Sunday, February 8, 2009

“Near death experiences can have tremendous effects on the people who have them… Changes in values and beliefs often occur after a near death experience, including changes in personality and outlook on life, such as greater appreciation of life, higher self esteem, greater compassion for others, a heightened sense of purpose and self understanding and a desire to learn…”

Matthew Dowel wrote this. I found it on the Wikipedia when I was goggling for “Near death experiences.”

After Pavlov discovered “the conditioned response”, he tried to find out how to extinguish it. The dogs, who were used to get food when a bell was ringing, never stopped to dribble when they heard the bell, even if they now got food without the sound from the bell and sometimes did not get food when the bell was ringing. When they heard the bell, they always began to dribble. The only way to get rid of the conditioned response was to beat the poor dogs so badly that they were brought very close to death. ´

To get rid of our conditionings we have to be brought very close to death. We have to have a near death experience. We can, if I have it right, experience something like a near death experience if we take certain drugs, DMT or ketamine.

I don’t want to have a near death experience. I will cross that bridge when I come to it. I don’t want to try DMT. I don’t want to fast for forty days in the desert. I accept my conditionings. I accept my conditioned self. I accept myself for what I am. When I hear the bell I begin to drivel. So what? I no longer try to better myself. I don’t try to wake up. I don’t try to stay awake. When I am tired, I go to bed.

It seems to me though, that science has a very limited way of looking at the world. Science believes in the existence of only one world, one universe. I believe that outside our universe there are many, many more. Our universe is like a bubble in an endless foam bath. This belief is according to science meaningless because it is not testable. OK, I accept that. However, I still believe in other universes, other worlds, other possibilities. I think that the idea of only one universe is poor. But I also believe that I will never get to know about these things even if I have a near death experience or eat DMT.

Where, do you think, did I have this thought? You have three guesses.