Ghosts "All in the mind"?

[Scribbler1]

Quote by: Plasma Snake[D] maybe we WANT to see ghosts sometimes cause it means that there is life after death.

Maybe, but I would address that on a case by case situation. Some probably do, but that also brings up the question of whether you think ghosts are somehow satanic or evil, doesn't it? I believe most religions don't recognize apparitions of any kind.

[Praxius]

Quote by: another day And I'm going to dismiss your stories once again as the mind playing tricks on you. Like you said, there are alot of areas of the brain that can't be fully understood and I think they are the cause. It IS all in your mind. Hence the original posters story about the area of the brain that causes those feelings of "a presence".

So because you can not prove that it didn't happen or that it did, you came to the conclusion that the mind is playing "Tricks?" How do you prove it is playing tricks?

It's all in your mind... yes.... everything you see, touch, smell, taste and hear, among many other things, are in the mind..... everything around us in the universe all has to go through the brain in the end.

What is to say there isn't something in the brain that is triggered, such as an additional sense (6th Sense, so to speak) that helps us see these things that are out of the norm? Chemical reactions and alterations of the mind happen by eating certain food, lack of sleep, meditation, hypnotism, altitude, attitude, imagination, etc...... who is to say a combination of chemical imbalances help trigger parts of the brain into sensing additional information that is not normally seen?

Many skeptics will say "Oh, you were doing this, so your mind was playing tricks." ~ But you alter your mind by drinking coffee, or eating chocolate, or taking viagra, what allows for those alterations to be valid, and yet, discount the things that are not so easy to explain?

Until you can explain "Tricks" I can't agree with your opinion.

Another way of asking the question:

What makes us determine which signals our minds receive as true, and what makes us discount or not believe others? What makes one sense more valid then another?? Any sense or signal sent to our brains can or could be altered by any amount of factors.... why discount what those alterations send us?

A few centuries ago we couldn't prove the earth revolved around the sun, let alone the earth being round, that doesn't make it not true though.

[Captain Chaos]

What is needed is the ability to test for veridical information, or a common experience that is not easily explained through physiological mechanisms.

I believe that the common occurrence across cultures of a life review is better explained by an external agency, rather than tricks of the mind.

[Praxius]

Which reminds me.... isn't REM sleep a Trick of the Mind?