Theos-Talk Archives (June 1996 Message tl00235)

At 10:38 AM 6/4/96 -0400, you wrote:
>On alt.eckankar I found the following posting by Dr. Mike
> Mueckler (biologist, I believe) who was once a member
>of the Eckankar group, who also has had many, many
>out-of-body experiences himself over the course of his life,
> and who as you will see in the post below, is now totally
>skeptical that such "soul traveling" is really real.  Of course,
>I don't agree with his *extreme* position.  I thought
>Alexis, Jerry S., JRC and others might be interested with the
>"attitude" displayed by Dr. Mueckler towards "psychic experiences."
>Far too many scientists have this attitude toward the psychic and
>this was part of what I was trying to convey to Alexis in one
>of my postings a month or two ago.
>
>Daniel
>
>Ah. To paraphrase an old cliche: "Hell hath no fury like a disillusioned
devotee".

I think Dr. Mueckler is desperate to undo the damage to his scientific
reputation caused by his affiliation with Eckankar and so now is "Plus
Royaliste que Le Roi".

The mistake that he, and many skeptics make, is in assuming that just
because one can to some degree reproduce certain effects in the laboratory,
that is the only explanation for the phenomenon. It is very easy to
photograph a Rembrandt painting, but that doesn't make the result a
Rembrandt Painting.

I am not an admirer of Eckankar, and it's just possible that all of the
experiences of out-of-body states that its devotees experience, are the
result of "guided meditations", or induced self-hypnosis, and might truly be
simply hallucinations. I regularly have experiences of the spiritual state
but I will not, and cannot claim, I have "out of body" experiences, it's
more a case of bilocality. I have had one totally out of body experience but
that was in connection with just having been declared dead.

alexis