0 Members and 3 Guests are viewing this topic.
Where did you get this from? How reliable is it? Could be since he knew what the test was for some kind of subconcious action made him say those things about God and hearing dead people. The naming names of dead people sounds a bit fishy though.
Theory pretty probable. I've been close to death multiple times, and weird stuff can happen, like 'light coming from above your mind' as if you 'feel you're going to be taken to heaven,' to my blood almost 'boiling' and 'being cast into hell', losing functionality of my senses, my body feeling more ethereal, along with religious artifacts 'burning' me. It's been pretty insane.But for the story? I dunno. My things have been odd at worst. If you think about 'em too much, yeah they seem nuts, ethereal, er whatever. But maybe the story's probable. If I lost all senses.. hell, that'd be hell.
Read this:Does the situation described seem plausible? If you are shut off from *all* senses, will you gain supernatural insight? Are there moral issues with surgically doing this to someone, even if they're willing?
Hallucination is a typical side-effect of sensory deprivation, even when the experiment is voluntary. The same is true of solitary confinement. Without stimulation, the brain drifts into its own delusions. Without human contact, emotional instability and mental degradation often result.So the story is entirely plausible.That being said, no institutional review board would ever approve this type of study. It is ethically questionable and scientifically unsound. Furthermore, it isn't even possible to sever all sensory input. That would require a kind of invasiveness that hasn't been invented yet. There are sensory neurons in every centimeter of your body: every inch of skin, every blood vessel, every ligament on every skeletal muscle. It simply isn't possible unless you choose to severely damage the brain, but then you've compromised your study by introducing a significant confounding factor.Regarding supernatural insight from sensory deprivation: what makes you think this might be a plausible theory? The very definition of the supernatural is that it is unexplainable and unpredictable. There is no reason to think that sensory deprivation might provide a window to a possible supernatural world any more than would licking a kitten's ass for two hours on alternating Wednesdays or listening to Latin promulgations before eating Jesus crackers on Sunday morning. The story mentions "scientists", but they are clearly anything but. Might as well stop at deeply pious, and perhaps therein lies their problem -- not that religion is the problem, but that allowing religion to come before reason is (just ask the Catholic Church: their scientists have practiced astoundingly good science for hundreds of years, minus a few cock-ups).
