Mysticism, Delusion, and the Appetite for Wonder
(by Clay Stinson)

O Captain! My Captain!,

I will answer your questions in absolutely frank and undiplomatic terms.
Also, I throw in a bit of commentary for good measure.  My format will, as
per my usual, be ad seriatim.


(1) >> …took early retirement from the University of California due to
chronic pain, with a dose of bi-polar thrown in. Yes, and my brain scans
reveal significant abnormalities. What a team, eh?<<

Indeed.  My generic neurologist, before we fired each other, said about as
much AFTER all the test results were in and little else.  To compound my
problems, we could not even agree on the proper AED treatment modalities
since his position was and is this: "I must do medicine my way because it
makes me very nervous if I can't [never mind the validity of other
recognized, safe, and efficacious orthodox medical treatments for your
condition], etc., etc." I did try and communicate to him, again before we
fired each other, that (i) I had spent 2+ years (now going on 3+ years) in
intensive and very expensive neuroscientific, Epileptological, and
anticonvulsant study/research, and (ii) that all the other $3000 worth of
diagnostic medical tests were superfluous EXCEPT for The 3 Day DigiTrace
EEG -- with this final test being the *only* critical and  needed test.  But
he decided to play it safe, and I can see his point on this one.

Put another way, my *a priori* and ab initio diagnosis was that I had severe
PS and CPS.  My 3 Day DigiTrace EEG simply confirmed this with a vengeance
and, as was predicted well in advance, all the other tests were negative
too.  Well, in light of all this welter of neurological data, and armed with
his 15+ years of the practice of generic clinical neurology, our
medical/professional/neurological genius said to me that (i) I had the worst
case of PS + CPS that he had ever seen in his 15+ years of the practice of
clinical neurology, (ii) I had set a record in thickness of computer
DigiTrace EEG printout with both his office and with the DigiTrace
Diagnostic Corporation, and (iii) my constellation of symptoms were simply
and exceedingly fascinating (among the most fascinating he had ever run
across before, personally) BUT for which he had NO explanation except for
"severe PS and severe CPS."   "Great" I said, "Now I am back to where I
started before I came to you, except $6000 the poorer, and stuck with a
doctor who won't venture outside the first four or so drugs of choice [by
his lights that is] for my condition."

 Be all the above as it may, he was way too limited.  I needed someone who
knew more about my condition than I did and someone who did not have the
pedestrian-prosaic-medical-mentality of "I only know the first four drugs of
choice for this condition" etc.  Now since this is the attitude of a
neurological generalist, it is very understandable -- but, after all the
tests AND after Neurontin (Gabapentin) failed to work, he wanted to put me
on the oppressive and odious Tegretol. SIMPLICITER.  I said (i) that since
there are very many more, less toxic, and less unpleasant agents out there
besides this one, therefore (ii) we should start out "light" and then work
our way up to the more nasty and risky AED agents and (iii) that,
consequently, Tegretol is NOT the place to start.  Not to do so, said I, is
unsound, uninformed, and prosaic medical practice.  This is when he said
"You need to find yourself another neurologist" to which I replied:
"Indeed!  One who knows a whole heck of a lot more about this discipline
than you do.  What's worse, Dr. W., is the incontrovertible fact that for
every suggested treatment modality (there exists at least SEVEN
readily-available-at-the-local-pharmacy AEDs that treat both PS and CPS --
NOT to mention two-pronged AED therapy combinations + experimental AEDs as
well) I specify for my severe PS and CPS, you have only two or three drugs
in mind -- only two or three mind you.  Besides, you seem to be not at all
aware of the new experimental agents and the AEDs that have been available
in England and Europe for years, and which have proven quite effective for
my condition, but are not available in the USA due to FDA bureaucracy or
whatever."

The long and the short of this whole story was that he sent me to one of the
best "big guns" (i.e., best Epileptologists) in the country:  (i) A
professor of neuroscience at one of our best medical schools, (ii) One of
the "big guns," also, in AED research, (iii) An expert in
Electroencephalography, (iv) A clinical neurologist, and (v) A world renown
Epileptologist.  We (i.e., the Epileptologist and I) get along very nicely
because he is so much the Master of his Science and his Art that he is not
at all threatened by "seek and destroy" wacko characters like me.  Often
times I suggest changes in medication to him (making all the relevant
medical and neuroscientific arguments), and he knows that I know enough
about all of this that he allows me to "tweak the parameters" of my AED
regime.  Why couldn't my former generic neurologist be this way I wondered?
Upon asking this question, the answers became readily apparent:  Besides all
that I have said about him, I believe the MAIN reason why he lets me do this
is because he is, at heart, and in vocation, an EXPERIMENTAL SCIENTIST and
really wants to see how these different AEDs for PS and CPS work on a
condition as severe and exotic as mine.  Quite often we talk nothing but
"shop" (i.e., neuroscience, Epileptology, and AEDs).  He even let me peruse
his latest study on Topimax that has been submitted and accepted by a
prestigious journal (I forget the name of the journal).


