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From: @RUTGERS.ARPA:Postmaster@bbn-vax
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: re: Brainstorm loose ends
Message-ID: <1020@topaz.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 20-Mar-85 12:19:16 EST
Article-I.D.: topaz.1020
Posted: Wed Mar 20 12:19:16 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 21-Mar-85 04:00:31 EST
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Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
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From: dm@bbn-vax.arpa


      From: tim@cmu-cs-k.ARPA (Tim Maroney)
      Date: 18 Mar 85 23:45:58 GMT
      
      The device in Brainstorm did have a number of interesting
      possibilities.  However, seeing the after-death experience is not
      one of them, so the discussion as it stands is moot.  There would be
      no way for the device to pick up information once brain-death
      occurred.  In the movie, it just blithely continues to record the
      experiences of her soul.  No doubt this was made possible by new
      astral plane technology they didn't bother to tell us about.  Right.

This is known as ``engineering for failure'': let's think of a way that
something can't possibly work, assume it works that way, then show how it
won't work.

Clearly brain-death hadn't happened, since the machine was still recording
information from the brain.  Those weren't the experiences of her soul, those
were subjective impressions of random signals as the brain broke down--a cross
between phosphenes and dreaming.  That a living observer of these phosphenes
interprets them as ``angels'' and a heavenly chorus should hardly be
surprising, since 1) we've been primed to do so by a lot of folk-lore, and 2)
the uniformity in descriptions of the ``mystical experience'' the effects of
drugs, and ``near-death'' experiences might cause us to believe there is some
occurence that is common to these states, giving rise to the folk-lore in the
first place.

It would be easy to mis-interpret that last sentence to mean I think mystical
experiences are real.  That is not what I am saying.  I am saying that these
``visions'' are caused by nervous-system events [ugly term, how can I say that
more precisely?--oh, well, trying to describe objectively purely subjective
events leads one to such verbal gymnastics] which the conscious mind is trying
to interpret in familiar terms.  

Both Eastern (Buddhist and Hindu) and Western (Christian) mystics describe the
mystical experience in much the same way (see Thomas Merton's ``The Wisdom of
the Desert'' or his book about Chuang Tzu) but they interpret these
experiences according to their own milieu.  One might assume that the
similarity in descriptions comes from a similarity in experience.  And of
course we all know about how Acid-heads think they have mystical experiences
while tripping.  I think the experiences are probably the same, what is
different is the (culturally-induced) interpretation.

It might have been neat for Brainstorms to have had two witnesses there at the
end: the Western-culture neurophysiologist and an Eastern-culture (say
Japanese or Indian) neurophysiologist, then do split-screen to show their
different interpretations of what was happening.  Oh well, it would have been
neat for Akira Kurosawa to direct Star Wars (starring Humphrey Bogart or
Toshiro Mifune as Han Solo and Lauren Bacall as Princess Leia (with Bacall as
Leia, no need for a Luke Skywalker at all, and you can't improve on the choice
of Alec Guinness for Obi-wan Kenobi)), too...

Of course you might assume that brain-death had occured because of the
subjective length of the events (it seemed like a lot longer than the two or
three minutes the brain might be expected to still be active) and I assume
that was artistic license, since they were obviously having fun with that
sequence (and rightfully so).  I liked that sequence a great deal.  I really
loved all the mystical symbols they were able to cram into those scenes,
particularly the very first one, just as whats-her-name's ``soul'' went
through the ceiling (remember, I'm talking in metaphor, here), and turned away
from her body to look upon an infinite net of jewels, each jewel reflecting
all the other jewels, each reflection a jewel showing reflections of the
others.  I think such a description of the mystical experience can be found
among Christian mystics and Eastern mystics both.