Kevin Nelson

Hi


I've just had a few thoughts about the work of U.S. neurologist, Kevin Nelson (see my previous post.)


There are people who have trained themselves (e.g. Stephen La Berge) to increase the percentage of lucid dreams they have. This would imply that they can learn to switch on the dorso-lateral cortex areas of their own brains, while they are in REM sleep. How would they do this?


There are other people who have trained themselves to have out-of-body experiences (e.g. Robert Monroe). If Nelson's ideas are correct, then such individuals must have been able to learn how to turn off the temporoparietal region of their own brains. How would they do this?


If, as according to Nelson, OBEs during NDEs are in fact due to the temporoparietal region of the brain being switched off, then what about abductions where experiencers tell us they are able to "float" during the event? Perhaps it is in fact due to the same mechanism. Experiencers lose their body's sense of spatical position, and become convinced that they are "out-of-body" floating. Here, we would not be talking of a person who knows how to switch off the temporoparietal region, but who has an experience, when the temporoparietal region switches itself off for some reason, beyond their control. Naturally, as it was out of their control, the fact that it occurred would cause them puzzlement, distress and anxiety, and a total lack of understanding of what was happening.


I look forward to getting a copy of Nelson's new book, to read his hypothesis in full.