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People into hard sciences, neurophysiology, often ignore a core philosophical question: 'What is the relationship between our unique, inner experience of conscious awareness and material substance?' The answer is: We don't know, and some people are so terrified to say, 'I don't know.'
Raymond Moody
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote highlights the uncertainty surrounding the relationship between consciousness and the physical world.

Raymond Moody encourages reflection on the profound question of how our subjective experience of consciousness relates to the material aspects of existence. He points out that while those in the hard sciences might seek concrete answers, there remains a significant philosophical gap regarding our understanding of consciousness, and some individuals are hesitant to acknowledge this uncertainty.

Themes

ConsciousnessPhilosophyScienceUncertaintyAwareness

In practice

Example use cases

In a lecture on consciousness studies, one might quote Moody to illustrate the limits of scientific understanding.

More from Raymond Moody

I have absolutely no fear of death. From my near-death research and my personal experiences, death is, in my judgment, simply a transition into another kind of reality.
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No doubt many people have the feeling that to talk about death at all is, in effect, to conjure it up mentally, to bring it closer in such a way that one has to face up to the inevitability of one's own eventual demise. So, to spare ourselves this psychological trauma, we decide just to try to avoid the topic as much as possible.
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The subject of death is taboo. We feel, perhaps only subconsciously, that to be in contact with death in any way, even indirectly, somehow confronts us with the prospect of our own deaths, draws our own deaths closer and makes them more real and thinkable.
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