I have no idea what you are talking about here.Same question I have asked before, then...how do you know? How do you know that self-awareness lives on after death? I don't care about a description of it, unless and until you can tell me what it was that convinced you that such a thing was true!

And again, your last sentence. How do you know? It seems to me a very simple question, and yet you have never--not once--answered it. You are telling me that it is a "fact that we have a soul". Any fact should be demonstrable, or else it is supposition and not fact. Please, Iacchus: How do you know?

The means by which to achieve this is called mysticism and, is not altogether different than the lucid dream and near death type experiences that Human keeps referring to. In fact this is something I experience almost all the time (anymore) and is basically why I know there's more to life than what is purely physical. Indeed, there's a tremendous amount of interaction that goes on in this realm. While there are times when I don't even know that I'm not in the real world (it's that real), that is until I wake up.

There are numerous experiences that I relate in my book, perhaps I can post the links later? Or, if you like, you can go to the Dream Work forum, where I've posted three dreams there.

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So when the body dies, and consciousness departs, where do "we" go? ... Off to define another "reality" perhaps?

Thank you, for the most direct answer I have seen you give here.

Distilled to its essence, then, your answer is "it came to me in a dream". I can accept that. Myself, I would have looked to see what science knows about the process of dreaming, hoping to verify my experience, but knowing that I would rather learn (to my sorrow) that it was illusory than go on believing it if it were false. I also would question the wisdom (again, if it were me) of putting years, decades, or even centuries of science on equal footing with the unverifiable experience in the dream of one person (even myself). But I know that dreams can be extraordinarily powerful experiences, so I do not blame you for the path you have chosen.

Actually there's a bit more to it than that, as it involves working with visions, phenomena (synchronistic events) and symbolism. In fact I just started a new thread called, Dreams, Visions and Phenomena in the Dream Work forum providing links to much of this.

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So when the body dies, and consciousness departs, where do "we" go? ... Off to define another "reality" perhaps?

A bit more...having looked at your link, let me revise what I said, to "Distilled to its essence, then, it came to me in a series of dreams and coincidences."

Other than that, my response stands. Well, one addition; in addition to studying what is known about dreams, I would (if it were me, again) also look into social cognition. We know that we see meaningful coincidences, for instance, even when events are not actually correlated! (As a very quick example, take lunar effects. They are "seen", even by experts--for instance, many police see an increase in crime during a full moon--but in fact do not exist. There is a wonderful published paper called "The Moon is Acquitted of Murder in Cleveland" which explores why we see something that is simply not there!)

I do see why you seem to like Jung, with his ideas on synchronicity. Just remember, there is no empirical validity to either synchronicity or collective unconscious. (or, hey--find support and publish it, and you will be the first!)

This is essentially correct, except I would change that to dreams and synchronistic occurrences, albeit I can see why you would use the term coincidences instead.

And yet quite often, if you're not tuned-in, you're not going to see anything at all. This has been my experience anyway.

Hey, that would be quite a pronouncement if we could furnish evidence and tell the whole world that God exists. But, I'm not sure the world is ready for such a thing or, ever will be? I suspect the last thing God wants is for us to take Him too lightly -- which, afterall is human nature -- and we begin to stop questioning things (and become complacent). In fact, this is why I think He likes to play hide-and-seek with us.

Of course that isn't to say He doesn't make Himself known from time to time or, in one form or another which is, afterall, why I've written the book ... or, more for the sake of a record I guess?

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So when the body dies, and consciousness departs, where do "we" go? ... Off to define another "reality" perhaps?

I was thinking that "coincidence" was the neutral term. Synchronicity implies planning, and that planning is merely inferred from the incident, not demonstrated separately.LOL...and if you are too tuned-in, you are very likely to see things that are not there. And yes, there are studies to back this up...But you say he has revealed to you. So you have evidence. Are you the only one? How would you determine if another claimant was telling the truth or lying? What sort of proof would you ask of another? Or will you simply believe them all? What if they disagree with one another? (oh, and they will, I assure you...)Gee, if only there were a way of knowing which revealed records are true and which are false...

I believe that all human knowledge is only possible through empirical experience and reasoning. But I don't ignore that along the centuries there are people who claim to have experienced mystical visions. And not only the Christians.
Neurobiologists like Changeux - "L'homme neuronal" - claim that mystical experiences show brain patterns similar to some cases of hysteria. In my opinion that doesn't explain anything. A brain pattern reveals what happens when someone have that kind of experience, not the experience in itself.
But mystical experiences, assuming they exist, because not empirical or rational cannot be communicated to others. All the great mystics of all times were never able to give a description of their experiences. They used metaphorical images, like poetry.
I don't know if there are mystical experiences. But assuming they are true and assuming you had one (or several?) how can you describe them with such preciseness?
Worst: don't you think that there is a risk of taking for a mystical experience what is nothing but ordinary dreams - no matter how emotionally intense they are?

Disproof that 'say' no Soul exist.

In my opinion, consciousness = awareness or recognizing of something who is going on. But it doesn't need to be in a specific way.
My best example is dreaming. All and everyone is experiencing dreams and the feelings, etc. in a dream.

But propably just a few is conscious enough to know they are dreaming. So the majority think what they are experiencing is real, not a dream.
But lucid dreamers is conscious enough to know 'This is a dream!'
So to me, all is conscious at some extent during REM sleep, but just a few is conscious enough to have lucidity and to know it is a dream.

