a sense of humor and love to hear humans laugh.

Sometimes ghosts get bored with their surroundings

Most ghosts are happy, but some still cling to an emotional pain.

They can appear to the living in dreams.

They can leave behind certain scents, such as perfume.

They can make sounds that are audible.

They use their energies and ours to move things.

They are pranksters.

They usually appear as intense balls of light called orbs that are neon blue or violet.

Ghosts favor night due to the decrease in daytime energy use.

Ghosts may appear as mists or vapors.



A hooded black smoky figure is a dark entity and you should be careful around them. They usually appear at the foot of beds.

Some alleged hauntings are actually a "residue," which is a past event that replays itself over and over.

Certain places are portals or vortexes where ghosts transport themselves.

Hauntings are most intense around children entering puberty, as kids this age are emitting immense amounts of energy.

Ghosts can read your thoughts.

Ghosts retain all the memories and emotions of their lives.

Sometimes ghosts are trapped and need to be released. Let them know they can move on.

Noisy, troublesome ghosts are known as poltergeists.

Ghosts tend to be very temperamental.

If a spirit was a jerk while living, they will probably still be a jerk while a ghost.

Ghosts hang out in cliques with other ghosts.

Ghosts make friends with other ghosts from different eras.

If you hear a strange whisper in your ear when sleeping, it is probably a ghost.

Ghosts do not sleep.

Ghosts like to climb up and down stairs at night.

Most ghosts can't or won't hurt you.

Animals can see or sense spirits, that's why you often see them just staring intensely at what appears to be nothing.

If you are being haunted, if you simply ask them to leave, they will. Say something like "I know you are here but you are scaring me please leave."

When a ghost enters a room, the room usually gets cold.

Animal ghosts exist and have been sighted.

Ghosts who lived hundreds of years ago keep up with the trends.

Children perceive ghosts as imaginary friends.

New Scientist Article Called Creationists Declare War On The Brain

The Whole article is one bad piece. Why? Well first anyone who disagrees with the mainsteam science view that mind is produce by the brain are classified as creationists. Also it also puts intelligent design in the same way of thinking as creationism. But creationism is different then intelligent design. How? Well creationism relies on a bible as it's evidence. Where intelligent design relies on two facts that no scientist's denies.

1] Biological animals are intelligent
2] Their is design in evolution

Now biologists say they admit both of those things. But it's like biologists who are devoted to naturalism appear not very happy that those two things are facts. Also it's true that a lot of christians have used intelligent design to get their case across. I personally don't like that christians have hijacked intelligent design.

Here's what Patricia Churchland says in the article

Patricia Churchland, a philosopher of neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego, "it is an argument from ignorance. The fact something isn't currently explained doesn't mean it will never be explained or that we need to completely change not only our neuroscience but our physics."

But that's not what dualists are saying. Postulating that mind is seperate from the brain, that the brain is a filter of consciousness is an alternative that should be taken seriously.

Here's another piece from the article.

Schwartz and others argue that since the mind can change the brain, the mind must be something other than the brain, something non-material. In fact, these experiments are entirely consistent with mainstream neurology - the material brain is changing the material brain.

Consistent?. True it's consistent if you preconceive that the brain is doing the changing itself without a soul.

The deathblow to materialism is the fact that we have an inner life. How do emergent systems give rise to an inner life?. Of course they don't. Also their's another way out for materialism by positioning epiphenomenalism. The big problem with this is we know we have conscious experiences but it says consciousness is an illusion.

Facts That Support Substance Dualism

1. We have an inner life
2. Evidence from post mortem survival
3. Psi evidence
4. Neuroscientific evidence is compatible with neuroscientific evidence for example the brain is a transmitter decoder of consciousness. The information is received and decoded by the brain.
5. Other phenomena such as stigmata challenge that mind is an emergent property of the brain.



Here's an interesting study on extracting images from the brain.

http://www.cell.com/neuron/abstract/S0896-6273(08)00958-6

Perceptual experience consists of an enormous number of possible states. Previous fMRI studies have predicted a perceptual state by classifying brain activity into prespecified categories. Constraint-free visual image reconstruction is more challenging, as it is impractical to specify brain activity for all possible images. In this study, we reconstructed visual images by combining local image bases of multiple scales, whose contrasts were independently decoded from fMRI activity by automatically selecting relevant voxels and exploiting their correlated patterns. Binary-contrast, 10 × 10-patch images (2^100 possible states) were accurately reconstructed without any image prior on a single trial or volume basis by measuring brain activity only for several hundred random images. Reconstruction was also used to identify the presented image among millions of candidates. The results suggest that our approach provides an effective means to read out complex perceptual states from brain activity while discovering information representation in multivoxel patterns.

It looks like they've been successful at developing a basic method for translating brain state/image correlates into perceptible images. It will lead to interesting new technologies, no doubt. Philosophically, however, it isn't surprising. Not exactly, but it's sort of like what a DVD player does on a TV screen when you pop in a DVD and hit play.

