[ExI] John C. Wright Interview

[Stathis Papaioannou]

On 26/01/2008, Jef Allbright <jef at jefallbright.net> wrote:

> I wonder whether the apparently over-the-edge moral indignation he
> demonstrates (since his near death experience) might be symptomatic of
> physiological changes in his brain "setting up reverberations" fed by
> his training in, and love of, the classics.  Stathis might have the
> practical background to comment on this.

Patients with psychotic illnesses can develop intense religious or
philosophical beliefs and sometimes they remain changed by the
experience when the acute episode is over and they are apparently
otherwise back to normal. I imagine that a NDE and the subsequent
transformation could be something similar, although I don't have any
direct evidence for this.

It's important to understand that the psychotic experience can
convince not only by means of hallucinated evidence - "I heard the
voice of God" - but by *directly* implanting belief, bypassing the
process of reasoning altogether: "I *just knew* that it was God".
Alas, when this process takes hold, being intelligent only seems to
help produce more elaborate rationalisations.





-- 
Stathis Papaioannou