From church apologist to neuroscientist and physicist

[drumdude]

Our favorite PhD has been hard at work mastering another couple scientific disciplines:

“I’m pleased to report that I’ve just been notified that I will be speaking between 3:45 and 4:45 PM on Saturday, 3 September, at the 2022 annual convention of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS). It will be held this year in Salt Lake City. I’m really pleased with that date and time, and had actually requested it, because I will have just returned about forty-eight hours earlier from a stay in Europe. My title is “Has Modern Physics Proven Out-of-Body Experiences Impossible?”


It’s quite an achievement to go from linguistics to philosophy to neuroscience to physics. He’s really a modern day Renaissance man.

[Philo Sofee]

It would be interesting to see how his use of evidence is made and how he guides through the issues...

[Physics Guy]

Out-of-body experiences are definitely not impossible. They're a widely attested phenomenon.

All the evidence is consistent with the standard assumption that nothing actually physically leaves the body. Nobody sees anything that they could not see, or remember seeing, with their eyes. But the subjective experience of seeing things from a viewpoint outside one's body, even looking down on one's own body from above, has been reported many times.

As a psychological phenomenon, out-of-body experiences are clearly real. They are interesting for what they may say about how the brain organises sensory information.

Physics rules out material theories of the mind/spirit, regardless of where the spiritual substance that would supposedly make up our minds would be located physically. Spirit is not some special or subtle alternative kind of matter. So I guess if by OOBE you mean "your substantial spirit exits your body", then physics does rule that out. But that would be a weird way to express the issue.

It would be like saying that biology tells us that unicorns cannot pull hay wagons. I mean, okay, biology tells us that unicorns do not exist, so that does mean that they cannot pull hay wagons. The problem has nothing to do with hay wagons in particular, though.

[Fence Sitter]

Is it too much to ask to actually mention the name of who the hell you're talking about or do we just assume everything is about DP?

[Physics Guy]

D’oh. Salt Lake City plus “I’ll be getting back from Europe” just made me assume it was Peterson.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

I do wonder who’s paying for all his jet setting. It’s very curious.

- Doc

[Doctor Steuss]

While likely not at all on par with speaking at their annual conference, going back through some of the “Monthly IANDS Leaders Teleconference Call” guest speakers, you can find other informative contributions to the field such as:

After my experience, I began to realize that I had the ability to self-heal and to help others to heal because I could feel their pain. I discovered I could actually feel their mental, emotional and physical pain. I began searching for an explanation and learned about crystals, energy healing and the pendulum. This resulted in a small energy healing business for a few years called ACE Holistic Healing, where I used crystals, my connection to the angels and energy healing to help my clients.

(Seriously though, I hope that when I reach Dr. Peterson's age, I have even a fraction of his energy and curiosity.)

[drumdude]

I can see it now, the late night infomercials with Daniel z Peterson selling magnet bracelets, crystals, and essential oils to heal his fellow elderly humans.

He would do it for free just to spit in the eye of those horrible atheist materialists!

[Doctor Steuss]

He would do it for free just to spit in the eye of those horrible atheist materialists!

Looking to keep secularists from ruining your outdoor family picnic? Try dipping amethyst in lemongrass...

[drumdude]

He would do it for free just to spit in the eye of those horrible atheist materialists!

Looking to keep secularists from ruining your outdoor family picnic? Try dipping amethyst in lemongrass...

Science can't prove it doesn't work!