Do Materialist's Misuse The Use Of Critical Thinking

I think so that set it to a very new level. That any experience must CANNOT be paranormal in origin. Don't get me wrong their's nothing wrong with critical thinking but when it's push to the extreme to make someone closed minded. For example, let's take taps ghost hunters they say that 90 percent of reported apparitions they have investigated and turned about physical things. But when they say that 10 percent of it could be attributed to a paranormal origin. Well that's when someone like Phil Plait comes in and says no critical thinking is not used here. Basically all alleged paranormal happenings must be fraud, or physical in origin. Of course though I should point out taps wasn't completely sure that the 10 percent figure was correct. Because they say it's possible that the percentage might be higher. But nonetheless, as I said before I am much into ghost hunters I am more for researching to see what scientists have to say such as psychical researchers.

Their are many areas of evidence that support the survival hypothesis. Which has been I have mentioned numerous times.

Museum Recordings Provide Haunting Evidence?

I never been to keen on ghosthunters, I rather see parapsychologists or psychical researchers gathering cases with collobaration. It because psychical researchers care very careful not all the time but sometimes they are. But nonetheless the qualifications it's important to collect data on apparitions, poltergeists etc.]

Make up your mind on this particular article I will link here.

http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/display.htm?StoryID=83255

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I just like to say Merry Christmas to everyone. Also thanks for making comments to my blog. I will be posting more blog posts before christmas, then I will take a little break from blogging. But I will be back soon after.


By the way here's something interesting about a new article out entitled Against the Tide. A Critical Review by Scientists of How Physics and Astronomy Get Done.

Here's a brief summary

This book deals with the tension between the scientific establishment of a given time, and scientists with radical or heretical ideas, who work outside the mainstream, and have difficulties in having their ideas accepted or even seriously critiqued...much of the scientific activity at the present time confirms [sic] to a set of ideas and paradigms which are unquestionably accepted by the vast majority of practising scientists. Most work is done within this framework, and those who disagree with it find it difficult to survive academically, because they are denied grants, positions, research facilities like observing time on telescopes, invitations to speak at conferences, the opportunity to publish in the best research journals, and even to post their papers on open electronic archives heavily used by the community. These difficulties make it impossible to air radical ideas, or glaring inconsistencies in experimental or observational data, which challenge the very foundations of mainstream science. This suppression of dissent and challenging new ideas, without examining them carefully for correctness and applicability, prevents progress in human knowledge, and the vast resources expended on science go in vain, merely perpetuating unqualified beliefs and dogmas... The book should be read by everyone working in science, to become acquainted with the anguish that some people feel at the way they have been treated by the scientific establishment...

As you can see anything outside mainsteam science is difficult to challenge the paradign. Because of the set of ideas that are in the minds of mainsteam scientists.

European Weekly Long Range Outlook

Here is what the long range european weekly forecast is saying for North America.


Dec 8-14

--Drier than normal pattern over Alaska
--Normal temperatures and slightly below-normal precipitation across British Columbia and the Pacific northwest.
--Dry and warmer than normal over the Southwestern U.S. west of the Divide.
--Drier and slightly colder than normal from the western Prairies down through the high Plains of the U.S., including the front range.
--Much colder than normal with normal precipitation from the eastern Prairies down through the eastern U.S. Plains, Midwest, Ohio Valley and Ontario. Above normal snowfall in the usual lake-effect snow belts.
--Below-normal temps and slightly drier than normal over the Southeastern U.S.
--Below-normal temperatures and above-normal precipitation from the northern Middle Atlantic states through New England, southern Quebec and the western Maritimes.
--Normal cold and above-normal precipitation from the eastern Maritimes through Newfoundland.


Dec 15-21

--Dry pattern over western Alaska with normal temperatures.
--Well below-normal temperatures from eastern Alaska and the Yukon Territory through the Northwest Territories, down into the Prairies and into the northern U.S. Plains and Midwestern U.S. Generally drier than normal in northern and western part of this region, but frequent clipper storms could lead to normal snowfall from Saskatchewan to the Midwestern U.S.
--A piece of this well-below normal air could get west of the divide and spill into most of British Columbia.
--Normal temperatures and precip over the Southwestern U.S.
--Above-normal precipitation from the central Rockies through the Ohio Valley and lower Great Lakes and then into Northeastern U.S.
--Temperatures back to normal with normal precipitation in the Southeastern U.S.
--Below-normal temperatures from Ontario through Quebec and the Maritimes with normal precipitation. Plenty of Lake-effect snow again.
--Normal temperatures and precipitation for Newfoundland.


Dec 22-28

--Drier than normal over most of Alaska. Normal temperatures in the west to well below in the eastern part of the state.
--Bitterly cold (well below normal) from The Yukon Territory through western parts of the Northwestern Territories then down into the northern half of BC and the northern Prairies.
--Below-normal temps across the remainder of western Canada and into the northern half of the Pacific Northwest. Precipitation in this region below normal with the exception of the eastern slopes of the Rockies from Alberta to Montana where snowfall will be normal.
--Above-normal precipitation from the central Rockies through the central Plains and into the Midwestern U.S.
--Normal temperatures and precipitation across the Northeastern U.S., most of Ontario and Quebec.
--Slightly milder and drier compared to normal over the Southeastern U.S.
--Normal temperatures and above-normal precipitation over Newfoundland.