Seeing Without Eyes: The cusp of a major step forward?

In this session, Bernardo elaborates on why reports of seeing fresh, veridical information during near death experiences, if validated, would be a challenge to the naturalist framework of Analytic Idealism.

It involves really understanding nuances of his model: the difference between experience and representation, between what is 'really' out there and our perceptions mediated by the dashboard, between dashboard representation and the kind of truth we might gain through dreams and other extra-sensory perception.

"It's not a problem of knowing, its a problem of the mode of knowing."

Many people may have misunderstood what Bernardo is attempting to do with his philosophy; to be grounded in empiricism, to discern between philosophy and poetic imagination, and to make specific predictions without "massaging the data".

If you've been at all confused by this recent topic, I know you'll get a lot out of this session.

A major step forward?

Equally important are some of the dynamics that could play out for us as individuals and a group, with Bernardo doubting some of the core tenants of Analytic Idealism. Here are some of his words on this point:

"Even if analytical idealism turns out not to be right, (and the jury's out on that, I'm not calling it either way,)... it is miles ahead of the physicalist nonsense under which we have been living for the past 200 years.

And in its being wrong, it will ...open the doors that can lead us to what is less wrong. I doubt monkeys can ever get to what is right. But I think monkeys can steadily be less wrong if they are disciplined and level-headed and rigorous about their approach to figuring out what's going on.

So I am not too disturbed about this.

I don't know where you are. I don't know if disturbs you, that the guy who is the spokesperson...says, well, it may be wrong.

If it does, [disturb you] this is an invitation to self-reflection... how do I stand in this? What I see in others, does that apply to me in some way? Because these are the seminal moments of progression.

This is when we really take a step forward. So maybe we are on the cusp of a major step forward here. So what I just said is not a criticism, it's an invitation to reflection. Goodness knows many of you are far ahead than me in many salient facets of what we are discussing here. You may not know that you are, but yeah, take my word for this."

An invitation to self reflect

In this spirit, I invite you to dive into the nuance and clarity of this session with your fanciest philosophical hat on, but also, with an open heart and a sense of your autonomy. Bernardo's encouragement; go with your own intuition.

For a recap of many of the most salient points from previous meetings, you can watch this compilation of relevant moments from the last few meetings:

There were other moments Bernardo wanted to keep private, and shared only with this group which aren't included above. You can find one in this session at around 1hr and 15 minutes, and another in the last 15 minutes of this session.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and reflections, as ever, on the Telegram group or in the comments below.

With best wishes!

Amir

Some topics discussed:

• Why naturalism is so importantly linked to empiricism
• There is no issue with extra-sensory perception
• Dream vision vs dashboard vision

Recording

Timestamps

0:00:00 Member introductions
0:07:40 Bernardo's schedule and book news
0:11:00 People have not grasped Analytic Idealism
0:14:00 The core puzzle: perception mediated by a dashboard after death
0:20:20 The most compelling reconciliation: telepathic & retrospective construction
0:24:50 Naturalism + empiricism vs poetic imagination & mysticism
0:28:40 Does "Seeing without Eyes" breaks Naturalism
0:35:00 Naturalism vs. Deliberate Design
0:40:00 The specific predictive power of Analytic Idealism
0:46:00 Seeing as a controlled hallucination
0:50:00 Federico Faggin's seity model
0:54:00 How reliable are the NDE reports?
0:59:00 The danger of epicycles & piling up anomalies
1:05:00 Naturalism vs Deliberation
1:13:00 The break with naturalism explained
1:21:00 The need to ground explanations
1:27:00 No issue with extra-sensory perception
1:32:00 Parting with metaphysical certainty
1:40:00 Difference between dream vision & eyesight vision
1:54:00 Jamey Hecht on theism and meaning
2:05:00 The "Poetic" vs. "Literal" way out