What leads you to consider these two factors?
The senses themselves are reliant on physical contact in any form. Why would it be any different for ESP activity considering ESP is a sensory activity? You must have the mechanics to output the sense and the mechanics, provided they work, rely on sensory stimuli, which requires physical contact with energy particles from the substance being sensed.
As of physical loss…so far those who I have spoken to who have a type of physical loss commonly complain of sleep disturbances that fit some or all of the definitions of SP or similar to.
It is already known that sensory perception does make up for a loss of another sense due to a physical limitation…maybe the mechanics are damaged…hormones disrupted…neural pathways damaged, etc. For example, those with poor eyesight are known to have a heightened sensed of hearing. Those who have a loss of hearing may have heightened senses of touch, which I suspect knowing that Helen Keller, who was both blind and deaf was capable of learning through the sense of touch, thus touch may be the a typical compensation for the loss of hearing. Now, this is sense compensating for another sense, but it is still the brain compensating for a physical loss.
Another thought of reasoning behind this is what I call normal ESP activity (for lack of a better term), which is largely seen in children prior to puberty. Taking children as for example, their experiences with ghosts and other odd ‘paranormal’ type occurrences are very common and it is also known the pineal gland is well engorged in children until puberty, when it shrinks.
Children are naturally vulnerable to danger without physical loss, but that is because of the lack of physical development simply due to age. They are still developing thus have a lack of an X degree of physical ability.
The pineal gland is a top candidate as being the organ responsible for the translations of sensory information between inner and outer environments, considering the pineal gland is stimulated by heat and light sources from both inner and outer environments, is smack in the center of the thalami halves, does secrete a hormone that has similar chemical structures as hallucinogens found in plants (I know the name as pinoline) and is found in the retina as an oxidative agent with or for vitamin E. I think pinoline acts as a chemical solution to develop a corresponding image to the neural impulses that pass through the eyes…whether awake or asleep. This would account for all types of vision and both sight and sound. Sight and sound are the most common forms of ESP.
Another thought to this aspect of physical loss…I’ll use Stephen Hawking as an example.
All neural outputs come from the same neural inputs. Some of this input is meant for cells in the body the brain transfers. Everything goes to the brain first, then to where ever in the body. Stephen Hawking’s lack of physical mobility means nearly all of the sensory inputs are restricted to his brain. Talk about extrasensory!! As much as I would love to have this man’s dreams, I would hate to have his nightmares.
What specifically leads you to believe that any of these may be linked?
Through similar behavior. If neural impulses can be diverted to the thalami meant for somewhere else, then any channels of communication could be disordered just the same. See above answer about Stephen Hawking.
As of the finer lines between life and death, this does take a twisted turn. This comes from family medical history of my grandmother who had narcolepsy, cataplexy, catalepsy, central and obstructive sleep apnea, and insomnia and sleep paralysis. She also had a long list of other metabolic problems with her thyroids and adrenals.
The connection I made is with the pineal gland. It is an organ that does control the rate the metabolic system flows and controls the sleep and wake states. All sleep disorders are directly related to the pineal gland and the pineal gland is directly related to the pace of the heartbeat, blood pressure and breathing, thus the flow rate of the metabolic system. Cataplexy and catalepsy have identical metabolic behaviors as hibernation, deep meditation and coma. The difference is that cataplexy and catalepsy are automatic and sudden. The difference between catalepsy and cataplexy is muscle tone. Cataplexy, muscle tone is relaxed, whereas catalepsy, muscle tone is rigid.
Metabolism is brought down to a crawl in each of these examples. Some to a slower crawl than others to the point of feigning death. My grandmother was pronounced dead three times in her life. Once she actually woke up in the morgue. I am currently trying to hunt down medical records. Not an easy thing to do…especially when one of those deaths occurred in 1924, shortly after she was born.
Which specific pathways would these be, and how do they account for claims of ESP activity?
I think some of the answers for this can be sorted out through things already written. I’m still a student and not familiar with all the proper terminology yet.
For that matter, how would impulses meant for tissues that are a part of the immune system manage to encode (assuming that they somehow found their way to V1) such a specific visual experience (alien) in the visual system?
As mentioned, all neural outputs come from the same neural inputs, meaning the outputs, regardless of expression, are made from the same chemical compositions. It is the mechanism that allows for the translation of these chemical compositions. If the impulse shoots off to the thalami and eyes and ears work…those chemical signatures would be translated into image and sound. If impulses are sent to tissues then those chemical signatures would be translated through mechanism of those tissues.
This sounds preposterous without evidence, I hope you realize that.
I know…lol. but I do my best to stick with what is already considered accepted scientific knowledge and I always knew better to keep this study based on biology and the sleep paralysis gave me something real and tangible to work with. Though studying sleep paralysis for 26 years, it wasn’t until 1994 when ESP was included. I use to be a big skeptic of ESP type things. I was just as highly critical as anyone else. It was considered entertainment. But once the first hallucination I had during SP came true, all that changed.
The hallucination was in true form, meaning, the objects in the hallucination were as they really were when the event actually happened, except for one significant detail, which was a direct result of remembering the hallucination at the proper time to prevent a much more damaging outcome. I got to act on my intuition. The most predominant features of this particular hallucination is that it happened nearly 3,000 miles away from where the hallucination took place…and several years later.
This makes no sense whatsoever. Word association doesn't work on the cellular level, I am afraid.
This is where you are wrong. I’m actually quite surprised to come across such a comment. Everything biological works on a cellular level. Everything cellular works on molecular structures. Molecular structures are composed of atoms. Everything is made of atoms, including the sounds, sights, touches, etc. of words.
I am looking forward to some actual evidence that supports your position. Have any?
If I had evidence, it’d be theory now wouldn’t it? Just kidding…though it would…as for a real answer…
The metabolic tie is direct with the pineal gland and it is known the pineal gland is a definite organ that controls the metabolic system.
The activities of ESP seem to be automatic behavior and automatic behavior is well accepted as instinctive behavior and instinctive behavior is well accepted to be a behavior shared in all organisms, such as the instinct to procreate and to fight or flee.
Also, personally, every hallucination I’ve had seems to relate to health and safety and it is something I’ve noticed the same with other people.
I have looked into other organs in other organisms that seem relative to our own pineal gland, further supporting some of the hypotheses. These organs are in direct relation to the organism’s metabolism and the means of translating information between inner and outer environments and stimulated by heat and light sources. These organs include the visible third eye on some reptiles, the Jacobson organ in reptiles without a visible third eye (most notably snakes), the optic lobe in fish and eyespots on worms and parasites.
A somewhat off in left field thought about the pineal gland…and if true, would also be true for each of these other organs…is that I think the pineal gland originates as the zygote. Strange yes, though I’ve had stranger thoughts.
I think you are quickly going to find that the motto here is: "Show me the evidence." Furthermore, stating what you believe without providing any reasons is worthless. My first two questions address that point. What led you to those conclusions? You hypothesize that ESP is metabolic in nature, but have nothing to point to back that up. Simply it ascribing to some conditions that can be much more easily and convincingly explained by other means just doesn't cut it.