(2)  >>Am I correct in assuming that you are at present a strict
materialist? That is, do you think that all of reality is materially
based -- such that there is no legitimate transpersonal spirituality; that
dreams are randomly firing neurons; that mystical experience is illusory;
that there is no life after death??<<

Response I:  Come now!,  I have been soooooooo!!! very explicit on THIS
MATTER that all the Wilberites and Daists could quite accurately indict me
for beating the proverbial dead horse here.  But let's make it official:  I
am (i) a Scientific Materialist, (ii) a Metaphysical and Reductive
Naturalist (to rule out positions like Chalmers' Naturalistic Dualism -- See
"The Conscious Mind:  In Search of a Fundamental Theory", Oxford, 1996),
(iii) a Systematic Skeptic with regard to all claims of the supernatural,
paranormal, occult, and mystical (and I've had about every classical
mystical experience in the book), and (iv) with the question of which
ontology [ i.e., (a) Substance Ontology -- See "The Physical Basis of
Predication" by Andrew Newman, Cambridge, 1992, or (b) Process Ontology --
See "Process Metaphysics" by Nicholas Rescher, SUNY, 1996, or (c)
Mechanistic Metaphysics -- See "World Hypotheses" by Stephen C. Pepper,
University of California Press, "Mechanism", Chapter IX & "Atomic Reality"
by Victor J. Stenger, http://www.phys.hawaii.edu/vjs/www/void.html ; (d)
Radical Pragmatist/Contextualist Metaphysics -- See "World Hypotheses" in
the Chapter X, "Contextualism" & "The Metaphysics of Natural Complexes" by
Justus Buchler, 2nd Edition, SUNY, 1990] pending.

I believe, however, that some species of (i) descriptive metaphysics (see
"Individuals:  An Essay in Descriptive Metaphysics" by P.F. Strawson,
Methuen, 1987), that is the metaphysics of common sense or classical
substance ontologies, or (ii) process metaphysics, or (iii) mechanistic
metaphysics are the most likely candidates for synoptic metaphysical systems
that give us the correct characterization of objective reality as it really
is -- or, as the old cliché goes, "reality as it is in itself".  Moreover,
mechanistic field ontologies may be just so much wishful thinking.  If this
be so, then we would have to go with what Stephen Pepper calls Discrete
Mechanism as opposed to Consolidated Mechanism.  A contemporary version of
Discrete Mechanism is a sophisticated *local* quantized mechanistic
metaphysics (i.e., operating via NO supraluminal fields and NO supraluminal
cosmic interconnections -- FULL but subluminal speed ahead!) like Victor
Stenger's.


Response II:  Are mystical experiences illusory?, you ask.  What do you mean
by illusory?  If you mean by "illusory" that people *do not* have them, then
the answer is "HECK NO -- I can't get them to stop no matter how hard I try
and they are literally killing me.  Therefore, how could I believe that
people do not have them?"  However, if you mean by the proposition "Mystical
experience is illusory" that mystical experiences *DO NOT* in any way give
us ANY insight into the nature of Deep Reality, provide us with
"enlightenment," force upon us the realization that there is nothing to
realize (Spiritually speaking), then my answer is "HECK YES."

Addendum:

KW says:  >>For those few individuals who are ready -- that is, sick with
the suffering of the separate self, and no longer able to embrace the
legitimate worldview -- then a transformative opening to true authenticity,
true enlightenment, true liberation, calls more and more insistently. And,
depending upon your capacity for suffering, you will sooner or later answer
the call of authenticity, of transformation, of liberation on the lost
horizon of infinity.<<

MF Responds:  Besides there be a huge preponderance of "ordinary
unenlightened guys and gals" who have practiced meditation for years and
years and years and gotten nowhere, there is that infinitesimally small
minority of clinical neurological curiosities that we do have for the
so-called "Enlightened Ones" --  *clinical curiosities of extreme rarity.*
And  Ken knows as well as you and I do that mystical experiences have been
used to corroborate every ontology on the planet ranging from (i) the
Eternalistic Monisms of guys like Shankara, Plotinus, and F.H. Bradley, to
(ii) the Qualified Nondualism of Ramanuja, to (iii) the Extreme Dualism of
Patanjali and Samkhya Yoga,  (iv) the extreme process-pluralism of Theravada
Buddhism to (v) the mushy mysticism of some of the new Scientific Theists
like Polkinghorne who reject a timeless God in favor of one thoroughly
engaged with the world, time and change -- NO *Eternal Now.*  This is just
the rehashed and updated process philosophy of Charles Hartshorne and Alfred
North Whitehead (excluding Whitehead’s God in its timeless Primordial
Nature), all dressed up in the language of chaos, nonlinear dynamics, and
fractals (inter alia).  *NOT A THING NEW HERE.*  So what the heck use are
they since ONTOLOGY is so heavily underdetermined by mystical experiences
which seem to be almost absolutely culturally conditioned [for an argument
of the total cultural contextuality of mystical experiences (minus what we
all share in common -- the human brain and nervous system) see:  (a)
"Mysticism:  Experience, Response, and Empowerment" by Jess Byron
Hollenback, Penn State Press, pages 580 - 615, starting with the chapter
entitled "The Contextuality of the Most Elevated States of Spiritual
Perfection and Mystical Awareness, and (b) "Transformations of
Consciousness" by Ken Wilber, Jack Engler, Daniel P. Brown, in the essay The
Stages of Meditation in Cross-Cultural Perspective, Shambhala]


(3) >>If what I've stated is relatively accurate, I'm very interested in how
you'vecome to your conclusions. As you have no doubt guessed, I believe
materiality arises from and in consciousness.<<

How have I come to my conclusions?:  By (i) a massive study the classical
mystical texts of meditative techniques and states of mystical
consciousness, (ii)  reproducing almost all of them in myself after about 16
years of protracted and intensive meditation, (iii) conjecturing that these
states were, in my case are, caused by a severe neuroepileptic (severe PS
and CPS) disorder, (iv) corroborating my hypothesis via (a) blood tests to
rule out causes other than epilepsy, (b) an MRI, and (c) a three day
DigiTrace EEG which indicated, in the words of my neurologist, that this was
worst case of PS and CPS he had ever seen in his 15+ years of medical
practice. (Interestingly, my epileptologist tells me that my particular
cluster of focal seizures disorders, symptoms, and manifestations --
auras -- are extremely rare, and his nurses have NEVER seen a case as bad as
mine.

Contd.