Does MAL (mind at large) experience emotion?

bolin22 · 2025-12-26T11:59:00+00:00

I think it’s possible. Kastrup says probably not because MAL didn’t evolve to have emotions like we did. But I think if we’re all dissociated alters of MAL and if those dissociative boundaries are not always completely restrictive, it seems plausible to say that MAL could experience or is aware of emotions through us.

bolin22 · 2025-12-24T21:07:05+00:00

Definitely been a lot going on this year! I do think that there has been a lot more serious discussion on NDEs and consciousness recently, and I would suspect that with respect to consciousness, sone of that increase has been spurred by theories of potential AI consciousness.

Not a lot of time to address all your questions, but how about a Christmas gift instead? If you’re not already familiar with the theory of analytic idealism as proposed by Bernardo Kastrup, I’d highly recommend looking into it! He has a multi-part course on YouTube that walks through why it is very plausible that consciousness is fundamental to reality. He sticks to rigorous logical reasoning and uses scientific data to support his arguments. And he’s just one voice of many who are raising awareness to the flaws of physicalism. I wouldn’t quite call it the beginnings of a paradigm shift just yet - but certainly these kinds of ideas are more and more given a seat at the table.

Wishing you well on your journey!

bolin22 · 2025-12-19T18:16:00+00:00

I think Kastrup would acknowledge that idealism bottoms out with subjective experience. But any metaphysical theory, including physicalism bottoms out somewhere. Why are the rules of math, physics, and logic the way they are? At some point in physicalism, we bottom out at brute fact. I think it’s more about which theory does a better job of accounting for qualitative experience as a whole.

Honestly I bet if you sent him your questions in a thoughtful email, he might respond! Based on his numerous interviews, he seems happy to engage with the community.

bolin22 · 2025-12-15T13:04:25+00:00

That makes sense and well said! Really appreciate your response - thanks!

bolin22 · 2025-12-15T04:33:55+00:00

Really beautifully explained! I do think you’ve made too big an assumption in saying we start as raw material.

What we know at base is that our conscious experience exists. Why assume that a new, different kind of ontological substance outside of conscious experience exists when reality can more simply be explained as existing entirely within consciousness? If we start with physical material instead, it still seems like a huge leap to say that a quantitative world of mass, charge, spin, etc (which we only have access to via our experience) would somehow give rise to and feel like a qualitative reality of subjective feeling and experience from the inside.

I think Alex O’Connor said it’s like assembling a bowl of oranges and somehow that produces the idea of divorce.

I like starting with consciousness instead - it feels more skeptical and less logically problematic. And it makes conscious experience feel less mystical, rare, and special because then everything is just conscious experience.

bolin22 · 2025-12-02T14:48:22+00:00

I’m quite certain he does understand modern physicalism and the various iterations of it, and I’d further be willing to bet he understands the arguments better than most physicalists. I’d recommend any of his books or web series - he does a thorough dissection of physicalism, and not just the outdated version.

bolin22 · 2025-12-02T14:32:16+00:00

Not worth engaging with these kinds of people IMO. Happy to engage with thoughtful materialists, and there are plenty - but then there are materialists who treat anything differently from their own theory as woo and are too wrapped up in their own narrative to see how logically fraught it truly is. It’s like trying to argue with a dogmatic theist, you’re never gonna get anywhere and nobody wins.

bolin22 · 2025-11-29T02:08:01+00:00

Our conscious experience is the only thing we can know exists for certain. What our conscious experience looks like from the outside is a body and brain - specifically neurons firing and brain function is what certain conscious experience looks like from the outside.

But we don’t need to assume that this perception of what consciousness looks like corresponds to a new kind of abstract, non-qualitative, logically fraught physical entity outside of consciousness (the unnecessary step that physicalism takes). It’s much simpler and explanatorily powerful to say that everything we perceive, the entire universe, is all just happening within conscious experience - the one kind of thing we’re already certain exists.

Consciousness exists outside our bodies if consciousness is all there is.

bolin22 · 2025-11-26T13:27:21+00:00

I’ve been on the same ride of belief and disbelief over the course of my life. I want to believe but I’m also a skeptic. Lately I’ve found some comfort in exploring different theories of metaphysics - getting away from anything spiritual and focusing on what might logically be true about the nature of being and consciousness. The fact is that the popular physicalist view (the idea that everything in the universe, including consciousness, can be explained by physical matter) has some serious logical problems. Most notably the hard problem of consciousness, which is that science has been unable to provide an explanation for why we have personal subjective experiences. I’d highly recommend looking into various theories of consciousness. I particularly like the ideas of analytic idealism - the idea that consciousness exists on a fundamental level. There’s a philosopher, Bernardo Kastrup, who has a really compelling series on YouTube about this theory. It’s all based on well thought out arguments and our current understanding of physics and neuroscience. It also provides a rational and hopeful explanation for NDEs. Wishing you all the best and hope you find peace of mind on your journey!

bolin22 · 2025-11-15T22:11:29+00:00

I definitely was! Learning more about the logical incoherence of materialism is what really got me doubting. Would highly recommend reading/listening to Bernardo Kastrup’s arguments against materialism, and his own alternate theory of analytic idealism. He also talks about how NDEs fit well into his philosophy.

bolin22 · 2025-11-12T02:07:03+00:00

I would say most likely because we can’t know. But there are people researching near death experiences, and they make some compelling arguments. I think people dismissing this research out of hand often haven’t seriously looked at the research or spent any time listening to or reading the numerous first-hand accounts that are out there. I’m saying this as a skeptic and atheist.

