Their experiences go hand in hand with my view of reality. Psychology and neuroscience predict that people will believe in fantastical things that aren't real because of emotional reasons. There are clinical tests that ask whether or not you see demons, hear voices, or believe you have psychic abilities. Scientists have long predicted a percentage of the population will experience these events because of the way their brain works. They have attached specific conditions to these specific behaviors. Recent scientific advancements have been able to induce mystical experiences with electromagnetic waves. What I have been trying to point out is that these kinds of experiences are most likely indicative of altered brain function, not an insight into a metaphysical world that most aren't privy to.
I don't doubt this is the case for some otherworldly experiences/-ers. But all? Nobody really knows.
And just because you have been raised a certain way doesen't mean it is real or correct. I could be raised all my life to believe 1 + 1 is 3, and I could believe 100% this is true. I mean after all, it is my experience. The problem comes when you try to apply it objectively to your surroundings. This is analogous to some of the posts here. People may believe some of these things, but when faced with the external conditions that all humans share, they don't hold up.
For example, any rational person would not believe you could throw a person accross the room with your mind. To suggest that I am being intolerant or just not accepting someone for making such a claim is ridiculous. I am being rational and thoughtful for applying my critical thinking skills.
Sure, when you use examples of things that are demonstrably false. Key word, demonstrably. But what if...
... we were living in a very elaborate simulation?
... there was only one Consciousness in all of existence, that lived its life sequentially through all sentient beings' lives, and was currently on you?
... some sort of otherworldly entity beyond our ability to imagine was right now wearing you like a sock puppet, and that's why you're consciously experiencing, right here right now?
... some incarnate spirit was living as you, in order to accomplish some mission?
The possibilities are endless. One can be fully grounded in science for everything to do with the physical world, including the brain, and can be perfectly justified in speculating that me-being-here-right-now is not an accident, and/or not a one-shot deal.
If you are going to be a doctor, and someone came in claiming they could predict the future, communicate wtih demons, and move objects with their mind, I would really hope you would screen them for mental illness. If you don't, you are not living up to your training, but according to your post, that is exactly what you would do.
Such claims would certainly strike me as red flags to be on the lookout for other signs of mental or physical illness. But I'd make an effort not to be obvious about this, because I'm sure such people are jaded with being labeled 'crazy', and establishing a trusting doctor-patient relationship is all about validating people. If I didn't see anything else in the person's medical history or physical exam that hinted at anything pathological, I wouldn't probe it any further, because it wouldn't be any of my business.
Some diagnoses include brushes with the paranormal as a symptom. But no diagnoses are comprised of this alone. Clinical diagnoses almost all involve some sort of impaired or diminished functioning in life, so I'd have to see evidence of that before I even considered any sort of diagnosis, let alone treatment.
Living up to my training means helping a patient find health. If patients are in good health and getting out of life what they want to get out of it without significant endogenous impediment, then their private lives and experiences, including any with the otherworldly, are of no professional consequence to me.
In terms of experimental verification, yes they are all equal. In terms of sound logic from which it is based, no they are not. String theory will never be equated with some of the ideas in this thread, but it too is metaphysical.
How can we know that our logic even holds up, when we dig that deep? Quantum physics is not my area, granted. But I have read science writers, whom I presume have studied in the actual field, imply just this.
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