I can trigger ecstatic, mystical “religious experiences” fairly easy in other ways; even just singing in a group setting will do it.
Wow, impressive that nevertheless you’ve managed to become a rationalist!
Now I would like to hear how you achieved this feat :-)
I would rather read about the neurological underpinnings of my experience, especially since grokking science’s answers can sometimes trigger a near-mystical experience!
I totally agree. Therefore neuroscience of “altered states of consiousness” is one of my pet subjects...
Wow, impressing that nevertheless you’ve managed to become a rationalist! Now I would like to hear how you achieved this feat :-)
Mainly by having read so much pop science and sci-fi as a kid that by the time the mystical-experience things happened in a religious context (at around 14, when I started singing in the choir and actually being exposed to religious memes) I was already a fairly firm atheist in a family of atheists. Before that, although I remember having vaguely spiritual experiences as a younger kid, they were mostly associated with stuff like looking at beautiful sunsets or swimming. And there’s the fact that I’m genuinely interesting in topics like physics, so I wasn’t going to restrict my reading list to New Age/religious books.
Wow, impressive that nevertheless you’ve managed to become a rationalist! Now I would like to hear how you achieved this feat :-)
I totally agree. Therefore neuroscience of “altered states of consiousness” is one of my pet subjects...
Mainly by having read so much pop science and sci-fi as a kid that by the time the mystical-experience things happened in a religious context (at around 14, when I started singing in the choir and actually being exposed to religious memes) I was already a fairly firm atheist in a family of atheists. Before that, although I remember having vaguely spiritual experiences as a younger kid, they were mostly associated with stuff like looking at beautiful sunsets or swimming. And there’s the fact that I’m genuinely interesting in topics like physics, so I wasn’t going to restrict my reading list to New Age/religious books.