The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
JOURNAL OF NEAR-DEATH STUDIES
tual and imaginative, are compacted and stored within neural net-
works. Because this data compression is so severe, with a veritable
universe of information packed into just a few grams of cortical mat-
ter, such neural systems are prone to confabulation and delusion.
Limited by this mental constraint, the human ape is suited largely
to the everyday tasks of hunting, gathering, and reproduction where
such compressed world models are dependable and efficient. In con-
trast, speculation about worlds inaccessible to our reach and our
senses is inadequately modeled after our immediate environment.
Thus rigid sociologically-based cosmologies, formalized in religion,
emerge in which giant, floating primates govern the creation and
progression of the universe. Alternately, more flexible, nonsociological
models, based on science, emerge involving things and processes as
basic constructs and analogies. The sociological (religious) models
usually embody human hopes and desires, especially in the circum-
vention of death. The nonsociological (scientific) models stand aloof
from hope and search for a consistency apart from such blinding op-
timism. The sociological models are slow to change because of the
comfort offered and the inherent sociological penalties involved, rang-
ing from ostracism to death. The nonsociological models are able to
evolve more rapidly since mild ostracism alone may occasionally be
exercised.
Summarily, we are all trapped within a very subjective neurological
reality in which neither our senses nor our intellect may be trusted.
The consequence of this cognitive imprisonment is that we are in no
position to testify as to the absolute truth of our experience or our
models. Human neurobiology performs well in such tasks as procur-
ing nourishment, devising warmth against the cold, defeating a com-
petitor, or mating. However, in the building of theories, whether
scientific or religious, all we can do is create an ever taller pyramid
of analogies with each foundational analogy only as valid as its neu-
rological familiarity, that is, the frequency with which it has been
"burned" into neural pathways. The repercussion is that much of
what we term "reality" is largely governed by consensus opinion.
"Truth" is largely a function of the frequency and intensity of rein-
forcement of selected analogies by collective minds and societies, thus
opening the door to religious, political, or even scientific thought con-
trol. The realization of this human modus operandi has led philoso-
phers like Paul Feyerabend to believe that many of our presently
revered cosmological theories will at most serve as light entertain-
26