Steve Taylor on NDEs as Trips

Question from Uriad:
LX, I want to know if this sways your beliefs on afterlife.

Answer by SmartLX:
Why would it sway my beliefs?

What we have here is Steve Taylor the psychologist and NDE advocate rejecting the conclusions drawn by a group of psychedelic researchers (from their study, not the psychologist’s, and he doesn’t even link to it) on whether a specific psychedelic, DMT, gives experiences akin to near death experiences and therefore a psychedelic state might actually be a part of that experience when it happens. So it’s an attempt to eliminate one possible (partial) natural explanation for NDEs, in between plugs for Taylor’s book on spiritual “science”. This would only advance the case for supernatural NDEs significantly if it were the only possible natural explanation, which we can’t say that it is.

Even within the scope of what this piece is trying to do, it doesn’t get far. It argues that DMT has not been found to occur in the human body in large enough quantities to have this effect; the researchers do not suggest this, but rather that any psychedelic chemical (check the list) might work similarly. It differentiates between NDEs and deliberate psychedelic experiences on the basis of their after-effects, without even trying to separate the effects of the dream/hallucination from the life-altering consequences of almost dying, regardless of the experience at the time.

So you tell me, why would this sway any skeptic as opposed to merely reassuring believers?

3 thoughts on “Steve Taylor on NDEs as Trips”

  1. Yes, SmartLX, the only thing theists are trying is to REASSURE OTHER THEISTS, because, if they have ANY common sense left in their brains, they know that they cannot move any atheist, they know that because of the simple fact that WHATEVER atheists say will never move theists’ belief in god, because it is based solely on faith and no reason at all, and faith is emotional, not rational. They are children scared of death.

    But, what bothers me is that this site has become a toilet bowl for theists trying to prove to atheists that there is god by NDEs. Ridiculous.

    1. PS, toilet bowl for theists’ NDEs, and never asking the atheist, (you, after all, this site’s title is ASK THE ATHEIST, presumably ask him/her about atheism and atheists, not about theism and theists, for THAT theists have their own theists’ sites, this is an atheists’ site, about atheism and atheists, conceived by you as a theist who converted into atheist, for theists and atheists alike to ask you on atheism and atheist, not on theism and theists) for your REASONS for having converted from theist to atheist, for not believing there is god, for having natural view on the origin and function of the Universe, never trying to learn anything about atheism and atheists, which this site is here for, but only trying to assure themselves and other theists that there is god.






      When you die you will be dead and rot. Death is the end of the show we call life. So, live it while you can, for, you will never again get the chance.

      That is my message to all theists of the world.

Leave a Reply
