Charlie Tart has drawn our attention to at least one case of a person acquiring permanent "cosmic consciousness" as a result of the destruction of part of the brain in a near-death experience.
As one of the recent correspondents in this forum suggested, there is probably a part of the brain concerned with distinguishing "self" from "not-self". This is a common concept in immunology for example, and in that area a breakdown of the mechanism for distinguishing self from not- self leads to autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, where the sufferer makes antibodies to their own nerve sheaths and thus effectively destroys the function of their own peripheral nervous system. Possibly permanent cosmic consiousness could be considered a kind of autoimmune disease of the mind...Except that mystics tend to regard this abnormality as highly desirable and some spend their whole lives trying to achieve it! And who's to say they're wrong, KS? Whatever turns you on, eh?
pockett@scrc.umanitoba.ca
jcs-online
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