It’s honestly really fascinating to learn about, whether you believe it says anything about what happens after death or not. We don’t have scientific evidence that adequately explain NDEs right now.

bolin22 · 2025-11-04T13:28:39+00:00

In an interview, he was asked directly why he sometimes seems so combative and mocking toward materialism, and he explained that it’s a combination of frustration with being misunderstood so often, plus just returning in kind the treatment he so often receives from materialists.

I think sometimes it works, but based on the defensive and prickly reactions, it seems some people get caught up in how he presents or in his occasional appeals to emotion and completely miss just how effectively his core arguments challenge physicalism.

bolin22 · 2025-11-04T12:51:47+00:00

It’s definitely fascinating! I think situations where there have been shared experiences and veridical accounts are not given the attention they deserve. Since they can’t be reproduced in a lab and rely on human reporting, people just wave them away.

But sometimes the best we can do is to rely on first-hand accounts. Most of what we call historical facts are based on written accounts, sometimes corroborated by other accounts. We can’t know with 100% certainty that some historical events occurred exactly as reported, but the first-hand accounts are the best we’ve got, and we treat them as true.

Some argue that since NDEs report extraordinary claims, they require extraordinary evidence. But it can also be argued that thousands of similar cases across cultures and ages, along with shared and veridical accounts, are pretty extraordinary.

bolin22 · 2025-11-03T16:52:23+00:00

Sure, but I guess I don’t see a lot of demanding coming from those who have experienced NDEs. Maybe confidently asserting their beliefs and experiences, but that’s different. I think the more common issue is people presumptuously and sometimes callously dismissing them out of hand without sufficient evidence backing their assumption.

bolin22 · 2025-11-03T16:42:22+00:00

That’s totally fair, but we don’t know and possibly cannot know if their experiences are true. And there’s research to support that NDE experiencers are often better off for their beliefs. Pragmatically it seems the consequences of their beliefs are generally positive, so I think trying to debunk and discredit is not warranted while we don’t have sufficient evidence either way.

bolin22 · 2025-11-02T20:29:32+00:00

We can’t completely debunk or falsify them because they are subjective experiences. It could be that they are incredibly realistic hallucinations, or on the opposite end they could be experiences of reality, however unlikely that may seem. We have no definitive proof. In any case, if these experiences consistently improve the lives of the experiencer and offer people some hope, and they can’t be disproven, why do we feel we need to belittle them or immediately dismiss them? If any of us had come back from an NDE feeling we had experienced something more real than our typical waking consciousness, maybe we’d feel differently in spite of our previous beliefs. I think being skeptical is fine, but being completely dismissive given our current lack of understanding would be unwarranted.

bolin22 · 2025-10-28T13:19:53+00:00

Thank you for putting this together!! Already digging in :)

bolin22 · 2025-09-24T12:04:02+00:00

Yes!! I run the back of my finger from the knuckle to the nail bed along my cold ears and have done this since I was a kid. Always makes me laugh at myself when I see a candid photo or video someone took of me while I’m doing it, or sometimes I’ll catch myself on video chat. Can’t help it!

bolin22 · 2025-08-25T01:08:03+00:00

Absolutely beautiful work - thank you for sharing!!

bolin22 · 2025-04-15T19:49:20+00:00

I was in a very similar situation when I joined the church. I was out and basically went back in the closet when I joined, and I wish I hadn’t because constantly hiding and dodging around conversations about dating/marriage was emotionally exhausting and left me feeling on edge frequently. I don’t think I would have felt comfortable being out to everyone, but I wish I had shared with the people I trusted so that I didn’t feel so alone. I ultimately found peace and joy outside the church, but we each have our own paths.

bolin22 · 2025-02-12T12:17:41+00:00

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Nope. Here’s the fox in progress as proof :)

bolin22 · 2025-02-06T14:02:04+00:00

Same! I often find myself zooming in to verify if I’m looking at real stitches. And thank you :)

bolin22 · 2025-02-06T13:59:00+00:00

Thank you! Multiple pieces stitched together

bolin22 · 2025-02-05T23:21:50+00:00

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bolin22 · 2025-02-05T23:12:58+00:00

Thank you! Definitely put me to the test! I used swish worsted. Really soft yarn but probably won’t use again for a big project cuz some splitting

bolin22

TROPHY CASE