Lumifer comments on Is Spirituality Irrational? - Less Wrong

5 Post author: lisper 09 February 2016 01:42AM

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Comment author: Lumifer 09 February 2016 10:27:16PM 0 points [-]

Still not useful.

Presumably, lisper, being the author, means something by that word, other than vague handwaving in a vague direction like Wikipedia does.

Comment author: lisper 10 February 2016 12:57:24AM 1 point [-]

Yeah, I mean something slightly more specific, but still hard to get a linguistic handle on. I mean a kind of subjective experience that can be induced by certain practices (prayer, meditation, walking in the woods...) that manifests as feelings ranging from a kind of euphoric awe to a palpable sense of the presence of supernatural forces. It is distinct from alcohol intoxication, love, lust, the qualia of eating delicious food or listening to music and a host of other things that are part and parcel of the human experience (at least for most humans).

Comment author: Lumifer 10 February 2016 01:56:42AM 1 point [-]

So, going back to my question, how do I decide whether my altered state of consciousness was "spiritual"?

Comment author: lisper 10 February 2016 02:34:43AM 0 points [-]

Answering that is kind of like trying to tell you how you can decide if you're in love. If it was spiritual, you'll know.

Comment author: Lumifer 10 February 2016 02:38:06AM 0 points [-]

The traditional comparison is to how do you figure out what's porn -- "I can't define it, but I know it when I see it" :-D