• ZDL@lazysoci.al
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    6 days ago

    I don’t believe in ghosts. I didn’t even as a child, but when I found out that we can stimulate people into experiencing the sensations and visions of “hauntings” with focused magnetic fields that put the last knife into the concept for me, since now we have a line toward the cause.

    • ChrysanthemumIndica@discuss.tchncs.de
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      6 days ago

      Agreed, I don’t really believe in them either.

      I know for me, I’ve worked really hard to have a coherent working mental model of the world, and ghosts just don’t fit in there, especially when you add things like how physically delicate/sensitive our external senses, our own need for post hoc reasoning, and our brains ability to literally just make stuff up when there’s missing information. So for now my working model of the world does not include ghosts for similar reasons that it doesn’t include omnipotent gods and other supernatural powers. KISS method!

      I don’t think I’m the smartest woman in the world or whatever, and I’m continually in the process of being wrong about things. But I’ve learned to trust some explanations more than others, the ones that “fit” with the rest, and I’ve learned how to revise my beliefs to be more self consistent. Which somehow feels very important to me.

      Perhaps this is just a long way to explain my own neurospiciness 😅

      I’m curious about this magnet thing now though! I thought I had heard something about it at one point, but now I’m having trouble finding it.

      • ZDL@lazysoci.al
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        5 days ago

        I think the term to search for might be something like Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation.

          • ZDL@lazysoci.al
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            5 days ago

            What I vaguely remember is that when the TMS devices were tuned to … I want to say the visual cortex? … it caused people—fully conscious people!—to start experiencing all the symptoms of sleep paralysis and report sensations and visions that were fully in line with among other things certain kinds of “night hag” hauntings or even UFO abductions (informed by cultural upbringing).

            And there’s other research indicating that geomagnetic effects can impact sleep patterns and dreams.