But in deep sleep, or delta sleep, not anyone is conscious at all. Thus, the Soul is either not in the body during sleep, or is not activated.
Although the Soul isn't in the body, does IMO not mean that so called astral planes exist.
(I am not convinced if astral planes exist or if they don't. I will propably read more about astral planes soon.)

And about the lucid dreaming subject, I think you have heard about it before. If not, you may check out:

http://www.lucidity.com/LucidDreamingFAQ2.html#LD

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The Heavenly Afterlife exist.

If it's merely a matter of believing people have made claims, that doesn't say anything really.

All it suggests to me (maybe you're saying this too?) is that there's something highly unusual going on inside the brain. As for the contents of what that might entail, no, I don't think scientists are qualified to say.

If you had a great vision or a great dream, why can't you explain in detail the vision or the dream? Are you familiar with the Book of Revelation? That's exactly what this is (or purports to be), the details of somebody's mystical experience.

And, while I am not sure how to relate the backdrop behind the experience (although I know it's there), that doesn't mean I can't describe the experience itself, for example the detail behind a dream or vision I had.

A dream is nothing other than a mystical experience. If you worked with them you would know that.

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So when the body dies, and consciousness departs, where do "we" go? ... Off to define another "reality" perhaps?

I say simply that there is no evidence for the existence of a soul. The things which some say are evidence, I explain as the working of the nervous system (and have done so in some detail in this thread). If you say the soul is something else, great--show me what it is. Show me a bit of evidence. Just a bit. I cannot prove that a soul does not exist, but thus far all available evidence says that if it does exist, it has no function whatsoever, has no effects, cannot be noticed or felt...and might just as well not exist. Hey, it might exist...but unless I am missing something (and let's face it, for all the stuff written about the soul, one would expect some major evidence), there is no reason whatsoever for us to be convinced that it does.Doesn't need to be specific? How do you know, then? For something that is so terribly important,you are awfully casual about believing in it.

On another point...when I described my view of consciousness, I was able to explain it in terms of things and processes which are easily verifiable. I could ask you, when you say that "consciousness = awareness", to then define awareness, and to describe how it occurs. If you cannot do that, then you have not defined consciousness. To do the same with my explanation, you would be forced to ask "well, what is a nerve?" or "how are nerve signals sent?"...and these questions do have well-established answers. A definition, to be useful, should be in understandable terms. If you cannot define the words you use in the definition, you have not defined the original word.Dreaming is one of my favorite areas of study within psychology. Dreams have been scientifically studied for over a century now! We actually know quite a bit about the process of dreaming...and thus far, no expert on dreaming that I know of has ever had to suggest that it involves the soul leaving the body.

A question: Have you ever actually looked at the peer-reviewed scientific literature on dreaming? Please do not discount it as "written by scientists, and thus biased against mysticism" or some such claptrap. These are people who have dedicated their scientific careers to studying dreams. There is no need to create amazing theories about what might happen, until you look and see what is know about what actually does happen.

What's the big deal about lucid dreams? I have lucid dreams all the time. Quite often I have realized, while in a dream, that I am dreaming. A couple of times, I have realized this and then woken up, only to discover (lucidly) that I hadn't actually woken up, but only dreamed I had woken up. Literally, they were dreams within a dream. I think this may be similar to people who claim to have woken up and encountered a ghost or some other spiritual phenomenon. They swear they were "wide awake", but consciousness and dreaming are very fuzzy around the boundaries.

Also, I have sometimes not only made the semi-conscious decisions to return to the dream, but upon returning, have been able to "steer" the dream in a certain general direction, though not to a specific end. This most often happens with sexual dreams, but there are others. And of course, having interacted so greatly with the dream, I remember it in great detail. Sometimes I write it down to turn it into erotic poetry, but unlike Iacchus, I don't believe it has any cosmic significance (unless you count having the Earth move. )

I think this really has more to do with becoming comfortable with dreaming than it does with souls or God or anything else. Usually only children have the kinds of nightmares that make them wake up screaming (there are exceptions, of course), but stories of children coming to their parents' bed after a bad dream are so common that they are cliché. Once you grow up and become familiar with dreams, I think that at some level, you know you are dreaming, so it doesn't scare you or even interest you enough to make you wake up completely.

So if a soul-less atheist like myself has oodles of lucid dreams, what does that say about the spiritual significance of lucid dreams?

Lucky so-and-so.....I never remember my dreams.

The heck with the collective unconscious--if you can train me to remember lucid dreams of this sort, I'll join your religion...or lack thereof...

You sound a lot like this "non-atheist" that I used to know? However, I suppose I could have gotten the wrong idea, mistaking him for the spiritual sort, because of his preoccupation with lucid dreams. It's kind of hard to say, really. I later concluded that maybe he wasn't so spiritual afterall ... being more adept at manipulation than anything else.

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So when the body dies, and consciousness departs, where do "we" go? ... Off to define another "reality" perhaps?

Well I'm not preoccupied with lucid dreams. Heck, I never even called them that until Human explained what lucid dreams are and I realized his description fit my dreams too.

But I'm not the least bit spiritual, (although I do admit to crying out "Oh God" when in the throes of passion ) and I have lots of what sound very much of what Human calls "lucid dreams". So it sounds to me like lucid dreams are not any sort of communication with the spirit world at all, but just, as you say, manipulation.

But manipulation is not always a bad thing. I say, if you can manipulate your dreams to make them more fun, why the heck not? Isn't that just another form of imagination?

Call me a glutton for punishment, but I was curious enough to ask this question the first time, and it has seen no answer yet. If a philosophy is in part a house built on dreams, does the philosopher ever examine the foundation?