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Watson, Lyall - The nature of the disembodied soul
Identifier
011396
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
The Romeo Error – Lyall Watson
One of my problems, as a biologist, faced with the thought of a disembodied personality, is that I find it difficult to imagine how this abstract entity could enjoy any kind of experience.
Without sense organs, it would have to perceive things by clairvoyance; without limbs, it would be able to act on the environment only by psychokinesis; and without any structures for producing vocal, visual or olfactory signals, it could communicate only by telepathy.
None of these things is biologically impossible, but they all differ so radically from our usual ways of dealing with the environment, that any experiences after clinical death will probably be very different from those we enjoy during life and cannot on these grounds be considered as continuous with everyday sensations.
The chances are that, if a personality does continue to exist, its character will be so different from the living one that it might be impossible for us to recognize it. The only biological comparison available to us at the moment is the kind of experience we know occurs in dreams.