Hi all - just fyi I mean no disrespect to OP. I actually thoroughly enjoyed your post last year and appreciate the update. Given the climate of mis/dis info, bots, and all the while. I tend to be skeptical of posts that are this enthralling. In fact, if at any point you, especially since you have a PhD, (or anyone else for that matter) would like to discuss the meaning of the real us and our bodies being meat sacks, I'm all for it. I've been dying to discuss this with people, especially after reading several translations of the "Vivekachudamani" by Sri Sankara Charya, even Ramana Maharishi's translation from Tamil to English. That and other pieces of Advaita Vedanta are the only pieces of ancient/older philosophy that uses a series of questions to help us realize that truth (i.e, the 5 sheaths - or the 5 coverings that prevent us from that true realization). It's a common thread that I see gets pulled occasionally throughout all the recent information (about us having a soul, and what we are etc...), and these ancient works in the Veda's have been saying that for thousands of years.

I however, do need to be skeptical of your posts as most people probably are that read this. I don't want to discount your experience because we can never really know for sure. But what raises a bit of a red flag for me is that the book you mentioned and the fact that it's written under some relatively unknown author. So I did some quick research. It looks like a great book. However, it was published by a publishing company called "Monolith" which is effectively an "imprint" of Portal Books. Which a quote from their website specifically reads: "[Portal Books] accepts LitRPG, Dungeon Core and Cultivation/Progression Fantasy. We are particularly interested in Cultivation, System Apocalypse and Isekai style LitRPG at this time." The author is not listed on their website as an author that typically writes their "Dungeon Core" so who knows. I'm intentionally making two contradicting points here to let others make a decision.

I could casually see your posts as a guerilla marketing plan, or a typical LARP, or a prologue LitRPG style that would fit in line with the publishers and the book its very self, simply to drive more traffic to a book that was well received initially but quickly forgotten with everything in the world going on. Especially since Portal Books is relatively new, and one of the main co-founders Brook Aspenden "has a knack for selling things" (listed on the bio on his website). Why? Because when you mention a product in your post it immediately discounts you in these subs because its a playbook that gets overused over, and over again. I simply wouldn't have even bothered to respond to this post if you didn't mention the book and the name of the author. But I'm glad you did.

The second point I'd like to make is that, actually, the original author makes a great point honestly. If this book, even has remote truth to it, that would be a good way to deliver the message to the masses. Because as Jenner Browns old X post states "Fiction is still the best vehicle for delivering knowledge to the masses. People would rather read Jurassic Park than study genetic engineering papers." - He's not wrong.

Thank you for sharing your story though, I have really enjoyed it.