[Buddha-l] Re: Magic

[curt]

Richard Hayes wrote:
> On Wednesday 20 June 2007 10:18, curt wrote:
>
>   
>> Technically, rebirth does not require an "immortal" soul - merely one
>> that "survives" more than one physical birth.
>>     
>
> The only other requisite for rebirth is some version of mind-body dualism. 
> That is, there must be the possibility of consciousness continuing 
> independent of a functioning complex central nervous system. If one can 
> imagine disembodied consciousness, then it is not difficult to imagine 
> rebirth. To whatever extent it seems to one that consciousness requires the 
> support of several billion living neurons, to that extent rebirth is 
> difficult to imagine.
>
>   
Excellent point. Although from another perspective it's just as (and 
possibly even more) difficult to imagine consciousness arising from 
anything purely physical. Actually it's very hard to imagine - and 
impossible to convincingly demonstrate - either way.

A third possibility is to imagine, as long as we're imagining, that 
there is some kind of "special stuff" that is associated with 
consciousness, and this "stuff" survives death. Something like this 
formed part of the basis of Roger Zelazny's "Buddhist" novel "Lord of 
Light" - which was my first introduction to Buddhism. Theosophists and 
Spiritualists also had theories along these lines (well, I guess they 
still do, for that matter).

- Curt